What did you do this week (and weekend)?

Slept on the couch in an attempt to not also contract the Type A flu that is ravaging my wife's immune system and respiratory tract. Thankfully purchased a new couch earlier this year and it is quite comfy, so hasn't been a bad experience.

Got to see Kevin Devine at an Undertow Show (small crowd and intimate venue); took requests and played Shift Change Splits The Streets for mine, which was so awesome.

Like, normally I do some kind of recordings at a concert for memory's sake (not full concerts nor posted online, just snipets for me to look at later). And the urge hit me tremoundsly once he started playing, as it was hitting I was actually going to hear the song live (I went it knowing I wouldn't get to hear it, since it's old and it's one of his least played songs). And others did video record parts of the concert (very easy to considerately record from your lap due to the intimate nature). But it felt "wrong" to reach for my phone - this wasn't just taking in someone playing that a recording can replicate, this was watching someone play something for me after a back and forth.

Very strongly recommend checking out an Undertow Show. Lot of amazing concerts going on outside of the Ticketmaster-verse.

Also had gotten back into dating; have basically tried about ~once a year for the past 6 years and rarely has it gone past one date before I'd realize I did not want a relationship in my life then. I've been doing a lot better though, and it's nice actually enjoying being on a date.

And the auxiliary effects it's had on life; to quote Futurama "all civilization was just an effort to impress the opposite sex (and sometimes the same sex)". Or, as I'm a big fan of mantras (apologize for crassness): if you want to tap ass, you gotta touch some grass. And so just getting that motivation to "do" from it is great.

It's also nice, as I'm a lot more intetional with it. When I had originally gotten into online dating decade+ ago, there was a dichotomy of sex vs wanting a relationship that the former I did not have control over - and it was something I more just gave myself up into. Meanwhile, I haven't even kissed anyone yet. (Given, this is also now talking about ~40yos vs ~25yos lol; I think we all understand a lot more of what we want vs just giving something up, and it's a lot more of a comfortable environment for me)

Not that I think anything will come of the couple of women I've met so far (eg the show above was with someone I had been out with a couple times and I don't think we'll be going out again; just haven't meshed). But is is nice getting back into actually enjoying any journey for journey sake.

I recently graduated university with a specialized IT degree in January and since then I've zeroed in on wanting to learn how to program so I've been sticking with daily lessons at boot.dev and simultaneously earning AWS certificates. It's like I never left school but the only difference is I don't have deadlines or study schedules, it's absolutely liberating. I've got a movie date with my partner but life is feeling a little monotonous but I don't hate it one bit, I'm learning things I'm interested in and finally found the motivation + discipline to keep at it.

I'm down in Norfolk, VA. Decided to get away from DC and the madness. Plus it's another 3-day weekend (Presidents Day). Well, 4-day weekend for me since I also took Tuesday off.

Took the Amtrak Northeast Regional down here Friday evening, which is the second time I've taken the NER this year (last month took north to NYC). It was only like $100 RT. Definitely liking being able to ride Amtrak up and and down the east coast relatively inexpensively. And/or at the last minute. Only bought my tickets like 2-3 days ago.

I'm here through Monday morning, but I don't really have any big plans. Just playing it by ear in terms of sight-seeing and checking it out. I'm sure Norfolk is probably nicer in the warmer months. But I should get a little taste of it, given it's supposed to be in the 60s F (>15.5C) on Sunday! Which is a nice break from the winter up in DC.

Week 3 of my new job going back to my old startup. New leadership seems to be slowly improving things, but it has required shifting my expectation about how things get done as well. I came back as a developer, so I finally get to dig in and solve some of the problems I could never get traction on from other teams.

My Dad fell last weekend and has been in the hospital with a collapsed lung and three broken ribs. The scary thing to me was that he was alone at work when it happened, so I'm hoping he will commit to keeping someone there with him or leaving when everyone else leaves. Other than the pain from the broken ribs, everything else has seemed to be resolved, and the scans are all clear.

They are 1200 miles away, so I haven't seen him. It seemed like things were stable, so I didn't go down there, but it's been making me anxious/guilty all week. He'll likely be going home soon. That may be the time for me to go and help them, tbd.

My parents have been talking about moving closer, but not really taking it seriously. I can't really blame them since they've been living in the same small town for over 40 years, but I hope this accelerates their timeline a little. I'd like them to have time while they are still active to establish themselves nearer to us and build some community.

My good friends' daughter who is my daughter's best friend was in the hospital this week. My daughter went and visited her every day. It was neat to see her push through the anxiety of the hospital environment to be there for her friend. She's home now and doing well.

My daughter has a four day weekend, so Friday two of her friends came over, and I set up enough machines for them to play Stardew Valley together. After a trying week, it was a balm to hear them laughing and talking together. It felt good to be able to be present for that, go down and check on them, get them lunch, etc. and still get a productive amount of work done.

So much work this week. I also got my homework done for my Bio 1 class and studied for my quizzes coming up. We got hit with a snow storm, so I cleared our driveway and our neighbors'. I haven't had time to run and I miss it. Maybe I'll try this coming week again. I just got my TDaP booster, so I'm probably just going to rest as much as I can (between lab, quizzes, and seeing friends Sunday).

It's been a particularly mixed week for me.

Found out on Wednesday morning that I'm at risk of being laid off due to budget cuts, which is not good news when I'm still in the process of buying a flat (Mortgage deed, contracts and land ownership forms signed on my end) but a completion date has not yet been confirmed, so it's not like I'm fully locked in. I haven't yet informed the relevant parties of the situation (this has been very overwhelming for me) but know that I need to let them know.

My dad has been pressuring and guilt-tripping me not to go through with the apartment purchase over the past four months because he doesn't want me to leave the nest (he is incredibly mollycoddling and his behavior at home has turned gradually more toxic over the years), and this news has only intensified things.

This situation has put me back on the job hunt because even if I survive the layoffs, my job isn't secure and I'm very tempted to voluntarily take the severance package they provide so that I can find another role where I can start immediately. I am NOT looking forward to having my phone bombarded by braindead recruiters who keep pigeonholing me into lower paid purchase ledger jobs and can't read a CV to save their own lives.

My problem is that I work for a large multinational (not naming the firm nor the sector) which substantially mismanaged its Shared Services Centre and I have paid the price for it. I originally joined as a Purchase Ledger Clerk when they had started shackling employees to lengthier notice periods (mine is 6 weeks, which is way above average and has basically made me unemployable elsewhere), but then they moved on to increasing RTO, stricter standards, etc. By the time they decided to outsource much of the SSC to India, my department had a 95% employee turnover rate. Somehow I survived this previous redundancy process by getting a promotion into Commercial Finance.

On the plus side... I had a really good date night on Valentines Day which led to me finally losing my virginity, although given the first-time nerves and the stress/anxiety of what's been going on with everything, I had some ED issues.

Been a rather hectic, anxious week for me.

I'm the developer on support at work until next Thursday, meaning I can't do my normal tasks and have to answer to support engineers and customers when things break. I'm always anxious on this rotation as I'm always on edge for that next ping asking for help. On top of that, we're in the final stages of the performance review process and my manager will share my official rating for the last 6 months. They went over some preliminary feedback for me this week and I have a lot I can improve on. However, given my "Meets Most Expectations" last half, I've just been spiraling out a bit with anxiety thinking about various negative outcomes if I don't receive a "Meets All Expectations" rating. It's very much out of my control at the moment so I've just been trying to meditate and calm myself down.

On the much brighter side, I've started touring apartments with the goal of moving out in the next month or so. I've been wanting to move out for a while but the high cost of apartments in San Francisco along with a general feeling of "not being ready to move out" have held me back. I finally decided to do something about it and toured 2 places. Loved both apartments and they're quite close to my company's office as well. However, I still have two things really holding me back. I bought a car last year and I wouldn't really be able to bring it to the city with me on my budget so I'd have to leave it behind and only use it when I visit on the weekends. It feels like a waste to keep the car behind but it's also been less than a year since I bought it so I don't want to part ways with it just yet. Another thing holding me back at the moment is the performance review related anxiety I mentioned earlier, just need to be patient and wait and see what my rating is later this upcoming week.

Outside of that, I've continued gaming a little bit. I've been playing some Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Balatro and Art of Rally. Just things I can quickly hop into, play for 15-30 minutes, and then go about my day.