Jennerousity

I'm moving to a new blog. http://j3nnerosity.blogspot.com/

We have Rock Band 2. You can read about it here.

Strawberry Nerds are much better than their Grape cousins.

The Edmonton Public Library has started carrying video games for the Wii, XBox 360, and Playstation 3 consoles. As far as I can find out, this wasn't advertised except through the EPL blogs. I found out from the signs posted on the hold shelves stating that video games were being held at the information desk. They have about 150 game titles, fairly evenly split between the three consoles. At this time, they're limiting the collection to games rated Teen and younger.

My immediate knee-jerk reaction is "oh noes! lie-berries are for books!!11!eleventyone!!". But my snobbery is beaten out by what an interesting idea this is. It's been more and more common for public libraries in the UK and other parts of Europe to have video game collections and it's working well for them. I'm sure there will be squawking as there was when they introduced theatrical films (as opposed to only documentary, educational, and culturally important films) and then more recently graphic novels (as opposed to "real" books) into the collection. There's an archaic but still sometimes present line of thinking that libraries ought to be stocking only what people "should" be reading or viewing, things that will make them better, smarter, more moral members of society. Boo-urns to that, I say.

It's mostly common now for public libraries to subscribe to the Freedom of Information side of things. Libraries stock what patrons want and pass no judgement upon them for it. As I understand it, the library is taking the position that video games can be considered forms of art (both visually and musically) and recognizes that games are increasingly heavy on storytelling. Really, why not branch further away from more traditional forms of art, storytelling, and education? The only caveat I would add is that money shouldn't be taken away from the book budget to buy video games.

This knee-jerk reaction was also tempered by how this benefits me. I was never much of a gamer until recently, but I'm still wary of trying new games. Now I can try same games for free to see if I want to take the plunge to buy them. I don't know how much I'll take advantage of the collection, but I like that the potential is there.

The second reaction was wondering how they're going to combat theft. Video stores frequently won't let customers rent video games without a valid credit card on file. If you don't have a valid credit card, they won't rent games to you without enough information to send you to collections should you make off with their stuff. Sure, I can steal two bestseller novels from the library which would cost as much as a new video game brand new, but the resale value on used books versus used video games is quite different.

I don't think there's much need to be concerned about existing cardholders who know if they want to keep borrowing stuff from the library they have to return things and can't rack up their fines beyond $15. No, I think the people who check them out are fairly likely to return them. The problem is the people who steal items without checking them out. I asked at the information desk about the games since David and I couldn't find them in the AV section. The librarian told me that the first day when they put ten games out at this branch, all ten were stolen. They're now switching to holds only, so the games remain behind the counter and a hold must be placed and processed as normal. There's a limit of one game at a time per account, they may be checked out for one week, and the overdue fee is $2 per day.

I'm interested to see how this works out.

I'm in Vernon until Monday having an early Christmas with my dad. Last December he had to have our beloved Symba put to sleep. She was my favorite of all the dogs and I miss her. Dad has been saying all year that he doesn't want any more dogs, this is it, just Candy, Keeper, and Tigger until it's all their time to go.

The other day I got an IM from my dad "Got a new dog. Named him Brandy. They said he was a (something something) mix, but he sure looks part pit bull to me." I met Brandy last night when I arrived and he looks like he's definitely part pit bull to me, too. He was a bit growly with me and I didn't care for it, but he's only been here a week and it was the first time a stranger has come in so he wasn't sure what to do. The other dogs all crowded around me to say hello so Brandy figured I must be okay. He even tried to sleep with me, but he was too big and restless so I kicked him out.

I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I'd get from him when I came out of my room this morning. Dad's not here, and he understands that Dad is the alpha in this house, so I was a little extra unsure. Now that I've slept here, he seems to have decided that I must be of the higher members of the pack and he wants to be best friends with me. The first thing he did when I got up was trot over and offer me what's left of dad's watch, which he'd chewed up yesterday. He's about 10 months old and wants to chew up everything. I haven't had to be so careful of my belongings here since Symba was that age. Also like Symba, Brandy thinks he's small enough to be a lap dog. He's wrong.

Among the many things going on, David planned an anniversary surprise for me. December 6 was the one year anniversary of our first date. We met for lunch at Ricky's, then we went out again that evening to the mall to browse some stores and have a late supper at Jungle Jim's. December 8 was our first big night out together. He picked me up, we had dinner at Tony Roma's (we shared the Kickin' Shrimp, which is when I started eating shrimp), went to see The Golden Compass, then drove around for a while until we found ourselves playing pool at Finnegan's pub.

Despite claiming that he wasn't going to make a big deal of our anniversary since it was right after my birthday and right before Christmas, he went ahead and planned a night out. I had no idea where we going, but I knew we were dressing up for it. David wore his suit and I wore my new black dress. We looked very classy. We stopped in for an hour at his office Christmas party, at which we were lavished with compliments. After we left and were on our way to the surprise I was given three clues to the evening's plan:

1) Elephants are indirectly related;
2) There might be someone named Sam there;
3) Tom Hanks would approve.

David said they were obscure clues and he'd be surprised if I figured it out. The second part of the clue game is to connect the clues once I find out where we're going. After the long drive to the west end, we ended up at West Edmonton Mall. As we were walking in through the Bourbon Street entrance, I asked if we'd gotten all dressed up to go to Jungle Jim's (which I maintain would have been funny). We ended up on a red carpet going into the The Red Piano, a Creole restaurant and dueling piano lounge. It didn't take me too long to associate the clues: 1) Ivory; 2) Casablanca; 3) Big.

We shared a nice meal, though David was spending a bit of time texting someone. I found out later he was texting his coworkers at the office party for suggestions on a romantic song to request. Later, when the piano portion of the evening started, he made his request along with a gratuity to the pianists. It took a while, and the less dominant of the two pianists kept pushing for our song but the one running the show kept shooting down. Eventually they played Can't Smile Without You dedicated to us on our first anniversary, with the apology that it wasn't the song he requested but hoped they picked one we'd like. I asked David what song he had picked, and the suggestion that had come from his coworkers was You're Beautiful by James Blunt. While it's not a bad song, it's really not a song to be judged by the title. It's a love song about as much Every Breath You Take is.

It was a really nice night and a wonderful surprise. I'd go back to The Red Piano again for the experience, though perhaps not to dine. The food was good, but there wasn't quite enough variety of things I like.

I'm at work watching Nosferatu (1922). I got it from the library because of a discussion on older films with special effects that still hold up. This one got a couple mentions and I was curious.

It's surprisingly compelling, but I don't how much of that is the novelty of watching a silent film rather than the merits of the film itself. I've never seen a silent film before, only short parody clips of them. It's very entertaining and I'm realizing that the parodies I've seen haven't been too far off the mark. It's really hard to watch a silent film and still be somewhat productive, though. I'm not used to having to actually watch since I very often rely on listening with occasional glances at the picture.

We were in an accident this morning on the way to our soccer game. Most importantly, no one was hurt. It was a minor crash in the grand scheme of things, though perhaps not as minor to the pocketbook. No other cars were involved, we just came around a corner hit an icy patch, and slid sideways. The car hit the curb hard, with the front driver's side tire being the point of initial impact. The steering wheel now spins loosely and freely, so something about the steering mechanism and front-wheel drive is now very broken. Hopefully, it will be one of the less expensive things to fix but we won't find out until Monday.

We were unable to call any of the parents on the soccer team right away to tell them we weren't going to make it, but that couldn't be helped. Some of the parents stepped up and got the kids on the field, so the kids on the team didn't miss out on their game. David's ex did call to find out what was going on and ranted to me about how David is a [expletive] lazy [expletive] who can't do anything [expletive] right, and what the [expletive] is she supposed to tell all those [expletive] parents asking her what the [expletive] is going on. "Tell them the coaches were in a car accident and can't make it. It's pretty simple."

Another surprise date! On Thursday, David told me not to make any plans for Saturday night because he had a surprise for me. I love his surprises. He told me that the surprise was something relevant to the early days of our relationship, that I was familiar with the venue, and that he wasn't sure how to get there and had no idea where it was. The first two clues led me to strongly suspect that we were going to see Hairspray at the Jubilee Auditorium; The 2007 film version was the first DVD we never finished watching together. Twice. I've also been to a few plays at the Jube. However, David has been to the Jube with me twice before so that didn't fit the last clue. Turns out he just hadn't connected that he'd seen HMS Pinafore and Spamalot at the same place.

Hairspray was great. As much as I loved Spamalot, this may be my new favorite. I loved the music and the dancing, David liked the racist tones and sexual innuendo. Part of why I may have enjoyed it so much was that I didn't really go in with any expectations. For many plays I go in with high expectations and preconceived notions, but that wasn't the case with this one. I didn't know enough about the play, nor was I sure I was even going, nor did I have a lot of time to mull it over. This play had nothing to live up to so it was able to set its own bar.

Because of the positive themes of being happy with who you are and good race relations it's a really popular play to take kids to, but I bet a lot of those parents didn't go in really being aware of the innuendo. The mom sitting next to me gave a surprised laugh at a "stiffy" joke and then faced awkwardness when her tweenage daughter asked why it was funny.

The black mark on the evening: Parking at the Jube was a mess. They finally have the new multi-level parkade open, but there's only one road leading out because of all of the construction still going on. We were on the second level and got to our car fairly quickly, but it was still a total clusterfuck. We had to wait for 20 minutes not moving at all.

David said that next time we're going to the Jube, we'll park in his downtown parkade spot and take the LRT. It's really nice to not have to mentally add "if there is a next time." I have the best boyfriend.

Conversation heard this morning in a coffee shop between a nice old man and the nice but ditzy barista:

Barista: So, what did you do for Remembrance Day?
Man: I was in the honour guard at the Butterdome service.
B: Oooh, cool!
M: I've been doing the honour guard for the last 20 years.
B: Fun! Do you enjoy doing it?
M: Well, no, but I have to do lots of things I don't enjoy. Remembrance Day is not about enjoyment.

He was kind and nothing in his tone came across as lecturing, it was just a simple statement of fact for him. She was looking uncomfortable and and awkward, so at that point I bailed her out and commented to him that it was an important and special thing that he does and other brief small talk about Remembrance Day while we waited for our orders to come up. I thanked him and wished him a good day.

Although the turnout at the service I went to was the largest I've seen in several years, it's unfortunate and a little disheartening that the overall trend in attitude seems to be that November 11 is losing relevance and is becoming just another day off from work or school.

This has been a birthday to remember. I haven't had such an event made of my birthday since I was a wee tot. I've always had friends around, like at Feast last year, but that was an existing event that my birthday was absorbed into. This year it was all about me, and I liked it.

I had told David months ago that I really wanted to see Little Shop of Horrors at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre, and the end of the run for that coincided with my birthday. He commented that it would be impossible to use that as a surprise, as I was likely to go ahead and book tickets on my own just to be sure I'd get to see it. I let it go and didn't bring it up, hoping that it would indeed be my birthday event. As it got closer to my birthday, he started making comments about how quickly my birthday was coming up, asking what I wanted to do, etc. I was suspicious that it was just a red herring, but there was the niggling wonder that maybe he did wait too late to get tickets and was really at a loss for what to do.

On Halloween, the Friday before my birthday, the kids were trick-or-treating with their mom. I was home sick and David called to ask if I was going to be okay for that night.

"What's tonight?"
"Date night! Dinner and Saw V."
"I don't want to see Saw V."
"C'mon, it's Halloween and date night."
"I don't want to see Saw V."
"Maybe we'll see Quarantine instead. Just be ready at 6:30. Shit, your birthday is coming up really fast. Tonight can double as your birthday night out."

Hmm. Be ready to go out to movies I didn't really want to see for a date/birthday night? That smelled like a setup for a suprise night at the dinner theatre! When I chose Tony Roma's as the restaurant so we could relive our first date and we actually went, I realized there was no dinner theatre in store that night. It was still a good night; we shared Kickin' Shrimp and a couple other appys, then went home to watch movies. I began to wonder if I'd be disappointed over the theatre.

On Saturday I was led to believe that we were staying in. There were a lot of comments about how we'd have the kids and that David's mom was making supper. Then after soccer, I was advised to take a nap because it was going to be a late night. Hmmm. I asked about attire and was told that he'd be wearing a long sleeved shirt and dress pants. Hmmm! Around 6:30 we were ready and heading out the door, but I was still being asked where I wanted to go for dinner. I was pretty sure we were probably going to Little Shop, but he did have me doubting it. David tried very hard to keep it a surprise, even driving right past the Mayfield under the guise of cruising for restaurants. Eventually we pulled into the parking lot of the Mayfield and picked up the tickets he'd booked a month prior.

The show was fantastic. I loved it at all and was over the moon at this big night out for my birthday. The artistic director at work, Farren, played Seymour and did a great job. The food was better than Jubilations. There was a minor incident with sushi; David was trying some selections from the sushi platter and nagged me into trying a piece. I can't say I don't like it if I don't try it, right? So I tried it. And something in the roll I had was of just the right texture to trigger my sensitive gag reflex, resulting in me excusing myself to the ladies room as quickly but unobtrusively as possible. We got home late and I opened my first present, which was a new chenille bathrobe.

Sunday was a birthday-free zone. I wasn't feeling well but the kids had been promised a trip to WEM. I was in no shape to go swimming, so David took the littlest one to the waterpark while I went with the other to Galaxyland. I usually do pretty well on rides, but not when I'm already sick. The Swing of the Century did me in. I think Monday was also a birthday-free zone, but I don't really remember anything about Monday.

Tuesday morning I was treated to David's special pan scramble breakfast. Eggs pan scrambled with bacon bits, bell peppers, and cheese. Yum! I also got another present, which was a Flight of the Conchords CD. David went off to work, I got the kid onto the school bus, went back to bed for a little bit, and I got to work somehow or another. At work Tammy had a box of chocolate and some fancy soaps for me. David took me out for a birthday lunch at Ricky's, which is where we met for the first time. We even got 'our' booth. There was another present, which was the DVD of the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors.

At some point that morning, I found out through Facebook that my chosen birthday dinner of chicken fajitas had been expanded into an impromptu SUPER PARTY. People were being invited. A buzz was being created. We were going to need more food, so I volunteerd my pizza making skills. Board games and video game consoles were moved upstairs. In the space of 7 hours, my quiet family dinner turned into a party of 7 other adults and three kids, and two babies. Yikes! We had chicken fajitas, barbecue chicken pizza, some sort of meat pizza, and chips and salsa. The kids did kid things while the adults played Uno. Once the kids had gone home or to bed, as applicable, the remaining five of us opened gifts (a book, candy, beads, candles, and a nice new coat) and played a game of Scene It!. We wrapped up around 10:30. Once everyone was home we cleaned up and went to bed. For a party that was planned in less than seven hours, I think it was quite a success.

Very good birthday. I'd say that it was best birthday in my adult life. I could get used to this.

Hamster + hamster ball + cat of nervous disposition = hilarity

I somehow became the assistant coach of an Under-8 soccer team. We had a soccer game on Saturday that was an organizational disaster. We didn't know what we were doing and were under-prepared. I had to create lines on the fly while trying to make sure all kids got equal time playing when I didn't even know most of their names. (Our team is primarily made up of little blonde boys and with all the running around I can't keep them straight. I know the names of the two girls and the four little boys with brown hair and/or skin.) It wasn't quite bad enough to be embarrassing, but it wasn't great. The opposing team was led by Hardcore Soccer Guy and Assistant Hardcore Soccer Guy. It's a league that doesn't keep score, but based on the fun had by the kids I have to say that our team won. We're much better prepared now. We have a better outline for what to do at practice and immediately after the game we made our lines for the next game so I can be more organized in the box.

One thing I noticed at practice last night is that for the most part, the kids on the team that I like have really nice parents that I like too. The kids that are little pains in my ass have obnoxious parents that I don't like.

We have a Sign In/Sign Out sheet for parents when they bring and pick up their kids. We're responsible for these 16 kids during practice and games and it's important to make sure no one is lost, left behind, or leaves with the wrong person. This is important since not all of the parents stay for practice, and particularly important at games because the kids have to part ways with their parents to get to the field. All of the parents signed the kids in without giving me any grief, but it was a different story when it was time to sign out with another team waiting outside the gym. All of the nice parents happily signed their little one out and went on their way, thanking us for implementing this extra safeguard.

To my surprise, I got snotty comments from a pair of snobby clucking hen moms who have annoying, ill-behaved, spoiled children. "We really don't think this is such a great idea. When there's another team waiting it's just too chaotic. We just want to get out of here and this is too much of a delay." Bwaaah?

That chaos is why this procedure is important. Right after our practice another team uses the gym, and some of the parents coming to watch bring little kids with them. It would be really easy in that crowd for us to overlook a child from our team. It happened last night that one parent was a little late picking up her little guy. If I hadn't had that blank spot under "Sign out" next to his name, I may have missed that he was still in the gym. I just want to get out of there too, but not at the risk of leaving a child alone among strangers or having him wander out alone in the dark parking lot to look for his mum.

I'm astounded that any parents would be grumping and sighing about leaving a whole 30 seconds later than they would have otherwise given the reason for the delay. I can just imagine the hell there would be to pay from one of these people if we accidently overlooked their child and left them alone before being picked up. If time was such a concern, they could have gotten their kids ready and left ten minutes prior when the official practice was over instead of lolly-gagging to continue gossiping with each other.

I don't care who is inconvenienced. They don't have to like it, they just have to do it and I will continue blocking the door until they sign the sheet. The most important thing to me is making sure these kids are put safely back into the care of the proper grown up. I can't believe it's not the most important thing to them, too.

I just got a fax addressed to "All Employee's and there family's". This has caused me to doubt the legitimacy of the cruise I just won.

A few weeks ago there was a call for volunteers to read to classes as part of Read-In Week. I dig reading even if I'm not big on kids, so I signed up. I read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I really should have saved Green Eggs and Ham for last, because it's really hard to go from reading aloud Dr Seuss's rhyme and meter to reading aloud anything that isn't Seussian. It was a fun experience.

I was early, so I stopped by the school library to ask about volunteering. It's a really nice library, with an open floor plan in a large common area of the school, and a collection that includes French and Ukrainian books. The library tech lit up when I said I was interested in volunteering, and she practically hugged me when I said I was a trained library tech. She's already making plans to get me cataloguing once I get used to their collection a bit by shelving and working circ. The library thing is even more flexible than my day job, and I won't be starting until November when my day job begins to slow to a crawl.

It's not entirely altruistic. Sure, I believe in education, reading, and the power of volunteers since public schools don't always have a lot of money. Blah blah touchy feely warm fuzzy whatevs and all that. But it will also look really good on my resume. Employers look favorably on volunteerism. More importantly, it's a way to keep my hand in the library world should I ever want to rekindle that as a career. I like my job and I have no plans to leave, but when working for an arts non-profit it's always prudent to keep an eye on future employability. Just in case.

We've been trying with limited success to socialize Hammy (her names are now Honey, Flower, Smoochy, Hamtard, and Hammy). Last night we let her run around a large rubbermaid bin, but when David picked her up she jumped out of his hands and we had to catch her from under the television. She got really stressed out and even snarled at David (I didn't know hamsters could snarl). We put her back in her cage, gave her some fruit she likes, and wired the cage shut for the night.

I got up this morning and could tell by the cat's manner that there was either a mouse in the bedroom or that Hammy got out somehow. Sure enough, there was Hammy sitting behind the television. Thalia was all "I tink yuz iz fud." Hammy was all "Maybs, but probs not." The cat was kicked out and the hamster was caught again. The cage door was wide open. She'd tried chewing the wire, we could tell, but she managed to actually untwist it to get the door open. We wired it back up with the promise to get a little luggage padlock. When I got out of the shower she was looking all innocent, but I could tell she'd been trying to get out again. The cage is now turned so the door is up against the wall.

Troublesome little bugger.

I woke up Sunday night with a bit of a sore throat, and my Monday morning I was well and truly sick. By Tuesday my left tonsil and lymph node were more painfully swollen than I've ever had before (the act of swallowing was bringing me to tears, and I have a fairly high pain threshold), so off I went to the doctor. I don't have a regular doctor since a lot aren't taking new patients anymore and I avoid them anyhow whenever possible, so I had to resort to seeing a pill-pushing quack at a conveniently located walk-in clinic in the ghetto. I waited an hour and the doctor took one look at my throat and wrote a prescription; no questions about medical history other than drug allergies, no checking pulse or blood pressure, just handing out the scrips. Even though a little more of an examination would have been reassuring, it is kind of nice to have a doctor not hem and haw about giving me antibiotics. I've had tonsil issues my entire life, and if I'm going to the doctor at all it's because I know from experience that it's time for antibiotics.

The doctor asked if I've ever had mono and I said no. He then asked if I wanted to have the bloodwork to test for it and I said not really. I don't like needles and if there's no reason to suspect mono I don't want to be tested for it. I don't have a drug plan so he checked for samples of what he wanted to give me, but he was all out. I thanked him for checking and told him that I'm gainfully employed and it wouldn't be a hardship to pay for the more expensive drug if that's what would be best (although, I was in so much pain that he could have come at my tonsils with a scalpel right then and there and I would have welcomed it. I would've paid anything at that point). He ignored me and gave me amoxicillin because it's the least expensive, and warned that if I do have mono I would have a reaction to the amoxil and break out into a rash. Mono and amoxil don't get along, which was news to me.

$21 later I started on the amoxil and my throat was already improving by the next morning, so it was all good. Wednesday night I had hives breaking out on my neck and a rash all over my arms and torso. Well, dammit, that must mean I have mono, right? I don't know where I would have picked up mono or why I wouldn't have ever had any signs of it it before now if I had. I left work early and went to the same clinic but saw a nicer doctor. He said not to worry about mono because I show no signs of it at all and the amoxil wouldn't taken care of the swollen lymph node so effectively if it had been mono.

He determined that I've developed an allergy to penicillin products. This was concerning since I have a mitral valve prolapse and need antibiotics prior to dental procedures and certain surgical procedures. He assured me that these days it's not really a very big deal medically since there are lots of non-penicillin antibiotics, but they're unfortunately more expensive. The pharmacy couldn't refund me for the unused amoxil and I had to pay $55 for the new stuff. Bah! Yeah, I'm gainfully employed, but I'd much rather spend that money on a new outfit. The pharmacist was really nice and advised taking some sort of allergy drug and waiting a couple hours for the rash to fade before starting the new antibiotics, just in case I'm allergic to those too so it would be easier to tell. So far so good, the rash is gone and my throat is nearly back to normal after only a couple doses.

We recently acquired a hamster. Thalia was, for a short time, enamored with it. She still sleeps next to the cage and will spend time watching the hamster, but hasn't been overly predatory.

Then this morning, the hamster nearly ended up in Thalia's fat kitteh belleh. I'm home sick but wanted to get up for a few minutes after taking ibuprofen. I noticed the cat keeping an eye on something in the corner by the closet and dresser. I assumed it was an insect of some kind. I turned the light on, and there was the stupid little hamster. Insert profanity here. I hauled the cat upstairs to shut in the office and got David to help catch the little bugger. On my way up I glanced at the cage and noted that the cage door was open.

Between the two of us (but mostly David) we got the thing cornered and caught, but not without having to move some furniture. The cage door is wired shut now. We're really not sure if it was the kids, the hamster, or the cat who did it. Perhaps a combination of all three, but the kids were asleep and the hamster couldn't have been out for more than a few minutes. The cat or the hamster might have gotten lucky and opened it by accident, but I'm pretty sure the two of them put together aren't smart enough to open the cage intentionally.

Interestingly, Thalia wasn't hunting the hamster like she hunts mice. She was keeping a careful watch on it, but wasn't really aggressive or overly playful. Perhaps being exposed to the hamster in the cage for a few weeks has dimmed her instinct to eat it a little, or at least confused her. The hamster also didn't seem at all fearful of the cat. It was all "Yo, what up, kitteh?" and Thalia was all "Yuz fud or no fud? In mah belleh?"

I really glad I got up when I did.

I bought my very own set of grown up dinnerware. Cherry Blossom by Gluckstein Home. Huzzah!

Last night after an excellent dinner at The Italian Kitchen, Dad and I went along with Deb and Ian to see Fugitive Pieces. It was a special presentation of the film sponsored, I believe, by the National Film Board. It was a lovely, poetic, poignant movie. It's always nice to see a Holocaust movie that's inspiring and hopeful.

The film was shown at Vernon Towne Cinema, the old theatre in town. While they are replacing some of the seats with newer and more comfortable ones, the theatre still has the old time charm. They still have a curtain over the screen that isn't drawn until it's time for the movie to start.

After the movie we went to the Vernon Lodge, the lush hotel and conference centre where my high school graduation dinner was held, for coffee and dessert. I ran into two people I know there, one of whom I haven't seen since high school. Small world.