Good food, nice night with friends, a little past midnight, windows down, 95 miles per hour on Main/90, Beautiful Day on the stereo. Life is good.

Well I just had my first college class, and now I have one hour of downtime before the next, and I’m pleasantly suprised to find an open wireless connection in the building I’m waiting in. Actually I just found a page that lists all the locations that wireless is supposively available, although where I am right now isn’t even listed, so there may be more hidden goodies like this throughout the campus. More updates later!

Overall it was a pretty good night—ate good food, saw old friends, played frisbee in Hermann Park, and saw Simone (which was not a highlight of the night). However the tough part came during the last part of the night, when Joe, Rene, and I went to see the movie. We took two cars instead of one or three, because I had driven to the park with Joe and Rene met us there, and to not leave a car at in the park we decided to take both cars. The problem came when we got to the Edward’s Cinema on Weslayan and neither Rene nor I wanted to pay the $2 for parking, because we’re both a little low on cash at the moment. So we drove around the theatre, and all the spaces were taken on all sides, so I had the brilliant idea to park behind the strip mall across the street from the theatre. There were only a few cars there, probably belonging to workers at the restruants and such, but I didn’ see any signs and we were only going to be in there a few hours anyway. Rene was nervous about parking there but I assured him that there wouldn’t be any trouble, and that if he was towed I would pay for it.

He was. There’s nothing quite as frightening as walking out and seeing absolutely nothing where your car used to be. Rene was a little hysterical, but we managed to think through the situation logically. Luckily Joe was there with his car and we drove around till we found the “No Parking” sign that seemed to have alluded us earlier, and we called the number, was redirected, and found out that the car was at a lot at 45 and Ennis (not a good neighborhood) and could be picked up for a small fe. So we all went back to Joe’s house to get my car, and I went to the hardest part of the night—getting the money from my parents. Thankfully my Mom was very understanding and in a short while I was back to pick up Rene and head to the place. One hundred and twenty dollars later Rene was back in his brother’s truck and I began the long drive home, utterly exhausted from the events of the night. Picking the car up was pretty easy, and nothing compared to the long car rides home and back when my mind went over every detail of the night thus far and thought of a thousand things that could have gone differently and prevented the whole thing. $2 would have saved $120, and I think the moral of the story has been burned pretty well into my head. Don’t declare liability for any risky ventures :). Oh, and parking where it’s legal wouldn’t hurt either.

Sleep finally came but I had bad nightmare about my cat. First thing when I woke up I checked her, and she was purring contently on a pillow. Strange how dreams can sometimes be so real and make you worry about tangible things as a result of an intangible and imaginary experience.

As I enter my 38^th hour awake, I’m starting to wonder, academically, how much longer this will last. It might be a useful tidbit of information starting college on Monday. I think I’m just nervous about everything that’s been happening. We had to postpone the production meeting today because the producer is down with a cold or virus of some sort. College is starting in just a few days, and Iଁm not sure if I’m ready physically, emotionally, intellectually.

I rearranged all the furniture in my room, which was almost like the puzzle where you have the squares with the different numbers and you can only move one at a time. Anyway I’m pretty happy with the way things turned out, as I now have true surround sound, dual monitors set up, and a *real* space to study that doesn’t require me moving other stuff out of the way. Also I have a much better practice area now, the next step is practicing more.

One of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time is Sing A Song of Song by Kenny Garrett which is available on the CD Songbook. Although I had heard it before, I was really introduced to it through Rex Gregory’s wonderful senior recital where I thought it was one of the best songs. The recital made me reexamine the song on Songbook and I was really moved by the performance. Kenny Garrett has more vitality and life in his playing then twenty of the other players with record deals and such.

After a wonderfully pleasant drive, I am now back at home sweet home. I still miss my camera . . .

I’m proud to say I have made my comic art debut in one of Josh’s wonderful comics. Bling Bling — also making an appearence is the lovely Sarah in the first frame.

Wired has an interesting article that discusses a new move to stop spam not through technical means but through using existing copyright laws. Neat!

I post this from the comfort of my sister’s beautiful house in Austin, Texas. Actually it’s in Pflugerville, which I think I spelled right, which is north of Austin just a bit. I made pretty good time coming from Houston as there wasn’t much traffic to speak of. Actually a large portion of the highway was freshly tarred over; it was at that perfect point, where it was fresh enough to be baby-smooth but had been there long enough to not get black all over your car. At some points I felt like I was in the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer adopts a highway and decides to make it less lanes so the lanes are bigger. Sometimes I felt like I had two lanes all to myself because the road was ride enough for 3 lanes and shoulders, and there was just one stripe down the middle, nothing else. Very luxurious.

The first thing I did in Austin (Pflugerville) was promptly lock my keys in the trunk of my car while I was taking things out. Luckily I had gotten my computer and other heat-sensitive things out of there, but it still had all my clothes and things. And the keys to my car. Now with most cars this wouldn’t be a big deal, especially since all the doors were open, just the trunk was locked. Most cars have a nice trunk latch by the driver’s seat; my car is not most cars. The matter was complicated even further by the fact that instead of the back seats lifting to reveal the inside of the trunk, they showed a sheet of solid metal, no holes. So I proceeded to call AAA and let them know of my situation, because they have been incredibly helpful in past pickles I have gotten myself into. The very polite lady informed me that the best they could do, considering the year of my car and such, was tow me to the nearest dealer where they would ask me a ton of questions, which would be a huge hassle, and lookup the code so they could make another key for the car. So it was going to amount to a huge hassle, and cost—neither which I’m looking for right now. My sister’s friends went out and banged on the car some more, trying to find a way to get into the trunk. Charleen in a stroke of genius decided to call the service number etched in to my glove compartment. Like a cool URI, the number still worked (after almost two decades) and she was put in touch with a certified Mercedes locksmith. Long story short (too late!), he was able to wedge open a whole and grope for the keys in the darkness of the trunk, eventually finding them and preventing any permanent damage to my car, all for a reasonable price. What scares me is those two car keys are the only two I know of in the world. I’m making copies tomorrow.

There are 269 contacts in my Sony Clié right now, I want that down as far as possible. How low can I go? By the way, filming for the show starts this Thursday!

Time for a little reverse chronological order: Just got in from another late night; saw the midnight showing of The Neverending Story at the River Oaks theatre. It was quite different from how I remembered it as a child, with many parts being unintentionally funny from bad acting and/or effects. Still the thesis of the movie, a child being part of a fantasy book, has always captivated my interest, and did so tonight. Saw the movie with Emily, Emily 2, Sarah, one of Emily’s friends, Joe, and Rene.

Earlier today I attempted a one thousand piece puzzle with Emily and Bridget, but I’ve decided that I’m just no good at that. Puzzles are harder than they look! The edge was pretty easy, but the interior was pretty hard, at least for me. Oh well, the food/music/company was good. Also had some Oreo ice cream and Dolce and Freddo with the same people, and it was my first time there. Honestly I didn’t see what made it any better than any other ice cream Iଁve had, and it seemed a little overpriced. Maybe some of their other flavors are better.

Finally today I picked up my books from the college bookstore. The most interesting of them is the ‘textbook’ for Psychology, which is actually a $114 password to an online site where the text is located and you can turn in assignments and such. It sounds interesting, if expensive, and I’m looking forward to that class even more now. The other books look pretty much like all the other textbooks I’ve had all my life, but I hope the classes won’t be like that.

I also picked up the audition music for the big band, a decision which in some ways has been bothering me the past few days. Since the beginning of the summer I have been debating how/if I should continue in music, whether should I even stay with the saxophone or go to piano, or just compose full-time, or nothing at all. Well my thoughts really started to come together after Joel Fulgham, a wonderful Houston jazz drummer, said to me, “Sometimes I meet people that are grumpy and they don’t know why. They used play but for whatever reason—day gig, parents, whatever—they stopped. They’re grumpy because there’s a whole in their life where the music used to be. And it’ll bug you till you don’t know what to do with yourself if you don’t stay true to your heart.” I love playing the saxophone; I love jazz; I love improvisation and the moments of instant composition without a safety net and harmony in music and life that music in general and jazz in particular provide in my life. I can’t turn my back on that.

Although I got a bit of a late start, this day has turned into a pretty long one. It started at Josh’s house with Rachel, Rebecca, and Jessica. Though the purpose of the gathering was actually to watch LOTR on DVD, we actually ended up just fooling around for a while before actually getting to the movie. Pillow fights and interesting observations made the movie more fun than I had remembered it, and it didn’t seem so long at all. After a quick trip home to pick up a Winslow ligature for Rene, we all met up at 59 Diner on, well, 59. Rene and I both got huge meals, and thankfully I wasn’t hungry the rest of the night.

After that we broke up and I went with Rene to my new favorite coffee house, Kaveh Kanes, which has free high speed wireless 802.11b internet access, set up by the wireless guru Barrett. Invitations went out online for Rene’s big going away BBQ, and afterwards we just talked for a while. In a while we were joined by Rene’s friend from church Momo, which is a nickname for something, but I don’t recall what. Then Alex and Melissa came by after the drum and bass DJ they were hoping to see decided not to play the club that night. Finally Joe, who I haven’t seen since he went to the Berklee summer camp about six weeks ago, came in and we had almost a full sax section :).

Eventually closing time came for Kaveh Kanes and we decided to head to House of Pies for a late-night snack and more conversation. The chocolate cream pie I had was fantanstic, and it was a ton of fun just hanging out with everyone. It’s been too long since I’ve seen Joe, and Rene is leaving relatively soon so every minute with him is great. Tonight was different from all the others this week because instead of almost everyone getting ready to leave town, it was just one person.

I dropped Rene and Joe off, and from the tone of my mother’s voice decided not to stay with Joe and start a cartoon marathon. Long rides late at night make me really appreciate the stereo in my car. Once home I finished up some database work I’m doing for a local private high school, and sat down to write this entry. Normally these words would have been written by my camera in the colors and motion of the pictures I take constantly. There are currently 1.4 gigabytes of photos online that describe my summer better than any narrative could; now there is a gap, a missing piece. I’m sure many will find this prosaic entry somewhat mundane, but right now it’s my only way of coping. There should be a twelve-step program for picture addicts!