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June 30 Where did June go?I know I am neglecting this blog. I just wanted to post something today so there would be a June entry. I am pretty OCD about things and this week it's Wendy's myspace page. I have been helping her with it and now I can't stop checking it to see if there are new comments.
oh well. More soon. May 31 Aloha HawaiiHad quite a weekend. Saturday we went out on a fishing boat and I caught a couple of fish I have never seen before. No idea what they were. My co-worker caught a small hammerhead shark. Sunday we hiked up to Monoa Falls which is in a rainforest, just a few minutes from downtown. The rainforest lived up to its name and rained on us. After the hike we drove around the island for awhile and then came back to the beach. Monday was more beach time and then went to a luau. Basically it was a big buffet where you could watch demonstrations on making leis or tying a sarong, cutting open a coconut, etc. After dark came the dancing. I tried the poi and I don't recommend it.
I am headed to the airport in a sec. My flight is at 6pm and I get home tomorrow morning at 10:30am. I have a feeling that it's not gonna be easy to go right back to central time. I really like it in Honolulu.
-e May 25 Still Bummin'I put up some new Hawaii pics. This past weekend was pretty laid back, I just went to the beach and cruised up along the coast to the North Shore. I got hooked on Sudoku while I was here. I am having a hard time staying in my hotel room or on the computer. May 14 Beach BumI am taking a break from the beach in Waikiki as not to be burnt to a crisp and suffer heat stroke. Plus I was sweating like a pig. I came back and jumped in the pool to wash off the sand and then up to my room to get some thoughts down and get psyched up to go back out. This week has been pretty amazing. Honolulu is gorgeous and exotic. the 5 hour time difference has been a chore, but easy to wake up early for work. I had a couple of 4:30 am phone calls from the mainland (hi Wendy) but I need to get up anyway to catch the 6:15 ride to work. Every day we get done by 4 which gives me a couple of hours at the beach before finding some good food. With so many Asians here, it's easy to find great sushi and chinese. Also the local food is delicious. I had a calamari sandwich the other night, not the little circles but a filet. I had a teriyaki cheeseburger with a slice of pineapple. Last night it was Ahi tacos. For late night breakfast Friday I had grilled bananas with my eggs and corned beef hash. Mai Tai's, Pina Coladas.... mmm. Yesterday I went with my co-worker and her boyfriend to Diamond Head, which is a volcanic crater that used to be used as a military site and is now a place to hike to the top and look down over the city and the ocean. After that we went over to Honauma Bay which is a nature preserve also a volcanic crater with one side missing from erosion due to the ocean waves. Inside this horseshoe is a bay where you can't fish or even bring food to the beach. We rented snorkel gear and checked out schools of fish that didn't seem fazed that we were there. I had a hard time learning to breathe with the snorkel gear but it was a lot of fun. I am trying to take a lot of pictures that hopefully I can post here shortly. I also just updated my music and reading lists on the blog if you care. -e May 10 MahaloI have been in Hawaii since Sunday and plan to spend some time telling you about it. Too tired at the moment, jet lagged from the 5 hour time shift. It is gorgeous here. April 14 Hooray for Global WarmingIt's 86 degrees in Nashville today! In APRIL! I am sitting in a bucket of ice next to a gorgeous brunette. Her name starts with a W.
Good Friday for real.
Party on Garth
-E April 01 I Pity the FoolMy last full day in SF. We didn't have to be at work right away today so I dropped my co-worker off at the pier, she had tickets to go over to Alcatraz. I wandered the streets and ended up at a fancy restaurant on the wharf that advertised a cheap breakfast buffet. The view was gorgeous but the buffet was not, so I ordered off the menu and got a BBQ shrimp omelet. YUM! I am gonna have to try this one at home.
Afterwards I walked through some shops and down to the pier where hundreds of sea lions do what they do best: sleep and wrestle. It was pretty hilarious to watch them because some of them fight over space on the floating docks and knock off any intruders like sumo wrestlers. They bite each other and make a lot of funny grunts and groans. I ended up watching for a whole lot longer than I expected. Funny stuff. I walked around a bit and picked up a paper copy of The Onion (!) and a cup of coffee.
After my co-worker was done, we drove over to Chinatown because she needed to go there. I dropped her off and could not find a place to park. I got stuck waiting for a funeral procession, which was very similar to the one I saw last weekend. It must be a whole industry there I didn't know about, with the full marching band entourage. By the time I got through it, my co-worker was done so she got back in the car and we drove over to Japantown. I wished I was hungry for sushi, but as of even this moment, 6 hours later I am still stuffed. I bought some trinkets for my return trip to Nashville and then to work. Most likely that is it for sight seeing because I need to pack and eat the rest of the food I have in my room.
I am excited to go home, but I think I will miss this place.
-E March 29 Weekend at Ernie'sI missed seeing John Travolta today at the airport by 10 minutes. I practiced my Vinnie Barbarino quotes just in case he turned up later. Alas.
Wendy came out to SF this weekend and we had a great time! We went over to Alcatraz and Chinatown, had some great Italian food and saw the Crookedest Street. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and over to Sausalito for some great food. Had some lousy sushi, walked around the bay. I introduced her to her first experience at Trader Joe's.
It's been a lot sadder here alone. I am flying back to Nashville on Sunday.
-E March 24 BookishI have been doing a lot of reading lately. My book list on this page is just from 2006 and I have already recommended 18 books and am working on 3 others. yikes. One thing I have noticed lately is that most of the books out now (at least the ones I have brought home) have subtitles. No not like in the movies with words at the bottom of the screen, but titles after the titles. For instance I just read "To Own a Dragon" by Donald Miller but the listed title on Amazon is "To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father". The book "Christ the Lord" by Anne Rice is really called "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt". It's pretty interesting. Also apparently if an author's name is Thomas, I will read his book.
They called to tell me I can stay in San Fransisco. That is a huge relief with Wendy flying here tomorrow. I may be here another week, maybe two. They just don't know. I am having a blast though so whatever they decide is fine as long as it didn't screw up this weekend.
Rock on March 23 Nether RegionI am having one of those days. This happens to me from time to time, and probably to everyone else too, but it always makes me feel like something is "different". What I mean is an extended period of deja-vu and hyper-alertness. Every moment feels familiar but only because I feel like I dreamt it years ago. I dreamt about today. The problem is, it's not that unusual of a day. Why have a premonition about something trivial?
We are working a different shift so I really haven't had much time outside of the hotel to speak of. This week has been weird in that it brought out one of my inadequacies. Usually I am very confident in almost any situation, but this one lady sees me everyday when I come in and just started calling me by my male co-worker's name. I missed it the first couple of times and then realized that she was talking to me and calling me the wrong name. Then I let it go a couple of times. Now I am going out of my way to avoid seeing her just so i dont have to correct her. I don't know why I can't just say something.
UPDATE: My premonitions continued all day. Then there was a phone call saying that I may get sent home in two days or stay for two more weeks. Since Wendy is coming in two days, that's freaky. I find out tomorrow. The point though is that I felt all of this happening moments before it actually happened. I feel like I ate some shrooms or something.
Latah, from the twilight zone.
-E March 21 Chips and SausalitoToday we got done early so I went with a co-worker to the redwood forest north of SF. It was pretty incredible. The funniest thing was we got there at 4:28 and it cost $3 to get in until 4:30, when it was free. My female co-worker and two college girls who got there as the same time as us paid the three bucks before this was mentioned by the lady taking the money. She seemed quite surprised at how agitated the women got that she had charged them when 2 minutes later it would be free. She said, "Well it IS before 4:30 you know". I waited the 2 minutes. The trees are massive (duh), some being over 1000 years old and 14 feet wide. The trails went on for miles and miles but we only stayed until it was getting dark, and didn't get real far. I got a few pictures but dont have high hopes for them. We drove over to the Golden Gate Bridge and went to the overlook above it and then over the hill to an ocean overlook trying to catch the sunset, but we were too late. There is this really cool tunnel up there where they military was building a giant cannon in World War II but didn't finish it before the war was over and abandoned it. Great views of the entire city. My co-worker had spotted a great little Mexican place in Sausalito the other day and wanted to go there for a quick bite. We had Fish and Shrimp Tacos!! yum. I am VERY excited because Wendy will be here in a few short days and I will get to give her the "best of" tour and hopefully some brand new stuff.
-E Go Ahead Punk, Make My DayYesterday was pouring down rain, so instead of going to downtown San Francisco, 3 of us hopped in the rental car and drove to the coast. The new Pontiac G6 responds extremely well to what you tell it to do, and I have been doing nearly all of the driving. We followed Highway 1 along the Pacific, winding and weaving over cliffs overlooking the ocean. I was constantly amazed at what the land touching the ocean was being used for. I would have imagined mansions and public beaches and state and federal parks, etc but there was a lot of farmland and open space.
We drove down to the city of Monterey and had fish and chips in an English Pub on the waterfront. Then we paid a toll and drove the "17 mile road" towards Carmel. Along the way there are several stops with gorgeous views of the ocean and this was where the big beautiful houses on the ocean were. We stopped at Pebble Beach, the golf course and went into the Lodge and out onto the veranda. It is a complete understatement to say that there was a lot of money here. It was mind blowing.
We continued on the road to Carmel, the town where until recently Clint Eastwood was mayor. The town is full of ritzy specialty shops of which I needed nothing. Cool town though. We drove back along the 101 and I saw a lot of the Silicon Valley buildings that you can see from the road: Yahoo!, Sun, Oracle, IBM, McAfee.
Good day overall. I was a little bit relieved to not have to do much walking. My legs and feet still hurt from Sunday.
-E
March 19 Streets of San FranciscoToday was cool. I got up early and went into San Francisco. I started out at the “world’s crookedest street” and then walked down to the piers and walked around a bit, had a crab po’boy. After that I climbed Telegraph Hill and went up into Coit Tower. People in SF have got to be fit to get around town (unless they drive, duh). Next I walked downtown and over into Chinatown, over to Japantown, to Soma, Fillmore, the Tenderloin. I rode a bus and a trolley. For lunch I had Thai. All in all I walked for nearly 9 hours and my feet feel like they are gonna fall off.
Yesterday I drove over to the ocean and along the coast for awhile before heading back and eating sushi in one of the places where you pick the plate you want off boats that pass by you and then pay by the number and color of plates you picked. Awesome. Tomorrow I plan more of the same. March 16 Miso CoolToday I got done early and jumped in the rental car and zoomed down to the Golden Gate Bridge, desperately attempting to avoid rush hour traffic. I made it to the bridge and then stopped at the overlook on the far side. Gorgeous. Then I proceeded through the tunnel and north on the 101 until I came to the Richmond Bridge. It was just after crossing it that I got jammed in traffic near Berkeley.
I crossed the Bay Bridge about an hour later and back into San Fran when suddenly it started to rain sheets. It was just like the movie Seven. I cruised through Chinatown and then into Japantown and got out in the rain and ducked into a Japanese mall. Mainly there were sushi and hibachi restaurants and bars with several shops that were closed. I browsed in a Japanese bookstore for a while but didn’t understand any of the words.
I had dinner alone in a hole-in-the wall sushi bar, and didn’t feel out of place at all. The food was SOOO good. Sushi rolls, tea, sashimi, salad, miso soup, Sapporo… Then Esai Morales walked in with an Asian guy wearing a lanyard around his neck. It said Asian American Filmmaker. I came back to the hotel and looked it up on Google and it’s from the movie American Fusion which is playing at the 24th Annual San Francisco Asian American Film Festival going on this week. Esai stars and the Asian guy was Frank Lin the director.
On the way back to the hotel there was a major traffic jam (again). This time the news van was out there shooting. A large pool of water covered 3 lanes of traffic and bottlenecked the system. How people live in California, I do not know.
-e
p.s. I am addicted to Google Earth. If you haven't seen it yet, you MUST check it out. Jumbo ShrimpYay. I have HBO and got to see the Sopranos tonight!
Today a co-worker was telling me about one time when she had a shrimp ring that she took to work for lunch and put it in the common fridge and at lunchtime 4 shrimp were missing. It was wrapped and everything so whoever did it, had to open the wrapping, take 4 shrimp and then put it back. Apparently there was a woman there that stole food from everyone. One time someone had a hot dog that they cooked in the microwave and then put it in a bun and set it on the table and went to get something to drink and came back and the lady was eating the hot dog, right there at the table like it was hers. WEIRD. Who steals someone's hotdog right off the plate?
Today I walked on the public trails along the bay listening to my audiobook. We need a bay in East Nashville.
-E |
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