The day was odd, I should say. I was in a weird delirious-ish state, but I was getting so much work done! The boy was sick and annoyed with me, and I missed an important meeting today, which was a bad thing :| It completely slipped my mind - which I feel terrible about. Also looks like my trip will be extended till end of April.
In the evening, I left office early - at 4.45pm (record-breaking stuff) and reached the apartment by 6pm. Sunil Rao also came back with me, and turns out he has an apartment in the same building! Cool coincidence! I went with him to Coach where he bought bags for himself and Bon, and then went with him to the Apple store (so pretty!) and he bought her an iPod. We both then went for a dinner of burgers - where lo and behold, we ran into Akshaya. Hyd Googlers are everywhere, and you bump into them everywhere, no matter what part of the world you're in, it seems like! Finished dinner and walked back home and I was online after. Sunny got back, again hungry and with no dinner in her stomach.
A bit of mailing, a bit of blogging, a bit of hanging around online like a jobless idiot, a bit of complaining to Sas and a bit of annoyance.
Time to sleep.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Day 17: Time for performance evaluation
It's that time of the year again when we all write feedback for each other in hopes that it will eventually pay off in a bump in the other person's rating (or a dip, depending on how your corporate-brain is inclined).
I had so many meetings today, but I met one interesting manager from the Chicago office. He was very passionate about everything he was saying, so I lean towards believing him. It was a short meeting though, and I'm sure I made a decent enough impression. I'm fairly good at work, as it happens! :)
Grand Can(not)yon.
We considered driving up to the Grand Canyon this weekend, but almost as soon as we considered it, we dropped the idea. Near-impossible.
Sunil Rao.
Anyhow, got lots of work done and then in the evening I finally met Sunil Rao who is in MTV too! Poor kid was stressed out and jetlagged. I had dinner with him and we waited for the longest time for our respective shuttles - but he missed his, so he called a cab and left. He'll be moving to SF tomorrow.
Came home to discover that the door was unlocked, and I got the shock of my life - I wondered if I'd left it open in the morning, which is HIGHLY unlikely. And I met my entire Hyd team! Which was so much fun. I told them the news. And in the middle of it, my new roommate walks in! He introduced himself in the middle. And then he vanished. So was solved the mystery of the unlocked door!
Sunny's here as well ! :)
Worked on the site for a bit, and now I'm SOOOOOOPER tired. Off to bed I go!
I had so many meetings today, but I met one interesting manager from the Chicago office. He was very passionate about everything he was saying, so I lean towards believing him. It was a short meeting though, and I'm sure I made a decent enough impression. I'm fairly good at work, as it happens! :)
Grand Can(not)yon.
We considered driving up to the Grand Canyon this weekend, but almost as soon as we considered it, we dropped the idea. Near-impossible.
Sunil Rao.
Anyhow, got lots of work done and then in the evening I finally met Sunil Rao who is in MTV too! Poor kid was stressed out and jetlagged. I had dinner with him and we waited for the longest time for our respective shuttles - but he missed his, so he called a cab and left. He'll be moving to SF tomorrow.
Came home to discover that the door was unlocked, and I got the shock of my life - I wondered if I'd left it open in the morning, which is HIGHLY unlikely. And I met my entire Hyd team! Which was so much fun. I told them the news. And in the middle of it, my new roommate walks in! He introduced himself in the middle. And then he vanished. So was solved the mystery of the unlocked door!
Sunny's here as well ! :)
Worked on the site for a bit, and now I'm SOOOOOOPER tired. Off to bed I go!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Day 16: Allan and Noble go to Vietnamese restaurant
[Read: Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle] :P
Yep - I went with the crazy duo to a fancy Vietnamese restaurant this evening. But -- let me rewind.
Google Shuttle Drama.
The day started with me feeling kind of sick and lying around in bed for a long time in the morning, although the plan was to go kick some muscle butt! (exercise). Sigh, unfortunately "womanhood" had it's way with me in the morning. So I decided against going all the way to the Mountain View office, and decided to work out of the SF office instead. Sunny went to work. I woke up and logged in at 9 and started working, only to get an email reminder at 10am about dinner plans with Noble (who usually works in Denver, so I didn't want to skip this). The last shuttle out to MTV was at 10.40am. Drama! I ruuuuuuushed to get ready, and you know those moments when Murphy's law holds so true? That's what happened to me - I couldn't find my everyday things even though I had laid out everything that I wanted to wear the previous evening! I had oiled my hair the previous night too - so I had to wash my hair! Time flying, time flying.
10.34 - It normally takes 5 minutes to walk to the shuttle stop. I RAN out of the house, urged the lift to go faster, and RAN 0.4 miles all the way to the shuttle stop - in the rain, wet hair flying into my face and blocking my vision. I had one corner of my eye behind me, expecting the bus to turn the corner, and when that didn't happen, I thought I'd missed it. And then I made the turn - running on the roads like a wild child... and I saw the bus standing there, the door just closing. I ran faster, I waved my hands over my head, hoping someone would see, hoping it would stop. Thankfully, the driver saw me in the rear view mirror, and opened the door again. I tumbled into the bus, huffing, puffing, wet and sweating. Disgusting. But - I had made it! :) I told you, drama.
Work.
It was business as usual. I did SO much work. It was cold and rainy all through the day, and I was feeling so cold and disoriented and tired all through. Did NOT feel like working, but eventually got lots of work done. And surprise, surprise - I was done at 5.30pm!
Vietnamese Dinner.
Fast forward to the top of this post. :) I went for dinner with Allan and Noble. Allan picked me up and then we picked up Noble at Sports Page, went to this place. Caught up, ate some good food, had a beer. Laughed and cracked obscene jokes. It's always SO much fun to hang out with those two!
Noble left after dinner, and Allan dropped me at main campus where I met this red haired chick called Madhavi from Delhi. We got on the shuttle together, and Sunny joined us. It was nice getting to know this girl - she seemed fun, and was good to talk to - from Stanford she is, and just 23. I can think of 5 different people among my friends who would have a crush on her. Lol. Anyway, we spoke and then Sunny and I walked back from the shuttle stop.
Got back, spoke to Sas, chatted online with Ashlene and we realised we won't be real "roommates" and now it's time to go to bed. :)
Yep - I went with the crazy duo to a fancy Vietnamese restaurant this evening. But -- let me rewind.
Google Shuttle Drama.
The day started with me feeling kind of sick and lying around in bed for a long time in the morning, although the plan was to go kick some muscle butt! (exercise). Sigh, unfortunately "womanhood" had it's way with me in the morning. So I decided against going all the way to the Mountain View office, and decided to work out of the SF office instead. Sunny went to work. I woke up and logged in at 9 and started working, only to get an email reminder at 10am about dinner plans with Noble (who usually works in Denver, so I didn't want to skip this). The last shuttle out to MTV was at 10.40am. Drama! I ruuuuuuushed to get ready, and you know those moments when Murphy's law holds so true? That's what happened to me - I couldn't find my everyday things even though I had laid out everything that I wanted to wear the previous evening! I had oiled my hair the previous night too - so I had to wash my hair! Time flying, time flying.
10.34 - It normally takes 5 minutes to walk to the shuttle stop. I RAN out of the house, urged the lift to go faster, and RAN 0.4 miles all the way to the shuttle stop - in the rain, wet hair flying into my face and blocking my vision. I had one corner of my eye behind me, expecting the bus to turn the corner, and when that didn't happen, I thought I'd missed it. And then I made the turn - running on the roads like a wild child... and I saw the bus standing there, the door just closing. I ran faster, I waved my hands over my head, hoping someone would see, hoping it would stop. Thankfully, the driver saw me in the rear view mirror, and opened the door again. I tumbled into the bus, huffing, puffing, wet and sweating. Disgusting. But - I had made it! :) I told you, drama.
Work.
It was business as usual. I did SO much work. It was cold and rainy all through the day, and I was feeling so cold and disoriented and tired all through. Did NOT feel like working, but eventually got lots of work done. And surprise, surprise - I was done at 5.30pm!
Vietnamese Dinner.
Fast forward to the top of this post. :) I went for dinner with Allan and Noble. Allan picked me up and then we picked up Noble at Sports Page, went to this place. Caught up, ate some good food, had a beer. Laughed and cracked obscene jokes. It's always SO much fun to hang out with those two!
Noble left after dinner, and Allan dropped me at main campus where I met this red haired chick called Madhavi from Delhi. We got on the shuttle together, and Sunny joined us. It was nice getting to know this girl - she seemed fun, and was good to talk to - from Stanford she is, and just 23. I can think of 5 different people among my friends who would have a crush on her. Lol. Anyway, we spoke and then Sunny and I walked back from the shuttle stop.
Got back, spoke to Sas, chatted online with Ashlene and we realised we won't be real "roommates" and now it's time to go to bed. :)
Monday, March 26, 2012
Day 15: Hunger Games
Paul had very sweetly invited me to join him and his team for a movie - Hunger Games, and today was it! Turns out there were extra tickets, so I ended up not buying one. This makes up for me missing the Hyd offsite I guess! ;) Lol.
Anyway, I woke up late because I was going to work out of the SF office today. Enough sleep made the difference, I think. I felt a lot better today, and looked a lot better today too! Worked out of SF and had my lunch meeting. Also met with Paul, Popper, Shira, Michael and Kevin who are now working out of there. Took like, one break through the day though, because I had to finish by 5pm to go watch the movie.
Movie at Kabuki.
We went to Kabuki for the movie, which is a theatre that serves alcohol - so I drank before and during the movie. BAD idea, because I wanted to go pee! There was no interval, even though it was a 2.5 hour long movie, so I reached point of desperation. It was a tad miserable, yes.
The movie was alright - too hyped, I thought. It's big here right now. But it was fun going with all these folks! I took a cab back because Sunny was already waiting for me at the apartment, plus I was too lazy to find public transport back.
I got home, oiled my hair, did my laundry and got stuff together to go to the gym in the morning - I will now exercise everyday, no matter what! The decision has been made!!
Which means I have to wake up real early tomorrow, so I should sleep now. :)
Anyway, I woke up late because I was going to work out of the SF office today. Enough sleep made the difference, I think. I felt a lot better today, and looked a lot better today too! Worked out of SF and had my lunch meeting. Also met with Paul, Popper, Shira, Michael and Kevin who are now working out of there. Took like, one break through the day though, because I had to finish by 5pm to go watch the movie.
Movie at Kabuki.
We went to Kabuki for the movie, which is a theatre that serves alcohol - so I drank before and during the movie. BAD idea, because I wanted to go pee! There was no interval, even though it was a 2.5 hour long movie, so I reached point of desperation. It was a tad miserable, yes.
The movie was alright - too hyped, I thought. It's big here right now. But it was fun going with all these folks! I took a cab back because Sunny was already waiting for me at the apartment, plus I was too lazy to find public transport back.
I got home, oiled my hair, did my laundry and got stuff together to go to the gym in the morning - I will now exercise everyday, no matter what! The decision has been made!!
Which means I have to wake up real early tomorrow, so I should sleep now. :)
Day 14: A Sunday To Remember!
Oh, it was SUCH a beautiful day! After the rain, rain and more rain yesterday, it was finally a bright, sunny day. Absolutely beautiful!
First thing I did when I woke up was check my email and then Sunny and I went out for brunch to this awesome place called Pomelo. Such good food - I totally pigged out! :) I had a Seatle brunch - they had one from all over the globe! It was fantastic! After brunch, Sunny and I went to her friend John's house and we were there for about half an hour while Sunny left some of her stuff there and we spoke to John.
After, Sunny and I went to Union Square to shop. We shopped at Ross and then went to buy me red jeans - which I found, but they were only until my ankle, and I wanted longer ones. So I didn't buy. If I'm spending $100, I may as well buy something that's exactly what I want. I also tried on red lipstick at the Mac store to see if it suits me, because I'm all for red all of a sudden. I wish there were more red clothes in the stores - I would love to buy some red tops. And some orange ones too!
I bought a Ghiraedelli chocolate (my first one!) at a random store where Sunny stopped to buy an energy bar because she was hungry.
And then Sunny and I went on (the world famous!) cable car :) It was fun! Where we got off though, it was super scenic - the sun was setting, the sky was bright, and the breeze was light. It was SUCH a beautiful day! :)
We walked and met Caarolyn, and the three of us went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Rahul, Uma and Sriparna were supposed to join, but they weren't able to find parking, so they just went back. The three of us ate there though - AMAZING food. I had fresh crab with garlic noodles, and it was soooooo yummy!
After, Sunny and I took a bus back to our place, and it was fun again. Sunny is so much fun! :)
Came back to the apartment, talked to Smitha for a bit - she's off to Utah tomorrow, and then slept off.
First thing I did when I woke up was check my email and then Sunny and I went out for brunch to this awesome place called Pomelo. Such good food - I totally pigged out! :) I had a Seatle brunch - they had one from all over the globe! It was fantastic! After brunch, Sunny and I went to her friend John's house and we were there for about half an hour while Sunny left some of her stuff there and we spoke to John.
After, Sunny and I went to Union Square to shop. We shopped at Ross and then went to buy me red jeans - which I found, but they were only until my ankle, and I wanted longer ones. So I didn't buy. If I'm spending $100, I may as well buy something that's exactly what I want. I also tried on red lipstick at the Mac store to see if it suits me, because I'm all for red all of a sudden. I wish there were more red clothes in the stores - I would love to buy some red tops. And some orange ones too!
I bought a Ghiraedelli chocolate (my first one!) at a random store where Sunny stopped to buy an energy bar because she was hungry.
And then Sunny and I went on (the world famous!) cable car :) It was fun! Where we got off though, it was super scenic - the sun was setting, the sky was bright, and the breeze was light. It was SUCH a beautiful day! :)
We walked and met Caarolyn, and the three of us went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Rahul, Uma and Sriparna were supposed to join, but they weren't able to find parking, so they just went back. The three of us ate there though - AMAZING food. I had fresh crab with garlic noodles, and it was soooooo yummy!
After, Sunny and I took a bus back to our place, and it was fun again. Sunny is so much fun! :)
Came back to the apartment, talked to Smitha for a bit - she's off to Utah tomorrow, and then slept off.
Day 13: The Tourist
It was raining, but that was no deterrent! Here's what I did:
Sunny went house hunting, so although she and I left the house at the same time, we went in opposite directions. I went sightseeing. With my roommate Smitha, Rahul and his friend Sriparna. We went to the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts) where we met Georgia as well. Sriparna brought her car and drove us around, which was very nice of her! Before getting to SFMOMA, we waited for Shailaja for a while, she came with us to the museum, but she eventually didn't come into the museum with us.
Anyway, Googlers get free entry, which was great! Turns out we can take one guest for free too, but we didn't know that and Sriparna had already bought her ticket :( The museum itself was pretty nice with some interesting stuff, but a lot of it all just went over my head and I ended up getting a little bored. Maybe I'm not arty enough, and I'm so happy that no artist was around to make me feel intellectually inferior. :)
Georgia left straight from the museum, but Rahul, Smitha, Sriparna and I went to Lori's Diner for lunch (remember the 50's theme place that Mrin, Sas, Gapa and I had been to last time?) :) Had awesome lunch and a mimosa each (except Smitha, who doesn't drink). Shailaja joined us too, and then Smitha and she went to Union Square to shop.
Rahul, Sriparna and I went to de Young museum where Paul was waiting for us. Paul had a membership, and he could take one guest - me, so Rahul and Sriparna bought tickets. Turns out Paul could take 3 guests and we ended up buying tickets (again) when we didn't need em!
De Young museum was really awesome. We first went to this tower that gives a 360 degree view of SF, and in the rain it was SO green and pretty! Fantastic view. And then we went to the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion display (he's a French haute couture fashion designer), which none of us thought we'd be too interested in but went anyway, and that grabbed our attention, to say the least. To begin with, the mannequins SPOKE! It was creepy - I was telling Paul that I would not want to be here alone at night - the mannequins were blinking, looking at us, smiling and so on. For so long I stared, wondering if it was actually people who were standing really, really still, but they weren't. In the end, we figured out that the faces were being projected on - but you would never be able to tell! It was pretty fascinating. And then we went and saw all the couture that was on display and it was pretty darn fantastic. For context, Madonna wore his design and made it famous - the conical boobs. So cool I say.
We moved on to the native American display, and so much stuff there was very close to Indian art from two or three hundred years ago... it's just hard to imagine how similar it is. They also had a map that showed Asia and America - they're next to each other on the other side of the world, which is easy to forget sometimes :P The map had a pictorial representation of all the wildlife found in the entire region - an entire wall of this map. Pretty cool. We moved on to some interesting historical section - they had pieces of a burnt Church hanging from the ceiling - which was a black Church burnt down by the KKK. And there was a model of a Cathedral built entirely with ammunition - very, very intense. Phew - we ran around the rest of the museum because it was closing time (5pm) and then stepped out into the rain feeling like we'd seen something very interesting :) Rahul and I agreed that we like History and Science museums better than Art museums. :)
We went to the parking lot and a plan to go drink at Zeitgeist was formulated there. Billy (who was not feeling well earlier), was already on his way there, so we went there and got some beers. Chris, Georgia and another friend of theirs, Al, joined us there. It was a big, happy bunch. Loads of fun, even though it was rainy and cold!
Then we went out to this Mexican place for dinner where Maggie and her boyfriend joined us, and Uma, who just landed in SFO from Hyderabad joined us. We ate so much food, and we were a huge, noisy group of about twelve people - it was pretty fun! Then Paul and Billy walked with us till the car and then Sriparna dropped me here and then the three of them took off to Santa Clara.
I walked in - my boots were soaking wet, my socks were soaking wet, my feet were soaking wet - I put them all out to dry in front of the thermostat :P
Spoke to Anishaa and Ma! :) It was nice although I was soooo tired. Sigh :) Nothing like family!
Sunny called me - she was at a party and driving back from San Jose. I told her to call me when she reached, because I'd be asleep. In an asleep-state, I went and let her into the building, and then I came back and slept off even though she was talking to me - I was so tired!
Sunny went house hunting, so although she and I left the house at the same time, we went in opposite directions. I went sightseeing. With my roommate Smitha, Rahul and his friend Sriparna. We went to the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts) where we met Georgia as well. Sriparna brought her car and drove us around, which was very nice of her! Before getting to SFMOMA, we waited for Shailaja for a while, she came with us to the museum, but she eventually didn't come into the museum with us.
Anyway, Googlers get free entry, which was great! Turns out we can take one guest for free too, but we didn't know that and Sriparna had already bought her ticket :( The museum itself was pretty nice with some interesting stuff, but a lot of it all just went over my head and I ended up getting a little bored. Maybe I'm not arty enough, and I'm so happy that no artist was around to make me feel intellectually inferior. :)
Georgia left straight from the museum, but Rahul, Smitha, Sriparna and I went to Lori's Diner for lunch (remember the 50's theme place that Mrin, Sas, Gapa and I had been to last time?) :) Had awesome lunch and a mimosa each (except Smitha, who doesn't drink). Shailaja joined us too, and then Smitha and she went to Union Square to shop.
Rahul, Sriparna and I went to de Young museum where Paul was waiting for us. Paul had a membership, and he could take one guest - me, so Rahul and Sriparna bought tickets. Turns out Paul could take 3 guests and we ended up buying tickets (again) when we didn't need em!
De Young museum was really awesome. We first went to this tower that gives a 360 degree view of SF, and in the rain it was SO green and pretty! Fantastic view. And then we went to the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion display (he's a French haute couture fashion designer), which none of us thought we'd be too interested in but went anyway, and that grabbed our attention, to say the least. To begin with, the mannequins SPOKE! It was creepy - I was telling Paul that I would not want to be here alone at night - the mannequins were blinking, looking at us, smiling and so on. For so long I stared, wondering if it was actually people who were standing really, really still, but they weren't. In the end, we figured out that the faces were being projected on - but you would never be able to tell! It was pretty fascinating. And then we went and saw all the couture that was on display and it was pretty darn fantastic. For context, Madonna wore his design and made it famous - the conical boobs. So cool I say.
We moved on to the native American display, and so much stuff there was very close to Indian art from two or three hundred years ago... it's just hard to imagine how similar it is. They also had a map that showed Asia and America - they're next to each other on the other side of the world, which is easy to forget sometimes :P The map had a pictorial representation of all the wildlife found in the entire region - an entire wall of this map. Pretty cool. We moved on to some interesting historical section - they had pieces of a burnt Church hanging from the ceiling - which was a black Church burnt down by the KKK. And there was a model of a Cathedral built entirely with ammunition - very, very intense. Phew - we ran around the rest of the museum because it was closing time (5pm) and then stepped out into the rain feeling like we'd seen something very interesting :) Rahul and I agreed that we like History and Science museums better than Art museums. :)
We went to the parking lot and a plan to go drink at Zeitgeist was formulated there. Billy (who was not feeling well earlier), was already on his way there, so we went there and got some beers. Chris, Georgia and another friend of theirs, Al, joined us there. It was a big, happy bunch. Loads of fun, even though it was rainy and cold!
Then we went out to this Mexican place for dinner where Maggie and her boyfriend joined us, and Uma, who just landed in SFO from Hyderabad joined us. We ate so much food, and we were a huge, noisy group of about twelve people - it was pretty fun! Then Paul and Billy walked with us till the car and then Sriparna dropped me here and then the three of them took off to Santa Clara.
I walked in - my boots were soaking wet, my socks were soaking wet, my feet were soaking wet - I put them all out to dry in front of the thermostat :P
Spoke to Anishaa and Ma! :) It was nice although I was soooo tired. Sigh :) Nothing like family!
Sunny called me - she was at a party and driving back from San Jose. I told her to call me when she reached, because I'd be asleep. In an asleep-state, I went and let her into the building, and then I came back and slept off even though she was talking to me - I was so tired!
Day 12: Friday Blues
I worked SO much today, SO MUCH and I was annoyed during the first half because I met my manager and I was told he also didn't know about the communication I received in terms of postponing all the trainings etc. that I had come for. Frustrating.
I also gave him the big news.
Other than that, Billy, Paul, Chris, Rahul and I went to Plymouth for Taco Friday and it was GREAT Tacos! I also met Tanya who came to office to meet me. I met Kommu too, who was hanging out with Tanya. Oh and turns out Navin Rao is also in Mountain View! He's traveling back on the same day as me too! Cool, huh?
I then got most of my work done, but was still swamped and frustrated, so Sunny told me to step out with her. Went out with her to Castro street and had a beer. We were with Karen and Pam and they have both previously worked with Sunny. Pleasant evening out. :)
We both came back to office and took the shuttle back and I finished my work. We talked to my roommate and Sunny's now asleep and I'm going to sleep now too. Plan is to be at MOMA by 10.30am tomorrow with Georgia, Sims, Rahul and his friend.
I also gave him the big news.
Other than that, Billy, Paul, Chris, Rahul and I went to Plymouth for Taco Friday and it was GREAT Tacos! I also met Tanya who came to office to meet me. I met Kommu too, who was hanging out with Tanya. Oh and turns out Navin Rao is also in Mountain View! He's traveling back on the same day as me too! Cool, huh?
I then got most of my work done, but was still swamped and frustrated, so Sunny told me to step out with her. Went out with her to Castro street and had a beer. We were with Karen and Pam and they have both previously worked with Sunny. Pleasant evening out. :)
We both came back to office and took the shuttle back and I finished my work. We talked to my roommate and Sunny's now asleep and I'm going to sleep now too. Plan is to be at MOMA by 10.30am tomorrow with Georgia, Sims, Rahul and his friend.
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