A Little Favor

If you are not too busy, I was wondering if you could say a little prayer. I have just had about the worst week I have could have possibly ever imagined in my short nineteen years of existence. Tuesday, my best friend Shasta had to be put to sleep. That was one of the most aweful things that I could have imagined. The rest of the week I just looked forward to seeing my family. Then the weekend came, and it plummeted downhill. I do not want to go into what happened but my friend is going through a really rough time and it is affecting me, Austin, Mary, and my friend Sineadh extremely. Everything looks like it is going to be ok, but if you could just send a little prayer to help us out, that would be awesome.

If I haven't told you lately, just wanted to make sure you know I love you.

The Wonder Dog

Tuesday afternoon, I am walking to class and all of a sudden I get a phone call from my sister. She is coming today to visit, so I figure that she has questions on what to bring or what not. I answer and she is hysterically crying. All of a sudden I hear her mumble, "Derek! Mom... and Dad... had to.. put down Shasta!!!". My heart stopped. "I will call you back in five minutes." I turned right around and walked back to my dorm. It took every ounce of my being to not lose it. Once I got back to my room I lost it, I am tearing up right now just writing this.

We got Shasta when I was barely three years old, I do not know life without her. She was the most amazing best friend a guy could ask for. Last night I just laid in bed thinking of all the times she has been there for me. She would rush to the door when someone knocked and would smile as she greeted them. Many people thought it was a snarl but it was a loving smile. She would walk outside and cruise the neighborhood while we were not home. Everybody loved her.

I got an e-mail from my mom. She said that she had been really struggling the past few months. Her legs would give out, she was getting sores all over, and her eyes started twitching. They brought her to a vet and the vet proposed a brain tumor. At Shasta's age of 16, what on Earth could they possibly do? My Mom said it well, "She was too good of a dog to suffer like that." She was so right, but I wish I could have just said good-bye. I miss her so much. That night everyone in my family called, and my Dad called last. He broke down while on the phone with me. One of few times I have heard this. He spent her last weekend with her at her favorite place in the world, the cabin.

I know it was her time to go, I am just so upset I couldn't say good-bye.

Shasta, may you rest in peace, and please know that I will always love you.

RIP
Shasta "The Wonder Dog" Gardner
1/9/93 - 10/21/08
What is a man to do without his best friend?
A house without a dog is not a home.








The Gardners lost a family member Tuesday, not a pet.

Everytime Without Fail

So tonight, Charlie and Mary came in to mine and Austin's room to "do homework". I currently, was on a roll preparing to write my essay but was still happy to see them. We were talking having a grand old time when I decided it was time to get down to business. I can't concentrate when I can hear people talking so I put my headphones in and went to work.

I was writing an essay on how Facebook makes our relationships more superficial and deep, meaningful relationships basically are starting to disappear. I was killin' the essay for a good half and hour and almost done. I was making my last point, and wrapped it up with a nice quote. Now the conclusion.

Cricket.... Cricket....

I had nothing. Why is it every time, no matter how well you are doing, when you are basically done with your essay that you can't think of anything to say. I basically sat in front of my laptop and stared for a good ten minutes. Then Cherise and Jordan walked in.All hope is lost. I give up. I just started talking to Stephen and Amanda on AIM, and Kelsey on Facebook(ironically).

Finally, screw it. I completely BS'd it. My conclusion probably makes absolutely no sense. Now that I think about it, I should probably go back and go over. But I really know that I am not going to.

At least its just a rough draft. But lets get serious, I am not really going to change it for the final draft either.

Burn After Reading

Tonight Austin and I ventured over to Tempe Market Place for dinner and a movie. I know, cute, right? We went to CPK and then saw the 9:40 showing of Burn After Reading. I went in, hoping it would be funny but not really expecting a whole lot. It was hilarious. I would highly recommend it. Brad Pitt is a freaking riot. It was so crazy and random, I think you all would highly enjoy it. Quite harsh language, but hey, what do you expect?

Burn After Reading
Rated: R
Now Playing

Go see it!

Happy Yom Kippur Everyone

Today is the wonderful holiday of Yom Kippur, so Austin and I decided to celebrate. You might be thinking to yourself, "Derek, you aren't Jewish?!?!". I know, I know. As a college student, I want to try new things, experience different cultures, things like that, you know? So now you are probably trying to think of how we might have celebrated today. Fasting? Ceremonies? Temple? Psh! As if. Austin and I didn't go to class today in honor of Yom Kippur, then we went over to Manzy to dine in style.

Go us.

One Of My Only Regrets

So this weekend Austin and I went up to San Francisco to visit some friends and go to the Cal/ASU game. Walking around San Fran the first day brings up one huge regret, why did I not apply to school up there? I love that city so much. I really like ASU but I think I would have absolutely loved going to school up there. One of my only true regrets in my life.

Do We Really Have That Bad Of Karma?

So I am sitting in a lounge in UC Berkeley right now at 4:57 am, and waiting for the sun to rise. You might find yourself asking, "Derek, why are you doing that?", and I will tell you, oh boy, do I have a story for you! Austin and I flew up to San Francisco for the weekend to visit Katherine, Lisa, and Lindsey. It has been a ton of fun and have loved every second of it. We started packing tonight at about 3:00 am so we could just wake up and leave.

Austin and I are flying out of San Francisco airport, which is about a 45 minute train ride from Berkeley. So someone has the good idea of checking to see what time we have to leave to make our 8:30 am flight(why the hell did I book it that early?). So we go on and it tells us that the first train arriving at SFO will arrive at 9:17am.

Oh great, just enough time to be 45 minutes late! Uh-oh. So we go talk to Katherine's roommate Simone(from Oakland), to see what our best bet is on getting to the airport. She says we can either try and take a bus or a taxi. We call the taxi.

"How much is it to go from UC Berkeley to SFO?"
"About $50."
"Bye."

Lets try the bus. She looks it up for us and says, well, you are going to have to walk, bus, bus, walk, and then bus again. Oh great, two kids who have never been on a public bus in their life have to manage that at about 5:00 in the morning. I don't think so. Great, here goes another $50.

So we have to get in a cab at about 6:00 am to make sure we get to the airport on time. Austin and I decide that if we went to bed for an hour and fifteen minutes, we would be more tired than if we just waited up. So we are currently just sitting on our laptops killing time. Hopefully we make it home.

The world officially hates us.

Isn't It Just The Pits?

Close your eyes and picture this; well I guess you need your eyes to read, so don't close them, but still picture this. You are taking a test, and you come to a question. For the sake of the argument, we will say it is #23.

#23. Number twenty-three isn't that hard of a question, and you are pretty sure once you look at the choices of answers you will know it for sure.
A. Not sure what this means.
B. Yes! I am pretty sure its this.
C. Never heard of it.
D. Is this even English?
E. All of the above.

Why do they have to do that? Once you get to "B", you are so certain that its that. But that God-forsaken "All of the above" just puts those little demons on your shoulders.

"It is totally 'B'"
"Well, it could also be the other ones"
"But I have never even heard of those"
"Maybe I just wasn't paying attention"
"Crap!"
"DGAF, its B"
"I hope"
"Dang"

Curse you Professor McCarthy and giving me a substantial amount of those situations tonight.