The color of infinity inside an empty glass

I can't help but feel slightly amused.

When I first came to DC, I had some real troubles finding friends. I was living just Northeast of DC. I knew no one. I did join a weekly roleplaying group and met some amusing people, but no one I really called myself FRIENDS with.

K had friends. K had, though a friend of a friend, met a girl named Rachel and the two became good friends but I was pretty convinced Rachel didn't really like me, so...

Remembering the time, it was a bad time for me. Lots of stressors. Lots of badness.

I think, for me, the first time I started saying I had FRIENDS in this area was probably one of the first couple of CC DC meetups. Through my CC friends, I began to really feel comfortable in the DC area (slowly, but surely.)

The next event, for me, was Arthur Murray. Arthur Murray, in many ways, is kind of like a family. You see the same people over and over and over. You talk, you form bonds. And there's something very personal about dancing with someone that's hard to put into words, but if you've done it, you know. Through Arthur Murray, I began to make .... friendly acquaintances. I don't really KNOW most of these people, but they're friendly when we dance together, so I'll take that.

It was for this.. the friends K had met through Choir, my CC friends and our Arthur Murray acquaintances that we decided that we'd make living in the DC area work for us, instead of moving. We had jobs. We had a life. We had friends.

MEANWHILE! And here's why I'm really amused...

Before we even moved to DC, K knew a couple of people in Pittsburgh (which, as a reminder, was where we were going to try to move.) One of those friends came to DC early last year to visit LUSH. She met up with a bunch of local friends.. and this is where K met Lynn.

K became quick friends with Lynne. I met Lynne only the once, but didn't really spend much time talking to her until we'd gotten the invite to spend election night at her house. At her house, we meet Amy and her husband. K (who has much more time to get to know these people since she can spend time with them on LJ) chats up Amy on LJ and Amy's a very friendly sociable sort who also lives near us. So we get the invite, last month, to spend the Inauguration at Amy's house. We watch the inauguration, play video games and.. really, we have a great time!
And so when friends of Amy's, Kevin and Robin, have a superbowl party, we get the invite to that as well. And Kevin and Robin are also superfriendly sociable geek sorts who seem to love hosting big parties with lots and lots and lots of food.

And I can't help but feel amused that it feels like it took deciding to stay down here in DC for all this to happen.

Meanwhile, we got the invite to amuse Amy at her place tomorrow evening (her husband works, her kids are all grown up and moved out so Amy enjoys company).

So... in really two years I went from having.. basically no friends down here, to.. having local geek friends, CC friends and Arthur Murray friendly acquaintances. Not complaining. Just amused. :)

Well, I think the cold finally broke last night. I feel better (for someone who woke up way too f'in early to feed the goofball and never fell back asleep).
Other than being a little tired, I feel OK, tho.
I'm excited... in a matter of hours, I'll hang out with trillain-san (again) and meet tallin and phinnia at the Galleria Mall. And a good concert is expected tonite.

The last couple days have been a bit of a blur. I despise being sick. Truly 100% despise it. Blah. But I caught up on some good reading and saw a couple of decent movies and I'm feeling mostly better which is good for hanging out at a mall.

Got my first GIS project. I hate to say it, but it excites me... I enjoy doing this stuff. I know I can do it and do it well.
Cocky? Yeah, but with reason.. I CAN do this.

My life has suddenly gotten Superbusy.
This weekend, of course, Jen and Robby are here and we'll hang out with friends and see a concert.
Next weekend is my brother's play. I'm excited to see the end results, but I'll be relieved when it's over, too. He's SOOOO UPTIGHT before the play. I know he'll be good, though and I know the play will be good, so it's all good. It'll be cool to see some of the extended family coming down to see Josh, too. Freddie's coming down, of course, and my uncle Jeff and aunt Janice (and possibly their kids: Jaime, Jonathon and Josh). I like my family most of the time. They're coolies :)
The unfortunate part is that this would be the weekend of the SARPA roleplaying event I enjoy being a part of.. but... family is a priority.
Besides, I ask alot of them, too... more on this to come.
The weekend AFTER I'm up in Syracuse at another conference and giving a presentation on my thesis project.

Other busy weekends are.. may 10th and 11th. Why?
Commencement!
I finally gradjeeate undergraduate university!
Only 9 years later! :P
The plans are.. as the first ever Environmental Engineering class, the faculty are going to take us and one guest (we have to pay for any other guests we take with us) to Daffodil's, a super fancy-schmancy restaurant. So (and I think I may have mentioned this), I'll bring Josh, mom and grandma.
And then Saturday, I walk on stage, shake the dean's hand and walk off in front of my attending family (not sure how many people will attend, since I'll just do this again next year, too)

In other news, tommorow is Marc's birthday. He WANTED to come over here and cook US dinner, but we nixed that idea. Instead, we might meet HIM at some restaurant or other. I'm SO thrilled (not). Still.. it'll (hopefully) be a decent dinner out... silver lining and all that.
Hopefully, I'll have worked up an appetitite at the gym, too!
I miss the gym :(
I'm such a freak.

Not much else I can think of that I need to say. So, I'll go attend to my guests and watch "Whose Line'' with them.

Oh, what a weekend it's been. Mostly good.
The fun started Friday Night. Dave called and we went out Midnite Bowling, which was cool. I haven't been Midnite Bowling since... July? When I went with Josh. It was... OK... but we fought and we got tired and not funness ensued. So, Dave and I went Midnite Bowling. We met TJ there (who can actually bowl) and the three of us had a good time. I got a total of three strikes (in general, I suck at bowling :) ) all night.
The good part was, Midnite Bowling used to be really taxing, but it wasn't too bad. Yay, being fitter! (Especially since Weight Loss isn't what I'd like it to be. More on this later.)

So, I get home by 3:00 and go to bed.

Wake up semi-late (I think, like... 9) on Saturday, get dressed, go to the gym, call Dave and make soms plans for Saturday Night. Saturday Night, we go to Lasertron (YAY!) and then stay up till about 2:00 with Dave, Carl and two of their friends Pahras (who I like but don't quite consider a friend as I don't know him too well ) and Marc, whose birthday it was. We played Baldurdash. A good time was had by all.

Something else happened Saturday, though, that was most definately not good.
I found out from (I THINK) scoob that some person (I suspect I know who, but I won't post it) was going to send an incriminating livejournal entry to my old boss, Dr. Aref but that (again I think, not sure) scoob and ara talked him out of it.
Luckily, I'm alot calmer now, otherwise the rest of the entry would be full of angry talk about who would be so... the best word I can come up with here is shitheaded... to do that. To try to get me fired over my own personal thoughts.
I do suspect I know exactly who did.
As a direct result, I have decided that it is high time some of my journal entries (I refuse to make the entire journal friends only) friends only. As such, if you are someone who reads my journal but are not on my friends list and you notice that a few posts have disappeared, you know why. Or if you wonder why I haven't posted, you also know why.

So Sunday comes. Wake up late again. Go to the gym. Practically die.
Note to self: half an hour straight of jogging is still too hard. I need to break it up a bit more still. I'm thinking maybe I'll do fifteen minutes of jogging, do my weight lifting AND THEN come back for the other fifteen minutes of jogging. At least until such a time as I can do a half hour without needing to go find someplace to sit down in between.
Anyways, I still plan on making one or two days of pure cardio a week as I did last semester. For the moment, those days are planned as Tuesday and Thursday, but it's all schedule dependant.

Today, I feel good. Grumpy, though. My weight loss has slowed down quite a bit. Not stopped... I'm still losing weight. More than that, I'm losing dimension (look! I'm 2D! ;) ) Seriously, though... even though it isn't showing in that number the scale gives me, my waist is still getting smaller. I know I go through periods where the scale number doesn't change much, but the weight loss continues. I can't explain it (especially since I highly doubt I'm gaining muscle mass that fast) but.. it happens. I just hope that the scale number catches up to actual fat loss soon. I'd like to be able to say I'm 250. :)
Oh, how much do I weigh now? I'm 259. I apologize for not posting last week, but I had gained weight over christmas/new years and I was ashamed (totally my own fault. i could have gone to the gym a BIT during the week, but it was cold and I had no car and no radio and I just didn't WANT to walk in the cold and try to keep my mind wandering for an hour), so I didn't post anything. It was 260 then.. I've lost about a pound this week.
Hopefully, I'll lose another pound or two for next week :)
I wanna be 250, dammit!
The idea of weighing less than I did when I graduated high school and having more muscle mass appeals to me.
Honestly, I probably AM thinner now than I was when I graduated high school (I was about 255). If not, I'm close.
This is why I continue to exercise. It feels good.. to be fitter, to be able to enjoy things like Lasertron and Midnite Bowling and not be winded by them.. to be able to say... I'm thinner than I've been in *8* years!
I look better too :)
Who wants to come over and feel up my muscles? ;)
Come on, don't be shy... I know you want to ;)

Anyways, time to get back to reading the POM user manual...
Oh, did I ever mention what POM is?
Nope.
OK, POM (the Princeton Ocean Model) is a hydrodynamic model developed for ocean turbulence. What *I* plan to do with it is use a version of it developed for the great lakes, or something akin to it (possibly GLFS (the Great Lakes Forecasting System) to model the hydrodynamics of Lake Ontario throughout an average year.
Before doing that, however, I need to understand how these programs work. So that's why I'm looking through the information about them now.
Which I shall go back to doing.
Ciao

It's been a looong, depressing week. I haven't posted because there's been nothing TO post. I'd stay home, look at the snow, shovel, come back inside and watch movies. No gym, no going out, nothing.
Today I have alot to report.
Today I think I experienced the highs and lows life has to offer: from the beginning (birth.. well.. not fully.. but you'll understand) to death to everything in between.
Well, probably not everything...

The day started early. Woke up, look outside and there was SUN! The sun WAS OUT! Wooo! Woke up, got dressed, posted to livejournal etc. I took some pictures of the snow outside. I plan to shrink them and post them so that all you bastards wishing for a white christmas can see what it REALLY means... at least in Buffalo.
The driving ban had lifted, we were all in the midst of major cabin fever and we needed things.. so we made a list, checked it twice, but didn't bother figuring out who was naughy and nice.. and we headed out.
Before going out, however, I started to scour the house. My MP3 player is missing and I'm not certain where it is. At this moment, I'm pretty certain it isn't in the house. HOPEFULLY it's in my car (which is at the mechanics.)
Did I mention my car? Let me tell you.. Wednesday (in the middle of a snow storm), we brought the car into my mechanic. My first time driving in the snow... I hated it. It was NOT fun. Mom says I did a decent job of it.
Anyways, he called me Thursday. There was problems with the electrical system. Electricity was arcing and he wasn't certain why. Problem: Thursday afternoon and Friday the city shut down. The city is STILL in a state of emergency and not dug out (as you can tell by reading phinnia's livejournal. So, as far as I know, he hasn't been able to locate the problem yet, forget being certain how to fix it and how much it will cost. So the car is at the mechnics and HOPEFULLY the mp3 player is in it. Otherwise, I need a new one. I can't work out without it... it's just waaaay too boring to do cardio without SOMETHING to listen to. The radio may work for a day or two (and I may try it tommorow), but I'll probably get bored of it quickly.
Life lesson #1: Shit happens. It just happens. You make the best of it and move on. I don't really want an extra expense to get a new mp3 player, but I need something, so i'll get something.
So... anyways... we need to go out.
First stop... Tops Supermarket. Got some stuff for homemade spaghetti sauce, some milk stuff like that. Nothing special. Just keep in mind we have frozen onions and milk in the car.
Stop two... I KNOW I mentioned my mom is hell-bent on getting a kitten, right? So she drives all the way to the SPCA (luckily, it's open and accessable) to A) get pre-approval so that when she FINDS a kitten, she can adopt it no problem and B) look for kittens.
I (silly me) figure there's absosmurfly no way that there will be kittens. The SPCA has been closed for a couple of days.. how would they get there? I was wrong.
There were 7 kittens there when we came in. Not all of them were "good enough" for us. Two were longhairs and we prefer shorthair breeds (partly because brushing kittens is not easy nor fun and partly because we just like the way they look better. When we think of cat, we think of something along the lines of an american shorthair, applehead siamese or russian blue. Not a long-haired persian or even a Maine Coone with the big fluffy tail.), one was a hisser... there were three that got out attention, though.
One was a little orange and yellow striped kitten (you'd probably call it tiger) who was happily chasing a toy mouse around the play room. I had dreams of calling such a cat Spitfire or FireBolt or something akin to that.
The next was a little grey cat who reminded me of Smokey without the white in his fur. He was trying very hard to get the ball out of one of those toys where the ball is in a circular track. It kept trying and trying and we thought it was very cute (We like playful troublemaker type of cats.)
The next was a little mostly black cat who LOVED the teaser I was shaking around. It jumped and lunge and was too cute.
So mom was like "we need to decide." and it was a difficult decision. In the end, I think it was when I lifted the little grey one and it put it's head on my sweatshirt and looked sweet that decided it for us. So we got the little grey one.
When I say we got, I don't mean we brought it home. Tommorow they're closed. Monday, he'll get fixed, Tuesday they're closed and Wednesday we'll bring him home.
We'll probably call him Sherlock (we were bouncing names around in the car and that one came up. Choice #2 is Shadow.) but... who knows, right?
Once I get the kitten home Wednesday, you can all expect pictures of course.
So, with that stop out of the way, next stop was Blockbusters to return some videos and return more. We ended up leaving with Saving Silverman and Scary Movie 2, which my brother wants to watch and I don't care to.
Next stop, Target. Mom is looking for photographic paper and she likes the cheap walmart and target brands which are as good as Kodak and HP, but cheaper. We also leave with a thermal top for myself and a couple of other things.
Next stop, Barnes and Nobles. Mom is looking for a certain book. No luck, though.
By then, it's about 2:00 and my belly is yelling that if we don't eat soon, it'll start eating me from inside. So we go out to eat at the Buffalo Wild Wings.
Finally, we go to Rite Aid and go home.
Listening to the messages, my friend Dave's grandmother, Eva Niles whom I knew from when I worked in Beechwood Nursing Home has passed away. Eva hasn't been the same since an accident a couple weeks back and her health has been deteriorating. I haven't gone to see her because I don't want to think of her as any way besides how she was when I worked there (more on this in a few). So I told Dave I'll be at her Funeral (Monday morning at 11:00).
Issue: Monday is New Years Eve and we were SUPPOSED to have a big New Years Eve bash, but he's not up to it (he wasn't looking forward to it anyways, for a few reasons none of which I'll discuss.) I suggested that we modify the bash to a few small friends and I'd be glad to host. In other words, if he can get away from his family, come to my house... hopefully we can get Carl, his girlfriend, maybe our mutual friend TJ. Whatever. Just a small Friendly New Years Eve party.
I hope it happens. I really do. I don't wanna be stuck spending New Years Eve with my mom. I love her, but.. that's not my idea of a blast of a time. On the other hand, mom says if it doesn't happen, we'll try to go see a movie, so that's cool.
Eva Niles... I remember her very well, even if she never remembered my name, she certainly remembered me. She hassled me and I hassled her (and for people who know me, that's how I treat the people I love. I give them hard times and joke with them.)
I remember that the nurses (who disturbed and angered me because I never felt like they cared a bit... well, most of them.) complaining that she'd take these fortified orange drinks, bring them into her room to drink and forgot about them completely. They went bad and the nurses had to clean it up. She was such a matchmaker. She'd always ask me.. am I married? She'd often point to some of the female workers on the floor and said "I bet she's single. You should ask her." She'd also come and help me put table clothes on the tables. It gave her someone to talk to when her family wasn't here. I remember, she loved to play bingo. (she loved all the activities. Hell, she was jewish and she'd go to the catholic masses and stuff, because she wanted to be out and about and do things.) One day, I was her "lucky charm". I came over (having finished my floor) to help her play bingo and as I sat, she won not once but twice. If I saw her in her room, she'd offer me one of her many peppermint patties her family would give her.
I do remember Eva Niles. She was... definately a personality. (Much like the rest of her family)
Continuing on with the day...
After calling Dave and taking a nap, we went out AGAIN. This time, we started off at Rite Aid (her last prescription had recieved part of a shipment, so she got some.). we went off to the mall and, despite the fact that I figured it would be swamped, it wasn't. We were at the mall to look for thermals for my mom and a snowblower (all sold out. Surprise Surprise, I guess.)
Then we went to Walmart where I got some more thermals, some of my flavored water (yum!) and a bedspread for my mom.
Came home, watched Saving Silverman and then watched the news.
Now they're saying we might want to stay home tommorow due to blizzard-like conditions (not because of new snow coming done, but high wings resuspending the snow into the air and whiting out our vision. Not to mention a REALLY cold Wind Chill.)
Let the frustrations continue.
And so, that's my day... a new family member, the death of a person I liked and frustrations with life.
I guess I'll post this and head to bed. Good night everyone. Have a safe and warm New Years Eve if I don't write before then. And wish me luck in finding something cool to do!

I do have other things to discuss.

Yay! Another project done! One less things to deal with! Yay!
I should be ashamed of myself. In those last hours of working on the project, I ceased caring. It's not quite right? Fuck it, it's just a homework,.
I should be ashamed. But I'm past caring at the moment.

That leaves... one final, one final presentation, one project, one writeup and a partridge in a pear tree.
Well.. maybe not the partridge.
Much the pity. It would amuse my kitties so!
Speaking of my kitties. Go Check Out My Webpage again! I added a new section on my little monsters, including an ode to Hot Stuff :)

What else? Weight loss is back down.. 261 for two days straight. I need to be able to get back to the gym. I've been too busy today and too sick yesterday :P

Can't think of anything else.. except for the bulk of the post.
While I have some time, I need to talk about this whole thing. It's weighing very heavily on my mind.
Unlike other parties, unless yelled at, I intend to mention all parties involved in this. My opinions, as per usual, are not censored nor particularly politically correct.
( Read At Your Own Risk )

I'm feeling... thoughtful. Not necessarily good or bad, but thoughtful. I just talked to arabella, one of my best friends (since 1993... it's amazing to think we've known each other for 8 years..) about Kareila, another really good friend.
It's just amazing how much we've all changed in 8 years. We've all been in situations where we NEEDED the other two just to keep our sanity.. in the end, despite our personal differences, we seem to just balance each other out in an almost yin-yangish sort of way...
But time has passed... Kareila has become.. grown up. Alot more antisocial. She's still a good person and a good friend but not at all as crazy and amusing as she once was and never seems to spend much time online anymore (due to work and, I think, the fact that she finds more enjoyment in doing nononline things like sewing and watching college football).
arabella has grown up to become a great person (as well as a microbiogeek) in a relationship she seems to simulaneously love and hate and, though I've never seen them together, I'm told those two fit together like two peas in a pod.
And me? Well, I guess I'll leave that for someone else to decide. I know where *I* think I've change, but maybe what I think has changed hasn't.
Time changes the nature of everything.
You can't blame it... by summarizing what I've summed up, I've neglected to mention 8 years of history. Approximately an entire third of each of our lives... PLENTY of things have happened in 8 years, things that have changed us to our very core. We've grown up, found ourselves (or not) in college and strove to become things we did or did not become. We've formed new attachments, affected hundreds of lives (and been affected ourselves by those same hundreds)
I dunno.
I dunno where to go with this post anymore. I guess I'll just end it instead.

Bah. I'm having a fight with a friend. Friday, this friend of mine came on and she was in a bad mood... she swore a couple times and I don't remember exactly what the conversation was about, but as a joke (and partially because I was getting annoyed at her bad mood), I @booted her off public for swearing... it was something that mommy (an object we keep on our channel to keep people from swearing too much) would have done if she swore one more time. Anyways, she took great offense to that and is very angry about it. I don't like fighting with my friends, but if she's going to be mad, I can't stop her. I don't think what I did was as big a deal as it seems she does.
Lesse, in other news... You Don't Know Jack will be on TV tommorow. I'm very excited. I love the videogame and I wonder if the gameshow will be like the game. And if so, if you can play online like you can with "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire".
In other news, I got a new video game. We were at Circuit City yesterday and I got this game called "Mob Rule" which, so far, seems rather cool :) It was only $20, so I'm not complaining :)
In other news, I think I'm going to meet Laurie Kuhn (aka Lain aka Trillian @ Chaotic) this Satuday at 6... she lives in Olean but I haven't had a car until recently and I'm wary of driving too far. It'll be cool to meet her, tho :)
*thinkthinkthinks*
I THINK that's all I have to say...