Changing Locations

Sunday, January 17

Lesson of the day: everyone fails eventually.

I woke up expecting great things to happen. Things like the Cowboys winning and the Jets losing. Unfortunately, neither one of those happened. It is something I have gathered from my first week here in Silicon Valley, everyone fails and it is okay to fail, in fact, failing is good for you. So, it is hopeful to know that eventually, the Vikings will fail and that there is always next season for Nate Kaeding to bounce back after a disappointing performance.

Good things did happen to me today, I got a lot accomplished as I quietly watched the Vikings beat the Cowboys (I was cheering against the Vikings and everyone else was from Minnesota), we safetly made it to our next location (Menlo Park), and I again had new experiences (I did laundry at the local Laundromat and I ate chicken shish kebab at a Turkish restaurant). Mostly I ordered the shish kebab just so I could say "shish kebab," but it ended up being an excellent meal.

After starting the day off by failure (both the NFL teams I was cheering for lost), it was only befitting to end the day with failure by losing both games of up and down the river by a large margin. Yet, I am fine with failure. I will grow from my experiences, learn from them, and next time we play up and down the river, I will dominate everyone with my skill!

Monday, January 18

Lesson of the day: always be prepared.

I had two memorable experiences today, one in which I was prepared, the other....not so much.

First, this is the second time I have written this post seeing as how when I went to publish the first one, my computer froze without saving it. This is the instance in which I was not prepared with a back-up which is why I am still writing about my day a few hours after I started it. But it is a lesson, always be prepared for anything. This time, I am saving a draft every two minutes, just in case.

My second experience was a lot better for me (minus the fact that I now have really wet shoes). We headed to Monterey Bay this morning and took a pit stop at a redwood forest. It was raining, which added to the beauty and also created one of my favorite things, puddles! Needless to say, I had to jump in one (it was a small one), but that didn't stop my shoes from getting soaked. However, I was prepared with flip flops waiting for me in the van so that I didn't have to have memories of being at Adventureland after getting off the Raging River.

Moving on, the forest was amazing. Imagine looking up and only being able to see the green of the 280 foot trees and raindrops falling so slowly that you can catch them. It was a sight to see and the mushy ground could not take away from the mystique of the forest. After taking a short loop, we piled back into the van and continued our trek to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The aquarium was another fun place where I got to touch a bat ray, starfish, and other sea creatures. My favorites were the jellyfish display and tank filled with Finding Nemo characters (there was Marlin/Nemo, Dory, Gill, and the Bubbles fish). Another highlight was sitting outside and watching the waves roll in (it was cold so I did not stay outside for very long).

The ride back to Menlo Park felt shorter, but maybe it was because I fell asleep! We headed to Applewood Pizza for dinner which consisted of pizza and beer (I had root beer). After good food and conversation, we headed back to the hotel to blog and to get ready for this week's big meetings. (Benetech and Sierra Ventures on Tuesday, Google on Wednesday, and Facebook, Microsoft, and Intel on Thursday).

Until next time,
Kaitlin