In my defense, I have been fairly active during that lull. My aunt died shortly after that post so I hosted my parents for a few days and went to her wake and funeral. Three days later I joined Randy on a business trip to Japan. Because I was using frequent flyer miles we ended up on different flights (in both directions) so I flew out on Columbus Day and came home nine days later.

Unlike last time (when I took the shinkansen to Kyoto and Osaka) I focused my trip on the Tokyo area this time. Randy was working eveyr week day so I ended up exploring Tokyo on my own for the first four days. In addition to more temples and shrines than I can remember, I visited the Meguro Parasitological Museum…the world’s only museum dedicated to  parasites!

When the weekend came around, Randy and I continued playing tourist – visiting Ueno Park (which I saw the last time) and going to new places, like Odaibo (sp?) and the Rainbow Bridge and 30 story tall ferris wheel. And a hilarious misnamed mall called “Venus Fot”….built on the inside to look like Venice, Italy. Venus=Venice.

On Monday Randy and I ventured out of the city to the UNESCO Heritage site of Nikko. The train ride was horrible, but Nikko was great. We arrived on their annual Parade of 1,000 Samurai. Pretty cool.

Since my return, I fought jetlag for nearly 3 weeks. We also kept busy with trips in Boston (foliage, picture taking, plays, parks) and even hosted a small Halloween gathering (my first time in costume since the 1980′s when I went as a pimp with two female friends as my hookers. I can’t believe our parents allowed that.

And soon we’re off to San Francisco and Gold Country.  Should be fun. It’s been over 2 years since I’ve been to San Francisco. I wouldn’t mind skipping the Gold Country (and Randy’s wineries) for just the city – but oh well. What can you do?

Since then, every week there has been a threat…this morning after a conference call they nearly had him on a plane TODAY. Now it looks like next week or the week after.

Personally, I wish they could coordinate their disasters better so that I could plan a trip to tag along.

Otherwise, my life has been quite simple and content – just the way I like it.

I brought my mother to Mass General last week since she’s got a brain aneurysm and the doctors at Cape Cod Hospital refered her to a big-city neurosurgeon for additional evaluation. The aneurysm is apparently in some sort of cavity with less than a 5% chance of rupture. And, even if it does rupture, it would not likely damage the brain, but just bleed into the cavity putting pressure on her eyes. He said she would just need to go to the ER and they could treat it there much more safely than by doing a more risky preventive surgery.

So, it’s a relief to hear they don’t think it’s going to be a life-threatening issue.

On Friday, we met up with our friends, Ben and Sandy, who were renting a house in Orleans for the week. After some time at a chilly Skaket Beach, we went back and played Yahtzee (electronically, of course) after a tasty, but with slow service, Thai restaurant.

Then, on Saturday morning, we finally made it to Ptown. After lunch at the Patio Cafe with our friends we went off on our own for an afternoon at Herring Cove Beach. Following that, dinner at Cafe Heaven, then that night’s Miss Richfield 1981 show at the Paramount (front row/center!).

On Sunday we returned to Herring Cove and while heading back to town Randy spotted a fellow he went to undergraduate college with and hadn’t seen in 18 years (surprise! He’s gay). After dinner we decided to catch up with them for drinks at Joon Bar.

We had planned to go back to the beach yet again on Sunday, but instead spent the day walking up and down Commercial Street (where Randy bought various things to fit his newly svelte body: shoes, shorts, etc..). The next thing you know, it was approaching 5pm and the day was shot. Traffic looked horrible online so we popped back by my parent’s house and played Hands and Feet again (I won again…I was on a streak)!

By the time we left around 8:30pm there was no traffic at all and we made it back in record time.

All in all, a great weekend.

This past weekend we had friends over Friday night, and on Saturday went for a bike ride to Lexington Center for lunch, did required weekly shopping at Costco, and laid out on the roof deck for a few hours. At night, we saw Bridesmaids (which I enjoyed more than Randy – though he couldn’t stop laughing when they all got sick from the Brazilian food). On Sunday we went back up to the roof deck (which, radiates heat and was very warm despite high temps only in the 60′s), then went to see Contagion at the Somerville Theatre.

The movie was damn creepy…and it made me paranoid enough that I kept noticing Randy touching his face with his hands. Bad Randy. Bad, bad, Randy!

Finally, yesterday was the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. I watched a bit of the stuff on tv that morning, and DVR’d something on CBS last night (to watch later). As with most people, I remember that day quite vividly. I was in my office here at Harvard and noticed the internet was extremely slow. Shortly after that, my friend Regina called (she worked two floors below) and told me that we were under attack. It seemed too surreal, too Hollywood to be actually happening. I went downstairs and watched footage on a TV in a neighboring office. I tried calling my partner at the time, Matt, whose company was located on the 45th-50th floors of the Hancock Tower…Boston’s tallest…but kept getting directed immediately to voicemail. 

At that point – who knew how many other hijacked flights could be in the air? Besides, two of the hijacked planes came out of our city…we could only assume there were other terrorists either on the ground or in other planes. I hated the idea that Matt was up in that tower, but couldn’t reach him.

I ended up leaving work early – hearing about the plane in Pennsylvania while on the most crowded and chaotic commuter rail train I’d ever seen. It was terrifying – paranoia (and rumors) were flying around as people got updates from friends/family calling on their cell phones. Then they’d announce what they’d heard to everybody on board.  Some were even afraid the weight of the train with all those people was going to cause the bridge in Revere/Lynn to collapse.

I made it home safely, Matt showed up a few hours later (his building evacuated, but he had to stick around as the office manager). We were living in Salem at the time and walked two blocks to the harbor, sitting on Derby Wharf in creepy silence. There were no planes flying overhead, few cars, and even fewer people. It was a gorgeous day (weather wise)…how could something so horrible be happening when everything seemed so at peace?

Life returned to normal for both of us (fortunately, we didn’t know anybody affected). But as with the rest of the country, it served as a wake-up call to us. The event caused us  both to get cell phones for the first time. Never again did we want to be unreachable in the event of the unimaginable.

My blood pressure was quite good (110/75), despite a family history of high blood pressure (both parents and my brother have it). But even more pleasant to hear was that I’ve lost 12 pounds since last August.

WOO HOO! Granted, I’ve put a little bit of effort into that reduction by tagging along with Randy on his Weight Watchers program so it wasn’t a complete surprise.  But I was still happy to hear that it was a real loss (and not just our new scale at home being optimistically out of whack). Of course, Randy has lost over 30 pounds so my 12 pounds pales in comparison. Go Randy!

On Friday night we got together with some friends to celebrate Randy’s 40th birthday (oh oh – was the fact that he’s 40 a secret?…it was actually the 11th anniversary of Randy’s 29th birthday on Friday!). The dinner was quite tasty at Arlington’s new Persian restaurant. We got together with some other friends visiting from California on Saturday night…then we hunkered down and waited out Hurricane…err, Tropical Storm…Irene.

Our electricity flickered three times on Sunday morning but that was the extent of it. I have to admit I was rather surprised to hear about all of the power failures throughout the region based on what we experienced in Arlington. I can’t believe what’s been going on in Vermont. I guess it just goes to show that you don’t have to live along the coast to suffer the most from an ocean storm. Wow.

Anyway, I’m supposed to go to the gym tonight to work off all that extra food I ate last weekend…but if anybody can come up with a good excuse why I shouldn’t go, I’m more than happy to use it.

I must admit that there is a bit of me that is excited at the prospect of a major storm. I’m just having trouble believing that all of these sorts of natural disasters (granted, the earthquake yesterday was not a disaster…but you know what I mean) are all happening in the same calendar year.

Speaking of the earthquake, I did actually feel it. I had just finished lunch and was leaning back in my chair playing “Words with Friends” on my cellphone. It suddenly felt as if a large truck was driving outside my window….except there was no truck and I’m on the third floor. Then I heard some of my knick-knacks (of which I have many shelves full) rattle slightly.

I thought I might have just imagined it, or that it was related to some possible nearby construction. Still, I immediately typed an instant message to Randy asking “Was there just an earthquake?” Not a minute later I started getting emails on the Harvard Law School distribution list asking if others felt an earthquake. Crazy. I was expecting that while I was in Hawaii, not here.

Oh yeah, Hawaii. Back to that.

So we flew Hawaiian Airlines from Kona to Honolulu. Despite the flight being not much more than 30 minutes in duration, they still proceeded to provide beverage service. And by beverage service I mean the flight attendant walked up the aisle with a box filled with sealed plastic cups of papaya (or was it guava) juice. He then immediately walked back down the aisle to collect the empty containers. And ta-dah – we landed in Honolulu.

We stayed at the Hilton Prince Kuhio (AKA Hilton Waikiki Beach), a 37 story hi-rise a block from the beach. We got a room on the 33rd floor with a balcony overlooking the mountains and skyline. After seeing the ocean view rooms I think I actually prefered our view.  After such a spectacular experience on the Big Island, I was a bit disappointed with Waikiki Beach. Within hours of our arrival we were offered drugs and were propositioned by prostitutes. Randy said it best when he said that Waikiki reminded him of Las Vegas mixed with Miami’s South Beach.

For the record, I think he meant that in a negative way. Plus customer service there was the worst I’ve experienced…ever. And that includes trips to North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Service was slow, food was mediocre, and at multiple places they screwed up the orders. I think they realize that their customer base is all tourists who aren’t likely to return anyway so why bother trying.

Waikiki Beach itself was much smaller than I had anticipated. Fortunately, our hotel was near the widest section. But there are actually sections that were so small that the beach didn’t even exist because waves crashed against a seawall at high tide. On the plus side, the water was warm and lovely, and the section of beach we used had a barrier to keep the waves to a minimum.

The next day we met up with Randy’s Australian cousin, Darren, and his wife, Fiona. The day after that we rented a car and decided to get out of cruddy Waikiki and explore the rest of Oahu. That was probably our best decision on the island. Within fifteen minutes were were out of the grittiness of Waikiki and passing by lovely coves and cliffs. We had lunch along the eastern coast of the island at the scariest little dive restaurant I’ve ever been to (complete with a 2+ inch cockroach running by my foot after we’d ordered). But we survived.

We ended up snorkeling along the North Shore (where in the winter the biggest surfing waves can be found) over some really cool coral reefs. Then we got some wine, crackers, cheese, and sweet nibbly things and sat on the beach to watch the sunset. Nearby, 220 lb sea turtles came ashore to rest after an exhausting day. It was pretty damn cool.

On Saturday, I was the worst American ever and skipped their visit to Pearl Harbor. It’s apparently such a popular destination that if you don’t go by tour group you can be stuck in line forever (and if you arrive too late in the day, you can be turned away). The tour they picked required getting up at 5am…on a Saturday…on a vacation. I just coulndn’t bring myself to do it. Plus, it ended up being nearly 7 hours long (including transportation to and from Pearl Harbor) and they weren’t fed the entire time. I need my food at 2 hour intervals or I’m one cranky S.O.B.

Sunday was our last day there (spent at the beach, naturally). Randy’s flight left around 4pm so he packed up and headed out around 2pm. My flight didn’t leave until nearly 9pm so I saw him off and returned to the beach. AHHHHHH.

All in all, the honeymoon was amazing. I never need to see Waikiki again, but would definitely return to the Big Island or to any of the other islands in a heartbeat. Hell, I’d return to Oahu as long as I could spend my time in the quieter parts of the island.

Who wants to join me?

Anyway, life has been good since I last posted on here in 1923.

We went on our honeymoon to Hawaii from July 28 to August 8 and had a spectacular time. We were lucky enough to fly first class (believe it or not, it required fewer frequent flyer miles than flying coach). On the downside, we had two connections: one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles. By dinner time on our final flight from LAS to the Big Island, I was so stuffed that I coudln’t even eat the dinner they served. In fact, just thinking about eating made me feel sick so I just slept.

We arrived in Kailua-Kona and stayed in a nice 4-room guesthouse. There were no windows…just screens and shudders completely surrounding the suite. It was night time when we arrived, but we woke up to pleasant views of the ocean in the distance. After breakfast and a quick stroll around downtown Kailua-Kona, we started our counter-clockwise trip encircling the island.

We visited the Painted Church and (I love this name) Pu’uhonua Honaunau National Historic Park, South Point (the southernmost point in the entire United States…even further south than Key West, the southernmost point in the continental United States), Punaluu Beach (a black sand beach), and then arrived in our next destination: Volcanoes National Park.

We stayed in a town called Volcano and visited Kilauea the first afternoon (and went back at night to see the eruption that’s been going on since March (no lava was visible, but the water vapor spewing from the ground was glowing red from the lava below). The next day we returned and did a 2 mile hike over lava fields onto a high hill that provided 360 degree views of the volcanic destruction. Amazing.

After some lunch we drove the Chain of Craters Road (which goes through lava fields from the 1900′s to the present) down the cliff to the ocean where the most recent eruptions (in the 2000′s) closed the road. Wicked cool.

Our lodging for the two nights at the Volcano was in the rain forest and was surrounded by the most enormous ferns I’d ever seen. Beautiful.

The next day we drove to Hilo (the largest town on the island, destroyed twice by tsunami and now rather run-down), Rainbow Falls, Akaka Falls (with a 442 foot drop), and then the Waipi’o Rim.

Ah, the Waipi’o Rim. We stayed at the most spectacular guesthouse. Actually, it’s not even a guest house. It’s a single unit standing atop a 900+ foot cliff that drops into a plush green valley and a black sand beach. It was postcard perfect. I wish we could have stayed longer (and would definitely go back).

The next day we drove through Waimea (where things transtiioned from rainforest to desert) and climbed the Kohala Mountain Road to hit the north coast of the island.

Finally we settled at the Hilton Waikoloa Village for our last few days on the Big Island. The resort was decent enough…and we had a lovely room with a view of the ocean (though nothing quite as spectacular as the Waipi’o Rim). The resort was built on laval flow on the desert side of the island so it’s odd to drive there over desert, then over lava, and end up in a plush resort.

We did go snorkeling at Hapuna Beach one afternoon, but the last few days on the Big Island were lazy. And I loved it.

I’ll write about Oahu next time. That way, I’ll be sure to post to my blog again.

The wedding was great (though, this is probably old news to most of you who also follow on Facebook and have already seen the photos). I think my mother actually cried more than anybody else there. Most of the pics came out well, though some photoshopping needs to be done to remove the sweat stains from the front and back of my shirt. My light blue shirt became increasing navy blue as the day went on.

We also had Randy’s mom, dad, and aunt visit for 6 days (plus my parents and brother came up and stayed nearby).

Last weekend we had a smallish reception for some friends at a local bowling alley (there was absolutely nothing traditional about this wedding). We had a great time (as did most people, so it seems). We left cameras out and other people used them to take pics (which are posted on Facebook, too). Our friend, Peter, though, seemed to fancy some guy at the bowling alley who was not part of our group because we seem to have more photos of him than of anybody we actually know. Seriously…there are probably 20 photos or more of just him. If we were still using 35mm film I’d probably be pissed. Instead, I just deleted the bad ones and kep the good ones.

So now life is back to normal as the last of our guests left yesterday. Randy and I are both exhausted and can’t wait for the honeymoon to Hawaii. The first few days will be busy exploring the Big Island (Volcanoes National Park, Waipio Rim, etc…) but the last 6-7 days will be at resorts, beaches, and pools.

Calgon – take me away!

Things have been a bit busy since then (though, admittedly not so busy that I coudn’t have posted). We went to Portland and Peaks Island, Maine, for Memorial Day weekend. The following weekend we had a guest from New York stay with us for 3 days. Then Randy went to Tennessee to visit his brother while I went to the Cape to visit my parents.

And then there has been all of the wedding preparations. We really thought we were organizing the most low key wedding you could imagine: small, immediate family only, no tuxedos, etc…. But as the date keeps approaching we’re either realizing that no matter how small you make it, it becomes time-consuming. Who knew that deciding on what sort of casual clothes to wear could be a job that take multiple weekends worth of shopping? I guess Randy and I have different ideas of what constitutes casual. I’m wanting timeless casual…something we can look back on in 10, 20, 30 years and not have people laugh hysterically at our clothes (think 1970′s prom).

My idea of timeless casual is on the preppy side (Oxford shirts). Randy says that’s too Cape Cod preppy.

Hence multiple weekends.

But I think we’ve figured it out. And now Randy’s family arrives tomorrow for 6 days. Then my family arrives in the area (though staying elsewhere) on Sunday for two days.

mmm – Hawaii is looking more and more appealing right now. One month from today! WOO HOO!

If you cry “FIRE!” in a crowded theater, it’s against the law. Harold Camping has essentially done that. But not to a theater of a few hundred, but to hundreds of millions. He caused uneccesary panic. Granted, it was only panic to a naive, stupid, ignorant useless portion of society that, to be honest, we’d probably be better off without anyway, but it’s still panic.

Now I’m hearing on the news that people spent their life savings over the past few months since they figured they’d be dead. Some have spent upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to actually help him spread the word. There’s also been a few people who have killed themselves out of fear. In particular, there’s a mother who slit the throats of her two children on Saturday (unfortunately failing at slitting her own) all because she was afraid of the rapture.

Mr. Camping, I call that manslaughter. Not for the mother (what she did was murder in the first degree), but manslaughter for you because you’re an asshole who put fear into the minds of the easily manipulated. You didn’t “pull the trigger”, but you were the reason behind it. You’re an accomplice, the mastermind, the ring leader. If this was the mob, you’d be the boss.

You disgust me. You should be put behind bars for your irresponsible behaviour and I hope that somebody, somewhere, has the balls to call you out on it and lock you up.

So, before my arteries clog or I break a hip, here goes:

1 – How the hell are there people out there who honestly believe that the rapture takes place tomorrow? I mean, the quack who predicted this already predicted it would take place back int he 1990′s. He was wrong then, he’ll be wrong now. Somebody on Facebook made a funny comment that he hopes the guy is right and that all of the believers will rise to Heaven and leave the rest of the earth for the rational thinkers.

2 – Last spring had a very wet beginning in March but all of that rain and warmer temperatures provided for an early and wonderful spring. A year later and it’s May and we’ve had only about 30% of our normal sunshine. In fact, it’s been nearly a week of constant drizzle, clouds, and fog (when there aren’t sudden downpours). Randy has always said that he could see us living in Portland, Orgeon, someday. After this week, I don’t see that ever happening. A week is enough, I can’t even fathom an entire season of this.

3 – Is it just me, or does American Idol kinda’ suck this year? I admit I’ve been watching all season. And normally the final three is when I pay the most attention because there’s at least some suspense involved. This year, I could care less and have actually been fast-forwarding it. It’s like we’re left with three McPerformers with no personalities (though, Haley does seem like a diva-in-waiting). And I actually like the new hosts….but all season I can’t recall a single instance where they negatively critiqued a contestant. Things must sound very different in the auditorium, because on TV I thought Jacob consistently sounded like shit. Yet they loved him. What am I missing?

4 – Can people please stop talking about the Governator’s love-child? I mean, whether you liked him as governor or not, did this in any way affect his performance as governor? No. Did Bill Clinton’s tryst with Monica in the blue dress affect his performance? No (until time and money was wasted working toward impeachment).  I think the only case where infidelity has affected job performance was with New Gingrich. Actually, it was the reverse, he claims devotion to job caused him to cheat on his sick wife (so much for his conservative, Christian values). But whether Repbulican or Democrat, what happens in their bedroom really shouldn’t be a factor in whether they are capable of completed unrelated job.

5 – National debt. Ok, we’ve hit the debt ceiling. Can we please just look at reality for once. Democrats need to allow more cuts in services (but not social security or medicare). Republicans need to allow more tax increases. It’s insane that income taxes for the wealthy are at historic lows. It’s stupid that people stop contributing to social security after earning  about $108,000/year. I’m bullshit that companies like GE, Chevron, and Mobil didn’t pay a penny in taxes, yet still raked in money hand over fist. And I resent that the majority of residents in this country don’t end up having to pay any taxes as a result of credits or other reasons. And why do people who have lots of kids get tax credits when they’re the ones needing the most resources from the government? Shouldn’t they pay more?

6 – So, this isn’t so much a rant as a comment. Arlington Town Hall is a gorgeous old building, Randy and I were there a week ago and it’s got that turn of the century (20th, that is) look with high ceilings and great old details. And it hosts a beautiful auditorium with fancy wood ceilings and details. Who knew?

7 – But did you know that the folks in the Town’s Clerk office (which is staffed by ladies who called everybody “hon” and “sweetie”, which I’ve always loved) still uses typewriters for forms? I actually saw the woman using a typewriter to comlete our marriage license (oh yeah, by the way, we’re getting hitched…more on that later). I’m surprised that Massachusetts hasn’t standardized their forms electronically yet.

8 – I was bored at lunch the other day and browsed real estate online. I discovered that the home of a childhood friend is on the market now at $16.5 million dollars. The listing showed nearly 8,000 square feet of living space with 6.5 bathrooms.  The weird thing is that as a kid I never noticed that we didn’t live like everybody else. Our simple house with 1 bathoom felt no different to me than the mansions my friends lived in. I just recall thinking it was cool that this one house had an elevator because I’d probably only been on one a half dozen times in my life at that age.

So, as I wrote above, Randy and I decided to get married. Ironically, we’ve chosen Independence Day as the day to end our independence. It’s going to be a small family-only event in Arlington. A few weeks later we’re going to Hawaii. We’d had the trip planned before deciding to marry, so have since decided to make it the honeymoon.

In other travels, we came thisclose to going to Europe last week on a business trip (me tagging along) but it never happened. Instead, we drove out to the Berkshires with friends and visited MassMoCA (meh), Williams College, and The Bridge of Flowers.

For Memorial Day we’re taking Amtrak up to Portland for the weekend and visiting my childhood friend, Missy. I’m looking forward to it – even if the weather is still crappy. It’ll be fun catching up.