Swampy California
I'm back in the blogging game Baby! Let's see what I have to offer the world...
I just happen to pick the rainiest weekend of the year to visit California. It rained 9.14 inches since I arrived on Thursday. Here we go.
Thursday:
So I finally made my first trip of the year out to LA this past President's Day weekend. It will be one of several, I'm sure. It didn't start out so good. I flew out of JFK this time instead of La Guardia because it was cheaper, and I could get a direct flight instead of my usual connection in Atlanta. The traffic was terrible at 4:30pm on the Van Wyck. Damn you New Yorkers, go to work and stay off the road! I'm such a jerk. I'm starting my weekend at 3pm Thursday afternoon. I arrive at JFK to realize this is one of the worst airports in all of the US. It's huge, cumbersome, convoluted, and dirty. There were tons of people fighting to talk to the ticket agents. All I wanted to do was to check in my bag at the machine. After an uneventful flight, I arrive at LAX and the first I do? Pick up some In N Out. Mmmm..... Actually, I really think this place is overrated. It's good, but nothing to drool over. For instance, my old PeopleSoft roommate and a few friends had a surprise birthday party for another friend this one time. They offered to take him to any place he wanted for dinner. That any place turned out to be In N Out. Umm....I don't think that guy was too bright. C'mon, a double double at In N Out or a Cowboy Ribeye from Ruth's Chris. Nuff said. Finally, I arrive at Justin's place in Hermosa Beach and crash for the night. For some background, Justin's a guy I met on Loveboat in Taiwan. A bunch of us alumni still get together once in a while and catch up on old times and new times.
Friday:
I head over to the Tireco office. Justin's been gracious enough to let me take a look at the Oracle system that his company has implemented. Long story short, I want to take a look at it because I may need to integrate a PeopleSoft CRM system with an Oracle Financial system in the coming months, and I want to get some background. At lunch, the IT people tell me that there's a surprise birthday party for Mimi in the breakroom and that I should come. I have no clue who Mimi is and why I should be going. After some explanation, a few diagrams and a beatdown, I come to realize that Mimi is Mrs. Liu aka Justin's mom aka one of the founders of Tireco. We celebrate her birthday, I meet Justin's sister, I read some Oracle training manuals, and it's all fun and games.
That night Justin and I met up with the usual loveboat peeps, Grace and Steve (Grace's hubby), Jane, and Dennis and Mika. We went out to a Korean BBQ place. Mmmm....beef. Jen and her boy, Leonard, were supposed to come too, but ran into some car trouble. Afterwards, some bubble tea with everyone, then we split up. It was bed time for the married couple. Everyone else moved on to Nic's Martini bar in Hollywood. It was a swanky little joint. I could've done without the old people dancing on the makeshift dance floor. I could've also done without the touchy owner. The girls thought he looked like a little better looking Josh Groben. I admit he was very good about taking care of us, but for some reason he really liked to pat me and Justin on the back. As the night went on, he threw in the swirl too. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when the hand is placed on the back, and a 3/4 swirl is added all while the hand stays on the back. It can either be clockwise or counter-clockwise. Regardless, it is quite uncomfortable for the insecure heterosexual male. On a lighter note, we saw a girl that went to the bathroom that either was or looked like a spitting image of Katie Holmes. I really hope it was her because I'd swear she gave me a smile on the way out of the bathroom. Then again, it was probably because I was staring uncontrollably at her.
Oh yeah that's nice...
Saturday:
What a leisurely day of avoiding the torrential rain. After some breakfast, Justin and I hit some golf balls at the range. That started out quasi-Ben Stiller movie weekend. We watched Starsky and Hutch when Grace and Steve and Dennis came over. We just hung out some more until we all split up with seperate dinner plans.
I headed down to Irvine to meet up with Davi. The very pretty girl I met at UMD, worked with at PeopleSoft, and finally ran into quite randomly at Buffalo Billiards in Dupont over Thanksgiving weekend. Her friends were playing at the table next to me and my friends. We briefly caught up, and I promised to look her up next time I was in SoCal. Back to the present now. We were supposed to meet with another PeopleSoft friend, but he bailed out because of a hard night of partying the night before. Now it was just me and Davi. WooWoo! We drove north to Long Beach and had dinner at a sushi place. We tried to catch up everything that's been happening in the past 3.5 years. I also found she was seeing someone now. Damn it. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I still figure I can try to charm the pants off this girl. I made her laugh so hard at one point, I thought she would choke on her fish. Anyway, to continue the night, we now headed slightly south past Irvine down to the Spectrum (some outdoor mall) to grab some drinks. We kept catching up and I kept trying to charm, but as the night revealed, to no avail. But I'll consider this a long-term project. She did tell me that she's going to be back in MD in March for her sister's birthday. Coincidentally, it's my brother's birthday the weekend after. Perhaps I can fenagle another dinner with her. To be continued?
Sunday:
Finally met up with Jen for dim sum back in Irvine. She brought Adam with her and Dennis joined us again. I didn't remember who he was until I saw him. He's a really nice guy, but strongly suspect he bats for the other team. He's too hyper and knows too much about Nordstrom discounts and hair places to not raise flags. Anyway, that lunch reminded me of some frustrations I have with Jen. I wish I could help her more, but I can only do so much. The rest of the day was spent watching Dodgeball, dinner with Justin's family and family friends, and passing out from jet-lag and exhaustion.
Monday:
I flew out of LAX after a 2 hour delay because of snow in the NE. I also got upgraded to 1st class. Yipee! It was too bad that I sat next to a guy that deserved to be on the show Airline on A&E. That's the program that it shows the biggest assholes that roam the airports and the nice reps that have to try and deal with them. The guy felt like his first class seat didn't recline far enough because of the wall behind it. It was complete BS. He practically yelled at the gate agent and demanded a new seat or flight credit. He should've been grateful that he was in first class in the first place because it was a freaking UPGRADE. Why do people feel entitled to something all the time? Whatever happened to feeling grateful for what you had? I think this world is going to hell.
I just happen to pick the rainiest weekend of the year to visit California. It rained 9.14 inches since I arrived on Thursday. Here we go.
Thursday:
So I finally made my first trip of the year out to LA this past President's Day weekend. It will be one of several, I'm sure. It didn't start out so good. I flew out of JFK this time instead of La Guardia because it was cheaper, and I could get a direct flight instead of my usual connection in Atlanta. The traffic was terrible at 4:30pm on the Van Wyck. Damn you New Yorkers, go to work and stay off the road! I'm such a jerk. I'm starting my weekend at 3pm Thursday afternoon. I arrive at JFK to realize this is one of the worst airports in all of the US. It's huge, cumbersome, convoluted, and dirty. There were tons of people fighting to talk to the ticket agents. All I wanted to do was to check in my bag at the machine. After an uneventful flight, I arrive at LAX and the first I do? Pick up some In N Out. Mmmm..... Actually, I really think this place is overrated. It's good, but nothing to drool over. For instance, my old PeopleSoft roommate and a few friends had a surprise birthday party for another friend this one time. They offered to take him to any place he wanted for dinner. That any place turned out to be In N Out. Umm....I don't think that guy was too bright. C'mon, a double double at In N Out or a Cowboy Ribeye from Ruth's Chris. Nuff said. Finally, I arrive at Justin's place in Hermosa Beach and crash for the night. For some background, Justin's a guy I met on Loveboat in Taiwan. A bunch of us alumni still get together once in a while and catch up on old times and new times.
Friday:
I head over to the Tireco office. Justin's been gracious enough to let me take a look at the Oracle system that his company has implemented. Long story short, I want to take a look at it because I may need to integrate a PeopleSoft CRM system with an Oracle Financial system in the coming months, and I want to get some background. At lunch, the IT people tell me that there's a surprise birthday party for Mimi in the breakroom and that I should come. I have no clue who Mimi is and why I should be going. After some explanation, a few diagrams and a beatdown, I come to realize that Mimi is Mrs. Liu aka Justin's mom aka one of the founders of Tireco. We celebrate her birthday, I meet Justin's sister, I read some Oracle training manuals, and it's all fun and games.
That night Justin and I met up with the usual loveboat peeps, Grace and Steve (Grace's hubby), Jane, and Dennis and Mika. We went out to a Korean BBQ place. Mmmm....beef. Jen and her boy, Leonard, were supposed to come too, but ran into some car trouble. Afterwards, some bubble tea with everyone, then we split up. It was bed time for the married couple. Everyone else moved on to Nic's Martini bar in Hollywood. It was a swanky little joint. I could've done without the old people dancing on the makeshift dance floor. I could've also done without the touchy owner. The girls thought he looked like a little better looking Josh Groben. I admit he was very good about taking care of us, but for some reason he really liked to pat me and Justin on the back. As the night went on, he threw in the swirl too. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when the hand is placed on the back, and a 3/4 swirl is added all while the hand stays on the back. It can either be clockwise or counter-clockwise. Regardless, it is quite uncomfortable for the insecure heterosexual male. On a lighter note, we saw a girl that went to the bathroom that either was or looked like a spitting image of Katie Holmes. I really hope it was her because I'd swear she gave me a smile on the way out of the bathroom. Then again, it was probably because I was staring uncontrollably at her.
Oh yeah that's nice...
Saturday:
What a leisurely day of avoiding the torrential rain. After some breakfast, Justin and I hit some golf balls at the range. That started out quasi-Ben Stiller movie weekend. We watched Starsky and Hutch when Grace and Steve and Dennis came over. We just hung out some more until we all split up with seperate dinner plans.
I headed down to Irvine to meet up with Davi. The very pretty girl I met at UMD, worked with at PeopleSoft, and finally ran into quite randomly at Buffalo Billiards in Dupont over Thanksgiving weekend. Her friends were playing at the table next to me and my friends. We briefly caught up, and I promised to look her up next time I was in SoCal. Back to the present now. We were supposed to meet with another PeopleSoft friend, but he bailed out because of a hard night of partying the night before. Now it was just me and Davi. WooWoo! We drove north to Long Beach and had dinner at a sushi place. We tried to catch up everything that's been happening in the past 3.5 years. I also found she was seeing someone now. Damn it. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I still figure I can try to charm the pants off this girl. I made her laugh so hard at one point, I thought she would choke on her fish. Anyway, to continue the night, we now headed slightly south past Irvine down to the Spectrum (some outdoor mall) to grab some drinks. We kept catching up and I kept trying to charm, but as the night revealed, to no avail. But I'll consider this a long-term project. She did tell me that she's going to be back in MD in March for her sister's birthday. Coincidentally, it's my brother's birthday the weekend after. Perhaps I can fenagle another dinner with her. To be continued?
Sunday:
Finally met up with Jen for dim sum back in Irvine. She brought Adam with her and Dennis joined us again. I didn't remember who he was until I saw him. He's a really nice guy, but strongly suspect he bats for the other team. He's too hyper and knows too much about Nordstrom discounts and hair places to not raise flags. Anyway, that lunch reminded me of some frustrations I have with Jen. I wish I could help her more, but I can only do so much. The rest of the day was spent watching Dodgeball, dinner with Justin's family and family friends, and passing out from jet-lag and exhaustion.
Monday:
I flew out of LAX after a 2 hour delay because of snow in the NE. I also got upgraded to 1st class. Yipee! It was too bad that I sat next to a guy that deserved to be on the show Airline on A&E. That's the program that it shows the biggest assholes that roam the airports and the nice reps that have to try and deal with them. The guy felt like his first class seat didn't recline far enough because of the wall behind it. It was complete BS. He practically yelled at the gate agent and demanded a new seat or flight credit. He should've been grateful that he was in first class in the first place because it was a freaking UPGRADE. Why do people feel entitled to something all the time? Whatever happened to feeling grateful for what you had? I think this world is going to hell.
posted by Steve at 10:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home