roommate mike had lost the transmission in his beloved funqmobile on the way back from winter break, and it had finally been restored to health. we figured that was excuse enough for four of us to make the drive up to the bay area from LA friday afternoon, and turn a quick car-switching trip into a glorious road experience. with two ipods worth of tunes (mine and mike’s) and a gallon box of goldfish courtesy of dominic, and we were definitely good to go. we weren’t even out of the city before we were laughing at people in other cars with moustaches or 80’s hair, and for some reason repeating the lebowski-ism, “we take ze money…” over and over again for no reason. we sang along to the ipods — “mr. blue sky” being a repeated favorite — and enjoyed the trip.
at a shell station restroom somewhere along interstate freeway 5 only two urinals were available, so one of us had to head into the handicapped stall and bear witness to what by all apearances must have been some sort of pre-flush explosion of origins unknown, because the splatter effect created on the wall behind, floor around, and even outer surface of the bowl itself was bordering on profound. i hope whoever was around when that happened has since received the medical attention he must have needed, but as for us, we could not stop laughing. i was this close to taking a picture, but you know, that might have been in poor taste.
we arrived in mountain view (home of google, the search engine! it’s almost like my roommate is famous) around 8:30, got treated to dinner by the parents, then visited a few local bars but were too tired to really party much. the next day we woke up to breakfast and bad news from nasa, but had to get going. van loaded and ready to return with its rightful owner, we headed out again for more driving and more rocking. this time down the 101 to los angeles. the best part was probably stopping at a vista point at sunset and taking some pictures around this great railway bridge (see above). it was really beautiful and we were all in good spirits right before the home stretch. we played ipod dj a little longer and rolled back into town early enough to hit the store for beer and make it back just in time to play the cops drinking game. yes, as in the tv show. one full hour, several full beers. it’s a great time watching out for “cop tries to be funny and fails” or having to drink at every hooker that comes on screen.
we went to a party and such and such for the rest of the weekend, but the trip was the best, in a big part because it was so quick, it was still only saturday when we got back. i love long drives with good friends. even more than i love waking up early to go to work on monday mornings, if you can imagine that.
[now hearing this: fantastic jazz mix cd i got from roommate josh for christmas. not sharing a room with him has limited my exposure to ‘the jazz’, so now i can fix that up nice and handy-like. good stuff.]