Catching Up...

I know the last post I made was more than a month ago (when I was STILL in Canada), but there's been so much that has happened since I got back to Sioux Falls. I was thinking about how to put it all in one post, but I tell you, that's impossible. With the kind of train of thought that I'm on right now, it would make a lot of stops and take a lot of detours, so I think I will narrow it down to a few things for today and add more as we go along - hopefully I'll be able to catch you all up!

I saw a Blue Jay/Yankee game at Skydome, er... Rogers Centre (they just changed the name of the stadium last year, so old habits die hard!) My Blue Jays lost to the Yankees! And of course, I never heard the end of it from my Yankee friend. The next day, I flew back home and my trip back from Canada went smoothly except for a delay in Detroit which made me LATE to Omaha. I had a friend of mine pick me up and she had to wait for a while before I could finally arrive and pick up my bag before we could take off for home. I didn't get home until around midnight. I spent the rest of the week catching up and settling back INTO my routine. Soon after I returned, my roommate went out of town to California, so she left me to care for her two little (but yet adorable) brats. I barely had a weekend to myself before I went to this small town in western Nebraska with a friend to help her mother pack up part of her house for the move to Montana. That weekend in Nebraska was CHAMP - it was an escape that I so deserved, I told the mother that the weekend was like staying at a cabin with all of the plumbing and electricity. She had to laugh at that because in fact, she owns a cabin in Montana that has NO plumbing and electricity! My pager wasn't in range, and I didn't even bother to look at the computer for any emails - so it was a weekend away from modern civilization. I describe modern civilization as that with pagers, cell phones, computers, etc. And I was away from all that for the weekend. My friend said to me on Saturday: "I don't think I've ever seen you so content."

It was the first real weekend that I actually had a break and it was over this weekend that I was finally able to fully recover (finally) from MAAD in July! I came back home refreshed! Then the following weekend we went up to Camp Lakodia (a camp in Madison, South Dakota - less than an hour northwest of Sioux Falls) for their Harvest Fest event, and we also spent the night there (again in a cabin with all of the plumbing and electricity!).

And in the last few weeks I have been catching up on all of the events happening at Gallaudet. Reading all of the blogs, the articles written and hearing to all of the stories of people who went to Gallaudet during the protests there. I know a few people (mostly co-workers) that have gone to Gallaudet, and are due back anytime this week, and I look forward to hearing more from them, from their observations, their perspectives, and their experiences with all of the happenings at Gallaudet. I was 10 years old when the first protests happened in 1988. I barely remember hearing or talking about it, but this time around, it is a whole new experience, due, mainly in part, to the blogs that have popped up, and blogs is a new feature of our current technology and this was not around 18 years ago! Even though I never attended Gallaudet, but I consider myself a friend of Gallaudet as I grew up wanting to attend Gallaudet, and never did because RIT (the one I went to and graduated from) finally opened its doors to international students in 1992.

I was re-reading some of my older posts, and I came across one in regards with all of the years that has gone by, and I had given a "label" to each one of them. I quote myself: "2002 was the year of "moving on", 2003 AND 2004 were the years of "overcoming challenges", 2005 was the year of "learning and growing"." This year, with 2 1/2 months left to 2007 (I can't believe I'm mentioning this! Time sure does fly!) I have a few options on how to categorize 2006. But I'm going to wait for the next 2 1/2 months before I decide on a category on how to identify with 2006. Several that come to mind now is: Broadening my horizons; life-altering; self-focusing; the emergence of my individuality. But again, like I said, I'm going to wait for the next 2 1/2 months before I decide. However on top of what I categorized 2005, the one that fits most now is "emergence of my individuality" because it has to do with 2005 - the year of learning and growing, and that is always on-going, but then again I'll wait until January 2007 before I decide. What if something major happens in the next 2 1/2 months that could have an impact on how I would categorize 2006? :)

I guess my train of thought is making all of those stops and detours even though I mentioned I would try to limit them, you can't stop a speeding bullet, much less a speeding train!

Back to my favorite subject - baseball! *smiles* Yes, the Toronto Blue Jays played a good season, and they placed second in the AL East Division, which they were never able to do for the 13 years following their second World Series title! I'm proud of my Jays - and this gives them momentum for next year, as I always say to the friend who's the Yankee fan - "Next year?" He keeps saying, "No way." Of course, we'll never be able to agree on anything when it comes to the Yankees or Blue Jays, at least on this, we can agree to disagree, which is a good thing! :) However, the season's still not over, at least not for the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals who are now battling for the World Series title. Personally, am rooting for the Detroit Tigers, I can't help it with them coming back from having the *worst* record in baseball, which was just three years ago, to being in the World Series! Any sane person would have to admit that it's admirable, impressive even! Tonight is game three of the Series, which will be played in St. Louis, as Detroit has home field advantage. The teams split the first two games with St. Louis coming out of the gates hard, winning 7-2 in the first game, and the Tigers countered with a win in the second game by a score of 3-0 behind Kenny Rogers, who is 41 years old! Yes, 41!

While we're still on the baseball track - I am still waiting for my pizza - the one that I won! I have incredible patience, however we're still all working out the complications - I mean, like I explained before, two of our other people who are involved in this bet are in different states now, leaving me and the Yankee fan behind in Sioux Falls. We're still working on how the other two can still be a part of it - the one in Nebraska, who teamed up with the Yankee fan, suggested that he could send the one in Minnesota a gift certificate for a pizza while the Yankee fan, who is here in Sioux Falls could buy me a pizza. I think this would probably work out for the best, but we just haven't discussed it and decided on anything, we're getting there, hence, I think this is the reason why I'm still waiting for my steaming hot pizza! :)

I'm going to wrap this up now, because only I can stop my speeding train. Even though I don't want to, but I don't want you all to have to read such a LONG post if I wasn't finished. And only I can stop my own speeding train of thought! Actually I'm not stopping it, I'm slowing it down to a snail's pace so that you can catch up with me! Then we'll pick up speed!

'Til next time!

-j