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Jav(a/ier)
Dec. 29th, 2004 09:48 amSo, Monday afternoon, I was heading back home after fleeing Lex's place, and as I got on I-5 I realized that it was the middle of rush hour. Now, there are only a few places that are *really* bad during rush hour, but they include every way of getting across I-90 on the east side of the lake, as well as both floating bridges. I decided that the best course of action would be to suffer through freeway traffic until Renton, then come up Coal Creek Parkway through Factoria, since that was mostly congested southbound, and I was going north.
This meant I'd be driving right place Lazar and Sandy's place, and I'd heard that Java was planning to visit them that day, so I figured I'd stop by and see if maybe I could catch them for dinner, since I was starving, not having eaten all day except for Cal's cookies and a pixie stick. Is stick the singular of 'stix'?
Still, I wasn't too surprised to get there and be told that Sandy was too sick to see people, and that Java wasn't there. Lazar let me in, though, and gave me his phone number so I could call next time, and some files that'd help plan for the game I'm supposed to run Friday, and then I scurried off.
I got some food on the way home, and just as I was finished eating it, the phone rang -- it was Java, asking if I had anything planned for the night. I didn't, so we agreed to meet in the U-district, coordinating by cell-phone. [cringe]
At any rate, I had him give me actual directions to follow, and only gave in and called him when it turned out that following them wasn't really possible (since a key street was one-way in the wrong direction and a different name). This time, it worked properly, and I was able to get directions without crashing into anything while distracted (yeah, I was talking while driving -- where was I going to stop?) and even eventually found a parking spot.
It was a scary parking spot, though -- it had markings indicating that you could park there, and the meter next to it said 'this is not a parking meter, this is a second chance' or something like that, which I guessed meant 'parking here is free'. There were all sorts of scary college students and/or homeless people infesting the sidewalk, though, all of them much younger and cooler than me, so I sort of glommed on to this wholesome looking couple and pretended to be with them while walking to the bubble-tea place.
There, we sat on the couch and talked for a while, with Java and 'Mike' (who I knew a while ago as 'Quentin' online), but not with some of Mike's friends, who came in and talked to him, but that we couldn't hear over the roar of the bubble-tea machines. I could barely hear Java, who was sitting right next to me, and I certainly couldn't hear the music to the strange asian music videos playing on the TV. After a bit, we headed out, and I got a cup of smoothie with tapioca to go.
It took a loooong time to get the smoothie. While waiting for it, I got to watch what looked like a tow truck pull up next to what looked like it might have been my car (I couldn't really see from that far away, but it was about the right distance) and do something involving a lot of beeping. Then Mike insisted on driving me down the block to my parking space, taking about three times as long as it would have to just walk, and I found... that my car was just fine. The 'tow truck' hadn't actually been near where I was parked, and was really a garbage truck besides. Phew.
Java came back with me to my place, and out of the incessant screeching blenders, we were able to talk and discover that we really didn't have a lot to talk about. He didn't like magic anymore, or board games, or video games, and was only really into programming in Java... but we both liked Aqua Teen Hunger Force, so we sat around watching Adult Swim for a while, until it was late and we were tired. He slept on the floor, scavenging a bedlike thing out of couch cusions and spare sheets, and the teeny fleece blanket I got from the company meeting a few years ago.
In the morning, I forgot that I had a bunch of bagels and cream cheese, and told him that he needed to come with me on my morning walk to get food from Togos. I didn't realize that he was in even worse shape than I was -- or think that just maybe he'd been walking around with Mike the day before and was still sore. At least one of those applied. Plus, Togo's was closed, and he hated the idea of going to McDonalds or Safeway, so we ended up going another couple blocks to this authentic mexican place, where we got very small meat-only tacos, which gave him heartburn.
Still, there was a lot more to talk about on the walk than there had been sitting around the apartment, so I think it was a successful outing. <:3 Afterwards I took him around to find new shoes. He wanted a Payless, but neither of us knew where one was, although I was sure I'd seen one around the area. We started the search at Bellevue Square, which was really crowded -- I had to park a full level higher up in the garage than normal. The first place I checked was the directory, where I saw there were about twenty shoe places, but none of them named Payless. "Are any of these cheap enough?" I asked. "Oh, let's just walk around," he said, " I don't like trying to find things on maps." So we walked around, and he got coffee, and I pointed out the shoe places I spotted, and for each one he said it was too pricey. "Isn't there a Payless somewhere around here?" he asked. "Um, not in the mall, I checked the directory when we came in." "Then what are we doing wandering around?" Malls have payphones. Payphones have phone books. Phone books have addresses of companies by name. And there was a payless over on 148th by the Sears. So we went there, and he got replacement shoes. They were on sale for a decent price... but they tried to sell him socks 'on sale' for about three times what you'd pay in any department store. That's how they getcha! Afterwards we called up Lazar, and Sandy was feeling well enough to have other people in the apartment, at least, although she was still bedridden. So we went over and got some Arbys, played some HeroQuest, and Java told Lazar all about his school projects writing java apps, and Lazar talked about how he'd graduated digipen but his final project had technically worked but wasn't as good as it could have been, and they showed each other the results. One of Lazar's tech demos that he'd made to test various simulations of gravity and springs was just mesmerizing, so we stared at it for a while while he changed the parameters... Afterwards, I took Java back to Mike's place in West Seattle. The West Seattle bridge is... creepy. And impressive. But only if you take the smaller drawbridge next to it (like I had to on the way there), not if you drive over the top (like I did on the way back). Mike gave me horrible lemony pepsi, and horrible supposedly-banana-flavored 'chocky' (gigantic, generic, crappy pocky). I didn't stick around long, though.
This meant I'd be driving right place Lazar and Sandy's place, and I'd heard that Java was planning to visit them that day, so I figured I'd stop by and see if maybe I could catch them for dinner, since I was starving, not having eaten all day except for Cal's cookies and a pixie stick. Is stick the singular of 'stix'?
Still, I wasn't too surprised to get there and be told that Sandy was too sick to see people, and that Java wasn't there. Lazar let me in, though, and gave me his phone number so I could call next time, and some files that'd help plan for the game I'm supposed to run Friday, and then I scurried off.
I got some food on the way home, and just as I was finished eating it, the phone rang -- it was Java, asking if I had anything planned for the night. I didn't, so we agreed to meet in the U-district, coordinating by cell-phone. [cringe]
At any rate, I had him give me actual directions to follow, and only gave in and called him when it turned out that following them wasn't really possible (since a key street was one-way in the wrong direction and a different name). This time, it worked properly, and I was able to get directions without crashing into anything while distracted (yeah, I was talking while driving -- where was I going to stop?) and even eventually found a parking spot.
It was a scary parking spot, though -- it had markings indicating that you could park there, and the meter next to it said 'this is not a parking meter, this is a second chance' or something like that, which I guessed meant 'parking here is free'. There were all sorts of scary college students and/or homeless people infesting the sidewalk, though, all of them much younger and cooler than me, so I sort of glommed on to this wholesome looking couple and pretended to be with them while walking to the bubble-tea place.
There, we sat on the couch and talked for a while, with Java and 'Mike' (who I knew a while ago as 'Quentin' online), but not with some of Mike's friends, who came in and talked to him, but that we couldn't hear over the roar of the bubble-tea machines. I could barely hear Java, who was sitting right next to me, and I certainly couldn't hear the music to the strange asian music videos playing on the TV. After a bit, we headed out, and I got a cup of smoothie with tapioca to go.
It took a loooong time to get the smoothie. While waiting for it, I got to watch what looked like a tow truck pull up next to what looked like it might have been my car (I couldn't really see from that far away, but it was about the right distance) and do something involving a lot of beeping. Then Mike insisted on driving me down the block to my parking space, taking about three times as long as it would have to just walk, and I found... that my car was just fine. The 'tow truck' hadn't actually been near where I was parked, and was really a garbage truck besides. Phew.
Java came back with me to my place, and out of the incessant screeching blenders, we were able to talk and discover that we really didn't have a lot to talk about. He didn't like magic anymore, or board games, or video games, and was only really into programming in Java... but we both liked Aqua Teen Hunger Force, so we sat around watching Adult Swim for a while, until it was late and we were tired. He slept on the floor, scavenging a bedlike thing out of couch cusions and spare sheets, and the teeny fleece blanket I got from the company meeting a few years ago.
In the morning, I forgot that I had a bunch of bagels and cream cheese, and told him that he needed to come with me on my morning walk to get food from Togos. I didn't realize that he was in even worse shape than I was -- or think that just maybe he'd been walking around with Mike the day before and was still sore. At least one of those applied. Plus, Togo's was closed, and he hated the idea of going to McDonalds or Safeway, so we ended up going another couple blocks to this authentic mexican place, where we got very small meat-only tacos, which gave him heartburn.
Still, there was a lot more to talk about on the walk than there had been sitting around the apartment, so I think it was a successful outing. <:3 Afterwards I took him around to find new shoes. He wanted a Payless, but neither of us knew where one was, although I was sure I'd seen one around the area. We started the search at Bellevue Square, which was really crowded -- I had to park a full level higher up in the garage than normal. The first place I checked was the directory, where I saw there were about twenty shoe places, but none of them named Payless. "Are any of these cheap enough?" I asked. "Oh, let's just walk around," he said, " I don't like trying to find things on maps." So we walked around, and he got coffee, and I pointed out the shoe places I spotted, and for each one he said it was too pricey. "Isn't there a Payless somewhere around here?" he asked. "Um, not in the mall, I checked the directory when we came in." "Then what are we doing wandering around?" Malls have payphones. Payphones have phone books. Phone books have addresses of companies by name. And there was a payless over on 148th by the Sears. So we went there, and he got replacement shoes. They were on sale for a decent price... but they tried to sell him socks 'on sale' for about three times what you'd pay in any department store. That's how they getcha! Afterwards we called up Lazar, and Sandy was feeling well enough to have other people in the apartment, at least, although she was still bedridden. So we went over and got some Arbys, played some HeroQuest, and Java told Lazar all about his school projects writing java apps, and Lazar talked about how he'd graduated digipen but his final project had technically worked but wasn't as good as it could have been, and they showed each other the results. One of Lazar's tech demos that he'd made to test various simulations of gravity and springs was just mesmerizing, so we stared at it for a while while he changed the parameters... Afterwards, I took Java back to Mike's place in West Seattle. The West Seattle bridge is... creepy. And impressive. But only if you take the smaller drawbridge next to it (like I had to on the way there), not if you drive over the top (like I did on the way back). Mike gave me horrible lemony pepsi, and horrible supposedly-banana-flavored 'chocky' (gigantic, generic, crappy pocky). I didn't stick around long, though.
