And had a blast in SF.

Here are some of the photos from my journey:




More of my photos can be seen by visiting my online gallery at THIS LINK.

So I arrived here last night, about two hours delayed. I have no idea why out flight was delayed, but by the time I got to the airport and checked in, it was showing a 1-hour delay, which later turned into 1 hour and 40 minutes. By the time I took public transit and got to my friends A&M's house, it was close to 9 p.m. SF time (ie: close to 10 p.m. Mountain, where I usually hang out). Ah well, what can you do?

People-watching at the airport was entertaining - there was one guy in heels and a skirt and earrings and makeup and the like. Which, in principle, I don't have a problem with. I work with a transgendered individual, and she's absolutely lovely. Having said that, she does it right. She finds clothes that fit, that are fairly in style, that look good on her. She takes time to do her hair, has it cut nice and femininely, etc. Dude at the airport sure didn't. I was sure he was going to be on my flight (after all, SF is known for its liberal culture when it comes to that sort of thing), but nope, he got on a flight to Chicago. And yes, I'm using he to describe this guy deliberately. If you can make an effort and apply yourself, you get to be called she. If you look like dude at the airport, still dressed in a guy's shirt along with your skirt, heels, and makeup, you're still a he. :-S

I popped over to Starbucks at one point to see about getting a tea and something to munch on, since I was going to be sitting there a while. When I got back to my seat, a whole team of paramedics and EMTs is going to work on some guy a couple of rows over. They were, like, stealth squad. Totally hadn't even heard them come in, or heard anyone call for them, or call for help, or anything. It was pretty impressive. They worked on the guy for what must have been close to 45 minutes (I don't know - I was sitting with my back to him, and the did eventually put up a screen around the area), before wheeling him out, attached to an IV and an oxygen mask. I was still really impressed with their stealthiness, though. If it hadn't been for the people across the row from me staring over my shoulders, I never would have realized they were leaving.

A&M have a lovely place only three blocks from Golden Gate Park, which I think is what I'll spend most of the day exploring today. It's not the clearest of days, but at least it's not ridiculously foggy, so it should be pretty good. I think I'll have to buy a long-sleeved shirt or a sweatshirt at the concert tonight - it's only set to get up to about 16 degrees today, so while it's not cold, it's not exactly warm, either, and I definitely packed for slightly warmer weather (the weather network was showing the temp hovering around 20 all weekend).

Ciao for now!

So.

The show is over. At least for me. It was good times, helping out backstage for some friends. I learned a lot about how a more professional theatre production than my grade 11 play functions - it was fabulous! Hopefully I can work on some more productions in the future.

Tomorrow I leave for San Francisco. I don't have much planned - I get to see radiohead while I'm there. Possibly the only band I would literally pay an arm and a leg to go see. But I only paid for plane tickets to SF, the concert ticket, and food and such while I'm there.

It's going to be great! I'm so looking forward to it. This is the first summer vacation I've had since I was in grade 11. I've always been working. Or working on a dissertation. While I've had time off, and breaks, I've never had a SUMMER break. Summer after high school - working. Summer after that, working. Summer after that, working. Summer after I finished my degree? Working. Summer after I finished my second degree? Working. Sure, while I was in the UK I made a point of taking some time off and doing fun things (a weekend here, a week in Ireland, a month backpacking when I was done my dissertation - and yes, the week in Ireland was the first real holiday I'd had since starting university), but during the summer, I was still working on my dissertation.

I shall post photos when I return!

Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday was my last day at my previous job.

I am now off on two weeks' worth of glorious vacation time before commencing the new job. YAY! I asked the folks at work to keep my departure low-key, and they definitely complied (thanks to them for that - although none of them read this blog!), although I still walked away with a small fortune in Chapters gift cards to fuel my bibliophilic addiction.

I can tell I needed the vacation pretty badly. Last night after work, I started to feel a bit ill. So I took a quick nap, but I'd promised a friend that I'd be at her birthday celebrations down one of the major bar-filled streets here in town, and had to be there to meet her around 6:45 p.m. We had dinner, and the stomach wasn't feeling any better. And the exhaustion was setting in. So by the time 9:30 rolled around, I was nearly falling asleep in my chair (after all, it was past my bed time!). A headache was also starting to develop.

They moved from the nice Irish pub where we started to another bar nearby near 10:30 or 11. No air conditioning. Pounding music. I couldn't take it. I mean, I'm not the sort of person who goes out drinking and dancing, getting horribly hammered and doing stupid things to begin with... but throw in the heat and the noise and the fact that I wasn't feeling well to begin with - it was either get out or pass out. I left and was home by about 11:30. I felt like ass. And I felt like AN ass. I've missed this particular friend's birthday several years in a row now due to whatever circumstances have popped up, and was really trying to make an effort to go out and enjoy this one. I know she was really disappointed when I left and now I have to figure out a way to make it up to her...