Sexy and Thrifty

Well, I'm back. It took me a week, but I'm here. I've finally settled down a little more into my apartment (Photos I know, working on that...) so I have the time to blog. My place is coming along nicely, although I still am missing artwork on the walls, some tables, lights, and etc, but it's getting there.

I never really blogged on the move, so here's the short version:

1) My dad and I packed everything into a van
2) We rushed to SJ because I took my fish too
3) We unpacked and killed ourselves moving the couch
4) Done.

That really doesn't give that whole move justice, but it's all I got. I had a fun time hanging out with everyone at Kristen's grad party that weekend too. Here friend Pete was in from England; he's a pretty cool guy, even if he did spray me with water like 10 times that day.

In the working world, my first week was a little slow and uneventful, but that's pretty standard. I didn't get my laptop until Friday, so I really couldn't do much work until I got that. I'm all ready for this week, I have a mentor and project assigned to me. Now comes the next phase: reading over all the specs and code and trying to figure out what it all means. It always seems daunting at first, but after going through a few internships and holding my own, I think I'll be fine with it.

Now to this weekend and the title...what the hell am I talking about? On Friday, Kristen and Ursula both paid me a visit (not together). Kristen came up for the day to get her housing situ in Palo Alto settled for September and Ursula was home for the weekend from Davis. We went out to Elephant Bar Friday night and had a good dinner.

As a side rant, I really don't like how as of last month, ALL restaurants now have all the nutritional info for every food item on the menu listed. I know, I have nothing to worry about, but when you stick in 10 pages of that stuff in the back of my menu, I'm going to accidentally flip through it. And if I see that my meal is 1400 calories and 67 grams of fat, I'll still feel really bad about eating it. I swear from now on, any foods I like already, I'm going to refuse looking at the facts on them. I mean, I've survived a healthy life so far on those things, why should this change my eating habits?

Ok...back to being sexy and thrifty...so we all ate and hung out for a bit on Friday night. On the way back to my place, Kristen INSISTED that we stop and get my housewarming gift. For me that was Nutella and white bread. Apparently I just HAD to try it. I'll admit though, it is pretty good, especially with bananas. (there Kristen, I said it, okay?) Kristen went home after and then Ursula and I headed downtown to check out the SJ nightlife. I gotta say, for how dead the place looks during the day sometimes, it was really hopping. There's a lot of clubs, lounges, and bars all over 1st and 3rd. We decided to hit one on Saturday.

Saturday...man that was a planner's dream. We got SO much done. Starting at 9 a.m., the Comcast guy showed up. AWESOME. My new HD DVR, 2303480923480 channels, and 16 meg internet is a great new addition to this apartment. Of course the guy took a while to set it up, and even punched a hole through my wall, but it's done.

Next was the flea market over on the east side of town. Man, that place was huge. I've never seen so much random stuff. I drove by it two years ago on my bike, but I never knew it was so vast. They had the most random stuff. I was hoping to find some furniture, but it was all pretty expensive still and I had no way to get it home. Ursula and I got a kick out of the things that looked like extra padding for your butt. Like I said, strange things lol.

The title is from the flea market. I was telling Ursula that I'd be attracted to any cute girl who I met shopping her since they'd be "sexy and thrifty". That's my type right there, I said it. Actually, it's a little more in-depth than that, but those would be 2 qualities I could go for haha.

After a few hours at the flea market2 we stopped at Togos to grab a sandwich. This was our only stop for the day. Of course we happened to see the nutritional info on the food we ordered, but I already bought my combo and ate half of it, so tough luck Matt.

Then we headed over to Valley Fair and a few other malls for clothes and shoes for me. I made the mistake of telling Ursula I needed some new stuff...I had to go now. I found a couple of new shirts and shoes. I hunted the world for some dark brown pants, but that wasn't happening. I was very impressed by Ursula's display of restraint. She barely bought anything at the mall, and NO SHOES. Wow. I even walked through the boots and high heels, but she held herself from buying any more shoes. Ursula, I gotta say, you have way too many shoes haha.

Okay, so that was another bunch of hours. Now we're tired from walking around all day. We headed back to my place to just eat something small there before hitting the club.

We got all dressed up (I wish we had a picture, we looked cute lol) to head out to SJ. Of course we were already tired of walking, and now we headed out to dance. On top of it, Ursula wore her cute high heels. In the end, I had to support her while she limped back to the car after, but that's how it goes I guess. The club was pretty nice; we just missed paying the $20 cover and drinks were pretty good. The music mix was good, but we kinda got too close to the speakers. I still don't think my hearing is back 100%. We looked at some of the lounges too, but I felt like dancing in a club. The lounges seemed less crowded; they're more for hanging out with friends and grabbing some drinks. You can dance, but it just didn't see like the venue I was looking for that night. Oh, and there were quite a few creepers and the place we went. I guess that's bound to happen in any big city you go to. We headed back home a little early because my feet were dead tired and Ursula's heels were getting to her. We both ended up passing out at my place.

Whew...so Sunday was a little more chillax. We got up late (for us that's 9:30-10ish) and headed back to Ursula's home in Fremont. We checked out the Fremont Air and Wine Festival, which was pretty cool. More walking of course. That was my third art fair in less than a month. Ursula found all sorts of stuff to buy. Me on the other hand, I need bigger art/stuff to fill my vaulted walls, so an art fair is the best place to get a deal on large art. I think I'll stick to posters for the big walls. I did find one cool pic of the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, check it out:



Now, I'm on a mission to find it's Mackinac Bridge counterpart, which I saw at the South Haven art fair. I did a lot of research today, but so far no luck. Here's one that's close:



I emailed Mike, the guy who wrote the book above to see if he can help me out.

After the art fair, I headed home while Ursula went home and then back to Davis. I just loafed around at home, cleaned up some random files, ate, etc...

I'm tired, and I have work tomorrow. I'll keep you updated on the apartment progress. And YES, I'll get pictures up soon I promise!


-StM