One mixed-up little week

An update, before I fly out to California super early tomorrow morning.

• Work: well, I got caught up on email and stayed caught up, at least until taking the day off on Friday. On the down side, Monday evening hit me with a truly huge reorg in the Finding Things organization; the one I'm technically not part of anymore because the new truth is even weirder (UX?) but it will still affect me. Among other changes, the nice SVP who I was already losing is now lost by everyone, as he's stepping down to work as a senior engineer again; so now that feels less like being dumped by him and more like being set carefully up on a shelf, away from the coming river of chaos. I took the opportunity to write him a thank-you note for something he did a year ago, and also send a thank-you deck that I'd gotten "signed" by a lot of people in our organization. Listening to him talk about how he'd just turned 60 and was still so excited about all the things happening in tech, and had no desire at all to retire but wanted a change, was.... interesting. Anyway, in the meantime I was thoroughly stressed out by the new reorg, and slept badly and missed a workout and got super knotted up through the neck and shoulders for a couple of days.


• I got almost done with my crochet project; just need to weave in a few ends when I get back from this trip. I've been working on it while listening to The Reformatory on audiobook and, damn. I think that book might be too much for me if I were from the South, but I'm not, and it's good horror. The author reading it, in her Southern accent, absolutely heightens the mood, even though I'm listening on 1.10x because her pace is so slow. Summary: it's in the Jim Crow south, where a boy gets unfairly sent off to a reformatory. There are ghosts / haints who are pretty scary, and cruel people & systems who are far scarier. Currently rooting for the haints and for the kid's older sister.


• Felt slightly at sea with exercise, where I'm feeling out a new program.


• Attended Pax East for the first time, with the squirrel and Perse! Just for a few hours, and I didn't go to any of the panels or sit and play any games, but it was fun and I bought a few things. Then I stayed over in Boston for dinner with the bug, and we went to see (feel? participate in?) 32 Sounds at the ICA. Took away a new appreciation for subwoofers, and the lovely concept of "listening with" the creatures of the world instead of just "listening to".


• Wrote to my dad, because he'd been having a bad day. When he wrote back, he reluctantly told me he has severe arterial stenosis, with about 55% blockage, plus a heart valve that won't properly close. The 55% is apparently up from 45% last year, and there's no news yet on whether he's a candidate for valve replacement. Like I said, he didn't want me to know, and says under no circumstances will I have to go out there, because he will be fine. OMFG.... parents. He says he's not afraid to die. I'm not afraid of him dying either, but I am apprehensive about this new will-he, won't-he stage that we're entering into. I'm also afraid of him dying in a way he doesn't want. And while we're on this topic, I'm also afraid he won't die for a long time yet. At least two of my friends have lost fathers this year -- it is indeed a thing that happens. This one is a complicated one, or it will be; but not yet. More news from a cardiologist in a couple of weeks.


• Side note: when, in my letter, I told my dad I was going to a gaming convention, he got worried because he thought I was going to a gambling convention. Again: parents. What even?

I'm tired. Felt tired last night with the squirrel, too. We painted my toes and his kid's toes with my favorite new nail polish, Outlaw Country, and played a little 2-player cooperative game about landing an airplane, and then totally fell over. Going to sleep now would be a good idea for multiple reasons, so I guess I'll just do that.