weekend. road trip. friends returned from semester abroad. lovely.

so i left work at three on friday, darted home as quickly as the freeway traffic would allow me (not very), and we were off. a backpack, a pillow and a sleeping bag and it’s time to go to san jose. or mountain view, technically, but close enough. since former roommate/future housemate mike just returned to the states from scotland not more than a couple weeks ago, and we hadn’t seen him since december, it was the perfect plan. and it went smashingly too. probably the best weekend of the summer so far.

the six and a half hour drive was pleasant and filled with good tunes, the mandatory stops at flying j (truck-stop to end all truck-stops) and in-n-out were great, and once we rolled in at 11:30 the fun only just started. zany cruising around town, minority report at 1am, which i thought was pretty damn good, and sleep until noon. saturday led to a UHF viewing, lots of four-player halo on the xbox — which is outstanding, if you like shooting at your friends in virtual worlds — then a drive to the white-trash carnival known as the santa cruz boardwalk where we payed $3.60 to ride the nation’s 7th oldest roller coaster, “the giant dipper”; where i got covered in powdered sugar sharing a funnel cake; where i took the title in mini-golf (no one would bet anything on the game beforehand even though i kept pressing for “loser buys dinner” — which would have made it much more exciting and which sucks for me since i ended up winning); and where i had to fork over 6 bucks after losing an air-hockey rematch 7 to 6. i’d like to point out however, that i won the first round by a larger margin, thank you very much.

today we just woke up and played more video games, watched dj q-bert’s wave twisters on dvd, then drove home. i can’t say what a great weekend this was. just so much laughing with the four of us up north, and the great feeling of driving fast with good music and buddies on a sunny weekend. i wish i had more friends in mid-range other cities to drive to, but i guess this will have to do for a while. my wallet and my teeth will thank me at least, because i spend too much money and consume too much sugury soda and candy on road trips. my teeth hurt and i’m wiped, so it’s time to kick back and watch the animated clerks dvd for a bit, then hit the hay.

[now hearing this: badly drawn boy – about a boy soundtrack. really good stuff — laid back without being boring, which isn’t always an easy mark to hit.]