be more social

lined up to avoid, but instead I am going to attend both of them.

drinking events, dinners, and two meetups. Progress.

tonight, with my team from work.

for long enough to attend a party. I actually like doing that sometimes.

So I get a bump on this goal, plus I willingly went on the dance floor and I wore a suit so two other goals get progress too.

The last time I flew from LA to San Jose there was this woman in the waiting area – she was very cute, about the right age, and very cute. I circled in, working my way closer until I could see her left hand; she had a wedding ring, so the hunt ended, but we ended up seated next to each other on the plane and I got to talk to her – she was an English professor in town for a conference at Stanford (her alma mater), very charming and fun to talk to (and did I mention she was cute?).

On the flights this week to and from San Diego I reserved the solo seat on the left side of the plane (it is a small plane, three passengers per row, one on the left side of the aisle and two on the right). That gives me a nice distance from other people, which I like, but prevents me from having a meeting like the one with the cute woman. So next time I take that little commuter flight I am going to book one of the seats that has a neighbor and see whom I get to meet.

visiting this week – three from Switzerland and one from India. A couple of us took them around on Sunday. We went to Big Basin Redwoods State Park to see Redwoods, over to Santa Cruz to play on the beach, and up Highway 1 for some fantastic scenery. All done in a convertible, of course, on a beautiful sunny day.

Three quarters of the people there were current or former Stanford professors, and everybody was a big brain type.

This is me with some coworkers at a company ski trip and party in Squaw Valley, California.

I also went to a dinner party with some friends on Friday – five people total, two couples and me. Everybody had Mr. Science hats (although two of us are not currently working in a science field) so we had stuff in common to talk about.

on Friday night, to welcome a couple of new team members. We went to the Beach Chalet in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park; great food, a live band (not especially good, but not bad either, mostly just extremely loud). I now know some of my coworkers a lot better – we are all focused on our tasks while in the office and need to get away from there sometimes.

Next weekend I’m going to a dinner party with friends and coworkers from my previous job.