Baby We Were Born to Run

I haven't written in a few weeks, but I have an excuse: all of that adult-type crap that absolutely no one likes doing that I've put off for months and finally figured I should get done. You know what I'm talking about. The things that drive us to drink, which is the only really awesome thing you can do as an adult. That and hookers. Those are fun things. The things I've been doing? Not fun things. 

Here's the short list:

1. Bills

They keep coming. Every month. Bills are worse than periods. Chocolate cures one. HANDING OVER ALL OF YOUR MONEY cures the other. 

2. Federal Taxes

Apparently the 4 months I spent contract-teaching for KSU counted as a second job, so being a productive young person RAPED MY WALLET. 

3. State Taxes

No, I didn't film a motion picture in the state of Ohio. But there is a YouTube video of me dancing on a table at a bar. Can I have a deduction anyway?

4. Local Taxes

Which I totally didn't completely forget about and do in a 20 minute frenzy on the bus on the way to work...

5. DMV - Driver's License

Is it legal to smoke in a car with a child in it if the windows are down?  Because obviously, knowing the answer to this question will prevent someone from splattering my brains all over the freeway. 

6. DMV - Registration

Part #2. Because the first time I went, I assumed that me being me and having my passport was enough. But apparently I need to have my own signature notarized. Right...

7. DMV - SMOG Testing

CA equivalent of E-check. Inexplicably, the shop I went to raised turtles in a plastic tub in the hallway. 

8. Auto Insurance

"Can you send us your college transcript so we can verify a minimum 3.0 GPA while you were in school?"

9. Picking a Doctor

And yes, I think I found the only practitioner in the state of California that did residency at the Cleveland Clinic.

10. Stock

I got in contact with my brokerage firm and asked a couple questions about my plan, vesting, etc. I was, in turn sent a 60 page book about my stock. I don't understand any of this crap. 

11. 401K

Apparently, it's unheard of for a young person to be interested in designing their own investment strategy and I should just click a little box and let that box click manage my money. After the hours of this, I drank wine. I guess I should save my money now for when I'm too old to have any cool interests (I tease, I know there are plenty of interesting seniors). 



And essentially, throughout that mix, things stayed the same. I worked 5 days a week, I worked out a lot. I had two visits: one briefly from a family friend (it felt strangely comforting to have a dad around, even if it wasn't my own dad), and one weekend visit from a friend that was spending the week in LA. 

I did have a few adventures. I went olive oil tasting up near Sonoma...

And checking out some of the local shops...

Visiting a really great local bar with weird fresh sausages for a friend's birthday...

And taking a pretty delightful self-portrait with his dog...

Followed by a visit to the local whacky donut shop...

And I tried all kinds of fresh lychee, which is the closest thing possible to eating an eyeball...

And my most recent adventure was a trip to Half Moon Bay...

 

Where we stumbled upon a shipwreck...

And looted pure irony from the wreckage...

But in general, things are falling into patterns. I don't need to use a GPS to get to my office, my favorite bar, or Rachel/Dave's apartment anymore. And I have a small handful of people that want to do things with me on weekend that (and here's the shocker) I think are good humans!

Here's a picture of two of my girl-pals from our bike ride this evening. We're a Jew, a black chick, and an Asian girl, so when we hang out it looks like a Benetton ad. 

Well, that's all for now. Sunsets here are beautiful, I caught this one from the bus ride home. 

A Day In The Life

A lot of people have been asking me, 'What's a normal day like for you now?'. I get it. New place. New job. There's a lot of curiosity about all things Googley. 

So here's the basic rundown. 

7:00AM - The alarm goes off. I hate the world. 

7:03AM - I really have to get up? Are you kidding me?

7:05AM - FINE!! I get up, turn off the alarm, make the bed, wash up, and get dressed. I've had an interesting history with company dress codes. They've gotten progressively more relaxed. 

Cleveland Clinic: Close toed shoes, no jeans, business casual, sometimes I wore tights
Strong Memorial: Lab gear
Explorys: If you can get served at a 7/11 in it, you can wear it to work
Google: Wear Something.

Certain areas are higher-security on campus, and I've heard rumors that it's not because they're designing something cool or super-secret. It's because they don't wear clothes on those floors. I've personally considered things like dress up Friday (so I have an excuse to wear heels or business attire), dress down Friday (yoga pants and PJs), or costume Wednesdays (if you work somewhere where no one will consider it inappropriate to wear a banana suit to work, at one point, you kind of want to take advantage). 

7:55AM - Make a cup of coffee in a to-go mug, grab my backpack, keys, ID badge, and walk across the street to wait for the bus. 

8:02-8:40AM - Ride the bus to work! The buses are comfy and cup-holdered and WiFi connected, so I can start being productive on the ride in. I know a few people on my bus route that I can sit with and count on for decent conversation, my favorite being Tommy, the 6'6" 300 lb Norwegian programmer/board-game fanatic. I met him and his wife for lunch once and learned that his coworkers call him Viking. Rad. 

8:40-8:50AM - Breakfast! Although a traditional California breakfast is comprised of an avocado and a glass of red, I've been sticking with things like fruit, yogurt, and rolled-oats oatmeal (all available in the kitchen in my building). There are 2 places near my building that serve full breakfast, both have steel-cut oatmeal and bagels & lox... one is more continental style, and then one has more experimental breakfast items (bok choy omelets and red-pepper quinoa salad weren't previous breakfast options I've explored). All good. 

The cherry blossoms have started to bloom around campus, it's gorgeous.

8:50AM-12PM - Be productive! Meetings, tools, and work. 

The buildings each have a different theme. My building is winery themed, and the entrance is cool as hell. 

12-1PM - MWF are lunch times with teammates or friends on campus at one of Google's 27 varying cafes (They have Latin-themed, gluten-free, Japanese, NY deli-style... pretty much everything. TR lunchtime is spent at a Yoga class followed by Pho or salad to-go. 

1-3PM - More productivity!

3PM - Coffee and snack break! Usually I raid the fridge for weird fruits (pictured: kumquats, baby kiwi and strawberries). The barista in my building is very cool, and she likes to make me latte-art. I've gotten several pretty rad lessons on fancy-coffee making. So if anyone wants to visit, I can make you one hell of a latte.

To get around on campus, we take some silly-looking bikes. Because my building doesn't have a gym or a cafeteria in it, I bike about to get wherever. 

These are the party bikes. On Fridays, sometime we race them. 

3-5/6pm - Yet even more productivity! Followed by gym time. I work out. 

M: Google boot-camp. An overly-energetic female barks orders at you. I learned I'm good at hand-stand push-ups.
T: Going for a run around campus (there's a lot of security, and the campus is near Shoreline park, which means a lot of beautiful mountains and beach in the background).
W: Bollywood class! Sandie comes with and we're really awkward together. I don't like it, but it's a great workout.
R: (on Thursdays, I get my free dinner take-out, and work out at my apartment complex.) Stair running! I don't care how much time you spend on exercise equipment, moving yourself up and down 10 flights of stairs beats the crap out of your treadmill. Stair-climbing strength-trains the biggest muscle groups in your body and gives you a great cardio boost.
F: Either kickboxing or Zumba with Laurin, Sandie, and Nikija. 

Then sometimes we go bowling while we wait for our favorite place to start serving dinner. 

6:30/7:30pm - Free dinner! Either it's with whomever I worked out with, sometimes I meet up with a friend, or I get dinner to-go and eat on the bus or at home. Food quality is great, all organic, usually local, and I typically have a lot of options for seafood, fish, proteins, veggies, and desserts. I learned pretty recently that you can put extra dessert in a to-go container and then have a fridge stocked with yummy things. 

7:30/8pm - Bus home!

Then I have the evening to do with as I please! I can do adult things (paying bills and organizing shit), I can practice, I can video-chat with friends, I can write, or I can go out and do things. Lately, I've been going out a lot with a guy that I met post-horrible-blind-date. The San Jose Film Festival is currently going on, so we've been spending a lot of time seeing awesome independent or foreign movies and getting coffee or drinks and walking around the city. 

Well, I'm off to volunteer to help save a local river from... I dunno. California hippie shit. Possibly followed by fro-yo.

Actually, definitely followed by fro-yo. If I add fruit and dark chocolate chips, it's a balanced dinner, right?