California Dreaming

Hi All.  I know it's been a while since I've last updated this journal, but I'll try to be more dilligent in the future.  My life has been pretty boring, with a few exceptions here and there.   I got a new cell phone (my previous one was 3 years old and very much obsolete).  This means I now have a camera-phone.  I love it, and I can upload photos very easily from it to my Facebook account.  I've been taking a bunch of pictures, and having fun with the new features.  Here's the picture of it.  I think it looks hecka cool.

Let's see...what's been going on since I last wrote...I flew to Minnesota for Christmas.  With the stealthy help of Jason and Julie, I was able to come unannounced to the rest of the family.  I really had a great time and it was great getting to see everyone.  Oh, and I'm still waiting for some of my presents, people...haha.

I hung out with some friends for New Years.  I went to the San Francisco Wax Museum (it was kinda bad).  Spent St. Patricks day weekend in Sonoma at one of my friends' mother's vacation house.  That was beautiful (I didn't have my phone at that time, so no pictures...sorry).  I spent Easter in Golden Gate Park having a picnic on a gorgeous spring day and got quite sunburnt on one side of my face and one arm.

Work is going OK.  It has been an interesting few months.  There have been some firings/quittings in key roles, and we just had 6 people laid off this past Monday.  I'm now the Project Coordinator (I don't know why...I don't really coordinate projects, but oh well).  I've been working on administrating our internal Microsoft Sharepoint site.  Sharepoint is a server program that helps people collaborate by uploading documents and keep track of tasks in projects and more.  I enjoy it.  It's a good skill set to have right now, and I actually like working more with that sort of stuff.

Well, I'm gonna get going.  Like I said, I'll try to update this journal more regularly in the future.  Maybe once a week or so.

Later~

I know.  I haven't been keeping up with this too well lately.  My life's just been kinda boring.  Here's a little update.

Last weekend, I went to the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival.  There were many great bands there, but it was just too crowded, so I left after being there for about an hour.  It was quite a hike to get to, though.  I walked about 2 miles each way to/from the subway station.  Good excercise.

On Tuesday night, I boarded an AmTrak bus at the Ferry Building to Emeryville, where I was then to get on a train out to Davis (about 30 miles this side of Sacramento) to spend the 4th of July with my roommate's family and friends.  About 5 minutes after I got to the Emeryville station, an anouncement came over the PA saying that my train was running late.  About 1 hour and 50 minutes late.  So I sat.  The train arrived about an hour and a half later, and I got on.  I have to say that the train is quite nice.  It was a superliner, because it was a long-distance train.  It goes from Los Angeles (about a 7 hour car drive south of San Francisco) to Vancouver, Washington.  It was very spacious, and a lot of reading was done.  I arrived into Davis at about 1:30 in the morning.

Wednesday brought with it 105°F temperatures.  The humidity wasn't too bad, so it was bearable.  Meg and I went to watch the bike races for a while.  Then we went grocery shopping to get items for a salad that we were going to make for a barbecue that night.  We went to our friend, Sarah's (she helped us move in) house for the barbecue.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we went to the city park for the fireworks show.  The fireworks were right above us, and very close.  We could lay back and see them just fine.  We even had ash fall on us.  And I got hit by a cardboard piece from one of the casings.  At least I didn't get hit with a flaming ember.  They were falling around us as well.  Then we went back to Sarah's and just talked for a couple of hours.  In total, we walked about 6 miles around Davis on Wednesday.

Meg had a meeting on Thursday, so I was left to my own devices to entertain myself.  I decided to walk into downtown Davis and get Chipotle and Baskin Robins.  Then I walked back.  We left shortly after Meg got back from her meeting.  When we left Davis, it was 102°F.  When we got to San Francisco, it was 65°F.  I didn't do too much on Thursday night, except watch Fraggle Rock.  Meg had bought it on DVD.  I have to say, that it withstands the test of time.  It's still kinda funny.

Friday, I worked.  It felt like a Monday and a Friday all rolled into one.

Today, I decided that I would act as a tourist so that all of you might live vicariously through me and see San Francisco.  I walked the Embacadero north to Fisherman's Wharf.  I saw some great views of the San Francisco Bay.  There was a Farmer's Market going on at the Ferry Building.  That meant that it was crowded.  Take, for example, the restroom.  The line for the women's restroom: about 30.  The line for the mensroom: 0.  I love that.  I got up to the northern part of the city, and saw the Hyde Street Pier.  There were some restored ferries and other boats.  It was quite a sight.  I then decided to walk up Hyde Street.  It's very steep (which I didn't really think about going in).  I wanted to go see Lombard Street.  It's the crookedest street in the US with 8 sharp turns (called switchbacks).  It was quite a walk today.  I walked over 6 miles on very, very, very hilly streets.  My knees hurt, and were starting to give out going down the hills.  They're a lot better, now that I've taken a bath and soaked.  I went grocery shopping tonight, and that's all she wrote.  Tomorrow, I think I'll go to Stern Grove, which is a grove/park just a mile north of here.  There is a music festival there throughout the summer.  Tomorrow, the San Francisco Symphony will be playing.  I think I better go and hear how good they sound.  I need a little classical music every once in a while.

Well, I think I better let you all go, now.  I'll write more soon.  As soon as I do something to write about.

Current Mood: exhausted

I'm sorry I've been so terrible at keeping this journal up.  I'll write a big long post later tonight.  I just got back from a 6 mile walk being a tourist so that everyone can live vicariously through me and be in San Francisco.

Here's a couple of galleries to keep you busy.  Some of the pictures in the first gallery have been used already in this journal, but you can look at them again.

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Now that I've got at least a little post done, it's time to go take a nice, long soak in the tub.

Current Mood: exhausted

So, the commute to work this morning left a lot to be desired.  There was a glitch, as tends to happen with MUNI during rush hour.  It seems that a train ran over a cable that was on the tracks, and backed up all the train traffic from here to eternity.  I was about 4-5 miles from work at this point in time.  They said that the train was going to be moving, but didn't know when.  Everybody got off the train and headed out of the subway up to catch the F-line (the historic streetcars, not cable cars).  It was completely packed, so I decided to wait for the next one.  But, in the meantime, I decided to go back into the subway to see if the trains had started moving, and, lo and behold, they had.  So I wasted 15 minutes by getting out of the train, and getting back into a super packed train later.

Life got a little better later in the morning, when I had a meeting with my boss (HR Director) and the CEO.  It seems he wants me to take over for the Executive Assistant who is leaving (read, fired) at the end of July.  It means more work, more responsibility, more overtime and, most importantly, more pay.  Another $5 an hour (putting me at $26/hr for those interested, or $54,080/yr).  I decided to take the promotion, so we'll see how it goes.  The rest of my day was spent getting benefit information to all the employees, and grocery shopping (I get to go to the grocery store once a week to buy bread, milk and peanut butter for the break room).  A long day that seemed to fly right by.  I still don't quite understand how that happens, but it does.

So, that is my exciting post for the night.  I just got done watching an episode of "Dr. Who" on DVD.  It's a good show.  I think I'll watch more.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Oh What a Night - Jersey Boys

This week has been really boring.  Haven't done much, besides work.  Take yesterday, for example.  I worked from 8:00 am until 10:30 pm.  13 hour day.  5 hours of overtime.  Absolutely no relaxation time.  At $31.50 an hour, I guess I can handle that.  Oh, I found out what my raise is.  A whopping $2.25.  I think for now they're keeping me in my current position, so I can help out when the Executive Assistant leaves.  I don't know.  Maybe they decided not to put me partially in Informatics (research and analysis).  I just don't know.  But all is good.  I still love my job.



Not doing much this weekend.  Laundry.  I remembered last night at about 8:30 that I had no clean clothes to wear to work today, so I ended up going in a sweater that was dirty from last week.  When you get home at 11:00 and the laundry room closes at 11:00, you're kinda screwed.



Oh well.  Thankfully, it's Friday.

Current Mood: tired

Let's see, here's my list from yesterday:

Target:  Check
Safeway:  Got food and Target, so No Check
North Beach Street Fair: Check

All in all, not a bad day.  Meg and I met up with a friend, Emmett, on our way to North Beach for the Street Fair.  It was fun.  It's a lot like the Uptown Art Fair in Minneapolis, only not as much of a pain.  In Minneapolis, pretty much all of Uptown is shutdown or at a standstill for the fair.  Traffic was moving pretty well around North Beach today.  There were a lot of vendors selling art and a few from organizations in the city.  I think it's more fun to just walk around and look at the pretties and peoplewatch.  There was some awesome sidewalk art going on when we first arrived.  There was also a guitar duo playing traditional Italian canzoni (or songs).  Although I did hear them play Besame Mucho, which is a Spanish ditty.  We then walked back to the subway station and rode home.  All in all, close to 3 miles of walking today.  We saw Union Square, which is a nice plaza-type area.

More pictures of the sidewalk art!!

Current Location: North Beach, San Francisco
Current Music: That's Amore

So, I'm trying to be a little educational for the girls.  I love Wikipedia.  I went to the Sutro Bath Ruins on Memorial Day.  They're on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.  It was a cold, windy and gloomy day, but that just made it all the more cool.

Yesterday was a super long day at work.  I have absolutely no reason why this was the case, but it was.  Must've been because it was Friday.  Oh, well.  But I did go to a pizza place last night for one of my coworker's birthday.  There was about 30 people there (only 5 of us from work, including the birthday girl), and they split us up between two tables.  And, they only had 1 1/2 waitresses for our party.  That made absolutely no sense.  But, the pizza was good, and had wierd names.  Like mine: Girl from Ipanema.  Then there was "Inspiration Point."  There were some that I dare not mention with little eyes around as well.  I came home early, because I was tired, and a little bummed.  The executive assistant that I work with said that she was fired yesterday and has 45 days to find a job.  At least they gave her 45 days, but still, I'm gonna miss her.  But, I have a month and a half before she goes, so there is that.

Today,I did absolutely nothing.  Well, that's not entirely true, but it wasn't too eventful.  I guess the more accurate statement would be that this morning, I did absolutely nothing.  I was asked yesterday if I could come in to work for a little bit today to help our IT director change a couple server racks, as they're heavy, and he needed some muscle.  He must not know me too well, because I have no muscle...that's at least what Jason & Chad tell me.  Anyway, when I called to tell him I was going to leave, he said that the new servers don't fit into the existing rack, so they need to order a new rack.  So, that means I might have to go in for an hour or two next weekend.  Fun, fun.  Meg worked today, so I decided to meet up with her after she was done and go into Chinatown.  (I wanted to get a little more stuff to send to everybody.)  And, yes, that means that I'll be mailing it out soon.  Hopefully Monday.  But, in order to get it from Mom/Grandma, you need to give her a puppy kiss (sorry, mom, had to do it).  And now I'm home.

OK, here is a picture from the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair.  Notice the tye-dye.  There was a lot of that around.

Sorry that I'm posting this rather late for those of you in the Central time zone.  It was a long day at work, and when I got home, I just rested.  That's actually about it for tonight.  I know that I won't be posting anything tomorrow night, as I have a birthday dinner for one of my coworkers to go to.  It should be fun.  Four of my friends from work will be there, and then I'll get to meet more people, so I'm really looking forward to it.  Also, my checkbook is looking forward to tomorrow as well.  I have less than $5.00 to my name right now, but at midnight tonight, I will get an influx of money.  Yay for payday!  I hope that my boss has a talk with me tomorrow, because I'm getting a little curious about what my job description will be, as well as my raise.

The plan for the weekend is that Saturday, I need to do laundry, go to Target and the grocery story (Safeway).  Sunday, Meg and I plan on going to North Beach, which is a neighborhood in San Francisco.  North Beach is the "Little Italy" of San Francisco.  There's a street fair there this weekend.  We went to the Haight-Ashbury Street Fair this past weekend.  That was a lot of fun.  There were a lot of vendors selling things like jewelry, shirts, art and deep-fried Twinkies.  I wanted to try one, but I lacked the funds to buy one. There was a cool Afro-funk band that played.  Their name was Aphrodesia.  The Haight (which is, again, a neighborhood in San Francisco, centered around the intersection of Haight & Ashbury Sts) is where the Hippie Movement began.  Oh, and by the way, North Beach is where the Beat Movement started (you know, the Beatniks.  If not, www.wikipedia.org).  The Beat Museum is located on Broadway in North Beach.  I need to go sometime.  Maybe this weekend, maybe not.  We'll see.

Then, on Monday, I start a whole new week of work.  Oh, the Joy.

Current Mood: exhausted

So, the girls got a duck.  Sounds like fun.  Is it a chick or a full-grown duck?

OK, so again, a boring day.  I worked.  But when talking to the CEO after I finished phase 2 of...I don't know how many, he said that I was doing a good job, and that he and my boss (the HR Director, also known as the CEO's wife) were thinking of reevaluating my pay (in the good direction).  Then he said that he was thinking of giving me more analysis projects (not necesarily a part of my job description, except it's a project from the CEO, which is in my job description), and that my pay would reflect that accordingly.  So, the CEO and HR director are going to have a meeting tomorrow to see what the future holds for me.  I'm hoping a nice, spiffy raise is in order.

Now, I think I'm gonna make supper and then go for my evening walk.  Goodnight everybody, and thanks for leaving comments.  It's nice to know that you are all reading this.  It keeps me motivated to keep writing.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Grace Kelly by Mika

Hi.  This journal is meant to keep my family, who is 2000 miles away, up to date with fun things that I do.  I'll try to keep it updated regularly, and kid-friendly (I hope Bear & Monkey read this).  I'll try to post a few pictures here and there on this, so that the girls can get a chance to see some of the sights around here.  Right now, I don't have a whole lot to say, because I just worked today.  I did go for a short walk tonight after work, although my legs were still yelling at me for walking about 4 miles on Saturday and roughly 2 on Sunday.  But I want to get on a routine of either walking or going to the gym everyday (except Friday).  We'll see how long this lasts.  Well, I better get to bed.  I have to get up early to get to work in the morning.

Later.

Current Location: San Francisco, CA