recap from north carolina

this is the second time that i’ve tried to write this entry. i forgot the save the progress the first time around. ugh.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0373.jpg&title=][/url]as i was flying out of san jose to north carolina by way of houston, i was stuck in the middle seat. my poor crippled self had a lot of difficulty sandwiched between these two people, but it was ok, the only comfort i had was that the inflight movie was solaris. solaris? ugh. it’s awful. i was so bored that i fell asleep. the guy next to me got up to go to the bathroom and so i was able to snap this picture while he was gone. when i got to the houston airport, i had asked for help to get to the next gate which was very far away. this nice little woman had a wheelchair ready for me and she pushed me across the length of the airport terminal to my next gate. the service was nice, but i felt bad for the poor girl who pushed me all the way.

while i was in houston, my flight was delayed because there was rain in houston. i think everyone in houston didn’t know what to do because it was raining and so all flights were delayed because of the mass panic…due to the rain. sheesh.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0377.jpg&title=][/url]when i got to the hotel, the first thing i saw when i got into the elevator was this sticker. ahhh…welcome to north carolina. i thought it was pretty funny. i stayed in an extended stay america hotel. it’s a suite hotel, not to be confused with a sweet hotel. but there was a refrigerator, stovetop, and some dishes in the room which was nice. the hotel room was ok, no free high speed internet, but that’s ok, i guess.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0386.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url]this is the tile floor to the break room. rather bright and reminiscent of chuck e. cheese, if you ask me. the break room is HUGE. bigger than my apartment. it’s crazy. i look at it and i am amazed at how much space there is at this office. when i got there and saw the two refrigerators, the vending machines, and the crazy three burner coffee maker, i knew that this office was unlike others i’ve seen. yes, indeed, this office had it all. i was pretty overwhelmed when i got the tour of the office. crazy is all i can say.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0394.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0414.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0404.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url]

what trip to north carolina would be complete without a trip to krispy kreme. that’s probably north carolina’s biggest claim to fame for me. and the krispy kreme i went to was HUGE. there was a huge parking lot of krispy kreme trucks and there was a large loading dock for these trucks. it was one of the distribution centers for krispy kreme. mmmmm. such delicious donuts. who could ever complain about that? i thought that the donuts were a little smaller than the ones here in california, but i didn’t care, it was ALL GOOD.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0416.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0421.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url] [url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0438.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url]

it snowed in north carolina while i was there. i felt like i had the full experience. a little snow, a little cold, a little sunshine, and some krispy kreme. what else could i ask for? the folks in raleigh are a little scared of the snow, though, and whenever it snows everyone freaks out and is afraid to drive anywhere…even if the snow doesn’t stick. yeah, a bunch of wimps, if you ask me. but it does seem like folks in north carolina will get a few snow days in the year. that’s pretty cool, i guess.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0455.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url] a high tech solution to the age-old problems of security. this office makes use of key fobs. no, not Fresh Off the Boat, fobs, but these uhh…thing-a-ma-jigs. it’s this little plastic thingy that you put up to a sensor and it opens the door. not a security card, but a tiny little widget thing. yeah. neat. what’s kind of cool is that you can restrict what doors this will open, when you are allowed to open the doors and you can even deactivate the key whenever you want. pretty neat, if you ask me.

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0228/IMG_0459.jpg&title=north+carolina][/url]

ummm, yeah, i don’t know what to say about this.

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snow! snow! snow!

it snowed last night about 4 inches here in north carolina. most businesses are closed…well, most except the one *I* work in, of course. not that i’m complaining. there wasn’t much to do at the hotel and i don’t have to drive anyway, so not much to do or say. i’m waiting to see if my flight is going to be delayed. we’ll see.

people are freaking out here, though, about the snow. north carolina doesn’t get too much snow, but when they do, everything seems to come to a halt. it’s silly. yesterday, it was snowing, but no snow was accumulating anywhere. but everyone was freaking out. businesses were shutting down, restaurants were closed, everyone was hiding out in their homes because the treacherous snow might kill you. just maybe. be careful! watch out! the snow! aaaaaaaaaaaaugh.

but it is kind of cool to be able to see the snow. we had some slipping and sliding on the way to work today. brought back some scary memories of when i lost control while driving in the snow.

but, i’m about 4 hours away from getting to the airport and going home. let’s hope that the flight isn’t delayed…or if it is, that i know that it’s delayed BEFORE i leave for the airport. i hate waiting at the airport. it is the worst thing to do.

no pearl tea

i haven’t had pearl tea all week. it’s a very weird feeling. i think one of the first things that i’m going to get when i go home is a pearl tea drink. it may even be a stop on the way home from the airport, if i could swing things that way.

it’s getting to be the last day of work here, and i guess things have moved along pretty well. it’s surprising to see snow, which is pretty cool. oh, i should go and take some pictures of that. i haven’t really transferred pictures over to anything, so they are all being stored up on the camera.

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shopping

i saw a bunch of stores while on my drive back to the hotel that i was surprised at. there was a brick and mortar tigerdirect.com store, a dick’s sporting goods store, and some other store i can’t remember, but they have a strong online presence, but no brick and mortars back at home.

i guess it made me realize how different of a place this is here. i guess the first thing that’s really different is that people, in general, are just nicer. there’s just a warmer, fuzzier feeling going on here.

i don’t know. it’s nice out here, but there is something about home that i miss. maybe it’s my internet connection. whatever the case, my stay here is half over and i think that it’ll be nice to come back to san jose and sleep in my own bed.

speaking of which, the sheets and blankets that are supplied by the hotel are very thin and not very warm. i made the mistake of turning off the heater last night before going to bed and i woke up this morning a little cold. i guess i’ll just leave that heater on from now on. so much for trying to conserve energy.

it doesn’t seem like people really conserve much out here. people don’t walk anywhere, they drive. i haven’t really seen any recycling bins anywhere, either. i wonder if it is only the bay area where you see so much of that.

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back in north carolina

i have no internet access at the hotel, so whatever access to the internet i have is restricted to the office. this is usually not a bad thing, except that i am quite busy here at the office so my time in front of my computer is actually pretty limited. grrr.

it’s not nearly as cold here as i thought that it would be, but it turns out that it may snow on thursday. i hope that this doesn’t mean that my flight will be delayed or cancelled. that would be truly horrendous. oh well.

so far my stay here has been pretty good. north carolina is much like how i remembered it. it feels like a more rural version of home. more trees.

the one thing that kills me about north carolina is the lack of crosswalks. i don’t think that people walk anywhere here. it just doesn’t happen. so there are busy intersections and i can’t cross them in my hobbling state because…you know…NO CROSSWALKS.

sheesh.

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getting ready to go

i’ll be in north carolina all of next week on a business trip. this has been complicated slightly by my recent ankle injury. it has been feeling a lot better recently, though. right now i’m hobbling around on one crutch.

so i’m trying to compile a list of all of the things that i need to bring for my trip. i always get really paranoid whenever i am about to go on a trip. i always think that i’m going to forget something.

oh well, off to my list.

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it’s never off the table with us

it kills me! this whole ross/rachel thing on friends drives me crazy, but i love it. but i really like to see the struggle that they go through. i guess i like it because it’s almost a forbidden love. two people, torn by their desires and restraints have to come to resolution with what they ultimately cannot do.

when rachel left ross with “it’s never off the table with us” a whole new world of possibility opened up.

would i have had such restraint if rachel threw herself at me if i was ross?

hardly. =P

too much time?

is it possible for two people to spend too much time together? is it healthy to spend every waking moment together? or perhaps the better question should be is it unhealthy to spend every waking moment together?

i think that the answer to this question is really dependent on the couple. some couples love to spend every waking moment with each other, while others like to have some kind of alone time to do their own thing, say with their own friends.

for me, i think that i like to have some personal time alone. it’s not that i would do anything special, but it is something that i like to have from time to time. i know of couples that spend all of their time exlcusively with each other and then when one has to go away the other seems lost because they don’t really know of a life outside of the other person.

different things work for different people. i guess we just have to find what works best for us.

at the doctor’s office

so when i was at the doctor’s office yesterday, it went something like this:


doctor: wow, that looks pretty bad.
me (thinking to self): uh oh.
doctor (examines my ankle some more): well, it’s swelling up nicely. it looks to me like it’s broken, but we’ll have to get an x-ray to be sure.
me (thinking to self): BROKEN?!
doctor: ok, let’s get you an x-ray.

<wait 20 minutes>

radiologist: ok, let’s get you set up here.

<click, move, click, move>

<wait 20 minutes for the x-rays to come out and the doctor to look at it>

doctor: peter (the radiologist) does this look like a fracture to you?
radiologist: hmmm, that does look like quite a big fracture.
me (thinking to myself): NO, SAY IT ISN’T SO!
doctor: but it only shows up on this angle, could it be a scratch on the film? let’s get another look at it just to be sure.

<click>

doctor: well, it looks like you’ve got a bad sprain, nothing broken. i’m going to prescribe something for the pain and swelling and you should get an air cast.
me: can i get some crutches?
doctor (frowning): it’s not policy to give crutches to sprained ankles.
me: but i can’t put any weight on it.

me: can i get a handicap placard?
doctor (frowning): it’s not policy to give those for a sprained ankle, either.
me: well, i had to try!

*sigh*

sprained ankle adventures

so last night i decided to venture out there and watch my tuesday night volleyball team play…without me. to occupy some times, i decided to bring my camera along and take pictures of some of the action. i shot exclusively with a borrowed canon 50/1.8 and i’ve decided that i need that kind of speed to shoot anything in low light. so that being said…

i think that i’m going to order myself a copy of this lens. it’s cheap, it’s fast, and i think it’ll complement my collection quite well.

it was quite an ordeal getting around. i guess you never appreciate even the most basic of things until you lose them. this inability to walk freely is really cramping my style.

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