That was the name of the Facebook event I posted for my buddy who’s heading out for a summer of security system installation, before departing on a year-long voyage along the Great Loop, a system of waterways encompassing the eastern portion of the United States, with part of Canada.

I selected the event title mainly to rhyme with the refrain made famous by Parks and Recreation – “Bye Bye Li’l Sebastian”. I’m really kicking myself that I didn’t arrange a surprise adaptation some time during the party. On my signal we could’ve all pulled out our phones and sang out, “Bye bye Mr. Harston, miss you in the saddest fashion…” Missed opportunity…

But I should rewind. What an awesome decompression visit that was. Perfect end to the week with Conference. Sad to head back.

Seemed the moment I did land back, my days filled up quick. Monday night was a “Friendship BBQ”, at which I was asked by a couple people when I could host a game night. I threw a dart at a wall and said Saturday.

Tuesday rolled around and during the day I was invited to a little get-together at a good friend’s place to play Betrayal at House on the Hill. Chilled with them a while after everyone had left, then headed back.

Wednesday I went to the movies with a group of friends on the MoviePass system, to see Isle of Dogs. I recommend it, but I don’t think I’ll rewatch it.

Thursday was all to myself. Settled in and read more of Oathbringer, the latest Sanderson novel. I delayed as long as I could in starting it, but I had to have something to read over the break back home, so I dove in on an ebook version and shifted to the hard-cover version that’d been taunting me for a couple months on my bookshelf, since before I even moved to my new place.

Friday was a game night at my place, where we did some Coup, Resistance, and Jackbox.

Saturday was the big one; the goodbye party for my buddy I talked about at the beginning of this post. Must’ve had like 25 people over at one point. Kicking myself I didn’t snap any pics.

Sunday I went to see some friends that’d moved a while ago, never did stop by to see their new place. Caught the last bit of some Mormon version of Pride & Prejudice, played some card-games, then skedaddled.

Monday I hit the stationary bike after work. I need to figure a way to tighten up my exercise routine; I’m on the bike for like 45 minutes, but from the time I grab my exercise clothes from my car to the time I drive off afterwards, nearly two hours passes.

At home I sank into a bath for the first time since moving here, with a bowl of orange chicken and brown rice on one side, Oathbringer on the other. Must’ve spent a couple hours in there.

I got a text from the friends I’d seen on Sunday night; apparently I’d revealed that I hadn’t ever had Munster cheese before, and agreed to taste some at FHE the following evening. The evening where I’d decided instead to work out, completely spacing on the arrangement. Oops. As penance I need to host a chick flick at my place; we’ve settled on Princess Bride. It’s slated for this Thursday, and I’ve been told I need to do what I can to even out the gender balance. We’ll see who I can rustle up.

I’m also arranging a time to go see A Quiet Place. Mom I’m using your example to try and convince one of my friends to go, we’ll see how it works out.

I’ve arranged a board game night for this Sunday, where we’ll be playing this Battleship-on-steroids game. I also just picked up Forbidden Desert, a super fun collaborative survival game someone brought to work. We’ll have to play it when y’all come visit!

In between the goings-on I’m squeezing in as much Oathbringer as I can. I know now why I resisted starting it so long. It’s slowly turning into an obsession. Actually one of the reasons I’m writing this now is that earlier this evening I reached a point in the book that’s so emotionally devastating and draining I just had to put it aside, stuff my face into a pillow, and groan aloud to an empty house.

Can’t wait to read about what happens tomorrow.

A bit over a week ago on a Saturday evening I got to rewatch one of my childhood movies, Kiki’s Delivery Service. Couldn’t remember hardly a thing about it except there was a blimp or something. Real fun times. Afterwards we had a round of Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Sunday rolled around and I’d been tapped to host a Sunday Church Movie Night, featuring The R.M. However, just before church I got a text from a close friend, she was having a group of other close friends over to her new place in the evening, and won’t I join them. Through some deft maneuvering I got myself out of hosting movie night, so I could attend. Great times had by all; got to catch up with a couple of married friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

As the evening was winding down I got a text from a buddy of mine asking nicely if by any chance a mutual friend of ours could crash at my place for a couple days. Turns out she was having a bad allergic reaction to the place she was staying. I said of course, and went back to put together the guest room for its first emergency arrival.

This is where the “omen” from earlier comes back – my new house-guest is seen napping in the first pic, taken a day before she moved in.

It’s kind of funny, I’ve never had more than 24 hours’ notice before getting a new roommate. This one’s been great, finally someone around who gets full usage out of the kitchen. She’ll be sticking around to the end of the month till she finds a place of her own.

Not much to report for the rest of the week. On Tuesday night I had some bad eye irritation, thought nothing of it until I woke up with it still bothering me. Wednesday night was really bad, so Thursday I stayed home for fear of spreading pink eye or something, and went in to see an eye doctor at noon.

Turns out it’s a “corneal ulcer”, basically a scary term for a bacterial infection. I got put on a steroid+antibacterial eye drop and sent on my way. Unfortunately I’ve had to wear my back-up glasses, the ones I got just before heading into the MTC like ten years ago. They don’t fit my head very well, and like an idiot I insisted on getting Transition lenses, so now whenever I’m out in the sunlight I look like an edgy teenager.

As I wasn’t infectious I headed in to the office. It ended up being a pretty interesting work day. A bunch of people were in town for a summit, and I got invited to sit in on it. Met some people I’d been working with over the past while, people I really only saw in person whenever I got a chance to head down to Mountain View.

Side-note: it was kind of funny how certain parts of the summit seemed just like a rough Sunday School class, not a huge amount of participation, leading to awkward silences.

After the summit the participants all headed out to a restaurant, and once again I was invited along. Food and conversation were great. There was a funny scene though, at the end, where a co-worker and I were standing around while our manager and a higher-up chatted; neither of us could leave, as our manager had been our ride in, and neither of us felt comfortable making our impatience more visible; we were an L4 and L5 waiting on an L6 chatting with an L7 🙂 Eventually things wound down and we all went home.

Friday was the beginning of a major slog. Some people wanted some functionality in place by a certain date or they wouldn’t ship our stuff. It fell to me to implement what they wanted, get it tested, reviewed, and submitted, and make sure all the deadlines leading up to the final ship date were being respected. So Friday was implementation- and testing-day, my favorite part of these sprints.

That evening was an Ensign Symphony and Choir concert. I always describe it to y’all as UVMCO-lite. This time they really lived up to their moniker; the final piece was Amazing Grace, as performed by MCO. In fact, the director had distributed that very video when describing to the members how it’d sound like.

Jolly good show. Afterwards I chatted with someone I’d overheard talking during the intermission about volunteering to teach programming to high school students. I’ve been thinking about getting into that space. The guy extolled the virtues of the program, called TEALS, where industry professionals team up with certified teachers to build up a school’s CS program. It looks like a big time commitment, gotta agree to show up at 6 or 7 am every day for an entire year. Maybe I’m more cut out for ad-hoc tutoring…

After the show my group found out I had never visited the iconic Gum Wall, and we had to make a pit stop.

Saturday I did some more testing on the work I’d done on Friday, then headed off to see Uncle Dave in Bellevue. He was in town presenting his audio-over-Ethernet solution at a Christian ministry convention. Had an awesome time chatting about the tech, and spit-balling ideas to increase the system’s security.

That evening I had dinner with a friend, after which we watched Star Wars: Rogue One. A very polarizing film, my favorite but others’ least-favorite.

Sunday was such a nice day out that I decided to hold Teacher Council out-doors.

That evening I drove out to Snoqualmie to have dinner with cousin James and Karen. Their kids were just awesome. It was make-your-own-Pizza night, after which we traded riddles and played some games.

On Monday the slog turned into a bit of a death march; ended up being a 15-hour work day getting everything through the testing pipeline.

Today was the culmination of all that; by 3:30pm everything was in place and I was no longer in the spot-light. Headed home early to catch some Z’s.

The day was punctuated by a visit to the eye doctor, to check up on how my treatment was progressing. As some people react to steroids with increased eye pressure, they wanted to make sure that wasn’t happening in my case. While I’m safe from that, I am now sporting a nice scar on my cornea, from the infection. It’s below my iris so it won’t affect day-time vision, but if my pupils dilate enough at night I could get some distortion. You’d think they’d’ve called that out the first time I was in, something like, “Hey be sure to keep to the treatment regimen or you could scar up.”

Blegh. One more week of these glasses before I can get back into contacts.

This evening a friend came over and I helped her edit her writing sample before sending it off as part of a grad school application. Gonna get some sweet fruit salad out of that arrangement.

It was so great having Grandma and Mom over to help me put my stuff together. I’d put off putting much on the walls, since I didn’t trust my own judgement and didn’t want to put holes anywhere I’d have to take down. The weekend was a flurry of spending and arranging, culminating in a quite nice living space.

It’s been a snowy few days since they left. Wasn’t that bad the first time, but then it dumped on us on Sunday, nearly left me stranded on the side of a hill I’d slid off.

Can’t really tell, but that not-terribly-steep hill has like three accidents on it.

On a Friday I was over at a friend’s farewell party; she’s moving to attend BYU Idaho. One of the girls in the ward brought Gray, her brand new husky. We had a ball.

Today at 5pm a friend texted me asking if I wanted to attend a Sounder’s game at 7. I said of course. Then I looked up what sport the Sounders play, since I hadn’t a clue. It ended up being soccer!

Highlights include:

• Kids behind us sounding like the daughter in Remember the Titans.
• The uber-fan area behind the goals featuring three or four huge bass drums, kept things fun.
• The dude who hefted a case of alcoholic beverages for sale up the stairs, set them down to grab two of them, held them aloft, and – channelling Heimdall and Boss Nass – shouted “BEEEER!” Sure got everyone’s attention.

The two teams held a 0-0 score in the first half. Shortly into the second half we scored one, then kept hammering away, ended at 5-0. Woulda hoped the other side would get one in, but oh well, if it’s gonna be a blow-out it’s best if we come out on top.

Can’t wait to see y’all later this month!