Vacation - whoop dee!

OK, this is my THIRD entry today. After a long hiatus from actually writing something (not just pasting some crap from other sources - well except that thing that Chang sent) on my blog, I am on a roll. So don't stop me while I'm ahead. Ahem.

Anyhoo - I am announcing the start of my two plus week vacation! Woohoo! Which obviously can explain the time I have to write my third blog entry of the day. The vacation was one of the reasons why I took this job with the bank -- hoping it would give the life-work balance that I really want. Because of the job band I am in, I get four weeks of vacation, plus ten banking holidays, plus occasional illness, personal days, etc. But being a new person to the group, I don't want to take advantage of all of these... so I am just taking the holidays like everyone else, and then the vacation days. But I stuck it out (again being the newbie) and didn't take any vacation till thanksgiving pretty much (minus a few days when Chang's mom visited). So now I had ten days left (having started late Feb). So on friday I started my vacation.

I kicked off my vacation by meeting Nicole after work on Thursday. We met at Hayes Valley for dinner (we're trying to make the spot our "Hangout" after work... went for wine and cheese another time). We decided we want something "not-sandwich". :-P We went to this mom and pop burger joint and got a "Mediterranean burger" and pork chops. Oh and of course beer. There was so much food. It was all good and had a great time. Afterwards (and after a little buzz), we were supposed to go to an art installation on 9th and Minna, but we got kinda ticked off by the fact that they were gonna charge us $8 for entry, when we BOTH remembered seeing on their website that the entrance was FREE. Not that $8 is so bad... If it had said $8 from the beginning, I think we might have gone. It sounded really interesting. It was supposed to be an interactive media art installation, which combined audio, video, and the audience -- all as a part of the artistic experience (not nouveau at all, but still intresting and would have been interesting). But anyway, had it originally said $8, we would have gone. But don't change it on the day of, from FREE to $8! I complained to Cho that they were scheming and that they were clearly watching the clickthrus on their website and determined that with the level of clickthrus = interest, they might as well charge people and make some money while they can. All a consipiracy. Cho agreed. So we said screw it -- 9th and minna was too far to walk (not really) from hayes anyway, so we went for another beer in the western addition (cho's hood). Actually we got couple of soju martinis with ginger which was divine. Some of cho's peeps met up with us. Now, Cho has moved to just the right spot. If I was to live in the city again, I would totally live in the western addition near japan town. It's a great area.

On Friday, I was supposed to have a lunch date with a friend of mine. Now this friend I have known for some years now. I met her in Sac. She's been going through some real tough shit in the last few years. So I understand if she is depressed and anti social. However, I do leave her messages now and then, and she also calls me up totally out of the blue now and then. Which is fine. I had no expectations, given the circumstances. In the past several months, she's been wanting to see me and I the same. We have talked of meeting up and it never happened cuz of busy schedules. Actually she kinda promised me to meet up (she suggested) and then we never got to cuz she never confirmed, several times. and believe me i've tried. So on Thursday, she called me up while I was at work. She wanted to meet up soon for dinner or something. Long story short, we made plans to meet up for lunch on Friday. I suggested Palo Alto. She suggested Sta rbucks on University. 12 o'clock.
So Friday lunch time comes. I hadn't heard from her that morining, but since we did make plans, I started driving out to Palo Alto. I called her like half an hour before the meeting time. Of course she doesn't pick up. So whatever, I have faith, so I drove half an hour to get down to palo alto and then drove another half an hour looking for parking. And I finally got to the Starbucks and she wasn't there. I call her x 10 and waited but she did not come. Now this really pisses me off. I understand she's going through some shit now but pick up the damn phone and just let me know u don't want to come out. That's all. If we make plans, how can anyone think it's ok for the other party to drive their ass around for an hour when they simply won't show up? Not cool at all. I am very loyal to my friends and I think quite forgiving but also do get very upset when they dissappoint me. I am not going to wait for her -- I don't know what she's thinking, but next time she wants to "meet up" she'll need to convince me.

So anyway, since someone was too busy to pick up the damn phone, I called Sarah. Good thing cuz she had just emailed me about something, so we decided to meet for lunch. We went to this japanese place in San Jose. We had been to this place a while ago, but I hadn't remembered much. But anyway, I want to talk about the lunch we had. It was SOOOOOO GOOOD. Very simple but hearty - just the way I like my food. We both got the lunch special, which was fatty tuna over rice with nori, sesame seed, wasabi, and ginger sprinkled on top. YUM. The special also came with a bowl of simple udon. Very good and just perfect with the fatty tuna over rice. It also came with a small plate of tempura (with shrimp) and I liked that they didnt' put it in my udon. All this for $8 bucks and some change. It was a very good meal. Afterwards we went to Starbucks for some tea. (we had coffee earlier).

Oh yea. Starbucks. Anyone notice how NASTY it's getting? I'm starting to become anti-starbucks. First of all, I feel that the quality of their coffe and especially the blended espresso drinks is weakening. I am not sure when this started happening since I am not someone who goes to sbucks everyday, but I do go several times a month, usually to meet up with people. But I have noticed for some time now.

The other thing, which actually bothers me more, is that the cleanliness of their stores have gone south ALSO for some time now. Their bathroom is just so nasty. I remember a while back when the sbucks bathrooms were always kept tidy. It was not because the company was new and it was not because the store space they rent was new. It was becasue they took care to keep their facilities clean. They paid attention. It seems that with their wild success and popularity, they have started to devote less time to maintaining their facilities clean. It could be that with the stores so busy, the employees simply do not have time to pay attention to the bathrooms, the rest of the store, or even the cleanliness of the bar, etc. It could be that without an actual franchise owner, just the manager, no one really gives a shit whether customers notice these things and come back or not. they're just there to do their work and get paid by the hour. Whatever the reason, it seems that Starbucks has been more focused on domestic and global expansion of their new stores rather than focusing on the store they already own. Perhaps franchising won't be such a bad thing to the company -- I mean seriously, maybe in the long run, it won't cut their revenue but help with the management of their brand, their stores, and the customers. Everytime I use their bathroom (now usually a desperate situation) -- whether Palo alto, san jose, wherever -- I wonder how CLEAN the hands of the person who is making my vanilla latte are. It just makes me shudder. And I am sure the sloppiness of their outward appearance (includes cleanliness) goes hand in hand with the lessening quality of my drinks. I expect more. I used to like it very much. Time to discover Peet's all over again.