i promised an entry a week ago and have yet to deliver (and i’m sure you’ve all been holding your collective breath…yeah right). so in order to allow you all to breathe again, i’ll condense a couple entries into one.
**just as a quick disclaimer, this entry is going to be kinda long so you may want to take care of your bathroom break now and assume a comfortable sitting position. i would also suggest some rations to tide you over till you finish.**
The All Nighter
so like i said in my last entry, i was forced to pull an all nighter last saturday night/sunday morning. my one my best friends is punjabi and his little brother turned 21 last saturday and in true punjabi fashion, the occassion was marked with a party, loud bhangra music, dancing…and of course the all important 1.75 liter bottles of Johhnie Walker Red Label (note i said bottles–plural). now i don’t mean to be stereotypical but this is how all their parties go. i’m sure there many others who don’t celebrate this way, but this is all i got to go on and my friend assures me they are not unique in their celebratory style.
so anyway, the party started around 8pm, and fast forwarding 4 hours and 3 big bottles of Red Label later, my friend’s uncle is thoroughly trashed and raising a little hell. this is unsual because normally they only drink to the point where their reply to everything is “this guy [pointing to closest person]…i love thus guy” but my friend’s uncle was going off on a rant about how he has no one and how no one gives a shit about him. my sister and i kinda stayed out of it since we are only like family–not actual family. eventually, despite everyone efforts to get him to go to bed and sleep it off, he puts his shoes on and storms out of the house–punching the stucco walls and mailboxes along the way. my friend, his brother and 4 of his cousins go after him while my sister and i stayed behind to make sure my friend’s mom was ok (it was her brother that stormed out).
eventually, after calling my friend’s cousins many times and getting nothing but the sense that they were dicking around instead of trying to help, my sister and i went after him. my friend’s uncle had a flight back to SoCal at 9am from oakland and when we finally caught up with him he was insistent on going back on the earliest flight he could catch. obviously, there was no way he was going to be allowed on a plane in his condition. so me, my sister, my friend, his little bro and his uncle all go to the denny’s on marina in san leandro to get him some food and try to sober him up. alas we had to scratch that plan when he started yelling racist shit in punjabi. we took off before he started yelling in english.
we finally get to the airport around 3am (should have been 2am but we had the spring forward to consider) and he buys a ticket…for 8am, a whole hour earlier. we decide to try to find something to eat and maybe a few bandages for my friend’s uncle’s torn up knuckles (from punching the walls, etc). we get to the airport diner and end up having to wait till 5:30 to get breakfast. he slept while we ate breakfast and we finally put him on his plane at 7am. but of course, my day wasn’t over. i had promised my mom’s cousin that i would help him paint a few rooms in his house. so i got home at 7:30, changed into my painting clothes and ended up sleeping for 3 hours on my living room floor (which made my grandmother think i had died or something). i got up, painted some rooms, came home and did a little homework. so yeah, it was a long ass night though we’ve all decided that we should spend all our birthdays at an airport because there’s nothing better than french toast at 5:30 in the morining at the airport.
Kara-okee
tonight i went to dinner at cheesecake factory with my APALSA mentor and my mentee and then to a karaoke bar in dontown san jose for suzy, sean and mike’s triumverate birthday celebrations. cheesecake factory was really good as usual. its a litte pricy though they have excellent vegetarian dishes. i had grilled portabello mushroom on a bun. i gotta say, i’m a big fan of portabellos (even though they are freakishly large) and this sandwich was really good. i ordered cheesecake despite the fact that i really had no room for it. this was a mistake because even though the chesecake was good beyond words, i finally had to give up on it–i know, i’m ashamed too. but it was cool, there were 11 of us and, after saying over and over to each other that we should all hang out sometime, we finally did.
karaoke was really fun though the karaoke bar was really small. i think we exceeded the maximum occupancy limit by at least 25 people. the best part was seeing the dichotomy between the karaoke bar regulars and the drunk law students. the regulars get up there and swear they are on american idol. they are closing their eyes while they sing and really getting into it. haha, but us drunk law students get up there and just mess around. one song even ended with the immortal words: “[person’s name ommitted] has no penis. absolutely no penis. a completely non-existent….penis” but it was still a really good time. i myself didn’t get up on stage though i think i was belting out “living on a prayer” loud enough from my table to make up for it.
anyway, i know i said this entry would be “condensed” and, amazingly enough, this is condensed. to all of you that actually read this whole thing: congratulations, you have an attention span far superior to my own. to those of you that didn’t read this whole thing: well, odds are you aren’t reading this so it would really be pointless to write anything for you. alright all, es muy tarde y yo necesito dormir. hasta luego y buenas noches.