Art Intimidates Life

California was so amazing. It was a ton of fun. I can’t believe that I almost didn’t go…

08.12.05: Our ride to the airport went decently until the bus overheated, so we sat for an hour and a half waiting for a new bus and we learned to synchronize ipods.  We got a new bus and just barely made it down to Newark, just in time to get on our flight to ORANGE COUNTY. The plane ride was like five hours long and they showed Sahara (which I had seen) and Fever Pitch (a decent movie). Then we landed, got our bags and went to our hotel. Our room kicked ass. Em, Steph and me. We had a kick ass balcony that had two chairs and a table and we had a PALM TREE. w00t.

we went and saw Junior Nats that night, and I saw Whit again! she swam in the B cut Final of the 100 M breaststroke and won it. that's awesome. It means that she's the 9th best person in the country in the 100 M breastroke for ages 12 - 17. The kids were so fast. a 13 year old won the 100 M butterfly. It was at Irvine, where Duel in the Pool had taken place the week before. it took place at a high school, but the facilities looked like they were for college level athletes.

08.13.05 - 08.14.05: First practice was at 8 AM sharp in the Soka University pool. The University was beautiful. It was on a hill and it looked like a huge mansion. Angela ruined the moment by saying "one mudslide and your dorm would be gone." After practice, we went back to the hotel and watched tv and went nuts until our second practice. The second practice was terrible. I got lapped about 80000 times. The next day was practically the same. We really couldn't do much. But we did go to the Del Ray Festival on Sunday. We got a ton of free stuff and listened to some local bands.

08.14.05: We met Staciana Stitts - Winfield. She was so awesome. She had alopeica (a disease where she's allergic to her own hair and it falls out) but that didn't stop her from living. She's bald, but won't wear a wig. She's so smart, a great swimmer (making the 2000 olympics in the 100 M breaststroke and winning a gold medal in the 800 M relay) and just all around nice and knowledgeable. It would be our last practice at Soka. She taught us how to swim butterfly. Then we went out to breakfast with her at Pollys, before heading off to Laguna Beach for shopping.

The hand girls went crazy in Laguna. They stalked every store where someone from the MTV show had gone to / worked at. They found a store that some girl named Taylor had/does/did work at, and bombarded it just to find out that she either didn't work there, or wasn't there. they're crazy thinking they can just find a reality tv star. Ang and I bought teeshirts that said a bunch of the places we'd been to and i got mom a notepad with a picture of San Clemente and dad a mug.

08.15.05: Doubles again! Technique in the morning and a "your stroke" set in the afternoon. I ended up being with the Hand Coach Jenn. SHE.IS.A.BEAST. she's like a nazi drill sargent in a woman's body. but luckily she was nice and since Frost was in our group. K. Frost is her best friend. Jenn is Kristen's best friend as well. Well when you're the 200 Yd Free and 500 Yd Free State Defending Champion for 3 years, i guess you're pretty close with your coach. Especially when you make Olympic Trial Cuts (OT Cuts). That night we traveled into town and broke the record of children in a 15 passenger van by shoving 25 of us in to go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. it's going on our record board. w00t my first record!

08.16.05: After pracitce we went to Doheny beach. A bunch of the girls went surfing, I didn't get a chance to go. The water was freezing, but I finally got my first dip in the pacific ocean. I got four random burns. They've created freaking crappy tan lines especially the lines on my back.  We spent the whole day there and ate dinner there as well. There were two big groups and we ended up singing and playing music with them. We watched the green flashes and went home.

08.17.05: Practice was sad because it was Staciana's last day. I got her autograph on my pink cap and i have a bunch of pictures with her to be uploaded later. i have her e-mail with instructions to keep her posted on life and swimming. We went into town after practice and went to surf shops. Each surf shop had free mags made by people and also printed so i picked up a locals, skateboarding and surfing mag for the plane ride home. Then we ate an early dinner and went to see the Red Sox take on the Anaheim Angels. and Yes, that was the game WHERE THEY WERE MASSACRED 13 - 3.  the stadium was awesome, except we had THE LAST ROW.

then we came home. and i got my dellpod. it has almost 2000 songs on it in 3 days. that's pathetic...