yeah yeah, i've been neglecting my blog for the past several weeks. for those of you that are feeling mel my finger withdrawal, here's what i've been up to:
School
entrepeneurship class (EBZ306) was aight. i had the professor in the past and he knows i know my shit. finished with an A-.
internet law class (FRL410) was cool. class was mostly computer geeks like me, along with a nice ratio of girls. lotsa times our discussions went off track and bunch of us tech saavy guys ended up talking about the not-so-legal stuff we've done on the internet. on a side note, the classroom's theromostat was broken, so the whole quarter we were freezing our asses off. (oh yeah, on another sidenote...god bless hard nipples. ) exams were easy and the 20 page research paper was a breeeeeeze. finished with an A.
finance class (FRL301) was a biaaaatch!! i retook the professor that completely and utterly failed me for the prerequisite finance class. the entire grading system was based on 3 exams. the first exam i got a 51%. :down: but hey, the class average was a 50%. the class average for the 2nd exam was a 50% too...but this time i scored a 28%. i know the professor curves at the end of the quarter, so basically i had one last chance -- the final exam. i studied my ass off and...
i got a 100%!! in your mouth, biaaaaatch!!!
volleyball class is always fun. my original volleyball coach was laid off so we ended up with the weight-lifting coach. my god, she has to be the buffest woman i've even met. i got pretty tight with her...but it wierded me out when she started saying things like "you have great arms." these pathetic things??? here i am, standing in front of Ms. Weight-Lifting of OC, getting complimented for my arms. "you have great calves too." i do???
she's cool though. finished with an A.
basketball class is always fun too...except this quarter, i sprained my ankle and i was out for 5 weeks. get this: i sprained my ankle walking to the gym to play basketball. walking. i stepped into a pot hole and totally jacked up my right ankle. butt its all good because when i got back, my team, Monstars Part II, marched onwards to our second straight championship. Spring 2005 & Fall 2005 Champs, baby!! that brings me to a total of 13 seasons, 5 finals appearances and 4 championships for me.
so yeah, a very productive quarter...i'm officially left with 7 classes before i graduate!!
5-Year Highschool Reunion
i forgot to make a post about this...but i had my 5-year reunion at Webb in october. i hardly took any pics but it was really chill seeing a bunch of familiar faces again. seriously, a bunch of these faces i haven't seen since graduation (or should i say, the after-grad party). one highlight was getting drunk with the dean.
oh yeah, the night before, some of the guys got drunk and snuck onto campus, knocking on the doors of freshmen in the dorms. wish i was there for that.
Drama
many of you guys know about my drama this past quarter. pretty lame but whatevers...i know who my real friends are because of it.
here's a quick rundown of my food journal entries this past quarter.
Cheesesteaks @ Philly's Best »this place is freakin' awesome!!! they ship the ingredients straight from philly...can't get any more authentic than that outside of philly.
A great teacher once told me that your personality and character should be comprised of what you Like and Love, not that which you dislike and hate. Dwelling on these things only allows them to consume you. There are a lot of things to hate....but what a waste of life.
that's all for now. have a very merry christmas, stay away from yellow snow and use protection!!!
Alan: what's this one do? Lady: it goes BOOOM. Alan: what about this one? Lady: BOOOOOOOOM!!! Alan: and this one? Lady: BOOOOOM!!!! crackle crackle crackle.
happy face massage, anyone??
all you can eat reception!!
the saudi sandal mafia.
aight, we're drunk...lets dance!!!
Alan:dude, you look like a gay rambo
Sunday, October 16, 2005 - the morning after
cherry bomb: $2. fine for blowing up shit: $40. blowing up shit like when we were kids: priceless.
parting shot:
candids:
just another one of those amazingly long yet amazingly short weekends. the days were so jam packed with fun it seemed to last forever...but looking back on it it didn't last long enough. but nonetheless...congratulations again, amy!!!
// ah man, the first day of class...summer is officially over. just a quick recap for shits and giggles.**one new toy that kept me entertained throughout the summer was my new digi cam. this baby entertained me when i was alone for several nights.
classes were actually really cool too, even though they were all freakin' freshmen classes. i've been pushing back my public speaking class for years because i dreaded the subject, but i managed to make the best of the situation with my speeches (How to Gain Weight Fast, Imperfection).
once again i maintained my straight A's and B's.
(on a sidenote, i slept in on the fisrt 40 minutes of my history exam. but the cool thing is i still pulled out with a B. )
almost everyday after class i'd kick it at the pool with chin, where he would teach me the art of the bellyflop.
we even collaborated on the invention of the backflop.
the crappy nights in my crappy apartment are finally over with. i'm finally living in the village with a buncha montecito crew OGs.
for phoebe's birthday, chin hooked us up with tickets for disneyland.
towards the end of august, some of the saudi crew was back in the states so we had a little saudi shindig at my place.
beginning of september, the highlight of my summer, was eating white castlejulie's wedding.
last weekend, mike and i decided to road trip over to arizona to visit chelsea. maaaan, that was a long ass drive...but it was worth it. (sorry, we only managed to take a very few pics)
ah man, i was waiting all summer for this weekend. 4 days, 3 nights in new york and a buncha saudi crew that i haven't seen together in a loooooong time.
here's a photojournal of what happened:
Thursday - September 1, 2005
i flew out of LAX @ 11pm and landed in newark, new jersey @ 6am EST. my next flight wasn't until 9:05am so i decided to do something productive...
at the airport taxi booth:
Taxi Ladi: destination, sir? Mel: white castle!! Taxi Ladi: excuse me? Mel: WHITE CASTLE!!!Mel: the closest white castle around!! Taxi Ladi: Taxi Ladi: you want a cab for some burgers?? Mel: damn straight!!
so about $13 later...
unfortunately when i got there, only drive-thru was open. its all good though cuz when i got to the airport...
(what you're looking at is 10 cheeseburgers...and that's not even including the other 10 cheeseburgers in the other bag!!)
so anyways, about 9 burgers and a couple hours later i met up with alan @ albany airport.
Alan: so amy's picking us up, right? Mel: yeah, i'll call her right now Mel: ....hmmm, no answer. its all good, she knows we're here.
45 minutes later...
Mel: yeah umm, i guess she doesn't know...
a bagillion phone calls (and a quick visit by julie & mr. craig) later, alan and i were finally picked up by amy. praise the lord!!
this was the first time that we had seen baby anna isabelle.
the rest of the afternoon was mainly munching on the extra white castles, swimming @ the pool and taking a nap until josh flew in @ 7:30pm. oh yeah, throughout the afternoon the white castles from breakfast started kicking in:
Mel: Alan: yuck!!! Amy: your farts smell like white castle!!! Mel:
not too long after we picked up josh, the guys headed over to saratoga for a little bar hopping while the girls had their little Girls' Night Out. we spent a lot of time playing some drunken shuffle board @ some irish pub:
after the bar hopping, we had the munchies so we headed over to the closest gas station. i stocked up on pudding, cookies and half-and-half (i thought that stuff was milk ). oh yeah, how can i forget the cashier chick...
Cashier Lady: i just have to ask...are you hawaiian? Mel: hawaiian? nah, i'm filipino. i have a little hawaiin in my blood though. Cashier Lady: oh okay... Cashier Lady: well, i probably shouldn't say this because my co-worker might tell my husband Cashier Lady: but you are a very nice looking man
yeah that's right, she wanted my balls.
so after our munchies, we passed out.
Friday - September 2, 2005 - josh's 23rd birthday
the next morning alan, josh and i got a rental car @ enterprise. (note to self: enterprise's underage fee was only $22.50/day compared to $115/day @ budget.) we drove down to poughkeepsie then took a smelly train to grand central station.
oh look, there's some turkish dude waving to us!!
(for the guys that are wondering, erol is now workin 100+ hours/week @ JPMorgan. )
we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around new york city. and of course, there was a hot dog stand literarly on every street corner.
by the time we got to erol's kickass apartment ($3,000/month between two people ), we were tired as hell. we ended up playing some FIFA 2005, ordred in some chinese delivery and watched some crazy movie until we passed out.
Saturday - September 3, 2005
it was a good quick trip to nyc, but we had to get up early so we'd make it back in time to albany airport to pick up samir's ass.
some parting shots:
we got in around 12:30pm, just in time to pick up this brown man:
after picking up samir, we went to the mall to meet up with amy, cathy and daniel h. but of course, that little drive didn't happen without a few wrong turns (i was the navigator)...
driving nowhere:
Samir: i don't think the mall is this way Alan: minus 5 for melvin!! Mel:
a few miles later
at some random toll booth:
Alan: wtf, we have to pay to get off this toll and then get back on?? Mel: fuck it, just flip a bitch [do a u-turn] here!!
we found our way to the toll booth that got us onto the freeway...
Toll Lady: ticket, please. Toll Lady:reads Toll Lady: Toll Lady: i'm supposed to charge you all the way from buffalo for doing this. Toll Lady: its illegal to do a u-turn on the freeway!! Toll Lady: but i'll let you guys go this time. Everyone:
fast forward a few hours later...it was wedding time!!
Toast!!:
Drunken Josh: cheers!!! Drunken Josh:pounds champagne like a shot Alan: sloncha!! Alan:drinks Mel: KINKY!!! Mel:drinks Alan: ...dude mel, its "clinky" not "kinky" Alan: and josh, you take a sip, not pound it.
yes, the meditaranean chicken was good.
the wedding cake was f'ing orgasmic.
the group shot:
Alan: yo, remember that one 9th grade prom picture with us guys??
well, we didn't have mike there so we got josh instead.
all in all the wedding was beautiful, the stony brook crowd was cool, the mother-in-law was drunk and Cotten Eye Joe will always be a kickass party song.
after the reception we headed over for some bar hopping in saratoga again.
(note to self: a buncha guys walking into a bar while rockin their suits is an awesome way of making a fashionable entrance)
drunken josh and sam kept us entertained for the rest of the night. as you can see from samir's post, the drunken josh show went a little longer than necessary...
in the parking lot:
Alan: dude, i have to piss so bad!! Alan:runs behind the corner Drunken Josh: yeah, me too. Mel: well get in line then, bitch!! Drunken Josh: ...i can't hold it anymore... Drunken Josh:pisses in the middle of the parking lot police light flashes on josh*
Sunday - September 4, 2005
ah, good 'ol sunday brunch. a time to catch up and reflect on the previous night; and tell everyone that wasn't there about the drunken josh show.
and now for some parting shots:
and the obligatory poses:
you know, i think the best thing about our crew is the fact that when we're all put into the same room -- even after a long period of not seeing eachother -- its like we never skipped a beat. its never awkward. and if it ever is, the awkwardness doesn't last very long.
congratulations once again, will & julie. we wish you all the very best!!
got back into cal poly!!!! feels damn good to be back in school again. i kinda got stuck with a shitty schedule again -- two 4-hour night classes, tuesday and thursday -- but whatevers, i'm just glad to be back.
Tuesday
shopping with joyce & meliss. although it was more like me & meliss watching joyce shop, haha. god damn, that girl shop...i think she could hang with my cousins & aunties 8 hour shopping sprees.
my first night class @ cal poly (ebz451) was later on. its one of those four-hour-class, meet-once-a-week classes... but it actually isn't that bad. we had two 20 minute breaks and got excused like 30 minutes early. the professor seems cool...he's like a computer geek but not. at the end of the night he started spitting out perverted jokes during lecture. i think we're gonna get along just fine.
Wednesday
since mt. sac was on break, i had wednesday off. kicked it with phoebe the whole day. bitch had to wake me up during my mid-afternoon slumber but it was chill.
later that night cathy called me up. cruised over to her place and watched that new bernie mac & ashton kutcher movie, Guess Who. good movie. couldn't really chill or eat afterwards cuz she was still recovering from her wisdom teeth removal.
oh yeah, cathy had a funny lisp all night too.
Thursday — Caesar Chavez Day!!
cal poly and lots of california had the day off for Caesar Chavez Day. what is Caesar Chavez Day? ummm i guess it has something to do with mexicans.
anyways, originally the plan was to go to disneyland...but shit happened and it never worked out (again). it was all good cuz there was a backup plan...Beach Day.
chin and i cruised down to huntington, got there around 2ish. technically it was just gonna be us two the whole day....but then people called and next thing we know there were 13 of us:
me (always me first), chin, rose & her bf, phoebe & her friend anna, jp, christine, chain, travis, bojo, chris, and karen.
played some beach volleyball, jacked some firewood @ albertsons, started up a bon fire, roasted some hot dogs...it was so chill, it reminded me of the kickbacks back home in udhailiyah. gotta bring marshmallows, a football, guitar/ukulele and a stereo next time.
to top off the night, we headed to BJs in cerritos. BJs after beaching has pretty much been tradition carried over from last summer. alan & james made it down from vegas to join in on the happy-hour feasting.
it was a damn great day for going to the beach. i'm looking forward to making this a weekly ritual over summer.
Friday
just kickin' it with the homeboys. the usual day of arguing where to eat, cracking gay jokes, watching movies on the 60" and "shampoo" late at night.
oh yeah, we watched Sin City...but i kept falling asleep during the movie cuz of the night before.
Saturday
alan & james were in occidental for a lacrosse game, so i had breakfast by myself @ duke's. normally there's a key to use the bathroom right next to the cashier, but for some reason it wasn't there. i walked over to the bathroom and noticed the key was already in the hole...so naturally i opened the door to use the bathroom....
and then right in front of me was some old fogie, bent over with his pants and undies to his ankles... :yack:
lemme tell you something...seeing some old dude's wrinkly, hairy balls is NOT the way you want to start out the day.
aaaaanyways, i got my hairr did then headed down to SD for april's not-so-surprise party. (not exactly a surprise party when your mom asks you for all your friend's numbers for "no reason.") it was a chill night, had dinner @ buca di beppo.
speaking of buca di beppo, have you guys ever used the bathroom there?? i dunno if all buca di beppo's are the same but the guys restroom was just overwhelmed with black & white pictures of naked baby penises and babies urinating. what a day...first some old dude's balls and now a buncha baby penises.
back at the dinner table, we had a lot of damn good food. it was kinda funny cuz there was a little hidden tension between me and april's brother...and the last slice of pizza.
Mel: Michael: Mel: (what are you looking at, biatch?? that last slice is mine!!!) Michael: Michael:takes the last slice Mel: ()
the force is definitely strong in this one. hell, he knew about the 3 distinct types of slices of (square-cut) pizza. you know, just like with lasagnas & brownies...there's the corners, the sides and the middles... (yes, eating is like a game of strategy). michael did an excellent job of serving everything and saving the biggest corner slice for himself.
okay, so i didn't get the last slice of pizza and all, but i definitely did my damage elsewhere...and apparently it was noticable:
babytoes81: my mom loved how you "cleaned" your plate
after dinner we chilled @ her place for a bit, watched the incredibles, then i had to drive back home.
finally saw alan edgington (aka phatts aka phatty phat mcphatt phatts aka alan pudginton aka pudginton bear) for the first time since leaving saudi. as per tradition, whenever a visitor flies in, we MUST take 'em to all of our favorite eating spots. the past two weekends included:
shanghai grill (vegas)
$3 steak & eggs (vegas)
fatburger
in-n-out
shakas hawaiian flavors (artesia)
the boat
papa johns
and my newest place, Aladdin Jr (pomona).
kinda forgot to take pictures the whole time, ah well. dan drove down for a night so we had a kickback saudi style @ my place. good times, good times.
The Grudge
finally watched the f'ing grudge the other weekend...pretty damn scary. i cheated though, i had the laptop screen on bright the whole time while the other guys watched it "shampooed" () and in the dark...sorry, no way in hell i'm gonna watch it like that.
SPOILER WARNING one thing that really disturbs me is that one scene when the sister runs to her bed, and the fucking thing comes out from under the bed sheets and vaporizes her ass. god damnit, the bed is my sanctuary!! it was the one damn thing that was my "base" whenever i was scared as a kid...not only did this movie scare the balls off of me, but it tainted my one and only happy place at the end of the day. i'm also a little traumatized by the cat noises... mreeeoooooooooow!!!
PE Classes
yeah yeah, so that one fat bitch told me to never take another PE class again. screw her. i went to my PE classes anyways (i wasn't registered but the coaches are tight with me so its all good). this past basketball season i had by far the best team i've ever played on. just a great combination of friends and guys that i've played really well with in the past. we were 12-1 for the regular season, but tanked in the playoffs because our MVP shooting guard and starting center (pavel, you fat fuck) got sick. the season was fun as hell though.
volleyball is always fun too. i gotta admit though, there were a LOT of newbies this quarter, but all the games that happened after hours were great. its just such a chill atmosphere cuz like 25% of the class are friends/regulars who've been signing up for volleyball class for years. got to mingle with some new, cute volleyball chicks too. its gonna be sad after next quarter cuz, according to my volleyball coach, there will be no more PE classes @ cal poly. noooooooooooooooooes!!!
One more week...
technically i don't have a spring break because i'm attending two schools with offsetting spring breaks, but i still have that "just one more week" feeling.
one big part of this "one more week" feeling is the fact that pavel is graduating and moving out of the dorms. he's the last of the ORIGINAL Montecito '00 crew, so this is a big thing. this is huge, mang, and it certainly calls for a feast.
things are goin great in my classes, so i'm gonna talk to that fat ugly advisor chick soon and see if i can suckup my way back into cal poly.
anyways, this is my last week of being 22...god damn, i'm almost 23...round that up and i'm 25...that's almost 30!! god damn, i'm almost 30!!??! why god, why??!???! i don't have any finalized plans for my birthday this year but hopefully i'll end up going to disneyland with some people. yeah yeah, i'll be 23 but screw you, i've NEVER been to disneyland before.
Randoms
don't watch that one wes craven movie, Cursed...
Constantine is pretty cool
Be Cool is pretty cool too
found a disgustingly big, dead RAT @ april's apartment...
Songs of the Moment
feelin' a little old school these past couple weeks.
I'll Be Two Steps Behind You by Def Leppard
Heaven by Warrant
Blue Eyes Blue by Eric Clapton
Champagne Supernova performed by Matt Pond PA // Oasis Cover, as played on The OC
That's What She Said by Backstreet Boys // thanks melle
Life is not the amount of breaths you take; its the moments that take your breath away.
Alan: yo dan, we're in town...we wanna see you Dan: cool...well i can come down [to mel's place] for a night... Alan: well, we actually wanna come drive up to SB Dan: ok good, cuz we're having a Super Troopers theme party on friday and a 70's porn theme party on saturday!! oh man, perfect fucking timing!! we only drove up for the 70's porn theme party...but man, that night was wild!!
okay, one thing i should mention is daniel and his roommates all agreed to grow out a moustache for a whole month...maan, it was a site seeing daniel with his fro and 'stache. the rest of the roommates had awesome costumes...and i swear, this one dude named connor totally looked like this one pornstar...
anyways, at the party there were 5 drinking stations...blow jobs (the shot, haha), purple hooters, body shots, jello shots, and screaming jimmys...once you complete all five, you can get a beer cup.
the saudi crew started off the night with 4 tequila shots...and then continued on with the 5 stations.
by the time i got my beer cup, i was pretty damn sloppy.
i could only manage one game of beer pong...and i didn't even get to finish my beer cuz some party-fouling one-eyed beer slut (seriously, one-eyed...one eye was a glass eye) was all over the place and knocked over so much of the beer.
there had to be 100 people there...i counted 30 people just outside watching beer pong
all was well until a couple fights broke out...i'm not really sure what happened but it involved some dude hitting on another dude's gf...blah blah blah
anyways, the party started to die down after the drama...and around 3am, we topped off the night @ this kickass mexican place called Freebirds, which is pretty much a burrito version of subway.
Pack the Gym Night (last last friday)
In a competitive game that featured 18 lead changes, senior David Sybesma found himself in familiar circumstances, knocking down a game-winning three pointer, this time with 38 seconds remaining to put the Broncos ahead for good, beating 19th nationally-ranked Cal State San Bernardino 60-57 in front of 1,672 at Kellogg Gym, improving to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in CCAA.
yeah yeah, so that was two friday's ago...butt still, that night was awesome. for the first time in 5 years, i finally saw some school spirit here at cal poly...even more spirit than when the girls bball team were the back-to-back NCAA D2 champs a couple years back.
its funny, cal poly and san bernardino are rivals...but i don't think anyone knows...or really cares for the matter, haha. the cal poly crowd was looking for the stupidest stuff to "hate" the other team. there was this one player on the other team, Trenell, that somehow became the target for the bronco crowd.
Cal Poly Crowd: TRENELLLL SUUUU'UUUCKS!!! Cal Poly Crowd: TRENELL'S A BIIIIIIIIII'IIIITCH!!! Cal Poly Crowd: TRENELL'S A FAAAA'AAAAAG!!!
anyways, after the clutch three and game-sealing block by Sybesma, the crowd (myself included) ran onto the court in total hysteria like it was a championship.
Drama @ Mt. Sac
i had a little drama over @ mt. sac last week...when i went over to finalize my registration and pay my tuition, all of a sudden i found out i was ineligible...
i was so screwed...if i couldn't get into that class, i wouldn't be able to pass ACC208 by summer, and my chances of getting back into cal poly would've gone up in flames...
after getting shot down by the accounting office, i was left with one last chance...basically the next few years of my life depended on what would happen in a one hour meeting with the chairman.
Dr. McGeough: well, mel... Dr. McGeough: if you were a mt. sac student, i would've said "no" to you... Dr. McGeough: but since you only need this class to get back into cal poly, i'm gonna give it to you.
thank you, dr. mcgeough...you have no idea how much you saved me...
Lost Weight
about 23 lbs, actually. its funny, i was the last person to notice it...and everyone's been asking me "have you lost weight?" after weighing myself on four different scales, the final scale being the official one in the girls locker room (), i've officially trimmed down from 237 to 214.
More Random Stuff
noticed mt. sac has like 80% mexicans...and strangely a LOT of hot asians...my theory is most asians around here get into cal poly...then the really clueless / hot ones get stuck @ mt. sac.
started going to church again, for the first time in 9 years. i have a lot to be thankful for and a lot to pray for.
the waitress @ shakas wants me...she hooked me up with extra stuff and still took off $11 from our tab.
Songs of the Moment
Obsession by Frankie J
Call on Me by Eric Prydz
Just Hold On by Boyz II Men
There is no beginning or end.. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift.
