Sunday, July 31, 2011

2011.07.31 Sunday

Last night my sleeping was off and on. Surprisingly I'm not too groggy today.

Went on an adventure to Costco with Mark and Nadia. I picked up a large amount of bacon, corn dogs, couscous, and snack mix. Good times.

Stopped by home, then received an invitation for dinner at Kelc's. This should be interesting...

For dinner, baked potato soup, a spinach-pear-avocado salad, and a fruit salad. Everything turned out better than expected, but in my opinion it was a lot of effort.

Watched x-games for a bit. Sad to see them come to an end. Kelc pulled out a game called "The Green Game" which is a trivia game that asks questions related to environmental awareness. Kelc and I lost. Damn straight.

Stopped by walmart (shudder) to pick up oil and and an oil filter. I'll need to get take care of that soon.

2011.07.30 Saturday

Today was set aside for spending time with relatives from Germany. I was able to sleep in later than usual and play games for some of the morning. I received a text explaining what the intentions for the day were, and to meet up soon, so I hopped in the shower.

My brother was a bit late picking me up for lunch, but it wasn't a big deal. We grabbed lunch at Amaya's Taco Village. Yum.

On the way home we stopped by some Hawaiian shaved ice stand along 183. It was alright. Cheap and tasty flavors, but I was already stuffed.

We spent some time at my parent's house, catching up on the numerous years that had passed since we last met. I think I was maybe 6 or 7 when they last visited, so my memories are limited.

For the afternoon, we went over to The Oasis for the views, drinks, and snacks. Then went home, and had to say our goodbyes.

I was back at home in late evening. Mostly relaxed, watched some x-games and played Just Cause 2. Didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

Friday, July 29, 2011

2011.07.29 Friday

Slept in every so slightly this morning, since I was going to be driving myself.

Mid-day, went to play some volleyball with fellow co-workers. Turned out to be pretty fun and laid back, but also very hot. Mark played basketball instead; I have no idea how they do that in the heat of the summer.

After work, I played around with Hab's laptop to see how it would handle running a server. Just had to wait a few hours to download the content.

Played games, watched X-games, took it easy.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

2011.07.28 Thursday

Woke up later than usual, but still left pretty close to on-time.

Work came and went. Once home, I went back to nerd mode and tried to get a source dedicated server up and running. This time I tried installing Ubuntu (which didn't have any wireless support, and incorrect display drivers) and then re-downloaded all of counter-strike. Hours later, I found out that my processor doesn't support SSE2. Thanks for not having clear requirements anywhere, even after I searched. The most information I could find was "at least 1GHz and 256MB ram would probably be enough".

In the middle of that somewhere, I cooked up a meal with Kelc. Slow-ish-cooked ribeye steaks, steamed asparagus and couscous.

Oh and X-Games have commenced. Super exciting times. Apparently Travis Pastrana is injured when he tried to do a 720-rodeo-crazy-don'tknowwhattocallit flip. That should leave room for other people to get some medals.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

2011.07.27 Wednesday - Last kickball game

I felt content with just staying in bed all morning. Valerian root really pushes for a solid 8 hours.

Work flew by rather quickly, and I was even late leaving causing me to hit some heavy traffic on the way home.

I spent some time playing around with my old-arse laptop. I'm going to try and configure a source-engine server on it so I can easily set up a game at home or at lan parties. Supposedly it doesn't take much horsepower to have a source server.

Went to our last kickball game of the season. Final score was 4-2 with us losing. Our record for the season is 2-0-5. Not bad, but still room for improvement. The team we played against, We Got The Runs, was pretty good and fun to play with. If only they hadn't stolen our name...

After the game, went out to Doc's for the specials and food. I consumed a whopping 4 tacos. Booya.

Home, sleep.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

2011.07.26 Tuesday

As expected, I woke up pretty tired this morning. Also a bit on the sweaty side. You really wanted to know that, right?

Work wasn't too bad.

Played a little bit of Just Cause 2, then picked up a dinner for Kelc and myself. We enjoyed a dinner at the hotel for her meal break.

After that, went grocery shopping and pushed myself to get healthy stuff.

Home, a little more gaming, then bed.

Monday, July 25, 2011

2011.07.25 Monday

I don't think I feel tired, but I also don't really feel like going in to work today.

Work ended up going better than expected and feeling like it was over fast. I went home and goofed around and made some phone calls.

Met up with my bro, sis and Julissa for bowling. I did pretty well again, scoring as high as 159 in one of the games. Not bad. The team we were playing against didn't show up, so we bowled twice as fast.

At home, I wanted to do some sort of workout but couldn't decide. I ended up going for a run at about 10:45p and ran for ~40mins and a little over 4 miles. That is a new personal record for me. I honestly never thought I could run that far without stopping. Even as a kid, I had the ability to do sprints, but long-distance never happened. Let's see... 4 divided by 26.2 is ... 15.26% of a marathon. Yikes. I've been curious if the majority of people running marathons actually run the entire time. I haven't been able to find information about that online.

Back home, cooked up a late dinner then passed out.

2011.07.24 Sunday - SPI

Woke up late again. Why wake up early when it's vacation, right? I had a hard time deciding what to do. Get all dirty, then shower before leaving for home? Or try to stay clean and just relax? Definitely get dirty.

Got changed, showered in sun screen (this time I went out without a shirt) and headed out. Played around on the beach and chatted by the poolside. Last-minute fun.

Showered up. Packed up. Filled up with food, then took off for home around 3:45p. We stopped for food at McDonalds, then had to stop for gas about 15 miles outside of Austin (yay for fuel efficient vehicles). Prior to going home, we stopped by Taco C for dinner. That put us at home around 10:30p. Not bad. The drive was mostly everybody listening to their own electronic devices.

At some point outside of San Antonio on the way back to Austin, my car hit 30,000 miles. They grow up so fast, don't they. My baby has served me well.

Spent some time with Kelc and ate my dinner. Then went home around midnight. Vacation comes to an end.

2011.07.23 Saturday - SPI

Woke up a bit on the late side again. It's amazing how black-out curtains make sleeping last a lot longer. Got myself covered in lotion again, and headed down to the table. Oh and I took my phone out of rice this morning and ... (drum roll) ... it works! A cheap and quick fix.

Not a lot going on around the pool today, so I went down to the beach. I played some football with the guys, and dug some holes for sand structures. The stunt kite turned out to be rather difficult to fly, but when it flew it was awesome.

Later on, a few in our group found some random strangers to start up a football game with. I was feeling pretty exhausted and wanted to just lay down in the shade. Later into the game, I became the referee and quickly made enemies.

Back up at the pool, I grabbed myself one of the awesome hamburgers. This was roughly 4pm, and as soon as I sit down to eat, I find out that we are going to be trying to make dinner at 6pm. Cool.

Dinner tonight was at Blackbeard's. We were told we could get the big room for our party of ~35 people, but when we arrived, another group had claimed the territory about 30 minutes prior. Instead, we got to split up our group among 3 tables, the girls, the boys, and the adults. I was summoned to eat with the adults. I sat with Chelsea and we talked about various social clubs and things to do now that it is a bit more difficult to network outside of college. Also talked about running and marathons and sports.

At some point during dinner, somebody dropped their iphone causing the screen to shatter and rendering the phone now useless. This was seen as prime opportunity to allow more pranking. A few of the peeps would pretend to drop their phone by unsuspecting victims, and make them freak out about breaking it. Pretty funny.

Back at the hotel, we went down to the volleyball court to hit the ball around while everybody else was getting ready (for volleyball). We ended up playing a bunch of vennis with 4-person groups. The "dream team" led a 3-win streak before finally being knocked out by "average joes". I guess it was better that we played vennis, so we didn't have to deal with sand. Very fun with so many people around. (This version of vennis allowed 2 ground bounces and 2 hits before having to get back over the net, and we played with a volleyball)

Sleep.

2011.07.22 Friday - SPI

Off and on sleeping until about noon. Everybody else already woke up and got ready for the day and left.

I spent some of the day out at the beach, some at the table chatting with various people I get to see about once/year. I did get some harassment about what my future marriage plans are, and how many kids I want to have, and all that stuff. Thanks.

Side story: I put my phone in a bag that was sitting next to our table. I guess either water from random towels or a volleyball dripped into my back and made a tiny puddle. My phone was not working and the wet sensor was fully red. Uh oh. I took the battery and sim card out, shook and blew out all the water I could and let the phone sit for a while. When I put the battery in, the phone starts booting up (normally you have to push buttons for that to happen). I took the battery back out and told the guys who were going to Walmart to pick up some rice.

We left to Louie's for a late buffet dinner. I ate more crab than I ever have in my life, partially because I don't care for seafood. On Fridays they do fireworks, so that was fun. After we goofed around with paying the bill, we hopped over to DQ for dessert. Chelsea and Torie wanted me to go with them to purchase a kite since the mallard kite broke. I nudged them towards getting a stunt kite.

Back to the hotel. Packed my phone in rice and listened to stories of crazy pranks.

Played a few card games back at the resort, then went to bed.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

2011.07.21 Thursday

An interesting morning, indeed. Woke up late, took care of laundry and got locked out of the house while watering my plants. Not really a huge deal though, because I'm feeling pretty lazy about getting to work. Should be a short day since I have extra hours already.

I still need to make up my mind about going to SPI or not. So far I'm not really hearing many reasons to not go.

I spent my lunch break playing volleyball. Always a good choice. Picked up some subway for lunch since the cafeteria closed by the time I got around to it. Back in the office I managed to get a good chunk of work done. Then I peace'd out.

Home, I packed up (hopefully) everything and spent some time with Kelc. Before long, I was heading south to the kickball fields to assist my sister's team. I arrived slightly late, and the other team racked up quite a few points. Her team ended up losing, but we had fun and did well.

10pm rolls around, I begin the 6.5 hour trek to SPI. It wasn't so bad when I was on roads that were new to me. I was way out in the middle of nowhere, I saw an awesome shooting star, and random fires next to drilling operations. Once I hit the major roads, I had to take a nap at a rest stop. I also made a stop at a gas station that was also being bombarded with a tour bus. That was... interesting. Not too much later (4:30a) I arrived. Carried just what I needed up to the room, and promptly crashed. Hello vacation.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

2011.07.20 Wednesday

Slept in a little bit today. Staying up late after running is a bad choice.

Worked an extended day, with no lunch time and limited breaks. Awesome stuff.

Went out to our 2nd-to-last kickball game of the season. The team we were playing against...didn't show up. Bummer. (On the plus side, I believe a no-show equates to a fine for the team not showing up, and that possibly goes towards a bar tab for us later) We were able to scrounge up enough random people on the fields to play a for-fun scrimmage. Unfortunately this included a guy that we had known was pretty douchey. According to a few of our teammates, he doesn't change even when the game is for-fun. Oh well. I still had a good time; managed to crack some jokes.

Picked up a late dinner at chik-fil-a. Got home and started some laundry and went to bed.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

2011.07.19 Tuesday

I made myself get ready quickly this morning. Not exactly energetic, but forced.

Work went by pretty quickly. After work I took care of things around the house, then went for a run. I've gotten out of the habit of running as often, so long distances feel more taxing than they used to.

Took a shower and prepared myself to attend a going-away party for a friend of Kelc. We played a mystery/detective/murder game that was actually very good. Then we played some telephone-pictionary. Before I knew it, already 1am.

Home, bed.

Monday, July 18, 2011

2011.07.18 Monday

Back to work. The same old routine to get ready, and mostly the same type of work day. It feels like I am getting more interruptions at work, and I'm starting to think this is normal as you progress. Not sure how I feel about that.

I kinda skipped lunch. Coffee is an appetite suppressant.

Post-work, I vacuumed some, took care of the dishes, and did some laundry. Productive and quick.

Off to bowling with my bro and sis. I did pretty well and pulled my own weight, but I still think I could do better.

Once home for the night, a huge spider appeared downstairs. Pants were shat. I batted it out into the grass.

The Matrix came on AMC, so I ended up not getting to bed for a while after my intentions.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

2011.07.17 Sunday

Woke up in the middle of the night a couple times, but managed to fall back asleep. Pretty awesome to get 14+ hours of sleep.

I started off the day by going to visit Kelc while she was working. She didn't like my jokes, but she took an early lunch break so we could get away and talk. Off to Panera we go.

Back at home, I played games and didn't really do much. Ordered in some Wing Stop to add on to the Women's World Cup game. *spoiler alert* Unfortunately we lost. I still think we did awesome overall. Could not be more proud of our team and country for having the resources to encourage players from any gender.

Later on in the afternoon, the Happy Couple stopped by for a bit. Just caught up on stuff.

Played more games. I started getting phone calls from various people. That ended up taking a few hours. Kelc came over and witnessed a few of the games I've been playing.

Then bed time. Pretty simple day.

2011.07.16 Saturday

Woke up around 9 or 10a after a couple hours of sleep. Packed up my junk and left.

Set my computer back up at home. Then noticed how I'm really out of it. Just no energy at all.

Went to Home Depot with Habs, then Chik-fil-a, then home to cut the grass.

Showered, then passed out around 5 or 6pm.

Friday, July 15, 2011

2011.07.15 Friday - LAN party

Interesting morning. Half of me wanted to get up and get going, and the other half wanted to stay in bed for a few more hours. That level of drowsiness set me up for a little cut while shaving.

Work went by rather quickly. Lots of interruptions and catching up with only a few days off. Stopped by Sports Authority over lunch to shop around.

After work, I went for a run. Very hot outside, so much that my sweat was evaporating too quickly.

Ate a double size dinner of tilapia fillets and pesto pasta. Then I packed up my junk to ...

Go to a LAN party! Yeah this definitely feels like an activity from years long passed. We played quite a bit of Counter Strike Source, then Team Fortress 2. I remember turning around and peering out the window to notice "hey the sun is coming up". Eventually I wasn't able to pay attention to the games any more and went to lay down.

2011.07.14 Thursday - Florida

Woke up and went for a walk to find something to eat for breakfast. I got pop tarts and gatorade. Breakfast of champions!

On the way back to the room, we spoke to the front desk about our intentions. Turns out we need to g-t-f-o pretty soon. We blew past this random 11am checkout time, and nudging closer to noon. Yikes.

Kelc and I did some checking and decided that we need to depart for the flights sooner than expected. Only enough time to go out to lunch (Sweet Tomatoes) and leave.

At the airport, I had to change clothes in the bathroom. There was an interesting situation happening in there: a kid was stuck in the stall, and couldn't unlock the door. The solution: a janitor started smacking the door with one of those half-sized brooms. I wanted to face-palm and laugh out loud.

Went through security and had to go through a backscatter machine. Woo hoo, extra radiation for everyone. Also, Woo hoo, naked picture of me on a computer somewhere. I should start up a career in the adult industry soon.

We didn't make the first flight out, so we grabbed a snack at Chili's To-Go. Switched over to a Tampa-Chicago flight because those looked more open, then hoping that I can squeeze on to a Chicago-Austin flight.

We had about an hour of layover in Chicago O'Hare airport, so we went to the only location of b-Cool smooties.

Made it home to Austin, grabbed our bags and headed on our way.

Interesting thing happened when trying to pick up my car...the parking garage was surrounded by police cars. We creeped the car around and eventually a guy waved us over to talk. Apparently they were doing some training exercises in the building. As I walked to my car, I could hear dogs barking in the floors above me. Creepy, and odd.

Home, sleep.

2011.07.13 Wednesday - Florida

Woke up today and packed up for a beach outing. Destination: Fort De Soto

On the way there, we stopped by Subway for a to-go, easy lunch. There was a young lady working there, that I am guessing was her first day. She seemed really bummed out and sighed every couple minutes. Cheer up, buttercup.

Paid a few tolls on the way there. Arrived and headed towards the "Historic Fort" only to find out that it was closed for restoration. Continued on around to the beaches. Unfortunately there were more people than the other times we have been here; not crowded, but less personal.

We walked around the beaches and found an area that said "no swimming, dangerous currents". So what did we do? Went swimming. Also found a stingray in the process of swimming here.

Drove back to the hotel. Played "the iPod game" on the way back. It's just a music identification game.

For dinner, we went over to PJ's. There we stapled up some dollars to their wall. Thanks Kelly.

Spent a little time with Nana again, but it was close to her bed time.

Back to the hotel.. then sleep.

2011.07.12 Tuesday - Florida

Good morning east coast. Oh wait... west coast... of the east coast. Actually, I woke up to Kevin complaining he was hungry and that we should get up and go somewhere to eat.

We walked across the street to Beach Shanty for breakfast. The service was interesting but good. Definitely felt like our server (John) had plenty of coffee before we arrived.

Next we went out to the beach behind our hotel. Swam some. Relaxing few hours out in the sun. Then went up to our rooms to clean off.

Drove over to Nana's to pick her up for lunch. We went to Cheddar's since it was close. Our server, Jen, was very polite, but she went missing for a chunk of time and our drinks dried up. I wasn't even hungry so it wasn't a big deal to me.

After lunch we went back to Nana's place to play Hand 'n' Foot and eat brownies in celebration of Kevin's recovery.

Stopped by CVS on our way back to the hotel. At the hotel we played some various games including red party cups, then bed time.

2011.07.11 Monday - PreFlorida

Worked a full day today, with a surprise for my fellow co-workers: an impromptu vacation to Florida. Work itself felt like it went by rather quickly, but at the same time I felt like I was just waiting for the day to end.

Got picked up from work, and went over to the airport. We had to coerce some gates to get both vehicles into the parking area, and that meant we had a car sitting around for a few minutes; airport security was probably intrigued.

Checked our bags, and went through security without a hitch. The flight we were hoping to catch ended up having too many people. So now we get to wait around for a few hours.

We made it on the next flight over to Dallas, which was also the same plane going to Tampa so we were able to stay seated on the plane. First Class baby yeah! The seats are more comfortable, better leg room, and small things (like a warm towel, drinks constantly, a meal, warm nuts) make the ride more comfortable. I had trouble falling asleep. Bummer.

Landed in Tampa pretty late. Sharon and I went to catch a shuttle over to the car rental place whilst everyone else was grabbing the bags. The shuttle took too long, so we all took the shuttle to the rental place, I just didn't have to carry my bag :-P The place we rented from was a while away from the airport, but a chunk cheaper. I signed paperwork for my first car rental. Hooray!

Drove to the hotel. Things were nice and quiet, I guess it was pretty late. They ran out of double-queen rooms like our reservation requested, so we were upgraded to some suites. These had a king bed, a pull-out queen, a kitchen, a balcony, and two bathrooms. Not too shabby. Didn't take long before we were asleep.

Monday, July 11, 2011

2011.07.10 Sunday

Woke up and gamed a little bit more. I'm getting pretty far in Shadows Of The Empire. As a kid I could never get that far.

Travis showed up and we chatted for a while. Eventually Sunday-Funday was underway. I left after a while to spend time with Kevin and Kelc.

Within the first few minutes there, I was being asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Florida. I feel weird about this, but I have to ask work for permission.

We watched some Harry Potter. Random friends came and went.

Went for a Taco C run. I need to write in a complaint about how bad the service has gotten at our location.

Home, packing, sleeping.

2011.07.09 Saturday

Well this is strange. It's the weekend and I don't know what I'm doing. Guess I'll make a rockin' homegrown tomato and okra omelette.

I spent a good portion of the day relaxing and gaming. I also made sure to eat at chik-fil-a since those fools will be closed tomorrow.

Had a little jam session later in the evening. I pulled Hannah out of her hiatus, and immediately regretted my decision. I think she scared me about 3 or 4 times before I folded her back up and put her away.

It didn't help that Habs started playing Amnesia, and I was getting freaked out just thinking about playing it. I stuck to Far Cry and Shadows Of The Empire.

Friday, July 8, 2011

2011.07.08 Friday - Last Shuttle Launch

Shuttle Atlantis took off early this morning to mark the end of an era. I'm seeing conflicted emotions over this. From what I can tell, this is one of the last large payloads that is needed to be taken up to the ISS, so the Shuttle is following its scheduled retirement. Also, the shuttle itself is something like thirty years old, so for extended trips and new technologies, it is sorta holding us back. -- Then again, it is sad to see such an awesome engineering feat be laid to rest. Though it had its fair share of problems, it was one of the more reliable space vehicles.

Washed, waxed, rain-x'd my car. It is hot outside. I took the car into the garage to do the waxing and it was still hot as balls. I was pretty glazed over with sweat

Relaxed a bit, and attempted to re-hydrate myself. Then started cleaning up my bathroom. It had been a while. Ick.

Games, relaxing, chik-fil-a.

2011.07.07 Thursday

Back to work, sleepy. Not even sure why I bothered coming in to work. Actually stayed late too.

Home, chik-fil-a for dinner. Always the best. I looked around for food at home, but turns out I planned to be running low on everything since I was supposed to be gone in Hawaii.

Played games, then went for a midnight run. I was not able to go as far, but I started doing some sprint intervals.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

2011.07.06 Weds - ICU

Slept from about 6:45a to 2pm.

Upon waking up, I checked my text messages and found that Kelc had said to call her whenever I was awake to hear some good news. Apparently Kevin has had the breathing tube removed and just has an oxygen mask on now until they feel he can get enough on his own. He is also already talking, and complaining about how uncomfortable the bed is. It probably does not feel that great to be laying there for multiple days.

I gathered my things then headed over to my house. I prepared some lunch, did laundry, took a shower and shaved, and watered my plants while getting bitten by fire ants. Productive and painful.

In the afternoon I left to go hang out at the hospital again. There were friends lined up for a chance to see him and give them their support. The visiting hours at the ICU are pretty crazy, and if the nurses or doctors want you gone, you are out of there. I was able to say hi, and told him to stay strong, but get some rest if possible.

Evening time rolled around, and everybody packed up everything to leave. I went home with the family to spend some time.

Eventually it was time for them to go back for the last little chunk of visitation time. I decided to go to my kickball game. From here on out, the primary focus is going to be giving Kevin as much rest as possible to let his body recovery as fast as possible.

We lost our kickball game, but had a blast in the process.

Once home, I ate some leftovers and tried taking melatonin to encourage sleepiness. I still had difficulty sleeping. I am crazy happy how things have turned out so far.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

2011.07.05 Tues - long day / ICU

Had much difficulty falling asleep last night, and just as much trouble waking up.

I went to work, and was expecting to have as much of a normal day as possible. I already knew this day was going to be a tough one since it was directly before vacation time, but now it is difficult in a different way. I was definitely less focused than normal.

I ended up staying around work late because I knew the hospital was much closer. I left around 7pm to head over. There were a few friends already around keeping the family company. Eventually there was a large influx of people arriving, and it seemed to be overwhelming the ICU waiting room.

Around 9 or so, the family went back to see Kevin before the overnight stretch of separation. He was about a degree or so away from the standard temperature of 37C, and he was starting to show signs of being responsive. He began moving his legs and arms, and reaching for the breathing tube, so they had to restrain him. Everybody was super excited to hear that, even though it doesn't definitively mean much.

The reason everybody began showing up is because some friends and family of friends organized a small prayer session for Kevin. We crammed about 30 or so people into a room that felt smaller than my bedroom. Heads were bowed, tears were shed, and I personally had a hard time with the whole situation. I feel like everybody handles these situations a little different. I tend to get quiet and reserved; some people are more outspoken and external with their feelings.

My plan was to spend the night at the hospital. Most people from the ceremony had left, so now we are just waiting for Kevin to reach the proper temperature and the paralytics to be taken away. Kollin, Korey, Kelc and I played some card games to try and pass the time. The original target time of 1am came and went, and we were becoming more and more anxious to find out any news. They said it would still be a couple hours before he would be at 37.

At this point, I'm in a weird state of really needing sleep, but too eager to find out how he is doing. I think a couple of us were able to rest our eyes for a moment... but then...

A nurse came out to say that he had just about reached the proper temperature, so they stopped the drip of the paralytic, and he should be showing signs rather soon. Too excited... more waiting.

Then a tiny bit later (I think this was around 3 am), the primary nurse (?) came out to the waiting room with a slight grin on his face. The parents went out to talk and walk back to the ICU. The kids waited a little longer. They came back, grins and tears; he is responding to commands, grabbing hands, wiggling toes, and trying to talk. (At this point, he is still on sedatives and heavy pain killers, so he likely is not fully aware of what is going on, or what tubes are connected to him) I was able to go see him with Kollin, and we were both speechless at first. So incredibly happy to see him wanting to get up and move around, and attempt to talk. We initially spoke softly to him, and he started to fall back asleep, so the nurse punched him in the chest and started yelling "HEY KEVIN, SHOW THESE GUYS YOU CAN WIGGLE YOUR TOES BECAUSE THEY DON'T BELIEVE ME" then Kevin smiled a little and started wiggling his toes. We got the idea of how out of it he really is, so our next attempts to talk to him were louder and more successful. He finished up with giving us two thumbs up.

So happy. So relieved. Feels like I can finally relax a little.

Not long after sitting in the waiting room, my body was running out of adrenaline and I needed to get some rest. Too bad the seating in the ICU waiting room is designed to be as uncomfortable as possible. It felt like I just a position and closed my eyes, then Kelc was waking me to see if I wanted to go home and sleep in a bed.

A chunk of us left to go home and get some rest around 6am. I was a little worried about driving, but my adrenaline kicked in, and I had music to keep me up. On the way home, I was in the car by myself. I couldn't help but look back on the roller-coaster ride of the past few days. Incredibly happy things are looking positive for Kevin.

It was amazing to see how many people wanted to come out and support the family through these times. I'm also not the kind of person who is outwardly religious, but huge thanks to everybody for keeping Kevin in your thoughts and prayers.

Monday, July 4, 2011

2011.07.04 Monday - Independence Day

Woke up exhausted and dehydrated. I had a hard time falling asleep.

I took care of a few things around the house. I went to Pei Wei and picked up a lunch for Kelc, and spent some time with her and watched True Blood. First time for me to watch it, and I can't say that I'm impressed.

We went to the hospital to spend some time with Kevin and family. A handful of visitors came to also spend some time.

Later we went home to eat Rudy's BBQ for dinner. It was easy to tell that everybody still had their minds and thoughts back at the hospital, but it was still nice to take a minute to breathe and get some food.

Kelc and I went over to my parents house to talk about the current situation.

Back to Kelc's house, we continued waiting. Probably the hardest thing to do is wait.

I spent the night at my place. Kelc wanted to try and spend some time at work, as did I. I need to inform management that my plans for the next few weeks have changed and I will be in a state of flux as things develop.

2011.07.03 Sunday - BCS

Took it easy today. Easy breakfast of bananas.

Played Mario Wii for a good chunk of the day. Everybody really just relaxing and enjoying the company of one another. In the afternoon we decided to watch the movie The Adjustment Bureau. I found it enjoyable and entertaining because it was different. That is one thing that I wish the movie industry was more comfortable with... change.

***

Upon leaving BCS, got some pretty terrifying news that Kelc's brother, Kevin, is in the hospital after a bad head injury. I spent the drive in a haze thinking about what had happened, and upset that I wasn't there. Paul took a much needed nap while I drove on the rather empty highways back to Austin.

I sat around at home not really sure of what to do with myself any more. I unpacked and cleaned myself up a bit, then sat and stared at the TV unaware of what was even on.

Eventually Kelc came over to get some sleep. She explained the situation a bit more, but mostly we will just be waiting for now.

Bear with me for the next few posts. First off, there is a good chance I will be late in updating as my priorities are very different than normal. Secondly, I don't mean any disrespect with anything I post; some things might sound self-centered, but to me this blog almost like an open diary/journal and I post information for myself to look back upon. I also feel uncomfortable posting information about other people's family members, so some parts might seem sparing.

2011.07.02 Saturday - BCS

Woke up late. The fellas spent most of the day playing Mario Wii, and preparing food for the evening's special dinner.

In the later afternoon, I went with Chris and Maddie to a nearby skatepark to get some fresh air and get some blood flowing. This is the first time riding a skateboard since I sprained my ankle, so I was a bit nervous. I was able to ride the halfpipe with some minor success, and I tried a 50-50 grind with success, but bailed coming out and scratched my hands a bit. Being timid on a skateboard just makes falling more of a possibility. Confidence and control is the key.

Back at the house, we got the coals started up, continued Mario Wii, and began cooking up awesome multi-stage dinner. We had venison (deer), australus (kangaroo), and alligator. Matt also made a fantastically smooth guacamole.

Played Apples to Apples, hookah, music, partying. It didn't take long before us old folks called it a night.

Friday, July 1, 2011

2011.07.01 Friday - BCS weekend

Well that was fun. Very little sleep and waking up right when my sister arrived to pick up the TV. At least I didn't have to do my entire morning routine today.

Work went by fast. Over lunch I went to play volleyball with a new subset of coworkers. Hopefully this becomes a more normal occurance, as everybody was there just to have fun and get their minds off of work for a bit. Sand volleyball is always fun for me, unless I puncture a foot.

After work, I got crackin' on packin'. Lots of things to do, so little time to get it done. Cooked up my bacon party mix recipe and packed up lots of stuff. I was hoping to get in a quick nap, but those intentions turned unsuccessful.

Paul arrived and we took off for the 2 hour ride to Bryan. We talked business for a good portion of the trip. He's moving up in a growing electrical supply company. Sounds like a lot of exciting times, potential growth, high risk - high reward stuff.

Upon arrival, we started relaxing and getting caught up on all the things that have happened since we last were together. This weekend might mark the one of the last few times this many members of "The Krew" are all in one place at the same time. Last time this happened was a year and a half ago at the happy couple's wedding.

Marisa really really wanted to go eat sushi, so we took a late night trip to HEB across town (the only one open) to pick up sushi. Hilarity ensued. Also, the rules of shotgun were broken. I am disappoint.