I’m back from my (insert trip name). It was quite the time. I enjoyed being with awesome friends and it was even better that I was far from home and on my own for the travel portions. Enough talk, let’s get to the details.
The first day was mostly traveling. My parents took me to the Amtrak station in Suisun at about 8am. We waited for the train which came at about 8:30am. I said my goodbyes and boarded. The train left and headed towards Sacramento. Once the train arrived in Sacramento I departed and waited in the station for about an hour to wait for the bus I had to take down to Stockton. In the station I noticed all sorts of people including one girl who I thought was a porn star. I was confused which because she looked like a couple. I thought it would be weird to go up and ask “Are you a porn star?” Yeah. There was also a bird walking around inside the station back and forth. When the time came to board the bus I did so. It was a pretty uneventful ride all the way down to Stockton aside from one brief stop in Lodi or something. The Stockton station was pretty trashy but I only had to wait for about twenty minutes for the train to come. This would be the train that would take me down to Bakersfield. It pulled up and everyone got on. I mainly sat back and listened to my iPod as we passed farm after farm and small town after small town. My butt got sore as hell. When the four and a half hour ride was over I was in Bakersfield. Tammi and Ashlee soon came to collect me and we rode off towards Ashlee’s house to pick up things. I met a lot of her animals and her parents while over there. Then it was off to Tammi’s house. Carter was out working so he wasn’t around to hang out. A little later and the three of us headed to PF Changs where we had all sorts of Chinese food. Ashlee and Tammi joked with me about me being the only one using a fork instead of chop sticks. After dinner we headed back to the house and laid on the big bed watching TV and talking. I ended up heading to bed at about midnight or so.
The next morning I woke up and being as I was the first awake as usual I turned on the laptop and did my usual morning internet activities. A little while later and Ashlee comes in and hangs out with me on the bed. Carter woke up (he came home at 4am or so) and started to cook up some kind of breakfast as Ashlee and myself watched. Tammi eventually woke up and joined us. Carter made eggs and toast which we ate. Carter had to head back out to work to finish things up while Tammi, Ashlee, and myself went around to prepare for our little New Years Eve party. Interestingly enough I forgot some of what we did during the daylight hours of the day, so I am going to skip towards the night activities. Carter got back sometime in the evening and we got the stuff ready for the party. It began with a marathon session of the Mario edition of Dance Dance Revolution in which Tammi started off but got tired so Ashlee finished it up. Carter also had his doings. After that we gathered on the couch and watched the news and the New Years Rockin’ Eve with zombie Dick Clark. At around 11pm the girls went into the bedroom leaving Carter and me still watching TV. The duo came back and surprised us with their attire. Needless to say Carter and I both gave that night the “Best New Years” award. Once the clock struck midnight we ran out and popped poppers, blew into the blower things, and lit some sparklers. Good times. At about 2am it was time to crash. I headed to bed and a few minutes later I had another nice surprise.
In the morning Ashlee and I were again on the bed and I headed to the bathroom to get myself cleaned up. After the shower I loaded up the laptop to check things when I heard Ashlee head out the front door. Tammi told me she went back to her house because her mom called. Carter was already out doing some paperwork for work. As Tammi and myself were on the couch messing around on our laptops Tammi got a text message from Ashlee saying that she was crying and that one of the cats was sick. Tammi and me looked at each other confused. Another few text messages later and we learned that one of the cats they had died. Ashlee told us that she would meet up with us later in the day. Tammi and myself sat helpless. Carter came back to the house and we told him the news. An hour or two later Ashlee came back and after some talking we went out for shopping. We stopped at Mervyns and the Burlington Coat Factory. Afterwards we had dinner at Applebees. Then it was back home were we played Disney Scene It. Carter and myself were on one team while the girls were on the other. Being the one with the lowest Disney knowledge I felt a bit capped, but Carter and me ended up winning and the girls felt cheated. Winnie the Pooh was put on and a little in to it Carter fell asleep. I dozed on and off as the girls colored and watched. We headed to bed not long after.
In the morning Tammi made pancakes and bacon. She tried out pineapple pancakes and banana pancakes. Both were interesting. We prepared for our small trip down to Valencia (if I remember correctly it got nuked by terrorists in episode four of season six in 24) but before we left we stopped at a sushi place and I had my first offering of sushi in my life. It was strange but good for the most part. We then headed down to Valencia. As we battled the high winds on the freeway through the mountains the car ride was filled with laughter as we joked around. When we got to Valencia we stopped at Ben and Jerry’s and got ice cream and the girls got lip balm. The next stop was the mall. We visited a bunch of stores and rode the carousel until it was dinner time. For dinner we went to an Italian place called Buca’s where they serve family style dishes (read: big). After dinner there was a quick stop at BevMo for some things for Carter’s mom and Ashlee’s mom. Then it was back on the freeway to home. We stopped at Carter’s parent’s house to drop off the stuff we got at BevMo and had a brief chat. Back at the house Ashlee headed home for the night and Carter and myself played with the computers before I ended up going to sleep.
This morning I woke up and went on my laptop while waiting for Tammi and Carter to get out of bed. The two of them got ready so we could catch lunch before I left. While Carter was trying out my copy of Mass Effect Ashlee came by. We then headed out and ate at A&W. After lunch we headed to the train station for a somber goodbye as I got hugs before boarding the train for a long ride home. The train ride wasn’t too bad. When I got off in Suisun my parents picked me up and drove me home.
I could sleep for a while now.
outside the norm 
a year of suprises and failures with a touch of lessons learned
2007 was a crazy year. Many things have happened and each moment had some form of meaning. From the surprises to the failures, it has been one hell of a year. So many new things in what seemed as such little time. Transitioning from a high school student to an adult in college. With so many things it is hard to choose a single place to begin, so lets look back and remember the past year.
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