Oh sigh. It's that time again. I'm flying back to LA. It's been a fun couple of weeks. Honestly I don't remember the last time I wrote anything. I have a feeling it was in Paris or after leaving it.
I know that after I met up with Anna I was too busy running around Europe and having fun. Oh such joy. I'd forgotten how good it feels to have a companion with me on my travels. We were inseparable and saw Milan and Amsterdam together. I was fine leaving her at the airport but when I got on my flight it was like usual again, lonely and I was filled with longing for something different.
There's not that much that we did. We walked around a lot in Milan, saw Duomo di Milano, one of their old cathedrals and we saw The Last Supper. That was fun. In Amsterdam we walked around through parks, went to the Van Gogh museum and enjoyed the red lights district. We played pool in a couple of places and had a good amount to drink. Enough to feel good and get home sober.
On our last day together (full day, because the next day we woke up and headed for the airport), we went on a picnic. We got a ton of food, ate it in this beautiful park and fell asleep on the grass. We rode bikes there. Anna was terrified of using the bike lanes and riding on the road. And I couldn't figure out why the whole city doesn't have any post offices. That aside, the afternoon was splendid. We didn't do much of anything else after. Just walked around and killed time.
I spent the last couple of days in London. Thursday I went with my brother to an MIT alum meetup. I drank a lot but didn't get drunk. I think they dilute their vodka, or something. I had 3 double-shots and got home sober. 0o. Then Friday, my mom and I went to museums. I went to the National Gallery and then her and I went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was so cool. And FREE! As was the National Gallery! Ooh, and we went on the London Eye! Such a full day. In the evening we had dinner together with my brother's family. Family. I miss family. I want more family. I want my own family. Le sigh.
On Saturday my mom, brother and I went to the Hampton Court Palace where some royals lived from 16th century on. Cool history. Very beautiful gardens. Too bad it was raining the entire time, but it was cool nonetheless. Then, of course, dinner at home with the family. Oh how lovely. And then today they're celebrating one of my nephew's birthdays. I'm not there for it. :( All I got was my mom getting me to the train station. Which is more than I had hoped for. Thank you, mom!
I should be sleeping on this flight, but it's not late enough yet given my Circadian rhythm. That's going to suck. I'll have to try to stay up until midnight by LA time. Oh joy. I did get invited to a party. So maybe I'll go and that will help. In the meantime I still have like 6 hours on this flight and there's nothing to watch except Big Bang Theory. It's a fun show, but it reminds me too much of Cate. Nothing too personal. Just makes me feel nostalgic for companionship.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Monday, September 5, 2016
Milan
Getting back on the horse of writing often. Yesterday I spent the day in Milan. What a pretty city. I looked it up, Italy is a poorer country, but the city has a lot of history. And that was enjoyable to witness. I met up with Anna here and we've travelling together. Turns out Milan is a small city. And even better than in Paris, all of the cool stuff is walking distance from each other.
We went to the Duomo di Milano Cathedral. It's so huge and pretty. Not as gothic as Notre Dame, but it doesn't have compartments. It's just one giant space. So that was cool. We went to see the Last Supper. The security around it is pretty great. It's so fragile. Mostly gone, I see. Still it was interesting to read all the history about it. And then in the evening we went to the canals. Well.. one canal. It was sponsored by Martini, the brand. They were everywhere. And then in the evening we found what looked like an american bar where the guy let me try all of their vodkas before pouring me the one I liked. :) Tipped that bartender 20%.
We went to the Duomo di Milano Cathedral. It's so huge and pretty. Not as gothic as Notre Dame, but it doesn't have compartments. It's just one giant space. So that was cool. We went to see the Last Supper. The security around it is pretty great. It's so fragile. Mostly gone, I see. Still it was interesting to read all the history about it. And then in the evening we went to the canals. Well.. one canal. It was sponsored by Martini, the brand. They were everywhere. And then in the evening we found what looked like an american bar where the guy let me try all of their vodkas before pouring me the one I liked. :) Tipped that bartender 20%.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Paris
Well this sucks. There’s no WiFi. The good news is that this is the worst thing that has happened to me on my travels so far. But, still. I just landed in Milan. I’m sitting on a train heading for the central station. I have so much to be happy about, like that there’s still charge in my laptop so I can type, and the lady at the ticket booth spoke enough english to tell me which train to hop on. But that being said this is the first airport that didn’t have WiFi nor an information desk. I almost asked the armed guards for directions. At least they would have been entertained.
So, lets see. I remember I wanted to write a little when I was in Paris, but honestly I didn’t have time. I spent of all of time trying to be out and seeing what it had to offer. It was pretty. The only thing that kept coming back was that some people really smelled. Like normally-dressed people. I’ve gotten so occustomed to only bums smelling bad, I forgot they don’t always shower in the rest of the world. There were days when I took showers twice a day. Well, my train isn’t departing for another 20 minuts or so and it’s going to take like an hour, so I have time.
On Wednesday night when I landed in Paris I walk. I walked a lot. I went from the station East past Louvre where I left the train to the apartment, climbed 5 flights of stairs up. Then set out to find the Eiffel Tower, which I could see from the train, but lost it the closer I got. Building angles and all that. I found it eventually and went up. Then I walked to the Triumph Arc and then walked home, back to Louvre. I was trying to find somewhere to eat, but everything seemed too slow, or everything had ham in it. Now I don’t eat meat and I really don’t appreciate when nothing on the menu is vegetarian. I hate it even more when all the salads have arugala. I hate arugala. I hate it more than some meats. And it was everywhere. French food sucks! I ended up going to a restaurant and getting an $18 salad that had arugala and was gauzed in mayonnaise. Now don’t get me wrong. Nothing wrong with dressing. I just don’t like it. The waitress didn’t speak enough English to understand me when I asked for tea, much less that I had specific tastes. Gah. Oh well. At least I had some food in me. And the tea only cost $8.50 (sarcasm).
Thursday I went to the Louvre. I was a little woried that I would miss something cool. But honestly, I went through the whole thing except for Roman artifacts 0-500 in like 3h30. I learned to use “h” as a delimiter between hours and minutes. I like it. It’s descriptive and easier to type than “:”. In the museum I didn’t find anything super spectacular. But I did love being in Napoleon’s chambers. Damn that dude loved luxury. I saw some kids kicking the ball around outside in the vast Louvre Gardens. I would rather be playing with them. But I didn’t have time for that. I headed back home to get ready for work. I did pick up a sandwich on the way buck inside a rustic baguette with cheese and tomatoes. It was bland and hard to chew. French food sucks. At work I worked surprisingly well. I was concentrated. It was quiet. Nobody spoke to me. Damn Frenchies speak English but would rather stay silent than use it. That was disappointing. There I kept snacking in the kichen. They had pre-packaged falafel sandwiches. I had a bunch. That and nuts. The sandwiches were pretty bad. Poorly made, soggy, and unfilling. And I had an allergic reaction to the nuts. French. Food. Sucks.
So, lets see. I remember I wanted to write a little when I was in Paris, but honestly I didn’t have time. I spent of all of time trying to be out and seeing what it had to offer. It was pretty. The only thing that kept coming back was that some people really smelled. Like normally-dressed people. I’ve gotten so occustomed to only bums smelling bad, I forgot they don’t always shower in the rest of the world. There were days when I took showers twice a day. Well, my train isn’t departing for another 20 minuts or so and it’s going to take like an hour, so I have time.
On Wednesday night when I landed in Paris I walk. I walked a lot. I went from the station East past Louvre where I left the train to the apartment, climbed 5 flights of stairs up. Then set out to find the Eiffel Tower, which I could see from the train, but lost it the closer I got. Building angles and all that. I found it eventually and went up. Then I walked to the Triumph Arc and then walked home, back to Louvre. I was trying to find somewhere to eat, but everything seemed too slow, or everything had ham in it. Now I don’t eat meat and I really don’t appreciate when nothing on the menu is vegetarian. I hate it even more when all the salads have arugala. I hate arugala. I hate it more than some meats. And it was everywhere. French food sucks! I ended up going to a restaurant and getting an $18 salad that had arugala and was gauzed in mayonnaise. Now don’t get me wrong. Nothing wrong with dressing. I just don’t like it. The waitress didn’t speak enough English to understand me when I asked for tea, much less that I had specific tastes. Gah. Oh well. At least I had some food in me. And the tea only cost $8.50 (sarcasm).
Thursday I went to the Louvre. I was a little woried that I would miss something cool. But honestly, I went through the whole thing except for Roman artifacts 0-500 in like 3h30. I learned to use “h” as a delimiter between hours and minutes. I like it. It’s descriptive and easier to type than “:”. In the museum I didn’t find anything super spectacular. But I did love being in Napoleon’s chambers. Damn that dude loved luxury. I saw some kids kicking the ball around outside in the vast Louvre Gardens. I would rather be playing with them. But I didn’t have time for that. I headed back home to get ready for work. I did pick up a sandwich on the way buck inside a rustic baguette with cheese and tomatoes. It was bland and hard to chew. French food sucks. At work I worked surprisingly well. I was concentrated. It was quiet. Nobody spoke to me. Damn Frenchies speak English but would rather stay silent than use it. That was disappointing. There I kept snacking in the kichen. They had pre-packaged falafel sandwiches. I had a bunch. That and nuts. The sandwiches were pretty bad. Poorly made, soggy, and unfilling. And I had an allergic reaction to the nuts. French. Food. Sucks.
The next day I went to the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was pretty. It’s located on an island in the middle of the river next to an expensive neighbourhood. It’s kind of like being in mini San Francisco, but much prettier. I liked it there. I liked it there very much. I got inside at a good time. I’ve just been avoiding any lines whatsoever, and here I got lucky because I made it in immediately to the Cathedral. It was everything I thought it would be. A good, dark place with pretty gothic things inside and out. I absolutely adored the gargoyles and the the gothic windows and statues everywhere. So awesome. I took a bunch of pictures there. And thsoe who know me know that I don’t take tours or fill my head with useless facts. Well, there, I stopped and read the whole history of the building. I even paid money to go see their treasury. Cool stuff. I almost felt spiritual. I went into the prayer section and prayed a little. Just for shits and giggles. No religious experience for me. :( Oh well. I guess I’ll continue to be an atheist without doubting my beliefs.
My train started moving! :)
I had a lot more time to do things but I didn’t feel like walking anymore so I got a boat tour. It took an hour and we went from Notre Dame, to Louvre to Eiffel Tower and back. The tour guide sucks. I couldn’t understand his accent. And he maybe shared 20 facts about everything altogether. It was disappointing. It was cheap, but oh well. One other thing to note was that nobody spoke freaking English. I couldn’t spark conversations with strangers. It was just a bother to talk to anyone at all. At first all the French sort-of sounded like Russian so I was hopeful, but ultimately I just gave up. The was true on the boat. I came up to some people in hopes of joining their conversations, but then I realized they were talking in French and I turned away. Yeah, I didn’t like it there very much. Not by myself. Either way, after the boat tour I bought a water from a dude on the corner and went home to get ready for work. Then I realized it was tap water filled into a bottle he probably found on the street. Oh FML. I took a sip and threw the rest away. Then right before I got home, by the Louvre, this girl came up to me asking for donations for the dead. Sounds like a scam, but she knew how to work a sucker like myself. So I gave her $10 (Euros… $ is the currency symbol on the keyboard). She pointed to a sign on her paper that said $20 minimum. HA. I got angry and walked away. Someone with the same sign came up to me today, but I didn’t even bother acknoledging them. :( Bad experience.
That’s about it for France. Today I walked through Louvre gardens again. Went on the Ferris wheel. Had an expensive lunch. Actually it wasn’t that expensive. I had a big salad with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. It was delicious. I had a sandwich with Norwegian Salmon. Yes, I got 2 entres (or courses, how they call them here). It came with an arugala salad. And I had a shot of Vodka. All together it came out to $33. I even tipped. I’m not sure if it’s okay in France, but I did anyway. Then I walked to the Eiffel Tower again because that’s where the direct bus to the airport was. And now I’m in Milan. Hoping to post more later.
My train started moving! :)
I had a lot more time to do things but I didn’t feel like walking anymore so I got a boat tour. It took an hour and we went from Notre Dame, to Louvre to Eiffel Tower and back. The tour guide sucks. I couldn’t understand his accent. And he maybe shared 20 facts about everything altogether. It was disappointing. It was cheap, but oh well. One other thing to note was that nobody spoke freaking English. I couldn’t spark conversations with strangers. It was just a bother to talk to anyone at all. At first all the French sort-of sounded like Russian so I was hopeful, but ultimately I just gave up. The was true on the boat. I came up to some people in hopes of joining their conversations, but then I realized they were talking in French and I turned away. Yeah, I didn’t like it there very much. Not by myself. Either way, after the boat tour I bought a water from a dude on the corner and went home to get ready for work. Then I realized it was tap water filled into a bottle he probably found on the street. Oh FML. I took a sip and threw the rest away. Then right before I got home, by the Louvre, this girl came up to me asking for donations for the dead. Sounds like a scam, but she knew how to work a sucker like myself. So I gave her $10 (Euros… $ is the currency symbol on the keyboard). She pointed to a sign on her paper that said $20 minimum. HA. I got angry and walked away. Someone with the same sign came up to me today, but I didn’t even bother acknoledging them. :( Bad experience.
That’s about it for France. Today I walked through Louvre gardens again. Went on the Ferris wheel. Had an expensive lunch. Actually it wasn’t that expensive. I had a big salad with potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. It was delicious. I had a sandwich with Norwegian Salmon. Yes, I got 2 entres (or courses, how they call them here). It came with an arugala salad. And I had a shot of Vodka. All together it came out to $33. I even tipped. I’m not sure if it’s okay in France, but I did anyway. Then I walked to the Eiffel Tower again because that’s where the direct bus to the airport was. And now I’m in Milan. Hoping to post more later.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Fraser
I'm in the airport again. My plane is already boarding. This feels like the right time to blog about last night because it was awesome! I spent the day in the company of strangers who were all cool people. I will use their real names, because, well, they are strangers and they were cool people.
So I woke up...
Edit a few days later:
Woke up. Had lunch at a local sandwich place. The service was amazing. The food was alright. Then I went on a hike with Amy and Vitaliy. It was insanely beautiful. Fields like in The Witcher. Horses. Wild hoovesteps everywhere. I saw so many birch trees I thought I was in Eastern Europe for a second. Just gorgeous hike.
Afterwards I went to the wedding. The ceremony was great. Very simple. Very elegant. The groom cried. So did I. This was the first wedding I had cried at. It only went uphill from there. I don't remember it because it's been a while now, but I know the food was delicious. I had my fill. It was buffet style. Yay for any-portion-size-I-want! My table didn't have any singles, but they were all nice people. We made jokes and had a few drinks. Got a photo together. That was a great time. I met someone else from Minsk, too.
Then I hit the dance floor. I kept drinking and dancing until I couldn't breathe anymore, and then I would dance again. Actually what happened was that they ran out of Vodka. Probably a good thing. Since I don't know how to dance I usually have to have a drink in my hand. So I switched from vodka to water. So much water. :P Served me well, because after everyone'd left and I was leaving, too, I was driving and got pulled over. They gave me a sobriety test. My first one. :D Officer Dave was nice enough to say that I wasn't acting all that sober. I told him it was the adrenaline and my knees were weak from all the dancing (which was true). But I got a breathalyzer and got a .045, so below the 05 legal limit. They let me go. Officer Dave gave me his card.
Then... drive.. airport...another Dave. Long story short is that I don't remember all the excitement anymore. I remember feeling amazing about it, but I've lost all the names.
Some other notable things from the night included me finally meeting Jasmine (a girl I drew Freshman year in college) for the first time actually in real life; taking a picture with Elizabeth, Roman's sister, who was the hottest person at the wedding, and single; a couple coming up to me and telling me they like me (<3); and so many more moments I can't remember like Shura tying my shoes etc. etc.
So I woke up...
Edit a few days later:
Woke up. Had lunch at a local sandwich place. The service was amazing. The food was alright. Then I went on a hike with Amy and Vitaliy. It was insanely beautiful. Fields like in The Witcher. Horses. Wild hoovesteps everywhere. I saw so many birch trees I thought I was in Eastern Europe for a second. Just gorgeous hike.
Afterwards I went to the wedding. The ceremony was great. Very simple. Very elegant. The groom cried. So did I. This was the first wedding I had cried at. It only went uphill from there. I don't remember it because it's been a while now, but I know the food was delicious. I had my fill. It was buffet style. Yay for any-portion-size-I-want! My table didn't have any singles, but they were all nice people. We made jokes and had a few drinks. Got a photo together. That was a great time. I met someone else from Minsk, too.
Then I hit the dance floor. I kept drinking and dancing until I couldn't breathe anymore, and then I would dance again. Actually what happened was that they ran out of Vodka. Probably a good thing. Since I don't know how to dance I usually have to have a drink in my hand. So I switched from vodka to water. So much water. :P Served me well, because after everyone'd left and I was leaving, too, I was driving and got pulled over. They gave me a sobriety test. My first one. :D Officer Dave was nice enough to say that I wasn't acting all that sober. I told him it was the adrenaline and my knees were weak from all the dancing (which was true). But I got a breathalyzer and got a .045, so below the 05 legal limit. They let me go. Officer Dave gave me his card.
Then... drive.. airport...another Dave. Long story short is that I don't remember all the excitement anymore. I remember feeling amazing about it, but I've lost all the names.
Some other notable things from the night included me finally meeting Jasmine (a girl I drew Freshman year in college) for the first time actually in real life; taking a picture with Elizabeth, Roman's sister, who was the hottest person at the wedding, and single; a couple coming up to me and telling me they like me (<3); and so many more moments I can't remember like Shura tying my shoes etc. etc.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Boulder and more.
I'll try to keep this brief, too. I have to check out of this hotel in the next 30 minutes and I haven't even gotten out of bed.
Yesterday I woke up early and went to a rock climbing gym. I didn't have any pants for it so I went to Target and got a nice pair there. There was a lady in the line I struck a conversation with. She seemed nice. Her face turned sour when I said I wasn't local nor had just moved here. Womp womp.
Rock climbing was fun. Their walls were weird. I could do some V2s on one wall but on the other couldn't do the V0. I think it had a lot to do with drinking last night. My hands just felt weird.
When I got out my newly-found single serving friends messaged me saying they're going hiking in Boulder. So I joined them. They're so fun! We took a ****-load of photos. Had many interesting conversations. Then we went down to Boulder and had lunch. This was my first time requesting an item not on the menu. I asked for a salmon burger with all veggies on it. It came out good. Yum-yum! Then my friends (Carly and Christine) took me back to Denver. They headed on to a concert and I drove into the depths of Colorado for a pre-wedding get-together.
The drive was gorgeous. And when I got here (I'm still roughly in the same hood) I realized how cold it was. But it feels awesome! I pretty much didn't know anyone but the groom, but he showed me around. I met some cool people. Lots of drunk post-Soviets. Ha. Fun times. They kept saying that it's easy to get drunk at high altitude. Well I wasn't so lucky. I had to keep drinking to feel something. And after I got back to the hotel I just felt sick, not drunk. Funny how that works.
Things to note: I was in a hot-tub in my underwear! Hell yeah! I was the last one out, too. I'm awesome like that. :P And I saw my first wild bear. He was crossing the street on my way back to the hotel.
Yesterday I woke up early and went to a rock climbing gym. I didn't have any pants for it so I went to Target and got a nice pair there. There was a lady in the line I struck a conversation with. She seemed nice. Her face turned sour when I said I wasn't local nor had just moved here. Womp womp.
Rock climbing was fun. Their walls were weird. I could do some V2s on one wall but on the other couldn't do the V0. I think it had a lot to do with drinking last night. My hands just felt weird.
When I got out my newly-found single serving friends messaged me saying they're going hiking in Boulder. So I joined them. They're so fun! We took a ****-load of photos. Had many interesting conversations. Then we went down to Boulder and had lunch. This was my first time requesting an item not on the menu. I asked for a salmon burger with all veggies on it. It came out good. Yum-yum! Then my friends (Carly and Christine) took me back to Denver. They headed on to a concert and I drove into the depths of Colorado for a pre-wedding get-together.
The drive was gorgeous. And when I got here (I'm still roughly in the same hood) I realized how cold it was. But it feels awesome! I pretty much didn't know anyone but the groom, but he showed me around. I met some cool people. Lots of drunk post-Soviets. Ha. Fun times. They kept saying that it's easy to get drunk at high altitude. Well I wasn't so lucky. I had to keep drinking to feel something. And after I got back to the hotel I just felt sick, not drunk. Funny how that works.
Things to note: I was in a hot-tub in my underwear! Hell yeah! I was the last one out, too. I'm awesome like that. :P And I saw my first wild bear. He was crossing the street on my way back to the hotel.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Denver
It's late. But long story short today I had the best flight of my life. I ran into Christine and Carly who were the best single serving friends ever. We spent the entire flight chatting and cracking jokes and sharing experiences. We even got drinks. And they were cheap. $7 for a drink of vodka. That's less than half of what they charge me in Venice at a bar. Woo!! It was going so well I even got another one! And when the lady brought it over and I took out the card to pay, she just patted me on the shoulder and said "it's okay".
0.o I got a free drink on a flight. I was so ecstatic! The rest of the flight went even better. Before heading off I caught the flight attended, thanked her and told her she's super nice. She looked back, smiled and said "It's just an act!". WOW! Best answer ever!
And then afterwards I went to the botanical gardens. So beautiful. A little lonely, but so pretty. Then my phone was dying so I went to go find a cafe and found a bar. I was chatting it up with this very pretty girl who was very welcoming and outspoken when she started talking about this woman she was engaged to. Wait.... pretty girl with a female ex, rainbow coasters, women bouncers with the words "butch" on their shirts. I was at Denver's only lesbian bar. :P Hahhaha. I stayed as long as my new-found friend was there. Liz was her name. I asked where I should go to catch some live music. She kept insisting I go to this place called "Charlie's". So after she left I set out there. I stopped by a few other bars. Watched some people sing karaoke. No live music. I headed to Charlie's and... it was full of half-naked ripped dudes with glow-in-the-dark underwear. I'm not sure if it was a gay bar, but there was no live music. That's what I get for being straight at a lesbian bar. :P
I played some darts there. Then bar-hopped some more. Played some pool and finished it off back at the lesbian bar. Then headed to Extended Stay for the night. I had a voucher for the night. Good times. My phone was dying... or rather dead. I had to wait it out until it charged to 1% so I could use it to make a reservation. And then when I finally got there I had to wait for them to finish the daily audit. On the other hand I got to talk to the nice woman at the front desk. Her name escapes me now. :( She had a think Philly accent though. It was cool. Hard to understand but fascinating!
Long story short I'm in bed now. Goodnight.
0.o I got a free drink on a flight. I was so ecstatic! The rest of the flight went even better. Before heading off I caught the flight attended, thanked her and told her she's super nice. She looked back, smiled and said "It's just an act!". WOW! Best answer ever!
And then afterwards I went to the botanical gardens. So beautiful. A little lonely, but so pretty. Then my phone was dying so I went to go find a cafe and found a bar. I was chatting it up with this very pretty girl who was very welcoming and outspoken when she started talking about this woman she was engaged to. Wait.... pretty girl with a female ex, rainbow coasters, women bouncers with the words "butch" on their shirts. I was at Denver's only lesbian bar. :P Hahhaha. I stayed as long as my new-found friend was there. Liz was her name. I asked where I should go to catch some live music. She kept insisting I go to this place called "Charlie's". So after she left I set out there. I stopped by a few other bars. Watched some people sing karaoke. No live music. I headed to Charlie's and... it was full of half-naked ripped dudes with glow-in-the-dark underwear. I'm not sure if it was a gay bar, but there was no live music. That's what I get for being straight at a lesbian bar. :P
I played some darts there. Then bar-hopped some more. Played some pool and finished it off back at the lesbian bar. Then headed to Extended Stay for the night. I had a voucher for the night. Good times. My phone was dying... or rather dead. I had to wait it out until it charged to 1% so I could use it to make a reservation. And then when I finally got there I had to wait for them to finish the daily audit. On the other hand I got to talk to the nice woman at the front desk. Her name escapes me now. :( She had a think Philly accent though. It was cool. Hard to understand but fascinating!
Long story short I'm in bed now. Goodnight.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Flying to Seattle
It's that time again. Things are happening. Nothing happened in July. NOTHING. I'm not even kidding. Looking back... I met a couple new people, who I'm not sure are going to stick around. I came over to a friend's place ... once. I went a bunch of movies... and I spent too much time working on ProjectEuler problem 566. :P
I'm at the airport right now. My flight to Seattle is boarding 20 minutes ago... so they should start letting people in in 10. I want to have this out so I have something to do on the plane.
I'm at the airport right now. My flight to Seattle is boarding 20 minutes ago... so they should start letting people in in 10. I want to have this out so I have something to do on the plane.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Speed Dating
I've been sick for the last few days. So nothing much happened. The only notable thing is that on Friday I went Speed Dating. Ooh. It was supposed to be a 10:10 somewhere in Beverly Hills. But they lost the venue, moved the thing to West Hollywood. Then one of the women dropped out and so did her 4 friends. So the ratio was 2:1. I got there a little early because I didn't want to be late. The host apologized and said I'll get a code to go to another event for free.
When I got there I went straight for the bar. I talked to one of the other guys who was waiting. Another broken heart trying to go out there. I told him I didn't want to look out. He did. He said he didn't see anyone he was remotely interested in talking to. I got the same vibe. Either way, I asked him why he's even there then. So he finished his drink and left. Good lad. I was considering leaving, too, but I was a few blocks away from Anotio's where I could meet Alex L after.
The actual 1:1s with girls were extended to 7 minutes instead of 5. Plenty of time to get to know someone on surface level. Lots of smiling, pleasant faces. That part was good. I learned that nobody goes to these things alone. Every girl brought a friend. Or rather, every girl got brought by a friend. There was a clear distinction between those who needed to get out more and those who could manipulate their friends to go out with them. This one girl literally said she's doing charity work by bringing her friend out when I asked her what she was doing there. Ha.
So I met two teachers and two nurses. The last lady was crazy. This slimy unpleasant person. She was at least 50 in a 24-35 speed dating event and she's already had a few too many drinks. She either kept getting offended or talking out of her ass about some bullcrap topic she knows nothing about. When she started insisting that I get a drink with her I mentioned that she's probably already had enough and she started yelling "This guy doesn't think women shouldn't drink". The host kept apologizing to me for her behavior. It was kind of funny at first, but after more comments like that I just left.
At Antonio's Alex and I had a couple of drink. I figured out he's lost a lot of his Russian. Ha. And I called it a night.
Saturday I was sick. I mustered up enough strength to go to Tempest, but that's about it.
Sunday I was sick, but I mustered enough strength to go to the beach and give Hope a ride from the airport doing movies and a hike on the way.
Today I'm sick, but I think I'll go to work anyway. It really does always feel like there's too much work to do on my team.
When I got there I went straight for the bar. I talked to one of the other guys who was waiting. Another broken heart trying to go out there. I told him I didn't want to look out. He did. He said he didn't see anyone he was remotely interested in talking to. I got the same vibe. Either way, I asked him why he's even there then. So he finished his drink and left. Good lad. I was considering leaving, too, but I was a few blocks away from Anotio's where I could meet Alex L after.
The actual 1:1s with girls were extended to 7 minutes instead of 5. Plenty of time to get to know someone on surface level. Lots of smiling, pleasant faces. That part was good. I learned that nobody goes to these things alone. Every girl brought a friend. Or rather, every girl got brought by a friend. There was a clear distinction between those who needed to get out more and those who could manipulate their friends to go out with them. This one girl literally said she's doing charity work by bringing her friend out when I asked her what she was doing there. Ha.
So I met two teachers and two nurses. The last lady was crazy. This slimy unpleasant person. She was at least 50 in a 24-35 speed dating event and she's already had a few too many drinks. She either kept getting offended or talking out of her ass about some bullcrap topic she knows nothing about. When she started insisting that I get a drink with her I mentioned that she's probably already had enough and she started yelling "This guy doesn't think women shouldn't drink". The host kept apologizing to me for her behavior. It was kind of funny at first, but after more comments like that I just left.
At Antonio's Alex and I had a couple of drink. I figured out he's lost a lot of his Russian. Ha. And I called it a night.
Saturday I was sick. I mustered up enough strength to go to Tempest, but that's about it.
Sunday I was sick, but I mustered enough strength to go to the beach and give Hope a ride from the airport doing movies and a hike on the way.
Today I'm sick, but I think I'll go to work anyway. It really does always feel like there's too much work to do on my team.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
New Team
Yesterday was my first day on the new team. Nothing amazing has happened. Nothing bad either. I found out that they have a lot of things together that I didn't know they did. Like they have a lot of process in place. It's probably a little stunting, but right now it's a good thing since I have structure! Finally.
I was invited to lunch 5 different times today. Haha. What a good-wishing team. I ended up going, but too late after everyone finished. Hehe. Then had a 1:1 with the manager and went to work. I had a goal for myself to get something done. But at the end of the day I was nowhere near started. Lots of documentation to read.
There was a Plain White T's concert that Chris and Alina wanted to go to to. I was thinking about making it out, but it would've taken an hour and I didn't feel like sitting in traffic. I needed to go to the gym anyway to pick up my gym bag.
At the gym I did a move before warming up and pulled a muscle in my back. It still hurts. I'm not sure how to fix it. So the rest of the session wasn't as productive. I still did things though. Olga brought the exercise sheets again so we did some trampoline drills.
Another thing that happened yesterday was that I had some closure talks with Katya (from San Clemente). She said she's upset with me for still going on OkC and not expressing a lot of interest in her. I told her that she needs to tell people if she expects something from them. At the end I asked what it is that she'd want from me. And she sent me a video of waves crashing on the beach. I think I'm supposed to do an interpretive dance or something. I give up. I don't know how to communicate with people like that.
I was invited to lunch 5 different times today. Haha. What a good-wishing team. I ended up going, but too late after everyone finished. Hehe. Then had a 1:1 with the manager and went to work. I had a goal for myself to get something done. But at the end of the day I was nowhere near started. Lots of documentation to read.
There was a Plain White T's concert that Chris and Alina wanted to go to to. I was thinking about making it out, but it would've taken an hour and I didn't feel like sitting in traffic. I needed to go to the gym anyway to pick up my gym bag.
At the gym I did a move before warming up and pulled a muscle in my back. It still hurts. I'm not sure how to fix it. So the rest of the session wasn't as productive. I still did things though. Olga brought the exercise sheets again so we did some trampoline drills.
Another thing that happened yesterday was that I had some closure talks with Katya (from San Clemente). She said she's upset with me for still going on OkC and not expressing a lot of interest in her. I told her that she needs to tell people if she expects something from them. At the end I asked what it is that she'd want from me. And she sent me a video of waves crashing on the beach. I think I'm supposed to do an interpretive dance or something. I give up. I don't know how to communicate with people like that.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Last vacation day.
Sadly my 6-day weekend has come to an end. And what did I do with it? I hung out with my niece. We went to get Which-wich. She wanted to go to LA zoo, but I knew better than suffer in traffic and heat, so I took her to Malibu instead. We sat on the rocks and watched waves crash on the giant rocks. We picked up some bottoms some arseholes left behind themselves and threw them away. Then we drove (thought could've walked) to the self-realization shrine. So calm and peaceful. Saw a duck with so many ducklings. Always so cute to watch animals. Then we drove West on Sunset and decided to go bowl. After bowling we went to the movies and saw Swiss Army Man. What the hell did we see?!? We concluded the day by going to the Grove and having tea.
After I took my niece home I drove to Tempest and put in a work-out. I still felt pretty social so Andrea, Lonnie and I went to get food after. I got home late. I woke up in the middle of the night unable to sleep. I'd forgotten my gym bag at Tempest and I'm really worried something will happen to my stuff. Given that everything in it is pretty new, rebought after the car break-in, I would be devastated if I lost it all again. :(
I had a dream where I was playing Frankenstein in a cheap play and there were many girls surrounding me wanting to stay in touch after. Ah, the romantic life for an artist. I tried finding them (a particular one, again), but failed and woke up. Story of my life.
I start on my new team today. I'm not ready. Ill never be ready. The only thing left to do is to get out of bed and face the day.
After I took my niece home I drove to Tempest and put in a work-out. I still felt pretty social so Andrea, Lonnie and I went to get food after. I got home late. I woke up in the middle of the night unable to sleep. I'd forgotten my gym bag at Tempest and I'm really worried something will happen to my stuff. Given that everything in it is pretty new, rebought after the car break-in, I would be devastated if I lost it all again. :(
I had a dream where I was playing Frankenstein in a cheap play and there were many girls surrounding me wanting to stay in touch after. Ah, the romantic life for an artist. I tried finding them (a particular one, again), but failed and woke up. Story of my life.
I start on my new team today. I'm not ready. Ill never be ready. The only thing left to do is to get out of bed and face the day.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Independence Day weekend
It's late, again. It seems my life is never at that good steady state where I have things to do and I do them and yet have time to write about it for perfect chronicles of my existence. I'm perpetually stuck in a cycle of too busy experiencing something to take 30 minutes to write it down and not doing anything of importance that I want to preserve the memory anyway.
Thursday we got on a bus which took us to Las Vegas. Jake was my bus buddy. In Vegas we did a photo scavenger hunt. Then we stuck around for the "Open Bar" that turned out to only serve bad beer and bad wine. I have had it. I walked out. I went looking for tickets for a show but couldn't find anything. So I got a small bottle of Russian Water and drank it. I went back to the party that was now largely depleted and had another 4 glasses of wine. Then I had silly conversations with people and followed a group of coworkers to a club. I wore comfy clothes for a change. I may still be able to do flips and tricks in a collared shirt, but I can't jump well in my usual pants. So I wore my parkour pants. Well turned out they don't like what I was wearing at the fancy-pants club. I wasn't let in. I went back to the hotel room and drunk called the girl I've been dating. She said some unusual things that I was in no mental state to fully discuss, especially over the phone.
The next day I spent running around going to shows. Saw Tarzan the movie, Popovich the act, Recycled Percussion the musicians, Sin City comedy cabaret, and the cherry on top was the Absinthe performance, which was, you guessed it, amazing. Chris and Alina made it to Vegas that night and we concluded the day by going up the Stratosphere tower.
Almost forgot. I won in roulette. Made 2 bets of $3 and won $19. Then later bet $3 and won $39. Yeah. Good luck!
Anyway, the next day we walked around got food etc. I played roulette again, but with less luck this time. I lost $25. Then won $20. Then lost $40 and then lost $15. Overall, it's been negative, but ultimately fun. We went to two magic shows. We saw Mat Franco and Pen&Teller. Pen and Teller were amazing, just like I thought they would be. I wish we'd had the time to take photos with them. Alas, we needed to make the drive back.
I woke up at a normal time the next day despite everything. Sunday it was. I went to the beach. This time I spent a good amount of time there. I got water. Did things in moderation. Then... it was almost late. It was Heather's last day in LA. People were going to play board games at a bar and then go over to Colin C's place. I didn't want to go to the bar. I was getting sad, too. That happens, still for all the same reasons. So I went home and crashed.
I woke up around 20:30 and had this desire to go do something. I decided to have a conversation with the girl, but I wanted to have it in person. She lives far away so I suggested I come over. She said she sees why she'd say that because she's under the impression I don't want to come after. I was confused. But I did explain that yes, she's right, I did have plans for the 4th. But.... she told me to not bother and just spend time with other people. 0.o I didn't need more than that. I'm looking for a woman who will say "Fuck yes! Come over!". She wasn't the one and that was the end of that. Have to be honest, it bummed me out a little. Life goes on though. I signed up for speed dating and RSVP'd for board games at Colin's. He didn't reply that night. Well, that was disappointing.
I started today by wanting to make things different in any way that I could. I went on a hike. Did the Los Liones trail in 30 minutes again. Showered. Went for lunch with family. Washed my car. Told my family I wasn't coming to picnic/fireworks after. Decided to not go to the lagoon beach family independence day thing. I was unhappy. My dad made remarks about me looking unhappy again. I didn't want to spend more time with them nor the beach family. I went to Oleg's party. I found it refreshing in a sense that he knows a lot of Russian people. And at some point the 4 of us hanging out on the balcony were all from Belarus. That was cool. But that too, got old after a few hours. I felt a wave of "Do something!!!!" coming on. I asked around if anyone had a coin I could flip. Everyone just said no without really engaging. Not my crowd. So I just left. I hauled my ass to Pacific Palisades High School for their fireworks. It's been the only consistently good place for me to go to see a fireworks show. Everything else has been disappointing. And I made it. I parked a mile away so I wouldn't have to deal with cars again. Out of the last 2 times I was there, once I got hit by another car and the other I got stuck in traffic trying to make a right for over an hour. This time I just ran a mile back to my car and was home 20 minutes later.
Those are the facts. I don't have time to get into my emotional state about any of this. Queue in behavioral therapy. Not digging into anything right now. I did things. They were fun. I was lonely. I will do more things. The end. Good night.
Thursday we got on a bus which took us to Las Vegas. Jake was my bus buddy. In Vegas we did a photo scavenger hunt. Then we stuck around for the "Open Bar" that turned out to only serve bad beer and bad wine. I have had it. I walked out. I went looking for tickets for a show but couldn't find anything. So I got a small bottle of Russian Water and drank it. I went back to the party that was now largely depleted and had another 4 glasses of wine. Then I had silly conversations with people and followed a group of coworkers to a club. I wore comfy clothes for a change. I may still be able to do flips and tricks in a collared shirt, but I can't jump well in my usual pants. So I wore my parkour pants. Well turned out they don't like what I was wearing at the fancy-pants club. I wasn't let in. I went back to the hotel room and drunk called the girl I've been dating. She said some unusual things that I was in no mental state to fully discuss, especially over the phone.
The next day I spent running around going to shows. Saw Tarzan the movie, Popovich the act, Recycled Percussion the musicians, Sin City comedy cabaret, and the cherry on top was the Absinthe performance, which was, you guessed it, amazing. Chris and Alina made it to Vegas that night and we concluded the day by going up the Stratosphere tower.
Almost forgot. I won in roulette. Made 2 bets of $3 and won $19. Then later bet $3 and won $39. Yeah. Good luck!
Anyway, the next day we walked around got food etc. I played roulette again, but with less luck this time. I lost $25. Then won $20. Then lost $40 and then lost $15. Overall, it's been negative, but ultimately fun. We went to two magic shows. We saw Mat Franco and Pen&Teller. Pen and Teller were amazing, just like I thought they would be. I wish we'd had the time to take photos with them. Alas, we needed to make the drive back.
I woke up at a normal time the next day despite everything. Sunday it was. I went to the beach. This time I spent a good amount of time there. I got water. Did things in moderation. Then... it was almost late. It was Heather's last day in LA. People were going to play board games at a bar and then go over to Colin C's place. I didn't want to go to the bar. I was getting sad, too. That happens, still for all the same reasons. So I went home and crashed.
I woke up around 20:30 and had this desire to go do something. I decided to have a conversation with the girl, but I wanted to have it in person. She lives far away so I suggested I come over. She said she sees why she'd say that because she's under the impression I don't want to come after. I was confused. But I did explain that yes, she's right, I did have plans for the 4th. But.... she told me to not bother and just spend time with other people. 0.o I didn't need more than that. I'm looking for a woman who will say "Fuck yes! Come over!". She wasn't the one and that was the end of that. Have to be honest, it bummed me out a little. Life goes on though. I signed up for speed dating and RSVP'd for board games at Colin's. He didn't reply that night. Well, that was disappointing.
I started today by wanting to make things different in any way that I could. I went on a hike. Did the Los Liones trail in 30 minutes again. Showered. Went for lunch with family. Washed my car. Told my family I wasn't coming to picnic/fireworks after. Decided to not go to the lagoon beach family independence day thing. I was unhappy. My dad made remarks about me looking unhappy again. I didn't want to spend more time with them nor the beach family. I went to Oleg's party. I found it refreshing in a sense that he knows a lot of Russian people. And at some point the 4 of us hanging out on the balcony were all from Belarus. That was cool. But that too, got old after a few hours. I felt a wave of "Do something!!!!" coming on. I asked around if anyone had a coin I could flip. Everyone just said no without really engaging. Not my crowd. So I just left. I hauled my ass to Pacific Palisades High School for their fireworks. It's been the only consistently good place for me to go to see a fireworks show. Everything else has been disappointing. And I made it. I parked a mile away so I wouldn't have to deal with cars again. Out of the last 2 times I was there, once I got hit by another car and the other I got stuck in traffic trying to make a right for over an hour. This time I just ran a mile back to my car and was home 20 minutes later.
Those are the facts. I don't have time to get into my emotional state about any of this. Queue in behavioral therapy. Not digging into anything right now. I did things. They were fun. I was lonely. I will do more things. The end. Good night.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Weekend
And now ladies and gentlemen, lets do the news:
I suppose the thing that I care about the most is that GB has voted to leave EU. And it's retarded. There are so many reasons for which it's just such a terrible idea, but ultimately, over the years they will see their economy fall and GDP not live up to it's potential in relation to other countries. It's very sad, really.
With that being said my weekend was fine. I chatted with Katelyn on skype for a couple of hours then went out with Katie. I ate so much pasta Saturday I can honestly call myself pastaman! We watched Finding Dory. Then I hauled my butt over to the other part of town and watched Independence Day with Chris and Alina. Finding Dory was so much better. :P
Sunday I went on a hike. Did the whole Los Liones thing to the first viewing point in only 30 minutes. That made me happy. That's a 4-minute improvement on last time. Thought I don't know if I'll be able to do so well every time. I ran parts of up-hill as well.
After the hike I picked up Katya from Union Station. We walked around the historic downtown. It was underwhelming. Then we drove to Echo Park and spend some time on the padalboats. Then we had some fish-n-chips and clam-chowder and I put her back on the train. Short and sweet.
I was trying to see Hope after that so I drove to Burbank. But her thing ran 2.5 hours past due and I just basically walked around. Bought some small things I don't really need and left the valley. I stopped by Alex B and Alina's. Met their baby for the first time. That was nice.
Then... (tun-tun-tun) I went home and watched the last episode of the season for Game of Thrones. What a delight. I mean.. I was so happy. It ended with 4 people sitting on thrones being very straight-forward about what they're going to do next. I hope John marries Daenerys. But I'm glad to finally see Cersei on the throne. She's not hiding anymore. She's ruling like she's always done. And she check-mated all her enemies with one move. Quite genius.
And I finished the evening watching a comedy about Hitler in modern times. It's called "Look who's Back". Quite enjoyable. Raises good points. At least it's the first thing I've seen where Hitler isn't demonized but at least shown as someone who's done things for his people, which he did much better than so many of modern rulers.
I suppose the thing that I care about the most is that GB has voted to leave EU. And it's retarded. There are so many reasons for which it's just such a terrible idea, but ultimately, over the years they will see their economy fall and GDP not live up to it's potential in relation to other countries. It's very sad, really.
With that being said my weekend was fine. I chatted with Katelyn on skype for a couple of hours then went out with Katie. I ate so much pasta Saturday I can honestly call myself pastaman! We watched Finding Dory. Then I hauled my butt over to the other part of town and watched Independence Day with Chris and Alina. Finding Dory was so much better. :P
Sunday I went on a hike. Did the whole Los Liones thing to the first viewing point in only 30 minutes. That made me happy. That's a 4-minute improvement on last time. Thought I don't know if I'll be able to do so well every time. I ran parts of up-hill as well.
After the hike I picked up Katya from Union Station. We walked around the historic downtown. It was underwhelming. Then we drove to Echo Park and spend some time on the padalboats. Then we had some fish-n-chips and clam-chowder and I put her back on the train. Short and sweet.
I was trying to see Hope after that so I drove to Burbank. But her thing ran 2.5 hours past due and I just basically walked around. Bought some small things I don't really need and left the valley. I stopped by Alex B and Alina's. Met their baby for the first time. That was nice.
Then... (tun-tun-tun) I went home and watched the last episode of the season for Game of Thrones. What a delight. I mean.. I was so happy. It ended with 4 people sitting on thrones being very straight-forward about what they're going to do next. I hope John marries Daenerys. But I'm glad to finally see Cersei on the throne. She's not hiding anymore. She's ruling like she's always done. And she check-mated all her enemies with one move. Quite genius.
And I finished the evening watching a comedy about Hitler in modern times. It's called "Look who's Back". Quite enjoyable. Raises good points. At least it's the first thing I've seen where Hitler isn't demonized but at least shown as someone who's done things for his people, which he did much better than so many of modern rulers.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Exes dating friends
So my ex messaged me yesterday saying she wanted to get coffee. At first I was excited because woo, more people wanted to hang out. But then I got a little nervous I've been remembering more of the stuff rather than good about our relationship. And then I got even more nervous when she was being especially punctual about this meeting.
Long story short, she told me that she's now officially dating one of my friends. :/ At first I was surprised and happy for them. Then she said that's surprised I'm not flipping out. I thought about it. It's a bit back-stabby, but it wasn't outside of the realm of possibilities. But then she said something that made me lose my appetite: they just spent the week together.
Somehow, knowing that while I was on vacation having a blast, I felt good about it knowing that at least I was having a better time that others. Now that I know that she's having a magic getaway with one of my friends. That shatters my believes.
She could tell I wasn't happy anymore. I tried to rationalize it and realized that this isn't the first time this has happened. Cough, Chris and Krystle. And cough(?) Igor and Monica. Somehow some people grow up without realizing that their friends might have feelings for their exes. Those who do then, in order to preserve friendships, stay the fuck away from their friends' exes. Or make abundantly sure that they wouldn't be hurting anyone's feelings. Chris talked to me before dating Krystle. This friend didn't.
I don't know what the difference is between the people. Maybe some just don't have feelings for their exes, or just aren't super capable of empathy. Whatever the reason, I was hurt for aforementioned two reasons. That, plus I wanted to move on first. So much for that.
Either way, that evening coupled with us terribly losing the pool match in the tournament last night made my day kind of shitty. I was looking forward to at least watching Game of Thrones, but I was too late for that, too. I spent the rest of the night drinking and talking to strangers on Omegle. And I talked to the OC girl on the phone a little.
When I woke I was dreaming about my ex telling me that she's dated other ones of my friends and I shouldn't judge. 0.o I was angry while still waking up. I'm feeling a little bit better now. This deep-rationalization I'm doing is helping me understand myself as a person and be sad in a constructive way. But honestly I wish I knew how to do self-behavioral-therapy so I can just move on without going through the struggle. If this last sentence didn't make much sense to you, look up "Behavioral Therapy Revolution".
Long story short, she told me that she's now officially dating one of my friends. :/ At first I was surprised and happy for them. Then she said that's surprised I'm not flipping out. I thought about it. It's a bit back-stabby, but it wasn't outside of the realm of possibilities. But then she said something that made me lose my appetite: they just spent the week together.
Somehow, knowing that while I was on vacation having a blast, I felt good about it knowing that at least I was having a better time that others. Now that I know that she's having a magic getaway with one of my friends. That shatters my believes.
She could tell I wasn't happy anymore. I tried to rationalize it and realized that this isn't the first time this has happened. Cough, Chris and Krystle. And cough(?) Igor and Monica. Somehow some people grow up without realizing that their friends might have feelings for their exes. Those who do then, in order to preserve friendships, stay the fuck away from their friends' exes. Or make abundantly sure that they wouldn't be hurting anyone's feelings. Chris talked to me before dating Krystle. This friend didn't.
I don't know what the difference is between the people. Maybe some just don't have feelings for their exes, or just aren't super capable of empathy. Whatever the reason, I was hurt for aforementioned two reasons. That, plus I wanted to move on first. So much for that.
Either way, that evening coupled with us terribly losing the pool match in the tournament last night made my day kind of shitty. I was looking forward to at least watching Game of Thrones, but I was too late for that, too. I spent the rest of the night drinking and talking to strangers on Omegle. And I talked to the OC girl on the phone a little.
When I woke I was dreaming about my ex telling me that she's dated other ones of my friends and I shouldn't judge. 0.o I was angry while still waking up. I'm feeling a little bit better now. This deep-rationalization I'm doing is helping me understand myself as a person and be sad in a constructive way. But honestly I wish I knew how to do self-behavioral-therapy so I can just move on without going through the struggle. If this last sentence didn't make much sense to you, look up "Behavioral Therapy Revolution".
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Wedding then back to normal.
Last Sunday was fun. I woke up in Toronto then went back to LA. I talked to a pretty girl in the passport line. I was lucky because the passport check happened at the Canadian site and I just randomly decided to get there 4 hours before my flight so I had time to go through it. But the real joy came from the fact that with my plane landing at 12:30 and Father's Day lunch being at 13:00 I could make it!
It was nice to see family. Our reserved tables were outside and in 35 degree weather some of us have refused to sit outside. So we had to wait for an hour before we got our table. Well, at least the food for delicious.
After that I came home, relaxed for a few minutes, then I had 15 minutes to get ready for Rui's wedding. So much rushing. Lina helped lint my suit. Stuff randomly still fit so I think I looked good. The wedding was good. Large restaurant. Many people. Not enough drinks though. But everyone around me was that... pregnant-age so it's not like anyone was actually drinking. I barely got someone to help me finish the bottle of champagne I got for the table. We took some silly photos and not-so-silly photos. Good photos all around actually. The wedding was supposed to wind down around 23:00, but everyone at my table left at 22:00 and I decided to follow suit.
Instead of going home I drove down to San Clemente to see one of the women I met on OkC. We walked by the the beach and then sat at a life guard booth watching the waves crashes on the shore under the full-moon moonlight. But when I was driving back I was pretty tired already. Remember, it's been a long day. And this guy with bright lights kept following me. Eventually I pulled to the right-most lane and slowed down to let him finally pass. That's when the sirens went off. Luckily the officer understood when I complained about this creep following me. :P
Monday was ordinary. Work. Tempest. Sleep.
Tuesday was mostly ordinary. Work. Then at the end of the day the Movie Club at work was showing the first Independence Day in the court-yard. Wine, beer and candy were provided. I got Lina and Chris to come out. Alan invited AnneMarie. So at least I was in company of good people.
It was nice to see family. Our reserved tables were outside and in 35 degree weather some of us have refused to sit outside. So we had to wait for an hour before we got our table. Well, at least the food for delicious.
After that I came home, relaxed for a few minutes, then I had 15 minutes to get ready for Rui's wedding. So much rushing. Lina helped lint my suit. Stuff randomly still fit so I think I looked good. The wedding was good. Large restaurant. Many people. Not enough drinks though. But everyone around me was that... pregnant-age so it's not like anyone was actually drinking. I barely got someone to help me finish the bottle of champagne I got for the table. We took some silly photos and not-so-silly photos. Good photos all around actually. The wedding was supposed to wind down around 23:00, but everyone at my table left at 22:00 and I decided to follow suit.
Instead of going home I drove down to San Clemente to see one of the women I met on OkC. We walked by the the beach and then sat at a life guard booth watching the waves crashes on the shore under the full-moon moonlight. But when I was driving back I was pretty tired already. Remember, it's been a long day. And this guy with bright lights kept following me. Eventually I pulled to the right-most lane and slowed down to let him finally pass. That's when the sirens went off. Luckily the officer understood when I complained about this creep following me. :P
Monday was ordinary. Work. Tempest. Sleep.
Tuesday was mostly ordinary. Work. Then at the end of the day the Movie Club at work was showing the first Independence Day in the court-yard. Wine, beer and candy were provided. I got Lina and Chris to come out. Alan invited AnneMarie. So at least I was in company of good people.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Toronto
Dear diary:
I'm on the train back now. It's the same train. This one's taking me to the airport. It's so exciting that it has WiFi! I've spent the last 6 days in Toronto. I haven't had the chance to sit down and "chill" on the computer, much less reflect on anything. I haven't slept much either. It's been great last few days. The couple of days before that were pretty lame. But even so I wasn't sitting in my room. I was out and about and looking for things to do.
I'll try remember things backwards. Today I woke up super early after only a few hours of sleep. Last night I went to bed after 01:00 because I was packing. Somehow my backpack got a lot heavier. All I've added to it are 3 t-shirts. I bought two of them and one was free from the concert. I had a day pass to NXNE for the rock day. The highlights included me dancing through the crowd. I skipped a lot. You know. Hop-hop. I did that for hours. Twisted my ankle a few times. It hurts. So worth it. I was there walking/dancing/skipping from 15:30 to 23:00.
I must've put at least 8-9 drinks into me. I had a really interesting time buying them though. You see that was the only place that didn't accept credit cards. It's cash only. I didn't have any CAD on me and ATMs are useless if you don't carry a debit card. So my method was simpler: I waited for 30 minutes to download gWallet and PayPal on the super-slow 2g network that TMobile provides. I chatted with... (insert two names here because I don't remember) for that time. These guys were walking around taking Polaroid photos of people and just giving them away. So I got one with the strangers!
But back to the drinks. They didn't have any money to share. So I was just walking around asking if people had cash I could buy off of them with PayPal. For the first 20 people or so I asked about Google Wallet. But I don't think anybody in Canada even knew what it was. Haha. But at least people have heard of PayPal. Most politely declined. Some said they would help if they had extra cash. One woman just looked straight at me and just said one word "No". She's a bitch. I don't want to sugar coat it. But I digress. Eventually, after around a 100 people I found my savior. Her name is Dee and she just watched her whole family reject me and then she just pulled out her phone and said she can make it happen. <3 Being pretty young all she had was $15 on her and she shared it all. I want to praise her for kindness. But in retrospect the favor is a small one. I'm frankly shocked that it was that much hassle.
When I was in line finally buying my first drink I was ecstatic. One of the people I'd asked for help from earlier saw me with money and gave me a high five. They asked if I finally found someone who "just gave me money". 0.o. No douchebag. It's the 21st century. How the heck do people not know how PayPal works? But I digress. To my future self: reminder, the first drink I got was water. It was hot and I was thirsty.
With all that being said. I had a blast. I hung out a little with Katrina, a photographer I had met earlier. I chatted with Toni (female) from Russia for a while. I danced with a random stranger toward the end of the night. I talked to hundreds of people. :P I talked SXSW promoters from giving me free vodka shots. I got hundreds of high-fives. :P I learned that Zolas make good music. Got a photo with their bass player, too.
But all of that was after I went GoKarting. You see I didn't have in-and-out privileges. And I got there really early when it just started. There were barely any people. So I went across the street and drove around like a maniac. :P Then I had a pack of green-tea ice cream. Come to think of it my major meals that day was a pack of ice cream and a lot of smirnoff ice.
--
And now I'm at the airport. Sitting in my terminal. Already passed passport control and customs. Flying into a domestic terminal. That means I might make it to father's day lunch today! That's exciting. And I can make it to Rui's wedding! Today's going to be a good day. Or something! :P
Before the ice cream and the go-karting I was on a boat tour around Toronto islands. I spent most of that time enjoying the summer breeze, sound of waves, waving at passing boats and writing postcards. :P The boat tour was free. Came with the tour bus. So I hopped on the tour bus after.
Friday was a good day. I decided to be a tourist. And after working for a few hours I took the sight-seeing-tour. I had tickets to a local castle called Casa Loma. The tour bus took me there. I had no idea how convenient hop-on-hop-off tour buses are. I got to meet people. Listen to silly facts about the city. And I got to got where I needed to. So, that being said I had this super blissful moment at the castle, sitting on the patio having an insanely good drink. It had St. Germains in it and peach. Do I need to say more? Yes... with champagne. The grounds were gorgeous, too. I mean... it was just a house, but it had towers, a ballroom, a library, a canon, cool attic and an underground passage under neighbour's house to an extension down the block.
When I was tired of the sun I hopped back on the tour bus and headed downtown to work a little more. I knew the NXNE had a free stage in a square where I really wanted to be a few years ago. So I wanted to get there. I hopped off the bus a little too early and ended up walking up Younge St. Somewhere before King St. I found this restaurant market called Marche. I don't know how to describe it. You walk in and get a card. You make purchases at the buffet with that card and then pay the tab at the end when you leave. I like the idea. The food however was really good for buffet food. I had... a salmon quiche that was yum-yum. That and literally the best piece of cake I've had in my whole life. It was hazelnut chocolate something-something. I don't know how they made it, but it was like .. a soft brownie that's not dense but not too fluffy. Super rich flavor, but not sweet.
I worked from the Marche. The atmosphere was amazing. Great music playing. Better than at any of the shows prior. I didn't want to leave. Working was fun, too. That is how I wish I'd spend more of time. Sitting at a cool spot. Looking at regular people. Listening to soulful music. Eating delicious food. Doing good work.
I made a decision that I didn't want to go to another show that night and bought an improv ticket instead. This one was called BeerProv. You know... because everyone was drinking, especially on stage. It was alright. I appreciated doing something different for a change. It wasn't a better improv show I've seen, but I did laugh a lot. Like a lot. Some of the jokes were stupid, but nothing got offensive. So that's cool. This dude made a remark about being dumped after 7 years together because he wanted to pursue a career in improv. Everyone on stage, his-mid-sentence gave him a hug. I don't know if they train to provide emotional support, but that was an inspiring moment. I want a collective like that.
Gotta go board the plane. Maybe I'll finish this there.
--
Thursday... I went to a concert at the Rivoli pool house. I played pool. I listened to music. I walked around a lot. I met Katrina, one of the photographers covering the festival. It was a good day.
The other days before that in Toronto weren't eventful. I worked and walked around a lot. I was kind of aimless and just exploring. Took a while for the night life to pick up. I kept going to the same bar in the evenings almost every night for the lack of better of things to do. They had this barrel-aged porter which was $35 for a liter. So good. But that's about it. The next time I go I think it'll just be around the weekend. On Tuesday I was walking around asking if there was a good spot to go to.. but the answers I got were things like "Hard Rock Cafe" or "McDonalds".
I'm on the train back now. It's the same train. This one's taking me to the airport. It's so exciting that it has WiFi! I've spent the last 6 days in Toronto. I haven't had the chance to sit down and "chill" on the computer, much less reflect on anything. I haven't slept much either. It's been great last few days. The couple of days before that were pretty lame. But even so I wasn't sitting in my room. I was out and about and looking for things to do.
I'll try remember things backwards. Today I woke up super early after only a few hours of sleep. Last night I went to bed after 01:00 because I was packing. Somehow my backpack got a lot heavier. All I've added to it are 3 t-shirts. I bought two of them and one was free from the concert. I had a day pass to NXNE for the rock day. The highlights included me dancing through the crowd. I skipped a lot. You know. Hop-hop. I did that for hours. Twisted my ankle a few times. It hurts. So worth it. I was there walking/dancing/skipping from 15:30 to 23:00.
I must've put at least 8-9 drinks into me. I had a really interesting time buying them though. You see that was the only place that didn't accept credit cards. It's cash only. I didn't have any CAD on me and ATMs are useless if you don't carry a debit card. So my method was simpler: I waited for 30 minutes to download gWallet and PayPal on the super-slow 2g network that TMobile provides. I chatted with... (insert two names here because I don't remember) for that time. These guys were walking around taking Polaroid photos of people and just giving them away. So I got one with the strangers!
But back to the drinks. They didn't have any money to share. So I was just walking around asking if people had cash I could buy off of them with PayPal. For the first 20 people or so I asked about Google Wallet. But I don't think anybody in Canada even knew what it was. Haha. But at least people have heard of PayPal. Most politely declined. Some said they would help if they had extra cash. One woman just looked straight at me and just said one word "No". She's a bitch. I don't want to sugar coat it. But I digress. Eventually, after around a 100 people I found my savior. Her name is Dee and she just watched her whole family reject me and then she just pulled out her phone and said she can make it happen. <3 Being pretty young all she had was $15 on her and she shared it all. I want to praise her for kindness. But in retrospect the favor is a small one. I'm frankly shocked that it was that much hassle.
When I was in line finally buying my first drink I was ecstatic. One of the people I'd asked for help from earlier saw me with money and gave me a high five. They asked if I finally found someone who "just gave me money". 0.o. No douchebag. It's the 21st century. How the heck do people not know how PayPal works? But I digress. To my future self: reminder, the first drink I got was water. It was hot and I was thirsty.
With all that being said. I had a blast. I hung out a little with Katrina, a photographer I had met earlier. I chatted with Toni (female) from Russia for a while. I danced with a random stranger toward the end of the night. I talked to hundreds of people. :P I talked SXSW promoters from giving me free vodka shots. I got hundreds of high-fives. :P I learned that Zolas make good music. Got a photo with their bass player, too.
But all of that was after I went GoKarting. You see I didn't have in-and-out privileges. And I got there really early when it just started. There were barely any people. So I went across the street and drove around like a maniac. :P Then I had a pack of green-tea ice cream. Come to think of it my major meals that day was a pack of ice cream and a lot of smirnoff ice.
--
And now I'm at the airport. Sitting in my terminal. Already passed passport control and customs. Flying into a domestic terminal. That means I might make it to father's day lunch today! That's exciting. And I can make it to Rui's wedding! Today's going to be a good day. Or something! :P
Before the ice cream and the go-karting I was on a boat tour around Toronto islands. I spent most of that time enjoying the summer breeze, sound of waves, waving at passing boats and writing postcards. :P The boat tour was free. Came with the tour bus. So I hopped on the tour bus after.
Friday was a good day. I decided to be a tourist. And after working for a few hours I took the sight-seeing-tour. I had tickets to a local castle called Casa Loma. The tour bus took me there. I had no idea how convenient hop-on-hop-off tour buses are. I got to meet people. Listen to silly facts about the city. And I got to got where I needed to. So, that being said I had this super blissful moment at the castle, sitting on the patio having an insanely good drink. It had St. Germains in it and peach. Do I need to say more? Yes... with champagne. The grounds were gorgeous, too. I mean... it was just a house, but it had towers, a ballroom, a library, a canon, cool attic and an underground passage under neighbour's house to an extension down the block.
When I was tired of the sun I hopped back on the tour bus and headed downtown to work a little more. I knew the NXNE had a free stage in a square where I really wanted to be a few years ago. So I wanted to get there. I hopped off the bus a little too early and ended up walking up Younge St. Somewhere before King St. I found this restaurant market called Marche. I don't know how to describe it. You walk in and get a card. You make purchases at the buffet with that card and then pay the tab at the end when you leave. I like the idea. The food however was really good for buffet food. I had... a salmon quiche that was yum-yum. That and literally the best piece of cake I've had in my whole life. It was hazelnut chocolate something-something. I don't know how they made it, but it was like .. a soft brownie that's not dense but not too fluffy. Super rich flavor, but not sweet.
I worked from the Marche. The atmosphere was amazing. Great music playing. Better than at any of the shows prior. I didn't want to leave. Working was fun, too. That is how I wish I'd spend more of time. Sitting at a cool spot. Looking at regular people. Listening to soulful music. Eating delicious food. Doing good work.
I made a decision that I didn't want to go to another show that night and bought an improv ticket instead. This one was called BeerProv. You know... because everyone was drinking, especially on stage. It was alright. I appreciated doing something different for a change. It wasn't a better improv show I've seen, but I did laugh a lot. Like a lot. Some of the jokes were stupid, but nothing got offensive. So that's cool. This dude made a remark about being dumped after 7 years together because he wanted to pursue a career in improv. Everyone on stage, his-mid-sentence gave him a hug. I don't know if they train to provide emotional support, but that was an inspiring moment. I want a collective like that.
Gotta go board the plane. Maybe I'll finish this there.
--
Thursday... I went to a concert at the Rivoli pool house. I played pool. I listened to music. I walked around a lot. I met Katrina, one of the photographers covering the festival. It was a good day.
The other days before that in Toronto weren't eventful. I worked and walked around a lot. I was kind of aimless and just exploring. Took a while for the night life to pick up. I kept going to the same bar in the evenings almost every night for the lack of better of things to do. They had this barrel-aged porter which was $35 for a liter. So good. But that's about it. The next time I go I think it'll just be around the weekend. On Tuesday I was walking around asking if there was a good spot to go to.. but the answers I got were things like "Hard Rock Cafe" or "McDonalds".
Monday, June 13, 2016
Travel.
Hey diary.
I'm not dead. I've forgotten that you exist. I'm still sad, but less so for the last few days.
Summary:
- Friday went to have a drink with Alex
- Saturday went to Singles Mixer
- Sunday to a birthday, then beach, and then went on a date
- Monday flew to Toronto
It was Tuesday that Katie at Tempest was telling me how to throw front-fulls off the trampoline into the foam pit. It was so much fun. I even did a double. But people quickly told me that I'm pulling too early and going off axis. So I'm back to doing just 360. But it looks better, or so I hear.
So then on Thursday I played with them some more. It was awesome. They don't hurt and they're a new fun thing I can kind-of do and work on improving. That's what Tempest is supposed to be about!
The whole week at work I was participating in a fix-it. A competition to do most things to boost engineering productivity. I got #8. I think I get some toy or something like that for it. Or maybe a coupe of months of Youtube Red. He-he.
Friday I was trying to get Alan or Ethan (intern) to go see X-Men. But they refused. So I worked until 21:30 then went to Basement Tavern where they were supposed to have live music already. Well, I was wrong. I had a gross beer and waited until 22:30 for the music to start. All that just to find out that it was karaoke night and the band sucked. So I left. I think that was Friday. I might be confusing my days. Either way, I know that Friday night I ended up at Snake Pit (bar in West Hollywood) with Alex L. I had a drink. We laughed over nothing. Then I went home.
Saturday I didn't get to sleep in. I woke up early to let the maids in. Yay maids. Two short old guys. Hehe. I wonder if they also do the "topless maid" thing. But, they scrubbed the bathrooms and the kitchen for a couple hours. I spaced out after that and went to Tempest. I had one goal at the gym: do the front-fulls 20 more times and I succeeded! I figure this puts me at 40 attempts already. Another 60 and I'll start throwing it onto a mat. Later that evening I went to the single's mixer. The same one I always go to at 3110 Main. This one was a little less lame than the previous, but the ratio was still 4:1. There were 40 guys and 11 girls. I decided pre-game this time and had a drink at work first. I ended up having another drink at the event anyway. Too boring otherwise. The games this time weren't as much fun, but I think I did decently well. There were some nice people there. I don't mean to brag, but I got two callbacks the next day. That's a first. :P
... Getting of the train. Will continue when I get to my AirBnb.
... Woah and now it's almost 02:00 and the day is over. I'll have to pick this up later.
I'm not dead. I've forgotten that you exist. I'm still sad, but less so for the last few days.
Summary:
- Friday went to have a drink with Alex
- Saturday went to Singles Mixer
- Sunday to a birthday, then beach, and then went on a date
- Monday flew to Toronto
It was Tuesday that Katie at Tempest was telling me how to throw front-fulls off the trampoline into the foam pit. It was so much fun. I even did a double. But people quickly told me that I'm pulling too early and going off axis. So I'm back to doing just 360. But it looks better, or so I hear.
So then on Thursday I played with them some more. It was awesome. They don't hurt and they're a new fun thing I can kind-of do and work on improving. That's what Tempest is supposed to be about!
The whole week at work I was participating in a fix-it. A competition to do most things to boost engineering productivity. I got #8. I think I get some toy or something like that for it. Or maybe a coupe of months of Youtube Red. He-he.
Friday I was trying to get Alan or Ethan (intern) to go see X-Men. But they refused. So I worked until 21:30 then went to Basement Tavern where they were supposed to have live music already. Well, I was wrong. I had a gross beer and waited until 22:30 for the music to start. All that just to find out that it was karaoke night and the band sucked. So I left. I think that was Friday. I might be confusing my days. Either way, I know that Friday night I ended up at Snake Pit (bar in West Hollywood) with Alex L. I had a drink. We laughed over nothing. Then I went home.
Saturday I didn't get to sleep in. I woke up early to let the maids in. Yay maids. Two short old guys. Hehe. I wonder if they also do the "topless maid" thing. But, they scrubbed the bathrooms and the kitchen for a couple hours. I spaced out after that and went to Tempest. I had one goal at the gym: do the front-fulls 20 more times and I succeeded! I figure this puts me at 40 attempts already. Another 60 and I'll start throwing it onto a mat. Later that evening I went to the single's mixer. The same one I always go to at 3110 Main. This one was a little less lame than the previous, but the ratio was still 4:1. There were 40 guys and 11 girls. I decided pre-game this time and had a drink at work first. I ended up having another drink at the event anyway. Too boring otherwise. The games this time weren't as much fun, but I think I did decently well. There were some nice people there. I don't mean to brag, but I got two callbacks the next day. That's a first. :P
... Getting of the train. Will continue when I get to my AirBnb.
... Woah and now it's almost 02:00 and the day is over. I'll have to pick this up later.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Venting
So lets go with "Angry". Because it's my mood. I'm angry. I wish there was some big-ol reason why, but it's a few things. Lets list them:
* The morons at the security company dropped my footage request and the video of my car getting broken into disappeared.
* Bernie lost the primary today. This is the last stop for him.
* My tolerance couldn't keep up withe shit-storm of people freaking out over a "too-light" sentence that this kid got for having sex with a sleeping girl or something like that. I don't even know about the actual story because all I get from my neck of the woods is hatred toward the guy, his father, the judge, the system, the f**king everything. Thing rationally you sheeple!
* I'm in pain. Has to do with working out for the last 4 days.
* I spent the evening booking tickets and scheduling events. None of that was fun today. Delta crashed twice on me and told me to "start over". Had to book a flight by phone. :/
* I'm angry with myself for eating too much sugar. I had an apricot-oat bar that had 14 grams, and then I had 6 bookies, that's another 16 grams. That's 30 grams from just sweets. I'm disappointed in myself. Damn stress.
That's about all I can think of. I'm sure there are other things. Like Wayo yesterday was supposed to go to the movies with me, but totally bailed right before going. And I messaged Hope because she said she wanted to go, but she never replied. And then there're the angry comments with Katie on Facebook. I need better friends.
* The morons at the security company dropped my footage request and the video of my car getting broken into disappeared.
* Bernie lost the primary today. This is the last stop for him.
* My tolerance couldn't keep up withe shit-storm of people freaking out over a "too-light" sentence that this kid got for having sex with a sleeping girl or something like that. I don't even know about the actual story because all I get from my neck of the woods is hatred toward the guy, his father, the judge, the system, the f**king everything. Thing rationally you sheeple!
* I'm in pain. Has to do with working out for the last 4 days.
* I spent the evening booking tickets and scheduling events. None of that was fun today. Delta crashed twice on me and told me to "start over". Had to book a flight by phone. :/
* I'm angry with myself for eating too much sugar. I had an apricot-oat bar that had 14 grams, and then I had 6 bookies, that's another 16 grams. That's 30 grams from just sweets. I'm disappointed in myself. Damn stress.
That's about all I can think of. I'm sure there are other things. Like Wayo yesterday was supposed to go to the movies with me, but totally bailed right before going. And I messaged Hope because she said she wanted to go, but she never replied. And then there're the angry comments with Katie on Facebook. I need better friends.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
NinjaCon
There's nothing special for me to describe here today. Yesterday was NinjaCon, a small anime convention. I had bought tickets a while ago. Rui was supposed to go. She invited me. But turns out she never bought a ticket so I was there by myself. I went anyway hoping that I'd find someone to hang out with or something to do there. I was from about 11:00 to 14:15 and it was boring for the first 3 hours. Then it got better with contests and more people coming. I mean there were only like 60 booths selling hand-drawing stuff and self-made trinkets. There was a panel with voice actors... for animes I haven't heard about. Aaaand yeah. Boring. I took photos of what I could. There wasn't much. When it was time, I left for Tempest.
Now at this point it's been days since I've done something wither another person besides having a snack with the intern on Friday. So I asked if anyone wanted to go grab food/drink after. Andrew was the only one who agreed and we had tea at Starbucks after.
In absence of other ideas I went back to the con. It was still going for another couple of hours. But when I got there it was pretty much all dismantled. So I went to get sushi instead. By. Myself. And it was cold and lame. I want my Saturday night back. I don't know for what... but I think there are better ways to spend it.
Now at this point it's been days since I've done something wither another person besides having a snack with the intern on Friday. So I asked if anyone wanted to go grab food/drink after. Andrew was the only one who agreed and we had tea at Starbucks after.
In absence of other ideas I went back to the con. It was still going for another couple of hours. But when I got there it was pretty much all dismantled. So I went to get sushi instead. By. Myself. And it was cold and lame. I want my Saturday night back. I don't know for what... but I think there are better ways to spend it.
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Ups and downs.
Thursday was a decent day. I worked hard. Then went on a meet-and-greet. The woman had a skin problem of some sort. And I'm particularly sensitive to that because of my childhood. So it was an immediate no-no. We had a short and pleasant conversation and then I got out of there. Went to Tempest. Had a good time there. Not sure why. Was teaching people again. Had a sense of purpose. So that was nice.
Friday however, I got a text from someone asking about something in the apartment. I thought it was about the AirBnb in Toronto.. but I recognized the number as my ex's. Le sigh. So I knew that was coming. The day went slow. As slow as they go. The morning meeting got canceled so I was rushing to finish some work in that time. Then I had a Project Euler meeting. I took the intern that sits next to me. Then I played soccer. The weather was crap. Very overcast and foggy. I kept messing up.
Alan and Bria were out and when I got back it was pretty much just me and the intern working. He's new. So I'm still careful about what I say around him. Nobody to talk to about life. Le sigh. That being said at some point I realized that it was the first Friday of the month. There are food trucks down the street. I wanted to go. Sucks to go alone though. I went with the intern. I needed to get food and it didn't look like I was going to find another human to go with.
I paid $17 for a piece of white bread with two spoonfuls of lobster on it. Seriously LA. That's expensive. We chatted about programming and ... that's pretty much it. The intern is 18. No much life experience yet. I went home. Not really feeling up to doing anything. I was hoping to run into my roommates but they weren't home.
Alex L stopped by to borrow a camera. He's going on a trip. Sounds like a good time. He didn't have time to get out of the car. I just chatted with him for a few minutes and he was on his way.
Then my ex stopped by. I brought out the thing she wanted. I didn't want it to be awkward. We sat in the lobby for a bit and talked about the little things. Small talk. You know. Trying to remain pleasant. I told her deeper things, too. She didn't. That's probably good. We kept it courteous. I had to clarify that I'm not a socially-uncomfortable monster unable to talk to those who've wronged me. Then it got late. She left... and I was unable to go find actual humans to hang out with. So I spent the new few hours chatting with strangers online. Therapy.
Today I'm going to NinjaCon. I don't know why. Bought the tickets a while ago. Might as well go. Going alone. Don't expect anything good to happen.
Friday however, I got a text from someone asking about something in the apartment. I thought it was about the AirBnb in Toronto.. but I recognized the number as my ex's. Le sigh. So I knew that was coming. The day went slow. As slow as they go. The morning meeting got canceled so I was rushing to finish some work in that time. Then I had a Project Euler meeting. I took the intern that sits next to me. Then I played soccer. The weather was crap. Very overcast and foggy. I kept messing up.
Alan and Bria were out and when I got back it was pretty much just me and the intern working. He's new. So I'm still careful about what I say around him. Nobody to talk to about life. Le sigh. That being said at some point I realized that it was the first Friday of the month. There are food trucks down the street. I wanted to go. Sucks to go alone though. I went with the intern. I needed to get food and it didn't look like I was going to find another human to go with.
I paid $17 for a piece of white bread with two spoonfuls of lobster on it. Seriously LA. That's expensive. We chatted about programming and ... that's pretty much it. The intern is 18. No much life experience yet. I went home. Not really feeling up to doing anything. I was hoping to run into my roommates but they weren't home.
Alex L stopped by to borrow a camera. He's going on a trip. Sounds like a good time. He didn't have time to get out of the car. I just chatted with him for a few minutes and he was on his way.
Then my ex stopped by. I brought out the thing she wanted. I didn't want it to be awkward. We sat in the lobby for a bit and talked about the little things. Small talk. You know. Trying to remain pleasant. I told her deeper things, too. She didn't. That's probably good. We kept it courteous. I had to clarify that I'm not a socially-uncomfortable monster unable to talk to those who've wronged me. Then it got late. She left... and I was unable to go find actual humans to hang out with. So I spent the new few hours chatting with strangers online. Therapy.
Today I'm going to NinjaCon. I don't know why. Bought the tickets a while ago. Might as well go. Going alone. Don't expect anything good to happen.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Looking for AirBnb
So I'm going to Canada soon and I'm looking for a place to stay. I've looked before and the prices seemed affordable but I was really hoping to find someone to stay with through a dating site instead. Well that didn't pan out. In fact the reply rate for that was much lower than normal messaging. So with only a couple weeks left I have no choice but to get a room. I don't need an apartment so a private room should do. I'm looking for something under $100/day and it's tough. My trip touches nights on the weekend and it leaves me with only two choices. One of them rejected me this morning. Hm. I don't see another reason but that I'm a guy. It's a woman host. The timing is somewhat odd because I was just listening to a podcast on discrimination on AirBnb. But that one was for being black. Well ladies and gentlemen: men get discriminated against just as much as Blacks.... and before someone checks my privilege, check it on a university campus.
Aside from that, yesterday was another anti-social day. Woke up. Went to work. Worked really hard because I only have two days a week when I can do that. Came home. Played NeverWinter. Watched Game of Thrones with Alina. Chris couldn't join because he had too much work to do. Then spent the rest of the evening messing on eHarmony and AirBnb.
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