Week 5: ...and Amy

1. How was your trip to New York last weekend? 

It was amazing!  Just what I needed.  I saw the show, which was great as always.  Afterwards, I loitered and thus made several for-the-night friends, one of whom bought me a shot.  He was from Connecticut but went to Tulane, so he had some Louisiana cred.  He was also, as I recall, wearing a Mardi Gras flag as well as a Saints jersey (or maybe it was the reverse).  The other dude I met was wearing red zebra striped leggings and a red top hat and was very concerned with finding the merch table, which never materialized.  Fred, the frontman, did materialize, at which point red-zebra dude complained to him about the lack of a merch table.  I do not think that Fred found him especially endearing.

The woman friend-for-the-night I met was from Newtown.  She hadn't lost one of her own children, but she had friends who had.  She cried on my shoulder a little bit, and also told me that during the show was the first time she had felt joy since the shooting.  Powerful, yo.  She also thanked me for letting her cry to me, because she felt like it meant she wouldn't cry when meeting/talking to Fred.  I was just happy to be able to help a little.

I got to meet Fred, and I told him the line I had been thinking about all night, to wit, "Three weeks ago I left everything and everyone I knew and loved in Austin, Texas and moved to Massachusetts.  Two days after I got there, my grandfather died, so last week I flew back to Monroe to attend his memorial service..."  Fred interrupted, "Monroe, Louisiana?"  I affirmed this, and continued, "but tonight, I'm at a Cowboy Mouth show, and it's all going to be ok."  Fred hugged me!  And then he took a picture with me.  This is it.  Note that my smile is very broad.

That's me on the left.

The next day I went to Honbu, where I had to help  lead warm-ups (I really should have been prepared for that) and Nidaime welcomed me -- he taught the kata class I took.  I was also going to take an endurance class, but I decided that was ambitious of me, so I took my leave.  All of the Honbu karateka were confused that I was from Texas but only there for the one day.  And then I spent the afternoon with my friend Jim from high school.  He was an awesome kid, and he's become an awesome adult.

 2. I'm in Houston right now, are you jealous? 
No.  That's where the devil lives, didn't you know?

 3. Have you gone to any of those MeetUps that I signed you up for? 
Not yet.  But I did sign up for one next Friday!

 4. Have you started hearing from PhD programs yet? 
Yes, actually.  I've been wait-listed by UIC.  I also heard from UT that the faculty committee is currently reviewing my application (and, as an aside, that the PhD Coordinator has not yet needed my help with her computer, but she still misses me).

 5. When can we make a time to Skype? (I'm in Houston then Charleston until Sunday night so after that.)
I'm going down to part-time starting next week, so anytime that isn't Mondays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays work for me!