Sister's Wedding. First Weeks at Google. Girls are confounding.
A blog in three parts.
So, the weekend of my sister's wedding was plagued with scheduling mix ups and forgotten items, for me at least. I think the wedding itself went pretty smoothly, but I am not as close to it as my sister and parents are, so I probably didn't notice all the little hiccups and hitches.
I left my apartment a little late on my way to the bus stop, but still with enough time. Until I realized I forgot my mp3 player in my bedroom. I definitely wanted that for the bus rides and plane rides at least. So I went back. I was only a few steps out the door, so I thought I still had plenty of time. I got to the bus stop and checked my watch and realized I was late; the bus had already gone by. "No problem," I thought, "There were others scheduled. I'll check on my phone to see the time of the next one." I reached into my pocket and pulled out... nothing. My phone was still in my bedroom, charging.
I ran back to the apartment (a few blocks) and fired up my laptop to check the schedules. The bus I missed was the last that would get me there before 6AM. There was another that could get me there at 6:15, giving me 15 minutes to get through security and get to the gate to board for a 06:30 departure. After mildly panicking for a bit, I made a reservation at a parking lot near the airport that offered a free shuttle between the airport and the lot, and only charged about $9/day. I'd seen others offering $12-$25/day.
So I drove up there, parked, got on the plane, etc. The day of the wedding, I vacillated between bringing my carry-on bag (I packed my laptop, four shirts, pants, underwear and socks, along with a book (Spook Country, by William Gibson), my shave kit, my camera and various cables to connect the sansa and the camera to my laptop.) and bringing the few items I'd need in a separate bag. I ended up taking a separate bag, but forgetting several things. I'd planned to shave and shower between the rehearsal and the wedding, so I brought my razor and shaving brush, but left the mug and soap in my carry-on, along with my deodorant. Also in the carry-on was a CD I'd made for my uncle with MP3s of the complete Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy BBC Radio Series.
Fortunately, these things were not irreplaceable, and life continued on.
The rental tux had suspenders, which I found strangely comfortable. I'll have to buy a pair next time I go clothes shopping. The tuxes also came with a gray silk pocket square for the jacket's breast pocket. I came out of the room I'd changed in with the pocket square in a simple one-corner fold and my father asked how I'd done that. So I unfolded it and demonstrated. This process repeated again with my niece's husband, the other usher. Once we were at the wedding, I found a moment of quiet and refolded my pocket square into a more elaborate three-corner-fold. Thanks, Art of Manliness!
The suit was comfortable and I ended up wearing it all night without feeling the need to take off the jacket.
Tuesday morning I got up and got a ride to the airport for my 0900 departure and made it to the gate with plenty of time. Time enough, in fact, to see that my flight actually left at 9:00 PM. 2100. I got to the gate in time to see one flight for Seattle leave, at 0830. Another was scheduled for 1000, but it was full. The next earliest was at 1600... too late to get back in time for work. I decided it wasn't worth the $50 rebooking fee, and got a ride back into town with my mother when she dropped Dad off for his 9AM flight back to Arizona.
This at least gave me the opportunity to give the CD to my mother to hand off to her brother the next day.
The flight home was uneventful and I got most of Spook Country read. On the flight out I had a Classic Plus ticket, with most of the bells and whistles: free snack, free TV, etc. The ticket back was an Economy ticket, so no snacks or TV, just a drink (non-alcoholic).
Working at Google is living a dream I hadn't realized I'd dreamed. The work (drawing maps from aerial views) is at once repetitive and fascinating. There's enough odd pattern matching that well trained humans can do the job more effectively than computer programs. Without having to spend endless hours and resources refining the computer's algorithms to account for new patterns and policies.
One of my coworkers, a lovely young woman named Samantha, lives near me (until I move to Seattle) and since we get out of work after the bus lines stop running that far, I give her (and a few other people) a lift home. The others get out in Seattle, so Sam and I have usually 20 or 30 minutes alone to chat and after the first week we recognized a burgeoning romantic tension of a sort. After I got back from the wedding, I picked Sam up on the way to work so we had the full ~45 minute drive to chat.
Thursday night, instead of dropping her off at her apartment, I invited her back to mine to watch a movie. We only ended up watching about half of it, but it was a movie we'd both seen before (The Incredibles), so neither of us were terrible concerned about missing it.
In the ensuing conversations after work the next day, Sam said she likes me, and finds me physically and intellectually attractive, but that there's some indefinable chemistry missing and that we should remain friends. I told her I understand and I'm glad we had this conversation sooner rather than later.
Which has sort of left me a bit confused, all in all. We're still talking things out, but mostly I'm back where I was a couple weeks ago, romantically.
I think this may be the most honest relationship (quasi-relationship?) I've had. Which is a plus. Ever since The Cheating Wench, I've maintained that open, honesty communication is key in a relationship. This is the first time I've been able to practice the theory in a meaningful way.
So, the weekend of my sister's wedding was plagued with scheduling mix ups and forgotten items, for me at least. I think the wedding itself went pretty smoothly, but I am not as close to it as my sister and parents are, so I probably didn't notice all the little hiccups and hitches.
I left my apartment a little late on my way to the bus stop, but still with enough time. Until I realized I forgot my mp3 player in my bedroom. I definitely wanted that for the bus rides and plane rides at least. So I went back. I was only a few steps out the door, so I thought I still had plenty of time. I got to the bus stop and checked my watch and realized I was late; the bus had already gone by. "No problem," I thought, "There were others scheduled. I'll check on my phone to see the time of the next one." I reached into my pocket and pulled out... nothing. My phone was still in my bedroom, charging.
I ran back to the apartment (a few blocks) and fired up my laptop to check the schedules. The bus I missed was the last that would get me there before 6AM. There was another that could get me there at 6:15, giving me 15 minutes to get through security and get to the gate to board for a 06:30 departure. After mildly panicking for a bit, I made a reservation at a parking lot near the airport that offered a free shuttle between the airport and the lot, and only charged about $9/day. I'd seen others offering $12-$25/day.
So I drove up there, parked, got on the plane, etc. The day of the wedding, I vacillated between bringing my carry-on bag (I packed my laptop, four shirts, pants, underwear and socks, along with a book (Spook Country, by William Gibson), my shave kit, my camera and various cables to connect the sansa and the camera to my laptop.) and bringing the few items I'd need in a separate bag. I ended up taking a separate bag, but forgetting several things. I'd planned to shave and shower between the rehearsal and the wedding, so I brought my razor and shaving brush, but left the mug and soap in my carry-on, along with my deodorant. Also in the carry-on was a CD I'd made for my uncle with MP3s of the complete Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy BBC Radio Series.
Fortunately, these things were not irreplaceable, and life continued on.
The rental tux had suspenders, which I found strangely comfortable. I'll have to buy a pair next time I go clothes shopping. The tuxes also came with a gray silk pocket square for the jacket's breast pocket. I came out of the room I'd changed in with the pocket square in a simple one-corner fold and my father asked how I'd done that. So I unfolded it and demonstrated. This process repeated again with my niece's husband, the other usher. Once we were at the wedding, I found a moment of quiet and refolded my pocket square into a more elaborate three-corner-fold. Thanks, Art of Manliness!
The suit was comfortable and I ended up wearing it all night without feeling the need to take off the jacket.
Tuesday morning I got up and got a ride to the airport for my 0900 departure and made it to the gate with plenty of time. Time enough, in fact, to see that my flight actually left at 9:00 PM. 2100. I got to the gate in time to see one flight for Seattle leave, at 0830. Another was scheduled for 1000, but it was full. The next earliest was at 1600... too late to get back in time for work. I decided it wasn't worth the $50 rebooking fee, and got a ride back into town with my mother when she dropped Dad off for his 9AM flight back to Arizona.
This at least gave me the opportunity to give the CD to my mother to hand off to her brother the next day.
The flight home was uneventful and I got most of Spook Country read. On the flight out I had a Classic Plus ticket, with most of the bells and whistles: free snack, free TV, etc. The ticket back was an Economy ticket, so no snacks or TV, just a drink (non-alcoholic).
Working at Google is living a dream I hadn't realized I'd dreamed. The work (drawing maps from aerial views) is at once repetitive and fascinating. There's enough odd pattern matching that well trained humans can do the job more effectively than computer programs. Without having to spend endless hours and resources refining the computer's algorithms to account for new patterns and policies.
One of my coworkers, a lovely young woman named Samantha, lives near me (until I move to Seattle) and since we get out of work after the bus lines stop running that far, I give her (and a few other people) a lift home. The others get out in Seattle, so Sam and I have usually 20 or 30 minutes alone to chat and after the first week we recognized a burgeoning romantic tension of a sort. After I got back from the wedding, I picked Sam up on the way to work so we had the full ~45 minute drive to chat.
Thursday night, instead of dropping her off at her apartment, I invited her back to mine to watch a movie. We only ended up watching about half of it, but it was a movie we'd both seen before (The Incredibles), so neither of us were terrible concerned about missing it.
In the ensuing conversations after work the next day, Sam said she likes me, and finds me physically and intellectually attractive, but that there's some indefinable chemistry missing and that we should remain friends. I told her I understand and I'm glad we had this conversation sooner rather than later.
Which has sort of left me a bit confused, all in all. We're still talking things out, but mostly I'm back where I was a couple weeks ago, romantically.
I think this may be the most honest relationship (quasi-relationship?) I've had. Which is a plus. Ever since The Cheating Wench, I've maintained that open, honesty communication is key in a relationship. This is the first time I've been able to practice the theory in a meaningful way.