the long road home.

man, what a week in los angeles! dav, josh and i went to malibu, outlet stores, universal studios, the walk of fame, the taping of the jay leno show (second row seats, shook hands with jay leno, saw james franco in person, and appeared on national tv!), went to disneyland, went for mass and celebrated hanukkah with josh's family right after, watched the nutcracker... and then had one much-needed lazy day on monday.

dav and i were supposed to take the train out from la to eugene, leaving on monday and arriving on tuesday (it's at least a 27 hour ride), but the train was fully-booked. that was disappointing. =( anyhow, we bought flight tickets from la to portland with a stopover in seattle for monday afternoon... and then found out on sunday night that our flights were cancelled because the airport in seattle was snowed in! we spent hours trying to get an alternative route home, but it was close to impossible to get an airlines rep on the phone because the lines were jammed by the hundreds of others who were in the same boat. when we finally did get through on monday, we were told that the soonest flight out of la that had available seats was on the 26th! and the soonest train was leaving on the 27th, arriving on the 28th. i really, really wanted to spend christmas in eugene, but since we didn't really have a choice we decided to go with the flight on the 26th... but we felt really bad about imposing on josh's family (whom we were staying with), because we had already been there for 6 nights and were going to be extending our stay another 4 days. >.< they told us we were more than welcome to stay, but we were seriously considering looking for a hostel or something to stay in til we could leave.

and then... on tuesday afternoon i decided to try calling the airlines again, because i figured it wouldn't hurt. after getting the busy signal several gazillion times more, i got the same answer - the soonest we could get to portland was on the 26th. i hung up, then realized that i didn't ask about flights into eugene, which was where we wanted to be anyway. so i called back, got through on the first try, and found out that two people had JUST cancelled their tickets for the 4.35 pm flight later that day. it was about 1.15 pm then. i decided to go ahead and jump on the tickets before anyone else did, although it was going to be tight getting to the airport on time and i had no idea if we were going to be able to find our way from portland to eugene that night. we rushed to pack, looked up amtrak tickets online and found out that all the buses and trains were fully booked, said goodbye to josh's house and off we went.

on the way to the airport i called amtrak to find out our chances of getting a ticket to eugene that night, and after being on hold for about 20 minutes i talked to an agent, who told me that he could get me on the last train of the day, which left at 9.10 pm. we were scheduled to land in portland at 7 pm so i thought that worked perfectly. we would be getting into eugene at 11.45 pm, and i wasn't sure if the buses would be running, so i called sean and he said he'd be willing to pick us up from the station, which was really sweet of him. =) so now we were all set to be in eugene by midnight, if everything went according to plan. you've all heard of murphy's law right?

we ended up getting to the airport at about 4 pm, no thanks to the la traffic. as if that wasn't cutting it close enough, the service at the la airport was horrendous - it took us about an hour to get checked in and through security! thankfully, the flight had been delayed by an hour, so we made the flight... but then i was worried about getting to the amtrak station on time. there wasn't time to do anything about it at the la airport, so i decided i'd deal with it when (and if!) we landed in portland that evening. thankfully, we made it... landed in a snow-covered portland at 8 pm. i called amtrak while waiting for our luggage and figuring out how to get to the amtrak station from the airport - after holding for about half an hour i found out that our train had been delayed by an hour and a half! that meant we'd be getting in to eugene at about 1.15 am, which we thought was too late for sean to come get us... so we let him off the hook and decided to find our own way back to the ucf house from the station. somehow. we were supposed to take the light rail to the rose quarter, and then catch a bus to the amtrak station; we got the light rail, but the buses weren't running because of the snow. so we had to lug our luggage through the ice and snow, made it to the station on time, and found out the train had been delayed even more. so we walked around looking for food, but ended up having to settle for chips and coffee from a vending machine.

the train finally left at about 11.15pm, and we passed the time watching finding nemo on my laptop and sleeping. arrived in eugene at 2.30am, and decided to walk from the amtrak station to the ucf house. it took us an hour, but thankfully there wasn't any ice or snow on the ground. needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got home. dav had a peanut butter sandwich, i had soy milk, and then we went to bed at about 4am.

but you know what? it was worth it because the next morning i could wake up early to skype with my family on a stable connection after they got home from midnight mass, and because i got to have a christmas eve dinner with sean, esh and sean's family and then go for midnight mass all together after. it was also worth it because i got to have a christmas lunch with my housemates, complete with murukku, pineapple tarts and coconut candy from home (thank you mommy, daddy and anthea!), go for a walk with dav around campus, watch "the waitress", have a nap, cook curry and bak choy for dinner, and then watch sepet before calling it a day.

merry christmas everyone!

ps: yes, i cheated by backdating this post. =P

break!

i slept in on saturday, then curled up on the couch with twilight for a few hours. i finished it in one sitting and felt like i had consumed a gallon of ice cream haha. the cool thing about it for me though, is that it is situated in washington state, just north of oregon, so i could identify and was familiar with the landscape and weather described in the book. usually i read about faraway places that i can only imagine or wish i'd visit one day. so yeah, after gorging myself on 400+ pages of mindlessness, i went for a run, dropped my key without realizing it, had a shower, went back to the track to look for it, found it, went over to sean's parents' for dinner, and then called it a day.

on sunday i went to church, had brunch, had a looong nap, then organized my room somewhat. i watched the office online, had dinner with my housemates to celebrate ney ney's baptism, packed, and headed to bed.

monday i woke up to a white eugene. i had a shower, started laundry, headed to the post office in sub-zero temperatures (but i was warm in my warm thick coat and bearpaws!) snapping pictures on the way there and back, had breakfast, packed some last minute things, and headed for the bus. i planned on reading and doing stuff on my laptop on what was supposed to be a three-hour trip to portland, but about halfway through i really, really needed to pee so i couldn't concentrate on either. and there was an accident along the way, so the bus had to make a detour and the trip ended up taking more than four hours. but it was a pleasant trip. jamie picked me up at the station, and we had to drive really slowly to her house because of the ice on the roads, to it took another hour or so. but we got there, had dinner, and then watched three movies in a row: the notebook, forgetting sarah marshall, and just friends. then we went to sleep. =)

this morning i woke up, had a shower, had pancakes and eggs for breakfast, put up pictures on facebook, and after this i have to go re-pack and head to the airport to catch my flight to los angeles.

i'm excited. =D

the sandcastle.

"play with me," he half-commanded, half-pleaded. his dad glanced at the clock on the wall. "okay," he said, offering his hand to his son. the boy pulled his father towards the sandbox, letting go of his dad's hand to clamber into the sandbox. his dad perched awkwardly on the ledge.

together they shoveled sand into a sandcastle mould, the boy gibbering away, his dad nodding in apparent understanding. the boy was on his knees in the sand, oblivious to the fact that he was getting damp sand all over his clothes and into his shoes. he added sand to the mould steadily, not seeming to mind when he missed and ended up throwing the sand back into the sandbox instead. his dad put in sand every once in a while, just enough to keep his little boss happy while staying subordinate.

when the mould filled up, they patted the sand down to make sure it was compact and then added more sand, repeating the process until the top was level. then with a jubilant "one, two THREE!" they turned the mould over. the dad eased the mould off the sandcastle while the boy hit the top of the mould with his shovel to make sure all the sand got out.

it was a perfect sandcastle: its ridges were perfectly defined, the sides were smooth, and it stood straight up, not crumbling to one side like the sandcastles in this sandbox usually did. the boy smiled at his dad. "well, ezra," his dad said. "that was fun, but i have to get going now." the boy's smile drooped a little, but he gave his dad a hug and a kiss before he left.

"wow, ezra," i said, walking up to him. "that's some sandcastle. it looks amazing!" and i meant it. i wasn't doling out the obligatory praise that smudges of paint on paper and unidentifiable blobs of playdoh usually got. he didn't look at me, but half-smiled at the sandcastle.

a girl climbed into the sandbox, her foot narrowly missing the sandcastle. "be careful, jori!" i exclaimed, rushing to put a protective hand between her flailing limbs and the magnificent monument. "we don't want to hurt the sandcastle ezra worked so hard to build with his dad."

the boy didn't seem to notice my efforts, but continued to contemplate the sandcastle with satisfaction, waving his shovel in the air gently and unconcernedly. i wondered what he was thinking. maybe he was remembering that he had built the sandcastle with his dad. or maybe he was just admiring it's sharp corners and clean nooks. i hoped he would be okay when it got destroyed, as it was bound to be eventually. pity though, it's such a beautiful -

"thwack, thwack, thwack!" ezra completely demolished the sandcastle with his shovel, leveling the ground for good measure. then he smiled at me, dropped his shovel, and climbed out of the sandbox.

que sera, sera.

wow i haven't blogged in a while. and don't worry, this isn't gonna be a long one... i just decided to put something up because i finished "the joy luck club" last night, and i needed to do something while my brain wound down.

i'm officially all done with my classes for the term... but two finals, one paper and two or three more appl-ick-ations (i'm thinking two, but i'm also thinking two's kinda reckless) before i can celebrate.

it was funny that the only "last class" that i felt sad about was my ballet class. since i was gonna be ballet-deprived for a few weeks (i'm taking it again next term!) i decided to try stuff i didn't think i could do well enough to do... and ended up doing three almost-perfect double pirouettes, which i think is my new lifetime record for one class.

i got my official gre results, and did worse on the writing than i thought i did. better on the verbal than i expected though, percentile-wise. hopefully they balance out. i had a grad school application all put together to meet the deadline (yesterday/today - the 5th), and got an email from the professor on the 3rd saying she wasn't accepting doctoral candidates for next year's intake. then again, i was already thinking of not applying, so maybe that worked out for the best.

i've been neglecting people, and am very thankful for their understanding. i'm doing my best. but sometimes i still wonder if i'm doing it right... if someone else in my position would be able to perform a better juggling act.

i'll end with the song i didn't get to dance to, because i was cooking nasi lemak, rendang, kurma, bak choy and bubur cha cha for 20 people =):

"when i was just a little girl,
i asked my mother, what will i be?
will i be pretty? will i be rich?
here's what she said to me:

que sera, sera,
whatever will be, will be
the future's not ours to see
que sera,sera."

que sera sera, doris day.

my class performed to the version by pink martini, not the original, and if you can you should listen to it. i love it.
haunting.