Mike Oren.com

So it's been quite a bit since my last update (roughly 4 weeks or more). Since then, lots of things have happened... The day before I moved out of my apartment in Iowa for the summer, I found a subleaser (hurray!) so that meant I am losing less money than I was fearing I would lose from my apartment. The next big event after that was my drive out to California, which was uneventful and (sadly) a very dull drive in general (not as much scenery taking the northern route to California as there was in the southern route). My apartment out here is sort of small, but it's in good condition and I can't really complain for the price I'm paying (relative to the other housing in the area). I also started my internship at Google, which I won't get into the details of other than to say I'm enjoying it, it's presenting me with some interesting new challenges, and the food is great. The only other thing I'll say about it is that on week two of my internship I ended up going out to the New York City office for a week, which was a very interesting week in terms of work, but it also gave me a chance to see Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Plaza, and the Nintendo World Store (where I bought some souvenirs).

The day after I returned from New York, I attempted to go to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom with a group of 7 other interns. Apparently this was a mistake on Memorial Day weekend as the traffic quickly made us decide to change our plans. We ended up going to Napa Valley instead, where I had the chance to do a wine tasting (for future reference, go to Sonoma Valley for tasting where it's less expensive and not as crowded) and I also bought two bottles of wine from Mumm's (a Cuvee M Red and some sparkling rose wine that I don't recall the name of). On the drive back, I somehow managed to take the long route, which turned our 1.5 hour drive into 4 hours... We'll just call it an adventure.

The weekend after that (this past weekend), I ended up finally making it out to Six Flags, which was fun but there really aren't nearly enough "good" coasters there. The only one that was really more than a yawn was the Medusa ride (where we got the front row), but that was still a lot tamer than a lot of other rides I've been on. It was still a fun trip though, and I got to see a dolphin show and a killer whale show. I wouldn't recommend it for anybody who has to pay full price (we got tickets using a discount and for that it was worth it). We had another little adventure when we were leaving the park a I had forgotten where I parked the car... So we spent maybe 20-30 minutes looking for it with me walking down the rows of cars hitting the panic button (incidentally, the panic button doesn't work on that key... good to know for future reference...)

On Sunday I took a trip out to Muir Woods with 13 other interns and one new full time person. We hiked about four miles, which was fun and more or less manageable for me despite my being out of shape (I had no problem with the majority of the hike, but for whatever reason, I found it VERY difficult to go up steep slopes... it caused discomfort in my lower back and such...) But I wasn't sore the day after, so it wasn't that much of a work out. And it was a fun trip, but no adventure that time (I didn't lose my keys, get lost, lose my car, lose anybody I was responsible for driving or anything else of that matter... what fun is that? On the plus side, I wasn't the responsible one... it was a person who had ridden in my car for the last 2 trips and had apparently learned not to trust my driving...)

I've also made a commitment to not necessarily eat "healthier", but at the very least eat less (although I do plan on trying to eat healthier... but I'm not applying that rule to desserts--Google has great desserts...) I also have one of my goals for the summer to work out at least once per week (so I'm not just using the cafes, but I'm using the gym as well). And I did, in fact, go to Google early this morning and worked out for about an hour (good for me).

So I've been having fun and work has been going well (and I've been enjoying it). And, yes, I am still alive (in case anybody was worried).

The thing that hasn't been going well is my relationship with Danielle. Some of you know the long story behind it and some of you don't. I have no plans on getting into it at the moment. But to boil the current situation down to a nutshell--all relationships have one of two ways to go: long term commitment or a break up. The plan up until 3 months or so ago was leaning much more toward the first option, but for the past 3 months it has been moving closer and closer to the second option. I am very tired of this situation that has lasted for well over a year now and thus at this point I have more or less given up on it until she figures things out or whatever. It is now on a very thin line that can very easily be snapped by one of many potential future occurrences. We shall see how it ends though (I say we because I see myself more as an observer at this point than a participant in the events, and more out of being okay with either ending than feeling it's out of my control--I could easily preserve the relationship if I really wanted to, but there are two problems with that: 1. because of how things have been lately, I'm not sure I WANT to do that; and 2. a relationship that's lasted four years with still no future isn't really worth holding on to).

So there you have it, the short and sweet of what I've been up to lately (mostly just short and sweet because there's so much I could write about that I don't have the time to write about it all).

posted by Mike Oren  # 10:45 PM