So I took my mom to see 'Dear Friends' last night. For those not in the know, this is a concert featuring the music of Nobuo Uematsu performed by a symphony orchestra. If you're still scratching your head, Uematsu is the composer of the music that accompanies all the very excellent Final Fantasy games. Sound dumb? My Mom was, bless her heart, skeptical. I don't blame her. Before I summarize the concert I will just say that she thought she'd like it, but she actually really loved it. She was very impressed with the music, and so if you haven't heard it or you think that VG music is not an art form, well, kindly fuck off because it is.

Most of the performed music was from FFIV or later, although there was a medley of tunes from FFI-III, and most of it was surpassingly excellent. The stuff that wasn't excellent was good, and the stuff that WAS excellent really blew me away. Particuularly good were Liberi Fatali (from FFVIII), Terra's Theme (FFVI), Aeris' Theme (FFVII), and a the opening song for FFI-IV (called 'Final Fantasy'). However, I think the show was stolen by the encore performance of One Winged Angel (FFVII). The singing was phenomenal, the Chicago Pops Orchestra was flawless, it was just beautifully executed.

Uematsu came on stage between the second half of the show and the encore and alluded to there being more of these events, and maybe even a Black Mages tour(!!!). He of course received a ridiculously huge amount of applause from the audience, since probably 99% of us were gamers and hardcore Final Fantasy fans. My mom was in the other 1% :).

So that said, of course, the audience was largely "kids" (15-25) and I was a little leary when we entered the theater about behavioral "issues." The crowd was enthusiastic, but I never saw anyone at all being rude or unpleasant, and that was really pleasing. Everyone treated the event as a cultural experience, a real civilized concert, not a rock show or whatever, and that was great.

Bottom line: if or when this concert is being performed again anywhere near you, your priority should be to acquire tickets and *go*, you won't regret it!

I guess I've been a bit lazy in not writing this summary earlier, my apologies there. For what it's worth I was at least relatively busy in Chicago, and I do have a cold. Anyways, for those curious who haven't spoken to me yet, here's what I have to say:

I'm a billion percent in love, quite frankly. Meredith is the sweetest, prettiest, most wonderful girl in the universe (yours included, whoever wants to disagree with me). I don't think I could be a luckier or happier individual right now, and I feel like whatever comes up in the near future we will work through it nicely.

As to what we actually did, I can pretty safely say "nothing interesting to anyone but us." We basically hung out, just the two of us, for the vast majority of the time. I feel mildly bad about this, mainly because I was derelict in spending time with my hosts (scott/superlime and katie/umi) and I do feel bad about that. I will be moving, soon, and I hope to hang out with them both as they were incredibly cool folks and really kind in letting me crash on their couch (which is perfectly comfortable, thanks Jake).

As for what the future holds for me now, it's worth covering here, and I think it's time for fair warning that this post is about to get long, rambly, and probably a bit emotional. I'm on a plane flying back to Boston as I type, so I've got some "Free Time." :D Right now the plan is for Meredith to come spend a week or so in Boston with me, to meet all the people I've talked to her about, and who I've talked to about her, as well as to just enjoy some more time together. She's never been to Boston, so she'll get to see a new city at the same time. Besides that I hope to spend the rest of my time crunching at Akamai. Because of all this week off nonsense I've been doing I feel like I owe it to my boss to basically work whenever I'm not with her. This means seven day weeks until I depart, so my life is basically "girl, work."

As far as departure: I'm just undergoing the job hunt now, polishing the resume, getting references, and following leads. Ideally I would like to be able to find a position in Seattle by the beginning or middle of April. I don't know if this is reasonable, but just based on leads that I've personally received I'd like to believe that it is. Whatever betide, from this it should be clear that I basically want to move "as soon as possible." I won't leave before April 1st, because I swore up and down to John (my boss) that I'm not going to run out on him before the end of the quarter, and I won't back down on that without feeling like a superior asshole, which I don't really want to feel like.

That said, I'm not just moving to Seattle because of Meredith. She's definitely the reason that other options such as Chicago, San Diego, or San Francisco are not in my field of vision, but quite frankly I want to get the fuck out of Boston. It's not that the people in Boston are not awesome, far from it. I've made some really good friends just in the short time I've been here, I really like my roommates, ex and current, and so on. I just cannot fucking deal with the climate, anymore. I'm sick and tired of snow. I hate walking to work and arriving pants soaked up to the knees because I've trudged through snow. I hate standing with a numbed face waiting for the T. I just hate winter, I'm sick to death of it, and there ARE better choices. If it weren't for the shit-tastic weather Boston would be one of the nicest cities I have ever been to and it would be achingly hard to leave, as it is now I won't be able to depart without heaving a sigh of regret, but that regret is for leaving the friends I've made here, and a job that I honestly really love. Still, with all that behind I have a new city, a new climate, and a wonderful girl ahead of me, and that is pulling me forward with quite a lot of intesnity.

And I think there's something else I ought to mention, especially for those of you who haven't seen me for a while, or talked to me. Some crazy things have happened to me over the last six months or so. I've exited what was a long and fruitful, but also futile relationship. Beyond that I've changed a hell of a lot. I'm just more positive, more energetic, more eager to enjoy life. Meredith I think has had a huge impact on the way I view myself, and on the way I think about things. Even so, there have been other changes just in myself that have really modified who I am.

I've lost like 40 or 50 pounds in the last six months. I weighed myself today, 222 pounds according to my mom's scale. That's still hardly petite, but as much as it baffles me, I'm *not fat anymore*! I actually look... good. I've never been able to honestly say to myself that I look good, but all of a sudden I actually do! I might have before, but god knows I didn't feel that way. The best part is that, not only have I lost fat, I've gained a lot of muscle. My legs in particular are like solid masses of it, but my arms look better too, even my stomach and chest are becoming defined, especially as the fat goes away. I've maybe got another 20-25 pounds of fat to lose, if that much, but I doubt I'll sit under 200 simply because of muscle gain. To me that actually seems... very cool. I feel like I'm in a superb spot as far as my physical health goes. I'm eating better, I don't snack all the time or eat right before bed, I'm just healthier and it feels phenomenal. And of course I have to give it up majorly for DDR. I play for several hours a week, and it's superb cardio. I know I used to hate quite vigorously on the game, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I was dead wrong. It's fast, it's fun, it's addictive, and it's healthy!

Besides all that, I'm starting to honestly feel good about myself as a person. I feel like I can be honest with the world, and that some of the world at least will like me for it. I was talking to my Mom about this, yesterday. I've stopped feeling like I'm some horrible person and that if people really knew me they'd all hate me. I spent some time talking about this a few months ago with a couple of people, and then I spent time thinking about it, and I realized how goddamned ridiculous that is. And I decided that the only way I'd know if I was truly despicable inside was to be as preopsterously honest as I could with people. So I did that, I did it with Meredith, before we were dating. It was a fairly bold thing to do, because I more than half expected that I wouldn't come out "on top" by doing it. However, it turns out that the me deep inside that I didn't think was any good was just fine with her. As far as I'm concerned, if it's fine with her it's going to be fine with any number of other valuable human beings, and there's no reason for me to sit back and hate myself and want to hide away. It turns out this is true, because I've started doing it with everyone around me, and it just works. To top it off, I feel infinitely better for not "hiding" behind walls. When people can see over the walls they can make an informed choice about whether they want to deal with you or not, and that's good for everyone I think.

So I guess that's a good summary of where my life is right now. I'm moving to be with a girl I love and adore beyond description, I'm moving into a new world within myself where I feel hopeful and, yes, want to actually live and enjoy life for quite some time! I know I've told a lot of people, in the past, that I don't care about living or dying, that I don't mind if I die any time. I mind now, I feel like I've got promise in the future. I feel like I'm going to move upwards on all the plains of my life right now. Meredith is a beautiful girl in every way, and we're going to have a very nice time with one another, for a very long time I think. My career I think is also looking up, my personal outlook is better, my health has never been this good, and maybe... just maybe... I can really get back into the groove of writing. Maybe in ten years I'll have a book to publish, to show the world. That's a thrilling prospect for me, looking forward to a time in my life that's far away, and realizing that the time between now and then will also be full of promise and happiness and sadness and all the emotions that make life worthwhile. Viva la Chip!