Hope Floats

Happy Beltaine everyone! Hope you all celebrate appropriately today!

Friday was a bit hard with the funeral. My buddy asked me to go to the cemetary with him after. It was really interesting watching him during the services. It was a complete flashback to how I was 11 and again 5 years ago. Being the strong one for the family. Putting everyone else's needs first. I spoke to him last night as I plan on making sure he also takes care of himself. The poor guy - now one of his dad's cousins has died. Also, his dad's brother is in the hospital and probably won't last long. I'm not sure how much more his family can take. He's doing as well as can be expected, but I plan on continuing to check in on him and taking him out so he can get away.

All in all the weekend was pretty good. Went out for Chazz's birthday dinner Friday night. The people were fantastic and it was exactly the break I needed. Plus it was a really positive birthday for Chazz which totally made the drive across the bridge worthwhile. Folks were going out after, but I was pretty drained so went home to bed. Saturday I had a Burning Man camp workday down in Redwood City. It was a gorgeous day and despite the hard work was a lot of fun. We figured out our shade structure for our tents and I learned how to use some power tools and cut pipe. Power tools are cool!

Then it was a quick shower and headed to Ganesh's wedding reception in Atherton. It was a beautiful evening and met tons of really cool people. We had northern Indian cuisine which was yummy. They kept the food pretty mild for some of the folks there which was a bit disappointing because I like spicey food, but was still tasty. Turned into quite the dance party and didn't leave until after midnight. Stayed at PF's place and we were up talking til around 2am. Got up at 7am to get ready for the actual wedding in Livermore. I wore a saree which was a lot of fun and really comfortable. I think I was famous as I wasn't only the token white girl, I was the token white girl in a saree! It was really interesting to watch the ceremony. It goes on for several hours and no one really pays attention except at certain sections. The rest of the time everyone is hanging around chatting, drinking, etc. Really different from what I'm used to. We had southern Indian food which was really spicey and tasty.

Finally left around 2:30 and headed back to the City. I was fearful the weather in SF would suck, but it was beautiful here too. Played volleyball the rest of the afternoon in the sunshine which kicked ass. Then home and just hung out watching some TV. Nice way to end the weekend.

I'm on "the beach" this week while I try and sell some more work at Genentech. Kinda nice to be lazy. Got about 10 hours of sleep last night. Need several more nights of that and life will be rosey again.

I don't know if it's a combination of beautiful weather, being around good folks and not having to work, but life is looking a lot brighter than it was a few days ago. Thanks again to everyone for the support. I told you I'd be back to the cheerier me in no time. Thank you for making that possible! Please continue to keep my friend and his family in your thoughts/prayers.

This brighter moment in life is brought to you by the letter S and the number 5.