Well I just got back from Kansas last night from a thrilling week of nuptial excitement! Wait a minute that didn't come out right at all. Let's start over. I just got back from attending Duncan's wedding in Kansas. Ok, that's better.
It was a fun week overall, especially because I got to hang out with Bryce and Duncan for the first time in a couple years. I was amazed to learn how much work goes into the wedding and after seeing it I am seriously contemplating eloping if I do ever get married myself. Katie came out for the wedding too and it was great to have her there with me too. I'm pretty sure the photographer got a couple good photos of us, once I get my hands on em' I'll see if I can't post them. I also got a chance to hang out with Duncan's friends from high school and they are quite an awesome bunch, I hope I can get a chance to hang out with them again soon.
Oh, and btw, there's no cooler feeling than being dressed up in a pinstripe tux and fedora in a church with a flask of JD in your pocket and a pentacle around your kneck. By all rights me and the other groomsman really should have been struck by lightning at least three times over.
Got my PICC line put in this morning, so far it's not all that much of a bother. The only things I think that are going to bug me are, A) no heavy excercise for a month and B) Showers are going to be tricky for a month. I'm suprised how easy it was though for them to get it in, they gave me the injection of lydocane (sp?) to numb the area and then they used the same needle to insert the line and they were done in about five minutes. Wish I coulda kept a copy of the chest X-ray they used to make sure the tube was inserted correctly, man it looked cool!
I'm tempted to post a picture of what's sticking out of my arm right now, but I get the feeling KK would be the only one who would find it interesting and the rest of you guys would find it to be a bit gross.
Hmmm let's see here, havn't posted since mid april. Might be a good idea to add a new entry...
Well the big news for me right now is split into two sections, the first and happy one is Duncan's wedding. I'm heading out to Kansas this weekend for it and I'll be spending a full week out there performing my best manly duties. I'm really looking forward to it, it's been a long time since I've seen Duncan and Bryce and it's also been a long time since I've had a vacation. In addition while I'm out there I'm going to be helping Duncan build a deck on the back of his soon to be in-laws house, I shall thouroughly enjoy that little project. Heck, I thouroughly enjoy any project that allows me to get my hands dirty.
Now on to the second section, everyone remember my little trouble with lyme disease? Well after a month of antibiotics I thought I had it taken care of but three days before my follow up visit my knee swelled up again. So now I have to move onto round two of antibiotics, and round two has to be administered intraveinously (sp?) through a PICC line. I sorta had the heeby jeebies about the whole situation when they explained that the PICC line would have to stay in me for thirty days, but when I got home and read the wiki article about PICC lines and discovered that it goes all the way to one's heart I got an even bigger case of the heeby jeebies. If anyone has any advice about PICC lines out there I would be very appreciative. In the mean time though I think I shall drink a beer. I've damn well earned it.
Things are going very well with Katie, I've met her immeadiate family (who appreciate a good gin and tonic I might add!), her good friends, and she's coming with me to Michigan in August to meet a little bit of my family. She's also coming with me to Duncan's wedding too! This relationship has been quite the experience for me already, even though were six months into it now it feels like we just went on our first date yesterday.
Work's still going very well, having a lot of fun with it still. I found out my roomate is getting married sometime early next year too and it looks like he might be moving down to North Carolina after the wedding. He says he's not going to sell the house so it looks like I might get to continue living here afterwards. I'm planning ahead though and I'm squireling away some money in case I do end up needing to moving after all. I hope I don't have to though, I really like were I live and if I do end having to move I'm gonna see if I can find something in the area.
I have to say, I am way to excited about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie. So excited in fact, that when I found out that Bruce Cambell is playing a part of a chicken nugget in the movie I let out an "SQUEEEEEEE!". And now my roomate probably thinks I'm crazy....
Moving on...
Went in for the postop visit for my knee on Monday. Doctor told me that his suspicions are Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lymne Diseas, however after talking with me a little bit about my past we sorta narrow the field down to Lymne disease. He showed me some images of the inside of my knee that they took with the orthoscope and I have to say I was both horrified and wildly amused at the same time. Most of me really wanted to look away, but I be damned if that part of my brained that's trained to analyze images didn't go "OOOOHHHHH!!!!!! SHINY!!!!! LOOOKIE! LOOKIE! LOOKIE!"
Regardless I walked out of the office with said images in hand and a referal for a rheumatologist (sp?). I'm set to go to that appointment monday morning and hopefully get all the testing done so I can finally get around to kicking this problem square in the ass.
Went down to Florida for a couple days this week to see my Dad, Sister, and step-mom. It was really weird being back there and triggered a whole flood of memories from that year of my life and it made me really glad that I managed to get out of there. Not granted I did have some fun down there, but man there were some moments when I felt like Orlando was sucking my soul out of my nose with one of those twisty straws (I've got the scars on my nose to prove it!). My sisters new apartment is really nice and it looks like she may be getting a salaried position with her union. I feel bad for my dad though because he's fallen onto hard times again financially, especially so as I hear how he's struggling with money despite working 70 hours a weel while I work a very comftorable 40 hours a week and can make my bills without too much hastle. I wish there was something I could do to help him but each time I offer some help he turns me down. Hope the ol' guy can do something to get his life turned around again, after all he moved down to FL in the first place to try and get a fresh start!
Retuned my plans for visiting the deuce, I'm gonna wait for either early or mid-august now. That way I can take Katie with me to introduce her to some of my family up there as well as any of y'all I can hit up either going to or going from Michigan. I'm really tempted to see if I can't make a stop at Cedar Point too, but I'm not quite sure how practical that one would be.
Oh man I am exhausted, I had surgery on my left knee last thursday and even though I've been laying around the house I'm still feeling quite run down. Fortunately I havn't had any pain, so I think I may try and move around tommorow to try and see if I can't get my system a jump start. I'm a little worried though about the outcome of the surgery, they went in looking for a torn meniscus. In reality they found that my knee is showing symptoms of either Lyme disease of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Either which way, the yike factor is getting a little bit higher.
Going to Virginia Beach for a work conference this week, should be interesting although I am concerned that it could quickly become something officespace-esque very quickly. Once I get back from Va Beach I'll be turning right around and heading down to see my dad and sister in florida for a few days. I figure it's been a year since I've last seen em', might not be a bad time to stop in and say hi.
I'm also doing a little planning ahead to the summer, I'm thinking I'd like to drive back home to the deuce for a few days around the art fairs. This will depend on how much leave time I have left after Duncan's wedding. But at the very least I think I could make a 3 day weekend trip out of it.
I learned a very valuable lesson last night, the warning labels on Benadryl should definitly be heeded. I took a benadryl last night for some seasonal allergy issues and then proceeded to have dinner, with a beer to drink. The combination of those two knocked me out cold, according to Katie before I managed to find the bed I was talking in complete incoherent sentences. If I did my math right I was out for 12 hours last night. Not a preferable way to sleep that long, but I'll be damned if I didn't need it.
I picked up a new cell phone this week, a delightfully shiny one at that. I picked up the Motokrzr from best buy and I am thoroughly impressed at it's performance, good sound quality, good reception, and enough bells and whistles to keep me happy for quite a while. It utilizes a microsd slot for additionaly memory so I maxed that thing out at 1gb yesterday. I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do with that much memory on my cellphone but I'll figure out something damnit.
I also managed to snag to boxes of thin mints yesterday on my trip to best buy. I'm thinking about taking one of them and freezing it and then crushing it up and using it as a topping for mint chocolate chip ice cream. This could either be a grand experiment, or a terrible culinary tragedy.
I've also been fighting the urge to go to REI recently, I just got back my members dividend notice for last year and I got this years 20% coupon too. I'm thinking I may go ahead and use the two to take a considerable chunk of the price of a new backpacking tent.
One of the things I really missed when I moved out to Arizona was the migratory song birds. Especially in the spring when they first return and seem to be about as excited as migratory song birds returning north can get. Well now that I'm experiencing the early stages of my first Virginia spring and I'm hearing migratory song birds for the first time since 2000. It's great, they're getting fired up right as I'm going to work and it's making me very excited for spring. Being back in an area with a semi-seasonal climate is great, man I missed these sorta things.
Dear God help me, I've become quite fond of Justin Timberlake's song Sexy Back. I feel so dirty....
Alright moving on. I've finally finished up my monster training course for work which means no more getting up at 5am for a 45 minute commute each way. It also means I'm back in my home office and I can get some actuall work done, and I'm back to my good ol' 15 minute commute.
Life is good for me right now, it really is. I paused last week when I turned 25 and compared my situations then to when I turned 24 and it's amazing how much has changed. However though I must admit it is really weird to be 25 and a proffesional, everytime I'm called Sir or Mr. McNally I always look over my shoulder expecting my father to be right there. Well I suppose I'm just a couple steps away from being a proper capital A adult.
Irish fest is coming to D.C. on March 10th, I'm planning on going with some friends from work and the girlfriend. The primary draw for Irish fest is going to be Flogging Molly, especially because tickets are just 25$ right now. I'm a little concerned though because the only beer that will be for sale there will be Bud light. That's an ungodlly amount of heresy right there.
For Duncan and Bridget's wedding it sounding like the bachelor party is going to be a 3-4 day backpacking trip. That right there kicks an unmeasurable amount of ass. As my duties as best man I'll be planning the trip, I'll start compiling some lists of awesome trails out there and hopefully we'll have something planned out soon.
New Years eve this year was great, much better than last year. Definetly in my list of top ten new years, heck it might even be number 1. I went out with the new girl and her friend to this great chinese resteraunt in Arlington and then afterwords to this awesome new years party at this great bar in Arlington called Dr. Dremo's. Good times were had, good beer was consumed, and the proverbial booty was shaken.
For 2007 I have a couple small goals which I think should be more than attainable; 1. Cut down on the fast food, way down.... (I'm thinking once or twice a month should be sufficient) 2. Get my running stamina up so I can run the perimeter of the national mall. (I've mapped it out and it's only around 5 miles so this should be easy to accomplish by early summer) 3. Take a 3 or 4 day weekend and hike a 25-30 mile section of the appalachian trail from VA to WV and end up in MD. (This one should be really easy to accomplish, just need to schedule the time off correctly.) 4. Start saving to attend Rally School (It's really pricey, but if I start saving now with a little luck I could have the money to go for a couple days in a year or so) 5. Run in the Army Ten-Miler Race (This is gonna be the toughest one for me however, the race is in October so I've got plenty of time to train. My mentor from my office has said he'll run it with me and I'm gonna try and see if I can get some more friends to run it too.)
And that's it so far, I'll probably add some more to my list as the year goes on but I think these five should definitly be doable with a little hard work and determination.
A hip-hop legend, I think I musta died in an accident, cuz this must be heaven...
Wow, being a Govy keeps getting better and better. We got a half day today, we have monday off, and to top things off we get tuesday off as well in honor of the national day of mourning for President Ford. I do intend to take advantage of the extra time off however, I will head into D.C. either Sunday or Monday and pay my respects while President Ford is lying in state in the rotunda. I'll have to see if I can find some friends who want to go with me and I need to make sure my suit is pressed before I go.
Christmas was good this year, a lot better than last year. It was really nice to go home and see some old familiar faces again, not to mention go back to a city where the clerk at the grocery store wished me a happy solstice. Ahhh, the deuce. And strangely enough it was nice to be back in an area where the sun dosn't shine for days at a time. I got some nice clothes for christmas this year and I also got some giftcards too which I've already converted into a proper comforter for my bed and a badly needed trench coat so I won't keep freezing on my way to work.
Well I'm gonna head off to the sprint store now, see if I can't pick up something new and shiny...
A whole host of strangeness is coming your way, yet your attachment to the possible thrill may have you secretly smiling. You have embarked on a magical mystery tour, but you might not want your friends to know just how weird you are. Don't waste energy trying to hide your true self from others. It's quite likely they already know and accept your eccentricities.
All I can think of saying is response to this is that I need to change the header on my resume to the following: Christopher McNally leading the Magical Mystery Tour since 1982
I've learned there are some times in my life when I'm smooth. And I've also learned there's also those rare times, those ever so rare times, that I'm Smooooooooottttttthhh. More details to be posted as they become available.
Working right now on getting ready to come home to Ann Arbor for Christmas. I've got most of my christmas shopping today and with any luck I should be able to finish the rest of it out in the next few days. Oh, and that reminds me for my trip home I'll be flying into DTW on friday December 22nd and I'll be leaving to fly back to Dulles on the 26th. I'm gonna rent a car in DTW for the trip (Weee! 0% apr credit card!) so I'll have substantially more mobility for this trip as compared to my last trips. The Good Sheppard comes out that weekend, anybody want to go see it?
Work on the tinwhistle is progressing, I actually have a proper instructional book so now I can working on learning some basic songs. Hot Cross Buns should be a good starting point I think. Well that is once I get comftorable with reading music again.
I also managed to get some new tires this week for my car, ended up costing almost 650$ but it was worth it. I really needed some new ones badly, I kept waiting for the day the old set was going to blow out on my way to work.
Time for dinner, gotta prepare for tommorow. It's gonna be my first day back in my home office for a couple weeks. I have a gut feeling that my mentor is going to greet me with a hearty welcome back, and twenty pushups. And another set of twenty pushups, and another, and another.
Thanksgiving went off will relatively few glitches. I cooked my first ever thanksgiving turkey, complete with homemade stuffing and gravy, and two out of the three came out beautifully. The gravy probably woulda made it too had I been a bit more patient, but 2 outta 3 ain't bad I think. As part of this cooking adventure I had some friends over and they in turn brought over a multitude of greath Thanksgiving food, not least among them being homemade pumpkin pie. Such goodness.
I've been working on the tinwhistle, mostly I've been practicing scales. I'm making good progress so far, I really need to pick up a book though on the subject as well as a book on basic music structure. Either that or hope I can find some really, really easy songs on line. Something along the lines of the songs I used to play back in 5th grade on the flute outta do it.
Also saw the new Bond movie this weekend, I was quite impressed. It was quite nice to see the producers of the series go back to more of the old-school Connery style of the franchise that we havn't seen since, well Connery! The fights were really well choreographed and the new actor who plays 007 really played the part well, definitly had the whole bad ass thing going. And the actress who played James' love interest was absolutely stunning, quite possible the most beautifull Bond girl yet.
So in a desire to be more cultured and express myself somewhat artistically I've decided I'm gonna learn how to play the tinwhistle. Anyone have any suggestions for books/websites on the subject? Or for that matter books/websites on general music terminology?
I found a pagan group out here that is having an open Samhain celebration this weekend in Arlington. And from what I've read on their site, they've got their proverbial shit together. Which I must say is a really refreshing thing to find these days. They've posted the ritual that will be performed on Saturday for Samhain, and on paper it looks really good. Now I know full well that the best written rituals can turn out to be duds, but more often than not they turn out to live up to their potential.
Regardless I'm excited. First real dose of hanging with a large group o' pagan peeps in over a year.
And did I foreget to mention I'm gonna carve me a Jack O' Lantern for the first time in six years this year?
Fall is coming to D.C. and I'm loving every second of it. Well every second that my instincts aren't yelling at me that is. You see with the cooler temperatures and the longer nights my body for some reason thinks that I need to put on an extra five or ten pounds of insulation for an iminent hibernation. I keep trying to communicate to myself that, no the coming winter really dosn't warrant the extra insulation, however I don't think my instincts wanna listen. So the name of the game is gonna be self control for the next few months. Come to think of it though, this could also explain my relative feistiness I've been feeling for the past few weeks.
So, as part of my current free time I discovered the tv show Scrubs as comedy central has picked it up on syndication. I really indentify with J.D. or "newbie" as he's commonly called. I think it just might be the running monologue he does, or the fact that the humor is very much on my level.
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findsthepath's journal
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