Mizblog

It was an interesting weekend.

Saturday we met at Teetee’s place and then went out for lunch. We had had dim sum at Empress Pavillion in Chinatown. Sangeeta went on all day and all night about how good it was. :)

After lunch, we went to California ScienCenter for a talk entitled “The Promise and Pitfalls of Stem Cells” presented by medical researchers, Senator Ortiz (proponent of Prop. 71 which allocates CA bond money for stem cell research in the state), and an ethicist from the Lutheran Theological Seminary. On the whole it was mainly a pro-stem-cell presentation. I got the impression that everyone in attendance (audience and panelists alike) thought that the people who found their research immoral were either misinformed about what they actually do, or were a radical religious fringe (led by the Pope?) who believed that God created an immortal soul whenever a sperm and an egg were joined, even if it happened in a test tube in the lab.

On Sunday we went to San Diego to see Leslie and Jason. They made a pack lunch of makizushi (actually it was made with unflavored rice, and I don’t remember the proper name for that), as well has fixins for chicken wraps, spinach, broccoli, and grilled onions. We took it to Balboa Park to eat it, and it was delicious. After lunch we walked around the park, visiting art galleries, a bonsai exhibition (or as Leslie calls it, “tree torture”), botanical gardens, an outdoor pipe organ concert, and a brief visit to a German beer drinking extravaganza. On the way back to Leslie’s place we got gelatto and tea.

Once we were back at Leslie’s place we watched Monty Python. We all had a little nap in the middle of that, and woke up refreshed enough to play a game of Yahtzee (Leslie won) and then we went out for Thai food at Sangeeta’s request. We went to a place called Thai Flavor, which smelled vaguely of wet dog. The food was not bad, but the company was very nice indeed. After dinner we dropped by Jason’s house to pick up some chocolate samples he’d picked up from his trip to Europe last month. Some of it was barely sweetened (99% pure chocolate) and was very bitter. Others were quite sweet and delicious. I caffeinated myself for the drive home using this chocolate, and it went very well. We made it back in an hour and a half, despite the traffic and the fact that it’s usually a two hour drive. I’m a fast driver, I guess.

All in all it was a very good weekend, and Sangeeta and I are very grateful to our friends for sharing the good times with us. :)

I had two dreams last night.

The first involved me being at a Marine training facility on an island on the equator. They were filming a documentary on the effects of the rise of sea level caused by the melting of the polar ice caps, showing a powerful tidal surge into their facility. It was very dramatic.

The second dream was mainly at a house party. The dream had many sexual overtones but no actual sex. For example, there was a female movie star lying naked on a table, covered by a black gauze table cloth. We greeted each other by eye contact, since we’d ridden the same bus to get there. She had a film coming out that weekend and had been talking about it with people she knew on the bus. Apparently she lived in Redondo Beach but wouldn’t take the bus there for fear that stalkers would find out which house was hers.

In the corner of the main room was a group of Playboy models (sadly they were not naked) chatting like schoolgirls. It was an interesting party.

Sangeeta and I ended up crashing on one of the twin beds at the house after the party. Sarala (Sangeeta’s sister) also joined us in the bed. It was a small bed, so we were pretty tightly packed in. It was a Tim sandwich. We were all naked too, which made things both more exciting and more uncomfortable.

Then I woke up.

I’ve been feeling kind of out of it lately. The ol’ brain just hasn’t been working up to its full potential. I’m not sure what it is, but there are several candidates:

• running
• not enough sleep
• energy drink crash
• too much sex
• not enough sex
• allergies
• illness

I’ll try to vary these a bit and see if I can eliminate a few. I’m not sure how wide a temporal window I should use, but let’s just wing it and see what happens, shall we?

Water is falling from the sky!

I wasn’t planning to go out anyway, but this means Sangeeta might not open her cart today. That’s bad all the way around, but maybe the rain will slack off…

I got good sleep last night. Let’s see if that translates into a good day today…

Yesterday was the worst. I’m so glad I didn’t have to do anything. I woke up sore and tired. Every movement hurt and drained me of energy. I didn’t recover until late afternoon.

Today is better so far. I ran 2.5 miles this morning.

I realized that I need to buy new clothing. My old stuff is wearing out, but I so hate shopping for clothes. I’ll probably end up shopping in a torn t-shirt and some old plastic track suit that’s too short and shows my ankles, but even that thought doesn’t really motivate me to actually schedule a shopping trip. I’ll just keep sittin’ here, wantin’ new clothes.

I’ve spent the last couple days struggling through life. Tired, sore, and depressed, I’ve been just putting in time waiting for my feelings to improve.

Well, it seems that it happened today. I had a good workout at the gym after seeing high tide at 6am. High tide makes for difficult running, because you can’t run in packed wet sand without getting your feet wet.

So I went to the gym instead and got in a solid workout. Afterwards I went home and got in a solid day’s work. I’ve got a program to test now! Haha! I’ve been working on this thing forever but now I’m turning the corner.

I ran again today. 2.5 miles, though I couldn’t run the whole way. I ended up walking. Afterwards we dropped by the gym and did a little weight lifting. I found I could lift slightly heavier weights than hitherto, so that’s some evidence of progress. I’m happy about that.

This is the first weekend in a while that I haven’t had big plans. I think I’ll try to get some work done…

I’m fighting a powerful sleep addiction that I’ve had for longer than I can remember.

My brother’s new wife’s brother died this week. Two weeks after the wedding, in which he was a groomsman. Poor Georgie.

There’s so much else going on that it’s hard to remember it all. Today was the first day in more than a week that I didn’t go out for some morning exercise. Tomorrow it’ll be back to the grind. I’ve now been running in the mornings for about 2 months. I do find that I’m stronger now, though my work has been suffering for it since I started. It’s been harder to concentrate and get into the programming zone on exercise days, and even on most in-between days. I hope that wears off before my job does.

Labor Day I spent playing D&D with my brother Rob, Greg, and John. We had Abbot’s Pizza. It was a great time. :)

Friday I again ran on the beach. 2.5 miles! It was a long day after that, but I wasn’t as dead as I was on Tuesday.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Sangeeta, Teetee, Mark, Julie, Mike, Emmeline, and Eric. We hit Yabu, which was an expensive Japanese restaurant with good (though small) food.

After that we went to Chan Dara where we had banana flambe and ice cream just as Teetee had to leave for the airport.

Saturday morning, Sangeeta and I hiked up Temescal Canyon to the waterfall, then up to the ridge, which we followed back down. The whole thing took us about an hour and 15 minutes. We were pretty quick. My heart was beating at full speed and my lungs were working at capacity, but I made it all the way through with only a couple of brief pauses (at the waterfall and the summit). The running really paid off!

Today I’m paying for it. I’m tired but happy. My ankles are as sore as ever. I had to buy a brush to clean the awful dust (from the trail) off of my shoes.

Let’s see if I can run again tomorrow…