Achievement Unlocked: I Turned 30 and Survived

Whelp, now I'm in my 30's, so I guess that means it's time to become an adult and become mature and stop eating four bowls of Lucky Charms for dinner.

As some of you know (except for the random people from China who apparently visit this blog nearly as much as visitors from the US), I've been keeping a list of bucket list items of things I wanted to accomplish by the time I turned 30.  I called it my "Under 30 List" and I didn't shut up about it.  I wrote it (mostly) the day after graduating college, and for whatever reason set my 30th birthday as an arbitrary "you better have accomplished some of the things I want to do, future self" end date.  I think it might have stemmed from that one Scrubs episode where J.D. turned 30 and realized he hadn't accomplished any of the things he thought he would have by that age.  We really loved Scrubs at Dodgeball Haus.  But I'd be DAMNED if I let that happen to me.  And that's the childish rationale of my incessant pursuit of checking off bucket list items.

For my 30th birthday, I wanted to check off as many of the remaining bucket list items as I could, which turned out to be a great excuse to drink around the world at Epcot and then Mardi Gras with amazing friends.  WHAT A PARTY INDEED.  It was definitely the best birthday of my life, which certainly helped avoid that "holy crap I'm a new decade in age now" depression. 
Here's also why my 30th year wasn't all THAT bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp79N7RfM7Q

Now that the hangover from my Mardi Gras 30th celebration has finally started to subside, two weeks after returning from New Orleans, I suppose it's time to reflect on some stuff.  I guess that would be the ADULT thing to do.  Whatever.  You can't judge me; you're not my Mom (actually, if you're reading this blog, there's a 80% chance you are my Mom).

Live in California
This is kind of funny now that I've lived in San Francisco for a year and a half, but at the time I had never even been to the west coast.  I wanted to check out this "Cali-Fornia" place people kept talking about, and then I made a blog about it called "Goin' to California" and now you're reading it, so looks like I win this round!  That first stint out Californy-ways was just a three month rotation on a Naval Air Station in the middle of the state, but as a result I traveled all over California because I assumed it'd be a long time before I returned.  And now I live in California again because YOU CAN'T STOP THE JUGGERNAUT.

This isn't actually from one of my road trips into California, but from a drive around Lake Tahoe.  The sentiment is the same though so relax.

Eat the Spiciest Burger in the World
Oh fuck my whole life for adding this one.  If you want the entire story in gory details, check out the San Antonio portion of my California to Boston road trip entry here: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2010/06/lost-journal-entries-2-return-trip-east.html
TL;DR - I wanted to eat the burger from Man vs. Food that has the four hottest peppers on it, including the ghost pepper, and it ruined my world.  One of the three times in my life where I was positive that I was going to die.  So yeah I ate the fucking spiciest burger in the world in San Antonio and I regret every second of it.

The pain is still palpable on my face an entire hour after eating the burger

Skydive
Oh I guess I blagged about this one before too: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2010/07/apparently-i-enjoy-jumping-from-high.html
But yeah I moved back to Boston from the three months in California and was like YEAH it's time to rock out some more of these life goals!  Boom: jumped out of a plane.

Those little hats were entirely worthless other than making us look mildly penis-shaped

Go to Yellowstone
Another one of those moments where I said "fuck it, I want to go do that awesome thing on my list" and then made an entire road trip around it and convinced others to join me.  Six days exploring Yellowstone, headbutting Bison (not really), fighting bears (yes really), and ass sledding down snowy hills.  (One of many journal entry days: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2011/07/epic-roadtrip-journal-61511-yellowstone.html)

Steam spouts and bison - it doesn't get much Yellowstone than that

Hike the Presidentials
For those of you who don't know about the Prezzie Traverse, first off shame on you, secondly it is a chain of 8 mountains in the New Hampshire White Mountain Range that are over 4000 ft, including the highest mountain in New England - Mt. Washington.  To hike the entire traverse means 21 miles of intense terrain all while your knees are exploding.  We started our hike about an hour after sunrise and finished just after the Sun was setting.  It was bonerific (that means good).  Oh look it turns out I actually used to write in this blog occasionally: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2011/08/presidential-traverse.html

This is around mile one billion when our legs ache and we stop giving a shit about the views along the ridge

Brew Beer
I had wanted to brew my own beer for a while, so once again I said "fuck it, let's do this thing" one weekend and bought a beginners kit.  And then I learned that it looks waaaaay more daunting on paper than it actually is.  It's kind of fun and makes your entire house smell like delicious hops and malt that you can't drink for 6 weeks.  So now I occasionally brew my own beer and that's a pretty cool skill to have: RESUME BUILDER.

Eat the Vermonster
The Vermonster is this monstrous bucket of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream that you should only eat if you want to evolve into the fatter version of yourself.  It's 20 scoops of ice cream, a bunch of bananas and brownies and toppings and stuff.  Seven of us dove into it one evening and HOLY SHIT I AM JUST NOW LEARNING THAT THE VERMONSTER IS FOURTEEN THOUSAND CALORIES.  That's 2000 each from just a bucket of ice cream.  Worth it.  Especially because then we carried that empty bucket into every bar we went into that night and drank our beers out of it.  My favorite part of the evening was when a bouncer was like: "what's with the bucket?"  And my response was "it's an empty bucket."

It doesn't count unless you lick the bucket clean

Go to Bay to Breakers
Nooooohohohohoooo I didn't run Bay to Breakers, but rather did the typical San Francisco thing of walking the race route in a goofy costume while drinking.  A few of us visited Joe and Rebs for the weekend in SF, got up early to pre-game and get dressed up like Sexy Amish, and then meandered drunkenly down to Golden Gate Park.  Where I ended up taking a drunk nap until the weather got freezing cold and my phone battery died, all the while wearing nothing more than Jorts and suspenders.

Get Master's Degree
I guess my past self was feeling particularly academically driven the day after graduating Tufts undergrad, and as a result I had to sign up for a multi-year, part time Masters degree while working full time.  It's ok though: GE paid for it.  And now I know a lot more about lightning strikes to wind turbine blades, so that's good too.

Wear my Greenman Suit to a Sports Game
Ok it may have only been a pre-season Eagles-Patriots game, but it was the only time the Eagles came up to New England and I'll be damned if I wear the Greenman suit for a non-Philadelphia team.  Also the Eagles kicked New England's ass.

If you get heckled by a dude wearing a Greenman suit then you are doing something wrong

Hike all 48 4,000 Footers of the White Mountains
So the Presidential Traverse is actually a subset of ALL the White Mountains over 4000 feet.  Once I finished the traverse, I was like "well... I've already done 8, might as well do the other 40" and then I THREW IT ON THE LIST.  And then hiked them all.  This included my first microspike and snowshoe experiences and now I'm all the wiser for it.

Holding an ice axe makes you feel like a badass no matter what your achievement is

Climb Kilimanjaro
This is one of those bucket list items that takes a lot of careful planning, budgeting, and research.  Or in my case: blindly signing up while frustrated by a long day doing thesis.  Luckily Korin was also Down To Kilimanjaro and thus the adventure was scheduled.  Months later I realized I should get my ass in gear and maybe start training?  It was a hell of an experience: first time in Africa, first time climbing one of the 7 summits (and only... for now), the lack of oxygen, the temperature differentials, and then getting to see all the Jumbos on our post-Kili safari.  It was by far the most epic of my under-30 goals.  Here's more brazen over exaggeration: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2013/01/tanzania-hiking-kilimanjaro.html

That is all of Africa below us

See Firefly Mating in Smokey Mountain National Park
Imagine entire forest filled with fireflies but they all synchonize their blinks and light up at the same time, and fill the forest with light to the point that it almost looks like day.  Every ten seconds.  Yeah that's a thing that happens on our planet sometimes and I got to see it.

No photos of the fireflies unfortunately because I don't know how to operate my camera in the pitch black and rain, but here's the Smokey Mountains

Go to Bonnaroo
As part of that same road trip, I went to my first multi-day music festival and it blew my freaking mind apart.  Learned some new bands, met some crazy people, and oh yeah I saw Paul McCartney live, which is bittersweet because it was incredible, but at the same time I knew that I was seeing the best possible concert that I could ever see in my entire life and nothing would ever be as good, so that was mildly sad.  But overall it was incredible and here's some proof via journal entries: http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2013/07/tennessee-road-trip-part-4-bonnaroo-at.html

"Prepare yourselves, things are about to get weird"

Paint the Tufts Cannon
Painting the cannon is a Tufts tradition where you paint it at night with whatever your design or cause is, then stay up all night defending it.  I never had a chance to do it while a student, so I did it in my final days of living in Boston before moving out to San Francisco.  It was a great experience: we used Tufts Brown and Blue to paint messages of thanks to Boston and of course, Dickcat.

DAMNIT I couldn't find a photo of Dickcat!!!

Oktoberfest in Munich
Not even a month into my new job in SF, I used the vacation time that I didn't have yet to fly over to Munich and Oktoberfest like a damn champion.  The food was amazing, the partying included plentiful cheersing, and I had more than my fair share of delicious German beer.  http://sevsgoeswest.blogspot.com/2015/01/oktoberfest-in-munich.html

The only problem here is that we only have one Stein each

Learn another Language
Ok so this one is a technicality.  I mean, where do you draw the line?  I was able to communicate effectively enough while I was in Germany and Spain my past few visits to be able to get around and get what I need to get, so I'm going to call that a win.  You can just deal with it.

Here's bullfighting from Spain because I don't have a photo of speaking a language

Backpack in the Alps
Nobody likes to see two technicalities in a row, but that's what's happening.  I didn't fully "backpack" around Europe, but I did travel through the Alps via bus/car/train during my Oktoberfest trip so I'm going to count this one too.  Ok yes it was a duffel bag but SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU, I'M ALREADY MOVING ON TO MY NEXT ITEM.

I'm touring around the Alps, this counts

Complete an Olympic Triathlon
At first I was going to count my Sprint Tri as doing a triathlon, but no sir, I went back and finished an Olympic length in Napa.  One mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run - I was one hungry dude after this one.  And let me take this opportunity to say that open swimming with people kicking you in the face every 6 seconds is a miserable experience.

Just one of my training runs.  It was real long and I was very sweaty when I finished.  A lot of people were impressed by how big this one was.  At the end it felt great.

Surf in Hawaii
I'm not saying I was good, but I was still out there and I still surfed, however briefly it may have been.  A bunch of friends/roommates from Boston all went out to Hawaii for James and Carrie's wedding, renting a beach house on north shore Oahu.  We spent half our time slothing on the beach with Pina Coladas and half the time doing some of the most dangerous hiking I've ever done.

Nice.  We rode a single wave that day.

Run a Marathon
Graduating Tufts, after seeing quite a few Boston Marathons, I had assumed that running one myself was an impossibility.  I had never run more than a 5k in my life.  But I signed up for a few races here and there with friends, and then found myself running the Philly Half.  After finishing with some energy left, I realized that I hadn't yet found my limit.  So I signed up for the San Francisco Marathon in 2015 and finished it.  I mean, miles 22-25 were some of the most brutal moments of my life, but at mile 25 I shoveled the best tasting watermelon in my entire life into my face and finished.  And then I ate all the food in the entire Universe.

If my knee sweat is any indicator, I'm not actually this happy in real life at this point in the race

Drink around the World at Epcot
I decided to make my 30th birthday the biggest party I could imagine, so Michelle and Rick joined me in Orlando to help me achieve a very important life goal: having a different, culturally-relevant themed cocktail at each of the 11 countries in Epcot.  We started with Mooseheads in Canada, and by the time we got to England I was feeling mighty pleased about this little project.  The only detriments were to my liver and my bank account.

I'm not even sure why Epcot is open to children

Go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras
Well I can't think of a better birthday party than Mardi Gras.  The Epcot trio met up with a bigger group of amazing people in New Orleans to enjoy the music, food, parades, and 50,000 tons of beads.  It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and watching the Sun rise over the Mississippi after staying up all night listening to music and people watching on Bourbon street was easily the best possible way to start my 30th birthday morning.  By the end of this trip, my sleep gauge was on empty but my joy gauge was maxed out.

I still don't know how we snuck up there to that balcony

There are, however, a few things on the list that I didn't get to before I turned 30.  If this were a thesis, I would put these under the section "Future Research Opportunities" because whoopsidaisy, I ran out of time.  But these can be the first items on my next bucket list:

Get a dog
Well... all the apartments that I've lived in since college have been anti-dog, so that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing.  Also my work hours are too shitty to take care of a dog.  Also I'm not responsible enough or adulty enough yet.  So I've had to make due with making lists of names for my future dog instead.  Current favorite: Dr. Spaceman.

Learn how to solo on guitar
Ok so this is one I'm actively working towards.  My new years resolution this year is to practice the guitar more, and once I get back into the rhythm of a healthy practice cycle I'm going to sign up for actual formal lessons.  You know, that thing I've never done ever.

Go to Japan
WHAT AM I, MADE OUT OF YEN?  Ha Ha do you get it, because yen is the currency there.  But seriously I haven't had a giant pile of money to send me off to Asia yet.  Plus too many other traveling opportunities came up and I'm not made out of vacation days either.

Wow that list is way shorter than I thought it would be.  Not bad.  Now on to my next decade of adventures.

Moving to California Part 4 - Colorado to San Francisco

The last segment of a long, amazing road trip out Californy-ways.  It's hard to believe some of these things exist, let alone in this country.


Sunday 8/10/14 - Great Sand Dunes National Park
When we woke up this morning, everyone was in moods.  We were tired and some people had flights to catch... it didn't leave much room for fun.  So we just drove straight to the park-n-ride, where Soup spent a few days hanging out.  We then unpacked, re-packed, and said our goodbyes.  From here on out it would be me, Jess, and Katie.
After getting the car settled, our adventure for the day was to drive South to Great Sand Dunes National Park.  The drive was uneventful... a wind turbine here and there.  Driving along the Rockies.  But really the big thing was to see the Sand Dunes for the first time.  Oh man, so cool.  National parks are great because you enter them and your first thought is "how does this exist?"  It was so pretty.  Enormous dunes formed at the base of a mountain range.  Evidently they formed from a long standing predominant wind from the West pushing against a rare but powerful wind up over the northeastern mountains.  The dunes shift a maximum of 30 feet in either direction.  Not something one would expect in the middle of Colorado.

Jess is trying, I'll give her that

Excited about exploring, we quickly set up the tent and started walking up into the dunes.  Wearing shoes was a poor choice, because I poured about 2 lbs of sand out by the end of the day, but it was an extremely fun hike/walk.  A thunderstorm scared some people off, including Jess, and the whipping winds blasted us with abrasive sand, but we made it to the top of the High Dune.  It looked like another world.  So unbelievable.  Sand dunes completely surrounding me; it looked so unreal.

Surely I'm not posing

That weather was FUN

More light jackets than a lot of travelers in the Sahara

Is this even America?

Going back down was a lot of fun: a lot of tumbling down the dunes.  There was no part of my body uncovered by sand.  Sand was absolutely everywhere.  For days.  In my hair, ears... yikes.

All of that sand is just what I dumped out of my shoes

After that, we went on a short hike up to a lookout: seeing these impressive dunes reminded me of the dunes in Death Valley, but way bigger.  So impressive.

The Rockies are weird

Haha just kidding this is a famous painting I stole from a museum depicting something about Jesus

We made some pasta for dinner and then had a nice night walk back to the dunes to see them under moonlight.  Holy-freaking-crap.  Are you serious?  So amazing.  I can't believe that I, me, Chris Severino, future Emperor of the Universe, was lucky enough to experience something so unique.


Monday 8/11/14 - Mesa Verde National Park
After an efficient tent packing we started on our way West toward Mesa Verde National Park.  Staying in Colorado yet again - there's a lot going on here.  And this will be the last national park in Colorado that I have yet to visit!  We stopped for breakfast at what appeared to be a town, kind of.  The restaurant was called "Boogies."  The food existed.  They DID have a 6 lb cinnamon bun though, so that's good.
Anyway, after more driving, we finally got to Mesa Verde and signed up for a cliff dwelling tour at Balcony House.  We were just trying to understand how this park works, but apparently if we wanted to check this thing out the time is NOW.  So we had to book it up the mesa and through the park to make it in time.  The park is a lot of green, hilly mesa with several canyons.  In many of these canyons, Ancient Pueblo people built their communities.  Right into the sides of the canyons.  The sandstone ruins remain, and they look incredible.  So amazing to see how these people lived.
Our tour was very informative and involved climbing a few wooden ladders and crawling through some tiny doorways.  There were quite a few "people of size" on the tour that maybe shouldn't have been on the tour.  But whatever, it was still amazing to walk around INSIDE these sandstone dwellings.  Apparently the people would farm the tops of the mesas, so every day they would literally have to climb up and down the sides of the canyons, rock climbing sans harnesses, just to collect and maintain the food supply.

Mind you, this is IN THE SIDE of a vertical cliff

Katie's face has just a LITTLE bit more personality than that building

Just you WAIT until you see a photo of the entire community

After the tour we did a few short hikes, walked around checking out some of the other dwellings, went to some overlooks: it was a fun time.  We definitely saw a lot of cool stuff.  And I finished that gigantic cinnamon bun on top of a cliff.  I win.

WHO DOES THIS

Colorado, consider all of your national parks VISITED

Some thunderstorms started moving in as we drove around the mesa, providing some fairly epic sunset views.

what the fuck is going on here

You're looking in the wrong direction

But after all the sightseeing, we set up the tent and had SHOWERS!  What an unexpected treat!  And we made some more pasta and called it a night.  Good day though.


Tuesday 8/12/14 - Grand Canyon National Park
Today's adventure began around 7am, packing up the car and heading down toward the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  But first, we stopped at the Four Corners Monument.  This spot is literally the point at which Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona meet.  Kind of cool.  It was on Navajo land, so we paid some money awkwardly to get onto the park land.  But it was worth it to stand in four states at once.  I guess.  Whatever, it was fun.

Quad-State Starfish

Then we got a bullshit breakfast at Denny's and THEN to the Grand Canyon.  Quick stop off at our campsite, which is just outside the park (the one campground in the park was full, THANKS), and then on into the park itself.  On the way in we passed a herd of Buffalo: these guys are everywhere.

So freaking lazy

And then we headed right to the lodge and had a drink before anything else.  Because you know, we're in a national park, so that's the thing you do.  This gave us enough time for Jess to see the actual canyon for the first time, and it was ridiculous.  So unbelievably beautiful.  The colors and expanse were just as I remember and more - so freaking insane.  Not as many tourists on the North Rim side, which is nice, but they can still be annoying over here.  So we set off to drive over to some other viewpoints.  We didn't want to go on a hike because it was so late in the day, so seeing different areas would be nice.

It's a greenscreen

Most of those colors aren't even in the color spectrum

We drove up to Point Imperial, the highest point in the park at about 9000ish feet, and to Cape Royal, which has some incredible views.

Severi-YES

It was just ok

We caught what might be my second favorite sunset of all time there.  Holy crap so gorgeous: absolutely indescribable with the colors of the sky and the canyon all going BANANAS.

What is happening here

THAT. FREAKING. SUNSET.

We were hanging around with a group of photographers there, who seemed to be good fun, all heckling a shittier group of photographers who would yell at us to get out of their way.  Fuck off.  It's the Grand Canyon.  Nature is free.  Stop living behind your cameras.
It was definitely dark when we drove back to the campground at 8pm.  And it took an hour from Point Royal.  So we made some quick boil-bag meals (I had a pretty tasty beef stew made out of powders) and played our traditional game of Head's Up before nappy time.  But the important thing is that on the drive back there were some nighttime buffalo grazing right next to the road.  Kind of scary because they were so close, but it was great fun.


Wednesday 8/13/14 - Grand Canyon National Park
It's our second day at the Grand Canyon and OH GOOD the entire thing is fogged in.  We're on the inside of a ping pong ball.  We were going to get up for sunrise, but nope: rain.  Ok, so we slept a bit more and drove to the lodge for some breakfast.  We were seated right next to the window for a cool cloudy view of the canyon, but within moments, moments, EVERYTHING was fog.  Nothing could be seen past 20 feet.  Super annoying.
So we spent SEVEN HOURS writing postcards, catching up on my journal, reading, playing cards, and snacking.  Oh and several adult beverages.  When at the Grand Canyon... do as the Grand Canyons do?  So yeah, not the best Grand Canyon day.
But hey, when the clouds did finally start to clear it was amazing.  We went on a short walk and then drove up to Point Imperial again to see the shadows and colors of the canyon walls, which now included cloud remnants and rainbows too.  Not a bad way to end our stay at the Grand Canyon.

Maaaaaybe the clouds made it better... at least just a little bit

We went back to the campsite BEFORE dark this time and had one last round of pasta and Head's Up.  And the clouds cleared, revealing an AWESOME starry sky.  One of the best I've seen since that backcountry camping night in Yosemite.  Thanks for a great sky!


Thursday 8/14/14 - Las Vegas
Today we packed up the tent one last time: no more camping on this trip (SADFACE).  Tonight is Vegas night.  We started the drive blind though, no directions whatsoever.  We had to work on memory for about an hour until we finally got signal to look up directions on our phones.  We filled up on gas at a place with about a thousand dead moths.  HUGE moths, all over the place.  What the fuck?  So weird.
Our drive took us into Utah for a bit, then back down to Arizona for 20 minutes, and then Nevada.  This is state number: who the  fuck knows?  We got In'N'Out burger just outside Las Vegas borders.  No idea what time it was in Nevada, but apparently we arrived 20 minutes before it opened.  And they still served us!  I was order #3: so good.  I love this place.
After our delicious meal we pulled into Vegas, seeing all the casinos on the strip brought back fond memories of trips past and... PTSD from when I tried driving the Strip in Joe's manual car.  Haha.  We APPARENTLY have a suite at the Venetian.  So ridiculous.  So big.  So baller.  Also it is 97 degrees holy freaking  crap.  I am outside at the pool right now.  Super hot, but so great swimming and drinking Pina Coladas.  Tonight we are probably going to hit up the casinos on the Strip.  LIKE BALLERS.

My life right now is very different than it was 24 hours previous to this

Just some road beers on a rampy escalator

Well, we did it.  We enjoyed Las Vegas a little too much.  After the pool, we walked down the Strip for some drink fixins, road beers, and burritos.  These got us back to the hotel, where we took showers (still amazed at how good showers can be) and unwound a bit while watching Shark Week.
We headed downstairs after that, where I promptly lost money playing roulette.  So then we sat down at a video blackjack game and stayed there for about 3 hours.  I put a $20 in and played that thing all night, eventually losing $10?  After 3 hours of heckling the video dealer avatars and getting about 7 rounds of free drinks.  I knew when I ordered a martini that things were going in a bad direction.  Then the waitress started offering us shots and I started ordering 2 drinks at a time... uh oh.
So yeah then more debauchery was in our future as we then started walking down the strip.

Beer #??

Memory is fading from consciousness

Always a fun time, even when you're not aware of it

We bounced around to a few outdoor bars and tried to see the Bellagio water show... but it turned out to be 2am and we definitely, definitely missed it.  Everything after that was hazy, but a cold Subway hoagie the next morning indicated that I tried and failed to have a late night snack.


Friday 8/15/14 - San Francisco
I am super pumped that my hangover isn't as bad as it could have been.  We got up... later than I wanted to, but whatever.  It's fine.  Today was just a day to spend 9 hours in the car driving to San Francisco.  It was long and slightly annoying, but we had some podcasts to listen to.  The drive included a few Joshua Trees and a stop off at a fruit stand for some cheap strawberries.  They were seriously delicious, like you don't even know.
We pulled into my temporary extended stay hotel around 6:30pm and very easily moved into the place.  It looks awesome: deck, nice bed, amenities, a RUG.  And it's really convenient for work.  I think the next two weeks here will be nice.
After we got settled a bit, Jimmy and Tassi came over to welcome me to the bay area.  They drove us up into the city to see Gary, who is in town for work.  It was great to hang out together: we walked around the Fisherman's Wharf area and went to the strangest bar ever.  It was an Irish pub/Curry house.  What?  It looked like someone took an Irish bar, complete with pool tables and air hockey, and wrapped it around an Indian restaurant.  Great food and beer though.  We were so tired, so we didn't stay out too late: just drove back home around midnight.

My home for 2 weeks until I find an expensive home

Not touristy enough

Sunday 8/17/14 - San Francisco
So... I start my first day of work tomorrow.  Kind of excited and nervous all at once, especially since I haven't gone to work in like a month and a half.  But the past few days of being in SF have been amazing.  We toured the city with Blake, Gary, Jimmy, and Tassi.  Eating sourdough breadbowls at Fisherman's Wharf, going to a bar in North Beach, walking around in Chinatown.

Arrow, you're not going to hit anyone sticking in the ground like that

I think I've seen that expression before... in the Shining.

Don't worry about this one

At night we met up with Rebecca and Peter and had an incredible evening.  Indian food followed by Bootie Mashup dance party!  So much fun HOLY CRAP.  It was the 11th anniversary of Bootie Mashups, which I've been a fan of for a few years now, so there was a weird burlesque show going on and live bands and everything.  I didn't even know what was going on: it was nuts.

Rebecca excited is probably my favorite thing ever

Today we've been exploring the Mountain View area a bit and relaxing.  A pool/laundry day mixed in with just a bunch of stuff I need to take care of for work.  Not a bad way to spend the day.  Here's to a good first day tomorrow...