Are We Having Fun Yet?

February was such a nightmare but it is wrapping up well.

I had a root canal, my first ever, on Feb 6. While the procedure itself wasn't too complicated and not at all uncomfortable, there were some issues for the rest of that week, including general aches & soreness and infection. Neither complications were unexpected --I had been given the literature and a prescription for amoxycillin at the endodontist's office-- but it wasn't pleasant.

And the following day, I was whisked off to the Advanced & Challenge square dance event in DC that DC Lambda Squares hosts every year. Sadly, this is the last: the old team is burnt out, and there aren't any obvious folks stepping forward to run the show. And it has typically lost $1-2k per year, so the club is deciding to cut its losses.

I danced as much as I could while feeling somewhat off, but I spent most of Saturday in the hotel room: I was too sick to do much, felt utterly exhausted, and the ache in my jaw & sensitivity in the root canal tooth made eating unbearable. Most of that weekend is simply a blur.

Mercifully, that Presidents' Day Monday was a company holiday so I could catch up on sleep.

I was supposed to have a karate belt test the following week, but knowing I would be travelling to California for business, I had made arrangements for my test to be the upcoming Thursday. But in my exhausted & severely weakened state, I knew I couldn't do it: I could barely summon the energy to walk to the dojo.

Still, I went on Wednesday and Thursday, driving rather than walking, just so I could keep abreast of any tips or suggestions for my eventual test, and to reinforce the habit of attending.

At the Thursday class, I apologized to Sensei that I wasn't physically able to test that night as we had previously agreed. He said that it wasn't a problem, he knew I had everything down cold, and we could do a full test when I got back from Canada in early March. And with that, we began the regular beginner class.

He had the white belts rehearse their kata, and had me work mine, we did some kick and punching drills which we would be performing for our tests, and so on. For my belt test, I'd have to perform eight kata; this night, I could do all eight but I needed a couple minutes of rest between each to get my energy back.

The white belts were going to be doing side kicks for their formal board-breaking ceremony as part of the belt graduation. My cohort would be doing flying side-kicks: run at the target, leap in the air, rotate the hips and pull back the knee of the kicking leg towards the gut, then extend the leg cleanly forward with a burst of energy, striking the target point with the blade/heel of the foot. Oh, then land with at least some dignity on the other foot.

The drills were exhausting: I wasn't so much running as briskly walking. Still, it was a new move for me, and a pretty damn exciting one at that. It's a freaking flying side kick... how cool is that?!

Finally, as we were about to end the class, he pulled over two white belts. Each was to hold firmly one side of the board, a hand on each corner, keeping the board facing out at chest level. And I was ordered to break the board with the newly learned flying side kick.

If I had more energy, I could have delivered that at head level, but chest level was fine: I hit it squarely and broke the board on the first try. The white belts were suitably relieved.

And Sensei handed me my brown belt: I had passed the test, perhaps not with the best energy, but I did the work. Being tested without knowing I was being tested was actually a great kindness: I was able to focus on doing well what I could do, rather than trying to do everything to perfection and berating myself for not being at 100%.

I was also shocked how relieved I was when this was all done. I had been carrying a huge amount of stress about so many things coming up, as well as tasks delayed & accumulating. Finally, I had a major task which was done & finished, and I needed that particular victory to help me get through the coming storm.

I regret I didn't get photos or video of that board break, and the guys couldn't attend the graduation (because we didn't know it would be a graduation), but there will be others.

And with that done, I went home for too few hours of sleep before flying to San Francisco the following morning.

It's been a busy few days but I'm slowly catching up.

We've been slowly decommissioning one old storage array at the data center, requiring us to move the data to a newer array. We discovered some performance issues this week so we had to migrate two particular volumes to a different RAID pool but these activities required essentially two all-nighters this week.

That wouldn't be catastrophic but I also had my regular build work for the new data center cage, and since I'm the only employee on the east coast, it's not going to get done so long as I'm being sucked into these other spontaneous demands. That was unavoidable in this instance but I've made it clear to the dev teams that I'm only available to them for major issues, not trivial ones for the rest of this month.

And as life would have it, I had a few square dance calling gigs this week too: our Wednesday C2 group, a special C1 night for the DC Lambda Squares, a Friday evening holiday party called by John Marshall which I really wanted to attend, and co-calling a six hour C2 event Saturday morning & afternoon with Kent.

I'm happy to report that all of the tasks for the week were accomplished successfully, although at the expense of my gym workout schedule. Still, that's a small price to pay for the pleasure of knowing the other items are under control.

Today's migration isn't about data, but relocating my computer bunker from the basement to the first floor sewing room & middle bedroom. The basement bunker is convenient and optimized for my work, but it gets cold down there during the winter. A small electric heater helps but it has to run nearly constantly to keep the room comfortable. It's easier (and cheaper) just to work from the main floor bedroom until spring.

In all, life should be a bit more stable & normal for a couple of weeks. I hope.

Today, Kent and I returned from four days in Norfolk, VA, for the annual CALLERLAB convention. Best sleep I've had in weeks.

I moderated a panel discussion on social media, and was a panelist for a discussion on identity theft (but essentially had the floor to myself). Ultimately, those were actually the only sessions I attended: I simply had no interest in any of the other panels over two full days of presentations either because it was outside of my interest, or because I've seen the topic ad nauseum in prior years. I'm mercifully not on any of the standing committees.

If I hadn't been a presenter, I would have blown off that entire conference in favour of catching up on sleep, work and personal projects, all which have been deferred over the past month because of outside commitments.

The conference itself is worthwhile for most square dance callers and I'd definitely encourage new callers to attend, but I'm finding myself overstretched March-April every year, just like I do November-December. I've been whittling back my outside commitments but I clearly need to cut more from my schedule to make room for myself.

Events still upcoming:
- trailer dewinterizing weekend;
- Independence Squares' fly-in weekend;
- John Marshall C2 weekend;
- MidAtlantic Challenage Association weekend;
- Pass the Ocean, Hon! weekend.

Next year, most of these will be re-evaluated. I'm largely attending the IS weekend out of a sense of obligation, habit and to demonstrate local support: I haven't actually danced more than 1-2 tips in total over the past three years. I like John's C2 weekend, but only if I can get enough rest before, during & after. I'm not sure I want to run for MACA VP again when the position comes up: the toughest part of the VP job is coordinating the spring festival which is traditionally scheduled for a time when I am least able to spare time to do it. And PTOH is in the same boat as IS: I attend out of obligation & habit, but almost never dance. I support the local club --I am still one of their club callers-- but the weekend is incredibly draining.

The only options at this point is to continue trimming events to rebalance my time & energy, as well as shedding some titles, positions and volunteer roles. Obligations are set for 2016, but 2017 is now on notice.