The Mainland in March

I'm back from my whirlwind tour of Mainland USA. It started in San Francisco. Two really good friends (Dusty and Jodi) flew into town so we could hang out. Dusty's brother Casey lives in San Fran, so the four of us played around for the weekend. The four of us sans Dusty the photographer. Jodi and I in our hip sunglasses. At beach, exciting for Dusty (living in Minnesota) and Jodi (living in New York), but I was just cold. I am use to the ocean being the same temperature as a bath. Yes, I am spoiled. Highlights include the Tour of the Filoli Estate. It has really pretty gardens and the house is cool as well.However, I think we were most excited by the fact that the TV series Dynasty used the Estate as the Carrington Mansion. We even attempted to reenact the cat fight between Krystle and Alexis in the lily pond. Good times. The rest of the weekend was spent exploring the city at night (aka drinking at bars). I got to use my American Samoan driver's license - the license looks like a bad, a real bad, fake ID. I actually had to show my American Samoan library card to prove that the place actually existed.

The rest of my week in San Fran was spent interviewing candidates for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 law clerk position for the High Court. I learned that many of the applicants found my blog and reviewed it before the interview. Therefore, I will only make the following comment about the interviews: we interviewed many, many qualified candidates and we will be making our decision shortly. After the interviews, I went to North Carolina to see the folks. We celebrated Mom's Birthday on Friday (March 16). I will not mention age, but it was a big one. On the 21st, we celebrated Pop's birthday. Good times. Unlike the previous week, I did not have to think or do anything, and my activities consisted of eating, sleeping and watching cable television.Finally, I flew to Chicago to see a bunch of my friends in the windy city. Travis was kind enough to let me crash at his place. The weekend was a bit of a blur - tried to see as many people as I could within a 72 hour period.

I was not too excited for the nine hour flight from Chicago to Honolulu. However, the airlines gods were smiling upon me and I got upgraded to business class. sweet. I actually sat in the upper deck of the 747. I was in no rush for the flight to end. Even though my flight attendant did not have finger puppets, we had a good time. It turns out that she use to work for Pan Am and regularly flew to Pago. She knew all about the island, and it appears that not a lot has changed in the last 20 years. Even the Hawaiian Airline flight was uneventful and early! When I got home, my hot water smelled of sulfur, the geckos had explosive diarrhea in the guest room and a pair of sandals had grown mold on them. Can I get back on business class? Nevertheless, I am happy to be back on the lava rock I call home.