The Long Goodbye

So Shaun arrived in Chicago tonight to begin his 8 week long stay at boot camp. He was supposed to leave last Thursday, August 23rd, but storms in Chicago prevented that. His departure was then rescheduled to Friday evening, and that flight was canceled because of storms here in Detroit. So then he stayed the weekend (which was fun because he and his fam came to my birthday dinner on Sunday night), and finally left today on a 4 o'clock flight. The whole ordeal was exhausting for me and his family -- we said goodbye on Wednesday night, then again on Thursday night, and then the last goodbye last night, but it was longer for Shaun, who probably spent over 20 hours sitting at Metro Airport over the weekend.

It's odd how they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I feel like the mere anticipation of his absence made my heart grow fonder. It made me realize some things about what has been happening between us lately, the most important one being that I am still crazy in love with him. Another being that I am really, incredibly proud of him for joining the Navy Reserve. Yet another being that he is still the only man that I have ever met that honestly understands me, encourages me, supports me, calls me on my bullshit, makes me laugh, laughs at my dumbass jokes, can talk with me for hours, can shut the hell up with me for hours, loves my family to death, and holds my hand through absolutely everything. And also that while he made some mistakes (as did I), he is learning from those mistakes and genuinely trying to do better, and that is something that not many people can do.

I am going to miss him more than I can say while he is away the next few weeks. I have so much new stuff going on -- new job at United Way for Southeastern Michigan (which is AWESOME!), starting school at Wayne State on September 6th. New people, new places... a lot of things I know I'd love to talk to him about and he'd love to hear about. But then again, this does give me an excuse to write letters. And you guys know how much I love that!

So for now I will just keep my head down, go to work, get ready for school, save my money, and break out the pen and paper to write to my boy while he is busting his ass in boot camp.

Happy 26th to Me

Katie Got Hitched!

Some selected scenes from Katie's nuptials this past Saturday. The ceremony was outside at the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle. The reception was held at the Tiger Club at Comerica Park. Katie wore an elegant deep red ball gown and the bridesmaids wore ivory tea length dresses. The day was beautiful, the people were friendly, and the food was awesome. All in all, a great wedding!

Congratulations Katie and Justin, may you have all the happiness in the world!

Nik's Surprise Visit!

Nik, Steph, Linda and I went up to Shield's Restaurant in Southfield where Bobby was hosting an open mic night with some of his friends. He's visiting from Santa Cruz for a week or so. Crazy that I've known Bob since kindergarten! Anyway, took some pics at the bar and thought I'd share them!

My Nephew Turns 5

The Dude Abides

While watching "The Big Lebowski" with my dad the other day I realized that I had kind of forgotten how absolutely HI-LARIOUS it is. I remember going up north to Jetta's cottage in Manistee for MLK Jr. weekend senior year of college and drinking a lot of White Russians. In fact, if I remember correctly, there was one point when Alyssa walked into the kitchen and uttered this exact sentence:

"I think I'll have a glass of water.... Or a White Russian."

I think it was about 11 AM at that point. She chose a White Russian.

My favorite part of the movie is near the end, when their buddy has died of a heart attack and been cremated. (Haha, I just read that sentence back, and it sounds terrible, that my favorite part is when a guy dies, but hey, that's how it came out so I'm leaving it!) They take the coffee can full of his ashes up to a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and after waxing poetic in a eulogy that unneccessarily contains a ton of stuff about Vietnam, they throw his ashes off the cliff -- and the wind blows them right back into The Dude's face. To me, it is one of the purest moments of comedic genius ever captured on film.

The Dude abides, and so do I. Long live Lebowski!

Katie's Bachelorette Celebration

And then some!

Amazing Art

Watch this video first and then check out his new link at the right. Phil Hansen is incredible and his website is worth exploring. You will not be sorry. I promise.

Thanks Mom.

Technology Overload

So in the past few days I've gotten my new computer and my new digital camera in the mail, and I just cannot stop playing around with them! (Add my iPod into the mix, and it's full on technology overload.) I'd forgotten how nice it is to have my own computer, and boy is it a nice computer! I'm also looking forward to having some great opportunities to use the camera, but I need to buy a bigger memory card for it so that it will hold more pictures.

Tonight I went to a meeting of the Southfield Historical Society with Steph and her mom. I've lived here all my life and never knew that Southfield had an historical society, and its very own history museum. There was some interesting stuff in the museum too, including some school registers from 1895 that Steph and I had a good time looking through. Orthography was listed as a subject, and I had no idea what that was until Steph's mom told us that it's the study of handwriting. Which probably explains why every page in the book looked like it had been written by a calligrapher.

Maybe the next post will contain pictures. For now I'm gonna go back to playing around with my brand spanking new computer!