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Rich Brown - Living My Life Out Loud!
Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Sunday, January 21, 2001
Wow -- I've been getting bad about writing again. Anyway it's been a very long week for me. I'm so amazed that I was able to get my part of the project done at work by Friday. It took me to stay until 1am on Thursday night but it was worth it on Friday when I showed it too my manager. I think he was impressed with the extra functionality that I put into the application. It's always such a great feeling of accomplishment when I get a major task accomplished. I left work on Thursday night feeling really good about myself and proud that I was able to learn so much this week to put it all together.
On Wednesday night on dinner break from the VSLive conference I was able to have dinner with my manager. He said that he was really happy with what I've been doing and would like me to start taking more of a management role in the group. I am already the lead on this project but now the company is giving Eric more people and responsibility and I guess he would like my help with the management of the people directly related to my project. I can see that I'm starting to slowly move from my role of a senior software engineer to more of a product/project manager. This transformation is fine with me because I really and getting tired of being technical and would love to assume a more distanced position from the majority of development. I'm excited to see what the future brings. I'm really happy with my company and my job right now. I'm glad because I haven't felt this way in a while.
So anyway -- I'm in Phoenix now. It was a long drive down on Friday night. I packed up all the of the puppies worldly possessions and set off with them around 9pm. I made very good time and was in Los Angeles around 2am. I am grateful to Mark and Andrea because we talked on the cell phone for several hours of the drive which made it go much faster. At one point I almost ran out of gas because I was not paying attention to the gas gauge but rather chatting away with Andrea and all of a sudden my gas light came on. This means that I had approximately 20 miles left until I ran out of gas. Well anyone who has driven down Hwy 5 knows that the gas stations are approximately 40 miles apart. I had no idea when the last gas station was or when the next one was going to appear. Thankfully I was about 3 miles from running out of gas when I finally came upon one. Talk about being nervous. I thought I was going to have to call AAA to come and bring me gas. Once I got to Los Angeles I only had 5 more hours of driving until I would get to Phoenix. I think I dread the drive from Los Angeles to Phoenix more then any other drive. It's so boring and I've done it so many times that there is really nothing much to look at, especially at 3am in the morning. I made it to about an hour outside of Phoenix before I decided to stop for a little bit to rest. I made this decision because as I was driving I suddenly woke up from a dream that I was having ... ugh .. I fell asleep and I have know idea for how long .. all I know is that I was still in the lines and driving. I think it was really only for a second or two, but I knew that I couldn't chance getting into an accident, so I decided to stop at the next rest stop and sleep for an hour until it was light outside.
Ok so I'm at the rest stop after my hour nap. I get ready to go and when I go to start the car it doesn't start. Oh god ... I left the lights on the whole time. So anyway -- thank god there were a few state workers doing some clean up work at the rest stop, I had one of them give me a jump. This is the third time in 3 months I've left my lights on. Ever since I got the Xterra in September I keep doing this. You would think that by 2001 they could have an auto-shutoff built into ALL cars. So once this was out of the way I proceeded to complete my drive to Phoenix.
I'm happy to be here to see my friends once again, but I'm not excited about Phoenix itself. I remember why I liked it so much when I first moved here, but I'm not sure that I would be happy moving back here. I really have grown to like the bay area in the past 4 months. It's just so much cheaper here in Phoenix to live. I often think about moving back.
It was really great to see Mark and Andrea again. It's been almost a year since I've seen them. The last time was when D and I were living in Phoenix and they came out to visit from Pittsburgh, Pa where they moved back to the past year. I miss having friends like them more accessible to me on a daily basis. Zach and Koda made themselves right at home here and seemed to fit in very well. Mark and Andrea are so excited to have them and I can tell that I've made the right decision. Already since yesterday Mark has taken them out for a long walk 3 times. The dogs seem very content with them and enjoy all the attention. Since Andrea works from home they will be able to spend time around the apartment without being confined to the crate as it was while I was at work every day. I'm starting to get a bit sad about letting them go, but I'm happy that they will have a great home with my friends. At least I will be able to seem them from time to time and know how they are doing.
Last night Mark, Andrea, Don, and I went to Tucson to see the Broadway presentation of Rent. It was a great performance. I haven't been to see a play in quite some time and this was very refreshing. Their voices were amazing and they received a standing ovation at the end. It was a good time had by everyone. We then went to have dinner at the only open restaurant we could find in Tucson, which turned out to be a quaint Latin style restaurant with a limited menu. The food was very good, we had a few drinks, but the conversation was great. It brought back memories of so many times past when we could all sit and have such a good time talking and laughing and just enjoying ourselves without worry of anything else that was going on in the world. Sometimes I miss this in my life. I'm glad that I have been able to spend some time like this again.
I guess I'm going to be heading back on Monday night and Andrea is going to drive back with me to keep me company. They bought a ticket for her to fly back to Phoenix from SFO on Tuesday. That was very nice of them. I can't say that I won't enjoy the company. I can seem to talk to Andrea for hours. At least the drive won't be boring.
I was supposed to go over and visit Rob today. I called him but he wasn't home. He's been so very active lately with hiking and doing all kinds of things. I'm happy for him. I'll try and call him later again and maybe seen him after dinner. I know that we were all planning on going out to a nice restaurant here in Phoenix for dinner.
Well I better cut this off now. I have some more to write but I don't want this entry to get overly long. Just so I don't forget .. I had something happen to me the other day that really irritated me and made me realize one important thing about life. I think I'll save that until next time.
