And we’re off this morning.
Archive for August, 2009
The Itinerary
Aug 31
My last day of work with OutSmart was Friday, August 14th – now well over a week ago. Leaving was bittersweet. On one hand, I’ve known for over a year that I would be moving to California, and now I’m finally going. On the other hand, I’ve been able to follow the OutSmart project since it’s first incarnation as my senior design project at UMass all the way through a seed financing and a really exciting round of product development. It’s been a hell of a ride and just an awesome experience for me.
After finishing up at work, I started my 5 week break between work and the first day of classes at Stanford. It sounds like a bigger break than it is. One week for organizing my life, one week of vacation, two weeks of travel, and a week to settle in at school. I’m now almost two weeks into it, and it’s definitely been pretty busy so far. The first week (last week), as I mentioned, I spent getting my life in order. I ran a final few rounds of errands, said a bunch of goodbyes, and tried desperately to avoid all the packing, most of which is finally done. I also found two opportunities to go kiteboarding, which was awesome. The big breakthrough was getting up on the board and riding. It took a number of tries and wipe outs, but I figured it out and do it consistently now.
Since Saturday, I’ve been on a week’s beach vacation with my family. It’s been a great one so far. For the first half of it, my uncle, aunt, and cousins were up visiting. My grandfather and grandmother were with us for two nights as well… Mehlman fiesta! Early in the week, we had some great weather and big surf (as Hurricane Bill passed by offshore). I was out body surfing and boogie boarding in probably some of the biggest and strongest waves I’ve ever encountered. It made me wish I had a surf board handy. None of the surf shops were renting because of the liability concerns.
The best part so far though was getting to see all three of my cousins go boogie boarding. For my six year old cousin (and maybe the other two as well), it was his first time ever. Pretty awesome to watch. Another highlight was a beach bonfire on my cousins’ last night. Otherwise, it was really nice to spend a few days with everyone before heading out to California. I’m supposed to see them again for Thanksgiving – hopefully that works out.
On Wednesday, I got a fantastic shot of mid-teen SW winds for most of the day. I spent a bunch of time launching off our beach in the morning and did a ~2 mile downwinder from the end of the beach to our house in the afternoon. It was my first time out in the open ocean on a board. Kind of terrifying/exciting. Now that I can waterstart consistently and proficiently, the next thing to learn is how to transition properly. Transitioning is changing directions, kind of like tacking in a sailboat. Right now I end up tea bagging almost every time, which is when you stop, dunk into the water, and then change directions. I’ll have to work on that out in San Francisco.
Meantime, riding in one direction is pretty cool. You really end up going pretty fast when the wind is right. One of the next big steps will be purchasing newer gear. The first time around I bought everything with its possible destruction in mind. As a result, I ended up with some pretty bad beginners gear – a thin board and a sluggish and temperamental kite. When I get out to the west coast, I’m going to look and see what the gear availability is like. I’ll need at least two kites this time around and a new board for sure. An important factor will be the wind conditions there, in terms of the prevailing directions, average speeds, etc.
Now we’re down to just my family for the last few days. It’ll be nice to relax for a bit and then head back. We got really lucky with great weather this week. It’s sandwiched right between two hurricanes – Bill the first weekend and Danny the second.
On Monday, I start my road trip out to Cali, baaay-beeeee. I just finalized the details of the trip with Pat, my friend who’s coming along for the ride. Next post will cover the itinerary…
First (real) Post: August
Aug 17
In two weeks, I’m off to Palo Alto! I still don’t think that fact has settled in. In fact, I’m fairly certain that up until the day or so before I leave, I won’t feel any different than I feel today. Or maybe things will change as soon as I stop procrastinating and start packing.
Since the beginning of the summer, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this – starting a blog – so that I have an account of my trip to and time out in California. It’s both for me and my friends & family back here in Massachusetts. Additionally, I’m hoping to dust off my writing skills and vocabulary a little bit. They’re the first things that suffered in college after engineering coursework took over.
It’s been a crazy month already. Since mid-July, I’ve moved out of my apartment, been in the Adirondacks for a long weekend, been in Northampton for a weekend-long wedding fest, thrown a (small) going away party, and finished up at my job. This past weekend was the first one I’ve had for myself in a while, and I used it to go (attempt) kiteboarding!
... they got married.
The Adirondacks were really beautiful. The banner picture for this blog was taken from the top of a small peak about a mile from our cabin, situated on the corner of Silver Lake. I spent four days there with my sister, my mother, Dave, and their three pets – two dogs and a kitten. It was a nice vacation minus some canoeing difficulties. What happens when you rent a canoe that is really narrow and has no weight on the bottom? It flips unless you sit on the floor. That was fun.
The following weekend, two of my closest friends from college got married! They’re pretty much the definition of what marriage should be. It was a beautiful wedding, and I’m really happy for them. And jealous that they got to spend the following week and a half in Maui. As part of the wedding party, I witnessed first-hand the stress of throwing a wedding. Never mind the romanticism of a honeymoon, I think its true purpose is just a much needed vacation after a really stressful time. But they did a hell of a job with it. The night I got home was the Coldplay concert, which was incredible!
Since then, things have calmed down a bit. I threw a small going-away barbecue last weekend which was a lot of fun. My sister and I have now taught my father, uncle, and grandfather to play beirut. Nothing like family drinking games – except when my sister and I lose. It’s pretty humiliating. Props to the fam for being natural ping-pong ballers.
This past week was my last week of work. I’m now starting my (entire!) month off, which is divided between packing, vacation, and a two week road trip to California. Other than that, I’m hoping to make a lot of progress with kiteboarding. I’m right on the edge of having all the skills I need to get up and get moving! I knew that it would be hard to learn, but it’s definitely been a bit more difficult than I expected. It’s taken most of the summer but has been totally worth it.
The road trip is mostly planned at this point, with notable stops in New York, Virginia/DC, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, and a variety of pit stops in California. My friend Pat is coming along for the ride, which should make for a ridiculous trip. Ridiculous. I’m really excited.
With that, I’m off to enjoy this week off.