2001-02-07 - 1:45

Get some, go again

My San Francisco trip was excellent! The whole meet-the-team-at-work deal went very well; and, with some help from my friends, I'd say that I made full use of my free time. Here's a day-by-day breakdown:

Saturday

The flight from Ottawa to San Francisco was almost eight hours, after a layover in Toronto. After talking with the guy next to me, I found out that he was an investment banker, specializing in high tech companies. He passed along the name of another company that he knew was hiring. I tell ya, I've been trying to avoid searching for jobs; but the jobs seem to be looking for me.

It was after 9:00 by the time that I got settled into a hotel and I got a hold of Liam. He brought me over to the place that he, Tayze, Joe, and Kirk are sharing. Tayze and I were roommates back in the day, and we used to hang out with Joe a lot then, too. Lately, I haven't really kept in touch with the two of them; but it was awesome to see them again. Kirk is also a really good guy, so it was a positive vibe all around.

That night, we hit downtown San Francisco a little bit. My only letdown was the Great Steak Sandwich, which turned out to be somewhat of a misnomer. That shortcoming was made all the more disappointing because the waitress insisted on the full name when I tried to order simply "a steak sandwich."

I had a lot of fun catching up on the exploits of San Mateo's Nova Scotia crew; and I managed to hang in until 3:30 AM, which would have been 6:30 back in Ottawa. Respectable, I'd say.

Sunday

As my one full free day, I definitely wanted to get something going on Sunday; and Liam made it happen. He gave me the six hour version of San Francisco, starting around noon, when he got me at my hotel, and ending at his place by nightfall.

I don't want to cover the tour in great detail, since I'll have another pictures section on my Jambalaya page soon, chronicling the day. I'll touch on a few highlights, though.

Being on the waterfront was great. It really reminded me of Halifax . . . admittedly, it didn't remind me of Halifax in February (damn, the weather was nice!); but even still. Of course, I really enjoy simply walking around somewhere cool, and I got that chance at a few stops along the way. I also really liked stopping on the coastal ride home to watch the waves crashing in. Again, it's the whole Maritime thing . . . it was cool to see the Pacific.

By sundown, we were heading back to Liam's place; and I spent the rest of the night hanging out with the crew. Good food (Miyake's), good conversation, lots of laughs, the formulation of a clever plan for covert ops . . . life is good! We kept saying all night that we were going to get in a game of cards; but I was halfway surprised when we started at 2:00 AM.

That was so much fun! It was just an awesome mood, because those guys are such good friends. We ended up playing until 4:30, only stopping because Liam noted that if we played much longer, he'd be into rush hour traffic getting me to my hotel.

Tayze came along for the ride; and on the way, I was seriously thinking about whether I should kill my current job plans and move down there instead. Tayze laughed that I was ready to move to California for the card games; but I was really thinking hard about it. It's certainly doable and I know that it would be fun to be there with that crew.

Monday

After sleeping from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM, I spent Monday meeting the team at work. What can I say? This job was the one that I was considering my main option for months. By the end of the day, I walked out with even more enthusiasm for the job and an offer letter in my hands. Very, very cool.

The fact that I have such high expectations for this job is what helped bring me back from my desire to move to California. Well, that and the fact that I'm not sure that I could get away with not driving, as I can here. I don't think that the Cali idea is finshed; I'm just not moving there now. It's definitely in my mind, though . . . damned card games!

After spending the day at the office, I met up with Mandeep at his work. The cabbie who got me to San Jose was a little sketchy. She arrived half an hour late and I had to take the map from her to verify that we were going the right way. (She was friendly, though.)

Eventually, though, I did hook up with Pumpkinhead, which led to a super gabfest. Mandeep worked with me for one year; and, during our walk around downtown San Jose and over another fine supper, I filled him in on what the rest of our old team was doing. Mandeep is fun to hang around with, largely because he's one of the most enthusiastic people I know. He's definitely a great audience for stories and he had a few of his own.

If I would have been in the area longer, I would've spent more time with Mandeep. We were still yakking it up all during the ride from San Jose to (where else?) Liam's place.

I spent my last night in Cali at the apartment, since it made for a much shorter commute to SFO. More laughs, more cards, three hours of sleep (thankfully, Big T woke me up) . . . no complaints.

Tuesday

Another fairly lengthy, but uneventful flight.

So, from palm trees to snow . . . but I'm happy. My job situation is settled as soon as I commit; and I will make it official soon.

The San Francisco trip was a blast; and, best of all, I already have plans for a return visit. Nick Cave is playing a concert there in March (without the Bad Seeds) and I'm gonna be there!

I hope that I made the trip sound as fun as it was for me, even without breaking out the stories of dubious home videos and the XXX DVD site that two of the boys are running. Ahh . . . good times. Heheh.

J.