Miracle of Miracles!

21 October 2007 ~ Always On My Mind

A new day has come…a brand new day! All the words in the world cannot express the exultant gladness that I—and no doubt my wonderful sister-in-law and our now conjoined families—feel right now. (me with my sis-in-law---->)

Last week, my brother’s widow—who still clearly mourns the loss of her beloved husband’s untimely death just six short weeks ago—revealed to me the greatest and most comforting news for which one could ever hope! With my brother’s body still warm in the ground, still fresh and unfettered by time, his widow now dons the threshold for new life.

According to the best that science can offer, this new life has existed for 8 weeks and will someday soon make his or her most miraculous arrival into this intrepid journey that we call “life”.

I want to shout it from the rooftops! I cannot hide my joy any longer, as this is the closest I will ever come to being a father. Being an uncle is very much a great joy and a lifelong dream for me, for my brother. Life can be so damn selfish at times but when we persevere, life can offer the greatest rewards in return.

Someday, the time will come, when I will be able to sit my nephew or niece down and tell them all about their wonderful father, and all the silly things he and I used to do when we were growing up together. I will be able to tell them about how their father helped to inspire me to join the Air Force, how he—although never knowing it—truly inspired me to reach out and be the person I am. I will be able to tell them about how their father truly positively affected so many peoples’ lives and how he made people laugh, often simply by just being in the room. I will someday be able to tell this new life about the everlasting footprints their father left behind.

For this truly is a time of great jubilation and I pray for God to bless this family after it’s loss and for the future one to come to be a healthy and happy addition to our very welcoming and elated family!

Until next time…
NK

PS: Pictures added below

Coming Attractions

21 October 2007 ~ Stay Tuned...

There is good news ahead! As in my usual fashion, I like to "write it up" a bit and my writer's artistic spin on life to amplify the magnificence of such occasion. Something truly awesome has now begun and, while I know most people throw around the term "awesome" far too often, this word TRULY describes the nature of this very matter.

If you don't know already, stay tuned for the announcement within the next couple of days!

Until next time…
NK

My Delusive Contentment

10 October 2007 ~ The Endless Tropism Toward Life’s Tokus

What’s wrong with a person always wanting more and striving to be better with each passing day? My whole life, I have always felt like I needed to “stretch” and eventually “plunge” out of my comfort zone to discover the world around me. I always felt like I was being confined within this cocoon and I wanted to fly away! I hope that makes sense. Maybe I’m just delirious with grief over recent changes, things in which I clearly was not comfortable in dealing right now. (Those close to me know what I mean.)

Now the problem is that I have lived here and abroad, explored some of the world, even learned a foreign language—two if you count British English—and gained some cultural knowledge and because of that, something within me constantly yearns for more. I feel as though I have experienced just a taste of what life can offer outside of my “cocoon” and I spend every waking moment daydreaming of a life that is enveloped by that “world” and I spend most nights dreaming of returning to that delusive contentment, my castle in the sky. So for now, my dreams remain my only tropism to seventh heaven and the key to maintaining my sanity through the madness of this capricious journey.

Anyway, enough with the poetic notions. I’m just a little down lately with so many elements desiring change and I’ve tried to reject it as much as possible over the past couple months. The one thing I wish would change is my debt condition. Let the money roll in (legally speaking of course) so I can pay off my debt and be free and clear of these ever-binding shackles. I swear that our society is designed forever to keep a person in the same class in which they were born. Rarely, does someone permanently excel to the much-desired higher level in society, but often do we drift within our own class hitting the highs and, more notably, the lows.

I guess it makes no difference what I think or how I feel because in the end no one cares what’s inscribed here. How many people are there in this world and of those, how many of them actually use their brains for more than performing the most simplistic activities in nature? How many people are most content simply by consuming their day with video games or serving their life sentence as a couch potato? How many people realize the world is greater than their backyard and even extends beyond their hometown? How many people understand what compassion beyond measure means? How many people serve as the drones of societies across the world and buy into everything they’re told by those in the class above them? (How many of these “how many’s” can I come up with?)

Until next time…
NK

Un Autre Blog de Blasé

06 October 2007 ~ My Blah-Blah Days

The last week or so has been pretty mundane. I ended up taking about 3 weeks off school when my brother died, just for obvious reasons like not being mentally “there”. Anyway, I decided to go ahead and take my programming class which started on 25 September. Trust me, I was not ready but I knew I had to just jump back in there and try to stay focused on my studies; I’m only about 14 classes away from my degree! I would be closer if my school accepted all of my previously earned credits, but oh well, I’m only missing about 8 credits at this point.

Anyway, about 2 weeks ago Nate and I took the pets to the vet for their annual check-ups and vaccines. BOY! Talk about crazy. It was like taking the zoo there. We have 4 cats and an Italian Greyhound (IG). As soon as we walked into the vet’s lobby, the other people in the waiting room started laughing and making jokes about the vet being able to pay their rent for the month. Everything was fine except our cat, Pita (short for “Pain In The Ass”). She had a dirty grill so we had to schedule to bring her in the following week and have her teeth cleaned.

So the following Friday, I dropped Pita off at the vet for a routine dental cleaning. The vet used general anesthesia to knock her out and then later that day the doc called and explained that Pita had to have two small teeth extracted but that she was fine and ready to go home. The nightmare began... Usually when cats come home having been put under with anesthesia, they tend to come around within an hour or two. Pita was struggling for many hours and she couldn’t walk. The poor girl kept pulling herself with her front legs and her rear end just wasn’t functioning. It was a horrible sight and sad to witness. I have heard several stories of where pets end up having serious neurological effects due to anesthesia so obviously we were worried about that.

Long story short: We ended up taking her to the all-night emergency animal hospital and she was very dehydrated so they treated her. The next day we had to take her back to our vet and they said that she would be fine, just that some pets take longer to recover. I was livid because we had to spend $220 for the emergency care the night before, but our vet gave us a good credit toward next year’s visit. Thankfully, Pita, and all our other family members, are doing well and just as playful as ever.

What’s funny: I took Pita to the vet for her dental cleaning and a bath because she was shedding too much. Then, later that day when I went to pick her up, the veterinarian said she would take Pita and put her in the car for me as we walked out together. Well, odd, but okay... So I got home, and brought Pita all the way upstairs and then set the kennel down on the floor and then I noticed that Pita looked different. I thought: Just what the hell kind of “bath” did they give her? (How much fur did she lose?)

Pita did not look the same and I’ve attached a picture as proof! :-)

***

Other than that excitement, we’ve been working with my cousin Adam to get our new e-commerce business up and running. Adam, Nate and I took this past Friday off so we could go to Baltimore and Annapolis, MD and register our business, the trade name and all that other jazz. It took ALL DAY! But of course, what more could you expect from state government employees?

Well, I would add more but I just finished doing some homework and now I want to get back to my game! I can hear it calling out loudly to me: Nathan...Nathan! You still have to rescue the princess... Yes, I still love video games, especially Mario and Zelda games. I have the red Nintendo DS Lite and just got the LONG-AWAITED (3…count them THREE LONG YEARS) for Zelda game for the DS and it’s really fun. I play this to wind down after work and after my homework.


Until next time…
NK