My Room

"Everyone carries a room about inside them. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one's ears and listens, say at night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall." -Franz Kafka

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Restless

I am so restless. I don't know what my deal is. I wanted to take the summer to read and write, and I have done very little of either. I sense that I shall soon, or I will go insane. I have been blogging a lot, which I suppose includes both.

I've actually slipped into a cleaning and organizing mode, which my wife can tell you happens never. yesterday I vacuumed the entire basement and then unpacked a treadmill from storage. Today I cleaned the kitchen. I also tried to make cookies, but only succeeded in burning the hell out of some cookie dough, and now the whole house smells. i don't know what happened; I'm generally a good cook.

Christine's mom is in California. Her sister had a heart attack the day before yesterday, so she's out visiting her. She left around 7:00 this morning. I just talked to her, and she said her sister's doing fine and has the doctors baffled. In the meantime, we're taking care of the house and the horses and the dogs, who spent the entire day moping by the door.

Tomorrow we're going to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, so I hope to post some more pictures. Then you can all see my new haircut.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Anniversary

My summer is not turning out as I expected. OK, it's turning out like I expected, but not like I planned (which I expected). My plan was to write 1,000 words and read for three hours every day. I have started keeping a writing journal, which I keep pretty regularly, and I am reading some. I'm most of the way through The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series, but it is not holding my attention. It's OK, just not as great as the first one was.

I am reading a book called Samurai Chess. It's a book about strategy and applying the teachings of martial arts masters to the game of chess and from there to the rest of life. It's interesting. I still suck at chess, but now I understand why.

We got a new car, which was unexpected. It's a black '98 Toyota Camry LE. the dealership was asking $8,000, but my father-in-law talked them down to $6,000. That was pretty scary to watch, but we really appreciated it. This is the car I will be driving to work once I become gainfully employed. In the meantime, it will take us back and forth between Michigan and Illinois.

Christine is scrambling to finish her correspondence math course, which we both agree was a bad idea, but we shall struggle on together.

This will be a fun weekend. Friday we're going to the Shedd Aquarium with Megan. Saturday we have a pig roast in celebration of a family friend earning her doctorate in veterinary medicine. And Monday is our two-year anniversary. We're spending a few nights in the hotel where we had our wedding reception. Wow, two years...

Our Wedding Reception

Our wedding reception was fun, I think. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and went off without a hitch. Then we had to take pictures, which took friggin' forever, causing Christine and I to each get crankier with every photo. You can see on the video the exact moment when we start fighting.

But once we finally got to the reception, we were doing a bit better. We were supposed to walk in, have the toast, and cut the cake. But our DJ, with whom I had discussed the plan in detail, forgot what was going on (and I suspect was never listening in the first place). So we walked in fine, but nobody had a glass. So my best friend and brother gave their toasts, and everybody clapped. Then the DJ dismissed people to go eat. So I told him we were cutting the cake.

This, we should have practiced. The cake was a many tiered affair covered in white frosting and I think roses. Or maybe carnations. Anyway, it was beautiful (I picked it out). What I'm sure any structural engineer could see is that a cake cannot support the pillars that held up the next tier, so the cake has a base on top of it. I am not a structural engineer, and I could not figure out why I couldn't cut through the cake. I hacked at and stabbed the base, the entire cake swaying and nearly falling over. Finally, I cut a piece. It was raspberry and chocolate. Not bad. I had selected a layer of yellow-cake with mocha filling, which I hear was good.

After the case came much dancing and some drunken karaoke, which lasted too damn long I can tell you. I wanted to get my wife up to our honeymoon suite (which was actually a business suite as there were two other receptions that same night, which would have been all right, but it smelled of pee). So I walked out onto the dance floor, picked up my wife, and carried her to oor room. I wish I could say, I don't have to tell you what happens next, but I do.

Christine had borrowed a large rhinestone bracelet from her aunt, and as we began to undress, she realized that she could not get it off. I didn't see how it would very much matter if she left it on, but she refused to. Her solution? Sending me to get her mom. So I walk back into the reception hall, the one EVERYONE has just seen me take my new wife out of, and get my mother-in-law and take her back with me to our (my and my wife's) hotel room. If you never receive a Christmas card from me, it may well be because you were there and made some smart-assed remark.

Mom couldn't get the bracelet off, so she got one of Christine's bridesmaids to do it. Once it was finally of, it was about 1am. We had to catch a plane to Aruba at 6, so we had to be up and ready to go at 4. Which we were.

End Flashback

I hope that we will have more time to enjoy the hotel this time. And that it won't smell of pee.

Friday, May 20, 2005

The new/old blog

So I've decided to continue the blog, but now I need to come up with a new title. I realize that the address will still have Oxford Blues in it, but since I am no longer in Oxford, I feel that the blog needs a new title. And probably a new design. The old one worked with the whole blue theme, and I liked this one, but now I realize it looks like a shoebox or an Emo CD cover. What to do...

If anyone has any suggestions, I would welcome them.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

What a long strange trip it's been

I know it's been a while since I've posted, and you all know by now that we're home, so thanks to those of you who check in anyway to see how we are.

This week things are approaching the new version of normalcy to which we are adjusting. Over the last couple of weeks, we have...

Graduated! Christine and I each earned an English department award which turned out to be $100 gift cards to Barnes and Noble. Guess where we spent all our free time. Christine graduated cum laude and I graduated magna cum laude, so that was fun.

Chosen a graduate school. In the fall, Christine will be attending Northern Illinois University where she will be pursuing a degree in English literature while also teaching freshman level classes.

Played countless games of Betrayal at House on the Hill, the greatest board game ever.

Enjoyed freedom from the "discernment policy." Christine and I attended a college that forbade drinking, and while we didn't abide by the rules, it's nice that we're no longer forced to lie.

Moved into our room in Christine's parents basement. We love it. It's about the size of the last apartment we lived in in Grand Rapids, and while it's a bit smaller than where we stayed in England, it is refreshingly free of disgusting and inconsiderate Oxford students.

Several people have expressed interest in seeing my blog continue, and I am happy to keep it up. I will, however, be changing the name soon (though not the address), so if you click on the link in your favorites (or in the internet history of a roommate you've been spying on) and you notice it no longer takes you to Oxford Blues, fear not, for I am with you always.