jatg and clymerchick gave me a ride down to the closest CalTrain station. I arrived at Santa Clara at noon, and was joyfully met by amythis, who was down from the Puget Sound area herself, visiting her Bay Area friends and haunts for the Thanksgiving break.We bussed up to Palo Alto. I suddenly recognized the CalTrain station there, and that clicked in the shape of the area around it, and I realized I was very near the former site of Digeo South.
We walked over to the building it was in, and I found the barely visible outline of the old Digeo sign that was there, when I was standing there last, about 20 months ago. When I was there taking a braindump from staff there, who got laid off around me. Then I flew back home with a pile of notes, and got immediately laid off myself. The end of a chapter of my life, and the start of a new one.
Anyway, then she and I wandered around Palo Alto, as she showed me some of her old haunts and workplaces there. And then later I got to meet her some of her friends, A—, and the folks at HALFLAB. I was given a lift back to the CalTrain station, and rode it back up to SF.
Unfortunately,
jatg didn't answer her phone. (It turned out she accidentally left it at home). And so after leaving a message or two, I started hoofing it back from the train station. Briskly walking thru south SF that late at night was an interesting experience. Fortunately for me, I was bigger, taller, and scarier looking than anyone else out, and so they veered off and left me alone.At about halfway, she called me, and they came and picked me up. Monday, I spent the day working from J&L's place. There is a good internet connection here (especially after I reset their router from it's defaults, enabling WPA, and setting a ESSID and PSK and changing the admin password to something other than "admin").
That evening we drove downtown, to my "Dinner Evening With Me, If You Want To" event. It was a blast. There was Julian Cash and his friend Robert, Leah Culver, a friend of hers from justin.tv, FactoryJoe, David Recordon, and Blaine Cooke. Unfortunately a handful of others had to bail at the last minute, but still, it was a fun and geeky gathering.
I learned that Meerkat Manor is only about a mile from J&L's. Tuesday, I woke up late, about 9pm, and then worked for an hour-ish. Then walked to Meerkat Manor, and listened to Julian's latest enthused pitch, and met a number of other residents of the Manor.
It's a very quirky place, full of very quirky people.
That evening, Julian and Robert were going to the local Perl Mongers Lighting Talks, and I hitched a ride with them downtown. I had to hoof it a bit, and got some turned around, but finally made to to where I was going, and finally met up with
blackcoat face to face. We shared some food and drinks and some stories.I then hoofed back to where J&R were, and rode back south. They dropped me off at where I was staying, and after I got in, I realized that I had left my laptop powersupply at the Manor. So I hoofed it back to their place, gathered it up, enjoyed a slice of pie, then hoofed back here.
I'm now about packed and ready to go. I fly tomorrow at noon.
It will be good to be home, at least for another half week.
