Lauren
July 29th, 2008
In 1990 I was a senior in High School. I had been dating Syria for about a year when she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl. She was adopted by a wonderful family that knew Syria. I won’t go into the details except to say that after meeting and talking with them Syria and I felt certain they were right for . We had to back out of arangements that were already being made through the adoption agency.
Her name is Lauren and throughout the years I have received pictures and progress reports through Syria. Each time I would hear how well she was doing I was reassured we had made the correct decision.
When Lauren turned eighteen she was told about Syria and I by her parents. Lauren contacted Syria and they arranged to meet about a month later. Before that could happen Syria and I had to tell Scott and Aaron.
I flew up for a weekend and we sat the boys down. I was not sure what to expect from the boys. I had played every reaction I could think of over and over in my head. My worry was they would feel lied to or betrayed. I have to say, it went very smoothly. They were, of course, shocked at first, but that quickly gave way to excitement. They both wanted to meet their sister.
A week later the four of them got together. By the end of the visit everyone seemed to have bonded. I got many calls from Syria telling me how well everything was going and talking to the boys I could tell everyone was happy.
Two weeks ago it was my turn to meet her. Lauren had written a very nice letter saying she wanted us to meet. The boys were coming for a long weekend visit along with their mother. Syria was staying with Lauren and her mother while the boys stayed with me.
I picked the three of them up from the Ft. Lauderdale airport Friday evening. On the drive back I got to talk to Lauren a little bit over Syria’s cell phone speaker phone, which was a little awkward for me but did break the ice a bit. I was very nervous about this meeting – I wanted it to go well but knew my limited social skills and shyness could come off the wrong way.
I can not articulate what I felt meeting her for the first time. It was amazing and a bit surreal.
She is beautiful.
She is intelligent.
She is funny.
She is articulate.
She is virtuous.
She is ethical.
She is an accomplished student.
… and more.
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(l-r)Scott, Me, Aaron
I found some old floppy disks with pictures from 1999-2000. It’s nice to come across this stuff and remember.
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Google Maps has a street view of my neighborhood. While that is pretty neat in itself, the pictures were taken while half of the street had our Christmas lighted arches up.
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I wish I had seen the van drive through. I could see that I was home at the time because my car is in the driveway in the pictures. Not that I would have done anything, it just would have been cool to see the vehicle. I saw pictures somewhere on the internet were a guy followed the Google van for a few blocks and can be seen in several pictures jumping with his hands and legs forming an ‘X’ in the air.
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Last night I got a call from Aaron’s mother telling me she was on her way to the hospital with Aaron. From her tone I knew it wasn’t a life threatening emergency but still, the heart races at those words. Aaron had called his mother asking her to come get him because he couldn’t walk. He had tried to jump some stairs on his skateboard and landed on the side of his foot. He said he heard a ’pop’ and that it hurt very badly.
I talked to Aaron on the ride to the hospital and he was quite calm. I was proud of him. It didn’t seem that he broke anything. I asked if his foot was swollen which is a sign of a sprain. He said it was a little.
I talked to them a couple more times during the almost two hour wait at the emergency room. Syria said Aaron’s cell phone was ringing like crazy with friends calling to find out how he was.
When they were done Syria called me to let me know what had happened. The doctor said he ended up spraining it on both sides. Today he put up a fuss with his mother about using crutches in school but ultimately lost. I figure once he’s in school he’s gonna dig the attention from his classmates.
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I Quit!
April 2nd, 2008
… smoking. Friday, January 11th I decided that I didn’t want to smoke anymore. So far, I haven’t. Feels like it’s gonna stick this time. I do miss it but I feel good not having it controll me anymore.
I may have gotten out of it just in time because my city is trying to pass a ban on smoking in public parks and most beaches. I can’t say I agree. Next people will only be able to smoke in their homes with the windows closed between the hours of 10pm and 6am. Okay, it’s not the next step but it is the path these people are on. And they are very egar to take whatever steps they have to so you don’t bother them.
Smoking is not illegal.
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I got this link from DL.tv:
You are presented with a word and asked to select another word with the same meaning from a list of four words. The site offers to send 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. As you get more right your “vocab level” increases and the words become harder.
I got to level 40 with 1680 grains promised over two commercial breaks during an episode of “House”. Another feature I found on my second visit to the site was the option to remember my vocabulary level and donation total on my computer. Check it out. It’s a great way to increase your vocabulary and help feed the hungry. Next time the subject of how to feed the starving people of the world comes up you can bloviate about how frequently you’ve helped.
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Today is Scott’s 14th birthday. I called him on my way to work this morning to wish him a happy birthday before he left for school. I can’t wait to get up there next week. One week from today is Aaron’s birthday and he is turning 13.
Today is also my brother’s birthday. He is 34 today. His birthday sort of got hijacked when Scott was born. I will have to call him this evening.
Thats all I have for now. I will have more about the boys’ birthdays when I get back from MO.
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I got an email last week saying I was invited to participate in beta testing for Tabula Rasa, which is the latest massively multiplayer online game. It is the same idea as World of Warcraft or City of Heroes; which I have played before. I signed up and loaded the games client on my computer last night. It was a little over an hour of downloading the client before I was able to get my hands dirty.
I only played a short time last night just to see if I really wanted to do it or not. The first thing you do is set up your character. As with the other MMORPG’s you can have many different characters but, I will only create one for now. All characters are humans and I didn’t see any way to select a female character (not that I wanted to). I will talk about it more as I get into playing the game. From what I have seen so far the graphics and visuals are very good.
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A couple of days ago I got a $1 bill as change for my lunch at the Court House that had a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on it. Actually, it had the stamp on both sides, plus a different stamp from another website: www.TrackMyCash.com. This is at least the second time I have come across a ”Where’s George” bill. I logged in to my account and added the bill. You can see the progress of this specific bill here. The bill originated in New Kensington, PA but the person who entered the bill before me was also in Naples. It is fun to see the path of currency as it is passed along in the normal course of business.
Last weekend the boys’ mother painted their bedroom. While furniture and stuff was moved out of the way their cat knocked a birdcage off a dresser and on to their computer, spilling the birds water into the case. Now the computer is dead.
I tried a little troubleshooting with Scott over the phone but could not get it back up. I will bring a power supply with me when I go at the end of the month to see if that is all that’s blown. I have a feeling it is the board but, you don’t know until you try.
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Today we celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492. The first thing that comes to my mind is the mnemonic device I was taught in Elementary school to remember the date: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue”.
One cool thing about my County gig is that I get holidays off.
Well, most holidays. Not this one, though.
I know that Columbus’ discovery of the Americas brought about the rush of Europeans to the New World. That brought the Pilgrams who formed colonies…
They broke from England…
They founded the United States…
The United State grew and prospered in to a world leader…
My parents were born in the United States…
They met in the United States (Michigan, to be more precise)…
They were married in the United States…
I was born in the United States…
I grew up in the United States…
I have two wonderful boys and a great job in the United States…
So I don’t really need the day off.
Lest we forget, somewhere between Columbus discovering the Americas and the United States prospering there were many native peoples killed and opressed.
Maybe today is a day to think about what it took for our country to get here… and what was taken.
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