7.20.2010: Chad Cosby, Robin Norvelle, John Putnam

San Francisco and surrounding area will forever be associated with Rod Stewart for me. When John Putnam loaned us his truck, it was equipped with a tape deck and one tape which was Rod Stewart’s Greatest Hits. We listened to this tape non-stop, including on our venture into Silicon Valley to see Chad Cosby in San Jose and Robin Norvelle at Google. We met Chad and his fiancée (who at this point may be his wife!) Bianca at their apartment complex, “It’s like living in a weird hotel,” in San Jose. They decided to take us out to lunch at an incredibly delicious Malaysian restaurant, where dad and I ordered lots of food and watched Chad and Bianca split a salad for their wedding diet. I felt bad, like they were starving themselves, and gave whatever was left of my lunch to Chad. We found out that Bianca had just gotten into medical school in Burlington, Vermont, so the two of them would be moving out to the east coast. Luckily the company where Chad works has a location there, so he is able to continue working for them and designing those chips that are in your Igod. While we were in San Francisco, someone had told us that there was an interesting video with Chad in it, so before we saw him, we watched the video, which stars not only him, but also Shome Dasgupta, Eddie Barry, Paul Simon, and probably some other people that I’m forgetting. Anyway, Chad told us that this video was an engagement gift that one of his friends, who creates music videos in Atlanta, had made for the two of them without anyone really knowing. http://vimeo.com/11315404


Google could probably feed a small country for a few days with the amount of food onsite for its employees. It was too bad we had already eaten when we got there, because there’s practically an entire buffet in every room that’s organic, freshly cooked, probably delicious, and free. And it puts Piccadilly to shame. Then there are the bikes that just hang around loose for anyone to hop on and ride around, the wave pool, gyms, volleyball courts, masseuse, doctor, dry cleaning service, and on and on. Apparently though, there’s a Google 15 (like the freshman 15), so all is not pure and good in the world of Google. This is Robin’s world, which we were able to enter for a few hours (and take a few pieces along with us in our pockets).

We drove back to Napa to the sweet sounds of Rod Stewart (It’s late September and I think I should be back in school/ or steal my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool/ or try to join a rock and roll band that needs a helping hand/Oh Maggie I couldn’t try anymore) and had one last hurrah with John Putnam and his Napa gang. He whipped out a wild boar pasta dinner, the boar which he had shot while we were living the soft life in San Francisco. Just thinking about it is making me hungry. John, we’ll probably be back to bother you again for more pasta on our way north to Seattle.