danielcolomb.com » travel

OKLAHOMA

Dan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:36:37 +0000

Some of the songs i really like lately. What can i say? Prodigy is excellent driving music

Ok, so now that you have tunes to listen to while you read my tale of the weekend, let’s get started. While i was at work last Thursday I got a phone call from my dad letting me know that my uncle had passed away the night before. He’d been fighting kidney cancer for about two years. My dad had already sprung into action looking at flight information and getting itineraries ready for our trip out there. I informed my boss(es) and told them I’d be gone all of the following week since we weren’t entirely sure exactly what dates were set for the wake and the funeral.

Friday night I went out with some friends and I ended up drinking a bit too much, I had to stay the night there at the house. I awoke the next morning with intense hangover pains. I drove home and went back to sleep. Later that night i went over to my parents place, since we were leaving early Sunday morning for our flight out to OK.

Sunday morning came a little too early We all made sure we had all our stuff packed and then headed to the airport. Everything went pretty much without a hitch except for when Nick tried to bring his half-gallon of lotion through security.. they didn’t like that too much (I wonder why?.. Baka). We get to Houston and wait for our next flight, and then we were off to Oklahoma City. The flights were routine and nothing major happened. Once we landed in OKC, we got the rental and hit the road. I pretty much stayed plugged into my iPod the whole time. We met up with everyone at Anita and Frank’s house and we met a bunch of the other side of the family. Mike was my Aunt Lisa’s husband, so there was a whole other side of the family i’d never met. All of them were very nice people. Mark, Syndey, Nick, Danny, Emma, and I ended up racing around the yard on a Gator and Golf Cart throwing water balloons at each other for a while, until they were confiscated from us.

Monday night was the wake. Everyone attended and many tears were shed. It was surreal seeing someone who’d just been alive a few days earlier laying in a casket, and being the prankster Mike was you almost expected him to pop up and say, “just kidding guys”! That didn’t happen though. Afterwards we all headed back to Frank and Anita’s and ate. Everyone was sharing stories and laughing at the memories.

Tuesday was the funeral. We all met up at the funeral home and then convoyed to the cemetary. There must have been close to 100 people there! Family, childhood friends, former co-workers, current co-workers, all came and paid their respects. I saw cousins I hadn’t seen in years there. It was good to see them, too bad it was under such curcumstances.

We made our trip back on Wednesday. The drive seemed longer than the one down. Things were fine except for the layover in Houston, it was longer than on the way down, almost 2 hours! I almost finished my book on the flight if it hadn’t been for another passanger that kept distracting everyone. Nick and I surmised that she was either totally drunk, or on pills. As soon as we landed we headed to the baggage claim and got our gear and drove home. I left the house pretty much as soon as we got there. Once i got to my house I talked to Sean for a bit and then hit the sack.

Today, I’ve been unpacking, catching up on all things online, and planning what i have to do over the weekend so i’m ready for next week. I don’t even want to think about what happened at work this week. I’m sure there was some sort of drama going on.

Weekend Near Chicago

Dan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:27:14 +0000

So my weekend was a long one, a whole 4 days

Thursday

It started on Thursday where I drove up towards the great state of Illinois. The drive wasn’t too bad, I had loud music, energy drinks, and the anticipation of getting to hang out with Michelle. The roads were another story though. The areas which were under construction were everywhere. At one point we were down to one lane, and then a bus had driven off the road, which just made traffic worse! I was sitting there thinking to myself, “Great, we’re down to one lane and someone decides to total their car in the only lane left..” Needless to say I was astonished to see a passanger bus in the ditch as traffic crawled passed. I get to Chicago and learn that traffic there is always an adventure. It wasn’t even rush hour and we were bumper to bumper all the way through. I make it to Great Lakes around 3pm local time (they’re Central Time.. i didn’t know that ). I set up in my room and then went and got some Chinese food.

Friday

Friday I was up at 6am, got showered and made my way to the RTC (Recruit Training Center) Gate. There was a line going out the gate, but it was moving slowly. They came through, asked for Drivers Licenses and told us some simple rules of the training area (like no smoking, 15MPH speed limit, etc etc). I find a parking spot and head over to where you check in. After they stamped my hand I headed over to the main drill hall where I found my seat and proceeded to wait. I checked the Itinerary brochure they’d handed out just to see that it didn’t start until 0900. I checked my phone and saw that it wasn’t even 0700 yet. So i waited and waited.

Finally the ceremony began. They showed a little video and had all the recruits march in. Then things got really extravegant! They had a rifle team and band perform and there were some pretty high ranking officers that spoke. This was all much more of a production than when I graduated AIT. After they recognised some of the best recruits in certain areas (including Academics, which blew my mind.. the military rewarding smart people?! ..maybe the Army is the only one that doesn’t do that?), they released the recruits on Liberty. It took me a while to find Michelle, and then we went on a hunt to find her dad.

Once we’d all met up, we went off to find a place to eat, it was lunch time afterall We went to Olive Garden and had some good food. After that we headed to one of the local malls and killed some time while also looking at nice and shiny things. They put a curfew on the recruits so Michelle had to be back fairly early in the evening, around 1900. After we dropped her off and made plans for the next day I got dropped off at my hotel (Mike, Michelle’s dad, had been driving us around) and I surfed the internet and watched a movie, War Games: The Dead Code. The movie was actually pretty terrible, don’t watch it. Ever.

Saturday

On Saturday we went out for breakfast at Denny’s and then went and got ourselves lost for a bit. Mike had to check out of his hotel by 11, so we got dropped off at my hotel and said our goodbye’s. The plan after that had been to take the train into Chicago and spend the day there, but we came to the realization that we had no idea how to get around Chicago once we got there, and we only would have had about 3 hours to do whatever we wanted to do down there before we’d have to head back.

So instead we went and saw the new Harry Potter, which wasn’t as bad as i was expecting. The last few had disappointed me a bit, and I wasn’t really expecting anything from this one. After the movie we got something to eat. We’d seen a Japanese place the day before and had taken an interest in trying it out. The sushi was delicious, but what really surprised me was the fried rice! It was so good!! After we’d finished our food we headed back to my hotel and watched The Hangover. Neither of us had seen it and we’d both enjoyed the movie very much!

Sunday

Sunday I picked Michelle up and we hung out for a few hours. After we’d said our goodbyes (I hate goodbyes..) I hit the road. The drive back seemed much longer than the drive up. I think it was because I was a bit meloncholy and tired. What made things worse, I’d discovered that I had hit something, like a pothole, or crap in the highway, and put a nice gouge in my rear drivers-side rim. I’m not too happy about that I must say.

Anyway, I made it home around 6pm. 6 hours on the road can really take it out of you. I talked to Sean, offered to help him mow the lawn, and then went into the garden to pick some fresh goodies. We’d picked our first Jalapenos and man were they HOT! There’s more on the way, so I’m sure i’ll be talking more about those later.

I then cracked open my new book and went to bed.

Now it’s monday, and I don’t want to be here

SFO Pics are up on Photobucket

Dan — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:18:00 +0000

Photobucket Link

San Francisco – Day Three and Four

Dan — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:30:49 +0000

The last two days have really just been recovery. Yesterday we went to the Museum of Modern Art and looked at all the exhibits. There were some really neat ones dealing using modern technology (like TV’s) to create art. There were also some early pieces using photography. I really liked the ones dealing with motion and electricity, they looked very cool. Two of the floors were closed due to renovations, so we left a bit early and headed out toward Chinatown again, since Griffin learned through her friend Keith that we’d missed 3/4 of Chinatown by walking down the wrong street. On the way there i stopped by the Apple Store and got a universal card reader and a new iPod charging cable. After got to Chinatown we did a bit of shopping, I bought a neat scroll which i’ll be hanging in my new place once i get back I also got a magnet, can’t leave anywhere without getting a magnet, hehe.

As my time here comes to a close I’m starting to feel the anxiousness of returning home. I know i’m going to miss this place. There’s just so much to do here! Though I don’t think I’d really want to live here, it’s expensive, it’s cramped, and the amount of people would make it difficult for me to drive in my normal race car driver style Also the company helped a lot. I hadn’t seen Griffin in almost 4 years, and it brought back a lot of memories. Nostalgia can be a bitch sometimes One thing i have noticed is that we’ve both grown up since the last time we saw each other. In parallel in some ways, and totally perpendicular in others. One thing i do know is, I’m really going to miss her. I can feel it already.

But on the plus side, i’ll be back tomorrow with good memories, lots of pictures, and some nice lewt. Then it’s back to work on Wednesday for two days :-\

San Francisco – Day Two

Dan — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:54:45 +0000

Today started out pretty normal. Sleep till about 8am (local time), shower, brush teeth, put clean clothes on, meet Griffin in the lounge for breakfast. From there we decided we were going to hit up Coit Tower via Chinatown, and then head to the Wharf to see the airshow. So we walked and walked and walked and walked. It was quite epic since there were monstrous hills of death awaiting us at every turn. As we walked up one of the streets and under a tunnel we appeared in what almost looked like a different country – Chinatown. Everything from the street signs to the shop names to what was sold in those shops was in Chinese. We had suddenly in the span of 5 minutes and a few hundred yards become the minority. It was pretty surreal. We ended up walking up to Coit Tower, which was almost death itself – mainly because i decided to run up part of the hill. A very bad idea i might add, since i haven’t really done any hard physical activity in, well, ages. After climbing to the top of the hill we saw that it was a 5 dollar admission fee to actually go UP the tower. Funny how it was listed on the top 10 FREE things to do in san francisco. Apparently 5 dollars == free. Anyway, we snapped some nice pictures and then headed down to the wharf. Lots of people there! LOTS! We walked for a bit, and the further we walked, the more my toe started acting up again. damn toe.. After watching the airshow for a while we headed back to the hostel. Griffin had to take care of some personal issues (which i will omit here for obvious reasons – it’s none of your business ). And i’ve been here for the last few hours resting my feet and watching anime – namely Last Exile and Paranoia Agent.

But now the hunger calls and i must be off to find food.

[EDIT]: Thought i’d mention we saw Religulous, the new Bill Maher film. It was both hilarious – to those who have an open mind – and thought provoking. I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t a close-minded bigot.

San Francisco – Day One

Dan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:44:41 +0000

San Francisco – Friday

So we got in last night at about 1AM local time, which felt like 4AM to our bodies. At first we couldn’t find each other in the airport, since we’d come in using different airlines, and those airlines used different terminals. I just have to add this in.. how is an airport not going to have a full schedule of what flights are arriving and departing? So if you don’t know what airline someone is on, you’re pretty much screwed. You’d have to go to each terminal and check the arriving/departing flights for each of them. DUMB! After we finally found each other (or i traversed endless halls and abandoned sections of airport and found her), we found a cabbie who breathed like he was asleep at the wheel. He drove us to the hostel, demanded fare and tip, and then left us as quick as he found us.

We get to the front desk and start the sign in process – this is much longer than at a regular hotel, as they issue you linens, towels, and breakfast cards – and i realize that my bank card is missing! OH NOES! I must have forgotten it in the ATM at the airport (outside the security zone thank goodness). So that’s what my day gets to start out with. Going BACK to the airport i came from last night to try and see if i can get my card back. Good thing the ATM was at a bank depot, so hopefully they’ll be able to get it out for me (hopefully). So really that’s all i have scheduled right now. I need to get up and take a shower and brush mah teefs and get dressed - you know typical morning things – and get some breakfast (wewt, breakfast cards!)

It’s 4:30pm now. I went to the airport to try and get my card back, but the teller informed me, since it was after 4pm that i forgot my card, it had been automatically destroyed by the machine. OMGWTF! I returned back to the hostel saddened but not beaten, I still have my Capital One Credit Card! So i hit the lounge for comfy sitting and internet browsing. Griffin was still working on a paper for school that she needed to finish, so i called up the bank and reported my card lost. It was that or stolen, so lost is more appropriate. After that we decided to go to Japantown. Japantown is AWESOME! all sorts of neat little stores and shops! I went ahead and bought a few books and my own set of chopsticks I think we’ll go back Monday and buy more goodies. We ate at a japanese restaurant, and drank lots of green tea. At least two pots. She had sushi and i had a bento box. We then walked around a bit more and looked at stores that sold everything from Manga to Anime figurines to tea sets to candies to whatever you can think of.

After Japantown, we headed back toward the hostel and while Griffin went into H&M to do some shopping i hit up GameStop just to check out games. Then we wandered around some more and ended up walking down streets with droves of homeless people on them. It made me quite uncomfortable. Not because they were homeless, but because i hate it when they panhandle. Constantly asking for money, money, money. Quite bothersome. So after that we headed back to the hostel for a break. Currently i’m in my room resting up my feet (since i think we walked quite a few miles up and down hills), and charging my laptop and phone up. Man i’m glad i brought my running shoes. Otherwise i think my feet would be deaded.

I’ll either have to use Griffin’s laptop to get the pictures that i snapped today off the camera, or wait till i get home to do so. Since i was a dummy and forgot both my iPod charging cable, and my camera PC cable. Oh well, i’ll remember next time.

Not really sure what’s planned next. Maybe watch some movies?

Moving

Dan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:49:50 +0000

So, today I signed the lease, gave the realator a metric ass ton of money, did a quick walk-through, and got as much stuff turned on as possible at my new house. Very exciting! Starting next week after i get back from San Francisco i’ll start moving in. Probably with small stuff at first and leaving the big stuff until later. Sean seemed to convey he’d move himself, but i’ll still go and offer assistance. Hauling some of that stuff down 4 flights of stairs can be a pain!

So, the plan for tomorrow is finish up packing for my trip, run to the electric company and start an account, do the same for water, and see about getting cable and internet hooked up. I really don’t think we’ll need a home phone number, mainly because everyone has a cell phone. Plus it’s one less bill I’ll have to be responsible for Also tomorrow i’m going to try and get online bill pay set up with my bank, so that should be cool. More automation! Less things for me to try and remember!

10 minutes left here at work I need to find something to occupy that time.. Maybe laughing at the fact that an ex-girlfriend of mine just gave birth to a baby that doesn’t have the same hair color as her or her husband. I mean, i know a lot of babies start out with one color hair and then go to another. But still.. I find it humorous. Especially since it’s red hair. (No worries, there’s no way it’s mine. And i mean NO WAY!)

San Francisco!

Dan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:50:06 +0000

So, on a whim, I decided to go with an old friend to San Francisco next month.

Yeah, not much thought went into this decision, and hopefully i’ll be able to take the time off (I don’t see why i wouldn’t be able to).

IT’S SAN FRAN-FUCKING-CISCO!!

I’ll take pictures, and go to cool places, and maybe run into celebrities, and maybe meet cool internet people! OMGWTF *head explodes*

I’m so stoked right now i don’t know what to write. I mean, i’ve always wanted to go there. It’s right up there with going to Japan! And NOW I’M GOING!

YES *FISTPUMP*

erm.. so, now that i’ve recollected myself…

I’M GOING TO FUCKING SAN FRANCISCO!