I definitely bought this shirt

Way to articulate my thoughts on Palin better than I could

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/30/palin_pity/

"I don't want to be played by the girl-strings anymore. Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness. It's a disservice to minority populations of every stripe whose place in the political spectrum has been unfairly spotlighted as mere tokenism; it is a disservice to women throughout this country who have gone from watching a woman who -- love her or hate her -- was able to show us what female leadership could look like to squirming in front of their televisions as they watch the woman sent to replace her struggle to string a complete sentence together."

-Rebecca Traister

Overheard at UCSB

Total tool-y, fratty, douche-y looking guy: Dude, I'm down with cuddle-buddies, but anything more...

Visitors

Courtney and Erin (on the way back from one of their many adventures) stopped by Santa Barbara to visit me. Due to a few slight navigational/directional errors, only two hours after arriving in Santa Barbara, the intrepid duo arrived right outside of my apartment. Sadly, they missed an impromptu beginning clarinet concert (Ode to Joy, Jingle Bells) by only ten minutes.

 I hopped into the front seat, as the back seat was packed with souvenirs from their sojourn. I neglected to tell them that what looks like a road directly in front of my apartment building is actually a bike path. So we drove along the bike path for awhile. Luckily, it was about 12:45 am at this point so no one really cared. 

We drove into the heart of Isla Vista, the student town bordering the campus, looking for parking. At one point, we drove past some cops and began to worry about the fact that there were three of us crammed in the front seat of Courtney's car. However, this was the weekend, so the police officers seemed more concerned with the very drunk, very obviously underage frat party attendees, than our lack of seat belts. 

We secured a parking spot, and headed back to my apartment. Courtney and Erin's large backpacks, blankets, and pillows they were carrying attracted attention. Some drunk passerby yelled, "Camp out!" But we couldn't tell if he was inviting us to his camp out or if he wanted to attend ours. We asked some of the obviously underage partiers where a good bar is located and the response was, "I wish I was 21." We laughed to ourselves and continued to head back to my apartment.

Or so I thought. Most of my time in Santa Barbara so far has been spent at Math Camp or other various forms of orientation, so I haven't exactly figured out the lay of the land. Eventually, we figured out that we were lost on a part of campus I did not recognize. (Just so I don't sound like too much of an idiot, UCSB's campus is HUGE.) On the plus side, our nighttime wandering was full of nature. We saw a skunk and a raccoon, and the raccoon didn't look nearly as rabid as the Bellingham raccoons.

We eventually found a campus map, and, as Erin refused to kiss the skunk, even for $20, resumed our journey to my apartment. By the time we made it back, it was after one o'clock, and we decided to save the rest of our adventuring for the next day.

Stay tuned for the rest of our adventure...

Update from California

No sea mammal sightings yet.

Some important facts about California/UCSB:

1. The pool has salt water and what appear to be barnacles 

2. Generally, the only people on campus so far are nerdy science students. Hey, other nerdy science students.

3. However, around the edges of campus, (ie the rec center, tennis courts, bagel places, etc.) there are a lot of tools and whores. Hey, tools and whores.

4. I am currently attending 10+ days of orientation, including 'math camp' which we have to attend on Saturday. SATURDAY!

5. There are no hippies in my program. Not one. That's 80 environmental science students, and not one of them has dreadlocks. I might have to grow dreadlocks. That's amazing.

6. Also, there are no hipsters. I went to a locally owned organic coffee shop, and there were no hipsters. However, the barista did have dreadlocks.

7. Everyone here rides bikes, mostly beach cruisers. Except for me. I don't ride a bike at all because mine hasn't arrived yet. Tons of people ride around on their beach cruisers, while drinking coffee and talking on their cell phones. I want to learn to do that.

8. My on campus apartment is farther away from my classes than at any point when I lived off campus in Bellingham. Oh well, at least it's not raining and there are no hills.

Goodbye Bellingham!

Things I will miss about Bellingham:

- How great it feels when the sun finally comes out again in mid-March.

- Riding my bike down hills.

- Lemongrass.

- Having nicknames for 50% of the people in a given place.

- "I keep getting older, but they all stay the same age."

- Watching hippies from a safe distance.

- Participating in loud parties/street high jinx on High/Indian Street. Especially the night it was really warm and raining really hard and everyone in the neighborhood ran outside in their underwear to play in the puddles and people were shouting, "Whose rain? OUR RAIN!"

- Fabio.

In the spirit of moving

Things I will not miss about Bellingham:

- That 2 month period where you never fully dry out.
- Riding my bike up hills.
- Sharazad.
- Running into people I have drunkenly made out with.
- Feeling really old at age 24.
- The way hippies smell.
- Trying to sleep through loud parties/street high jinx on High/Indian Street.
- The people upstairs.

People who have moved away? Anything that you don't miss about Bellingham?