Back To The Grind

We came back last night from our vacation. It was fun! I should be at work right now, but decided to skip the first job. I was just too tired this morning, and though I could have made it in late, I said fuck it. Hopefully they won't be too pissed, b/c I can't get the hours in this week. I think I'll tell them they must have made a mistake on which days I'd be out. We'll see how that goes over. This week was looking ugly with all the shit I have to do for all the jobs. I was going to be craming 34 hours or so into the next few days, so it doesn't hurt to skip a few. Though I should have gone since I need money all the time. I have a lot of bills and I am trying to get it all caught up by the end of May. So we'll see. Then I need to start making more $$
by July to accomidate for the federal student loans I will start having to pay. Plus I want to go back to Italy this fall. Maybe I can defer the loans some more, but I did graduate 4 years ago, can you believe it? and have managed to defer them all this time.

I really liked San Francisco, though it was windy ( I hate wind) and not as warm as I would prefer. But the air was way cleaner their, and it was a great city. It was easy to get around which was nice. Triple and Tiff live near the Haight Ashbury area. Well about a twenty minute walk or so. They are also very close to downtown which was cool. We saw that first, but weren't too impressed by the haight area. It reminded me of O.S.U campus in the early 90s. I am not into "hippie" homeless drug addicts. I have never seen so many beggars in one area the were perfectly capable of working. It wasn't like they were old, or mentally ill or something. We ate some thai food, and saw Golden Gate Park.

The rest of the city I enjoyed alot more. We saw the Golden Gate bridge of course, and went to Muir Woods. We walked aound Japantown, which was neat. I've seen plenty of China Towns, and Little Italys. We ate some really good Japanese food there. We did go to Little Italy and Chinatown as well. We had wine and cappucino at the Cafe Trieste, where Francis Ford Coppola wrote the God Father. We walked around the center of the vity a bunch which was nice. Mark realized how out of shape he was on this trip. His legs got pretty sore. Triple had a party one night and we met a bunch of folks. No one was originally from San Fran or California which was funny. Well except my friend Jami came with her friend and they are orginally from there. Except Jami moved to Italy, and she prefers Italy over the bay area. Given the 2 choices I would also rather live in Italy (well duh!). We visited my cousin in Gilroy which is south of San Fran about 80 miles. We went to some wineries there, two were owned by Italians. We went wine tasting one day, and let me tell you you can drink alot of free wine that way. But we still got 3 bottles. The wines were all really good. We thought about going up to Napa and Somona valleys. Triple's one roommate does tours up their, he actually took us to Muir Woods. For visiting having a guy like that for a roommate is helpful. But Jami said Napa was overrated after being in Italy, and I have been to plenty of vineyards their, so we decided to hit the ones with my cousin. Which was probably good too since it wasn't as touristy.

We went down to Monterey Bay one day and ate and shopped a little. It was nice, but the bay area around san fran is still more beautiful in my opinion. My cousins husband goes diving and fishing at Monterey Bay. We say alot of birds and boats. We did see one Sea Lion passed out on the rocks.

All in all it was a good trip. I would definitely like to go back there again. Our next trip will have to be to Tucson though to visit Rachel. But after the summer. Of all the places I have been to in the U.S. I could see living out there, but it doesn't get hot enough for me. Or course it is never cold. I do like Charleston, S.C. alot too though. Other than that moving out of the U.S. is still my number one goal. For now Columbus will have to do. At least summer is on its way.