Sunday, August 16, 2009
Stan's Farewell
Stan's farewell from DC got stretched out over a week. Last weekend we had his farewell party at my place with about 20 people. They turned out to all be people he met since we first met in October 2007, mutual friends all. Though he had other friends in Washington, some had moved away, and others had just sort of faded from sight in the last few months. So, the folks we had were the fun people. :-)
The party went well and much fun was had. I ended up not making the food myself but either buying it, or in a couple cases counting on friends who like to make food. During the run up to the weekend I was trying to get the condo together, as I've been reorganizing the place since Adrian moved out, and he still has stuff there so I needed to work around that. I was also trying to get Stan's going away gift: I created a photo book of pictures taken since we met, including pics from our travels as well as here at home. I finished it, but it didn't arrive from the printer in time for the party.
The party was on Sunday afternoon; I like to plan parties then because no one ever makes plans for Sunday afternoon. I was stressed leading up to it because I really wanted Stan to enjoy it and for everyone to have fun. Fortunately, Linh volunteered to arrange for the cake and then come help me set up, and in the process helped me calm down a bit. Ethan offered to make spring rolls (though he thought the party started at 4 rather than at 2...oops) and Tuan went to the Vietnamese deli for me to pick up an order (and it turned out the place I ordered from wasn't the place I thought it was, but he figured it out).
We had folks over until about 6, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I've noticed at my parties that there's some self-segregation...the people who've known me longer tend to hang out together, the people I've meet since moving back in '06 are in another group. Interesting.
So after that I relaxed a bit, then started thinking about the next weekend. Stan was packing all week and I was working, plus there was the minor issue of Thursday's colonoscopy, but we had plans. Friday night our friend Kevin took us out and we went to a new place (well, new to us) that served Cajun-style food. We called it a night after that because I was running 13 miles the next day and Stan had plenty to do to clear out of his apartment.
Then, Saturday night, we had a small group of friends over for dinner. I have been looking for an excuse to cook again (Adrian kind of took over the fancy dinner party cooking when we were together) and this was a good chance to bring some of our closest friends together. The menu didn't turn out quite like I expected, as some of the ingredients weren't available, but I mostly made it work out. The entree took longer to prepare than I expected but everyone was patient. Afterwards, we headed out to Town, where Stan had a chance to say goodbye to a few other folks. We were pretty beat by the end of the night -- it was a crazy busy day -- but we loved it.
Sunday was pretty chill. We had a great brunch at our favorite place, then took care of things around home, like packing for our trip (well, MY packing...Stan was ready to go). After dinner I told Stan to put on his shoes, we were going for a drive. We ended up at the end of the runway at National Airport, watching as the planes landed over our heads. Back before we started dating I'd thought it would be romantic to take Stan there, but before I ever did he mentioned that someone at work had talked about doing that and Stan thought that sounded like a pretty cheap date. So, I never took him...but I decided we needed to do that befoe he leaves. With the cheesy mmusic playing on the radio, it turned out to be pretty romantic...in my opinion, anyway.
Though the farewell seems stretched out, it's all going to come to a sudden stop next Friday in Denver. We'll see how it all goes.
The party went well and much fun was had. I ended up not making the food myself but either buying it, or in a couple cases counting on friends who like to make food. During the run up to the weekend I was trying to get the condo together, as I've been reorganizing the place since Adrian moved out, and he still has stuff there so I needed to work around that. I was also trying to get Stan's going away gift: I created a photo book of pictures taken since we met, including pics from our travels as well as here at home. I finished it, but it didn't arrive from the printer in time for the party.
The party was on Sunday afternoon; I like to plan parties then because no one ever makes plans for Sunday afternoon. I was stressed leading up to it because I really wanted Stan to enjoy it and for everyone to have fun. Fortunately, Linh volunteered to arrange for the cake and then come help me set up, and in the process helped me calm down a bit. Ethan offered to make spring rolls (though he thought the party started at 4 rather than at 2...oops) and Tuan went to the Vietnamese deli for me to pick up an order (and it turned out the place I ordered from wasn't the place I thought it was, but he figured it out).
We had folks over until about 6, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I've noticed at my parties that there's some self-segregation...the people who've known me longer tend to hang out together, the people I've meet since moving back in '06 are in another group. Interesting.
So after that I relaxed a bit, then started thinking about the next weekend. Stan was packing all week and I was working, plus there was the minor issue of Thursday's colonoscopy, but we had plans. Friday night our friend Kevin took us out and we went to a new place (well, new to us) that served Cajun-style food. We called it a night after that because I was running 13 miles the next day and Stan had plenty to do to clear out of his apartment.
Then, Saturday night, we had a small group of friends over for dinner. I have been looking for an excuse to cook again (Adrian kind of took over the fancy dinner party cooking when we were together) and this was a good chance to bring some of our closest friends together. The menu didn't turn out quite like I expected, as some of the ingredients weren't available, but I mostly made it work out. The entree took longer to prepare than I expected but everyone was patient. Afterwards, we headed out to Town, where Stan had a chance to say goodbye to a few other folks. We were pretty beat by the end of the night -- it was a crazy busy day -- but we loved it.
Sunday was pretty chill. We had a great brunch at our favorite place, then took care of things around home, like packing for our trip (well, MY packing...Stan was ready to go). After dinner I told Stan to put on his shoes, we were going for a drive. We ended up at the end of the runway at National Airport, watching as the planes landed over our heads. Back before we started dating I'd thought it would be romantic to take Stan there, but before I ever did he mentioned that someone at work had talked about doing that and Stan thought that sounded like a pretty cheap date. So, I never took him...but I decided we needed to do that befoe he leaves. With the cheesy mmusic playing on the radio, it turned out to be pretty romantic...in my opinion, anyway.
Though the farewell seems stretched out, it's all going to come to a sudden stop next Friday in Denver. We'll see how it all goes.
Labels: Friends, Relationships
Friday, August 14, 2009
No Big C for Me
It's been a year, so time for another colonoscopy.
After last year's cancer scare, which turned out to be just a few polyps, it was time for a 1-year follow up. The procedure itself isn't so bad -- I'm asleep for it mostly, and even when I'm not, I've got some good meds keeping me calm -- but the prep for it the day before is no fun. For the doctor to see what all is inside, the colon has to be empty. Completely empty. I'll spare the details.
Like last year, Stan was there with me, since I can't drive afterwards because of the sedatives. The nurse aked hm, "you look so young...do you mind if I ask how old you are?" When he told her he's 24, she said "good...you beat our minimum by 3 years." So yeah, she was concerned he might be under 21. Hahaha
Another nurse said to me later, "I can't believe you're 43...you look like you're in your 20s." Sounds like she took the sedatives meant for me. But I'll take it.
As they took me into the procedure room and hooked me up to the monitors, the alarm on te heart monitor sounded. My pulse was down around 48 (I later saw it go as low as 42). The nurse asked, "do you work out or something?" I said yeah, I run marathons, and when the alarm would go off every few minutes I'd hear her tell people, "it's ok, he's a marathoner."
I woke up during the procedure, and when the nurse noticed she told me they gave me less of the sedative than last year, but they could give me more and knock me back out. But I was watching it on TV, seeing what I looked like inside, and I told her I'd rather stay awake. They'd found a polyp, and it was in a tricky location, so I watched (and felt) as they removed it. It took a little while, though, and it was starting to get a little painful. Even after the polyp was out I could feel the camera/blowtorch, or whatever is on that tool, bouncing around inside me. I was about to ask them to knock me out again, but it turned out they were removing it from me and were done a few seconds later. At least I didn't get hard.
Stan drove me to lunch and then home, and like last year, he got to hear some stories from my past. Among other things, I told him about each of the people in DC I'd had a crush on at some point.
Karma caught up with me later. I'd decided that, come Friday afternoon, I was going to "feel uncomfortable" as an excuse to leave work, then go hang out with Linh, who had the day off. Anyway, by Thursday night I did indeed have some stomach pain going on, feeling like a bad stomach cramp. That's what I get for planning to fib. But I went into the office Friday morn, did more work in 4 hours than most of my collegues do in three days, then took off. The universe might punish me, but the office still gets its moneys worth out of me.
After last year's cancer scare, which turned out to be just a few polyps, it was time for a 1-year follow up. The procedure itself isn't so bad -- I'm asleep for it mostly, and even when I'm not, I've got some good meds keeping me calm -- but the prep for it the day before is no fun. For the doctor to see what all is inside, the colon has to be empty. Completely empty. I'll spare the details.
Like last year, Stan was there with me, since I can't drive afterwards because of the sedatives. The nurse aked hm, "you look so young...do you mind if I ask how old you are?" When he told her he's 24, she said "good...you beat our minimum by 3 years." So yeah, she was concerned he might be under 21. Hahaha
Another nurse said to me later, "I can't believe you're 43...you look like you're in your 20s." Sounds like she took the sedatives meant for me. But I'll take it.
As they took me into the procedure room and hooked me up to the monitors, the alarm on te heart monitor sounded. My pulse was down around 48 (I later saw it go as low as 42). The nurse asked, "do you work out or something?" I said yeah, I run marathons, and when the alarm would go off every few minutes I'd hear her tell people, "it's ok, he's a marathoner."
I woke up during the procedure, and when the nurse noticed she told me they gave me less of the sedative than last year, but they could give me more and knock me back out. But I was watching it on TV, seeing what I looked like inside, and I told her I'd rather stay awake. They'd found a polyp, and it was in a tricky location, so I watched (and felt) as they removed it. It took a little while, though, and it was starting to get a little painful. Even after the polyp was out I could feel the camera/blowtorch, or whatever is on that tool, bouncing around inside me. I was about to ask them to knock me out again, but it turned out they were removing it from me and were done a few seconds later. At least I didn't get hard.
Stan drove me to lunch and then home, and like last year, he got to hear some stories from my past. Among other things, I told him about each of the people in DC I'd had a crush on at some point.
Karma caught up with me later. I'd decided that, come Friday afternoon, I was going to "feel uncomfortable" as an excuse to leave work, then go hang out with Linh, who had the day off. Anyway, by Thursday night I did indeed have some stomach pain going on, feeling like a bad stomach cramp. That's what I get for planning to fib. But I went into the office Friday morn, did more work in 4 hours than most of my collegues do in three days, then took off. The universe might punish me, but the office still gets its moneys worth out of me.
Labels: Health
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Things I Never Thought I Would Hear Myself Say
"I can't believe I'm running out of energy after only 16 or 17 miles."
Labels: Running
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Reach Out and Touch Someone
So, I did something Friday I haven't done in a while: I left for work and forgot my phone at home.
I realized it as soon as the elevator got to the ground floor, but knew my bus would be there in a minute and if I missed it, I'd need to drive to work, which means paying $14 for parking, and I'd rather not do that just to retrieve my phone. But I considered it...
It shouldn't be that big a deal. My office was designed in a way that I don't have phone coverage in there, so it's not like I keep it with me all the time. But I usually send a message or two while commuting to work, and I can step out during the day and check for calls or SMS I might have missed, or take a look at email or Facebook, two other things I don't have access to in my office. In fact, I had two messages in mind that I intended to send while riding the train, but they had to wait.
This, of course, was after I left my ATM card in a machine the previous evening. I cancelled it within 2 hours and now get to wait a week or more for a new one. It disturbs me when I get absentminded all of a sudden. I had a couple other things I forgot this weekend, too, and it always makes me nervous when that starts to happen. My identity is based on being "the smart guy" and if I lose that, I think I'm screwed, so anything going wrong in the brain really bothers me.
On the bus headed for the metro station I felt totally disconnected from the world, and that seems weird. I was surrounded by people on the bus, I was about to be surrounded by more people on the train, and of course I'm about the see my co-workers, yet I had a feeling I was cutoff. My guess is that the reason why is because those people who were physically around me aren't people whom I chose to have around me. The people I choose are the ones who happen to be on the other end of that phone, whether they're 10,000 miles away or 1 mile away.
I'm thinking that's one of the joys of our evolving technology: more choice in terms of who we keep as active parts of our lives. Moving away doesn't mean we have to drop people from our daily lives. Meeting someone while on vacation no longer has to be just a "one-time" thing but instead can lead to a lifelong friendship. Planning things with our local friends gets easier. We're no longer forced to include the people imposed upon us - co-workers, neighbors - in our lives simply in order to have someone to communicate with and have someone to talk to day-to-day. Instead, we have a choice. We can end relationships or we can maintain them, but we have more options now.
I like the choices I've made and I'm surrounded by some pretty great people even when they aren't right there next to me. So being out of touch with them, even for only 10 hours, shakes me up I guess.
I realized it as soon as the elevator got to the ground floor, but knew my bus would be there in a minute and if I missed it, I'd need to drive to work, which means paying $14 for parking, and I'd rather not do that just to retrieve my phone. But I considered it...
It shouldn't be that big a deal. My office was designed in a way that I don't have phone coverage in there, so it's not like I keep it with me all the time. But I usually send a message or two while commuting to work, and I can step out during the day and check for calls or SMS I might have missed, or take a look at email or Facebook, two other things I don't have access to in my office. In fact, I had two messages in mind that I intended to send while riding the train, but they had to wait.
This, of course, was after I left my ATM card in a machine the previous evening. I cancelled it within 2 hours and now get to wait a week or more for a new one. It disturbs me when I get absentminded all of a sudden. I had a couple other things I forgot this weekend, too, and it always makes me nervous when that starts to happen. My identity is based on being "the smart guy" and if I lose that, I think I'm screwed, so anything going wrong in the brain really bothers me.
On the bus headed for the metro station I felt totally disconnected from the world, and that seems weird. I was surrounded by people on the bus, I was about to be surrounded by more people on the train, and of course I'm about the see my co-workers, yet I had a feeling I was cutoff. My guess is that the reason why is because those people who were physically around me aren't people whom I chose to have around me. The people I choose are the ones who happen to be on the other end of that phone, whether they're 10,000 miles away or 1 mile away.
I'm thinking that's one of the joys of our evolving technology: more choice in terms of who we keep as active parts of our lives. Moving away doesn't mean we have to drop people from our daily lives. Meeting someone while on vacation no longer has to be just a "one-time" thing but instead can lead to a lifelong friendship. Planning things with our local friends gets easier. We're no longer forced to include the people imposed upon us - co-workers, neighbors - in our lives simply in order to have someone to communicate with and have someone to talk to day-to-day. Instead, we have a choice. We can end relationships or we can maintain them, but we have more options now.
I like the choices I've made and I'm surrounded by some pretty great people even when they aren't right there next to me. So being out of touch with them, even for only 10 hours, shakes me up I guess.
