2 Years Down, 48 To Go

*raises his arms in triumph*
We did it!

As of about 4:45 yesterday afternoon, my wife and I have been married for 2 years.

Looking back, it really doesn’t feel like it has been that long. In fact, it’s a blur. During this time frame, we’ve done a lot: We got our first apartment together, hiked to Lake Serene [affectionately dubbed by yours truly as “Lake Poopene”], went on a couple of road trips (Leavenworth [WA], Big Fork [MT], the big one to Carlinville [IL]), played on a softball team (Go Bombers!), survived WFV (Walden Family Vacation) 2007, rode mopeds on the beach along the ocean… it’s been a blast so far!

So I approached my third class professor who has a very casual, laid back, funny method of teaching. When he introduced himself to the class, he had stated that he'd been married for 5 years. After class yesterday, I approached and informed him that it was my 2 year anniversary with my wife. I expected something funny... along the lines of, "Welcome to the dog pound! It's all downhill from there..." kind of persepective.

Nada.

Rather, he completely lightened up and in a warm, caring manner said, "Congratulations..." He talked about how his wife and he typically take vacations on their anniversaries... I didn't have the guts to tell him I was expecting something funny. That's alright, though. The class is gonna be fun!

Back to the story...

To celebrate, we were going to go to the same very nice restaurant in Springfield that we went to during our first anniversary, but my wife’s vision was bugging her and I didn’t want her to drive at night and suffer just to go to a restaurant. SO! Instead of that, I drove back home to Carlinville, picked her up and we went to an awesome Chinese restaurant in Litchfield. We swapped our gifts, ate till we got absolutely stuffed and headed home. Nice and simple, nothing extravagant.

I’ll save the extravagant anniversaries for the fives (5, 10, 15, etc.).

Lori, if you read this, I love you with all I have! *raises Mt. Dew* Here’s to us, and the upcoming year!

Spring 2008 Classes! :)

Spring 2008 Classes!

So a new friend recently asked me which classes I’m currently in… so here’s the breakdown of my schedule:

First off, all of the following classes on are Mondays and Wednesdays.

Class 1 is Speech (COM 112) with a professor who is seemingly very giddy and happy. I tell people that if anyone had a pessimistic view of life and had her as a professor, they’d probably think, “Oh, GAG me!” Personally, I enjoy her bubbly personality. Not to mention it’s always better to have a happy, nice teacher than a witch. (edited for content)

Class 2 is English Comp. 102 with a professor I had last semester. I enjoyed his teachings so much, I wanted to continue to learn. When I asked which section of English Comp. he was going to teach, he told me which section, but then was quick to say, “…but I’m tough!” I was very quick to reply, “Yeah, but you’re good!” Indeed, he is probably the best English teacher I’ve ever had. Most traditional freshmen straight out of high school may find his humor to be slightly boring at times. He is a very eloquent speaker; however, he is a phenomenal English teacher should you wish to learn. That’s why I’m here (at UIS).

Class 3 is Class, Race and Gender in Criminal Justice with the most casual professor I’ve ever met. However, he is quick to warn students not to undermine his casual attitude. The class readings thus far seem to be rather long, but then again, it is a 300 level class. I guess as long as I stay on top of the coursework, I should be fine.

Class 4... *happy sigh* Japanese 152 with the one and only Maeda Sensei. Lovin’ this class nearly as much as last semester. I say “nearly” out of love for the two classmates who couldn’t stay in the same section this semester. Kelsey and Emily, we still got love for ya! ;)

And then…

I’m also taking an online class called Jazz in American Culture. Glancing at the syllabus led to me be rather overwhelmed by everything that was required throughout the course. This coupled with the first week reading of nearly 50 pages was a turn-off. However, one of the books we’re reading is an AWESOME read! And after taking everything into consideration (having to attend a jazz concert, conduct a book review, etc.), I’ve come to a consensus with myself (not to fear--it’s an inside joke) that this class will be a TON of fun.

I’ll keep you guys posted!

So that’s my story--what’s yours? What classes are you guys taking? Do you enjoy ALL of them? Let me know… I’d love to hear!

Until next time…

~ Nick

Help me find a good camera... please?

(read: Jeremy... HELP!)

Okay, this may seem silly to blog about... but it's necessary.

After this semester, my wife's family and I will be going to Europe for 2 weeks! I'm looking immensely forward to it, but I have a problem: my camera.

I currently have a very good Nikon, which is a 35mm camera. Truth be told, I'm sick of buying film. ALSO, it's cheaper to get digital prints than a roll of film developed.

That said, I'm in the market for a digital camera!

I do LOVE taking pictures, but I don't think it will amount to anything more than an occasional hobby. So while I was looking at a digital SLR for a little while, the bulkiness of the camera would end up irritating the crap out of me. Not to mention the fact that having a big ol' camera around my neck would just SCREAM out, "HEY! LOOK AT ME! I'M A TOURIST!!!" Not cool.

So I have a couple of options, but I don't know which to go for. Here's where you come in, friends...

First off... brand: is there a brand out there that I should completely avoid? Is there a brand that I absolutely should get?

Megapixel quality: A friend told me back in the day that anything over 3 or 4 is pretty much overkill unless you're looking to edit the photo. Is there truth to this?

Here are my current options:

~ Canon - PowerShot 7.1MP Digital ELPH Camera - Silver
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8266191&type=product&id=1170290185723
$249.99

Super slim, but only has a 3x optical zoom.

~ Canon - PowerShot 8.0MP Digital Camera - Black
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8510989&type=product&id=1186005750966
$299.99

Has a 10x optical zoom, which ain't bad.

~ Canon - PowerShot 8.0MP Digital Camera - Black
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8297513&type=product&id=1172881524725
$399.99

Note the 12x optical, which is really good. Downside on this one is that it's still a little bulky.

~ Sony - Cyber-shot 8.1MP Digital Camera - Black
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8266574&type=product&id=1170290214776
$429.99

Definitely at the top of my price range. Possibly too expensive, but has a heck of a lot of features! Downside is that it's probably the biggest camera of this lot.

~ Sony - Cyber-shot 8.1MP Digital Camera - Black
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8440234&type=product&id=1183160354020
$399.99

~ Note the 5x optical. This is also probably the slimmest camera I've ever seen.

Right. So. Anyone out there have any advice? HELP! :D

Until next time...

~ Nick

New Year Resolutions... where did they go?

So a friend *wink* asked me recently what my resolutions were. Rather than responding to her directly, I felt inspired enough to blog about it. So here I am.

I had several resolutions in mind...

ALL of them I've already failed on.

Admitted, some of them were pretty stupid: I was going to briefly write what I did on what day and then rate it on a scale of 1-10 so that, come the end up '08, I could tally everything up and see what the average daily "score" was. Lame. Failed.

I also wanted to write what I ate every day for a year to see how much soda I drank, amongst other foods (i.e. JUNK) I ate throughout the year. Lame. Failed.

Ooh! I know... I'll get a pedometer and see how many steps I take in a year. BUZZZZ!!! Never purchased one.

Aha! I'll see how much I drive this year... nope! Already skipped one log entry on that.

So, you know what? Heck with New Year Resolutions!! I 'spose if I really wanted to do something, I'd just do it. So here's my newly thought of resolution: Blog more! Achieved! :)

I also want to volunteer at a primary school in town which has a program that helps kids learn to read. I like that idea a lot! Hopefully I'll be doing that soon, I'll let you guys know.

Anyone else out there wanna share their New Year Resolutions? Anyone else in the same boat with me? Let me know. :) Until next time...

~ Nick

Winter Break 2007

Wow... how do I begin?

I may be called a "nerd" for this, but so be it:

I admit it, I missed school somethin' fierce! For 4 months, the schedule was set. We attended classes and we learned a lot. We met new friends and experienced a lot in that time. Eventually came finals, and then... poof! For an entire month, school didn't exist.

Now I don't know how any of you out there feel about this, and I'm curious to know, but I feel that 1 month is entirely too long. How about... 2 weeks? I'm just sayin'... I was in a rhythm and enjoying the heck out of it and it's like I'm a computer and somebody pressed "reboot" right in the middle of a game.

Then again, a part of me thinks that it's kinda cool to have that long of break, so that when you return, it's like you're starting out all over again. It doesn't feel like this is my second semester... it feels like my first. The only difference is, I know some people now.

Maybe we can compromise and meet in the middle: a 3 week break sounds perfect!

Anyhow, it's good to return to school and catch up with those we haven't seen in a month. I'll keep you posted on my new classes.

Until next time...

~ Nick

Thank God for student health insurance!

First and foremost, I apologize if there are any spelling errors in this blog as I am a little loopy. Here's why:

It was Tuesday night and I was watching the end of The Andy Griffith Show and my stomach started to hurt. I told my father-in-law that I ate too much, too quickly for dinner and was thinking that maybe a piece of bread (i.e. bagel) would sop up any yucky stomach acid I may have had.

After eating the bagel, the pain then moved into my intestines. I'd get a sharp pain in the "upper left" portion of the intestines followed by a "squishy" sound that would relieve the pain... for about 5 seconds. This continued over the next hour and a half, where it was then replaced by severe pain throughout my instestines and an occasional sharp pain.

This new pain would go on for the next 2 hours and I was praying it would pass. No dice. So here I was, in the most excruciating pain I've experienced since I've been born. I couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't lay down - nothing. I was crawling around the house because that's all I could do.

Around 2am, I found myself reflecting on a visit to my pediatrician. I must've been about 8 years old or so. My doc told me that most kids would be screaming in agony if they had the ear infection I had. My mother has also told me time and time again that my tolerance for pain was exceptionally high. Being it that I was crawling on the floor for darn near 4 hours and I wasn't getting any better, I told my wife that we had better go to the E.R.

I won't go into detail about the tests they ran on me, but the short story version is that I was born 3 months premature and my intestines weren't fully developed. So they cut me open, fixed the intestines and went on my merry way. Well, 28 years later, the scarring from that operation became enough to block my intestines and nothing was goin' down. The doc said that the blocked portion of the small intestine was the diameter of a bratwurst. That, my friends, is no good.

The doc then performed a type of surgery using a camera vice slicing me open again. I asked if he would just cut open the big horizontal scar from birth, perform the surgery and then stitch it up to look nicer. He declined and now I have 3 new scars. Joy of joys!

There's a lot more to the story than what I've shared here. I'm just incredibly grateful that UIS has student insurance. If this had happened prior to school starting this past fall, my wife and I would be financially screwed. Admitted, we haven't seen the bill yet, but regardless of what it will be, we'll make it through.

Anyhow, if any of you out there have any interesting surgery stories, I'd love to hear them.

At this point, I have to return home and take some more pain killers.

Hope everyone's '08 is going well! Until next time...

~ Nick