An email was sent out today from one of the engineers, quoting an article where Charlie (included in benefits @ Google), was mentioned in....

"Everybody in Silicon Valley seems to be talking about Charlie the gourmet cook at Google who used to work for Jerry Garcia. I can tell you, the food is spectacular even by Michelin standards, not just corporate cafeteria standards. Because the food in the company cafeteria is so good, people don't leave work to eat. They eat with their colleagues, which increases learning and communication.
They get back to work within half an hour, making them more productive. They feel like Google cares about them, making them more loyal."

... and you wonder why I've gained some weight since I started working @ Google...

It's Thursday and I still can't believe I didn't write about last weekend... Jorge finally met my whole (extended too!) family. He brought a fresh fruit cake from one of my favorite bakeries, Sheng Kee. It was a big hit and so was Jorge's stories. My uncle manage to finally track him down towards the middle of the afternoon and so I left them for a few minutes so that they could talk and get to know each other. Before I knew it, my uncle had busted out the Remy XO and he started pouring drinks. What he didn't know was that Jorge had a little too much Remy to drink in Vegas a few weeks prior. The smell of it made him nautious, though he sat there and took it. What a sport! By the end of the evening, all I heard my uncle saying was that Jorge needed to golf with him or visit Manila with him. Good sign right?

Last night, I was pleasantly surprised with a little mini roadtrip. I was treated to some yummy dessert, followed with a mission to find a glimpse of Mars. Although, the moon isn't visible near it anymore, we still went. The darkest place around here is Half Moon Bay, but little did we know that it was overcast. I was disappointed to think that I wouldn't be able to see it so off we went to Woodside from Highway 1 thinking it would be better there. Overcast too. By this point, I was carsick from all the turns. We called it a failed mission and headed to 280 for home and guess what?

Another surprise!
It was clear as could be and I knew exactly where to go. Right near my parent's house and near Filoli Gardens, it was pitch black. (Why didn't I think of this before?) We got out of the car and there it was. I headed home with a big smile on my face, probably as bright as Mars last night. Mission accomplished.

a huge surprise today @ work... flowers and candy hand delivered!!! Gawd, I'm spoiled! My favorite colors too!! I Love You, babe!

Goldtoe has got to be the funniest story teller.... one way to describe him in his own words - "a big bald delicious seal..."

While sitting at your desk/table (whatever), make clockwise circles with your right foot.

While doing this, draw the number "6" ...in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.

Today was the 2nd day in a row that I had to deal with some damn annoying @ss driver on the way to work....imagine this.... You're driving down 101 with the music playing and you're singing one of your favorite songs *la la la*. You've got this great attitude to start they day cause the sun's out and you've got a good night's sleep. When out of the blue, the idiot in front of you decides to stomp on his brakes... as if there's this huge traffic jam in front of him that he wasn't prepared for. You look forward, to see past his car for anything that would have caused him to break so suddenly. There's nothing in front of him, but a car about 20 feet in front of him, probaly singing his/her way to work too. The fool even waved at me as to say sorry, when I passed him up. What causes idiotic drivers to do that?!? When I started to learn how to drive, I remember my uncle always telling me to avoid having to hit your brakes on the freeway, unless it was traffic time (or in this case where you're following an idiot). He told me to take my foot off the accelerator and I'd slow down on my own... *vent*

So, tomorrow's a new day. I hope it's not 3 days in a row... *cross fingers*

one more thing... my baby's off to Vegas tomorrow and I thought I'd see him before he took off...I guess not =( *pout*

Last night, I went to a work dinner at the Thomas Fogarty Winery on Skyline. I've lived in the bay area practically all my life, and never once did I know that such a beautiful place existed so close to me. I always thought you had to head to Napa for the wine country, when literally it's in my backyard (actually my parent's ha ha). I took some pretty crazy directions off of Mapquest and ended up going through the mountain rather than around it on Woodside to Skyline. Instead I ended up going for what seemed forever (i think it was only 3 miles though) on Old La Honda Rd. At one point, I thought my car would slide off the mountain or run into an oncoming car with the sharp blind curves to the road. Luckily I made it to Skyline and found the winery, although I was half an hour late.

At the dinner, after some wine tasting, we listened to the awards being given out and ate to our heart's content. Yummy food. After all was said and done, they passed out some pretty nifty Timbuk2 commuter bag, in every color in the world. Of course, being me, I grabbed a red one. woohoo! it's padded and everything!

I also met some folks from the NY and Europe offices, and most of them kept mentioning that we needed to do an internal Blogger training, so I offered in person training. I mentioned that we had a full team that would be more than happy to fly to NY or Europe to do some training. They laughed and shot my idea down, and instead suggested a training via conference call. Damn, it was worth a shot. ha ha

Lastly, the highlight of the evening. I introduced myself to the CEO, Eric Schmidt. To my surprise, he recognized who I was, since he approved my job offer pretty recently. I gave him a quick rundown and also mentioned we were addressing a lot of his concerns, so that put a smile on his face. Overall, he was very down to earth and very welcoming. It felt good to feel like I was someone to him, as he was very aware of what was going on in our team. I wasn't just another face in the crowd to him...even if I only did speak to him for a few minutes. (Correction to the article I linked to: Google's based in Mountain View, CA...although it does include a snapshot of Mr. Schmidt)

A friend of mine was IMing with me the other day, and I made a note to myself to blog about something he was talking to me about... let me backtrack to the context of the conversation.

We were talking about clubbing and bar hopping..something like that... about how guys can look at girls and think to themselves..."She's out of my league..." Is there such a thing? It's a certain pedestal you put a girl you don't even know on, hindering you from even approaching the girl to ask her to dance or even say hello, that he was talking about. ( I know I should have just cut and paste the IM convo but damn, I didn't think about it til later on!) He also went on to say that a girl can look at a guy and already know whether she'll give him a second to even say anything, let alone a glance. In his mind, he psyches himself out to see a girl he thinks is attractive because right away he's thinking, will she give me a second or is she completely out of my league? Do I even get a smile?

So here's my thoughts for guys...

I don't refer to the barrier between two people meeting each other as a certain 'league'. To me, I don't judge right off the bat and I don't categorize a guy right away. The score is even up until there's some sort of initial greeting - it could be a glance, a smile, a wink, even a hello. The score to me could change,however, depending on how that initial greeting was delivered. When you're in a club/bar/social setting where alcohol is usually involved and you see a girl you're attracted to, don't bust out your stupid lines. Don't refer to her as "hey baby" and don't give her some total slimeball look (you know what i'm talking about...the look that you're totally undressing her in your mind in those few seconds). Right off the bat, she definitely will judge and she will automatically be out of your league. Smile as if you're just being nice. You see people every day in the street, in the hallway at work, at a store, etc. Usually, you just smile, right? You're just being a nice person. Think of it that way.

Also, there's a time and place for everything. If you're in a club and you're purely out there to be superficially attracted to someone, then by all means, don't listen to what I'm saying. Be as judgemental as you'd like. That's a game in itself that applies to both sexes. But, in the situation that you actually do want to meet some genuinely sincere person, think of the place you're going to. It's a club/bar. People have alcohol in their systems and you have no clue about a person u meet there. The only reason you met this person was because he/she spotted you across the room, and thought you were attractive. So what? As I always say, "Looks only last for so long.." (My rebuttal: "Where's the substance?? Can you have a normal, intellectual conversation with me, without being intimidated by me? Feed my brain!! " *thinking* Although a tall, cute guy with a nice smile is some damn cool gravy to top it off! ha ha)

There is no league, and if there even was anything close to it, it's all your mindset. A guy doesn't have to be out of my league, but he can definitely intimidate me and put me in a state of awe by his intelligence and every day manner just by a few minutes of talking to him. (Also, u can ask yourself, "I wonder if he's even telling me the truth", but that's another story to blog about)

Number one example... my bf. Not out of my league, but his intelligence, drive and inspiring character intimidates the shet outta me.

i'm a big dork and had to add comments. Thanks to Enetation for my new comments feature!

Highlights for yesterday:
* 2 newbies started at work and they're both really cool! Welcome Graham and Kimmy!
* Slaughtered a San Mateo League team in Softball - final score was 8-2.
* Watched Old School all the way through finally. I swear I kept seeing bits and pieces.
* Got my fix of Jamba Juice mmmm

After a few episodes (okay, maybe more than a few) of Sex in the City (4th season), I've come to realize something. I guess I've known this for a long time but all along, I've never really accepted it until now. I've trained myself all these years to depend on only myself. Most people say I'm very independent. I do things in my own quirky way and I'm used to that. Being a middle child, I'm used to picking up after my brother and sister. When both of them didn't want to do anything, my mom automatically assumed I'd pick up the slack and I was okay with that. I liked making sure everything was okay and in a way, I think it made me grow up a lot more. One of my best guy friends, Bill, always tells me I'm an old soul. I think he first said that when I met him in Austin. So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

My biggest fear of ever depending on anyone else, but myself, is that I'll get used to it. I'll look for it and ultimately, I'll feel helpless. The worst part that would eat away at me....is that I wouldn't have control of the moment or of how I feel.

It's kinda scary that I can't control how I feel right now...