Wook's Place

I Am My Dad's Son

Today I remembered that today is my father's birthday. I usually remember his birthday every year, but usually I remember it either when I'm not near a phone, or several days later. This year, I win points because I remembered it on the day itself, and I was sitting at my desk not doing anything else. So I called him at work, and caught him between classes, and wished him happy birthday.

Dad informed me that this birthday was special. Before I could ask him if he got a pony, he said this birthday was the last power of 2 he expected to see. He is 64 years old. And frankly, that is far cooler than a pony. I admitted it was cool, and then we both laughed together about how we're both computer nerds. Then we laughed some more about how I am definitely his son, that I think it's as cool as he does. We also swapped medical horror stories (I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow, and dad has had to cancel his due to meds he's taking for his knee). Then we talked about my mom (she's doing great far as I can tell) and then said our goodbyes.

AIM of the Week from Meg

I found this in my iChat window today, from my friend Meg. It made me laugh at a time I was in a foul mood and needed a laugh.

Other than the joke here, I'm always "Away" or some variation, all the time. I don't set iChat to "Available" any more because I'm not good at remembering to set it back away when I leave the computer. I figure being perpetually away and will sometimes answer is better than being always available but never responding. So my friends have learned to just poke my cage and see if I stir. Meg just did it creatively.

Regine, I'm A Bad Bad Man, And I Appologize

Saturday, I ruined an entire week for my massage therapist, her family, and her best friend. I didn't mean to. I wish it hadn't happened the way it went down.

I didn't shoot their little dog or anything physically harmful. But what I did was worse. I ruined an opportunity for them to do something incredibly nice for someone. Something they'd been planning for a week, and really looking forward to doing.

I am deeply, deeply, sorry.

To explain, I must give the back-story.

My Saturday schedule pretty much since I got home from India in June has been as follows: I wake up whenever, eat breakfast, go to the gym at noon for an hour, then go and get a massage at 2 for 2 hours. I discovered that I can't eat a big breakfast to late and do well at the gym. (I know: DUH!) I don't want to eat just before the gym, and I find I'm not hungry after the gym for a while. So what I've settled on is having a huge breakfast as early as I can, and then just not eating until after the massage, when I go and get my traditional Saturday afternoon Five Guys fix.

Thing is, I'm usually pretty hungry long before the 5 guys fix gets managed. I go from 8 or 9 AM food, to 5PM food. It doesn't bother me at lunch time. But my stomach really starts growling and gurgling during the massage. So much so, that two weeks ago Regine (my massage therapist) offered to have her husband, Marvin, go out and get Five Guys for me. I declined, because it isn't that big a thing, and I try not to take advantage of people by having them do things for me I could do for myself.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the hedonism of having a long massage, and at the halfway turn-over part, having a cheeseburger while getting the leg and feet part, and then laying down for the upper body and head that she ends on. I told Regine this, and we were talking about it some. Or actually, I kept mentioning it, probably because it was about food and I was starving. I don't know, that could be it too.

In the end, I decided that the actual best food to combine with a massage therapy spa would be sushi, as it's light and bite-sized. Sushi is far more healthy than a cheeseburger too.

Turns out Regine couldn't stop thinking about it either, and when I was on my way out, she asked me what I liked on my cheeseburgers. For the record, I like Five Guys bacon cheeseburger, with mustard and mayo.

The week passed. Then last weekend, my normal routine changed.I'd been in Scranton PA the previous week, and the customer asked me to come back the following week too. So I figured it wouldn't be any more expensive to keep the rental car, because for Hertz, a 5 day rental is the same cost as a week rental. (Turns out, that has changed.) I thought of calling my brother who lives in Pittsburgh to see if he was around. He bought a new house recently and wants to show it off. I got as far along in that plan as canceling my gym appointment, but in the end, I didn't go because I was low on laundry and had a couple other things I needed to take care of, and now the weekend was my only chance.

I didn't go to the gym, and knowing that, I stayed in bed late, and ended up having breakfast later than normal, at almost 11AM. I had a big breakfast too. When 2 PM came I went to the massage, still pretty full from egg sandwiches, fruit smoothies, and cantaloupe.

On my way in, Regine asked me again what I liked on my Five Guys, and when I answered she told Marvin. I'm usually pretty clueless, but I picked up on this instantly. They were going to get me cheeseburgers during the massage. Something I wouldn't have expected in a million years. I explained to Regine that I was full. My normal schedule had changed today and I'd eaten late and was still really full. Unfortunately, my cluelessness obscured from me the rest of the details that should have been obvious.

You see, Regine, Marvin, Keyona (who works with Regine and who I've not yet met), and probably Regine's entire family, had been plotting all week, to get me Five Guys cheeseburgers at the halfway point of the massage. Marvin wanted to have a cheeseburger with me. Later, it was revealed that Keyona called while I was getting my massage asking it if had gone down and could she come in and meet me.

Regine was crushed.

I should have let them do it anyway. I've eaten a few big meals in my life already full and not even sorta hungry. This is why I need to do the gym thing so badly. But by the time I'd realized just what had been at stake, and what it meant to them, it was already called off. After the massage, I went to Five Guys, but all I got was fries and a root beer. I skipped the actual cheeseburgers for the first time, ever.

I ruined an entire week for an entire family. An entire extended family, even. I'm sorry. It has haunted me all week. That Regine would do this for me, warms my heart in a way few acts of kindness have in my life to date. To know that a small change in my plan for a single day and my inability to see a larger picture so totally ruined something these people wanted to do -- well, there's no good way to make up for something like that.

So I'm sorry, and I apologize.