RandomThink.net

For the past few weeks, Lisa and I have been trading off on sickness. She had a bad cold, then I got it, and then I severely messed up my back somehow. I wish I knew what I did, but one day it was hurting for no apparent reason, and I didn’t tend to it fast enough. It’s been a couple of weeks, and now as I’m pushing 90% normal, Lisa got fairly sick off of some bad food on Sunday night.

So, on my way home from work on Monday, I stopped by the grocery store, to pick a few things up for Lisa. Gatorade, applesauce, you know — those sorts of things. I’m happy to stop and pick up whatever she needs — after all, she’s my wife, right? I signed up for this sort of things with the “in sickness and in health” line.

While I was perusing the surprising variety in the available applesauces, I overheard a couple of women talking about relationships. The overall gist of it was that neither women agreed to the concept of formal marriage. “After my divorce, I’m telling all my single friends to not bother with marriage. All you need is a companion. That way, when things get yucky, it’s easier to get out.”

The last time I checked, that isn’t exactly how I’d define companionship. Both of the ladies seemed like they believed that the best way to set up a relationship was to ensure that there was a clean getaway in the event that things got “yucky”. Really, it made me quite sad. I mean, sure, if you’re just dating, it’s not to worry, but if you’re seriously committing to someone, being ready to bolt at a moment’s notice isn’t a good way to build a relationship.

Lisa and I don’t have a perfect relationship. I seriously doubt that anybody does. There are always rough times, when things get “yucky”. The real strength of a relationship is being able to communicate well and to work together to get past those yucky parts. It’s not always easy and it’s definitely not fun, but it’s all a part of having a successful relationship.

When we married, we said the standard vows. Just about everyone knows the statements, such as “For better or for worse”, and when I said it, I meant it. Trying to do things like building a back door for a clean getaway, ready to bolt at any problem, really doesn’t engender positive attitudes in the relationship. If I ran at the first real problem we encountered, I would have missed out on many of what have become the best years of my life.

Is that to say that I think divorce is wrong? No — if the relationship is unhealthy for the people, it’s time to end it. My parents are a good example of a relationship that was ready to end. Their relationship didn’t get the love and care it needed to really grow, for as hard as my mom tried at it, and it withered and died. My mom stuck it out for ten years past that point — really, she probably should have gotten a divorce much sooner.

Being a good companion means working at the relationship. It means that you’re in it for the long haul. It means that you devote a lot of care, love, and respect towards the other person. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health.

I have to say, I don’t know what the heck happened to last week. Monday and Tuesday were okay — in fact, I quite liked Tuesday due to some unexpected niceness — but the day also ended with a very sore throat.

Wednesday and Thursday are a bit of a blur though, because I felt really sick. I took those days off, and I did work from home on Friday, although honestly I still don’t feel all that great, even now. I have an appointment with a bottle of NyQuil in about fifteen minutes.

This weekend snuck by me. On Friday afternoon, my friend Anthony came over, and we played Rock Band for a few hours, and then some WoW with another friend, Nasser, who happened to be turning 28 (years old, not level 28) that day.

Saturday, I went to Nasser’s house with all of my gear in tow (Xbox 360, Rock Band setup, literally four plastic rock guitars so we could play Guitar Hero III if someone wanted, at least six board games), and got to his house at about noon. However, most of the rest of his friends cheesed out. A couple of people made it around 5pm, and we had tons of fun playing Rock Band and a partial game of Robo Rally before we had to call it a night.

I had a ton of fun at Nasser’s, but let me tell you, I feel like I paid for it. It was an absolute blast but I honestly probably wasn’t ready for that much social activity on those two days.

Yesterday, Lisa and I went out, picked up a lovely new camera (a Canon SD750, for reference, on sale at Best Buy even), and then Gryphon and I went with Lisa to UNM so she could do some field work with a GPS for one of her classes. The work included waiting at one point for a half hour, as well as sampling a path twice with an hour in-between samples. During that time, Lisa’s parents called and wanted to come meet us to show off their new Subaru Tribeca, so we saw that too.

After the work at UNM, we then drove out to the far reaches of northeast Albuquerque to find a survey marker and stood there with the GPS for several minutes, tracking the location. GPS accuracy is still only good in roughly a 15-foot range, and even though we were standing still, the GPS inaccuracy makes it look like we were pacing back and forth in a small area. After the sampling, it was off to pick up some Subway and head home.

So, here’s some pictures taken with the new camera yesterday! These pictures can all be found in my Geoventures set on Flickr. The full-sized 7.1 megapixel images are available for view there too. Some of the shots — especially the macro — have just stunning detail. I’m quite enjoying the new camera.

Seeing as Mark just recently posted about his beard, it reminds me that I said I’d talk about mine, so here goes.

A couple of weeks ago, I had posted that I has a beard, wherein I said that I suspected that I’d have the beard for a while, or that I’d get drunk and shave it off. I’d hoped someone would find mild amusement in the concept of me being drunk (something that has yet to happen, and quite possibly never will, and that’s okay), but nobody really said anything. Oh well.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I was getting frustrated. For as many compliments as I was getting, and as much as others liked it, I had to be honest with myself and say that, y’know, I just really don’t like it on me. A beard is not for me. Even after I found beards.org and got all that great advice, it just wasn’t for me.

So, on March 18th, I shaved the beard.

I didn’t go crazy like Mark. For as much as I didn’t like the beard, I love the goatee. I started it roughly a week before my second nephew was born, and it hasn’t been shaved off since. I have no plans of it going away any time soon, and this time I mean it.

First, a quick aside: I’m really going to try and post more. Really. Anyhow, with that out of the way, let’s move on.

A couple of weeks ago, I got word that the Explora museum adult night would be talking about going green. Lisa has been excited about such things, so when I found out, I told her to save Friday night, but I didn’t say why.

Then, a few days after that, she tells me that she’s excited about attending a rally to support preservation of the Mexican Gray Wolf, called Dia de Los Lobos. It happens to be the same night as the Explora event, and even right in the middle of it, time-wise. So, I tell her what the Explora night is about and we determine that we can make both events.

We got to the Kimo theater a little before 7pm, and picked up much literature about the Mexican gray wolf. We then listened to a gentleman (Dave Parsons, I believe) present the history of the wolf. As usual, Wikipedia presents it better than I could. It’s really quite the sad situation. His portion of the night ended with a rather large group howl, which reminded me a lot of my college days (after all, the Mexican gray wolf is UNM’s mascot, the lobo). I’m glad we went to that portion.

We then headed over to Explora, where we met up with a few friends to enjoy the night. In case you are unaware, Explora is basically a big interactive museum with tons of fun exhibits. Generally, I’ve only been while taking our nephew, where we’re watching him run about and enjoy things amongst the tons of other little kids. It’s fun, but I’m a big kid at heart and I generally don’t get the time I’d like with the exhibits because we’re doing that whole responsible adult thing and watching our nephew.

Adult Night at Explora was awesome. Mind you, I still didn’t get the time I’d have liked with some exhibits, although this time it’s because I was trying to be social and not just ignore Lisa and our friends while I fiddled with the frequency of a speaker or wiring up light bulbs to batteries.

We ended our time at Explora by the large bubble table, which is effectively a big shallow tub of soapy water and bubble wands. Synchronized bubbles were awesome. We then stepped outside, where several astronomy buffs had set up telescopes. We all got to look through a couple of telescopes and see Saturn with our own eyes (and the power of amazing magnification). I’ve seen Saturn’s photo several times, and probably seen the speck of light with my naked eye, but to be able to see the planet, including the rings and the shadow that the rings cast on the planet, well, it was simple awe-inspiring. It was a great way to end the night at Explora.

After that, we went to Flying Star and had frosty chocolate milkshakes - at least, Lisa and I had milkshakes. I think they made us sick later, which stinks, but at the time it was incredibly tasty and a great nightcap.

Tune in next time, where I blab yet more about beards, because that’s all that’s been on my mind lately, it seems.

If you follow my twitter or have interacted with me in person or on a forum recently, you already know this, but I realize that many may not know.

It doesn’t really matter, but I feel like posting it anyway. I has a beard now.

Originally, I started growing it because I was going to be like my friend Tom and grow it out while I lose weight, then shave it off for some big reveal. However, I didn’t quite get the weight loss going (but at least I’m not gaining back last year’s losses, and am fairly stable), and then I kinda started liking it. Lisa likes it too, so it’s staying for awhile.

Also, beards.org is a great resource for beard management. My biological dad didn’t really teach me anything about bein’ a man, aside from passing on his ability to stink like a man, so I didn’t really have much of a basis on what to do about beard management and maintenance and stuff. These photos are from yesterday, and tonight I’m gonna trim it down and stuff based on recommendations. I’m so glad to have found that site.

I suspect this beard will last for quite awhile now. Then again, who knows, I may get drunk and shave it off.