DATELINE -- Paso Robles, Calif....

What an awesome visit to the ol' homestead in California! Wow, I've really needed to get out of Oxford for a while now...

Took a 2004 Ford Mustang GT convertible for a spin down the 101. For those not familiar with this piece of roadway, it is both California's angelic transportation artery and demonic traffic nightmare. I dropped the top, cranked up some Dr. Octagon, and worked myself into a 90-mile-per-hour ecstasy as I cruised down to SLO-Town for a little R&R.

Drove through Cal Poly's wonderfully droll campus and realized just how much I miss being at a college where students actually dress like college students. The sheer diversity of pink and purple hair blending with blonde, brown and black creates a visual landscape unlike anything that will ever hit where I'm living now. The mix of Goth kids, Campus Crusaders, Hippies, International students, Indie scensters, posers, surfers, skaters and Preppies forms the perfect salad of vegetative academic bliss on a hot May afternoon. I'm proud to be a Poly alumnus.

Stopped by the Graphic Arts building and talked up a pair of female KCPR deejays over cigarettes. We talked about many, many things, but mostly about how much music sucks nowadays and how what was cool three or four years ago is now just fodder for the trendy cattle.

I miss girls in battered jeans and unwashed t-shirts, girls that just seem to radiate sensual independence. There's something real about them, something beyond what is seen. I thanked them for the conversation, then booked it for downtown SLO.

Downtown San Luis Obispo is the quintenssiential college town...you've got your art house cinema, your coffee shops, your bookstores and head shops. You've got your hobby shops and your gamer shops, your record stores and Kinkos. I spent a good amount of time wandering the streets, hunting down ghosts of long-gone businesses and forgotten memories...

The best thing about coming back to SLO Co. is visiting my folks and my baby sister. It's been too long since I've gotten to hang out with them. Through everything I've been through in life, my family's always been there for me. I know the time will come when I'll have to buck up and be there for them, too.

Tired...sunburnt...still jet-lagged. Sister's dog is farting and snoring in my guest room. Need sleep and ventilation...