My Adorable Cousin

I've spent a lot of time this weekend with my Canadian cousin, David. The highlight would have to be our trip to Great America with some of my friends and coworkers where he spent many hours in line getting to know these people. He is 13 and does not fully appreciate the level of sarcasm and dry humor that my coworkers are best known for, nor does he understand that he should stop slapping a girl's wrist with all his strength when it has turned a bright shade of pink (sorry Jean). Poor Michael got the brunt of most of his attacks, but it's just too funny not to share. I do apologize ahead of time.

Here are some of my favorite exchanges:

My sister left early leaving us with an odd number of people for rides.
David: Aww, someone's going to have to sit by themselves.
Me: That's ok, some of them are used to being alone.
David: Like that one? [points to Michael]

The day after.
Me: So what do you think about my friends?
David: They're boring and have no expression.
Me: That's not a nice thing to say about my friends.
David: Well they talk like this! "Blah blah blah blah" [in Michael's usual monotone voice]
Me: So you just mean Michael? What do you think about my friends, minus Michael?
David: Oh...well they're ok.

We continue this conversation and this is basically his summary of people:

Michael: boring, expressionless, weak (I told you to stop, Michael, but you just couldn't do it eh?)
Reid: quiet, but ok because he's asian
Mike: muscular
Beah's Dan: the cool non-googler (I believe his exact quote was "at least [Dan] was there".)
Justin: creepy and perverted (Someone obviously ignored my repeated warnings to keep things PG.)

Girls, I'm sorry, but he had nothing to say about you all. He's apparently at the age where he still thinks we have cooties. But judging from most of his comments, I think it's better that we were kept out of it.

Joking aside, he really did have a great time and it wins the award of "Best Day in California" so far in his trip. Good job team.

Sacramento Slogan

This is a shout out to my brother who knows about my blog but has not read anything.

I just got back from vacation in Winnipeg, Canada with my family where we'd get these questions periodically:

Question: Where are you from?
Answer: Sacramento, CA (because it's easier than saying Roseville)
Question: Oh, what's there to do?
Answer: Um...

So besides visiting the capital and the local rodeo (Hi Matthew), there isn't that much to do. We're in a middle of the state and end up listing stuff that is "nearby" -- San Francisco, Reno, Tahoe are a couple hours away, and Yosemite is a few hours away. So, my brother came up with this slogan:

"Sacramento - Almost where you want to be"

Please note, I was joking about the rodeo.

My First Taxi Ride

I have never used a taxi in the US before and certainly never by myself. I was pretty terrified just thinking about it because it involved being alone with a stranger, having to tip, and doing it with a strict deadline (of having to get to the airport to catch my flight). My plan for that night was to drive to YouTube and take a taxi to the airport by 4AM to meet my family. This is what happened:

2:30 AM - I start driving to YouTube.

3:10 AM - I arrive and park in the parking garage. My taxi reservation is at 3:45 so I decide to call the taxi service to see if they can bump up my pick-up time. No answer.

3:30 AM - 8 attempts later with multiple numbers (thank goodness for having my laptop with me to look up the info), and still no answer.

3:45 AM - I am sitting at the curb in the dark and the street is absolutely dead.

3:55 AM - The taxi is still a no-show. Luckily, I looked up a different taxi service while I was searching for alternate numbers for the original evil taxi place. I call them, and a mean dispatcher tells me that they Youtube address I gave doesn't exist and yells at me for not knowing where I am. He will not allow me to just give him the intersection -- he needs a freakin address. It is dark and I don't see another building address in view. I start to panic because I'm already late so I look up at the street sign and see Bayhill 1200s ->. (Ya know, the arrow indicating that the buildings in the 1200s are "that way".) So I tell him "1200 Bayhill". He says ok, and I have absolutely no idea if there is actually a place with that address.

4:00 AM - I am wandering the streets with my luggage, hoping I find a building with an address that's at least somewhat close to 1200 Bayhill.

4:05 AM - Horray, it exists! I get there just in time to see a taxi circling the parking lot.

4:15 AM - I arrive at SFO and give the taxi driver a pretty hefty tip because I'm glad to be alive and somewhat on time.

...

I originally planned to give a detailed schedule of the rest of my travel day, but I'm too exhausted, so my taxi experience will have to do. The rest of the day was very annoying, but not quite as pathetic so you're not missing much. Let's just say I finally arrived at my destination at 8:30PM and I'm pooped.

On a positive note, the friendly, trusting Canadians like to leave their wireless networks unlocked, allowing me to post this blog entry. Yay Canada!

Unreliable But Cute

Long Live Life

Coldplay is on their North American Viva La Vida Tour and they came to HP Pavilion. It was awesome! We had seats right smack-dab in the middle, but waay in the back.

Didn't bring my regular camera so this is from my camera phone.

I'm a little disappointed they didn't have screens displaying close up shots of the band for the people in the back, but everything else was lovely! This was my third concert following John Mayer and Leehom Wang =P. I must say Chris Martin is not quite as engaging as the other two, as he did not make a lot of chit chat with the audience, but the music more than made up for that. I was surprisingly delighted to hear them play most of their classic big-hit songs, with The Scientist and Yellow being my favorite -- the crowd went nuts over them and made the atmosphere a lot of fun.

The stuff from their new album was also really good. It took me awhile to warm up to the songs, but I'm definitely a fan now. Favorite songs: Strawberry Swing, Lost!, Violet Hill, and Viva La Vida.

Wysz Gone Wild

For those of you who were OOO this last Thursday, Michael came to work like this:

Camping Disaster

I went backpacking/camping with my crew in Yosemite this past weekend. You can read Michael's rendition of the trip on his blog, so I won't go into a whole lot of detail in terms of time line.

Reasons why we are not as "soft" as Matthew likes to think:

• It was forecasted to be over 90 degrees (high)
• We started the hike between 1pm and 2pm, meaning we hiked during the hottest hours of the day
• Air was smoky and hazy from the Yosemite fires
• Terrain was very rocky and mostly uphill
• Distance came out to ~9.7 miles (first day) according to Reid's GPS device, including all the backtracking we did from going in the wrong direction.
• We were carrying very heavy camping backpacks
• Most of us ran out of water approximately halfway through
  

Reasons why I'm never ever doing that again:

• Almost died from exhaustion.
• Almost died from dehydration.
• Almost died from being eaten by a bear.
  

Other reasons why I did not have an awesome trip:

• Having to hike back the next day
• Needing to use a trowel to bury "waste" at least 6 inches deep
• Sleeping like sardines in a tent while being very hot and uncomfortable
• Getting 7 mosquito bites, 5 of which are on my face, 4 of which are on my forehead. I look almost as bad as Dan and you can connect the bites on my forehead to make an annoyingly nice rectangle.

What made it sorta worth it (but not really)?

• Michael offering his life savings for a Pepsi.
• Michael fashioning a pair of shorts by cutting up his jeans.