Ahhhhhhhhhhh
So it's been a loooong time since I spent any substantial time on LJ. The last couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster ride, really. Insanely fun and amazing, followed by torture. I'm sure many of you are going through the very same torture as me, as of now. It's the cruelty that goes by the identity of "homework."
Until this last week of doom started, I had basically spent the last few weeks living, breathing, and loving JSA. At the very beginning of this month, I had gone to LA Symposium for 4 days, which was awesome. Great speakers, awesome people, and even made some cool new friends. The only disappointment: despite the event being at the USC campus, no free Wi-Fi! Gah! About two weeks ago, I flew up to San Francisco for the Montezuma Leadership Summit up in the mountains of Los Gatos. Those were arguably the best four days of my life. About 62 awesome, awesome people (JSA Nerds) from all over the nation, as well as some of the most dedicated adults associated with JSA, isolated from all other civilization, back at the very roots of JSA. Hard to explain, but it was just an amazing experience of learning, of history, and most importantly of bonding. The saddest part: leaving. Of course, JSA couldn't just fade off there. Last Saturday, we had our first Cabinet Meeting of the year. However, the true madness began on Friday night. A bunch of us were meeting up at Tas's house in Palos Verdes to put together the materials for the Cabinet Meeting the next day. However, due to lack of a ride, me and Aaron had to decide not to go. Amazing as he is, our SoCal governor, Robert Byrne, came all the way down here from Claremont to pick us up, and then drive us to Palos Verdes. After being only 3.5 hours late, we finished our work (accompanied by plenty of tea, playing with the dogs, and even some Russell Peters) around 1 AM. After finishing all materials, we headed off to Kinko's to make copies (rather than fool around and buy bubble wrap). Following Kinko's, we had to make a midnight food run. Sadly, Jack in the Box was the only place open. So, we bought about 5 99-cent burgers, 3 fries, and 2 shakes, all of which were consumed at Tas's house. Being almost 3 AM, we finally decided to head home, remembering that we had to be back at the LAX Marriot by 9 AM the next morning. What followed is utter bewilderedness, frustration, and an unforgettable night. Long story short, we got bad directions (MapQuest), somehow missed the freeway entrance, and ended up getting lost around Long Beach, mostly around the streets of the (apparently huge) oil refinery that is visible from the 405 going up to LA. Of course, we couldn't have just gotten lost. As Aaron put it best, we ended up in a nexus of the universe. Every seemingly major street we had ever heard of crossed our path. Sepulveda, Flower, Figueroa, Anaheim St. about thrice, and PCH a whopping five times! If I had seen it one more time, I had a good mind to chuck something at the PCH sign. In the process of traveling around these streets, we almost ran over a random person who was jaywalking, and didn't even bother changing his pace while seeing a car coming in his general direction at 70mph. Luckily, Robert saw him in time, swerved (almost to the other side of the almost empty street), flipped him off, cussed at him (stringing at least 8 words together in one) for a few minutes, and then we went back to trying to figure out where the hell we were. Eventually, with directions from a Del Taco drive thru, we got on the freeway. The feeling of relief that accompanied entering the freeway is one of the best feelings in the world.
The little time that I have spent away from JSA hasn't exactly been thrown away either. I accumulated about 15 hours of community service, helping out at the school library over about a week. It was fun too, mostly because I knew most of the other volunteers. Notable fact: I was the ONLY non-Asian volunteer there for 4 out of 5 days. Lately, Link Crew has taken up a fair amount of time. It's actually really fun. Mr. Biggs is awesome, as are pretty much all of the other Link Crew people. Tomorrow's the last day of that. Oh, and lest I forget to mention: we get our schedules Friday. Hah!
As of now, I really should get back to homework. This entire week wasn't/won't be fun at all, mostly because I have boatloads of homework to do, for which I blame none but me. I have to finish Huck Finn DJs by today, as the deadline is midnight tonight. My goal is to finish formatting all DJs, review 2 articles and 2 essays, and finish up the last remaining bits of the math homework by the end of Friday. That leaves me with three full days of highlighting, which is good, because I have most of the REA book still to highlight.
Now, I think I'll get off LJ and back to work. I'm sorry if you actually read all of that, as it was merely a huge-ass blurb that I had been waiting to get out of my mind, and onto the computer screen. Having said that, it is time for me to bid you farewell. Onward, progress!