My Christmas memo
Ed. note: This is the Christmas memo going out in my Christmas cards this year. If you're not on my IRL friends list, please accept my Merriest Christmakwanzukkah greetings, and enjoy my year in review.
I hope that 2008 found you well and leaves you in the same condition.
Mother could never understand guys’ fascination with sports -- me specifically. I could always reference family happenings based on a sporting event I was either watching or attending.
So she would have found it slightly irritating that this past year, the following things happened to me in my pursuit of sports attendance:
*Being left without a car 2,000 miles from home
*Hobbling around Tijuana
*Seeing the grave of a bourbon king
*Meeting Guatemalans
*Accidentally running over a dog
So, chronologically:
12/31/07
Before heading out to Pittsburgh to fly out to the Fiesta Bowl last New Year’s Eve, I stopped off at my local bank for some traveling money. However, due to some confusion on the teller’s part, I didn’t return my driver’s license to my wallet once I got in the car.
Fortunately, my state-employee ID was sufficient enough for airport security, but without access to a rental car, I literally walked the streets of Phoenix my entire time there.
7/5, 7/8, and 7/14
Our annual baseball trip in July took Chad and me to southern California. I took Chad to the San Diego State campus so he could pick up an Aztec T-shirt at the bookstore. I had purchased something to drink and was in the process of opening it when I forgot about the final step.
Fortunately, it was only some strained ligaments in my foot - diagnosed after I returned home - but I did spend several days closely aligned with Chad’s wheelchair. (He calls that incident “Montezuma’s Revenge.”)
9/16, 9/18, and 9/19
I took advantage of a WVU game in Colorado to visit an old high-school friend of mine and his wife. I flew out of Columbus on a 6am flight, necessitating an overnight drive. (Ultimately, the flight was postponed due to the tail end of Hurricane Ike, and my rerouted flight left several hours later.)
Coming into Point Pleasant on four-lane US 35, I slowed down when I saw a dog ambling across the road. Once he passed, I re-engaged cruise control, not expecting a second dog to cross. My decision - right or wrong - was to keep going. It was after 2 in the morning, and I wasn’t in a residential area to at least leave a note. I have received much grief from the animal lovers in the family, but they also understand that there was no deliberate intent.
Once I got to the Rockies, I backtracked to the small western Kansas town of Goodland, where my great-aunt and uncle are buried. (That’s right: Jim Beam. Get it? “Bourbon king”?) I snapped several photos for my cousin’s ongoing family history project.
The night before I returned home was spent with my friend David and his wife Kim. Since I had seen them last in 2004, they had adopted an infant sister-and-brother set from Guatemala. Ruthie was all smiles (until bedtime) and Nathaniel was a boy in between ER visits due to spikes in his temperature. (I later learned his kidneys were acting up, but it’s been taken care of.) And proud big sister Ana was working on her Spanish around su hermano y hermana, but they were uninterested.
7/17
In other news, my grandfather succumbed to a 20-year battle with bladder cancer in July. While we were sad to see him go, he was financially prudent enough that his estate provided each of the kids and grandkids a nice little stipend.
11/11
Dad has started dating an older redhead with two great-grandchildren. That leaves me with the very real possibility of becoming a (step)great-uncle.
My job has shifted again. In addition to my former duties as a claims examiner for self-insured companies, I will now also be doing market-conduct exams. This means I’ll be performing comprehensive reviews on in-state insurance companies. (Most out-of-state work will be contracted out.)
My official first day was at seminars during the national convention in St Louis (8/12), but I recovered from being tossed in the deep end, and subsequently received training in a more appropriate setting: the Atlanta Hilton (10/8, 10/10, and 10/11). (It may not have been an ideal learning environment, but I didn’t complain.)
9/4
PS: Forgot to mention that, during a WVU football game early in the season, I won a text-messaging contest, taking home 400 lottery tickets (“a lottery ticket a day for a year”) and 12 free-pizza coupons (“free pizza for a year”). If anybody’s hungry, let me know.
I hope that 2008 found you well and leaves you in the same condition.
Mother could never understand guys’ fascination with sports -- me specifically. I could always reference family happenings based on a sporting event I was either watching or attending.
So she would have found it slightly irritating that this past year, the following things happened to me in my pursuit of sports attendance:
*Being left without a car 2,000 miles from home
*Hobbling around Tijuana
*Seeing the grave of a bourbon king
*Meeting Guatemalans
*Accidentally running over a dog
So, chronologically:
12/31/07
Before heading out to Pittsburgh to fly out to the Fiesta Bowl last New Year’s Eve, I stopped off at my local bank for some traveling money. However, due to some confusion on the teller’s part, I didn’t return my driver’s license to my wallet once I got in the car.
Fortunately, my state-employee ID was sufficient enough for airport security, but without access to a rental car, I literally walked the streets of Phoenix my entire time there.
7/5, 7/8, and 7/14
Our annual baseball trip in July took Chad and me to southern California. I took Chad to the San Diego State campus so he could pick up an Aztec T-shirt at the bookstore. I had purchased something to drink and was in the process of opening it when I forgot about the final step.
Fortunately, it was only some strained ligaments in my foot - diagnosed after I returned home - but I did spend several days closely aligned with Chad’s wheelchair. (He calls that incident “Montezuma’s Revenge.”)
9/16, 9/18, and 9/19
I took advantage of a WVU game in Colorado to visit an old high-school friend of mine and his wife. I flew out of Columbus on a 6am flight, necessitating an overnight drive. (Ultimately, the flight was postponed due to the tail end of Hurricane Ike, and my rerouted flight left several hours later.)
Coming into Point Pleasant on four-lane US 35, I slowed down when I saw a dog ambling across the road. Once he passed, I re-engaged cruise control, not expecting a second dog to cross. My decision - right or wrong - was to keep going. It was after 2 in the morning, and I wasn’t in a residential area to at least leave a note. I have received much grief from the animal lovers in the family, but they also understand that there was no deliberate intent.
Once I got to the Rockies, I backtracked to the small western Kansas town of Goodland, where my great-aunt and uncle are buried. (That’s right: Jim Beam. Get it? “Bourbon king”?) I snapped several photos for my cousin’s ongoing family history project.
The night before I returned home was spent with my friend David and his wife Kim. Since I had seen them last in 2004, they had adopted an infant sister-and-brother set from Guatemala. Ruthie was all smiles (until bedtime) and Nathaniel was a boy in between ER visits due to spikes in his temperature. (I later learned his kidneys were acting up, but it’s been taken care of.) And proud big sister Ana was working on her Spanish around su hermano y hermana, but they were uninterested.
7/17
In other news, my grandfather succumbed to a 20-year battle with bladder cancer in July. While we were sad to see him go, he was financially prudent enough that his estate provided each of the kids and grandkids a nice little stipend.
11/11
Dad has started dating an older redhead with two great-grandchildren. That leaves me with the very real possibility of becoming a (step)great-uncle.
My job has shifted again. In addition to my former duties as a claims examiner for self-insured companies, I will now also be doing market-conduct exams. This means I’ll be performing comprehensive reviews on in-state insurance companies. (Most out-of-state work will be contracted out.)
My official first day was at seminars during the national convention in St Louis (8/12), but I recovered from being tossed in the deep end, and subsequently received training in a more appropriate setting: the Atlanta Hilton (10/8, 10/10, and 10/11). (It may not have been an ideal learning environment, but I didn’t complain.)
9/4
PS: Forgot to mention that, during a WVU football game early in the season, I won a text-messaging contest, taking home 400 lottery tickets (“a lottery ticket a day for a year”) and 12 free-pizza coupons (“free pizza for a year”). If anybody’s hungry, let me know.