A solid 25 days have passed since my last post. As usual, I've stayed plenty busy, and the month of June has pretty much passed by in a flash. I can't honestly remember all that has gone down, but it's safe to say that I've had full weeks and stuff going on every weekend. But tonight I have a rare opportunity to drink a glass of wine (and maybe a beer chaser) and chance to tell a story or two.
At the beginning of the month, our family celebrated my cousin Drew's graduation from high school. Of course I'm proud of him; he's grown up to be the kind of guy anyone would be proud to call a friend/brother/cousin, and he's got a lot going for him. He and his older brother, Alex, had to endure a lot as they grew up--more than they should have. Despite that, they grew up to be kind, talented, and thoughtful young men. Seeing Drew graduate made me feel a little bit old. For a long time (until my cousin Mollie was born), Drew was the youngest of the cousins on Dad's side of the family. I remember being responsible for looking after him, his older brother, Alex, and my own younger brothers on various occasions when our parents would go out. Of course, the graduation party was a fun time for our family to get together. Good food was in abundance (as is customary), as was the good company of my family.
I think Angie and I may have had a late night at the bar with my friends that previous evening because we both fell asleep on my aunt Nancy's couch after eating. Of course, such moments are always photographed by family members. I thought it was kind of a cute pic, but as Angie would be mortified, I'm opting not to share it here.
That following weekend I went with Angie to a wedding in Central City. The groom, Corey, is Joel's nephew, and it was nice to see his family again. The reception in Grand Island was fun, too. It was held at the local Elk's lodge, and Aubrie was absolutely entranced by the elk's head mounted on the wall. Seriously. She could hardly take her eyes off of it.
They did the "Electric Slide" dance, so of course I had to participate in that. I think it must be a code among DJs everywhere not to play that particular song until everyone has had plenty to drink. Anyway, I really like dancing. I have a hard time getting Angie to dance with me most of the time, though. I'm sure she'd tell you that my horrible lack of rhythm makes her want to run away. Maybe she's right, but I like to think that I make up for such shortcomings with unbridled enthusiasm.
Here are a couple pictures from that night:
Here I am with Aubrie. Ignore my razor burn.
Amy and Joel. As you may have guessed, Joel was a member of the wedding party.
I really like this one; I even have it set as my desktop background on my computer at work.
Let's see...the weekend after that was the Father's Day weekend. That Friday we got together at Famous Dave's with Angie's folks to celebrate the holiday a little early. I gorged myself on cornbread, corn on the cob, fries, drunken apples, beers, and meats. I felt a certain amount of shame afterward, but I got over it. Good eating is good eating, after all.
The following night, we got together at Brewsky's with Tom, Lesa, Mike, Jana, Brad, and Beth for supper. Amy and Aubrie came along, too, so it was nice to have a chance to introduce them to my friends and my brother. Afterward, we went to the Haymarket Heydays street dance, which featured the rock stylings of Omaha's Grasshopper Takeover and the Lincoln-based Groove Puppet. It was a blast; I absolutely adore street dances.
After church the following day, Angie accompanied me to Fairbury to celebrate Father's Day with my dad. We had steak, cheesy potatoes, and all kinds of good food. Again, I gorged myself as though the food might disappear. You would've done the same, though.
That brings me to last weekend, the Long-Awaited Tubing Trip. It was an awesome time. We camped out by the river, drank a lot of beer, and had some really good food. We spent Saturday afternoon on the water. As it turns out, that was also my 27th birthday. It was an excellent way to spend the day, surrounded by some of my very best friends and my wonderful girlfriend. I'm so fortunate.
Of course, weekends such as that one tend to go by ever so quickly. It had some fun memories, though. To start things off, Angie, Brad, and myself were tossing the Frisbee when Angie decided to throw it in the river. I stripped down and jumped in to rescue it, and in doing so tore off the top part of the toenail on my right big toe. It only felt like I stubbed it until I got out of the water and saw that it was bleeding. At least I rescued the Frisbee.
On Friday night, we also had a visit from three drunk guys. One of them was wearing a crap-ass cowboy hat, so I dubbed him "Tater Salad," in the tradition of stand-up comedian Ron White. His right-hand man was the One-Armed Bandit, who literally only had one arm. Strangely enough, I didn't notice that he only had one arm until he pointed it out himself. The third guy was too unremarkable to recall.
We really burned a lot of stuff in the fire, too, and constatly had to look for firewood. Ted and Brad pulled off the coup de gracie in that department. By the end of our stay, the camp site was cover in ash, a lot of it resulting from burned cedar. ;)
The return trip was rather uneventful, except for an odd moment early in the afternoon. Angie and I rode in the back seat of Mike's pickup, and I layed down on Angie's nap and took a snooze. At some point, though, I decided to throw my cell phone at myself and suffered a bruise just outside my eye. Then the phone hit Angie in the chest. Must've been a weird dream.
Today I returned to the office, which was lovely. After getting home for the day, I realized how stale evening television is these days. From about 5:00p until 8:00p, your choices are pretty much limited to deciding which episode of Friends or That 70's Show you feel like watching. There sure as hell isn't anything else on.
Well, I suppose I can leave you with a few more pictures.
A Sunday afternoon picture of me and two lovely young ladies. As I recall, the picture was originally just going to be of Angie and me, but Aubrie got a little jealous.
This picture was actually taken on Easter Sunday, but I don't think I shared it here. This is a picture of Grandma (Dad's mom) with all her grandchildren. Tom and Maddie are in the top row, followed by Alex, Mollie, and myself in the middle. Meghan, Kirsten, Drew, Grandma, and Ross are at the bottom.
And finally, a picture to comfort you in the darkest of times and loneliest of nights. I like to call it "The Face Of Modern Dictatorial Benevolence," but a wiser friend suggested "Bronzed By Jasper Johns." That's probably the best I can hope for, really.
I suppose I should finish my chaser (which turned out to be another glass of wine) and go to bed. Instead of a haiku, I'll just leave you with a quote from the movie Waiting.
"It's so veiny!"
Thank you, and may you all share pleasant dreams of a better tomorrow.
Love,
Nate
At the beginning of the month, our family celebrated my cousin Drew's graduation from high school. Of course I'm proud of him; he's grown up to be the kind of guy anyone would be proud to call a friend/brother/cousin, and he's got a lot going for him. He and his older brother, Alex, had to endure a lot as they grew up--more than they should have. Despite that, they grew up to be kind, talented, and thoughtful young men. Seeing Drew graduate made me feel a little bit old. For a long time (until my cousin Mollie was born), Drew was the youngest of the cousins on Dad's side of the family. I remember being responsible for looking after him, his older brother, Alex, and my own younger brothers on various occasions when our parents would go out. Of course, the graduation party was a fun time for our family to get together. Good food was in abundance (as is customary), as was the good company of my family.
I think Angie and I may have had a late night at the bar with my friends that previous evening because we both fell asleep on my aunt Nancy's couch after eating. Of course, such moments are always photographed by family members. I thought it was kind of a cute pic, but as Angie would be mortified, I'm opting not to share it here.
That following weekend I went with Angie to a wedding in Central City. The groom, Corey, is Joel's nephew, and it was nice to see his family again. The reception in Grand Island was fun, too. It was held at the local Elk's lodge, and Aubrie was absolutely entranced by the elk's head mounted on the wall. Seriously. She could hardly take her eyes off of it.
They did the "Electric Slide" dance, so of course I had to participate in that. I think it must be a code among DJs everywhere not to play that particular song until everyone has had plenty to drink. Anyway, I really like dancing. I have a hard time getting Angie to dance with me most of the time, though. I'm sure she'd tell you that my horrible lack of rhythm makes her want to run away. Maybe she's right, but I like to think that I make up for such shortcomings with unbridled enthusiasm.
Here are a couple pictures from that night:
Here I am with Aubrie. Ignore my razor burn.
Amy and Joel. As you may have guessed, Joel was a member of the wedding party.
I really like this one; I even have it set as my desktop background on my computer at work.
Let's see...the weekend after that was the Father's Day weekend. That Friday we got together at Famous Dave's with Angie's folks to celebrate the holiday a little early. I gorged myself on cornbread, corn on the cob, fries, drunken apples, beers, and meats. I felt a certain amount of shame afterward, but I got over it. Good eating is good eating, after all.
The following night, we got together at Brewsky's with Tom, Lesa, Mike, Jana, Brad, and Beth for supper. Amy and Aubrie came along, too, so it was nice to have a chance to introduce them to my friends and my brother. Afterward, we went to the Haymarket Heydays street dance, which featured the rock stylings of Omaha's Grasshopper Takeover and the Lincoln-based Groove Puppet. It was a blast; I absolutely adore street dances.
After church the following day, Angie accompanied me to Fairbury to celebrate Father's Day with my dad. We had steak, cheesy potatoes, and all kinds of good food. Again, I gorged myself as though the food might disappear. You would've done the same, though.
That brings me to last weekend, the Long-Awaited Tubing Trip. It was an awesome time. We camped out by the river, drank a lot of beer, and had some really good food. We spent Saturday afternoon on the water. As it turns out, that was also my 27th birthday. It was an excellent way to spend the day, surrounded by some of my very best friends and my wonderful girlfriend. I'm so fortunate.
Of course, weekends such as that one tend to go by ever so quickly. It had some fun memories, though. To start things off, Angie, Brad, and myself were tossing the Frisbee when Angie decided to throw it in the river. I stripped down and jumped in to rescue it, and in doing so tore off the top part of the toenail on my right big toe. It only felt like I stubbed it until I got out of the water and saw that it was bleeding. At least I rescued the Frisbee.
On Friday night, we also had a visit from three drunk guys. One of them was wearing a crap-ass cowboy hat, so I dubbed him "Tater Salad," in the tradition of stand-up comedian Ron White. His right-hand man was the One-Armed Bandit, who literally only had one arm. Strangely enough, I didn't notice that he only had one arm until he pointed it out himself. The third guy was too unremarkable to recall.
We really burned a lot of stuff in the fire, too, and constatly had to look for firewood. Ted and Brad pulled off the coup de gracie in that department. By the end of our stay, the camp site was cover in ash, a lot of it resulting from burned cedar. ;)
The return trip was rather uneventful, except for an odd moment early in the afternoon. Angie and I rode in the back seat of Mike's pickup, and I layed down on Angie's nap and took a snooze. At some point, though, I decided to throw my cell phone at myself and suffered a bruise just outside my eye. Then the phone hit Angie in the chest. Must've been a weird dream.
Today I returned to the office, which was lovely. After getting home for the day, I realized how stale evening television is these days. From about 5:00p until 8:00p, your choices are pretty much limited to deciding which episode of Friends or That 70's Show you feel like watching. There sure as hell isn't anything else on.
Well, I suppose I can leave you with a few more pictures.
A Sunday afternoon picture of me and two lovely young ladies. As I recall, the picture was originally just going to be of Angie and me, but Aubrie got a little jealous.
This picture was actually taken on Easter Sunday, but I don't think I shared it here. This is a picture of Grandma (Dad's mom) with all her grandchildren. Tom and Maddie are in the top row, followed by Alex, Mollie, and myself in the middle. Meghan, Kirsten, Drew, Grandma, and Ross are at the bottom.
And finally, a picture to comfort you in the darkest of times and loneliest of nights. I like to call it "The Face Of Modern Dictatorial Benevolence," but a wiser friend suggested "Bronzed By Jasper Johns." That's probably the best I can hope for, really.
I suppose I should finish my chaser (which turned out to be another glass of wine) and go to bed. Instead of a haiku, I'll just leave you with a quote from the movie Waiting.
"It's so veiny!"
Thank you, and may you all share pleasant dreams of a better tomorrow.
Love,
Nate
posted by Nate | 6:58 PM
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