Is that with one or two 't's?

Since I was robbed of my chance to go to Japan, my company has decided to put me onto a 2pm-midnight shift.  I know, I'm not really a happy camper about that.  However, I'm kinda being forced, since I agreed to go to Japan, so working Japan hours in the U.S. is somehow equivalent?  Oh well, it should only last for the month of August, and I'm definitely going to put in the time, because I fear I might lose part of my Eurotrip, which is NOT gonna happen!

Any who, on the advice of my mom, I decided to take a little "mini-vacation" today, a little trip away from San Jose, since I wouldn't be heading overseas.  I woke up this morning with the plan to head up to Half Moon Bay with no real plans, but first I had to drop off my bike for repairs.  I somehow bent and chipped off my large chain ring randomly while biking home Tuesday.  It still rode well to work Friday, but the gear was definitely wobbling, so I figured better take it in.  

The guy at the bike shop are real cool, so I gave him my info and he said it'd be about a week; no biggie, since I start the "night shift" this week anyways.  When it came to my name, I just said "Matt", figuring I didn't have to spell it.  I mean, yes I usually do when I go to a restaurant where there might be a shot at spelling my name wrong, but in Campbell, really?  "Is that Matt with one or two t's?" he asked.  "...Two," I replied, thinking to myself who spells it with one?  I'm sure someone does, but I've never met one yet.  I believe Robb (with two b's) at work said he knows some Mat's with one 't' back in Michigan, but I can't say that I've ever met one of these fabled Mats.  Man, they must really find my "Hi, I'm Mat" doormat a stitch!  

I shrugged it off, took my repair slip, and gunned it down the 17 onramp, blasting my music on this nice foggy morning.  I've loved the past two weeks; this cool weather has been awesome.  I know people whine about it because they can't hang out at the beach 24/7, but hey, for us valley-dwellers, it's nice to be in the 70s.  It makes it way easier to sleep, that's for sure.  Note to self: next place you live in must be cool and/or have lots of weather (i.e. rain, snow, what-have-you)

I trekked up to HMB to explore, expecting to find lots of random shops to check out.  I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed.  The area has some awesome scenery and beaches and the town is interesting, but it was a little too artsy-fartsy for me.  It kinda reminded me of Saugatuckin many ways.  There was an overabundance of art gallerys and cottage furtniture shops, with very little for me to find interest in.  Well, that and I got there before anything opened, which made the place seem like a bit of a ghost town.  However, the sun and people slowly appearance and by noon the place was bustling.

At this point, I'd like to thank Yelp.  I love you so much.  I was able to find 3 great finds:

1) Raman's Coffee and Chai - best chai EVER.  He makes his own special blend from India it was pretty friggin awesome.  I followed the rules as specified on the reviews and didn't make any substitutions.  I guess Raman is the Soup Nazi of Chai in HMB, but for good reason!  I was sad there was no internet, but it was a nice spot to chill and read my Nook.  I was feeling a little weak up until that point in the morning; I think biking 3 days a week and not eating enough to match is taking its toll.  Perhaps taking a break from biking will be a good idea.  That and eating more, which I'm cool with :)

2) Garden Deli & Cafe - homemade sandwiches with their own bread?  Give me a slice!  After polishing off my chai, I headed back into town and stopped in for a good lunch and to read some more.  I meandered into the bar of the hotel where the sandwich shop was and scarfed my sandwich.  

3) M Coffee - a great little shop where I spent my afternoon buried in my laptop.  Probably not the best thing to do on a Saturday, but hey, I was on vacation!  The coconut ice cream was delicious and my spot by the front window was great (just check out the little window nook in my FB pic).  I wish there was a shop like this in SJ...most of the one's I've been to lack personality.  Well, I'm also not a major coffee drinker, so unless they have juice, tea, or chai I'm a little out of my league.  I'll have to keep up my search.

I spent the afternoon at the coffee shop shuffling through all sorts of things.

First, let me just say that sadly, I'm getting more into Twitter and FB again (just check the millions of updates I posted today!)  I know, I'm a tech junkie, so it's kinda my thing, but I think my blog's gonna fall by the wayside.  It's funny, b/c that's what my (poorly written) final paper was on in my Popular Culture class.  Blogs  take a lot of energy and time to create, so people are turning to faster forms of communication like FB and Twitter.  Oh well dear blog, I promise I will try and keep you company.  If anything, I feel like I still need it to relay (long) stories about my life...how many words am I at so far?  And then Europe, my god, this blog will definitely come in handy!  There's still hope.  Maybe a facelift?  I've been thinking of a website redesign...that might be a while, but hopefully sometime this year lol  

Let's see, other things at the coffee shop...oh grad schools!  I'm spent the day shuffling back and forth through schools again, but I think I've finally finished my first pass at schools.  Of course there's probably 20 schools on the list, but now I feel like I can go through my list in one pass and narrow it down to second round picks. I've had a hard time finding exactly what I'm looking for...probably because for the first time in my life, I can't say I know what I want to do.  I mean, ever since I was in middle school or so I wanted to be a Computer Engineer and live in Silicon Valley.  What now?  What major? Grad school or work? Move or stay?  Man, the 20s are full of questions!  I've combed the internet for "sustainability"; believe me, if a school has even a remote mention of it, I've read about it.

I got a little flustered with the huge intake of grad school information.  And by then it was already 4:30 and the shop was closing in a half hour.  I decided to ship off to clear my head and regroup.  It seemed like the more I searched, the more schools I found to research or the more I felt I needed to re-research the schools I already picked. 

Since I was in HMB already, I decided to use this vacay as an opprotunity to check more of CA-1 off my list.  I took a short 30 mi ride up to SF, leaving only the segment from Santa Cruz to HMB to cover!  Then I'll have driven all the way from the start up north to south of Santa Maria.  I'll admit, I'm still partial to the section from Monterey to SLO, but this part has lots of great beaches and towns, so I'll make it maybe #2 or 3 along with some of the segments north of the city.  I'm sorry to say I didn't take pictures.  I don't know what it is, but some reason if I don't start taking pictures early in the day, I never feel like taking out my camera. (Note to self: you better take pics every day in Europe!)

Then I did an about face at the city and headed south.  For some reason, I ended up taking 237 to the ranch shops in Milpitas.  There I perused a Best Buy (haven't done that in a while) and stole a glance at a bunch of grad school and green job books.  I bought a book, but I logged onto Barnes and Nobles at the Borders store and bought the eBook version for cheap haha.  

Oh, I also jumped into a Sprint store after impersonating my dad on the Sprint website and bugging the web chat guys about my parent's phone account.  I've been trying to hatch a plan to get a new 4G phone like an EVO or Epic, but I can't swing losing my (if I may use my new catchphrase) badass SERO plan.  I mean paying $30/mo for unlimited everything is great.  Oh well, I've spent months contemplating it, and with my contract up and my techie sense tingling, I think I may cave when I get back from Europe.  I thought adding myself to my parents family plan might alliviate some pain, but it turns out their plan would go up $70 + a new phone + 4G, which is WAY more than my new plan.  Oh well, wishfull thinking I guess...

I ended the day with a bowl of soup at Panera to collect my grad school thoughts.  Thankfully, it all came together.  I've focused my search, and I think I can safely say I'm going to be an EE still.  The sustainable and environmental engineering options are interesting, but I'm still not sure if I feel secure enough about getting a job with those majors.  However, I still want to go to a program that has active research in sustainability and maybe even a sustainability certificate/minor.  Now I just need to sit down and widdle the list down...  I felt so relieved to have finally nailed this list down; a pushed my netbook back and stared blankly at the table in relief.  It felt good to stop staring at a screen; I do enough of that on weekdays.  

I just so happened to glance down at my receipt to see 'Mat' staring me in the face.  Come on!  I even spelled it out that time!  Oh well, to all you Mats out there, I admit defeat.  You clearly must be more prevalent than us 2 t'ers.  That or people don't know how to spell the more common version of "Matt"....nah, can't be!

But YOU guys I'm sure didn't have as relaxing as a day as me (or as complete of a grad school list) so...YEA, take that!

Now for a quick weekly update...Europe's in a month...my 1 yr work anniversary was this week...I was going to Japan...my trip got cancelled...I broke my bike...and then I found five dollars...just kidding (well, the last one anyway)

Later kids!

-StM