Hey y'all,

I've been a slacker lately and haven't been blogging. Well, I don't think lazy is exactly the best term. Over the past week I've been back in SLO, packed up, moved to SJ, set up shop in my sweet new apartment, bought a killer new TV, and started work at Hitachi (HGST). I guess that's my version of "lazy" haha, at least in terms of blogging. I figued I'd save the whole move to SJ for a blog entry when I have some good pics. For now, a little bit on my work.

The reason I call it my "second" first day is because I took an internship with HGST 2 years ago. I had fun with everyone at work and liked the area. I was kinda lonely since there were no other interns in my area, but everybody at work was awesome. Back then I worked for the firmware team. whereas now I've moved over to the hardware team (or "dark side" according to my old buddies at work). I get to see a lot my old friends along with quite a few new ones.

Anyways, my first day was pretty long and boring. I spent most of the day doing HR orientations. I now have a whole book on safety, benefits, vacation, retirement, and other stuff to mull over. I'm taking it easy tonight, watching Superbad on my new TV and getting some exercise. I figure I'll hit this Hitachi stuff hard tomorrow.

I got lost going to my actual work. The HR site is at a different spot, and in two years they've managed to move a bunch of streets and change their names. VERY nice. The badge place closed, so I don't have my ID to get in yet. Whoops. My manager Steve came down and let me in anyways for a tour. I got to say hi to everyone I'll be working with, along with all my old friends. That's about it, no work today. Back again tomorrow when hopefully I get to do something more useful.

I'm going to try and make these a bit more interesting, I no my life updates are bleh. I'm planning on starting my book in the next few weeks. My apartment is coming together; more on that in my next post. We will see how Hitachi goes; the picnic in SC is coming up early in August with the software guys. That should be VERY interesting now that I'm on the other side.

Stay tuned...

-StM

Now that Boston's off my mind, let's see about Detroit.

I was kinda out of it my first day back. I passed out for two hours during the afternoon for my 45 minute nap. Whoops. I felt kinda bad to because I was half awake when my mom surprised me with the news that everyone from my family was coming Thursday for an early 23rd birthday party. I was kinda groggy, so rather than excitement, my reply was "Huh?".

Thursday I took a bike ride with my dad. It's become a kind of tradition for us to go out on a ride when I'm home to check out GP and Detroit. It was a great day for a ride and I got to see everything that has changed in town. (I'm just kidding, not much ever changes!) I also did some more lawn mowing. Yea, nothing really exiting there...

The birthday party was really cool. We had eighteen people over, which is a ton for us. Everybody I know was there, which was really cool. I got a few gifts, but I was mainly there to see how everyone was doing (and the cake of course).

I'm really glad I came home for these few weeks. Although I didn't really get to see many of my old high school buddies, I did get to hang with the family. I could have come around my bday, but Laura, Mark, and Rune are heading into town in early August for a few weeks, so I think I'd be kinda overshadowed by the arrival of the baby to MI. I'm sad I still won't get to see the little guy in person though :( Guess I'll just need to grab a plane ticket to HI with all my new money 8-)

Let's see, let's see. Today we checked out the Ann Arbor art fair. We must've walked several miles because that fair was HUGE. Lots of cool stuff, way too overpriced. I'm glad I grabbed some art in South Haven. I did see some cool colorized photos an artist made after doing some urban exploring in Detroit and other rundown cities (if you don't know what it is, Google it). I took his card and figured I'd check it out later after I settle down in SJ.

We also paid a visit to IKEA. I need to furnish my first apartment somehow, and IKEA's going to help me do it. I got a lot of ideas and also got a chance to check out some stuff I wanted to but in the Bay Area. I definitely did a major J thing too for my new place. I made a scale drawing of the rooms on graph paper and then cut scale pieces of furniture out of note cards so that I could work on arranging my room. I ended up getting a lot of good layouts though. It is a lot better than making several drawings over and over (which I did this summer in San Diego). Yea, I'm a dork, so what?

What else? I walked the dog quite a ways and then hung with Brenna and Caitlin. It's always good to see those guys. Caitlin of course filled me in with all the latest gossip on my neighbors, relationships, who's doing what. You know, the usual GP stuff.

Sunday (morning?) I'm off to SLO again. My dad comes out Tuesday and then we head to San Jose with all my junk. My place is all paid for right now. I don't have any money until my first paycheck. Then I can afford the usual, you know, cable, internet, furniture, food...all that stuff. It will be nice to support myself totally finally.

Keep in touch and visit sometime...

-StM

Another week goes by, another bunch of random adventures to recount.

In Boston news, Nikki's got a new studio, which is great. I'm glad she was able to make a decision before we all left, because that would've been absolutely horrible to deal with housing from all the way over in California. I noticed that my last post was about a week ago, so let me try and think of what else you missed out in Boston.

After the initial bunch of places (Canada, Crackhouse by the Sea, etc...) we found a few more on Monday. My Monday consisted of waking up at 4 a.m. to drive Armen to the airport for his trip back to Cali. Nikki in the meantime could have been sleeping, but instead got up to stalk and research haha. That was probably good, because it gave us a jump start on the day and all the places to see. We looked into Newton, Brookline, Watertown, Brighton, and Ashton that day, focusing on a few postings on Craigslist that Nikki responded to and some apartments I found online. A quick synopsis:

"New Mommy's House": Our first stop was a house in Newton, a safe family town just west of Boston. The house was beautiful; it reminded me of a place in GP. The lady who posted the Craigslist ad was very nice. She was a mother of three kids, ages 3, 5, and 7, and her husband was a big shot businessman who did business in New York. The place Nikki would've rented was pretty cool. It consisted of the entire third floor of the house WITH furniture. There were two bedrooms, a little sitting room, and a huge bathroom. All utilities included and she got furniture!

Well, what's the catch? No separate entrance. And I must say, Nikki calls me a J, but this lady SCARED me. First, she must have had like 4 cups of coffee right before we got there; she was WIRED. Also, everything in the house was super organized and color coded. She gets her kids up at 5 a.m. and is outta the door by 8 a.m. Yea, I don't think she would mesh with Nikki too well. Plus, she'd probably always be in her business. The downstairs and kitchen were also shared with the family, so it would literally be like having a new mommy. Nikki was kinda keen on the idea, but everyone else thought this lady might be a little controlling and that Nikki wouldn't be as independent. In the end, she sadly let the place go.

"Armenia by the Church": The place Nikki ended up getting was in a smaller town called Watertown. It's just west of Cambridge and north of Newton across the Charles River. The complex was fairly nice looking (minus the ugly blue railings on the porches). It was right next to a big park and across from a Catholic church (good for me lol). The first place we saw was a one bedroom that was big, but also really out of date. Apparently the lady living there had been there a while, and they were going to renovate it for the next person. However, Nikki and I still made an appointment Tuesday to see the only other place available in September, which was a remodeled studio. The price was right and heat, water and parking were included, which were pluses. Nikki liked it a lot. It has a great view of the city and church from the porch. The rooms are all partitioned, which is cool since you get privacy. Most of the time studios are one huge space. Nikki put in her application and offer letter (after a few million calls to Armen in the morning to fax it) and now she's all set. We even found out that there was a walkway along the Charles a block or two away. We walked over there and checked it out.

So what's with the nickname for the last place? Behind Glendale and Fresno, Watertown has the third largest Armenian population in the US with about 8% of the city's population. Armen was pretty stoked to hear that, especially when Nikki signed on there. Of course, Nikki is picking on Armen, saying that maybe she'll meet another cute Armenian guy in his twenties when she moves there (to which Armen replies, "I'll kill you."). We'll see about that. How's Michael doing over there Nikki?

We also checked out a house from Craiglist on Tuesday night that Nikki found. Turns out that the three people there are all from Nantucket and are looking for a fourth roomie. It's funny because with Nikki, they'd have three girls and a guy named Matt, just like our house on Calle Malva! Kinda strange. They were very nice, but after getting the place in Watertown, Nikki really didn't see anything that absolutely made her want to take this place. As Kristen would say, she didn't absolutely love it. Hell, I already blew our two earlier apartment appointments (not like me, but they weren't in my calendar, okay?) so that must've been a sign that Watertown was the place. I did find it hilarious that Matt basically lived in a closet haha, definitely the best bedroom arrangement I've ever seen.

Besides that, Nikki and I spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday souvenir shopping and eating food that made Armen jealous. That includes Regina Pizza and Legal Seafood. My lobster was AWESOME, although I think Nikki was a little freaked out by the eyes haha. And YES Armen, I did let Nikki buy that annoying duck whistle from the Duck Boat guys (QUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!). Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure out a way to make it 'disappear'.

Which reminds me, I had SUCH a fun time Sunday watching Armen and Nikki try to navigate to this pizza place the first time. I acted like I was sleeping and listened in. First, we drive like 15 miles to one of these random places when there are some that were much closer. Then they realize we probably should call and see how late they're open on Sunday. Oops. Well, we get to the exit, and wouldn't you know it? The GPS led us in circles. That only happened like 243872937498273984732 times during the trip. Turns out that the GPS said there was a 'Regina Pizzeria' and 'Pizzeria Regina' in two different locations off this exit! What the hell? So we gave up on that and then came trying to make a decision on a place to eat. Well, we drove around randomly looking around (Armen even spotted so geese, yelling, "Look at the f***ing geese!". I have no idea why). Finally, we ended up at Cheesecake Factory, but I must say it was quite an experience watching them try and navigate to this pizza place.

Other than that, we drove to the airport at 5 a.m. on Wednesday. Nikki had to run to her flight. I took the car back. Armen and I talked to the guys on Sunday night and got the price cut by $50. They took off 2 days and allowed us to drop is off at the airport (we picked it up somewhere else) after our first car died while driving. Then we added me Monday morning as a secondary. Well, I turn the car in, and the lady goes, "That will be $456.00, correct?" WHAT?! I was PISSED...I'm glad Nikki had me drop her off first, because this took forever. Turns out the computer double charged us for both cars plus did a bunch of other random stuff. Whatever, it got fixed, I went home, and I had no issues getting back to the D...

I'm going to break for now here and throw the rest of my update in another post. Man, I gotta make sure that I post more often, otherwise this is what happens! Sorry :(

So yea, I've been kinda slacking at this for the past few days. I've been traveling a lot from DC to Detroit to Boston and my laptop screen died :-( which is kinda putting a hold on my blog. However, I've got a moment here at the hotel, so I'll give the DL on Boston so far...

I must say that first of all, we are all still alive, which I find impressive. I was sure that between Armen, Nikki, and I that one of us would've gone nuts within the first day or so.

Back to the title of this blog, after the first two days we have amassed our own Boston vocab to describe different people, places, and things. It just helps all of us remember. Each one has a story of it's own:

"Granola Bar": Armen's short term that we use for some apartments in Malden because it sounds similar. It's got a beautiful view of the Boston skyline, but it looks like the area surrounding it might be a little more sketch. The place has a TON of stuff too (even handball courts) as well as social events and plenty of people our age. It might be worth it, and it's about as close as Canada...

"Canada": I coined this for one of the apartments in Waltham since they're called the Windsor Apartments, and Windsor is right across the border from Detroit in Canada (Of course the two Cali kids didn't get it, but it works lol). Canada is farther too, but also quieter (hah). Couldn't really tell how many young people lived there, but it was also very nice and overlooked a pond. It's still in the running with Granola Bar...

"Pville Pond": Another place in Waltham that wasn't open when we got there, but it looked really nice. It was on a pond that apparently looks like one in Pville to Nikki, so she coined the term.

"Kitty Castlewood": The last place in Waltham, also closed for today. Nikki named it based on the stripper name she made up with. According to what Nikki has heard, your stripper name is (name of childhood pet + street you grew up on). Very clever. Anyways, Nikki thought the area kinda looked like the street she grew up on.

"Crack House by the Sea": This is actually a clash of terms that describes one place that was really beautiful. It was right on a bay with a beach nearby and a harbor walk. It had several nice apartments that were reasonable with great grounds (it actually was built on the edge of a park).

However, based on some research and the word from the cops (see below), Dorchester is NOT the place to be ("You'll be shot in a month", said one officer) and this place was smack dab in the middle.

Although it doesn't say anything about crack houses, another place we saw had a review that said they literally found a crack house in the bottom floor of the apartment, so we skipped that one. Then the crack house term stuck with this one on the bay, maybe because of what the cop hinted at with low income housing in the complex. Scratch another one off the list.

"Officer Mike with a mommy": By far my favorite part of today. We were at an Au Bon Pain in Cambridge grabbing a sandwich for lunch. Armen was talking to Nikki about how we need to call some police offices to find out what crime and safety is like in the different neighborhoods. Armen then sees the Cambridge Police sitting in the same restaurant and says, "Why don't we just ask them?" Before Nikki and I can say anything, Armen starts chatting it up with the cops. There were three guys, and they all had great advice (as well as funny accents).

Turns out that Dorchester and Roxbury are to be avoided:

"Roxbury?...(laughter)"
"I wouldn't drive through there without my gun" and then another said "Hell I wouldn't drive through there WITH my gun"
"Your car will be broken into within a month...no a week"
"That damn Section 8...you'll be paying $1400 and they guy next door's paying $68 you know?"
"They have crack parties then they come over and break into your car"

They also had some great advice about good places to live. They told us most of the areas to the north were better to look into. Now we're going to focus in on that to try and find some more places. They even tried to sell us on Belmont, mainly because Officer Mike's mom has been trying to rent a room in the house with her father there for 6 months. "You'd be crazy not to take this!" I mean the area was nice and the price was good, but it might just be a backup. We might be seeing it tomorrow.

That's enough of the dictionary, what else? Oh yea, the car. After Nikki and Armen upgraded it, the thing DIED in the middle of the road (while driving) in Boston. That was fun! Luckily we pulled over and found a Hertz place to switch out the car. It's a lower grade and in worse shape, plus we could've been killed! Armen's going to give them a piece of his mind tomorrow. Hopefully we can get a discount.

Alright, enough of that. See Nikki's post on her blog for more info. I'm sure she'll cover all the funny accents, the crazy drivers, and how annoying Armen and I are. Stay tuned...

-StM

Well, I've kinda missed a few entries over the last few days, but I've got a pretty good reason...no internet and no phone! Man, it was nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle and take a break for a little bit...

If you know me, then you're thinking, "Matt, take a break? Come on!" Okay, so maybe MY idea of taking a break is a little bit different than everyone else's.

Whenever I come home from Cali, my parents always have a "Matt list" for me to do. This time, the main item on the list was digging a drainage ditch. To be more exact, we had to dig a 100-foot ditch about a foot deep to bury a drain pipe for our sump pump. For those of you in California without basements, a sump pump is a pump in a hole in your basement that's below the basement level. Whenever water begins to rise to a certain level just below the basement, the pump turns on and pumps out the water to prevent flooding. This Christmas, a crazy thaw in the middle of winter and a broken sump flooded our cottage with a foot of water! Merry Christmas.

Anyways, skipping from the technical jazz above, we had to dig a long ditch. My dad and I spent three days digging, leveling, and filling in this hole. Honestly, as I said before, I'm cool with manual work. However, I forgot one small pest of the damp Michigan climate: mosquitoes. I forgot how I'm a magnet for those damn bugs. I sprayed myself everywhere and they still bit me a million times. Oh well, just part of a Michigan vacation I guess.

Check one item off the list. Luckily that was the only major item for the list this time around. Aside from mowing the lawn and other random yard work, the long weekend was pretty quiet.

One night we traveled down to New Buffalo over in Michiana to check out the new Four Winds Casino. I gotta say it was pretty ritzy. It was must fancier than the other Indian casinos I had seen in Jackson and Solvang. However, there was one small problem. Nobody won ANYTHING. I mean, everyone of us just had loss after loss after loss, no small wins whatsoever. Whatever, I'm probably never going back anyways.

The beach out there has also changed since I'd been in Michigan last. The beach is about half the size since the huge flood during Christmas and in spring. Lake Michigan is up a friggin foot, that's a ton! With such a rise, some places don't even have a beach anymore. It's much smaller than any California beach and a little chillier. The water was about 50, which felt pretty cold, although after your body goes numb it doesn't seem so bad. We only hung down there for an hour or so since the July 4th crowd was getting pretty big.

While out there I picked up some more art and photos for my new place in California. I figured with all the white walls in that place I should try and decorate a little. I mean, me and decorating don't usually mix, but I'm gonna give it a try. I also have vaulted ceilings, which makes for a lot of random empty space. Maybe if I stay there long enough I'll find a mobile or something to hang up there. I'm a little short on cash right now, so I think I'll just stick with the few things I got in MI for now.

Tomorrow I'm off to DC for one of two trips while I'm home. We'll see how it goes, hopefully everything goes smoothly.

After that it's Boston with Armen and Nikki. That should be an interesting time. I hope Nikki rented a car (cough cough) since we are going to be traveling all around the city trying to find her housing for the fall.

Until next time...

-StM

Well, so far my vacation in Michigan has been pretty uneventful. I spent most of the day bumming around the house with not much to do, but that's cool with me. It's been a long couple of weeks Craigslisting, moving, and cleaning our house in SLO. Today was my only day in Grosse Pointe until about the 15th.

My dad and I nailed down the plan for my SJ move. (and that's not South Jersey Ashley!) My dad really loves to travel, so he decided that he would fly out to help me move from SLO. I thought I'd have someone there help me move, but then the problem is getting the person back to SLO or finding someone who only needs to go one way. Either way, I still need to drive my car, so the other person would just get stuck driving the big van. Unfortunately, tickets for a flight were $400 for my dad, which was nuts! That's twice as much as I expected, but it's the summer. My dad got a ticket through FF points instead, so we got that settled. Now the plan is to have him drive an Enterprise Truck from SJ to SLO, since they don't charge mileage. Then we'll pack my stuff, head back up to San Jose and then return the van. It's not as easy as just driving one way from SLO, but it costs about the same after researching it and my dad really likes to travel.

I also started looking at new stuff to buy for my apartment, which is exciting. I'm starting with the most important item first: my new HDTV of course! I spent a while today researching TV specs online and in stores. I've got my basic TV picked out, so I'll probably get that first thing when I get my new place, since I don't own a TV currently. Next comes all the furniture, which will come mostly from IKEA and Target. I don't want to buy too much stuff or expensive things since I MAY be moving again soon. I also have the table and (possibly) the couch from our house in SLO. Moving the couch depends on the size truck we rent (Sorry Kristen, it might not be in the cards after all). With all this stuff, I've also noticed that it's going to be hard to arrange it in my place, since there are a lot of doorwalls, windows, and a fireplace (all which are awesome by the way). I guess I'll just play it by ear and plan it out when I get there. I'm looking forward to buying new stuff and moving in; I always find a change of scenery to be a lot of fun.

Starting tomorrow, my family and I are heading to the cottage out in South Haven. It will be nice to head out to west Michigan for the 4th of July and be out in the country for a bit. Still, it sounds like I will be put to work for the few days I'm out there. My dad's having my dig a sewage drainage ditch and lay pipe...a good job for a computer engineer haha. It's okay with me; I like manualy labor jobs because I feel like I'm getting something done. It's always nice to feel useful when coming back home; my parents always have a 'Matt list' when I get back.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to go to the beach and take it easy. That is, if the weather improves. For the first time in several months, I saw rain! I must say, I miss those cool rainy days in spring and fall, not to mention snow (but that rant is best saved for another day).

I'm hoping to get some good pics out there, but I probably won't post again until I get back on the 5th or 6th. I head to Washington D.C. for a trip on the 5th and then to Boston to help Nikki with housing on the 10th. That leaves only 4 days or so after I get back to hang out in Michigan. That's fine, there's not much for me to do around here it seems. Everyone is pretty busy, either working or on vacation somewhere.

Anyways, I will do my best to put up some pics from Michigan and post another entry sometime in the next few days. We don't have internet or cell phone coverage out there so we'll see how it goes. I plan to start working on my novel also while at the cottage, so be sure to send me any stories or suggestions you have.

Time to pack for SH and then try and get some sleep (I'm still a little off b/c of timezones)...

-StM