A few days ago, I got the first news that my 10-year high school reunion is in the works. It was kind of a shock to me -- it's hard to believe it's been that long. I'm pretty sure I'm going to attend, even though high school wasn't exactly the best four years of my life. In some ways, I think it'll be good for me... I'm still a freak, and possibly still an outcast, but at least now I'm comfortable in my own skin.
Mostly, I'm going to go my reunion because I'm nosy. I'm curious to see what my classmates are like these days, now that we've grown out of our hormone-addled adolescence. Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, I have a general idea of what a lot them are up to these days, but there are definitely a handful of high school friends who haven't jumped on the social networking bandwagon. Hopefully at least a couple of those folks will show up!
Last year, I went with AB to his 10-year reunion, and I'm afraid that it's spoiled me... His whole class was really close, and AB is still good friends with quite a few of his classmates, so the experience was very different than what I'm expecting from my reunion. It turned out that I had already met a LOT of people from AB's class, so even for me it was like partying with a bunch of old friends, plus some interesting new ones! I guess I've met dozens of IMSA folks over the years, but I don't think I've introduced AB to more than three or four people who went to my high school.
Have any of you attended or skipped your 10-year reunion? If you went, what was it like? :-)
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tough questions
I know this is an old video that most people have already seen by now, but I'm posting it anyway because it never fails to break my heart when I watch it. I'd seen it on YouTube quite a while ago, and then saw it again last night when we watched a couple of Wholphin DVDs.
Are you anybody's favorite person?
Are you anybody's favorite person?
Friday, August 22, 2008
Under the Sea
Tonight was exactly what I needed to cheer me up.
AC invited me to the Castro Theatre tonight for The Little Mermaid sing-along, and it was an epic experience.
The Castro Theatre is a beautiful old theater on the main drag of the Castro. It's the most gorgeous movie theater I've seen, with beautiful red curtains and ornate gold details. It's also the only theater I've ever been to that features a real, live organist before every show. Tonight, the organ rose up from below the stage as the organist played classic Disney songs. And, of course, the audience was singing along.
Being in the middle of the huge crowd was surreal. It was a packed house, full of enthusiastic Little Mermaid fans, and a few of the moviegoers came in full costume (people take their costumes very seriously in San Francisco). There were about a dozen Ariels, a handful of Ursulas, three or four Prince Erics, and two slightly more creative people who dressed as "water." We sat toward the back, and all you could see across the theater was a sea of grownups and kids wearing gold cardboard crowns, holding their fish-shaped noisemakers in the air, and blowing oceans of bubbles around the room. When the movie started, the audience cheered so loudly you could hardly hear the movie. There's something thrilling about being part of a huge crowd that's cheering, booing, and singing along together. And it's so much fun to have permission to just be ridiculously loud and silly with a bunch of other ridiculously loud and silly people.
AC invited me to the Castro Theatre tonight for The Little Mermaid sing-along, and it was an epic experience.
The Castro Theatre is a beautiful old theater on the main drag of the Castro. It's the most gorgeous movie theater I've seen, with beautiful red curtains and ornate gold details. It's also the only theater I've ever been to that features a real, live organist before every show. Tonight, the organ rose up from below the stage as the organist played classic Disney songs. And, of course, the audience was singing along.
Being in the middle of the huge crowd was surreal. It was a packed house, full of enthusiastic Little Mermaid fans, and a few of the moviegoers came in full costume (people take their costumes very seriously in San Francisco). There were about a dozen Ariels, a handful of Ursulas, three or four Prince Erics, and two slightly more creative people who dressed as "water." We sat toward the back, and all you could see across the theater was a sea of grownups and kids wearing gold cardboard crowns, holding their fish-shaped noisemakers in the air, and blowing oceans of bubbles around the room. When the movie started, the audience cheered so loudly you could hardly hear the movie. There's something thrilling about being part of a huge crowd that's cheering, booing, and singing along together. And it's so much fun to have permission to just be ridiculously loud and silly with a bunch of other ridiculously loud and silly people.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Disappointed
So, I went to the orthopedist today for my eight-week checkup. The X-rays showed that there's still no visible callous on my broken bone. Which means there's been little to no healing.
The doctor told me to stay off of it for another four weeks, and even after that, there's only a 50% chance it'll heal. So, I may be looking at surgery at that point, and then a couple of months healing after that.
I'm trying very hard not to be depressed, but I'm really starting to get sick of this shit.
The good news is that I'm now in a giant black boot instead of a cast, so I can at least take a decent shower again.
The doctor told me to stay off of it for another four weeks, and even after that, there's only a 50% chance it'll heal. So, I may be looking at surgery at that point, and then a couple of months healing after that.
I'm trying very hard not to be depressed, but I'm really starting to get sick of this shit.
The good news is that I'm now in a giant black boot instead of a cast, so I can at least take a decent shower again.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Worst-Case Scenario
I'm a worrier.
I worry about doing a good job for my customers. I worry about saving enough money for both a house and for retirement. I worry about my cat escaping from open windows, even though she hates the outdoors. I worry about my grandparents' health. I worry about my husband dying in a freak bicycling accident on his way home from work. And I worry about my broken foot.
As it turns out, worriers should not research their medical problems on the internet.
In about 10 minutes of googling, I managed to find dozens of horror stories about broken fifth metatarsals. Either the writers' bones never healed, or the bone took 6 months to heal, or they had to have painful surgery because the bone wouldn't come back together. I read stories about people who broke their foot years ago, but still suffer from crippling foot pain.
Basically, I managed to give myself a minor freakout, even though I've also heard lots of stories about people who broke their foot and recovered quickly and completely. Funny how easy it is to ignore those stories.
So, why do I spend so much time stressing out about something that's probably going to be no big deal? Here's my theory: Being the control freak that I am, worrying is my way to control situations that I can't do anything about. If I think about every possible worst case scenario, I can't possibly be taken by surprise, no matter how horrible the news is.
Unfortunately, this strategy also causes a whole lot of unnecessary stress and sleepless nights... there are very few times I can think of where the worst-case scenario actually happened. Am I the only neurotic person who does this?
It's a good thing that I'm going to the doctor on Thursday, which will be exactly eight weeks and three days since I first broke my foot. I'll get to see a fresh x-ray, and I'll get to talk with the orthopedist about how things are going. Hopefully, there will be progress, and some solid answers, so I can take a break from worrying for a while.
In the meantime, does anyone have a good broken-bone story to share?
I worry about doing a good job for my customers. I worry about saving enough money for both a house and for retirement. I worry about my cat escaping from open windows, even though she hates the outdoors. I worry about my grandparents' health. I worry about my husband dying in a freak bicycling accident on his way home from work. And I worry about my broken foot.
As it turns out, worriers should not research their medical problems on the internet.
In about 10 minutes of googling, I managed to find dozens of horror stories about broken fifth metatarsals. Either the writers' bones never healed, or the bone took 6 months to heal, or they had to have painful surgery because the bone wouldn't come back together. I read stories about people who broke their foot years ago, but still suffer from crippling foot pain.
Basically, I managed to give myself a minor freakout, even though I've also heard lots of stories about people who broke their foot and recovered quickly and completely. Funny how easy it is to ignore those stories.
So, why do I spend so much time stressing out about something that's probably going to be no big deal? Here's my theory: Being the control freak that I am, worrying is my way to control situations that I can't do anything about. If I think about every possible worst case scenario, I can't possibly be taken by surprise, no matter how horrible the news is.
Unfortunately, this strategy also causes a whole lot of unnecessary stress and sleepless nights... there are very few times I can think of where the worst-case scenario actually happened. Am I the only neurotic person who does this?
It's a good thing that I'm going to the doctor on Thursday, which will be exactly eight weeks and three days since I first broke my foot. I'll get to see a fresh x-ray, and I'll get to talk with the orthopedist about how things are going. Hopefully, there will be progress, and some solid answers, so I can take a break from worrying for a while.
In the meantime, does anyone have a good broken-bone story to share?
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Getting Lei'd
Last night we met up with some friends at my favorite tiki bar ever -- the Tonga Room at the Fairmont hotel.
Just outside the door we were greeted with leis, to help us get into the island mood. As we walked in, the house band was playing on their raft, which floats in the indoor lagoon in the middle of the room. After each set, they dramatically float back to shore as the rain comes down from sprinklers in the ceiling, and a strobe light simulates lightning.
Our table was tucked away in the back corner of the pirate ship (yes, there's a pirate ship). There were portals and rope rigging on the walls behind us, and we had a great view of the dance floor which is on the main part of the deck. It always looks a little bit like someone's wedding -- a random assortment of people, mostly tourists, drunkenly dancing to classic cover songs, including Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." My friends started a conga line when "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" came on, and they had the whole dance floor involved before the song was over.
The biggest drawback to this place is that it's EXPENSIVE. The delicious and strong drinks are $10 each, plus there's a $7 cover on Saturday nights... so it's unfortunately a place we have to save for VERY special occasions.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Skateboards and broken bones
So, having a broken foot has given me a lot of free time. I've spent the majority of the last seven weeks sitting on my futon and playing around on the internet... So, yesterday I decided that if I'm going to spend all of this time doing absolutely nothing, I might as well blog about it.
As I'm writing this, I can hear kids on skateboards rolling down my sidewalk. Last month, a new skate park opened, two blocks away from my house. I still haven't seen it in person, since two blocks is much to far to walk on crutches.
I've threatened to take up skateboarding myself, as soon as my foot's healed (along with skydiving, surfing, and most of the Olympic sports), but the truth is that I don't think I'm ready to risk any more broken bones for a while. What I am going to do is go over to the skate park to watch the people who actually know what they're doing. AB got some great photos of the park right after it opened, and it looked like a lot of fun.
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