Of hearts, hamfests, and leopard....

So it's been a heck of a last couple days.

Friday was the release of Leopard, the newest version of the Mac operating system, at 6pm. BSOM and I wanted to get copies to test for work, plus they were handing out free t-shirts to the first 500 people in line. We got to the Towson Apple store at 5:30, and there was a decent size line, but well under 500. They were handing out water and Starbucks coffee. Got in quickly, and they had bins of the disks and handheld checkout terminals, so getting checked out was easy. I went to my house, grabbed my (work-owned) Macbook, and headed to bsom's for some install-party fun. Install was smooth and everything worked - even groupwise, which surprised me since it tends to be very picky about what version of OSX it will run on, since it leans heavily on certain parts of Java.

Spent Saturday running errands, cleaning, loading the truck for Hamfest, ect.

Sunday was the Mason-Dixon hamfest in Westminster, MD. Woke up just in time, and drove there in time for the 6am start. It was pretty slow, and I didn't have a whole lot of new merchandise, so I grossed a measly $177 - which is way below what I usually sell, but better than nothing - and I do have an email from someone interested in buying something I didn't have with me - I just need to figure out how much it will cost me to ship it.

At some point during all this, I remember looking at my phone and seeing a text message, but I didn't read it and didn't think anything of it - none of my friends send me texts, and the only time I usually get them is when they are billing reminders from Verizon. Drove back, grabbed some Chinese food with BSOM, went home, unloaded the truck, took a nap, ate some cereal, and made baked ziti for a dinner party I was having the next day. Around 11:30, just before I was about to go to bed, I decided to check my work email account. There were two emails from my brother. The first (newer) one mentions something about my mother being in the hospital. I open the original, older one. Evidently, my mom had passed out during church on Sunday morning and was taken to the hospital. Checked my cell phone, and the text message was from my brother.

Didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. I got an email from my brother later that day that my mom was doing better and it gave her hospital phone number. Called her, talked for a few minutes. She called me later that day to let me know she was home. She's already emailed me several times today (and mentioned that she was watching my cat online, so I figure she's doing OK. She is on medicine and has a bunch of tests scheduled, but it doesn't look like any permanent damage, so they are thinking it was stress or "old age".

Old Age. It's weird to think of your parents as old, as elderly, but they are now - my mom is 67 and retired, my dad is 68 and will be retiring soon. I've realized that they are getting older - when they came down this summer to visit me, I spent lots of time waiting for them to catch up to me, because they don't move very fast. And now this. It's the realization that the tables have turned - while I don't depend on my parents to take care of me anymore, I still lean on them for emotional support, and always think of them as smarter, stronger, bigger than me - as able to take care of me. It's starting to become apparent that that's not the case anymore - that at some point, I'll have to take care of them - which is hard, since I live almost 4 hours away - which makes me feel even worse about moving away. It also makes me start thinking about the unthinkable - how long will they still be around? I'd like for them to be see me get married and have kids, if that is something that my future holds, and it makes my total lack of a dating life that much more painful.

Anyway. Monday after work I had a group of people over, most of who I hardly knew. It's kind of a long story. A few weeks ago I got a call from "Sunny", an old college roommate of mine. A coworker of his was playing at an art gallery opening, and did I want to come? I didn't have any plans, and figured I should get out more, so I went. The next week I got a call from Sunny that his coworker wanted to get a bunch of us together for dinner. I went, and it was fun - so I asked if they wanted to come over my house the next Monday. So Monday night was spent eating baked ziti and garlic bread and playing balderdash. What made it a little odd was Sunny, the person I met them through, wasn't able to make it. It still went well, though, plus I have enough leftovers for the next couple days...

Not that I'll really be home much the next few days. I'm working Tuesday night until 10pm at one of our satellite campuses, and until 10 on Wednesday (halloween) at the other. Which means overtime, plus I get to eat the candy I bought for trick-or-treaters myself. It also means I probably won't get to the gym at all this week.