I went up to the City again today. Three times in two weeks! Unheard of! I went up to meet up with Kragen, who was in town briefly with his girlfriend. They're on a around-the-world journey, with originally no plans on coming back to the United States once they started. I'm not sure why they were in town, but I wasn't going
to miss the opportunity to say hello and talk to them, hear how their adventures were going.

I took {the} Caltrain up to Millbrae, and took the BART to the 24th Mission station. I hadn't realized how far around the City the BART goes. I wanted to arrive by seven, when everyone was going out to dinner, and wasn't exactly sure how far away the house was from the station.

Tragically, my bladder was full before the train even arrived at the station, so finding out the plans had changed, and everyone was meeting at a restaurant down the street from the station. On my way back to the restaurant, I received a call back from the friend who was hosting the gathering, to let me know one of Kragen's friends, Kitt, was going to be at the restaurant, I should meet up with him. I laughed, and said, "Will do."

When I went back to the restaurant, I expected to see a group of people, some of whom I also expected to recognize.

Nope. Didn't recognize anyone. I ordered a tasty, grilled vegetable quesadilla, sat in the back of the restaurant and watched people coming and going. I hoped to find someone to meet up with, but struck out there, too.

I wandered back to the meeting house, and sat on the door step waiting for the host to come home. I managed to people watch for a while, seeing a woman walking her dog around the block, a few joggers and an old man across the street that fascinated me. He would walk two steps up the Dolores St. hill near 24th, and stop, take two more steps, and stop. Watching him, I could see the determination: he was heading somewhere up that hill, and he was going to get there.

I waited until just after 8 before I decided to head back home. The host wasn't home yet, and I had to choose between catching the 8:17 BART back to the 8:47 Caltrain, or waiting for the 10 something train, and not getting home until near midnight.

I left.

The whole evening was a bust in terms of seeing Kragen again, saying hello and catching up, but it wasn't a complete bust.

The whole evening was a step outside of my comfort zone. Heading out to hang out with a group of people I've never met before, in an area relatively unfamiliar, definitely not an area I'm comfortable with.

I did okay.

On the train right up to the City today, I sat backwards (seated south), which I almost never do, and on the second level, which I'm growing quite fond of. I've also
learned to sit on the shadow side, as it's much cooler (temperature-wise, possibly even socially).

What I couldn't figure out, sitting up there, looking down, is how the guy on the sunny, bottom side managed to get any work done with the glare on his screen.

Choices can sometimes be funny things. You make the best choice you can at any given moment, weighing all the options and possible outcomes, and choose. Sometimes the choices can be hard, sometimes they can be easy, but it seems like you always need to make a choice. As the Rush song goes, "Even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Take today, for instance.

Today was the second of two introductory meetings for the Santa Clara County Master Gardeners program. The program accepts around 65 applicants every two years, from around 150 applicants. Attendance at one of the two meetings is mandatory, so I had to choose between attending last Friday's morning meeting at 10 am or this afternoon at 1:00 pm.

Last week, Mike was stressed about a project and the timing of some house inspections, so said going to the Friday morning meeting would be less desirable than today's Tuesday afternoon meeting. Okay, no problem.

Until flights were cancelled, inspections postponed, project delayed and work wasn't done. Push came to shove and, what do you know, the Friday morning demo that prevented me from going to the first intro meeting is scheduled for this afternoon. What? I'm still going to the meeting?

On the drive over to the meeting, I couldn't help but think that the choices for immediate gratification are so often not the best choices to make. The worry of the moment became a non-worry as the demo was postponed.

Perhaps it would be better to schedule the inflexible events that can't/won't change than to try to hit a moving target. But, even then which choice is better is unclear because each one happens during a local stress maximum.

The only thought I could think was, the best choice would be to do what needs to be done, as soon as it can be done, instead of postponing it.

How many times during school would I have benefitted from that advice? The answer would surely boggle the mind.

Went up to the City on Thursday night. I had intended to be in the City for the second day of the Future of Web Apps Summit, but had too much work to do. Instead, I missed Day 2, worked all day, then trained up to the City to have dinner with Elina.

A fabulous idea.

She met me at the train station, and we wandered to the bookstore close by (the Borders near the ballpark), to find a San Francisco Magazine. The goal was to find the food section, pick out a restaurant from the review section and head over. Somehow, I think the copies I receive from my subscription are different than the ones in stores, as there weren't any restaurant reviews, and we ended up using another magazine.

I don't recall where we ended up for dinner, but the entire evening was absolutely wonderful. We had dinner, walked back to her place, and headed to the hot tub in her condo complex. Totally awesome time.

Next week is her term finals, but the week after, well, maybe more late night hot-tubbing is in order.

On Wednesday, Kris had a job interview. Two days in a row he had to get up in the morning too early for the two of us with natural sleep-until-noon tendencies. Good thing I convinced him to get up early the day before, to practice.

Always pragmatic, Kris timed the drive into to interview. He was leaving early enough to catch the carpool lane, and the office would be closer than previous work places, so he was hopeful for an easier commute. He also planned to time the drive back, to compare the two.

After the interview, which he felt went pretty well, Kris started the timer on his watch, and started his drive home. He received a phone call as soon as he started drivingand immediately thought, "What the? Does Kitt have a webcam in my car?"

Oh, the suggestions that man makes to me... Time to find a mobile webcam system...

The call was, indeed, not from me. Instead, the company he just interviewed at was calling to let him know they wanted give him a job offer.

Surprised, he looked at his watch.

8 minutes, 37 seconds to job.

Top that.