Ten Years Later

On the morning of 3 February 2001, my great uncle, Michael L Troiano, passed away at the age of 66.

It's difficult to get a grasp on all that has happened in my life and the lives of those around me since Great Uncle Mike, or "GUM" as I came to know him, left us. Obviously, the first week or so was the roughest for me. But there have been countless ups and downs over the last ten years. Somehow, demarcating ten years from this point seems more significant than arbitrarily demarcating a decade according to the calendar.

I'm almost positive the last time I saw GUM was for Christmas 2000; I was 12, going on 13. Gosh, when you put it like that, it's scary. And here I sit in 2011, a 23-year-old. I honestly can't begin to fathom what percentage of the things I think about in day-to-day life — my ambitions and desires, my worries and fears, my hopes and dreams — were even part of my conscious existence when I was 13. Simply put, so much has changed.

GUM, even though you were affectionately known as everyone's "Uncle Mike," you'll always be my "Uncle Mike." Life isn't quite the same without you, but it is in part because of you that things have turned out as great as they are. And while I still remember old memories of you fondly, I can't wait to share my newer ones with you someday.

1/11/11

Today was 1/11/11. A "numerical somersault" of sorts. I've mentioned before that our dating system is quite arbitrary, but it was still notable.

In fact, at 11:11:11 today, I noted that the date and time (at least in its most common format) wasn't just comprised entirely of ones, but that there were 11 ones. Now, if that isn't cool, I don't know what is.

I hope everyone enjoyed writing the date today and assure you there will be more meaningful stuff on this blog soon.

Twenty-Three

I just turned twenty-three years old. This may not seem terribly important, but as anyone who knows me well can attest, 23 has been my favorite number for a long while.

First things first, though. As it turns out, I didn't ever write about my twenty-second birthday like I said I would. But, as 2010 was a rough enough year, I'm going to have to apologize and forgive myself for that. As I will have to do for a lot of other things. (Especially this blog. How've you been, ol' bud?)

But anyway, Tuesday started out well enough. I woke up rather earlier than normal, and grabbed a Dr Pepper (full of its "23 flavors"), ready to enjoy the day. David was getting ready to head back to Pitt, packing the final things just before leaving for his orthodontist appointment which awaited him on the way.

This somewhat euphoric anything-can-happen feeling, however, was quite shortlived for a number of reasons I'd rather not get into on account of me having spent the couple hours after my brother's departure stewing, which I'm quite glad to have out of my system at this point.

Once I'd finally calmed down enough to figure out what I wanted to do, I went to the bank and had lunch before stopping by the grocery store. Taking a version of my uncle's advice to make lemonade from the morning's "lemons," I bought some lemonade which I later enjoyed. I watched a little bit of television on Hulu which I had still to catch up on (only two things left in my queue!), and then I resumed coding the latest of my semi-secret pet projects, which is actually coming together much quicker than I thought it would. (In this case, that is a very good thing.)

Around 18:00, my mother called me from work and asked, rather out-of-the-blue, if I wanted to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 with her, a request to which I almost immediately replied, "Yes." So we drove into town, got to the theater just in time for the movie, and ate plenty of popcorn because we hadn't yet been able to have dinner.

The movie was great! It's amazing how vividly some of the scenery came back to me just from having read the books. It really was a well-done film, and I can't wait for Part 2 in July! (And that's all I'm going to say about it, lest I spoil it.)

Afterwards, Mom and I grabbed a late dinner at Chipotle (which finally exists in Erie!), and then headed home. I did a little lot more work on my project so that I would feel more able to do other, more important things on Wednesday. And then it somehow became the wee hours of the morning, so I fought through to write this. After all, I can't miss writing about two consecutive birthdays, can I?

I guess I'll have a late start in the morning. Or maybe early afternoon. But I wanted to get every last bit of enjoyment out of my birthday, and I think, despite the "lemons," I did! And if real life as a 23-year-old has to wait a couple extra hours so that I can fully experience the last throes of whatever-this-is, then so be it.

Last Day of the Holidays

Tomorrow morning, my brother has an orthodontist appointment (and thank God it's not with Allcare), and then it's time to take him back down to Pittsburgh for his second semester.

And once that happens, things will slow down a bit here. The holidays are coming to a close. For those inevitable few who will be wondering, that means that the job search resumes in earnest on Wednesday 5 January. Wish me luck.

Still, I'm enjoying what's left of this break in the action. Because tomorrow's travel falls on my birthday, my family and I had a nice dinner tonight at Olive Garden. I seriously couldn't get over how wonderful their Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo was!

We used a $5 coupon from their Facebook page, too... if you haven't been to Olive Garden lately, I suggest you do the same!