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Promises to be a long update
Aug. 9th, 2006 03:18 pmFriday: Last day of work at NVIDIA. I packed up everything I needed for the weekend (easy, since I'd been pretty much done packing up my life anyway) and walked to work with my suitcase and laptop bag, ready to head straight for the airport. Then I realized two things: I still had my knife attached to my belt, and NVIDIA was about to give me a laptop backpack. So, it suddenly became necessary to borrow a bike and speed home again, to deliver the less-ergonomic bag and knife, then back to work. Flight back was the easiest I've ever seen - no lines at checkin, no line at security. Met Frances in Denver and went home, and pretty much straight to sleep.
Saturday: Nate's wedding. The ceremony itself was short, sweet, and so personalized they even had a friend of theirs officiating. Given the number of long waits around it, and the scattered nature of the reception, though, it could have probably done with more planning. The rain was even polite enough to wait until well after to start, as Frances and I sat around doing nothing useful.
Sunday: Airport day from hell. Frances' suitcase breaks a zipper as she tries to repack it to get under weight limit; the first security line we see is wrapped all the way around the baggage claims and we have to go use the secret security line over the bridge; security there makes me take off my rope sandals (!!); baggage claim in LA takes over an hour. But, from there, napping and tasty food, and finally leaving LA at 11 to get into Santa Clara at 5 the next morning... still before dawn.
Monday: Loading the car, and vague napping. Figured out how to get my bike apart and into a box, and saw Frances off for Chico before turning my wheels west at about 7. With the help of Jingo, and a couple naps at rest stops in Nevada, I made it into SLC by 11 the next morning.
Tuesday: Unloading the car, again with the napping. (Seems to be a theme of the weekend.) Plugged in a phone only to discover no dial tone, and calling Qwest confirmed that sinking feeling of dread - they'd never taken my order off hold, and even took ten minutes just to find it. If the representative could get his supervisor to expedite it, it'd still take all week; if not, it'd be ready by Monday. An evening trek to find a Target, for the purposes of buying a shower curtain so I could at least sleep clean, turned up nothing but a KMart twenty minutes from closing. I got the curtain, but forgot the rings, go me. Thus, a shower turned into a bath.
Today: Voyage into the city. My apartment is north of downtown, and the U is east of downtown, and both routes are primarily uphill, so I'll need a new way of internally determining direction. I made a stop at the library for wireless (squinting at my dead screen half the time), checked email and what LJ I could, then took public transit (herefater referred to as TRAX) up to the U. A bit of wandering landed me at the school of computing, and the person I was originally supposed to pick up account information was from was gone, so I went to get my ID card. (The picture turned out surprisingly good.) Coming back to Computing, turned out I had to pick up account stuff from the department secretary, so I got payroll stuff (mostly) filled out, account information, and my card set up to let me into important places. While getting acquainted with the Linux box on which I'm typing this entry, TA assignments were sent out: I'll be helping froshmores in Introduction to Programming in C. According to the syllabus, this is intended for non-majors, which probably sucks for me ... expect to hear much ranting about the class (and how it's inferior to 70) and the students (and where exactly they can shove their questions). Once I leave here, it's off to load up on stuff to make an apartment livable ... not including furniture ... and then wondering just how I'm going to deal with getting furniture into a third-floor apartment via station wagon.
Other random musings:
Living here will definitely get me in shape, even given the free public transit for U students.
The city library (Library of the Year, 2006, as they so loudly proclaim) is so family-friendly they have a Breastfeeding Cafe, complete with table of information on (I assume) the benefits of nursing your children.
It's hard to remember to assume nothing about people I meet here, when I have to walk by the LDS Convention Center and right by Temple Square to get to TRAX.
Google Maps is not the best way to find directions around here, since it has no concept of hills. Trying to find the apartment complex the first time (having not left the car since Nevada), I had to take my car, fully loaded, up one block of steep hill.
click
Saturday: Nate's wedding. The ceremony itself was short, sweet, and so personalized they even had a friend of theirs officiating. Given the number of long waits around it, and the scattered nature of the reception, though, it could have probably done with more planning. The rain was even polite enough to wait until well after to start, as Frances and I sat around doing nothing useful.
Sunday: Airport day from hell. Frances' suitcase breaks a zipper as she tries to repack it to get under weight limit; the first security line we see is wrapped all the way around the baggage claims and we have to go use the secret security line over the bridge; security there makes me take off my rope sandals (!!); baggage claim in LA takes over an hour. But, from there, napping and tasty food, and finally leaving LA at 11 to get into Santa Clara at 5 the next morning... still before dawn.
Monday: Loading the car, and vague napping. Figured out how to get my bike apart and into a box, and saw Frances off for Chico before turning my wheels west at about 7. With the help of Jingo, and a couple naps at rest stops in Nevada, I made it into SLC by 11 the next morning.
Tuesday: Unloading the car, again with the napping. (Seems to be a theme of the weekend.) Plugged in a phone only to discover no dial tone, and calling Qwest confirmed that sinking feeling of dread - they'd never taken my order off hold, and even took ten minutes just to find it. If the representative could get his supervisor to expedite it, it'd still take all week; if not, it'd be ready by Monday. An evening trek to find a Target, for the purposes of buying a shower curtain so I could at least sleep clean, turned up nothing but a KMart twenty minutes from closing. I got the curtain, but forgot the rings, go me. Thus, a shower turned into a bath.
Today: Voyage into the city. My apartment is north of downtown, and the U is east of downtown, and both routes are primarily uphill, so I'll need a new way of internally determining direction. I made a stop at the library for wireless (squinting at my dead screen half the time), checked email and what LJ I could, then took public transit (herefater referred to as TRAX) up to the U. A bit of wandering landed me at the school of computing, and the person I was originally supposed to pick up account information was from was gone, so I went to get my ID card. (The picture turned out surprisingly good.) Coming back to Computing, turned out I had to pick up account stuff from the department secretary, so I got payroll stuff (mostly) filled out, account information, and my card set up to let me into important places. While getting acquainted with the Linux box on which I'm typing this entry, TA assignments were sent out: I'll be helping froshmores in Introduction to Programming in C. According to the syllabus, this is intended for non-majors, which probably sucks for me ... expect to hear much ranting about the class (and how it's inferior to 70) and the students (and where exactly they can shove their questions). Once I leave here, it's off to load up on stuff to make an apartment livable ... not including furniture ... and then wondering just how I'm going to deal with getting furniture into a third-floor apartment via station wagon.
Other random musings:
Living here will definitely get me in shape, even given the free public transit for U students.
The city library (Library of the Year, 2006, as they so loudly proclaim) is so family-friendly they have a Breastfeeding Cafe, complete with table of information on (I assume) the benefits of nursing your children.
It's hard to remember to assume nothing about people I meet here, when I have to walk by the LDS Convention Center and right by Temple Square to get to TRAX.
Google Maps is not the best way to find directions around here, since it has no concept of hills. Trying to find the apartment complex the first time (having not left the car since Nevada), I had to take my car, fully loaded, up one block of steep hill.
click
