June Goings-On

It was an exhausting, eventful month.

There was a wedding in Fremont the weekend before finals week.

There was finals week.

There were graduations in San Diego and Riverside at the end of finals week.

There was San Diego again the following Monday.

There was a job interview the day after.

There was Portland for the latter half of that week.

There was another wedding--but in Alhambra/ Monterey Park--that Sunday.

There was job interview (part two) and work.

There was the company dinner.

All this within the past four weeks, ain't it grand? 

Life has been extremely hectic this month. The only time it was finally calm and quiet was the few days in Portland, where life and time happen exponentially more slowly than here in Los Angeles. While people in Portland certainly do work and do all the normal things Angelinos do, it's just so... tranquil, which I have rarely ever experienced down here unless I intentionally seek a quiet spot wherein to hide. But I'm glad I took that short break, because it'll essentially be my only break throughout summer if my work schedule packs up to take all of Monday through Friday. In any case, I loved Portland for its walking-distance-from-everywhere convenience, its nice and friendly population (despite the innumerable smokers), its sales tax-free shopping (even though that had to be the time I couldn't find anything to buy), and even its bipolar weather. 

The latter point deserves more than a parenthetical aside. The weather up there is quite something. At one point, we were walking around and the sky was a bit overcast, but otherwise it was completely dry and warm. All of a sudden, it started raining cats and dogs. CATS. AND DOGS. After several minutes of getting owned by the sudden rainfall, we ducked into TJ Maxx in search of an umbrella. Despite that the store had gotten a new stock of umbrellas just that morning, only three were left. We quickly grabbed one, purchased it (for $9.99, because there's no sales tax), and went back outside, ready at last to brave Mother Nature. But of course, it had stopped raining for the rest of the time we were there (save the one time it rained for the few minutes we were indoors). Despite how crazy this was, I kind of enjoyed it primarily because you really never know what to expect. And as long as you wear comfortable shoes and carry an umbrella around, you're good to go! Some people walked around sans umbrellas and closed toe shoes. I was baffled.

We also had  a lot of good food around Southwest (the area of PDX we inhabited and explored), starting with a sushi dinner at a sake bar umpteen blocks down and ending with a steak dinner on the 30th floor of a corporate building three blocks down, with various beers and plenty of water and walking in between every activity. 

Another activity worth mentioning was Powell's Books. Oh, dear goodness gracious, sweet baby Jesus. With shelves reaching to the ceiling (and the ceilings were high!) and two or three levels of rooms categorized by genre by color, this place was a dream come true for me! It was like Borders used to be, except a hundred times better because not everything was brand new and therefore the place seemed more authentic (but who am I to talk authenticity?). I could have happily spent an entire day perusing just the literature section (the blue room) of the place. I would happily return to do just that! After half an hour, I had five or six books in my arms, but some common sense and deliberation reminded me that I wasn't actually going to read--nor did I really, really want--all of them. I still left the store with $60something of merchandise, though. It was so amazing. I encourage all book-lovers and readers and everybody who doesn't know what to do with their lives (they also have an entire room dedicated to self-help books) to visit!

...Twas a few days well spent, indeed.

The wedding in Fremont was so beautiful, albeit extremely hot and therefore sweat-inducing. I was sweating buckets. Seriously. But I'm glad it was the first one I attended, because it was for someone I know and care about, unlike the second one I attended (okay, I skipped the wedding and went only to the banquet, sue me). It was another weekend well spent with plenty of great fun and even greater friends.

And, of course, there were commencements which made me slightly regret not having graduated this year. I could have been done with academia already! Oh, well. One more year won't kill me. It might actually do me some good by giving me more time to stall on a career choice.

Last week, I also went to my first company event/ dinner. It felt unnervingly strange to take the taxi around Santa Monica, the area I have well familiarized myself with particularly over the last few months. Despite that, it was my first time going to the Santa Monica AMC theater, where we watched "World War Z," a zombie movie that I dreaded watching but ended up almost thoroughly enjoying, namely for its intensity and suspense. Afterward, we all went to dinner at Wilshire Restaurant, a relatively fancy, upscale American place where we had a private party room. The bosses gave toasts and speeches, at which points I felt immensely grown up. It was a wonderful night with colleagues (gee, I feel old saying that), and I'm excited for the next group gathering.

I would say that all these fun days are over and that an entire summer of work ensues. But I will not allow work to consume my life, even if I have to work nearly all day five days a week and commute from home to West LA daily. I absolutely refuse: SD this weekend, New Kidz on the Block/ 98 Degrees/ Boyz II Men concert next weekend, possibly Norcal end of July, etc. I'm a busy busybody, which might explain why I've been so exhausted the last several days.

On the long note of exhaustion, I bid you all adieu! Hopefully blogging will be a more regular occurrence over the next two or three months.