Back in the Saddle

Ah the blog. How I have missed you.

I apologize to all and to the blogosphere. My life got a bit out of control, but I am back. A little bit larger around the waist, but I am working on that.

So school really began to kick my ass. There is no other nice way to express that feeling. I decided to take three classes instead of two back in the winter semester and my life became a blur of posts, papers, and group projects. Sigh. I have very much enjoyed going to school up until recently because it was at my pace. I had taken one to two lower level courses and easily kept up with the work. Community colleges are cheap in California and everything was gravy. Then I transferred to Cal State. Even though it was more expensive, it still didn’t seem like that much of a deal. But then, the dreaded winter quarter arrived. I figured I would pursue a major in Latin American Studies and pick up a minor in Hospitality Management along the way. Why? Well, I have travel industry and restaurant experience and I figured it might be a nice and easy fit on the resume if I needed it in the future. Wow, big mistake. First off, upper level courses demand more work than lower level courses. Secondly, how dry can you make travel industry management? This is a subject I am passionate about and the course material was about as exciting as watching paint dry. Analyzing lunch and dinner statistics across markets and different parts of the food industry, P x W = X – Y + (B – C). Yikes. I have never been so bored in my life. Yeah, not happening. And all this for a minor I will be doing nothing with? Umm, no. Not happening. I eeked out 3 A’s that quarter (earning me a spot on the Dean’s List), but I vowed never again. Fast-forward to this quarter and a couple of online classes related to my major. One class is going fine, but the other was taught by this complete ***hole. Another student in the department had warned me about him, but I thought I could win him over with my sparking writing skills and superior charm. This did not happen. After the third threatening e-mail to the entire class about how he wanted his posts formatted, I had had enough. So I now have dropped down to one class for the semester, but I still cannot get the professor to return my e-mails. Good times. Starting from this summer, I have vowed to return to one or two classes per semester maximum. I will not qualify for school loans this way, but my sanity stands a good chance of returning. Being a supervisor at work has proven to be more work than I had counted on and I cannot handle a full-time job along with loads of these classes that require mucho reading and writing each week. I have now reached the point too where I am going to have to start attending some classes in person and this is hard to do with my varying schedule each week. But somehow, it will get done. All this work and all this worrying for a degree that I will likely not be using. (I need to keep reminding myself of this fact.)

In the meantime, since I had no time, the winter pounds accumulated. I am not obese, but I definitely am a bit round around the edges. I am working on that and hoping to fit back into my clothes in a few weeks.

I went to Asia in March and had a GREAT time. I took Cathay Pacific which was a great airline. The service was great and the inflight entertainment superior to anything U.S. carriers have going. I think I have gotten a bit too big to sit in the back; on future long trips, I am going to have to bite the bullet and pay for business. There’s something about being squished into a seat in an upright position that prevents me from sleeping well. Economy Plus on United worked fine for a recent Hawaii trip, but 14-16 hours necessitates more space.

Hong Kong was amazing, as always. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE HK. I love being there and visiting there. It just feels like an old friend. Some about the chaos and the mix of old and new that makes me love it there. The other nice thing about traveling now is that I can afford to stay at nicer places. Back when I was a flight attendant, I was always scared about running out of money. I remember coming back from Australia one time and panicking because I had no money left for a hotel if I didn’t get on the flight. Lol yikes. Those years were a lot of fun, but really lean. It never felt like I could get ahead. So for that reason alone, personal stability, I am glad I do not work in the airline industry anymore.

After a too short weekend in HK, I moved on to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for a few days. I had not been to HCMC before, so I did not really know what to expect. It turned out to be a really interesting experience. The Vietnamese, on the whole, are not the friendliest towards white people. I suspect that there are lots of wounds inflicted by us that still lurk just below the surface for a large majority of the older population that lost family or friends during the ‘American War’ as they call it. Saigon itself hums with excitement. Armies of motorbikes, most driven by young kids, race around the city at a frenetic pace. Buildings are being taken down and rebuilt at lightening speed. In a few years, a whole area just across the river from the current heart of Saigon will be transformed into an enormous complex with a football stadium, business towers, and more. The whole country felt like it is on the verge of emerging onto the Asian stage in a big way. I had a really nice time there, but then again I am the gregarious sort who will point to something on the street and eat it without the slightest idea of what it might be. The Iced Coffee there is like rocket fuel, at least 3-4 times the strength of the Americanized version here. The women on the street pour it out of these old soda bottles and it looks super dubious. But the affect in the steamy heat can be really cool, a jittery high in a dusty, sauna-like cement jungle. There’s a couple of Americans that have set up motorbike tours of Saigon on Vespas and it is a really great way to see the city. I look forward to going back and seeing more of the country in the future; most people have told me Saigon is the most industrial place in Vietnam and that the North and the country are much different in character. So I look forward to visiting again and exploring more. Overall, I had a good time and the food was amazing. Plus I got to dust off my French which was fun.

After HCMC, I boarded a Qatar Airways flight to Bangkok. It was an interesting routing, SGN-BKK, BKK-DOH with a crazy mixed crew staffing an A330. The purser was British, assisted in First Class by an Egyptian guy. Then the staff on my aisle consisted of a couple of Thai girls, a guy from Hong Kong, and then a really cute girl from Madrid who had an accent like Penelope Cruz. We had a fun conversation in Spanish, which was nice. I was having withdrawals from not speaking with anyone for a week or so.

I arrived in Bangkok for the first time in many a year. What a wonderful place Thailand is. Very friendly people, great weather, still very cheap. The new airport is very interesting; I know the Thais ran out of money near the end of the financial crisis, but the overall design of the airport seems very rough. The duty-free areas were well organized and the airport was a much-needed improvement from the old one. Still, how many people view Bangkok as a hub for air traffic in Asia? This is pretty much needless griping though; Bangkok continues to be a marvelous time. The train system has been expanded and an underground subway has opened since I last visited. The Skytrain is still a great way to get around town and there is still a happy and gentle nature to the country, even though I did witness a fairly big Red Shirt protest on a Saturday. I had a great and very relaxing time. I shopped until I dropped, got a bunch of foot massages, and came back much refreshed

So that was my big spring trip. I also visited Honolulu a few weeks ago for a quick weekend and had a terrific time. We are definitely feeling the beginning effects of global warming. It down poured almost the entire time I was there, something I have never seen in my almost twenty years of visiting and living in the Aloha state. These super tornadoes and floods are just a preview of what is likely to come in the coming years as people in this country argue about whether or not global warming is real or not. Sigh.

On a personal note, I have had some distractions as well that likely have contributed to my neglecting the blog. I am in love people. I have been seeing a great guy named Paco since Thanksgiving. We met unexpectedly on one of those typical nights out at a bar when no one is expecting anything. I was dancing, he flirted, and the rest is history. We met up the day after meeting and slowly began seeing each other each weekend. Paco and I both work a lot, so it is nice to be in a relationship with someone who understands my pain. He manages the kitchen of a popular local joint in the East Bay and stays busy with the day-to-day pains of the restaurant business, something I can appreciate all too well. We usually end up spending a couple of days a week together and then texting or talking on our busy days. So far, it is perfect. He is a really great guy, very sweet and very chill, not a stressor at all. So we compliment each other well. My OCD planning seems to be a good match to his lack thereof (outside his work, of course). He also thinks I am funny! Bonus points. So far, I have been wrapped up in the giddy stage where everything is rosy. This is bound to eventually come to a close, but he has been very successful so far at chipping away the cynical wall I have built up over years of bad relationships. I hope you all get to meet him very soon.

So that’s a long, but semi-concise update about what has been going on with me. I hope you are all having a great 2011 and I will try to get on here more often. Promise. Blogging is not dead yet.

Cuidate.