Peter’s Neighborhood

Flagstaff to Oklahoma City in 12 hours and across two timezones! Ida started off the driving in the morning through the desert. There were many rock formations and a billion "Indian Trade posts." We didn't stop at any of the locations mainly because we had probably stopped of there on earlier road trips with our parents but also because we hit some traffic due to construction. I took over at the New Mexico - Texas border. My drive was pretty straight and uneventful. The cruise was set to 80 and we coasted into Oklahoma City at 10.

P.S.
Along the way we saw three billboards coaxing people to elect McCain and Palin in '08 which I thought was pretty funny. It shows how often those billboards are actually updated.

Before Ida and I could start our road trip, we went to our friends' wedding. We had known Jessica and Joe even before they started dating; watching them getting married was nice. Ida was a bride's maid which meant that we arrived at Jessica's place a day early for the rehearsal.After the rehearsal, we had a delicious dinner (tri-tip) at Jessica's place followed by some socialization with everyone. During this time I was given the duty of transporting the boutonnieres to the wedding site the next morning.
I woke up early the next morning, got ready and performed my wedding duties which now included putting up signs to direct traffic to the wedding site. When I arrived at the site I was amazed at how beautiful everything was. It was located in a field close to a man-made lake. The ceremony was held in a gazebo with seating for the guests facing the gazebo. Everyone I knew at the wedding were part of the wedding party (Joe, Jessica, Chanae (Jessica's sister), Katie, and my sister), so I found a seat by myself to enjoy the wedding.
The ceremony was short, sweet and barefooted. Yes, barefooted. Joe and Jessica wanted everyone in the wedding party to be barefooted so that was a unusual idea for the ceremony. It all went smoothly and before I knew it, the wedding was over. I had to stay back until the pictures were done with so that I could chauffeur some of the people over to the reception. For a moment, I had thought about taking some pictures myself but was just too lazy to go back to the car.
When the pictures were done, we headed over to the reception. Since I knew no one, I sat at a table with stranger and made conversation through the meal but the real fun was when the music and dancing started. The father-daughter  and the mother-son dance were sweet. Jess and Joe were fantastic at their first dance and pulled of some cute moves as well. The formal dancing was done and everyone one else was invited onto the dance floor to show their stuff. I went up and started dancing with the bride's maids. There was an epic dance battle going on in a circle which cause everyone to focus on them and make one big circle. Since the circle took up the entire dance floor, everyone became self-conscious and basically stopped dancing. Soon enough the misc stopped -after only 10 minutes of dancing- for the cutting of the cake. Following the cake cutting and tossing of the bouquet and garter, music resumed for another 10 minutes but as I headed to the dance floor, it was stopped again to bid the couple a farewell.
Clean up was in order, which we helped with and then headed back the Jessica's place. After changing and saying goodbye to the family, Katie, Ida and I drove back to L.A. We spent the night at Ida and Katie's room mates new apartment.

June 28th

We woke this morning and decided to start the road trip off at a leisurely pace. After heading back to the old house and picking up some stuff we had forgotten behind, we finally go on the road at 12:30. I drove up until we were an hour into Arizona. At that point we had to get some gas and decided to switch. About 100 mile outside of Flagstaff, I fell asleep. I woke back up just in time as we were arriving in Flagstaff. We found our hotel, got our dinner and just watched some t.v.
On the way, we got some pretty amazing pictures of the desert which I hope to put into a collage when I get back to Richmond. The goal for tomorrow is Oklahoma City which is about 12 hours away. It will be some more desert driving but will be over soon enough.  

I can't believe that it has already been 5 weeks! It went by really quickly and was amazing but I am ready to get back to Richmond. My summer duties await me.

The last couple of weeks were spent catching up with friends. I was not able to see everyone on my list or go everywhere I wanted to go but it was nice to see the ones who were available to hang out. Feeling of nostalgia crept up on me and turned into melancholy as we drove up to Central California today for the wedding. I can say now that the stay in Cali was really good and I can't wait to get on the road back.

Today my sister, our friend, Katie and I drove up to Paso Robles for a wedding. Katie and Ida are both brides maids in the wedding. We are hoping to head on the road right after the reception is over and either drive to Vegas and spend the night there or stay at a friend's place in Bakersfield.

Hopefully the weather will be pleasant tomorrow (it's an outdoor wedding) and we can have a good start on the trip.
I will try to update the blog everyday during the road trip (since I did such a good job while I was actually in Cali). Wish us well and pray that the wind is with us - the car weighs so much that any help from the wind will be kindly welcomed.

Sorry I haven't been up to date on this. I know its been more than a week or so since the last post.

Nothing amazing has really happened so I there aren't really any exciting stories to report on. I have mainly been hanging out with my sister and the cousins. We have been hanging out during the days, going out for dinner during the evenings and watching movies at night. There was one night were we headed out to the beach for a bonfire. It was just Ida, Maureene, Sheba and myself. It was making s'mores and playing songs by the bonfire. I took a couple of pictures that I may put up later. When we go kicked off the beach around 10, I drove to the frozen yogurt place I used to go to all the time in Newport. The girls and I have been having a lot of frozen yogurt and I wanted to show them this place because it is the one that got me hooked on yogurt during high school. It was an overall relaxing evening. We came back home, eyes red from the smoke, all our clothes stinking of ash and pretty much called it a night. Yeah, other than that the only thing I can report is now annoying VCU's Student Org. Financial Services has been. They have been Sending me e-mail asking for more info about reimbusments a day before the deadlines. Its really frustrating considering I am on the other side of the country and have to get all my work done three hours ahead of them and on top on that, I am on vacation. It would be nice of them to give me at least 5 workdays notice about these things. Now they are asking me to file a form with my original signature. It can't be faxed or taped of anything. I got an e-mail about it this morning at 9 and it is due tomorrow at 5pm eastern. To make things even better, no one at the office is picking up the phone so that I can tell them that I am 3,000 mile away and that I may have to exetend the deadline. I just have to wait and see if it all works out.

First of all, this is very embarrassing and I don't even know why I would want to post this. It still makes for a great story so I will do it anyways.
Last Sunday we had a relaxing morning and that afternoon I really wanted to go to the beach. We were only 2 blocks away and I still had not went for a swim, which made me feel like I was wasting my time. My grandfather also wanted to see the ocean so my dad, grandfather, Ron, Sheba, Maureene and myself headed out to the beach. At first, I just wanted to hang out and chill on the sand but Ron wanted to go for a swim and convinced me to go in. Moments later I charged the water and started to try and catch some waves to body surf. I was not that successful because I didn't have my fins (fins are used to kick more efficiently in the water to gain momentum and catch the waves). As I was swimming I noticed a rip tide towards the rocks and saw myself drifting a little and came into shore a little and walked back up the beach to stay clear of the rocks. After warning Ron about the riptide I went into deeper water thinking I was clear of the current and just laid on my back to be rocked by the swells. Completely relaxed and loving the weather and water, I was content and just chilled for about a minute.
I was forced out of my calm mood when I heard waves crashing onto rocks. Turning around while treading water, I realize that I am about 20 feet from the rocks. Now the largest sets were only about 2.5 feet but I still didn't feel like being thrown into the rocks today so I started swimming parallel to the shore thinking I was still strong enough to get out of the riptide. When I lived in Newport I had be caught in several riptides and was successful in getting out of all of the but I was really struggling to get out of this one. At this point I knew I just had to let the current take me around the rocks. I glanced at the shore again to gauge how far I had drifted when I saw the Lifeguard truck and a bro diving into the water.
Jeff the lifeguard came through the set and asked me if I was okay. I told him I'm just going to drift around the rocks and swim back in. He deduced that i knew what I was doing so asked me if I had my fins. After explaining that I had not been out in two years and forgot my fins he told me to hold on and he would take me in.
...I got onto the shore and realized that I had become soft, couldn't even swim out of the riptide. I was extremely embarrassed but pretty much over it by now. I am definitely going to have to swim a couple laps in the pool before trying to get out of a riptide again.

Despite a being a little delayed, the flight over was a good one. I was fortunate to have empty seats on both planes and was able to finish my book- The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (Jeff remind my mom to get that book back to you when she gets back and thanks for the long period you lent it to me). I was going to begin my other book Blood Meridian but decided to just take it easy and just enjoy the flight.  After landing in LAX we waited for my grandfather's flight from India to arrive which was terribly nerve-racking because it was a beautiful day and I just wanted to get to the beach. Though I was going mad , it was nice to catch up with Ida and my cousins, Maureene and Sheba, while we waited.
My grandfather finally walked through the customs gate an hour and a half after his flight arrived. We all went back to Ida's house and had lunch. Soon after we dropped the girls off at Biola to finish their final exams. I had the pelasure of driving an hour north with my parents and my grandparents to have dinner with some close family firends and pick up keys for the beach house. I was happy to visit with some old friends even though I was missing out on piking up my cousin Ron at the airport. I am very greatful for Grandma and Grandpa Stevens for letting us use their amazing Beach house which is located in my favorite part of Newport Beach.  Dinner was pleaseant but once we finally got done I took the keys and high tailed it back south to Newport.
Driving my sister's Volvo was great! It is going to be a great car to do a crosscountry road trip. The engine is pretty powerful and really comfortable to drive but the brakes are not as responsive as I would like. Still, It handeles well and I am excited about driving back to Virginia in it.
This was my first time driving in Califronia as a lisenced driver. It was a lot easier to get around in traffic than I thought it would be. We mad it back to the beach house around 9:30 (pm) and at 9:45 I took the keys and deaded to find a parking spot closer to the beach. After I parked the car at 56th street, a well known surfing spot, I headed towards the calling surf. The breeze carried the scent of the ocean and the sand felt glorious under my feet. I was finally in California.

Later that night my cousins and sister arrived at the beach house and I immedeately dragged them back to the beach. We walked to 52nd street this time (it is about a block from where we are staying for the week) and hung out on the lifeguard tower until about 11:15. At this point, Ida and Sheba were hungry so we decided to go on a Denny's run. Nothing too exiting about Denny's, just the usual late night shenanigans and what not. By the time we left Denny's I had been up for 24 hours. (I woke up at 3:15 am eastern, which is 12:15 am pacific, to get ready and go to the airport) Was this enough? No, after going back to the beach house Ida and Sheba went to sleep but Ron, Maureene and yours truly stayed up and talked. We we crashing on the couches in the living room and just stayed up talking. I dazed in and out of sleep but ultimately don't recally anything I had said or done after about 3 but we stayed up until 6. At this point we all just crashed and stayed asleep until 8:15.

This morning Ida had her graduation rehersal at 10. This meant I had to take a quick shower and be ready to roll by 8:50 if I wanted to hang out with my sister and cousins today. We dropped Ida off at her house and went to Biola and basically just hung out at different locations throughout the campus. Up until this point I had not yet driven my cousins 5 series and wanted to take it for a spin. To get my beamer fix, we drove out Target to get some contact solution and other amenities I had forgot to pack. I was impressed with the Volvo but the Beamer was so much more fun. It was a fun car to drive and after a while I drowned out the squeaking breaks (need to get that checked out). At this point I am chillin back at Ida's place waiting for her to finish some work so we can head back to the beach for the evening. I will probably take everyone to the pier and hang out by the Pavilion and Balboa (places similar to Carytown).

It has been fun so far and hopefully I will get a couple of great pictures tonight and more stuff to write about for my next post.

Peace Out!

P.S. On our way to visit our family friends we had to stop at a rail-road crossing for a metro train to cross.

It occurs to me that, the human person is an impressionable one.  The human person can be understood in terms of three distinctions, yet undivided in unity.  First is the body.  Physical.  Always changing yet having a substance that remains recognizable despite such change.  Second is the mind.  The mind perceives the body, the senses, and the appetites.  It is superior because the senses are collected in the mind and the mind makes decisions whether to regard or disregard the appetites of the body.  Third is the soul.  Definitions of soul vary widely.  For Aristotle, soul is what gives the matter of the body its very shape and abilities.  In a Platonic sense, it is the true identity of the person, more real than the body.  In an ancient Hebrew sense, it is understood in terms of desire, deepest desire.  It is also equated with a person. 

The body is impressionable in a few senses.  In a very simple sense, skin responds very directly to that which it comes into contact with.  I noticed recently that a tag on my clothing left the imprint of the designer's name in my skin.  Skin is impressionable.  It will respond to any firm or ridged object that it comes into contact with.  The body is also impressionable in the sense that it can be deformed by external stimuli.  And it is impressionable, because it responds to the internal system.  It can change shape and proportion depending on food intake and muscle stimulation. 

The mind too is impressionable.  According to Aristotle, it is not the eye that sees a tree for the eye only perceives color.  It is the mind that distinguishes the color and lighting on a tree from everything around it.  The mind then abstracts from this sensory data, the concept of tree.  The mind works with these abstractions of everything we experience in the world.  Aristotle says that mind is all things.  By its nature, it can take both the sensory form and the abstracted form and become the shape and form of whatever it thinks about.

Soul then remains, though unanswered.  It would seem reasonable that the soul, the deeper reality of the person -- the life force, the locus of desire -- is impressionable.  Is it static while the other two distinct qualities of a person are dynamic?  Does the soul respond to stimuli or bear impressions such as the body? Does it take the form of things like the mind?  Does it alter or change in character in accord with  a third set of criteria?

I am reminded of a trip that I made to Italy a few years ago with a friend.  It was the first time that I experienced Michaelangelo's Slaves.  The Academia In Florence houses his David, which is truly magnificent.  But in the corridor leading to David sit the Slaves.  The Slaves are unfinished statues of varying stages, originally planned for a project that became sidetracked.  They are largely ignored given their contrast to the perfect David, but their presence is well planned.  They demonstrate what the sculpting process looks like, and their crude form and theme of bondage is in stark contrast to the completed David.  Not only is the statue in perfected form, but he too has just conquered Goliath and so as a man, he has just been perfected. 

The Slaves are largely ignored, but I was compelled to spend some time with them.  It was fascinating to see the various stages of completion and to see the crude, chipped surface - evidence of the very chisels Michaelangelo used.  The entire surface of the statues is dimpled.  You can see that he worked methodically and progressed evenly, rather than one part at a time. 

The unfinished nature of the Slaves also adds to their theme i.e. bondage.  The strong poses depict the ongoing nature of the struggle against their bondage along with a variety of emotions.  The interesting thing about my experience with these statues is that I was actually comforted by them in a way.  Being in Italy was not without tension for me.  There is a strong romantic and love-esque characteristic in Italy (and much of Europe).  Additionally, the cities of Italy are a strong attraction for couples in love to visit and experience...together.  I felt very in tune to this and to my own sense of longing and resultant distance because I was not there with someone to share deeply the trip.  So Michaelangelo became salve for my soul as I pondered the nature of the struggling slaves. 

How was it that I was comforted by stone?  Stone that spoke to my own heart and gave me hope?  Just as stone preserves a vision of beauty in the feminine form, so too does it preserve a vision of suffering in a struggle.  This preservation is not of simply physical characteristics, for it captures qualities that are not physical.  Does not beauty move us deep inside?  Is not suffering felt deep within?  The stone therefore makes real and in a way becomes evidence of these nonphysical qualities.  The Slaves present an image of struggle, and their crude and unfinished form adds to this sense of struggle, and desire.  The stone seems to cry out for completeless, begging for freedom.  

It was this stone that spoke to the rough edges of desire in my own heart.  The tangible pain in the stone let me touch my intangible pain, and comforted me.  When one feels pain, one is also tempted to think that the pain is not even real.  How can you prove that you are in pain to someone?  But the stone evidenced to me that it was real, and this was comfort.  Though the stone preserves a picture of suffering, it remains a source of hope because suffering passes.  We only know that we feel suffering because we have known something else, something opposite.  As the suffering in my heart passes, I know that I am not the stone. And so in the midst of the romance of Florence, Michaelangelo's 500 year old stone comforted me in my hurt. 

Four of the slaves are in the Academia, and two of them are in the Louvre, Paris.