After all of our jet-setting the previous two weekends, I was really looking forward to finally coming home. But low and behold, I had to stay in Connecticut for the weekend. We were about to do a conference room pilot on the Tuesday, which means were we demo-ing the system to high-level executives and business people that will be using the system to gauge their input and receive feedback. I broke the bad news to Yan, and she was pretty unhappy with the developments.
After much discussion and burying much responsibility, she booked a flight Friday afternoon to fly up from Baltimore to Hartford that evening. I picked her up and took her back to my fortress of solitude aka Danbury Courtyard. Even though I just saw her the previous weekend, it was really good to see her again. It felt like a month had passed. On Saturday morning, for better or worse, the database had a catastrophic error, so there was no need for me to be in the office, so I ended up having time to spend all day with Yan. I drove her around Danbury, and took her to all my usual hangouts. And by hangouts, I mean watering holes. I think I saw a single tear stream down her face after my tour finished. After the tour was over, I took her back to the airport. She was so proud that she was in Connecticut for only 17 hours. I only wish my weeks in Connecticut could be comparably short.
May 12 I flew to LA to meet up with Yan, who was there for a Latin American Insurance Agents conference at the Marina Del Rey Marriott.
May 14 Yan and I met up with Justin, Dennis, and Elaine to hang out before meeting up with My and Craig for dinner. It was such a beautiful day outside that we rented a boat in Marina Del Rey to take in some sights. We saw a few dolphins swimming not too far from the beach and a bunch of fat sea lions sunning on a bouy. Fat bastards, I'm so jealous...until they get hit by an outboard motor. So never mind. Later that evening, we met up with My and Craig in Hermosa Beach for dinner. It was good seeing them again and having to chance to talk to them. After Craig finishes up his stint in California, he's looking to transfer to the Patuxent Naval Air Station in Maryland. I hope that works out for them. It'll be cool to have her close by.
It's been a while since I've last posted. Let's see what's been going on since then, shall we? I haven't been home since May 1. I've flown to Seattle/Vancouver and LA. I stayed in Danbury to work a weekend, and all my bills are now grossly overdue.
Seattle/Vancouver May 5 I finally make my return to the Pacific Northwest. I drove down to JFK which is very quickly becoming my least favorite airport in the US. The Van Wyck Expressway is congested at all times of the day and night, which adds at least 30-60 minutes to my commute. I think I only make my flights there because they get delayed. It's no better at the airport either, the people are unfriendly, the security people are abrassive sloths, the terminal is crusty, and worst yet, it appears to only have one runway for aircraft landing and taking off (no idea if this is true). I only make this gross assumption because I got extremely antsy and frustrated on this particular my flight because my plane was already delayed coming in and I was trying to meeting Yan at the airport in Seattle. Anyway, we left the gate at our delayed departure time only to get in line for aircraft taking off. We were the 26th plane in line! I think as a sick joke the pilot added that it takes approximately 3-5 minutes for each aircraft to take off. That'll take about 2 hours to get off the ground. Son of a bitch...
The whole point of the trip was to go visit Vancouver to catch a Snow Patrol concert. But why fly into Seattle then? It was about half the price to fly to Seattle than to Vancouver directly. And it turned out to be quite the bonus. Yan took me to this hole in the wall pho place called Pho Bac. She'd been to this place years ago on a family trip to Seattle/Vancouver, and they've fondly reminsed about this place ever since. If a Vietnamese family is dreaming about a particular pho restaurant, it must be good. Me being the curious kitten wanted to find out what it was all about. Ooooooh yeah, it was the best pho I've ever eaten. I think I looked like an ostrich with my head buried in the bowl. Unfortunately, I have photo proof.
May 6 So anyway, onto Vancouver. What a beautiful city. I think it has to be one of the top cities in North America in so many ways. The skyline is amazingly unique to North America. The office and apartment buildings look like they were only built a decade ago with a modern flavor. The skyscrapers are made of steel and glass and look so aesthetically beautiful. The surroundings are unparalleled with snow capped mountains and rivers and bays surrounding the city. The closest thing in the US would have to be Seattle with it's various lakes and proximity to Puget Sound, but the mountains are so far away that you can only really see them on a clear day. Once in Vancouver, it's so easy to drive and walk around. Once we parked in the hotel we just walked all over downtown feeling absolutely safe even down the most desolate streets. I could see myself living here one day...when I learn to make more money.
After we checked into the hotel (which I must add was FREE w/points), we had some time to kill before the concert, so Yan and I just walked around the city checking out different areas. We walked down Robson Street which is Vancouver's shopping district. Dang it, I really regret not hitting up that gelato place on Robson. Next time... Anyway, I heard lots of good things about this Japanese tapas place called Guu. It's exactly what it sounds like, small dishes of japanese food meant to share. And it was grand. We got there right before it re-opened for dinner. And it got packed very quickly. I highly recommend it to anyone. Afterwards, we walked off dinner and over to the Vogue theater for the Snow Patrol Concert.
The concert was totally extreme! It was in a small venue, which I prefer and they played all of their songs from their latest album Final Straw and some other old songs which were also really good. I just need to find a playlist of those older songs so I can "buy" them.
May 7 Saturday was pretty kick back. We were supposed to go to Victoria on Vancouver Island to get afternoon tea at this super-swanky hotel, the Empress Fairmont, but the Marriott consierge talked us out of it because he informed us that it's almost a 3 hour trek one way on the ferry. It was Mother's Day weekend, so it's going to be even more packed. It actually turned out for the better though. Instead we met up with one of my old Loveboat friends, Michelle. She's this tiny 4' 10" tall girl weighing a wee 80 pounds. She looks like she's a fully developed 15 year old. It was good to see her again. The rest of the day was spent resting and spending quality time with the Yan. You can see pictures of the trip below. http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=npgkpgr.wwuh50b&Uy=gc8ch1&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=545931312379_97212742507 Don't you wish you could be here on a random weekend? SUCKAS!
I'm very happily seeing someone now. (Enough with the snickerin'). She's the very lovely, Yan Bui. We've known each other since freshman year of college. We met by an odd circumstance. Thanks Ray and Fang-Yu for making a strange couple. Regardless, we've always kept in touch no matter where I ended up (i.e, London and California) and became quite close over the past year or two.
Note: Please don't mix me up with my brother whom I look nothing alike. For assistance, I'm the one with the (more) peanut-shaped head and fat neck (and the blue shirt).
