Journal entries in 'Dear Diary' for December, 2006

I flew down to PR a few days ago for Christmas, and I've really been enjoying being home. I was introduced to Natalia's new puppy, Lena, who is adorable. She's eager and affectionate, even with strangers, and full of the energy and exuberance puppies are so known for. She's awesome.

Andrés is here too, and we've been spending time with some cool people. One day we hung out on the back patio, drank wine, and got in the pool with Jóse and Lorena. Another day we cooked food and watched Family Guy with Marc, and today Andrés, Michelle, Billy, Natalia, and I went to the beach. Going to the beach on Christmas Eve: OK, so maybe there are a few good things about this island.

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Today the organization that Cat works for held a small party at a local church, and she asked Bryan and I to play music while the guests were arriving. Bryan enlisted his far more talented friend, Matt (err, no, wait, this is the picture I meant to link to) to play with us. Matt is about to graduate with a Music degree, so his skills added a lot to the ensemble.

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I bought a Christmas tree last week, and it made me happy; the smell alone was well worth the cost. It's the first tree I've bought while I was living on my own — I never bothered to get one when I was in Clemson. When I got it home, I realized that I now faced another novel task: buying my own ornaments. I suddenly found myself feeling out previously unexamined regions in the world of my likes and dislikes, like the grayed-out unexplored portions of the map in a strategy game. I've never before considered the question, "What kind of Christmas ornaments do I like?" It was never an issue before, of course. In Puerto Rico we just put up my whatever ornaments my parents had accumulated over the years.

I ended up getting mostly ball-type ornaments, because I decided that I didn't really like a tree overloaded with random figurines like drummer boys and angels. But when I got home and put the ornaments on the tree, I realized that it just doesn't look satisfying with nothing but glass balls and garland. So now I know for next year: A Christmas tree needs figurines, just not too many.

At Andrés' repeated urging, I bought a road bike last week. All my previous bikes have been mountain bikes, so this one has taken some getting used to. It took a few rides before I was able to turn without feeling like those tiny tires were going to lose traction and I was going to fall in a tumbling heap of Dan parts.

What's more, this is a single speed fixed-gear bike, which presents its own set of novelties. The first time I took it out for a ride, I got up to speed and then reflexively stopped pedaling, expecting to coast. The bike politely informed me that it wanted me to keep pedaling, and I was nearly launched out of my seat.

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Today I went to a Renaissance Festival for the first time, and it was just as awesome as I'd hoped. They were holding it in Hammond, just about half an hour from here, so Bryan and Cat and I headed out there this morning. From the moment we arrived at the entrance I was already giggling with glee.

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Last weekend I stopped by Best Buy to pick up some CDs I'd been meaning to get. On my way back to the car I realized there was a Skyline parked near mine. For the uninitiated, the Nissan Skyline is a very fast, relatively conventional-looking car sold only in Japan and a few other countries like Australia. They're very sought-after here in the US. They had a few in some of the Fast And The Furious movies.

I went to my car and grabbed my camera. As I was walking back to the Skyline, its owner walked up and started the car (from the right side, of course). We talked for a while (as I inconspicuously slid my newly purchased Phantom Of The Opera and Cats soundtrack CDs into my pocket) and I took a few pictures. Apparently, there's a relatively thriving drift scene in the area, and they regularly hold legal drift events at several nearby racetracks. They're relatively inexpensive, too — about $50 for a day of unlimited runs. Most road course events cost upwards of $100. The guy gave me some URLs for a few local websites to check out.

It's cool that there's fun driving opportunities here, and legal ones no less. Once I get around to converting my car to 5spd I'll definitely be checking out some of those events.

On Monday I returned from a week in South Carolina — I drove to Clemson on Friday, hung out there until Wednesday, then drove with Jeff to his parents' house in Aiken for Thanksgiving. Andrés and Amy also flew down from Boston for the holiday. It was really cool getting to see so many of my favorite people, although most of my friends in Clemson were busy with schoolwork and so I actually didn't get to spend very much time with anyone. Still, it was a satisfying trip.

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