By Popular Demand

Honestly, I don't that I really have all that much to say at this point but I guess I have to write something to keep the lot of you happy. In particular, everyone should be sure to extend a warm "how do you do?" to Sabrina, who hails from afar. It's been a while since I've had a commenter whom I didn't know. I'm sure some of you remember good old Fred...he stopped reading and posting comments like last November or something.

Anyway, last weekend I went down to Vista because Shane and Erika were down there. It was a lot of fun, really, in spite of the fact that one of my friends down there considers me to be a retarded four year old, but that's all I'll say about that. I left here last Friday night and drove down, getting to Ryan and Mandy Yingst's house at about 10:30 PM, just in time to catch the last half hour or so of the movie Snatch. I slept at Erika's parents' house, in Erika's old room. Her parents are in Europe at the moment, so she and Shane slept in her parents' room. Honestly, I don't think I'd ever sleep in my parents' bed...but that's because I have a wide range of idiosyncracies. I generally don't like other people's beds. I hate ordering food at drive-thrus. I refuse to let other people wash my underwear. I hate when people drink out of the same cup as me, regardless of who it is. And I'm deathly afraid of bees.

I'm not sure that last one is an idiosyncracy, as I'm sure most people are somewhat afraid of bees. But I have a pants-wetting fear of them. Last week, for example, I was sitting in traffic on the 210 freeway, heading into Pasadena. Those of you who are from this area are probably familiar with that part where the Colorado Blvd., Del Mar St., and California Blvd. exits go off to the left, and then the freeway narrows to two lanes as it goes under Walnut St. Anyway, I was sitting there in my car with the windows rolled up and the air conditioner on full blast. All of the sudden, there was a swarm of bees passing through the area. And I mean there were lots of them. Other people just sat there not noticing them, really. Some people even had their windows rolled down and were oblivious to the impending danger. I think there were about twenty-five bees crawling around on my windshield. I thought about smashing the little bastards with my windshield wipers but decided that would only enrage them and perhaps result in the swarm attacking those fools with their windows down. I kept picturing in my mind that movie The Swarm, which did nothing to ease my anxiety. After a few minutes, traffic started moving again and I left the evil swarm behind.

The most common question I am asked when people learn about this fear is whether I am allergic to bees. Actually, I'm not. I just have a fear of all stinging insects. The incursion of killer bees into Southern California does little to put my mind at rest. The origins of this fear go back to the summer of 1985. One day, I was innocently playing in my back yard in Fallbrook, romping merrily through the clover with my dog Max. Apparently, some yellow jackets had decided to build an underground nest in my yard and were angered that I had the audacity to play in my own yard. So, the little fuckers attacked us, stinging each of us several times. Since that day, I have been terrified of all stinging insects.

Well, that was certainly an unplanned tangent. I was supposed to be writing about my trip to Vista this last weekend. As I said, it was a lot of fun. Saturday was spent at Ryan's house playing games on X-Box. On Saturday night, the whole lot of us went out to eat dinner at Fidel's in Carlsbad. The long absent Amanda Cunagin joined us, along with her new boyfriend. I don't think I've seen her in about two and a half years, so that was fun.

On Tuesday, my roommate and I got a letter from the owners of the apartment complex telling us that our rent was being raised to $985 per month. Anybody who has ever been to my apartment will concur that there is no way this place is worth that much. The floor creaks, there's no water pressure and the hot water fails to work almost half of the time. I really think they're trying to get us to move out so they can renovate the apartment and charge more for it. I honestly would love to move, but I can't really afford it while I'm in school. So, I guess I'll continue to stick it out here until such time as I can afford to relocate. Unless anybody wants to let me move in with them.