Another Week in Paradise

Ok, so we're not in Hawaii or the Caribbean, but Southern California isn't a bad place to be right now. The weather has been perfect and Dad got us a great condo in San Diego, right on the beach looking out into the Pacific Ocean. It's been awesome. We've gone to the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland (a mere 100 miles from our spot on the beach). Tomorrow is Sea World. In the days in between, we've just been hanging out at our condo, watching the surf and walking on the beach.

Mom and Dad bought a Wii. They've been saying that they'd get one whenever they found one, and Dad found one in a Target here in San Diego. So, we've also been playing a fair amount of Wii (overlooking the ocean, which makes it even more relaxing). Mom and Dad also decided , since they and my brother have digital SLR cameras, that Amanda and I should have one too. So, we are now the proud owners of a Nikon D40. It takes much better pictures than the Coolpix 3100 we were using. If you look at Amanda's Facebook page, you can see the first pictures we took with it at Disneyland.

With all the cool stuff we've done and all the cool stuff we've gotten, the best part has been spending time with the fam. We don't get to see Eric, Day, and Audrey very much, and it's been nice hanging out with them. It's always been important to Mom and Dad for the family to get to do fun stuff like this together, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. It doesn't matter whether it's a cruise to the Caribbean, a week on the beach in San Diego, or just hanging out at the house in Arlington, it's always nice to get together and just have a good time.

On Saturday, it's on to Las Vegas, where I plan to win my tuition for next year!

On The Road

The month of June typically involves a lot of travel for me and Amanda. This year is taking that to the extreme. Yesterday, we got back from East Texas, after attending my grandfather's funeral. Tomorrow, we leave on an 11 day trip to San Diego and Las Vegas. The trip has been scheduled for awhile. Obviously, the most recent trip was quite unexpected. We had actually just spent the weekend with family in East Texas when we found out we would be going back there. Add to all this the trip to Orlando at the beginning of the month, and one or both of us will have been out of town for 24 of the 30 days in June.

Needless to say, our DVR is filling up rapidly.

An Unexpected Trip

Amanda and I spent the past weekend in Longview/Arlington. We got to watch my son play a lot of baseball on Friday and Saturday. It was nice, since we had never seen him play before. He's a pretty good little ball player. Those kids are pretty intense about their baseball, granted, it is an all-star team. On Saturday night, we drove back to Arlington, with plans to return to Lubbock on Sunday and spend the week preparing for the big trip to San Diego and Las Vegas. Things didn't go exactly as planned.

On Sunday morning, as we were starting to stir, my mom brought some unsettling news to the bedroom door. My grandfather had passed away that morning from a stroke. We had just spent a good deal of time with my grandparents the past two days, so it was hard to believe that mere hours after the last time we had seen him, he was gone. I think this was the third stroke he'd had, and the second in the the last few years. He had never really gotten back to his old self after the last one. It's hard to explain, but, as unexpected as it was, you could almost feel it coming. That may sound a little insensitive, but others have said it, too. He'd gotten to do a lot of big things recently, including a cross-country train trip, and getting to attend his great-granddaughter's first birthday. He'd also gotten to have lunch with my son, his great-grandson, for his 9th birthday a week ago. Still, every day seemed to be taking its toll on him.

Sunday was a day full of planning. We tried to figure out what to do about my brother, Eric, and his family. Then, we had to decide what to do about ourselves. In the end, we decided to drive back to Lubbock, as planned. My brother, sister-in-law (Day), and niece (Audrey) flew into Dallas late Sunday night and stayed at my parent's house with my mom. Dad actually had to go to D.C. for a night and teach one day of a class yesterday, before returning to Dallas last night. We decided to fly back to Dallas yesterday, and the five of us (me, Amanda, Eric, Day, and Audrey) drove into Longview last night. Since then, it's been a lot of time with family. My grandmother seems to be holding up alright. All of my dad's brothers are here, as well as his only sister. Everyone seems to be doing ok. Every once in awhile a wave of realism sweeps over an individual or group, but overall it's good for the family to be together. As unexpected a get-together as this is, it's nice to spend some time with everyone.

C.T., as we called him, had a long and eventful life. He leaves behind an incredible family legacy. He always got the most out of life, and I will miss him.

Buried

As I sift through more of my junk room this morning, I find myself wondering: Where did I get all this crap?? The truly sad thing is that when I look at this stuff, I realize that very little of it is actually crap. Most of it actually serves a purpose in my life.

So far, I've found materials for planning a golf tournament, community band stuff (some of which really needs to be returned to its proper home), a mound of trombone stuff, 3 boxes that I brought home from my desk at Lubbock High, and some binders of old music theory and history handouts and notes that I should probably start looking through so that I don't bomb my placement tests in August.

As I found more and more stuff that I can't get rid of, two questions came to mind: Am I spreading myself too thin? and Where am I going to put all this crap that I can't get rid of?

My Special Dog

Today, I started out with the simple goal of mowing the yard, getting my oil changed, and having my tires rotated. Unfortunately, Joey had other ideas.

I actually got up relatively early and remembered that I needed to get gas for the lawn mower. Instead of crating the dogs for the 5-7 minutes I would be gone, I decided to just throw them in the car and take them with me. Bad idea. The gas station was crowded (all the yard maintenance entrepenuers were getting their gas, too) and Joey and Max decided to protect the car by jumping aroung and barking at everyone they could see. At some point during this, Joey managed to hurt his left leg (the one that has already undergone 2 surgeries). On the way home, he wouldn't put any pressure on it and when I tried to, he yelped. It was very pathetic. After about 20 minutes of him not walking or doing anything but resting on his right side, I decided I better take him to the vet.

So, we get to the vet. And we wait... and wait... and wait. An hour and a half later, we finally get to see the vet. Joey has never liked the vet, especially not since the 3 knee surgeries. He got pretty upset about being there, and then what does he do? He starts walking. The leg is obviously still bothering him, but he's walking. The vet and I decide that, as opposed to actually sedating Joey and testing the range of motion of the leg (which Joey would have loved, I'm sure), we should just try giving him some anti-inflammatory pills and seeing how he does.

I guess when faced with the prospect of sucking it up and walking versus staying at the vet and getting messed with, Joey decided that his leg really wasn't all that bad after all. At least he added a measure of the unexpected to an otherwise uneventful day.

Summer is finally here!

On June 2, I turned in my Lubbock ISD laptop. It marked the official end of my employment at Lubbock High School. Fortunately, I still get a paycheck through the end of July, but my duties there are complete. I'm going to miss those kids, but I'm incredibly excited about the next two years. Now, if I could just figure out how not to be poor...

Later that morning, I got on a plane to meet Amanda in Orlando. She was technically "working" on the Permian Band and Orchestra Trip. Of course, there wasn't much work involved, and we ended up with a free hotel room and 3 free days at Disney. It wasn't a bad way to kickoff the summer.

Today I started doing a little of the Spring cleaning that we didn't have time to do earlier this year. Somehow over the past year, we developed the disastrous "junk room" that I always swore we'd never have. So, that's my project this week, in addition to yard work (the alley is threatening to hop the fence and invade the back yard), and delivering pizzas for some extra cash.