It's been a long week+. After the DC/NY fun I had a few days of down time before I had to--er, got to--put on my tour guide hat and go prancing around the city doing all those things I don't normall do--which is to say go to the Exploratorium. Yes, Tv2 came up for a long overdue visit--we won't talk about that--so the pressure was on to show him a good time, in the cleanest sense possible. We hit Sushi House in Alameda with Kat and ate more sushi than I could imagine (pre-Cabin Sushi, that is) and then he got to tag along while Kat and I were girls and went shopping. Friday was downtown/Yerba Buena Gardens/MOMA/Chinatown/Ferry Building/Embarcadero/Pacbell Park all in one day. All I can say is HELLA WALKING. Oh and the Pop Art exhibit at MOMA was good. I recommend the German section if you're gonna check it out. But try a thursday night when it's half price from 6-9pm. Saturday was lunch at Pluto's and then the rest of the afternoon at the Exploratorium. Oh and did I mention that I had to drive?!? It's madness, I know. The last time I was at the Exploratorium was two years ago when Sam came to visit so it was fun to run around it and check out the new stuff and see some of my old favorites again. Traffic getting back home was ridiculous and draining, which led to naps and eating in and no AZN clubbing [I didn't plan that, I swear! =o)] Sunday was just more chilling and that was it for my stint as tour guide. Stressful as it may have been to plan pre-visit, it was actually kind of okay once it all happened. (Kidding! Glad you came!)

Monday should have been a day of rest but instead it turned out to be a quasi-crazy going away dinner partying night that started with dinner, ended in Hold 'Em, and had a little more streaking than I cared for right in the middle. I won't get into the details other than to say that I lost $2 but came in second place. Ha. Oh and also, if you're ever at Park Chalet--yes, Park Chalet, it's newish and it's behind Beach Chalet--have a mojito, they're good. Streaking and all, it was a good night. El Rio is cooler than I remember and you can't go wrong with $1 well drinks. The only down side was that I lost my new sweater from H&M. Sad. But all in all it was worth it. (I lost my sweater just for you..)

Tuesday was check out the gym day and that was pretty much it.

Wednesday was last-minute hitch a ride down to So-Cal on a whim day. Not kidding. I got an offer for a ride down south and within two hours we were on our way. It's been a while since I've done any sort of road trip. I'd almost forgotten what the drive down 5 is like but it all came back to me. Despite a little bit of heat and the longest side 1 of an audio book ever, it was a good road trip with good company. (You still owe me a 'Y.' You know what I'm talkin about.) It has to be said that the highlight of the trip was listening to "Nobody Knows" five times driving up and back down Grapevine. Ahhh yes... Got into Irvine and met some cool people, then finally made it to Riverside where it was ridiculously hot 5000. A noisey ass fish tank and super crazy uncomfortable heat made it way to hard to sleep, but eventually it happened a little. The next morning my driver left me (for good) and then it was time to get our Sush on. Kat and I had all we could eat sushi before we drove way up past Thousand Oaks (TO what!) where Kat had an appointment and I ran around Target for a while. We drove back down to LA and met up with Crystal at the Arsenal for some drinks and 'fine food,' plus possibly the best set of my life, even compared to Johnny's Cloud 9 set. Friday was more hanging out in Riverside and more all we could eat sushi. You might think we'd get tired of eating all that sushi.. You'd be wrong. We definitely got our money's worth. Saturday was a quick lunch of the best thing So-Cal has to offer: carne asada fries, and then a trip to the bird store to check out the little pig I'd heard so much about. I flew home and went straight to dinner with some family friends and then finally got home and had a chance to rest. Overall the trip was really good. It was totally chill and I didn't actually spend that much money, even with all the sushi. There were definitely some interesting moments and conversations, some a little enlightening, and also, a lot of sushi. I didn't object to any of it.

I'm going to devote a good portion of this week doing nothing and recovering from all this other stuff, except for when I have to go to class (ugh) and when I get to hang out with Chizu, and probably also when Tv1 drags me around somewhere.

And so concludes my short stint as a traveller. Next trip: Vegas Baby! I'm excited. Oh, and maybe visit some of you Southwest boys. But really, Vegas Baby!!