Some pics and Amanda's trip!

Wow!!

Two days and amanda arrives here in VA! It's so weird, I live in Virginia. I'd never have guessed a year ago that today I'd be engaged, have graduated college, and work the for USPTO while living in VA. Life moves at the speed of...life? light? Fast.

I'm so excited for this weekend, I hope amanda and I have a blast. I'm sure we will, I've been so excited for a while now. I'll be sure to get some great pictures while she's here, hopefully at the museums and the zoo! I'm excited!!!!!!!

Nothing much has happened since the last post. Work. Today work stunk. We had an 8 hour lecture by a guy from some Telecommunications company. We talked about wireless networks for the ENTIRE day. We had to be there too, even though it wasn't related to our field. The 16 people in my class are in the Optics field, but the rest of the 128 person class comprises mostly computer scientists and a few electrical engineers. We had to spend 8 hours at their presentation, but they get to skip our optics training in a few weeks, how lame is that? Lame. I think using the word lame is kinda lame...if that makes sense. Oh well, I still enjoy using the term.

Below are some pictures of me in Annapolis on the Naval Academy. I believe in one of the pictures you can see the famous chapel behind me, and the other one is standing in front of the Chesapeke.

PS I don't know how to spell Chesapeke.

I'll probably not write until next monday when amanda leaves, but I'll be sure to leave a detailed account of our time together!

Take care!

John

Monday night!

Well, apparently I didn't post a thing this weekend.

I had a pretty good weekend with only a minor injury bringing me down. While jogging real early saturday morning I got a shooting pain in my chest. I was pretty scared, the pain was shooting and very sharp, I almost collapsed. Luckily an old man was there, he helped me out a lot, and almost called an ambulence but I eventually was ok. I have no idea what happened. It felt a lot like my Pleurisy from about 5-6 months back. Instead of being on my back on my left side it was on the front right.

Reall weird. I almost went to the doctor/hospital, but since I don't have my insurance papers yet, it'd be a big hassle. Speaking of which, I should get those in the mail this week, I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, I was expecting a week or more of pain my chest, assuming it was like the lung affliction I was already familiar with....to be continued.

So, after the jog, I finally made it the rest of the 2 miles home(I just walked, I still need my excercise after all) and had a real nice chat with the man that helped me. He was very interesting and had the weirdest looking dog I've ever seen. Anyway, I showered and called Rory! I went into DC with my car, instead of taking the metro in, and picked him up. We had decided to drive over to Annapolis, MD for some sight seeing and enjoyment of the extremely nice sunshine. It was a little to hot but the drive was nice in the AC'd car. It's only about 30 miles to the west so the drive was pretty quick, except for the fact we got a little lost at the edge of DC. The signs didn't help at all, they said, at one point, that highway 50 was straight ahead, but then there were zero signs after that, so we apparently missed the turnoff. We eventually made it after traveling an extra 6 miles in city traffic to finally make it out of the city taking the back roads. (side note, apparently DC is meant ot be confusing to instill uncertainty to foreign dignitaries..but I don't know if I buy that...I don't even know if I spelled dignitaries correctly..) Anyway, the drive was nice.

We arrived safe and sound and in great spirits in Marylands capital city, which is extremely beautiful, by the way. It's probably the nicest looking capital I've ever seen. Is it capitol? I know it's the capitol building, so it must be capitol. I think it's capital though....whatever.

We went to the Navy Academy, that was really cool. We spent a while just walking and looking around, taking pictures and enjoying our time. It was fun! We got to see the water and lots of navy boats...sail boats, and yachts, no big ships or anything. That was basically all we did, since we had plans to meet friends at a restaurant at 9:00pm, we couldn't take all day.

We drove back into the city and met up with a few friends and had a bite to eat, a couple beers and a lot of laughs before I drove rory and amy to another bar, Jonathan back to his apartment and then I headed back to VA. I made it home by midnight and had a great night sleep.

Sunday I woke up, still plagued by my chest pains, which afflicted me all night. I took a few deep breaths, some advil and a nice shower and eventually the pain ceased. I thought it was just the medicine but it has yet to return. That makes me happy. I'm not injured much at all! Must have just been a tendon or a muscle or something, I better get help to be sure I'm running in correct, or at least a safe form.

I toyed with the idea of taking today off as a sick day. I'm not really sick, just sick of mondays. It would have been the perfect day to miss too, as I basically got paid to do nothing anyway. It was nice though, being at work. I enjoy being there, which is good, since I spend so much time there, traveling there, worrying about being there, and looking towards years and years of going there. Phew...

I got to talk to amanda a bit today, that was nice. We talk on the phone during my lunch timea little bit, and she emails me in the morning, and I get to email back and forth with her before she heads to work. We talked tonight when I got back from work too, but she's since gone out with friends. I wish I were there with her, I miss her lots. Friday she arrives here in VA though! I'm really really excited about that. I've probably mentioned that before, and I'm sure I'll mention it again..probably thursday night, before she arrives. I'm really excited, we have tons of stuff planned. We toyed with the idea of moving the wedding up, instead of May 2008, moving it to Sept. 2007, but the Chapel at MSU is not for rent that day, since it's a home football game. Oh well, I guess we have to wait another 8 months. No big deal, I'm just excited for her to move to me. I'm excited about friday's visit as well!

That's about all. I have to work tomorrow, like always, and I think I'll head to bed now, it's already almost 9:30pm. I'm rereading a great tom clancy book called "Without Remorse." It's always been one of my favorites, so I figured i'd give it another read. I'm never much for rereading books, but I liked this one so much, and it's been probably...7 years since I've read it, I figured I could use a refresher.

I'll write more this week, but don't count on me writing much while amanda is here!

In good spirits and good health!

I love you all! (Especially you grandpa! but everyone else too!)

John

One more day of work this week!

I love thursdays. It's amazing, even though I have every other friday off, the fridays I do have to go to work, I actually look forward too. We can dress down from business casual to jeans and a polo...although polo shirts fly around here as business casual. The jeans are a huge help. Most people wear tennis shoes as well, and that really makes it sweet. Something about being comfortable at work for 10 hours a day, wearing jeans and comfy shoes, it really increases morale. I don't mind sitting there if I'm comfortable, and I can sit in my cubicle with my comfy jeans and shoes, listening to my favorite CD's while reading document after document, taking only minor breaks to write out a paper or something. The job is pretty sweet.

Our cubicles are kind of close together so we all appreciate the fact they gave us headphones and microphones so we can telecommute with other coworkers who are at home working. That's never come up during training, but in a few short years, I'll hopefully we working from wherever I want. That'd be a dream come true. Anyway, with the headphones we're allowed to listen to music and such online or cd's or whatever. Without them, I'd be lost. People going through the halls are sometimes noisy, and whenmy coworkers are talking about a project or something, it can be hard to read and stay focused. I've already noticed that if someone says something that catches my attention then I'm distracted for close to 2-3 minutes as it's hard to get back into what I'm reading, let alone understand every technical word in a 50 page document. Ok ok, I'm starting to babble, as always, but I'm thankful they're understanding enough to let us drown out our coworkers with some wickedly great music.

On thursdays we always have a happy hour at a bar right down the street. It's real nice, I never drink since I have to drive, but it's nice to go grab some food. Today, I ordered a Quesadilla and Rory ordered Nachos. We split both meals so I got half a plate of nachos and half a delicious Quesadilla. It was pretty good. I'm sure I'll be feeling it in the middle fo the night or early tomorrow morning, but that's life. It was fun today, as usual. We still got home quite early, had a nice bite to eat, and I've just got out of the shower. I feel real good. I've been running, work is going great, and I get to see amanda in a week. Did I mention we're going to be married? I'm pretty much the happiest person on earth. Amanda is the best thing to ever happen to me, and every since we've met, life has only got better and better.

Another thought I had...student loans. I have two theories that I can't really decide upon. After all my bills, including the rent, car payment, all my insurances, gas, parking, metro, food, cell phone, credit card, and my other debt and costs of living...I still put away a decent amount for short term and a bigger amount for long term savings...my thoughts are as follows. I can pay as much as possible toward my student loans now to work on paying them off in the next 5-10 years. I'll pay less interest, and get them out of the way. Once I start paying them, I should be able to continue living comfortably without much worry, however, I can't save as much and my other entertainment lacks. My other thought is this, pay a lower monthly amount for the first few years, paying the same interest rate, and then in 5 years when my salary is doubled or so, pay a lot more then. I'd probably pay them off in close to the same amount of time, but I'd end up paying more in the long run waiting to make larger payments. The interest rates aren't THAT horrible, and I think waiting a bit would help my stress levels, since I'd have more money in general, or at least feel that I do. When I'm making more, I can make bigger payments without noticing as much...sound logical? I'm not sure the best means as of yet, since I don't have to pay them for a while. Any thoughts? I didn't want to give specific information, but the logic is still there. Live happier or be more responsible? Actually, I'm not sure waiting longer to make bigger payments is unresponsible. I have a wedding to pay for and a future wife to support. I think once my salary is bigger, we'll be able to make sizable payments towards both of our student loan balances, and get them paid off while living in a nice home and driving nice vehicles. I'm just not sure.

I wish amanda and I were getting married this next summer, after graduation. 2 years feels so far away, but this gives us time to set up our lives together, and separately. I'm excited. So excited.

Wow, well, look at the time. I wasn't joking when I said I just showered, I'm sitting here in my towel. I should probably go get ready for bed as it's almost 10:00pm and I'm all dry. Take care everyone! Until next time!

JMB

Tuesday night!

Not much has happened since I've last recorded a message. I work, come home...I've started jogging, that's something, then shower, eat dinner, go to bed..

Amanda comes in ten days.

Back to the jogging. I bought some running shoes Saturday at the mall. They're pretty nice, real light weight and they don't hurt my feet much. I don't even get blisters from wearing them while running. It's going great. Apparently I dont' explore anymore. When you turn into our subdivision, you pass one street then turn right to get to our townhouse, but if you drive 50 feet farther and look left you can see the huge lake we live on! I never realized living off Lake Braddock road actually meant something.

It's really pretty anyway and it has a nice blacktop trail all the way around so can go jogging around it. I can only make it once around, and that's walking about half the time as well. It's about 2 miles around I think. Anyway, I'm babbling.

I ran today right after work, like I said, and it went all right. It was ridiculously hot outside today, but it was cooler when I ran. I drank lots of water, had some delicious pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches and enjoyed a nice hot shower.

I'm relaxing the rest of the night and will hopefully be in bed sleeping by 10:30pm. Getting up at 5:45am isn't really as hard as I would have imagined. It's quite easy when I know I have to make it into work and can't be late. That's all I have to say though, I'm tired already and it's only 9:00pm. Until then, enjoy your week everyone!

I love you all.

John

Lazy sunday

Today was a pretty good day. I woke up real early and did nothing. Then I had a nap before anyone else was still awake! I got up finally and still, nobody fun was awake. Geez.

Finally I got up, then amanda woke up and I got to talk to her on the computer, and then the roommate woke up. It's soooo hot outside and it's only getting hotter. It's sickening that it's going to be 10 degrees hotter a few days this week than it is outside now...and it's hot, real hot.

Yesterday I went to the mall and spent some of my new found paycheck on some nice Nike running shoes. They're real comfy, I went for a jog today...I almost died. It's so hot outside, I didn't make it far, but at least it's a start. I want to drop 8 pounds before amanda arrives the 28th and then hopefully 20-30 pounds total before my next trip to MI. I doubt that'll happen, but I can dream...this intense heat definitely makes me lose the water weight! :)

I went to the post office and the grocery store today too. It's nice knowing I just bought food, so I can eat and not worry about what will be there. Great feelings. I really like these little tubs of bbq pulled meat. I bought one and that'll serve as two nice big meals. There's also a sloppy joe mix that I'll try next I think. For a while there I was cutting out soda, but I fell back into the habit of drinking it. I'm not sure I'll be able to stop completely...sometimes I just need a soda before or right after lunch. I get kinda tired during the day.

We're starting our first live case within the next few weeks. We review the patent as a class, it's going to be interesting. Training is going ok. It used to be so boring to the point where we'd have 5-6 hours to do 1-2 hours worth of work, but this last week, we had one day, 9 hours, to do work that would take us a whole week. Silly people. It's good though, we're learning a ton and I guess that's the point of the training, right? Right.

Amanda comes at the end of the month, I'm extremely excited. We're finally going to go and do touristy things. I'm excited. I'm taking her to the zoo, the holocaust museum, and maybe a smithsonian! Who knows what else? There's tons to do, and hopefully we have a lot of fun. I hope it stays out of the 90's and 100's while she's here. That would make the zoo horrible. We'll see though, only time will tell.

That's all. The weeks fly by so i forget to write, always. I'll try to be better, but nowadays, I say that every post and it still continues to be ellusive. We'll see...once again, only time will tell.

JMB

Just a quick post

Amanda comes in two weeks for the weekend! I can't wait! That's all the info I have! I'll write more soon...maybe?

Quick post and a picture of the new car!






Take care!

I've been slacking!

Wow, I never think to post anymore, although, I have tons to write about!

I'm getting MARRIED! During the last trip to Michigan to see Amanda for the 4th of July I proposed! Actually, more specifically, I proposed to amanda on June 30th at approximately 10:00pm. It was glorious! She said yes, naturally! :) I'm such a lucky guy!

Friday at work, since I got out an hour earlier, I stopped by a car dealership and bought a car! Well, I leased a car anyway. I got a pretty sweet Toyota Yaris! They're great on gas, small and best of all, cheap! I don't actually have it yet though...I bought it yesterday, but the only colors they had at the dealership were Red and Lime Green...well, neither of those will do, so I'm waiting for a darker model to come in. I wanted it completely loaded too, so that caused me to have to wait. Luckily it should be here tomorrow. I went with Geico insurance as they seem to be the best around, for me anyway.

That's about it...my two biggest purchases, aside from my college education, were in the last week (the other being the engagment ring, if you didn't realize.) I'm such a happy camper right now. The only downside to the whole week was that grandpa wasn't around when I was back in Michigan. I sure love him a lot, I wish I could have seen him, but there'll be other trips! :) He's pretty much the best thing walking on the earth and I hope he's enjoying himself this summer.

I've been slacking so much on this blog though, it's kind of depressing. When I first moved to the DC metro area I wrote once or twice a day! I've entered the lull of the work force, so nothing much exciting happens on a day to day basis anymore. Work is going great too though, by the way. I think I'll be extremely happy at the PTO, it's a great job, and it will allow me many advancement opportunities! Everything is going pretty smooth!

I wish amanda were here. She ties grandpa for the best thing walking on the earth, and they're both in Michigan! It appears I'm in the wrong state, but I'm sure it'll all work out. The experience of working and living on my own is worth it, as amanda will be moving down here in May, and I'll get to see grandpa soon I hope. Maybe this winter I can fly or drive down to florida to see him! We've talked about that briefly and I think it'd be fun for everyone!

That's all for now, it's about 12:30am sunday morning, I should probably get to sleep so I can get up early tomorrow morning so I'll be tired Sunday night. I don't want to be up all night before work. Goodnight friends and family! :)

John