Monday is another resourcescout meeting where we are now on the hook to have a complete database search between prospective adoptive parents and available adoptive children ready for a presentation on January 7, 2003. Before we know what we have gotten ourselves into the process starts snowballing out of control.
Tuesday night I geek-out on html, javascript, and perl in order to get the adoption site going. I make good progress and by the end of the night the initial website (but not the search functionality) is starting to take shape.
Wednesday night I am headed to K-Town to pick up Person J_VKPI to have dinner. I call as I'm headed there and Person J_VKPI is not there. But I continue on as I expect him to be at his apartment near the meeting time. Because traffic is heavy I do not get to the apartment of Person J_VKPI until 20 minutes after the designated meeting time. Another call is answered by his roommate with the expected, "He's not here". So I turn around and fight traffic and go home.
Thursday there is more geeking-out as the goals of the adoption site have changed. I lay down the law and say that if we keep changing how we want it to look then we're never going to get past the initial page and into the guts of the matching process. Another change is made anyway and I declare it to be the last one as I'm going to move ahead to the perl matching code.
Friday is an unproductive day at TRW...um...Northrop Grumman. Two people make comments about me losing more weight again - one who I see everyday and one who I haven't seen for a while. To both I just respond with, "Severe emotional trauma will do it everytime". I can see that they both want to pursue the line of thought, but I quickly change the topic.
Friday night sees another late night ice hockey game. As I get to the ice rink the previous public skating session participants are leaving. One ChiChi and I strike up a very brief conversation but he declines and points at his friends (another three ChiChis) when I ask him to stay and watch my game. We jump out to a 4-0 lead and barely hold on for a 5-3 win (with our last goal an emtpy-net goal). It is the best game that I have played since my comeback as I control the puck, make nice passes, and get a couple of assists.
On Saturday I am up sorta early to lift weights, do the laundry, replenish the depleted glycogen supplies, and start in on the yardwork. I try a different strategy for the 2003 lawn as I cut the grass way back and lay down some fertilizer. (Some say the fall fertilization is the most important to promote longterm health and growth.) There is a mid-afternoon bicycle ride in blustery, windy conditions. It is a decent ride that numbers 100 for the year.
I head to a Border's bookstore to start my Christmas shopping. When I've selected a number of items and things I head to the checkout. There's a ChiChi behind the register who calls out, "Next customer in line". And, of course, it's my turn.
We strike up a brief conversation about the status of our Christmas shopping efforts. When he inquires about how many people I have to shop for, I respond with, "Oh, there's quite a few. Family, friends, co-workers, ex-boyfriends."
The ChiChi gives out a huge smile and continues with, "Just send them a card." And this spurs on a conversation about the treatment of those who are in the past. And it brings a soon-forgotten comment from the ChiChi something to the effect of, "You must have a huge list to shop for."
Similar to last Sunday I fall asleep near 6pm and have a nice little nap - this time on my living room couch as opposed to in a rental car a block away from Person T*'s house. When I wake up there is just enough time to get ready to go out and listen to music. I pick up Person J_VKPI near 10 pm and we head to a club. The club gets crowded by 1am but is starting to get empty by 1:30am. I run into a few acquaintances at the club including Person W and Person Ray. I am in bed by 2:40 am on Sunday morning.
Sunday I get up and lift weights and watch part of a football game before heading for South Coast Plaza to go Christmas shopping with Dao. This is an alternate activity seeing that it has rained the previous night and neither of want to rollerblade on the wet beach path. I get a bit of Christmas shopping done as Dao and I have good conversations and connections over all sorts of topics.
When I get home from shopping I call Person G and we have an emotional conversation about the current course of action. Based upon gut reactions and red flags and etc I ask Person G to not come and visit. We talk about the situation and I, of course, give in and agree to let Person G come back to Long Beach (against the lost sleep due to gut reactions, feelings, and etc).