Sometimes it pays off to go though the trouble of wading through red tape. Last month was a particularly bad month for me and parking tickets. On a whim, I contested two of my tickets on pretty thin grounds, and lo and behold, I got $150 worth of parking tickets waived. Happy days abound!
The past few days, I´ve been like this:


In the "Nurse Stimpy" episode of Ren and Stimpy, and the end of the episode in which Ren is deathly sick the whole time, Ren finally gets better one morning, when the sun rises and creeps through the window, exposing Ren´s now-recovered face, and then he gets up, raises both fists, and yells, "I feel like a meeeeelion bucks!". (I tried to find a picture of this, but failed).

I had imagined that the day I recovered, that this is how it would happen... Well, I woke up this morning, a bit tired, sinuses still a bit out of wack... throat a bit sore, but still, on the whole much better. I took my temperature, and for the first time in four days, I´m not running a fever, so I´d say I´m 80% better, which is fine enough for me. Now, no more excuse not to be productive (find a job, study Chinese, practice, etc)
Cool...
I was just listening to NPR - the Diane Rehm show, and she mentioned that every friday she does her show live at the National Geographic building, which happens to be a 5 minute walk away. So I just called, and got a seat to her show tomorrow morning. I think I´m finally taking advantage of living in DC

Via
Which Piercing are you?
Two nights ago, my old career manager passed away...

It was really tragic in its own way - he had just gotten married, he was young, and it came all of a sudden...

Iīve found it difficult reacting to this, partially because Iīm really sick, and canīt think of much else other than being really sick.

This is the closest death that Iīve experienced since the younger brother of a close friend passed away when I was in middle school (with an exception of 9/11, which was a whole different emotional world). In some ways, Iīm kind of ignoring it, in semi-denial... It had been over a year since I last talked to him, so if i donīt talk to him for another year, nothing much is different, right? But no.

Thereīs also a bit of guilt... he was my career manager at Sapient, and I had a whole ton of gripes about Sapient, so I used to bitch and complain via him ... Anyone who knows me knows that I deal with things that bother me by doing exorbitant amounts of bitching and complaining... I feel bad about that now - mostly because in actuality, I actually really respected him, and took him as my role model during my time at Sapient. He was my first PM (project manager) on my first project at Sapient, and he was only a couple of years older than me. He had joined as an engineer, just like I had, and had quickly worked up his way to being a director.

He had this quirky obsession with Mont Blanc pens, and I used to always mention him whenever I saw a Mont Blanc pen. Itīs funny that the evening before I found out about his condition, I was talking about him. Iīll continue to pray for him, and for the comfort of his family...

Hereīs a memorial page my buddy, and his friend Garrett Walker created for him:
http://garrettwalker.com/marc/index.php

At FBR, we had this tradition of writing Haikuīs. Hereīs one I wrote when i found out about his condition:
Tonight I will pray.
What else can we do to stem
the passing of life?

And then one when I found out:
mproca, could you -
to let us know youīre okay -
smile down upon us?
Last night, I had another quartet rehearsal.
It´s something that Steve and I had been trying to put together for months, ever since he returned to DC. We finally got a hodgepodge of people together to read quartets, but two weeks ago, we decided to actually form a more cohesive group and to actually work on a specific piece and put together a distinct program. So we decided on Dvorak´s "American" Quartet, which is one of most kick-ass string quartets out there.

So... last night was our first rehearsal where we actually prepared individually beforehand. It turned out _really_ well, esp. for people who hadn´t practiced for years. It´s weird to be back in an environment that I used to devote hours and hours to. Last night was really promising, and hopefully we´ll be at a point of performing at the end of the summer...
So, I got a call yesterday from the department for whom I´m supposed to do a summer internship this summer. Apparently there´s been a hitch in the clearance process for me, without which I cannot start my internship. In my planning, the worst case scenario I imagined was starting work this _past_ monday, as opposed to the monday before, or the monday before that. What I´m being told now is that they won´t even know _when_ they´ll have a decision until this thursday. Which means, it´s highly unlikely that I´ll be able to even start next monday! It was suggested to me that I start finding alternate plans for the summer.

This sucks.

I´m going into school today (I´m feeling a lot better - still sick, but better), to see if I can still sign up for summer classes.

I´m still sick...
Yesterday, I went through 4 rolls of toilet paper to blow my nose,
3 large bottles of gatorade (thankfully they're on sale at safeway),
and 2 pills of antibiotics...
Oh, and my poo turned out green....

I originally had meant to update this more frequently and with more detail, but I've been slacking..

Anyways, this week:
Mostly waking up late, going to bed late.
Tuesday - Went Swimming, Had Quartet Practice, Beer and Desserts with Steve and Rolanda
Wednesday - Went Running, Went to a Country Bar out in MD with the peeps.
Thursday - Woke up late, Went to school and scored with some fellowship money, ran errands, Went rock climbing with the peeps

Today, I woke up with a sore throat, and feeling pretty shitty in general. They've been doing aesbestos removal in the basement across the hall and below me. My paranoid side says that they're not being careful enough and that waking up and feeling shitty has something with me inhaling aesbestos. In fact though, I think I was dehydraded and had a sore throat, and also allergies. I woke up, drank 8 cups of water, and took some Claratin, and then felt a lot better (but still slightly under the weather). I've been gulping down Voodoo Tea (Amy's Dad's tea).

For lunch, I went over to Garth's place where Garth, Scott, and Mary made philly cheesesteak sandwiches (which I'm still burping up). Actually, Garth's kitchen is really small, so he and Mary made cooked while Scott and I sat and watched a documentary on John Holmes - what a interesting and messed up life. Then, we spent some time planning out an econ project that Garth, Scott and I were working on...

This weekend should be pretty good: Tomorrow morning is the race for the cure - I forgot to sign up, but I'm thinking about going and either watching, or jogging informally. For the afternoon/evening, I'm hoping to get some people go go museum hopping (since It's supposed to rain all afternoon). Sunday, I signed up to take an outdoor climbing class with Violetta, out at Great Falls. If the weather's good, Daiv and Ann were going to go hiking, and then catch up with us afterwards to do some climbing. It should be fun!