BrockLi Soup

I feel like I’ve been a few paces behind for the past five months. I’m behind on the magazines stacked on my headboard, behind on the thousands of news items in my RSS reader, behind on the dozens of posts I have wanted to write here, behind on keeping up with friends both out of town and in, behind on e-mails that have sat in my inbox for months awaiting response. About the only thing I’ve managed to keep up on is paying the bills, and sometimes just barely.

I realized that I’ve been in my “new” apartment for a couple weeks shy of six months now. I look back on things that happened, conversations I had, and can’t believe how long ago they took place. The past five months were a frenzied blur; I was so busy with work, and then so occuppied with a new relationship, that everything else was just put on hold. For a while there, BP was coming down to visit practically every month; I don’t think I’ve seen him since I drove up to Buffalo for Bill’s wedding back in June. And speaking of Bill, I don’t think I’ve even spoken to him since I called a month after the wedding to ask about married life. Too many things took a back burner for too long, and I regret that.

Everything was pushed aside because of a major project at work - the biggest I’ve ever been involved in - that dominated my time and caused me unbelievable stress for a few months there. Sometime around late August, it calmed down a little bit, but was still a challenge. About the same time, I started spending a lot of time with Erin, so that contributed to it. That part, I certainly don’t regret; I mention it because it was easy for our relationship to fill what little room had been given up by work, and the cycle continued.

The project that caused so much distress ended November 1, and things were supposed to be smooth sailing after that. Erin and I spent the first week of the month in the San Francisco Bay area on vacation, which was fantastic, and then I attended the DC-PHP conference and spent a weekend visiting Erin’s sister in Raleigh. When I finally got back to the office, November was nearly halfway over and things were still a little hectic. I spent so long looking forward to the end of that project that I almost expected that everything would be cupcakes and puppies once it was over. I mean, there’s obviously still work to be done, but I really thought we’d be able to have some down time for a month or two to recover from the six months we had spent busting ass, but no such luck - yet.

At any rate, I feel like I need a few weeks off from everything to recuperate and catch up on everything. We spent this weekend doing almost absolutely nothing. It was wonderful and relaxing, but not nearly long enough, and I didn’t do any reading or writing or anything, so I did a lot more of the recuperating than the catch-upping. I’m hoping to have a little more downtime over the coming weeks to spend on my own stuff. If nothing else, Erin is going home for almost a week for Thanksgiving, so that will give me a chance to catch up with local friends I haven’t seen much of and maybe do some reading.

Or maybe I’ll just lie around for a few more days. That’s been pretty nice, and it’s been so long since I’ve been able to get away with it that I almost want to do it as long as I can.

I don’t want to bore anyone with the details of my day, but I DO want to write this down, lest I forget it. Or need proof that I did it. You know, just in case.

Ryan dropped me off at the train station this morning so I could spend the day up in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it started raining about half an hour after I got up there and didn’t stop till I left. But, I made the best of it.

Nuzz and I had lunch at Asqew, and then I hopped a bus down to Wendy’s place. We caught another bus over to Haight-Ashbury, picked up some CDs at Amoeba Music, had coffee and played Pac Man at a cool little coffee shop, and got a drink and some wings at Magnolia. Then we got on another bus to go back to her place to grab some stuff to catch a cab to catch a train to meet Ryan, Sarah, Jordan and Tristan in Palo Alto for dinner.

It was a fun (albeit tiring) day, despite the rain. I think I kinda like this city.

Tomorrow is for sleeping. There’s a sushi place nearby that Ryan and Sarah swear by, so I think I’m going to grab lunch there, and then it’s off to the airport in the evening. I’m not ready to go back.

PS: You know that song San Francisco (”Be sure to WEEEARRR, some flowers in your hair”)? It’s been stuck in my head all week.

Remember that time we went dumpster diving? Well, it’s time to cash in reward points, fly out to San Francisco, and spend a week with the wonderful Ryan and Sarah. I leave Thursday evening and come back Sunday morning.

I was talking to Sarah ealier today and realized that I haven’t had a break this long since I was 15. I worked all through high school and college, so school breaks just meant more work. I do long weekends out of town once in a while, but the longest break I’ve had in the past seven years was last November, before I moved to DC - I finished finals Friday morning and had a week and a half before starting my job on a Tuesday. That hardly counts as a break, though: I did a ton of driving - three laps between Rochester and DC - packed up and moved all my stuff, AND spent a weekend partying with the Grillbillies.

Of course, now that I really think about it, I had forgotten the 10-day trip to Las Vegas three years ago. I guess that counts.

Either way, I’m psyched. I could stand to get out of here for a bit, and I’m looking forward to seeing the whole SF crew.