Louisville and La Jolla, 2008
I had a business trip to San Diego, and I was able to break my flight in Louisville to visit Timly.
Saturday Oct 18/08
My alarm went off at 6am and my first thought was "oh, no". I *really*
didn't want to get up, as I'd fallen asleep after midnight the night
before. But I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower and the hot
water plus the hint of dawn peeking through the blinds was enough to get
me going. I brewed a cup of tea while I made breakfast, but after a quick
check online, realised that I didn't have enough time to sip it before I
had to head out to catch the bus, so I poured what fit into my travel mug
and gathered up my suitcase, backpack, and purse and headed out the door.
It was chilly, I was glad of my coat and scarf, and wished I had time to
dig in my pack for the light gloves I'd thrown in there. I was able to
haul my stuff up the hill to the bus stop in time to catch the 7amish bus,
but a pair of women that showed up while I was still waiting made it clear
that this bus was delayed (or else had come early, and the next scheduled
one was early as well). It's always annoying catching the bus when traffic
is really light. Fast trip to Harvard Square, and I got off on the street
and hit my bank for some cash. Skipped my semi-traditional stop at Tealuxe
in favour of getting on the red line right away. I was a bit nervous about
time, I was aiming to get there for 8am for my 9:20 flight, but it turned
out okay. I had some confusion checking in, as it turned out that my
e-ticket wasn't in the system, so I had to check in with an agent. I
checked my suitcase and got into the security line. I saw the signs for
the novice, intermediate, experienced travellers but they only had
business class and intermediate open. Tonnes of people in wheelchairs got
rushed past the rest of us, took a while. Luckily we didn't have to go
through the puff gate. I was right behind a guy heading overseas with the
military, he had a camo fabric covered pillow strapped to the outside of
his pack. I had a bit of time to sit at my gate and then they were
boarding us. Fairly tiny plane, my pack didn't even fit in the overhead
bin, but it fit just right under the seat in front of me. The obligatory
screaming baby was one row up and across, but the noise cancelling
headphones blocked it out just enough. Bit of a bumpy flight to
Cincinnati, I think we flew over the city's football stadium.
On the ground, I barely had time to get to
my next gate, hit the bathroom, and grab a smoothie for lunch. I also
picked up a bagel but it wasn't well toasted and they'd put way too
much cream cheese on it. There were two wings of doubled gates,
luckily not too many people waiting but lots of announcements. Once I
got on the plane, there
was a young boy in front of me, and two ladies across from him that
were patronising him (asking who he was going to visit, and breezing
past his admission that his parents just divorced, and telling him all
about the area around Lexington even though he'd been there before). I
think the lady in the pair of seats across the aisle from me used the
air sickness bag, I was never more thankful for my headphones, I
didn't hear a thing, just saw a small bag silhouetted against the sun,
liquid sloshing in the bottom. :/ I stopped in the bathroom to give my
suitcase a chance to hit the luggage carousel, and called Timly when I
was out. He was waiting for me, and I practically walked into him
before finishing the phone call. :) My bag came out quickly and we
were off to the parking garage.
As we were driving, I got to see all the horse farms that I'd flown over
from close up. We also stopped to check out a castle that was going up on
the road between the airport and the highway. It looked like just the top
of one, but it had round towers and a keep in the centre, and had an
impressively long facing side. The drive to Louisville was fairly easy,
highways all the way, about an hour on the road. The CD player was acting
up a bit, so we ended up chatting over just the road noise. We stopped at
a small grocery to get some food, originally the plan was to stop at a
bigger grocery, but there was a university football game on and we got
stuck in traffic and then diverted away from the necessary road. It was
kind of neat seeing all the fans streaming toward the stadium, they dress
in the team colours as much as Red Sox fan do, and the base red is very
similar. Finally made it to his house, and I got to see the tiny room
where his kids play. We watched a bit of his Firefly box set, and went out
for food, hitting up the Mongolian Grill nearby, and getting engulfed by
more football fans, a lot of the teenaged ones had apparently picked there
to get food. I picked out some veggies and noodles and the woman made up a
thin black bean sauce from vats of various oils and flavourings. It was
pretty good, though it didn't taste very much at all like black bean.
There was also a radio station blaring, spot halogen lights, and bright
and shiny aluminum tables and chairs, so I wasn't tempted to stay longer
than the time it took to eat.
Back to the house and got dressed to head out to the club, Fuzion, I'd put my
green plaid zippery dress in my backpack just in case my suitcase didn't
make it, but hadn't been looking forward to making do with my travel shoes
(runners), so was glad to see my suitcase with my docs. Timly was
insistent that it was getting chilly outside, so I bundled up in my scarf
and coat, and was a bit put out that it wasn't even freezing. :) I should
have left them in the car, we were parked a short block from the club and
there wasn't a coat check. Timly spotted friends and introduced me around
(after he ran back to the car to get his ID). The stage was set up way in
the back, we wound our way through a few smaller rooms, and then back
again and upstairs when the performance art act hadn't started yet.
Chatted more, saw Timly's ex and his ex-wife's room mate, the guest DJ,
and a couple who'd come down from Dayton OH for the concert. Back to the
back, and the performance had started, it turned out to be a series of
presentations, I think we missed one or two. A lovely acting out of the
"Vincent" short written by Tim Burton, a kinda bland lip synch to a song,
then Edwin (?) did a passionate lip synch to an aria, and it phased into
dancing to a techno remix with two other performers joining him on stage.
A short DJ set and then the band, Mother Father took to the stage. I'd
noticed most of the band hanging around the club waiting to go on, the
lead singer was intense, reminded me of Nick Cave in his facial features
and passion. The crowd seemed to melt away in ones and twos, but I enjoyed
their set, though it was probably more on the pure rock end of the
spectrum than the club patrons expected. Lots of people had zombie or
demon make up on, hopefully for a pre halloween thing. Then the DJs took
to the decks again and Timly and I tore up the dance floor for a while. :)
Lots of fun dancing there, the floor is right in front of the stage, and I
was more comfortable when they turned down the lights - my knee wasn't all
that happy with me for dancing so much, though. Quick drive back to the
apartment, and we were back just after 2am. I think it was then that he
showed me a clip from a ventriloquist/comedian who's puppet was a muppet
like ape, it had me giggling, though it may have been before we went out
for dinner.
Sunday Oct 19/08
Timly kindly made me his celebrated pancakes for breakfast, with both of
us bundled up a bit due to the chilly kitchen. I took a quick shower and
packed up my stuff, and we hit the road for the airport, stopping for gas
along the way. Again with the issues checking in, it turned out that
despite my itinerary saying Delta all over it, I was flying Northwest
Airlink to Detroit and then NW to SD. Hrmph. Didn't check my bag since
they were charging $15 for it, and valet checked it as I was boarding.
Timly left me in the security line, it took a while to get through it as
people were slow going through the single xray machine (and they ran out
of bins as I got to the front). There was a flight before mine, also to
Detroit, which was super delayed (noon to 4:45 or so). Read and dozed on
the hour long flight. In Detroit, got an Einstein Bros bagel (pumpkin
w/pumpkin cream cheese), and kept it for the plane. Then over to Terminal
A with the stupid tunnel freaking me out (lights changing colours, noisy
music), and had japanese food (eel and tofu) - both food places big on the
upsell. To gate, typed up weekend so far.
Just had time to visit the washroom when they started crowding the gate.
They only did first class, preboarding and then general, no zones or rows
for a full flight even. I was back in row 20, had to wait a while in the
aisle, and then had to block a guy from putting a suitcase up where I
wanted to put mine (on my side, he had a free spot on his, okay I didn't
have to, but he was standing and not moving when I could have been putting
mine up). It was a bigger plane at least, 3 and 3 seats, and my suitcase
fit okay. I was in the window seat, with a guy looking out the window a
lot next to me. I stayed awake for the beverage service. But when I set up
my mp3 player to play the Delerium album Karma, I only remember hearing
the first one, I conked right out. I woke up a bit when we were starting
to descend, kept my headphones on to block the noise, no music though. Out
of
the plane fairly quickly, and down and out to the shuttle van stop. A
cloud 9 shuttle showed up fairly quickly, I was the first one there, but
we ended up taking 30 mins to get out of the airport as the slow acting
driver kept adding people. Luckily only one stop was made before the
Sheraton, and since two of us were getting off (I think) it was 20 instead
of the 35 that the driver charged the first guy. Check in was accomplished
with the help of an understanding clerk, I was so tired everything had to
be repeated twice. Then missed the stairs and elevator on my building, and
went up the far stairs. My room overlooks the highway valley, and there's
a wierd buzzing sound. Unpacked to let my business clothes hang out the
wrinkles, let people know that I made it, and crashed into bed afer
realising that I didn't have the mental cycles to deal with figuring out
why my computer power cord was causing the computer to shut down. Alarm
set for 6:30, then 7, then 7:15 as it got later and later before I got to
sleep.
Monday Oct 20/08
Ended up waking up at 6:30 anyway, took a quick shower, had to iron my
shirt anyway, and then ran out to catch the 7:30 shuttle to UCSD. Talked a
bit with Shawn M. on the way there. Back in the building from last time,
but it's cold. I ran out of my room w/o my runners (in my house shoes) and
w/o my sweater. At least the tea hot water doesn't taste of coffee.
Continental breakfast with Wendy as I got an update, and I was able to
start charging my laptop. Caught Dan to get a debugging session on XND
(turned out to be a cygwin unzip issue). During the morning updates I
worked on getting my instance populated with useful data for the afternoon
demo. We worked through the break period (and started 1/2 hour late) so I
ran down to get a snack when my head started getting light. Lunch was
Mexican food, surprise surprise, talked a bit with Christine, but she had
to run to a meeting. Got chai at the kiosk on the plaza as they weren't
offering hot water for lunch. Up to the meeting room to try and get some
work done before the aftersoon session, but it was locked. Luckily the
admin person arrived in the next elevator and opened it up. Then others
streamed in. The room was *cold*, and without my sweater I was shivering.
:/ Was able to give a decent demo, bypassing the things that didn't work.
I think we stopped at around 5:30 or so, and caught the shuttle back to
the hotel. I had some time to kill and ended up catching up with personal
email and futzing around online. I think I was able to talk briefly with
Cris, as his flight to Honolulu had just landed and he had some time
before he had to go out for a meal with his co-workers for a debriefing.
We'd agreed to go to Ginza sushi restaurant for dinner, at 7pm. Steve
called me to say that it was in the second mall down the road, I popped
my head into the lobby but didn't see anyone, and started walking along
the main road. I'd put my coat and scarf on, but warmed up enough by
walking to open it up. I found the movie theatre that Ginza was beside,
and then the restaurant. I was in the middle of the arrivals, and passed
on the sushi boat that they'd ordered, planning to get my own meal. Of
course this resulted in mini drama when the bill came and I just paid for
my own rather than going in for the evenly split bill that included
alcohol (that drives me nuts, we never get a say before they split it that
way). The food was okay, I got the chirashi, and green tea to drink,
it was about $20 and filled me up just the right amount. Anthony and I
walked back together, through the other mall parking lot, and talked about
books some more. I did a quick change and popped outside in my bathing
suit and a robe to the hot tub. The jet timer was set, but no bubbles came
out, but the water was warm enough to be slightly steaming, so I soaked
for a while and tried to stretch out the knots from carrying my laptop
around. Nice to look up and see stars behind the palm trees. No one else
was there, it was relaxing. I took a quick shower and chatted on the phone
for a while, then got to sleep by 11.
Tue Oct 21/08
Up again at 7am, quick change and out to catch the shuttle to UCSD. As I
half expected, for the official all hands meeting (yesterday was just
working groups), we had a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs and stuff in
wraps. I actually felt like I got enough food. Sat with Wendy and Sandy
and a woman who was going to be having her partner fly in from the midwest
the next day to get married while CA still allowed same sex marriages
(well, before the general vote on the issue). She'd been trying to find a
rental car and not having any luck, so I abandoned my vague plan to drive
up to LA to see my uncle again. The plenary talk was really quick, he
reused slides from 2003 or so, summarising where we'd been then. Total cop
out, and it kinda depressed me to realise that I'd been on this project
for 7 years. Then the room we were going to be in was changed, and then
the new one was too full for the joint meeting, so we moved back to the
theatre (massive black cave, so depressing, and folding chairs that killed
my back). I got more chai in my travel mug, dropping the lid, and then
spilling the over fill when I put it on. Was vaguely cranky most of the
morning, spent the time looking at code. During lunch (the dreaded bread
and cheese and deli meats, I got out too late to get any grilled veggies
and they didn't refill the plate), I basked in a sun beam and talked a bit
with Dingying. Then I took a short walk around the building to take in a
bit more heat, and then dove back into the cave. Bit more into the
discussion this afternoon, got a demo on Amazon's S3 and cloud computing
infrastructure. We finished at around 5pm, and Wendy and I caught the
shuttle back to the hotel, planning to meet up again at 6 for dinner.
Again with plans changing, it was just us to start then Cindy and Sandy,
then maybe Hans and Katie, so I ordered a van taxi, only to find out when
I went down to the lobby just before 6 to wait that it would only be the
two of us after all. Which was what I wanted anyway. It turned out to be
one of the drivers and vans that were shuttling us to UCSD and back that
took us into downtown La Jolla. We had him drop us off on Girard Ave, just
before Spice and Rice, and walked up. Wendy liked the open patio area, we
were seated under a heat lamp that helped keep us warm. She has a lot of
orchids at home and appreciated the orchids in hanging planters on the
wall. I had the pineapple fried rice this time (in half a pineapple), and
the thai spring rolls - both good - but our second app of fried calamari
was a bit tough. We had a good talk, Wendy and I were both a bit more
relaxed now that the meeting was over. On our way back, we flagged down a
cab on the corner, and the driver was following GPS instructions from a
set that he was waving around. Some abrupt turns had Wendy grabbing my
arm, but he was nice, and we made it in one piece. I talked to J., T, and
C on the room phone, really hope that incoming calls are free! Really
tired, was asleep by 10pm.
Wed Oct 22/08
So of course I woke up at 7am. Showered and went to the hotel restaurant
for breakfast, where I had some mediocre blueberry pancakes, but at least
I remembered to ask for no butter. Sketched out a UI to work on today,
back to room, worked for a bit until housekeeping was making noises in the
hall and then went over to the mall to get a card for my brother at the
CVS (and an ice cream bar for me, it's going to get hot today!) and mail
it. But when I came back I found that they'd done the other side of the
hall, rather than the building from end to end. Put up the do not disturb
sign and got to work. Broke a bit early to eat dinner leftovers for lunch,
then back to it. Took a break to read by the pool, half in sun, that was
nice. The housekeeping carts kept skipping my room, I had the do not
disturb sign up for a little while longer and then got a note slipped
under the door at around 4pm that they were skipping me and to call to get
the room done. It always stresses me out a little bit to be hanging around
hotel rooms during the day, the potential intrusion of house keeping has
me on edge. It didn't help that someone came by to drop off a corkscrew,
getting the wrong room. I finally got up the gumption to leave the
vicinity of the hotel, after google maps came through with transit
directions to downtown La Jolla (one bus, and it was even one bus to go to
Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego, but my sweet tooth wasn't clamouring
for it, so La Jolla it was).
The #30 bus wound along the edge of the UCSD campus, then by the aquarium
where we'd once had a work dinner, and along the coast. Nice views, and I
spotted the coast walk that I was going to try. The bus went through
downtown a different way than I was expecting, but I jumped out only one
stop late, and walked down to the ocean. It was gorgeous, the sun starting
to go down, waves crashing, sea lions on the rocks and harbor seals on a
beach, and storks and sea gulls and pigeons and possibly orcas but maybe
dolphins swimming parallel to the beach. I took a lot of pictures, pushing
for more as my camera's battery started to die. Then I walked back up
along Girard and did some window shopping (tried on a blue brocade frock
style coat, but the puffed sleeves and huge lapels didn't work) as I made
my way up to My Place Bistro. A
couple was finishing up their prix fixe meal as I sat down, and I was the
only one in there until a table of older women sat down. I gave into
temptation and got the warm brie on toast, and the pasta provencal w/o
olives, and gorged myself on the warm apple tart tatin (though the home
made caramel sauce was just a bit burned). Rolled out of there to the bus
stop and took the 30 back to my hotel. In UCSD, we got swamped with
students finished for the day. I arranged for a taxi to come by at 5am to
get me to the airport, and then I started to pack, but kept getting calls,
my parents wanted to talk to me when I was in their time zone for once.
The hotel switch board must think I'm a popular gal. :) I was getting
tired, luckily, since I had to be up at 4:30, and I crashed out just after
10pm after packing everything but my clothes for the next day and my
toiletries.
Thur Oct 23/08
I was able to get up and get going when my phone alarm function went off,
taking a quick shower to wake up. I did in room checkout and my taxi was
waiting for me when I went down at just before 5am. Fast trip to the
airport, which was good, cause there was a decent line at check in (free
to check one bag this time, on Delta proper), and then a big line at
security. Luckily it moved fast, though the hard of hearing old guy in
front of me whacked me solidly in the head with a plastic bin when I had
put my laptop in it and he started to grab it. I was cranky after that, he
didn't acknowledge that he'd hit me at all. :/ I had time to get water,
trail mix, and a bagel before getting on the plane. I actually ate the
bagel while waiting to board. I was in a window seat again, and the guy
next to me disappeared after a while, so I had a bit of room. I dozed
through to about Ohio then read. The transfer in JFK was hellish, not in
terms of distance, I only had to go down a hallway, but in terms of noise
and crowding. :/ It was so loud, with echoes and competing announcements,
that I couldn't hear the seating zone announcements. The bathroom was
packed full and jostling as well, with a too narrow strip between the
stalls and the sinks for all the luggage and strollers that were crammed
in with the people. I soon had a pounding headache, and retreated into my
noise cancelling headphones, mp3 player and book. I was in the last
boarding group, and had to disturb two guys to get at my window seat, but
after that, blissful quiet. Quick jump up the coast to Boston, and then a
long haul out of terminal A to baggage claim, and still had to wait for my
suitcase, but at least it appeared. Took the T home, and almost started
crying when the red line had a slow down while there was a screaming kid
trapped in the car with me. Luckily they got off at the next stop, and the
bus came as I was walking up to the stop. It was crowded, I had to stand
the whole way, but it cleared out enough to get me and my luggage out with
no problems at my stop.
Back to my diary page.