2005: A Look Back

What a year it has been! 21 madcap hours, that's for damn certain.

I started 2005 at a house party in Campbell, California, a Silicon Valley suburb that so closely resembles the Irvine neighborhood where I spent my formative years, I kept expecting to bump into people I knew. Of course, I didn't. I didn't bump into people I knew in Irvine when I lived there. It's Southern California - no one actually walks the streets, for fear of getting contaminated brown "air" into their lungs.

Soon after midnight, we left Campbell to make the trek back to Santa Cruz. Here, I should pause to explain that the road from Campbell to Santa Cruz, the 17 Freeway, is a treacherous mountain pass that at one time held the proud title of "Nation's Deadliest Stretch of Road." My good friend Aaron had an accident on the freeway recently. And we attempted to navigate it just after midnight, on New Year's Eve, in a rainstorm. It was a great plan, one that I fully supported, if sitting in fearful stillness gripping the armrest like it contained $10 million in gold dubloons constitutes full support.

So, we eventually made our way to another house party, this one in Santa Cruz, only a short drive from my friend's condo. It was a good time, certainly a drunk time, though it was oddly reminiscent of the UCLA parties I attended back in my collegiate days. There was an eerie sense of deja vu, as if I was experiencing my college days all over again through the eyes of this new kids, who were perfectly inviting of me and my older friends. Don't get me wrong. They all seemed pretty cool to me, actually (an done of them totally reminded me of my high school friend Ariel, to an uncanny degree), like the kind of people I might have enjoyed hanging out with when I was in college. But I'm not in college any more, and this experience really drove that point home. All of the sudden, I had this new identity - old guy with no date at the college party.

Which really beats my old identity - random UCLA loser with no date at the college party.

So, anyway, just wanted to report that I rang in the New Year in style. What did you lame-o's do with yourselves? Something lame, I bet.

No, no, I'm just kidding. I'll be back home in Culver City, the city so nice they named it generically, tomorrow, so I'll get back to writing about interesting things, and not just the silly crap I've been doing with myself. Until then, I remain...