My co-worker, who took a cake decorating class instead of a Java class last year, baked this cake for me:

It was pretty sweet, and non-chocolate, of course.

The team that I'm on, A&I (automation & integration), we all went out to lunch one last time, since one of them wasn't going to be there on my last day. We went to Takumi, a Japanese restaurtant. We had the teppanyaki lunch. Our chef was pretty cool. Everything we ordered, he responded with "good choice, good choice". Everything was really good, except we ended up staying like 1.5 hours. It took hella long for the chef to come out and start cooking. Good thing my was boss with us.

And all 8 of us happened to fit in my co-workers Sequoia (that thing is huge). Knock on wood that nothing bad happened, but if we ended up in a horrific accident, the entire A&I team would be gone, and no one would be left to support the numerous Caltrans central region databases. Not that I wanted anything bad to happen, but we should've taken 2 cars. But it all worked out (good). Still, just sayin'.

One more day!!

Despite all the negativity that I've voiced about working in Fresno and living Merced, there actually are some things that I know I'll miss when I leave, even before I'm gone.

First & foremost, is the apartment. The only bad thing about this apartment complex are the trains. But once you get used to that, everything's great. The place is pretty big (2 bed 2 bath), has a big kitchen with granite counter tops, has a washer & dryer, it's a gated community, and you get a garage. The rent is relatively cheap (with the catch being the stupid loud trains). And Chris was a cool roommate, when he was actually here.

I've been looking for a studio or 1 bedroom apartment in Sac, with the same type of amenities as Chris' place, and there's absolutely nothing like it. Well, none in the price range that I'm looking in. Living in the Merced apartment has spoiled me. I everything that that had. By no means are they deal breakers, but I just like the convenience of not having to go out to do laundry. I'd like a garage, but if not, then at least a gated community. I like to think my car is worth stealing, so I'd like to keep it as safe as possible. So my apartment search continues....

Second would be the commute. Although it was a 55 mile commute each way, there was never ever any traffic. Door to desk in about an hour, give or take 3-4 minutes. Consistently. The commute from Vallejo to Downtown Sacramento is about the same distance-wise, if not a little less, but there will no doubt be traffic on multiple points of the drive. I'm expecting traffic in Green Valley where everyone slows down at the CHP weigh station, in Vacaville where it goes from 5 lanes to 3 lanes, in Davis where it goes from 5 lanes to 3 lanes and also at the causeway, then at the Hwy 50/I-5 interchange. I'm thinking it's going to be a 1hr 30min - 1hr 45min commute. I start on a Friday, so that may not be the best day to judge a commute. Hopefully I'll find a place up there soon and I won't have to worry about a long trafficy commute. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'll miss the easyness of the commute, but not the actual commute itself. The actual commute itself I WILL NOT MISS.

I'll definitely miss my boss and some of my co-workers, but I don't know to what extent yet. It's hard to say without having spent any significant time with my new boss and co-workers. So we'll see about that.

This one may be surprising, but I definitely will miss the Merced Applebees. So far, no other Applebees has had a happy hour as good as theirs ($4 Tall beers, $4 appetizers). They have different specials every night. Wednesday is bingo night, and Thursday is trivia night. Winners get a $10 gift card. Tuesday was Beer Pong night, which had $7 pitchers. They had themed nights and occasional contests, like a twinkie eating competition, and a corn dog eating competition, which Chris won. The bartenders (Mike, Katie, & Brandon), and the MC for trivia and bingo night (the other Brandon), knew Chris & I were regulars. Although we couldn't really tell if there any other regulars there, since it seemed like it was a different crowd everything we went, I still enjoyed going. But I won't miss having Applebees as THE only option for anything in town.

Yeah, I think that's it. I knew it'd be a short list. The list of stuff that I won't miss would be way longer, but I don't think I'll write about that. Yet. Well....maybe. I dunno, we'll see.

Tinie Tempah

I Shazam'd his song, Written In The Stars, at Applebees. I downloaded his album, Disc-Overy, and came across these two other songs that I currently have on repeat.

So Addicted

Love Suicide

Took my parents out to Boiling Crab in Sac for mi madre's birthday. It was their 1st time there, and they hella liked it. I think it's the first time I've ever seen them with bibs on, so I just had to take a picture.

Good times.

I'm only in town for 7 business days, so that doesn't leave me much time. I have to go back to the places that I like and that are unique to Fresno & Merced (like Piemonte's, Batter Up, H & W Drive In) and then hit up the places that I had been wanting to go to but procrastinated on it (Dog House Grill, Chicago Pizza Connection, Yummy BBQ). I also have to use up 2 Groupons before I leave, since I'm most likely never coming back here (if I can help it). So yeah, my diet's gonna take a hit for the next week and a half.

And of course, I have to go back to the infamous Applebees in Merced for one last time. I went with Chris, probably for the last time*, on Monday night, since he's going to Korea for two weeks. I'll be all moved out when he gets back. Justin's coming over Friday night so I'm going to take him there. Then next weekend, Kev's gonna help me move my stuff out, and he made a request to check it out. In all likelihood, that will be my last time there.

I can't imagine coming back to Merced or Fresno on my own. I can maybe see myself going to Fresno for work-related business, but that would be highly unlikely. And the only way I see myself coming back to Merced is to help Chris move out of his apartment. And that's it.

*side note: we only started going to Applebees after I moved in. According to our Yelp check-ins, we've been there about 39 times in the past 16 months. It could've been more, but Chris travels a lot and I have issues with going out by myself (only did it a couple times).

My new job is in downtown Sacramento. I knew I’d have to pay a lot for parking, something like $100-$130 for a monthly pass. I thought it’d just be as easy as buying the pass and finding a spot in the parking garage. I thought wrong. Apparently, the demand for parking is soo bad, you have to get on a waiting list to get a monthly pass. My current co-workers who used to work in Sac said they were on the list for 5 years before getting one. And Haile said it’s pretty bad like that.

If I can’t get a (readily) parking space downtown, that narrows my search for an apartment (that isn’t walking distance to work) to places on or near a bus or light rail line. Sacramento’s public transportation system is pretty bad, so my options aren’t that great. My search was already pretty narrow, cause I was looking for a cheap place, $700 or less. I’d like it to have a garage and a washer & dryer (in the unit), but that’s not a deal breaker. So during my search, when I found a potential place, I’d look up reviews on Apartmentratings.com, Yelp, or Google. So far, the places that have fit my criteria all have horrible reviews, like bad management, slow maintenance, but most importantly, car break-ins/theft. I’m not going through that “pick-n-pull” experience again.

This also brings up another issue: where will I park if I don’t get a monthly parking pass AND don’t find an apartment when I start working? From what I can gather, I have two options: pay $12/day for daily parking ($60/week, $240/month), or drive up a lil further past downtown and take the light rail, which is $115/month ($100 fare + $15 parking). I’ll probably do daily parking for my first day, then the light rail after. But hopefully I’ll get lucky and snag a monthly pass quickly.

Had dinner @ Auntie Minda's for Father's Day.

Pic of grandma w/ her grandkids

Me & the Parents. Hadn't really took a picture with them in a while, so I figured I take one.

I used my 24mm wide angle lens for both pictures. I shouldv'e used the 50mm, but I had left it at home. I guess it's nice to get more of the surroundings in the pic. Oh well. At least I think I'm learning.

Per our yearly tradition, we tailgated before the game. Good stuff. I brought my canon slr & took some pics. I used Lomography's ISO 800 film, so it solved my blur problem, but everything turned out a bit grainy.

Jacqueline, Kimmie on Lianne, & Mel, with a crazy lens flare that I did NOT photoshop in.

Had to call for backup. Of the 13 of us went, only Kimmie & I are A's fans, but she didn't wear any green. Luckily, Bubba & his brother Lester swung by. Clearly, Jas isn't having it.

And our big group pic (and more lens flare! over my face!). So it's me, Lester, Bubba, Jasmine, Elway, Daniel, Jasmine, Patchi, Jay, Jaymi, Owen, Mel, Kimmie, Lianne, & Uncle Ernie.

View from our seats in row 3 of section 246. Not too bad, but you had to stand up to see if deep fly balls were caught or not.

So since I was (more or less) the only A's fan in our group, I had to turn to my neighbors, fellow A's fans, for support. To my right was all A's fans, opposed to my left, which was my whole fam, mostly all Giants fans. It was hella nice talking about A's baseball with actual A's fans. I wish I could go to more games.

We won, 4-2. Dirty (Sanchez) was having control issues, while our no-name AAA pitcher, Guillermo Moscoso, or as the Athletics Nation forum refers to him as Moose Costco or Moose Tacos, pitched his ass off. And Matsui had the decisive 2-run single to give us the lead, and our 2-time all-star Andrew Bailey shut it down in the 9th.

The A's returned the favor this weekend. We swept the Giants in Oakland, after the Giants swept us in SF last month. So we's evens now, right? Until we meet again.

I got the job in Sacramento! My last day in Fresno is Thursday, June 30, and I start in Sacramento the next day, Friday, July 1. That only gives me 2 weeks to find a place to live up there. If I can't find a decent place by then, I'll just commute from Vallejo until I do find one.

I was kinda worried for a lil bit that I wouldn't get the job. I had the interview last Thursday, then the following Monday they contacted by boss about my paperwork & records and stuff like that. But then for the rest of the week, I didn't hear a thing. One of my co-workers said that they usually wait till Friday to make the job offer. And they were totally right. They called Friday morning, and I immediately accepted, with no hesitation. My co-workers sitting around me didn't even have to ask, cause I had a big ass smile on my face. I hella couldn't hide it.

Essentially, my job will be the same, if not a bit easier. Since I was specifically hired for a special project in Fresno, I'll continue to support that same project in Sacramento until they get someone to fill my old position, which could be tough because of the current hiring freeze (they can't hire anyone from outside the state, unless they can get an exemption). In the interview, I asked them about their current projects, and they said they don't really have anything new in the pipeline, that they're basically in support & maintenance mode for the projects they've already completed. So, in theory, that sounds like cake to me. I just have to learn the tools they use, which shouldn't be that hard. At least I'm no longer on the nightmare "re-do" project in Fresno (in three years, one guy did shitty work across multiple databases, and now we have to re-do all of them, but this time as a team). No one on the team is even remotely interested/enthusiastic about working on it. Not my problem anymore.

Had another interview with Caltrans in Sacramento last Thursday. I felt like I did well, so that probably means I didn’t get it (I’m really, really hoping for the reverse jinx).

I almost didn’t even apply because I thought it was the same position that I had interviewed for back in December, where they never got back to me at all (no calls, no responses to my emails). But one of my co-workers said just to apply anyways, that there wouldn’t be any harm. And I’m glad I did.

The interview was in the same office building in downtown Sac as last time, but this time it was conducted by two different people. It turns out it’s for a different position in a different division than last time. But this time, there’s a hiring freeze in place, so they can’t hire anyone from outside the state, and from the looks of things, there aren’t that many applicants. I made it a point to not ask any details on other applicants or a time frame on when they’d get back to me, cause last time I had asked those questions and they had just lied to me and got my hopes up. No way I was doing that again.

Like my last interview, the questions they asked were not technical, they were more experience-based questions. I feel like I did well, only missing on a few of them that weren’t too major. Most of my answers came from my experience with Pronto. They pointed out how working for the state must seem boring compared to the video game industry, and I hadn’t really realized that up till then. And speaking about my experiences at Pronto, it made me realize how much I miss that job, working on cool projects and working with cool people. Those were definitely good times, despite how that all ended.

So now it’s Monday, and the guy I interviewed with has been in contact with my current boss, and I’ve already had 2 separate talks with my boss updating me on the whole process. From what he’s telling me, it’s looking very good for me. But I’m still trying not to get ahead of myself and planning ahead or anything like that. It’s not a done deal yet, but from the way things are progressing so far, I’m thinking I should know by the end of the week. If not by then, then my the end of the month, cause I figure they’d want to get this straightened out before the end of the fiscal year (which is the end of this month).

If I were reading a Magic 8 Ball, it would say: “Outlook looks good” or “Signs point to yes”.