Waiting ...

So, I have been here (San Jose, CA) going on five days now and I feel like I really haven't accomplished much. Unfortunately, there is only so much I can do right now since none of my things are here from Florida yet. My car is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow sometime and my furniture and clothes are scheduled to be delivered sometime around the middle of next week. A lot of the things I was planning on doing are dependent on my having a car, so at least I will be getting that taken care of tomorrow.

I am still adjusting to life out here. The weather is making things easier, as it usually is about in the mid-80's during the day and gets down to the 60's during the evenings. Once my car comes in, I can then start learning where everything is.

I hope to have more exciting things to report in the near future. Might also have some pictures up soon, too.

Part of this was written on Monday, June 25.

So, I am currently half-way to San Jose, CA, on a plane probably somewhere between 35,000 - 40,000 feet above the ground. The flight out of Tampa to Houston was pretty good. It was raining in Houston which caused some turbulence during landing but nothing that bad in my opinion. The flight to San Jose has gone pretty smooth as well.

Over the last five days or so, I have been trying to spend time with my family and many of my close friends. I know I will be seeing them again, but still I am moving away so it won't be as easy as calling them up and meeting them out for dinner. Last Thursday I met JerseyStrangler and his gf Jill at Samurai Blue, a local sushi restaurant. We had a nice dinner there for an hour and just talked and had a good time. The next evening, my parents treated me to dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. My dad loves the food there, so it was partially a night for him as well. The food was exquisite as always, and my parents and I enjoyed the evening. Saturday was relatively quiet. I saw Rotfiend, who is joining X as a new tenant in my house in Tampa. He moved his furniture in to the house while I had been doing some last minute cleaning. The real story happened on Sunday.

Yesterday, I gathered with many of my close friends as they threw me a going-away party. In total, I think there were eleven of us there plus three children. So fourteen total, and we spent the afternoon and early evening hanging out, catching up, cooking out (mmmmm … hamburgers … ); just really enjoying the company of friends. I tried my best to split my time amongst everyone, but I am not sure how well I did. I also tried my best to keep my emotions in check. No one there would have said anything (well, I'm sure I would have gotten some good ribbing from KS-1 and Badstar), but it was a really emotional decision for me to leave my home and friends. I may not see any of them for months, and that really shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I am going to miss each and every one of them. So it was hard to keep myself in check last night. Some people might wonder why I bothered, but I come from the old-school, "Men don't cry", way of thinking. In fact the last time I admit to crying was on 09/11/2001. Now, if I say it was hard to keep everything in check at the party, it was tenfold worse last night and this morning when I left my parents. I love my parents dearly, and hope to make them proud with all that I do. It was very difficult for me to leave them. Even now, at times when I think about them and all they have done for me it chokes me up a bit. They have and continue to give me such wonderful support.

Wow ... I think I need to move on to a happier topic for myself. At the party Sunday night, I got a wonderful gift that all my friends contributed in. It was a photo album containing pictures of us all at various times ranging from high school to a couple of weeks ago. It was wonderfully done, and I am very proud to have been given it as a gift. My parents also gave me something right before I left. It is a family heirloom in my eyes. A little bag that was given to him by his mother (my grandmother) that is supposed to bring you good luck and fortune. I will definitely make sure to keep both of these presents with me, always.

Birthday Celebration and Father's Day

Two weekends ago, I traveled up to Columbus, OH, with my parents to visit my sister and her family. My niece was turning six years old so we traveled up to celebrate her birthday and Father's Day. Despite being the home base for Ohio State University, Columbus is a gorgeous place and around this time of year the temperature is wonderful, especially for those of us used to the heat and humidity in Florida. The trip was short but sweet. The entire family spent three, good-quality days together and both my niece and nephew really enjoyed seeing their uncle and grandparents. Their uncle and grandparents enjoyed seeing them as well. I always look forward to these trips because it is rare for all of us to be together, especially now that I am moving out.

One unrelated note regarding the trip though. Parked out in front of the hotel we were staying at was a Ford GT. I am not that knowledgeable about cars, but I do admire performance machines when I see them and the Ford GT is no slouch in my eyes. I wasn't too keen with the way it was painted, but in talking to people with more knowledge than I it seems that the car was painted to look like the GTs of old. That's all well and good, but I just didn't like the paint job at all. Even if it was orange & blue (being a UF grad I bleed those colors, but not in these tints)!

California knows how to party

... or at least that is what I am told. But in a few days I am going to find out if that is true or not. On Monday, June 25th, I will be flying out of Tampa and relocating to San Jose, California.

Kinda big news for me, actually. I have spoken to close friends about my desire to work out in Silicon Valley for a long time now, but I always thought I would have to assure myself of a job before moving out to that area of the country. Everyone likes to scare you about how expensive California is, and how difficult it can be to get IT work out there. I had been applying to jobs from home in Tampa, but never really got any solid leads other than the ones that a friend of mine could set up for me. But then I would just screw it up in the interview by being honest. Anyway, although I was doing well in my current job about a year ago I began to feel like my skills and my very being had grown stagnant. And to be honest, I just was not interested in opportunities here in Florida. I had almost gotten a job out in California back about seven years ago, right when I was fresh out of college, but I ended up staying and working for a company in Florida. I think that all this time I have had a little voice in the back of my mind whispering about what could have been. So, I guess you could say wanderlust hit me.

So, I decided I wanted to move out to California, job or no job. But then I needed to make sure I had a place to live. I'll be damned if I make a move like this and still have to worry about finding a job and a residence when I get there. So, I started talking to an old friend of mine who has been living out in San Jose the last eight years. He has tried to convince me to move out there a few times, so I figured I would call him up and see if he knew of anyone who was looking for a roommate around summertime. Our conversation ended with him offering me a place to live in his house at an incredible rate. I took him up on his offer and basically told him to hold the room for me, I am on my way.

That was about 8 months ago. Things went slower than I anticipated, and quite frankly slower than I wanted. But a move like this takes time, and I also decided that I was not going to sell my house and instead I would rent it out. I already had one tenant, X, who has lived here for the last four years. So I figured I would get one more renter. To make a long story short, the older brother of the person I know out in San Jose lives here in Tampa and needed a place to stay. So, I offered to rent out my bedroom to him (I actually have been friends with the entire family for quite some time, so this worked out real well.) and he accepted. I gave two weeks notice to my employer back about three weeks ago and my last day at work was last Thursday. I will miss everyone there, and although I intend to keep in touch I doubt I'll have any days at work that I had with the group of people I just left.

This week is moving week. My car was picked up by auto transport yesterday and the estimated time it will be delivered to me in San Jose is around June 28. The furniture I am taking from my house is being picked up today. That will leave me with some cleaning to do towards the end of this week, a bunch of good-byes, and then a plane ride out to San Jose next Monday.

For those few friends of mine who actually read this little blog, I will try my best to update it a lot more than I ever did in the past. My goal is to let it become your window into my world out there in California. Anyone still reading this, if you notice me slacking send me a swift kick in the ass to write an update.