by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2008/02/14 10:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2008/02/14/7692401.aspx
Very little that is technical, you know the drill. If you don't like it, then please either get over it or skip it! :-)
So yesterday there was a lunch for Microsoft bloggers in the Building 16/17/18 cafeteria.
I felt a little like a food snob since I scooted over to Shamiana in Building 25 to pick up my food and then scooted back to 16/17/18 for the lunch. But it just seemed like a better food choice....
Of course the lunch was on that island in the middle of the cafeteria, the one you can go all the way around and never find a ramp to get up the couple of stairs, but we we worked it out (I handed my food over to someone and then parked out of the way, on the low ground).
It was a nice small crowd (a bunch of people may have been over at TechReady?) but it is always fun to talk with saner bloggers who don't try to write off hours, who do proofread their posts, and who don't post twice a day "just cuz" like I do).
I even got to see KC Lemson there, who I have shared an email or two with. I actually think of her blog the way that Cathy thinks of Vogue or Cosmo on a plane -- total guilty pleasure, no real specific call to read it but I do anyway. She did not remember me, but that's okay. I remembered her. I don't think we have ever actually met before, come to think of it....
I'll just put up a bunch of their blogs if you want to put yourself at the table when we kind of went around and explained who we were and what we do:
I was not afraid to say the blog can be like therapy, it almost is sometimes. And I guess that makes blogger lunches and dinners like Group Therapy, which is worth the time for its own sake!
I honestly think if you tried to you could not come up with eight more different Microsoft[-ish] blogs, but that is actually a good thing in this kind of get-together, all things considered. I think fun was had by all.... :-)
And now for something completely different!
Today is actually Valentine's Day, which through my own particular genius that lets me avoid buying stuff for people I have managed to arrive at once again unattached for such purposes.
Imagine what I save on flower deliveries and such!
Though I did get a call last night from Andrea, who asked me to be her valentine from across the ocean. I agreed, and note that this too saves me from having to do anything!
Andrea does give a bit of a lie to the whole No lyrics required idea, since she and I have also discussed song a few times over the years.
Though with her it was mainly because she knew I liked it, so she figured it was a reasonable way for her to "repay" me for some of the music I helped introduce her to. I suddenly remember why Miss Manners answered her mails with "Gentle reader" and how it applies here. In both directions.
We talked about Liz for a bit, and I promised we could still talk about songs now and again (she is another late night, why care about time zones person which is technically even worse since she is like nine hours away!). But they really are two different kinds of conversations, and not because it is two different people, but because we mostly talk about language and collation and internationalization, with a little bit about music sometimes since I helped introduce her to some of it.
Plus we even went out for a little while, but really decided we made more sense as friends given the distance and the fact that we were really both uninterested in moving and even less interested in a long-distance relationship.
I think I tend to make myself emotionally unavailable more often than not.
And that is a choice.
Or a pattern.
Andrea suggested that it might be why I talk about song lyrics from time to time -- to make myself emotionally available (on a limited basis). There may be something to that....
She also thinks I have women sprinkled all over the world, though I pointed she is taking some artistic license there since (a) we are not talking about all that many women nor (b) all that much of the world, and (c) if you break up with someone over distance issues, it is not a definite thing that you end up together if you remove the distance (something about the people you can live without are not the ones you turn to just because it becomes more convenient!).
I tell read her the earlier bit about the lunch today, and she sees a pattern.
I can almost hear the sad smile behind her voice. "You can't really cook like you used to, but you're kind of a food snob. And not so much with the women like you used to be, but you're kind of a relationship snob, too. I think you miss your old life, Michael."
She can probably hear the head shake and not just because of the bluetooth headset. "That's no mystery, though -- I have said as much, at times. But I was those kinds of snob about things originally too, so it is not cause/effect -- it is more like a residual part of me. Something one could perhaps no longer deserve but it's the only way I know."
"You still deserve to be who you are, Michael. But it is a bit like cooking. A little bit of a bitter herb can improve the flavor of a dish when you add it the right way. But take away the dish and if all you have left is the herb, then all people see is the bitter."
Holy on target insight, Batman. I am momentarily flummoxed.
She continues, "see, Michael? You're still easy to stun silent, dear."
"But I'm not bitter about everything, though."
"True, " she allows. "But you could probably detoxify more of yourself than you have."
"Like I have any idea how to do that," I say shaking my head.
"Michael, you've helped other people with the exact same problem. Even me once or twice, remember?"
I am nodding despite the distance. "Yes," I admit.
"So I'll tell you what you told me. And what Liz told you by the way. Leave yourself open to the possibility, 'kay?"
"I can try and work on that."
"Good. And now you should get some sleep."
So we agree to keep talking occasionally about whatever, pretty much whenever, like before -- basically to do what we had been doing on and off. We even got off the phone at a semi-decent hour.
I'll update the blog before it goes live to tell you if I got a good night's sleep.
[LATER] I did.
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Danny on 14 Feb 2008 7:46 PM:
So the only reason you aren't involved with this Andrea is that she doesn't live near you? Dude you are completely insane.
Michael S. Kaplan on 14 Feb 2008 8:05 PM:
Well, let's say that was the top reason, and add to that how neither of us really wanted to chasnge countries!
Igor Levicki on 14 Feb 2008 10:59 PM:
Why don't both of you settle in some third, neutral country?
Like... Canary Islands? ;)
Michael S. Kaplan on 15 Feb 2008 9:22 AM:
If neither of us wanted to move because we liked where we were, how would both of us moving help, exactly? :-)