Back-Post: 2008 Part 2

February I travelled for work - and thus can't tell you anything about it except that it was an adventure! I was very cold celebrating Crane Day.

In March I went to Oakland and had lunch with Sunil from Hanszen. After a year, I finally responded to his comment from my last Crane Day blog post. I know, I know, so bad of me!

After that, I had an afternoon and no cash, so I worked my way into the City, up Coit Tower, back down, and back to Oakland. Amazingly enough, I pulled it off. I hung out with Carmalyn and her fiance at their new place on the beach in Alameda (no, he's not standing closer to the camera than us, he's just that tall!).

Back-Post: 2008 Part 1

Hey, I'm making progress!

In January I visited Carmalyn again. We flew kites for a while then attempted for the second time to see the camera obscura at Cliff House, and once again it was closed! I think I may never see it. The day wasn't ruined, however - we hung out on the beach for a while.






Also in January I went to an SAE and my colleagues told me that I was amost famous on the Japanese nightly news! That's where I work, too, in case you were wondering.

Back-Post: 2007 Part 7

Winter break I spent in Florida with my family, as usual, plus my sister's boyfriend and his dad. It was nice, but not long enough. We went sailing, kayacking, snorkeling, beach relaxing, etc. Once I even saw a manatee and calf swim right up to the dock for some chillin! I'm trying to be high-tech, so I hope this embedded Picasa show works!

Back-Post: 2007 Part 6

In October I did oh-so-much travelling. By this point, work was really starting to get to me. You guys know how much I love my job, but after all that work and the hospital visit, etc., I was in serious need of some good times. Luckily, October was full of them.

Not uncommonly, these occured around business trips. I was lucky that in October my company sent me to a couple places I knew people. In October we supported Speed Festival in San Diego and I was able to take one night to have dinner with my college friend Elisabeth. I never remember to take photos when we go out! We went to a hippie Veggie restaurant and had a wonderful time. For some reason, when I'm around Elisabeth we can't stop laughing.

Next up was Fuel Cell Seminar in San Antonio. After my plane landed I drove to Austin, where Teresa got together some area folks. It was nice, and I met Britton's son Peter for the first time (see the picture - look at all those babies!). A few days later, I met another college friend Keedy for dinner, and had another wonderful time.

For Thanksgiving I went to my college friend Danny's house for the third year in a row. What a great tradition. I always have so much fun there, and aside from seeing Danny and his parents again, I also get to meet his friends and relatives from the area. But like with Elisabeth, I can never remember to get a photograph!

The rest of the weekend I visited Carmalyn. On the train on the way back I had a spectacular view of the sunset over the Bay. This was taken with my new phone - I got it to replace the RAZR that I thought I'd lost but found as soon as I got the new one.

Back-Post: 2007 Part 5

In August I flew out to Chicago for the wedding reception of my friend Saima. After a year, she had finally imported her husband from Pakistan! I enjoyed meeting him. What a looker! Since Yolanda is now also hooked up to a hunk from South Asia, they are trying to find me a husband next. I say, if you must, please find one that can cook vegetarian. And can clean.

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Labor Day I went to the California State Fair with my co-worker Brian, his girlfriend, and her parents. It was a typical state fair, with plenty of fried everything. In this picture, I am eating last year's winner for "Best New Fried Thing", fried Coca-Cola! The fried Coke fell a little flat (get it?), but boy did we have a great time.

The coolest thing about the fair was the stunt bikers. Watch these crazy guys! If you turn up the sound you might hear me screaming like a little girl!

Back-Posting: 2007 Part 4

In September I was on a business trip (big surprise) when chest pains woke me at 2AM. I waited a few minutes for them to go away, but they settled nicely right around my heart. Finally, I sucked it up and called 911.

The EMTs came in an ambulance and rolled a stretcher through the lobby and all the way up to my room. They put pads on my chest and listened to my heart, and finally decided to strap me down, roll me back through the lobby, and take me to the ER. It was my first ambulance ride ever (and hopefully my last). Meanwhile, the pain got worse and worse.

The emergency room wasn't too crowded, and they found me a bed right away. The EKG was negative (between that and the heart monitor in the hotel, I now had about 20 patches on, all of which left a nice hickey when I removed them the next day). The doctor said I wasn't the right age or weight group to be considered a heart attack risk. Was I taking meth, she asked? No. Heroine? No. Meth? No!

By this time I was almost crying. The pain continued to worsen. They gave me a pregnancy test. They gave me a shot in the "hip" for the pain, which took over an hour to start working. I finished my book and had nothing else to distract me. I waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally they wheeled me out for a chest x-ray. As we were leaving my room, the technician came after me saying "you dropped your bra". And plopped on my lap the largest undergarment I had ever seen. This whole time I had been lying in bed with someone else's GG underwear! And someone actually thought that it was mine!

The chest x-ray was negative too. Their final diagnosis was that I had a chest wall contusion (bruise). Maybe I had been kicked in the chest recently? No, I said. Well, then, maybe I had been and hadn't noticed, she offered.

The trip back to the hotel had far less pomp than that to the hospital: I had to take a cab. The driver was about 150 years old. I got in the car with a prescription for Vicodin in my hand, then I blinked and it was gone. So I asked the driver to take me back to the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, I asked where we were going - "The pharmacy, of course". THEN we turned around to go back to the hospital, where I had to ask the doctor for another prescription. Probably didn't do a lot for her suspicion that I was on meth.

I was walking out of the Walgreens when I saw the sun rise. It had been quite a night.

It wasn't until I returned to Sacramento that my internist diagnosed me with pleurisy, an inflamation of the lining of the chest wall not from a kick to the chest, but allergies and asthma. Makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

Back-Posting: 2007 Part 3

Most of the summer was taken by business trips, which meant I got to travel a lot to interesting locations, so it wasn't all bad. But I can't talk about them. I can say that I watched the Perseid meteor shower during a trip in August and it was AMAZING - I was able to go home at a reasonable hour after seeing 20 falling stars. Cool, huh?

Outside of work, in July I went to the Berkeley Kite Festival with Carmalyn. We did a little flying of our own, but mostly watched the kite performances (especially the synchronized quad-lines - see the video) and Japanese kite-fighting. I think I sunburned all the way to my internal organs, but it was a lot of fun. Check these photos!

Kite Fest Front Gates

Japanese Kite Fighting (Ro-kaku)

Back-posting: 2007 Part 2

Not long after I got back from my birthday excursion, a mother and son humpack whales got lost migrating north and ended up in the Port of Sacramento, less than a mile from where I work, and at least 80 miles from the ocean! After a week, specialists were able to herd them back downriver but lost them in San Pablo Bay. Everyone assumes they made it back to the ocean safely.

I visited several times and was able to get some video. If you search YouTube for "Sacramento port whales", you may find better ones. (Hey! I just found out you can load videos directly onto BlogSpot instead of YT!)






You know, May was just a busy month in general. After the whales returned home, I went to Ohio for my cousin Vince's wedding, then the same weekend I went bicycling in Golden Gate Park with Berkeley Ben (well, he went, biking, I just made a fool of myself).

Back-posting: 2007 Part 1

Hey, everyone;

I should give some updates on what happened in 2007. I think I stopped somewhere in May...

For my birthday Carmalyn and I went hiking in Pinnacles National Monument (it was hot!), then bicycling and kayaking in Monterey (it was cold!), then toured the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose (read what's so creepy about the house). What fun!

Pinnacles

Monterey

Winchester House