old friends

I've seen a lot of people while back in the Bay Area. In that sense, it's been really good to be back for these last couple weeks. And now, I'm a day away from heading back to work in a galaxy far, far away, that possibly exists a long time ago as well. I'm not really sure about that last part. Air travel causes relativistic effects, right?

Every trip home for the last few years, and especially this one and the one back in March has had a checklist feel to it for seeing people, hitting up certain restaurants, and trying to run various errands typically related to work-related paperwork or banking business to deal with while I'm near a branch. In a way, it's good to be busy, but at the same time, I almost always return to work not feeling very rested. Of course, that may have something to do with the 20+ hours of flying time and about 10 hours of layover time I will have between the time I takeoff from SFO and the time I land in POG. I know the obvious solution I will hear from many (and have already heard), which takes variations on the form of "quit your job and come back to California". No, not with the unfinished business to, well, finish.

Despite all this, I saw someone from college yesterday I had not seen since graduation and it was great. Great to know people are doing well, in particular this person has seen some ups and downs in the last six years, but is in a much better place now. As cliche as it may sound, I'm happy to see that my friend is happy and doing well and moving forward with life.

In general, I've seen several people I have not seen since college graduation or even longer ago from high school days. In the sense that it means anything, these are my 'people'. This is where I am from after all and this is the closest thing to a real home I have, but it's still not home. Yet.

north power station?

Warning: this post is incredibly esoteric. With that stated, I was just skipping around some movies on my laptop and was taking another gander at selected scenes from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Near the end, when they are trying to destroy the Death Star, Lando Calrissian says to Wedige Antilles, "go for the power regulator on the north tower." Wait a second. North? They are in the center of the Death Star. There is no north. Or south or east or west. It's the middle of a miniature planetoid. How does that have any meaning to them unless they have already assigned a reference system to the Death Star? I demand answers!

ronin christmas

One of my favorite movies, perhaps because it leaves itself with an element of mystery in the end, is Ronin. Plus, it has excellent car-chase sequences that feature not only superbly great driving and power sliding but also no ridiculous car explosions.

There is a great sentiment expressed in a line (or two lines if you will) between two of the primary characters:
Vincent (Jean Reno): What do you want for Christmas?
Sam (Robert De Niro): My two front teeth.

Sounds about right.

no appointment necessary

What a scam. Despite what the US Department of State website says and their somewhat helpful people on the 877 phone system say, you do NOT need to make an appointment if you go to the Passport Agency in person. It's all lies. In fact, the line that people without an appointment were directed into to get a number was shorter than the line for people with an appointment.

not exactly a vacation week

That aforementioned thing in my previous post had to do with work. I had business-related matters to take care of in Texas, so this really hasn't been much of a week off. And now, it's ending with me having no passport and lots of uncertainty on where it is and generally lots of stress and tension from this situation. I've been chasing down FedEx and the embassy trying to get someone to go the extra mile for me and it has not really panned out very well so far. The eternal optimist in me still has hope, but the realist in me will always go with the old standby that "hope is not a plan." Thus, the plan is centered around an appointment at the Passport Agency office in San Francisco scheduled for next Tuesday, a rather inconvenient time. C'est la vie.

done with that thing about the thing

Well, that's done with. You know, that thing I'm here in this place for. While not strictly over, at least this part is done for now. I'm flying back to California tomorrow, landing at SFO in the morning, hanging out with a college friend in the afternoon and probably chilling with the bro somewhere to watch the Thursday night 49ers game.

storage space

Ah ha! So that's where I had been keeping that great duffel bag. It's making the trek back to cloudy California now along with what reasonably fits into an extra checked bag.