Bumbling On Through Midtown

So, I just found out today that De Anza grades on a different scale than Cabrillo does. Because it is on the quarter system, De Anza grades with "+'s" and "-'s" and weighs the GPA scale accordingly. I have not done any reading or studying at all during the semester, and as a result I have a 91% in the class. I thought this would be good enough for an "A" (because it is at Cabrillo, which is on the semester system), but then I wondered why my grade was stated as an "A-" rather than simply an "A".

In short, I have to get my ass in gear over the next month in order to get a proper "A" grade in the class. Its hard though, because I view the class as elementary and not worth my time AND it is located waaaay up in Cupertino, so I am always in a bad mood when I get there (y'all know how I get when I drive). Anyway, wish me luck!

Its kinda funny. My friend H.A. (the gay, Hispanic, fat, ex-con, recovering drug addict one) is one of my closest friends now. Now, I want to share something with you that i am not particularly proud of: I was raised to be extremely bigoted of homosexuals and highly disdainful of Hispanic peoples (unless, of course, they had converted to the LDS church). So, in addition to becoming a better man through a) volunteer work, b) coping with death in a fashion that is not self-destructive, c) the rigors of school, d) working honestly and respectfully, e) the motions of heartbreak and f) learning how to work in positive relationships with the opposite sex, I have also learned to be a much more tolerant and open human being. I think Jesus would be proud of me.

H.A. has a lot of gorgeous women friends, and he regularly tries to make "matches" for me. There is one that he may have gotten right, but only time will tell. As for me, he actually brought me along with him on a meetup with somebody he'd only had communications with through a friend.

I told him that I thought the guy was cool, and my friend - who is flamboyant to say the least - said that he thought he was too "femmy". I laughed. H.A. used to be a crack-ho in a rough Santa Cruz neighborhood about two blocks from my house. Now he has standards and a lifetime of choices to make for himself. I don't like the program. I don't like what my sponsor is making me do, but I like what I see in my friend H.A. I'll stick with it.

I have gotten accustomed to eating at restaurants in midtown, where the Pink House is located. I like the food and the service more. Its a bit more my style: a little rough around the edges but on the whole a fairly decent place to take a seat and plop.

The west side has, by far, the worst food selection in town. Remember, the west side is where all the spoiled brats from suburbia live and where the rich folks of Santa Cruz reside. Needless to say, most of the bigger chains are located on the west side, while the more local stuff is in midtown or over on the east side and into Live Oak. One great place on the west side, though, is Cafe Brazil. It has amazing burritos, and lots and lots of young, slutty college girls pass through there at all hours of the day.

The weather in Santa Cruz has revealed to me why I pay such a high rent every month. I live in the crown jewel of the American Republic.

I am still trying to figure out both love and death. With death I realize that everybody dies, and that somehow, someway, everybody lives on. Love is a different matter. I'm still trying to figure it out.