GlitchNYC

Family, Friends, Viruses, and Code

January 3rd, 2006

Whew.

I mean really… Whew. I was attempting to think about this post beforehand so I could write a short, funny sum-up of the last 10 days or so, but it’s just not possible, so I’m winging it.

We escaped NYC just after the transit strike lifted, and made our way out to CT to visit with Sara’s family. Her mom was violently ill, so it was pretty laid-back, and we had a nice, quick, Christmas morning exchange before we headed up to visit Sara’s extended family.

Now that Sara and I have been together almost 7 years, the cousins are really starting to feel like family, and I love hanging out with them. The only wrench in the works was that I was having a pretty hard time with my allergies and the 3 dogs + wood fire, so I ended up sidelined for a bit of the night.

The next day, we went to the mall.

Yes. The day after Christmas.

Even though there were about a million people all trying to return stuff, find various exchanges in the right size, and elbow their way around, it was actually quite enjoyable, mostly because I didn’t have to be anywhere myself. I spent a good deal of time just walking around and people-watching, and since I wasn’t in any hurry, I didn’t have the shoulder-ache of stress that most of the other people there seemed to carry.

I got myself some generic loratadine+pseudophedrine, which combined with my singular pretty much stops my allergies in their tracks, so the rest of the visit was quite enjoyable.

After saying goodbye to Sara’s family (and recording episode 13 of The GlitchCast with Sara’s sister Jenn), we rented a car and made our way to upstate NY.

Seeing my family is always great, as is hanging out with my best friend Rye and getting to see Kate and Doug, who drove out for New Years. Although it was great to see everyone, I ended up with just about the nastiest stomach bug I’ve had since I was in middle school. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say that I was really sick, and 3 or 4 days later, food is still a touchy subject.

Unfortunately, that meant that the New Year’s Eve revelry was pretty low key, but we had a good time playing lots of games like Super Scrabble, Texas Hold-em’, and Apples to Apples.

It went too quick as always, especially since I slept through a pretty good portion of the latter half of the week, but I certainly got a lot of downtime to brainstorm on what the next year will bring.

To all of my friends and family, I don’t know if I could ever express it enough, but I love all of you and thank you for making 2005 one of the best years ever.

I had a realization last night while saying goodnight to Sara and before embarking on the “first great coding binge of 2006 (more in the next post).” We just spent 10 days in stressful situations, surrounded by company, and packed in cars, malls, and overcrowded rooms, and yet in that time, we didn’t have anything close to a fight or even an exchange of words. What that’s not that abnormal for us, it just hit me that compared to most couples, that’s like running a marathon without breaking a sweat! If that’s not love, I don’t know what is! I love you Sara, here’s to a great 2006.