Ernie! S.O.S. Our Time Machine and Robot Need Fixing!

Today was the usual day, with some unusual humor that I thought I would share with you.

Over the weekend Meghan's (co-workers) computer was taken over by a vile Greek. I mean Trojan, or something of the sort. Either way it completely marauded her system, taking out all means of office printing and a location for her to work.

Meanwhile last night J. Bradley (also a co-worker) was working late to get things done sp that he could head up to Portland for Stream Bed Analysis Course. Computer Crashes, leaving him distraught and panicking. 6 hours of work seems lost.

No worries. Lets all use the Time Machine! That's right we have a time machine in our office. Unfortuneatley, it too broke in our most misfortuitous of weekends.

My boss Andrew called our tech guy stating "Get here quick Ernie, our time machine's broken and Meghan's Bot isn't doing its job!" Well, the time machine is a program in our server used to autosave backup files so that time are not panicky like bradley's was last night. The bot that wasn't doing its job was SPYBot on Meghan's Computer. Yeah, so bland now, huh?

Also, I got in a spicket spat with Andrew. Not really though, I just like the alliteration. We were debating over how to spell it, spigot, or spicket. I went with his way, cause well...he pays me money. However, I did look it up. Spicket and spigot are the same thing, different spelling, just a case of regional dialects and time changing what a word is. What sayeth thou now?

I also worked my first 11 hour day today, so I am tired.

My Oh My

Everyday here in Tahoe is beautiful, either its sunny, or its snowing.

Lake Effect Snow FTW

It was pointed out to me the other day, that I had moved from one vacation location, to an even more exclusive one. I guess that's my way of not needing to vacation too much.... darn.

An amazing thing happened today, something I don't know that I have personally ever experienced. It snowed today. It snowed weeks before Halloween, which, by the way boggles my mind. It didn't snow much, but it did just enough to keep me distracted from work as i could see the snowflakes falling through both periferals. I had lots to do today, but I am pretty proud about my success before the clock struck 5. I coordinated, assembled and formatted no less than 50 details on 9 sheets in the past 2 days. As this was only the 75% design docs, there is still work to be done, one being metric units needing conversion, but i will deal with that next week, if someone else doesnt take on that role for me.

I went by my new place after work to get my lease signed for my move-in next month. Yay exciting. My own refrigerator...Ive never had my own before. I was told by Cindy, the landlord, and her husband Dave, that they seem to have a nearby resident bear, who on description sounds an awful lot like MY bear. They also said not worry though, their dogs run that bear off, or the wrong direction into the front yard. But atleast they make the bear afraid, right?

As for me, tonight is quiet. And I am quite jealous as Doug is off with Sean and his parents in a weekend of contests of American splendor. That is...the Stanford game, a Sharks game, and the 49er's all in one swoop. Wow! Still jealous though. Me and my snow will get on just fine without you and your silly games. Thank you very much! Haha.

Lions and Tigers and Bears? Oh Yes.

I suppose it indeed has been awhile since I sat down and forced myself to retell some tales..of myself. I guess however it would be good to catch some people up on the current events in my life so that it is widely know that I was not swallowed by the Lake that is Tahoe.

Things have been going pretty slowly here, all things concerned. I have two new roommates, temporary ones, which seems to be the norm up here, though I suppose I am one as well since I will be moving into my studio next month.

Two weeks ago, I attended church in Incline. It was very nice that there was an acoustic guitar to play with the hymns, and that they played my favorite one too. Shout to the Lord. It gets stuck in my head even thinking about it. I talked with the minister, and he suggested that I check out all five of the "good" churches in North Lake so that I would find my place. OK then.

The next week was spent frantically trying to put together a statement of qualifications for a project that came up in Yosemite Park. 4 Days and many hours of scrambling, we created a nice little book about ourselves, including portfolio work...and my senior project.... who knew? Incidentally I answered a call from the Yosemite Fund after hours two fridays ago and our office, PR Design & Engineering Inc. was one of 4 chosen....including EDAW....uhoh.

Last weekend I took a day and half off work to go take part in a red carpet event. Robyn formerally known as Carmichael's wedding. It was quite the ordeal, and I am happy to say that it was one of the most fun Ive ever had at a wedding. With the wedding in the Old Movie theatre, The Fremont, the top hats, popcorn and prewedding slideshow trivia they were quite inventive in their themes. Even the vows alluded to films but my favorite comes from Derek (the groom). our love makes "Audrey Hepburn skip her breakfast and teaches Clark Gable how to give a damn."
Doug and I left early in the evening to make our way back north for school and work in the morning.

On another note, mountain life hits a little closer to home than I was perhaps prepared for. Not long ago, I returned home from a visit at Dougs. It was about 930 at night, and I had just parked at my house. I was walking across the street towards the door, when i heard a dog bark. I turned, expecting to see the neighbor's sheepdog Shiloh. Instead I see a huge brown bear looking at me as if to say, "Don't look at me, I didn't bark" It was a large thing coming atleast up to the back window of the explorer next to where he stood. And that was on all fours. I would guess that he/she weighed 600-800 pounds. I wish i were exaggerating, it was big.

That's all for now, as I am on my lunch break and will be driving to Truckee to pick up yet another packet put together by my office.

I have an address!!

In other news, I now have a mailing address.

Laura Minkkinen
P.O. Box 642
Kings Beach, CA 96143-0642

Ask me for my other address if you're not using USPS.

What does the CCC mean to me?

What does the CCC mean to you? Civilian Conservation Corps? California Coastal Commission? California Code Check? Yep, wait...what?!!

I'll explain in a moment. I have now been living in Kings Beach, California on the northern shore of Tahoe for six days. It's been a quiet start, as my roommates of the moment work odd hours, that do not seem to correspond with mine...silly people, What are they thinking? The town is very small, and much to the surprise of my parents, there isn't even a McDonald's....haha, cause I need one? Atleast I can say that living in small town I haven't driven much. Once I was settled in, I have driven three times, otherwise I bike, or walk to work.

Those three trips in my car included two to the grocery and one the Reno, which I must say, was a beautful ride, that I would love to see from a passenger seat someday....preferably from a car taller than my own. At Reno, I found the essentials; the airport, Kohl's, Wal-mart and of course, the mall. Haha....

As far as the community goes there are alot of Mexicans. I mean...a lot of Mexicans. If I would walk down the street and had a dollar for every time some Mexican looked back out his car at me, I would make more than I do Engineering. Seriously, I'm not joking.

But anyway, as far as work goes, I haven't really gotten too involved yet. The draftsman at our work had his last day last week as he moves on to bigger and better place, Cal Poly's Architecture Program. I guess I will be picking up his slack and taking on other responsibilities too. Including the Logo and Website. Today, being day three at PR Design & Engineering, I had my first staff meeting, and was assaulted with a series of abbreviations and acronyms. I was laughed at for my ignorance, but I'm not worried about it yet and they told me to look up the things when I have a free moment in the office. Learning and being paid to do so?! What an idea!
Alright, I'm off to eat a sandwich that I rode my bike to procure.

The bright side?

I had an interesting attack of nerves this morning. I know that I will be starting work in 2 days, but the excitement came when I realized that I will be walking to work in the morning...or bicycling. I'll probably walk on Wednesday, just so I can time it. The walk is easily less than a mile, which will be nice on gas demands for my car. Especially after a tax estimate ripped through my salary.

In other news, regardless of impact on gas needs, I can't wait to get the Explorer.

Welcome to the Real World.

Long story short, I have a job! I am proud to say its not just any job, or atleast its not just any location. My job is in Tahoe. One of the most beautiful locations in the country. What more could I ask for? I will be working for a green civil engineering and consulting firm. Crazy times and short term moves, the Minkkinen way, I will be starting work on Wednesday after moving into a home just on Tuesday.

Wish me luck.

I'm out.

Crazy Busy Times at Tahoe and Beyond. Part 2

After being dropped off in Woodland by Sean at Doug's home, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of tacos provided Doug's mom, went to bed and woke for a late start. I started the drive south and Doug finished it with a twist, or atleast new scenery. He took us off the main drag and we enjoyed a drive west of 101 that started south of Gonzales. It brought us into Paso Robles withsome great heights and great views of Lake Nacimiento, with only about 20 extra miles on the trip.

Once we returned to Atascadero, I went with Doug down to SLO so that I could take part in the trial hair run. After spending about an hour with Vanessa, Karis and Stephanie on hair decisions, I went with Doug and Greg to firestones to eat a much needed sandwich.

On Tuesday there was very little that Doug and I did. I showed him a little more steps of east coast swing, and while going out for lunch he noticed something I did not. It looked as though it were snowing on my car. Small particles of ash were falling from the sky, almost too small to see, but large enough to give an amazing sunset. I went to bed early that night in preparation for Brenda's big day.

I woke at 4:30 in the morning, careful not trip over Doug's sleeping form on the floor, and got to work. I parted my hair in the manner I would wear it, and then headed into the garage to my pile of boxed in search of the most important thing of the morning, my espresso machine. I spent another hour curling and pinning my hair, washing my face and gathering the rest of what I needed for the day. I woke Doug up and we drove down to SLO racing the sunrise. Doug dropped me off and I arrived at the Mansion ready to finish my own hair and help where it was needed. Everyone's hair basically was completed by the time Brenda arrived at 6:30 when we needed to head across town, fully dressed, to the Salon where our Brenda was made up and our makeup was done. It only(cough, cough) took about 45 minutes per person. When we finished we quickly stopped at the mansion to pick up Teri, who was dressed and ready to go, with he hair up in a neat braided twist. We quickly took a couple photos and headed our way to Pismo, everyone dressed for the occasion, but the bride, who would dress in a little more style than her party.

When we arrived at SeaVenture, we quickly made sure that the groom was not present, and led Brenda up to her mother's room where she dressed, and we took some photos helping her get ready, and shared in a toast. Once we were all ready, we descended to the main floor, all the while making sure the groom was not in sight. We got in the limo and headed to an estate on the coast who's owner allows bridal party pictures. We spent some time framing Brenda with girls and flowers and posing with trees and smile. At 10:50, we left and headed back to SeaVenture, piled out of the limo and then waited for the ceremony to start.

The girls in this ceremony walked alone. I was first and though there was no man by my side, I managed to find my way, stumbling in my heels through the sand. The ceremony was simple, short and surrounded by a handful of friends and family. I'm pretty sure its exactly was John and Brenda wanted. Though there was fog on the surf, there was not glare from the sun, and from what I can tell, it made for some pretty nice photos. After we took some photos of the bridal party, we left Brenda and John for their own pictures and headed up to the reception for some hors d'oeurves. I dined on some delicous Halibut with Mango salsa...sorry John... and danced the rest of the time with Doug, and old friends.

We were back in Slo by 5 pm and stopped by the afterparty and found our niche with a bunch of nerds. We went to dinner at the Shack and spent the better part of an hour discussing Fantasy books and the possibility of Robert Jordan's last book to be good even though it will not be written by him. Doug and I were back in Atascadero by 7:30 and even got a bike ride in, just in time for another beautiful sunset, once again provided by the fires in Big Sur.

Doug spent another 3 days with me. We did nothing remarkable to the average person, but it was special for me. We went and visited Derek and Robyn in Los Osos who I had not seen for almost 4 months. It was nice spending time with them, and challenging them in a couple rounds of Halo and Foosball. Even though it was late, the skies were clear once inland and we went out to Santa Margarita to star gaze and watch as they fell from the skies. Our conversation was only occasionally interrupted by a moo from a distant cow and not a car passed by to ruin our view.

The night that Doug left, he planned to take the bus from Paso. We decided it would be nice to go bowling up there until midnight, and then wait for the bus that would come at 12:40. It would have been nice were it not for two things. One, the cop, and two, I did not want him to go.

After we left the bowling alley, finishing our fourth game of unlimited bowling, I headed towards the trainstation. Slightly distracted and talking with Doug about whatnot, I was suprised when I saw colored movement light up my rear view mirror. I pulled over. The cop approached, asked me if I knew how fast I was going. "No" I was going 45. He asked is I knew the speed limit, "No" Apparently, it was 30. Hmmm. He didnt ask me if I had been drinking, which I hadn't. He took my info and returned stating. "I'm going to have to give you a warning." "whew" Close one.

A little teary eyed and upset from the state of events. Doug convinced me to get out of the car to play some frisbee in the lit, but extremely empty parking lot. It wasn't long till one of the trees decided to play, and we stopped. Instead, Doug took me in his arms and we danced. It's not everyday that will find you dancing, under the stars in a trainstation parking lot. But that day is with me, every day.

Crazy Busy Times at Tahoe and Beyond. Part 1

I figured out the yesterday, that other than San Diego, I have visited ALL of the main hot spots of California, in just the past few weeks. After the trip through Yosemite, the first time visit to Disneyland and moving into my sister's house in Atascadero, I have done, still more, than the average Californian does in a lifetime.

Two weeks ago today, I headed up north for many reasons. The foremost reason was for a job interview that I requested from a medium sized firm in Auburn, Ca. Auburn sits in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. I was driven to my interview by Doug, who's family has once again graciously allowed me to stay in their home. The interview was simple, mainly a comparison of professors we both had and a few comments on my graphic and layout abilities. Because Jeff, who I interviewed with also graduated in a time of slow hiring he understood my reasons for requesting the interview, gave me a kudos and guaranteed me, that though I have had few nibbles, someone will bite.

After realising I had left my phone in Doug's car I had to return to the office to use their phone so he could come pick me up. That in the end worked out because I am sure the administrative assistent, Mary, will remember me. Doug returned quickly after i called him and we headed into the hills in search of an park to eat our picnic. After driving for a good half hour, and no park in sight, we eventually settled on eating under a tree in the sports fields of one of the local private schools. We ate a sandwich, cheese and crackers and some delicious grape juice that I purchased on my way north. Doug also told me of his anger against an oak in the outfield. Apparently he hit a home run back in high school into the tree that was then inaccurately called an out by a stand-in umpire. It's amazing how those high school grievances still itch.

Because it was two weeks ago, I am not sure what we did in the early part of Thursday, but we did lose track of time. I was floating on my back in the swimming pool when, lo', Sean Kircher walked outside the door of the house. Apparently traffic was the best it has ever been and he arrived almost an hour early to pick us up for Tahoe. Yay Tahoe!

The drive to Tahoe was full of inside jokes and guffaws brought on by the two men in the front seat. Though we passed the view of smoke beyond the mountains, I was quite content with the ride. We arrived at Sean's house in Carnelian Bay at almost dinner time. Sean's dad Tim was there, ready with the 23' speedboat to bring us to his brother's condo down the shore for dinner. Once we got to the dock, I was a little wary of disembarking because the dock was atleast up to my shoulders when standing on the edge of the boat. In the end it worked out because there were many afoot, including sean's cousin, ready to help. The boat was tied off with what are called whips. (some devilish contraption that look like fishing poles and suspend the boat both at the dock and slightly away from it) WE headed up to a condo with a view unsurpassed by many living rooms I have seen. Floor to ceiling windows across the entire lake side of the condo. Our dinner was one of Kobe beef tri-tip salads and wine. After the sun set we headed back out on the lake to enjoy the fireworks held in Tahoe City...I think. We stopped for a drink at the bar across the street from sean's house and then went to one of the Casino's in Nevada where I quickly lost two of Doug's dollars. :( After having good times and bad, Sean left up $20 from some games of blackjack, unfortuenately, his cousin did not fare so well.

Our actual Independence Day was rather cool but the lake was still. We took the boat out again and went tubing behind it. It was cold, but enjoyable. Though we had snacks on board our boat, we stopped at a house on the west shore owned by a family friend. They also were armed with delicious food, and a much needed bathroom. After lunch with wine and Mai Tai's we headed back out across the lake towards Carnelian Bay. We did stop once however for Tim and Doug to throw Sean in the Lake for a much needed dip. After we returned to sean's house, he took a nap and Doug and I enjoyed a delicious rib dinner with his parents.

On Saturday we spent the entire day out on the Lake, with Pam's (Sean's Mom) Springer Spaniel puppy Dutton, in Tow. (Not literally) We tubed for a while, I was pushed in, no less than three times, once, fully clothed, we swam and even let Dutton take a try at it. Though, he too, was wearing a life vest. All of us, except for Pam and the Pup did something that is rarely done, we tubed across the middle of the Lake. (apparently the waves are a little high for most people) The day was basically a tour around the lake, except for the one cut across the middle we made. Tired and beaten by the sun, we ate cheese, crackers and chicken that night followed by much game playing.

The next morning Tim asked his brother if we could borrow his wave runners. We spent about 2 hours on the lake leaping over wakes and exploring the more affluent shore fronts from afar. I was suprised at the not so suttle difference of driving a finicky waverunner with a passenger, versus, a responsive one alone. We ate lunch at a restaurant filled with foreign servers. Ours was a Russian girl who told me that Coke and Pepsi were the same thing......language barriers.... We said our goodbyes and headed towards Sacramento to the tunes of Journey, Queen and Clapton.

Thank you Sean for driving...and for the invitation as well.

112 is too hot for me.

It was a time of firsts in the past week. While not the first in my family to graduate from a university, I was the first to do so right before a fire alarm vacated the hall. I visited Yosemite with almost my entire family, minus Kara and Brandon, and we also saw the giant sequoias. Upon return, I left to visit the Magical Kingdom for the first time in my life. That's not to say I haven't been to any Disney park, just not this one. I even got to ride all the rides, b/c of my friend Brittny's elite skills at using her handicap, and see the interior of Space Mountain with the lights on....after legitimately fearing a crash, and for my life.

Today was the first time I experienced a day well above triple digits. It hit 112 in SLO today and my own room was 101. I just think that's too hot for me.

Insult to Failure

As I was riding my bicycle home from school today, after 2 hours of slow, slow, quick quick, slow slow quick in dance class, I found myself cut off by a vehicle in the apartment complex known as Mustang Village. Unfortunately to my skin and my dignity, my bike decided to sidled up next to the curb when I hit the speed bump in the road. AS awkward as I found this particular tumble I took from my bicycle, I was greatly suprised by my head, rolling over the front end of my handle bars, and my bicycle flipping over with me. Sprawled out on the road, a man in a golf cart stopped to grab my newly wrought basket and asked if I was ok. I was ok, luckily I managed a graceful fall and because I was going so slowly, i acquired no road rash. I did however bump a bar or two and my elbow had a jabbing fight with the pavement. I got up, laughingly took the embarrassment and made my way home.
I quickly grabbed a snack because Mary was picking me up to go get some Italian Freeze on our first warm day, and we walked downtown a little before her work hours started. We went into Gap and Express. At Express we had a debate about whether a top was a dress or a shirt. I went to try it on the fitting room, and there I found an insult to my earlier injury. There on my shoulder was a six inch tire tread mark from my bicycle.
Later news, we went to go see a sneak peak of Forgetting Sarah Marshall only to be constantly cut infront by other student nabbing free admission to the movie.

Right now, I dont know if i am going to bed anytime soon. When Jackie and I were dropped off from Mary's(movie night) two cops were sitting outside in our neighhborhood in the dark, one with his gun out. They shined their lights on us, but we quickly went inside to hide from the happeings. Also, there is a helicopter flying around outside. Jackie called, and all they said is that they are " looking for someone"

Haha

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud toward him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. 

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany. 

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. 

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 10-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." 

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud. 

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on, amused, as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. 

Then the Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" 

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" 

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government," says Bud. 

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" 

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew,to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep. . . . 

"Now give me back my dog."

Attacking Umbrellas

This past weekend I did something which a person of my timidity with strangers is unexpected to do. I went networking.

I joined my roomates Jackie and Anna on a trip north to San Fransisco, where the firm Hart Howardton was host. They gave both an alumni get together and a student walking tour of the company's projects through the city. We left early Friday afternoon and spent the three and a half hour drive singing any songs of which we knew atleast a respectable portion of the lyrics. We got into Lafayette at about 5 and then Anna and I took Bart into the city to meet and old friend and join to party at the firm at One Union.

Much to my suprise, Anna and I were the ONLY students at the party. Apparently we were crashing the alumni party. My own department head did not recognize either of her students present, but Anna and I did get a few thumbs up and kudos from the few professors there. I met with a couple people who were from different firm types including CalTrans, who apparenlty is a very good employer, an irrigation company, and a girl who works for a firm who does solely high end resorts. I got all their cards and plan to maintain some sort of correspondence with them. After the food was eaten and the alcohol consumed, a partner in the Peter Walker (big name) firm asked us to go out to a bar down the street. We accepted the invite, but found the whole situation boring and some particular conversations innappropriate. I recieved one card from a girl who was none too sober. She didn't think that we would like where she was b/c it was away from the hubbub of the city in Napa. (sounds great!) We walked around that area of the city for a little while and then our friend Kevin drove me back to Jackie's for the night.

I woke at 7 am the next morning to the smell of bacon. Jackie's dad made a breakfast for champions of eggs, toast, bacon, potatoes and toast. Yum! Jackie quickly took me to Bart station where i made my way to the embarcadero and then walked to Union once more. The partner of the firm remembered my name from the previous evening. (exciting) There was bagels and coffee, which i had no inclination to eat and the firm gave a small presentation of their work. I was uninterested. 200 people, one office, downtown SF. Yeah....no. We started the walking tour in a light drizzle and headed to Levi Plaza, original design by Laurence Halprin. The rain picked up. We walked through downtown and stopped at the pier and ferry building where they had a wide array of foreign cheeses and oils. We continued onward and the rain and wind picked up. We finished the walking tour at Union Square in the rain.

Kevin met up with me and Anna and we went to lunch inviting one of our professors, Vangelli (Greek). The Boudin bakery is where we ate lunch and i enjoyed every bite of my turkey and havarti sandwich. We stopped and H and M, with thoughts of Europe. I bought dress pants for $20 and a hair clip just like the one I lost somewhere in France. Anna dragged us to a soap store called Lush and we tried samples of exfoliant and wierd shampoo bars. It was interesting. After washing our hands of the whole affair, we walked to Chinatown. Amazingly enough for timing, last weekend was the weekend of the Chinese New Year, so the streets were packed. Everyone was buying cherry branches and orange trees. There was a market going on down one of the streets and I bought some candy that I am fond of. The unfortunate thing about Chinatown in the rain it the people's heights. Everyone was shorter than us. Their umbrellas were too. All three of us were constantly dodging umbrella points so that we would not get poked in the eye or beheaded. From Chinatown we walked far towards Lombard street, stopping at diverse starbucks along the way for their restrooms. When we got to Lombard street we did something i will only do once in my life. We walked up it. Tired and worn out, we tried to get the best pictures we could. We headed west from the top of Lombard and walked back towards the Embarcadero so that I could catch Bart and meet up with Jackie. A long time later Jackie picked me up at the station.
That night we went out to celebrate Jackie's birthday with good italian eating. Her dad is from Boston so he is very particular about his italian. The next morning we slept in and met anna at Target. We then drive home with the spectalular view of a series of rainbows following us down the coast.

Lesson of the weekend-We were told this weekend would be a big networking opportunity, but had we not crashed the alumni party, i would not have met anyone to spark my interest and alieve some of my fears. Students of legal drinking age are not responsible enough to say no to alcohol and cannot be invited to parties. Therefore, they must crash them to get what they need out of life.