A Small Update

I haven't spoken with a lot of people in a while, I guess. I didn't really think about it much until just recently, but it sortof struck me. It's not that I've been hiding, per se; it's that I simply haven't been active. I mean, geez, barely any updates since October? I can only assume noone reads this any more... And yet more than likely a handful of you are subscribed to this and will see it. And that idea pleases me slightly. So, in the spirit of openness and nostalgia and whatnot, things that have been going on in my life. Not necessarily in order, but vaguely close to it.

I have a girlfriend - Nina - and even though it's vaguely silly, I still consider her "new". We went on our first date the day after Thanksgiving last year, and we've been night inseparable ever since. I guess that makes it our six-month anniversary this weekend, while we're camping? Huh. I hadn't noticed that before. Aidan loves her, my parents like her, my ex-wife likes her (or at least that's what she told me today), and things are going well. She moved in a week and a half ago... Which is funny mostly because she was essentially de facto living here for quite a bit of time before that, and we decided to formalize it mostly because it was a little silly to be paying $650 + cable/internet/utilities for what was essentially a (slightly) oversized storage closet. We're in the process of trying to find someone to sublet her old place now.

I moved at the beginning of December - from Troy into the outskirts of Albany proper. I'm now almost on top of where I work (about a 5 minute commute), and much closer to a lot of other things. Definitely an interesting shift in perspective. The new place is a three-bedroom - I'm paying for a second bedroom which is Aidan's, and my roommate - Jon - is in the third. (Now, of course, there's the second roommate, but that's neither here nor there) It's nicely spacious, hardwood floors, big windows for lots of light, front and back balconies... Generally a nice place. The water pressure is a touch low, the wiring is not awesome (and probably not up to code), the house is old and has settled a bit and the floors aren't perfectly level, the stairs up are a bit narrow and with a sharp turn at the bottom, and it's apparently surprisingly hard to get a cross-wind through it to cut the heat some... But it's still actually a very nice place. And under $900 a month, which isn't shabby. The three cats and a dog certainly keep it things from being too calm, as well.

I got promoted at work, and am no longer a software developer/engineer; now, I'm an architect. Instead of doing coding and actual low-level development, I make planning and design decisions, specify architecture, write specs and processes, go to more meetings in a week than I previously often went to in a month, and generally help shape the development policy of my company's web presence quite a bit. Of the four application architects, I'm the one who specializes on front-end, web site, secure portal, and web service development (pretty much what I was working on as a developer before the promotion). A hell of a lot more responsibility, but a lot more power to go along with it, and the pay hike isn't something I'm likely to complain about.

I started doing martial arts at the end of January. I'm doing a Korean art called Haidong Gumdo, which is a Korean sword art based loosely on ancient battlefield tactics. It uses a similar weapon to Japanese styles like Kendo (the Jingum is similar to a Katana, with the primary difference being a thinner but wider blade). It's good exercise and a great deal of fun. My yellow belt test is actually tomorrow, which is quite exciting.

I got a new car - a Nissan Rogue. There's a picture of him a couple of posts back. He's coming up on his first oil change some time in the next couple of weeks - with camping for Memorial Day weekend, maybe even next week. His rear window is small, he's not huge as SUVs go, and I'm still trying to get used to parking and be within the legal 1 foot of the curb more than half the time... But he's easily the best car I've ever owned. Comfortable, pleasant to drive, functional, and generally a very good purchase.

The last update - honestly, probably not as major, but definitely the largest in my mind since it really hit me today - is my health. In early April in Gumdo class, I came very close to blacking out; no real warning except tunnel vision, just suddenly was not staying upright. Went and looked into it and found out that my blood pressure was spiking. Partially related to the diagnosis of that, I found out that I also have a severe depression of some hormones and proteins in my blood (At this time I have no idea if the two symptoms are related, though the diagnoses were). I went through a fairly large number of tests - various blood tests, bits of lab work. Because one possible cause of depressed hormone levels is something affecting the pituitary, I was prescribed an MRI, which is when I found out I'm more than a touch claustrophobic - the most severe panic attack I've ever had hit me as they were sliding me into that frigging deathtrap. I eventually did get one done last week at an open MRI place (better, if only because my shoulders don't touch the sides of the damned machine), and got the results today. So at this time I'm having blood pressure spikes (onset 2-4 months ago, cause unknown, controlled by medication); depressed hormone levels (onset 6-16 months ago, cause unknown, just started replacement therapy to control it); and a small indentation on the side of my pituitary gland coinciding with what may or may not be an extremely small tumor - as in, whatever the radiologist saw was around 3mm in size, and he wasn't willing to commit to what it was (being ignored until a 6-month follow-up to see whether its size is stable). That last piece, by the way, I've spent the day having a very good panic over.

So... Yeah. My life in a nutshell and a couple hundred or couple thousand words. I do hope this finds any of you who read it well, and that I'll hear from you soon - because I may be terrible at keeping in contact some months, but I still feel better hearing from you all.