Two entries today, and this’ll be the longer one. I’ll attempt to recount the four days involved if only so I can come back and laugh at the memory sometimes later (though this may have some entertainment values for Lusine and Kate, who are still in LA, should they read this).
Divided into four days in terms of style too, because I need to at least make an effort at keeping the memories organized.
Day 1
Mothers United: the Horror, the Horror
While waiting for the bus in front of Marina Foods we discovered that mothers have something about food and long trips by the bus. The general reasoning always being that since you’re sitting down and have nothing in particular to do, you should, therefore, eat. Hence there is the bringing of food, sandwiches in the case of Kate, apples and crackers in my case. The crackers were spiritually-empowered crackers because they had peanut butter.
Found out we needed to change our e-tickets for actual tickets at the last moment, which was cutting it a bit close and invoked a bit of a responsibility lecture which I’m sure I’ll be hearing very, very soon. Kate was feeling homicidal, the mothers were feeling worried, the difference in languages stopped being an issue and while we waited in the bus for it to leave we got to watch the bonds forged by maternal instincts wave at us. Merrily.
The bus trip itself involves…the tea kettle-like (or possibly high-pitched, speed up Morse code?) whistle of one window, the rattle of various parts of the roof, and the equivalent of “To die, or not to die” speech from Hamlet qua the bus radio. It’s a particularly fitting reference considering how many different types of music we tried along the way. The bus trip also involves the making of many paper cranes, war waged against the wires from Kate’s CD player’s earphones, the slow death of three flowers, and a bit more homicidal sentiments from Kate which was not helped when I started to count her yawns, thus forever ruining her ability to yawn for the rest of the night. (Yes I realized I used the word "forever".)
Did note, though, that Kate would like a motorbike, helicopter, possibly space ship and her own stargate too, if she can have it.
Renewed acquaintances with LA traffic sums up the end of the trip, then it’s to Lusine’s and present exchange and watching her cousin running around the house like…like… it’d be like one of those horses from the merry-go-round, stuck in a Pinocchio-magic and suddenly found itself capable of independent movement. (I’m sorry, Lusine, but that was the first thing I thought of. He does run in circles. ) Walk through the streets, books stores, going onto Lusine’s roof which does not have a railing and watching Lusine quietly freak out while Kate considered various possibilities, most of them ending with potentially broken bones and major surgery. Watched Hitchhikers (I’ve read the book, enough said). I abused Lusine’s large round chair who’s, I’m sure, very glad to see me leave.
Day 2
Lights, Movie, and Random Running
Writing Christmasy things next to a Christmas tree is a good move. There is something about the lights and the smell that inevitably injects the holiday spirit into your writing. I’ll make a note to try writing a horror story next to a Christmas tree some day in the future because I want to see the comedy that comes out of it.
Oh yes, that meant that I woke up early, and had enough time and was awake enough to write things. I didn’t know multicoloured Christmas lights included the colour orange. That was interesting.
Visited what I presumed to be the local mall afterwards, when it was still early enough for us to avoid over-crowding (Valleyfair is frightening at this time of the year). There were (and still are, probably) umbrellas on a balcony-like structure in the mall. There is the usual mall-hired Santa Claus, and a kid who cried while taking a picture with Santa which, of course, was highly ironic. The food court had squiggly blue lights on the ceiling and there was a very crowded toy store that I didn’t remember the name of. We saw Lego-Snape though, at the Lego store, and wondered why Snape was purple. Another mystery of life.
Watched HP4, some very nice scenic shots, too much interpretation from the director and overall…the movies are not for the people who have read and have liked the books.
Light display at night! (It’s somewhat sad and accurate to note that the lights at Beverly Hills are better than the “light show” we saw the day afterwards). They have some very pretty things with snowflakes there…and also creativity with general displays, such as the semi-underground clothing display tunnels, which really is the best I can do with words unless I want to waste half a page trying to describe the structuring, which I’d really rather not do. Lights and fountains and running through intersections when the pedestrian light came on because (I think?) Kate was wearing (er. Still is, am assuming) running shoes. More fountains and elevators and plants at this…place, where Lusine freaked out a bit more as Kate contemplated jumping onto a slanted glass roof. And some arguments about the healthy age for a piece of chocolate to be, when it’s extracted from Lucy’s purse. Apparently Lusine and Kate had quite different ideas about it (ahem).
Watched PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN And for some reason I got a very extensive lecture on slash afterwards (I really don’t know…). Then there persisted much hysterical giggling for unfathomable reasons, where Kate tried to edge away from Lucy and then ended up fighting or, more accurately, hit her repeatedly with a pillow and eventually tried to hide Lusine under a blanket which then quivered from Lusine’s laughter, emitting an occasional "hee!". I know that there is a reason to be deeply worried about slightly quivering piles of blankets that go "hee" now. Wondered slightly at the number of cushions the couches of the Vardanyan household always seemed to possess, because I still remember struggling with them during the movies days from last year.
Day 3
As Thoughts and Hysteria
Woke up WAY too early and stared at the Christmas tree. Following Lusine’s directions from the previous day I found where the bread was and had breakfast. Eventually (because there was time) I went up to the roof again and made naturalistic observations about the neighborhood which, despite of its distance, is amazingly like Cupertino in many areas. Went back downstairs at 9, and then sometimes afterwards Lusine’s relatives came and I admit to wanting to leave for the roof again even though yes, that would most definitely not be polite. Watched Narnia and concluded that the mind-numbing ideals behind the movie cancels out (in my opinion) with how pretty the entire movie is. There are scenes that I want to paint. The movie itself? As generally typical of the movies—it is probably a lot more enjoyable if you don’t think about it. ("Oh Lucy? Where are you?")
Mall again, and food from the Italian kitchen place, under the squiggle-light area. Discussion about allergies, for some reason. Kate buying a bath/shower/soap-thing for her mother. (We played the word game "fish" before this and I’m realizing that I have problems keeping memories that I have lumped together organized in chronological order which is slightly disturbing but, as people point out, I have a weird brain. Oh well, as said in the beginning, I'm making an effort.) The "light show", as can be seen, from the quotation marks, is a bit of a laugh, but we had an APUSH flash-back on the way there and were trying to remember all sorts of president names. Trip to a pastry-shop-place afterwards, where I was introduced to Russian ice cream, from "Dadu", which Lusine apparently make some sort of Russian-language-error about that and caused much amusement. Then back to the house and TV and some rather horrifying shows which I was considering whether or not can be used to support an argument of "reasons why not to watch TV". Hysterical giggling visited us again that night, and it got so bad for Lusine that she had to leave and drink some water to get rid of her hiccups. To try to go over all that had happened then would be difficult, but there were flying stuffed animals and depictions of classical literature and two very different flashbacks of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF that ended with whispers and finally sleep, though probably not enough sleep for anyone.
Day 4
Slightly More Eventful Than Hoped
Subconscious can be a very annoying thing at times, even though being able to set a sort of internal alarm clock is very neat. Woke everyone up at 8 to go to Monterey Park for the bus (I appreciate your efforts, Lucy and Kate, especially since the bedtime was something like 3:30 am). I asked Lucy if she had a hangover and she informed me that that's the good thing about getting high off of stupidity: that you don't get hang-overs. (I did ask for permission.) Got there too early and walked around for a bit until the bus came. The driver handed us plastic bags that said "Thank You" on them, and I haven't a clue why. I think it's meant to be a garbage bag or something, and I got to see Lucy and Kate wave at me. A lot. And yes I have a funny wave but I'm sort of a funny person (in many different senses, I’m sure) so I might as well be consistent about it.
There was no radio on the way back. There was, however, what I call the Whistling Window Duet with background music of "The Death Rattle of the Luggage Rack". It took me the better part of the first hour to eliminate those sounds from my attention and by then we were going up the mountains and my ears were being weird enough so that sleeping was out of the question. Tried to sleep afterwards though, and managed one hour of five minute cat-naps before I decided that it'd be easier if I just sleep when I get home (it is easier). At the first break a girl threw up because she had milk last night or something, and we got to hear her retch for a very long time. That was unpleasant. At the lunch stop we had to switch buses because a bus that was destined for Las Vegas had mechanical problems so the passengers for that bus are going to go on our bus and we're going on the bus with the problems which is not terribly reassuring. At the third break we found out that the problem is with one of the generators and for a while the bus wouldn’t start and that was definitely not reassuring but eventually Cupertino was reached with no incidents and we were even on schedule, for some miraculous reason.
And at the end, just to reassure you guys, no, I am not in trouble for coming back on the bus by myself. My mother was more annoyed about the cellphone crises because I called my father (who was about to get off work at that time anyway) instead of her (who was at work) and since she usually calls me my father’s number isn’t under the “recent calls” menu and she couldn’t figure out how to get to the address book, where I entered both of our numbers. She also got me this type of chocolate bar that I liked, sometimes within the past 4 days so, you see, it all worked out.
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