Y’all, for the last few months I’ve had a few week-long work trips down to Irvine. Each time, not much work was done, but we had a lot of fun. This week was my last one for the foreseeable future.

06/01 — Day 1

The night before leaving was the night we got back from Yosemite, meaning I got home and had to start packing at around midnight. My flight was at 9am, which wasn’t terrible, but meant traffic. Anyway, packing was pretty simple, I’ve done this trip a few times now. A few outfits for work, some for climbing, and I’m good. Getting to the airport was pretty simple, luckily. I was a little early, so I bought a new book - Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey - which I read on the plane.

After ubering to the office, I met up with Tate, Emmanuel, and the new intern Tyler! Tate’s always great, it’s great to see him every time, and I was really excited to meet Tyler. We ‘worked’ for a little bit (daily games !!) and went to Seabirds Kitchen for lunch, my favorite place in SoCal. Tate, Tyler, and I went to the Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa. I got an amazing crunchwrap and then we went CD shopping for a little bit.

After food, we went back to work for a few hours. Not much really happened, but we yapped a lot and had fun.

The big event for the day occurred after work, when we decided to go to Ikea! Tyler, Tate, Tyler’s intern friend, and I went to Ikea. We went to get Tate a new shelf and to get some food. After walking through all of the displays and laughing at the random displays (like a bunch of stuffed animals locked in a display case), we found his shelf! It was only in the warehouse section, so we perused for naught. Even worse, the foodcourt was out of stock of almost everything. No meatballs, no hotdogs, only cinnamon rolls. Of course, in Spencer fashion, I bought a six pack of them.

That night, I checked into the hotel, ate two of the cinnamon rolls, and crashed right away. I think I got twelve hours of sleep that night.

06/02 — Day 2

The next day began pretty uneventful as well. Nothing much happened in the morning, besides the fact they ran out of my favorite chocolate in the office. Emmanuel decided to join us for lunch! We went to a thai place - Tuk Tuk Thai Street Food in Irvine. It was an outdoor market kind of place and it was really busy. I got the Drunken Noodles with Tofu, ‘spicy’. Guys, this food was not spicy. I don’t know what happened to me in the last few years, but most of the food I eat isn’t that spicy anymore.

Emmanuel told us that he would be gone for the rest of the week when we got back to the office. Apparently a senior manager in Denver needed his help fixing a truck, so Emmanuel had to fly out that night.

After work, Tate and I went climbing. I have a five-visit punch pass to Sender One Santa Ana, so we went there to go boulder. I forgot to change into my climbing pants, which was a little annoying. It was a lot of fun, we did a lot of cool climbs. It was my first time climbing in two weeks, and Tate’s first time climbing in four weeks, since I last visited him.

Tate ended up stuck on a V3, and I was getting tired so I just stayed and encouraged him. We were on this problem for probably 30 minutes. A third guy joined us pretty early on, named Matthew. He was pretty nice and finally got it after 20 minutes of trying. Tate, though, couldn’t do it. There were a bunch of people around encouraging him though. We even had a dad and his child show him how to do the route, hilariously the four foot child did it much easier than Tate could.

While we were here, we found my favorite airport snack in five varieties… more on that tomorrow.

We got Taco Bell after (thank you company card). We accidentally ordered to a Taco Bell up in the bay at first, but realized a few minutes later and ordered for the right spot (thanks again company card). The food was okay, as is all Taco Bell. I went to see a movie after - The Breadwinner. It was a terrible movie. Doug and I hated it. But the popcorn was a good ending to the day.

06/03 — Day 3

Day Three began the same as any other. I got into the office at 10 (because I always oversleep in Irvine), we joked for a while, did some work, and then decided on where to eat. Since it was just the three of us, we didn’t have to worry about Emmanuel’s timing, which helped a lot. He’s really busy at random times. Our goal was to go to Honda-ya and then to Tate’s CD shop.

We drove out to Honda-ya, only to realize it was closed until after work. Disappointing. Tate remembered that Matthew had suggested we go to Freesoulcaffé, an all-vegan restaurant, which surprisingly was only a few minutes away, literally on the same block as the CD shop. So to the caffé we went. I got a Hatch Burger, which was a delicious beet (?) burger with jalapeno-cheese sauce. I’m realizing now that the photo makes the burger look minuscule, but it was honestly pretty big and filling.

We went to the CD shop after that bomb meal, where I got the same hat Tate had been wearing for the past week. It’s a great color of a dark orange with dark yellow writing. I kind of love it.

We eventually went back to work, where we proceeded to mess around for a while. I remembered that I had the snacks I got from Sender One the day before, and decided to do a ranking of them. See, previously I had looked forward to my Southwest flights simply because I would get these pretzels. So when I saw the five flavors, I had to do a taste test to find my favorite, so that I could order some.

We got our handy whiteboard available and started trying. The French Dijon was mid, very mustardy. The Sweet & Sparky was probably the worst, it just didn’t have much flavor. The Bold & Herby was really good, my second favorite. The Simply Stellar was okay, it was just a salted pretzel so it wasn’t anything special. Finally, we ended with Maui Monk, the signature flavor. These were the best, slightly outpacing Bold & Herby. The ranking was a great thirty minute distraction for us and a lot of fun. I think the tier-list is still on the whiteboard down in Irvine.

After work we all went our separate ways. I decided to drive around and go shopping. I ended up at a World Market that somehow had big bags of the Maui Monk, so I got two for us all to share. Then I went out to a 24-hour donut shop, The Donuttery, that had a lot of vegan options. The donuts were amazing, and I devoured the chocolate-filled one for my dinner. This place was so good, I wish there was one up here in the Bay. Sadly, the food is so much better down in SoCal, but I just don’t like the weather.

I had a few hours before my next event, so I went to the hotel and scrolled Youtube. During work, I had been scrolling Facebook Marketplace looking for a new camera for recording my volleyball games. I found a stupid cheap DJI Action Osmo 6, only $260 for an unopened one, instead of $499 retail. So after scrolling for a bit at the hotel, I drove the 45 minutes out to Riverside and got the camera. One deal later, and I had myself a new camera, ending the day very nicely.

06/04 — Day 4

Day 4 was more of the same. Nothing exciting until lunch. For lunch, we decided to go back to The Stand. Tate and I go there every time I’m down in Irvine. The Vegan Burger is good, but nothing special. We were moreso just having a fun time instead of eating good food.

After work, we went climbing again. This time, Tyler decided to join us, so we went top roping. It was only his second time climbing but he’s kind of a gym bro, so he had the strength to do a lot with terrible technique. Tate went first to get belay-certified, and almost failed. He ended up getting a one-day-only pass. I went after him and passed easily, so I have yet another tag for my chalk bag.

We rotated between Tyler, Tate, and me climbing, with me belaying most of the time. Tyler started with a V8 and smashed it, though it was hilarious to watch him basically not use his legs. Tate followed suit, easily climbing to the top. I then went, with Tate belaying for the first time. His form was terrible! I had to stop climbing ten feet up to go down and correct it. He was letting go with his brake hand every time. But after fixing his form, I ascended pretty easily.

We all started climbing a variety of routes on the smaller walls. I ended up climbing the Pride Month 10b, which was fun. I still hadn’t tied my shoes which was a small mistake, as the route was mostly shifting my weight with my feet. But whatever, we go up and finish it. My next climb was a fun 11a (I think) that I had to stop once or twice on just to look at my next move. We go uppies. After another round, I tried an 11b that wasn’t my style. Halfway up, though, we realized we were on the wrong ropes so I switched to a 10b and went to the end. Wish I could’ve tried it again, but alas, I forgot.

For our last climbs, we put Tyler on a 10a, which he slowly but steadily finished. It was really cool to see for his first time ever top roping. I went to a 12a that looked incredibly fun, if not extremely sketch. It was a corner climb, mostly volumes with little chips on them for grip. After a lot of falling, staring, and too many attempts, I made it about two-thirds of the way up before calling it quits. The way I was trying the next move put my ankle in a really precarious spot, and I didn’t want to risk it at the end of a session.

Tate tried the climb next, and he got about one-third of the way up before calling it. He tried to dyno one of the larger, riskier moves. It’s supposed to be static but he didn’t trust himself to actually hold it. Tyler then tried and literally couldn’t do the first move, which was hilarious.

Afterwards, we tried to go to Honda-ya again. This time it was open, but it had a long line. Tate decided to go home and sleep, so Tyler and I went in search of food. We walked to a Sushi place that didn’t let us sit because it was too late, so we continued on. This led us to HiroNori. This place was amazing. It was so good. My favorite food of the trip. We sat down, got vegan gyozas, vegan ramen, and he got a rice dish. Oh my god, the food was delicious.

That night at the hotel, I ordered more donuts from The Donuttery on doordash to take back North, and fell asleep.

06/05 — Day 5

Day 5 was a little sad, as it was my last day. My flight was scheduled for 4:38pm, so I’d be leaving the office early and wouldn’t be able to have another adventure with them. Thusly, we decided to go all out for lunch. Our decision: Din Tai Fung (thank you company card x3).

We ordered six different dishes. The four I cared about were the Garlic Broccoli, Garlic Beans, Vegan Spicy Noodles, and Vegan Dumplings.

The vegetables were great, they’re vegetables and garlic of course they’re great. The dumplings - amazing, delicious, but nothing terribly unique. Similar to my previous spicy complaints, the spicy noodles weren’t really spicy. They had some, but I wanted a lot more. I wanted my nose to be running and eyes watering. Whatever. The food was all really good and filling, and we had a great time at a ‘fancy’ restaurant for our last meal.

Those last few hours in the office were bittersweet for me. The week had been very reminiscent to my internship last year. It was by far the most fulfilling week I’ve had since coming back to Rivian. I really miss when we were interns and were excited to do stuff almost every day, knowing that we only had the summer together. I wish I could recreate that feeling with my friends. As of right now, I’m lucky if we do something once a week. I don’t know why I feel this way, but a lot of the times I feel lonely out here. It was nice to be wanted for a week.

Anyway, enough emotions. My flight home was, obviously, delayed. Every flight I take nowadays is delayed. At least I got to pretty much finish my book on the plane. It was a great book, a murder-mystery set in a magical world - but with a non-magic private investigator as the main character. It followed her through her acceptance of people with magic, her love, her friendships, betrayal, and forgiveness. I loved it.

That night, I went to MVVC with my volleyball friends for a few hours of activity. We played in the upper division, but I was forced to be a libero, as per usual when we play in more advanced divisions. The first two games were pretty boring for me as people weren’t serving towards me and weren’t really hitting towards me either. For the third and fourth game, I played opposite. In the third game I got one okay set on the outside, and one terrible right side set. Lovely use of thirty minutes. The fourth game, I got a few more sets, but I still touched the ball less than ten times. Fifth game, and I’m back to libero. Again, it was boring, but oh well.

I had fun being there with my friends, I just wished to participate more. Common theme in my life.

The volleyball videos are uploaded here, if you wanted to watch. I recorded with the new camera so the settings are still a bit off. Hopefully I’ll have it fixed for next time.

After volleyball, I went home, ate some hotdogs, and played some games. It was a good end to the long day.

It was nice writing this all out, I’m excited for my next adventure. ∠(^ー^)