The past couple months have been wild with trips, visits from friends, conferences, award ceremonies, emergency "extreme audits®", and weekends in New York (City and Upstate). It's hard to believe all of this took place in the span of 8 weeks! Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep up with myself and blog about each one individually, but here's a brief update on where I've been and what I've been up to! For all of these events there is a photo album on http://pictures.brooksny.net. Check them out as you read through!
Sept:
Sept:
- 9/8: My college buddies were having a reunion barbecue in Albany on Sat the 8th. I had an event to attend (and by attend I mean plan, organize, and run :) in Connecticut, but as soon as it was done I drove up to NY as fast as possible (within reason of course :). I surprised most of them because I had told them I couldn't go due to my other event. I actually thought this was going to be the case, but when I found out that I'd be able to make it after all, albeit much later in the evening, I called our friend Brian and told him to make sure nobody left before I got there. Everyone was surprised and it was a great evening / night with my old friends, the Spades Group.
- 9/14-9/16: My friend Scott from Atlanta came up to visit on the 14th. We spent Saturday in New York City with my friends Matt and Susie. Most of the time was shared between the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. In between those two houses of fine art however, we went to see a different kind of art by way of seeing Avenue Q on Broadway. It was a beautiful day in NYC, perfect for walking (which we did for the entire day!) and for the festival we strolled through on 5th Ave. Later we drove up to Albany and went out at the WaterWorks. I wanted Scott to see more than just NYC while he was here, so we drove upstate at night and arrived there by 11:30p. Sunday we went out to my dad's house and spent the day with the family. It was relaxing; full of conversation, good home-made food, and cappuccinos!
- 9/26-9/29: I was able to go to the GE GLBT Alliance National Meeting and Out & Equal Workplace Summit again this year. Last year the event took place in Chicago, IL, but this year's event was held in Washington DC. It was the first time I had really been to Washington, not counting the couple hours in which we drove through it while on a school field trip almost 10 years ago. At the GE event, there was an award ceremony after the day full of excellent speakers and workshops. I was honored with a Global Leadership Award for furthering the GLBT Alliance's work at the GE level and for my work getting the chapter started within the Corporate Audit Staff. It was so great to get recognition for this work which is already rewarding in and of itself. I met a lot of new people both inside and outside of GE while being able to reconnect with folks within the Company that I hadn't seen since the year before as well. It was also great being with this particular group and exploring the nightlife of our country's capital. We had a lot of fun and I'm proud to say that none of that fun interfered with my ability to get the most out of the conference as well :)
Oct:
- 10/1-10/11: On the way back from Washington (literally), I got a call from my Audit Manager, Ideli, saying that we were being pulled off of our current projects to be part of a global SWAT team and that the two of us were heading to Florida that night! I was in shock! I hurried to her apartment back in Connecticut, got further instructions, and headed to my apartment to begin packing. I was also supposed to move out of my apartment and to another place, but since we didn't know if or when we were coming back, I left some of my things with a friend who lives nearby and took the rest of it with me. Ideli and I left at 3a on 10/1 to fly to Bradenton, FL. It was a manic two weeks, sometimes working for 30+ hours at a time, but in the end we were relieved to be finished and get some time off.
- 10/12-10/14: My former partner in crime while I was in Paris and lesbian girlfriend, January, came up to New York City to visit just as I was arriving back from Florida. The ironic thing is that I was based just a couple hours from where she lives in Orlando while I was down there but there was simply no time to do anything other than work, so I didn't get to see her there. We had a great time in New York with some of her other friends and with our mutual buddy, Chang. We even got to spend some quality time with my friend Sean who's a photography student there and with my older brother, Frank, who's also temporarily stationed in Connecticut. It was just like old times again for me and "J-Bird", but with the exception that we knew more people in NY and they all spoke English :)
- 10/18-10/21: I came back up to Albany for a home return weekend on the 18th. I had dinner with my close friend Chris and later we met up with the third spoke in our former triangle, Colleen. The three of us were los tres amigos when we all lived in Atlanta. Chris moved back to Saratoga, NY as I was leaving to come back to Fultonville.
Colleen still lives down there but happened to be up visiting her father in Colonie, NY so we called her up, kidnapped her from home, and all went out for "Therapy Thursday". Therapy is a traveling dance party that rotates between the different venues in Albany. We had a great time dancing the night away and didn't come home until almost 4a! Poor Chris had to work the next day, but Colleen and I slept in, happily :)
I spent most of Friday at my grandma's house in Schenectady with my mom, cousins, and rest of the family. It was neat being there with them almost all day! On Saturday I got to see a bunch of cousins, aunts and uncles, and my family on my dad's side. It was a good weekend!
- 10/25-10/28: I came back to Albany this weekend for Halloween. I was supposed to spend the weekend with a person I have been talking to and virtual dating for almost a year, but he panicked and cancelled at the last minute, so instead of spending time in NYC and going up to Albany after, I left on Wed night to go there and be enveloped by my friends and family. Before leaving I told my "friend" that I couldn't do it anymore, so I was bummed when I came home. Luckily I got some good cheering up at Therapy Thursday (again), but for the most part of the weekend I was pretty low key. I knew I'd bounce back, but it was good to at least be home and not completely alone while dealing with that. Live and learn I guess.
Well, that brings us to today! Hopefully next I'm going to Los Angeles to see Logan and the NBC Universal guys that I met at the GLBT events in Sept. I'm not sure if the trip is going to go through or not at this point because of some things with work, but most likely I'll be arriving in sunny California in two weeks. Before you know it the holidays will be here! Time has certainly flown by this year!
Cheers,
M@
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