I am sitting in a hotel room in Raleigh where I’m staying for a conference, but prior to this I had a full 3 weeks at home! I was the longest stretch I’ve had in months, even my gallbladder removal surgery didn’t afford me a full 3 weeks. Unfortunately during this blessed 3 weeks home MJ was out of town for a full 2 weeks of it. It also decided to be summer time in San Francisco (typical of early October) with temperatures rising to 90F for several days and our condo not cooling off. Some days it made work a challenge as I sometimes fled to coffee shops. The cats didn’t seem amused by this either.
The time at home alone did give me a chance to chill out at home and listen to the Giants playoff games on the little AM radio I had set up in our living room. As any good pseudo-fan does I only loosely keep up with the team during the actual season, going to actual games only here and there as I have the opportunity, which I didn’t this year (too much travel + gallbladder). It felt nice to sit and listen to the games as I got some work done in the evenings. I did learn how much modern technology gets in the way of AM reception though, as I listened to the quality tank when I turned on the track lighting in my living room or random times when my highrise neighbors must have been doing something.
Fleet week also came to San Francisco while I was home. I think I’ve only actually been in town for it twice, so it was a nice treat. To add to the fun I was meeting up with a friend to work on some OpenStack stuff on Sunday when they were doing their final show and her office offers amazing floor to ceiling windows with a stunning view of the bay. Perfect for watching the show!
I also did manage to get out for some non-work social time with a couple friends, and finally made it out to Off the Grid in the Marina for some street food adventuring. I hadn’t been before because I’m not the biggest fan of food trucks, the food is fine but you end up standing while eating, making a mess, and not getting a meal for all that cheaper than you would if you just went to a proper restaurant with tables. Maybe I’m just a giant snob, but it was an interesting experience, and I got to take the cable car home, so that’s always fun.
And now Raleigh. I’m here for All Things Open which I’ll be blogging about soon. This kicked off about 3 weeks away from home, so I had to pack accordingly:
After Raleigh I’ll be flying to Miami for a cousin’s wedding, then staying several extra days in a beach hotel where I’ll be working (and taking breaks to visit the ocean!). At the end of the week I’m flying to Paris for the OpenStack Summit for a week. I’ve never been to Paris before so I’m really looking forward to that. When the conference wraps up I’m flying back stateside for another wedding for a family member, this time in Philadelphia. So during this time I’ll get to see MJ twice, as we meet in cities for weddings. Thankfully I head home after that, but then we’re off for a proper vacation a few days later – to Jamaica! Then maybe I’ll spend all of December in a stay-at-home coma, but I’ll probably end up going somewhere because apparently I really like airplanes. Plus December would be the only month I didn’t fly, and I can’t have that.