Random Rants and Ramblings, Post-Japan

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2010.  2009 has to be one of the years that went by the most quickly for me and was quite chaotic.

The year started off on a high note.  I was really excited to get accepted as a volunteer for President Obama’s inauguration.  It was amazing to be part of a such a historic event.

The problem was the weather was frigid, and I ended up catching a respiratory infection that dragged on for about 3 months.  Those 3 months were a complete hell.  It really sucked to be running at 50 to 70%.  I really should have just taken a week off from work to fully recover instead of dragging myself into office for no reason.  The only good thing to come out of this was that it got me thinking more about my health care and prompted me to find a better primary care doctor.

Travel was also a big part of 2009.  In addition to work trips to Japan, I made it to Europe for the second time.  I had a fun few days hanging out in Lisbon with grad school buddy MT.  I also had a chance to make it to the San Francisco Bay area again.  Given my new hobby collecting wine, I was really happy to have a side trip up to Napa Valley.  Unfortunately, with the new job, I won’t have as much flexibility and time for travel as before.  Very sad.

Speaking of the new job, that’s probably the biggest event for me in 2009.  I had a very comfortable job where I had lots of travel, a good boss, great colleagues, interesting work and a decent salary.  But, I was out of promotion or growth opportunities.  In August, I moved to a new job with significantly more responsibilities and promotion opportunities but with much, much more stress and a higher workload.  I have to admit that I feel less happy in the new job.  But, perhaps a lot of that is due to having a lot of stuff to learn in the new job and from being the new guy in my office (where I end up with some of the grunt work).  I told myself when I first started that I would give myself a year before making any hard and fast judgments about the job, so we’ll see how I feel by the time summer rolls around.

Anyway, I think I’m glad that 2009 is over and and looking forward to having a calmer 2010.  We’ll see what happens.

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As I’ve written previous, I was thinking about changing jobs.  Back in August, I finally did.

I’m still in the government but at a different ministry/agency.  I’m working on similar issues but with much more responsibility.  At almost three months in, I think overall it was worth the change, although there have been many tradeoffs.

The new jobs is significantly more stressful.  The work hours are longer.  Even though I can usually get out of the office aroundd 6:30 or 7:00, I’m usually on my work BlackBerry for a little while on many nights and weekends.  I’m still struggling to find a new work-life balance.  There are also more work responsibilities and pressures.  Plus, I have a very demanding new boss.

Also, one thing that I kind of miss about my old job is the travel opportunities.  Previously, I was going to Tokyo about 4 ot 5 times a year.  Even though I didn’t enjoy the plane rides back and forth, it was always a lot of fun to have the chance to work and play in Tokyo so often.  I’m down to about 2 trips a year now.  I’ve been trying to cope with trips to New York to satisfy my need for good Japanese food and drinks.

On the other hand, the work is much more interesting than in my previous job.  I guess more responsibility cuts both ways.  Also, the new job comes with a cool title and a bit of promotion potential.  The best part is that it’s a high-level civil service job where I can focus on policy issues without the distraction of management responsibilities.

I guess most decisions in life even tradeoffs.  Looking back, I think this was the right decision.  I think it was about time to move on from my old job.  Even though I really liked my old colleagues, the job itself was running out of learning opportunities.  And, although it’s been stressful and sometime painful being the new person, I am enjoying learning new things.

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On Wednesday, I returned from a two-week trip to Tokyo.  This was probably the most hectic and stressful trip that I’ve taken for work in the last three or four years.

The main reason is that my boss and his boss were both there with me.  My boss is usually pretty chill, and it’s not bad traveling with him.  However, I think the added stress and pressure from having his boss with us led to extra stress and pressure for me.  I was the dog that got kicked at the end of the chain of abuse.

In addition, as I mentioned in my previous post, I had a speech to give at MS’ wedding reception.  I usually don’t mind public speaking opportunities.  However, speaking in a foreign language at such an important event definitely was stressful.  In fact, even though my speech was the first one and took place before any of the food came out, my nerves were still shaken afterward, and my appetite did not recover until dessert or so.

Otherwise, the wedding was really nice.  The bride and groom looked so happy.  The venue was the very, very fancy Four Seasons Hotel in the Mejiro area of Tokyo.  The best part was seeing so many old friends.  HI served as the emcee for the reception.  RI gave the speech for the first toast.  Both of them were a great help with translating the difficult nuances of my speech into Japanese.

Outside of work and the wedding, I did not have much free time.  I tried to meet up with as many friends as possible, but there were still a lot of people that I was not able to see.  I didn’t even really have time to explore new ramen places.  One really nice event,though, that ended up with great timing was the birth of KT and YH’s new son.  The timing worked out so that I could visit all of them in the hospital.

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I’m back in Tokyo after a five-month hiatus.

The first few days are for vacation.  I’m attending MS’s wedding on Saturday.  I’ve been asked to give a speech at the reception.  It’s quite an honor, but at the same time I’m terribly nervous.  The speech will be in Japanese.  Luckily, I’ve been able to get some friends and colleagues to help with the translation.

Most of the trip, though, will be for work.  I still feel really lucky that I’m able to travel to Japan for work so often.  Not only that, I find most of my work to be pretty interesting.

One issue that has been on my mind is that I’ve run out of promotion opportunities in my current position.  That means, that to get my next promotion, I’m going to have to change position, which means changing offices since my current office does not have any slots at the next grade level.

A big question is whether a promotion is worth it.  My current grade is already at the high end of the non-supervisory professional scale.  The salary is quite decent.  The work hours are great.  If I go after a promotion, it would almost certainly mean significantly more work hours.  Would the increase in salary and responsibility be worth the extra work hours?  This is an issue that I’m spending a lot of time thinking about these days.

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A few weeks ago I decided to book a short weekend trip out to the San Francisco Bay area.  Air fares were cheap.  Most airlines were offering double elite qualifying miles. And, work was pretty busy and stressful.

I’m now on the plane sadly heading back from the Bay Area to Washington, DC.  I had a really fun and relaxing weekend visiting wineries in Napa and hanging out with friends in the South Bay.

As I mentioned in a previous post, wine is a new hobby of mine.  I’ve been trying out lots of different wines, trying to learn what I like and to begin building a collection.  I even ended up buying a $1300 wine refrigerator a few months ago that holds over 100 bottles and am already halfway to filling it up.

I’ve been out to the Bay Area numerous times but have never made it up to Napa Valley.  With the new hobby, I really wanted to go this time.  But, with so many wineries it was hard to figure out where to visit.

I decided to focus on old school wineries and organic/biodynamic wineries.  I definitely prefer the balanced and elegant taste of old school, Old World-style wines over the hit-you-over-the-head, overoaked hammer of most “popular” California wines.  Also, I’ve also recently become interested in organic and biodynmic wines because of an Oregonian pinot noir that I recently tasted.

After picking up a renting car at SFO and hooking up my new GPS system, I rushed to Frog’s Leap, where I had reserved a tasting tour.  Frog’s Leap is in the Rutherford area of Napa and is known for being longtime advocates of using organic farming techniques.  The winery and surrounding vineyards were beautiful.  The tour was quite interesting, and our guide poured us wines along the way.  I liked their philosophy about being good stewards of the land.  Plus, the tour and tasting was free, which is a rarity in the overly commercialized Napa Valley.  I truly enjoyed the experience and would definitely recommend this to everyone.

My next step was Mayacamas, which was way off the beaten path.  The winery is up on Mount Veeder in the Mayacamas mountains and requires a long mountain drive, including on a dirt road for the last mile or so.  But, it was worth it.  Mayacamas has been around for decades.  The current owner and winemaker has been making wines in the same style since the late 1960s, without regard to passing fads or trends.  I was one of only three people for their afternoon tour (reservations required).  It was nice to get a personal tour and a taste of some honestly good wines.  I will likely order some online after I get back to DC.

The third stop on my adventure was Robert Sinskey in the Stag’s Leap District.  Robert Sinskey is a producer that uses biodynamic grapes.  Another notable feature about the winery is that it is big on the notion that wine should be drunk with good food.  So, the winery’s regular $20 tasting includes freshly prepared food from the winery’s chef that is supposed to match the wines being poured that day.  The winery produces many pinot noirs from their estate in Los Caneros, further south in Napa, as well as some other varietals and blends.  The pinots that I tried were good, but definitely in the California style that I’m not that big on.  The cabernet sauvignoon blend and the cabernet franc were excellent, though.  Because $15 of the tasting fee goes torward purchases, I bought a couple of bottles to take home.

My final winery stop was Clos du Val, down the road in the Stag’s Leap District.  Like Mayacamas, this is another old winery that has been famous since the 1970s.  I paid $20 to try their reserve tasting, which included their flagship cabernet sauvignon from the Stag’s Leap Distrct.  The wine had good structure but was definitely too young to drink (I think it was a 2004), just a mouthful of tanins.  I might have bought some wine from there to take home if it weren’t for the obnoxious guy pouring the wines.  He asked me where I was from.  I replied that I was from the DC area, and he said, “DC?  District of Crooks?”  He then proceeded to unload all his right-wing political views.  Sigh.  What a loser.  Needless to say, I left quickly without any purchases.

After hitting up the wineries, I made my way to Yountville, where I had dinner reservations.  My budget and short lead time on the trip could not support a visit to French Laundry.  I thought about going to Bouchon, which is owned by the same guy.  But, to continue on my contrarian tour, I settled on Bistro Jeanty, another well-known restaurant that was a better value and less prententious.

The food and service at Bistro Jeanty was fantastic.  I agree with all the reviews, the tomato soup served in a pastry puff is amazing comfort food that really hit the spot.  I also had the coq au vin and the chocolate mousse creme brulee, which were also good (but the tomato soup was clearly superior).  The only disappointment was the wine I choose.  Instead of going with my instinct to order a French wine in a French restaurant, I convinved myself to order a half bottle of a merlot from Napa.  It turned out to be one of the stereotypical Napa reds that are close to 15% alcohol and just overpowered the food.

I stayed the night up in Napa and was really glad to have done so.  I had left my condo for the airport at 4:30am Eastern Time, which was 1:30am Pacific Time.  I did catch some sleep on the plane (I upgraded to First Class), but I was exhausted by the time I finished dinner around 8:00pm or so.  I went to bed early and good a decent night’s sleep.

The next day I left Napa around mid-morning and headed to Palo Alto.  I met up with WS, an old friend from Cleveland that went to Stanford and now works in the area.  It was nice to catch up over some brunch.

After brunch, I headed down to BH’s place in San Jose.  I dropped off my stuff in his apartment.  Then, he and his wife took me to Ridge Winery up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  Ridge is another famous, old school style winery that I wanted to visit.  It did not disappoint.  The wines there were amazing.  I particularly liked the Geyserville Zinfandel and the Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon.

Because BH knew our pourer, we also got a special treat.  We were able to sample a glass of a 1978 cabernet that the staff opened to celebrate one of their birthdays.  The wine was so smooth and delicious.  I actually contemplated buying a half bottle of the 1978 Monte Bello for $200 (1978 is my birth year) but instead got a bottle of the 2004 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon for $20.  I would love to have tried the 1978 Monte Bello but it was just a tad bit too much.  The 2004 Santa Cruz was pretty good, though.

We had a low-key dinner at Gochi, a Japanese-style izakaya in Cupertino.  It was nice and filling.  We even fit in an hour of karaoke next door before our name was called off the wait list.

My last event in the Bay Area was a little brunch with some of my friends from Brown.  BH and I drove up to Palo Alto to meet RH, JH and JC.  I had a nice scallop omelette with a mimosa.  It was just perfect.

There are some things that I just don’t like about the Bay Area.  I don’t like all the long bridges over the Bay.  I really don’t like the thought of earthquakes, either.

But, those concerns are balanced by many things.  The weather out there is simply beautiful.  It was in the high seventies and sunny every day.  The food fresh, delicious and well-priced (so much better than the stuff that passes for restaurant meals in DC).  Plus, it’s probably where the highest concentration of my college friends live.

This was really awesome trip.  I got to enjoy beautiful weather (it’s been raining in DC for the last two weeks straight).  I got to drink great wine and eat delicious food.  Plus, I got to catch up with lots of old friends.  Can’t ask for much more.

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It happens that as soon as I’m starting to really feel better that work has really picked up.  Last week was the first time in months that I’ve stayed late at work.  Although it’s been a little stressful, I’m pretty happy with the upswing in work.  The last few months have been really boring, and I was spending too much time at work trying to just stay awake.

Anyway, even though it’s gotten busier, I’m hoping to write more often.  I’ve moved more toward Facebook for quick updates and for uploading photos.  But, I think having a blog is still useful, especially for thoughts that are more than a few lines long.

So, I’d like to finally get around to my new year’s resolutions for 2009.  I’ve had these in mind since the beginning of the year but have not had much time write them down.

1. Stay in better touch with friends and family: I’ve also considered myself to be pretty good at staying in touch, especially compared to many of my friends.  Even so, I think I’ve been falling behind, particularly when things get busy.  Often when emails make it past the first screen in Outlook, it becomes out of sight, out of mind.  With sites like Facebook, there’s no excuse for not sending messages once in a while to see how folks are doing.
2. Stay healthy: I have utterly failed at this so far this year.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I was sick from late January through late March with the same lingering respiratory infection.  It started a bad cycle where I felt too tired to really cook and too sick to go exercise.  Things are getting better though.  I’m started to cook more again and can finally go running without triggering endless coughing attacks.
3. Try new recipes: I’m pretty lazy when it comes to cooking.  I like to use the same fast and easy recipes.  I want to explore new dishes this year.  My goal is to try to cook a new dish each month.  I’m a little behind on this so far.  I’ve only tried one new dish this year… guess I need to pick up the pace to catch up by the end of the year.
4. Volunteer more: This has been on the list for the last few years, but I have not made much progress.  I have to admit that I’m much more likely to volunteer when I go with friends.  But it seems like most of my friends in DC have divergent interests and are busy people, so it’s hard to get people to volunteer with me.  I need to just go out and try by myself.
5. Don’t get stuck in a rut: Longtime readers of this blog know that I tend to cycle through some ruts, especially regarding when friends get busy or move away.  I often spiral into an angry, self-pitying state where I become a bit antisocial because I have a hard time moving on.  This year I hope to be better about adjusting to new social situations and getting out and meeting people.
6. Find a good hobby or two: The last few years, I’ve been trying to learn guitar.  I like the sound of guitar.  Practicing guitar makes me feel more relaxed.  But, every time I gather up some momentum with practice, it’s always interrupted by travel.  Then I have a hard time getting back into the groove.  I need to work harder about getting back into the swing of things after I get home from my travels.  Luckily, I also started another hobby that does not require that much practice.  Recently, I’ve been getting into wine.  I’m at the beginning stages of starting a decent collection with about 50 bottles right now.  I’ll have to write more about this in a future post.

So, it looks like I have a lot to work on.  All seem relatively doable… but I guess that’s what I think every year.

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve last posted.

I think part of my lack of posting recently has been due to the rise of Facebook.  It’s such a nice, quick way to update and share information with friends.  But, in the same way as Twitter, it’s still limiting.  You can’t write very much in the status updates section, and I’m not a big fan of the Notes application for longer entries.

Most of the delay in writing has been because I’ve been sick for most of the past month.  Actually, this illness started right after the Inauguration.  I was a volunteer for the event and was outside in ten- to twenty-degree weather for over 12 hours.  I’ve been battling with a nasty series of resipiratory infections since then.  It started off as a really bad head cold.  Then it moved down to some sort of bronchitis.  Most recently it went back up as a sinus infection.

Of course, I’ve been to see the doctor.  The first one I went to was totally useless.  I went back and saw a physician’s assistant at the same practice a few days later.  He thought it was a cold and refused to prescribe antibiotics.  After a few weeks of not getting better, I called back.  He then said, “Oh, I guess it’s bacterial after all.”  Ugh.  If I had received antibiotics in the first place, maybe I wouldn’t have had to suffer through four weeks of incessant congestion and coughing.

Anyway, I’m near the end of my course of antibiotics and have been steadily improving.  The congestion and coughing have mostly cleared up.  My energy levels are still quite low, though.  I’ve been just collapsing on the couch or in my bed after getting home from work recently.  Hopefully, this too will get better.

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As always, I’ve been meaning to write more, but things keep on getting in the way.  Anyway, enough excuses, I plan to have entries on new years resolutions and about the inauguration up within a week!

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Some years go by quickly.  Others more slowly.  2008 seemed to go by quickly but because it was so packed with stuff, it seemed unusually long.

The first part of the year was focused on homebuying.  I had decided over the holidays that with housing prices and interest rates both falling that I was in the market to finally purchase a place of my own.  I started seriously looking at properties in early January and closed on a nice, new one-bedroom condo a month later.

Almost a year later, I’m still very satisfied with the purchase.  I like having a balcony with a nice view.  I’m still in love with the huge kitchen with tons of counter space.  Most of all, I appreciate the fantastic location.  It’s two blocks from the subway, which makes my daily commute less than half an hour each way.  Plus, it’s easy for friends to drop by and visit.

Spring and summer was focused on saying goodbyes to some close friends.  HI and KS left in March.  MS departed in August.  I’m glad we were able to arrange fun and poignant goodbye parties.  I also enjoyed the trip with HI (and ES and AI) down to Williamsburg.  I don’t think ES and AI appreciated the attempt HI and I made at karaoke in the car.  And, I also remember driving HI around midnight during his last night in DC to Silver Diner for dinner and then to Harris Teeter so that he could buy flowers.

The rest of the year was filled with travel.  Following recent custom, I visited Cleveland over Labor Day and Christmas.  Both times were pretty fun.  It was nice to catch with family and old friends.

During the summer, I also made it out to San Francisco and Dallas.  I think outside of Cleveland and New York, San Francisco is my most visited non-work destination.  I enjoyed seeing old friends from Cleveland like WS and from Brown like BH, RH, JH and JC.  I particularly enjoyed the wine tasting that BH took me to, even though I was completely hungover from shochu followed single malt scotch the previous night.

In Dallas, I finally fulfilled a promise to visit my cousin JL.  He bought a nice house in the Dallas suburbs.  It was very relaxing to just hang out in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  This was my first time really experience hot weather that was not humid.

The rest of my year was filled mostly with work travel to Japan.  I kept pace with last year, going a total of five times.  This was enough to qualify me for the top level of elite status on United Airlines (1K).  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the trips are gruelling but are balanced out with the chance to see lots of grad school and DC friends.  I really am thankful for the opportunity to see friends in Tokyo so often.  Moreover, I’m grateful that they make time to see me, even though many of them are working until 3:00am every night.

So, I guess it was a pretty typical yuppie year with a home purchase, friends moving on and lots of work travel.  There were many happy times, and a few sad ones.  Overall, it was a year of moving foward.  We’ll see what 2009 brings.

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I just got back from a short Christmas break in Cleveland.  This was actually one of the most pleasant trips back.  My family got along with no major arguments.  Plus, I got to catch up with many old friends.

I actually thought that I would have a lot more free time while staying at my parents’ house.  Although I had a pretty full schedule of meeting up with friends, I had a lot of free afternoons.  But, I was fighting a losing battle against jet lag and a lack of sleep.  While I had planned to do stuff like respond to all the emails that accumulated and do more blogging, I just felt groggy most afternoons.  At least I was able to get some reading done while I was in town.  I finished reading President-elect Obama’s book Dreams from My Father, which I started during my Tokyo trip.

I also had higher hopes for my productivity once I returned to DC this weekend but faced a huge challenge in cleaning up my condo.  After Thanksgiving and before my last Japan trip, I had ordered a bunch of stuff from a new TV to some bottles of wine online during post-Thanksgiving sales.  My place was full of boxes, packing materials and sales receipts.  It took a long time to unpack everything and to break down the boxes and haul them downstairs to the trash area.

In addition, I spent time checking out after-Christmas specials.  I spent a lot of money at Macy’s loading up on basics likes shirts, pants and socks.  I also used one of the many Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons to purchase of one of those Keurig one-serving coffee machines.  I have long thought about getting one because of the ease of use but have hesitated because of the cost and doubts about the quality of the coffee.  My friend SB in Cleveland seemed to be happy with his, so I decided to try it out.  I got the B30 Mini version.  I’m going to try it for a few days before deciding whether to keep it or not.

Another product that I’m trying to decide whether to keep is a light box that I recently bought.  I’ve always been a little down and lethargic during the winter months and have heard that a light box could help with seasonal affective disorder.  So, I decided to purchase one to see if it would help.

I mentioned this purchase to a few people and was surprised that so many people were interested.  A lot of folks said that they have thought about getting a light box but have never followed through.  They seemed very curious about the results.

I’ve tried the light box a few times and think that it might actually work.  I have felt in a better mood and more energic.  The main thing making me hesitate about keeping the product is the potential damage it might do to your eyes.  There is some information on the Internet linking light boxes with retina damage.  I don’t know if these are just Internet misinformation or true facts.  I’m continuing to research this.

Anyway, I guess the real disappointment this weekend was that I wanted to go to the Korean sauna in Centreville (it’s like a Japanese public bath with extra saunas).  But, I couldn’t get all my cleaning done.  Oh well, maybe I can go next weekend.

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