As the year winds down I have been finding myself so much more busy than the rest of the year.  In the next month Renee and I are taking a trip to Hawaii (me for business, her for pleasure), we’re moving into a house (which will hopefully be purchased by us sometime in the very near future), I’m planning my web business aspirations for the next year, Renee starts her job in less than 2 months…I mean…there’s just a lot of stuff hitting at once.  And for one that ‘stuff’ that’s hitting is really really good!

And the biggest item, reserved for it’s own section, our wedding is in less than 10 months at the beginning of January.  Planning for this hasn’t been going as fast as we planned in the last few months.  But that’s ok because money has been excruciatingly tight.  I think the real amount of planning is going to happen starting in February and continuing up into September.

So onto the house, Renee and I found this wonderful house on an acre of land here in Manassas.  Even more fortunate, we found an owner willing to work with our financial stresses until Renee is officially into a job.  I do plan on posting pictures, but take my word for it.  The house is beautiful!

T-minus 6 days and counting until Renee and I will be on a plane…mentally preparing to dip our toes in Waikiki’s beach front.  We’re so excited to get over to the place it’s just eating us alive.  We’re packing up everything early just so we don’t have the stresses of packing 12 hours before the trip.

Off to creating a budget and minding my schedule.

Personal rituals to be exact.  I find that I make up many different morning/afternoon/evening rituals, but I haven’t settled on just one of them (for any specific ‘section’ of the day).  Not entirely sure why.  So why do I even bring this topic up.  Well…

It seems as though when personal ritualistic activities happen, a person has something to look forward to every day.  But what happens if someone, such as myself, breaks out of those daily things and never fully provides oneself (or myself for that matter) the means to fall back into that pattern?  Does daily life become cumbersome because of these incongruous days?

I honestly don’t know how to answer this question.  I felt it necessary to keep a blog entry for it to remind myself in the future.

Yes, that is the date that Renee and I have officially set for our wedding day.  It’s funny, the day it was set was the day I realized how much she and I have to actually do!  I mean, there’s a lot!  No wonder why women get stressed out over this stuff.

No fear though.  Renee so far has been very proactive about getting plans made to make this wedding go off without a hitch.  So far she has a dress and has (possibly) found dresses for her brides maids (I think that’s how you say it).  I, aside from outputting my opinion regarding items on the wedding, have been working on some other “techy” ideas that I have for this wedding.  The first is getting a website up and running for people to reference when they’re curious about the wedding.  Second, I have this awesome idea to use a computer to record little testimonials from people at the wedding.  It will be messages that people would really like to leave for the bride and groom.  The idea is to use a computer with a webcam and a click button to record and stop recording.  Once the little video is done recording, it’ll be put off into a queue for later DVD goodness…idk, maybe I could make a business out of it.

Other things Renee, she has a job finally in the NICU of Fairfax Hospital.  It’s a great position for a recent graduate of nursing school.  The only thing is, it doesn’t start until February of next year…oh well.

OH man, the beach vacation is just what I needed. This place is freaking awesome!

The drive basically started without issue until we hit the normal traffic.  Normal traffic, by Norfolk Virginia standards, is pretty freaking bad (at least until after you get past the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel). Once we got to the place I was just simply astounded at how nice and comfy everything is.  Plenty of amenities and oh such a view!  Check out the video link below…just a quick snapshot from my computer.

VA Beach Video

Other than the drive I had quite the experience drinking with friends here.  In fact, I may have consumed a little too much.  Let’s just say I lost a lot of fluid over the night and into the morning.  The second day…however…has been much better as I didn’t necessarily “partake”.  Also been taking some nice walks on the beach with Renee.

We have 2 days left here on the beach…so Renee and I are definitely going to use it to our advantage .

For the past few weekends I’ve been driving the 500 or so some odd miles up to Pittsburgh. Unfortunately it started to get to me as gas prices keep going up each time I decide to depart on the trip. It’s costing me almost $100 per round-trip…argh! One thing that does scare me about the cost of gas is…well…it’s reported to go up to $4.00 / gallon nearing the middle of summer!! *angry* On top of all that it’s hard for me to go one weekend without missing Renee.

Thus, this weekend I resolved to spend some time down here taking care of things around the apartment and spending some time with these neglected cats. It’s funny how one can tell when they’re happy…the race around the apartment like little racecars…race back for a good petting…and then they’re off on the rounds again. I’m also working on the apartment because next weekend starts vacation for Todd and family. I can’t wait!

Other updates…work is awesome. I’ve really been working hard on a bunch of projects. While some might argue that it’s fun to have nothing to do…I hate it. So at work my boss and I have been working on enhancements to our application and I’ve been pushing out into other areas of the company–lets just say I have plenty of stuff to do now.

I’m also joining a Search and Rescue group down here called Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group (link). They’re a pretty rough and tough group that routinely go out on searches around the East coast.  I for one am looking forward to it…in fact this weekend has also been about getting things together for a “Pack Check” they do.