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so last week i turned 26 without much fanfare. to me, this is a good thing. some years i feel like doing something on a big scale involving my friends, usually dinner and partying afterward, but this year i felt like keeping it a lot more simple.

on my actual birthday, katie took me out for dinner to Oliveto’s where we had some great food, although the service needed some serious help. we split a couple of appetizers: house-made salami and bluefin tuna tartare. katie ordered the pasta with squid and i ordered the steak. the appetizers were delicious and katie’s pasta was very tasty. my steak was so-so… in hindsight i should have skipped the round eye cut and ordered something else like the rabbit loin. ah well, i’ll have to get that next time. katie had the rose wine, which a nice dry rose, and i ordered their “armando paro” and a greyhound. the armando was pear brandy, vodka and a couple of other things served as a martini and it was great. for dessert, we split a dark chocolate cake and plum ice cream with plum caramel sauce, the latter of which was interesting, but not quite what i was expecting since it was more sorbet-like than creamy like ice cream. overall, it was a nice relaxing day at work followed by good food and chilling at home afterward. oh yeah, katie got tickets for us to go watch the seahawks play the 49ers in SF! definitely psyched for that since many are picking the 49ers as the dark horse to steal the NFC West from seattle… we’ll see about that =)

on friday, some friends came over to oakland, and we had a really good dinner at Garibaldi’s, then came back to our place for dessert and drinks. despite some mixed reviews at chowhound, i found the food at Garibaldi’s to be really good. for an appetizer, we split a cheese plate, shoestring fries, and a spicy prawns dish, all of which were pretty good. i ordered the filet mignon (too much red meat this week…) and it came out accompanied by a mega tater-tot. the food was phenomenal. ben ordered the lamb dish that i was eying but back away from because of a pistachio couscous line item. he gave me a healthy sample of it and it was also extremely tasty, so much so that i preferred it to the filet. i sampled a bit of katie’s halibut dish and it was also very good. overall, i plan to return to Garibaldi’s after the great dining experience. the wines were good and my bengali gimlet with vodka in place of gin was pretty solid too (garam masala in a drink? who knew?). we came back to our place for a sundae bar and lots and lots of drinks. i made a limonata recipe i found off chowhound and it was pretty good. basically similar to a mojito, but made with lemon + vodka instead of lime + rum. by the time i crashed saturday morning, i was thankful i kept everything down. katie was away for all of 5 hours on saturday… and i was pretty tired the whole weekend. here are some pics from my birthday and the festivities on friday:

as can be inferred by what i wrote above, ben came to visit me for my birthday which was nice. i really like the tradition that we have going of visiting each other on/around birthdays because i always enjoy his company and catching up with him since we don’t live in the same area and haven’t for a really long time now.

don messaged me a belated birthday wish and lamented that we are getting old, since he also turned 26 in the month of august. i have to say, i don’t really feel like i’m getting old. i still feel young, energetic and ambitious yet comfortable with where i am in life. i probably would have felt very different if i had not made a conscious decision to change my lifestyle 3 months ago to start taking better care of myself. did some reflecting and came up with the following that i’m happy about accomplishing in my last year of life:

• started a new job that’s working out well for me. jump in pay didn’t hurt either.
• bit the bullet, bought a ring and finally got engaged after 4 1/2 years of dating an amazing girl i met in college
• found a new place and moved in with katie in oakland. leaving south bay, where i went to stanford and had most of my school friends was tough but worth it
• finally started to get serious about my health, having lost 20 lbs so far and on my way to losing more. i finally feel like i have good exercise and eating habits and that just makes me feel a lot better about myself and my future
• got some new wheels for my car! long overdue, found a great deal and i love the way my car looks now. it just needs a vortech, greddy TT build or hks supercharger (whenever those get released)…
• saved a lot of cash (see new job above)
• visited india with my parents. this was a huge deal for me since i hadn’t visited in 23 years. 4 1/2 weeks of amazing memories, awesome food and a little bit of illness
• took ~2 months off in between jobs (see India trip + moving to Oakland)

for this next year, my goals:

• save more for a nice down payment on a nice house in seattle next year
• lose more weight
• kick ass at my job and get my newly approved project off the ground and staffed up with ppl
• wedding plans + marriage
• travel more

i haven’t posted in a while since things have been pretty busy. between my job, katie being in seattle, starting to hit the gym regularly and reading incessantly, i’ve been skipping updating this site. a co-worker of mine asked me recently how often i updated and i had to respond with once or twice a month. unlike don’s idea, i’m avoiding writing if i don’t feel compelled to put something down.

so what has compelled me this time? i received a few cold calls from various companies in the valley in the past two weeks. google, vmware, yahoo and a couple others. it was pretty surprising to me since they all reached me on my cell phone (where do they get this information) and knew where i worked. i figured they gathered some work history from linkedin, but still… the direct contact creates a bit of a creepy feeling. also, they would know i’ve only been at my current company for 5 months… a bit early to leave right? i wouldn’t leave for another pure technology job for a while anyway…

it’s time for me to stop fucking around. most people who know me well know that despite the somewhat calm exterior, i’m a pretty intense person about some things. lately, i’ve been pretty lax about a lot of things, too many things in fact. an increasing sense of disorganization about my life has been creeping over me and i’ve hit my limit. this seems to happen to me periodically, where i go through phases where i just let go for a little while until the lack of control catches up to me and bothers me enough to get back on track.

my desk at home is a mess, i don’t feel like i’ve been systematically knocking off my weekly chores, things are progressing somewhat haphazardly at work, etc. i’ve got sam’s wedding this weekend and then i’m off to vegas for 5 days to attend the national association of broadcasting conference. between now and the time i get back, i’m going to be organizing my shit to get that sense of control back. more than anything, i want that feeling back where i feel like most things i’m doing are intentional.

an ambiguous post at best, but i just had to write it out.

i just wanted to quote this from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In sickness, health, doctor always cared
Cameron helped found Columbia St. Mary’s wound center

Colette Cameron always showed compassion for the patients she treated, both as a specialist in rehabilitation and in the treatment of wounds.

So when the doctor was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, it was her patients’ turn at Columbia St. Mary’s, Columbia Campus, to express concern. They and their families often asked after her well-being during those times when treatments took her from the wound center that she helped found.

“Her family came first,” said her husband and fellow physician, Jeff Cameron. “But her work was important to her, so that even throughout her illness, she went back as soon as she could to the wound center.”

Colette Cameron died Thursday. She was 54.

Cameron was born and raised in Rockford, Ill. She attended Loyola University and Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago.

Afterward, she and her family lived in Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Wheaton, Ill., before she became director of the rehabilitation unit at Columbia St. Mary’s.

Cameron’s cancer diagnosis came shortly after she had taken on a new professional challenge.

After years spent practicing pediatric and adult rehabilitation, Cameron underwent special training in wound healing and hyperbaric medicine. She became the founding medical director of the Wound Healing Center at Columbia St. Mary’s.

Husband takes over

Because the center meant so much to Cameron, her husband received training and has taken over as director of the wound center.

Even during the most difficult parts of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, Colette Cameron made sure to get to the wound center at least once a week to see her patients, her husband said.

Sometimes she would be in pain, but she never let it show to her patients, he said.

“What people will remember about her work is always being energetic and upbeat,” Jeff Cameron said.

Colette Cameron traveled extensively abroad, including Ireland, where she had family.

She loved sports and had many hobbies.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by three daughters, Katie, Kelsey and Emily; her mother, Eileen Burns; and her brothers, Chuck and Jim Burns.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 836 N. Broadway. Burial will be Tuesday at Calvary Cemetery in Rockford.

Donations to the Colette Cameron Fund for Wound Healing, Columbia St. Mary’s Foundation, 4425 N. Port Washington Road, Glendale, WI 53212, were suggested.

this has been a very tough time for katie, her family and myself. katie’s mom was one of the greatest women i’ve ever met in my life. from the very first time i met her over four years ago, she was so warm to me and immediately put me at ease when i was nervous to meet katie’s family for the first time. even though katie and i are recently engaged, she referred to me as her future son-in-law relatively early in the relationship. i have never written about her diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and struggle with cancer but i wanted to do my little bit to celebrate her life.

i’ve been in milwaukee for the past week helping katie and her family in any way i can. her wake, funeral and burial were on sunday, monday and tuesday respectively. hundreds of family members, friends and coworkers attended the various services to pay their respect. to see the positive impact this woman had on the world was very admirable and encouraged me to consider what i am doing with my own life.

may she rest in peace

i got into an accident on my way to work a couple of weeks ago. here’s the gist of what happened. i take a freeway exit and get on a downward sloping offramp. there are a few cars at a stop all waiting to merge on to a street. finally cars start moving. the car in front of me starts to merge into the street then comes to a sudden stop, more than halfway into the street and the less than halfway in the crosswalk. i have no time to react and rear end the vehicle in front of me. i was going about 2-3 mph (however fast you go when you don’t have your foot on the gas).

end result? no visible damage to her car but her @#(@ tow hook put a hole in my bumper. here are some pics…