Oh, it's SO good to be back in San Francisco for the weekend. Merced wore the group pretty thin this week. Most of coworkers cope with the boredom and the complete lack of resources by drinking to escape, but I hate drinking during the work week (I don't even like staying up too late during the work week) so I hang out without participating. A new perk though: The R. hands out free vouchers to the Merced Sports Centers, so one of my coworkers and I have been taking advantage of both the feelessness and sheer boredom. They have a lap pool (yes!) and a hot tub, and great elliptical machines, weight rooms, even tennis courts -- and the man who runs the tennis program there has no problem loaning tennis rackets to us for free. (M. and I tried hitting some balls around, but I am WAY out of practice.) The other boredom buster is that I've started reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything," which is a pretty darn good History-Lite lesson about the beginning of the world. (Thank you David & Alexandra for the Bryson books -- great Christmas presents!) For example, did you know that if you rested the entire planet Pluto on North America, it would hardly cover the lower 48 states? Yeah, it's REALLY small.

Lexi is here for the weekend to surprise Leslie on her Birthday. It was a wonderful surprise for me, too, since she decided on Thursday to fly down Friday! Leslie, now 27y.o., was so shocked and touched that she wept. Then we all went out to sing Karaoke -- my first time. 5 of us got up and sang "I want it that way" (Backstreet Boys) and later Nikki and I got up and sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which is great because it really gets the audience going. The bar we went to was in the Marina and unfortunately filled up quite a lot, so we didn't get to go up as often as we liked, but it was serious fun. This morning James, Lexi, Leslie and I went out to Chinatown for Dim Sum -- delicious. Chinatown is really a world unto itself, and I intend to take Mom, Steve, and 2-Dad on their respective visits, because it's a key experience in San Francisco.

I go through phases of being happy, comfortable and secure here and being jittery, anxious and filled with wanderlust. Right now I'm in the former phase and it's lovely. Here's to sunshine, hills, and Boba tea. (~_-)

The Ramada is AMAZING. The softest, highest beds I have EVER experienced in my hotel history. Merced is Merced but the Ramada is the crown jewel of the central valley as far as we're concerned.

Aaaaaaaaaah, luxury.

So we're going back to the Ramada, thank goodness. Merced smells like manure 24 hours a day and is usally gray 24 hours a day, but for some reason it just didn't seem that bad at the Ramada. It is, literally, on the other side of the train tracks from the Holiday Inn Express. Admittedly, there is no hot tub at the Ram. but I'd trade it all for a little sleeping security!

Otherwise, things are going well. James and Leslie are coaching a team of 15 y.o. girls and have their first tournament in Sacramento today, so I have a rare weekend of nothing to do, which I am looking forward to. The consulting firm I'm temping for hosted a happy hour at an SF bar last night so I got to spend time with my coworkers, both old and new. The new ones have grown on me a lot -- we had a great time last week -- but boy was it good to rehash all the old inside jokes with the old ones too! It was great fun and I'm excited to know all these people.

Happy Chinese New Year!! If you have any minor irritating things going on in your life in the past year that you've always meant to change or if you just need to clean house a bit, now's the time to do it to get off on the right foot for the year of the Monkey.

We figured out the mystery of the guy last night -- turns out he's neither a psycho serial murderer nor a crackhead who misses his ghost dog -- apparently (after he showed up again last night, banged on all the doors at the end of our hall again, and Adrianne called the front desk, and they called her back) his coworker lives in a room 2 doors down from ours and he couldn't remember which one. So he tried them all. At 5am in the morning. But he's not a psycho, so don't worry.

Enjoying a bit of rare Merced sunshine today...

So this switching hotel business ain't so hot. I have yet to test out the pool but the neighborhood is sketchy enough (as is the 24 hour overcastness) that I'm not so excited to try it...it's not even lap-size either. This morning at 5:15 I was awoken by a man calling out several names -- John John, Mikey, Mr. (L name that I can't really recall) and banging on an entire section of the 2nd floor doors. (This is one of those hotels where you enter your room from an outside walkway; there are no interior halls.) This included mine, both in his first and second sweep, and it was pretty nerve-wracking, because whomever this guy was looking for certainly didn't pop his head out (if he existed at all) and so his second sweep involved swearing and declaring how 'furious' he was. Yipes. By 5:30, when his voice faded and finally disappeared, I was wide awake and timidly watching Iowa caucus results.

All votes are to return to the Ramada next week. (~_-) This is not yet confirmed but the alternative is insufferable...

Happy MLK Jr. Day, belatedly. I spent my long weekend watching movies (Calendar Girls and Along Came Polly -- both pleasant enough), ice-skating, and catching up on Buffy Season 5 with Leslie.

Hi guys,
I've been in Merced for a couple days now and things are going well. Merced is a wasteland of strip mall and foggy 24 hours a day, which is a little tough on the spirit, but we're staying in a pretty fancy-pants Ramada and my new teammates (3 guys and a girl) are pretty cool. They're not nearly as goofy as my old ones, but there's a pervasive dry wit that I am quite enjoying. The pool at the Ramada is not heated, alas, though they have free vouchers to the gym which has a pool et al., and we might change hotels next week anyway, to a different one with heated pool, sauna, and hot tub, along with micro-fridges, which this group defines as a necessity, as they cut food costs down significantly. The so-called bowling alley/arcade next to the Ramada that I mentioned to a few of you is boarded up, by the way; the web site lies, how tacky. ;)

The project is slated to go until the end of March! I'm sure that will shorten as time goes by, especially since they're intending to send in 6 more people once they get done with another project, but it's nice to know my employment will continue for at least another 1.5 months.

To those of you suffering from a cold east coast winter, know that I am thinking warm thoughts of you, and go throw a snowball for me...I don't miss negative chill factors, but snow is fun.

We finished Auburn on Wednesday and moved back to Hayward, only to find out that they're splitting us up because the Yosemite district is as yet untouched and needs a lot of work. So I'll be leaving for Merced on Wednesday. I chose to do so because the money (per diems + travel time) will be a lot better and it should last longer than Hayward, but boy am I tired of traveling. Hopefully we'll be at a hotel with a (heated) pool, though...getting to swim for 3 more days in Auburn was wonderful. Swimming is excellent post-work exercise, because it feels relaxing, and thus one can fool one's tired body into a work out. An ancient Stairmaster or worse still, a treadmill, just can't play that kind of trick!

All that nonsense about being odd and nervous was indeed nonsense now that I am here. Auburn is a warm armchair by someone else's fire. It is inexcusably escapist; the stepford wife of locations, somehow. There is so much to revisit, and I am excited, cash flow or no. The exhaustion is simply based in the traveling part, since I've been doing a lot lately; but the place itself is a third or fourth home by now.

I received word this weekend that we're going back to Auburn this week to do follow up stuff. This doesn't really change much for all of you, who can still call and reach me through the magic of cell phones, but it's a very odd feeling -- a sense of premature exhaustion, and a kind of remorse to be leaving the city again, just as I was getting in to it. This last week has been suffused with the thrill of constant plans, staying up late with the help of all the 24 hour food places, driving across the bay, friends coming and going...and suddenly all the people with whom I re-bonded I have to leave again, and the well-worn suitcase that I thought I was putting aside indefinitely is now being tugged out again. Only for a week, I know, can the melodrama. I guess it's kinda like that first time you go back to visit high school after you graduate -- it's something you intentionally put behind you, having found it both boring and wonderful, and now you're going back...

Anyway, today a bunch of us went to see Big Fish -- go see it go see it go see it. It's whimsical and simple and sweet, it deals with itself nicely if not neatly, it's dessert for the eyes, and also enormously comforting on the subject of death. Trust me, you won't be let down.

My new year's was spent keeping my friend company at the restaurant he works at and thereby gaining a 4 course meal with Chad at my side. It was a not unclassy affair and very enjoyable.

Looking back on it, the high point of the year was probably my road trip -- a celebratory, adventurous, exciting good time. The low point was probably my car accident. As the new year begins, I feel a real sense of accomplishment. Slowly but surely, it's my own feet that are doing the walking beneath me. A close friend expressed admiration to me today that I had actually managed to move to San Francisco from Connecticut, and seem to be fitting in here fairly well. This view surprised me, because I am still unsure of my niche here; but to know that, on a larger scale, I'm finding a general 'place' here, is gratifying. I hope this coming year, whatever its forseeable challenges and joys, will bring further success.

Happy New Year everyone!