Kevin's Watch

My appointment at the hospital was changed yet again, to this afternoon.

There are no cancer cells therefore the lump or whatever is benign - I can't even find it now. I had one before that had disappeared before I got a hospital appointment.

However, they want me to have another and different biopsy as they want to try to find out what it is (assuming they can find it). Local anaesthetic again, but cut this time and something about a needle and a vacuum! This will be the 11th August. Should be interesting if nothing else.

Those doctors do like to poke around. Sounds like good news so far though - hope it keeps up.

Yeah, definitely good news.

--A

Well, mixed feelings really...

It's Friday, so yay! Also my last day at work before I have 10 days leave.

Also, the rest of my gear arrived yesterday, so in addition to my new-to-me quad core i7, I'm now running 16GB of RAM and a 2GB graphics card. Also yay! Didn't even have to reactivate my Windows or anything to my surprise.

On the down-side, where the hell is everybody? Looks like yesterday was one of the quietest days ever.

--A

Avatar wrote:On the down-side, where the hell is everybody? Looks like yesterday was one of the quietest days ever.

Math camp?
-Linna

Busy at work. Yeah, I know -- it surprised me, too. One of the other secretaries on my team is out on vacation, so I'm supporting the *real* heavy hitters. Thank goodness a lot of other lawyers are on vacation this week...

And then I got handed a project in Excel. Pivot charts! Oh boy!

Nothing going on this weekend though, except I'm supposed to be formatting the short story collection for paperback and write a post for a blog hop. I wrote part of the post last night, so I could send the link to the hop organizer. Anyway, the lack of stuff to do should help my foot. I did something to it yesterday morning on the way to work, and it's been kind of painful since. It's not swollen and I can walk on it -- but I can definitely feel it. Been wearing an ankle brace off and on, and taking ibuprofen, both of which seem to help.

Busy at stupid work yesterday.
I'm a bit down now as it is my birthday, and is one of those days I try not to get expectations up about, but often ends up sad anyway. My dad forgot for the first time, but was the only one of my blood relatives to call after talking with my sister on the phone who reminded him. And I opted to save up for a bigger haul at Christmas (saving up for a PS4), but I did get to hang out with a couple friends and had a bit of fun, and tomorrow we are going bowling with a couple more so all will be well. I've had a bit to drink tonight, so that's probably why the sad is kicking in at the moment. So I will just shut up and look forward to tomorrow.

Sorry, Cag. I'm not feeling the vivacity right now either. Right now I never, ever want to spend another summer in Nigeria. It rains all the time and with the power out (as now) it is really gloomy indoors. Everyone I know left for the summer-- even Nigerian friends. And there is just nothing to do here. No lake, library, park, mall, concerts, fireworks-- a whole lotta Nigerian nuthin'.

Stag of the dawn and I spent all summer looking at places to live. Nothing has worked out yet. Which means the white-knuckle commute starts up next Friday.

Next summer, we will be in the States (Lord willing) so I don't have to wrangle up an out from Nigeria until 2018. I was telling Stag this morning (as we wound our way around military blockades and barricaded roads which are supposed to prevent suicide bombers from targeting Sunday services) that it was discouraging, watching a country go from bad to worse and never seem to get any better. He reminded me that we don't have to change "the country", just try to have an impact on the people we interface with; in both our cases, that's mostly kids and youth. Yeah, okay.

Sorry to be so Charlie Brown today. I also have a cold and feel like crap. Off to Mallory's, to write more bad Dylan spoof verses.

Sorry to hear your birthday kinda sucked, Cag. Look at it this way, though -- this way, you get to be the special birthday dude for several days in a row, instead of just one.

Deer -- I hear ya about crappy places to spend the summer. I was just thinking how nice it would be to live in a place where I didn't have to spend several months of the year hiding inside. In DC in the summer, it's too hot and muggy to spend much time outdoors, and in the winter, people lose their minds when it snows. Ah well.

Io -- I totally missed commenting on your good news. Yay! Hope the appointment next week goes well, too.

Today was *again* busy at work. I really hope they hire somebody for this vacant secretarial position soon...

Cagliostro wrote:
I'm a bit down now as it is my birthday, and is one of those days I try not to get expectations up about, but often ends up sad anyway. My dad forgot for the first time, but was the only one of my blood relatives to call after talking with my sister on the phone who reminded him.

That's rough. Sorry.

deer of the dawn wrote:...a whole lotta Nigerian nuthin'...

Take up drug smuggling.

...He reminded me that we don't have to change "the country", just try to have an impact on the people we interface with; in both our cases, that's mostly kids and youth. Yeah, okay.

That reminds me of something the GF sometimes tells me...a Zen proverb that goes something like "you're not here to change the world. The world is here to change you.[/quote]

Sucks Cag...on the plus side, fewer people know you're older.

--A

I feel tired.

Not 48 hours after math camp ended, I woke up with a sore throat.
I had kind of expected it... there's been lots of adrenaline... I've been going, going, going for months.

Yesterday a friend was coming over, so after warning her of germs, and getting tired-out cleaning the house, I then proceeded to completely forget I was sick for 4 hours once she arrived. It was fun.

I woke up at 7:30 today, came down and crashed on the couch, fell asleep again until 10. Got up and made oatmeal.
I anticipate doing very little else - and boy am I glad.

Avatar wrote:

deer of the dawn wrote:...a whole lotta Nigerian nuthin'...

Take up drug smuggling.

Thanks, but no.

That reminds me of something the GF sometimes tells me...a Zen proverb that goes something like "you're not here to change the world. The world is here to change you.

I wouldn't like the way Nigeria would change me. Not that it hasn't, or that all those changes have been bad; but if I let it, it would make me into its own corrupt, cynical, hypocritical mode. If I ever see myself becoming that, it's time to leave.

Our church is doing vacation Bible school, which is fun and keeping me creatively busy for a few days. School starts next week and then I'll be too busy to sit around feeling sorry for myself, haha.

Wrong way to look at it. It can change you to the opposite of corrupt, cynical and hypocritical in reaction to seeing it all around you.

I feel pretty good, still on leave and got a few days to go.

--A

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel at last. My brother is supposed to be sending me the financial info this weekend for Mom's estate, so that I can draft the court forms for closing it. We still have an attorney for the estate, but the guy apparently hasn't done much of anything with the info my brother gave him. The idea is to send the drafts to the estate attorney so that all he has to do is tweak them and submit them to the court.

Apparently the reason my brother hasn't seen any urgency in closing the estate up to now is that he hasn't needed the money. Never mind that I could have used *my* share... Anyway, now he's got some sort of business opportunity that he needs the money for, so suddenly it's a big rush job.

Stay tuned...

What an ordeal.

I will try not to make this seem self-serving or overly sentimental, but...

Today my 9 year old son's best friend and siblings visited and we met them at a plaground, my 2 kids and the 4 of them. They recently moved away and were coming back to see people and get more of their stuff.

My son and his friend spent 2 hours wandering the playground talking and laughing and joking and running, and several thoughts occurred to me.

First, even though I'm sure it might have happened, I can't remember the last time I sat down with a friend and just chatted for even 15 minutes, never mind a few hours. I am sure when I was his age I might have had a close friend like that, but as many of you know, I moved virtually every year, sometimes two or three times in a year, and don't make friends easily, if at all.

Second, in this day and age of social media, it was awesome to see them just talk and be themselves.

Third, and this goes back to my first point, what a cancer on life loneliness is, to feel like you have no true friends; and this is all exacerbated by our online presences.

This is not to say that I don't love all my friends, Facebook and otherwise, but I have not had what someone might consider a close or intimate friend in years upon years...the closest lives 4 hours away and we chat every now and then and I visit when I travel...but that close friend to rely on? Not present in my life.

And what is the impetus to fix that in this day and age of distraction and superficiality...

Anyhow, I wanted to share that with somebody, and this seemed an appropriate place.

It's a thing I think about a good bit, too.

The superficiality - and the expectations of superficiality (and the accompanying cynicism) - often "flow in" to "real life," and I've so often found myself cynically viewing other people who I don't know one bit.

Wish I had a solution or encouragement that would definitely work for any person. (I don't.)
The closest I have got is this: Remember, this is a problem for nearly everyone else around you too - including those people who may make good friends.

I can empathize with that. Nearly everyone I know has left this city. Most of my friends have moved out of state. Social media has turned friendship into a casual concept. But even with people I genuinely consider to be friends, I find it difficult to have a deep conversation with them on FB or the like. Part of that is probably due to my own reticence, but I also believe there is something missing. Privacy, certainly, but more than that. I don't know what the answer is. We're more connected than ever, yet actual communication is still elusive.

Rob, I still think you should try to meet up with whichever Watchers are still in San Francisco when you go there for work. Yes, it will be similar to meeting those of us at ElohimFest; but since you travel there more frequently, you may develop deeper fried ships there overtime.