My friend Cargo tweeted about a YouTube clip of Robert Downey, Jr., in character as Tony Stark, giving a kid a bionic prosthetic arm.
I love everything about this. I love that my friend, also a big old nerd, was moved by this. I love that it happened. I love the work that the prosthetic arm maker is doing. This whole thing is just fantastic.
In my day job I work with a Java framework called Grails. I've been a tech guy for a long time, but a Java guy for only maybe 4 years in total, and a Grails guy for about a year.
I have previously been somewhat down on myself about this, feeling like I wasn't far enough along compared to others and that I needed to get to some arbitrary place of proficiency to be taken seriously.
At my new job I can see how needlessly hard I've been on myself. I'm one of a small team, and there are folks here who know Grails better than me, and some who do not. I've already made some really positive contributions, and I can feel my own skills growing and maturing.
The less I worry about what to do, and just do, the more this seems to happen.
There's a Lao-tzu quote about this that really speaks to this experience.
Last night, as I was getting ready to leave work, Missy texted me and wanted to meet me for dinner, and to go with her to an Ingress build. She had other business that brought her to the area earlier in the day, and was near my new office.
This was a delightful surprise. I love getting out of our routine, and having a date night. She asked me to pick a restaurant so I did. This one:
SPACEBAR is a dive. It's a little hole in the wall bar. The name appealed to me instantly, because, pun. Then when I checked them out on Yelp I was even more pleased. Their food is simple. They have basically three things: 20 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches, tater tots, and a lot of different kinds of beer. It sounds like an eight year old boy's idea of what a grownup restaurant is supposed to be.
It was, in a word, amazing. Missy got a more simple but excellent sandwich, while I got one with grilled portobello mushrooms, red onions, and some sort of sauce on it. But the thing that really shined were the "totchos". They're tater-tot nachos. Feast your eyes upon them in all their unhealthy glory.
So. Damn. Good.
Afterward, we popped next door to an old record store, where we scored all sorts of interesting stuff. Missy has a record album fetish, and loves looking for old music. During dinner, we got into a discussion about what we like, and I asked her if she'd ever heard of Edith Piaf.
If you haven't, check out this:
She hadn't. They had an album and it was among several we got. After that, we went to the build, and drove through foggy, rainy Falls Church. As I drove, she hacked portals on both phones.
What a great date night. I'm grateful for little adventures like this. My wife's my best friend. I'm so lucky.
Yesterday was a good day for me at work.
I was in the middle of a larger technical task, creating a service, for something I was working on. Every time I tried to create my new service though, the IDE I was using would behave oddly. It started really making me mad, and I began to feel stupid.
Then I got over it, took a deep breath, and did some smart googling to find my answer.
(This turned out to be needing to put the service name after the package name, with a "." between them, like net.onlydoing.ExampleService. Aren't you glad you asked?)
Later in the day I was having a problem with something else, and this time, after banging my head against it for about half an hour, I asked one of my team mates for help. They instantly cleared up my issue, and I was able to move on, and do yet more complex technical things.
When I walked out of the office that afternoon, I felt really good about both those things. Why? Because I was able to help myself when I needed to, and was able to ask for help, when I needed to, too. I think there's something important in that. Part of being capable is recognizing when you really do need help from others, and putting aside your pride to ask for it. I'm grateful that I am smart enough to figure out some stuff, including the times when I need someone else's help.
Saturday night we had a houseguest, our friend Maya. Maya's part of our poly family. We have a "there's-not-really-a-word-for-it" sort of relationship, that's very lovely. Missy and I had a busy day of attending to other things, followed by coming home to have an awesome taco dinner made by Marybeth, with Maya, who stayed the weekend.
I've known and adored Maya for years. It's funny how you can know someone so well, and still always be learning something new about them. For example, the way I am with scrabble, is exactly how Maya is with Tetris.
She soundly kicked my ass. Repeatedly. It was kind of fun though. I'm grateful for her visit, and her.
