After a While

Thank goodness Blogspot auto-saves the entries that I type even when I accidentally try deleting them!  Here's what I had typed up:

Life has been pretty good lately.  I'm progressing in my job, I'm still in a wonderful relationship with Christina, I still and always love my family, and am pursuing God a little more actively.

Professional life:

The building my office is in will be torn down but before that happens, the school is giving us a new dive office.  We will be moving in October into the new space and I am very excited for the move.  The semester started up a week or so ago and it is the 3rd semester where I am the full-time Assistant Diving Safety Officer, 5th semester I've been an employee at the university, and it is the 6th time that I am being a part of this scientific diving course (the first time was as a student).  I continue to feel like a valuable employee to my employer, particularly by putting together computer-based modules with a lot of the academic information.  I have turned all of our dive theory lectures (which make up half of the semester - 24-28 hours worth of material) into online modules that the students can access any time they please.  I constantly ask for suggestions on what to change and how to make them better and have still gotten almost nothing negative back in return.  The best compliment was when a student admitted to wondering who UM hired to write and narrate the modules.  I was very flattered.

I spent two weeks working for Broadreach again on a new trip called Bonaire Advanced Scuba where we spent two weeks in Bonaire teaching Advanced and Rescue Diver certifications as well as several specialties.

Personal life:

I still do and always will love my family.  In looking back at previous posts, I am immensely ashamed to admit that I haven't said anything about the birth of my first niece Scarlett.  Liza gave birth on March 2nd to a beautiful baby girl.  Unfortunately I won't be able to see them tomorrow when Christina and I are flying through their city on our way up to Ohio to go to a college friend's wedding (maybe you all remember Matt), but I'm sure I'll see them another time.  We will see my parents, Matt and his new wife, and Richard and his new girlfriend.  Matt and Richard are two of the six Physics majors who graduated with me from Denison.  I have hardly seen them since graduation but have kept better contact with them than just about any other fellow grads.  It will be Christina's first time to Ohio and thus her first time seeing where I grew up.  I'ave been going to a community group through my church lately (you might call it a Bible study but it's not exactly) with some other guys about my age and it's been pretty good so far.  Details to come after I go more often.

Life:

Love it.

[Title]

Either my creativity eludes me or it's been leaking out of me recently without me noticing.  I got out my laptop tonight to type an update since it's been a while since I've posted on a regular basis.  In many ways, I enjoy writing.  Try telling that to my 6 year-old self and you'll never convince him that it's true.  I enjoy writing because it provides a creative outlet to use a different part of my brain that doesn't often get used.  Often I really feel creative and feel accomplished when I read back over a post and hear how nice it sounds.  Tonight, I've got nothing.  I want to pick a topic about something that happened or is happening to me and poetically run with it but it won't come.

As for what's going on in my life, the biggest bit of news is that on any day, I am going to be an uncle!  I've never been necessarily good with babies but I'm really excited for Liza and Mike and can't wait to meet her!

Now, I'm just far too tired to type anything more.  Goodnight Moon.

A Year to Come

Golly it's been a while since I last posted.  A lot has happened since then, namely finishing up the semester, getting a cave diving certification, and having family visit for Christmas.  Now I'm up in South Carolina with some family to bring in the new year.  I'm not going to say much more because I need to pack and get back to family.  Hopefully I'll get to post more later about the life I've been living.  No promises though: I'm really busy living it.

Let's do it 2013!

Time Keeps on Slippin'

Wow, more than a month since my last post!!  Yikes!  Sorry world.

A ton has happened since then, notably going to Texas for Thanksgiving with Christina.  I had an absolute blast (also meeting up with James too!) and I'm thrilled that I went.  I am still exhausted and am not going to try to write out what happened, but here's a quick overview:

Tuesday night: flew in, met one of Christina's friends and her (Christina's) dog
Wednesday: went for a walk, met up with James for lunch then met another of Christina's friends and brother, then went out to dinner with her family
Thursday: walked/jogged around a gorgeous lake with her family before going to her grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner and games, then went home for a movie (sleep)
Friday: saw Life of Pi, got a massage, went to dinner with a large group of Christina's family friends, went back home for a big party
Saturday: early lunch with a few of Christina's friends, a tour of her high school, wedding at a ranch, then straight to what was left of Christina's 5-year high school reunion (it was really late at that point)
Sunday: church, then flew back to Miami

I met about a hundred thousand people over the past 6 days and it was great.  That being said, I enjoy being home and I enjoy sleep.  Goodnight.

On the Way

Wow!  It's been so long that I'm not sure my blog recognizes who I am.  Don't worry, I have a whole bunch of entries that I just need to transcribe from pen and paper onto the computer.  I'll back-date them so keep an eye out.  It might happen tonight but it might also not happen for another couple weeks.  Hopefully sooner than later.

The exciting thing to report is that Christina is joining me in Mystic for three days!  This is sort of old news since she made the decision over a month ago but it's exciting because it's coming up on Friday!  I'll certainly have a lot to report about when that happens.  Until then, stay safe everybody and don't forget to smile at someone today.

Swarming Season

For anyone (such as yours truly) unfamiliar with March and April with respect to termites, let the records show that those two months are termite swarming months.  Although I didn't kill any today, I've found and killed about 50 over the past 3 days.  I've found a significant amount of ants outside the house but very few inside yet.  I have come across 2 dead cockroaches, one in the laundry room and one in my bedroom although that one wasn't entirely dead as it turned out.  I have a trivial leak in the Florida room ceiling and fairly serious but inconsequential leaking into the screened-in patio.  They are first world problems, yes.  However, they're still things that demand my attention as well as a long list of other things.  This has been a mentally demanding process, this buying a house thing.

Next weekend I'm flying up to Ohio to flag any furniture of mine in the basement which will be sent down to Miami for the new place.  It is going to be a lot of work sitting around in the basement sifting through two full storage shelves of things ranging from 1st grade writing assignments up through furniture.  At least I'll be able to see my family.

UPDATE: Since posting, the termite count seems to have dropped considerably.  I have only found one in nearly a week.  I know that they're not gone just because I haven't seen them in a while but it is a sign that swarming season is coming or has come to an end.

Hunger

I finished a book today in nearly record time.  Today is Wednesday.  I began on Monday.

The Hunger Games is a riveting science fiction novel where North America has been divided and ruled with a bit of an iron fist by The Capitol.  Food is scarce and much in this world is heavily regulated and watched.  One boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts are forced to be pitted against one another to survive.  The idea of the game is simple: if you're the last one alive, you win.  Character development is great, and there's never much of a dull moment as the book naturally beckons you to keep turning to the next page.  Now I'll have to see the movie.

As for my life otherwise, it's still great.  I was able to visit family (Margie, Karin, Mandy, and parents) over the weekend in Naples, then some of them (parents and Mandy) came to visit me in Miami.  Today Rick left right after class for 2 and a half weeks in Australia which means that I'm in charge of the diving program.  After class, my visitors took Christina and I out to lunch on Key Biscayne which was fantastic after which we dropped her off at RSMAS and I drove them around a bit before they left.

The housing process is still under way.

Thank Goodness!

Christina's trip to Broad Key for field work this weekend has been canceled due to inclement weather.  This means that she is free Saturday and Sunday and I will not have to drive her back and forth an hour each way.  YES!

The housing search is still under way.  It's getting more interesting but there's still a ways to go before I'll be able to find a solid place and be convinced 100% that it's where I want to be.  Prospects are improving though.

My parents are coming in town next weekend!!!

Sunshine Ahead

Here I am being excited about skiing

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Utah.  Even though I didn't get to meet up with my friend I made in South Africa, didn't have any snow, and didn't go wild and do any back flips or anything, it was a fantastic vacation.  I improved my ski skills, fell fewer than 10 times in 7 days, spent time in the mountains, got a great workout every day, and spent a lot of quality time with family.  To me, that is a successful trip.

Tomorrow I return to the sunshine state after 9pm.  It will be New Year's Eve.  Luckily I have already made arrangements for a friend to pick me up.  As for now I haven't packed but I'm too tired to do anything so I will save it all until the morning.  Inevitably everything is going to be stuffed into the suitcase so I'm not too concerned.  I came here with some room to spare in my bag anyway.

The forecast for my first day in Miami appears to be sunny with a high of 26 (nearly 80F) and I can hardly wait!

Too Much to Ask?

Flying into Salt Lake City.  Not much snow in sight.

All I want is some snow.  Talking to a semi-professional skier friend of mine who grew up and still resides in Salt Lake, I found out that this is the worst ski season of at least the past 20 years.  Pretty much all the snow on the mountain is man-made and quite a bit of it is icy.  Frankly it's what I'm used to skiing in the East except now the runs are much longer.  I always seem to have big ski trips at times when the weather is not cooperative.

This being said, I'm still having a fantastic time here in Utah, I enjoy the skiing, love being with family, and I am thrilled to see mountains.  Even with horrible ski conditions, I still consider this trip a great success.  Merry Christmas to all!

Together Again

We don't choose our families. We all know and hopefully understand this concept, with the exception of course of marrying into a family but that's not what I'm getting at.

We don't choose our families but we're are bound by humanity to respect and love them. In every culture I've seen, family is of great importance. There are of course those who don't fit with this generalization but my understanding is that regardless of who your family is or what they've done, you have to at least show respect.

We don't choose our families and I want the world to know that if I could, I wouldn't pick any other. My mom is one of four children and my dad, one of five so the size of my family is above average and the love they show is likewise above average. They started trickling in today for Liza's wedding and there are many I haven't seen in over 2 years. It's been a huge treat to visit with them and I look forward to the time we can spend together in the next few days.

I would not be who I am today without my immediate and extended family and I love them all.

WFR - FTW!

I'm behind again. This is starting to become the theme of the blog. I suppose it's due to the fact that I have much less time to blog nowadays as compared to my time on Gili T for instance.

So here is a brief list of highlights since the last update:

Bernard came to visit while on a business trip here. We went out to dinner at an all-you-can-eat Argentinian steakhouse and it was absolutely stunning. I finished off with a fantastic filet mignon. The whole experience was exquisite and made up for the fact that I had to study for a test the next day and write a paper.

With a bit of magic (not on my part), I got into the scientific diving course that I've been dying to take! It's a graduate level course that meets a minimum of 8 hours/week and is going to be quite rigorous. This will have a huge impact on my decision of where to go post-December. The other class that I was registered for is a graduate course titled Tropical Meteorology based on a recommendation from a marine physics professor.

I bought bike parts. After a mishap with a popped tire, I bought two new ones (of high quality so it won't happen again), as well as head and tail lights. I'm back on the road and as long as there is a minimal chance of rain, I'm taking to the streets! Okay, well, not the main ones. Just the ones where I won't get killed. And the bike paths when available. Actually I'm probably going to go on a very long ride tomorrow since I have nothing to do before 2pm.

I went up to North Carolina for Thanksgiving break! It was great to see family again since the chances I have to be with them have been severely reduced over the past year and a half. We scoped out the venues for the wedding in June which was a bizarre experience for me. Marriage seems so far away for me that I struggle to relate and it's weird to see my sister going through the process. It's not bad at all – on the contrary, I couldn't be happier for her. It's just that it's weird b/c it's such a foreign concept in my life right now, that's all.

The PhD student who is ultimately in control of the lab I'm working in successfully defended his dissertation today. He did a spectacular job and I couldn't help but admire him through it all. Not only his composure, well-made smooth presentation, ability to field questions, but particularly the joy I could see in his eyes when I saw him walking around with his parents after he passed. My degree was earned through 4 years of blood, sweat, and tears but he has been working on his PhD for 4 and a half years. I would be fooling myself if I thought for a second that the joy I experienced when I finished my degree compares at all to the feeling I could see beaming across his face today.

I WFRed a girl at school today. Allow me to explain: I finished a marine science test and as I exited the building, there appeared to be a massive traffic jam. After pushing my way through the crowd, I noticed that just outside the doorway was a girl lying on the ground with a few people around her. Unsure of what had happened, I squeezed my way through a few more people, through the door, and started asking what had happened. Faith in UM students quickly faded when the guy “in charge” told me that he wasn't present when she went down and in fact none of the ones standing there saw it happen. It was between classes and there's no way she could have been in the doorway without traffic. Whoever saw it happen must have actually walked away. Anyway, she was responsive but a little weak. I gathered the facts, found out that she had a recurring iron deficiency, and asked a few other questions. My WFR instructors would not have been entirely pleased because once I figured out what was wrong, I stopped asking questions. I should have taken what's called a SAMPLE history and written it out on paper to hand to the paramedics. There's always next time.

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for me! It's crazy to think that a semester has already passed me by. I don't think I'll have too much to say between now and my exam on the 8^th, but road-tripping adventures are on the horizon!

What a Sensation

I'm too charged to sleep.  I close my eyes lying in my bed, awake.  What a sensation.  My bed.  At home.  In Ohio.  With my family.  Safe.

I sift through memory after memory as they pop up in my head just like the balls that decide the winning lottery numbers.  They come in short snippets, sometimes just images, other times full experiences.  Some come just as feelings while others are series of events.  Memories.  I have been gone for a year and now I’m home.  I’ve been to the ends of the Earth alone and have made it back safe and sound.  At home.  With my family.

My body is relaxed but my mind ticks through memories of the year.  Sitting on the porch in Hawai’i, the view of Arthur’s Pass in New Zealand, the Hindu ceremony in Singapore, finishing and passing the scuba instructor exam, the dogs I passed on my way to work in St Maarten, cleaning the rail on the sun deck of the yacht, and biking through the coconut farms on my way to work in Indonesia.  Memory after memory comes to mind then is replaced by another one just like leafing through a textbook and looking at the pictures, stopping occasionally to read a caption.  But now I’m in my bed.  In Ohio.

I still can’t sleep but I’m enjoying the feeling too much to move.  Everything at home is just as I left it, almost untouched.  The memories keep coming to me, almost as if my mind doesn’t want me to forget.  Everything is as I left it so my mind is afraid that I’m going to pick right up where I left off as if nothing ever happened.  It does already feel like it was a different life, like it was a different me.  As the memories float past, I remind myself that they are my memories.  It wasn’t someone else, it wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t a parallel universe, and I didn’t imagine it.  I went to the other side of the world and now I’m back.  In my bed.  Safe.

As I lie awake with all of these thoughts swimming in my head, I can’t help but think of the future.  I’m excited to see friends, go to church, drive through town, and even in the more distant future like working in Egypt and going back to school.  It’s all going to be an adventure.  I’m ready for it but I don’t want to rush it one bit because I am enjoying too much the feeling of being safely at home, in Ohio, with my family, in my bed. What a sensation.

Family Visits - Tiga

Robbie the Hard Bargainer by Liza

I am thankful that Robbie has practically shopped his way around Bali and Gili Trawangan because he paved the way for the women in his family. Right away, Mom and I were practically drooling over the beautiful jewelry, silks, and sarongs for sale in our first hotel in Padangbai. Robbie quickly stopped us and assured us that we would find better selection and prices later in Ubud. He also began firing us up for haggling – a skill weren't too keen on developing.

Never to fear, though, he's a great teacher. From getting our horse cart price down to $4 to getting $55 off the price of a carved sea turtle I wanted, my brother is a man who knows what he wants. I was impressed, since he spent most of his life answering to me. 0:)

When we finally arrived in Ubud, our last stop, Robbie reviewed his haggling tips in the car all the way to the village. Here are his quick tips that I remember:
1.Never buy an item from the first store you visit. Use this stop to price check.
2.Whatever price they offer, you offer at most half of the price. (This is a really difficult point for me, but even worse for Mom, who has to practically leave the store at the first sign of conflict.)
3.Whatever second price they offer, you work up a really sour grimace that makes them think you are very dissatisfied with that number. (I'm extra good at this one.)
4.As you continue to negotiate, assure them that you found the same item in a different store for the first price you offered.
5.Whatever final price you get them to, Robbie is going to ask what you got if for and he will not hide his disappointment in you if you were to soft in your negotiations.

Overall, I learned that Robbie is super good at getting his way. I thought I had this down, being the first-born and all, but I've got some refining to do! I also learned that while negotiating is kind of fun, fixed prices are much less draining.

Family Visits - Dua

Robbie the Scuba Instructor – by his Dad, Rob

Robbie not only loves diving and spends as much time doing that as possible, but immediately stepped into his instructor's role and began our lessons on our first full day on Gili T, at a beautiful dive shop about three doors up the road from our hotel. It is immediately evident that Robbie grew up in a family with many teachers. With no formal teacher training, he easily managed to impress his dad as we began our pool work. While Mom and Dad are Open Water and Advanced Open Water certified we have not dived for about 25 years, so Robbie had to run us through the refresher course while also doing Liza's complete Open Water certification. He put us through all the paces right by the book with thorough explanations and demonstrations. We were all thrilled when we reached Liza's first open water dive and we could all don our gear and head for the ocean.

While cruising around underwater with the colorful fish, sea turtles and beautiful corals, it is easy to see why Robbie can tolerate his spartan existence in this boiling heat. It is way too much fun. With his experience, he has certainly developed an eye for spotting many beautiful things that I would have easily missed had he not been pointing them out. One memorable occasion in particular bears sharing here.

On Christmas Day there was no diving. No boats were operating on the holiday. Not being able to stay away from the water, we elected to make a snorkeling expedition. After navigating our way over the dead coral in the shallows near the shore we reached an area of underwater life at the top of the drop-off. After a while of enjoying the sites we hear Robbie yelling through his snorkel “SHARK! SHARK!” while pointing and swimming at top speed - no, not away from the direction he was pointing. He had me swimming after him, marveling at a beautiful black tip reef shark. I had always thought that people went the other direction at the sound of that word, but found myself understanding his enthusiasm.

Family Visits - Satu

Dear Readers,

If you check this blog as often as I do, you've been wondering if Robbie has disappeared under the sea. Not to worry, all is well. We have just been thoroughly enjoying our time together and also without internet for much of our visit, so no updates. I begged him to let us (Mom, Dad and sister, Liza) do an entry to give you an outsider's eye into Robbie's new life. Fortunately, he agreed, so here goes!

Robbie's Life on Gili Trawangan by his Mom, Tory

After one night at the shore of Padangbai in Bali, we took a “Fastboat” over to Gili T. We were four of about 20 passengers. Robbie jumped off the boat as we hit the dock, determined to get us two horse carts (cimodo - chi-MO-do) for a very good price (40,000 rupiah=$4) to take us and all of our luggage 20 minutes up the beach to our hotel. As we staggered off under our heavy packs, in the steamy heat, he proudly ushered us to our tiny carts, which barely fit our luggage and 2 people each. The horses are more like mini horses the size of ponies. Although they run up and down the roads day in and day out, I never saw one sweating. I don't know how they do it.

After settling in our second floor un-airconditioned room in a beautiful traditional hotel, Alam Gili, we changed and walked into town to see Robbie's apartment and get dinner. On our way, people all along the way shouted, “Robe-y!” Women, men and children all seemed to know him and were eager for him to introduce us to them. Even the people who didn't know him often called, “Hal-o.”

Robbie lives in the back streets of Gili T. There's nothing at all fancy about his location or apartment, but he is very proud of it's $100/month price. It consists of a tiny veranda with room for two chairs and the bike he bought for $30, a single window, a twin bed, and a bathroom consisting of a “squatter” toilet, shower hose and sink. He has a fan, which can help with his lack of air conditioning, if the power is working. I'm hoping he'll upload one of the pictures I took of him at his apartment. He says he spends very little time in the apartment because it is so hot. Oh, I forgot to mention it has a tin roof. In any case, he lives a very simple life, spending little money and having very few creature comforts. I've been really happy to spoil him rotten on this trip with massages and lots of good food. I must say, though, he doesn't appear to be losing weight, in spite of his $5/day budget for food.