Post reunion

Guys-

I had a really great time last Saturday at our reunion. It didn't seem like reminiscing at all to me - more like I was meeting new friends, or old friends that were so old that they were new again! I left pretty early, but I probably would have hung out a lot later if we didn't have to go back and pick up Nina. On the way home my wife was saying that she should have probably left me with and I could've caught a ride home with some of the people that live in the city. I was struck by how well everyone was doing in their lives and how healthy everyone seemed. I was really nervous at first walking into a room full of people I hadn't seen in a quarter century, but I didn't feel intimidated really as everyone was sort of a big family as we've always been. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to talk longer with a lot of you, I would have stayed and had a heart to heart with every one of you and you would have probably gotten sick of me! I know I asked you guys to keep in touch, and I really meant it - we have to sell our condo first, but when we move to a bigger place we'll probably throw a party and I'd love it if you guys would come over. And if you're ever in the city and are interested in going out for lunch or something, look me up, seriously! My number and email are on my profile. Also - if you know of any classmates that I should facebook friend, please suggest them to me! I'm not going to go snooping around your friends looking for them myself, it feels too voyeuristic. Man, it was really good to see you all again - you guys know that I wish you the best of course! Let's stay in touch ok?

Your friend,
Red

If only summer rain would fall On the houses and the boulevard

N. sick, I had a dinner planned to celebrate K's 30th birthday last weekend, in laws in town and reservations made at this fancy restaurant downtown. Had to cancel everything - N. has a bad fever, K. took the day off from school today to take her to the doctor. These are busy times - JCB's pig roast last weekend (haven't seen him in a long time, I really like that guy - it's just hard to get together these days as I'm a dedicated family man now and he's still out on the prowl out at the clubs), Aliana's bday party at the park. Had a cookout at my parent's place on memorial day, we had a bit of a scare with my dad a couple of weeks ago too - he had to go into the ER, I think what happened was he overdosed on some of his painkillers for the chemo, he's going through some pretty difficult treatments, but there has been some positive news lately - he's eligible for a type of treatment that has a really high cure rate. The only thing is that I'm worried that he may not be strong enough to handle all the treatments after all his health problems the past couple of years. He'd probably scoff at that last statement though, and I've underestimated his tenacity before. Feel like I'm barely handling my life, although I admittedly have high standards for myself. Guitar playing is going so so - I finally posted a video on youtube, the more I watch it the more I want to redo it, trying to work on my technique and it's going very slowly - usually what happens is I spend a lot of time being frustrated, then all of a sudden it just 'clicks', I hope that happens soon. Running is going pretty well - I'm up to 11 mile runs these days, feel pretty good about this half marathon in August. Have been running with N. on the lake - the long runs on the weekends all the way to like Navy Pier are beautiful, it's a great time of the year to run, N. seems to enjoy it too. I have to raise $750 for this race in August as I'm committed as a charity runner for the American Cancer Society - the first time I ever did anything like this, I figured it's for a worthy cause but now I'm worried if I can raise the money with all the people I know, I'm going to have to start bugging friends and family about it. Work going badly, have been too exhausted, frustrated, and/or lazy to put in any serious overtime - I'm resolved to start working overtime again this week, I just feel better about myself when I work some overtime and do a little research on the side. Also resolved to resume my efforts to get my Java cert this year, I'm about halfway there I think at this point.

The thing K. and I are most excited about these days is potentially buying a new place. We went to visit a loan officer at the bank a couple of weeks ago - he told us we'd be a shoo in for a loan if we can just sell our current place, and our real estate agent told us he's pretty confident he can sell our current place if we can declutter it and make some minor improvements. So we've been really busy getting our place ready to sell. K. and I have become addicted to shopping for places on Trulia. There are some awesome places for sale in Chicago these days - looks like we're not going to be able to make much of a profit if we sell our place, but the good news is that whatever place we buy will be extremely discounted. Looking forward to setting N. up in her own room (it will probably be a Hello Kitty paradise), taking her for a walk around the park in a cool new neighborhood (we have a few places in mind on the N. side), maybe a guitar room for myself. Hopefully this will all come to pass in the next few months.