Monday, August 25, 2008
School starts today
For some reason I'm not really excited for school to start today even though I love school! The only thing I can think of is that the long days start again. It was really nice to be able to work a regular schedule for the last few months but now it's back to the daily grind of working early in the morning then school in the afternoon and then working into the night and then trying to find time to study. I should be really excited that I'm in my senior year and I'll be done in 2 semesters but I'm just not. My schedule isn't that good and I'll be going to work then to school then back to work then back to school again and it is just not very appealing right now but it's what I have to do to get done. What really is a turn off right now is that this is only my bachelors and I want to get into Grad school for the fall! What am I thinking?
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Plates and Eye Patches
Apparently Lisa and I both enjoy talking in our sleep because one night I handed Lisa my pillow and said "here's your plate." Lisa didn't let me hear the end of it for awhile and she loved telling everyone about it. Luckily she gave me the perfect revenge, she woke me up one night and said "I don't want to wear an eye patch!" In the morning I couldn't remember if it actually happened or if I dreamt it so I asked and she told me she had been dreaming about pirates and that they were going to poke her eye out. What she was most upset about was not losing her eye but having to wear an eye patch! I thought it was so funny and I told the rest of her family and I still tease her about it to this day!
First Year!
WOW it's been a long time since I've posted anything! I'd like to be able to say that it's because I'm so unbelievably busy but I haven't even been in school for the past 2 months! ALOT has happened since January so I'll try and update you on some of those things.
Let's start near the beginning... in February Lisa and I celebrated our first Valentines Day together. In March, we flew to Maryland for Jeremy and Julie's wedding which was really nice, although it rained on them. I finished the Spring semester of school in May and then started the summer semester a week later but it only lasted for 6 weeks. So I am officially a college senior and I have 7 classes left. I'll take 4 in the fall and then 3, maybe 4, in the spring and then be done with my bachelors degree. I'm hoping to get into Graduate school for the Fall of 2009, where I have no clue, hopefully a Psy.D. program somewhere but if not then at least the Counseling program here at UNF. But I digress, we added two fur balls to the family in May I believe. Two kittens, one black, Talulah, and the other is gray with stripes, Bonofontini but Bono for short. They are a handful now that they can jump and climb on just about anything but they are really cute and love to cuddle when we watch TV. In July I flew up the Maryland again for Matt and Kristin Bennett's wedding and it was really nice as well. I stayed a night with Catie and Brian, and the other night with Jason and Kate. It's always good to see family and old friends. We've been to Orlando a few more times to see Cirque Du Soliel and to go to Disney as well as the temple which is always awesome. We went to Tampa for Memorial Day, and July 4th found us in Ft. Lauderdale, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas! So I guess we have been a bit busy!
As for our one year anniversary we went to St. Augustine for the night and stayed at the Casa Monica Hotel which is beautiful (www.casamonica.com) ! That was, hands down, the most comfortable bed we've ever slept in! We went to dinner at the 95 Cordova restaurant which is attached to the hotel and I had the best steak ever and I'll show you the receipt to prove it. Check out their website for pictures and a menu (www.95cordova.com) We splurged a little to help celebrate and had some ice cream on St. George street. We planned to go to the beach resort the next day but it was gray and overcast so we just went for a walk and put our feet in the water and it's a good thing it was only our feet because the water was uber cold! Instead of staying at the beach we went home and just relaxed.
I'll start updating this on a more regular basis and keep you posted on how we're doing! There are some funny stories I need to post so look for them!
Let's start near the beginning... in February Lisa and I celebrated our first Valentines Day together. In March, we flew to Maryland for Jeremy and Julie's wedding which was really nice, although it rained on them. I finished the Spring semester of school in May and then started the summer semester a week later but it only lasted for 6 weeks. So I am officially a college senior and I have 7 classes left. I'll take 4 in the fall and then 3, maybe 4, in the spring and then be done with my bachelors degree. I'm hoping to get into Graduate school for the Fall of 2009, where I have no clue, hopefully a Psy.D. program somewhere but if not then at least the Counseling program here at UNF. But I digress, we added two fur balls to the family in May I believe. Two kittens, one black, Talulah, and the other is gray with stripes, Bonofontini but Bono for short. They are a handful now that they can jump and climb on just about anything but they are really cute and love to cuddle when we watch TV. In July I flew up the Maryland again for Matt and Kristin Bennett's wedding and it was really nice as well. I stayed a night with Catie and Brian, and the other night with Jason and Kate. It's always good to see family and old friends. We've been to Orlando a few more times to see Cirque Du Soliel and to go to Disney as well as the temple which is always awesome. We went to Tampa for Memorial Day, and July 4th found us in Ft. Lauderdale, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas! So I guess we have been a bit busy!
As for our one year anniversary we went to St. Augustine for the night and stayed at the Casa Monica Hotel which is beautiful (www.casamonica.com) ! That was, hands down, the most comfortable bed we've ever slept in! We went to dinner at the 95 Cordova restaurant which is attached to the hotel and I had the best steak ever and I'll show you the receipt to prove it. Check out their website for pictures and a menu (www.95cordova.com) We splurged a little to help celebrate and had some ice cream on St. George street. We planned to go to the beach resort the next day but it was gray and overcast so we just went for a walk and put our feet in the water and it's a good thing it was only our feet because the water was uber cold! Instead of staying at the beach we went home and just relaxed.
I'll start updating this on a more regular basis and keep you posted on how we're doing! There are some funny stories I need to post so look for them!
Friday, January 11, 2008
As I sit alone and think...
Alot is going through my mind, it tends to happen when I have nothing to do. Currently I'm thinking about how it feels like school will never end. I can't pinpoint why I feel like I'm in the circular file of life but I do. I love school, don't get me wrong, it's just that I'm so excited about working in the field of psychology that I can't wait to be done with this portion of school so I can move on with the next portion of life. I've talked to some people about some of the options that I have for life in general and they really aren't available (in the way that I would like them to be available anyway) until I'm done with school, I'm talking done done, like Ph.D. done. Sooo, at the rate I'm going now I'll never be done and I'll always be wishing for something better.
On that topic, it is very difficult for me to be content with my current circumstances, whatever they may be. I'm the type of person that would be discontent being a millionaire. I always feel like something else will bring me happiness. I find it very difficult to see the joy in the here and now. There ARE a few things that I feel very content with, my wife, my family, and my future. I know the last one sounds a bit contradictory but I'm content with what the future holds in relation to what my plans are at this moment. I plan to finish my undergrad by the end of this year, then move straight into my graduate work at the same school. After that if I feel the like going straight into the Ph.D. thing then I will but I think I'll want to take a bit of time off. Other than that my future is sort of left to wherever the wind takes me.
On that topic, it is very difficult for me to be content with my current circumstances, whatever they may be. I'm the type of person that would be discontent being a millionaire. I always feel like something else will bring me happiness. I find it very difficult to see the joy in the here and now. There ARE a few things that I feel very content with, my wife, my family, and my future. I know the last one sounds a bit contradictory but I'm content with what the future holds in relation to what my plans are at this moment. I plan to finish my undergrad by the end of this year, then move straight into my graduate work at the same school. After that if I feel the like going straight into the Ph.D. thing then I will but I think I'll want to take a bit of time off. Other than that my future is sort of left to wherever the wind takes me.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Virginia, Monkeys, Dominoes
I haven't posted in a while and I feel like this is pretty normal behavior for me. I start something that I feel I'll do fairly consistently only to do it as sporadically as buckshot. Anyway, by the title you may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Lisa and I went to visit her Grandmother and Uncle in Virginia last weekend and it was alot of fun.
We flew from JAX to ATL and then to Richmond. Before leaving JAX we got delayed by 2 hours because of the storm in Chi-town where over 400 flights were canceled which ended up delaying so many flights across the country. After we got to ATL we were so short on time that we got off the plane just to walk to the next gate and start boarding again and you know what that means...yup, we got on the next plane but our luggage didn't. We arrived in Richmond and went to the luggage carousel and waited...and waited...and waited...and then got smart and went to Air Tran's Customer Service desk but of course no one was there. We decided to go to the desk upstairs and find out what we needed to do just to be told that we needed to go back down to the customer service desk and wait for the person in charge to get back. So we did just that only to find that an angry mob had now gathered at the desk with no Air Tran rep manning their post. By now these folks are ticked off and listing the long list of reasons why they have the right to be upset, which is true they have every right to be upset but what they failed to notice was that no one else cared that they had any reason or no reason! We wait some more and then the carousel turns back on and I rush over to plead with the carousel god to spew our luggage from its bowels but that wasn't happening. I go back to our position in line at the customer service desk and then an announcement comes over the loud speaker, that wasn't very loud I might add, informing us to go back up to the check in desk on the floor above us. Like load-less pack mules we scurry up the escalators mumbling to ourselves that they are just going to tell us to go back downstairs once we get up there. We arrive and to our surprise the same gentleman who previously told us to wait downstairs says "You'll have to go wait downstairs at customer service I can't handle your claim here." Lisa's uncle is not happy at this point but before he can rip into the guy too much another young kid comes to the desk and says he'll take care of us. We fill out the claim form and let him know that our luggage is black like everyone else in the airport and we're finally off to have dinner.
Our luggage arrived the next morning but it was pretty crappy not having our toothbrushes and all that jazz for the first night. Lisa and I started playing dominoes one of the nights and she blew me out of the water! I didn't even stand a chance. I'm talking over 300 points difference. I made up for it the following night when we played with her mom, aunt, and cousin and I won. When we got back home we had to immediately go and get our own set of Cardinal Mexican Train Dominoes. We love it and have found our new game of choice.
On Monday, New Year's Eve, before we left to come back home, we got to go to the zoo that is right next door to Lisa's Uncle Joel's house. Joel is the Bishop of the ward up there in Chesterfield county and a member of the ward owns the Metro Richmond Zoo. My love for monkeys was found out and arrangements were made for us to be able to meet the young Orangutan Farley who is being raised in the families house right now. The intention was to let us hold Farley but he was too shy to let anyone other than the Zoo keeper's son hold him. We all got to take some good pictures of him so we left pretty satisfied. We walked around the zoo for about an hour and a half after that and saw about 30 different species of monkeys, zebra, lions, rhinos, tigers, antelope, Asiatic bears, elk, deer, penguins, warthogs, and giraffe. We were able to hand feed the giraffe and it was pretty cool. They have long gross tongues that were like go-go-gadget instruments that picked up food about a foot away. We got plenty of pictures so we're going to look through them and hopefully get a few of them framed.
All in all it was a fun trip that helped me pack on a few more pounds before 2008!
We flew from JAX to ATL and then to Richmond. Before leaving JAX we got delayed by 2 hours because of the storm in Chi-town where over 400 flights were canceled which ended up delaying so many flights across the country. After we got to ATL we were so short on time that we got off the plane just to walk to the next gate and start boarding again and you know what that means...yup, we got on the next plane but our luggage didn't. We arrived in Richmond and went to the luggage carousel and waited...and waited...and waited...and then got smart and went to Air Tran's Customer Service desk but of course no one was there. We decided to go to the desk upstairs and find out what we needed to do just to be told that we needed to go back down to the customer service desk and wait for the person in charge to get back. So we did just that only to find that an angry mob had now gathered at the desk with no Air Tran rep manning their post. By now these folks are ticked off and listing the long list of reasons why they have the right to be upset, which is true they have every right to be upset but what they failed to notice was that no one else cared that they had any reason or no reason! We wait some more and then the carousel turns back on and I rush over to plead with the carousel god to spew our luggage from its bowels but that wasn't happening. I go back to our position in line at the customer service desk and then an announcement comes over the loud speaker, that wasn't very loud I might add, informing us to go back up to the check in desk on the floor above us. Like load-less pack mules we scurry up the escalators mumbling to ourselves that they are just going to tell us to go back downstairs once we get up there. We arrive and to our surprise the same gentleman who previously told us to wait downstairs says "You'll have to go wait downstairs at customer service I can't handle your claim here." Lisa's uncle is not happy at this point but before he can rip into the guy too much another young kid comes to the desk and says he'll take care of us. We fill out the claim form and let him know that our luggage is black like everyone else in the airport and we're finally off to have dinner.
Our luggage arrived the next morning but it was pretty crappy not having our toothbrushes and all that jazz for the first night. Lisa and I started playing dominoes one of the nights and she blew me out of the water! I didn't even stand a chance. I'm talking over 300 points difference. I made up for it the following night when we played with her mom, aunt, and cousin and I won. When we got back home we had to immediately go and get our own set of Cardinal Mexican Train Dominoes. We love it and have found our new game of choice.
On Monday, New Year's Eve, before we left to come back home, we got to go to the zoo that is right next door to Lisa's Uncle Joel's house. Joel is the Bishop of the ward up there in Chesterfield county and a member of the ward owns the Metro Richmond Zoo. My love for monkeys was found out and arrangements were made for us to be able to meet the young Orangutan Farley who is being raised in the families house right now. The intention was to let us hold Farley but he was too shy to let anyone other than the Zoo keeper's son hold him. We all got to take some good pictures of him so we left pretty satisfied. We walked around the zoo for about an hour and a half after that and saw about 30 different species of monkeys, zebra, lions, rhinos, tigers, antelope, Asiatic bears, elk, deer, penguins, warthogs, and giraffe. We were able to hand feed the giraffe and it was pretty cool. They have long gross tongues that were like go-go-gadget instruments that picked up food about a foot away. We got plenty of pictures so we're going to look through them and hopefully get a few of them framed.
All in all it was a fun trip that helped me pack on a few more pounds before 2008!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The Current Happenings
What's going on now? Lisa and I just went to Orlando to visit with her Uncle Terry and his family and we also saw her brother Jeff and his fiance Jackie (I hope I spelled her name right but I'm sure it's not). It was a ton of fun! I like Jeff a lot. He's really down to earth and easy to talk to. He and Jackie were nice enough to let us stay with them at their hotel so it was a great weekend! It seemed like all we did was eat! It was definitely a fattening weekend!
Lisa and I went to Magic Kingdom on Saturday and went on a few rides. It was overcast so it wasn't ideal weather for the park but didn't start raining until we were ready to leave. We looked around in some of the shops but decided to just buy food! When we first got there we went to have lunch because it was about noon by the time we actually go in the park, then we hit up Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Big Bear Jamboree (or something like that), Buzz Light Year, and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. The Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory was really funny actually. They have cameras up and they show different people in the audience on the screen up front and they put jokes up as well like what the person might be thinking and they showed a Mexican guy and it said underneath "I want to buy everyone churros!" We thought that was pushing the envelope but no one seemed to mind.
We continued to eat by getting some ice cream and then went and got candy apples! We didn't actually eat the apples then but we saved for when we got home to Jacksonville. We had dinner with Terry and his family and Jeff and Jackie. We were at Uno for 3 hours just talking and eating. It was nice to meet more of Lisa's family and spend some time together.
On Sunday we met up with Terry and the gang again and had brunch at Waffle House (gut grenades!) and spent some more time chatting. We were then going to meet up with Jeff and Jackie at Epcot for the food and wine festival but Jeff's friend Adam had already gotten there and he was our free ticket in. So we decided to drive out to Cocoa Beach. It's about a 45 minute drive to the coast and we stopped at Ron Jon's Surf Shop and then went and walked on the beach for about 15 minutes and took some pictures. We could see Kennedy Space Center in the distance with the big NASA logo on the hanger/building (whatever it is). After that we drove up the coast on 95 back home to reality. It was so nice to get away and spend time with family and friends. I look forward to more of it when I'm done with school.
Lisa and I went to Magic Kingdom on Saturday and went on a few rides. It was overcast so it wasn't ideal weather for the park but didn't start raining until we were ready to leave. We looked around in some of the shops but decided to just buy food! When we first got there we went to have lunch because it was about noon by the time we actually go in the park, then we hit up Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Big Bear Jamboree (or something like that), Buzz Light Year, and the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory. The Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory was really funny actually. They have cameras up and they show different people in the audience on the screen up front and they put jokes up as well like what the person might be thinking and they showed a Mexican guy and it said underneath "I want to buy everyone churros!" We thought that was pushing the envelope but no one seemed to mind.
We continued to eat by getting some ice cream and then went and got candy apples! We didn't actually eat the apples then but we saved for when we got home to Jacksonville. We had dinner with Terry and his family and Jeff and Jackie. We were at Uno for 3 hours just talking and eating. It was nice to meet more of Lisa's family and spend some time together.
On Sunday we met up with Terry and the gang again and had brunch at Waffle House (gut grenades!) and spent some more time chatting. We were then going to meet up with Jeff and Jackie at Epcot for the food and wine festival but Jeff's friend Adam had already gotten there and he was our free ticket in. So we decided to drive out to Cocoa Beach. It's about a 45 minute drive to the coast and we stopped at Ron Jon's Surf Shop and then went and walked on the beach for about 15 minutes and took some pictures. We could see Kennedy Space Center in the distance with the big NASA logo on the hanger/building (whatever it is). After that we drove up the coast on 95 back home to reality. It was so nice to get away and spend time with family and friends. I look forward to more of it when I'm done with school.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
ITALY!!!
So Lisa and I are planning a trip to Italy next year and we can't wait! We are hoping to take some time over the Spring break to go. It will be pretty expensive but we figure we won't have the opportunity to go once I'm done with my B.S. and start Graduate school because we'd also like to start a family soon so we are going to jump at the chance to go! We want to go for a week and visit Rome, Vienna, Tuscany, and other places that are rather unknown. This has renewed my desire to learn Italian as well. I took a semester of Italian in college my first year but I never took another semester or used it but now I'd like to try it again since it will actually come in handy in the future.
I'm super excited about going to Europe first but Italy is somewhere that I've wanted to go for a long time. I don't know what it is, it's just the most attractive place to me in all of Europe. I wanted to serve my mission there and that's why I took Italian that first semester out of high school and everyone knows how that worked out... I went to Las Vegas where they have plenty of Italians... well not really but they have the Venetian... but I never saw it. I have no ties there, no family that lives, no ancestors from there (that I know of), no friends have been there, it's just a beautiful mystery and that's part of the attraction!
I'm super excited about going to Europe first but Italy is somewhere that I've wanted to go for a long time. I don't know what it is, it's just the most attractive place to me in all of Europe. I wanted to serve my mission there and that's why I took Italian that first semester out of high school and everyone knows how that worked out... I went to Las Vegas where they have plenty of Italians... well not really but they have the Venetian... but I never saw it. I have no ties there, no family that lives, no ancestors from there (that I know of), no friends have been there, it's just a beautiful mystery and that's part of the attraction!
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