Month of February, 2007
I Survived Oral Surgery
The surgery went fine. It went really, really fast. After Jennifer and I arrived at the office, I signed the consent form (which was very, very scary...you say that you understand you could be maimed or die) and paid the bill. A few minutes later they took me to the back and to a bed/gurney which must have been made in the 70's based on the brown vinyl covering it. I put on a hospital cap to cover my hair. Then I laid down and they put some sort of monitor on my chest. You know, those pad things which was hooked up to a machine that beeped a lot. Then started working on my arms. On my left, they took my blood pressure and put a pulse monitor on my finger. On my right, the doctor found a vein and put in the IV which had the anesthesia. They put an oxygen mask over my nose and I started to feel really strange. For a second, I panicked because I certainly didn't like the feeling. Then I gave in and was out.
I woke up thirty minutes later as they were putting gauze in my mouth. At first I worried that I was waking up in the middle of the surgery, but soon they rolled me out of the room and into a waiting area. They kept an eye on me for another thirty minutes. I thought I could hear the nurse talking with Jennifer about all the things I was and wasn't supposed to do. Once I felt up to it, the nurse helped me walk to the car.
I was a little nauseous in the car on the way home, but it wasn't bad. When we got home, Jennifer helped me change my gauze and I fell asleep for a couple hours. I've been up for a little while and I feel good. My mouth is definitely tender and I suspect that pain medication will come in handy soon. I don't feel nearly as groggy as I expected to feel and that's certainly good. Eating was a bit tough - soup and mashed potatoes - but it was SO good. I was starving since I hadn't eaten since dinner last night.
In a few more hours the pain medication I was given at the doctor's office will be wearing off. I hope I'm not in too much pain, but I suppose that's what the pills are for. Thanks, everyone, for the kind wishes and the phone calls! That's certainly the best part of this event. And a HUGE thanks to Jennifer for helping me and staying with me through all this. She is a true, true friend.
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Wisdom Teeth
Remember my new years resolutions? Well, I'm completing one tomorrow. I'm having my wisdom teeth removed. At 8:45am tomorrow, I'm going to an oral surgeon. He's going to put me to sleep and I'll get my top two wisdom teeth pulled out. Lucky for me they're the only two wisdom teeth, for some reason I didn't develop a set on the bottom. (The oral surgeon's assistant chalked it up to evolution, but I'd disagree.)
Not only is this the first time I'll have any teeth removed, it's also the first time I'll be anesthetized. I'm kinda nervous about that part. What if I never wake up? Does that even happen? Is that even a realistic fear? Hmm, not sure I want to know.
I'm sure things will go extremely smoothly. I have what looks like the most experienced oral surgeon in the valley. He's ancient. In fact, when I first saw him, I wondered why he was still practicing and not golfing for the rest of his life. Who knows, maybe he already golfs a lot. In talking with a coworker, I learned that this same oral surgeon sewed my coworker's tongue back on when he was in an accident at 5 years old. (He's now an adult with college-aged children.) So this doctor has definitely been around the block. I trust I'm in good hands.
Everyone send good thoughts my way to speedy recovery. I think the most amusing part of all of this will be what Jennifer gets to experience when I'm being released from the doctor. I've heard hilarious stories about people singing like drunken pirates or cussing at their loved ones as they're coming out of anesthesia. Hopefully I'll provide equally amusing behavior.
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El Encanto
Arianne and David were in the Phoenix area this past week. Chris and I got to spend quite a bit of time with them over the weekend. This is at El Encanto, a Mexican restaurant in Cave Creek.
Flowers on Valentines Day
From my boyfriend, of course.
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Refresh Phoenix - February Meeting
February's Refresh Phoenix meeting on February 6th was all about showing off. It was demo night. Everyone who is working on something they wanted to share had an opportunity to demo it. This was the biggest Refresh meeting I've ever attended. There were about 50 people crammed into Inza Coffee, which is quickly becoming my favorite coffee shop in Phoenix. It was neat to see such an interest in what's going on in the web world in Phoenix. And there's a LOT going on.
My notes aren't perfect, so please correct me if I get anything wrong. If you presented and I didn't make note of it, please add a comment! (The meeting was much longer than usual and I have to admit I was pretty tired by the end.)
Klaw Berry, the book
Daniel Davis at steamcrow.com showed his newest book, Klaw Berry. At the December Refresh meeting, I got a personal preview of Klaw Berry and loved it. Daniel created a very strong female character in a wonderful story with incredible illustrations. I highly recommend it.
BestPartyEver.com
Josh Strebel's wife is a party planner and felt there was a need for better resources on the web. This is their way of addressing that need. BPE wants to be the yellow pages for party planning. I saw this site demoed at the last demo night, but its undergone a lot of changes since then. It looks good and while I haven't used it (yet), I can personally attest to the need. When I was trying to plan my graduation party a couple years ago, I found it exceedingly difficult to find vendors in my area. BPE should solve that given time to grow.
Flare9.com
Josh Strebel also showed Flare9. It's a website to build websites. Josh said that most agencies can't make money building a website that costs $2000 or less so this site is to solve that problem - provide cheap(er), professional websites with good design. It didn't sound like the business model is completely set yet, but it will be interesting to see how this pans out. I wasn't clear how they plan on competing with other services other than offering better design.
Viddler.com
Chris Tingom and the company he works with, Tornado Design, was a part of a multi-national team building Viddler, a video sharing website. I saw Chris demo Viddler at Bar Camp and was impressed by the functionality to bookmark a place in a video. Chris showed a wire frame and a site map while he discussed some of the process this team went through in building. I really enjoyed getting a peek behind the curtain. And I just discovered that Tornado has a great blog at brainfuel.tv.
Changes.app
Ian Baird, a Cocoa developer, is creating a compare program for Mac OS X. As a PC user, I'm familiar with Beyond Compare, which is an extremely useful tool. Ian believes that there's a need for it on Mac so he's building it.
PrimeCondition.com
Simon Alvarez developed a website that can mix music and a personal trainer's instructions so you can have a customized workout. It's to help you know what to do when you're in the gym. Saw this at the last demo night but Simon's added some nice features - cardio with great graphics to make it simple. Simon says the site is now feature complete and he'll just work on the cosmetics. The business is that if you want to add your own music, you have to pay for the service. If you use Prime Condition's music, the service is free.
Amber Alert ID Kit
Jason Ayers works for Global Alerts, which is responsible for distributing the mass notifications for Amber Alerts in a number of areas. Jason demoed the Amber Alert ID Kit, which is a USB drive with a small application (written in Python) which helps parents gather the right information about their children in the event of a kidnapping. The idea is that parents should be prepared to give police accurate information like height, weight, photographs, etc in the event of an emergency. Plus, it's encrypted to keep information safe when there isn't an emergency. Global Alerts is partnering with sponsors in order to provide these kits free of charge.
PinkTomorrow.com
Aaron Post, James Archer, and Daniel Ritzenthaler from Forty Media showed their business savvy by picking a very focused target market and building the right tool for them. Pink Tomorrow is an online application to help Mary Kay directors build a website for their unit. The guys at Forty were focused on making a brand, keeping it fun, and making the Internet easy & beautiful for their customers.
NikeMashUp.com
Brian Shaler showed a site that his company (whose name I can't seem to find even though I had Brian write it down at one point) participated in. At NikeMashUp.com, you can create your own version of a Nike commercial by mixing up different parts of the real commercial. Then you can send it to friends via email or or even to a cell phone.
MazdaUSA.com
Brian's company also worked on the interactive video portion of the Mazda site. I really liked that you can click on certain parts of the video and essentially redirect it.
LitePost.com
Nathan demoed an unreleased email program call LitePost. Their goal was to make an email system that was even better than anything else out there. It's a dark interface, which Nathan explained was for power users who stare at a screen all day. Should be worth a try when its publicly released.
Maps
Josh Knowles from Integrum Tech showed a Google Maps mashup for the travel industry.
Hypergeneric.com
? from Theta Interactive showed his website Hypergeneric. Most of the conversation was lost on me since I'm not particularly technical and it was technically focused.
Shotivate.com
Unfortunately I didn't catch this person's name, but he showed a very neat AJAX search engine. He's focusing his business on the online retail market. His flagship customer is scrapbook.com. Check out the site and do a search. You'll see that the search goes on top of the page and actually shows thumbnails of the products in the search. I like it!
The demo night went really, really late. It must have been after 10pm once it was over. It was exciting to see so many people and so many neat projects. Can't wait to do it again in a few more months.
The Weekend
I had a nice, relaxing weekend. Friday night I played a video game that David and Crystal loaned me - Eternal Darkness. I especially like that characters can not only lose health and magic, but they can also lose their sanity. When they lose their sanity, weird things in the game begin to happen. Quite fun.
I also watched Hoop Dreams Friday night. It was the same director as Stevie, which I watched a few weeks ago...one week ago?...who can keep up. Hoop Dreams was LONG - almost three hours, but it made sense because you followed two boys throughout high school. It made me think a lot about when I was playing basketball in junior high. While it was a lot of fun, I remember being under an amazing amount of stress. In fact, I remember more stress than I do having fun. It was so competitive and I was so afraid of messing up. I'm glad I'm not 14 years old anymore and that with age came confidence. Hoop Dreams was so good that I almost watched the entire movie a second time with commentary turned on. Though I fell sleep before I got to the end of the commentary - it was 4:45am at that point anyhow.
Saturday morning I cleaned house and got ready to have people over. The weather here was gorgeous so I had all the windows and doors open. It must have been high 70's. Spring is coming! Saturday night I had a handful of people over to play poker. Ben won again. He may not be invited next time...just kidding. I got knocked out early but Ian loaned me a few chips and I made a comeback. I ended up getting second...though second doesn't really count when I already lost everything. Anyhow, we managed to polish off six bottles of wine and eat a lot of guacamole. Josh and Jill brought homemade guac, which rocked! After poker we played Ben's Wii. The Mario game is a great multi-player/party game.
Sunday I spent most of the day hungover from too much wine. I spent most of the day playing video games. It was exactly how a lazy Sunday should be.
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My Nephew is Beautiful
He's not even a week old and already he's looking beautiful.
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Happy Birthday, Dad!
Dad's having a milestone birthday this year too. He turns 60 today. What a big week for him - becoming a grandfather and turning 60! It's an exciting time for the Lucci's. 2007 is a great year.
Karen wrote a very touching birthday post to Dad on her site.
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Quote of the Day
"Good people deserve good things. You'll get what you want."
- Rob, a very encouraging co-worker
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Kristen and Braydon
I finally got to talk with Kristen today and hear all the details about the birth and baby. She sounds so incredibly happy, which makes me so happy. Since Kristen met her husband, Chris, she's been the happiest I've ever known her. And now that they have Braydon, she's reached a whole new level of happy. My dad described it as "over the moon." It's definitely awesome.
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Weekends
It was a slow and relaxing weekend. Friday night I went to tutoring with David, which was productive but the hardest lesson yet. His wife, Crystal, joined us for dinner. Then I went home and crashed; asleep by 11 o'clock.
Saturday morning I woke up and went on a productivity streak. I cleaned house, ran errands, and cleaned out cabinets. It was a GOOD morning. In the afternoon I got my haircut and in the evening I went out with Jennifer. We bar-hopped in Tempe (riding our bikes between bars) and met some interesting characters. My favorite were the street magicians. Though the guys who work on mining trucks were a close second.
Just before I got in the car to head out Saturday night, Mom called. Kristen was on the way to the hospital because she was in labor! Luckily my parents had made it to Maryland only a few hours earlier and were able to head to the hospital too. Everyone (Chris, Kristen, Mom and Dad) had a sleepless night but they were all very happy once Braydon was born. He arrived at 8:28am on Sunday, February 11th. He weighed 7lbs 10 oz and was 19 and a half inches long. Both he and Kristen are healthy. I've only seen a few pictures, but I'm already in love with my nephew and can't wait to go to Maryland to see him in person!
Sunday I spent the entire day relaxing, which means I pretty much watched movies all day. I watched all documentaries - Stevie, Home Movie, and Control Room. My favorite was Stevie.
Last weekend Chris came to Phoenix. Friday night after I picked up Chris from the airport, we went to my coworker's house for a party. Her daughter turned two so it was part birthday party, part cocktail party. I imagined that it would be a short stop, but we ended up having such a great time it became the whole evening. I loved seeing the kids run around and play. I loved meeting new people. I especially loved having Chris with me.
Saturday was a lazy and slow day. We simply hung out with each other. It was exactly what I needed. Just time with my boyfriend. Saturday night we celebrated Valentines Day early by having dinner at The Compass Restaurant. It was a lovely, lovely dinner. The Compass Restaurant is a rotating restaurant at the top of the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix. The view was pretty, but the food won the prize for the night. See all the pictures (mostly of food) here.
I could go on and on about how good the food was, but it was really my date who was incredible. I am so lucky that I have a man in my life who enjoys getting dressed up for a fancy meal. He orders wine and drinks champagne with me. He lets me taste his dishes always making sure he gets all the ingredients on the fork and into my mouth. He drives, which means he lets me stand inside where its warm while the valet gets the car. He holds wonderful conversation, which include telling me how he feels. He doesn't even flinch when I cry at the dinner table. I am so, so in love with Chris and am lucky he loves me back.
Sunday we refurbished my bedroom fan, ate wings, and bought a TV stand. The day went entirely too fast and before we knew it, Chris was getting on a plane back to Dallas.
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Braydon
My nephew Braydon arrived! Congratulations to Kristen and Chris on the birth of their first child!
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Thirty
Three times this week I found myself commenting on my upcoming milestone birthday.* I'm turning 30 on March 11th. Talking about this is a breakthrough for me because I'm weird about leaving my 20's. I didn't think I'd be weird. After all, it's only another birthday. It's only a number. But this number -30- caught me off guard.
A few months ago when I started thinking about the ever-approaching birthday, I went into a panic. I felt like there was no way it could be here already. It just seemed too fast. Too fast because I haven't achieved all that I should achieve by the time I'm "thirty." When I talked to a few friends about feeling this way, they quickly reminded me of how much I've accomplished already. I know I've accomplished a lot and I'm certainly happy with my life.
Once I stopped to really think about things, I'm surprised I was hit with such a strong feeling of inadequacy. Why do you suppose I keep pushing the bar higher and higher for myself? Why can't I just be proud of all I've accomplished? After all, there's nothing I can do about it now. The time is gone. Period.
I think it has a lot to do with the fantasy lives we conjure up in our heads. Throughout my life, I've compiled some notion of what people in their 30's are like. In my fantasy, they are beautiful, successful, married with kids, good careers, big house, nice cars, huge circles of friends, etc., etc. Then I compare myself to this fantasy. But the whole fantasy is stupid. It's built on my perceptions as a child and consuming way too much media. (And we all know that media is really just trying to get us to consume more so its not exactly a trusted source.)
When I stop and think about the real people I know in their 30's, I realize my fantasy is all wrong. I know lots of different people who are in lots of different places in their lives. And that's OK. It's not a race. It's not a contest. We all live the lives we're given and do the best we can. Hopefully we can find some happiness along the way. So when I think about things rationally, I'm not quite so bothered by turning 30. I've got a good life and I'm lucky to have lived this long.
Now, I'm not so sure how I feel about the gray hair! Good thing I have a hairdresser who's going to take care of it tomorrow.
* 1. Tuesday night at dinner after Refresh Phoenix, I got carded. I told the waitress that I'm turning 30 next month and I'm happy to show her my ID. She said, "Count yourself lucky, I'm only 23 and I don't get carded anymore." (She looked old.)
2. Talking with a coworker, who thought I was 28. I admitted that I was about to turn 30.
3. With Josh at dinner last night. He said something like, "Wow, you just admitted your age!"
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Good Year
This is going to be a really good year. I can already feel it. There's a lot of positive things happening in my life right now. It feels good. I'm really lucky (and really vague...for now).
Bentley
When Mom and Dad were here a couple weekends ago, they said they thought Bentley gained a bunch of weight. He's definitely heavier than he was a few months ago. So he's on a diet. These photos are for Kristen so she can see how heavy he is right now. He got a haircut today so he certainly looks better without all the fur. If you want to see him a few months ago, check out the entire Bentley set.
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Filling in the Space
Sometimes life goes in full speed, doesn't it? I've been quite busy the past few weeks.
Two weekends ago, Chris came to Phoenix. It was wonderful seeing him as usual. Friday after I picked him up from the airport we have a lovely dinner at Cibo. Cibo is a cute little urban pizzeria. The food was fantastic, especially the cheese tray special. It came with dipping sauces! We spent the rest of the evening watching movies - Identity and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Saturday we mostly lounged around the house and got ready to have people over. We had a casual party centered around a poker game. I invited a bunch of people I've started getting to know in Phoenix and felt like Saturday night was a nice opportunity to continue getting to know them. We ate, drank, played poker, and ended the evening by playing Ben's Wii. Attendees - Jennifer, John, Christy, Matt, Ben, Gina, Dave, Barb, James, and Jason.
Sunday went way too quickly because both Chris and I had to fly out that evening. (Me for work, him back home.) Our planes were delayed so we got a little bit more quality time together in the airport diner. Sunday night I landed in chilly Chicago.
Monday and Tuesday I visited customers in Milwaukee and Chicago. While I was in Chicago I had the distinct pleasure of having dinner with Andrew and Cinnamon. They took me to a wonderful sushi restaurant where we were served by the famous Sushi Mike. All of the food was delicious, but the company was the best. I got to know two lovely people a little bit better.
I also had the opportunity to have dinner with Chris' sister and brother-in-law. They live just outside of downtown Chicago in a lovely, lovely home. Chris' brother-in-law made an incredible cashew encrusted salmon dinner and we drank champagne! It was really fun hanging out with them and getting to know them better. After dinner I made a quick visit to the bar near the top of the Hancock Building where the view was incredible.
Wednesday and Thursday I was in Fort Wayne, Indiana visiting another customer. The meetings went great and I was back to Phoenix Thursday night. Flights in and out of Chicago were all hosed up so I got home late, late, late on Thursday.
Friday after work I drove out to Palm Springs, California (about 4 hours from Phoenix) to meet my parents and their dog, Mia. This was Mia's first airplane trip, which she apparently handled well. It was so good to see my parents. We had a lovely time walking around town, tasting wine at a great little shop (Wild for the Vine), and eating dinner. Mostly it was just nice hanging out. I felt like I hadn't really spent any quality time with my parents in months. On Saturday, we visited my great aunt Jennie at her home in Hemet, CA. She turns 94 this month and luckily she's still in good health. I enjoyed seeing her as well as getting to visit with my father's cousin and her husband who drove out from L.A.
On Sunday, my parents drove back to Phoenix with me. We made a stop halfway in Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is a little town known as a major RV stop in the winter (probably for the gorgeous weather and ample parking space). We enjoyed wandering around a swap meet and a gem show while we were there. When we got back to Phoenix, we cooked a delicious steak dinner and crashed hard. It had been a long week/weekend. Mom and Dad flew back to Dallas on Monday and I've had a usual week of work.
