salience
January 21, 2010
Today was a great day.
First - my brother relayed the news that he will be commissioned into the Army on 5 February (in what is roughly two weeks) at Wake Forest in NC. We've (the family) been waiting for this day for about a year and a half now, ever since my brother got back from impressing the pants off his cadre at LDAC at Ft. Lewis, WA. Then came the blown knee, the knee surgery and the rehabilitation.
My brother has not only learned to walk again, but to run as well. All without most of the cartilage surrounding a knee cap. He asked me if I could make the trip to see him sworn in. He missed the big ceremony with his peers, this will be just a quick "Do you...?". But I wouldn't miss it for anything. I am so proud of him and I cannot wait to share this moment with him. He reports to Ft. Sill, OK at the end of March (Artillery).
Second - I received a distressing email from one of my favorite girls. She and I play clarinet together in Manhattan Wind Ensemble and Columbia Summer Winds. She is hilarious, an awesome player and someone who always finds a way to brighten my day, even if I only see her for a few hours at a time.
She teaches 12th grade English at a small public school in Brooklyn. Sadly, although not unexpectedly, her school has dramatically lost funding. She doesn't have enough desks for her average class size (she's about 17 short, and often has kids standing/squatting around her room) and she can't follow through on the curriculum she had planned because she is missing half of the books she needs. Can you imagine asking high school seniors to double up while reading in class? No, they can't take the books home with them and no, they can't even read on their own while in class. There just aren't enough books. Well, she signed up for grants through a site called DonorsChoose.org. Her site is here, asking for enough money to buy a complete set of books for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
I logged on and saw that while she had gotten a few donations, she was still well away from her goal of ordering her full set. I do have some cash saved up which I earmark for donations every year (usually my coworkers run races for different causes, plus the girl scouts and boyscouts make the rounds in the office too). Well, with so many on my team having left (either voluntary or otherwise), that reserve has been waiting for a suitable cause. And this was it. Books for everyone! I submitted my donation online and within seconds I had a very nice thank you email in my inbox. It feels so great to do something which will help not only my friend's current group of students, but also any future students she will have. Every little bit truly does help yall!
First - my brother relayed the news that he will be commissioned into the Army on 5 February (in what is roughly two weeks) at Wake Forest in NC. We've (the family) been waiting for this day for about a year and a half now, ever since my brother got back from impressing the pants off his cadre at LDAC at Ft. Lewis, WA. Then came the blown knee, the knee surgery and the rehabilitation.
My brother has not only learned to walk again, but to run as well. All without most of the cartilage surrounding a knee cap. He asked me if I could make the trip to see him sworn in. He missed the big ceremony with his peers, this will be just a quick "Do you...?". But I wouldn't miss it for anything. I am so proud of him and I cannot wait to share this moment with him. He reports to Ft. Sill, OK at the end of March (Artillery).
Second - I received a distressing email from one of my favorite girls. She and I play clarinet together in Manhattan Wind Ensemble and Columbia Summer Winds. She is hilarious, an awesome player and someone who always finds a way to brighten my day, even if I only see her for a few hours at a time.
She teaches 12th grade English at a small public school in Brooklyn. Sadly, although not unexpectedly, her school has dramatically lost funding. She doesn't have enough desks for her average class size (she's about 17 short, and often has kids standing/squatting around her room) and she can't follow through on the curriculum she had planned because she is missing half of the books she needs. Can you imagine asking high school seniors to double up while reading in class? No, they can't take the books home with them and no, they can't even read on their own while in class. There just aren't enough books. Well, she signed up for grants through a site called DonorsChoose.org. Her site is here, asking for enough money to buy a complete set of books for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
I logged on and saw that while she had gotten a few donations, she was still well away from her goal of ordering her full set. I do have some cash saved up which I earmark for donations every year (usually my coworkers run races for different causes, plus the girl scouts and boyscouts make the rounds in the office too). Well, with so many on my team having left (either voluntary or otherwise), that reserve has been waiting for a suitable cause. And this was it. Books for everyone! I submitted my donation online and within seconds I had a very nice thank you email in my inbox. It feels so great to do something which will help not only my friend's current group of students, but also any future students she will have. Every little bit truly does help yall!
January 15, 2010
I had my hair cut tonight after work, for the first time in seven months mind you, and donated the majority of it to Locks of Love. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile. All in all, I donated over a foot!
January 3, 2010
Pictures, as promised:
I had been looking forward to Ry and I going to St. Thomas for the past three months. Needless to say, I was a little more than upset when we had to cancel our trip. What happened, you ask? How did not going to the US Virgin Islands morph into us still having a New Year's Eve we won't soon forget?
We were up at 3:30am for the first flight out of JFK to Charlotte on the 30th. We barely made that flight to sit on the tarmac for an hour and fifteen minutes. That delay had us running to our gate in Charlotte to make the flight to St. Thomas. We barely made that flight and then Ry's luck ran out. (He always teases me that I have the worst travel luck: things always seem to just work out when he travels.) They diverted our plane to San Juan due to "turbulence." We waited five hours at the San Juan gate for the weather to clear. (It's a 20 minute flight from San Juan to St. Thomas.)
We were re-boarded only to wait on the tarmac for another two hours: our crew's time had expired and a new crew had to be negotiated. The new crew arrived and told us, that due to customs restrictions, we could not retrieve our checked bags and our plane was going back to NC. The plane erupted in protest: both Delta and American were landing flights in St. Thomas while we were stuck at San Juan on US Air!
Our new crew told us US Air would add another flight to St. Thomas the next morning (the 31st). When we finally got back to Charlotte, we learned from the rep at the guest services that that promise was a complete lie: more for crowd control than anything else. We were able to get our entire airfare refunded, which I learned later, was mostly due to Ryan flashing the ring to our rep and explaining US Air ruined his proposal plans and making our poor rep cry. She got us on the next open flight on the 31st back to JFK.
We scrambled to find a room for the night in Charlotte, but luckily my Marriott membership pulled through. We were back at the airport Thursday morning only to find our flight back to JFK delayed due to snow. When we finally touched down in nyc, after 36 hours of traveling, we were determined to make the most of what was left of the holiday. Ry was able to get us a table for dinner at the rooftop restaurant at the Yale Club and I was able to get us a room at the Grand Central Hyatt for the night. We were still going to have a mini vacation, even if for only a few hours instead of a few days!
That dinner tasted like heaven after a day and a half of awful airplane/airport food. It started snowing again during dinner and we decided to go look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Well, when we got outside, we realized it was more sleet than snow. I mentioned to Ry we should scrap the whole tree idea: was it really worth it in all this weather? He insisted that we press on. And wouldn't you know it? We finally make it to the tree and it wasn't even lit! What's more, we couldn't even get near the tree - NYPD had closed the entire center due to security for the New Year's Eve festivities! Ryan suggested we walk around the block, just in case we could get a little closer on the other side of the street.
Sure enough, we get to opposite end, and it's blocked off as well. Nothing was going our way: not the trip, not the NYC weather, not even the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree! At that moment, Ryan turned to me and said, "Look, life isn't always perfect and I'm tired of waiting for our luck to turn, so I'm just going to ask! Maria, will you marry me?" I was shocked. I was suspicious that he'd propose in St. Thomas and I was convinced all of his potential plans to propose had been dashed with the cancellation of our trip! I said "Of course, yes!" and right then the tree lit up for a brief moment. Immediately Ry burst into song, singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Spamalot.
We're engaged yall and I couldn't be happier! We're thinking of a New York wedding in October of 2011. He's not back for good from the UK until the end of May, and the cuatas (hopefully) graduate from Texas Tech in May 2011, so it makes sense to shoot for the fall of that year.
It's pretty crazy to say I have a fiance! And the ring, my goodness. It's truly beautiful! I'll put up pictures soon!
We were up at 3:30am for the first flight out of JFK to Charlotte on the 30th. We barely made that flight to sit on the tarmac for an hour and fifteen minutes. That delay had us running to our gate in Charlotte to make the flight to St. Thomas. We barely made that flight and then Ry's luck ran out. (He always teases me that I have the worst travel luck: things always seem to just work out when he travels.) They diverted our plane to San Juan due to "turbulence." We waited five hours at the San Juan gate for the weather to clear. (It's a 20 minute flight from San Juan to St. Thomas.)
We were re-boarded only to wait on the tarmac for another two hours: our crew's time had expired and a new crew had to be negotiated. The new crew arrived and told us, that due to customs restrictions, we could not retrieve our checked bags and our plane was going back to NC. The plane erupted in protest: both Delta and American were landing flights in St. Thomas while we were stuck at San Juan on US Air!
Our new crew told us US Air would add another flight to St. Thomas the next morning (the 31st). When we finally got back to Charlotte, we learned from the rep at the guest services that that promise was a complete lie: more for crowd control than anything else. We were able to get our entire airfare refunded, which I learned later, was mostly due to Ryan flashing the ring to our rep and explaining US Air ruined his proposal plans and making our poor rep cry. She got us on the next open flight on the 31st back to JFK.
We scrambled to find a room for the night in Charlotte, but luckily my Marriott membership pulled through. We were back at the airport Thursday morning only to find our flight back to JFK delayed due to snow. When we finally touched down in nyc, after 36 hours of traveling, we were determined to make the most of what was left of the holiday. Ry was able to get us a table for dinner at the rooftop restaurant at the Yale Club and I was able to get us a room at the Grand Central Hyatt for the night. We were still going to have a mini vacation, even if for only a few hours instead of a few days!
That dinner tasted like heaven after a day and a half of awful airplane/airport food. It started snowing again during dinner and we decided to go look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Well, when we got outside, we realized it was more sleet than snow. I mentioned to Ry we should scrap the whole tree idea: was it really worth it in all this weather? He insisted that we press on. And wouldn't you know it? We finally make it to the tree and it wasn't even lit! What's more, we couldn't even get near the tree - NYPD had closed the entire center due to security for the New Year's Eve festivities! Ryan suggested we walk around the block, just in case we could get a little closer on the other side of the street.
Sure enough, we get to opposite end, and it's blocked off as well. Nothing was going our way: not the trip, not the NYC weather, not even the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree! At that moment, Ryan turned to me and said, "Look, life isn't always perfect and I'm tired of waiting for our luck to turn, so I'm just going to ask! Maria, will you marry me?" I was shocked. I was suspicious that he'd propose in St. Thomas and I was convinced all of his potential plans to propose had been dashed with the cancellation of our trip! I said "Of course, yes!" and right then the tree lit up for a brief moment. Immediately Ry burst into song, singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from Spamalot.
We're engaged yall and I couldn't be happier! We're thinking of a New York wedding in October of 2011. He's not back for good from the UK until the end of May, and the cuatas (hopefully) graduate from Texas Tech in May 2011, so it makes sense to shoot for the fall of that year.
It's pretty crazy to say I have a fiance! And the ring, my goodness. It's truly beautiful! I'll put up pictures soon!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the Christmas holiday. Kate is growing up so fast! I have a few of Lorenzo and Chuck putting together a truck Lorenzo got for his goddaughter. Of course he failed to notice that assembly was required, so Chuck and he spent a good hour or so putting it together. Also, the cousins all had a two day Wii tournament, and I was able to get some really funny shots of the action.
