Separation Anxiety and Other Astronomical Phenomena

So once again, today we had the semi-regular gathering of the old employees of the Unit 4 computer (or “computing”) center back at Berkeley. It seems that through some weird sort of cohesion, we still manage to stay in touch and try to organize events to get everyone together.

We actually got a significant percentage of our number this time around, only missing the two who moved out of state and the two who had plans that evening. After driving to the city (That’s San Francisco for you non-Bay Area people) and having Mexican food, we were standing outside the restaurant having a conversation on the sidewalk, wondering what to do next. Aside for the $6/hour parking spot I was in, I was perfectly fine with just standing around talking. We decided to actually do some sort of activity, and ended up at karaoke. I think I scared them with how familiar I was with the whole karaoke thing. I also learned that one of the other people who worked at the CC, but the year before most of us, is currently in Antarctica. We then joked that we knew someone who was on every continent…

After karaoke, we had the same sort of lingering. I guess that’s what you get when you haven’t seen each other in months and you know it will be months until you see each other again. It took at least three different attempts at “okay, I guess we’re done and we should disperse” from different people before we actually left. And then I managed to see every single one of them driving back down Van Ness. Only one of them saw me back, though.

Then, driving down 101, I happened to look up and see a shooting star.

Yes, I made a wish.

No, I’m not going to say what it was. But you can guess.

So very tired…

For the third Thursday in a row, a bunch of us have gathered at a karaoke bar and taken it over.

The situation is a bit weird, though. It’s a sake bar / Japanese restaurant, but on Thursdays, the owner of one of the nearby karaoke box places that was shut down because their lease wasn’t renewed brings his equipment and sets it up in the bar and everyone sings until 2a.m.

Did you get that?

Well, I missed last week, but as a group, we’ve been there en masse since they started three weeks ago. Last night, I was the designated driver, as usual, but that meant I couldn’t leave until they had done their thing, which of course meant sticking it out until the bitter end.

When I finally get home at 2:30, I go to bed, but then get caught up in reading the new comics I bought that day. I fall asleep at 3:30.

I never ate dinner that night. Man, I am so hungry right now.

Basketball and other things

Okay, so stop me if I’m wrong here, but I find it a bit out of place to look out the window and see a bunch of co-workers playing basketball on their lunch break… shirts and skins.

Even scarier is when they actually have referees… with uniforms and whistles and everything.

Don’t these people have work to do?

In other news, I’m still recovering from this weekend… after the karaoke bar incident on Thursday, two parties on Saturday and another on Sunday, I’m pretty wiped out. I even had to pass on another party on Friday…

Once again, I need vacations from my vacations. I so cannot wait for the three day weekend. I think I’m deliberately not going to do anything… just sit around and do nothing, clean, laze around… etc.