needs more football players doing coke

I... can't begin to summarize the past 22 hours. I'm 'here', I'm safe, and so is my stuff and my friends. I'm in the world's grodiest frat house for Taylor's bachelor party, where I will be spending the night. When I first got here, I thought "we're staying here? ewww."
However at this point I am far too tired to care. Mostly I want to write this entry and go crash on the couch.

Ontario is a very new, very small airport at which I had no trouble finding everyone. This was good. Unfortunately Josh's car is also very new and very small, which meant trouble because everyone and their luggage was already in this car, and I had to fit too. Apparantly their first night here was in the worst possible hotel they could've chosen, so they promptly checked out of that Thursday morning. Since today was busy enough that they couldn't find another hotel today, they decided to stay tonight at the frat house and find a new place tomorrow, which meant 4 guys and all their stuff driving all over creation today.

Anyway the first order of business was to go to Cassie's house and meet the family, then to the tux shop to get everyone fitted. I must say Taylor has picked out some smashing suits and will make for a very good-looking wedding party. That whole process took like 2 hours where Josh and I didn't have much to do seeing as we're not in the wedding. We'll have a repeat of that action tomorrow for the rehearsal. :| At least tomorrow we'll get good Cali-mexican dinner afterwards.

So once everyone was fitted we headed out to Orange County for the remainder of the day's festivities. First up was Huntington Beach for some really good dinner and boogie boarding. We rented 2 boards, and Cliff, Taylor and Josh alternately used them. Unfortunately they had to be returned by 5:15 so we only got an hour out there, but it was cool and extremely beautiful. CA coast is legendary and deservedly so. I love coming here.

Taylor's brother was in Disneyland while we were at the beach, and he had to come to the bachelor party, so we got to make a side trip and pick him up, then to here, the Alpha Delta Phi house where we've been since roughly 9 or 10. The most I'll say about this frat party is that it met or exceeded every expectation of what I expect of a trashy bachelor frat party. And by "exceeded" I mean "was trashier." I'm almost embarassed to be here, but these are Taylor's good friends, these are the kind of parties he spent years partying at, and dammit I flew here today at 7 in the fucking am to be here so I might as well. Beats the hell out of sitting alone in my damn Bellingham apartment doing homework.

So anyway tomorrow we're trying to find another hotel, but otherwise don't have plans until the rehearsal dinner, which to me means Josh and I plan to lose everyone around then and try to find something to do in Orange County. Finding something I'd enjoy won't be hard at all, but for both of us, that might be tricky. No worries though. I'm still on vacation.

No guarantees about internet for the rest of the trip (of course, there wasn't any when I left, either), so don't assume I'll get messages.

high desert

So we crashed at the frat house, and that was that. We slept surprisingly well, considering. I had it luxurious: I got a pillow and blanket on my couch. I even slept through the bong-smoking not 10 feet away. Maybe it just helped me relax. Though truth be told I've had closer contact highs from concerts. Josh and Graham slept on other, smaller couches (they had a lot of couches at the frat house), Cliff managed to sleep on the couch in the garage, and Taylor slept in the dorms at the college, something none of us knew in the morning which made for some very lost looking about for our groom-to-be. Eventually he walked in the door, ready to go and looking surprisingly alive for someone who'd had as much to drink as he did. We up and left, still smelly and quite tired, but most urgently hungry, and went to one of Taylor's choice restaurants for breakfast burritos. Our hunger sated, we went to Perris to find a hotel and ended up at a Days Inn, which is working out well.

Taylor had a much busier day than us, as tomorrow is everything. Josh dropped him off at Cassie's while the rest of us got cleaned up (individually, you pervert). The rehearsal was happening this evening at 4:00, 4:30 or 5:30, depending on who you talked to (us, Cassie's parents, or reality, respectively). So there was definitely some waiting around going on. Josh and I aren't in the ceremony so there was little for us to rehearse except dance moves for the reception, so we skipped off to Wally World to run errands for Josie.

And overall it sounds like a pretty uneventful day, no big parties or trips or anything, but we did have a very elegant and surprisingly large rehearsal dinner at a classy mexican restaurant just outside of Homeland. (That's Homeland, CA, just up the street from Romoland. No comment.) The guys keep talking about how they've been gone since monday but it really only feels like 2 days have passed, I guess driving 24 hours will do that to you. Tomorrow's the big day and to me it felt like it came on awfully quick. Time flies when you're unconscious I guess. But I'm looking forward to the first slug wedding, they seem very happy together and even though the next few years don't look like wine and roses for them, it seems to me like Taylor's too smart not to have a bright future somewhere down the road for him.

I have been feeling mostly unthoughtful, sarcastic, tactless and tired today. Seems like I'm forgetting a piece of myself. Maybe a good night's sleep will make me remember where I am. Though today I did get a much better sense of being happy I came. There are times I can sit back and go, "this is right. This is my life in equilibrium." It's quite peaceful, really.