Arm Seizure Update

Hi all-

I wanted to send you a follow up to my last email since I had my MRI this morning. The MRI went well and was fast. It is amazing how fast and how much smaller the machines are these days - but they are still loud! And it is amazing that I had the MRI at a facility 30 miles away from my doc, but he was able to see the results instantly. I guess I should not be surprised - IT is my thang!

My follow-up appointment was scheduled for Mar 2, but the doctor's assistant called me this afternoon and wanted me to come in tomorrow (Fri), but I couldn't - so he's seeing me Tuesday at 8:30am. I guess it kinda freaks me out they he already saw the EEG and MRI and wants me to come in so quickly - my mind is thinking bad negative things. I know I should not jump to conclusions, but for the first time, I am sorta scared. I need prayers for peace (especially since Holly and I are supposed to have fun in NYC this weekend), courage and also prayers for these negative thoughts to leave my head. I just keep telling myself, Lord, you are with me... Heck, for all I know, he might just want to see me quickly to pass on some good news.

I have not had any seizures this week, but had an astounding six last Friday and about three on Saturday. So, are the meds working? Who knows - they sure do make me groggy though. I had to come to work late since I went to my appointment, and man, was it hard staying awake on the subway this morning. I probably looked like I was under the influence of some gooood drugs! Well anyway, have a good weekend... it is supposed to be very cold in NY this weekend. Highs Sunday in the 20's! I'll let you know what the doc says on Tuesday.

-Roger

Arm Seizures?

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the mass email. I just wanted to share a little about something going on in my life right now. Here's some history first… a few months ago (Nov 05, I think) I experienced a very strange sensation in my right arm. I can't recall exactly what I was doing at the time, but my arm began to convulse on its own. It was highly unusual yet very fascinating. The episode lasted just a few seconds. It happened again soon after that, but I began to notice that, somehow, I knew it was going to start going bezerk. I just had this feeling that came over me and I knew it was coming. The action my arm makes is kind of like the motion your arm would make if you were shaking someone's hand. It moves back and forth, or up and down, about two inches one direction and then two the other. While it's doing its thing, I can't stop it. I have a little control on my hand, but I cannot stop my arm from moving. I'll have an episode maybe once up to three times a day… sometimes back to back days and other times a few days or even a week or more between episodes. I mentioned this to my doctor one day while I was seeing her for back pain, but she thought we should control and treat the back pain first. About a month later, the back pain was better and I had several episodes over a weekend – I decided it would be best to come see her again.

I told the doctor what I have explained to you… she said that it sounds like I am having seizures in my arm. "Seizures?" I thought… I would have never thought to call it that. She also said that my ability to know in advance, that a seizure was coming, is called an aura. I had heard this once before when I explained all of this to a doctor friend of mine, but hearing it again from this doctor made it really sink in. She gave me a referral to a Neurologist and told me to follow up with them.

Feb 1 I went to see a neurologist at Andrews Air Force Base. I met with a student doctor, an AF 2nd Lieutenant, and then met with the attending, an AF Major. The Major pretty much did a lot of the muscle tension and reflex tests that the 2LT did, but he noticed something the 2LT missed, there was a slight over-reaction in the way my right lower arm was reacting to a reflex test. He said that my reaction was quite jumpy and similar to that of a little girl (no jokes here folks.) The left side made a small reaction, the right side a bigger and jumpier reaction. He said that this indicates that my brain is, for some reason, reacting differently with my right arm. And as we all know from biology, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body. He said that there are many things that could make the brain have a reaction like this: tumor, scar tissue, trauma, or just weird nerves. He said that an MRI would let them see if there is anything visibly affecting my brain. He also said that an electroencephalogram (EEG) could tell them if there is any abnormal brain activity going on. He also prescribed some medication to see if the seizures stop. I have an EEG scheduled for Mon Feb 6 at 10am at Andrews AFB, and I have an MRI scheduled for Thu Feb 16 at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center.

I also started taking my new medication last night, Trileptal. I hear it is a relatively new medication. I read quite a bit about it and it looks like the side effects relate to making one drowsy and such, but I took one last night and I didn't feel too bad. I'm taking one a day at night before bed for five days and then two a day after that. I think the one I'll have to take during the day will affect me more. After all the tests, I'll schedule a follow up appt and they'll tell me what's next.

We don't have a whole lot of time left here in DC. I just hope that they can figure out what's wrong before we have to leave or TX. But I know that once we get there, there will be more tests by the civilian doctors to make sure that they agree with the military doctors' findings.

UPDATE: I wrote the above last Thursday. While writing it, I lost it (or thought I did) because the network flaked out on me and I wasn't able to recover it until Tuesday. So, I went to my EEG appointment on Monday and the test was done with no complications. Unfortunately, I won't get the results until my follow up appointment, which is now scheduled for Mar 2. I'm taking the medication twice a day and it is not presenting any complications during the day - other than making me a bit tired if I don't move around while at work. I haven't had any seizures at all either. Now, I do have a new thing going on though, my left lower eyelid twitches. It does this most of the day, on its own. Nothing seems to trigger it. Apparently, it is called Myokymia. It seems to come on for a while and then go away on its own. I read that it can come on due to excessive alcohol of caffeine (that's not it) or fatigue or stress. I have to admit that we haven't been getting enough sleep and this whole arm thing has me just a little stressed out. Hmm.. there are a lot of things stressing me out these days.. Holly's condition, going back home. I just need to chill out and take everything one step at a time. The twitch is not life threatening, but it sure is dang annoying. Sometimes, it twitches so much my whole eyeball moves. It's like an eye-quake!

Anyway, if you could please pray for healing for Holly and I, wisdom for the doctors, and peace and relief for us from the stresses of our ailments and relocating again, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for listening and I'll update you soon,

-Roger

Well... We've gone and done it! We've finally picked up on the website again. As you can see, we have revamped the blog site quite a bit. We've changed up the look of the page to freshen it up a bit. In addition to the redesign, we've added a few new features:

• :: You can now sign up to have the blog emailed to you whenever we update it. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page to subscribe. You'll have to become a member of FeedBlitz, but hey, it's free and cool all at the same time.
• :: If you use a RSS News Reader (if you use it, you'll know what I mean - oh, and RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication) you can now subscribe to the blog. It is published in several formats including Atom, XML and I've included buttons for popular News Readers such as NewsGator, MyYahoo! and BlogLines and a standard XML link, all thanks to FeedBurner.
• :: We've added better tracking capability to the site (that's the Site Meter button you see at the bottom of each page) so that we can see who is coming to the site, how they are finding us and how long they stay - neat eh?
• :: We can now post pictures directly from Flickr, our new photo sharing engine. Soon, we'll have Flickr setup with all of our pictures. It'll be our online photo album.
• :: Lastly, we're going to redesign the www.mommaerts.org home page itself. Because of all these cool tools, it'll basically be the starting point to direct you to all this cool stuff. I even plan to expand the video page I have up so that we can share even more of our videos.

That's about it. I don't know why it took so long, but we're on it! In the next few days, we'll be posting some of Holly's insights from the past few months for your reading pleasure. A few are a few months old, but they'll get you up to speed on our happenings fast. Stay tuned!

Virginia Fall 2005 Picture

Fall 2005 Picture 099, originally uploaded by roger_mommaerts.

Holly and I went up to see the beautiful colors this past weekend. Check out these pictures. It was wonderful!

So I forgot that today the Army element here is taking their PT test. I went into the locker room to change for PT and it was overrun with people changing after the test. Not only that, but there was no hot water! Anyway, I decided to skip PT this morning and just slap on my BDUs. I'll need to take a shower when I get home tonight. I might do PT near the end of the day, but we'll see.

This morning when I was going down to the metro, I got my Express and fished out the Weekend Pass section, which I usually find pretty useless. I got it out and noticed a metro police man leaning up against the newspaper recycle bin. I said excuse me to him and put my Pass in to it and noticed he was mesmerized by something. I looked where he was looking and there was a lady with a dog fumbling with the turnstile. I recognized her from the other day in the building, she has no arms and a assistance dog. I went thru the other turnstile and looked back to see what she was fussing over. The poor lady was trying to fetch the metro ticket from the top of the turnstile with her toes but it didn't pop up high enough! I just grabbed it for her and slipped it between her toes for her. She was very grateful and was on her merry way, but then I remembered the cop... just standing there. Maybe he couldn't tell what she was up to, or maybe he didn't see that she had no arms, but man.. if someone is struggling, offer to help them out! I wonder how long he was going to let her fumble?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

So I have been a bad blogger. We're going to redesign the blog and it will include pictures and posts from me and Holly. Stay tuned!

The past few weeks have just whizzed by. I kicked the cold I had in about a week. My dad came to visit me a few weeks ago. I had to work on the Thu he was here, but I was able to leave a little early and I arranged for a tour of the Pentagon for the both of us. It was a pretty interesting tour – they took us all around the building and we also went to the area where American Airlines flight 77 crashed in to the building on 9/11. There was a very simple memorial there and a small chapel too. Friday we saw some sites and then went to see Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai. Like Alegría, it was simply amazing.

Sat we visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. This was an amazing museum! The facility itself is one of the largest hangers in the world. They have a good number of aircraft in the building… including a Concorde jet, a Boeing passenger jet, fighters and the best of all… the space shuttle Enterprise! But we didn’t get to see the Enterprise up close – that wing of the museum was still being prepared but has opened since our visit. The Enterprise actually never went into space. It was released from a 747 and used to test out the aerodynamics of the shuttle before the others were made. I need to get back there to see it soon.

We went to church on Sun and had lunch with some friends and kicked back. I had to work Mon but we managed to see and visit a few other places before he left the following Thu. We took a drive up to Ft Meade, MD and checked out the NSA’s facilities from afar. My dad worked there back in the 60’s and we just wanted to see how it looked. The place has grown quite a bit. One cool thing, there is a small museum there called the National Cryptologic Museum. They have a mish mash of technology and devices used by the US and other countries during the years to ensure that data and information was and is kept secret. One of the coolest was a German Enigma machine that you could play with. We ventured around Ft Meade and found the house that my dad lived in the second time he was stationed there – that was cool. It was amazing that he could remember where it was – we were in the area and the street names were familiar. We drove up this one street and he was like, “that’s IT!” It was pretty cool.

Other than that, we ventured down to the national mall and also made it over to Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln was assassinated. One of the highlights was a fabulous dinner we had at Harry's Tap Room in Clarendon/Arlington. We started off with a large order of steamed mussels. Then we each had a pair of tenderloins cooked medium-rare. For a buck, you can have your beef slathered with a sumptuous sauce. My dad had the horseradish and I had the peppercorn mustard sauce. We also paired our steaks with a glorious red wine. It was simply a fantastic dining experience! Then we cross the street and had some cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory… yum! All in all… a great visit with my pop. We had a great time and I enjoyed spending time with my old man. Thanks dad – I had a great time.

Since then – I haven’t done much. I started taking my video production classes at Arlington Independent Media. My field class was pretty cool – we got some hands on with a DV camera. Apparently, the DV cameras are pretty darn expensive – about $25k for the whole unit. I was a little hesitant hoisting that bad boy onto my shoulder. They told us about one guy that didn’t mount one new camera on a tripod once… it fell off. He’s still paying off the repair. My studio class was equally interesting. We went over how the studio works and how the cameras work and about all the lights and such. Then we spent some time analyzing TV commercials and what methods they use to convey their message in 30 seconds. We’ll spend quite a bit of time doing that every class. So far, I think that the field class will be my favorite. After I take these two classes, I am going to take a digital non-linear video editing class. This will be similar to the video editing I do at home on my PC, but more advanced. Should be fun!

In the news… the elections are over! No more political ads and hype. I have to say that the buzz over the election was higher here than any other place I have seen in the country. It wasn’t bad, but I found myself getting into some heated political conversations – I have never done that before. It was a trip! I caught myself and couldn’t believe it. Arafat passed away this week. I don’t think region will ever see peace. I can’t believe that they were not prepared to have someone take over if he passed. At work, we all agree that the rumors were in fact true. He had passed away earlier in the week. But Muslim doctrine states that a person must be buried within 72 hours of the death. So, they kept him ‘alive’ on a heart lung machine long enough to make all the funeral plans and then pulled the plug when they were ready to make it happen. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that – but they sure had a hard time keeping their news under wraps.

The weather here has turned much cooler. The highs in the past few days have been in the 40-50s and lows in the 30s. I quite like it, but you have to layer like crazy – at least I do. I get hot quick and have to be able to remove layers to be comfortable. I am adapting to this new schedule okay. With my classes Mon and Tue nights and small group Wed night, I usually have to catch a nap right after work, then wake up, shower, eat, go to class/group, come home and sleep a few hours before I have to get up for work again. I leave Thu night open to relax. I have been assisting a gentleman from church with his home computers for a few weeks now too. He calls me up and I make a house call as necessary. Lately I have been putting in about 3-6 hours a week. I work quickly, he pays me well and we continue to have a good business relationship. I’m just getting his systems to work better and quicker, cleaning up and adding features that he wants. It’s good because it helps keep my skills up. I have also been building server racks at work – which keeps my work skills honed too. And I have been doing some server stuff that is new to me, but I have picked it up quite well and can use these new skills in the future.

Work is going quite well. I have settled in with my coworkers and conditions have improved. I am staying busy and the time is passing well. We have determined that, barring en extension (which we don’t think will happen,) we should be on our way back to Ft Hood to redeploy at the end of March 2005 and should be home sometime at the beginning of April. We will have accrued a nearly month of leave and will be on leave the last month or our tour – or so we think. More details to come…

I have managed to get the entire Thanksgiving week off as Holly will be visiting me! Woo hooo!!! I’m looking forward to a relaxing time with my sweetie. About half the guys will be working and half got the weekend off. So, it will be opposite for the rst of the holidays… the other half get Christmas off and we’ll have to work. As it stands, I am scheduled to work Christmas and New Years eves and days – my regular morning shift. I really don’t mind. Holly doesn’t have enough time to come up again, so I don’t mind working so that everyone here can spend time with their families. I have to admit though – it will be strange working Xmas and NY days. I’m hoping I’ll be able to at least venture over to somebody’s house later Xmas day to have some semblance of a Xmas experience. We’ll see.

I promise I’ll post more regularly from here on out. I got so busy – and the schedule change kicked my butt too. That about wraps up the past few weeks.

I have been sooo sick. It has been a while since a cold kicked my butt like this. I left work early yesterday and they pretty much told me to go home today. I came home and slept some more. My stomach has been a bit uneasy and I have been chowing down on chicken soup, jello and ginger ale. I took some more DayQuil today, but this coughing has given me a headache. I am off tomorrow, so I'll be able to sleep in. I guess I just need to rest this thing off.

I uploaded a smaller version of the slideshow that I created for the CrosspointDC retreat this past weekend. Check it out - I think we all did a great job. Click here to see it. They are going to play it again at church this weekend for all those that missed it or could not attend the retreat. Enjoy..

I went to a retreat with Crosspoint DC and had a blast! The retreat was this past weekend at the 4-H conference center in Front Royal, VA. The conference and speaker were great. But the scenery was terrific. I’ll try to post some pics soon. I’m not feeling too hot today. Monday I woke up from a nap and my throat felt sore. I ran out and got some Cold-Eeze, vitamin C drops and Chloraseptic. I slept okay Monday night but slept like crap last night. I kept waking up due to a cough and stuffy nose. Then I got a headache from being congested. I took some Advil and was finally able to get a few hours of sleep – I think I slept about 3-4 hours. Today at work I was a zombie. I bought some DayQuil to make me feel better, but it also made me sleepy, even though it is supposed to non-drowsy. I’m going to buy some NyQuil for tonight and go to sleep early. I need to kick this cold.

My dad will be here a week from today for a week! I am working over this weekend so that I can be off when he is here. I will only have to work one day while he’s here, but he’ll be able to venture out on his own just fine. I am very excited about him coming out here. It will be nice to spend some quality time with my old man.

The weather here is quite crisp! Lows last night were in the mid 40s. Highs today will only be in the low 60s. Fall is definitely here… it will warm up into the 70s later this week – but the warm humid weather should be gone for the most part.

I am now hosting a weekly Monday small group at my apartment. It is nice to have people over – makes it feel like home. This Monday I have to provide food though. I haven’t decided if I am going to cook or buy food. The first time we met there were fourteen people, but only six this last time. The numbers are hit or miss – that worries me a little bit. Let me know if you have any suggestions for me on what to cook.

I haven’t been motivated to write lately. I have been keeping busy with lots of activities in the past few weeks. Here are the highlights:

• The new work schedule is taking some time to get used to. I am a night owl – getting up at 4am is killing me. The past few days I have had to take a nap right after work. Two hours will keep me going until about 10pm. I’ve also had to adjust my eating habits. I was making a big dinner and bringing it to work when I was on the swing shift. When I started working days, I brought the dinner food for lunch. It was way to much and now I’m just bringing a sandwich and some chips and fruit. I can save dinner for, well… dinner. Seems to be getting better.
  
• My friend Katie, who I used to work with at SWK, was in town for a few days this past week. I met up with her and her co-worker for dinner one evening. They weren’t interested in seeing any sights – the conference they were attending wore them out and they just wanted to chill. It was nice to have some company and to see a familiar face.
  
• I joined a Fantasy Football league with my coworkers back at RFL in Austin. So far, my team sucks. I didn’t get a chance to prerank my players for the draft and I ended up with crap players. Anyway, after week two, I am in dead last place – 14 of 14. This week I am playing number 13 – so this week’s game is a battle for last place. Yee haw.
  
• I have been going to Crosspoint DC for church Sunday evenings. Their annual fall retreat is this coming weekend. I found someone to work for me Sunday morning and have signed up to go. I also volunteered to take pictures throughout the event and then work with a team to create a photo slide show to show on the last day. I have done something similar in the past, but we had to scan in digital pictures. This time we’ll use digital cameras, we’ll just need to download and go. I am also considering renting a faster digital camera if its not too expensive. Better zoom and faster picture taking… much better flash too.
  
• The other church that I have been attending, Grace Community Church, needs people to fill some gaps. Their service is on the local cable public access channels in the area. I have caught the show and it could use some help. I signed up to take classes and will be talking field and studio production classes starting in late Oct. I hope to be able to help them with either running a second camera to record the service, or with post-production of the show to get it to fit into a convenient 30 minute segment. I will be able to do one of those jobs no matter what schedule I am on in the future. I have always been interested in TV production. If it paid enough, I would be a TV news cameraman and do production for a living. That sounds like fun to me. I can’t wait to start taking the classes!
  
• My dad is coming to visit me in the middle of Oct for a week. I have managed to get a few days off and will only have to work one day while he is here. I have to work straight thru the Columbus Day holiday, but it will be worth it. I have to find an air mattress or something for me to sleep on while he’s here. I will not fit on the sofa. It’ll be nice to spend some time with my pop.
  
• I am hosting our Grace weekly Monday evening small group at my apartment Monday. I haven’t had anybody over – not a lot of people, at least. I need to tidy up tonight and get a few groceries. Someone else is bringing food, but I need to provide the beverages. Should be fun!

I guess that’s about it for this installment. The weather here is getting very pleasant: Highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s and this week into the 50s. Dry air most of the time – just very nice. We expect to get some rain this week from Jeanne, but not as much as we did from Ivan last week. He spawned about 30 tornados in a three hours period, or something like that. I was glued to the TV watching it go crazy to the west of us. It should not be as bad this time – or so they say.

It has been a few weeks since I have posted. When I last wrote, I was preparing to head out to Austin for my grandmother’s funeral. My trip to Texas was great! It was so nice to go home for a few days. It was a bit strange though – I had forgotten where some things were around the house. It was a strange feeling, being home after being away for almost three months. The memorial service for my grandmother was very nice. The service was held at my parent’s church, Northwest Fellowship, in north Austin. The pastor did a great job at conveying what a wonderful, gentle, but spirit filled woman my grandmother was. I suppose I gave the eulogy – I read what I wrote on the blog on the morning of her death. The service was so uplifting – there were very few dry eyes in the sanctuary. After the service, we celebrated in classic Panamanian style – we had a potluck and enjoyed way too much food. It was fun to see so many people having a good time… people I have not seen in quite a while. I got to spend some time with all my sisters and also with my tia Chela from LA. And she also brought an old friend of the family who I have not seen in over ten years. Later in the day, we all went to dinner at the Catfish Parlor (an Austin original) and had a fun time.

I did get to spend quality some time with Holly. We slept in late and ate out and ran errands together – it sure was nice to be home. We had dinner with our good friends Joy & TJ at the new house. I had been hearing about it so it was nice to finally see it. I got to meet with up with my good friends David and we enjoyed some tacos from Maria’s Taco Xpress while his kids ran circles around us (literally,) but they are cuties. Sunday we went to church at Southwest Fellowship. Again, it was so nice to see everybody – it was like I never left. After service we had to head right over to the airport to catch my flight home.

I got a very inexpensive fare from American Airlines, which is good because I am a frequent flier, but I had to fly through O’Hare, which makes for a long day of sitting in airplanes and airports. I was surprised when I was in DC preparing my bags and I got a call from American telling me that my flight from Reagan to Chicago was cancelled due to weather. They booked me on a flight to Dallas instead and I got there an hour earlier! What a treat – kudos to AA! My flight home was a different story. No, AA didn’t make any mistakes or have any delays… I unexpectedly fell asleep and slept the whole flight from Austin to Chicago. I grabbed some “dinner” (mmm… airport food) and didn’t want to fall asleep again, so I stopped by Starbuck’s and bought an Iced Chai Tea Latte. I had a taste of someone else’s once and it was really yummy, so I figured it would keep me up. I sucked it down and boarded my flight. The flight was okay and the Metro ride home was uneventful. It wasn’t until I was back in my apartment, unpacking, that I noticed my heart was racing and I was burning up! This was about four hours later and the caffeine was still in my system. Anyway, I was wired and couldn’t fall asleep for another couple of hours. It wasn’t until a few days ago when I shared this with some folks from church and they told me that the ingredient in that tea, black tea, is rich in caffeine. Duly noted.

So then Holly came up the following weekend, for Labor Day. I was told that I could have Sunday off a month and a half ago, but I guess they forgot (?) and scheduled me anyway. When I asked about it, they didn’t even apologize, they just told me to find someone else to work it or I would have to. Kenny was kind enough to fill in for me – many thanks to him. We had a fantastic time together and finally had a chance to sit around and just enjoy each other’s company. She came in early morning Friday (I mean early – like 1am early) and we got to sit in a traffic jam at 2:30am. I love life in DC. Friday we went to Gallaudet University for a tour of the campus. Gallaudet is the Largent deaf university in the country. Holly is studying sign language and really wanted to take a tour of the campus. I have to admit, I was very impressed with the history of the school and camaraderie of the student body. Interesting note, Holly had to request an interpreter for me! The tour was given in sign language and I am not fluent at all. Holly is though – she was able to keep up just fine. Later that night, we met up with some friends from Grace to drive up to the Maryland State Fair to check out one of our favorite Christian bands, Switchfoot. The fair was only about a 40 mile drive – it should have taken maybe an hour and a half. We left at 5pm and got there just after 8pm! That’s right – over three hours to get there. We got stuck in traffic headed to a preseason Redskins game, and then two wrecks were blocking the road. I don’t know how many times we thought, “maybe we should just turn around and go home.” We got there, parked and walked to the entrance and the line was longer than I have seen anywhere in a while! I walked to the front of the line and learned that people had been standing in line for over 30 minutes. It was already after 8 and they were supposed to come on at 8. I started to walk down the other line that had formed and as I came over a hill, I could hear and see the band only about 150 yards away. I called the rest of the crew and they all joined me. We enjoyed the show from a distance, but could hear them and see just fine. So we never made it into the fair, but at least we got to see the show. What a trip! BTW – the return drive took only about 45 minutes.

I started my new schedule at work: 0545-1415 Sun-Thu. It has been tough to adjust to, but not as bad I thought. The hardest part is waking up so early and also forcing myself to get to sleep around 10pm. I am not used to getting up that early! I have been doing a lot of software upgrades in the local DC area lately and it has been nice to work out of the office. And the weather here has been phenomenal! We had a bit of rain from the last hurricane turned tropical depression and we might get more late next week. I went for a 25 mile bike ride on Friday – I rode all the way up to Bethesda, MD and then back and down to see the Roosevelt and Jefferson memorials in DC. I need to start running again – PT test is soon.

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be stuck at work. I am being sarcastic, of course. I wish I was outside today. After the rain yesterday and the humidity of the past week, today was clear, dry and in the high 70’s. I drove to work with the windows open and hated every minute of it. It was so nice – I wished I was off or something. Incidentally, I’m not sure why, but I got a hankering for a quarter pounder today. I stopped at a McD and as I was ordering, I noticed that they now serve Mr. Pibb!! Of course, now it’s called Pibb Xtra. Xtra what? I have no idea. But it is my favorite soft drink. It’s hard to find anywhere and it’s a shame that they have it at McD’s – but they also have it at Chipotle too. I guess that makes sense since McD owns Chipotle.

It was a very slow night at work. Not one call, not one incident. We have a TV and we watched coverage of the Olympics all evening. I have to admit that I have very impressed with the coverage by NBC thus far. One can find almost any sport on one of six channels almost 24 hours a day. I would have to say that cycling, track & field, swimming and beach volleyball have been my favorites.

Hmm… flash back to Friday… grocery shopping, haircut, laundry, frozen pizza, chillin’. Pretty much sums up that day. Saturday morning I went to men’s group at church and really reached out to find some common ground with these guys. I’m not going to be able to go to men’s group anymore with my new schedule and wanted to try to create some new relationships. Anyway – it worked! Most of us traded numbers and will try to hook up in the future. In fact, I found out that one of the pastors, Derek, is an avid bicyclist. He invited me to join him for a ride that afternoon. And even though rain was in the forecast, I didn’t care and was excited to get on my bike for a ride. I loaded up the bike and all my gear and drove over to his house. We had some lunch and then headed out. He took me on some of the trails that start near his house and he showed me how all the trails in the area run together and are very well laid out. Indeed, they are… they even have signs and stripes painted on the trail. Most of the trails go under roads and rarely cross traffic! It’s like a highway for bikes. We took an easy ride, the trails were easy, the rain fell hard at times, but it was a blast. In all, we rode about 12 miles. My butt is sore and my shoulders ache a little bit. I’ll just need a few more rides to get my body used to the saddle again. I was very happy with how my bike handled, especially in the rain. And it cleaned up very easily.

Matt and Pili invited me to join them and some friends at a Spanish restaurant called Lauriol Plaza in DC later in the evening. The margaritas were excellent, and the platanos maduros were awesome, but the lomo saltado was just okay. I first had that dish at a Peruvian restaurant in LA and it was much better there. Here the flavor wasn’t as good and the meat tasted overcooked. At least the margaritas were yummy!

So this week I understand I'll be toodling around DC performing software upgrades at various sites. This will be a nice break from the norm - and I'll have to get to work early too so it will help me get on the right schedule. One day and a wake up until I go home!!!!

I have been trying to email a blog in from my pager while commuting, but every time I tried either the message was too long and it wouldn’t send or I didn’t have a signal. I wanted to quickly share my experiences over the past two days with you! Like, yesterday I picked up my bike from the shop. I rode it back to the apartment and it felt sooo good to be in the saddle again! I can’t wait to take it out for a long ride on a nearby trail. I might have to do that Saturday morning. And then there was the guy with one eye asking me for money while I was waiting for the Metro. And the other guy that wanted fifty cents to make a phone call or buy some drugs or something, but I couldn’t hear him because I was reading and listening to music and he had to repeat himself three times, each time successively louder. Wouldn’t you think, that if you came across someone who was reading and had earphones on, that they wouldn’t want to be disturbed? That ticks me off. I guess I don’t have to worry about it anymore though. I finally heard from work and they are unwilling to shift my schedule a mere 45 minutes so that I can take the Metro to work. They want me to get there at 0545 and the trains don’t run early enough to get me there by then. So, I will have no choice but to add another car to the road and all of its pollution and drive. I thought about riding my bike to work and taking Metro or riding home after work, but I’m going to have to think about that one real good. I don’t know if I am disciplined enough to get up reeeaaal early to leave, get to work, shower and report to work. And I have to lug all the clothes along and stuff too. Then there’s that whole winter cold thing… eesh! It was a nice thought – I might revisit the thought after a while. I understand that this new schedule will only be in effect for two months, so I may be able to Metro to work again soon. I have started buying some winter cycling gear that was on sale though – I do plan to ride for fun when it gets colder. But it hasn’t even shipped yet... even though I bought it on Sunday! I guess I need to call to see where it is. I was excited to be getting new stuff soon, but now that it hasn’t even shipped, all the fun is gone. I want my new stuff!

It has been another run of the mill week here in DC. The big news last week was the hurricanes that were supposed to make their way up here. The remnants of Bonnie were very disorganized and only brought us a short rain. Then came Charley… they put out tropical storm warnings and said we were going to get four inches of rain and high winds. I decided to grab some groceries early and just stay in and take care of laundry and other stuff in my apartment. Sure enough, the rain came and the heavy stuff was moving up from the south. But as the evening pressed on, the storm moved to the east of us and the sun was shining through the clouds around sunset. All that hype for nothing.

My grandmother’s funeral has been scheduled for Saturday, August 28 at 10am. I have been authorized a pass for the weekend and will be able to make it home for the services. My aunt from LA and all my sisters will also be there, so all of our close family will be there. Looks like that Saturday will be a family packed day.

Last Friday I ventured out a saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights at the National Archives. The wait was about 30 minutes just to see anything and the whole exhibit took about another 30 minutes. It was very cool to see our founding papers, but I was astonished at how faded some of the documents were. The Declaration of Independence was extremely faded. It made me sad to see this faded piece of paper that established our independence. I mean, really… it was so faded you could barely read the writing. The other two have fared a little better over the years.

After that, I walked over to the National Building Museum. It was on a list of top five things to see in the downtown DC area in my Lonely Planet book, otherwise, I never would have visited it. The building itself was very impressive. From the outside, it looks like a huge office building, but when you walk in, the interior of the building is a huge hall. And the architecture is spectacular. According to their website the building is “constructed of more than 15 million bricks, the Museum houses some of the largest Corinthian columns in the world and has been the site of fifteen Presidential Inaugural balls, from Grover Cleveland's in 1885 to George W. Bush's in 2001.” They currently have three exhibits. The first one I saw is called “Liquid Stone: New Architecture in Concrete.” It was an interesting view into how concrete is used in architecture. The other one is called “Symphony in Steel: Ironworkers and the Walt Disney Concert Hall.” It is an exhibit of striking black and white pictures capturing the beautiful lines of the new building and the spirit and courage of the men and women that built the hall. Check out the website of the museum for some pictures of the museum and info on the exhibits. I am seriously considering bringing Holly here next time she comes to visit. Maybe we’ll take a tour of the building.

Holly shipped my mountain bike to me last week and it arrived in one piece. It is being assembled at a bike shop down the street and it supposed to be ready tomorrow! I am pretty excited about getting my bike. I am so looking forward to checking out some of the trails around here after work. Of course, the after work thing will be next week, after my schedule changes. I still don’t know how that’s going to work out with my internal clock. I hate getting up early.

As you learned in my last post, my grandmother passed away yesterday. My family in Austin is current making funeral arrangements. Due to some legalities, the services may not take place for another week or so. It also appears that I may be able to return home for the services.

I found out last week that my working schedule will be changed after Labor Day. I will most likely begin working the day shift, 0545 to 1415 Tue thru Sat. But since they encouraged us to take Metro, the soonest I can get to work is 0645 – so I may work 0645 to 1515 instead if they will allow me to. At first, I was not happy about the schedule change. I was not looking forward to having to get up so early. I guess I was being stubborn and selfish – wanting to sleep in every morning. But my wife is right, it would probably be better to live a more normal schedule. I still wasn’t sure, but after talking to everyone at church today – it will be really nice to be able to attend the weekly evening community meetings and to have the afternoon to myself. I’ll even be able to ride my bike since Holly shipped it to me this past week also… it should come some time this coming week. So bring on the schedule change.

This past weekend was good. I had to switch out my rental car on Friday morning. Apparently, Enterprise sold the Jetta I was driving. They told me there was a recall on it, but I think they just wanted it back quick. They didn’t have to lie to me! I was glad to give it back for a Nissan Altima. The Altima isn’t at cute as the Jetta, but it sure has a heck of a lot more power!

A friend from church, Matt, called me up before noon. A friend of his, David, was visiting from St. Louis. He asked me if I wanted to join them for lunch in DC. I was more than happy to say yes and hopped on the Metro. We met up at Federal Center SW and David wanted to see the WWII Memorial, so we took a stroll down there and checked it out. Then we had lunch near the White House and then met Matt’s girlfriend, Pili, at her work. She was just getting off work to go to the Women of Faith conference at the MCI Center. We accompanied her to meet her friends for dinner at this place called the Austin Grill. It is totally themed after Austin, TX – so I’ll have to check it out soon. Later that evening, Matt and David came over and we grilled streaks and veggies and ate outside. I have not had a steak in so long… it was delicious! BTW – I failed to mention that the weather this past weekend has been absolutely wonderful. Nice and dry, highs in the 70’s and lows in the low 60’s – a very nice reprieve from the humidity here.

Saturday, Kenny and I wandered to a military surplus store to try to find some stuff. He is looking for dress blues and I am looking for a black jacket to wear with my Class B’s for the wintertime. These jackets are about $70 new. They didn’t have anything for either of us, so I think I will have to try eBay next. Sat night I picked up Matt and David and we went over to a monthly get-together for the young folks at Grace. I met lots more great people and we ended up the evening playing Cranium.

So, I am looking forward to a change. I guess it is time to change things up a bit. My brother-in-law said its good to change things up – he was right.

I got word early this morning that my grandmother, my abuelita Eva, passed away. We learned yesterday morning that her health took a turn for the worse and my mother and father rushed to her bedside to make sure she was comfortable. We understand she may have gone in her sleep, which gives us all comfort. I am glad she no longer has to suffer due to her health. I have many memories of my grandmother, but the ones that will always stay with me are the pictures in my mind of her smiling face and her cooing laugh. My abuelita and I did not communicate in lengthy conversation due to the language barrier, but we always managed to understand each other with a laugh and a smile.

My abuelita was at times mischievous… she would sometimes do things just to get a rise out of us. I remember how she loved kids... she always loved kids – smiling at them and making baby sounds to them – that smile beaming through and through. For the most part, abuelita was quiet. While at my parents, she would retreat to her room and just lie on the bed and rest. We would always try to summon her out to join us, “Abuelita!! Don’t sleep! Come spend time with your family!!” We wouldn’t hear anything from her. After a few minutes my mom would notice that she was peeking at us from around the corner. We would all look and she would disappear. Usually, she would emerge and it was always a grand entrance, “Abuelita! It’s so good to see you!!” everyone would exclaim, “come sit here at the table with us and talk.” She would sit and just listen to us.

One time my mom, dad and wife went to a Chinese restaurant – abuelita joined us. She was so alive that night! She was talking and joking – it was so uncharacteristic! I remember that evening very well. Then there was our wedding... we couldn’t believe it when she got up and made her way to the dance floor. She joined the rest of us, dancing away for a good while. Our guests said to me, “Hey man… your grandma is cooool! Check her out!!” What an impact that made on me. I once thought – maybe she’s always resting to save up her energy for these moments.

Being up here in DC, I am sorry that I didn’t get to see her in her last days. But I will forever have with me the memories of the good times that we shared together. My abuelita… she brought my mom and dad to God. My parents brought me to God. She was truly God’s worker. I know that my abuelita was the working force that brought my mom and aunt and her daughters together after many years of anger and silence just a few weeks ago. It was my abeulita’s last big accomplishment. I believe that the Lord had this one last task for her to complete. With it done, He was ready for her to come home. She gave us such a great gift – she gave us our family back. I know that she is in a better place now, up there in heaven.

I love you abuelita. I will see you soon.

my abuelita

Eva Rivas

1916-2004

We got to work today and learned that the feds raised the threat level in DC, NY and So. NJ (NYC has actually been at high since 9/11.) We wonder what this means for us here in the DC area. We can only presume that security will be tighter on government installations. The news says that the feds are saying that the information they have gathered is very detailed and unlike anything some have seen. This sure is a great time to be in DC!

Uneventful weekend… gosh… I can hardly remember what I did. Oh yeah… I went to the PX and Commissary again for stuff. Also drove down to Potomac Mills to check out the shopping center and to find the Sam’s Club. Holly emailed me a bunch of recipes of stuff that we cook at home. I spent Saturday night cooking and doing laundry. I cooked up one of my favorite dishes that Holly makes – I knew it was some kind of chicken bake so I looked it up and it’s called One Dish Chicken & Rice Bake. It was very good! I am definitely going to cook more often now – need to try to save money. I guess we’ll soon find out how will security will be tweaked around the area.

Maybe it's just me - but isn't all the media coverage of the Democratic National Convention overkill? We are required to have the TV in the IAPC here tuned to the major cable news channels during the day. All they have had for the past few days is coverage of the DNC. First of all - Kerry was a shoe-in for the Dems months ago. I guess the convention is a big event for those that love politics or are hard core party freaks. This thing has been going on for a few days now and it's been the headliner all week. Why can't they just hold the convention in one day and just get it all over with? First his wife, then his running mate, tonight the big news is that Kerry is expected to accept his party's nomination. Duh! I just hate how the media is making such a big deal out of this. They get all excited about the election and seem to loose control. They squeeze in about ten seconds of other news and its back to Boston for an interview with the guy that sets up the microphone stands for the guest speakers. Anyway - I have had enough of it already and this is just the beginning. We still have the Republicans to deal with and then the Holy Grail of political media frenzies - the election itself. Washington DC will be awash in media hype of election coverage. Ho hum...

Thursday's commute was cool. I really like taking metro to work. I wonder how I'm gonna feel about it when it starts getting cold. I'll probably like it since I love the cold weather! I walked to the station again and only had to wait less than five minutes for the train. Then at the next station I had to wait about five minutes again. I got to the last station and was looking to have to wait about fifteen minutes this time. I decided that instead of waiting outside in the heat, I would just wait in the station under an A/C vent and just chill out and read for a while. I went up to street level to wait for the shuttle and it showed up in less than five minutes again. I have to say - my timing was great!

Is there anybody out there?

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