Tuesday, April 06, 2004 :::  

damn, SB (and by SB i mean spring break, NOT strong bad, NOR santa barbara...) went like that. ::snap::. but id have to say it was my best ever. i'll see if i can recount, while maintaining some semblance of interesting material for you, my dear reader.

so all the guys ('cept dat and henry) + ej came down. they crashed at my apt thursday night then we went to san diego late fri afternoon where we had elfnesh food. elfnesh is the girl my interact club adopted my junior year. i carried around this coffee can dressed up like a soup can to collect spare change.
btw, this is elfnesh:

my point being that elfnesh was ethiopian and we ate her food. it was really good. yummy. i wanna go back and eat there again. oh wait. imma go back. so josh drove linh ej and paul down in his custom cruiser, which is a boat of a station wagaon. it has those seats in the luggage area that fold up and face backwards. purely awesome vehicle! so all 8 of us popped into the cruiser and cruised on over to the restaurant. but since the beast of a car was so big, parking was a pain. only street parking. we ended up driving around the block like 6 times looking for a spot. there were a few, but everyone was yelling their opinion ("park there!" or "oh man ,we just passed one again..."). it was a hilarious. eventually josh yelled at everyone to get out cuz all the opinions were too much for him. i stuck with him tho and we drove around another 4 times until we found the perfect spot.

next day was late breakfast then pacific beach for some shops and stroll on the beach. awesome sushi dinner - the best in SD apparently - which i would believe. then we attempted to make green tea icecream, but it was bad cuz we couldn't find green tea powder at the 24hour ralph's - only green tea crystals. it tasted like warm milk. but that night was the best thing ever. we stayed up literally all night playing poker. it was so cool to sit around and and just shoot the shit. it's been so long. i miss those guys (ej's in there too) - their quirks, their mannerisms...

but then i had to git gone bright and early to get me to the airport....ok, to be continued....

alrite, back.

so i was flying to fort lauderdale, florida, for an interview with citrix. paid for everything - nice westin hotel, all my food, my flight (LA -> FL -> SJ). it was a good trip. i got a good vibe from the whole thing and it sounded exciting.

then home for 24 hours to celebrate my BD and hang with family and turn in my scholarship application.

then off to RYLA 5330 - which was a bang ass trip! got a ride to gilroy so i could stay at ame's house. we left hollister at 4:45 in the AM - friggin early so we could pick up nicole in santa barbara and get to long beach by noon to go sailing with kim and barry from ghana. BEAUTIFUL DAY! great sun. great wind. great friends. i didn't realize how much i missed everyone until we got together again - kim and her deep soundless laugh, barry and his crazyness, ame's mismatched socks, and nicole's singin/dancin turkey/shark songs.

good times.

then RYLA. gosh, i love ryla. for only being a weekend, this ryla sure crams in a lot. some good team building stuff as well as leadership modules (new, thanks to 5170's ryla). i took along some light sticks in hopes of doing the universe, but there wasn't going to be time, and i was bummed cuz i thought the camper's wouldn't get that once in a lifetime experience. HOWEVER, after hosting a culture walk, my concerns were more than satisfied. some of those kids have gone through some terrible stuff and here they are bearing their soul to people they only met that morning. amazing.

as an aside, culture walk more or less goes like this:
you ask the kids who identify with a named group to stand up, and then you ask them a series of questions ("what do you want us to know about your group?" "what do you never again want to hear about your group?" and "what can we do to support your group?") then they get the chance to answer these questions while everyone listens. you progress from groups like female and male to "know someone who has hiv/aids or other chronic illness" and "know someone who has been a victim of drugs/alcohol abuse." and as you progress they begin to talk about some crazy stuff, stuff that makes you wanna cry. amazing experience.

but it was an awesome weekend - met some quality people (rotarians and kids). it was tough for us to leave. i wanna go back. ::sigh:: ryla withdrawal again. it's ok tho, only a month and a half until hte next one at the end of may.

so i was offered that position at citrix. it's a bad ass offer too. nice pay. nice stock options. nice benefits and vacation (4 weeks a year!) i was conflicted as to whether or not to take it because it would mean being really far from bella. so ive been getting opinions all around seeing what people think. all vary yet are good points: should i work at a company that is in a different field than what i want to study for grad school?

i was told by my mom's boss that i could accept it and if something better comes along, take that one instead. good idea, eh? however, i'm conflicted. that seems wrong to me. doesn't it violate the "is it fair to all concerned?" and "will it build good will and better friendships?" (part of rotary 4 way test) to which i aspire. but it happens all the time. and it IS employment at will, meaning i (or they) could terminate it at any time. and in a day and age where there isn't much employer / employee loyalty, then it doesn't matter. maybe i'm just too much an honest guy.

so that's that. i feel like i forgot something. oh well. i can post more later.

::: posted by Soup at 11:18 PM::: (0) comments

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