I made it!

10:30am today: Wonder why Shaowei hasn't called me. I later figure out he forgot I asked him to.

10:50am: I leave for Stanford to check my mail hoping the Budak CD has arrived. It hasn't. I also decide not to get Philz. It's a long drive and I should space out my caffeine intake.

12noon: Arrive at Gilroy. Super packed. Camped out for parking at 2 different spots (Holland-Village-style!) before getting a spot. Have fun shopping with Shaowei Cynthia Clar Qianwen and Bert. Joel, Tam and Joel's family were around there too. I buy a nice maroon long-sleeved shirt and 2 (yeah, 2) pairs of shoes. I feel slightly strange that I bought 2 pairs of shoes at one go. At some point it suddenly occurs to me that there are a ridiculous number of Asian people there (including entire families speaking Mandarin), and almost no white people.

2:50pm: Meet at Applebees for "lunch". Fantastic meal. Steak, shrimp with parmesan (yeah I ate shrimp) and HUGE sides. Oh and quite a bit of pretty good Mango Long Island Iced Tea.

4:30pm: I leave Gilroy for San Diego while the others begin Round 2 of shopping. Was amused at how indignant Clar was about the preposterousness of napping after lunch when there's so much more shopping to do. I also discover that approximately a gazillion other cars decide to leave at the same time as me. It takes me about 10-15 mins just to get out of the parking lot. Thankfully they almost all get into the freeway in the opposite direction I'm going.

About 10 mins later: The sun sets. Was quite nice driving through the curvy roads leading to the I-5 in the dusky lighting. Would have been nice to have some light for more than 30 mins of the drive though.

Some time after that: I realize long solo drives are just like long plane flights when I can't sleep. I spent most of my time listening to my iPod, watching the scenery / clouds go by, sometimes sitting in silence or talking to God. Except this has the added dimension of me also being the pilot.

Somewhere around 8pm or so: Stop for gas. Gas is expensive! Then I realize an extra 20 cents a gallon only translates into an extra $3 for 15 gallons. Not a big deal. Also, I discover the gas station shop is selling Christian T-Shirts. Very random. I saw one that was quite nice. Bought it. :) Oh, and I calculate my average gas mileage. Roughly. It's around 24mpg. Given that almost the whole tank was spent on the freeway, that is abysmal. I am shocked and consequently (and somewhat neurotically) try to shift into neutral whenever I encounter long steep downhills in order to save gas.

Not long after that: No. of cars on the road has increased, and it remains that way until Alan's place. The road is also wider. This is good because driving with many cars around feels much more interesting than driving on a sparsely populated 2-lane freeway.

10:45pm: I suddenly realize the exit is coming up way sooner than expected. I check my mirrors and merge to the right, and as I do that some guy (in an Acura TSX a.k.a. Euro Honda Accord) tries to overtake me from the right going much faster than me. I am momentarily surprised and confused. He ends up having to go on the shoulder for a bit after passing me. I assume it's a guy - few girls drive like that. I am strangely unrattled. Thank God for protection!

10:55pm: I reach Alan's house in San Diego! My drive is officially successful, and surprisingly, caffeine-free. His house looks very nice from what I can see. Pretty good time - I expected it to take about 7 hours but made it here in 6 hrs and 15 mins, including one gas stop (yup I only stopped once). Well. Technically it was 6 hrs and 25 mins, but I feel justified in discounting the 10 mins it took to get out of parking. Amazingly, there was no LA traffic problems, save about 5-10 minutes in slow-moving traffic because a lot of cars were getting out at this one particular road.

Ok. Time to shower and sleep. My eyes are really tired... worst part about driving at night is the constant glare from the oncoming headlights. But thank God Forrest and I made it here in one piece! =)