It’s been a breathless month.
Things that were supposed to happen did not. Things that weren’t supposed to did. File under “real life”, I guess.
Travel and work were the major themes of the last 29 days. I went to Vegas for a weekend, meeting five Romanian friends. We did a one-day trip to the Grand Canyon on a Friday, and the grandeur of the place blew our collective socks off. Hung around Vegas on a Saturday, taking in the sights and sounds, and one of them came back with me to LA. She stayed with me for a week, and we ended up going to San Diego for a day, getting drenched in the rain, walking around Downtown San Diego shopping for a change of clothes. I love the city, and apparently I am going there again next weekend, with another bunch of friends.
End of that week, we headed to Sequoia National Park, to see The General, and to Yosemite, where we saw The Captain, and I DJed in the car, and we had loads and loads of fun, and it was all fucking awesome. I am definitely going back to Yosemite in the summer, from what everyone says, the change of seasons really brings a different feel to the place. Back to Las Vegas, where I put my friend on her flight back to Romania, and took a flight back to LA, and spent the next two weeks punching Java code in the nuts.
Movies
The Ghibli theater watch continued throughout the month. I missed a few because of reasons mentioned above, but that’s okay. I am probably getting myself an American Cinematheque membership, just so I can continue attending the film screenings there. Breakfast at Tiffany’s on Valentine’s day was sublime, as was Once Upon a Time in the West as part of the Leone marathon. I wanted to see Giu La Testa, but missed the screening by a day, gah.
Unpacking
I got my books from India shipped. They arrived end of January, and it wasn’t until the second week of February that I finished unpacking the lot. This involved a trip to Ikea, a six-hour affair as I shuttled on with the movers’ truck, to multiple destinations. Five and a half shelves down (the half was borrowed from ‘Drea’s living room space, and there’s still eight boxes remaining. It’s surprising that I managed to get this done in such a short time, because I have a tendency to stop and ooh/aah at a book that I forgot I owned, or just crack open some interesting relic of the past and get sidetracked for hours.
Reading
After finishing The Count of Monte Cristo, I thought I would move on to more Dumas, The Three Musketeers in particular. On a whim, I began reading Just After Sunset, the only collection of Stephen King’s short stories that I hadn’t read so far. And just like that, I was drawn back into Maine again. Sunset over, I blazed through Eyes of the Dragon, a book I had read back in 1997, in a five hour sprint, and that did it. I am planning a King reread marathon, and am already three-quarters into Four Past Midnight. I feel like I am eighteen again, and it’s crazy how many memories and emotions come flooding back as I reread these.
I also finished the manga Death Note, just because I bought the box set on eBay dirt cheap, and it was too pretty to just rest on the bookshelf without being opened up.
What else?
Not happy about slowing down the Spanish lessons. My phone screen slipped from my pocket and shattered during one particularly agile leap across rocky terrain, and I had to get it replaced. Been to lazy to load the Pimsleur files on them again, especially since Spotify fits my music needs.
Not too happy about the deceleration in blogging. But there was no human way possible to meet my deadlines at work and do this every day at the same time. Also, as a friend said, sometimes it’s better to let life be. Amen to that.