LOST Chapter 18, Verse 2: The Palace

Continuing in my graduation series, here is the second installment of my favorite college Space Traveler memories.

Countdown: 9days, 15hours, 10minutes until graduation.

MEMORY #2: The Palace

I was a resident assistant for a few years while in college. I'm sure many memories to come will perhaps also have to do with that fact. The second memory is the community I lived in my second year.

I was originally supposed to live in a new building on campus, but when China bought up all the steal back in 2004, the construction stopped and the campus had to find an alternative location to place all the displaced students. Some RAs and their communities were put into a hotel for the first semester. I on the other hand was put into a off campus location for the entire year.

It would become "The Palace." Originally abbreviated as "TP" for "Tenth and Pine," the corner it was on.

It was the second floor of a building in downtown that had been renovated to accommodate extended stay visitors to the area. Below it was a salvation army thrift store. For any college student, living above a thrift store meant an endless supply of vintage clothing and an immediate excuse for putting off laundry another day.

$8 to wash my clothes, or $2 to buy a suit that only my grandfather would wear. The choice was often obvious. We proudly would parade around campus as the most fashionably challenged, but were strangely confident in our uniqueness.

I lived there from August 2004-May 2005, so I was there during the election and I got to see the dynamics of young academics trying out their ideas with each other. I saw them come together to form a very tight knit group.

In January, I was stuck in traffic on I-44 on my way to St. Louis when I received a phone call from my supervisor. She informed me that one of my residents had died. he had died on his way home to St. Louis, and it was at that time I realized that the traffic I was in was the result of his accident. With no real way to exit the highway, all I could do was inch forward in the stop and go traffic, and after some 20 minutes, I was able to see the wreckage. As I drove by I cried and was overwhelmed with sorrow. It would be the closest thing I would get to a "goodbye."

I was sad that day not because I lost a good friend, but because I realized that I had become caught up in the excitement of The Palace and had supported those who were really into the community while perhaps not giving more back to those who were more introverted. You see, I didn't know Ryan that well, and I had not really taken advantage of the opportunities I had been given to know him.

I had not even been that great of a RA to him. He would come by and complain about noise, and I would rarely act on it because the noise was being made by my most active residents; the ones who endorsed my idea of community there.

I was troubled with guilt, and when I returned the next day, I gathered all of the community together and told them what had happened. the guilt I experienced for not being better, was shared amongst the group as many felt similar feelings.

After a few solemn days, Ryan's parents came to collect his belongings. they left his couch and TV because they said that the idea of making room in their house for these items would be too painful. The day after that, a letter appeared on the wall. It was written by Andrew, one of Ryan's roommates. It was an honest and forward letter about who Ryan was for those who didn't have the chance.

For me this letter let me forgive myself in many ways because what I was punishing myself for at the time was that I had not taken interest with him like I had the others until it was too late.

The community came together in a new way after that, and to this day have found ways to live together.

In fact, in May, when I move, I will be living with two of them in Northern Virginia.

Our life in that building was full of many unique things, and I know that I can never look at a Salvation Army Store the same again.

Chapter 6, Verse 2: Two Days in the Valley

Silicon Valley that is Space Travelers. I drove down from San Ramon to the Sunnyvale area to visit my friend Will Li. Will and I lived together for a year in the famous Palace. It was not uncommon for me to go to St. Charles with him and stay with his family. Will Graduated in May 2005 and has been doing some really amazing things.
He is a Computer Engineer and a Computer Scientist which makes it perfect that he is in the Silicon Valley, a hot spot for ultra nerd activity.

Since I was in the area, I called my long time friend Jessie to come out with us too. Jessie lives in San Jose, also in the silicon valley. Jessie, and I grew up together in Springfield and she now floats from job to job in the San Jose area.

As a side note: Being that the silicon valley is a hotbed for nerd activity, it's also primarily male. So basically, it's a really fancy Rolla Missouri. San Jose is more commonly referred to as "Man Jose" in adoration for its askew male to female ratio.

So being in the valley is different. Different in ways, that would be hard to put into words. The party: Will, Jessie and myself decided that we wanted to have some sushi. Jessie knew the area best and decided to take us to a place that she had been wanting to go to for some time. Let me speak plainly: This place was the oddest sushi bar I've ever been to. As you see above, they don't put lemon in your water, but instead a cucumber. The oddness didn't end there either. The walls of this very sheik and sophisticated restaurant were covered in very expensive flat screen monitors. Nature videos? music videos? No. Japanese anime.

on every monitor.

and manga in the menu.

Where the hell was I?

Jessie had to go to work so we parted ways, but then will and I went into San Fransisco proper. Will having lived in the area for only 3 months and having quite the rigorous work schedule had not yet taken advantage of seeing the area. We decided to start in downtown.

After driving for what seemed to me like a full week trying to find parking, Will and I finally drove out into the ghetto to park. Seriously, the area we parked was called Tenderloin. We parked as close to the police department as we could and then we hiked back into downtown.

Once we made it back downtown, we began to see fewer and fewer crazy people. This meant that no longer was every person we saw the most bat-shit-crazy person we have ever seen to only like one in ten amongst a crowd of thousands. Also as we returned into downtown proper we began seeing many San Fransisco staples.

We walked all the way down to the Embarcadero Plaza, which is right on the water front. Basically, we were trying to get lost. We accomplished this task with grace.

The water front was a great way to see the entire bay. Above you will note the Bay Bridge crossing over to Treasure Island. Will noted that he would someday like to live over there just to say he lived on Treasure Island. Me, I say treasure is for smelly pirates.

San Fransisco also had this large piece of weaponry just sitting out. There were kids everywhere too which is the worst part. Someone could have lost and eye. Shame on you Frisco!
We were getting hungry and tired so we trekked back to Tenderloin and began to look for food. While we were lost, we accidentally drove down the famous Lombard Avenue. I found a house that was completely made of flowers.
Honestly, we weren't just looking for food. Food is plentiful in downtown San Fransisco. We were looking for the infamous Pizza Orgasmica. Will had recently been on a business trip in New York, New York and had been prescribed by a local there to eat pizza here upon his return. apparently as legend has it, the New Yorkers know their pizza and if a New Yorker tells you to get pizza elsewhere, you do it. As it would turn out, the legend was true. The Pizza was second to none. This is a must do if you are in the area. I'll fully endorse it: Hero approved.

After Pizza, we retired for the night. We drove back to Sunnyvale and watched TV with Will's roommates.
The next day, we returned to the city. As I have told many people before this adventure, navigating San Fransisco is a challenging endeavor.

Today we had only one real destination, and for that matter, neither one of us knew what it was. A few weeks prior to leaving, I was reading my weekly favorite blog; the post secret blog (click on the side bar). Someone had posted a link to Google maps a to where their secret spot was here in San Fransisco. I decided to bookmark this place and make it a priority on this trip to see it. Today was the day to do it.

The drive there however gave birth to a very large distraction. As Will and I navigated through the hilly streets a large dome appeared in our peripheral vision. We both agreed that this was too large of a sight to simply pass up so we decided to put our current mission on hold and go investigate. As it would turn out, the large dome was a part of the "Palace of Fine Arts," which was built in 1912 for the worlds fair and in this hero's opinion was the most impressive thing he's ever just found on accident.

Some creatures were not able to appreciate the beauty of the Palace. The ducks above continuously tried to drown themselves.

Others like myself were quite taken by the numerous lagoons and shady hallows. This place is probably one of the best cheep dates you can go on.

Finally we made it to the secret spot. It was a fishing pier. As we were taking photos, I realized something: We were the only tourists there. Everyone there was a local. no difficult parking, nothing.

Perhaps best of all was the fact that this secret pier gave way for the best photos of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. We walked around the area for a while and of all things came to consensus about one thing: having a dog would be awesome.

Being in such close proximity to the Golden Gate, we decided to cross over and see for ourselves. The bridge itself seemed to span for miles on end. As I crossed I remembered a frightening statistic. The bridge is the USA's most popular place to commit suicide. I watched the people crossing on foot and wondered if any were thinking of jumping.

Once across we got to drive through the tunnels! I love the tunnels. It reminds me of the movie "The Graduate," which by the way if you haven't seen, you simply must.

Once across, we pulled into the fancy harbor town of Sasilito and walked around for a while. There were numerous boutiques and restaurants, it seemed to be a great place to go on a date with the assumption of wealth.

The sun was falling and we were hungry for cheap food, so we returned to the valley and called it a day. For me, I was sad it was over, but I felt quite fulfilled otherwise. That night, I tried to learn how to Play DOTA and was spammed as being a n00b. Although true, it was a tad harsh in this hero's eyes.

More to come in the near future Space Travellers. Stay Tuned!