K so this is going to be another one of those uber updates since i've been leading this rock and roll lifestyle too long to be checking in like i should. If i recall correctly, the last time i dropped a line was before cleveland, detroit, chicago, san jose and london. yeah i'm a slackass. so from the top...
Cleveland
cleveland was a side trip because i had to be in detroit for a meeting, so i flew in early, rented a car and drove down to suprise the fam. When i got to cleveland to find out about the happenings at jason's, turns out everybody was already in bed. So i called everyone else i know in ohio in the hopes they were in cleveland. Ruthy was in kent, and Rachel was in Miami, Ohio... but it was her birthday. And what kind of friend would i be if i didn't try to see her on her birthday? right. so off i drive from cleveland to basically cincinatti. I got down there, we had some drinks, and i left in the AM for cleveland again.
I called beth to make sure she was gonna be around, and she told me she had been working in the yard all day, and that Madelyn and Rosita were going to take her out for her birthday to dinner. I got a little worried, because i was blasting up I-71 to see her, and she was going to be OUT!? but that wasn't for a couple of hours. She asked me if i would be home anytime soon, and i told her i didn't think so (soon's a relative term, after all).
2 hours later, i walked into the house and suprised her. we sat on the porch and had a beer, then called madelyn and rosita to pick her up for dinner. i suprised them, and we went to bruno's for italian. god i love their seafood pasta, but next time i gotta try something else. and omg their teramisu.
drool
We went back to the house and had some drinks and hung out, then went to bed. in the morning we all went to breakfast, and then spent most of the day bumming around. Cleveland really is great when i don't have a psycotic itinerary to live up to for 4 or 5 days. nobody knew i was coming, so nobody planned anything for me. it was awesome.
I went over to jason's that evening to check out the new house. cool place, will be awesome when he finishes it all up. Then i popped in on Terry on my way out of town and had a couple drinks, then headed back to Detroit with a front seat full of Angelo's pizza and pepsi. ah, cleveland traditions.
Detroit
Detroit was cool. Was nice to see everybody again, and definately good to meet the last few employees i hadn't gotten to meet last time. We went over new product release stuff, merger stuff and generally did a ton of team building. I won a Playstation Portable and sold it to Allen because i knew it was just going to be a money pit.
Chicago
Chicago was crazy. i managed to miss the fact that my itin had no hotel res, and the only hotel i could find was at Midway. So i flew into O'hare and drove to Midway. Then checked in and crashed. I got up early to take the train to the classroom, and got a little lost rolling around downtown chi town. Finally sorted, i got into class and did my "pre-config class" stuff. that's where it all went horribly wrong. Short version: i started teaching my class at 3:30pm instead of 8:30am. it was bad.
Luckily my cass was awesome. they volunteered to stay late, come in early, cut lunch short and stay late summore. we got through everything, thankfully. On tues nite i managed to track down Gina from my trip to mexico, and we had some drinks at TGI Fridays. was good to see her. Lestat, on the other hand, was in DC on a last minute FBI thing, so i didn't get to see her. maybe next time.
Chicago was tiring (long days and long commutes), but cool. the pizza was amazing, and chicago was a LOT bigger than i thought it would be. Can't wait to go back on a low stress gig
San Jose
I got booked a last minute gig in San Jose, which is fine with me cuz i love visiting my norcal friends. But David got booked there too teaching another class, so i had somebody to go hang out with @ lunch and stuff. I got kinda sick from all the travel and stress of the last week, so i stayed in a lot. I did manage to hit up B St Billiards with dale, becky, joe and mary who now lives in san jose! no fair. and of course got a nikko's burrito. next time i'm hittin up rickshaw.
London
London was sort of unexpected, and for some reason i wasn't really looking forward to it. Everybody else was excited for me tho. The flight out wasn't bad, i slept most of the way. I managed to get on a train to the main train station, Victoria, then took a cab. I settled into my hotel room (jesus it's tiny, oh right. europe) and slept to kill the jet lag.
The rest of the week i pretty much just spent on the underground tube to and from class. my class was pretty awesome. Kensington was a pretty cool area, i could track down food and such at night without train rides, and it seemed safe.
On thursday we finished up around lunch, so i went to explore. i got to go see the London Eye (giant ferris wheel), Big Ben, Picidilly Circus and a bunch of downtown london. it was cool, but man i could never live there. everything is rediculously expensive!!!
It was a good run, but i'm excited to have a bit of time off now. 2 weeks off, then sydney for 2 weeks again. Maybe i'll look up my buddy steve @ ozmoto and see about that VFR, or maybe the big GS. hell i'd take the lil 650gs and you know it.
Sydney
When i finally headed to sydney, it was on the heels of a call from my buddy Mark saying i had my pick of the Burton catalog this year. So i went a little crazy... Board, pants, gloves, boots. Laying out all that cash put me on empty, so i didn't hire a bike again in sydney. instead, i spent a lot of time loafing and working on hardbooter. Managed to get the new template all taken care of, up and running. i'm working on a new shopping cart system using paypal's API, which will be cool once it's done.
I went out with Amber, John, Dan and the crew from Clifton's while i was there. had some pints, had a huge steak in Manli (took a ferry at night, it was awesome), and then went out for more drinks. Amber disappeared suddenly when one of her caps came off at the dinner table, and she was too embarrassed to just come out for more drinks. Everybody was super friendly and fun. Had a good time but went home a little early with a headache.
