I took this picture today while biking to San Jose. Rather than taking the straightforward country roads into the city I went westward through the back roads. This picture was taken to the right of the road. Behind me was the reservoir.
The last month I’ve written a number of entries in my journal, but haven’t taken the time to post them here. I’ll get to it eventually, maybe even in time for Easter.
It’s late in the afternoon and I’m waiting for Shayna to arrive. She’s been having trouble with her car today: it keeps over-heating because the coolant is low. Her latest tweet tells me that she’s still re-filling the coolant at a Wal-Mart in South San Jose. I may have to pick her up. I may not. She’s pretty stubborn sometimes and won’t accept my help or advice until all other possibilities are exhausted. I’m hoping she resolves the coolant issue soon.
[Omitted: work stuff]
Yesterday was a great day [omitted: minor details]. The weather was clear & warm. The internet told me that temperatures would be in the seventies. I decided to go for a ride and ended up biking to the light rail station and taking it downtown. From there I went to the Santa Clara courthouse to find out about my ticket, as I have yet to receive a courtesy notice in the mail. The courthouse guy wasn’t that helpful, but that’s okay. I blame the system, not him. From the courthouse I went to the Falafel Drive-In on Stevens Creek for a delicious falafel-pita-and-banana-shake combo. Re-fueled, it was back to downtown to catch the lightrail to Shayna’s place. Once there, she and I lounged around in the sun like it was July. I love that her grandmother lives in a housing complex that has a pool. Shayna had to leave for work, so we said our goodbyes. On the way to the
[Note: I really have no idea why I stopped writing mid-sentence. I may have been distracted at the time.]
This has not been my best morning. I got up early today so that I’d have enough time to get to class. 6:31 AM, to be exact. The first thing I did was step into my shower. This was a mistake. The water pressure was very low, and it took a while for he hot water to come on Being cold & naked under a dribbling shower faucet isn’t my idea of fn. Because of this lack of pressure the shower took longer than usual.
When I left the apartment I decided to bike into San Jose. The ride itself wasn’t too bad, but it was cold and I lost feeling in my fingers.
When I got to the lightrail station the train was about to leave, so I quickly boarded without paying. This was a mistake. As soon as I placed my bike onto the rack I was greeted by a VTA officer asking for my ticket. I didn’t have one, so I was cited. This was truly the only time I’ve not paid my fare on the VTA, and now it will be my last time too. The officer said that I need to visit the courthouse in Santa Clara and that the fee will range from fifty to upwards of two-hundred something dollars.
Once I got to SJSU I parked my bike and headed to class. Professor Hasan was nowhere to found. Jim, one of the classmates mentioned that he could not longer find the course section on MySJSU, nor did it show up on his class schedule. It may have been cancelled. So much for my Academic future. We all waited twenty minutes and left.
Just got to Shayna’s. Maybe the rest of the day will be better.
[Update: I emailed the professor twice, each time receiving no response. I understand having to cancel a class, but please let us know next time, Zaki Hasan and the collective heads of the Communications Dept at SJSU. I really needed this class so I could meet the qualifications to transfer to SJSU and finish my degree. Any hopes for doing that this year are pretty much shot.]
Today was one of my best solitary Saturdays that I’ve had in a good long while. Shayna was with her friends at Lake Tahoe today, leaving me to fend for myself. I didn’t mind too much. It would have been nice to join her in the snow, but I had something to keep me here: class! After a week of striking out at each COMM 20 class I was finally able to join a section that wasn’t full. The fact that this session meets for three hours each Saturday morning probably has a lot do with my ability to enroll. When I showed up this morning there were only five students attending!
The class itself seemed to go well enough. The professor is very actie and engaging, and appears passionate about the subject (or at least as passionate as one can bee on a Saturday morning). The students, on the other hand, were all very quiet. Granted, two of them don’t speak English natively, so that’s understandable, but the other two don’t share that circumstance. I feel as if I was the most outspoken person in the group, a first for me. Normally I’m content to sit there and absorb the lecture.
One of the students, Jim, does seem to me more energetic [addition: moreso than the others], just not used to being as interactive. In our exercise today he revealed that he’s in the ROTC program for the Air Force and looking to work in “Air Battle Management.” He comes off as a nice enough guy, but I’m reading right-ish political vibes from him.
Another guy, Jeff, is also interesting. He’s an engineer, but is disillusioned with his profession. He’s also a cyclist, which i thought was cool, but he rides for one-hundred miles at a time, which means he’s probably a spandex person. He also seems to be very straightforward and serious. I’m concerned that we won’t get along and that he thinks I’m some kind of wannabe hippie (which isn’t untrue).
After class I biked down to Shayna’s grandmother’s house to pick up the fram pump that I had forgotten to bring back the other night. Her grandmother saw me on the porch and invited me in. We had tea together and pleasant conversation. I like that Shayna’s family and I get along. I’m not used to being even remotely lose to a family that isn’t my own.
When Shayna’s grandmother left I headed back downtown to a bike shop [specifically: Bicycle Express] to have my bar tape replaced. The work was to take a while, so I bummed around downtown an ended up meeting a nice guy by the name of Milton. He was waiting for his date, Mark, who was running a little bit late, so Milton and I hung out for a bit before Mark arrivd. What I remember about Milton: He lives in Palo Alto, is frustrated with the “underground, subcultural” natre of the gay dating scene in the South Bay. He was pursuing an academic career in literature and likes to ride around in his ‘84 Miyata road bike. He also hates overly commercial places that conflict with local traditional aesthetics [note: I think I've got a picture of the place on my phone]. His date, Mark, is originally from Ottowa. I didn’t get to speak with him much, but Milton seemed fond of him. They met on Craigslist and neither of them are sketchy. Perhaps this will be some kind of internet dating success story.
There was some kind of civil rights thing going on at the library that I caught the tail end of. Before they all left to march I got a few pictures in.
The ride home was beautiful. The hills were green and splashed with just enough sunlight from the patchy sky. Everything was so pretty that I had to stop a few times just to take it all in. I tried to take a few pictures with my phone, but they never turn out well. Next time I’ll bring my nice camera along.
