Scribble « Bryan Off Topic

I typed this on my Tungsten E Palm PDA while waiting for my flight to leave from Sacramento (SMF) back to Long Beach. For brevity, I’ve edited the original text.

12/18/06 8:41 am – I’m currently at the Sacramento airport (SMF), drinking Starbucks, catching up with rating my music on my iPod, and typing up my experiences until now this weekend.

Saturday

Morning traffic was non existent on the 605 South and 91 West, so I arrived with plenty of time to spare.

Security checkpoints were quick, no problem. My suitcase checked in quickly, which left me with a lot of free time before the flight. I was still kind of nervous because I hadn’t flown in awhile.

JetBlue is awesome! The seats were leather, each of us had our own DirecTV monitor in the seat in front of us, and leg room was adequate. Plus, the middle seat wasn’t occupied, so I had even more personal space! My only gripe is that during some times of turbulence, the TV programming would get interrupted – an extremely minor inconvenience.

Getting my suitcase from the baggage carousel took around 15-20 minutes, but it was alright. My aunt and uncle found me just fine, and after getting my suitcase, we were on our way.

The room we would be sleeping in for two nights was really nice! We were staying at the Air Force Inn (at the Travis Air Force Base). Two bedrooms, three beds, one bath, kitchen, living room, TVs in each. It was huge! I loved it in there, even though we weren’t in there too much.

We went to my cousin’s parents’ friend’s house. They were classmates in high school, and were letting us have our party for Leslie there. Man, their house was nice! It was really huge, and everything was basically perfect. They were chatting for awhile, and I think I fell asleep on the couch while watching TV.

Later that evening, we went to a bowling alley to celebrate my cousin’s cousin’s 10-year-old birthday. I stunk horribly. At least the Chinese food we got afterwards was decent. I fell asleep watching Zoolander.

Sunday

We went to Leslie’s place first, then to UC Davis for the ceremony. The former gym was pretty large, and the seating area for the graduates was big, too. We sat in the bleachers around what would become filled seats of students moving on. It wasn’t too eventful.

I got to talk to Leslie’s boyfriend quite a bit, and I think he’s a really great guy.

He just bought a digital SLR camera, and he bought Leslie a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS. Man, those two items were really sweet! I want! He’s really into photography, so I told him about Flickr. We discussed sports (or his lack of permission to participate from parents), his current career, and what he wanted to do in his life.

I told him about the new business I’m in, which shall remain nameless, and I think I got him interested. He took out his cell phone, and started to ask me for my number. So, I pulled out some Moo mini cards and asked him to pick one. (I love those!)

After the ceremony, we took a flurry of pictures. I didn’t use my camera because they had better ones, so I was hoping they’d just email them to me pronto. Did I mention that both of their cameras are awesome?

We drove back to our room, got some stuff for the party, and returned to their friend’s house from last night.

First, it was mainly the classmates of my uncle that arrived. Then, the college-aged people came around and I grew more comfortable. The food was good, definitely. There was karaoke, and I sang one song. (I love Chicago…classic!)

I talked to Sarah and Hubert the most at the party. Sarah (18) was an exchange student from Belgium, and she was staying at the house for five months. I found out later that she’d be going to Australia in mid-January for five months, too. Incredible, so much time away from home!

Sarah was super nice; the three of us we basically ended up talking the whole time. She spoke English very well, but it’s cool to hear the French accent, too. She imitated how she first sounded learning English, and it sounded like Sasha Baron Cohen in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby“. It was so hilarious!

Sarah also showed us a picture of her boyfriend. He looked like Matt Damon! She sang a few songs excellently, so that was great to listen to. Remember The Cranberries? She sang “Zombie” – that brought back so many memories in high school when they first came out.

Around 11pm, we took off for our room. I had given mini cards out that night to Sarah and Hubert before we left, so hopefully we’ll keep in contact, at least to get that picture from Sarah that the three of us took together (especially because Hubert looked high). =)

Monday

Woke up way too early for an 11am flight. My aunt and her son, Jason, had a 9am flight, so I had to wait extra early. (Had I known, I think I would’ve scheduled my flight for the same time.) Again, traffic was clear and we got to the Sacramento airport (SMF) extremely quickly.

My mom requested some veggies from Hawaii, so I have this cooler to bring back with me. In addition to my suitcase, I had to check that in. (Joy.) I’ll have to ask Bill to park because there’s no way I can carry that from the baggage claim to the car all by myself.

There’s this lounge where there’s a bar, Chili’s Too, and Starbucks. Oh, and there’s free Wifi! I don’t have my laptop so I’m resorting to writing this on my Palm PDA and wireless keyboard. There’s good lighting, and I can see a few planes from my seat easily.

The flight back wasn’t as great, but only because the DirecTV signal wasn’t picking up all the channels. All of the people at jetBlue were friendly, so I can only sing praises of them. Interestingly enough, I can relate to this post from Lifehack.org, “The Smiling Customer is You!” I was trying to be personable with each and every person I came across, as opposed to those who just ignore anyone who they don’t know. I think it made my experience that much better.