I Don't Wan't to Miss a Thing

Having dreadlocks is like making a social experiment. The hair is a girls most important attribute for sex appeal and when she deliberately "destroys" it, the reactions are strong. When I emailed pictures to Mom, she wasn't exactly happy about it. She asked if I had gotten too little love as a child and pointed out that she loved me just the way I was without dreadlocks. I'm glad you love me just the way I am, no matter what my hair looks like :'-P. But most people are impressed and like it, of course, few would tell to my face that it looked awful and that I should shave them off. Especially strangers give loud approval: a girl on the bus mouthed "I love your dreadlocks" and when I skated to a party Friday night guys yelled "I like your hair" and "Legit!" after me. For sure, then I had two high pony tails, stonewashed jeans and a red jacket, skating, looking rather like a cartoon character.

T's boyfriend is here celebrating his birthday. T gave him a longboard, the same that Bomber has. Three fourths of the enormous chocolate cake is still in the kitchen. They're so cute together and T is all flushed and blushed all the time :-).

On a party last night, Alvright confessed that he'd never seen to girls kissing. He's from Chile, they're kind of conservative there. "We can fix this!" was my immediate reaction "Where is Soleil?". I don't have too many inhibitions really, I mean, if you never dare to try something, you might miss out on one of the greatest experiences in life. We found Soleil in the kitchen. After waving her over it took about five seconds to explain the gravity of the situation and additionally five seconds later we had made Alvright's dreams come true. When Eddie came he was devastated for missing out on us making out. Yes, Eddie, Y O U M I S S E D I T !

Dreadlock Mädchen

Some of you will freak out when you read this. Or like it. But most likely freak out. I have d r e a d l o c k s. We sat in the living room in Flamingo's co-op for more than 4 hours, combing, rubbing and waxing my hair. Now it smells like coconut surf wax, feels like a woolen helmet and looks like stripes of a sandy dusty blanket. I guess that I won't get anymore comments on parties about my pretty hair (the soft red curls have been replaced by tight wired locks). Bomber and Accio seemed to be cool with the dreadlocks, but the boys next door were dreadful. Not a white chick with dreads! Personally, well, I just couldn't resist something new and exciting. Where else than in California? I will put ribbons and seashells in the hair and look like a hippie mermaid. And then, when I need to get a real serious job as an engineer after graduation, I might think about brushing them out, or shaving my head :-0. Although in my business, as a female programmer, when companies want to be creative and innovative, I'm not sure that dreadlocks is a negative thing on a work interview...

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It's a Sin

What do tourists do in Santa Barbara in the middle of November? Still Santa Barbara has its mediterranean charm even when it's "cold" (today was a pretty decent Swedish summer day), so the boys went exploring the shopping district. Yesterday we had a small dinner and went to the movies, however, not having a working phone makes my life way more interesting, the Expressos walk in whenever they feel like it and we play cards or have a drink, which is very nice surprises (OK, I'm not surprised anymore). The movie was a sweet lullaby and all four Swedes fell asleep before it even started. Today the boys went to LA and I'm supposed to do some studying.

Today there was an art demonstration on campus, at least I think it was art because they have many of those (but I haven't seen the gorilla chasing the two bananas in a while, maybe he caught them). This time there was people with signs "Satan's child" and a long paragraph from the Bible about Satan's children, sinners burning in Hell in afterlife. I say like the Pet Shop Boys: "Everything I long to do, no matter when or where or who, has one thing in common too, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin!" And truth be told, living here in California is like entering OC or 90210, there is drama! But I can't write on my blog about who spent quality time with the DEA, who are lovers, who went to prison and so on. If you want to know, just ask, and I might or might not tell you...

Circus

Flamingo invited me to his circus show in the park in Isla Vista. A brave crowd had gathered in the dark chilly night to watch. And we got a show worth to remember. There was a guy with a giant screw that he screwed through his nose and mouth with an electric screwdriver. Another put hooks through the skin of his back and hung in the air making acrobatics. They had ropes and rings for air acrobatics too and ended with a fire show. The crowd was wide eyed with amazement.

I had to run home to meet the boys from Canada when they arrived. Angel, McConaughey and one of McConaughey 's friends from Sweden. The boys had left San Diego this morning and been to Six Flags before they got here. Long time, no see.

Eternity

The second wave of unpleasant surprises after Halloween hit us. When everybody left, things where taken or misplaced, especially important things like chargers. I had to send Lovebud's computer cable to Berkeley, and T sent a phone charger to her friend, who accidentally had taken my phone charger instead. I still haven't found my camera charger, but T has a Canon too, so I hope to borrow hers until I've located mine.

Running around as an iPod might be really exciting on Halloween, but the days after when I caught a cold was not so fun. I stayed at home Thursday and Friday, sleeping and drinking lots of tea.

I ordered Eternity II from Amazon in UK, which was only 20% of the price on the US Amazon. Today it arrived. Eternity II is a puzzle, there exists a solution, but no one has found it yet (not officially at least). The first one to solve it gets a £2 million price. The problem is that it's really hard to solve by just trying to fit pieces together, it would take longer than the life of the universe. So you need either be 1) autistic, 2) fu*?ing lucky or 3) write a really good computer program that solves it. Now I have something to do in the enormous amounts of spare time I have...

Rolling

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."
-Henry David Thoreau

Now the midterms are over, they went OK I think, considering the fact that I didn't study for any of them. There was no time, there was Halloween. In the middle of my midterm yesterday I got a text from T. I had to finish my test before I could read it, but when I did I felt pure joy: "Hurry home, there's a package waiting for you!". OK, guys, I know you imagine a delivery boy with a package waiting to teach me... the definition of the pumping lemma, erase that picture! It was my longboard (shortboard) that had arrived. It's so pretty and small. My neighbor and a friend of my roomies, Bomber (who once won a skateboard with the motivation: What I like the most is to see the boys faces when I bomb the hills) helped me to adjust the wheels and remove the spacers, so now I can turn easily. Bomber's a really good skating teacher and she tells me what I should think about, for example that you pick up a lot of speed in the hills. I went skating all afternoon. The first thing I did was making a new acquaintance: Mr Asphalt. I bombed a hill with myself as kamikaze pilot and scratched my knees and hands when I flew off the board. Well, a little war injury has never hurt anybody.

During the last weeks I've expanded the Venn diagram of friends with new circles. Many fellow exchange students, say hello to my dear Mr Carrot and Double-O-Seven (aka Jean Connery) and a very extraordinary person, Flamingo (pink dreadlocks) who can make any sleepy afternoon way more interesting. He taught me to swallow fire the other night: "Breathe out, if you breathe in, your lungs will collapse and you'll die. Are you ready?"

Halloween

Friday night.
The road blocks went up around five o'clock in the afternoon just outside our house. There were police officers everywhere. People were arriving all day. T had friends coming over from San Diego. Lovebud came from San Francisco and Nightingale and two friends visited from Santa Monica.

The first night The Expressos dressed up as smurfs. I used blue stockings for my legs and arms and we had painted our faces blue with tint. Girls are "supposed" to have small slutty costumes during Halloween so many girls just wear underwear and put on some wings to be a fairy. Being blue in your face is not sexy, but it's fun. We were walking along Del Playa and people pointed and yelled "Smurfs!" after us. Pokerface later told me that smurfs are invited to all parties, they just went to a house asking for a "Brian" or a "Phil" and got in. Del Playa was crowded with people dressed as pirates, flintstones and super marios. And I have a lot of compromising pictures of my friends making out with clowns and cavemen (actually it was the same caveman every time).

Lovebud had a midterm this morning and arrived late, she was supposed to call me when she got here, but my cell phone battery died. I had to hurry from a great party to get home and charge my batteries and be able to call her. Then she had already waited for almost half an hour! I felt so ashamed. On our way home we run into Flamingo, and invited him along. We had been five minutes at myspace before the door opened and people welled in. The invading army dried up all alcohol in the house and broke the sofa. One of the party people was my plastered TA and when he realized that he was at one of his student's place he told everyone that he could get fired for socializing with students. "Don't tell anyone and you'll get an A" he said, I laughed and told him that I would write it on my blog. He will not remember anything of it though, so wasted as he was.

Unfortunately there were so many people running in and out from our apartment so two iPods got stolen, which make my sad and angry.

Saturday Night Fever.
There were people sleeping on the floor and in every corner of our apartment, and everything was so messy. I went with the girls to get coffee in the morning and checked out the beach. Of course the girls from Santa Monica have a way better beach, but we still saw some dolphins!

Then we went downtown Santa Barbara. We didn't really have time for sightseeing before we got back. After dressing up, this time I was an iPod (isn't it ironic?). I got a lot of compliments for the costume...and a lot of pressing on my wheel too, making me sing in high and low volumes, skipping tracks and fast forwarding in songs.

Sunday, bloody Sunday.
And now it's Sunday. Lovebud had to return really early to Berkeley and Nightingale and her friend went back to LA. I have a midterm tomorrow and two on Tuesday, so it's time to study now...


Halloween

Take off your jeans and Abercombie,
dress up like a butterfly or zombie.
See the girls in teeny tiny tops,
Zig-zag between the CSOs and cops.

Join the hubbub on DP,
but careful so you don't get a public intoxication fee.
Filter the SKYY through your liver,
and we're rolling, rolling down the river.

High Highlander and stoned Flintstone,
you never have to be alone:
Make out with Captain Jack Sparrow,
let an Apache pierce you with his arrow.

It's a night to be crazy, be insane,
nothing will pass the roadblocks on Memory Lane.