Friday morning Allie and I got up and went to the airport. On the plane we were served orange juice. I was like �mmm, orange juice!� but Allie, being the bad influence that she is, pulled out a bottle of vodka and turned my healthy breakfast into an alcoholic beverage. We were getting slightly tipsy even before we landed.

Me on the plane, praying away my sobriety. God does answer your prayers, children!

Back on the ground in San Jose, we found a little spot to camp out, bought more orange juice and made more screw drivers, waiting for our ride. When boredom got the best of me, I thought, what better to do in such situation than to remove every item of clothing from my luggage and put it on? Allie joined me.

I think I had more clothes on than she did, but this picture will have to suffice until she gets her pictures developed....

see?, see? me = more clothes, right? eh, guys, eh?

Soon the many layers of clothing began to make me sweat and people were staring at us so we took it all off and put it back in our bags. Then we went outside to wait, hoping a change of scenery would pass the time better. The vodka was long gone at this point so Allie made a sign expressing our dire need.

"Vodka donations now accepted".... or anytime in the future for that matter!

As it turns out, most people don�t carry around huge bottles of vodka that they�re willing to share. Everyone just laughed at us. A couple cops walked by and laughed. One asked, �vodka? Well, where�s the oj?� Allie quickly produced a bottle of orange juice she had stashed in her bag. The cops laughed more. After they passed by Allie added "21 & over" to the sign. I think that makes it legal. One lady in a black business suit walked by and threw her head back laughing. About 5 minutes later she returned and handed us $3! Hell. Yes. I never knew it was so easy!

note to self - it only takes 3 dollars to make Allie happy

About 2 minutes later Tollef pulled up.

here you see tollef behind the wheel. if you ever see this, be very, very afraid. I'm not kidding.

We stopped for food then headed to Santa Cruz. Tollef had to go hang out with his parents so he dropped us off at an area he called a �mall�, although to me it just seemed like a street with a bunch of stores on it. I guess that must be what those crazy northern Californians think is a mall, what weirdos! We walked around and saw a movie to pass the time. Being the social butterfly that I am, I randomly ended up talking to tons strangers. If you add them all up they'd equal about 2. One turned out to be from Hemet (where I grew up) and one was from Riverside. Apparently I�m not very good at meeting locals. When I started getting really cold and grumpy, Tollef returned and took us to San Francisco.

Asha = cold & grumpy

We went straight to Justin�s. He showed us around his house and let me dig through his bag o� buttons and pick out what I wanted. I felt truly privileged. We stopped for food then walked down to the beach.

see how strange and exotic the beaches are in NORTHERN California compared to the Southern California beaches? I was astounded.

Soon after we got back Andie returned home from the concert she had been at with Tawnya. We all piled in the van and went to see the wave organ. We hung out there for a while then walked over to the Palace of Fine Arts. After that we headed back to Andie & Justin�s to lounge around for a while in the �womb� (Andie & Justin�s room) taking turns with their ibooks, then finally crashing out sometime in the wee hours.

this is where we stayed. oooh, aaaah.

In the morning we went out to eat something they called �dim sum�. The food was rather strange and most of what I tasted had a meat flavor so I didn�t eat much. (Okay this part is a secret.... I noticed over breakfast how overwhelmingly gorgeous Andie is and kept catching myself staring at her. Eep!) After food we drove over to Haight Street where we met up with Ash and Skot who were both super cool.

look at all the crazy freaks I encountered on haight street!

We had a good time walking around but I think everyone felt a little sense of something missing. Like the day was just a shell of itself. Thinking.... if only there were... say... Oh I dunno, maybe a dirty abandoned toilet? on the sidewalk for us to happen upon, only then would our day be able to feel whole again.

It was like a dream come true.

in true justin fashion, he took full advantage of the situation

After everyone was done spending money, we ate then headed back to Andie & Justin�s. We lounged around for a bit and got ready to go to what we thought was going to be a �rave�. It was supposed to be $10 before 10:00 so we piled in the van again and rushed over to arrive right around 10. When we arrived we met Adam and Jenny who were both very cool although we didn�t get to spend much time with them. We all tried to hurry inside to make the cheap price deadline. When we walked in some people ushered us up a flight of stairs, down another flight of stairs and into this big room. Strange, nobody took our money.

Inside the room was set up sort of like a movie theatre, with rows of seats going up towards the back of the room and a flat area in the front which seemed to be for dancing. There weren�t very many people there yet, maybe about 30 milling about. I think the only people dancing were Allie, Andie, Justin, Ash and I, plus randomly 1 or 2 people we didn�t know. There was talk of some sort of show coming on at midnight.

Sometime during the night the lovely miss Laura arrived. It was fun to be able to match the face with the diaryland personality. She fluttered about the party but often came back to chat with me, which was completely cool of her since I didn�t know many people there.

Many more people arrived and the show started. It was SO much more than I expected. There were choreographed dance sorta things, trapeze acts, acts with people with fire on ropes or long sticks attached to their fingers, a BDSM type of act with a guy lightly flogging a topless girl with her arms pinned up and a guy in a straight jacket....etc, Etc. The best was that every time you thought it was over, they would get everyone to clap and then suddenly there was another act on. At one point they were swinging fire on the ends of ropes and I felt small bits of something hitting my face and neck. It was incredible to be so close to the action, which was literally above our heads and right in front of us the whole time. SO amazing. I thought maybe Andie and Justin had planned the whole thing as a surprise, but Andie told me later that she knew there would be a show but didn�t know what to expect out of it. After the show everyone got up and danced.

Back at the house we sat around for a while and said our good-byes to Justin and Andie who planned to leave the next morning for a wedding, then went to bed. Woke up the next day around 2:30 by Allie jumping on me scaring me half to death. We got food and then headed towards the beach. Tollef pulled into a curb, popping his tire. He put on a spare and we went to the beach for a few minutes, but decided to head to San Jose to make sure we made it okay on the spare.

Tollef vs. The tire

In San Jose we left the car and went walking around a park. Allie befriended a homeless man (as usual) who offered to smoke a joint with us. We smoked as he told us about his life and how he always has weed. Allie suggested that he spend less money on weed and maybe save some for rent or something. He said that was a good idea. We said goodbye to George the homeless man and walked around a bit more then headed back to the airport.

We said goodbye to Tollef then went to get our tickets. Our flight was delayed so we got on standby for an earlier flight. Allie drove home while I dozed off, and ended up back in my cozy bed around midnight.

What an amazing weekend. I got to meet all these incredible, intelligent, hilarious, friendly, sweet and super cool people. I got to fly on an airplane and go to a miniature circus. I got to dance and shop and relax and all kinds of good stuff.

If you end up reading this, I have to say one more THANK YOU to Tollef, Andie and Justin for putting up with us and opening your home to us and generally making us feel welcome and liked.

Also, all of you know that if you're ever in Southern California, you know who to call.

And a picture to remember us by: