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Monday, July 21, 2003
Weekend Update
What better way to finish off a weekend in San Diego than to spend 8 hours on the road and end up here at work. Just needed to do some minor work (developing films) before going all the way home. It's truly been a long day.. almost like a normal Monday for me, except that "work" consisted of getting in my car and driving all day. The consolation is that I got to stop in Irvine and have a nice lunch with Jane and Mina (whom I haven't seen in a long long time) at California Pizza Kitchen (while slightly overpriced, their pizzas are pretty tasty).
The two trips (drive down and drive up) both did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. They were plagued with traffic in random places, and blazing heat. Friday night it was close to 100 degrees the entire time (and I didn't get home until 11:30pm). Today, it was consistently above 100 degrees, with it reaching 111 while I was in the desert on the I-5. The mix of music and silence intervals helped pass the time, along with windy roads (the 152 is a scenic 40-mile stretch connecting the I-101 and the I-5). I was very lucky not to have been pulled over for speeding. There was one point today where I was sort of following this blue Lexus IS300 speeding along the I-5. However, he was going much faster than I was (I was going about 110mph.. my guesstimate is that he was traveling 130mph) and so from the distance, I saw a highway patrol car coming from the opposite direction make a U-turn through the dirt, turn on his lights and chase the IS300 down. Pretty sad.. had the timing been different, that could've been me being pulled over.
Being at home in San Diego was nice. Things have both changed a lot, while other things haven't changed at all. Driving around was a bit different because of new roads and shopping centers, but inside my house, all was familiar. My house is more like a time capsule, dating back to the early 90s.
We are now officially a "Toyota family," since all of our cars are some derivative of the Japanese automaker (I drive a Camry, my sister drives a Celica, and my mom drives a Lexus ES300). I grew up thinking those families with only one brand of car was weird (mainly because we usually had diverse vehicles.. various American makes, some Volkswagens, but ironically, never any Japanese cars until 1993).
When my family gets together, it's all about eating together. We had Shanghai-nese food on Saturday for lunch, then Red Lobster for dinner, and then dim sum on Sunday for lunch.
Going home is nice, too, because of what I am able to pick up. My house is like a General Store from Oregon Trail. I can stock up on supplies and get what I need. But the best part is that it's free to me. I got a pack of underwear, 2 dress shirts, some cd's, some soda, and all this food.
Saturday afternoon I watched a movie with my family and David. Pirates of the Caribbean was a good movie. It totally was not appealing to me when I saw the preview (I would also always criticize it to my roommate Vince), but I was pleasantly surprised and amused by the plot and the humor in the movie. It had a Count of Monte Cristo feel to it, which made it all the better.
Sunday night, I went with David and Howard to Pacific Beach. PB is a place full of bars and clubs, a nightlife hotspot if you will. Sunday night it was still pretty lively. We ended up playing darts (Cricket is fun..) and some pool. No clubbing for us that night.
All in all, the weekend went by pretty quickly, but I'm glad I got to go home. I saw some people who I haven't seen in a long time (including my family) and just got to do some relaxing stuff. I'm SO in the mood to go home (I'm typing this from work).. and so I will..
8:37 PM Albert
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..a life in DUO