The SF Trip
As most of you know, I took a road trip with Mitch and Michael up to Berkeley to visit katsumeragi. It consisted of an 8 hour road-trip and 2 hours worth of train rides to get to Downtown Berkeley. The trip spanned from Friday morning to... well, early Monday morning.
F R I D A Y
I wake up at 6:30 AM and panic because Mitch and Michael said they were going to pick me up from my house at 7. I rush to take a shower and make sure I have the necessities (like my toothbrush and all the other stuff), and run downstairs with my backpack and my duffel bag. My larger duffel bag (which doubles as a roller-backpack) was already downstairs. At this point I grab at little snacks to eat while I wait for them to arrive.
Come seven-ten, they were not there. I called them, only to find that Mitch's futon apparently works wonders and made both of them sleep like corpses. So they get ready, I get angry (I could have slept in, for crying out loud) and eat and drink peach ramune (which is disgusting). When they finally arrive, it's around 8 AM. Mitch was driving his mom's Scion and as I put my stuff in the trunk and back seat (oh shit, dog fur [suffocates]), Michael realizes he's left his backpack at Mitch's house. We drive back to Mitch's house to pick it up and then we go to the gas station which is a mile away from my house to fill up on some gas. As we drive off, Mitch brakes on yellow and screams "GODDAMNIT SANDRA, I COULD HAVE MADE THAT!" No, I didn't tell him to stop. He did that himself.
We start heading out to Highway 76 and Mitch realizes he missed the turn to the I-5 North so he does a REALLY SHARP U-turn that ended up tipping over the cooler that was on the seat next to me. The ice was all melted from the previous night so it spilled onto the seat and thus, my bottom was damp for about an hour and a half ("GODDAMNIT MITCH!").
So, here's the thing about the trip. Mitch is on special terms with his GPS, which sometimes has an attitude with him. Throughout the majority of the trip he was screaming at it because it has this weird German accent. At one point when we were supposed to switch from I-5 to 101, it did not warn us at all about the exit--wait, actually, it did. Mitch just made the wrong turn, so it told him to do a U-turn, except there wasn't a legal U-turn for like a mile so Mitch just made a quick illegal one at 50 mph.
After a certain point, Michael made a conjecture that there would be a Jack-in-the-Box at every gas stop along the freeway. It was proven wrong. After about 3 hours of listening to Streetlight Manifesto and all these other ska/hard rock bands, Michael pulled out my iPOD and plugged it in. Thus, everyone was forced to deal with J/K/C-pop (my ipod's still in his car, whoops). Mitch and Michael spent most of the time talking about video games and Mitch's crazy ex-girlfriends (haha, hearing him talk about what they say during sex is enough to make you gag). I just zoned out for a long while. We did go to a gas station that was fucking huge and had like a grill/sandwich place in it and I found those lollipops with the bugs inside them! Bought one for minivi.
When we were driving on Highway 101 (I believe, it could have been something else), the GPS did not warn us that our turn was coming up so we missed it and ended up having to drive through the countryside (literally) in order to get to Gilroy. So many shops with garlic, I swear. This set us back by half an hour, I think.
It was about 3 or 4-something when we got to Stanford, or more specifically, near Breeshia's dorm. If you've ever google-mapped that place, the campus is fucking huge. We ended up taking a shuttle to the Palo Alto Caltrain station where Mitch and Bree separated from us as we bought our tickets for the train and boarded. We passed through two zones (Palo Alto to Millbrae), so it was $4.25 for a one-way trip.
It was jam-packed inside and Michael and I managed to snag a row, but then the ticket-checker dude got irritated at us for having our luggage in the aisle (well sorry, there was a fucking lady in the row across from us and she left like only five minutes previous to him coming over) and it was our first time riding on the train. I didn't like it at all, not only because of the ticket guy, but also because of how cramped it was. Even airplanes have more room.
After half an hour has passed, we arrived at Millbrae where BART and Caltrain share a station. I've had multiple sources tell me that Millbrae is the only place where they share a station and if I took the Caltrain all the way to San Francisco, I would have to hike 6-8 blocks to get to the BART station. Well, anyway, when we got there it was around 5 or something and it was chilly. Michael was pretty much miserable, and my debit card would not work on the BART ticket machines so we had to use his. We were confused over it and realized that it started the ticket value at $20, and you had to subtract/add to get it to the amount you want (which was $4.80 one-way for each of us).
Millbrae Station.
Credits to chibiplus on photobucket for the pic.
When we got on to the BART, it was totally empty because it was taking a break. The BART was really spacious compared to the Caltrain, and it was single-level with huge windows. Michael was stoked that the section we were in was completely empty, until it neared departure time. At that time, people just started flooding in.
The BART taking off.
Credits to mainlander101 on photobucket for the pic.
We took off from Millbrae to Downtown Berkeley. It was an hour long trip, but the BART is a bullet train, so... it went by pretty fast and it was really loud when it went through tunnels. At one point we were in a tunnel underwater (it would have been amazing if the tunnel was see-through).
As you can see, the BART covered more ground than the Caltrain did. Michael attempted to do the 45-minute essay that's due in our English class the day we come back from the trip.
Like five minutes after I took that picture, he gave up altogether. The BART was really interesting, distracting, and apparently shakes too much for him to be able to even write the title neatly.
When we arrived at Downtown Berkeley, it was dark, cold, and we were both miserable and lost as fuck. Google maps was a bitch-fuck and it turns out I was correct but we took the long way around (not that I'm complaining, I got Starbucks and he got warmth). It was around 6-7 when we arrived at katsumeragi's dorm, Unit 3 Spens Black. We had to call her out because of the stupid security in the building; she screamed really loudly upon seeing us and then we had to get signed in and carded.
She took us up to the second floor and introduced us to her roommate and friends (Nicole P, Arunava, Angela [MY UNOFFICIAL WAIFU WHO I GOT MARRIED TO RANDOMLY AND WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?]). As I learned the hard way, you can fucking hear everything inside that building. I could sneeze outside and people on the seventh floor could hear it (thankfully, that was how I managed to find Raven Saturday night/Sunday morning, IDK when the fuck it was). Anyway, as a greeting, I accidentally nose-bled on Raven's rainbow sheets. I don't know if it's because I'm anemic or it's from the change in pressure (I did go from like, sea level to a high altitude).
Anyway, she took us out to the Asian ghetto (it's not really the ghetto, but more of an alleyway filled with Asian restaurants) for some dinner. I ended up getting a sushi roll (gotta have my raw fish), and Michael didn't get anything. Raven ended up giving him her chow fun noodles because she was vegetarian and the people at the Mandarin house fucked up her order and put meat in it. We ate and took a tour of Berkeley (lead by Victoria, lol "Handy" Vicky, and Raven) and around this time I get hungry again. So we went back to Asian ghetto and I got some garlic shrimp (that was more like fried shrimp but I'M NOT COMPLAINING).
We got back, I ate and Angela asked me if I wanted a cellphone holder/charm since apparently, she used to work at an Asian gift shop so she got all the merchandise when it closed down? I don't know. But yeah, it turns out that the cellphone holder was the thing I was flipping a bitch over at 99 Ranch market because I didn't know what it was for.
The one on the left is the cellphone holder.
The one on the right is the charm.
It was around this point where Raven left us in her dorm room to attend a frat party (which ended up being invitation and Cal students only, so she couldn't get in). At this time Nicole talked to us and left us with her laptop in case we wanted to use it? Anyway, I went to take a shower. The bathroom is for both genders, which made it awkward. You had standing stalls and sitting stalls. Anyway, I jumped into the shower stall and took a quick shower while fighting the curtain. It was a bit chilly when I was done so I ran back to the room and tried to sleep after a while when Raven came back and she and Michael went to Victoria's room.
Plan to sleep well failed. I found out that I was light and sound sensitive until I reach the stage of REM sleep. How? Raven and Michael came in, the prior laughing while they tried to be as quiet as possible. The twist of the doorknob woke me up. Goddamnit Hibari, why do I have to be as fucking retarded as you when it comes to sleep?
S A T U R D A Y
Starting from early morning: Michael was complaining about how cold and uncomfortable the floor was (we had to share a sleeping bag), and Raven was telling him to STFU. He ended up sharing the bed with Raven while I had the floor to myself (yay!). The thing is, I guess they were both very uncomfortable in the small twin bed. Raven fell asleep before me (and before Michael) and mumbled in her sleep. I ended up passing out around 4, maybe? I'm not entirely sure.
I wake up around... 9 or 10? Got ready while Michael took a shower. Everyone was heading out for the weekend to do some shopping, so Raven was our tour guide for our trip to San Francisco. We managed to get on the bus and I ended up being able to pay 2 dollars for being a minor (they don't question me) while Michael, being honest, paid 4 dollars for the bus ride.
We ended up walking across the whole city (almost). Raven and I got Starbucks while Michael was across the street getting Subway. We walked through the financial district (oh goddamnit Prada, Louis Vuitton, Armani--I WANT SUITS I CAN'T AFFORD) and headed to the San Francisco mall (WHICH WAS HUGE AND AWESOME). Ended up buying some shades for myself and a Hello Kitty notebook for ninjayaten. We had to go through Chinatown because her mom and my sister wanted the boxes with the chirping crickets (they aren't real). I saw a man at one point playing the erhu and it made me think back on the article we had to read for English 100 (Pearls Before Breakfast). So that made me a bit sad--BUT STARBUCKS MAKES ME FEEL BETTER.
Well, we ended up finding the crickets right when Raven was about to give up altogether (like seriously, a minute after she said that she'd give up if we didn't find it soon, we heard them). She bought the crickets for her mom and some tea for her roommate, and I bought the birds for my sister. After this, we walked around looking for weapons and eventually made our way to Little Tokyo (like I said, it's a walk across the whole entire city almost). Michael's hips were aching at this point because he was an idiot and brought his backpack with him (which had the world in it, in terms of weight). I did, however, see a lot of buildings that I could use as TR reference.
Regrettably, I did not get as many pictures as I wanted to, not even close.
I ended up raping this stationery store for stuff for friends back home (got Toshi some almost-drafting erasers, got my sister the erasers, got Rika and my mom the kimidolls). We were hungry so we decided to eat at Mifune within one of the malls (Kintetsu? Buchanan? I forget). Raven had inari sushi and... something else, I forgot--oh, the croquettes! Basically Japanese hash browns but extremely tasty. I had a wakame udon, and Michael had... soda. Yeah.
We then made our way back to the bus stop (with Raven pointing out several gay/tranny bars on the way) and it was pretty dark and creepy when we got there. It was a quiet ride back. I swear, cities look amazing at night.
When we got back, I was close to passing out on Nicole's bed. Raven disappeared momentarily since her two friends, Matt and Alex, came back from Santa Cruz and she wanted to check on them. Nicole comes in as Michael works on his homework and I just sit there soullessly and we started talking about fandoms. At this time we check on the bathroom because she wanted to take a shower or something and I also needed to take a shower. She was bummed out that everything was missing from her locker and I mentioned that someone left stuff in the first shower stall--turns out it was hers, and Michael happened to use her shampoo (gahaha, herbal essence) since Raven gave him soap.
A little bit later, we meet Alex for a second. At this point, I'm pissed because the bathroom was perfectly empty earlier and when I go back, all of floor three seemed to be having a damn party in there.
Well, I go back to the room. Time passes by, and Raven's out in the last room by the staircase. She invites us over to play a game of Mafia.
The basic rules of the game are that there's a narrator, a mafioso, a doctor, an inspector, and a handful of civilians. The game has two phases, nighttime and daytime. At the night stage, everyone has their eyes closed. The mafioso, inspector, and doctor opens their eyes when told to by the narrator. The king is the mafioso, the queen is the doctor, and the jack is the inspector. Number cards are civilians. The mafioso chooses someone to kill, the doctor chooses someone to save, and the inspector chooses someone to investigate (they point at someone and the narrator tells them whether the person they chose is the mafia or not). Once the three have taken their turns, everyone "wakes up." The narrator makes up a story for the person that dies. After they've told this story, the civilians pick out the person most likely to be the mafia. The person that's voted against by the majority is killed off. The game continues until there's a tie, the mafia kills everyone, or someone kills the mafia.
Got that?
Well anyway, we ended up having to restart the game twice because Awista (Whiskey) kept giving herself away/screwed up the game. I think the first round I somehow ended up being the Inspector and I got killed because I found out Awista was the mafia and no one would back me up. And I got killed by coffee, I think ("I've got too much blood in my coffeestream" -- Nicole Parish, a damn accurate description). These two people kept getting killed, which was quite... hilarious. I was the mafia at one point (Raven almost gave it away), and I ended up killing everyone. Michael was the mafia and Raven gave it away entirely ("Michael, open your eyes--SHIT I MEANT MAFIA.")
Anyway, we had to relocate since the RA of that floor was going to write us up for being too loud.
We headed to the lounge on the lobby floor and continued the game. Raven and Michael were mafia at one point and was able to bring it to a tie.
At this point, we just lounge around and Nicole's passed out while Raven was upstairs sleeping. Supposedly. Anyway, I bolted for the elevator when this girl was going in (you needed keys to get from the lobby to any floor after hours). I knocked on the door but no one was in there so I was like, fuck, I need to take my shower NOW when no one's in the bathroom. I was about to go back to the lounge when I decided to head up to the fifth floor. I was sure that Raven was up on the floor but I realized I had no clue which room she was in. Deciding to have a short stake out instead of giving up and returning to the lounge, I stood silently and heard her laugh, and followed the sound to the room.
She was a bit surprised.
Anyway, I got the key and ran back downstairs and fought the doorknob (I'm pretty sure the girl who walked by was like "WTF is she doing?") for a bit before I finally got in. I jumped in the shower and finished up with it really quickly and ran back downstairs after I returned the key to Raven. We go back downstairs to play the sticky note game from Inglourious Basterds. If you've watched the movie, you know what happened. xD
But basically, we wrote nouns on a sticky note and passed it over to the next person, and they had to ask questions to figure out who/what they were. I think Raven was "I bet you like that." I made this guy Hamtaro and the other guy Princess Diana. I was "the game" and "the mafia" for both rounds. I'm not sure if we played more than two rounds before we finally went to bed.
I brushed my teeth and at this point, Raven dragged Michael to the small lounge at the end of the hall to chat so I attempted to pass the fuck out. Once again, that didn't work.
S U N D A Y
Memo to myself: once I move away, I'll make sure to delete everyone's phone numbers from my mom's address book. Seriously. We didn't get to sleep until 6AM. At 10AM, my mom thought it'd be a great fucking idea to call Michael's phone, which ended up making him cry (almost) and pissed me and Raven off. We were originally supposed to get up at 10:30 but that didn't happen at all. Raven ended up getting bitch-called by her fellow two musketeers, so we were booted out at 12:45PM. We made it to the station and I argued with Michael momentarily about which trains to take back (we had to make a transfer since the Richmond line doesn't operate on weekends; refer to the BART map from earlier).
We got on and found that it was crowded. When we reached MacArthur, I jumped off and Michael was all "WTF is going on" as the train we got off left the station right when another one pulled up on the opposite side on. I got on, and he was making a "sure, but if we get lost this is totally your fault" face. As we made our way to Millbrae, the BART gradually got emptier and we could finally sit the fuck down. It was really cool when it pulled into the international terminal at the SFO airport. We had a momentary heart attack when it went back the way it came, but that was because the BART had to leave the airport and switch tracks to Millbrae.
And the ride on the Caltrain was not pleasant. Fucking ticket checkers always get on your case for SOMETHING. Anyway, this is where we fuck up.
The announcers don't tell you what stop you're at, but they tell you what stop is coming up. The problem is: they mumble. We arrived at Atherton, but Michael heard "Palo Alto" so we grabbed our luggage and lunged for the door. Michael jumps out right when the doors shut in my face. He knocks on it and we freak out, but the conductor opens them and I jump out onto the platform.
Fifteen seconds later when the door closes and the train leaves, we realize we're in the middle of fucking NOWHERE. We ended up having to walk by a main street/highway/not sure what kind of street for about ten-fifteen minutes until we reached a McDonalds. Michael calls Mitch up to explain what happened and tell him where we are. Several moments before, Michael is like "you know what I really feel like right now? In N' Out. We are going to get some fucking In N' Out on the way home."
Mitch finds us a few minutes later and we start the trip home. His GPS is a bitch, and does not tell us HOW to get to the highway but expects us to get there by ourselves.
Well, anyway, when we do get there, we drive for a long while with Mitch telling us about his trip. Apparently, Breeshia has a really dumb fucking roommate. Breeshia also drinks a shit ton of stuff in one go until she passes out.
To make this part short, we got really lost on the way home, but we got In N' Out. Mitch was pissed since we got our orders before him. Anyway, as we continue getting lost, we got some Starbucks. They thought I was asleep and freaked out when I screamed. I was pretty happy, and Mitch was pretty unsatisfied with the fact that "I Kissed A Girl" came on. We switched back to his ipod.
Anyway, there was some sexual innuendo going on at one point when Mitch tells me to eat these gummy peach rings. I'll elaborate on that later.
We get home at 12:40. I was so disoriented, I didn't even realize we were at the gas station in Oceanside when I woke up.
YAY FOR LONG ROAD TRIPS WITH TWO WEIRD GUYS.
[collapses]
F R I D A Y
I wake up at 6:30 AM and panic because Mitch and Michael said they were going to pick me up from my house at 7. I rush to take a shower and make sure I have the necessities (like my toothbrush and all the other stuff), and run downstairs with my backpack and my duffel bag. My larger duffel bag (which doubles as a roller-backpack) was already downstairs. At this point I grab at little snacks to eat while I wait for them to arrive.
Come seven-ten, they were not there. I called them, only to find that Mitch's futon apparently works wonders and made both of them sleep like corpses. So they get ready, I get angry (I could have slept in, for crying out loud) and eat and drink peach ramune (which is disgusting). When they finally arrive, it's around 8 AM. Mitch was driving his mom's Scion and as I put my stuff in the trunk and back seat (oh shit, dog fur [suffocates]), Michael realizes he's left his backpack at Mitch's house. We drive back to Mitch's house to pick it up and then we go to the gas station which is a mile away from my house to fill up on some gas. As we drive off, Mitch brakes on yellow and screams "GODDAMNIT SANDRA, I COULD HAVE MADE THAT!" No, I didn't tell him to stop. He did that himself.
We start heading out to Highway 76 and Mitch realizes he missed the turn to the I-5 North so he does a REALLY SHARP U-turn that ended up tipping over the cooler that was on the seat next to me. The ice was all melted from the previous night so it spilled onto the seat and thus, my bottom was damp for about an hour and a half ("GODDAMNIT MITCH!").
So, here's the thing about the trip. Mitch is on special terms with his GPS, which sometimes has an attitude with him. Throughout the majority of the trip he was screaming at it because it has this weird German accent. At one point when we were supposed to switch from I-5 to 101, it did not warn us at all about the exit--wait, actually, it did. Mitch just made the wrong turn, so it told him to do a U-turn, except there wasn't a legal U-turn for like a mile so Mitch just made a quick illegal one at 50 mph.
After a certain point, Michael made a conjecture that there would be a Jack-in-the-Box at every gas stop along the freeway. It was proven wrong. After about 3 hours of listening to Streetlight Manifesto and all these other ska/hard rock bands, Michael pulled out my iPOD and plugged it in. Thus, everyone was forced to deal with J/K/C-pop (my ipod's still in his car, whoops). Mitch and Michael spent most of the time talking about video games and Mitch's crazy ex-girlfriends (haha, hearing him talk about what they say during sex is enough to make you gag). I just zoned out for a long while. We did go to a gas station that was fucking huge and had like a grill/sandwich place in it and I found those lollipops with the bugs inside them! Bought one for minivi.
When we were driving on Highway 101 (I believe, it could have been something else), the GPS did not warn us that our turn was coming up so we missed it and ended up having to drive through the countryside (literally) in order to get to Gilroy. So many shops with garlic, I swear. This set us back by half an hour, I think.
It was about 3 or 4-something when we got to Stanford, or more specifically, near Breeshia's dorm. If you've ever google-mapped that place, the campus is fucking huge. We ended up taking a shuttle to the Palo Alto Caltrain station where Mitch and Bree separated from us as we bought our tickets for the train and boarded. We passed through two zones (Palo Alto to Millbrae), so it was $4.25 for a one-way trip.
It was jam-packed inside and Michael and I managed to snag a row, but then the ticket-checker dude got irritated at us for having our luggage in the aisle (well sorry, there was a fucking lady in the row across from us and she left like only five minutes previous to him coming over) and it was our first time riding on the train. I didn't like it at all, not only because of the ticket guy, but also because of how cramped it was. Even airplanes have more room.
After half an hour has passed, we arrived at Millbrae where BART and Caltrain share a station. I've had multiple sources tell me that Millbrae is the only place where they share a station and if I took the Caltrain all the way to San Francisco, I would have to hike 6-8 blocks to get to the BART station. Well, anyway, when we got there it was around 5 or something and it was chilly. Michael was pretty much miserable, and my debit card would not work on the BART ticket machines so we had to use his. We were confused over it and realized that it started the ticket value at $20, and you had to subtract/add to get it to the amount you want (which was $4.80 one-way for each of us).
Millbrae Station.
Credits to chibiplus on photobucket for the pic.
When we got on to the BART, it was totally empty because it was taking a break. The BART was really spacious compared to the Caltrain, and it was single-level with huge windows. Michael was stoked that the section we were in was completely empty, until it neared departure time. At that time, people just started flooding in.
The BART taking off.
Credits to mainlander101 on photobucket for the pic.
We took off from Millbrae to Downtown Berkeley. It was an hour long trip, but the BART is a bullet train, so... it went by pretty fast and it was really loud when it went through tunnels. At one point we were in a tunnel underwater (it would have been amazing if the tunnel was see-through).
As you can see, the BART covered more ground than the Caltrain did. Michael attempted to do the 45-minute essay that's due in our English class the day we come back from the trip.
Like five minutes after I took that picture, he gave up altogether. The BART was really interesting, distracting, and apparently shakes too much for him to be able to even write the title neatly.
When we arrived at Downtown Berkeley, it was dark, cold, and we were both miserable and lost as fuck. Google maps was a bitch-fuck and it turns out I was correct but we took the long way around (not that I'm complaining, I got Starbucks and he got warmth). It was around 6-7 when we arrived at katsumeragi's dorm, Unit 3 Spens Black. We had to call her out because of the stupid security in the building; she screamed really loudly upon seeing us and then we had to get signed in and carded.
She took us up to the second floor and introduced us to her roommate and friends (Nicole P, Arunava, Angela [MY UNOFFICIAL WAIFU WHO I GOT MARRIED TO RANDOMLY AND WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?]). As I learned the hard way, you can fucking hear everything inside that building. I could sneeze outside and people on the seventh floor could hear it (thankfully, that was how I managed to find Raven Saturday night/Sunday morning, IDK when the fuck it was). Anyway, as a greeting, I accidentally nose-bled on Raven's rainbow sheets. I don't know if it's because I'm anemic or it's from the change in pressure (I did go from like, sea level to a high altitude).
Anyway, she took us out to the Asian ghetto (it's not really the ghetto, but more of an alleyway filled with Asian restaurants) for some dinner. I ended up getting a sushi roll (gotta have my raw fish), and Michael didn't get anything. Raven ended up giving him her chow fun noodles because she was vegetarian and the people at the Mandarin house fucked up her order and put meat in it. We ate and took a tour of Berkeley (lead by Victoria, lol "Handy" Vicky, and Raven) and around this time I get hungry again. So we went back to Asian ghetto and I got some garlic shrimp (that was more like fried shrimp but I'M NOT COMPLAINING).
We got back, I ate and Angela asked me if I wanted a cellphone holder/charm since apparently, she used to work at an Asian gift shop so she got all the merchandise when it closed down? I don't know. But yeah, it turns out that the cellphone holder was the thing I was flipping a bitch over at 99 Ranch market because I didn't know what it was for.
The one on the left is the cellphone holder.
The one on the right is the charm.
It was around this point where Raven left us in her dorm room to attend a frat party (which ended up being invitation and Cal students only, so she couldn't get in). At this time Nicole talked to us and left us with her laptop in case we wanted to use it? Anyway, I went to take a shower. The bathroom is for both genders, which made it awkward. You had standing stalls and sitting stalls. Anyway, I jumped into the shower stall and took a quick shower while fighting the curtain. It was a bit chilly when I was done so I ran back to the room and tried to sleep after a while when Raven came back and she and Michael went to Victoria's room.
Plan to sleep well failed. I found out that I was light and sound sensitive until I reach the stage of REM sleep. How? Raven and Michael came in, the prior laughing while they tried to be as quiet as possible. The twist of the doorknob woke me up. Goddamnit Hibari, why do I have to be as fucking retarded as you when it comes to sleep?
S A T U R D A Y
Starting from early morning: Michael was complaining about how cold and uncomfortable the floor was (we had to share a sleeping bag), and Raven was telling him to STFU. He ended up sharing the bed with Raven while I had the floor to myself (yay!). The thing is, I guess they were both very uncomfortable in the small twin bed. Raven fell asleep before me (and before Michael) and mumbled in her sleep. I ended up passing out around 4, maybe? I'm not entirely sure.
I wake up around... 9 or 10? Got ready while Michael took a shower. Everyone was heading out for the weekend to do some shopping, so Raven was our tour guide for our trip to San Francisco. We managed to get on the bus and I ended up being able to pay 2 dollars for being a minor (they don't question me) while Michael, being honest, paid 4 dollars for the bus ride.
We ended up walking across the whole city (almost). Raven and I got Starbucks while Michael was across the street getting Subway. We walked through the financial district (oh goddamnit Prada, Louis Vuitton, Armani--I WANT SUITS I CAN'T AFFORD) and headed to the San Francisco mall (WHICH WAS HUGE AND AWESOME). Ended up buying some shades for myself and a Hello Kitty notebook for ninjayaten. We had to go through Chinatown because her mom and my sister wanted the boxes with the chirping crickets (they aren't real). I saw a man at one point playing the erhu and it made me think back on the article we had to read for English 100 (Pearls Before Breakfast). So that made me a bit sad--BUT STARBUCKS MAKES ME FEEL BETTER.
Well, we ended up finding the crickets right when Raven was about to give up altogether (like seriously, a minute after she said that she'd give up if we didn't find it soon, we heard them). She bought the crickets for her mom and some tea for her roommate, and I bought the birds for my sister. After this, we walked around looking for weapons and eventually made our way to Little Tokyo (like I said, it's a walk across the whole entire city almost). Michael's hips were aching at this point because he was an idiot and brought his backpack with him (which had the world in it, in terms of weight). I did, however, see a lot of buildings that I could use as TR reference.
Regrettably, I did not get as many pictures as I wanted to, not even close.
I ended up raping this stationery store for stuff for friends back home (got Toshi some almost-drafting erasers, got my sister the erasers, got Rika and my mom the kimidolls). We were hungry so we decided to eat at Mifune within one of the malls (Kintetsu? Buchanan? I forget). Raven had inari sushi and... something else, I forgot--oh, the croquettes! Basically Japanese hash browns but extremely tasty. I had a wakame udon, and Michael had... soda. Yeah.
We then made our way back to the bus stop (with Raven pointing out several gay/tranny bars on the way) and it was pretty dark and creepy when we got there. It was a quiet ride back. I swear, cities look amazing at night.
When we got back, I was close to passing out on Nicole's bed. Raven disappeared momentarily since her two friends, Matt and Alex, came back from Santa Cruz and she wanted to check on them. Nicole comes in as Michael works on his homework and I just sit there soullessly and we started talking about fandoms. At this time we check on the bathroom because she wanted to take a shower or something and I also needed to take a shower. She was bummed out that everything was missing from her locker and I mentioned that someone left stuff in the first shower stall--turns out it was hers, and Michael happened to use her shampoo (gahaha, herbal essence) since Raven gave him soap.
A little bit later, we meet Alex for a second. At this point, I'm pissed because the bathroom was perfectly empty earlier and when I go back, all of floor three seemed to be having a damn party in there.
Well, I go back to the room. Time passes by, and Raven's out in the last room by the staircase. She invites us over to play a game of Mafia.
The basic rules of the game are that there's a narrator, a mafioso, a doctor, an inspector, and a handful of civilians. The game has two phases, nighttime and daytime. At the night stage, everyone has their eyes closed. The mafioso, inspector, and doctor opens their eyes when told to by the narrator. The king is the mafioso, the queen is the doctor, and the jack is the inspector. Number cards are civilians. The mafioso chooses someone to kill, the doctor chooses someone to save, and the inspector chooses someone to investigate (they point at someone and the narrator tells them whether the person they chose is the mafia or not). Once the three have taken their turns, everyone "wakes up." The narrator makes up a story for the person that dies. After they've told this story, the civilians pick out the person most likely to be the mafia. The person that's voted against by the majority is killed off. The game continues until there's a tie, the mafia kills everyone, or someone kills the mafia.
Got that?
Well anyway, we ended up having to restart the game twice because Awista (Whiskey) kept giving herself away/screwed up the game. I think the first round I somehow ended up being the Inspector and I got killed because I found out Awista was the mafia and no one would back me up. And I got killed by coffee, I think ("I've got too much blood in my coffeestream" -- Nicole Parish, a damn accurate description). These two people kept getting killed, which was quite... hilarious. I was the mafia at one point (Raven almost gave it away), and I ended up killing everyone. Michael was the mafia and Raven gave it away entirely ("Michael, open your eyes--SHIT I MEANT MAFIA.")
Anyway, we had to relocate since the RA of that floor was going to write us up for being too loud.
We headed to the lounge on the lobby floor and continued the game. Raven and Michael were mafia at one point and was able to bring it to a tie.
At this point, we just lounge around and Nicole's passed out while Raven was upstairs sleeping. Supposedly. Anyway, I bolted for the elevator when this girl was going in (you needed keys to get from the lobby to any floor after hours). I knocked on the door but no one was in there so I was like, fuck, I need to take my shower NOW when no one's in the bathroom. I was about to go back to the lounge when I decided to head up to the fifth floor. I was sure that Raven was up on the floor but I realized I had no clue which room she was in. Deciding to have a short stake out instead of giving up and returning to the lounge, I stood silently and heard her laugh, and followed the sound to the room.
She was a bit surprised.
Anyway, I got the key and ran back downstairs and fought the doorknob (I'm pretty sure the girl who walked by was like "WTF is she doing?") for a bit before I finally got in. I jumped in the shower and finished up with it really quickly and ran back downstairs after I returned the key to Raven. We go back downstairs to play the sticky note game from Inglourious Basterds. If you've watched the movie, you know what happened. xD
But basically, we wrote nouns on a sticky note and passed it over to the next person, and they had to ask questions to figure out who/what they were. I think Raven was "I bet you like that." I made this guy Hamtaro and the other guy Princess Diana. I was "the game" and "the mafia" for both rounds. I'm not sure if we played more than two rounds before we finally went to bed.
I brushed my teeth and at this point, Raven dragged Michael to the small lounge at the end of the hall to chat so I attempted to pass the fuck out. Once again, that didn't work.
S U N D A Y
Memo to myself: once I move away, I'll make sure to delete everyone's phone numbers from my mom's address book. Seriously. We didn't get to sleep until 6AM. At 10AM, my mom thought it'd be a great fucking idea to call Michael's phone, which ended up making him cry (almost) and pissed me and Raven off. We were originally supposed to get up at 10:30 but that didn't happen at all. Raven ended up getting bitch-called by her fellow two musketeers, so we were booted out at 12:45PM. We made it to the station and I argued with Michael momentarily about which trains to take back (we had to make a transfer since the Richmond line doesn't operate on weekends; refer to the BART map from earlier).
We got on and found that it was crowded. When we reached MacArthur, I jumped off and Michael was all "WTF is going on" as the train we got off left the station right when another one pulled up on the opposite side on. I got on, and he was making a "sure, but if we get lost this is totally your fault" face. As we made our way to Millbrae, the BART gradually got emptier and we could finally sit the fuck down. It was really cool when it pulled into the international terminal at the SFO airport. We had a momentary heart attack when it went back the way it came, but that was because the BART had to leave the airport and switch tracks to Millbrae.
And the ride on the Caltrain was not pleasant. Fucking ticket checkers always get on your case for SOMETHING. Anyway, this is where we fuck up.
The announcers don't tell you what stop you're at, but they tell you what stop is coming up. The problem is: they mumble. We arrived at Atherton, but Michael heard "Palo Alto" so we grabbed our luggage and lunged for the door. Michael jumps out right when the doors shut in my face. He knocks on it and we freak out, but the conductor opens them and I jump out onto the platform.
Fifteen seconds later when the door closes and the train leaves, we realize we're in the middle of fucking NOWHERE. We ended up having to walk by a main street/highway/not sure what kind of street for about ten-fifteen minutes until we reached a McDonalds. Michael calls Mitch up to explain what happened and tell him where we are. Several moments before, Michael is like "you know what I really feel like right now? In N' Out. We are going to get some fucking In N' Out on the way home."
Mitch finds us a few minutes later and we start the trip home. His GPS is a bitch, and does not tell us HOW to get to the highway but expects us to get there by ourselves.
Well, anyway, when we do get there, we drive for a long while with Mitch telling us about his trip. Apparently, Breeshia has a really dumb fucking roommate. Breeshia also drinks a shit ton of stuff in one go until she passes out.
To make this part short, we got really lost on the way home, but we got In N' Out. Mitch was pissed since we got our orders before him. Anyway, as we continue getting lost, we got some Starbucks. They thought I was asleep and freaked out when I screamed. I was pretty happy, and Mitch was pretty unsatisfied with the fact that "I Kissed A Girl" came on. We switched back to his ipod.
Anyway, there was some sexual innuendo going on at one point when Mitch tells me to eat these gummy peach rings. I'll elaborate on that later.
We get home at 12:40. I was so disoriented, I didn't even realize we were at the gas station in Oceanside when I woke up.
YAY FOR LONG ROAD TRIPS WITH TWO WEIRD GUYS.
[collapses]