The past few days I haven't felt at peace. I don't know exactly what it is, but I just don't feel right. I guess life is a struggle and these are just one of the lulls I'll go through. I know I need to look unto God for that peace, but I dunno sometimes it seems so difficult. Hopefully my trip back to the Bay Area next week will help refresh... maybe it's from being in London too long...

Lavin Cheered on the Road
Cal's Arena a Haas of Pain for Lavin

Man, I am so proud to be a Cal alumnus.

Not that I'm the best looking guy in the world, but I am resigned to the fact that I will forever be surrounded by unattractive woman. Don't get offended by the words I will now write

Reason #1 I attended Whitney High School... enough said
Reason #2 I attended UC Berkeley...ranked #300.. enough said
Reason #3 At my company, we have a directory with pictures of all our employees. Same caliber as the above two.

Not that eye candy is the most important thing in the world, but it would be nice at least once in a while. Oh well... c'est la vie.

A conversation between a couple of my co-workers last night:

Coworker A: Hey, let me set you up with my friend for our company party.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?
Coworker A: She's a great girl, I was gonna set her up with coworker C.
Coworker B: Who does she look like?
Coworker A: She has long, brown hair.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?
Coworker A: She has blue eyes.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?
Coworker A: She's funny.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?
Coworker A: She likes Dawson's Creek too, you could watch it with her.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?
Coworker A: She's pure, she's never had a boyfriend.
Coworker B: Is she pretty?

Conclusion: Girl is not pretty. My advice, find another date.

Questions I ask myself:

Why do I close and lock the door everytime I go pee, poo, or shower when I'm living alone in my hotel or apartment?
Why do Brits drive on the wrong side of the road?
When a client pays $XXXX a day for me, does he realize that I just graduated from college?
Why do Europeans where such tight jeans?
Why do fat people where such tight, scandalous clothes?
How have eskimos survived for hundreds of years living in igoloos and no heater?
Why I have nothing better to do than ask these questions to myself?

Ok, I'm an idiot... but please realize that I'm pretty sad right now. I might miss the Super Bowl because I'm in stinking London. My Raiders make it to the Super Bowl for the first time since I was old enough to remember, and I miss the stinkking Super Bowl?? WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! I'm in London for the first time in my life, but at the same time the Raiders are in the Super Bowl for the first time in living memory. Man... if I got to choose I'd rather be in the US watching the football game... oh well... sucks to be me (man.. I sound like a girl complaining about dumb stuff)

My Day
6:00 AM I wake up do to some reading before work.
7:55 AM Go to the hotel restaurant get a quick bite to eat.
8:00 AM Walk to work. It is raining lightly
8:30 AM Arrive at work, go straight to a meeting.
12:00 PM Eat lunch with coworkers. Eat some cashew nut chicken noodles which give me gas later on.
12:45 PM Back to work.
8:30 PM Leave work. Make the two mile walk back to the hotel in pouring rain.
9:00 PM Arrive at my hotel, drenching wet.
9:20 PM Room service arrives with my dinner.
Plans for the rest of the night... do more reading, prepare slides for tomorrow.

Man... don't you just love how exciting my life in London is? I just found out today that I'll be in London for another week, which means I'll be returning to Houston on January 31, 4:30 PM. I will then leave for San Francisco the next morning at 9:40 AM. Dang.. working life sure is busy. Still, I don't have too much to complain about. Work is interesting, and really challenging. It's like studying for finals all the time. I'm in the office cramming a bunch of information into my mind so that I could sound knowledgeable about a subject that I knew nothing about two days earlier. The trouble is then trying not to sound like a fool when I speak to somebody who has spent his whole life working in the industry I spent the past 2 days studying. Well, I should start reading some more soon, don't want to get caught looking dumb tomorrow.

In London for training. I can't write too much because at my hotel they charge for each minute you are online... sucky huh? Anyways, I just found out that I'll be here another week to begin work on a project? That means by the time I head back to the US, I will have spent more time in London than I have in Houston... interesting.... I dunno if it's good or bad... good I guess. Well... spending too much time online, I will write more later.

My weekend was kinda monotonous, but productive. Friday was my first day of work. All I did the whole day was listen to HR stuff, and learn how to work my computer. This highlight of the day was steak lunch. Man... where else do they eat lunch but Texas... gotta love Texas. But then again, being in the fattest city of America, who would expect anything less. Saturday the movers came, so I spent all of Saturday and most of Sunday unloading and building furniture. No longer am I limited to a simple sleeping bag, but my apt is now furnished... woohoo!!!

Anyways, the highlight of my weekend occurred while carpooling to church on Sunday... I met for the first time a real live urologist. You gotta see... before yesterday, I never even knew urologists existed... but behold they do. For those of you who don't know, a urologist is a PENIS doctor. Man... how awesome is that. Many kids grow up wanting to be doctors but how many grow up wanting to become penis doctors? I can't imagine many straight men wanting to look at penis' all day for work... but then again.. I guess somebody got to do it. I wonder if he ever laughed at a patient because he his penis was so small. Does anybody remember those good ol' days of junior high school sex ed, when we got to see those penis' with STDs that looked like cauliflowers? I wonder if that's what he deals with all day. I mean, you really must have some major penile problems to go to a penis doctor voluntarily. Man.. I hope I never have to go to a penis doctor. But for those of you who experience pain will peeing, or find wierd things growing around your penis, I recommend that you go to your neighborhood urologist aka penis doctor today, maybe he'll give you a piece of candy as you leave the office.

I GOT A NEW CAR!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!! Actually, it's not all that, I just bought a new Honda Civic yesterday and I finally got to bring it home today. It's the first car I've ever bought, so that was a big thing for me. But even more enjoyable than bringing the car home, was the bargaining with the sale people. I know a lot of people don't like the bargaining, but it's a game.. .like poker. The dealer doesn't want to show me what he's holding, and I'm not showing my cards either. In turn, we try to sucker the other into making a concession he normally wouldn't make. Now, because the car dealer obviously has more experience than me, I probably got burned.. but hey... it was fun nevertheless. I realized that the sign of a good car saleman is not making the most money possible off of a customer, but it is making a lot of money off of a customer while customer walks away thinking he got a great deal. Wow.. so fun... if I could... I would sell cars part time.

Anyways, tomorrow my adult life will finally begin. It is my first day of work. I'm really excited as my coworkers appear to be great, and it will be good to be productive once again. I quite nervous because I'm not sure if I'm worth the money they are paying me. It's not like they are paying a super lot for me... but I look at migrant workers on a farm who toil all day in the red hot sun and get paid practically nothing. Physical labor is different than mental (sorry can't think of a better word) labor, but doesn't it stink how those of us mental laborers so thoroughly screw the physically laborers. Are we mental laborers worth that much more than physical laborers? Anyways, work will be exciting, as I like the company, the job description, the future possibilities.

Thanks Jomo for helping me put up my comments and counter.. you the best sir!

Well... I am now in Houston... pretty crazy. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and I must say that the past couple of days were really interesting. First, on my plane ride to Houston, I ran into my friend Patty Porto from high school. She was on her way to New Orleans, and she had a connection in Houston, so we got to ride together. It was pretty crazy and random, considering that this past Thanksgiving was the first time I saw her since freshman year of college, but it was great nonetheless.

After arriving in Houston, I finally entered my new apartment. Now that I'm here my place looks whatevers. It looked so nice with all the fake model apt furniture but now... it looks naked... I actually feel naked being here too. Right now my apartment has a sleeping bag, toilet paper, paper towels, hotel shampoo and soap, yogurt, and water. DANG IT... I just realized i don't have any spoons for my yogurt... ugh... oh well.. c'est la vie. As you can see, I'm living pretty high class. And if you consider that I have no friends here, my life seems just.. well.. swell.

Actually, I am really excited about getting settled down here. My furniture should be arriving towards the end of the week, and one of BK's friends said she'd try to hook me up with Rockets vs. SPURS tickets... how awesome is that? I start work this Friday, and I'll be car shopping, buying insurance, and doing the other stuff a person needs to get settled down until then. Oh well.. time to entertain myself by reading The Fundamentals of Petroleum... I'm not kidding either.

Hi blog world,

I decided to start this blog thing as a way to keep in touch with people as I move out to Houston (this Monday Jan 6). So yeah... I'm still in LA right now, so I don't have much to say. That is all.