i've been pretty busy with work these days - we have multiple procurements to push through, i feel like i'm doing 3 people's work, but i still have my work-life balance. it just means i have less time to relax and chill at work. i feel very productive these days :D
also made a lot of new friends last weekend at the birthday parties in Cupertino/Sunnyvale, really excited to hang out with them in the future! i now have more south bay friends :) got to see planes landing really close up as the birthday party was super close to the airport (the planes were the size of 3 large trees from the apartment!). i also got to sing karaoke, play mini golf in the city, try good food and dessert places out, so overall a great weekend!
last week i did a really memorable dash to the airport/plane...my original flight was at 5.30pm, but i moved it to 7pm so i could get more work done onsite at the client's before heading home. at 5pm as we were preparing to leave, i noticed that my 7pm flight got delayed 2 hours, so i said, "why not try for the earlier 6pm flight? at worst i'll just end up back on my delayed 7pm flight!".
at this time it started to snow around 4+pm, so probably why flights were getting delayed. my boss - to his credit - drove me at a reasonably fast speed to the airport and we got there at 5.30pm. he dropped me off, i -again very luckily- had tsa pre-check for that flight! so i breezed through security in 5 min, and i got to my gate at 5.45pm, with 5 min to spare before the gate closes!
at that point i had to check my carry on bag, but i still made the flight, which was awesome! we sat out on the de-icing pad for 45min waiting our turn to get de-iced, and then taking the time to spray the de-icing fluid a few times over the plane. we also had to wait for 5 planes ahead of us to take off, and we finally took off an hour late.
even though my flight landed an hour late, it was still WAYY better than catching the 7pm delayed flight. it was only taking off when i reached SF lol.
that night was also st patrick's day, so my roommate dragged me out and we went to Castro Street. It's my first time at Castro and going to gay bars, and we went to two! it was really enjoyable as there were a lot of eye candy to look at, the music was good (throwback 90's), it was st patrick's day with a fun atmosphere, and no guys would come up and grind you! so awesome to dance undisturbed haha. it's a little odd though, sometime i wish those cute guys were actually interested in me, and not just looking for other guys :/
In general those guys are pretty attention-seeking - dressing to impress, dancing exaggeratedly, looking drop-dead gorgeous...overall a fun experience!
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yesterday i got to ride in a mustang convertible with the top down!! my boss had the choice of renting a truck or a convertible , and he made the most "logical" choice of the convertible haha. it was definitely a pleasant surprise, especially since it was super nice and warm yesterday! also, my boss clearly didn't realise it was going to snow today...
today it snowed 24 inches instead of the expected 4 inches! i was actually completely unprepared, i didn't check the weather forecast over the weekend (dumb me - too busy and too complacent to check the weather...) so i was very underdressed for the snow. i was wearing my work heels, light coat. i didn't have my hood/cap, gloves, scarves, nor my winter boots!
in the middle of the blizzard, we drove to the element and got stuck trying to crest a hill, so we reversed our way down and went a different way. we then got into a huge traffic jam at an intersection where all the cars were headed the same way, and there was a bottleneck getting out in the blizzard. there were cars abandoned along the sides of the roads as people got stuck in the snow...
there was this guy from the opposite direction who almost hit our car trying to cut in front of us to turn into a building on our right. he was sliding and skidding, but after 4 wide turns, he managed to make it without hitting us. i guess he knew what he was doing haha. i'm really amazed and shocked at the same time >.>
so it took us 1h 20min to get to the client site instead of the usual 15min, definitely not too much fun in the snow. fortunately it was a day where it wasn't too busy, and i didn't miss any huge meeting. and amazingly, my boss drove the mustang convertible, rear wheel drive fine in the snow! he's really experienced with snow driving lol - he's from boston, and he told me that in the 60s there were no all-wheel drives or front-wheel drives, so you had to know how to drive with rear wheel drive!
Can't decide if I want to sing "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..." or "snow, snow, go away..."
Kind of fun being snowed in/iced in at work (but with a strong confidence in the snow letting up and we can actually go back to the hotel)
The aftermath - quite a few cars abandoned along the roads as their drivers got stuck and took off by foot in the blizzard. at least the uber surges never exceeded 5x pricing haha
It was so beautiful being the only cars driving along the snow plowed roads, with these snow-covered trees. Two words: Winter Wonderland.
