walk on the campus and have a look around. My commute in the past 5 years has been less than 10 miles a day and I knew I had been spoiled, but I just thought that if anything was going to keep me from graduating in 2 years it was the N-405.It was a sunny morning, not much different than the morning that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese (Ok so I should not be comparing my commute to the beginning of WWII), However sometimes I feel I could make many similarities between the two. Luckily my friend Rachel invited me to have lunch in Brentwood so I could make this kill 2 birds with one stone kind of trip. I figure I need to slowly acclimatize to this, you know, don't drive in the middle of rush hour, kill the opponent slowly. Try a Saturday morning commute first, then maybe a Thursday afternoon, a Monday midnight ride, then bam I got it. How hard can it be?
The commute took 20 minutes from my house. Woohoo!! I get to campus and start walking see all the cool new buildings my classes are in, I even got to see the UCLA football team practicing. It reminded me of the first thing my Grandma said to me when I told her I was going to UCLA. "Your not going to cheer for there football team are you?" Thanks for the congratulations Grandma, I think to myself, but that’s why the Tate’s blood runs Ute red, because of our fearless leader Grandma Dickson. I assured my Grandma that I was a Ute fan dyed red true and through.
Another thing I noticed as I was walking around was that it's a lot more laid back then I thought it was going to be. Sometimes UCLA gets the perception of students driving around with Aston Martins, and Bentleys as they fight in line for the valet parking lot. My High School was kind of like that, except without the cars and the valet parking. One student had a new VW Jetta though.
After my own personal tour walking around in 85 degree heat with jeans on, I meet up with Rachel to have lunch. We haven’t seen each other since High School, and it was fun catching up, though sometimes I had to stop myself from asking her questions about the 405 commute. "Don't do i
t Steve, don't do it" I thought to myself. "Talk about pretty and fun things like chocolates and traveling." Some people might think I’m crazy back home talking about a freeway so passionately. But I tell you the 405 has been know to either make or break people, and I will not be broken. What’s that line in Gone with the Wind before they go into intermission? “As God is my witness, as God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.” Just take out the lying, stealing, cheating and killing part. It would create too much traffic.
4 comments:
Hilarious. You should have been a writer. This reads like a Robert Kirby piece.
I dig the title of your blog, there's a lot of truth there and plus it's original! If you ever hit rush hour on the 405fwy, try the 90 marina fwy west to pacific ave in venice to wilshire and head straight across to westwood - it never let me down before!
How funny that our paths would cross in such a way on this world wide web. It is strange that you would find our blog on Rachel's, but more strange that she would tell you about her blog (I thought she'd given up on it) and that would be how you found us. I like your blog, now I can find out about the rest of your family.
10:41 PM in Utah and Michael Phelps had just won his 7th Gold Medal...already a little goosebumpy at this point with a little tear for pride for the USA (plus that piece on Kobe Bryant...never thought I could like him). Then I decide to see if there are any new additions to your blog. Oh Steve how you never let me down.
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