[concord]

whoa my gosh
Should I join the lightweight women's crew team? Rowing MonTuesThurFriSat at 5am. Afternoon workouts plus a few races. It's a club team, so it won't be like real real crew, but still pretty structured.

It seems like it would be putting too much on my plate.

*thinking*...

on another note
Tomorrow is September.

[concord]

thank you, me
for getting me out of my funk. The me from last semester would have taken advantage of every day I had between the end of my internship and the beginning of school (Monday August 26, roar). The six days following the "finale" were full of potential, and I couldn't muster any inspiration to go and create, enjoy, or explore.

After a few days of cereal eating and tv watching during my nap breaks, I finally broke out of the do-nothing pattern. Thank you gymnasium for waking me up. I forced myself to get back into the swing of things by going to an Aerobics class. Things were good. On Wednesday, I organized and packed for the move back to Cal. I attended a Spinning class Wednesday evening. Things got better.

Thursday held excellent promise. San Francisco MOMA, Boudin Bakery (they say it's pronounced "BOH-deen"), Specialty's, overlooking that church (haha) from Yerba Buena Gardens, Kenneth Cole, ugly green $1,995 sweaters at Neiman Marcus, all with Lindsay.

I capitalized on Thursday.

[concord]

finale
Today is the end of my internship.

You know you're a computer nerd when someone says "dba" and the first thing you think is "database administrator"

Full of well-begotten hopes and intentions
I told my inner self to retreat into the
far reaches of my mind.

In the meantime, the Pragmatist emerged
prepared to attack my dwindling resources
with a newfound vengeance.

For the sake of my future
I began to forget the here and now.

I don't remember what it is
to be in hot pursuit of the "could be doing"
simultaneously fleeing the "should be doing"

I have yet to force me to remember me,
somehow the Pragmatist is still justified
for imprisoning the memory of a dream.

[concord]

This weekend: Two Nights
...in San Ramon. Fun fun sleepover with Monelle at May and Augie's house in San Ramon.

Friday
I confirmed 4 discount tickets for Great America for tomorrow: 1 $10 ticket for me (discount for the intern) and 3 $17 tickets--discount for the intern's friends: cousin Monelle, college friend Alex, and Senior Prom date Sean.

Stayed overnight with Monelle, back from her 8 year hiatus in New Jersey. We tried watching Royal Tenenbaums but were too drained and decided sleeping up for Great America would be the best way to use our time.

I'm a couple of years younger than her and that means that back in the day when we were growing up, I was decades too young to hang out with her + older sister + older cousins. Now that we're both old enough to drive and have cell phones and say bad words and watch R-rated movies, I think I've made it to "old enough to hang out with Monelle" status. I'm looking forward to spending more time with her when my internship ends this coming Wednesday--Maybe i'll get a "magic wallet" at JCrew when we go shopping together.

Saturday
"joanie..."
Time for my day full o' Great American thrills. Headed to the bank to get some loot, had cereal and soon enough Alex and Sean were ringing the doorbell. Alex drove (The Shockness), we coughed up a total of $10 for parking (but who cares, our tickets were 62% off) and waited at the gates to pick up the tickets from my internship org.

Ticket pick up was set in front of the fair gates from 9:30-10am. I don't know what happened, but the ticket person didn't show up until 11am. During the 1.5 hour wait, my 3 amigos were jokingly blaming me for the delay. I was upset...I wanted my thrills on time.

But ticket person showed, and all was good.
We rode these in the following order:
Grizzly
Drop Zone
Psycho Mouse
The Revolution
--eating break: spent exorbitant amount on simple hamburger, fries and lemonade (5.79). --
7th Portal - simulation comic book animation ride that replaced Days of Thunder
Top Gun
Failed attempt to wait in line for Vortex--which broke down after 15 minutes of waiting in line behind mother who looked on as son pummelled helpless younger sister
Magic show with Nicholas Night and "Kinga" - his assistant from Budapest, Hungary. I whispered "Kinga-Roo" to Monelle during the show haha.
Demon
--purchased 18oz bag of my first ever real real authentic made in a kettle Kettle Corn for $6.50. Huge bag. The only thing that wasn't overpriced at GA. The bag was as tall as my torso, i was happy. Corn makes me happy.--
Stealth - It was 8:00pm and there was a sign saying we'd be waiting 1.5 hours to ride. No big, we had a full day and this face down strapped in feel like you're Superman rollercoaster idea sounded good to me. Besides, waiting for an hour and a half with a big bag of freshly made kettle corn and 3 good friends really can't be all that bad. In addition to that good stuff, I got to people watch. Highlight: A couple in front of us (in their early 20s) were playing with a blue LED and were shining it into their pupils. Granted the beam wasn't as intense or collinated as a laser or those really really bright lights, a blue light has way more energy than a red one, and at school they warn us against getting the red led's shone in our eyes. Anyway, the couple didn't seem too clever. But at least they were tame. There were 2 14 year olds making faces and making noises and purposefully drawing attention from strangers by saying "You don't know me, but 'blarrrrgh. Roaaaar' ". Silly. Ignored.

The ride was amazing! It was better than Top Gun, and that says a lot. The fact that we rode it in the evening rather than the blazing sun made it even better. What a great way to end the day.

Saturday night
Driving home from Great America in The Shockness, we were fairly tired, dingy, and ready for shower + bed. While waiting in line for the Demon, I realized I'd forgotten to tell my team that i'd be working remotely in SF on Monday. After a bit of panic, I calmed down and realized I could stop by the office on my way home from Augie and May's place. But then I was too tired, and I would take at least an hour to load info onto my laptop.

Slept at Monelle's house again: shower. Had dinner: corn on the cob, tastier kettle corn from May and Augie (not my big bag of Great America), dumplings, noodle soup.
I helped clean up and even got to compact the trash.

Sunday
Breakfast with May and Monelle at McDonald's. Church in San Ramon too. Drove to the office and thankfully found Bonnie there so I could tell her I'd be in SF on monday.
Loaded info on laptop and drove back to concord, finally.

[san ramon]

St. Charles
Talk about an awesome experience. The facilities were incredible, tons of free stuff (food, snacks, sodas (from vending machines), board (my own room with key card style entry), airfare...) You name it, and it was probably free. The only time I spent money that weekend was at the airport so I could eat--a tasty turkey on foccacia for $5.95 at Chicaco's O'Hare airport.

The kids were from all over. Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Ontario, Ottawa, Vancouver, BERKELEY, Upstate New York, Ithaca, Los Angeles, Houston, Virginia Beach, Alabama (can't remember which city), Seattle, Portland, Denver and more. I wish the program lasted another day so that I could have had more time to talk to everyone.

Every person I met wanted to share themselves and learn more about each other. It's a pretty amazing experience.

[st. charles, IL]

Holla
Hello all from the Midwest. This entry will be brief because I'm about to head to another activity at this conference.
The students here are from all over the country. I've never really been exposed to so many students from all over.

Gotta go though.

[concord]

what's this all about
I've almost forgotten what it's like to blog.

Welps.
Tomorrow morning the shuttle is picking me up from my house at 3:30am.
My flight's at 6:35am from OAK. I'm going to our training facilities in St. Charles, IL for a weekend student leadership with Accenture interns from all over the nation.
Hope it'll be fun.