Dull Life

by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from It's Blitz!

This blog entry has been way overdue. I have been meaning to find time to enter it but haven't either found the time or will to do it (more of the will I guess). So I have again sequestered myself off at a local cafe with WIFI to do it. I am especially motivated to finish this entry today since this cafe is closing in less than an hour. So yeah this will be one of those really long rambling blog entries that you have all known to love. So yeah be prepared for a long read.

So what has been happening? Well the big event was that I turned 30 last month. I thought it would be a big deal but I suppose it wasn't as big as I thought it would be. On my actual birthday, I went with the special lady to the De Anza Flea market, then to the mall, and then had a big dinner with my friends at Tanto. Given my advancing age, I forgot to invite more than few people which caused some minor drama. Yeah it just completely slipped my mind. An interesting story is that the waiter cut us off from ordering more since he thought we already ordered more food than we could eat. How wrong he was because he vastly underestimated me and my friend's ability to eat. After dinner we went to BJ's where we ordered the infamous party poozkie which is 4 regular poozkies combined into one and therefore a baked heart attack in waiting covered in ice cream and fudge.

But yeah turning 30 is still somewhat a big deal. It's a milestone age where you pause and take stock of your life probably more than ever before. I was at a BBQ and Phill remarked that he was 30 and he owned his own business, was getting married, and looking to a buy house. I then replied I am 30 and I urrrr... have a Japanese peace lily that I am taking care of. It was a birthday gift from DJC and CWP$. But seriously, I guess I should reflect somewhat on these three decades. Well, I do have a career that I enjoy and allows me to live comfortably. I finished all my education including going off to Michigan for my masters. I have a stable set of friends, my special lady, and I hate to say this without sounding like what the British call as "twat", I am getting more out of life these days.

Looking back to after I graduated from Michigan, I have to say I was in a bit of a funk for the last part of 2006 to probably all of 2007. I thought life post grad school would be somewhat like grad school except without the school. I thought it would involve going out, having fun, having little responsibility, plus without having to worry about class. Needless to say, I don't think I really got too much out of life then. When I wasn't traveling (which I have to say was fun and different), I would stay at home, go to a steady rotation of about 8 restaurants to eat when I didn't eat at Google, and watch a lot shitty movies on cable. I would hang out with my friends also but I didn't feel like I was progressing as a person, but quite honestly, after grad school and getting my job, what was there to progress to?

As silly as it sounds, I think it was the Redwood City triathlon in February 2008 that really broke me out of my funk. I needed to start training so it forced me to get off my butt and to train by running, biking, and going to the pool on the weekends. It definitely gave me more energy. That's also when I decided to switch to my more healthy diet which made me reach for different dining options than the 8 restaurants that I typically got all my food from at the time. I started regularly going to the Farmer's market, which forces to get out of the house each weekend also. Yeah I also started my dating efforts again in earnest. So yeah I started living a fuller life as a result. And yeah, seeing the special lady (or my girlfriend if you want) has also led to a more active life. We go out to eat a lot which has been great because it showed me what a shame it was that I wasn't being more adventurous dining out wise when I was single. The bay area has a huge variety of great dining options. In addition, we do things like going to movies, going to concerts (Flight of the Conchords two weekends ago!), and yes, I even went to a musical this past week, Wicked in SF. Given my attitude towards musicals, I have to say I did enjoy myself. This past Memorial day, I also went to the Academy of Sciences, the Berkeley Rose Garden, the Sutro Bathhouse Ruins in SF with the special lady. These are things that I probably never would have gone to when I was single. All and all, I have to say that even though life seems pretty routine and stable, I am enjoying it immensely. That's not to say I won't fall into future funks but at least I will be able to spot them and try to remedy them as quickly as possible.

One way I do that is making sure to get out of my apartment more by exercising. Which has been easy of late since my car has been in the shop the past week since a GMC Yukon backed into it last last weekend. So I biked to work three days in a row which has been tiring yet better for my health. It also has a side benefit that i am part of the self powered commuter program at work which donates money to a charity of my choice everytime I bike to work. So that has satisfied my volunteerism guilt for a while since I haven't been able to find to time to volunteer lately. Yeah I also have fallen into a complete west coast liberal elite stereotype because I have given up on bottle water now and am all about the brita and water bottle instead. Yeah another viewing of an Inconvenient Truth guilted me into it.

So yeah, that's all from me for now. Perhaps another reason I haven't being blogging as much lately is because I am enjoying life more and thus have less reason to rant on my blog. Just another hypothesis I guess. Until next time, peace.