This page was largely written in the mid-to-late-90's, with bits added in here and there.
I unfortunately haven't had much time to add everyone I'd like to here, so please don't be insulted if you don't see your name here...
Lance. Lance, formerly referred to as "Ben" to preserve some form of professional integrity, is my boyfriend. He's this wonderful, gorgeous, sweet and kind man that's taken a shine to me for one reason or another, and I could (and sometimes do) wax all gushy about him for long periods of time. I'm in love like I haven't been in 10 years, and I'm really happy about that. He's a Unix/Linux geek, likes the outdoors, shooting, and motorcycles. He's amazing. I feel like we match really well, and our friends (and even my parents) seem to agree. The ultimate endorsement, Victor & Elizabeth said, "Airyn, you have to hold onto this one, even if it means monogamy." Coming from those two...that's rather something. We live together in a really cool house in Bellevue, and I feel very lucky almost every day that he loves me.
Our minds work scarily alike. Two small illustrative examples: At a pie
baking evening at a friend's house,
I walked into the living room and found a hoardde of kids singing
Christmas carols on tv. I said "why are there small children on tv singing?"
He laughed and said "I just walked in and said the exact same thing,"
and grinned. And, we were watching TV awhile ago, and it was an ad with a
small white terrier drop-kick-type dog pushing a red ball down a snowbank.
It was gratuitously cute. "And that's when the Coca-Cola polar bears ate it,"
I said. He chuckled and kissed me, saying he'd been thinking the same thing.
We frequently pick the same menu items, even when we're not picking
"favorites."
We match.
Heather. Not to be confused with My Heather, who has recently accepted a job near [sob] Chicago, this Heather is a co-worker. She's a spunky little Lubbock, Texas girl with deep cherry red hair, big blue eyes and a great smile. She's officially My Only Chick Friend in Seattle. We both seem to have a hard time maintaining friendships with other girls, a theory about which I write elsewhere, but we work well together. Heather writes Ham Haiku. (No, I'm not kidding. Don't believe me? See this page.
She is impacting my life in many wonderful and horrible ways. For instance, she taught me how to paint ceramics, and yet she is affecting my speech in a horrible manner: She has me inserting "the" in inappropriate places. This is something I have made fun of all my life. For an explanation, here's my favorite example: "Are you on the email?" The email?! No no no no no!!!! It's just "email!" Not "THE email!!" Or, "she's got the cancer." ARGH!!! But, linguistic sponge that I am, I'm now saying things like "I'm going to go over and do the ceramics, want to come?" [shriek!!!]
And, to demonstrate The Very High Level of our discussions, our last email exchange:
Me: i was just about to send you a message that said "my fingers smell like truffle." but then i realized any sentence starting with "My fingers smell like...." was just WRONG.
Her: HAW!
We are true intellectuals. Fear us. Poor Heather...she gets assaulted by my many inane emails all day long...important, insightful emails like the one just above. She has the patience of a saint, I tell you. Or something.
Further, we are sick and wrong when we are together.
Our friendship knows no limits - I offered to set her up with a boy she's had a crush on for years. She reciprocated by threatening to disembowel me. Ah, sweet love.
Trey. Also works for the same company, and is just hysterical. Today, in the depths of my agonized depression, he had me laughing so hard that I actually got muscle spasms in my back. He's One Of The Good Ones.
Wendell. Likes guns, SCUBA, and Oracle. Owns a nice house on 5 acres, as well as 2 huge dogs (Leonbergers) named Angus & Cambria. Also has 4 angora goats (Marley, Catrina, Janis & Elvis,) and various geese and ducks. Largely responsible for me moving to Seattle - he's the one who first lured me here several years ago. An excellent tour guide.
Wendell read this page recently, and has this to say:
Now, about your friends page - "Wendell. Likes guns, SCUBA, and Oracle."
#DEFINE RANT=ON
Do I dress in white 50/50 shortsleeve polyester shirts with a K-Mart tie?
Do I wear birth control glasses?
Do I drive a GMC Pacer?
I didn't think so.
#DEFINE RANT=OFF
I'm a VB/Access developer, not some Oracle dweeb (sheesh!)
------
So, my humblest apologies...I hadn't realized he was less of a Real Geek than I thought he was, doing some wussy-assed thing like programming in VB, fer fuck's sake. [ducking and covering, cuz he's a good shot and running won't do me any bit of good whatsoever.] ;-)
Austin, Mahoney, Bill, Mike, and Jeff. These are The Friday Night Drinking Boys. We all converge on a little Irish pub downtown (McCormick's Fish House and Bar,) and give our most excellent waitress (Jen) the unfortunate task of keeping us in line. Austin, the token Scotsman, gets a few beers in him and speaks with a thick brogue that might be construed as Scottish, if one has had enough Guinness. He likes to light things on fire. Has skinny white legs. Is Mr. Trivia-Man! John Mahoney is sort of the focus of our group, if there is indeed one. Irish to the core, impossible to get really drunk, flirtacious, articulate, and a fine storyteller, it's just not the same without John around. Once paid Jen $60 to dump a glass of water down Austin's back, which she would have gladly done for free, and which Austin actually enjoyed since it was very warm in the bar that night. However, John didn't fret too much, since he is obnoxiously overpaid. Bill is our resident stock market expert. Generally a quiet, pensive man, he has been known to chase Austin's Jeep down the middle of the street while barking, after attempted homicide on said Austin. Mike....Mike missed his calling as a game show host, he truly truly did. He's sort of the social director of the group, sending out the announcements of who's doing what and where, and he usually does this in the form of one silly poem or another, which makes us appreciate him all the more. Mike is melting away, losing pound after pound. Some of the rest of us seem to be gathering them up for him. Jeff. Good old Air Force Jeff. Many of the folks we hang out with here are ex-military, and the majority of them are ex-Army. Poor little Jeff went through the cushy Air Force, which has naturally been a source of endless torment for him. Rides a little 750 Magna (isn't that cute?) and has been skydiving. Reports that upon his first jump out the plane, he kicked his feet for a good 10 seconds or so. Hee hee hee. There are various and sundry others who occasionally make appearances at the bar on Friday nights to hang out with us, but a lot of times, it's just these folks, Lance and me.
Chuck. I lived with Chuck and Wendell in Redmond when I first moved out here. Chuck's an all-around really great kind of guy. He's very funny, and very intelligent. Taught me how to shoot and got me addicted to guns (Wendell really helped him out here.) However, Chuck now hates me.
Victor & Elizabeth. They're apparently going to move to Seattle late this summer - yay! They came to visit me a couple of months ago. Victor said he was steeled "Not to let Airyn convince me to move here, just because she loves it." Well, it took all of about...oh... maybe 3 hours for him to fall in love with the city, too. This makes me very very happy - I miss them.
There's Kevin McGowan, one of the webmasters here at umich.edu. Kevin's got to be one of the funniest people I have ever met. He's bitter, he's cynical, he's hysterical. Absolutely adorable, as well. And, of course, married. (As if I could be attracted to anyone who's available, right? Right.) Kevin's great fun, despite the fact that going "out" is largely out of the question, because "The Danger's Out There," and he knows it's out to get him. When Kevin is 70, he will not regret not having "done more when he was younger and able to." His wife, Jen, is totally with him on this; they are perfect for each other. :-) They just bought A House!
Liam Hoekinga worked with me on the login team and is consistently one of the nicest, coolest people I know. Chant with me now, so that Liam doesn't move to the West Coast without me...
Melody Alfather (Mel) is the poor soul who must share an office with me. I gotta say I lucked out when I got Chuck's old office and Mel as my roommate. She's just the best. She has two kids who, while they are very cool, serve as excellent birth control.
I miss working with Jim Caldwell tremendously. Jim's a big guy who, if you get on his bad side, you should be afraid of. But, if you're taken under his wing, you're pretty damned safe from just about anything. He made me a clock out of a hard drive. :-) I really love Jim.
In August of 1996, I became part of this neat-o group of people, the Stilyagi Air Corps. This is a truly exceptional bunch of folks. They never cease to amaze me. One recent party-type function just turned into a massive snuggle heap on Paul's couch. You just gotta love people you can hang out with and be petted, without fear of someone getting the wrong idea. We just held our annual convention, ConFusion, which is a con for science/speculative fiction fen, and other folks in fandom just looking for a good time.
Briefly, these folks are:
Troy Wollenslegel He's geek with style. He's a geek with a motorcycle. Who likes leather. He's Techno-Bob with social graces. However, Troy worries too much about work stuff when he's not on the clock. He's also drop-dead beautiful. I met him at the weekly Tio's Stilyagi get-together, and sort of attached myself to him for about 4 months. It was, if nothing else, and interesting ride. He's mostly responsible for my initiation into the world of "motorcycles," a peculiar drug in the form of a two-wheeled aparatus that goes very fast. Contagion is insidious, method seems to be via "enthusiasm." I am responsible for infecting several other people, and there appears to be no vaccination. Perfectly normal people suddenly want to be screaming down the road on these things. But I digress. I still think Troy's great, though, even if he did (and still does!) drive me nuts (in a good way.) (Mostly.) (Honest!) (Love you, Troy...)
Troy dated a woman named Denyse for awhile, and that's how I met this sweetheart. Of course, she lived in far-away Kentucky at the time, so I didn't get to see her much even then, but now she's in even-farther-away California, and apparently getting married, so I'll see her even less. But she's beautiful and sweet and I love her.
Eric McGlohon. Another of the Babylon 5 crowd. He seems to have a domain name of "dekard.com" -- he doesn't seem to understand the havoc something like that can wreak. But he's too likeable to hold it against him. He's pretty darned adorable, too. He and his new wife, Tammy, are becoming more active in the Bab5 group lately, something they will undoubtedly regret!
Robyn & Sylvia don't make it to all the functions, and are missed when they don't show up. While at first glance, they may look like your average married couple, they're much more interesting than that, and are a lot of fun to talk to. Robyn somehow managed to get me to volunteer be a projectionist at ConFusion, something that will no doubt come back to haunt me at some point. But it was sort of fun, complete with flashbacks to elementary school days -- mostly because we had a projector that was that old.
Eric Kauppi is another of the motorcycling crowd -- he has the same kind of bike that Troy does, a V65 Honda Sabre. He's very nice, and throws a great New Year's Eve Party, with his beloved, Nancy.
Chuck Lever is one of those generally amazing people. The kind of guy I can sit and talk to for hours without running out of things to say. The kind of guy I can have comfortable silences with. That kind of guy. And as of March 1, 1998, the kind of guy who is my boss. And, as of 8/98, the kind of guy who's no longer my boss, and who probably will soon work for Netscape. And I got his office. [grin]
Dan Stiles. I've known Dan for some time now, and he's one of the funniest people I've ever met. Celebrity lookalike: a younger, better-looking John Goodman. Kinda. We tried dating for awhile in 1996, but that sort didn't work out as well as it might have. But he's a big goon, and generally wonderful. Dan's brother Mark sings in Three Men & A Tenor, a hilarious and insanely talented a cappella group based in Lansing, Michigan.
My best friend from childhood, Lisa Westerburg, is now married and has a toddler. Lisa is a traitor! Lisa grew up! Bad, naughty EVIL Lisa! Well anyhow, remember the fort, Lisa my love.
Rigger, aka "Dave Vick". I met Rig through LDRider, though his time there after I arrived was brief (I'm sure this is pure coincidence....right?) Rigger and I have spent VERY few moments actually occupying adjacent physical space, but I have a particular fondness for him, anyhow. It's rather amazing how his philosophies and mine line right up. Rigger lives in Lansing, near where I grew up.
Derek Youngs...I met him in person about a year ago, and have been speaking to him via email for some time. Derek is wise and beautiful. I can't say enough good things about him. He's a peace pilgrim in every sense, spreading the love of life as he walks.
Next there's Joe Gorde. He looks normal enough. But he's just as evil and devious as the rest of us. He's the only person I know personally who took longer than I did to graduate with his undergraduate degree. He's also one of my few remaining friends from freshman year who still live in Ann Arbor. I've got this odd chemical attraction thing going on with Joe; seems like whenever both of us are single, we end up making out in my car like teenagers. Not that I mind.
Charlie Clark gave me a lego biplane. I'm tempted to put a big purple triangle on it to make it a proper BI-plane, but that would just ruin the aesthetics, wouldn't it? Charlie, however, thinks it's a good idea. Charlie is Cool. He's also got motorcycles and is occasionally willing to help me work on mine, so that makes him doubly-cool. Plus, he says he's anti-social. Bah. I don't believe it. Quotable quote from Charlie: "When you gut something, it's bound to smell worse." Unfortunately, Charlie moved to Seattle at the end of December 1997, so poof! Another friend vanished out of state. (sigh) But wait! Then I moved to Seattle, too, so all is well.
Andrew Duthie. Andrew is a fellow motorcycle-type person, whom I met through various and sundry Ann Arbor folks. He's now living in Nashville, Tennessee, working for his father. Bwah! Ahem. He brought Grak out to me and apparently had a great time of it, even if he was riding with, like, no oil in the engine, and no air in the tires. Doh!!
Motorcycling Friends: This list just can't be made complete...there are so many good folks I've met through motorcycling in general, and through the LDRider list specifically.
Joe Denton
Adam Wolkoff
Eddie James
Leland
Joe & Julie Zulaski
Ron Smith
Bill Mcavan
Randy & Toni Carlson
Sev Pearman
Mark Reis
Bryce Ulrich
Jack Baird
Dale "Warchild" Wilson
Doub Jacobs
Kevin Chase
Jan Cutler
Don Moses
Gary Egan
Jim "Narly" Robertson - Rest in Peace, my friend...
Melody Albers
Sasha
Bob and Jean Ward
Bob Ray
Don Damron
SuzyQ
Bart Welter
Roy Collins
Chuck Hickey
Norm Grills
Dave Cowherd
Jack Tollett
Ahmet Buharali
Mike Sachs
Mark "Bownse" Johnson
Joel Davidson
Mike Kneebone
Bob Higdon
Pat Widder
Warren Harhay
Sam Lepore
Bob Voll
John Laurenson
Peter Haynes
Duner Tor
Allen Dye
Richard Bernecker & Kellye Culberth
Bruce "B2-ski" Barge
Cindi Knox
Manny Sameiro
Terry Smith
Herbie Saint
Pete "HDSnarly" Sutherland
Greg Roberts
People I Have Lost Track Of Over Time...
Sad but true, sometimes I lose touch with some folks I think are pretty great. It happens. I don't think they're any less spiffy, but for whatever reasons, we just don't talk much (if at all) anymore.
Caleb Rutan; (Snippet
of conversation held in Caleb's car, with another person and myself, 10/13/97:)
(oh yes - we were driving up to a drive-through ATM)
Caleb: (noticing the lack of vacuum tubes) Hey, they don't have hippo tubes.
(Stunned and confused silence)
Caleb: Ok, when I was little, we used to go through the drive-through
window at the bank. And there were those suction tubes, and then this
glass window that the tellers were behind. Well, the glass was green,
and I couldn't see what was behind it, so I figured there were hippos
back there. Hey, I was a kid, ok?!
I think that's all anyone needs to know about Caleb, except that he
just absolutely rocks. Oh yes, that and "DO THE PLUNGER! DO THE PLUNGER!!"
I dearly miss Caleb, and have no earthly idea where he is now. Had a
huge crush on him for a long time when we worked together in 4-HELP.
Tracey Besmark is one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the pleasure to become friends with. She's a devoted shamanic healer and although she doesn't like to consider herself a "teacher," she has taught many people many important things about life, spirituality, and about themselves, too.
Greg. Greg narrowly escaped death awhile back, because he left his pager buried in his bike bag. His pager went off. And every few minutes, it reminded him that it had gone off with a small "beep." None of us could tell where it was coming from. We were all frantically patting our pockets, checking our pagers and generally pestering each other to check every pager in sight. This continued for oh...an hour maybe. After the Tio's bit was done, we were all assembled outside, talking. We again heard the occasional beep, and went through the obligatory patting and checking. Greg pipes up, "Oh! That's mine. It beeps every few minutes when I've been paged." We nearly burst into flames. "WE KNOW!!!!!!" But he likes sushi so he can't be all bad (even if he does have a penis.) Generally speaking, Greg's really cool.
Iain. Silent writer of secret encryptions on napkins. Secondarily responsible for my Stilyagi affiliation (affliction?) Iain likes to dance. I like to dance. Seems like that would lead to more dancing, doesn't it? Iain will also be moving in August, to EDMUNTON, CANADA with Jennie. Canada? Well, when your wife gets the only Germanic Sociolinguist job on the planet, you sorta gotta go, I guess.
Chris. Impish, adorable, bearded geek, with whom I get caught in the Arigato Hug Tangle (TM). One of the world's sweetest people. Chris is one of the few people who just makes me want to forget everything and go play like a three-year-old. I think Chris is now in Edmunton, yes, in Deepest Darkest Canada, with his family, Jennie & Iain. I haven't talked to or seen Chris in A Very Long Time. Sadness.
Jennie. Jennie, the lovely, the talented, the grad student. She's really rather something. She is also apparently severely deluded; she refers to me (of all people) as "stunning." The next time she's in the country, I'm going to tackle her, wrassle her to the ground, and calmly and patiently explain why that's Simply Not True. She's the reason Chris & Iain are Going Away -- but I'm happy that she got a cool job in a nice place.
Darcy Niven is about the most adorable person you'll ever meet, and probably just about the highest-energy, too. Very sweet, quasi-pool shark, generally fun-having kind of person. She and her boyfriend Dan are too adorable for words; the kind of relationship that makes everyone want to be in love.
I met Brian Roelofs almost immediately after being hired by ITD, I think, and he's the only other human on the planet I've met that loves to dip his french fries into his Frostie (TM). He shoots pool with Darcy & The Gang and is a lot of fun to play with.
Todd. What the hell can I say about him? I've known him for a ridiculous amount of time. He is trouble. Stay away from him. He will make you see things in ways that were not meant for human eyes! So, naturally, he and I love each other dearly, in fact we were actually engaged for the briefest of times. Stranger things may have happened, I suppose...(almost 2 years later) Stranger things like Todd calling me out of the blue for No Apparent Reason with all sorts of interesting things to say, and the timing that he is notorious for. (Shaking head) Todd, my dearest, I love you, but you drive me crazy.
You've heard the rumors, you've seen the headlines, but none of them do Wes Craig justice. Neither does his homepage. Don't ask me, I couldn't cover it either. I suppose I could start by saying "Machiavellian," "tyrannical," and "unmanageable," but that would just be feeding the rumor mills. And I am of a completely different opinion. Most of the time.
Ed Colone. Ed & his girlfriend, Ruth, are like Crazed Weasels on Crack (TM) most of the time, but this is, oddly enough, an endearing trait in them, whereas it would be obnoxious in, say, your average pair of lovebirds. I met Ed through working at Angell Hall, and linked back up with him through my ex-roommate, Jon, his ex-best friend.
I met Eric Rabkin before I realized he was "one of the foremost scholars on science fiction," so I didn't realize I was in the presence of greatness at the time. He's a very articulate and interesting man (oddly enough!) Great sense of humor, too busy to comprehend.
As far as I can tell, Ross Dunham has fallen off the face of the Earth. When I first met him, I figgered he spent most of his free time as inebriated as humanly possible. Click here for an example of how Ross functions during these periods. He has assured me, however, that he doesn't overdo it. Much. Ross works too hard.
You really should check out Scribble, run by Jon Van Oast. However, as Jon currently despises me, I wouldn't tell him I sent you. He was also Todd's business partner in the Scribble Company. What does Jon do in life? Cripes -- what doesn't he do? Just go and look at his pages. You'll soon understand a.) why I loved him more than life itself, b.) why I still do, but probably not c.) why I left him, way back when, sort of for his sister, but not really.
A few years ago, Miguel Cruz reappeared unto me, in all the glory and the wonder that is After he was in Australia, he did not, unfortunatley, go to Greece. As a consolation prize, however, he did get to get to see New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Bepal, Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Oh. And don't forget Japan. Miguel sucks. But he did get some really good vacation photos. I remember the good ol' days of Waldo on the Maine MUD...my heart all astir and all that rot...and now, years later, his first words to me were..."God. It's you." Thank you, thank you very much.
Dean Carter is a pool shark. Beneath his calm, cool, innocent exterior lurks the soul of a madman. He gave Joe Gorde and me and really good spanking at the Union pool hall not too long ago. Revenge, however, as we all know, is best served cold. Or with talcum powder. Dean also gets chics. Remember that.
Craving an amusing anecdote? Want to sharpen your sense of hearing? Then Joseph Klein is your man. A fantastic storytelling skill combined with both a Michigan Mutter and a New York Breakneck Speaking Pace will keep you on your toes, one way or the other. Ask him specifically about the Appendix Story. It'll keep you in stiches. I can't belive I just wrote that. Joe will apparently be leaving us relatively soon, however, to enter The Real World. Subsequently, Joe sucks, and officially loses his membership in We're A Sad Group, You Know?
Trevor Allen Laws, my first boyfriend, my first true love (in high school,) is currently flying F-18's in Japan. We are very jealous of Trevor. He's going Mach 3 with his hair on fire, and is getting paid for it, and I'm making much less, doing something that's not nearly as much fun. HDTLTH? I miss him tremendously, but still feel a kind of bond with him, because of the good times we shared as teenagers.
I found Michael Gamer, after losing track of him for several years. He was my English 125 instructor, back in '88. I've missed him dearly. Brilliant, inspired Navy brat, with more interesting things to say than you can shake a stick at. Once threatened to "blind-side me like a Mack Truck."
