East Coast Girl

I'm back from Europe. In a couple of days I'll actually have a home out here and be an official east coast girl again. It's strange to think it's only been 2 weeks since I left Microsoft. Some people take vacations this long. It's as if I could just fly back and continue my old life. I do miss people. Karen's pretty easy to keep up with since she has her blog but I have no idea what anyone else is up to.

Today I'll meet my new roommate for lunch. Should be interesting. I wonder if this is what arranged marriages feel like. Not quite the same since we did pick each other after talking on the phone.

I'm SO looking forward to no more living out of a suitcase. There's an end in sight to all my logistics. The move was certainly the bumpiest part and it's not quite finished, but Aaron Filner is a total rockstar for helping me out. Everyone who sees him should tell him he's a rockstar. I'll be picking up my car this weekend. I had it shipped to my parents house. This is the first time she's ever seen the east coast. I bet she'll love the blacktop roads. Much nicer than the concrete ones in Seattle.

Enough for now. Very very hot out here. Lots of skirts.

-k

Praha

Day 2 in Boston was much better. I had to bring back "rough & tough" Kate better known as east-coast Kate, but all is well now. Also was able to stop by MIT and get my tech-geek fix. I went to a pouring rain outdoor wedding in the middle of nowhere Vermont over the weekend. It was interesting and the bride was beautiful! An all-vegetarian wedding too. Gotta love those Vermonters. Now I'm in Prague, or Praha as I think the locals write it. I'm not exactly sure because they sure are hard to understand. I can say Yes, Please, and Thank you. Haven't figured out No yet, but you have to say Ano to say yes. I've been on lots of tours. B and I did a dinner cruise last night. Pretty cool. They think something is new if it's from the 18th century. Geez, the US was only born around that time. Isn't it interesting that the native americans weren't into gothic architecture. I wonder why there isn't a ton of there stuff around the US. Did we knock it down? I'm sure the longhouses would have rotted by then. I hear the Mayas and Aztecs have some cool stuff in Mexico. I must sound very naive about history. I was always more of a math/science person anyway.

The day after tomorrow we go to Vienna. I'm sure that'll be really cool too. Sometimes the people here in Czech Republic have sort of an inferiority complex about Vienna in the way they talk about it in tours. Like Mozart wasn't willing to move to Prague even though he did lots of his best work here.

Time to go.

Dog Eat Dog World

Well I haven't been in Boston for 24 hours yet but at least 5 people have been rude to me, I wasn't able to complete the 1 errand I had assigned myself today, I missed a bus, and to top it off, I wiped out on a wet floor in the middle of a mall. A security guard stood by, looked at me as I was on the ground and told me to read the sign. He pointed at a sign that said wet floor. Ugh! Who looks at the ground when they're walking through a mall? I also tried unsuccessfully 8 times to get money from an ATM. It claims that my PIN is wrong. The same PIN I have been using for 3 years. Maybe I'm going nuts. I'm also convinced the bus driver tried to throw me through the winshield when I was trying to pay. The second bus driver wouldn't even open the doors all the way for me to get out. I had to squish through. Tough day. It can only get better from here.

Yesterday went really well. Dan drove me to the airport. I got upgraded to first class and had an incredible meal followed by the perfect ice cream sunday with caramel. Ben was waiting for me at the airport and even had some welcome gifts awaiting my arrival at his apartment. We went out to celebrate at an Irish Pub called Kinvara's. Ben and Martin bought me drinks. Although I hear that people around here are very technical about buying drinks for people and it's really rude if you don't make sure you buy someone a drink in return. People keep exact track. I guess it's not as easy to throw around money when you're not making big bucks.

Anyway, the day can only get better. I'm going to read for a little, while I wait for Ben to get home from work. Tomorrow we're off to Vermont for a wedding, and Sunday off to Prague & Vienna.

Goodbye Mail

I just sent out my Microsoft goodbye mail. So freaky. This is really happening. Moving to Boston. Aah! So many goodbye meals these days. I could really use a hello lunch or something. If you read my blog you can come to my goodbye party. It's Friday the 13th starting out at Chopstix. Wear some flair.

The LDR

If you know what an LDR is, I feel bad for you, because it probably means you're part of the club. There's a feeling of solidarity among members since nobody wants to be in the club.

A: How's the LDR?
B: It sucks. How's yours?
A: Actually, she's coming this weekend.
B: Lucky you! How long has it been?
A: Almost six weeks. :-(
B: Bummer. How are things going?
A: Not great. We almost broke up last week. I don't know how much longer I can do this.
B: Can't she get a job out here?
A: Nah. They don't have a good Ph.D. program in ___ out here.
Blah blah blah

LDRs are such a strange thing. They're certainly a downer when it comes to conversation. Week 5 is always the worst. I'm not sure why but it's so impossible to go for 5 weeks without seeing someone you love. You kind of lead 2 lives - one in your head (and sometimes on the phone) where you're together, and the other one is your real life. Neither is complete - both have something missing. It's like you have this incomplete existence, never quite satisfied. When you do see each other it's artificial because someone is visiting, so you're together at all times and you can't really see what their life is like since you're affecting it. Everything is planned. You can't just be like "Hey what's up? Want to come over and hang out?" Well you can, but the other person always says, sorry I can't really catch a flight right now. When your upset and in need of sympathy, the cellphone-photo combo isn't exactly good for cuddling.

As I see it, there is one major advantage of the LDR. The surprise visit. I often encourage other members of the club to try it out. It takes some planning and a few white lies, but it's totally worth it to see someone's expression when you wake them up in the morning with a kiss. There can definitely be some confusion involved. Often I find myself fantasizing about surprise visits. I walk around a corner and there he is, B, with his great big smile. Lots of hallucinations. It's good for the imagination.

My long distance relationship has lasted what seems like forever. It's kind of amazing that it lasted so long. At times it's gotten really frustrating, but obviously it (he) is worth the wait. The really amazing thing is that I'm finally going to lose the LD part of the LDR in 9 days. I can't even imagine it. I'll be out of the club. Ben's picking me up at the airport. It still doesn't seem real to me.

Of course I'll miss all the fine gentlemen of Seattle. Maybe B will buy me a hotdog on a streetcorner in downtown Boston... And Karen, who will I go shopping with? Who will wear fun skirts with me? Maybe you should come to Boston. S won't mind. LDRs aren't so bad...

Buried under Boxes

I had my second to last trip to Sea-tac Airport today, as I dropped my Aunt Helen off this morning. She was wonderful enough to come for a few days to help me pack. It was a grueling weekend, but fun too. We learned that packing is a lot more fun with music. Now I have 35 boxes all packed and ready to go. Just a few more left. A few things didn't make the cut, so I've been giving away lots of stuff. Plants went to Jason. Booze went to Dan. The hoola-hoop went to Sharalee. Some big t-shirts went to Ciesel, the homeless guy in front of my QFC. He was hoping for men's jeans, but I couldn't really hook him up. I have a big bucket of gesso, if anybody out there paints - I'll give it to you for free! I bet most people don't know was gesso is - it's this white acrylic thick paint that you use as a basecoat for oil paints. I love it! It's thick and goopy. I always wanted to stick my whole hand in the bucket but never actually have.

Ze Frank

Back on May 18th I pseudo-suggested that people take a look at zefrank.com. Somehow in the time between now and then I ended up meeting Ze. He's my first web celebrity friend. Fun stuff. He was working with my group for a little bit, so we took him out for a little goodbye evening when he had to go back to Brooklyn.

The first big thing Ze ever said to me was "You don't move your arms when you walk." So we already started off on the wrong foot. It's not true actually. I do usually move my arms, but at the time I was playing with the cuffs of my shirt and in order to reach them I had to straighten my arms. Whatever. I'm not defensive about it. Then he made fun of something I said in a meeting at work in front of a bunch of other people, and I was like geez, is this guy ever nice to people? Such a smartass! It happened one more time, then eventually, after like 6 weeks I tried talking to him again and it turns out he's a pretty nice guy. He's just kind of intense and likes to pick on people for the sake of humor. I'm usually ok with people making fun of me in a friend situation, but maybe because I was seriously trying to learn from him and have real discussions, so I just wanted to be taken seriously. In the end I did end up learning a whole bunch. I feel like after the past 3 years I know so so so much about social computing. It's a fascinating field. I hope I can do more with it even though I'm leaving work.

Here's Ze. He's my buddy now:

More Pics from Ze's last night.

Booty-Shaking and Non-Goodbyes

Ever find yourself shaking your booty in the kitchen at work? It probably means you shouldn't be reaching for another coke. Today was a high coke day. Usually I only have one and that's probably one to many, but I'm having a splurge day today (3). I heard Kirsty Allie had 14 sodas a day at one point, so at least I'm not that bad but I don't want to look like her either. And I'm probably burning some of it off with all my booty-shaking in the kitchen. Lots of energy today.

It's getting really close to the time when I leave Seattle. 14 days left. That's pretty freaky. I think the worst part is going to be all the goodbyes. I HATE saying goodbye to people. It's like the worst thing ever. So if you're reading this and you're going to be saying goodbye to me, I think you should just skip it or at least keep it short. Maybe a good luck and a hug. Don't be insulted if I'm kind of standoffish during a goodbye. It probably means I'm trying not to get sad. It's kind of an emotional time and I'm a pretty dramatic person. I hope my goodbye party doesn't end up with a whole bunch of sad awful goodbyes because I'll probably be drunk and it's harder for me to mentally remove myself from the situation when I'm drunk. Maybe I'll just slip out right before the goodbyes start. I guess that would be kind of rude. Maybe I can just refuse the goodbyes. I'll just be like - oh I have a few more days, I'm sure I'll see you again. Later!

Night Nite

It's like the middle of th4 enight and i just got out of the shower because tismelled like smoke because i was in the smokiasest ever establishment in wallingorford calle3d the Moon Temple Restaurant. We went there because it wa s free but seriously my hair smelt so bad so i had to shower. cj and jason and giorgi had a good time. scott had fun until we left murphy's then he haeed to het out. i mean jet out. then giorgi displayed his hidden talent for origami and now i have a cool flower made from the label of a bud light bottle. i won't say who was peeling their labels. fun night. maybe tomorrow i'll post pics from last night which was also lots of fun. g'night.