To the T-day Parade, and beyond!

San Francisco was a blast the second time around. And also, apparently whenever I decide to visit the city, the city decides to have the most beautiful weather ever in return. I told my friends that I have to be careful, because when people start talking to me about SF, they'll be like "oh, and the weather? Cold and foggy right?" And what I'll remember is sunny and high 70's with no clouds, and be like "COMPLETELY wrong".

So I landed on Sunday and headed to my hotel. My room wasn't ready so I did a quick wash-up in the lobby bathroom before heading out to enjoy the day. I took the train to my old hood, and got myself a sandwich from Say Cheese - the best sandwich shop around, and home to the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life - the mozzarella, basil, tomato, prosciutto on ciabatta. OMG. Heaven on bread. I took the sandwich to the dog park and people/dog watched while chatting with my mom. After my sandwich, I headed into my old bar for a few while watching football. All too soon it was off to Pac Heights to meet up with Ma Peng for brunch (haha - 2 meals!) I got to meet her bambino and it was soooo good seeing her.

After our brunch, I headed over to North Beach to catch up with Sweetie J - we headed off to a bar with a patio and had several frosties before doing some shopping in Union Square. Then the 2 of us met up with KT for some vietnamese food before KT and I headed to a bar to spend the evening. I was back to my hotel around 11 pm (2 am ET) completely exhausted, but completely happy.

Monday I was off to the gym for a workout - the gym in my hotel was pretty nice, but very hot - it was like working out in a sauna. I headed off to work to enjoy my day (no meetings), and got to get coffee with several people along with lunch with a coworker. The night was going to be my off night but the delightful S&HK called and I got to meet up with them instead. It was a really good night - I hadn't got to see them last time I was in town, and in the meantime, they've gotten engaged, so it was good hearing wedding plans, and seeing them in general.

Tuesday it was back to the gym and then back to work. I did have meetings on Tuesday so it was a little more hectic than Monday but it was also over before it started. I had drinks with my tech lead on Tuesday before heading back to North Beach for tacos and Glee at Sweetie J's house.

Side note: Is Glee not the best show on TV? If not the best show ever? I love how they are handling the bullying situation, and Kurt's character in general. Everytime I see this show (along with anything on Broadway), my heart hurts that I can't sing or dance. Or act.

Okay, so many beers at Sweetie J's leads to waking up Wednesday with a sore throat and stuffy nose. I decided that sweating it out would be appropriate so headed to the gym. It was not a good decision. I sweated nothing out, but sent my heart rate soaring, and felt like ass afterwards. Work was about the same as Tuesday in terms of meetings.

On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go for dinner with my project team. I went for drinks with one of my BFF's from work first, and then when it was time to leave, couldn't find a cab anywhere (typical of downtown SF). I ended up meeting with another tech lead and contractor instead for many drinks late into the evening. I skipped dinner b/c I was full from lunch *and* still feeling like ass.

Thurs morning, I woke up in misery. This cold/sinus/flu/whatever had settled in deeply and I was hacking my lungs out and sneezing. My nose was raw, and my throat was on fire. I felt better after I had a shower, but knew the day was going to be a bad one. I got through work without infecting anyone, and then I tried to go to a coworkers going-away party. I lasted one drink before calling it a night and heading over to meet Shelbs and Bbbb for some sushi. I had a few beers with them before they took me to the airport.

The overnight flight is generally my favorite one to take back to the east coast - but it turned out awful this time. Everything went on time, and the people around me where quiet, but I felt so bad/sick that it turned out feeling like a 40 hour flight. I got back to the apartment on Friday, said hello to Blondie, took both cats into the bedroom and konked out hard.

And good for me, got Blondie sick in the meantime. Saturday and Sunday were spent miserable - both of us have this crud and just wasn't good. Monday I still felt like shit but had so much stuff to catch up on with my projects and being in SF that I headed into work anyway. Tuesday I did feel a little better so that was okay.

And Wednesday was a half-day. We are both sort of on the mend, so on Wednesday, we decided to catch the matinee showing of "Lombardi" on Broadway. This stars the dad from Wonder Years as Vince, and Angela from Who's the Boss as Marie (Vince's wife). It was a theater in the round, and we were right at the stage - the play was funny and moving, and all about football. The employees at the theater rocked (when I was getting a beer at the concession stand, and mentioned someting about having to have a beer while watching football, I got whole-heartedly agreed with by the person selling me my beer).

After the play, we headed up to the UWS. We stopped in at a wood-fired pizza place and split a bottle of wine and a pizza and salad, before heading over to join the ginormous line of people watching the balloons get inflated for the Macys T-Day parade. That was an incredible experience. I know the balloons are big, totally know that, but to actually see it in person - it really put it in context just quite how big they are. Some of the balloons were easy to tell what they were (Shrek), some I had no idea (Diary of a Wimpy Kid). After the balloon inflating, we headed back to our bar and caught up with everyone for the evening.

Thursday was spent with our bartender and his family - we headed up to the parade, and used our bartender's connections to get awesome spots along the route. It was so amazing, I watched in awe while thinking "OMG, we *live* here". We saw Kanye West, and someone in our section started chanting "Taylor Swift" which the whole section picked up on. And made me laugh my ass off. We saw Jessica Simpson, Mrs Pooh's favorite person in the world. We saw Jimmy Fallon, who even on his float was laughing hysterically (which makes me wonder that maybe he wasn't goofing around on SNL on purpose, maybe he just is in a perpetually good mood). We saw all the balloons we had watched getting inflated. And we saw Santa.

After the parade, we left our friends and headed to the bar, where we had a few drinks before heading home and crashing out. I ate all day long and now feel like a giant blimp - especially because I haven't been well enough to work out for the past week. I seriously feel like I've gained 10 lbs in the past week. I'm trying to talk myself into a workout today, but woke up again hacking and sneezing.

Our plans for the weekend include nothing today - maybe heading to our bar but that's it - it's cold and raining outside. We do want to see the new Harry Potter this weekend (well, Blondie wants to see it anyway), and maybe Elf (the musical on Broadway). No shopping for either of us, b/c that's insane this weekend.

Hope everyone had a great turkey day. And a happy birthday to the Sheriff, my mom, and BFF in the world TT.

--K