California 2009 - Day 1

"You're not really leaving me, Mommy, right?" That would be the little face I woke up to yesterday morning. Yeah, she knew something was up. Needless to say, I bawled my eyes out when I dropped her off at the kennel. The betrayal! I'm such a bad Mommy...

Of course that wasn't the only drama of the morning. I had locked the cats out of the bedroom the night before so that I didn't have to spend the morning chasing them out (one of the cats has an attitude and if we give him access to our bedroom he's likely to pee on our bed), only to wake yesterday morning and find puke and diarrhea EVERYWHERE - living room, kitchen, and laundry room! I'm hoping one of them got into something and it has since evacuated their system. If not, our petsitter will end up having to take him/her (which one is the culprit?) to the vet while we're gone. Oh boy. At least I got up early and had time to clean the mess.

So, travel was pretty uneventful which is pretty monumental for me. Something always goes wrong when I fly. I miss flights, everything runs 2 hours late, and my luggage is lost. This time it was pretty smooth sailing and I had no worries with luggage as I only brought what would fit in my backpack. Of course, they had to pat me down at security. I must look like a terrorist. Grrrrrr!

When Dave arrived in San Jose on Sunday, he took a taxi for a whopping $20 bucks. Lucky for us, the university pays his bills since he's there for a conference. I had plans for a more frugal route and with time to play, I went for public transportation. It was pretty easy, although I did ask for help along the way from whomever happened to be near me at the time. Everyone was cool, especially this really sweet Indian man who loaned me 75 cents for my ticket. Thank you dude!

So it took me a half hour (instead of the 5 minute taxi ride), but it only cost $1.75. Cha-ching! I like that price tag.

I'm at the hotel now. It's attached to the conference center where Dave is attending his conference. The best part? FREE wireless! I mean you can't have a conference for computer geeks without free wireless, right? So I'm hanging out here in the conference center trying to look my geekiest. I don't think anyone suspects I'm an impostor...

Well, Dave has one more talk to attend and then we're off to dinner and maybe a party (if I don't fall asleep before then). My plans for tomorrow include a wonderful hike next to the river and through a beautiful downtown park (including rose garden, fountains, and museums). Oh, and I've identified all the vegetarian and vegan restaurants within a few blocks. Be prepared for some serious food porn, you veggies!

Later!