Planes etc.

So at 6 o'clock this morning, my plane took off and went to Chicago, while I slept (a little bit). At 8 o'clock, a different plane took off and went to San Francisco, while I slept (a lot). They took a long time getting my duffel bag, but that was the biggest hassle I had there.

I took the CalTrain, which is a lot like the LIRR in that it's a commuter train, but is a lot better because it looks cooler and is cleaner (and has a neat second story type thing so that the seats are one wide on each side on the second story, and the middle of the floor is gone, so they can see down to the first floor), to Mt. View. As a sidenote, the part about having a kind of "open" second level is a common theme it seems --- what I've seen of California so far just feels, in general, a lot more open. Lots of breathing room, you might say. Sunny, too, so far.

So I got my apartment and a very big pickup truck (in error --- I'll have a smaller one on Tuesday) that is very difficult to drive and park without running over babies, got some food and Jamba Juice (which is actually really good, but still pretty overpriced), and ate it. Even without cable I still get Stargate Atlantis, which really isn't that big of a deal at all, but I did watch it this once. Watching that got me thinking that I should call the cable company and get that and internet set up, which, skipping the details, I'll have on Tuesday. I will also have a "home" phone number that I'll probably never answer. It begins with 650- and ends with 6-5432, but I don't remember the other two numbers. You could brute-force it (only 100 numbers to search through, and you can trim it down by eliminating numbers like 1 and 9), but you probably wouldn't know if you got it right because I wouldn't be there to answer it. I'll leave it here once I get back (from where, you ask? I haven't gotten to that part of the story yet!).

After the food and Stargate, I went to a Target and got some stuff to make it feel more home-y (like sheets), brought that back, and took a shower. I tried to connect to a nearby wireless network (the only unsecured one was GoogleWiFi), but it was very slow, so I left, and took a drive out to the Googleplex.

When I got there, I followed some signs for the Visitor Lobby past some retro-styled bikes with front baskets and small orange flags (presumably the bikes are standard issue), past some palm trees and cacti, past a very small pool/hot tub, to some Googlers playing volleyball. Someone let me in the building as they were exiting, and I got to see some of the food places, but it was pretty empty and not sunny, so I went back outside. There is cool architecture and landscaping, and a nice looking hill on one side that partially obscures the Shoreline Amphitheatre. Pictures to come if Casio ever sends my camera back.

So because I couldn't get decent wireless in my apartment, and the real internet connection didn't exist yet, I came to this place in "downtown Mt. View," called Neto. It's a small coffee shop/bakery type thing with free WiFi, which is what is enabling me to type this. Now I'm going to go back across the street to a restaurant that looked kind of Greek and very good. Wish me luck.

EDIT: GoogleWiFi is working fine now. Don't know what the problem was earlier today (maybe just unusually high load or a bad spot in the apartment), but as long as it doesn't persist, I'm cancelling Comcast. I also learned that the reason it exists is that Google provides wireless internet access all over Mt. View. Yay Google!