It's a small world

This past weekend in Texas was one of those "you can't make this stuff up". So I ended up in Texas this weekend because of a wedding. The wedding was on Sunday in Houston, so I decided to fly in to Austin on Friday and drive down to Houston on Saturday. Friday evening ended up at the Belmont for a friend of a friend's graduation party. As it turned out, some people who had just spent two weeks together in Italy showed up without realizing each other would be there. Later on, someone I know who lives in San Jose who also happened to be in town for a different wedding showed up because of a friend of a friend. Now that was trippy because what are the chances of all the bars/clubs in Austin?

Now in Houston, as it turned out someone else I knew was a bridesmaid at this wedding, which was a total surprise for me and her since the connection was between Judy and the bride. What are the chances of that?

It truly is a small world after all.

Local living

Talking with people the past couple of months, I've come to realize that because of all the traveling I do, and the way I am about directions/maps/etc, I am basically a local in several cities where I never have formally lived in. Here in LA, I have been approached three times now while at a stop light and people asking for directions. Two of the three times, I actually knew where they needed to go. In LA, I have been here twice, once in 2003 for about eight months, and now in 2007-2008 for about a year. Condensing it down, it really means I have been living here for around a full year. Compared to most other LA locals, I know a lot more about their own city than they do. Of course, it helps when my projects are in completely different areas of LA (Burbank/Pasadena and El Segundo/Long Beach), but even beyond that I am familiar with Orange County, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Monterey Park, and other areas.

Its kinda amazing, and a little sad too that I can still remember how to navigate in most of the cities that I have had projects in. Or even cities that I have visited but not worked in, like NYC.

Officially I have lived in these cities:
Salt Lake City, UT 1978-1980
Dallas, TX 1980-1982
Phoenix, AZ 1982-1984
Austin, TX 1984-2000
Dallas, TX 2001-2003
Austin, TX 2003-2004
Dallas, TX 2004-2005
Bay Area, CA 2005-present

I have worked in these cities:
Cincinnati, OH 1998
Colorado Springs, CO 1999
Austin, TX 1999
Chicago, IL 2000
Tampa, FL 2000
Dallas, TX 2001
Nashville, TN 2002
Detroit, MI 2003
Los Angeles, CA 2003
Minneapolis, MN 2004
Philadelphia, PA 2004
Denver, CO 2004
Baltimore, MD 2004
Palisades, NY 2004
Tucson, AZ 2005
Phoenix, AZ 2005
Olympia, WA 2005
Los Angeles, CA 2006
Dallas, TX 2006
Forest, MS 2007
Los Angeles, CA 2007

I have visited these cities:
Taiwan 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 2000
Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Beijing 2000
Cayman Islands 2004
Paris 2004
Anguilla 2004
Venice, Milan, Florence, Rome 2005
Anguilla 2005
Singapore 2005
Taiwan 2005
Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xi An, Beijing 2006
Los Cabos 2007
Whistler 2007
Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto 2007
Taiwan 2007
Hong Kong 2008
Boston 2000 - 2002
NYC 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Napa daytrip

One of the good things about the Bay Area is how close we are to Napa. Just took a day trip today, ate some food, drank some wine. Plus convertible top down through wine country :)

Japan

Japan was one of the better trips that we have ever taken. One word: FOOD. Plus we did a good bit of shopping, and a good bit of sightseeing. Oh yeah, once again international Hyatt's rock. Plus I love being able to get them for free (FFN promotion) and yet still treated like a king.

Our trip was from 4/22 to 4/30 spanning Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, and back to Tokyo. Major POI were Tsukiji, Ginza, Roppongi Hills, Shibuya, Asakusa, Ghibli Museum, Lake Ashi, Kiyomizu, Philosopher's Walk, Jisho-ji, Nijo Castle, Fuji, New York Bar (Park Hyatt), Shinjuku. Food included lots of fresh sushi, curry udon, some great spicy shrimp balls (among other things I can't remember), Iron Chef Italian, soba, tonkatsu, ramen, Kikunoi (kaiseki), tempura, and coin operated fast food.

Jackson, MS

So I am stuck in Jackson, MS over the weekend for go-live. In a cruel twist of fate, it appears that my team did too well. I had no tasks to complete this weekend. It also didn't help that some of the things we thuoght we needed to do were taken care of well in advance by the facility by hiring temp workers.

Jackson is tiny. Really small. I visited their "nice" mall to check it out. Left in about 15 minutes. I visited later on another supposedly "nice" shopping area. Wasn't really anything there. I suppose I am a bit spoiled. I do have to say, that there is no way that I could ever live in a small city.

Another thing to comment on -- I am pretty sure that of all the cities I have driven in, Jackson has the worst drivers. I suspect its because there is usually never any traffic, so most of them get lazy. Plugging up left lanes driving well below the speed limits, merging without even making an attempt to check lanes, etc.

Oh one more thing, people here are ... large.