So it’s been just over a month since I last wrote, and I actually
sat down on November 14th and made a post, but I see I actually
never posted it on-line. You see, what I do is type everything into Word and then
I transfer it over to here, and I guess I forgot to do that...so here is the
post…and from there I continue on with what’s been going on the last month.
Doug's Birthday Dinner
This past weekend was pretty busy for us, as usual. But, the most
important thing I want to talk about was going to the unveiling and dedication
of the TMC Veterans Lounge on Saturday night. Going into the Veterans Day
weekend down here, and Remembrance Day in Canada, it couldn't have been more
fitting. Two young men were remembered and honored that night, and one of those
being LCPL Adam D. Peak. Adam was a
really good friend to a lot of the Alumni I know from Thomas More, as he was a
Brother in the ADG Fraternity. The other was Andrew Meyers, who just passed
away in July of this year, and was going to graduate from Thomas More in
December with two Degrees. As stories
were told about both of the boys and their accomplishments in such a short time
on earth, you could see how much of an impact they had on those around
them. Both were born in 1984, only 4
years younger than me. Adam was killed
in action in Afghanistan in February 2010. I often hear stories about him, and
it’s moments like that where I wish I would have had a chance to meet him. I love listening to the guys tell stories
about him and the times that they had with him, and how they laugh at a lot of
things they did together. Standing there, listening to Caleb read his speech
about Adam, with Aaron, Vaughn, Doug, O’Brian and Jaime behind him as supports
made me really think about how lucky these guys are to have one another in
their lives. And, how extremely lucky I
am to have met such an amazing group of people, who I literally admire more and
more each day, and couldn’t be happier about having them as a part of my
life.
It’s so interesting for me to see how a group like this can come
together and have the connection that they do. The closest thing that reminds
me of that for myself is the group of friends and co-workers I have worked with
over the last 9 years. As much as there
has been turn-over in the office, there have been quite a few from the group who
still continued to come out for drinks on Friday nights or attend other random
events and functions outside of work. Lately,
I’ve been missing that, and been trying to come to find some meaning or purpose
with everything. Aaron tells me that I
have the ADG guys and their girlfriends and wives, as a big family, and support
system, which I know I totally do and don’t ever doubt. I’ve just been thinking lately that perhaps
there is something more I need to do or should do to be more apart of some sort
of community. I think that going to a Catholic school has definitely made me
think more about things in life and I’m just trying to figure that out right
now. Perhaps I am going through what I
like to say is another mid-life crisis.
Time will only tell I suppose.
School is out for winter break now! Finished my last exam
yesterday morning, and what a relief that was. I had four exams within 36 hours
of each other, and needless to say, the worst one will be the one I wrote
yesterday morning in my History class. I feel so defeated on it as I should
have done better, perhaps I will surprise myself with my final grade, I might have
actually have guessed a lot of the right answers. Fingers crossed.
There are many times over this last month that I have thought about
things I wanted to write about on here, and just didn’t have the extra hour or
two to sit down and write. November was an extremely busy month for us, more so
than any other month that I have been down here. On Friday the 15th,
I had my usual classes and my International Student Society meeting, as we were
celebrating International Week at the school the following week, so we’re
making the final plans for that. That night I met the International Student
Society group at Hobrauhaus in Newport for supper, which if you haven’t guessed
is a German restaurant/bar. Aaron and
our friend Josh joined us, as right after supper the three of us headed over to
watch the Cyclones play, and they won, 2-1.
The next morning we were up at 6am, and over at the Bellevue High
School, for Caleb’s 5km run that Aaron was DJing. I ended up working on the
route directing runners in the right direction. It was a great success, and
looking forward to hopefully running in it next year. We then met up with Dave and Amanda to go
over their wedding music as their wedding was on November 30th. That evening we drove to Indianapolis to meet
Seymur and Kelsi and go see Steve Rannazzisi, who is a comedian, but is also on
the television show The League, which I believe is about Fantasy Football. I
have only caught an episode here or there, but it is Aaron’s favourite show. If
you haven’t heard of him or seen him before, look him up, he’s pretty funny.
After the show we drove back home because we had to work the Bengals game the
next morning and be at the stadium by 9am.
Photo op with Steve Rannazzisi
The next week was the usual going to evening classes for me, and
the only night we were home was on Thursday and Friday night. We intentionally
decided to just stay in as the previous weeks had finally caught up to us.
Thursday I made butter tart bars for the International food day on Friday, and
they were a big hit! I was going to make butter tarts, but to my surprise I
went to three stores and none of them sold tart shells, and well I just didn’t
have time to make my own, so bars is what they got. Saturday morning I had my 2nd
last Theology class, and that night we went to the Cyclones hockey game. Sunday
I finished writing my Sociology paper that was due in a couple days and started
studying for a Psychology test which was the next morning. That evening we went to Dave and Amanda’s
rehearsal/dinner, and I was totally the nerd who would pull out my notes every
now and then to study.
The next week was a short one for school cause of the Thanksgiving
break. I had classes on Monday and
Tuesday and then the rest of the week off. I had my last History paper to
write, so I spent all day Wednesday working on it, and that night we went to
the Cyclones game, which was $1 beer night. After the game a bunch of us went
bar hopping in Newport and then finished the night off at Anchor Grill for some
late night breakfast. Thursday was Thanksgiving and we went to Aaron’s Aunt
Mary’s and Uncle Keith’s for dinner and played board games and dominoes all
night. Friday I drove Aaron to work and hit up a few stores for Black Friday,
but I wasn’t really looking for anything, so I ended up just going home. That
night we went and seen How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Aronoff. What a
fantastic Broadway show!! I loved it! Would totally go and see it again. After
the show went to Chase and Carrie’s for their annual Friendsgiving, which is thanksgiving
with friends, turkey dinner and games. Good times. Saturday was Dave and Amanda’s
wedding, which was really nice, and Sunday was a day at home finishing my
History paper. Craig and Angela invited
us over to watch the Bengals game later in the afternoon, so we ended up over
at their place watching the game. Again I was that nerd who takes her books
with her, as I had my Economics final the next night and had to prepare for my
Operations Management presentation, which was on Wednesday. Tuesday night was
Winter Wonderland at the school. It’s an event put on by the school and each
club works a table of their choice and kids from the area come and have some
fun. I volunteered a couple of hours to
work the goodie bag table where we helped kids decorate treat bags for all the
fantastic things they would get that night. Santa came, and there was pizza and
drinks and lots of games. Such a fantastic event!
Which brings me to last weekend, as classes for me finished on
Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I studied for my Theology final which was on
Saturday morning. Not sure if everyone heard, but we were hit with a big storm
on Friday. Funny thing is that they had been talking about it on Thursday, and
when we woke up to no snow Friday morning I thought that the weather people
were wrong again. How many times does that happen in places? A lot. Everywhere
I am sure. Then Aaron told me that Thomas More was closed and a bunch of other
schools too, and I just laughed. It didn’t snow, why are you cancelling school.
Well…by 10:30am it had started to spit, by noon it was freezing rain, and
shortly after 1pm the snow started to fall. Within an hour it stopped and I
thought to myself, this is ridiculous. Everyone overthinking this weather and
that it’s going to be bad, and that they need to come to some parts of Canada.
Within maybe half an hour it started to snow again, and it was really coming
down. By 2:30pm Aaron had called to tell me that they were sending people home,
so I had to go and get him. He had plans that night for his U-night for the
Fraternity but the school cancelled it, and the guys had decided prior that a
small group of them would still go out. The whole U-night idea is that all the
ADG Fraternity’s across the United States gather together on the same date,
same time, and then I believe they all link in with one another somehow and do
whatever it is that they would do. So that Aaron wouldn’t be drinking and
driving I told him that I would drive him to the starting point and then he
could just go around with the guys wherever it was they went without having to
worry about having a car, and that I’d pick him up the next morning after I
wrote my Theology exam. The roads to
Crestview Hills were awful, and I’m used to driving in those types of
conditions, but people who aren’t, freaked me out. I was constantly paranoid
that someone was going to hit me as they were misjudging the road conditions.
Like at home, a lot of people were driving like idiots. It wasn’t until about 3
hours later when I was driving home from Applebee’s in the dark and it was
still snowing that I had a few good laughs and moments where I had to shake my
head at people driving. How 3 cars didn’t even make it onto the freeway as when
they were on the merging lane they lost control and spun out and were in the
trees, or the people who tried going too fast up some of the hills and
eventually just were spinning out in one spot.
While at Applebee’s we watched a Corvette drive by and barely make it up
the small hill. It was quite comical. My drove home that night doubled, to just
over 30 minutes, which isn’t too bad, as I heard some people sat in their cars
for 2-3 hours.
Saturday morning it was beautiful, a little chilly, yes I know,
not as cold as the record breaking temperatures Alberta was having, but still
cold for around here, especially for this time of year. I went and wrote my Theology final, and
rocked it! Some of you already know, but I got 100% on it, and my overall final
grade for the class was 99.33%. To think I cried in class the first day cause I
was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a 70% to just pass the class. So glad
that the first couple of weeks of school is far behind me!
That night we went out for Doug’s birthday dinner to Longhorn’s,
and then met Seymur and Kelsi at this wing place where they were watching
college football. Morgan started having contractions just as we sat down and I thought for sure baby was going to come that night, but no such luck. Sunday morning Kelsi drove Aaron, Seymur and Vaughn over to
the stadium to work the Bengals game, I opted out of working it just so that I
could try and study for my exams. Monday I studied all day, and that night I
went to the gym with Aaron and then we had dinner at his grandma’s place.
Tuesday night after I wrote my sociology exam and then we went to the Cyclones
game, missed the first period, but caught the rest and it was a disappointing
loss for the boys. Wednesday morning I wrote my Psychology exam, which I thought
I did fairly well on, and shortly after lunch he had our final grades up, I got
a B in the class. I was hoping for an A, but guess I didn’t do as well as I
thought on the final. Wednesday night I wrote my Operations Management exam, so
I spent the afternoon in the library studying for it and my History exam that
was yesterday morning. Like Psychology, my Operations Management mark was up
not long after we wrote the final exam, and I got an A!
Bringing me to yesterday morning where I wrote my History exam.
After it was over I had to do some running around at the school to get my new
stickers for the Spring semester on my ID card and parking pass, as well as
talked to Jodee about my I-20 form and the process for leaving the US and
getting back in. I don’t think I have told too many people about this, but I’m
going on the study abroad trip to Nicaragua next May for 10 days! I’m so
excited, as I haven’t ventured too far out of North America before. Work
approved my extension to my leave, and the school approved me on going over the
18 hour credit limit for a semester, so as of right now, everything is good to
go. I just have to figure out all the travel requirements, etc. to make sure
that I stay within the guidelines for Homeland Security. Last night was a small
get together for Aaron’s work group at the bank. I think there were 14 of us
who went to the Yardhouse and had some appetizer’s and drinks. We stayed for a
couple of hours and then ventured off to Cheddar’s Café to meet Zach for his
birthday dinner.
Today, I wish I could say that I got to sleep in and have laid around
the house all day. That isn’t the case though. I drove Aaron to work, came home
to start writing this, went for a massage, met Aaron at work to look and bid on
items which his office is trying to sell before throwing them out or maybe
donating them, then we went for lunch. Just got home, going to finish this,
start a load of laundry and then going to unwrap 2lbs of Hershey kisses for
candy cane popcorn that Aaron and I are going to make tomorrow. I was going to
make butter tart bars but forgot to take the butter out to come to room
temperature, so I guess I will be making those tomorrow too. We have the ADG
Christmas party at Brittany and Caleb’s place followed by the Ugly Sweater
party at Jason and Amber’s. Tonight we have a friend who is coming in from
Kansas, who I haven’t met yet, and we are all going to Hofbrauhaus for some
drinks. Sunday, I can’t wait for Sunday, as we are doing nothing all day! I am
going to take Aaron out for his birthday supper that night to Dancing Wasabi
for some sushi. We haven’t been since probably June, maybe even March when I
was down here visiting, so we are due to have some sushi. Should be a good night,
followed by watching the Bengals game.
Have a great weekend! Happy Friday the 13th!!!
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