What I Did Over My Winter Vacation.
So, I have tendonitis. Mildly.
I have a sexy new wrist brace that I am a bit fond of. As my dad pointed out, I will probably be in and out of some sort of brace for the rest of my life. There are certainly worse fates and the doctor isn't worried about permanent nerve damage just yet.
It's a little hard to type and do stuff with the brace, but I'm getting used to it. All in all it's not so bad and I can always tell strangers that I injured my wrist saving a baby from a Jaguar or something. Punched it in its damned mouth, is what.
Dad is recovering remarkable well from his heart surgery and while it's too soon to tell because his heart is still so irritated, I really hoped the ablation worked (he's a fib-ey much less often now). He was doing well enough to be bored and his doctors say he's a week ahead of the recovery schedule (I guess having 23 odd invasive surgeries in your life helps prepare you).
Unfortunately he's back in the hospital right now because one of his stitches in his femur got badly infected and burst (he says the emergency nurses got all sorts of excited about that one). When I went to visit him (and bring him tasty sugar-free treats from Starbucks) he was pretty miserable being back in the hospital right now, but hopefully it won't be for long.
It's been a pretty good break and I'm not terribly looking forward to going back to school. I only got to spend a couple days with my family for Christmas, but it was still nice. All the relatives from mom's side came in for Christmas here, including the California side who can only afford to travel to Arkansas every two years. We had an amazing Christmas lunch/dinner spread all the way down the two banquet tables we had stuck together to accommodate all twelve of us. My dad and Natalia came as well and it was just a really pleasant gathering. We had turkey and ham and countless different kinds of mashed potatoes and cranberry dressings and stuffings and casseroles and other side dishes. Afterwards, Natalia got out her Harp (the 4 ft, not the 7) and played beautifully. She even took requests (and, yes, she can play Free Bird on the harp, thankyouverymuch). It was so luxurious.
I had to leave in the wee hours on the 27th to catch a plane to APO National Convention. It was a really great experience and I think Louisville put on a really great event. I think the authentic engraved miniature Louisville Slugger bat we got at the first banquet was pretty much the best APO Trinket I've ever gotten.
I also had the opportunity to serve as a voting delegate for the first time at a convention (something I've been thinking about since before the 2004 convention, but I really began hoping and desiring in late Fall 2005/early Spring 2006...) and it was all that I hoped for. I love jumping head-first into these things and I immediately wanted to be involved on one of the optional reference committees (the first two days of convention, smaller reference committees over assigned legislation and decide if and how it is presented to the legislation floor, which involves all voting delegates and lasts for the remaining two days). I asked to be assigned onto a reference committee but I thought it was presumptuous to inquire about being a committee chair, since it was my first time as a delegate. But then JKO (John K. Ottenad our ridiculously awesome Region 8 Director at the time) approached me about it and recommended me and another awesome Region 8 Brother, Hyphen, for positions (Unbeknownst to me, our chapter president also sent his recommendations to the National President). In short, I was chair of National Organization 2 and Hyphen was made chair of Rules and Creditionals (and did a smashing job). My committee was super awesome and efficient and we smoothly got through all of legislation and finished our report and hour ahead of schedule at 5pm. Unfortunately, Nat Org 1 couldn't get their report in until midnight and my report couldn't be looked at until there's was, so I got a cheery call from Clark in Rules and Creditionals at 2 am (just as I had laid my head down) that I needed to come in and fix some things. That sucked a bit (I averaged 3 hours sleep/night during the whole convention), but Nat Org 1 was pretty cool and I think the chair did a great job.
I had the great honor to give seconding speeches for two of my favorite alums, Fred and JKO, and was asked to do a third for Brant Warrick, but he backed down when he realized I was already committed. It took me forever to get those two one-minute speeches ready (thank you Kevin, John and Jenni!!!), but I think they turned out pretty well and heart-felt.
After convention was over, there was the debauchery. Well, technically there had been plenty of debauchery during the convention, but I was finally able to join it. It was such a good night that Jenni, Kevin, Josh, Laura and myself all slept to 2pm the next day (well Jenni and Kevin until 3pm...the bums). It was such a good night that we all celebrated the next night, New Years rather conservatively (read: with little to no alcohol) in Fred's huge larger-than-my-apartment suite. Not that Fred's party was particularly tame - it wasn't - we just happened to be. It also turns out that downtown Louisville all but completely shuts down the before and after New Years and it was kinda boring after that. I did manage to get Tyler a full-sized and personalized Louisville Slugger bat right before we left for the airport. It's pretty sweet looking.
Speaking of that Tyler guy...yeah, he's pretty much the best guy ever. I don't think you could persuade me otherwise.
On a final note, my USB hub isn't working and it's really annoying. My mouse is hard to use in the brace and I'd really like to switch to my wacom tablet. Oh well.
I have a sexy new wrist brace that I am a bit fond of. As my dad pointed out, I will probably be in and out of some sort of brace for the rest of my life. There are certainly worse fates and the doctor isn't worried about permanent nerve damage just yet.
It's a little hard to type and do stuff with the brace, but I'm getting used to it. All in all it's not so bad and I can always tell strangers that I injured my wrist saving a baby from a Jaguar or something. Punched it in its damned mouth, is what.
Dad is recovering remarkable well from his heart surgery and while it's too soon to tell because his heart is still so irritated, I really hoped the ablation worked (he's a fib-ey much less often now). He was doing well enough to be bored and his doctors say he's a week ahead of the recovery schedule (I guess having 23 odd invasive surgeries in your life helps prepare you).
Unfortunately he's back in the hospital right now because one of his stitches in his femur got badly infected and burst (he says the emergency nurses got all sorts of excited about that one). When I went to visit him (and bring him tasty sugar-free treats from Starbucks) he was pretty miserable being back in the hospital right now, but hopefully it won't be for long.
It's been a pretty good break and I'm not terribly looking forward to going back to school. I only got to spend a couple days with my family for Christmas, but it was still nice. All the relatives from mom's side came in for Christmas here, including the California side who can only afford to travel to Arkansas every two years. We had an amazing Christmas lunch/dinner spread all the way down the two banquet tables we had stuck together to accommodate all twelve of us. My dad and Natalia came as well and it was just a really pleasant gathering. We had turkey and ham and countless different kinds of mashed potatoes and cranberry dressings and stuffings and casseroles and other side dishes. Afterwards, Natalia got out her Harp (the 4 ft, not the 7) and played beautifully. She even took requests (and, yes, she can play Free Bird on the harp, thankyouverymuch). It was so luxurious.
I had to leave in the wee hours on the 27th to catch a plane to APO National Convention. It was a really great experience and I think Louisville put on a really great event. I think the authentic engraved miniature Louisville Slugger bat we got at the first banquet was pretty much the best APO Trinket I've ever gotten.
I also had the opportunity to serve as a voting delegate for the first time at a convention (something I've been thinking about since before the 2004 convention, but I really began hoping and desiring in late Fall 2005/early Spring 2006...) and it was all that I hoped for. I love jumping head-first into these things and I immediately wanted to be involved on one of the optional reference committees (the first two days of convention, smaller reference committees over assigned legislation and decide if and how it is presented to the legislation floor, which involves all voting delegates and lasts for the remaining two days). I asked to be assigned onto a reference committee but I thought it was presumptuous to inquire about being a committee chair, since it was my first time as a delegate. But then JKO (John K. Ottenad our ridiculously awesome Region 8 Director at the time) approached me about it and recommended me and another awesome Region 8 Brother, Hyphen, for positions (Unbeknownst to me, our chapter president also sent his recommendations to the National President). In short, I was chair of National Organization 2 and Hyphen was made chair of Rules and Creditionals (and did a smashing job). My committee was super awesome and efficient and we smoothly got through all of legislation and finished our report and hour ahead of schedule at 5pm. Unfortunately, Nat Org 1 couldn't get their report in until midnight and my report couldn't be looked at until there's was, so I got a cheery call from Clark in Rules and Creditionals at 2 am (just as I had laid my head down) that I needed to come in and fix some things. That sucked a bit (I averaged 3 hours sleep/night during the whole convention), but Nat Org 1 was pretty cool and I think the chair did a great job.
I had the great honor to give seconding speeches for two of my favorite alums, Fred and JKO, and was asked to do a third for Brant Warrick, but he backed down when he realized I was already committed. It took me forever to get those two one-minute speeches ready (thank you Kevin, John and Jenni!!!), but I think they turned out pretty well and heart-felt.
After convention was over, there was the debauchery. Well, technically there had been plenty of debauchery during the convention, but I was finally able to join it. It was such a good night that Jenni, Kevin, Josh, Laura and myself all slept to 2pm the next day (well Jenni and Kevin until 3pm...the bums). It was such a good night that we all celebrated the next night, New Years rather conservatively (read: with little to no alcohol) in Fred's huge larger-than-my-apartment suite. Not that Fred's party was particularly tame - it wasn't - we just happened to be. It also turns out that downtown Louisville all but completely shuts down the before and after New Years and it was kinda boring after that. I did manage to get Tyler a full-sized and personalized Louisville Slugger bat right before we left for the airport. It's pretty sweet looking.
Speaking of that Tyler guy...yeah, he's pretty much the best guy ever. I don't think you could persuade me otherwise.
On a final note, my USB hub isn't working and it's really annoying. My mouse is hard to use in the brace and I'd really like to switch to my wacom tablet. Oh well.