One of my students missed class last week.  It's not such an unusual event, except for her reason.



Her brother had surgery done, kind of a two-in-one -- a knee replacement and carpal tunnel release.  He awoke from surgery already able to move his hand freely.  Two days later he took his first steps and felt no pain, and began physical therapy.  On his second day of physical therapy, he became dizzy and collapsed, most likely due to some random bloot clot, and they were unable to revive him.



They always warn you of the potential hazards involved in "routine" surgery, but those incidences are so few and far between, they almost seem impossible.  And yet, it happened to someone in my network.



When tragedies such as this happen, I think of some near-misses I've had and wonder how it was that I was spared.  And I feel grateful for being given the opportunity to continue.

I want to say a quick thanks to my new friend, R (who most likely won't be reading this, but I want to acknowledge him anyway), before I get bogged down in everyday life and forget.  We had a nice, quiet dinner last Thursday, and have spent a few other days together here and there.  I don't know what lies in store for our friendship -- right now the odds are about the same for it going nowhere as they are for it leading to something meaningful -- but I do know I've had a couple of special days now, just because he took some time to get to know me, and that counts for something.  At the least, I'll have a few nice memories to look back upon.



Don't let this posting make you think I'm any wilder about V-day, though --  I still think it's a sham to make us spend cash on a bunch of junk that we end up tossing anyway.

I'm still in the midst of my midlife crisis, trying to figure out who I am and where I'm going.  This weekend I made the decision to take a step backward to try to move forward.



I feel like I've been in somewhat of a rut for the last 10 years or so, and the one thing that changed is I stopped being an athlete... and in the process, stopped thinking of myself as a competitor.  I had some minor success as a coach, but I quit that too soon to really test myself.  From there, I pretty much just plugged along, not really taking chances with anything that may have interested or challenged me.



Yesterday I was sitting outside my Sunday coffee shop, pondering life and making Piglet do tricks for passers-by, and I realized I felt my best when I thought of myself as an athlete -- from the time I started playing soccer as a child right through to being a distance runner in college.  For whatever reason, being an athlete somehow affected the rest of my life in what I view as a pos...

I borrowed a book from a friend a few years ago.  It's a book about Japanese Americans during WWII, and his wife is also Japanese American, so they thought I would enjoy the book, and I did... except I haven't seen them since!  So I've had this book sitting in my bedroom in its little bag, gathering dust, and I haven't contacted them to return it because I forgot I had it for about a year, and I was too chicken to contact them at that point!



By coincidence, a mutual friend came online the other night on IM (who I also haven't seen in a few years), and he offered to return the book for me!  So I arranged to meet him in Palo Alto last night for coffee after work.  As usual, I tried cramming a bunch of small tasks in at the last minute, and left my office in a rush, leaving the lights on.  As I drove out of the parking lot, I looked up and saw the interior of my office, and realized for the first time that the glass I thought was one-way... wasn't!



For the most part...

This week one of my former athletes and a former student contacted me out of the blue just to say hello. One was one of my pole vaulters at College of San Mateo, and the other took a basic computing class I taught through the SF Housing Authority. It meant a lot to me that they would take the time to do that, and I think it means even more given that I'm in somewhat of a deep blue funk with regard to my self esteem right now (I don't think you can tell that from my blog postings, but I've been struggling with my self esteem internally for several years now).



Anyway, this photo is back from that era, and features the two athletes who will forever be known as "my kids," because they just happened to be the first vaulters I ever coached, and I think I formed the strongest bond with them. I posted more photos from that time frame in my photo section, in case anyone is