It’s 2pm on May 20th and I’m writing this in a Tully’s coffee shop at a train station in Tokorozawa (outskirts of Tokyo) with some time before a ping pong meetup. With my late bedtime and loving sweet matcha drinks, I had to order the matchalista – a frozen matcha drink topped with cacao bits. Also, I don’t listen to Tycho much but he’s hitting the spot now.
Apr 27, 2023 | Chillin in Davis
“Variety is the spice of life”. After a week of being on the move, it was easy to savor a slow simple day. I spent most of the day working from Dale and Liz’s dining table. Dale and I took our lunch breaks to made a yummy scramble that featured the largest bell pepper I had ever seen. Later in the afternoon to ward off the post lunch food coma, I took a short walk in the 90 degree dry Davis heat.
It’s a normal, nice suburban neighborhood and I felt satisfied getting a little more of a peek into the area my friends call home. In the evening, I had a quick videochat with my friend Giaco (He’s a Boulder friend I met playing disc golf who generously gifted me the beauhoover.com domain and set up a first version of my blog on Github Pages.) He and I caught up on life, I learned I need to go to Austin to play some sweet disc golf courses and he transitioned ownership of my domain and website. When Liz got back from work, I noticed her scrubs (she’s a dentist) looked a bit more stylish than how scrubs look in my mind. She taught me that there’s a company called FIGS that has grown really fast making fashionable scrubs including limited runs of new colors that sell out quickly. Next up, Dale and I went to pick up Yang Kee Dumpling – super tasty dim sum. We made it back home as a couple of Dale and Liz’s friends joined us for dinner and Wingspan.
Despite it being her first time, Liz figured out the game and took down the win! Aside from Wingspan being a consistent delight on the table, back in college, Dale and Liz and our college friends would play board games all the time but it had been years since we’d played any games in person together so the evening was especially fun.
Apr 28, 2023 | Running Around The Bay
After some early meetings, Dale, Liz and I went for a run around their neighborhood. Aside from a standard beautiful sunny morning, running together felt right since Dale and Liz are the reason I got into running originally. I had never really run more than a mile (in PE class growing up) until senior year of college when Dale and Liz convinced me to join them in doing the LA Marathon. I accompanied them for a run around the perimeter of UCLA and since that went pretty well, took the leap of faith registering for the marathon two months later. I spent more hours working from the dining table until lunch where we enjoyed great pasta and salad that Liz made. Next it was time to hit the road again, this time headed for Mountain View. Despite my fears for driving around the Bay Area on a Friday afternoon, it was smooth sailing and I quickly made it to my destination where a couple ex-coworker friends organized a happy hour reunion. I spent 6 years working at Intuit, much of that time with many of these people and am very grateful to have stayed in touch. Thank you Ondrej and Jed for making the happy hour happen!
Lastly, I headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house to spend the night with them in Redwood City. Ever since spending a month with them at the beginning of 2022, visiting them has felt like my Bay Area home. I was happy to hear that the medical expenses template I helped my aunt set up in Excel back then was still going strong and continues to save her time.
Apr 29, 2023 | Full & Last US Day For A While
I started my day off in the Redwood City AAA office to get my International Driver’s Permit. I figured that I’ll be spending lots of time outside the US over the next year so for only $20, this would probably be a good idea to give me more flexibility. (Mom is also keen on doing real life Mario Kart in Tokyo.) I was surprised to find lots of people in line on a Saturday morning at 9:05, only 5 minutes after it opened. That said, the line went quickly, the people working were friendly, and by 9:30, my mission was accomplished. Next up, head over to San Jose airport to pick up Mom where she flew in from Portland. Then we picked up Grandma Vicky from the Caltrain station and met with my aunt Frannie at Hikari Japanese restaurant. The salmon tuna tower stole the show but the skewers were also great. Beyond the food, I loved hearing about Vicky and Frannie’s recent trip to French Polynesia.
We enjoyed a little stroll after lunch and then bid our farewells. Mom and I headed to Los Gatos where we would spend the night at our friend Karla’s. We were very impressed with her recent remodel and I certainly would love to own a place with a kitchen like hers someday. There was no time to get too comfortable as I had plans to meet friends for hiking St. Joseph’s Hill. This was one of the closest high points to where I grew up in Los Gatos and I hadn’t been up for something like 15 years so it was great to be back – and it was just as I remembered. I continued to feel grateful for being back in the Bay and the opportunities for reconnecting with people from different parts of life. Karen is a friend from high school who has become an eye doctor and it was fascinating learning about her experiences practicing medicine. Alex and Jenn are college friends: Jenn is about to finish grad school and has a job lined up -I’m super excited for her to follow through on a years in the making career shift into product design; Alex and I bonded over Altra Escalantes and he and Jenn promised to come visit me in Japan! After the hike, we went to Willow Street, a restaurant in downtown Los Gatos that’s been there as long as I can remember. We family-styled our way through delicious pizzas and pastas but made sure to leave room for Dolce Spazio – yet another stop on memory lane for me.
Next up, I went back to Karla’s and planned on a relaxing evening staying up late (so I could sleep on the flight). This turned out to be more eventful than I expected. I had troubles getting unlocking the door and ended up calling Karla’s son/my friend Alex (this is a different Alex from the one I had just hung out with). We caught up for a while, then he helped me get inside and then we started scheming about me visiting him in Juneau potentially this summer. Alex and I go way back to around preschool but he’s lived in Juneau for the last 8 years, turned into a badass outdoorsman dude and I don’t get to spend much time with him so I’m hoping it works out to come visit him! I made sure to get everything ready for the flight to Tokyo and before I knew it, it was after 1am. I slept well, knowing it would be months until sleeping in the US again.
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