I didn’t have a great flight to Atlanta, but I did manage to get a good bit of sleep while on the plane. There was a really big shouldered guy sitting next to me whom I could tell was really uncomfortable, and his shoulders were pushing me into the aisle. Whenever the carts came by I got a nice knock on the shoulder from that. Once I got to Atlanta I got my rental car and drove to the first Chick-Fil-A I could find and had a chicken biscuit. I then spent the next 3 hours taking a nap in the parking lot with the windows open.
The first day we were on Evasion, which was a Beneto boat. I didn’t like it, as it felt quick and nimble but was really hard to steer or deal with in any way. We did a lot of parking practice in the morning, then went out on the water in the afternoon to do some man overboard, jibing, reefing, and heaving to practice. It was a gorgeous day the whole day. Steph and I had a nice lunch on the boat.
The second day we got there to find out that a Half Maraton had made it so we could not get to the harbor by driving. We parked next to the market where we had grabbed lunch before and then walked down to the ship. We were on Wind Goddess, a really nice Catalina 32. We started out with some parking practice and while pulling into the fuel dock I got complimented by the Coast Guard on my parking. The parking job was really smooth, I stopped perfectly where I wanted to and perfectly parallel to the dock. We filled up on water and emptied the head then did some more parking practice. After a nice lunch on the ship, where I also grabbed some of Steve’s pizza, we did our parking test. We all did rather well, except that the bow of my 90˚ parking job went wayyyy out. I think a good bit of that was Alex focusing on the dock line instead of the ship, but I should have been able to get him to bring it in. We went out on the Ocean for the rest of the exam and there was a big souther swell and really strong wind that made it quite hard to work. We ended up taking in 2 reefs while out there and the whole test went really well. I got a 97/96 and Steph got a 95/95. passing was a 90 so we both passed by a lot and did really well. Steve complimented me on learning so quickly and doing really well, which was really nice to hear. I hope we can go sailing with him again. Perhaps we can charter his boat so that we can learn a more complicated sail structure; his boat has 4 sails.
Yesterday Bo and Umi were going to get a mariage liscense. They were expecting to get married, but since they need another appointment to get married with a ceremony they will have to go back.
Before going to City Hall, we enjoyed some great seafood at Swan Oyster Depot (Yelp)
We had Oysters, Salmon, and they also got some Urchin. I’ve had urchin before and don’t really care for it. It was amazing that the urchin was still moving while Bo and Umi were eating it.
It was really nice of them to invite me out for their wedding, even if it didn’t actually happen.
We went to Jeremy B’s place for the afternoon. Stephanie and Jeremy spent the time painting mini’s and I spent the time updating the blog, looking up a little more Thailand info, and taking a glorious nap. Jeremy’s cats were so fluffy, especially Ash. His couch is really comphy as well, and it reminds me a lot of our couch. We had some of the cherries that we got at the farmer’s market and they were phenomenal.
I got to watch Steph and her dojo in a martial arts competition. It was really cool to get to see them fight. Jason was a really cool guy and had the 2 really funny parts of the fights. He did a full Conan move, jumping up with legs splayed in front of him and doing a full downward slice right onto the head of his competitor. He also was in the last match of the day with Chris and tried to rock-paper-scissors for the win (Video). They ended up fighting anyway.
I went to a potluck at Stanford. Adelaide was hosting it with her roommates in Rains. I got to see Amy, Nima, Caryn, and lots of randoms Stanford people. Stephanie came along and we got to talk to everyone. Amy is now living behind the Zynga Mountain View office. Nima and Caryn are living in Mountain View as well, just down on Latham st. I really enjoy having them close by. I made some Guac for the party and took my veggie juice so that I wasn’t tempted to eat too much. It worked rather well up until the end of the party, when I had a few slices of pizza.
Nima and Caryn took me bike riding this morning through Portola Valley. It was a really intense ride and I was lagging behind a little the entire time. I am going to be walking a little funny tomorrow from it. I really enjoyed the ride, and would love to do it again. We ended the ride with a quick pass through Stanford and sat in the Oval for a couple minutes to cool down. We talked about what we would do if we had no worries about money. Nima would dance, Caryn would get a PhD, and I would do the same things I’m doing now, just with a small difference in the time weighting.
We then went to the Cal Ave farmer’s market to meet up with Steph and Tina. The market had lots of delicious blueberries, and of course I got a Samosa. We sat under the giant metal flowers for a while and chatted. I also got a good bit of broccoli and cucumber.
Stephanie and I went to the Ballet tonight in SF to see Cinderella. It was ok, as Ballet just isn’t my thing. I have to admit there were some really cool parts, both visually and comically. I’m too much a person that likes witty banter, and comical nuance. These things are really hard to get across in a ballet. There was a scene where Cinderella was taught how to dance by the seasons, and I just didn’t understand it. At first I thought she spent a year learning to dance, but the ball was later that night. Then I thought that she retroactively had been taught by her experiences throughout life, but that just didn’t fit the story. I’d say I’m looking for meaning where there is none.
I got to ride Trooper today, and he wasn’t the most obedient horse I’ve ridden. Belle was a great horse to ride when considering how well she listened. Although Belle was also a great horse to ride in preparation since Belle didn’t listen too much to the reigns when I was directing her. Trooper was the same, but so much worse. I felt really good doing the 2-point in the trot today. The feeling was great to just stand in 2-point while the horse was doing it’s thing under me. I was able to balance there and there was no problems in keeping my control, or being able to direct the horse at the same time. I was really happy about the being able to direct the horse at the same time especially. The biggest problem with Trooper was trying to direct him in general. He really didn’t listen to what I was trying to do.
It's an Exciting World 