Sunday Morning

So here I am again. Today I however I chose Santa Barbara Roasting Co, which used to be one of my favorites. It used to be one of my favorites because it is now overrun by the most peculiar people. It is an otherwise very enjoyable environment and they do have great coffee.

Yesterday was Westmont's Commencement. The Class of 2011 is leaving Westmont forever and this is significant because the Class of 2011 is the class of my residents from when I was a freshmen RA. I was entering my third year when they were entering their first. I was a senior when they were sophomores and I was in New York when they were juniors. I say this because yesterday was filled with das Unheimliche. I left for one year and returned to find that three had passed, just like a real life twin paradox.

Evan was working commencement so Matt and I rode up with him (to take advantage of his parking pass) but then were left to fend for ourselves. This is what Matt looks like:

I am very proud of all my S&Q men. Earlier in the week I stumbled across this year's yearbook and found that all of the guy senior standouts (full page bios) were from my section. I went, yearbook in hand, to anyone in the office who would listen and pointed this out. That is why I was not surprised that both of the awards given to outstanding seniors were given to guys from my section.

Dan Sargent (above) was given the Dean's Award, for superior academic achievement and significant contribution to an intercollegiate team. Dan has started for the soccer team since he was in my section. On top of that, Dan managed to graduate with 3.91 GPA. In the award, his coach was quoted saying that Dan was the best scholar athlete he has had in twenty years. He is going to graduate school at Columbia next year and still manages to be one of the most humble guys I know. When he first showed up at Westmont his suite mates learned of his high school exploits not from him, but from a facebook group people in his high school had started, devoted solely to him. Still not convinced of how awesome Dan is? What if I told you his middle name is Van Dam? No joke, his full name is Daniel Van Dam Sargent.

 Felix Huang was given the Kenneth Monroe award and had similar distinctions. He was student body president by the end of his sophomore year and things only got better from there. Felix lived in my suite when I was an RA. I witnessed how he would take the cares of all Westmont on his shoulder.

As strange as it was, I was very proud and it was great to see how far they had all come.

Saturday Morning

I don't mean to wake up early on the weekends but it always seems to happen anyways. Today however, instead of bringing a blanket out to the living room and reading or, more likely, playing video games, I was forced to shower and go out in search of breakfast elsewhere. We had a house guest in our living room and very few people have the same problem I do of sleeping in.

So I am at Starbucks. I set up my computer in a corner and have been sitting, stunned by the amount of people passing through. At any given point this morning every chair is filled, there are ten to fifteen people in line and a similar number standing at the bar, waiting for drinks. Granted, it is the morning of Westmont's graduation, it is still impressive the volume of customers.

The Adventures of Evan and John: Part II

Saturday:

The first thing we (mom, dad, Evan, and I) did on Saturday was drive out to Alpine for breakfast at Janet's cafe. I had a fruit, yogurt, and granola bowl that 10% yogurt, 7% granola, 80% fruit and 3% lettuce.

The second thing we did was search for nylon strapping to attach the new pool cover to the roller. We went to two hardware stores in Alpine and finally to Leslie's Pool Supply.

By this time it was around noon and we had nothing planned until dinner. Evan and I decided to go on an adventure downtown to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCASD). We arrived at the downtown location, there is another branch in La Jolla, we discovered that there were only three exhibits open. Undeterred, we threw on our visitor stickers, a white, circular sticker with an obese orange 'x' in the middle, and made our way into the galleries.

Exhibit A - Video artist. Subject: North American southwest, post-pre-colonialism.
Walking into a darkened gallery, the first video a visitor is presented with depicts the artist, walking on all fours, wearing a coyote mask on the top of her head. Subsequent displays: artist in a field, artist in a rocking chair with a dog. All video footage of the artist is done against a changing backdrop, representative I guess, of the milieu of contemporary contradictions in the southwest.

Exhibit B - Mixed media sculptor. Subject: Itself.

Exhibit C - Video artist. Subject: Nuclear reactions and Madame Curie.

The whole experience took about twenty minutes. However, we still had time on our parking meter so we decided to walk around for a bit. A few blocks to the north and we stumbled upon an urban farmer's market running through little Italy. We strolled through and still had enough time to get back before the meter was up.

The afternoon was filled with poolside languor and the kind of movies that are only fit to watch in the afternoon. We concluded the night with burgers at Station Tavern in my new favorite part of San Diego, South Park.