I had a bunch of people over to my house for a pseudo-MetaFilter meetup. Then some of us went to the drive-in. It did not rain. I did not go alone. The weather was nifty and the stars were amazing. There was something really fun about watching Harry Potter on the big screen and seeing shadows flitting over the whitewashed plywood. Bats!
I have heard about people that lie to their psychiatrists. I almost lied to my mechanic today when I took my new (to me) car in for an inspection and some new tires. For some reason I was inordinately concerned with what he thought about the car and my ability to have gotten a decent deal on it. He liked the car and didn’t call me any names when I told him, honestly, what I paid for it. Yay for new cars.
This is a post I was meaning to write for a while. It was going to be the post of “where did my Summer go?” and then just about the time I got motivated enough to start typing, I was off again, and then I was down again.
The short story is that in mid-May my friend and good family friend Pat died. This was the most recent event in what has generally been a somewhat down year including dating a third year law student, breaking up with a third year law student, my Mom being sick, me having miscellaneous mystery ailments and a good dose of hypochondria, and this rainy swamp that passes for Summer around here and my everdamp and moldy basement. I’ve been okay but I haven’t been great. I’m usually great. I was exercising a lot, all the time, and I knew it was going wrong when I realized that I’d already swam a mile, my third or fourth that week saying to myself “gee, I don’t feel tired at all, how strange. I must be getting better at this…” but in fact, I was getting worse.
I torqued a few muscles including one chest-wall muscle that set off a “go get a mammogram!” scare and one groin-area muscle that I kept poking to make sure it wasn’t a swollen lymph node. I have a good doctor who set me up with a good physical therapist who has been my coach and companion in getting better. Meanwhile I’ve been out of the pool. I just started getting back in it last week.
I don’t think there’s been a week that I haven’t been travelling in at least 18 months where I haven’t been in the pool but this kept me out for a month, even a little more. I had gotten used to the release valve that was regular aggressive exercise and without it, things got a little discombobulated. I got depressed, anxious, moody. I slept well for the first time in a while but also too well. I had a hard time getting up and when I got up I didn’t feel truly awake. I didn’t feel sad or depressed, I just didn’t feel … anything. Wasn’t hungry, didn’t want to see friends, didn’t want to do anything. This lasted for weeks. As my body healed, so did my mind. I just started, over the past few weeks, feeling like myself again. I was in Seattle raring to go, and I got hit with a big Summer cold that flattened me out for a few days on a friend’s couch, but I managed to get my ass on to the plane and get home on schedule. Just gives me a good reason to go back to Seattle again.
So, it’s been an odd Summer. I feel like I’ve missed some of it. I’ve been doing a lot of the things I norally do, it’s just taken a lot more effort and seemed a lot less rewarding. I didn’t really want to say anything until I knew I was putting it at least somewhat behind me, which I think I am. I’m now solidly behind in my quest to swim the length of Lake Champlain and I haven’t decided yet whether to give myself a break and add a month on to the end of the challenge or just push hard once I think I’m ready for it.
Thanks to everyone who has given me maybe a little more slack than usual. I have a hard time admitting that maybe I can’t do everything and this has been a pretty humbling experience. I’m typing this up after getting off the redeye flight back from Seattle this morning. I’m just waiting until it gets a little darker and then I’ll be sleeping the sleep of the newly returned home, coupled with the rest of the “yay I’ve got my brain back.” Welcome back brain, I missed you.
Here are some photos from Seattle. I didn’t get out as much as I’d wanted, but I still saw some nice stuff.
Here is a story about ways technology has enhanced my life.
I got a car. Here is a photo of it. (1) For some reason I like having two cars. Part of this may be that I like having a back-up car. Part of it may be that it costs almost nothing to insure a second car in Vermont. Part of it is that I’ve wanted a wagon for quite some time and the opportunity presented itself. So, this is my new (to me) car. It needs a name.
The way I got it wasn’t really your typical deal. In fact, it’s a neat story. My pal Erica just left her librarian gig at Cornell to start a nifty new job in San Francisco at Second Life. (2) She was selling her car on Facebook. (3) You might know Erica because her blog and my blog are the first and second blogs that show up on Google when you search for “librarian” (4) Yeah, that’s us. I saw the photo and said “oh hey that’s the car I need.” My car is totally fine, but ever since a scary run-in with a guardrail last winter, I’ve been thinking I might want something a bit more AWD-ish. Plus, I’ve wanted a wagon or at least something I could, in a pinch, sleep in. I haven’t slept in a car in a few years now, but I like having the option.
Since these cars are basically Vermont’s State Automobile they’re tough to get good deals on. And I don’t really enjoy driving all over the place looking at cars from Craigslist (5). So, Erica’s seemed decent and when I said the price was maybe a little high for me, she made it not a little high and I emailed (6) and said said “I’ll take it”. I sent her a check through my online bank. (7) It was forwarded to her in CA. She mailed me the title and the bill of sale. I called my insurance company. They emailed me proof of insurance. (8) I got a ride from my very good friend Forrest out to Ithaca (thanks Forrest! I met him on MetaFilter (9)) where we found the car in the Ornothithology lab parking lot with a note to me and the keys under the mat. Erica said “It’s the one with the flying spaghetti monster (10) on the back, to distinguish it from the 45 other green subaru legacies in the parking lot.”
We drove back in tandem keeping a sharp eye out for danger. The trip would have been shorter but Forrest heard on the radio (11) that there was a huge wreck on 87 North and we took a detour through Saratoga Springs to avoid it. I got home and made a few moves in an online Scrabble game (12) to chill out, answered some personal and work email, (13, 14) prepared a book to put in the mail for paperbackswap.com (15) and went right to bed.
So I went to bed as soon as it got dark last night and slept for 14 hours. The fact that I can still get away with this indicates to me that it’s okay to keep taking redeye flights if it saves me some money. The loose outline of my trip is this
– Get to Portland late at night Friday and go out for beers with Sara and Steve. Marvel in that yokelly way how great it is to go out for beers at 11 pm and have a GOOD BEER. Crash out.
– Go out for brunch at the Vita Cafe and have corncakes and bacon with real maple syrup. Drink more coffee than is good for me. Yammer on about maple syrup and tastiness of same back home. Ogle all the great tattoos.
– Wandered around the Saturday Market and some junk shops. Started in with my tired “you know this is the sort of thing that everyone has in their barns back home and here they sell it to you for $50” spil. My friends are very nice to ignore this.
– Checked in to crazy hotel where the gal at the desk asked me “Oh are you part of the Arizona Wests, they’re a wealthy rancher family…” I felt like I let her down a bit when I said no. Despite this, the rooms were nice. Fancy hotel but still, free Internet and coffee.
– Dinner with Josh and Angela at Bush Garden. Very nice chill time before the crazy party.
– Crazy party.
– Planning meeting with MeFi heads of State at a suitably late hour the next day. TravelFilter launches this week sometime. It will be fun.
– Got in touch with my friend Lisa DeGrace and spent a few hours helping her prepare for her Sundance Ceremony and also getting coffee and shopping for toilets.
– I got a haircut at Rudy’s. It looks great. For future reference, my barber told me that the cut I like is a “Graduated A-line Bob” Good.
– Hangout time with Steve and Sara including Lebanese food that was totally OMG tasty. Stayed up too late.
– Chill out day the next day. Then walk around time checking out the library. Then dinner time with Steve and Sara and Hiram and Melissa (two new MeFi friends) including some excellent dessert and the movie Valley Girl projected on to the back wall of the dessert place.
– Dropped at airport, redeye home, work and doctor’s appointment, then bedtime.
I was away. MetaFilter had an eighth anniversary party in Portland Oregon and I got flown out to attend. I also got to see some friends I haven’t seen in a while and meet some new ones. I like Portland. It feels like Seattle did when I first got there, before Seattle got hinky and most of my friends moved away. The MeFi party was at Ground Kontrol, a video game and pinball arcade. MetaFilter sprung for free games all night and an open bar. Maybe 120-130 people showed up over the course of the evening, some I knew, some I didn’t know. I got a high schore on Tempest but it didn’t last. I did some more hangout stuff over the weekend — photos and links forthcoming — but now I have the “I waited to come home til the last minute” problem where I was on the redeye last night and I’m at work today. Sleepily at work.
I was in the New York Times, albeit briefly. Related: I redesigned librarian.net and it looks awesome. This place is next.
Bottled water is still a scam. I love love love that Anil is using his popular a-lister blog as a tool for telling people important things. Go Anil!
