Gwnewch y pethau bychain

Month: February 2007 Page 1 of 2

Flashback: D’zenove (Part the Third)

Saturday

Despite being one of the last people to go to bed on Friday, I woke up on Saturday morning in time to avail myself of the free breakfast. I sat with filkerdave, and after finishing my food, later sat and chatted with katyhh and tarkrai. At some point, I realized the time and caught the last half of Lady Mondegreen’s “Choose Your Own Adventure Workshop”, where they had put a bunch of topics into a hat and drew a new one out every time they exhausted the previous topic.

Once that was done, I wandered out into the lounge area and chatted with various people, so I missed the next couple of concerts. I was in and out of the Main Concert, but I did fortunately catch the Crooklets singing “Alien Salad Abduction” and also demoneyes brilliant parody of callylevy‘s “Just Beyond”. I had stepped out to fetch some folks for filkerdave‘s spot when I got waylaid by the charming photographer who was at the con to cover the vent for an Irish youth magazine, and I spent a good deal of the next hour chatting with her and letting her take my picture.

The main concert was followed by a reunion of the original lineup of Three Weird Sisters. Since all three of them happened to be at the con, they decided to put on an hour set, and, while I admit to being greatly biased, they were fantastic. if you had told a total stranger that these three hadn’t performed together in over a year, I’m not sure you could have convinced them. The set was tight, high energy, and a hell of a lot of fun, and it was really nice to see the old dynamic still exists when they get on stage.

After the 3WS concert was supposed to be dinner, but that was when the first of the major hotel snafus struck. It seems that somehow the hotel had interpreted “Dinner from 5-7pm” as “Dinner at 7pm”, so there was a scramble to get dinner out. Worse, at this time we discovered that the hotel had, despite a contractual prohibition against booking other noisy events into the facility, booked a disco and a skittle alley for Saturday night; in fact, they rather comically wanted to set the skittle alley up in the main Programming room. This led to a great number of the concom having to jump into crisis mode, but fortunately, everything was eventually sorted out, with the skittles being put out of doors, dinner moved to a function room on the far end of the hotel, and coordination between the disco DJ and the con’s sound tech crew to try and ensure there’d be little interference from the dance.

The fears of the noisy disco also required a slight rearrangement of the evening programming, moving UK GOH Mike Richards up an hour, as he would tend to be quieter than the other two performers. What with the delay of dinner and lending support to the committee, I didn’t get to catch all of it, but I really enjoyed what I heard.

After Mike was the band Chimes, who aptly demonstrated how you can make sure everyone at the con gets a concert slot despite limited time. I lost track of the number of personnel changes the band went through, as various people filled in for the band members who were sidelined by illness. All of it was amazing, but my favourite song had to be “Thief in Little Pieces”, wherein little_cinnamon learned to not to let Phil rewrite his lyrics without checking on them beforehand. This rule belongs in the same category as “Don’t look at Judi Miller while you’re on stage.”

The evening wrapped up with the absolutely fabulous Lady Mondegreen, who delivered everything I’d come to expect from them over the years since they debuted. I’m a sucker for harmony and pretty girls, and LMG is rather obviously strong in both suits, and I’m biased to begin with for various personal reasons, but to say they blew the room away is rank understatement. I especially loved the ultra funky filk of “Lady Marmelade”, with fleetfootmike and demoneyes providing guitar and drum backing. The only regret I have is having the camera battery die shortly after sweetmusic_27 joined the band to turn the trio into a quartet. But not being able to take pictures meant I got to kick back and enjoy the music.

Once the concerts were officially over, I went to hang out with cadhla and sweetmusic_27, and we played the exciting parlour game called “Quick! Find something Seanan can eat!” This is no mean feat after 10pm on a Saturday night in Basingstoke, but the game was finally won by securing an expensive but indifferent cheese-and-veg pizza from room service. Once fortified, we wandered into Open Filk, where I recall singing a couple of adamselzer‘s songs, and I don’t remember what else. We stayed up until way too late singing, and then Amy and I stayed up talking until later still, and I finally got to sleep somewhere around 5am.

End Part the Third…

(Coming soon: Part the fourth, in which there is oversleeping, closing ceremonies, and we get in trouble for singing in a pub. Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion, next time on Flashback!)

Interview Meme Redux

Here’s the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better. If I already know you well, expect the questions may be a little more intimate!
3. You will update your lj with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

(Note: In the past, I’ve done this and some of the questions didn’t end up getting answered, I intended to get around to them, but the hard drive I’d kept them all on in order to make sure they got done crashed and I didn’t have a backup of it, so I apologize for those that I didn’t get to. This time, I intend on answering things in a much more timely fashion.)

Flashback: D’Zenove (Part the Second)

Morning came, and soon the house was bustling with packing and organizing and all of that. cadhla came over to join us on the trip down, and eventually we set off for Basingstoke, stopping briefly at Waterloo station for a Buger King lunch.

The train trip down was relatively uneventful, though i sometimes wonder about the poor fellow who was sitting by the window in the section of seats we encamped on. Conversation between us was as varied and colourful as conversations involving this lot tend to be after all, and looked horribly trapped and put upon.

Arriving at the hotel, we split into two groups and taxied over to the hotel, and checked in. This was where we discovered that the hotel would only allow us one key per room. This wasn’t a problem for me, as I was the only person in my room, but cadhla‘s roommate had gone off on a grocery run with others, and she couldn’t get into her room. I invited her to drop her things in my room until she could get into hers.

Having divested ourselves of stuff, we headed out to meet up with folks, and distribute hugs and generally hang out. Eventually, sweetmusic_27 showed up with food and the room key, so I helped her carry her stuff in (“Are you happy to see me, or do you just want me for my labour?” “Well, just this minute….”), and eventually went and fetched Seanan’s stuff as well.

telynor asked me if I’d be willing to help out with Opening Ceremonies. My complicated job, which will be difficult to explain to a layperson, but I’ll try, was to stand by the door and look big. This all tied into the whole X-files/Torchwood/Area 51/Men in Black thing the concom was going for. My job was to Secure The Door. (“I’m on the brute squad.” “You ARE the brute squad!”)

Saw a bit of tarkrai‘s concert, and then agreed to walk to the city centre with Seanan so she could acquire diet soda. We actually turned the wrong way at first, and then doubled back on a bike trail, but eventually, we found our way to lovely downtown Basingstoke and located a Tescos, stocked up on beverages and stuff, and then walked over to the train station, where we took a taxi back to the hotel, so we wouldn’t have to lug our bags.

Friday night was mostly spent hanging out in the pub area with telynor, katyhh, and some other folks I’m not remembering at this point. I did wander into the open filk for a bit, and borrowed ladymondegreen‘s guitar to play “Sauron” when a rash of silly Tolkien songs broke out, but otherwise spent most of my time socializing, ending up sitting at the bar with bedlamhouse and ladyat for as long as Bill was willing to keep buying me pints. Eventually, about three in the morning or so, the last folks wandered off to bed, and I wandered off as well.

End Part the Second…

(Coming soon: Part the Third, featuring a disco, a skittle alley, a relocated dinner, and a program shuffle. Stay tuned!)

Flashback: D’Zenove (Part the First)

When we weren’t able to go tot he UK con last year, I was terribly disappointed, and swore that this year would be different. But due to a variety of medical and other financial drains this year, we really weren’t in a position to afford to go, and I finally admitted this a few months ago. “Well,” asked kitanzi, being the sensible sort, “can we afford for just you to go?”

We discussed this for a bit, and figured out we could just squeeze it out, so I set off to visit the UK family by myself.

Arriving

Since by luck my flight over to the UK was on the same plane as bedlamhouse and ladyat, I drove over to their place and left my car so I could ride down with them. With one thing or another, we got to the airport and through security with only barely enough time to kick back for a drink at the Crown Club before heading down to our gate (made more complicated by my realization I’d left my boarding pass back at our table and having to run back for it — where they told me it wasn’t a problem, they could have just printed me a new one at the gate. Next time I’ll know…)

The flight itself was pretty uneventful. It was probably one of the most comfortable flights across the Atlantic I’ve had, as the plane was largely empy — I don’t think more than half of the coach section was filled, and probably it was closer to a third. As usual, I didn’t sleep on the plane for more than about an hour, so I watched almost all of the in-flight entertainment. The movie was “The Queen” with Helen Mirren, and it was absolutely marvelous. I’ll be picking it up on DVD when it comes out. There was the usual assortment of sitcoms, travel documentaries, and music videos, and a re-run of House that was at least a pleasant diversion. At one point, I woke up from a light doze and looked out my window in time to see the lights of, I believe, Reykjavik down below. At one point in the early pre-dawn, I saw another jet off in the distance, and watched it as it tracked over the horizon on its way to who knows where.

We set down at Gatwick airport a bit earlier than projected, and breezed through customs in no time flat. I parted ways with Bill and Brenda as they stopped for morning tea, opting to start my journey by train to New Cross, where I’d be crashing overnight with telynor and filceolaire before heading down to Basingstoke for the convention. The trip from the airport to London Bridge was uneventful, but then I made a fatal mistake.

I failed to Mind The Gap.

I was running to get on the train, which predictably stopped with the doors equally inconvenient to me on either side. As I stepped onto the deck of the train, someone behind me tapped me on the bank and pointed. I saw the battery case cover and battery of my phone lying on the platform. I jumped back off and got them, and started to look around for my phone. I was only just starting to panic when my good Samaritan got my attention again and pointed. Down. And there, down on tracks, lying on the gravel, was my phone.

I failed to Mind The Gap, and The Gap ate my phone.

I stared at it for a moment, muttered an expletive, and shrugged my shoulders and got back on the train. There wasn’t much I could see to do about it at the time. If I’d been more awake, I’d have gone looking for a porter, but at that point I was just trying to get to my destination. I arrived at New Cross Station tired and cranky and slogged across the park to Gwen and Joe’s flat, and was warmly greeted by Gwen and pola_bear, who were waiting for me. I collapsed on the sofa and told them about my phone, and Gwen quickly found the number for Lost and Found at London Bridge Station. She explained what had happened, and the man said “Is it a silver T-mobile phone?” We told him it was, and he said “Well, I’m holding it, but the battery is missing.” I assured him that was quite alright, and got instructions where I could retrieve it. Having sorted that out, Emily and I accompanied Gwen on the bus to a nearby Underground station, where she then went off to work and Emily and I proceeded on to London Bridge, found the Lost+Found office, and got my phone. I popped the battery back in, found to my delight that it still worked, and we headed back to the flat by way of New Cross Gate, stopping at a little Jamaican deli to grab me some brunch — barbecue chicken, mac&cheese, some fried plantains and a bottle of Ginger beer. Yum.

Having been fed, my fatigue began to set in, so I went and laid down for a nap. A few hours later, Gwen’s son G. woke me up, so I hung out with him and chatted a bit, and then I’m afraid I played Stern Uncle Rob and directed him to do a number of chore-like activities before his mom came home. I even got him to do the washing up, which astonished Gwen, who informed me that he hates that job.

Eventually, the household congregated and Chinese takeout was sent for, and then Gwen insisted on showing me the first episode of the delightfully trippy crime drama Life On Mars. Oh wow. I’ve downloaded the entire first season since I’ve gotten home, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

We stayed up talking much too late, and then eventually stumbled off to sleep, with dreams of filk cons dancing in our heads. Being the only person in the house who wasn’t slated to be on the concom over the weekend, I have to say I, at least, slept very well.

End part one…

Flashback: Gafilk

I really had intended to write about Gafilk when it was still fresh in my mind, but a variety of things kept me from getting around to it. But enough cool things are still in my mind that I want to highlight them

  • Attendance wise, we had our second largest crowd ever, topping out somewhere in the 170-180 range. A lot of people were there for the first time, but hopefully not the last.
  • The Debbie conspiracy. I adore ohiblather, so when her friend lord_korak approached me about a conspiracy to smuggle Debbie’s husband Jeff to the convention without her knowing about it, I gladly pitched in. We had the two of them listed under fake names (John Carter and Jack Clayton), arranged that their proper name badges were not in the batch delivered to the registration setup party, to make sure they wouldn’t be seen, and blocked their rooms so they could get into the hotel without being noticed. My only regret is that they chickened out and didn’t take our suggestion to have Jeff announce his presence by offering a toast at opening ceremonies, so we all got to see her face.
  • Hijacking the opening ceremonies to get the entire convention to sing Happy Birthday to cadhla. (“I love my Seanan. I wish I could do something for her on her birthday. Let’s see, I have a mobile phone, a microphone, and a hundred people in the room……”)
  • Finally getting to have allisona at Gafilk. I’ve been pestering her for years to come, because she’s just one of my favourite people. Sadly, she’s one of those folks whose real life commitments and our annual dates don’t mesh well. We actually asked UT to be our guests two years in advance, so that Allison would have plenty of time to arrange her schedule. I hope it’s not another 9 years before she comes again.
  • Speaking of our guests of honour, I don’t think I can express how utterly cool Urban Tapestry is as a convention guest without severely abusing a thesaurus. (m-w.com suggests: bang-up, banner, boss [slang], capital, classic, crackerjack, dandy, divine, fabulous, fine, first-class, first-rate, grand, great, groovy, heavenly, jim-dandy, keen, marvelous (or marvellous), mean, neat, nifty, noble, par excellence, prime, sensational, splendid, stellar, sterling, superb, superior, superlative, supernal, swell, terrific, tip-top, top, top-notch, unsurpassed, wonderful…..). They were absolutely delightful, both in their concert and just around the convention, much to the surprise of no one.
  • Summer and Fall. (Kapital, Klassiker, Allerweltskerl, Geck, göttlich, fabelhaft, fein, erstklassig….oh, skip it. *grin*) Seriously, these two girls from Germany knocked my socks off. I still can’t find them, I’ve been barefoot for two months. I lost count of the number of instruments they played, and played well, in their concert. Ultimately, my only regret is that I didn’t get to spend more time hanging out with them than I did. I hope their experience was as magical for them as they were for us.
  • SM Stirling was a great guest, and he had a fabulous time at the con. I’m sorry to say I still haven’t had a chance to read any of his novels, but I think I will be making time soon.
  • Linda Melnick was absolutely delightful. We’ve been trying to lure her back into the fold for years, and finally found the perfect way to make her show up — invite her to be our toastmaster. She was a wonder in helping set up one of the best rounds of “My Filk” in years, and the quasi-Technical Difficulties reunion featuring T.J. Burnside-Clapp and her daughter Jessie during Linda’s Toast concert was utterly fantastic.
  • Speaking of “My Filk”, I was really really pleased with it this year. I though the question rounds had the right mix of difficulty, everyone on the panel seemed to be having a good time (sometimes, to their surprise), and the sign-language round was unspeakably cool. I’ve been hosting this event for eight years, and I think this was the best one ever.
  • Speaking of sign language, Judi Miller was there. I went squee. I’m not proud. 🙂
  • Got to meet kilted_singer, though I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as I’d hoped. Since he’s one of the few people who’s actually learned and played some of my songs, he gets a special mention in my con report, because I actually do like having my ego bolstered once in a while.
  • Because of his untimely death right after the convention, my memories of tnatj are in sharp relief. Most of my memories really are just Dave being Dave….holding court in the registration area, setting up his button trade again, reciting bits of verse in his booming cheerful voice. One moment stands out, though…there was an incident that occurred on Saturday that required a great deal of diplomatic intervention to smooth over, and it all happened right in front of the table Dave was hawking buttons from. Once it was all settled out, he pulled me aside to tell me that he was always very impressed by the way that kitanzi and I handled stuff like that, and wanted to compliment us on it. That really meant a lot to me, and I wish I’d had a chance to tell him how much.
  • We sold out the banquet. We released two more tables. We sold it out again. Folks, if you’ve never been to a Gafilk banquet, you just don’t know what you’re missing. If the band ever smokes any harder, we’ll get in trouble with the fire marshal. People all dressed up in their finery, dancing the night way. There’s few things that earn the designation “not to be missed”, and this is one of them.
  • chirosinger and musicmutt. Graham and Becca were our Friday Night Concom’s Choice Concert, and they were fabulous. It was interesting to see how they’re melding their very different music styles on stage together. G&B were also our roommates, and better roomies I don’t think I could have asked for.
  • Best Interfilk Auction Ever. Why? Because I had at least one and sometimes two pretty girls on my lap the entire time, and I wasn’t even bidding on anything. ‘Nuff said. *grin*
  • Of course, the biggest highlight of the weekend for me? sweetmusic_27 was there. See, I like her a lot, and really enjoy being around her. And, it would seem, she really likes being around me. And so we spent a lot of time around one another, and we figured that we should do a lot more of that in the future. I could go abuse the thesaurus again to explain how I feel about this new relationship, but there’s a LOT of entries under “happy”, and this post is long enough. Suffice to say, my heart is a bit lighter than it was before, and that’s a good thing.

Of course, no con report would be complete without photos! I got a lot of good ones, I think. Also, i’ve collected everyone else's con reports in my LJ memories. If i’ve missed yours, please let me know so I can add it.

Next year, we have Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, Brian Richardson, the Brobdingnagian Bards, another super secret guest, another banquet that couldn’t be beat, plus kangaroos. It isn’t really a filkcon until there’s kangaroos. Y’all come?

Weekend Update: Bucket of Panda

I still need to actually talk about Gafilk and D'Zenove at some point, but I guess I can work backwards.

I took a half day off on Friday so I could go down to the Sleep Clinic for the CPAP orientation, returning home just long enough to drop things off before heading down to North Springs station to pick up aiela, who was visiting for the weekend. Traffic really wasn’t very bad, considering it was five-o-clock, and as a result I got to the station about 40 minutes before Angie did. (Insufferably slow baggage return on her end didn’t help this one bit.) We got back to the house and I made tacos for dinner while we all hung out and talked, and then watched an episode of The Daily Show together. kitanzi decided to make an early night of it, having slept poorly the night before, leaving me and Angie time to catch up with each other.

Saturday morning we got up and had a nice light breakfast of eggs and toast. kitanzi made a quick grocery run, and then, about noon, we all headed down to ZooAtlanta. I realize that it was 40F in the middle of February, but I have to say I’ve never seen the zoo look quite so deserted. The primary reason for our visit was to see the baby panda of course, and when we arrived at the Panda habitat, we found her sleeping in a bucket. Cutest. Thing. Ever. (Click on the picture to see more photos from the Zoo trip) We spent a lot of time in the reptile house, and were fortunate enough to be there when a couple of the zookeepers came around with a chinchilla and a bunny, which they were presenting and allowing folks to pet. If you’ve never petted a chinchilla before, you have no true understanding of the word “soft”. Wow, what amazing fur. I think it looks better on the animal than a coat, though.

We spent about 2.5 hours at the zoo, and while many of the animals were off exhibit due to the cold, we had a good time walking around the park. Once we’d run out of things to see and do, we headed back home I took a two hour nap before dinner, and then we headed over to bedlamhouse and ladyat‘s house for the February Gafia housefilk. Many of the usual suspects were there, including quadrivium, surrdave, thatcrazycajun and singing_phoenix, hawklady, weirdsister and her whole family. sffilk and joyeuse13 and abovenyquist. I was also delighted to see rslatkin attending, because….well, because I’m always delighted to see rslatkin. In addition to the normal crowd, the fellow from PBA30 who had been filming at Gafilk was there with his camera and setup, to get some more footage for the local interest piece he’s doing on filk. It’ll be interesting to see when he’s done.

Played a fair amount, starting off with “All For Me Swag” and “Dungeonville“. At a con, that’d have led to an hour or more of gaming filk, but tonight it went off in another direction. It was a nice, low-key circle, and I wandered in and out of it to socialize with folks in the kitchen as much as playing. (We had a short run of channelling vixyishabovenyquist played “Mal's Song“, which gave me an excuse to pull out “Aural Vixation“. Then someone asked if anyone could play the original “Girl Who's Never Been“, and since I had it right in front of me, agreed to play it. Somewhere in the middle of the last chorus, my voice leapt from my throat and ran from the room, leaving me with a hoarse squeak. Good thing it’s a singalong. *grin*) We had a fabulous time, and eventually headed home around 11:30pm, as I had a slight headache that wouldn’t go away.

Sunday morning, we went to lunch at the Cracker Barrel down the road, It was pretty busy by the time we got there, resulting in a 20 minute wait for a table, but we had a good time browsing the kitsch in the country store and reminiscing about candy we used to get as a kid that now only seems to exist in places like the Cracker Barrel Country Store. We finally got seated, and found ourselves in the hands of a wonderful waitress. Not only was she seriously cute (ever notice how no one is ever humorously cute?), but she was right on the spot with our orders and keeping our drinks filled. I’d have taken her home with us if I could, but since that probably wasn’t an option, I made sure that in addition to leaving a good time, we asked to speak to the manager when we left and gave her glowing praise. Servers like that really make a meal more enjoyable all around, and it’s nice to make sure they get the recognition they deserve.

The rest of Sunday early afternoon was spent with me and aiela snuggling on the couch and being insufferably cute (or so kitanzi assures me). When the time came, I drove her down to the airport and we said goodbye, and she got on her plane and went home, and I came home, and that was the weekend. (I did get to have a nice long phone conversation with sweetmusic_27 that evening. She baked at me. It was brilliant fun.)

As weekends go, it’s really hard to beat faraway sweetie snuggles, music in good company, and a bucket of panda.

(Edit: serenejournal turned the photo into an icon! Glee!)

Dr. Sleeplove, or How I Learned to Start Breathing and Love the CPAP

I took a half-day off on Friday so that I could go to the 2pm setup class at the clinic and get my device. This was relatively straight forward, as there were only 5 of us, and we had a good time sharing stories of our studies when the tech was out of the room. The unit they provided us was a ResMed S8 Compact, which seems to be an unremarkable but noncontroversial machine, from the research I’ve done since. (I still intend to followup on laurel‘s excellent advice, but for now, I figured I’d take what was given and not waste time.

As most people warned me, it is going to take some getting used to. The whole “there’s something strapped to my face” feeling really doesn’t phase me, but I’m finding that I’m hyper-conscious of my breathing at first. I’ll actually be thinking “Ok, breathe in…..and out……and in….and out.” Other than that, I don’t seem to have too many problems with it insofar as it being a distraction from falling asleep.

The other thing that’s going to take some getting used to is that I seem to only be sleeping in 3-4 hour increments. After about that much time, I’m waking up, and finding myself too wired to go back to sleep. So I’ll get up for about an hour or so, then try to go back to bed, and often succeed for another 2-3 hours. My co-worker Tim has suggested that I will probably find that I don’t actually need as much sleep as I used to, since the sleep I’m getting is higher quality, and he may turn out to be right. i would not actually mind a couple of extra hours in my day!

Of course, the bottom line, and the most important thing, is that I’m feeling a ton better after sleep, regardless of the length of time I actually spend doing it. When I wake up, I find I’m instantly awake, and no longer feel like I’m having to push a large weight off of my brain. While I don’t have the “bursting with energy like an ADD ferret on meth” sensation that some people reported after their first experience, I am feeling less fatigued, more alert, and generally more upbeat as a result.

Ultimate verdict: I think this is going to be a good thing.

Thanks to everyone who posted with encouragement, suggestions, resources, or just shared experiences. I really appreciated all of it.

Valentinr wrap-up

I never got around to mentioning it, but thanks to everyone who signed the Valentines day gadget. It certainly made me feel warm and loved by each and everyone one of you.

I admit to being somewhat curious by two entries, both anonymous:

  • I think you’re pretty cute and pretty nice and pretty witty even though I don’t like filk!

    Gosh. If only I knew who you were. 🙂 (For the record, you don’t *have* to like filk. It’s just something I do. I do other things as well. :))

  • You, dear ACat, rock my socks. A more compassionate and caring friend one could not ask for and number one huggers like you are one in a million.

    *blush* Thanks. Again, I’m curious.

Now, I know the whole point of leaving anonymous comments is to be…well, anonymous. But, if either of those anonymous commenters would like to say “hi, that was me”, or indeed, if any of you would like to say anything at all to me, comments on this entry are screened. 🙂

Well, that was definative.

One of the complaints I gave to my doctor during the course of the last year was how tired I am all the time, and she recommended that I go and have a sleep study done. So back in January, I went down to the Sleep Disorders Center of Georgia for a sleep study.

Today, I went in for the followup to find the results of the study. Dr. Wellman had predicted, just based on my description of symptoms, that I was suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. When I sat down in his office, he flipped open the chart, glanced at the report, and said “Well, you just about broke the record.”

During the course of the sleep study, I stopped breathing an average of 130 times an hour, and my oxygen levels dropped as low as 84%. No wonder I’m so fatigued all the time, if that’s the kind of sleep I’m getting!

I have to back in tomorrow to get set up with all the apparatus. Looks like I’m joining the growing legion of folks with CPAP machines. I wouldn’t say I’m looking *forward* to it, per se, but I *am* looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Today is as good a day as any to look about my life and notice that it is full of love and light, and that I am wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice when it comes to personal relationships. I could spend all day listing all the people who mean the world to me and why, but in keeping with the traditions of the day, I want to especially recognize my dearest sweeties:

sweetmusic_27: it’s been six weeks since you said “Welcome to my life”, and whether you realize it or not, you have brought me immeasurable joy by doing so. Even though you are far away from me now, you are ever in my thoughts and in my heart, and I look forward to the time we can next spend together.

aiela: I look back on where we both were when we met. Another world, and a lifetime away. Could you ever have imagined we’d end up where we are? Thank you for being part of the journey out of the darkness, and here’s to many more years of walking in the light.

kitanzi: My wife, my partner, my dearest companion. You are the foundation upon which my life is built, the star by which I navigate, and the home to which I will always return. You make everything I am possible.

Happy Valentine’s Day, my loves.

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