...because it's beautiful and it feels right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJPrHkmSkpA&feature=player_embedded

Welcome to Merced!

I meant to post this sooner but I didn't have time.

Welcome to your little preview of Merced.

This is Main Street in Merced where you can see the old Merced playhouse tower: also, you can see the officer in the patrol car who told me to, "get the @$%# down from there" after I took this photo while perched on top of a traffic light.

Let's see where you'll be staying for the duration you're here.
This is the house! It's a decent place for only $300 a month. I want to warn you that there is a wasp nest under the window to the left of the entranceway... and I'm pretty sure our neighbors are Latin gangsters. Just saying.
Here's what the immediate inside of the house looks like. Ohhh the columns make it sooo regal...

This is the kitchen I cleaned for your arrival. It looks much better now, trust me.
Here's the living room where I often find Kirby passed out in front of the TV with a bottle of Jack Daniel's, aka: the dark side of Ke$ha.
I'm not messing with you, that is the actual size of our living room TV. You can also see Brendan's collection of Jäger on the shelf in the upper right corner. He has a drinking problem, he buy's shitty liquor.
Here's the backyard...Nothing really special about it.

Moving on to the campus
You can kind of see it in the upper left corner.

A little bit closer now...
BAM! We've arrived!!! Welcome to the University of California at Merced.

I don't want to give too much away (because I don't want to spoil our future 5 minute tour of where I've spent the past two years of my life) but from here you can see the Library, Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts building and the Engineering building. I honestly think I might have already given too much away :(

Moving away from campus:
Here's the playground where I spend hours on end wringing my hands and licking my lips while ogling toddlers in front of their respective parents.

NOW HERE COMES THE CHOO CHOO!!!!

My favorite place to get crappy food in Merced. It soils the healthy conscious but it slakes the empty belly :)
Used to be my favorite place to satisfy my drunk munchies when I was a freshman (don't worry, I didn't drive). 24 HOUR DONUT SHOP! YUM YUM!!!
Margarita Mondays and Thirsty Thursdays where I can get a full plate of pulled pork nachos for $6? Can you give me a hell yeah? There ain't nothing wrong about Big Bubba's Bad BBQ.
This is my absolute favorite restaurant in all of Merced. It's only a sandwich shop and it's only open at lunch, but this is the absolute best place to get a decent, healthy meal in Merced. We will be making a visit down here at least once.

Finally, the place I go to drown all of my sorrow's, The Partisan. All we need to find is Kirsten Dunst's ID from when she played Mary Jane and we can sneak you in here for a couple drinks and some karaoke. You can come say hello to the porn shop people with me.

That's it. The rest you can find out for yourself when you get here. Sorry to be so mysterious about this whole thing but I wanted it to be special and it took awhile to piece everything together. I love you and I can't wait to share this somewhat exotic town with you in a couple hours. Love you baby.

You've Got to Get Out and Live! (At The Sex Shop?)

Last night we talked about many a thing, but the most important of those things was living. We've accomplished a lot as young adults, seen and done things perhaps too early in our youth to completely understand but they changed and shaped us into who we are nonetheless.

Now however, we seem to be stuck in a rut of boring experiences. We do not venture past our bedroom doors. We don't feel as happy, we don't feel as satisfied, and we don't feel whole. The days of excursions into Parisian nightlife and experimenting with post-adolescence in college are over for now and we cannot seem to adjust into the routine of summer life.

For awhile now, everyday has become a series of processed events, blended together into a easily digestible pablum of false security and comfort. We are bored but apathetic, discontent but indecisive. We are lesser than who we want to be because we have forgotten what it's like to have life be a challenge, to have a routine that routinely changed and sometimes made us uncomfortable but more secure in ourselves.

I told you, if you want to be happy, if you want to know what you want and who you are, you need to start living again. It's true. But I didn't tell you how much I was talking about myself as well. I need to follow my own damn advice and start living too so we can both have something to share at the end of the day. Today I decided to start trying to live again, and it made me happy.
It all started by finding that goddamn sandwich shop that escaped me yesterday. "Big Will's Louisiana Po Boy Sandwich Shop"! It's already a mouthful of a title.

I decided to go for a little bike ride to burn some extra calories and work up an appetite before I bought the 48" Jumbo Shrimp Sandwich I dreamed about. After a nice 13 mile jaunt around town, I pedaled towards the epicenter of my three day fascination for a shrimp sandwich, Big Will's Sandwich Shop. When I arrived though, I noticed that next to the sandwich shop was a surprising little Merced treasure I had overlooked for the past couple of years.
Yes, that is a man holding up a picture of you behind a window display in a sex shop. Merced's very own sex shop! How I've missed this the past 2 1/2 years I don't even know, but it will go overlooked no longer.

So after accosting the nice man setting up a sign in front of the store if I could take a picture of my girlfriend on a stick in front of the display, he conjectured "I could hold up the picture behind the glass, if you want?" I wanted. So after snapping you in a conveniently embarrassing moment, I went inside the air conditioned store, only to be overwhelmed by a potpourri of well accented fruit lubricants and latex everything.
Cast in order of appearance (left to right): Martin, Tanya, Linda. The two ladies were manning the counter and Martin was seated to my right. After introducing myself, I explained the idea behind the blog and the reason for taking a picture of the shop (I felt kind of obliged to at that point in time). After some lively chatter with everyone about long distance relationships, New York, the heat in Merced, Tanya's emerging DJ career at the Partisan and other topics, Linda asked me if I was a student at the UC. I responded with a proud "yes", and that I majored in Literature and Political Science. She lit up. She then began to explain to me how she was writing an autobiography and how she took her material to an editor who told her she needed an ending to her story and so now she was looking for a ghost writer with some fresh perspective to find a conclusion. I realized I had made a mistake in going inside this place.

Linda then asked me if I was much of a writer or editor and I gave her a now very hesitant "yes"; but before she could unleash the avalanche of questions about availability or prices for doing some work, which I could sense was on the tip of her tongue, I elaborated on my answer by saying "but my friend Demitra is a much better editor than I am. She is perfect for looking over your material and giving some constructive feedback". Linda then gave me her phone number and told me she was excited for Demitra to help her out. Dodged a very awkward bullet there.
I departed soon after, without the jumbo shrimp sandwich I spent all of yesterday looking for, and I have yet to decide if I should actually give Linda's number to Demitra or not.

Whatever the conclusion of "this" particular story, I just wanted to tell you that today I started living again and it felt good. I met some new people, dealt with a somewhat uncomfortable situation and yet at the end of the day, I felt like I had fun. I had a story to tell, even if I only want to share it with you. This is what I think our lives should be about, meeting new people and making stories. And maybe every day can't be completely new but we can try to make a good story out of it anyway, right?

That's what we need right now, something to talk about, something to laugh at, something to cry about, something to share. I love sharing everything with you and I think now we just need more life to share, more stories to tell. Let's have fun and be happy and at the end of the day we'll talk about everything we did, everything we discovered and everything in-between. Let's be everything we want to be, let's be ourselves and love each other the way we've always wanted to.

When you get here, let's live together again.

Leah's Usual Meal

nom nom nom

"Hamburger bad, fries bad, coca-cola bad. There you go, I said it, drink your water people!"

So I started P90X today... The only reason I look happy in this picture is because I just finished the session for the day and I'm tripping balls on endorphins.

Riding my bike the 3.5 miles back home usually takes a healthy 10+ minutes. Today it took 20 at least. I want to rip off my legs and set them in ice so I can just wheel around on my rolling chair. Just so long as I don't have to do any more parallel frog lunges, jumping squats or trench jumps. The uptake from today, other than the physical foundation for a new set of 6 pack abs, is the insane mumbling that escapes Tony Horton's mouth.

This guy is crazy. No, I don't think you understand, this guy is insane. Clinically. He says the most random, almost nonsensical gibberish that always turns into a weird sort of cult catchphrase.

My favorite Tony Horton moments so far:

• "Are you ready?....'cause its comin'!"
• "That's why they call her 'Blam'."
• "She makes Gumby look like the Tin-Man...vruuuup."
• "Did you get your tickets?. To where? To the gun show"
• "Ab Ripper X. I hate it, BUT I LOVE IT"

Gotta get ready for your arrival. I don't know how much I can do in two weeks but I'm sure Tony can give me some good tips on how to maximize my workout time. I love you and I can't wait to see you.

BTW that's my coach, Dave Noble, in the middle and Ivan on the right. Three strapping young men.

Calculators and Canadians

Hi Hi. I took this in stats class, or "stat-is-tics" as the professor inadvertently butchers it everyday, when our break for lunch started. It's not the most creative picture but I hope you like it and understand how many people gave me some very perturbed stares as as I assembled my desk into some clandestine order and proceeded to take half a dozen pictures.

Kind of a crazy day for me considering the most energy I expended last week was from either taking out the trash or going to the fridge during breaks from playing videogames.

Today, I managed to successfully contest my parking ticket I got when I was showing Eric around campus, drop off and subsequently get back my bike from the repair shop, communicate my plans about the lease agreement with my landlord, get the obligations paper for studying abroad filled out, copied and returned, found a doctor that would accept my new insurance and sign the health waiver I need to for Spain and spent over an hour and a half talking to technical assistance about my broken scanner.

Why I didn't take any pictures of doing all of these things is beyond me. I guess I'm not very used to documenting my life. I'll try harder tomorrow.

Sorry we didn't get to really talk today and how weird I was being about getting all of these things done. For some reason I was really intent on calling you at the end of the day to explain everything and I didn't want to give anything away. My weird reasoning, I guess. I was just excited to actually have something to tell you about my day and now I'm writing it out instead of actually telling you. I don't think this is how it's supposed to work.

Anyway, I wish you were here with me today. You would have made it much more tolerable to run around town getting all of these errands done. The tech guy I called from HP was pretty funny (and Canadian!), and while the first hour was spent working on the computer, we were pretty much chatting it up the last 20-30 minutes. He actually said "Eh" once and I couldn't help but laugh. I told him I was happy to have another Canadian friend because it had been too long since I knew someone from the great country up north. I don't think he knew how to react to that, eh. The funny conversations we get into everyday; life is aboot the people Leah, it's aboot the people.

Well I have to start working on some homework now, but I want to tell you I love you and I miss you. We're going to have so much fun when you get here! BTW sweet romper, yo.

Where I've Spent My Summer

<--- This is where all the magic happens. By that, I mean this is where I practice Wicca and sacrifice small animals.

I don't know if you know this, but I used to do cool things. I traveled overseas, surmounting the peaks of Swiss alps, trekking through the Sahara atop a camel, parasailing around the Grecian Islands and now I'm stuck in this luxury prison cell. This is by far, the most boring summer I can recall.

My days waste away thinking about everything I did, everything I could do and the absolute nothing I am doing right now. My bed is spoiled with wasted thoughts, intangible fancies and a little spaghetti sauce. I can't stand it anymore.

I don't feel like myself: this town, this house, this heat make me feel oppressed and uncomfortable. I want you to get here so we can have fun and make some unforgettable memories. I want you to get here so we can be content going everywhere or nowhere, so we can be happy just being ourselves.

Whatever we do when you're here, I guarantee you the next time I'm stuck in my room, I won't have to contrive memories of foreign countries to occupy myself. I'll be happy with the memories of us in my prison cell.

Yes, these are conjugal visits.

I miss you, I love you.