Things done and left undone

I got a lot done today. The Girl had laser eye surgery, and I was her personal assistant for the day because she is not supposed to drive after the surgery. Hopefully, in about 72 hours, her eyesight will be very close to normal. I washed and cleaned the Jeep, paid The Girl's rent, faxed off documents to the mortgage company for our new house, took the dog out for a run... And now I'm sitting in a Starbucks while The Girl is at school.
She's taking classes in counseling. Should I worry that she'll be able to delve into the inner workings of this crazy mind?
Anyway, I was thinking about the list of things I have to do before our wedding (in 34 days), and it seems a little overwhelming. Not only that, but the list of things to do to buy a house is overwhelming in itself as well. It is not that the list is impossible to do. It's just that it's a lot to do. And there are not enough hours in the 24-hour day. I need at least 36 hours per, minimum. Sure, lots of people get everything done in a 24-hour day, but they're called mothers, with a lifetime of experience. I'm not one of those.
Not only do I not have experience in doing tons of things in one day. I have the "disability" of being what I call "scattered". My mind races at 1,043 miles per hour on a good day. On a bad day, I can feel my brain overheat from almost reaching quantum proportions of thought. I think about everything all at the same time. It's hard to describe. I think about the current moment, the past, the future, and everything else. It's like an enormous hyper-stream of stuff. Tons of stuff.
This is not necessarily bad, though. It comes in handy when there are problems because I can think of the solution to the problem while doing other things. There have been many times when the answer to the question is right there waiting for me in the morning when I wake up. Other times, many times, the answer just pops into my head a the most random of moments. Just as The Girl, I'll suddenly turn to her out of nowhere and say something like, "Oh, yes, as I was saying..."
I love the look she gives me. She knows I'm about to throw something out there out of left field, but it will make sense in the bigger sense of things.
It's kind of like this post. I'm writing and writing, and, what you can't tell, is that I'm also checking my work and home e-mail, drinking my chai tea, and thinking about how great the weather will be come tomorrow, and even better on the weekend. And I thought of all that in the few second that it took me to write that sentence. It's weird. I know. It's who I am.
Though sometimes I wish I wasn't that way. I wish that I was like those focused over-achievers that get things done immediately and everyone loves them for it. I can fake being one of those, but I'm not. I'm just good at faking it. (Even when I get stuff done in short order, it's not me. It's me being someone else.) I see people who are extremely organize and quick to do things, and it really does make me jealous.
Then again, I have to use my abilities like I got them. There's no sense in trying to change now because that will only cause me further grief. They're good abilities. I mean, I'd rather have the brain work incessantly on a problem rather than be stumped for an answer. And that's why I need to end this post, because I an answer just came through...

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Singing out loud

There was this one bird by the light rail station this morning singing non-stop for the entire time I was there waiting for the train. It was singing with different tones and pitches. It was a delight. Spring is coming this weekend, and the weather forecast looks beautiful. I really can’t wait.

I remember the change of seasons in El Paso. They were not as dramatic as they are here, farther north. There were hardly any really “hard” freezes in the winters in El Paso, and some of the warmest days were on par with some of the coolest summer days. Nevertheless, the one change you could not help but notice was the greenery. Everything just got that much greener. It was beautiful.

And then summer would come and the hot Texas sun would burn it all away.

While I particularly don’t like the hot, humid summers here in the mid-atlantic, I do like how green everything gets. I love when the crickets go non-stop all night as I’m sleeping. The birds chirp all day, too. They all sing out loud, and I can’t help but want to sing along.

The sun finally coming out should help, too...​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Help a lot.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Mini mac is awesome

So I bought a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (1011) on Ebay. It has good specs: N280 Atom processor running at 1.66GHz, 1GB of RAM (which I’ll update later on, I’m sure), a nice keyboard that is about 80 or 90% the size of a regular laptop keyboard, a 120 GB hard drive, and a wireless-N wifi card. It also has all the trimmings of other netbooks (such as USB ports, audio in/out ports, VGA port). Perhaps the best thing about it is that it has a nice, big 6-cell battery that will keep this bad boy going for over 6 hours.

I had heard that this little guy could be hacked into running mac. I’ve never been a mac guy. I’ve always used PCs. The last time I used a mac was in middle school, when we got to learn about “microprocessors” and other computer components. That was back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Since then, I’ve gotten used to Windows, dabbled in Linux, and just watched mac computers from afar. As of this morning, that is no more.

I hacked my mini to run OS X, a total disregard of the End User License Agreement for the software, I know. I’m a bad, bad person. I’m sorry, Apple, I just cannot afford a $1,000-plus machine with the wedding coming up (and other expenses). If I could, I’d buy one of your beautiful, beautiful machines, like the macbook air. I’m a poor State employee, what can I say?

At any rate, I plan to use this little machine to do some iPhone development, picture editing, and, of course, lots more writing. As for the other mini computer, I’ll leave windows XP on it and use it for all the other stuff I can do with it... And I will finally get rid of the dinosaur of a Compaq laptop that got me through grad school.

Funerales

Last week, The Girl's Grandfather passed away. We had gone to visit him twice since we have been together, and I was always amazed at the amount of knowledge and wisdom stored in him still at his age (94). The man had been in Europe during World War II, and he was a 60-year member of the VFW. Place on top of that the fact that he was married 50+ years, and his life reads like a novel.

The viewing was strange to me in a way because it was more of a wake. People were talking to each other, often joking, remembering "Pap" and all the funny stories related to him. There was also a lot of respect. It was strange to me, I guess, because the funeral of my two Granfathers were very somber.

My Maternal Grandfather's funeral is kind of a blur to me. I only remember being outside, playing with my cousins before my Mom brought me inside to his body one last time before he was buried. My Paternal Grandfather was a whole other thing. He passed away when I was a teenager. I remember that viewing and ensuing funeral being very somber.

The women at that funeral were all sitting in the front rows at the funeral home, reciting the rosary over and over and over again. The men were outside, talking in low tones, drinking what I'm sure were alcoholic drinks mixed in with coffee and traditional Mexican drinks. Then we walked behind the hearse to the town church where a Catholic Mass was celebrated. Half of the town, or more, came to his funeral... there were a lot of people there.

But the funeral last week was different. It was also a Catholic family, but they didn't grieve too much until the actual time to say good-bye. While "Chuck's" body was there, he seemed mostly alive in their thoughts. I'll never forget The Girl's Brother misinterpreting the phrase, "Cloud up and rain knuckles on you." He thought it was "Clown up". Also, while there was food at an Aunt's house, it wasn't the centerpiece that food is when someone in Mexico dies. There is even a saying, "Las penas con pan son buenas."

The sorrows with bread are good.

I don't know when (and if?) I'll die. I told The Girl not to have my body there in a coffin at the funeral home. I told her to donate my body to science, have them take out my brain and learn from (quite literally) what I have learned. Donate my organs, if they are still in good shape, to those who need them. Finally, place a big picture of my DNA sequence for people to remember me by. I don't want to be remembered by how I look to the rest of the world... I'd rather be remembered by the code God wrote to run this machine.

Yes, some sort of religious service would be nice, but mostly for the comfort and reassurance of those who would miss me. I'm very sure of where my soul is going and, by the time I'm dead, it's a little too late to be asking that my soul live eternal. (That's why I've taken steps now.) Mostly, I just want my death to be a reason for people to celebrate that I was around for N many years.