UNDO

I started this post this morning when I first got to work and after countless meetings and other things which kept me from finishing, I wonder if it's still relevant.

I'm a person that tries to be all things to all people and therefore often succeeds in being true to no one really. In a world where you hear the phrase "The Truth Shall Set You Free", I also believe sometime The Truth Shall Enslave You. There is a lot to be said for always being completely and utterly honest with people but there are times when that honest only serves to disallusion, maime or hurt the ones you like or love. It's so hard to find that balance if ever there was one between what you should say and what maybe you should keep to yourself.

So with all of that said, there are times in life when I wish there were an UNDO button and you could undo certain things you've done or said or even learned to, from or about folks because it would make life appear easier. If only you could use that same button to UNDO things that have been done to you by others, maybe we would all be happier in this world.

My new goal is not to UNDO things said or done but to always try and make sure that things I do DO, dont cause others to want to search for the UNDO button.

I dont know if what I'm saying even makes sense to me but I hope that maybe it will make sense to others.

Not Yet

Ever have one too many drinks the night before you're leaving town and miss your flight. Me, nah, never happened.

Guess I'll be leaving on a jet plane still, just not the original one.

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane

All my bags are packedIm ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesomeI could die

Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Evry place I go, Ill think of you
Evry song I sing, Ill sing for you
When I come back, Ill bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Ok that song was getting too long lol. After three weeks of living in this hotel, I almost feel like a resident of California. I've gotten compliments(I think ) on my driving saying I drive like a Californian. I've actually learned my way around to a lot of places and trust me that's a big order with all the one way streets and funky over and underpasses and doublebacks the streets do here. I've had a good time though. This city is beautiful and I got to have my family out for a weekend to see how beautiful it was and visit with good friends. I'm looking forward to getting home though and seeing my wife and my kids every day for a while. I know that these have been three extremely long weeks for them

I'm ready to leave my home away from home. The concierge here calls me by name whenever I walk in and the people at Denny's know my order as soon as I walk in the door. It might take a day or two for me to stop getting up in the morning and walking across the street to the neighbors to order a Moons over My Hammy sandwich though.

Our Five Month Old Wonder

I hate being out of town when the baby has a milestone but I was so thrilled to have them visit me last weekend in San Francisco. As I've already stated and probably will several more times over the next few weeks, we had the bestest of times. Here are a couple pics of the baby in San Francisco.

Our Awesome Weekend

I just had one of the best weekends ever. My family came out to visit me in San Francisco and we totally did the tourist thing. Our sons had never been to California before though me, Tara and our friend Paul had all been at least once or twice. We took in Chinatown and the Fishermans Wharf on what was inarguably the coldest day in San Francisco in recent years. Within minutes of getting out of the car at Pier 39, we were buying jackets and hats and scarves and anything else we thought would give us some relief from the wind and cold air blowing off the bay. Still it was incredible and we ate at a RainForest Cafe where all sorts of creatures came to life and talked to you while you were walking through or eating. We sat near one of the tropical fish tanks so we could enjoy the fish while we dined. Syrenboy loved it as did we all. It's amazing how fast time flies when you're having fun. We took a carriage ride down from the Wharf to Ghiradelli Square where we proceeded to buy way too much chocolate but we couldn't help ourselves. We topped the night off with drinks (coffee mostly) with a friend of mine that lives here now.

The next day we were set to goto Alcatraz only, me being the complete idiot that I am, I didn't check to see exactly when our tickets were for until the day of. It turned out after we spent 30 minutes trying to figure out why our tickets wouldn't print that I'd missed the date. I could have sworn I set them for Saturday not Friday. We recovered from that setback though and made a great day out of it still. We went to the San Francisco Zoo and had an awesome time seeing all the different animals. We read some very interesting facts on Gorillas and Chimpanzees and were only dissappointed because the Lion and Anaconda exhibitis were closed. The wheather kept most of the animals indoors where we could still see them but they probably weren't as active as they would normally be. It was pretty chilly at the Zoo in the shade but nowhere near as chilly as it had been the day before down by the wharf. We were all pretty excited about Saturday too because we were meeting Chelli and Jim later that evening. After the Zoo, we took another trip downtown to really get into the heart of Chinatown. We didn't do much shopping in Chinatown due to time constraints but we did have Dim Sum and it was delicious. It was actually the first time I'd gone to an authentic chinese restaurant without one of my authentic chinese friends tagging along to translate and tell me what was good and so forth. Now that Tara and Paul have tried it, we're definitely going to check out some of the local DimSum restaurants in Atlanta. By the time we finished eating, it was nearly time to head across the bay to meet up with Chelli and Jim. Thank Cod for our little Garmin GPS that came with the rental car. Anywhere we needed to go, all we had to do was put in the address and in many cases we didn't even have to do that. We spent a good portion of Friday evening looking up places by category and letting the GPS take us there so we could see all of the neat sites in the city.

We were supposed to meet up with Jim and Chelli around 7-7:30ish saturday but by the time we finished paying and getting the car, the little GPS thingy was telling us we would arrive around 7:30pm. Another stop at the hotel to change the baby who'd spit up all over himself and it was closing in on 8pm. That's when we arrived and walked in to find Chelli and Jim pitcher in hand waiting for us. We were a little concerned that our friend Paul might feel completely out of the loop as he knew very little of OT or RealityTVWorld for that matter. I told him beforehand how me and Tara met and about our little community but he was about to come face to face with it firsthand. Chelli is such a comedianne and Jim is so funny that within minutes they were laughing and swapping stories and everyone was just having a great time. Jim and Syrenboy spent most of the night playing hide and seek. Syrenboy was determined to take pictures of Jim and thus Jim spent a good portion of the evening with his hands in front of his face. Meanwhile Chelli and Tara spent a lot of time outside gossipping about what, I dont know but they were very giggly. We just had so much fun that before we knew it the clock was reading 11:30ish and the restaurant was thinning out. Syren is so cute when she's had a bit to drink and her and Chelli were just adorable running around the place together like long lost sisters. It sucked big time when we had to say goodbye and head back to our hotel but we still had things to do and relatives to meet the next day and I'll post more about that later.

I left my heart in San Francisco.....

Well, that and the rest of my body which will be there for the next three weeks. It seems that our customer there whose system is already 6 years out of date was owed some training by the consultants that originally sold it to them. It works out great for my company who will make a pretty penny even after flying me out for three weeks and flying my family out for a weekend. So yep, The Syrens are coming to San Francisco. We are really looking forward to it as we'll have a whole weekend to run around the city and take a trip to Alcatraz and hopefully meet some of the wonderful friends we've made over the years.

My trip will begin Sunday and I'll be there for a solid two weeks before I get to sleep in my bed again for two nights. Why only two nights??? Because they've ordered four weeks of training and I'm the only person that can do three of those weeks. I tried to get them to send someone else for at least a week but the only other qualified person wasn't available so I made them a trade. I'll do all three weeks but you fly my family out to see me on one of the weekends. Not a bad deal if I say so myself. I've been to San Fran a few times over the years but this will be our first family vacation and since it falls on a holiday weekend I will be off Friday-Monday and we'll got a whole three days to roam the city.

So anybody have any ideas on what we should do or try to see? We're definitely going to Alcatraz, I bought the tickets this morning.

Hope everyone is having an awesome New Year so far.