the power went out at the office today. no internet, no computers, nothing. so i sat at my desk trying to find things that i could keep myself busy with while the power was out. it was kind of fun. the whiteboard was used a lot and i started drawing out all of these grand plans.

it’s weird being so dependent on power. there wasnt much that i could do, so i just sat around after all of the whiteboard space was used up and i couldn’t think of anything else to design. so i sat there and just looked at my whiteboard mess.

but the power is back on and so i’m back to my life of coding.

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ah, silly me. i left my camera at work instead of taking it with me to dinner so there’s no picture from my dinner with maureen. oh well. we decided to eat at krung thai, one of my favorite thai places. it was good to see maureen again. we got caught up on each other’s lives. it’s amazing how much things have changed since we last saw each other.

dinner at krung thai was good. i haven’t had thai food in a while. i got my favorite panang curry dish….mmmmm. i have been craving rice lately. after my trip to north carolina, i’ve been on a bit of an asian food kick. i think it’s because i didn’t really have any good asian food while i was there, so i’ve been feeling the effects of withdrawl.

i’m still on east coast time so i’m waking up early and feeling tired early. i think i’ve been falling asleep around midnight every night. very unusual for me. i wonder how long this’ll keep up.

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is there such a thing? i remember growing up, i used to think that my dad used to work way too hard, but now that i look at myself, i see that in my professional career, i’ve clocked in some pretty crazy hours myself. i never thought that i would end up like that. i never really wanted to be like that, so i’m not sure how it is that it turned out like that. it’s funny how things work out.

so it makes me wonder if we have some kind of predisposition to be like our parents, even if we didn’t really want to be like that. they say that there are patterns that people follow. that is, if you were in a household where the father figure was abusive, you may turn out to be abusive or take abuse and think it’s ok.

i wonder just how true that is.

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last night i was reminded of something that saddened me a little. i was reminded about how easily it is that we can fall out of touch with our friends. if you don’t make an effort to keep yourself up to date with the, i guess it is true when we say “out of sight, out of mind.”

i’ve been trying to make up for it and with my recent injury, many of my nights have freed up as a result. last night i had burritos and pearl tea with dardy at la bamba and verde. at one point it was just the two of us alone at verde while the staff was amusing themselves by singing karaoke to music videos. the singing was bad.

tonight, i’m trying to meet up with my other friend, maureen. we see each other about twice a year, i’m afraid. it’s kind of sad, i wish i saw more of her, she’s one cool girl. we bumped into each other the other week at the cupertino village, so it’ll be nice to catch up with her.

i’ve come to a realization the last few weeks. i’ve been falling out of touch with some people who i really wish i wasn’t falling out of touch with. i know i haven’t been trying as hard to stay in touch with people, and that is my fault. i’m trying to rectify that, but i have to admit that after leaving work, it’s hard to be motivated to do anything else when you are so tired. maybe i should try and not let the days drag on so much.

and later this week, i’ve invited my favorite newlywed couple to poker night. that should be a fun night. i haven’t seen chris or siam in ages. i wonder if they look the same. maybe married life has changed them forever. i’m trying to remember when the last time i saw them was…it could have been their wedding! wow.

there are other people who i do want to keep in touch with and i do feel rather disconnected from them. i know that my friend, jason, told me once that he felt like he knew all of the things that were going on in my life because he is kept up to date by reading my page. i felt the complete opposite because i had no idea what was going on in his life.

until today, i thought that you cannot mess up a root beer float. there are too few ingredients and too few combinations possible where you could make a mistake. but i was wrong. i tihnk that depending on the root beer that you use, it rather dramatically changes the composition of the root beer float.

i think that i have a preference for barq’s root beer, but i haven’t had a&w for so long that i think i’m going to have to go buy them both to find out which works out better. just to note, the safeway select root beer does not work so well.

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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.

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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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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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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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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