Hi, I'm Rich

I’ll confess. I’m a chronic Blog lurker. For several years now I have read a number of blogs and commented anonymously and enjoyed reading them. It seems easy enough – so I decided to finally take the plunge. Here goes.

So, since this is the start of my Blog, I’ll tell you a little about myself. I am Rich (with a big R, not a little r) – so really Richard (I try really hard not to be a Dick). I just turned 34 in August. My kid sister teases me that I was named after Richard Nixon – he resigned from office the day I was born. I guess my parents weren’t watching the news – or maybe it’s some weird sense of humor they have. I grew up in Hawaii. Aiea to be more precise. I am a Haole. If you are from Hawaii, you know what that means. I was, in fact, the most haole guy in my school growing up. That was the bad part. The good part was I got to grow up in Hawaii – although since I lived there my whole life until I was 23, so I didn’t know anything different. It wasn’t a paradise. We had dentists, traffic jams, indoor plumbing, and homework just like the rest of the world. Still, it’s a nice place. If the dot com bubble ever comes back I’m going to retire there.

A lot has changed for me in the past year. I used to have a job that I loved, a great girlfriend that I was engaged to, and lived in a great apartment in Cupertino. I got cranky at my former employer and quit without having a new job in hand. Not the smartest move I ever made - but, damn, it felt great at the time. I landed a new job, but had to take a pay cut and job is not nearly as good. My fiancé gave me the heave-ho a couple of days before our wedding. With no one to share the rent with and a smaller paycheck I was forced to either start drinking cheap wine or find more humble accommodations. I opted to move in with some buddies from the office.

Now I work as a software engineer (I write computer programs) at a company in Sunnyvale. I got my Computer Science degree from the University of Hawaii and could not afford to make a living in Hawaii. San Jose is expensive, but at least you can get a good paying job. I travel a lot, as my job involves getting out and meeting with customers. Of all the engineers in the group I am considered the “presentable” one. I guess that means I have some modicum of social skills.

I live with 2 other guys in a rented 3 bedroom house in Mountain View – Scott and Jason. The three of us all used to work at the same company in San Jose. We are all nerds. But then so are most of the folks in the neighborhood. Just about everyone here is working on computers in some way. Although during the bubble (1999-2000) everyone (even my favorite bartender) became a web designer – My bartender would read Java manuals between serving drinks. Fortunately, now he is focused on his mixology and his clientele.

Lynn is my best friend and drinking buddy. We met at the University of Hawaii, taking computer classes together. She was the smart undergrad in two of my master’s level classes. Now – inexplicably – we work at the same company in Sunnyvale – small world. Just after the break-up with Sarah (the one that dumped me at the altar) I abused alcohol pretty significantly, and Lynn was right there to help me. Partly, I’m sure, because I abuse a pretty good class of booze. She was always there to listen to all my whining and crying. If someone is going to put up with my whining the least I can do is buy them some good wine. When things go great or crappy, Lynn is the first one that I call. It’s really great to get a female perspective on things from someone you trust. I consider myself a smart guy, but when it comes to women I can do some really dumb things.

Lynn is living with and engaged to Jim – they have a place in Milpitas. Jim is a Windsurfer (as am I) and we have gone out on the bay a few times. He is more of an enthusiast than I am. But he keeps pushing me to get out there. The problem is that I got spoiled in Hawaii where the conditions are so perfect – the tradewinds combined with the warm water – that I have a hard time with most of the locations here in the bay area. You can get some good wind on the bay – but that water is dirty and cold. Jim drinks my good wine too, but he doesn’t have much patience for my pining over Sarah. He tells me, "Look, you’re rich, good looking, well hung, and 45 minutes from San Francisco where there are way more women than straight guys. Go get laid and you’ll feel better." Sometimes I think he might be right – sometimes it’s good to get the primitive male perspective on things too.