Cigarettes & Alcohol

It has been a rather eventful few weeks lately. So much to recap, so where do I begin? Well first off, I officially graduated. That was a cool weekend. Jinah came into town so I showed her around Ann Arbor. We ate at the Earle and at Grizzy Peak. We walked around central campus and the Arboretum, where we ran into a SI professor. A fun time was had by all. Well mostly. I went to the Rackham graduation and the SI graduation. The Rackham was long with the last 45 minutes devoted to rattling off all the PhDs which UM has many of. The SI graduation was much shorter and interesting. Maurice and Erika won awards and had to stand uncomfortably while Dean Frost rattled off their accomplishments. I think many of you are saying, "Why Dave, why didn't you win an award being the awesomely cool person that you are?" Unfortunately, there was no award for the Best Substitute Commencement Speech Giving and Irish Car Bomb/Pilsner Challenging SI Revue MC. I know, it is a shame. Sylvie was so awesome that they created an award just for her. It was interesting to meet my fellow graduates' parents after the ceremony and at Tracy's kick ass party. I think I impressed many of them with my explanation of the Canadian gum that is strong that it masks breathalizers and how I learned to beat a polygraph in SI688. The Sunday after graduation, Erika, Viktor, Maurice and I played frisbee golf, which must be the greatest game ever invented. Basically it involves throwing a frisbee in the direction of a hole and drinking heavily. Apparently, it is very popular here in Ann Arbor. There was a group of 10 guys following us who despite being an average age of like 40, were even more immature than me, which is pretty damn immature. They were frisbee golf pros because had a cart full of frisbees, not to mention fireworks.

Last Monday, I flew out to CA for my Google Interview. I arrived in the afternoon so I hung out a bit and tried to have dinner at this apparently super good Ramen place in San Mateo with Vishnu. For some reason the place was closed, possibly because it was the Day Without Immigrants, which Vishnu said he supported not because he was in favor of the pro-immigration protestors but because it greatly reduced the traffic he faced in LA when he drove up earlier. On Tuesday, I had my Google interview which started off with a minor mishap in the hotel parking lot and ended about 5 hours later. I won't delve into details but it was a tough interview. I will learn very soon about my fate and no, Amazon has still not gotten back to me. I don't know why but hopefully will find out sometime soon. On Wednesday, Vishnu and I went to a frisbee golf course in Berkeley. We were having a super fun time until we lost one of our two frisbees in the bushes. By the way, the holes on the Berkeley course were much much much longer than the ones in Ann Arbor. After that, we drove into Berkeley so that Vishnu could grab a slice at Cheeseboard, which according to Vishnu is a communist collective that keeps irregular hours. I don't know if this holds true for all communists, but these guys can make a frickin good pizza. That night, I went to House of Prime Rib with Jinah to celebrate my birthday. I had the super thick King Henry slice and made myself proud by being able to finish it. On Thursday, I went back to the south bay to celebrate my birthday with a whole bunch of my friends (more than I actually thought I had). I went to Miyakes again where I had my 25th birthday. Indeed, I had way too many sake bombs and was not able to keep my balance afterward. A very big thank you to Vishnu, Cheng-Wei, Dow-Jane, Jen, Doris, Shannon, Cameron, Cari, Jeff, Walter, Ida & Jamin, Percy, Carl, and whoever I forgot (sorry). I quite surprised myself by doing so many sake bombs and doing a repeat of Apete's frontyard. I think it was the magic combination of getting plenty of sleep, eating at the right time before the evening, being hydrated, and smoking some cigars afterward. All combined to improve my tolerance to an above usual level. However, none lessened the morning after and I am thankful that my flight was not an early morning one or else I would have been miserable.

I flew back to Ann Arbor on Friday and have been chillin out ever since. I said good bye to Erika on Friday but I missed most of the farewall send-offs since I was in CA. Yeah, I feel a little out of place here in Ann Arbor since I no longer have to go to class and I sorta don't know where I will end up at. So here is to the unknown. Good luck to my fellow graduates and I'll let everyone know what will become of good ole Dave. Until next time, peace.