Jade's Babblings

I never really finished writing much about this, did I? Hmm. . . I'll have to amend that now.

Sunday morning, 4:15 a.m.
I slept over Paul and Sarah's. If you can call it sleeping. I had a bit too much to drink Saturday night. One of those "hm, I'm pretty sure those bruises are from drunken karate pratice with Joe, but they could just as easily have been self inflicted" sort of nights. Did I mention I was very nervous about flying? So you'll have to excuse the alcoholism. Yes, you will! Okay then...

I meant to wake up at about 4 and be out of there and showered and stuff by 4:20/4:30. I woke up at 4:15, as stated above. So that was fun. I kissed Paul and Sarah goodbye (yea, we're weird like that) and then ran out the door with my bags and got in my car to drive to my coworker's house.

I had directions but of course that means nothing. I got lost of course. So even though I had been running late and was actually going to make it on time, I was then about 15 minutes late thanks to that. By the time I got there our town car was waiting. We loaded up my stuff, gave my keys to the girl's husband, and got on our way. The limo driver had no clue. He took us all over the place to get to the airport and drove super slow while doing it. I was already crazy nervous as it was without dealing with being late.

We got to T.F. Greene and I had just enough time to pop a couple xanax before we got on the flight. We found out when we got there that the one stop we thought we had was actually two stops. Providence to Phoenix (where we would not get off the plane) and then on to LA (where we would switch planes) and on to San Jose. Super. But thank goodness, no turbulance. The flight was uneventful. I texted Seth and Sarah a couple times and then suddenly we were there, in California. And boy, was it beautiful.

It was kind of funny because at first L and I were disappointed. I guess we expecting the aiport to look different or something. "Same freaks, different coast." We took a shuttle to the rental car place, which was thoroughly confusing. We got our car and drove to the hotel and only got a little lost.

The Mariott was beautiful in the lobby. I wish I had taken pictures but I didn't want to look like a huge tourist. By the time we got there I just wanted to get to my room so badly. Plus my cell battery had died as we got off the plane so I had no idea if Seth was waiting for us at the hotel or what was going on with that.

The three of us went up to our rooms and I started unpacking. Seth called and said he was lost but would be there soon. I was kind of thankful for the moment to collect myself anyway. After traveling on a plane all day, something I hate to do, I wanted to be able to relax for a sec. T came over after settling into her room and chatted with me for a minute and then my room phone rang and it was Seth wanting my room number. So I told T that we would stop by to say hi to her and L later.

I was nervous answering the door obviously but you know, after all the conversations we've had on the phone, it was very comfortable right off the bat. We chatted for a second and then went over to say hi to my two coworkers. We talked with them for a few minutes. they were all freaked out about me meeting him so they were glad to see that thus far he seemed normal. We agreed to meet them down in the bar/lounge for drinks later.

Then he and I finally got to chat in person for a while and it was lovely. We have a lot in common. I forgot how nice it was to talk to someone with the same religious beliefs who's been through the same things I have... Very nice. We joined the other two downstairs and had appetizers and drinks. Jess had introduced me to a lovely drink called sex on the beach (perhaps you've heard of it) before I left for Cali so I had two of those when one was actually more my limit for the night. Ah well. I was tired anyway and drinking makes me more so. By the time Seth left at . . .10ish I was ready to crash. I had such a great first half day there though thanks to meeting up with him.

for the rest of the week me, T and L and were inseperable and it was kind of cool. I had such a great time with them. On Monday we went to all day training and then T looked up directions to The Cheesecake Factory and a local mall. There was a lone girl in our class from Philly who also works for our company. So we adopted her for the week and she came out to dinner with us that night. She loves cheesecake factory. :) Then we walked around the mall a bit. I bought a San Francisco Giants sweatshirt and softball for Sadie. And we all got some clothes while we were there. I said as long as they had a Hot Topic I'd be happy and they did. Yay.

usually I don't post pics directly on here but there are links to buzznet and such so it's not like you can't see pictures of the girls I work with. Here they are at dinner. Awww.



Then of course drinks in the bar that night... Ah, the waiter knew us well.

Tuesday was another day of training and that night we went out to Pier 39 to do some touristy stuff. We had dinner at the Sea Lion Cafe.
Souveniers are so cheap there. I was shocked. When you shop up in Maine or in the Boston area or something, things are so expensive. It's like, "here, we put 'maine' on it for you. That'll be forty dollars." But in SF you could buy an entire wardrobe. Sheesh. So I managed to get gifts for a few people. I was very proud to find an SF snow globe for Sarah. :)

The coworker from Philedelphia had to go home Wednesday morning so we said goodbye to her when we got back from SF. Oh, and can I just say - the streets of San Francisco? HORRIBLE. TERRIFYING. Oh....my....god.... We thought the car was going to tip backwards. Anyway....

Wednesday we met with some licensing people to go over a bit of extra training. We were out after half a day though and then we went sailing with some fellow coworkers who were friends of T's. It was such a great time. I even got to steer for a bit. Very exciting. L and I got to chat up at the front for a bit because I was really dizzy for a little bit.

We were out sailing for quite a while and then we all went out to dinner at The Fish Market. It was pretty good. The chowder was a let down, but the appetizers were very yummy. I got sun burned during the day. Ouch.

I went back to my room and packed for the flight home the next morning. It was supposed to be direct but once again we stopped in Phoenix. Whatever. We got home eventually and I was out like a light in the car on the way to L's house. Then I picked up my car there and drove over to Sarah's to give everyone their gifts. Paul and Joe showed up a bit later. They had a softball game and went out to the bar after even though they lost... Yea....
I was glad to see all of them. It felt like I was gone longer than I was.

Then it was home where I stayed up way too late cuz I was still on Cali time and then I went to work the next day where it was weird to say goodbye to my coworkers for the weekend and know I wasn't going to see them at all.

The weekend was fairly uneventful except for my cousin's graduation party from college. So proud of him. Here he is with his sister.


And here's a pic my mom took of me and Kara:


And that was my weekend. Now I'm waiting for the week to be over since I'm picking Seth up at the airport on Saturday morning. yea, kind of an unexpected surprise. I'm psyched. We're going to try to hang out with everyone in Worcester on Saturday night. Should be a good time.

Well, I think that's plenty for now. Back to my insane cleaning of the apartment. Fun stuff. :)