Supplies!

Got a surprise from a long-time friend today - a long-lost friend!@#!@

My buddy Jason Lau surprised me with an old friend of mine from high school - Karen Rooks! Turns out she's living in Toronto, quite close to where Jason just moved into! She's doing well, and getting married in a month!

I'm gonna have to kick Jason's ass next time I see him for keeping that one a secret...

Happy Barfday

Another birthday. Woo.

When I was younger, birthdays were always a big event. It was a time to get together with family, eat a bunch of cake, and get a bunch of presents. Ever since I moved away (first for University, which led to work) birthdays have become almost nonevents, and I'm not sure if I mind or not.

It'd certainly be nice to go out and do something with a large clump of friends, but in the absence of a large clump of friends within local proximity, this is probably the next best thing.

The High-flying Consultant Lifestyle

Saturday morning, 11:16 a.m. PST.

I should be landing at Pearson in Toronto in 40 minutes or so, but instead I'm drinking crappy coffee with artificial creamer at a Ramada in San Bruno, California. We decided yesterday afternoon that it made a lot of sense for me to be on the customer site Monday morning, so my flight's now on Tuesday and I'm left wondering what to do for the weekend (apart from the inevitable work for the design discussions which will be happening Monday). It's likely that I'll go wander around a mall - my birthday is Wednesday, and my wife's is Friday. I have no idea what to get her, so maybe I'll get a couple of ideas.

On the bright side, it's 12 degrees Celsius here right now - a bit rainy, but a damn sight better than a Canadian winter.

Flashback

What a weird experience.

It's currently 5:11 a.m. local time, and I've spent a good chunk of the last 15 minutes crying. I woke up at 4:54, crying uncontrollably. I still had some memories of what I had been dreaming about, and the dream that I was having involved my wife and I meeting with my grandfather (Gigi) shortly before he died.

Wow, it's still here - typing 'Gigi' above caused me to start up again.

He was talking about something that he wished he did, however the thing he wished he did was one of those bizarre dream things (he regretted not having a chance to buy a couch he designed with a computer program). Somehow I was aware that I was having an in-the-past experience, and Gigi picked up on that and realized he was close to death.

It's been close to 3 years since Gigi died, and today isn't an anniversary of any kind (neither his birth nor his death are within 2 1/2 months of now)

Trivia for the day: Gigi is Ukranian for grandfather, and is pronounced just like if you named the letter G twice (e.g. GG).