Wow… Has it really been 10 YEARS?!?!?!

Where has all the time gone?  Did I actually accomplish anything in life?!  Well… Of course I got married, but that’s a little different.  I guess I have a couple things under my belt (One A.S. and two B.S., hopefully a MFA or PhD in the future).  I do have a phenomenal job and work with the best people in the world… So I guess I did accomplish something wonderful so far.  I do want to change the world for the better, but I guess that’ll take a little more time than a 10 Year period could handle.

Wow… 10 Years…

I did have the opportunity to find out about my class reunion through a couple good friends from High School.  I feel bad I haven’t been that much in touch with everyone I used to hang out with, but I guess as you get older, you change, and so do the people you used to hang out with. 

My graduating year was 1999 and we had a little more than 180 people celebrate that now distant day.  At the reunion, about 75 people joined us to remember the moments and then some.  Not a bad crowd and definitely some familiar faces.

Corinn and I started off the evening by hanging with Nick, a good friend since Freshman year of High School, at his parent’s eating his mother’s AWESOME fried rice (I can never pass up an opportunity when she cooks).  We pulled out his copy of the 1999 Year book and talked for almost two hours about the past and the fun things we did.  I mostly wanted to look at the book to remember who was in our class and to catch up on name (I’m horrible with names and feel bad that I forget them, especially when it’s on the spot!).  We decided to be “fashionably” late and then after one last scoop of fried rice, we headed off to the reunion at Halverson’s.

Where everybody doesn't remember your name!

We be the lounge lizzards...

Corinn and I enjoyed a couple drinks at Halverson’s with Nick (of course) and Adam, who I haven’t seen since June 1999 and works for Apple in a pretty cool job.  I also met up with a couple other people, notably Matt who actually didn’t graduate with us because he attended the first two years and then transferred to a different school in a different state, but since he was such a cool guy, he got invited anyway.  He works as a sports writer, which doesn’t surprise me as he’s always been a big college sports fan.  Of course I met others, but these were just a few of my closer friends I hung out with and experienced many cool events and evenings in good ol’ South Burlington.

Ryan, who works at yahoo in marketing, was one of the three (Hans and Sarah being the other two) who coordinated the whole event and MC’ed the night.  They put on a great show and social event with some classic footage of us at graduation, talent night, small skits for classes and even some of our theatrical performances.  They even had stellar trivia!  Three rounds included facts about 1999, a “who’s who” list of photos and teachers, and the best of all, a trip back to taking the SAT’s!!!  After “retaking” the SAT’s, I wondered why I didn’t score a 1600 back then.

 

Before we left, Ryan, Sarah and Hans brought out a gigantic box labeled:  1999 Time Capsule!

 

Ooooooo... Sooooo mysterious, what's inside?!?!?!

Inside is where we had deposited stuff, I guess, that we wanted to see in the future.  There were your typical brochures and sports programs.  Someone apparently even put in a cap gun and stuffed cat!  After weeding through some very bizzare stuff, toward the end, Ryan pulled out my University Mall Shopping ID Card.  HOLY CRAP it was bizzare!  I had no idea that I looked that way back then, much less that I or someone put that card in there!  I didn't get a photo to show everyone... on purpose...

Overall, the experience was great!  I got to meet up with people I haven’t seen in a while, wished others came who could not have attended, talked up a storm about what’s happened for the past 10 years and talked with people I probably would not have normally in High School because she was “too hot” or “he seemed too cool for me to hang with”.  It’s amazing when you strip out the drama of being a teenager and get down to how cool people really are.

At the end of the night, it just made me realize how lucky I am that I got to grow up in a school system and town that had a great community and a lot of great people.  I hope I’ll have even more to tell in another 10 and look forward to seeing most of my peers’… way before then!

      

Wow... What a ride!

On Tuesday, July 14th, I got a call at about 1:15PM from my mother.  For the past month, I was told that my mother was going to call me right after she hears that Jina's going into labor.  When I received that call, my first question as soon as I answered was, "Is this THE call?!" She laughed and kindly replied, "Yes." Then I felt a rush right up my back as I got all excited that my sister was in labor.

Of course, I didn't rush to the hospital immediately as I wanted to... I was in a meeting with the Burlington Free Press showing a video with the staff about the United Nations project:  Electronic Game to End Violence against Women.  After that, I got pulled in to another interview with a radio show talking about another game we've been working on for kids with Cystic Fibrosis.  And RIGHT after that, I was following up with students about other important projects at the EMC.  3 to 4 hours later of perpetual feeling to run over to the hospital, with every minute feeling longer than necessary, I finally got picked up by Corinn and we head over to Burger King to get poor Nate his 5:30PM lunch.

When we finally arrived, many of us were waiting in the room anticipating more, positive news.  Nate was a trooper and gave us updates almost every half hour!  He was totally cool and calm.  Armed with so much medical information and labor knowledge, we were impressed!  I felt he was missing his doctor's white coat with clipboard!

"Hello, I'm Dr. Couture at your service...!"

As anticipation grew amongst the crowd, so did Jina's contractions.  At one point... she went through a contraction that lasted 1 1/2 hours!!!  I have NO idea what that would be like and am not aware of any other woman who had to endure that much stress and physical activity before!  Despite this, things seemed to go smoothly.  By 12AM the next morning, Corinn, My mom, Nate's Mom, Beth and Michelle (Jina's friends), and I were the half left waiting.  Nate came in and informed us that we should probably leave as the doctors were predicting a 7AM birth.  All of us were stubborn and wanted to stay to represent our support for both of them.

"Where's the baby?!?!"

When 2:30PM just about rolled around, Beth was finally tired and decided to leave, and since we did not seen Nate for about 2 1/2 hours, she decided to call the Nurse and ask if she could get an update as she was about to leave.  When the Nurse came back, she said, "The soon to be Father said, 'Hold on a little longer...'" We all looked at eachother and the lack of sleep immediately left our eyes.  We were so excited and waited until Nate came to open the door for the last time to let us into the room where Jina and the little one staid. 

"Common guys... Come and see the work that Jina and I did!"

Because I was asked to keep photos off of the web, especially our blog, for their privacy, I unfortunately cannot share all the photos that I wanted... But thought that I'd at least let one slip through for your viewing pleasure:

 

Thank you Jina and Nate for allowing us to participate in this very special moment and we look forward to spoiling Anastasia rotten. 

I don’t understand why, but I’ve been very saddened by Michael Jackson’s passing since the day I heard the news.  I’ve been reading almost everything on the web about him and have been somewhat in denial about his death.  I've also been listening to his music as often as I have the opportunity.  Maybe it's because I've been interested in his music since I was a child... Listening to him as often or more than my parents, who greatly enjoyed his music as well.  The music always gave me chills up my back just because they were well orchestrated, written, and most notabily, sung by a genius.

I’ve always wanted to dance and sing like Michael, but that never happened.  Yet, other things about him inspired me to be/think like him.  I think his generosity and kindness towards people contributed to that.  I’ve never been one to look too much into his personal life because I felt the music alone drew my attention towards his cause to make a difference.  One of my favorite songs I try to live by is “Man in the Mirror”; I think the follow words are something to live by:


Rest in Peace and thanks Michael for inspiring me to do what I try to do on a daily basis.

Corinn and I had the honor of getting to attend my good friend from grade school's wedding yesterday!  The wedding ceremony took place in a church in Pittsfield, MA and it took about 4 hours for us to drive!  Andrew looked pretty sharp and maybe a little stressed, but didn't let it show too much; it looked like he had everything under control.  Erin was very beautiful and was walked down the isle by one of her brothers (her father was in an accident and recovering, but was able to attend the wedding).  I chose not to take pictures during the wedding as I felt it might be a little rude, but I definitely took pictures during the reception... And boy was it fun!

And by fun, I mean a little geeky fun, as in Star Wars theme fun!!!  What was totally friggin’ cool was when they walked into the reception with the Star Wars Episode IV end music playing (where Han and Luke get their medals after blowing up the Death Star)!  And it did not end there, they had a superimposed print of their faces on Han and Leia’s bodies within a frame where people could sign their names or words of wisdom!

 

To “top it off”, not only did their cake look great, but if you noticed the figures at the summit, you’d notice they best resembled Han and Leia too!

 

 

It was friggin’ awesome that they had a R2-D2 figurine with a top hat… A TOP HAT!  How awesome!

 

Did I not mention how jealous I was about this?  I told Corinn that if this was an option for our wedding, I would have pushed for it… Of course, she rolled her eyes and smiled for the camera anyway.

 

I did try to take a lot of photos with Corinn’s camera, but I think we got lost in a lot of dancing and other wedding festivities around us.
Thanks Andrew and Erin for a great time and we’re happy to see you both start your lives together!

      

I have 4-letter explicitives to describe the past week and a half, but I feel there's a following to this website that does not need to see that.  Basically our hosting provider hosed our website and my vacation... But after many, many hours and days trying to resolve the issue, we are not longer hosed.

Houston... We're back online.