Browse Category: work

It was a happy Friday.

Happy Chevy's

At work, our Happy Hours are usually on the East Bay but this time it was going to be across the bridge in my neck of the woods.  It’s been a while since we’ve had a Happy Hour so we were happy all day long in anticipation of $3 margaritas. With a quick drive through the carpool lane, we were extra happy at Chevy’s by 5:30.  They’re special margarita was pineapple coconut this time around and it was tasty.

Here are the photos.

Taylor's

Afterward, I met up with Jes down the street and we had dinner at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher.  I snacked on the chili cheese fries while Jes inhaled his bacon cheeseburger.  Doesn’t it look tasty?

23 Futures in my Hands

We make decisions all day and everyday.  What am I going to eat for dinner today?  Do I take BART or drive to work?  The ginger cookie or chocolate chip with nuts?  Well, this morning I woke up early and participated in a round of interviews for prospective students for my graduate program.  Initially, it was a little weird being on the other side of the table but I got the hang of it and it made me really appreciate the process and importance of school interviews.  When we were all done with the morning, we had chosen 9 out of the 23 candidates for the program with recommendations for some of the “maybes” to come back next year.  It’s interesting to see how lower GPAs can be off-set by life experience and the interview and how you can’t judge a person solely by just one component.  It’s already an awesome experience to influence a student as a teacher but it’s an unfamiliar feeling that I have about determining whether or not someone can start a new careeer in the fall.  Is this what parenting is like?

A Real Swamp Band

swamp band

A few years back on a camping trip, we were taking a hike up a really steep trail in Big Sur.  There was a small group of us that fell behind and was about to give up until Ryan decided to start a pretend Swamp Band.  We all chose instruments as we hiked up the trail and repeated the mantra “Swamp Band plays in the swamp”.  It got us up the mountain and we had a good chuckle.

Well, last night, I went to a special work dinner held by our managers and they had a real swamp band playing for us!!!  I’m sure that’s not what they call themselves but my manager’s daughter plays the violin and she’s part of a band that plays in various clubs.

swamp band 2

They were complete with a girl on spoons and a guy playing a tub bass guitar made of a wash tub, broomstick, and rope.  It was awesome.  They played rather well and I couldn’t help smiling the whole time.

Here are photos from the evening.

May take a while…

…to post photos.  I took quite a few and I’m trying to get over this crazy sickness that started on Christmas Day.  I’ve had chills, a low fever, and body aches and have been on ibuprofen and acetaminophen for the past four days around the clock.  I’m hoping that I’ll feel well enough to get to work tomorrow.  Going back to work sucks but I suppose I should feel grateful to have a steady job in such a crappy economy.

Phoenix Photos

With all the craziness of getting paperwork graded and fina exam questions written, I neglected all of the photos I took in Phoenix.  I finally went through and uploaded a few.  For being the 5th largest city in the U.S., Phoenix certainly needs to grow just a little more for me to return.  My visit felt similar to my visit to Charlotte where downtown wasn’t much more than a few tall buildings and anything outside of that was residential or rural-looking.  Their Children’s Hospital is beautiful and brand-spankin’ new.  So was the Sheraton.  The 2-day workshop was helpful and it was a lot of fun catching up with Elaine and Arlene who also attended the course with me.

Here are the photos from my weekend in Phoenix, Arizona.

Friendliest Airport

I got to the airport really early this afternoon so I booted up the laptop and discovered that PHX offers free wireless internet!  Woohoo!  They call themselves the Friendliest Airport and this certainly has me agreeing with them.

I also must compliment Southwest Airlines’ new gates complete with workstations with plugs.  My macbook as a broken battery that doesn’t hold more than 5 minutes of charge so this is certainly a lifesaver.  I have a bunch of homework to grade and I’m hoping to get through them all before I board my plane in 2 hours.

Anyway, I learned some new things in my 2-day course this weekend but the best part was just hanging out and catching up with my old friend and co-worker Elaine.  Whenever I hang out with her I miss Irvine.

OK, back to grading papers!