Time Flies When You Throw It In The Air.

So I last posted back on the 19th. I know I said I was going to start posting regularly, but I guess I was lying. That and I actually have excuses for running(IN SQUARES) out of time to post on most days.

But let us start with where I left off. In the weekdays following my post, there was nothing much that was interesting. On that saturday, I had to get up before 7 to drive down to Bellevue on my family's way to Vancouver. In Bellevue, dad had to let the guys cleaning the carpet in. His bank is moving into a temporary office for 9 months until their permanent one is finished. Their permanent office will be in the building located on the site from which that crane in Bellevue fell down last year. They will be on the ground floor since Expedia rented out the rest of the building. So I made it down to Vancouver in average time, which is 3 hours from home. I didn't really have good opportunities to speed, so I didn't really at all. By not speeding, I mean I was always going about 5 or 10 miles per hour over on the freeway, but nobody cares about that so whatever.

We got down to Vancouver around noonish and met my grandparents at Macy's where my grandpa was buying new pants. We bought me a black shirt and tie for my new suit for my upcoming date for homecoming (much more on that later). We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch, which is this place we like to eat when down there since it reminds us of Zoopa's. There was some assorted hanging around playing Miss Spider's Tea Party on their PS1 since it was the only form of video game there. Mom and dad and my grandparents went out to their wedding which was the reason we came in the first place. I tricked Kathryn into watching a James Bond movie, but I fell asleep when I realized I had watched it a couple weeks eariler. That night, I watched Goldeneye.

The next morning, we left for home to make it in time for Kathryn's soccer game. I got us back in 3 hours despite Seahawks traffic. I did my homework, then thought about how much fun I was going to have when Halo 3 came out and I started my abstinence from it until Christmas.

Now for my main stories since nothing happened much during the week last week and since nothing much has happened this week so far except a law field trip to the courthouse.

Halo 3:
On tuesday, I started my Halo 3 abstinence. The first day was hard because everyone that had it gave it such high marks and I really wanted it, but put away my desires by thinking of how much more I wanted Mass Effect. On wednesday, I went with dad to get stuff for the bulletin board for my eagle project at Costco and happened upon a stand ripe with Halo 3's. Not only that, but these Halo 3's were $10 cheaper than other Halo 3's elsewhere. After much much though, I decided that it was best to get it. Less than 2 days into avoiding Halo 3 until Christmas, I gave up. It was a pretty good game. The plotline was crap and it felt like an expansion of Halo 2. I did enjoy the ability to walk around with a turret though. Of course everyone is giving it a fanboy 10/10. Even the toughest graders in the world, Official Xbox Magazine, gave it a perfect 10. It joins only 2 other games that have made a perfect: Gears of War and Bioshock. I personally would give Halo 3 a 7/10 because it was lacking in more substance. I don't buy a game just because it has good multiplayer, which does kick ass I will admit. I like to go off on my own once in a while too.

My adventure to California:
So a couple weeks ago, my friend from California who is my oldest friend in the sense that I have known her since kindergarden.(don't worry Davis, you are still the oldest friend I have(I think). Anyway, she emailed me to ask if I wanted to come down for homecoming. The first thing I could think of was OF COURSE. Unfortunately, plane tickets to Sacramento cost $$$. 290 to be exact. I asked my parents and they said they would look for a good price. Luckily, they happened to look on the "cattle call" day for Southwest Airlines. They offered pwnage to the max deals in hopes to get business to come their way. Long story short, I got a ticket down and back for $78. Not bad since they figured I would pay not too much less than that had I brought her up here, plus it was someone I really wanted to go with. Another long story short, for the same price per person, we are going to disneyland in november and again with Rachel(my friend in California and her family). I think we have miles to use for one of those trips though. I don't know how it works at all.

Anyway I should get back on topic.

So I left immediately after school on friday. I didn't even drive myself to school in the morning. I was skipping a tennis match, but it was against lynnwood, so it was a guaranteed win and I was skipping a football game as well. Mr. Harshman later told my mom "Whatever it takes to get that guy a date." In the airport, I saw two people that were on this reality show I watch during the summer (big brother). They were the two I was rooting for, but unfortunately they didn't win. My dad actually said hi to them as a reflex because he felt like he knew them. I wasn't by him when he said that, but he said the girl said hi back and the guy shyly nodded. They knew he knew who they were off of tv, so it wasn't awkward other than the fact that they were trying to keep a low profile. The plane ride over wasn't too bad at all. I sat next to this Australian couple. I wound up sleeping despite this loud guy hitting on a girl that had mentioned her boyfriend she was going back to live with as they started talking.

When I touched down, I met up with Rachel and her parents. They drove us to the homecoming game. On the way there, we had to sit stopped in traffic for 40 minutes without moving because of a 3 fatality accident. 3 people were rushed out in ambulences. It was pretty narsty as we drove by. We got there for half time. Rachel proceeded to introduce me to everyone and their moms (literally). It wasn't bad though. I already knew some of the people from when I was there in december. Yes I realize what month I posted that in. Anyway, the game was cool because their band is small and does marching DURING SONGS. Their drum major is really good at doing it(plus he is cool and has a moustache that is almost as awesome as sideburns.) Sideburns would totally kick his moustache's butt though. Anyway, they also have fireworks at halftime. Finally, their team scored more points than the other team, which was a huge difference for me. After the game, a lot of people went to Mountain Mike's pizza (good place) for dinner. I met Shannon (Rachel's sister)'s boyfriend who was a.....well he was a n00b.

On saturday, I woke up early at 6:00. I figured since I got to wake up late on thursday for the teacher's strike, I could get up early for the day. I went with Rachel and her dad Marc to her soccer game. They had to play 1 down probably because it was homecoming day and lots of girls didn't want to play. I thought about playing as the girl from up in the hills that is really butch, but they didn't have another uniform for me. They lost, but it was cool to watch and it made me sad that I am not playing this year. Later in the afternoon around 2, all the girls in our group started arriving to get ready for homecoming, so Marc and I went out to play some tennis so I wouldn't get out of practice. I wound up playing my first pro length match ever. For those of you that don't know, that means best 3 out of 5 sets. I won 3 in a row, but it took about two hours, so I was pretty tired afterwards. I went back and took a quick shower before everyone had shown up to the house.

When I got out, I had enough time to wait before suiting up. Eventually I did and when I came out, Tyler(shannon's boyfriend) was in the living room. As more people showed up, it became apparent that the only other person wearing a suit jacket was Peter(a guy that was a sophomore, but actually cool). That meant he was the only other pr0 there, but it turned out that I was the only one thinking ahead. They all mocked my suit jacket wearing, but I told them they would realize why I did it later on. So all the girls came down one by one. Rachel came first, but she looked like an entirely different person. All 5 of us guys really didn't know who she was at first, but then I noticed then somebody said "Oh its Rachel." I should say she really went all out and I definately had the hot date for the night. There were pictures on the front lawn, then we all set off in the big group van to get pictures. We got pictures taken after much awkwardness. Many poses I moved too slow getting into so they would switch me. After 2 pictures, the guy behind the camera said "Um do you ever not uthe ur glatheth?"(lisp). All I said was "No." Just a stern no, which is what I always say when a photographer tries to make me push up my glasses.

After pictures, the group got back in the van and headed to this restaurant of which I forget the name. The food was good and Tyler was able to remove his n00b status. After the dinner, we got back in the van and headed to the dance. The line getting in wasn't bad. We met up with lots of people that were friends, but not in the group. In the dance, it was pretty boring. I recognized one song the whole time we were there. Nobody really danced, but instead mostly had sex with clothes on. There was a bench in the back where you could go if you were tired......and wanted to make out for 20 minutes. Rachel showed me around to all her friends and wandered a lot with me because she said that's what she usually does at dances. I was glad to wander because it occasionally led us away from the crappy dj. ("Yo where's my white folks at? Yeah how about mah lateeenooooos? Yeah, how about mah ayyshinnnnssss. Yeah how about mah blayck folks. Jeeuh boy.") I took nothing he said seriously after he did that. Not to say I did before. I couldn't understant him. The dance was cool, but the things before that had been cooler. Plus it was cool to spend time with Rachel and walk around with her and get introduced to very quirky drama people. When the dance finally ended, we walked outside and I could feel it was cold even through my suit. That little alarm in my head went off and I knew it was time to reveal why I had worn the suit coat. I offered it to Rachel so she wouldn't get cold. The rest of the group now understood why I was wearing it. I just have good gentleman micro or something.

After we all got back, the adults had been drinking their drinks and we watched part of Love Actually before the guys got kicked out. I got banished downstairs because the girls were having a sleepover.

The next day, Rachel and her parents took me to the airport. It was sad to leave because it was such a good weekend, but I had to so I went and got on the plane.

After landing, I went back out to get my cycling merit badge. Mission Accomplished.

So all in all, it was pretty much the best weekend ever. I'm going to get her to come up for prom as soon as I find out when prom is.