Things that might be decidedly odd…

Packing

Well, I’ve been packing for the move tomorrow. I’m nowhere near done, but I’ve got some boxes ready to go and more will be finished before I sleep. Digging through an old dilapidated box, I found a bunch of old pictures, a few of which I’ve scanned here. I guess I can’t resist nostalgia even when I should be spending every last waking moment getting things boxed.

I don’t have time to link them all in, but they’re in my old pictures set. Here’s some youthful ones of me:

Me at my high school graduation. Wow, what a dork!

Me towards the end of my first year of college. Wow, I look so young!

Movies

While sick on my deathbed over the weekend, I watched one of my Netflix movies (which I do far too rarely nowdays)–Velvet Goldmine. Somehow, I never saw this movie when it came out in 1998, but I enjoyed it quite a lot in a campy, flashy Hedwig slash surreal Fear and Loathing but more serious sort of a way. I haven’t seen a movie like it in a while and it satiated that need quite well.

I found myself analyzing who all the main characters were supposed to be based on or inspired by in real life, which actually disturbed me since I didn’t think I knew all that much about glam rock.

Diet

I’ve only been on this diet now for a few hours, but I’m already starting to wonder if it’s possible to make such perhaps disgusting things as a meatless aspic involving chicken broth and unflavored gelatine.

I took this picture just now after getting back from QFC for the second time (first time was earlier this afternoon on my way back from the doctor):

Is There a Doctor in the House?

This morning I awoke fairly excited that I’d be able to actually try to see a doctor today after suffering with a fever all weekend and odd stomach problems amplified by the fever sickness for nearly 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the first call I made to my doctor’s office was nearly an hour and a half before they even opened. When I did get through at 9am, I was informed that the doctor was out for the rest of the week. I asked for a referral but was given an odd run-around by the receptionist who mentioned that there was an “emergency doctor” but no actual referral. As crappy as I felt, I knew my symptoms did not constitute an emergency (or I would have gone to the emergency room or urgent care days ago) and figured I was screwed. She did take down my symptoms to pass on to the “emergency doctor” and assured me she would call back soon. Several hours go by and no return call.

In the interim, my friend (and soon to be roommate) Ben suggested that maybe I could get an appointment with his doctor who he spoke very positively about. After waiting on hold and get transfered a few times, the receptionist for that doctor informed me that he was also out of town for the week. Fortunately, she was more helpful than the first receptionist and offered to transfer me down to main scheduling (it’s a sizable clinic an opposed to a two doctor practice like the first place) to see if they could find somebody for me. After explaining my situation to the scheduling people, they transferred me to some random doctor who was able to get me an appointment at 2.

When the doctor walked in the room, he looked familiar. The first thing he said was something like, “haven’t we met before?” He did look familiar but I honestly couldn’t place him. Later, I realized that I’m pretty sure he’s on my Master’s swim team. Small world. I have a hard time recognizing people from the swim team outside of a swimming context sometimes, largely because I’m used to what they look like in a speedo I think. Anyhow, the appointment went well. Regarding the fever and general weekend nastiness, he figured it was just some virus which has largely passed (my fever had finally broken although I was still super fatigued). Regarding the stomach nastiness, he didn’t know exactly what it was, but there seems to be a process of trying simple things before complex tests. Until Wednesday afternoon, I’m on a clear liquid diet, which means I can only drink water, clear soda and clear juices (like apple, cranberry, grape) and eat basically only jello. After those two days, I can start eating bland food like toast and applesauce. Ugh, it’s gonna be a long couple of days, but it’ll be worth it if it clears up this annoyance I suppose. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably get referred to a specialist who will do something oh so fun like a colonoscopy.

Did I mention I’m supposed to be moving on Wednesday? As much of a hassle as that will be, I’ve got to at least start my move on that by getting the large items over. I’ve simply already made too many appointments, ordered my utilities started/shut off, mail forwarded, internet access installed, etc. to go through the hassle of rolling it all back. I may end up only moving the big stuff on Wednesday along with some other essentials like clothes and bland food. Either way, it looks like I won’t be going to Vancouver this weekend because I’ll be dealing with moving in some way. If I’m lucky, I may be able to sneak up for Saturday but I won’t be able to spend the night since I’ll need all day Sunday to clean my current apartment I suspect.

Still Sick

Earlier today I started getting my hopes up when my temperature dropped to 99F for a couple hours. Unfortunately, it’s back up around 101F now again. Sigh. My throat is feeling a bit better though, so now it’s really just mostly a low fever and fatigue.

On the plus side, I’ve been catching up on my Spiegel subscription. I also just went to the hipstermart since I’m out of dinner food and didn’t really want to walk/drive up Safeway, QFC or Trader Joe’s. $15 for some frozen food, a can of soup and a bottle of gatorade. :/ Oh well, convenience is nice I suppose.

Sick Introspection

Earlier today, I was unsuccessfully laying in bed trying to sleep and convalesce. Out of nowhere, I started thinking about my childhood (which by many measures was semi-unhappy) and how it ties into my social issues. One of my earliest memories is being in Kindergarten and having my mother and my teacher making me give up all my friends because they were girls. I guess you could see that I was going to be a homo for years. The thinking was that I would be picked on, but losing all the friends didn’t really change that :/ See, I don’t even need a therapist to blame all my problems on my mother and my childhood j/k

While searching for something interesting about my elementary schools, I came across this page about Walt Disney Elementary which is where I went for first grade through almost all of sixth grade (at which point my family moved to San Clemente).

One of the reviews reads,

5 out of 5 stars

Posted by a former student three years and two months ago

Walt Disney Elementary is an excellent school. This is where my lifelong love of learning began. Without the loving support of all of my old teachers (Mrs. Lacy, Mrs. Turner, Ms. St. Clair, Mrs. O’berle, and Mrs. Laird) I would not be where I am. I would never have enrolled in all the honors classes in Junior High and then High School. I would not have gone to U.C. Berkeley to study physics. I would not be going to Columbia for my graduate degree. Thank you for showing me how I can find my own future. Thank you for teaching me about the rewards of hard work.

- Damian Sowinski

I had all those same teachers (Mrs Turner taught 2nd and 3rd grade in a combo), then went to UC Berkeley to study Computer Science. Weird. I vaguely remember some trouble making kid named Damian who was a year or two younger than me. He would have to have come after me since I think Mrs Oberle was in her first year teaching when I had her. Or maybe it was the year before and he’s older. Wonder if it’s the same kid. Again, weird.

Sick Yet Again

Last night, I went out to Neighbours on Rock Lobster with Ken since it was his big 40th birthday. I figured the best way to celebrate the official death of his gay youth was to surround him by more of it I hadn’t been there in quite a while, so it was fun to dance to some 80s music.

When I woke up this morning, I felt slightly hung over, unsurprisingly. However, I’ve been a bit hung over on plenty of Friday mornings after Neighbours, but this time I felt much worse. My throat was sore and not in the common way (feels more swollen than a sore surface). I felt fatigued as opposed to tired. At work, I was doing ok but just generally not feeling all that great. After going to the one meeting I had and completing some amusing corporate training thingee I headed home, figuring I’d take it easy at home and get some work done after napping.

I slept for probably about 2 hours and woke up still feeling crappy and now feverish. I took my temperature–100.6 So I am genuinely sick I suppose. I was so hoping to go to Comeback (probably NSFW) at Chop Suey tonight and ogle some gipsters. Oh well. There will be other 4th Fridays I suppose.

Particularly annoying is the fact that this illness started on Friday afternoon, which means I can’t just go to the doctor easily. Perhaps if I’m still feeling bad tomorrow, I’ll look into finding an urgent care clinic…

Overslept

I was hoping to go swimming in the lake this afternoon, but next thing I knew I’d fallen asleep on my couch. When I woke up, it was too late to make it to where I would be meeting people It’s too bad too, because it’s absolutely beautiful outside right now! Oh well, another time perhaps. I think I might go see the new Hairspray movie tonight instead now though…

Work-Life Balance

One of the many corporate HR buzzwords out there is “work-life balance”, the idea of finding a happy medium between the stresses of work and personal life. Generally, things like working late at home are considered bad for work-life balance.

I sit here writing this entry some time after 3:30am while doing work (in between waiting for incremental builds while trying to fix a memory leak). Lately, I’ve been much busier at work than usual, putting in longer days by staying much later. The odd thing is that I don’t mind it. It makes me feel productive to be writing code late into the night. When I feel productive, I don’t feel like a lazy slacker which generally makes me feel better about myself and my life. Conversely, separating work from my personal life makes life difficult for me. First, I don’t particularly care for sitting 8 continuous hours behind my desk in an office without a window. More importantly, I feel like I don’t get anything done when I do that. Perhaps I just have trouble staying on task with all the distractions of the other people in the office.

Relatedly, lately I’ve become unhappy with certain aspects of my social life. Too much drinking, goings on and random parties with people I simply don’t enjoy. I’ve vowed to cut back to only the stuff that matters and fill the new time with more meaningful activities. So far, that seems to be mostly occupied by work, which like I said is not necessarily a bad thing, at least not at this point in time.

STP 2007

Last weekend I made it all the way to Portland from Seattle on my bike, stopping over night in Centralia close to the half way point.

The first day went along fairly well. I left my apartment on my bike for UW to drop my luggage off at around 4:30am. Close to the University bridge, I started seeing the first groups of riders. I also saw the first person with a flat (bummer). After meeting up with Robert, Joe and Mackenzie at the luggage drop off, we all headed over to Ben and Jeff’s by car. There, we met Ben and rode back onto the official route where 40th meets the University bridge. In Renton, I almost lost control of my bike while stopping too quickly at a signal but fortunately I regained control before falling. The rest of the first day wasn’t too bad. The weather was quite sunny and warm, which was beautiful but also sunburny and hot. I left Walingford at around 6:30am and got to Centralia at about 4pm, but I did make quite a few longish stops I guess. Robert and I ended up camping in my tent at Centralia College

The second day started early when I got up at around 4:30am. After getting my bike out of the “bike corral”, breaking camp, putting my luggage back on the truck, eating breakfast and what seemed like a lot of waiting, we got out of there at 6:45am. Definitely a late start. Immediately getting back on the bike that morning, I felt really sore, especially my butt. The rest of the second was tougher, not so much from the pedaling itself but just the seat time on the bike. I stopped for longer periods of time than the day before which stretched the entire day of riding out to nearly 11 hours. I got to Portland just before 6pm.

It was quite the ride! I’m still sore but also still enjoying the sense of accomplishment from riding 204 miles on my bike. Taking the train back to Seattle on Monday made the whole thing seem more surreal as I realized how far I’d really rode. It was particularly odd to see from the train roads taken and landmarks passed on the ride. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to taking too many pictures on the ride, but you can find some random shots I did take here.

I did the ride as part of Team Lifelong with Lifelong AIDS Alliance in Seattle. So far, I’ve managed to raise over $250 from people besides myself. To all of you who donated (Hilary, Jeff, Lisa, George, Jason & Sarah and Keith), thanks so much! It means a lot to the people here in Seattle who need the support your donations will provide. To all of you who haven’t donated yet but would like to, my donation site is still open.