Wendy’s Birthday

It’s 3am. I had Vietnamese coffee when out with Bev this evening, and I’m now extremely wired. My leg won’t stop shaking.

Wendy had a quiet birthday this year, but she seemed to be enjoying herself at the event. Rachel, Wendy and I went over to Char and Greg’s new place in Pacifica and had a quiet dinner and evening. Very nice.

Um. I guess I don’t have much more to report. There are some random photos included this entry, and I’m sorry I haven’t been posting more. I think my life’s disarray is finally starting to have an effect on me because I’m starting to lose stuff. I lost my dress shoes a few weeks ago, I lost the coolest endpin holder ever (every cellist I’ve met who has seen it wants one), and I can’t fit into my tux anymore because my circumference is increasing slowly. I also hurt my neck after flying back from Fiji, and my shoulder is sore, probably because I’m getting older and am not quite as resilient as I was a few years ago.

But I think things may be on the upswing, because while organizing things today (I love to organize), I found my shoes and my endpin holder.

Livia was in town over the weekend, and we spent last night out with Laura, Ben, and Jay Hunter Morris, whom I had not seen for about a year and a half! I really enjoy hanging out with Jay because he’s a funny, funny man. The last time he was in town singing with the opera he had to wear a fat suit, and when he returned to SF a few weeks ago someone told him (seriously), “you lost a lot of weight!” har har har.

Thanks to Vienna, Adam, Wendy, Heidi, Cindy, Chris, Livia, Jay, and Beverly for keeping me company over the past few days. Despite not feeling very social, I’ve somehow been seeing a lot of people. [see some photos]

I just wrote the first article I’ve written in some time. It’s about your choice in RAW converters, and why they matter.

Felt good to write. Should do it more.

Do males get nesting instinct? Cuz I think I’m getting it. Well, not the part about the kids, but maybe the part about someone to share the nest with. (And an unrelated question: how many fragments can I use in one post?)

But it’s not really worth thinking about until I stop travelling so much.

It’s been nice to be back, even though I’ve been at work constantly on my computer since returning. I took a break yesterday and saw the very hilarous Shrek 2 with my sister. I love laughing, and the movie made me laugh the whole way through.

Elliot forced me to blow up the inflatable mattress yesterday, so I will get to sleep in luxury for the next week. What a nice friend. :) Also, Adam posted some photos of us hanging out the other day.

My good friend Sherry was married on Saturday (May 22, 2004) to Jens Thiele, at the Prado House in Balboa Park, San Diego. It was a beautiful wedding, and I really enjoyed hanging out with Sherry, Jens, and some old friends from Torrey Pines High School (Jessica Grossman, Rebecca Carson, Zandra Lee, and Benji Fonseca). Some highlights: older Asian and German folk doing the electric slide, older Asian and German folk doing “YMCA”, Brian doing the worm, and a soundbite from Sherry’s dad’s speech: “… ripe with seed.” :)

Jessica Grossman, Rebecca Carson, Sherry Hsieh, and Zandra Lee

To see more photos, click on one of the thumbnails below:

public photos

rehearsal dinner photos

wedding photos

Hey, guys. It’s my sister’s birthday today! Happy Birthday, Wendy. :) If you see her on the streets, say hi to her.

Eric and Wendy, October 1978. Hmmm. Notice that despite being
1.5 years younger, Wendy was about the same size as I.

Hey, guys. I’ve been completely overwhelmed with e-mail lately, and am sorry that I haven’t been easier to contact. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up before I leave for my next trip (June 4, 2004). And if you have my phone number, a call usually works better than an e-mail.

fun with lights

My schedule is killing me. I’ve spent the last six days or so catching up with life (in general) and with friends. Packing is the easy part — I can pack up for a dive trip in a couple of hours now; my packing processes pretty much live in muscle memory now, so I can hang out with friends or chat on the phone while I’m doing it.

Ugh. I still have work to do before I leave tomorrow. Aside from an infrared lunch with a (soon-to-be) Dr. Beverly Yang, Ph.D, and dinner with my sister at Katana-ya, I’ve spent entire day glued to my computer, organizing shit and checking off items on my mile-long to-do list. I’m going to head to bed for a few hours and get up early to finish up. yeah, right.

Two days ago, Vienna came over for a bit and was messing around on the piano. We read through massacred some cello/piano music, which sounded so bad that Elliot remarked (directed at me), “it sounded better when you weren’t playing.” (he was joking of course, but it’s pretty much true!).

Vienna was funny: (pointing to music) “Why can’t they just write the chords above each bar?”

She says she’s bad at classical music, but she sounded pretty damn good while playing through a Mozart Concerto she’s been working on. [see some photos]

lilli

Well, it’s great to be back. Although… I (re-)learned the hard way tonight that being in California doesn’t not guarantee warmth. Shorts + May evenings in San Francisco do not mix well!

I spent much of yesterday in Martinez (where is that, you ask? i didn’t know either.) laying down tracks for Julia Lau, a local singer-songwriter. I had never met Julia nor Ed, but we got along very well. I really like this non-classical thing, and hope to get to play more of it in the future. Er… when I’m back and “settled,” that is. :) (read more »)

future of memories

I finally received a copy of Sharing Digital Photos: The Future of Memories (Microsoft Press), a book by Dane Howard in which I wrote two little pieces: one about near infrared photography and the other about documenting my trip to Kilimanjaro. I was really impressed with the quality of the layout and image reproductions. Dane’s enthusiasm about the project made it fun to be a part of. Check it out, especially if you are interested in documenting your life through digital photography.
[future of memories] [more info at amazon.com]

Goodbye, New York! I’d like to thank the people out there who made my time there so much fun. I appreciate all of you very much. :)

UPDATE It is so CLEAR and BRIGHT and BLUE here in California. Very refreshing. :)