Corny, but true

I love my people in East Meadow...
Goddammit...Joe, Mike, Dan, Nunes, Kari, Raul, Andrew, Nicole, Nicole, Castro, Paul, Cerdelli, and freakin' everyone...I love 'em all...
They're awesome, and shit, I'd do just about anything for any one of them...seriously...

But I feel "separated" from them...I don't know...it's hard to explain...
Cause I haven't been around...less contact, you start to grow apart...
You just play "catch up", maybe talk about the good old times, it's hard to find things to talk about, hard to find things to do...
Feeling and attitudes change, it's inevitable...
I don't know, maybe it's just me...

"Take a bath with consecrated water from the shrine
And wash away the mud of all the miles you left behind..."
Stone Temple Pilots, "Transmissions From A Lonely Room"

The Tale of Mt. Misery...

December 30th
Hung out with JoMo and Dan...
We hit the usual spots...pool hall, Wendy's...
Later that night I met another Julian...yeah, he's a real work of art and he gets the job done...

FischerSpooner is great music...puts you in a trance-like state as your mind drifts off into space, that is, until you hear your cellphone ring...
Kenny called, they're all at the dorm for New Year's...his cousin Mark, Allie, Erin, Ryan, and Mr. Ball...
Hilarious 3 minute voicemail...drunk dialing, once again, Erin said something that I shouldn't really repeat here...but since it's on a voicemail I can blackmail her later, or take her up on the offer... ;)

Later we were joined by Mike, Nunes [who I haven't seen in a while and just came back from Trinidad], and Raul...
And we decided to go to "Mount Misery" in Farmingdale...
Lots of stories about that place...
People hung there during the civil war?
Serial killer that murdered people there at a day camp?
Who really knows?
We went there around 1:30am...
The road is extremely narrow...dark...trees on both sides...freaky...reminded me of the wooded part of New Jersey where my uncle lives...
Loud reggae/island music blaring in the background...
We eventually reached a dead end...and Nunes, Joe, Dan, and me hike up the trail...the ground was covered with a semi-frozen mishmash of mud, leaves, ice, and dirt...we turned around when the road split into three different paths...
Honestly, I'd be scared to be there by myself...it's so isolated and creepy...
On our way out we tried the "bridge trick"...out by the entrance there's a bridge...if you turn off your headlights...then turn on your emergency lights...then put the car into neutral...the car should then start to move towards Mount Misery...we tried it out...and we definitely felt the car move BACKWARDS about 3 inches...weird...someone or something obviously didn't want us there...

Got back home around 2:45...my mom gave me an attitude...
I hate it...I come home and suddenly these old rules are forced upon me...
Why must old rules still apply?

I have to get up in a few hours, gotta head into the city in the morning to meet up with some people for New Year's...can't wait to see my roommates again...

"Hello it's late
I know we tried to win the game
Did you hear about it?
Did you dream about it?"
Stone Temple Pilots, "Hello It's Late"

Hookahs and Sleeping In

December 28th
Hung out with Dan and JoMo and went to [what used to be] Nona's...it's now a hookah bar...
Yeah my first experience with tobacco and smoke and all...
Don't knock it til you try it...right? And how could I turn down something that's mango flavored? [insert flashback, Russian bar]
The lounge was very relaxing and it smelled pretty good...
But the preparation time took forever...
Then the guy brought it out and we each had a go...
Nothing special, don't know what all the fuss is about really...a nice hint of mango...and blowing out smoke is kinda calm and relaxing...throat just became a little dry...
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either...it was "meh"...whatever...I still don't understand...
But, if people enjoy it they have every right to choose to do it...
It's like hitting yourself with a hammer...hey, I don't recommend it, but if you're into that kind of stuff, do it, just don't hit other people...

Then hung out with Mike and Raul at the former's house...
Another great episode of The Young Ones, then Anchorman....
The movie has it's "ups" and "downs"....Joe and Raul fell asleep during one of the "down" parts of the movie...
Shaving cream on Raul's hand...

December 29th
Woke up around 3pm...I decided to sleep in...
Drove over to my uncle's house during the evening...
That was weird cause I haven't driven in a while, but it's one of those things you can never forget after you've learned...

I haven't spent time with my cousins in like 3 months...
When I came back on the 24th they wanted to see me...kept calling me...
But I've managed to [unintentionally] avoid them for a few days...
Their grandparents were doing fine...
And Ari is getting pretty good at the violin...
They grow up so damn fast...

"All your kind, their spool and lance
Their crash, their kiss, they harmonize..."
Broken Social Scene, "KC Accidental"

Home...home again...

All the people taking chemistry really got screwed over...
We had a lab final at 8am on a Monday morning...and it was that frigid Monday when the temperature was in the single digits...
The 2nd chem final was on the 23rd...

Spent the night at my grandfather's house in Queens, then came back to East Meadow on the 24th...

Christmas was okay, nothing special...because I'm really not supposed to be celebrating Christmas in the first place...being a Buddhist and all...or as the Catholics would say, a "heathen"...
But Christmas has become so commercialized, that even the Jews and Buddhists get into it every year...
Hey, I celebrated Hannukah (actually 3 days of it)...my dorm had a menorah lighting ceremony each night and it would just be a Buddhist and 4 Catholics reciting ancient Hebrew verses...
Jewish attendence: 0%....
Anyway, I got some cash for Christmas and had dinner with Uncle Ray and Angela...

December 26th
Hung out with Raul, JoMo, Dan, Mike, Brian C, his cousing Trina, and Kari...
Awesome seeing everyone again, I really missed them...
Had dinner with them at Mama Fu's Noodlehouse...actually I was the only one that ordered something...vegetable tariyaki with brown rice...good, a bit overpriced, but they gave me a lot...
Started snowing...roads were terrible...sucks when you want to turn left but the car keeps moving forward...
We were at the Brew at one point, with Raul's friend Rachel...
Wow, Rachel, what can I say? She's...unique...
Nah, she's actually pretty cool, but she has to know when to keep certain things to herself...
She was like, "Hey Julian, did I tell you about the time my brother almost caught me touching myself while I was cybering with my boyfriend?"
Right....
Too much info...
Then she asked me for my phone number which was weird...
JoMo tried to save me by giving her Mike's number...but I gave her my real number anyway, cause I'd feel bad...I guess I can expect a call from her in the future...

Then we went sledding at Parkway's hill...
Almost sled into a tree...
Back at Mike's house we watch an episode of The Young Ones...an old British sitcom from the 80s involving a hippie, a punk rocker, an anarchist, and a business guy (the most normal of the four)...the show is SO random, I love it...random explosions, a random band playing, and a Buddy Holly impersonator...

December 27th
Hung out with Andrew, it was kinda weird and nostalgic because haven't seen him in like 7 months...
Saw Nicole for a little while, and was introduced to Bob and Peaches, his work buddies...
They're great...Bob has this fetus story that he tells to all the ladies, and I couldn't retell it even if I tried...

Had White Castle (Peaches never had it before)...then drove around Merrick for a while...
Peaches was dropped off...
Oh, and I fell into a lake in Merrick...

Then I went home and had a marvelous TV dinner...
Then I watched a movie and eventually drifted off to sleep...
Oh wait, I forgot to elaborate...

Yeah, this lake in Merrick was partially frozen over...I remember Andrew telling Rob to be careful not to fall in...that was approximately the exact moment when I fell in...I wish I heard that a bit sooner...
Definitely one of the most embarrassing moments...I was testing out the ice, I kinda put my toe down...it supported it...then I kinda put my foot down...it supported it...then I kinda put a little more weight...then the next thing I know I felt the ice break...thought to myself, "oh shit"...then I lost balance and fell in...from the waist down, soaked in icy slushy water...got out and Andrew had to rush me home before the hypothermia caught on...
That's something I'll never forget...

"Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government"
~Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

Drunk Dialing

Drunk dialing and drunk phonecalls are always funny...
Especially when you're on the receiving end...
My phone rings at 2:30am, I looked at the glowing green screen and it said "restricted number"...I started freaking out because I thought it was Raul's friend Rachel (I'll explain later)...
But it was Allie...
The strange thing was that I was just thinking about her right before she called...
Weird how things like that happen...

Ok, Allie and her best friend Erin call me at 2:30 in the morning to ask me to speak Burmese to them...
One of the strangest requests, but hey, I did it...I love playing along...
Whatever floats your boat....
They seemed very...happy...and mentioned something about finishing an entire bottle of sparkling wine...good for them...
Erin wanted to meet me or something...I'll probably see them New Year's Eve....

Seems like I'm the target of drunk dialing...
I don't understand it...
People get trashed, go through their cell phones, and pick me...
I don't get the logic behind: "oh, I'm drunk, let me call Julian!"
But hey, I don't mind, it's quite entertaining...

"Seems I’m not alone at being alone
Hundred billion castaways, looking for a home
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world"
~The Police, "Message In A Bottle"

Remember Me?

Hello.

Remember me?

It's me, Julian.

Yes, yes, that strange Asian guy...

Ha.

It's been ages since I've written in here.

Ok fine, 2 months.

I forgot all about this blog.

It's like a pet.

If you don't feed it, it'll die...

I'm sorry, it's 3am and I'm delirious....

Why am I hitting the "enter" key so much?

Ok I'll stop.

Really.

Yeah, it's been a while my friend. So much has happened, it's impossible for me to recount everything. Seems like everything moves so fast sometimes. Everything in fast forward, I wish I can hit "pause" sometimes. Why the hell do I write in this anyway? For the entertainment of others? Hardly. I do it for myself, but if other people get a kick out of it, that's fine with me. It seems that writing my experiences down is a way for me to slow down time. After I stopped writing in this it seemed like all the days blur together and it's difficult to distinguish one day from another. A big fucking blur. Two months have gone by in a blink of an eye. It's unbelievable.
This is gonna sound lame, but writing in this is so damn relaxing, I can't explain it. It makes me feel satisfied that I'm preserving a moment in time. Just like videotaping something, or taking a photograph. One moment in time, you know? If I didn't write things down, would I remember them? I can remember the most smallest, insignificant things if I just wrote them down. And this is gonna sound corny as hell, but if I read old entries the experiences and senses all come rushing back to me, sort of like that movie Butterfly Effect. Seriously. It's like experiencing it for a second time. I really regret not writing for the past 2 months. Now I feel like there's a big fucking gap in my memory...a hole that can never be filled...

Why did I stop writing?
Good question, I'm not quite sure. I just wasn't in the mood. Sometimes I felt that people were overanalyzing everything damn word and phrase that I wrote. Someone staring over my shoulder, watching every step I took. A direct connection. Then all of a sudden I stopped writing. Connection lost. What is he up to now? No one knows.
I heard he's a massive alcoholic. You'd think that after being in college that I've built up some sort of tolerence to ethanol...nope.
I heard he fucked an Olsen twin. Yeah right, I wish.
I heard he dressed up as a donkey, covered himself with peanut butter, and had a 15 hooker gang bang. Well, that's partial true.
Well, being too disconnected isn't very good...
Connection back up...
It's hard to live up to an image that people have of you...change a little, and people go berserk...but the bottom line is...I'll always be myself...
I will not censor myself...
I'm back...
Let's see how long this can last without me going completely insane...

"Turn the clock to zero boss
The rivers wide we’ll swim across
We're starting up a brand new day"
~Sting, "Brand New Day"