No Poo

Begin date: June 15th.

Denver, Colo (Road Trip)

DAY 1; May 31

I had a blast visiting Denver between May 31 and June 5. In order to maximize our time there, Kyle, Cat and I decided to drive 19 straight hours. We did it, but it was quite difficult. We took shifts where one person drives 3 hours, one stays up 3 hours to help keep the next person awake, and one sleeps/rejuvenates themselves for 3 hours. It was a pretty good system, but by the end... man was it hard. And we were driving alongside a thunderstorm the whole time with crazy amounts of cloud-ground lightning. Because of all the recent tornados causing destruction the past few weeks, we were pretty nervous/scared. But in the end, we made it.

DAY 2; June 1

So we left around 7:30 on Tuesday and arrived around 2:30 on Wednesday (mountain time). We ate at a cute little restaurant called Gaia Bistro while we waited for Kyle's brother Austin to get back to his apartment so that we could meet him and grab the keys to his apartment. Needless to say, it took quite a while.

We ended up having to go to Austin's apartment anyway, where his two friends who were visiting (Danny and Jonathan) let us in. Austin had dropped them off there and had to head back off to work. The two were quite the hipsters, but Danny was extremely nice nonetheless.

Man, we were so sweaty and tired. It was all around very difficult to stay awake / feel good. Around 5:45, Kyle's brother finally came home. We said hello, talked, and then they left. Then we left to see the Capitol and walk around downtown a little. While walking around, we were offered pot and "black." Scary times. Don't go there at night, y'all.

Anyway, we left there and then went to this bar near Austin's place called "The Ale House at Amato's". Austin and his friends go there a lot apparently. The restaurant is nice because they have patio seating that overlooks downtown from across the highway. And they have 35-40 beers on tap. I ordered two drinks, but I don't remember their names unfortunately. Blasted. In any case, considering the elevation and the fact that I hadn't eaten anything in 6+ hours, I got really really drunk. Off two beers. It was the best. Kyle was the same way.

So, Cat had to drive. And we went home and we all pretty much crashed. At least, I did... face down, on the bed. It was quite comical.

DAY 3; June 2

Next day, we ate Denver omelettes on the way up to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We went to the Capitol there and got a private tour by WY state representative, Stan Blake. He guided us through the building telling us some neat little factoids that you would only know if you worked there. He even invited us to sit down in the Speaker of the ... House's seat (I believe it was?). And we met with the Secretary of State, who gave us neat little Wyoming pins that we wore proudly on our shirts for the rest of the day.

Afterwards, we went to Taco John's, which is a big deal up there. It's not bad "West-Mex", actually. And their Potato Olé are pretty good. Then we walked around downtown a little looking for souvenirs before driving back down to Fort Collins.

There, we went to the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which sucked. We each sampled one of their more "premium" beers, to which we all gave thumbs downs. They all tasted like water. Nasty. But we were just waiting for Kyle's brother to call so that we could all meet up at the New Belgium Brewery (aka Heaven). There, you get 3 free samples. But since I was with Cat (a girl), we were able to get a couple more free samples.

I had the following: Abbey Grand Cru, La Folie (super sour; tasted like sour candy), Somersault, and others.

We all wanted to drink some more (obviously), we went to old town to CooperSmith's, this restaurant that Austin, Danny, and Jonathan went to all the time when they were all at Colorado State. We got two pitchers, the Albert Damm Bitter and the Wayfarer Copper Ale. After that, we were all drunk and couldn't drive so while the other three left, we stuck around old town and looked into some of the shops. Around 9p, we ran into this concert, where this band Elephant Revival was playing a free concert. And it was there that we met this incredibly cute Newfoundland (my profile picture on Facebook as of June 16th). Then -- and keep in mind that we were drunk -- we danced in the fountain in front of the band and that was a blast. Uninhibited hippie dancing in an incredibly cold fountain.

Once the concert was over, we all felt better and we were able to drive back to Denver.

DAY 4; June 3

We had a lot of things planned, but going to the Rockies was not one of them. Why? We weren't sure. But on Day 3, we decided we needed to go up to the Rockies. So we woke up early to drive up there. We stopped in Boulder to this restaurant called the Buff, which Kyle's brother and friends recommended to us because they served "meat-filled pancakes." The food at that resto was really good. The "meat-filled pancakes" weren't actually "filled" with meat -- not like a hot pocket, we learned. We also learned, or decided rather, that Colorado has really good Mexican-esque food. But it's not like Tex-Mex. No, it's not like Tex-Mex.

So then, we drive up to the Rocky Mountain National Park, which we were able to get into thanks to Austin's yearly pass and it was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains all had snow, the weather was incredible. This place is heavenly. There's this river called "Roaring River" that we saw and naturally, I wanted to climb up the rocks alongside it. We climbed a decent way up looking for a real trail, but eventually gave up and came down. But as we were doing so (and I was distracted trying to open up a pack of gummis), Cat starts saying "Oh my god, oh my god". And lo! There were big horn sheep at our level right across the river. Seeing them so close and live and in person -- man, I feel like it's such a rare sight. We felt so lucky!

But a park ranger eventually called us down and we found the original trail we were looking for. It was a pretty steep one. It wasn't long, but it was steep. And we were ill-prepared for hiking, not only in our lack of physicality but also in our clothing. Kyle and I were not wearing tennis shoes (I was wearing my Sanucks, which are like Toms, and he had one Sperrys). And we didn't have warm clothes. Because the higher we went, the colder it got. And it got cold real quick. Anyway, we ended our adventures early because of that. And because we wanted to go shopping at Estes Park a little. And because we wanted to meet my friend who goes to CU-Boulder for dinner, which we did. We ate at Illegal Pete's, which is actually a pretty good burrito place.

When we got back to Denver later that night, we went to My Brother's Bar, another place that Kyle's brother recommended to us. Two more beers here. Dang, wish I could remember what I ordered. But I can't. And I can't look it up online. Oh well. Regardless, good end to the night.

DAY 5; June 4

Woke up early again cause we needed to do some things in Denver that we weren't able to do since we actually never really spent that much time in Denver. We went to Tattered Cover bookstore (famous indie book store), City Park (where I had to collect my dirt sample), and The Denver Chalk Arts Festival. Then we left and we drove and we drove and we drove in order to get to Cadillac Ranch before sunset, which we accomplished surprisingly. It's actually a pretty neat ordeal.

Then we drove to Lubbock, where we were going to spend the night at Cat's friend Ravi's place. Sang along loudly to Super Bass (Nicki Minaj), Firework (Katy Perry), I'll Believe in Anything (Wolf Parade) and much more. One of my favorite moments of the trip - where we realized that we were comfortable enough with each other to do this. So much bonding!

So Lubbock was a whole ridiculous ordeal. We flipped this guy off for being a douche on the road and man... he was so angry. Large angry man. I was genuinely scared that he'd follow us and beat us up. Man does Lubbock suck. At Ravi's, there was Sweater Vest, Lacrosse, and some other people, but I don't want to get into it. This night was just ridiculous.

DAY 6; June 5

Woke up incredibly exhausted. Drove to Austin. Arrived in Austin. Missed Colorado instantly but we were glad to be home. Realized how much fun we all had and how hard we fell in love with Denver/Fort Collins/Boulder.

University of Texas at Austin

B.S. Radio-Television-Film

Class of 2011

Walked the stage. Watched the ceremony from afar.

A disconnect.

Tastes: Food + Music

Food: I think I've successfully transitioned back to carnivore land. I eat meat actually pretty regularly since I went home for the holidays. My mom's turkey/ham/etc. opened up a pandora's box for me. I called this early period "flexitarian" but I think it's full-fledge meat-eating now. Although it's usually at restaurants that I do this. At home, I still prefer veg options.

Music: I love pop music and I love Scandinavian music and most of all, I love Scandinavian pop music, but I think my taste for music is transition into electronic once again. It changes so often. Let's see where this goes.

Goals: Trance and maybe France

1. Attend a house / electro / trance party this year. Currently listening to Château Flight's "Cosmic Race." Excellent!

2. Visit aforementioned friends in France. Or if that's not possible, I'd still like to get out of the country. Canada, Central/South America? We'll see.

Highlights: Departures, Offers, and Swimmers

Keeping tabs on my 2011 goings-on. Let's see if I can do this.

On January 4, one of my good friends, who I will endearingly call Gogo, left for France. What that means is I was in kind of a funk for a couple days. I gave him the best going away present though -a Texas license place! Straight from my car!

On January 10, I got a full-time offer from Facebook! What that means is I can carry on with my final semester at UT without having to worry about employment upon graduation. I feel very, very fortunate.

On January 16, I went to my first swim meet, which turned out to be a pretty legit one that had world class swimmers participating. What that means is I got to see Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte (among other big name Olympians) swim. It was pretty legendary.

Hoping that other funtastic things happen in 2011! I'm hugely optimistic :)

2010 Recap

Just a quick note to help me remember why 2010 was such a great year.

• I made some life changes after realizing that I do things because I think they'd be good for me and my future and not because I like doing them. After making an important academic decision, I lifted a heavy weight from my shoulders and I became happy again. Thanks, Professor Adams!
• Spent the summer in Sunnyvale, CA and fell in love with San Francisco
• Met a lot of great people while I was in California, including but not limited to Geetanjali (Berkeley), Mai (North Carolina), some Canadian folk from Toronto (Waterloo), and my roomie Evan (who now works for HP). I definitely still keep up with a lot of them and I'm glad that I made such good friends while I was there.
• Worked for Palm / HP - my first paid internship ever. I'm still incredibly thankful for this opportunity and grateful to my hiring manager, David, who gave it to me. I applied thinking it was a longshot, but I ended up getting it. That I'm a fan of Wes Anderson, that I blog, and that I'm a UT student helped I think (he's a UT alum). They paid for my flight, my apartment, and lent me a bike. Best thing that's happened to me so far.
• Saw Lady Gaga live in concert for free. Tickets cost $200! The experience was such a blast.
• I had a guy fall in love with me, ask me on a date, and pretty much creeped on me for a week. I'm definitely not used to that and I was really uncomfortable then, but now it makes for a funny story.
• Met a lot of great people in the Fall 2010 semester, including a lot of foreign exchange students from Europe who I plan on visiting if I ever find myself over there. Hugo & David of Toulouse, France; Veronika of Prague, Czech Republic; and Mads of Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Went to New York for the first time ever and got to see a lot of Manhattan and some of Brooklyn.
• On December 14, I got out of the subway and found myself in Bryant Park, where I checked my messages and found out that a company wanted to extend to me an offer for full-time employment. Ecstatic, I called my mom and told her the good news. It was freezing balls, but it was such a great moment. I won't forget it.
• Finally, I got all A's in the Fall 2010 semester, the first time since +/- system went into effect.

I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of things that made the year so great, but I think I've highlighted the major events.

2011 is starting off a little slow, but I don't doubt that it will a great one, too. 2010 might be a little tough to top, but I'm optimistic. Very optimistic.