So You Want An Update, Huh?

Fine. Here's your update (Mom). I've been busy, OK. I have a fairly demanding job and a recently acquired a semi-active social life. For those of you who read my previous post, you know what I've been up to during the week. But as for the weekend, here is how it went. On Friday night, I was supposed to have a foriegn movie night with my friend Jen, but she wasn't feeling well as postponed it to a later date TBD. So instead, I went out to see a movie with Bryan. We went to see, "Meet The Fockers." It was alright. It was funny, but a bit crude. It was basically what I expected it would be like.

I got up early on Saturday to go to yoga with Becky. I like going except for the fact that it is at 9:00 on a Saturday morning (when I would much rather be sleeping in my nice, warm, comfy bed). I found myself yawning throughout the entire session. Afterwards, I was so relaxed that I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. Since I had basically wasted my day away (but it was worth it), I figured I might as well get up, get dressed, and do something. So for my evening entertainment, I experienced some of the Orlando Night Life. Jen invited me, along with some other people, to go this club downtown to here some local bands play. Through some poor communication, I ended up there by myself. I called Jen to find out where everyone was. Apparently everyone else cancelled. Jen said that she would come and join me, but it would take her atleast a half-hour to get there and the first band, Atomic Tangerine, was getting ready to go on. I felt a little uncomfortable being there by myself, but once I found a seat at the bar and the band started playing, it wasn't too bad. After the first set, I got a call from Jen saying that she was just outside, second in line, and they stopped letting people in. Bummer for her. So we decided to visit a couple other bars instead. First we went to Room 3 Nine. We didn't stay long since it was really crowded and they weren't playing very good music (bad 80s music). So we went next door to a bar called The Lodge. It looked like a hunting lodge (a much more casual atmosphere). It was a little less crowded and the music was much better. It was still 80s music, but better. Before we knew it, it was nearly 1am and that is when the time ran out on my parking meter (and I didn't have any more change). So that meant that it was time to go. Oh well. We still had fun, even though the weather wasn't very good. It was drizzly and cold.

I didn't really do anything on Sunday. I went to church Saturday night so that I could sleep in on Sunday morning (which I did). I did get a couple loads of laundry done, so I wasn't COMPLETELY unproductive. You may think that I'm totally wasting my weekends by not doing much of anything, but when you have hectic weeks like I have, it's really nice to just not do anything!

Back In The Swing Of Things

Well, Christmas and the "holiday season" are over. Thursday was Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. The choir had our 2nd annual Epiphany Cantata. It went OK. Some pieces went better than others. On Saturday, to officially end the Christmas season, I put away all of my Christmas decorations (except for my tree which I am attempting once again to keep alive and the lights on my patio). On Sunday, Becky & I went to see the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. A coworker of mine gave me two tickets because her and her husband were going to be out of town. It was really cool. It was all Tchaikovsky. There was even an encore at the end (they played the "Russian Dance" from "The Nutcracker Suite".

Now that the holidays are over, all of my weekly evening activities are starting back up once again. Here is my weekly schedule:
Monday - Dance class
Tuesday - Bible Study: "It's Not About Me"
Wednesday - The Way (Dinner, Praise & Worship time, and Bible Study: "Bad Girls of the Bible") and Choir Practice
Thursday - Wallyball
Friday - FREE!!!

Now that you know my schedule, I have no need to repeat myself in any future blogs.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yesterday was my 26th Birthday. Here's how it went:

I woke up in the morning, sang "Happy Birthday" to myself, and opened my birthday present from my parents. It had been sitting in my room since last thursday and I couldn't wait any longer (especially since I knew I wouldn't be home again until late). I eventually dragged my body out of bed and went off to work. Work went pretty well. I got a couple new projects to work on. One of which is a tenant fit out and Norberto (our Director of Design) wants me to do the interior "design". I'm meeting with the client tomorrow. Another good thing happened today. One of the first projects that I worked on almost completely by myself came back from the building department. There were absolutely NO COMMENTS. I don't have to fix anything. This RARELY ever happens. I do have to make some changes on it, but they are purely aesthetic (I need to simplify the design to bring the cost down). Jim is letting me take complete control of this project. That is, I will review all the shop drawings, make site visits, answer any questions that come up. I'm a little nervous about this new responsibility, but I need it if I want to become a registered Architect (and I do). Jim took our team out to lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday.

After work, Bryan and I went out to dinner at P.F. Chang's. It was really nice. We split an Almond & Cashew Chicken dinner. After dinner, I had choir practice for our Cantata tomorrow night. It was long (2 hours) and kind of boring. I love to sing, but I just wasn't in the mood last night. I mean, I would have rather been out with friends. After practice I did go out. Jen (who is also in choir) and I went to a bar downtown and had a couple drinks. I was kind of hoping that our other friends could join us, but Becky was busy and Kristin was sleeping (she has to get up really early in the morning to go to work at the Animal Kingdom). So it was just Jen & me. It was really nice, though. We got to spend some quality time together and get to know each other a bit better. So it was another late night for me. I haven't been in bed before midnight in the past week. Maybe tonight.

All in all, it was a really nice birthday.

A Freaky Story

OK, this is really freaky:

Back in college, I often received overdue bill notices for a magazine for which I never had a subcription. The bills were addressed to Amy Kushnir, a student at Arizona State University. While I obviously did not go to ASU, I did apply there and was accepted. I can only assume that is why they forwarded the mail to me instead of the real Amy Kushnir to whom they belonged.

Anywho, for a bit of fun, today I did an internet search on my name to see what would come up. Basically, I wanted to see if my website would show up. Well, it didn't, but I did find something about me on a Ball State Alumni page. But here is the freaking part. I also came across the following article from the Las Vegas Review Journal dated October 6, 2003:

U.S. HIGHWAY 93
Four Arizonians killed in head-on collision

Four Arizona residents were killed Saturday afternoon in a head-on collision on U.S. Highway 93.

All of the victims were dead at the scene. There were no survivors.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety said the wreck occured about 4:15 p.m. just south of the U.S. 93-Interstate 40 junction.

DPS said 24-year-old Emily Baur of Chandler, Ariz., was driving northbound in a 2000 Infinity when she attempted a pass and collided with an oncoming 1998 Chevrolet pickup. Bauer's passenger was identified as 24-year-old Amy Kushnir of Tempe, Ariz.

The occupants of the pickup were identified as 49-year-old Cruz Reyes of Phoenix and 55-year-old Roberta Williams of Scottsdale Ariz.

I have no proof that this is the same person as mentioned above, but it very well could be. But how freaky is it to read an article about someone with your same name and same age who was killed. Trust me, it's freaky.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's actually 2005. I hosted a New Year's Eve party this year. It went pretty well. It was very low-key, but nice. We just sat around, ate, drank, and talked. We also had a champagne toast at midnight and watched the ball drop. I had 7 guests for a total of 8 people. The first guests left at 12:30 and the last left around 1:30. I think that I may stick to being party guest rather than host. Even after everyone had left (and I was completely exhausted) I couldn't sleep. I was awake until about 4 am. But once I finally fell asleep, I was completely out (until my mom decided to call with a noon wake-up call. After I hung up, I slept for about another hour. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up from the party.