2012 Year in Review

January:
At the end of December 2011 I was told that I had a giant cyst on my right kidney and that my gallbladder was not functioning and needed to be removed.  So, the first couple of months of the year were pretty miserable.  The  kidney cyst was determined to be benign and nothing (at least right now) to worry about (although if anyone needs a kidney donation you'll have to remove me from your list of people to ask).  I met with the surgeon mid-January and scheduled my gallbladder surgery for early February.  My folks and sister came to visit at the end of the month to watch Nate graduate, and while it was fun to have them visit, I was pretty miserable and in a lot of pain the entire time.

February:
Pretty much all month was about the surgery.  It happened early February and then I was recuperating for about three weeks.  This was the first surgery (in fact the first time I'd ever been admitted to the hospital or had any kind of invasive procedure) I'd ever gone through and the entire medical team seemed a little surprised by that.  They were also nice enough to CONSTANTLY remind me that I was almost 40.  Thanks!

March:
Nothing worthwhile really happened in March.  I was finishing up my short term assignment with the legal team in Philly, and getting ready to move at the end of April.

April:
April was spent with all the "fun" stuff associated with moving cross country.  There was packing, hiring various movers, finding charitable organizations to pick up stuff I didn't want to move, saying good bye to all my Philly friends, and planning the fun stuff I'd do on the way to Texas. I said good bye to a lot of good friends, and made a lot of hard cuts about what I would take with me on my next adventure.

May:
Cort flew to Philly the end of April and we started the trek through the eastern United States.  We did a lot of fun things, saw some amazing things, and (I, at least) stressed out about some car problems that actually turned out to be very minor.  We also ate a lot of really good southern comfort food and delicious BBQ.

Mid-May we arrived in Texas and Cort flew back home.  I started looking for a place to live and discovered what a bizarre rental market exists in Bryan/College Station.  I honestly thought I'd be able to find a suitable apartment in a couple of weeks, but that wasn't meant to be.  At this point, I should have rearranged my summer schedule and gone directly to Utah.  If I had I would've spent the reminder of my summer in Prague.  

June/July:
No apartment, no job, just a lot of hanging out with the nubbins and reading.  I also took a week long temp assignment at a legal firm.  This temp assignment has been haunting me since.  It totally screwed up my unemployment benefits, and that has turned the rest of the year into major bad news.  Although I wouldn't find that out until September.

August:
Toward the end of July I headed to Utah for a visit with my family.  I drove and was able to cross a number of things of my list during my travels.  It was fun to see everyone again, to be home, to eat at all my favorite restaurants, with all my favorite people, and to be able to see so many amazing sites.

September:
Once I returned to Texas I finally found an apartment and was able to move in.  My severance package was up, and this is where I discovered my one week temp job (taken just to meet some people and earn enough money to buy a bed --- hello, air mattress for 2 years in Philly) was going to screw up my unemployment.

October/November/December:
Mostly the past three months have been spent fighting with Pennsylvania Unemployment, looking for  a new job (turns out that despite having a major university, a college, and several top-notch medical facilities B/CS doesn't actually have any jobs - at least for someone who doesn't already have an "in"), and crying on the couch.  It has been a very emotional and discouraging few months while I've watched my hard fought savings slip away.  Oh yeah, I had a birthday in there, too.

I'm ending this year on a discouraging note, but I'm thankful for many blessings as well.  I am thankful that I have a family who loves me, and has been supportive, and will take me in when I'm a hobo next spring.  I'm thankful that I do have savings to watch slip away instead of having my utilities shut off.  I am thankful that I live somewhere warm.  I am thankful that I had an amazing summer.  And I'm thankful that a new and hopefully better year is just around the corner.  Here's to an amazing 2013.  Happy New Year!

What if God Was One of Us?

I've been re-watching Joan of Arcadia (one of my favorite shows of all time) and there is an episode that speaks to the horror that happened today in Connecticut.  In this episode God asks Joan to go to a school dance with the school bully.  To "listen and observe - be present."

He ends up with a gun pointed at police officers, arrested, his life ruined.  Joan asks God why she was given an assignment that could only fail.  God replies that she did exactly what was asked.  Observe.  Be Present.

"Observation is a more powerful force than you could possibly reckon:  the invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are those that are in the most danger of reaching the end of the spectrum.  They lose their light.  From there anything can happen."

"Fine, I observed.  His life is still ruined," Joan replies.

"His life wasn't the only one at stake...lives altered forever by you, by the simple effect of being present...by entering the light, by joining the dance.

It's a recurring theme throughout the show.  How powerful human connection can be; how those connections influence the course of events.  During this time of year, when so many people struggle and fall into darkness, invisible, overlooked and unobserved - we can listen, observe, be present - maybe we can even change the world so we never have another day like today.

Remember the Alamo

I was going to include The Alamo with the River Walk over on 1000 Places, but decided to put it here instead.  Two things you need to know about The Alamo:

1.  There is no basement in The Alamo!

2.  It is super tiny building, but part of a complex of several missions.



During the Texas Revolution Texians and Tejanos banded together to force the surrender of the Mexican army holding The Alamo.  On February 23,  1836 General Santa Anna's arrival caught them by surprise and the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together.  The defenders held out for 13 days, while General William B. Travis sent out pleas for help from the communities of Texas with this message:

I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, and

everything dear to the American character, 

to come to our aid with all dispatch. ...

VICTORY OR DEATH.

On the 8th day 32 volunteers arrived, bringing the number of defender to nearly 200. Legend says, that realizing no more help would come, General Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over - all but one did.  They believed the key to the defense of Texas was the Alamo and were ready to sacrifice their lives rather than surrender to General Santa Anna.

The final assault came before dawn on March 6, 1836.  Columns of Mexican soldiers headed of the Alamo's wall while cannon and small arms fire beat back several attacks.  Eventually the Mexicans scaled the walls, and turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church blasting open the doors.  The defenders continued the struggle until overwhelmed.  The battle ended by sunrise and Santa Anna entered in victory. The facts of the battle continue to be debated, but it has come to symbolize an heroic struggle against impossible odds.  A place where where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, marking it as hallowed ground.


This live oak was approximately 40 years old during the battle for the Alamo.















As we were walking by this tree Ryker exclaimed, "There's a tree; take a picture!" ran over and posed.






It was the San Antonio Founder's Day and there was a festival going on, thus the food carts.


See?  Tiny!

For Founder's Day there was an Irish step dancing demonstration going on.  What?  Weird, I know.





This is what happens when the curly Irish step dancer hair combines with Texas hair.  YOWZA!  That is some BIG hair.

Sea World San Antonio

In deference to my friend, Charlie, who reads this blog and is also terrified of whales this post begins with an official warning that:

THERE WILL BE PICTURES OF THOSE ABOMINABLE CREATURES CONTAINED IN THIS POST!

Those photos will be placed after photos of turtles, alligators, and dolphins.  So that Charlie may be able to read at least part of this post without being subjected to the terror those animals bring.

So, let's start by saying that the weather really cooperated.  It was about 80 degrees with basically no humidity so perfect for a day outside.  T3 and I had also purchased tickets online before leaving so we were able to bypass the ticket lines and almost immediately enter the park.  While T3 got their kids sunscreened up and maps distributed I ran over to Guest Services so they could upgrade my pass to a Fun Card.  Sea World offers Fun Cards for the same price as a regular admission and with it you get free admission for the rest of the current season.  However, they were having a promotion where if you buy a Fun Card now you get the rest of the 2012 season PLUS all of the 2013 season for the price of regular admission.  Basically, I have the ability to get into Sea World for free until January 2014.  T4 - I am looking at YOU to make this worth my while.

This is a shoulder season for Sea World so they are only open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and their Friday schedule is a bit light.  The upside of our visit was that it wasn't very crowded, but the light schedule made it feel like we weren't busy with stuff all day long.  This may seem like a good thing, but it was a lot of standing around.

We had decided to skip the first Clyde and Seamore show of the day, figuring that since it was the first show in the entire park that it would be crowded!  Instead we walked around a bit and ended up at Alligator Alley.

Ha!  Those aren't Alligators!

I love that the turtles treat the alligators like logs.

After Alligator Alley we made our way over to the seal and sea lion exhibit that was near the show theatre,

Consulting their maps

Nate feeding the sea lion

Please sir, could I have some more?

The nubbins doing their impersonations.

There were six sea lion pups in the exhibit and they were adorable.





I'm King of the Hill


I said, "I'M King of the Hill!"




Mom & pups


Some one threw a fish to the Mom, but she missed it.  The pup found it (but is still nursing), and just didn't quite know what to do with it.

After the sea lion/seal exhibit we went to wait for the theatre to open for the Clyde and Seamore show.  We waited, and waited, and waited, and finally they announced the show was being cancelled due to technical difficulties.  /sigh.  So we walked over to Dolphin Cove.

Sea World doesn't have a dedicated dolphin show; I don't know if Sea World generally doesn't have them anymore or if this is unique to Sea World San Antonio, but it made me a little sad.  We got to Dolphin Cove just as a feeding session was ending, and Nate was bummed that we missed it.  He totally would've forked out the $6 for the little tray of fish so the nubbins could feed dolphins.  He's a sucker for those kids, for sure.

Even with the feeding ended we hung around a bit and watched a bit of the dolphin training and play session.



Got your eek!


This dolphin's mom (who was also in the pool) and grandma (who may have been in the pool) were also raised at Sea World.





The guest wrangler kept having to remind people that the only safe position around the pool is to be flat on your stomach - sitting, kneeling, and standing on the edge is very dangerous.  I think it is amazing how so many people still do not realize that despite being ADORABLE dolphins are aggressive and can seriously injure (and/or totally humiliate) you.

We still had time to kill before the next show so we decided to take the kids through the little "trick or treat" area.  The kids sure had a good time.

I love that Ryker props his sunglasses on his forehead when he doesn't need them, and Kita hates sunglasses, but loves hats.  She forgot a hat and borrowed this one from me.




Kita told us it was her "dream come true" to get her picture taken with a mermaid.


Ryker ... not so much, although he did love to have his picture taken.





After the trick or treating we found the Azul theatre.  It was finally time for the first show of the day.  This show combines several animals in the show including beluga whales, dolphins (not bottlenose), and parrots.














And the beluga:

There were also divers that did some good tricks, and birds that flew over the crowd.  I hate bird shows I'm always concerned that they will poop all over me.

One thing I noticed, and again, I'm not sure if it is the Sea World organization in general or Sea World San Antonio in particular, but all the shows were all "trick" oriented.  When I've visited Sea World San Diego the daytime shows were primarily educational with the tricks used to demonstrate the educational value derived from them.  It also may be that during the limited opening hours or show season they don't focus quite so much on that aspect of their operations.

We made it to the next Clyde and Seamore shore (Halloween themed, natch), and Kita LOVED it, Ryker not so much.  It was about this time that he started complaining that he just wanted to see Orcas (they were featured on Octonauts (Creature Report!  Creature Report!) and we had been stressing that he would get to see them.  However, Kita was exactly the right age group to truly appreciate the sea lion/otter show.  Again, unlike San Diego there were sea lions and an otter, but no walrus in this show.

We ate lunch (which was totally reasonably priced - except the beverages - especially for a theme park), and then had a while to kill before attending the 4:30 Shamu show.















Baby SHAMU!


Even though he'd been looking forward to the Shamu show all day, Ryker didn't care for it...he thought it was too loud, and I agree they had the bass cranked waaaay up.

We did a little more wandering around, took the kids to the play area (where they discovered the carousel and kids' roller coaster the Shamu Express.  As it turns out Shamu Express was their favorite part of Sea World.  Even Ryker ended up meeting the height requirement (by one long hair on his head) and poor Nate ended up riding it about 10 times over the course of the day.   Like I said, he's a sucker for those kids.

We did go back to the evening showing of the Clyde and Seamore show and this time both kids LOVED it. I didn't take pictures either time, but Ryker got so into it the second time.  There was a cue (thunder) where the audience was supposed to laugh all evil-like (Mwah-hahahahaha) and Ryker totally participated.  It was endearing, for sure.

The worst part was that the night Shamu show wasn't scheduled until 9:30 p.m. which gave us approximately 4 hours between shows.  Ryker was DONE and just wanted to do home.  We did talk him into going to see the penguins (marginal, and stinky, but with a moving sidewalk), but after that he was tired, hungry, and wanted to go back to the hotel.  We had determined to stick it out and after another round on Shamu Express the kids bought stuffed Orcas (over their allotted budget, but their dad bought them anyway ... SUCKER!), and we waited outside Shamu Stadium.  Nate bought the kids pretzels and popcorn for dinner. I knew T3 loved popcorn, but nothing drives the point home like seeing the kids shove handfuls of popcorn into their mouths.  It was pretty funny.

Finally, FINALLY it was time for the Shamu night show.  AKA the BEST SHOW in the whole Sea World repertoire.  Ryker crashed before it even started poor, tired, nubbin.  It was Halloween themed with Jack the Pumpkin-head being all menacing and scary (I assume he would've been redeemed at the end of the show, BUT ... ) the leader of the orca pod decided to boycott the show.  The first two acts went off just fine.  There were lights, there were leaps...




There were trainers in skeleton wetsuits, and then there was Shamu.  Who simply swam around the pool and finally beached on one of the slide outs and just stopped.




One of the trainers finally came out and said that because Orcas are matriarchal, and Sea World only uses positive reinforcement, and these animals sometimes have minds of their own, and she being the dominant female controlled the actions of the entire pod, well ... let's just give her a few minutes and see if she decides to participate in the show.

She sat on that slide out for about 5-7 minutes (during which time almost everyone on that side of the stadium ran down to get a real close-up photo).  After a few minutes of the photos, she turned away from the crowd, but stayed put on the slide out.  And then finally slipped back into the pool where she continued to just circle around, ignoring the attempts of the staff to get her to Just. Come. Here. Please.

Finally, the supervisor trainer cancelled the show and sent us on our way.  A little disappointing end to the evening, but it was also hilarious and something I won't forget.