Last night I finally watched My Neighbor Totoro. However, the interesting part is not what I watched, but where I watched it. At Harry Turtledove's house, of course. I did not get to meet him, sadly, since he was upstairs sleeping(?) all evening. It turned out that I had previously spent an evening with one of his daughters since all three daughters are friends with one of my friends from UCLA.

There are only two things that I am going to say about their house. 1) Never have I seen such a large private collection of books before. The entire house was lined with books, which I whole-heartedly approve of. 2) It was a bit surreal to be looking at a slightly dusty Hugo Award sitting on a wet bar.

http://www.funnypicturesandcartoons.com/?go=funny+pictures&image=238

On Saturday night Matt and I joined Andrew at Commerce Casino. We got there around 10pm. Andrew also got there around 10pm, except on Friday. At one point he was up over a thousand, but it was reduced to a couple hundred by the time we arrived. Matt and I both had fairly successful (read profitable) nights, during the course of which a guy at my table actually had a royal flush. This may not sound like a big deal, but the odds of getting a royal flush are about 1 in 650,000. A few hands later, someone else got a straight flush. A straight flush usually receives quite a response, but it was completely dwarfed by the royal. After all, the odds of getting a straight flush is only 1 in 72,000. Real easy, right?

When Matt and I left around 2:30, Andrew was still grinding away at the $100 NL tables. He didn't leave until 5am, for a ~30 hours session.

Spring arrived today with a big thunk, partially due to the construction down the street. Today's incredibly awesome mid-70s no cloud in the sky weather has put me in a great mood. Must resist urge to take PowerBook to Santa Monica beach...

On the way to retrieve my car from the body shop (International Auto Specialists, who did an amazing job and even gave me a little container of paint for touchups should anything unfortunate happen), I was staring out the window at the other cars. That's when it dawned on me that Lexus, Acura, and Infinity all have the same logo, given stretching, scewing, and rotation. For some reason this just makes perfect sense to me.

Tonight I'm flying back east for my brother Marc's Bar Mitzvah. It's a red eye flight, so this should be extra fun. Thursday is picture day, which means that I get to have my hair done at the salon (a necessity after spending the night on a plane) and then pretned to be extremely happy. Friday night and Saturday morning are services, with a kiddush on Saturday. And Sunday night I'll get back on a plane, preferably one flying west. I'm so excited that I could just pass out from exhaustion. Bouncy bouncy bouncy.

However, before I leave, there are six and a half million things that need to be done. Pick up stuff from the drug store, return the evil rental car, steal Matt's car so I can get to my last class of the quarter, go to my last class, pack. I think I'll start by taking a shower. Right now. ::splash splash::

There are very few things in life that are better than coming home from a stressful day and finding a cupcake on your desk. And not just any cupcake, mind you. My favorite cupcake (which, sadly, is from Starbucks): delicious vanilla frosting with yellow and white round sprinkles sitting on top of moist yellow cake. Now, a cupcake is a very small item that gets used up very quickly, but the effects last for hours. Today, about 15 hours later, it is still making me happy. :-)

On Monday the weather finally decided that some rain would be good. I agreed, absolutely loving the rain all day. I even turned off the radio in my car to listen to the rain hitting the roof of the car. Then I was late for my 4pm class due to all the fender benders on Wilshire. Apparently no one around here figured out that the road gets wet when it rains.

After class, I offered to drive two guys, Kevin and Dave, home, since both were practically on the way and it was pouring. Unfortunately for me, before we got to the first apartment, the Jeep behind me decided to perform an experiment to determine the value of Planck's Constant. I was fully stopped due to the line of traffic in front of me, while he did not stop before my bumper. What was the result you ask? I'll give you a hint: h is still a very small number.

We pulled over onto a side street to examine the damage and trade information. That's when I remembered that I put my backpack in the trunk of the car since there were two other passenegers. Unlocking the trunk with a key wasn't enough; the trunk had to be pried open for my enjoyment. During the process, a large piece of plastic fell off in my hand. I just handed it to someone, Dave I think, and asked him to hold it. Dave tried calling 911 while I copied down information. It took five minutes to get an operator, which is pretty scary to think about. After determining that no one was bleeding, the operator said that there were no available cars in the area to file a report, so we should just write down eachother's info and let the insurance companies sort it out. Useful.

We happened to be down the block from Kevin's apartment, so he just walked the rest of the way. Now technically, my car was still drivable. That is, assuming you didn't want to see out the back since the trunk could no longer close. On the way to Dave's place, we actually had to stop for him to push it down enough for me to see.

I made it back to my place without losing any more pieces of my car. It's currently parked in my spot, waiting for the claims agent to examine the damage.

I called my dad to tell him what happened as soon as I got back. He asked if I was okay, and I replied that my upper back and neck were a bit sore. He insisted that I go to the emergency room. Blech. But to UCLA Medical I went (with Matt driving his car).

They put me in a neck brace upon arrival, then poked, performed x-rays, and poked some more. The doctors declared me to not be permanently damaged, just a victim of whiplash. I was discharged. By then, it was around 10:30, and we'd been at the hospital since around 8. However, as we were walking towards the exit, one of the doctors came running up to me. She wanted to perform another test. That wasn't at all worrisome.

A few more pokes and a CT scan later (and 3 more hours), I was pronounced alive, but with a bi-fit spine. This is not an injury, but a common abnormal spine. The resident didn't know this at the time, and it was the source of the extra worry. Then came leaving the hospital, take two. This take was significantly more successful.

Having been pronounced alive, I went to sleep. The next day I began the process of getting my car repaired. My insurance covers $30 worth of rental car per day, so the agemt contacted Enterprise (normally I would not be allowed to rent a car by myself due to my age). I'm currently driving a Ford Fusion. It drives pretty well, but you can't see well out of the back. When all is said and done, this minor disaster is going to cost me about $700, if I'm lucky. The repair bills for my car are going to be between $4000 and $7000, depending on whether or not there is any frame damage.

Yay!