9 Days Left

  • By Daniel
  • 2009-05-20 10:05:00-0700

Last night after work I went out with Julian and Jason Nassi to a great mom and pop style Mexican place called Las Palmas near downtown San Jose. The food was good in the "cooked at home" sense and we all enjoyed it. We talked about traveling, work, culture. Good times with good people and good conversation.

I headed back up to Lila's house in the last bit of daylight and got somewhat lost on the way. I took a wrong turn early on and didn't realize it until I'd driven about 8 miles through the forest on a winding road up the side of a mountain. Thankfully I'd made that wrong turn before, and had even come out this way on casual drives to take photos and whatnot, so I at least knew where I was. The problem is that I had to drive about 5 miles on a one lane road to get to where I needed to be. On this road there were many tire tracks showing that impatient drivers had come into worse times than merely being lost.

I got to Lila's house late and hung out with her and Maks a bit, looking at the stars and drinking tea and playing with the pets.

Morning dogThis morning I woke up early to a cat bell and a wet dog nose. Droog tries to squirm his way between me and whatever I'm laying on any time he wants to be petted. DJ, the cat, was purring like a tiny motorized cuddle machine.

I showered and then went outside to take photos of the beautiful morning and play fetch with Droog by throwing small logs down the driveway. You have to use logs because if you use sticks he just chews them up and spits them out.

Lila and I talked about her time at Berkeley along the correct route down the mountain, and I made a mental note of where I went wrong in the dark last night. We stopped in Los Gatos for breakfast and coffee. More good conversation with good company. I hope I continue to have good fortune on my travels, especially when I actually start traveling rather than just being vagabond in my own area.

9 days left until I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight to Tokyo.