t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


manny woke me up close to 9am. i thought it was still early because it looked dark outside the window but that was only because the weather was very much overcasted and rainy. maureen was already making blueberry + banana pancakes in the kitchen. for breakfast, along with pancakes, i also had orange juice and some filipino drink that resembled bubble ice tea. manny's father tried to get me to try some of his bitter melon dish but i held steadfast in not eating it. i did however take two bitter melons (raw) along with a bag of homegrown tomatoes. after moving all of maureen's stuff into the back of the minivan, we drove off, manny's father quickly pulling out their car to retake the parking spot in front of the house.

the driving condition wasn't very good. apart from the traffic, there was also some periods of torrential downpours with very poor visibility. if nothing else, had least we had the quick access of the speed pass to shave some time off of our trip. somewhere along our route we stopped off at a rest stop, where i was cracking up after hearing some man yell out, "what the...?!" as he almost slipped on the wet bathroom floors. not sure why i found it so funny, it just was. i bought a hot dog before getting back on the car.

the group had a hearty laugh at my expense after i explained to them the premise behind the jet li movie the one, about how each time a copy of yourself dies in another dimension, all the other copies of you become that much stronger, in this weird metaphysical sharing of life forces. manny suggested that everytime a multidimensional version of me dies that i got a little crazier, so everytime i said something remotely out of the ordinary during the trip, they'd reply that maybe another me has just died.

when we finally got to mt.holyoke college (south hadley, ma) we helped maureen move all her stuff into her dorm. what you have to understand about mt.holyoke is that it's an all girls school. in my mind there are two kind of girls who attend all girls schools: those who have sworn off men in the pursuit of sapphic relationships, and those who are man-starved. my assumptions are probably skewed, but i felt very much watched as i entered this forbidden territory, having been a long time since i've been surrounded by so many young and nubile college girls. western massachusetts isn't such a bad place after all!

with the moving done, we drove maureen and her roommate to the place where they pick up their dorm keys and then we left, taking the asspike back to boston. the weather had cleared up ever since we approached springfield to mt.holyoke college, and the rest of the way was smooth sailing. we got back to manny's place in medford where i helped him put back a row of seats in the car. i saw his condo with new home renovation eyes for the very first time, giving him a few ideas of what i would do if i had his place. he drove me back to belmont and then left for boston to return the minivan at avis.

new favorite song: "let the mystery be" by iris dement