GEEKERY  
ADVENTURE  
CONTEMPLATION  

20080628

I have a place to live!

I woke up at 2:50am and stumbled out the door of my parent's home by 3 in SoCal. I drove. A bit later, I arrived at a hotel in the bay area. Work is putting me up there for two weeks, and I intended to spend this week apartment hunting and reporting back to my roommate. Those plans changed, however, when we found something today.

We looked at a lot of really trendy places...some brand new, some only a couple of years old. The cabinets looked like the would match furniture from Ikea perfectly. Slick. Everything was simple and linear. And then we saw the garden house.

It was old, yellow-y, and had a beautiful garden with morning glories, an angel's trumpet tree, and who knows what else. And it cost just as much to rent as all the shnazzy apartments, and it included furniture. So now I have a place to live. The downside: the kitchen has really old appliances, but I'll just have to be creative!

Another up-side: I now have to week to play around in the bay area with my friends!

20080625

at the end of the day

I didn't think I'd have internet, but I'm leeching off of the neighbor's internet connection at my grandma's house. On my brother's computer. Oh yeah, I feel the karma stacking up.

Tonight, I was strongly encouraged to attend a religious institute class. It's not that I mind the concept of the class, but the individuals attending are not my kind of people, to say the least. They seem to be filled with the irresistible urge to say the most mundane things as if they were profound. My brother and I had to literally bite on our fingers to stop from laughing at a certain point. It was very, very painful.

Brother Boring: "God's creation! I just go outside and it's so... beautiful!"
another brother: "Yeah, I feel a burning in my bosom."
My brother: "And on my back." (it's been over 100 degrees every day this week)

Despite the wit of my brother, the quote of the day goes to Grandma: "I'm a lonesome widow....I go out looking for these stray men..."

20080624

Grandmother's House

I'm at my grandma's house for a few days while our house is "re-piped" (the insides of the pipes are coated with some magical substance). I look forward to reading a good deal.

Living so closely with my family challenges my composure. One of my biggest complaints, however is that we don't have the same food here. Where's my tea? How come all the bread is white? And that I don't know where things are. It should not take five minutes to find the salt.

Grandma is incredibly frugal. She is over 80 with a net positive income. She washes her plastic cups and utensils in her dishwasher. The cups come out a bit warped, but otherwise okay. Why not just use the glass ones? I don't get it.

My favorite story about her frugality has to do with her visiting my grandpa's grave. I don't remember the exact holiday, but my mom, brother, and dad went with her and she brought flowers. As the story was reported to me, she put the flowers on the grave and said something to the effect of, "You know, Ed never liked to spend money that we didn't have to. I'm keeping to his wishes...I cut these flowers from my neighbor's bush that grew over into my yard."