What Happened??

WHEN: April 2010 WHERE: Hampton Roads, Virginia What happened?? What's wrong?? Why hasn't Jesse posted anything for so long?? Although this is what is often in the mind of a blogger, I imagine most reading this probably haven't even checked my blog since my last post over 10 days ago. Nevertheless, it is the mind-struggle a blogger faces when they go through "blog withdrawal". I (as most bloggers I'm sure) feel guilty if I don't blog on a somewhat consistent basis, even though many readers may not read on a regular basis. And I don't think I'm even having blog withdrawal, I just don't think anything worth writing has happened in the past two weeks. But for those who care (my parents, Steph, and Oprah Winfrey), I have provided a quick synopsis of the past two weeks. Don't have any great expectations here. Friday, April 16 We had our informal "bicentennial pseudo-international weird food day" at work. A handful of us who work together all brought our random concoctions that each person individually enjoys eating but that are not what you'd call "pleasing to the masses". I had no good ideas so I opted to bring Circus Peanuts. I did not partake of every "dish" (e.g. banana & mayo sandwiches) but did test my gag reflexes with such delicacies as "peanut butter & relish sandwiches", "BLT with strawberries substituted for tomatoes", and an impromptu "peanut butter and bacon circus peanut sandwich". Although each one of these samples were bite size, my appetite was destroyed and I didn't eat anything from the lunch I had brought with me to work. Everyone's appetite was ruined and for that reason we decided to make this event a bicentennial one. Thankfully I regained my appetite because Stace & I decided to visit a local seafood restaurant that night out near the oceanfront. To make long-story short, the food was great and the view was nice but because you could only park on the street until 8pm (our reservation was for 7) I had to run out to get the car before I was finished eating, while Stace stayed inside to pay for the meal and gather our leftovers :(

The view from our table.

Saturday, April 17 Stace and I visited a local nursery to pick out some flowers for our deck. We each picked out flowers for our own pot and planted them together on our deck. They have grown wonderfully in the past two weeks and are much fuller and with twice as many flowers on them. They're a great addition to our otherwise drab deck. We ended the day by getting two deck chairs as well that we had had our eyes on for several weeks. We have used them many times since and enjoyed our new plants and the beautiful spring nights.

Our new and improved deck.

Sunday, April 18 After seeing a South Carolina license plate in the parking lot as we were leaving church, Stace and I began talking about Charleston. Literally, within 3 minutes Stace was texting my sister to see if they wanted to go to Charleston with us this summer. And just like that we checked our schedules and are now spending a long weekend there in June. We've taken several trips with Jay & Leta since moving out east and we're so thankful to be close to them. We're enjoying these "vacations on a whim" that we have done so often with them; before we all one day have kids and are much less flexible. Wednesday, April 21 The second cruise ship of the season was in port Wednesday but in a less glorious manner. The Enchantment of the Seas was in drydock as I strolled in to work, towering even higher out of the water. I stopped by the harbor side park on my home from work to get some pictures of it and in the process I found Kisses. Kisses is a private yacht out of George Town, Cayman Islands. She was docked next to the USS Wisconsin (which dwarfed the 175ft. Kisses) and I grabbed a couple shots of her as well. The yacht just left yesterday and had been docked here the past week.

Kisses and USS Wisconsin

Dual wooden staircases cascading down the stern. Enchantment of the Seas in drydock. She may not look like much from this angle but the ship is 990ft. long.

Just after Stace got home from work our doorbell rang (very rare). She said it was probably UPS (I had no idea why she would think it was them) and knowing how quickly they run away from the door with your package I opened the door without checking the peep hole. There stood an interesting-looking woman with a handful of papers, a laptop, and a government ID she flashed in my face as she introduced herself. She was with the CDC and was performing related surveys for the Census. She asked if I had a few minutes to answer a few questions and I foolishly accepted her request. Before it was all said and done and she left our apartment, ONE HOUR had been stolen from my life! For one hour I answered questions while Stace sat awkwardly in our bedroom, hiding from this lady. At one point I was answering questions like "How many times per month do you eat whole-grain pastas that are not fat free?" Oh, COME ON!! Unfortunately, we have seen her here numerous times in our complex since our run-in with her. Moral: always check your peep hole!

April 22-25

Stace and I went to see The Last Song in the theater Thursday night and rented Up Friday night. We also took advantage of Dairy Queen's "buy one get one for 25 cents" Blizzard special Friday and Sunday in honor of their 25th anniversary. We also started enjoying our deck more, now that the horrible pollen is beginning to subside around here (but still not gone by any measure). Monday, April 26 As has become our daily routine, Stace and I headed out to the deck for the evening, just in time for a thunderstorm that was rolling in. You could tell by the look of the green sky and eerie calm that it was going to be intense, and it was quickly approaching. I ran inside to check the radar quickly and saw a very red cell bearing down on Virginia Beach. It was very humid that day and there were popcorn storms all over the state. It was our turn! We watched the lightning dance all around the sky in front of us and the rain slowly but surely creep in. It didn't take long for it to intensify and soon we were scooting back to avoid the downpour. One bolt of lightning sent us scrambling to get inside as it likely hit one of the towers in Town Center or something even closer. It was unlike I had ever heard or seen lightning before. It was exciting to be out in the storm but we knew when enough was enough.

The clearing after the storm.

Don't adjust your screen - the sky really looked this color.

Thursday, April 29 I opened my email when I got to work to find an email from the previous night from our bosses, requesting any images/graphics related to the project we are working on for a last-minute article they were submitting to the Army Corps magazine. I had my camera on me and was thrilled at the thought of possibly my first published photo. I answered with a helpful reply and went to work down in the library. I have been to the library before and have seen some of the old maps the district has held on to over the past 200 years. But taking pictures of them and really thinking about what I would capture made me appreciate them again. I came across one that was of a drawing of a fort/artillery the Army was installing. The date on the map: November 1819. I wondered how I even had the right to pull this map out of the drawer and handle it like it was yesterday's newspaper.

Turns out my desire to have my first photo published was not strong this day. Not only did I not submit any graphics to our management team, I didn't even take any pictures relevant to what they were asking for. I got caught up in my own interest and never even put any effort into sending something off. Chalk one up for lethargic abandonment. Friday, April 30 Yep, that's today. You're almost finished with my terribly exciting post. Stace and I went on our first walk yesterday in over a month. This lull was for multiple reasons but mostly because of how bad the pollen has been. We finally got some rain this week (first this month really) which cleared the air somewhat. Also this week, a new green space was added to Town Center where a fenced-in construction site has sat for the better part of the past decade. As far as I know it was to be the site of a new tower for a bank but I imagine the current economy prevented that building from going up. Now, all that remains is an entire city block covered in nothing but sod. It looks great (anything's better than gnarled fencing, dirt, and rusty construction equipment) but it's obvious a temporary means to a postponed end; at least that's the way I see it. No attempt was made to add any aesthetic or recreational features (e.g. trees, fountains, benches). Rather, I imagine it will sit as an inviting green space until one day funds become available to build another tower, at which point grass can easily be removed (as opposed to trees and brick sidewalks). Whatever the case, it looks nice and we've walked around it both last night and tonight.

The new green space in Town Center

May 2010 The heat is on this weekend (90° Saturday and Sunday and lows of 70°) and we have many plans already to start off May with a bang. So, maybe I won't go another two weeks without something to blog about (and something more interesting perhaps).

April showers, bring May allergy relief!