Staticfree Blog

"Home" is shifting again and this time I don't think I like where it's going.

8 hours there, 8 hours back and a few days in the middle. I (this is what gets me, I dislike the place, but I like the company; I miss my friends there, but want to physically be here.) miss Rochester. I've recently rediscovered how many friends (or at least people who can stand my company) I have there, which disappointingly overshadows my few friends still left in the Boston area. Perhaps I should simply do what I did in Rochester - hang out at a coffee shop until cool people fall into my lap (so to speak. I wouldn't mind at all if it literally happened, though).

As Care and I'm sure many others have been longing for: we need teleporters. That way little French bistros could welcome my patronage for lunch, followed by tasty Italian food for dinner - in Italy - and other such pleasantries. Europe would be a lot more fun if it were one decomposition and recomposition of your molecules away.

And "home" shifts. Heading back to Newton, I packed up with no intention of immediate return this time. I took half my bed (the squishy, foldable half that fits into a suitcase), my summery clothes, exchanged boots for shoes, and generally left as much of the Winter as I could in Rochester. It belongs there, living there most of the year. Goodbyes were thrown at many friends who I wouldn't see for awhile ("fall" seems so easy to say, but is still so distant) and at acquaintances who didn't even know I had only been there for the weekend. I hope not too much changes while I'm gone, or if it does, it at least doesn't forget about me in the process. [insert greatest fear here: being forgotten] This will be a true test of long-distance friendship maintenance. If they can perform surgery on someone via robotic arms, I should have confidence this could work.

Is this "home"? I'm still not sure where my home is. "Home is where the server is" they say (well, perhaps only I say that). If that's true, that would put home in the living-room of Geekhaüs. Instead, I'm living in the living-room of my dad's apt. wondering what to do with my time. The place I walk back to from the T doesn't feel like home, but will at least pretend to be it for a good while. I think I'll just do as I did before: slap a "home" sticker on the internet and consider it my cozy place to hide. It's close enough.

There is nothing cooler than drinking berry-flavoured barium sulfate suspension (almost 1L of it!) on an empty stomache, getting put on a bed and then in a nifty machine with lasers, a voice that talked, and even a blinky light for good measure. Oh, then being injected with an iodide that made me feel my circulatory system (it felt warm as it pumped through). At least it was brief and it didn't make me feel sick for very long.

So, hopefully in a few days i'll get some word back from my doctor to see if the cancer has spread anywhere, and if so, how much radiation treatment would be needed. It's been mostly ruled out that chemo therapy will not be necessary (hurrah).

I just returned from the hospital (this seem so familiar now) having had a tumor removed. I'm now well and will be taking some time off from school to recover; perhaps the entire quarter. Moreover, time off to potentially have any cancer that might be there eradicated, irradiated, and generally removed. I don't yet know if there's even any cancer, though - so much to find out still.

The operation went well. It was scheduled for 13:30, but ended up starting at 16:30 or so. As usual, I opted for general anesthetic (that's where they knock you entirely out and you don't remember anything). After the installment of an IV tube and the subsequent injection of some fun narcotics, I woke at 19:30 or so minus one tumor and in throbbing, successful pain.

This was my first hospitalization at !Children's Hospital (Brigham and Women's). All the nurses seem quite competent and friendly, so that was good. So far, except for numerous delays here and there, I'm quite pleased with their service.

The biggest frustration with this so far is that I don't know if there's been any spread yet. I won't know until about a week from now, which will put me well into RIT's second week (out of 10 weeks, that's pretty far-in). Most likely, I'll be taking this quarter off and seeing if I can find work around Boston to pass the time.

I'll probably also spend some quality time mastering my Japanese, learning more lojban, and possibly learning some linguistics. I've been meaning to for some time now, so now would be a great opportunity for such. RIT sadly does not offer any linguistics courses, so I'm stuck on the solo-route for that. Some of the people in the lojban IRC channel I've been lurking on seem to have some good knowledge / resources that I should be able to leach off of, so that will be helpful. All in all, I'm sure I'll find something good to learn while I'm not at school. After all, the famous Mark Twain said, "Don't let school interfere with your eduction".

I've finally gotten a copy of an x-ray of my back. You can see the shiny metal rods that were put in way back in '97. The operation that was done is called a spinal fusion and was remarkably painless at the time. Yes, those hooks go onto my vertebrae. Also yes, it does occasionally still hurt (bloody thing). At least it performs its job: keeps my back straight; I can't slouch at all anymore (makes it hard to be a true slacker).

This summer will be good. It will be good. Photos will be taken at all events. So far, the following is planned (Amber and myself anyhow):

• Camping Trip to Maine/NH
• Photo trip to falmouth beach with a tree swing
• Boston photo trip
• P-town, far beach
• Canada / niagra falls
• NYC
• Wellfleet Drive-in
• High-falls, Rochester, NY
• Main St. Hyannis
• Downtown Crossing
• Cambridge, MA

Sometime in the not-too-far future, we must do a road trip 'cross country. Hm, so many plans... so little summer. Maybe we should take a year off and just do photo shoots while taking up part-time jobs. I want to travel, just to go, and have been there.