Happy Birthday, Pop!

The last time I wrote in this blog, it was my mother's birthday. Now its my father's birthday. "Happy Birthday, Pop. Hope you had a great day."

I guess I haven't been writing much because for two reasons. 1) There wasn't much going on the past couple of weeks, and 2) When I did have something to write about, it wasn't appropriate to write about it. Well, at least in this blog. I might write about it in my next Coast 2 Coast newsletter. Let's see. Work has been good. Still social life kind of sucks again. It's been in a drought for a while. However, I am still playing cards with the volunteers here on Sunday and Wednesday evenings. I always enjoy the game night because it gets me out of my crib. And plus I love playing cards. I started a new book, one of which my dad sent me two Christmas's ago. Then this weekend, I got some more work done on my personal website. It's coming. I promise. Anyway, the Lakers are back in the Finals for the second straight year. I look forward to watching the finals. Still not much going on this week so far, but will see. Got to go. Peace.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I want to wish my mom a "Happy Birthday". Hope you celebrate when you get back from your trip.

This Past Weekend.....

There were two things that highlighted last weekend. First off, it was Mother’s day weekend and I had called and wished my mother a Happy Mother’s Day. Of course I already blogged about that. Secondly, I went to my friend Al and his wife Liz’s crib in Taneytown. It was the first time I had gone to their place since being over here. I spent a few hours over there, just chillin and playing Xbox. It was the first time I had played the Xbox 360 and I must say I am impressed, even though I am not much of a gamer. Liz had made dinner for us. She made spaghetti which was good. Then I went back to my crib. Before heading over to game night, Al gave me something I thought was hella cool. He called it a late birthday-going away present. It was a Joe Montana football card with his real signature. That’s crazy. Al is a big time sports memorabilia collector. He already had Montana’s signature on a plaque. When he gave me his card, I was like, “Dam, this is great”. I very much appreciated him doing that for me. Even though I have left my card collecting days behind me, its always cool when I can get something like this. Earlier this year, he got Ray Lewis to sign a PS2 football game cover for me. I was excited about that. I was even more excited to receive a card with the signature of one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL.

The second thing that I thought was cool was on Monday. I had taken a day off because I need to use some of my vacation time before I leave in August. I bought this RL Stine book called “The Wrong Number” a week ago and started it on Monday afternoon. The book is 168 pages and for the first time ever, I had read the whole book in one day. I finished around 11:30pm. To me that was a great accomplishment. It made me be more motivated about reading, which I haven’t been in such a long time. I started with RL Stine first because he was my favorite author growing up. I figured if I can complete a couple of his books before I start of some of my better books, then maybe I can complete the rest of the good books I have.

There was a third incident that happen to me over the weekend that was all good, but this is something I can’t blog about.

Overall, I had a great weekend and I hope to continue with weekends like this until I finish up here in New Windsor.

Happy Mother's Day

Well, its 3am in the morning (like the new song from Eminem), and I am still awake. Mostly because I made a new memory to take back with me back home, which I cannot talk about on my blog. First and formost, I want to take this opportunity to wish every mother a "Happy Mother's Day". Mom's have toughest job in the world. I always say this about fathers, but I can say this about mothers as well. Any woman can become a mother, but it takes a real woman to be a "Mom". Much love and respect to all the real mom's out there. I want to give a special shout out to my mom especially because without her, I wouldn't be here. I also want to give a special shout out to my grandmothers. This is one day that all mom's should be recognized for what they do and what they mean to all us.

Well this week was pretty cool. This past Tuesday (a day after my birthday), my friend Al and myself went to see "Wolverine" and it kicked ass. To me, it was the best X-Men movie yet. If anyone hasn't gone to see the movie, I so recommend it. If people want to see it, I also recommened staying through all the credits because there is an extra scene afterwards. I hope they come up with more Wolverine sequills. Also on Tuesday, Francie and her friend and Finance lady, Barb, took me out to lunch for my birthday. We went to a little restraunt here in New Windsor just down the street from the center. It wasn't the best meal I had, but it sure beat out having pasta bar that day at the center, knowing that spagetti day was on Friday. The rest of the week went pretty well, nothing to exciting. Work is work and I don't have anything to report on this entry. Be back soon.

29 and counting....

Well, what can I say. Yesterday begin a new year for me, and its telling me this time that I am one year from turning 30, an age I didn't think I was going to make so fast. This time next year I am going to look back and think of things that I could have done better with my life. But until then, I am going to try to make 29 a great year. It's that last year that I am in my 20's so I plan on making to most of it.

Just like any other birthday, I didn't do anything exciting. I wanted it to be like any other day, except hoping to hear from a few people back home. The highlight of the day for me was my good friend Wolfgang made an appearance at the center. I haven't seen him in a month in a half, so it was great to see him. I got a few people who remembered my b-day (for all those who remembered, I say "Thank You"). I got a chance to talk to my mom and dad for a little while, my brother Todd called me, my friend Al called, and got a few messages from some of my friends on Facebook. But other than that, it was like any other day. I did some laundry and tried to watch one of my dvd's.

The one thing I think about is that I didn't want this birthday to come so soon because it means that I have to leave New Windsor pretty soon. This is something that I don't want to to right at this moment, even though I am planning on moving on. And now that it has passed, it will seem like tomorrow for when I leave. I think that is a little depressing, but hey thats life, right? Well I should say, thats my life, LOL.

Food 4 Thought....

Well, this post is a little bit different than the rest. Hopefully I can use this for not just for whats going on in BVS but whats on my mind as well. I mentioned this before, but I don't think I did a very good job at that. It is highly unlikely of me to write two posts so close together, but I just wanted to get some things off my mind....Hopefully I am aloud to, LOL.

Still been thinking about home a lot, mostly coming home to visit over the summer. I here of so much change over there its crazy. I am not sure if I can keep up with it. Its almost like it seems better for me to stay put over here, but I know that is not going to be the case. My brother Josh and his girlfriend Courtney are about to have a baby. My brother Todd and his girfriend Katy just had their second child. My dad has changed the house so much that when I come back, it will seem like a new place (well, new to me anyway). I have a new pastor at the church, whom I haven't met face to face yet. Glenn is officially retired again, and getting a little bit older than when I left. My mom is working a completely different shift at work then when I left. There are a few changes in Waterford, and some more major changes in Modesto. There are some friends of mind who I haven't heard from since I left. This is what I get to come home to. Even when I come home, I have no crib or no ride, which will make it hard to do anything. But home is home anyway.

I am thankful to BVS because BVS gave me an identity that I didn't seem to have before. Everyone in my life seems to be on track about how they are living their lives. They know who they are and where they are going or what they are doing. Before BVS, the only thing I knew was I liked being in the IT field. I liked working with computers. Now that I am in BVS, even though that is what I am doing right now, I think BVS has given me some what of an identity that I don't think anyone back home, except maybe Glenn and Donna (who were former BVSer's) would know what I am talking about. I don't even think the people in my church would know what I am talking about. I just hope I can do another year or two in BVS before I have to go back to the real world and look for a paying job.

My time here in New Windsor is getting shorter and shorter. I am going miss everyone around here when I leave. There were some wonderful people who I met along the way and I very happy to have met each and everyone of them. In my next newsletter I will talk about lot of those folks. But as much as I like New Windsor, I am looking forward to starting my next project wherever it may be. Doing something new sound great to me right about now. Right now I feel like New Windsor was the place for me to do what God has given me the talent to do, which is work on computers. My next project, I will go to a place where I can have somewhat of an adventure. I can't seem to call New Windsor an adventure because of what the everyday life here is, but I did get a chance to do a few things over the past two years which I am greatful to God for.

May….The Birthday Month!

I call this blog "the birthday month" because for whatever reason, there are quite a few birthdays this month that I know of. I will start off with mine, being on the fourth. My step father’s birthday is the same day as well. That gets cooler to me every year. Then both my parents, one of the 14th and the other on the 31st. I got a couple of cousins as well. I also have a lot of friends that are in May as well. To me, I always think of May as the birthday month.

Enough of birthdays, it’s been a little while since I last wrote. I have been working on the website a bit and its coming pretty good so far. Then I started getting back into reading. I am excited about this because I wanted to get back into reading since I came here, but I just always didn’t seem to do it. I needed to go back and finish this book I started a couple of years ago, and I did just that this last week. I feel pretty good about that. I hope to continue reading more.

Work has been going good lately. This past week, Francie and I went to New Oxford, PA to install three new PC’s in the southern PA District office. We finished up everything we wanted to accomplish, but it took a lot longer then we expected. We went Tuesday, hoping to finish up by noon. We didn’t get done until Wednesday afternoon. The week started off like that. We had to install a new PC for one of the employees here at the center on Monday. I thought it was going to be few minute job, but Francie and I had issues with this badge printer and it ended up taking up most of the day. This week was a good work week because we were busy, but some of the jobs should have been done a lot sooner than expected. The one good thing about all this is that I had learned about what to expect when being a little over confident in my timing. I think that is what it was, over confident.

The volunteers for the month of April had left this week as well. Tom and Maryellen Flory, and Dean and his wife Gloria served as hosts in the Windsor and Old Main buildings. It was a pleasure getting to know them. These couples were first time hosts and they are looking forward to returning next year. I had a good time playing games with them and being able to enjoy their company during breakfast and lunch. Today at breakfast was pretty cool. Larry and Alice Petry stopped by for a little bit before heading to Washington, DC. I thought it was great to see them. They, along with Dean and Gloria, and Jan and Roma Thompson, who were here signing their new book they wrote about the center, sang “Happy Birthday” to me since they weren’t going to see me on Monday. I thought that was great. I haven’t had someone sing happy birthday to me in years. So this was something I won’t soon forget.

A couple of weeks ago, I got in touch with Dan McFadden, the BVS director about my next project. I told him that I was interested in Trees for Life project in Wichita, Kansas. I haven’t heard anything yet, but I look forward to hearing something in the next few weeks.

Man, it seems like I haven’t talked to anyone back home in while. The only exception to that was my Grandmother, who I called on her 84th birthday this past Sunday. I think I will try to do better job on keeping up with the communication for my loved ones back in Cali.

Well that was my past couple of weeks. Be back real soon.