hearing the talk about Queen Elizabeth being in Canada and then speaking at the United Nations made me remember the time I saw the Queen.  In May of 2007, Keren was spending a semester in Italy, so the whole family decided to take a trip over to see her.  While I was over there, I was fortunate enough for work to foot the bill for me to stay in London for a few days and meet everyone I work with on a daily basis.  While I was there, my friend Penny took me to see Equus, staring Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame (yes, I saw him naked).  Anyway, on our walk home at night, past the London Eye, we hear all these sirens behind us, and then a cop (bobby?) on a motorcycle pulls up and blocks the intersection we were walking past.  I was a little scared, but we kept walking, and then saw some more bike cops roll on by, finally followed by an old style brown car, in which i could easily make out the Queen.  They just zipped right on by.  Penny was shocked.  I think she had never even seen the Queen.  I fumbled for my camera, but it was too late to snap even a blurry pic.  I’ll see if I can get Penny to back me up on this claim.

Through my childhood, throw my teenage years, through my adulthood, and hopefully continuing through my life, I’ve had the privilege of having some amazing women play a part in my life.  I won’t rank them, because they all are very important to me, each for their own reason.

• Mrs. Sofran – My kindergarten teacher.  She knew me so well and she was so kind.  I was so fond of her, and I still remember her unique nasal voice.
• Mrs. Sepesy – I don’t know her official title, but she was involved with the academic team and "that group" of kids in high school.  She’s probably the most insightful and wise person I’ve ever met.  Truth be told, I asked her if she married me but she said she would never remarry after her husband passed.  She lit up my life every day I got to talk to her with her personality, sarcasm, and sense of humor.  She really cared about us.
• Grandma Hall – I’ve told her before, I wish I have half of her strength and energy when I’m half her age.  She’s over 80, has had a heart attack and stroke, has had so much tragedy in her life, but she still lives alone and can take care of herself pretty well.  My Grandma is awesome.
• My mom – Of course.  How she raised so many kids is beyond me.  So much has gone on in her life, and she is so selfless.  That’s probably her best quality, besides being my mom.
• Harriet – My post office lady.  I miss her.  She retired last July.  Sometimes, I’d make an excuse just to go in and see her.  I’d send her my heart priority mail if she asked for it.  She was so genuine and sincere, and I felt connected over the 5 years or so of me going to see her.  When I went to Italy, I mailed her a post card from the Vatican.  When she retired, she gave me big envelopes to send books in because I’d always buy them from her.  She kept saying that it’d be so much cheaper just to buy a bunch at walmart and pack the books at home, but I always liked coming in with a book and she’d grab me an envelope without me having to ask.
• Cindy - My first psychiatrist/counselor.  I talked about her in a previous post, but she definitely played a part in my life and forming my mind to make decisions.
• All 4 of my sisters – J’aime, Serah, Keren, and Deirdre.  I try to play roles in their lives too, but I wonder if they know how big a part of my life they are.  They’re all so different, but we all are so close.  I recently heard that we’re an intimidating force when we’re together because we seek each other out and need to be together.  That’s all we’ve ever known and relied on in our lives.

on review of the list…3/10 were my teachers in one realm or another…you’d think I would have learned how to form a better sentence than the title of this post…

As we reach the end of 2007, I’m going to cross that line into the cliche "here are the highlights of 2007 and here’s what I’d like to see in 2008" post.  Last year, I called it the year of "new things".  If I were to create a label for this year, I’d consider it a year of traveling.  I went to philly at least twice, crossed the atlantic for the first time to italy with my family and then to london for work, I went to vegas, I went to florida, took trips to cleveland to see rachel, took a trip or two to DC, stopped taking daily drives to work and started walking to work,  and i took a few other road trips as well.  I definitely enjoy traveling, and i definitely consider myself blessed to have the means, time, and friends that make it all possible.

So, I’m graduated with my bachelor degree in professional communicated and information systems from robert morris university…finally.  at least i finished before Keren.  Serah officially made me an uncle by giving birth on the 20th.  and I don’t really have too much to complain about at all.   But, I’ll share with you my new years resolutions and we’ll see how well I do with them.

• Call each sister at least once a month just to talk.
• put at least 100 CDs in the hands of strangers
• Pick up 1 new hobby. (haven’t decided yet…)
• READ ALL THE BOOKS I HAVE BUT HAVE NOT READ
• Compete in an urbanathon or some sort of race.

That’s all i got so far.  Should keep me busy.  I forget if the idea is to make goals specific so you know you reach them or not, or to keep them vague so that you don’t get frustrated and quit…oh well.  I’ll be off to DC this weekend to meet my niece, then back to ring in the new year.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I updated the gallery software today, lots of cool new features to check out.  I also finally got around to uploading the pictures from italy and london and i also threw up the pictures from my recent jaunt to las vegas for my birthday.

2 more weeks of classes and I’m all gradiated!  gotta do some major work before that happens, but should be cool to finally be done with it.

I went up with jordan otto and tim mudrick to my uncle kenny’s studio and recorded come over and we’re going out with them playing bass and drums.  The tracks aren’t perfect, but there’s a heck of a lot of potential there.  I’m really excited about playing more with those guys.  They’re great people, friends, christians, minds, musicians, and company.  Can’t go wrong with that.  Hopefully we’ll play more together and play out.

one of deirdre’s cats got stuck in some western pennsylvanian hick’s trap and he lost his front left paw.  about $1000 to cut it off and save him, and deirdre was very willing to pay that to save his life.  the trade off now is that he’ll be moving in with me in the city.  I’m a little worried to have him living here in the city, because it’s a whole new world if he gets out on the streets.  But i guess he won’t be going far with 3 legs.  Really sad.  I’ll take pictures when he’s here.

not all that much else to report…serah’s about to burst out a pesce, rachel and i are at eachother’s ends in terms of our long distance relationship and that struggle, we got a nintendo wii, i have tons of beer left over from a party, work is slowly going along and no news of a permanent position, no news on j’aime’s kids, and that’s about it.  hmmm, wish there was something more insightful and deep to say, but i guess it’s just not there tonight…

I haven’t taken time to upload all the italy pics here yet, but I have them on snapfish if you’d like to see some low res pics.  http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=162047951/a=85911649/t_=85911649;

Got back from Italy late saturday night, and it’s been a lot of reality hitting me in the face ever since.  before I list everything, Italy was great.  The vatican is the most amazing place i’ve ever been.  Pictures will be uploaded soon.  so here’s what’s hit me since i’ve been home:

1. 2 summer classes started last week, so i have to catch up and do the current work
2. allergies are killing me one tissue at a time
3. estate grass needs cut, house needs repaired, and it’s sucking out money from us
4. room is a wreck
5. going to miss another month for recording
6. bathtub leaked into the livingroom ceiling, so i have to repair both.  joys of being a home owner
7. not going to have any renters come june 17th, gotta find someone, or two, fast.
8. got a new job working downtown, daylight, so lots of prep work before i can move over.
9. have to spend money to get airconditioning back in the truck
10. never got my estimate on my truck from being hit
11. lots of other little things

weeee!

April fool’s came and went yesterday.  I didn’t do a single joke or prank.  eh, next year.  Rachel and I went to DC to hang out with Serah and Mike.  Had a great time.  We saw Mount Vernon saturday, then spent some time at the Mall for the cherry blossom festival, then just chilled out at their place.  I uploaded a bunch of photos to the gallery, including some of a hidden tunnel/room thing that Rachel and i broke into at mount vernon.

Looks like I will be working from London for may 24th and 25th.  should be a good time.  I’ll probably go over a day or two earlier and sight see.  Still a lot of planning going into the whole Italy trip, but time is flying!  6 weeks!

So here’s a weird story.  Got a laptop last week from work and i took it home wednesday to work from home that night.  Half way home, I stopped at walmart and ended up taking a nap for a bit before going in and head home.  When I start back home, a few minutes away I smell something burning like plastic or rubber.  I forget about it until i get home and i see smoke coming out of my hood.  I pop the hood and the belt is smoking, and it’s dripping.  The belt is so hot it is melting.  Since i can’t do anything with it hot, i leave it cool down.  Later on, I come out and notice that the engine coolant is pretty much gone.  I fill that, and start up the truck again.  It is squealing really badly.  I am thinking it just has to wear away the dried melted parts and the squealing will go away.  Its gets quieter and quieter and finally does stop.  Satisfied, i turn the truck off and get out to shut the hood, but i notice that the belt is broken and that would be why it is no longer making noises.  So now my truck is disabled.  Luckily, I had an appointment already in place for friday to get emissions and state inspection.  Luckily, I don’t need to go to work because i can work from home.   Luckily i stopped halfway home or else i could have been stuck on the side of the road.  So i just got it towed back home on thursday, got a lift home on friday with my stepdad who works in the city, and i’m borrowing my mom’s minivan until the truck is done.  It’s going to cost $700.  They have to replace the entire air conditioning unit/system thing or else the belt will just melt again.  I had just used the air conditioning for the first time on monday, and it didn’t work, so i knew something was wrong.  sucks though, i could REALLY use that money with italy coming up.

Alex is pretty cool.  He’s got an architecture internship downtown.  haven’t had the chance to do anything with him yet, but we’ve got a while.  Still trying to find someone to rent the basement room out too.  Craigslist for the win!

Getting really proud of the city.  here’s a cool article on on the new building projects for the city. www.post-gazette.com/pg/07091/773880-85.stm So much to be excited about!

off the boot and back to 90% normal. Still can feel the ankle being a little weak, but i like to push it. Probably try and run a little later in the week. Not working out for the past 2 months is not good!

Ticket bought for italy with the family. I’m flying over wed may 16th and leaving saturday the 26th. during that time, i plan on taking a trip to paris and london as well since it’ll be so cheap to do so and i won’t want to spend so much time in italy. I’m excited!

took a road trip with friends to philly this weekend to a beer fest. Not really my scene, but we ended up having a really great time. Lots of friendship bonding and such. I need to get a camera. I wanted to wait until right before italy, but as soon as i pay off money that i owe to the estate and to j’aime for the italy ticket, i’ll get one as soon as i see the need and a good deal.

Rachel met my mother and Deirdre last wednesday when we went back home to see Deirdre as Mame in the musical Mame. So much talent there. It was weird seeing Rachel hug my mother though……..heh. Hi mom

One of the new housemates, craig, moved in yesterday. Pretty cool dude. He just proposed to his girlfriend of 5 years over the weekend too. Both are from Morgantown, transplanted to chicago, and now moving back. Craig will stick around til at least sometime april as they both find new living quarters, and I’m glad to have him/them. The other dude, Alex, has an architecture internship from march 17th-june 17th, and he’ll live across the hall from me. ’bout time that room got some good use.

I’m just sitting here thinking how fast money goes down the drain. since i’m not taking classes this semester, my school loans picked up payments, then i have the truck registration and inspection coming up, estate money i owe, tickets to italy, doctor bills from the ankle, blah blah blah. Why am i always feeling like i live paycheck to paycheck? I shouldnt have that.

got the call from walmart saturday and so i went and picked up my 2 60gb playstations. probably post them on ebay this thursday, just in time for some last minute christmas rushers.

I’m slacking on the 1 online class i have…the crappy thing is, not a single grade has been posted, so i have NO idea how i am doing in the class which isnt exactly motivation to try harder, you know? bleh. i don’t think i’ll take classes in the spring. at least not the first half of the semester. I have a few project management classes within work in jan and feb, so i’ll rationalize that as my excuse. Assuming i pass this class, i’ll have 24 credits or 6 classes left. 1 is an open elective, where i have the option to test out of something. Maybe i’ll make that my goal for spring semester too…I’m going to have to pay out of my pocket ~2k to finish in fall 2007, but i think it’ll be worth it than delaying it any further. hopefully i won’t screw myself with having classes not be available downtown, or at all….

why is my room in a perpetual state of dissarray? I don’t even sleep in it anymore, i sleep in the guest room…

family is going to italy in may for a week since keren will be there all spring and they’ll bring keren back with them…i’m tempted to go, but that’s going to be at least $2k…I think i’ll wait for some job certainty before i make any crazy decisions.