Digital Analogue

Part 1: San Jose

Thursday: transit.

Planned:

Fly out of Midway around 1:15, brief non-plane-change layover in San Diego, arrive in San Jose around 5:30 local time.

Actual:

Fly out of Midway around 3:15, arrive in San Diego and first learn that we won't change planes, but then someone changed their minds and we did change planes (and didn't leave for another hour and half). Finally arrived in San Jose around 9:30, sans luggage and all things considered liquid, including lens solution, which is liquid, and toothpaste, which really isn't.

Friday:

Morning:

Competed. Took 5th in silver rhythm (from a semi), less well in other events. Ran into Mike and Jayne from Rhode Island.

Afternoon:

Ate at a little coffee-shop-and-bakery a few blocks away. Went back to watch early rounds of some pre-champ and champ competitions.

Evening:

Went for sushi at the place next to the coffee shop. When Bryan and Jill left to watch the evening events, Kathy and Ian and I walked to a bar. Then back to the hotel to get Kathy's ID, and then back to the bar again. Learned what bars smell like when they don't smell like smoke. Otherwise uneventful.

Saturday:

Morning:

Got up before the slowpokes and got a chance to wander around SJSU and downtown San Jose. A lovely little semiburban city. Got sucked into a Borders, but escaped with little damage: one book I'd been meaning to buy for a while, and just one clearance item.

Afternoon:

While Bryan and Jill watched Michael and Amelia, Kathy and Ian and I found some Indian fast food (naan wraps---the ultimate fusion food). While eating, Marissa and Michael and Dave (from BBDT) walked past. Chatted with them for a bit, before they headed back to the comp. Wandered over to The Tech to spend the afternoon.

Evening:

Walked to San Pedro Square to find food. Settled on one place that looked nice and posted decent prices, but after we'd asked for a table, the host asked whether we wanted the other restaurant that shared its front door. So we went to the other restaurant, but this appears to be its back door actually, and there's no host at this end, so we walk all the way through the place and end up seated on the patio on the other side. The food is adequate. We then go back to watch evening events, where we get to snark about the costumes and the embarrassingly low quality of the rhythm events. Took a BBDT reunion photo with Michael, Marissa, Dave, Angie, and Alex.

Sunday morning:

Took the trolley to San Jose Diridon station, where there is no marking as to how to get to the Caltrain area; fortunately someone else was headed the same way, or I would certainly not have thought I was supposed to open the gates onto the tracks to cross them. Purchased a ticket from a vending machine, which gave no indication that it only gave change in quarters, even if you give it a twenty. Proceeded through the tunnel, which gives no indication as to the correct platform for northbound trains; ran up the wrong ramp before running back down and up the right one. All this running about with full hiker backpack and satchel cause serious windedness, requiring eyes-closed slow-breathing rest before getting back to normal. Fortunately, the train seems to have deparated in the direction of San Francisco and I had a full ninety minutes to rest and get started on Quicksilver.

"Folks, the President needs a break. He's like a Black-and-Decker cordless Dirt Devil vacuum. If you don't recharge his batteries, he can't suck!" --Stephen Colbert

Posted by blahedo at 2:52am on 18 Aug 2006