Maybe You Can Go Home Again

I've spent the last two weeks down in my hometown of Fallbrook, doing work on my family's house and helping my parents to get it rented. It was a little bit surreal being down there, sleeping on an air mattress in my old room. I'm not quite sure how to describe it...comfortable, perhaps. I'm not talking about the air mattress- I'm talking about just being there. Eating at all my old favorite restaurants, visiting friends whom I haven't seen in years, and cringing in terror while driving by Rick's parents' house.

There was very little to do in the evening around the house, what with not having any furniture, cable, or internet for most of the time. We did have a TV-VCR, so I was able to rent movies from the Blockbuster where I worked ten years ago. I felt somewhat foolish, renting VHS tapes, while everybody else in the store was renting DVDs. Then, I had to endure watching non-widescreen movies on a TV screen that is smaller than...well...something that is pretty small.

I've never ranted about the horror that is fullscreen video on here, and I don't think I'm exactly in the mood to do it now. All I'll say is that widescreen is the optimal choice for me and I get nauseated when I hear people say things like, "I don't like those black bars on the top and bottom," or, "I didn't buy a large screen to have a movie only take up half of it." To these people, my only response is often a slight smile, as I resist the urge to severely bludgeon them for their ignorance.

It's probably safe to assume that I did more work on that house in the last two weeks than I did in the fifteen years that I lived there. Particularly frustrating was the fact that the gardener had allowed the iceplant to grow up and consume the fence on the east side of the yard. I spent several days laboring in the hot sun, cutting the ice plant off and saving the fence from being pulled down. I guess it was somewhat heroic of me, saving the fence and all.

I did quite a bit of reading on the evenings that I had nothing to do or during the parts of the day when it was just too hot to work. I finished High Fidelity, and also read About a Boy and How to Be Good, thereby completing Nick Hornby's entire fiction oeuvre. After finishing About a Boy, I decided to rent the movie. I can truly say that I have never been more disappointed with a film adaptation of a novel. This movie was simply terrible, and seemed to miss most of the key elements of the book. Not to mention that the boy who starred in the movie was simply dreadful.

I was unable to update my blog while down there, and wasn't really even able to check it for comments. When we finally did get the internet turned on, I didn't want to risk looking at it on my dad's laptop, lest he somehow discover it in the internet history. If my parents were ever to discover this blog, I'm sure I'd have no choice but to delete it completely. I just can't risk having them know that I am real human being with real thoughts and real feelings. That wouldn't do anybody any good.

So, some of you have requested that I post a detailed account of my Kosovo trip. I am actually in the process of preparing a letter that I will send out soon. I'm not sure I'll post much about it here, but if you received a support letter, you'll receive this letter as well.

At any rate, now I am off to Pasadena for a party of sorts at the home of Shane Ross and John Lin. It seems John has decided to move to Michigan in a few weeks to attend grad school, and this is a going-away shindig. Maybe I'll see some of you there.