mood: invinciblemusic: 'sexy boy' by air

today was the beginning. it was the first day that summer really hit me. or us rather.

i woke up early (10am, at this point) since my grandma is here from indonesia, and my parents didn't want her to be sitting around the house doing nothing while they were at work. she scored a six-month visa, which is extremely hard to get nowadays, especially from indo, but she still didn't want to go anywhere. she ended up tagging along for a little bit while i did some errands, but she was happy with just staying home and reading the bible for hours on end. i did have some good conversations with her, and it turns out she's a lot more like me than i had thought for the first 18 years of my life.

'so did you end up going out last night?'

'yeah, but i left a little late, so you were already asleep.'

'when did you get back?'

'around 1:30.'

'good, good...'

at 4 andres came over and the first thing my mom and grandma decided was that he was hungry, so he ate. then on a whim we decided to go to amoeba records, since we hadn't been there in a while. we pull into the parking structure and find a spot, but as soon as he closes his door, he says with disdain, 'fuck.' and i knew he had locked his keys in his car. while waiting for aaa to arrive, we amused ourselves with a few rounds of six degrees, the best being chris o'donnell to nemo from 'finding nemo'.

the aaa guy came and he spent no more than 30 seconds making buffoons of us and left. finally we went into the store and i spent a guilt-ridden $30, even though i have increased funds due to graduation gifts.

at that point i realized i was dead tired, so we stopped at bliss cafe, which is only down the street. after buying the cheapest kind of coffee to make up for my frivolous escapades, andres said rather randomly, 'let's go to target,' which was followed almost instaneously by my groan-like 'why?' andres had a giftcard for target from the harding family, which was supposed to be 'for the dorm'. of course andres and i went on a $40 shopping spree, buying soda, sour fruit gushers, animal crackers, a cd for kristy, a father's day card, a pack of bubble yum, and a pack of intriguing 'energy gum'. it turns out that 2 pieces have the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee. when combined with the rest of the listed items, it forms a sort of teenage ambrosia.

on the way home, we pulled over and put the top down since it wasn't too sunny anymore, but after no more than two city blocks' worth of driving, andres noticed a bit of white smoke coming from his hood. being an expert on overheating cars and how much they suck, i told him to pull over and pop the hood. sure enough the radiator was on the fritz so i told andres to get some water from the houses we pulled up in front of. keep in mind that we are now in south l.a., so it took him a few tries to get to a door that wasn't guarded by a spiked wrought-iron fence. i let the engine cool off for a bit, but andres didn't have some sort of rag. i took off my shirt and bared the overcast breeze in my undershirt. i opened the lid with a polo shirt shielding my fist, but it was all futile. as soon as i opened it a green mixture of coolant and hot water burst like a volcano all over the place. i was thinking 'oww' but saying 'whoa'. i put the water andres fetched into the well, but none of it stayed in. i looked under the car and saw a puddle of water, and murmured 'oh that makes sense.'

he drove the car to a gas station less than a block away and parked before making, this, his second call to aaa in less than 4 hours. as we were waiting, a skinny black man asked us if we needed any help, and andres told him that the hose had busted but thanked him for his concern. he went away for a while and yelled at some strangers about 'stealing his dog' and 'cutting that motherfucker's head off'.

he came back and said, 'i know you're in a bad situation, but could you spare some change?'

andres obliged and then asked him, ' do you want some gushers?'

'what's gushers?'

'they're a sort of candy. here.' andres gave him some.

'wow! do these have vitamin c in them?'

i checked the box and saw that they had 25% the daily recommended value of vitamin c, so i told him, 'yep.' and at that andres gave him a full pack of the artificial fruit snacks.

'thanks,' he said. and with that he walked away and proceeded to yell at some more strangers. thank god we got on his good side.

later that night, we met up with kristy and christian at cafe zinio and ordered hookah for the first time. i enjoyed pretending that i was laying on the floor with an elaborately embroidered turkish pillow smoking opium. marvel in the decadence. afterwards we just hung out at christian's flat for a bit before going outside and laying on the grass, each philosophizing with a cigarette in hand. 'very french,' was the first thing that came to mind as i lay there staring at the canopy of an ominous oak tree.

then i went home and watched 'garden state' again, and i realized everything that was wrong with my life. no, just kidding. i just realized how much i liked that movie, since i was slightly distracted the first time i saw it.

it ended with 'marie, marie' by charles trenet, a cigarette, and a shower. the heat's a bitch, but you gotta love summer.

---Goei---