Busy to Slow It Down

So I leave for Spain tomorrow! Now that I'm not crazy busy and stressed out about work, I am excited for my trip. Excitement even woke me up early this morning (like 7 am).

I leave at 8:30 in the morning and fly to the exciting destinations of Dallas and San Juan, Puerto Rico before landing in Madrid. The layovers will suck, but I only had to pay a couple of hundred dollars to buy some extra miles, so it's totally worth it.

I am meeting Becca in baggage claim in Madrid Monday morning, where we will navigate to the bus station to find one heading to Granada. After 24 hours of airports and planes, we're going to LOVE a 4 hour bus ride. I'm sure of it.

We've got beds in a hostel in Granada for 2 nights. We need to be in Sevilla, which is a few hours west of Granada by the weekend. In between, there is beautiful Andalucian coast and its famous tapas bars for us to drift along. Becca will leave on Monday.

After Sevilla, I am heading north to Salamanca for a couple of days, and then north again to Bilbao where I will meet Kristen for the weekend. We will be merry to the wee hours of the morning in Bilbao, where clubs don't get busy until 2 am. We'll chill out on San Sebastian beaches.

I'll probably stay up in the Basque region around San Sebastian and Bilbao for a few days after she leaves, and then head to Madrid for a few days before catching my flight on May 25th to head home.

And when I get home, I have 5 glorious days to do nothing but hang near water, and see friends who I will bore with travel stories. Oh yeh, I'll post pictures too.

Today is a day of packing, cleaning and errand running. Earlier this week, I dealt with exciting emergencies. Such as getting a new ATM card since I oh-so-conveniently lost mine. And having to collect enough memory cards for my camera since the cool connector to attach my camera to my brand spanking new 60 GB iPod photo didn't ship on time.

But I've got everything I need, including a cute travel friendly haricut, and place to sleep for the first couple of nights. Now all I need to do is pack - a several hour affair where I will move small piles of clothes from the "need to take" side of my bed to the "shouldn't take" side.

I'll be posting here while away, sans photos.

Livin' on a Wonderwall

So I've just returned from Brian's Going Away Karaoke. I'll mention that I went just for Brian since singing in front of people isn't some I find fun. Or maybe I should make that past tense.  Since I did it multiple times. Voluntarily. (With back up, but it still counts)

And I'm glad I went. It was super fun. Everyone sang... pretty well I must say... a lot of fun songs.

I broke into the singing with a horrible rendition of Faith by George Michael, with Dan being a heavy contributor.

After that there was some Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, which may have been started with the words "Jersey whooo" coming out of mouth.

Then there was some "Believe" by Cher, a nostalgic college song that involves some WWCD (What Would Cher Do) bracelets made by yours truly for some college roommates.

My closer was Wonderwall" by Oasis, another nostalgic college song that happens to be right in my loud singing voice range.

I left the crew in the room with the strobe lights on timers, and cheesy video clips.

My shitty singing was not the highlight of the evening.
- Chad and Nathan's did the Sex Pistols.
- Jessica (the yoga teacher) showed up just long enough to do a couple of awesome songs. Including a partnered "Hey Ya" with Brian.
- Everyone (except me) did "Summer Loving". Guys vs girls (and Chad).
- Zach and Dan did some Hedwig.
- Steph and Brian did some Linkin Park song that got them high points on the rating system in Korean.
- Dan did Total Eclipse of the Heart like he was in his bathroom by himself.

And I'd show you all of the awesome video of all of this... If I understood (while recording) that the red light meant on. But I didn't. So there are a couple of videos that weren't of my making and some pictures, which are don't do a good job of expressing karaoke fun.

Close your eyes, listen for "Eye of the Tiger", take a swig a beer. Feel the blinking of the strobe light against your peeking at the lyrics eyes. Then you'll be with us.

900 Pages

I bought the Lonely Planet Spain book early last week, and I've been reading it every chance I get. I haven't picked up my book club read at all. Both books have been on my nightstand, but the 900 pages on Spain beckons me. Just 5 minutes of reading tells me about a new place I want to visit, and it's hard to resist.

Part of the deal I made when I took my job was that I get a month off to go travel. That month is May and I'm heading to Spain. I thought about Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, but Spain won. I spent 3 days in Barcelona almost six years ago and it has been fueling dreams of living in Spain since. So I figured I should go do just that while I have this incredible chance.

My friend Becca is coming with me for the first week. Kristen, in London, is going to head in to meet me for a bit. And other than that, I'm on my own. I leave May 1st and fly back May 25th. I've started having small conversations in Spanish with Amber in hopes that it will help. She doesn't care if I ask her what time the train is coming as long as I rub her stomach.

So far I know I want to go to Seville, Madrid, Salamanca and the Basque area. Every time I open my book, another town is added to the list. I can take cooking classes or flamenco lessons. I can horseback ride along the coast. And Portugal is awfully nearby. I don't want to plan my time there too much. I really just want to hang out, eat snacks at cafes, and get comfortable with the fact that I speak like a 6-year-old. Buses will be plentiful when it's time to go somewhere else.

But since I like planning, I'm deep into pre-trip details.

A new 60 GB photo ipod is on order (which I am going to surgically attach to my hand), and I just bought one of those quick-dry, super absorbent towels. I've spent WAY too much time looking for new shoes. I am trying to get comfortable and stylish in many ways all in one shoe and it's proving difficult.

In the meanwhile, I am going to stop bringing the LP book to work, since it is far too tempting sitting on my desk. Who wants to do project planning when there are Sangria-filled afternoons on the coast of  Spain to think about?

Absent No Longer

So I just got back from China, where for the last few weeks I've been wandering around the country with no computer or camera.

So that's a blatant lie, but I haven't posted here in almost a month, and at least that seems like a good reason.

But there is no reason... I just haven't. I've been tired, sick, busy and frankly, just haven't felt like posting. So the catch up goes like this.

Post-Shanghai, I went to San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference and to hang out with some friends. GDC was OK. Not horrible, not awesome like when I went 2 years ago. The seeing friends part was great!

Exciting highlights were fantastic sushi with Becca, meeting Adhamh and Becky's 2 1/2 week old son Duncan, a trip to Golden Gate Bridge involving many buses and Metro rides with a couple of friends, and Lulu's awesome party.

I arrived back in Austin with enough time to do some laundry and catch up on sleep before SXSW started. My feelings about SXSW are mixed. It was fun and I saw some excellent shows. It was also crazy crowded and I didn't get to see several bands because of it. I said at the end of this festival that it would depend on the band list next year whether I would go. That's probably a lie. I'm sure I will go.

Best shows: Death From Above 1979 and ISIS.
Bands I didn't get to see, but really wanted to: The Kills, The Futureheads and Ratatat.
Bands I saw and are now sitting on my "CD purchase list": Mono, VHS or Beta, Pelican, and Octopus Project.

SXSW week started with a general feeling of under the weather (unsurprising after 2 weeks of travel and killer jetlag). Thursday I noticed the sore throat, and pretty much drank my way through it and an accompanying cough. If I wasn't at SXSW shows or work, I was sleeping. Heading out to day shows on Saturday, I thought "this is going to push me over the edge."

Tuesday morning I crawled into the doctor's office with aches and a fever. They didn't last that long, but sickness hung around all week. I even had to get prescription cough medicine full of codeine to kick my cough.

On Easter I had enough energy to cook. I made turkey and all the fixings. I bought a new receiver and speakers, which are totally intimidating, and sound great. This set up should last me through new media gadgets that haven't even been thought of yet.

This weekend my parents are in town. My dad and I have been doing house projects (where he's done most of the work). I have a new garbage disposal and faucet in the kitchen, outside light, wired surround speakers with unobtrusive wires, and a patched ceiling. My mom did some touch up painting and cleaned scuffed walls. I made a total of 6 trips to 3 hardware stores, and am now the happy owner of a saw and a drill.

We even had time for fun. The weather was great. We went to the Greenbelt, the pool, and ate many good meals.

I'm looking forward to "regularly scheduled life" for a while. I've got a few weeks of that before I head out to Spain. But more on that later. Now I've got a pull out couch to sleep on before I get off to send off my parents at 5 am.