Twas an excellent weekend. Indeed it was. In fact, life has been excellent in general lately. I haven't had a low in weeks, even when I was sleep deprived. And now the hard work is over and I get a break between papers and midterms, and it's very nice.

This Halloween was a perfect one - it just happened to be close to a full moon, and the sky was clear of fog or rain. In fact, it was downright warm the other day. The night before Halloween, me and Ricardo went to my old apartment-mate Tyler's improv show, and then to a dance at Merrill. It was a really good dance, with lots of people, since it had started out with a zombie crawl from all the dining halls to the dance. We missed the zombie crawl, but the dance was awesome. Everyone was in costume, including me and Ricardo (or Rachelle, as he said to call him ). We both got a lot of comments and compliments on our costumes, mine as "clever", whereas for "Rachelle", everyone kept coming up and feeling his fake boobs because they looked so realistic. I joked that they belonged to me, and he agreed, since it was my padded bra that made them look so real. But anyway, we danced with abandon.

At one point, a guy in a creepy baby-faced mask came in and started moving around in such a way as to be really freaky looking, such that when he came up to us, Ricardo says he nearly screamed, he was so freaked out by it. The way he moved, he held his head in one spot while twisting around the rest of his body slowly in unnatural ways. Later, he came up to me where I was dancing to a song I really liked, and whispered in my ear "Let's Battle." I was caught off-guard, but I went along with it. I wasn't sure what to do, since I don't really don't professionally, and just kind of dance however I feel like dancing. But he gestured for me ot make the first move, so I did, at the end of which I ended up blushing and laughing in embarrassment because I'd never done this before. Then he finally made his move: he stood in one spot and held his head still, and then reached his arms down and around, so that they appeared to be spinning in their sockets. He must have been double-jointed or something because I'm pretty sure normal people can't move like that. But it was freaky, and that was the effect he was going for, I'm sure. He didn't even dance - he only challenged me so that he could pull that move and freak everyone out. Not knowing how to respond, I simply laughed and edged away back to Ricardo, who was watching from afar, too scared of the creepy guy to stand closer.

Then we got back into the dance, and Michael Jackson's "Beat It" came on, and me and Ricardo made up a choreographed dance for it. That was fun. And the party finally ended at 1:00am with the song "Around the World" by Daft Punk, and me and Ricardo danced in circles around each other, improvising like we did in Modern Dance class last year. We clapped, satisfied with the night, and went home.

The next night, Ricardo called me and said he was getting a group together to go downtown and see all the costumes, get dinner, and then come back and go to the dance later. I ended up inviting my friend Toro, whom, as it turns out, Ricardo knew already. None of the people that Ricardo invited showed up, so it turned out kind of nicely, with just the three of us, already knowing one another. So we were able to have a pretty good time. We caught a bus, and downtown, Pacific Ave was roped off and people were crowding the street, parading back and forth in costume, looking at all the other costumes. We joined in the costumed parade, an iPod commercial, a fake woman, and some sort of tribal deity (I'm not sure what Toro was, but he had awesome-looking make-up and a pretty cool robe). We walked the street and decided to eat at the Santa Cruz Diner, famous for its extensive menu of delicious foods of all sorts. They had everything from breakfast to dinner, from American to Asian food. There was a little something for everyone. I myself ordered a little something called "Death by Brownie". Yes, that's what it was called. When I ordered it, the waiter gave a knowing smile and a wink and said, "I make an extra large one, so you know it'll live up to its name." And sure enough, it did. It was delicious. Toro said that it looked obscene... which it did... but that's just because he couldn't believe I would eat that much brownie chocolately ice-cream goodness. I ate the whole thing except for one last chunk of brownie at the bottom, which Ricardo then finished off for me.

We then walked the length of Pacific several times, watching the crazy costumes. There was one group of Wizard of Oz themed characters who had set up a cart with a boom box on it, which they wheeled around, occasionally stopping to dance. We caught them right as they danced "Thriller", and it was SO COOL. They weren't the only one with that idea. One person was dressed as a robot, and inside the robot costume were speakers playing the song. Walking with the robot was a kid, a little boy, who was dressed as Michael Jackson and who was a seriously talented dancer. He danced down the street like MJ himself. There were many other costumes too, but to recount them all would take much too long.

After a while, we caught a bus back to campus and went to the dance. Me and Ricardo entered in a costume contest, me in the "most original" category, him in the "funny" category. I thought for sure that I'd win, since people had really liked my costume, and I hadn't seen a single person with a costume like mine despite all the people downtown. But I didn't win. The home-made pterodactyl won. Which, I have to admit, was a really awesome costume. But Ricardo told me that I should've won because, well, animals are done all the time, but how many people think to do something from the media? But anyway... Ricardo didn't win either, though we both came really close. He was up against a nerd with really crazy dance moves and a guy dressed as a gay army recruiter. They all had awesome dance moves which made it really hard to choose. Ricardo did his bend-and-snap move, the really ridiculous one that required the curves of a woman to pull off... and he pulled it off! But the gay recruiter won, I suppose since that hasn't really been done before.

But we had a great time. Toro was self-appointed photographer and took killer photos of the whole thing. After the contest, all the really good dancers grouped up in the back, including most of the contest participants, and we all danced together and it was awesome. Then, fashionably late, arrived Lady Gaga - Lana, a really good dancer who usually dances with me and Ricardo at every dance. She had told me before that it was her goal to be known by the entire school as the really good dancing girl at all the dances. And I think, with this one, she achieved it. She made such an entrance, with her shades and a rod with a glowing globe at the end, that everyone cleared out a space for her, and she jumped in the middle. The entire crowd of people stopped dancing to watch her as she danced to a Lady Gaga song with all she had. She MUST have been a professional dancer because she was GREAT. Afterwards, she joined us in dancing, and we danced the night away...

"Beat It" came on a second time, and me and Ricardo were able to work out even more of our previously choreographed moves. A guy dressed as Mario came up to us and complimented us on our dancing. But eventually it ended, and we left, once more happy at the turn of events. But I was waiting for Tatiana to return to campus, since she wanted to see my costume, and I wanted to spend some time with her, so I went to Ricardo's place to hang out with him until she called. We stayed up listening to various songs that Ricardo had found, and watching music videos that he wanted to show me. It got really late... and then, all of a sudden, it was early. And we realized: the time change! We groaned. It was the bad time change, and we had just lost an hour sleep. After that, we both got really tired of waiting up, and eventually, I gave up and left to let Ricardo sleep, and told Tatiana that I'd just put up pictures.

But yes, fun times. Yesterday, I slept in, went to the gym, and then studied with a kind-of-not-really friend from my Lit class for our midterm today. There wasn't enough time in the midterm, so I scrambled to finish it, and feel like they were second-rate answers, but what can I do? There wasn't enough time to make them better. So I'm not worrying about it. And now I'm done with all my tests and papers until finals week. And life is sweet and relaxed. The other night, too, Patrick came over to share a glass of milk and chocolate with me, and me, him, and Kim had some excellent girl-talk... or, at least, he and Kim did. I just kind of listened and responded, since I don't really have much to say on the topic (boys, as usual). At one point, Patrick told me that he thought Ricardo had a crush on him. Which, of course, was semi-awkward for me, but what can I do? I simply noted that it might also be that Ricardo is simply a very friendly person, which he is. It's a good thing that I didn't tell Patrick that I liked Ricardo, or else I feel that things would be much worse... I probably would've had Patrick pitying and trying to console me. *cringe* But anyway, after that the topics moved on to better things, like how to tell a guy you like him, which Kim has been struggling with for a year and a half, whereas Patrick seems to be able to pick up men like flowers. It was funny for me to listen to Patrick's suggestions ("Watch a movie in the dark with him and throw popcorn at him and get into a food fight", "Tickle him", "Just tell him you want to f*** him"), and then to see Kim's face as she comtemplated actually doing these outrageous things.

Today I suggested to Heather, whom I have yet to really hang out with, that we hang out this weekend, since I finally have some free time. She agreed, suggesting that we make cake. I was pleased with this answer and am looking forward to the weekend. In addition, Toro has agreed to cut my hair on Friday, since it's getting really long.

My friendship with Tatiana is also growing, despite my not seeing her on Halloween. She invited me to dinner tonight, and we went to Subway, and then to Target shopping. I put on my music and we sang and talked, and I met her roommate. It was a nice evening.

I'm very happy with this year. Things are so much better. And then the other day my dad suggested that for this summer, I just stay in Santa Cruz and find a job here. Which suits me perfectly, so now I'm very excited about that. The only thing I have regrets about at all is Mary. I haven't seen her in such a long time, and I didn't get to spend much time with her this summer, and now I'm not going home for Thanksgiving and won't see her until Christmas. I hardly talk to her anymore because whenever I call her, she's usually busy with work, tired, or on a date with her new boyfriend. It makes me sad because I know there's a certain point in a long distance relationship where you get too distant... and then there really isn't any going back. But I'm afraid it's going to happen soon because I just keep moving on, further and further away, and soon I won't be visiting home at all. To be honest, the only reason I want to go home is to see her. But now it's getting to the point where we are different people and we don't know each other so much anymore. I wish that didn't have to happen, but I don't see a way to avoid it.

But besides that bit of sadness, I'm very happy with the way my life is unfolding, and I can't wait for more.