Life is Good

I’m just going to skip the apologies for my late post this time. My post history shouldn’t have created any expectations for frequent updates. =) As I write this, I’m cooking some stroganoff, doing my laundry, and drinking a McSorley’s Irish ale. For those who were wondering.

Umm… wow. A *lot* has happened since I last posted. And I think it’s just about all been good stuff. The week after my nephew was born, I flew to California with all my co-workers for the TopCoder Open, one of our yearly tournaments. Aside from being sick for the first few days, it was a lot of fun. I flew in on Sunday and we spent a few days just setting everything up to prepare for the events. Our competitors started showing up on Tuesday and Wednesday and the events ran from Wednesday to Friday. We tried to get out in the city on the evenings. Friday was pretty crazy as we celebrated a successful tournament. I’m still getting comments about my behavior at the bar! I guess I had little too much to drink. They sent me and Jessie back to the hotel in a taxi and we stumbled back to our rooms. I’m not necessarily proud of this, but hey… it was a good time. =)

The weekend after all that I finally got to see my nephew, Devyn! I drove up to Watertown, NY where my sister lives. Within the first 15 minutes of me holding the baby, he threw up all over me! We had to change all our clothes. And then I held him again. =) He’s such a cutie!

The rest of my news revolves around an awesome woman named Sandra. We met online. I contacted her after seeing her profile on the free site OkCupid, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. =) I actually didn’t expect anything to happen when I first talked to her. We live 100 miles from each other and I thought for sure that’d be a problem. Well, after a week of phone calls… she came to visit me. We hit it off in person just as well as we had on the phone. Since then things have continually improved, and it’s almost too good to be true. I made my first trip to NYC to stay with her and she showed me around the city. (of course, there’s still TONS to see) We’ve also gone to Boston to visit some of her friends, and it was my first time there too! (kinda nice living between those two cities)

Things have moved very quickly. We’ve already met each other’s parents. I met her mom and her step-dad first. We went out to a mexican place called Pancho’s (yummy!) and then went back to their place and played Trivial Pursuit. It was a great time! Just this past Tuesday I met her dad and her step-mom. We went out for some greek food. I think they all like me, and I like them too… so that’s good! =) Then, Sandra came home with me for Thanksgiving. We drove. But we took I-81 instead of I-95 and didn’t hit a single bit of traffic coming or going! We had a great time in NC. We also made it to Chapel Hill to see some of my friends and to Charlotte to see some of her family.

The thing about me and Sandra is that we just have so much in common. We think the same and view life the same way. It’s hard to explain. I’m just glad we met each other. =) We’ll see what happens.

What can I say? I’m a happy guy. I’m very excited about what the future holds.