Week 3 begins

A quick recap of my past few days:

I arrived home on Wednesday after a successful flight. It left at around 7:00, which meant I had to be up at 5:30, and I didn't really mind that knowing I would have a couple days off after I got home. My first flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Chicago on time. I had a little bit of time before my flight to Buffalo was supposed to leave, so I sought out some sustenance. I arrived in Concourse C at O'Hare, and I needed to catch my flight out of Concourse F, so I decided to walk that way and look at what was available to eat along the way. It was quite a walk, that airport is really huge and while I had heard people tell me that, that was when I first realized it. I saw a bunch of places, and decided to go to a "Chili's Too" in Concourse F rather near my departing gate. There was a slight wait, but I was soon seated and took a look at the menu. All the customers were given plastic utensils rather than metal ones. The menu was abbreviated, a few appetizers, soups and salad, hamburgers and sandwiches. I decided that I was in the mood for a salad, and decided that a southwestern cobb salad sounded good. I ordered some tostada chips (an appetizer that's really just some hot salted fried tortilla chips and salsa -- nothing special) while I waited because I was feeling pretty hungry. And I asked for a Sam Adams. The chips came and I had a few, but it was a rather large bowl and I definitely didn't need them all; I just wanted a nibble before my dinner came. Oh well, no big deal since it was only a $3 app. The salad came and I got off of my phone call with Jackie and dug in. It was rather spicy, and the chicken that came with it was fried (I for some reason had been expecting grilled). All in all, it really wasn't what I had wanted, which was something light. I ate about half of it, and drank about half of the Sam Adams, which it turns out I hadn't really wanted either; it was too heavy, I really wanted something light for my stomach. All told, I spent almost $25 there on a lunch that didn't really satisfy. I was mad, mostly at myself, about this.

So I got over to my gate at they were boarding. I was glad this flight would be leaving on time, that's for sure. The flight back to Buffalo was short and we got there even before 7. I got my baggage without any problems, and called Jackie to let her know I was done. She came shortly thereafter and picked me up. We headed home and brought my stuff upstairs, and just hung out on the porch for a while. I went inside at one point and checked my email. There was a message from Aaron (from HR at Google) with the subject "Thanks from Google." Feeling my heart leap into my throat, I braced myself and opened it. Sure enough, it thanked me for my application and everything but regretfully informed me that there was not a strong match for me with the position I was applying for at that time. I was extremely disappointed by this; here I had had my hopes up and had something to look forward to -- I was pretty confident I would get an in-person interview at least, that it might not pan out, but that I would at least have one. And here I was, cut short from the process, the door shut on my chances of getting at least that particular job. I went outside and told Jackie. She tried to comfort me, and eventually we decided we should go get some food, though I wasn't in the greatest of moods.

I felt like a BLT, so we decided to head to Louie's and see whether they had one. They didn't on the menu, but they made me one anyway. I also got an order of Jalapeno poppers, and Jackie got 2 hot dogs. We went home and ate, and I felt much better after some delicious Louie's food. It was very hot in the apartment, and despite having the flights go well that day, I was indeed tired. So to bed I went.

Thursday I got up in the morning with Jackie but went back to bed a few hours later once she had gone to work. I slept in a bit too much, as I was supposed to be up in time to take part in a Continuing Training Meeting conference call with Chris Brown. I didn't mind this even though it was one of my only days off, because Chris was my old supervisor and it's always a joy talking to him, and I was getting paid for the 2 hour call, something that teachers usually don't get. After that I hung around and read some articles on the computer, eventually getting a hold of Jeff and agreeing to meet up with him after work at my place. He came over and we hung out on the porch with a couple of Weissbeir and chatted; he talked about his whirlwind trip to Montreal, wanting to learn French, and we talked about the Google thing and my thoughts of the west coast. When Jackie came home a little after 7, we decided to get some food at Papa Jake's, a little seafood restaurant on Elmwood a little north of the village.

At Papa Jake's we sat outside on the patio, providing us with a nice view of the street, if not a little loud due to passing trucks. The menu was fun and had lots of good-looking stuff on it. We decided on an appetizer of spinach, artichoke and parmesan cheese with chips for dipping. Jeff ordered a grilled yellowfin tuna steak sandwich and a side of fries (you order them a la carte at Papa Jake's, but they're hand cut and fresh, well worth it). Jackie ordered a shrimp cocktail and was curious about the "lobster dainties", our waitress was uninformed about them so we decided to wing it and order some. I ordered for myself a snow crab dinner which came with a side salad. The food was all excellent, and it took me a long time to get through them all. Jeff and Jackie entertained me with a heated discussion about morals and politics while I ate, as they finished well before me (though Jackie shared some of my crab meat).

We decided to get some coffee at Spot. I ordered a blood orange tea, and we sat outside and chatted. Jeff was still feeling out of it from his whirlwind Montreal trip and had mostly crashed by then. Meg Knowles showed up and chatted with Jackie a bit. After we had finished our drinks we went next door to Blockbuster to get a movie for us to watch at home. We settled on "Idiocracy" with Luke Wilson. We went home and Jeff took off for East Aurora; Jackie and I made a final trip to Wegman's for some cool treats and then came home to indulge and watch the movie. It was OK, nothing special, but entertaining. Mildly satirical, Vonnegutesque. Finally wake succumbed to sleep.

Friday meant getting up early enough to run some errands before Jackie headed to work so I could have her car to take Heike to the vet for a nail trimming. We decided on breakfast at Ambrosia, which we hadn't tried before. It's over near Louie's on Elmwood. I ordered the "peasant's breakfast" which was a melange of gyro, potatoes, peppers, onions, and mushrooms with a side of toast. It was very good if a little underseasoned. Jackie got french toast that she claimed wasn't too rich, and nearly ate all of. Coffee and water later, we headed to Wegman's and then the Home Depot to get some new pet-proof screen material for our porch door, which was sporting some nasty rips courtesy of miss kitten. We had to go to Squeaky Wheel to pick up the DVD for the BYMI program that Jackie had to take over to a photo studio in Amherst to have duplicated. After that we picked up Heike, and I dropped Jackie off at work before making my appointment at the Summer St. Cat Clinic.

Heike did not like the car ride there at all, but was quiet inside the clinic itself. That is, until the vet got a hold of her. I didn't go in the back with her, but I could soon hear some loud wails from back there. Shortly she was brought back out and the vet said she wasn't any trouble, just loud. I paid the fee and left with her growling low something fierce. As soon as we got home she calmed down and took a breather. I started to work on reporting class attendance for IRD, watching TV and scoping out some articles online. Having the laptop enabled me to be in the front room doing all of this, which was much cooler than the office, due to the windows facing the street rather than the other houses on either side of us where no air can flow. I have yet to try out the laptop on the porch, but I can only imagine what a sweet deal swingin' and surfin' would be. After 5 I picked up Jackie and we headed to Babies 'R' Us for a gift for Holly's baby shower, which Jackie attended today. We decided on a 30-piece safety kit, stopped at Party City for a card and wrapping paper and finally at Barnes and Noble for some books for my up and coming trips to San Jose (more in the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card). Back at home we hung out in the front room and I finished up reporting online. Dinner was BLT subs delivered from La Nova. Soon it was time for me to pack up my things, which Jackie helped me with again, the wonderful girlfriend she is. Bed came soon thereafter and what followed was a day of travels.

Saturday morning meant an awakening of the 5 am variety, some groggy last minute packing, a stop at Mobil for orange juice and a bagel, and a short trip to the airport complete with quick goodbyes. I used the curbside check-in again, this time more out of hope to avoid a potential fee for overweight baggage than the convenience of not lugging the luggage any further than I had to (though it was nice too). Then I walked into the terminal. I was met with a mixture of feelings of wonder, awe, disgust, and fear; the line for security was all the way to the terminal door. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to my flight on time. I got at the end of the line quickly, and slowly but surely made my way through security. I made it to my plane just in time, I thought, but it turned out that the plane was undergoing some repairs or something, and so we waited a bit anyway. The pilot mentioned the horrible security delay and suggested we all call the TSA to complain as he had already. Something about an increased security warning/threat level in D.C. today...

I mostly slept on the flight, after trying to begin reading "Shadow of the Hegemon" to no avail. Upon arrival in Chicago I saw a familiar sight: the flight to San Jose was delayed, said it would leave "at 10:15A" as opposed to the planned 9:50 am departure. Right, I thought, I'll go to the bathroom and get something from Starbucks and then check again and it will say something like "11:45" or "12:30". But sure enough, an iced coffee and half a roasted turkey sandwich later (courtesy of my Level 5 student, God bless him) it still said 10:15! Could I possibly be getting into San Jose close to when I was supposed to today? The plane left as promised, being in the air around 10:30 am; I gave up my original aisle seat to a gentleman who wanted to sit with his family in exchange for an exit row aisle seat. Made no difference to me. I was very comfortable on this flight, no doubt mostly due to having not been delayed for 3 hours. I read more, worked on Flash on my laptop, listened to some music, watched some TV (laptop and in-flight entertainment style), finished my sandwich, and read some more. It went by fairly quickly.
So I arrived in San Jose before 1 pm, waited a bit for my luggage, and then got my rental car without any problems, arriving here at the hotel by 2 pm. Pretty good travel day!

I've just been getting settled in and writing this and now, 2 and a half hours later, I think I'm going to go procure some food from the Hawaiian BBQ place. I hope all is well with everyone who is reading and please comment to let me know how things are going with all of you!

Love,
Alex