Washington DC (the good, the bad, and the ugly)

I've been having issues posting this blog. First, I couldn't get the darn program to upload my images. A post about Washington DC wouldn't be very good unless there was pictures. Second, our Internet hasn't been cooperating lately, which also makes posting challenging. But here I am, trying to give all our readers something to enjoy.

You will notice there is a subtitle to this blog: the good, the bad, and the ugly. That's how I will break down this post and by the end you'll know why.

The Good
I went to DC for the National Chiropractic Legislative Conference (NCLC) with the Students of the American Chiropractic Association (SACA). I joined SACA when I began school and knew all along they would be attending the NCLC this year. It is something they do every year and it is a really amazing experience. Every term leading up to NCLC is spent fundraising for the trip. It's an expensive endeavor, however, we were able to earn enough cash to get 25 students to DC and each only had to pay $150. That's a pretty sweet deal for round trip flights and 4 nights in the Capital Double Tree.

Anyway, while in DC we had meetings with leaders of the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and a few leaders from capital hill. Then we spent hours in the offices of our respective Senators and Congressmen. Many of them weren't in their offices so we spoke to their assistance. Most of our visits were spent talking about the National Health Care Reform and how chiropractic should be a part of it. We talked about allowing patients to be able to choose whether they wanted to attend a chiropractor as part of their individual health care. We also spent time talking about veterans of the military, especially how most of their complains are centered around low back pain. Chiropractic needs to be a more important part of their care as well. Most of the people we talked to were on board with what we were pushing and even had many chiropractic experiences of their own. It was awesome to hear feedback that was so pro chiropractic.

While not lobbying on the hill it was sight seeing time. I posted a few pictures of the places I visited. I forgot my camera the first time I went out and so I had a girl for my class take some pictures. She was supposed to email me them but she never did, so you'll have to do with the ones I have. Let's just say, Washington DC was Good!

The Bad

While in DC you can either walk, get a taxi, or ride the metro. Taxis can get expensive and the metro only goes to certain stops so you are walking a lot. I don't mind walking to see the sites. My best friend and I walked everywhere in Europe; it's just what you have to do. This time was a bit different and I'll tell you why. I have been trying to get into better shape, and in so doing, I have been attending the gym with one of my classmates. I left for DC Tuesday night and had done a crazy calf and leg work out the day before. I have a tendency to get really sore two days following a workout of a muscle group that hasn't been worked in a while. Let's just say this was no exception. Let me also say, I have never felt this kind of muscle soreness in my entire life. On Wednesday my left calf felt is was in a constant contraction or a never ending cramp. It didn't matter what I did, I could not stretch it out. We were in meetings all day so I didn't have to walk too much except for the morning. Sitting in meetings you would think would be nice because I wouldn't be on my feet. Not exactly! For some reason everyone decided to give every speaker a standing ovation when they came up to speak...AND...when they were finished speaking. Are you serious? (That's what I should have titled this post.) Every time I stood up it would stretch the calf and become excruciatingly painful. By the time it got to the 5th speaker or so I stayed seated and tried to hide behind the wall of standing students clapping away so I wouldn't show any disrespect. Thursday was another story...a worse story. It was lobbying day which meant walking back and forth from the building where the Senators are to the buildings where all the Congressman are. And I should add this is no small distance, more so when you have a leg that doesn't want to work properly. Let's just say, it was Bad!

The Ugly

Getting home from DC was not good or bad. It's funny how weather in one part of the country can totally effect the flights in a whole different part of the country. I was flying back to Portland through JFK in New York. Sunday morning it starting snowing like the dickens not in DC, not in New York, but in Atlanta of all places. I thought Atlanta was warm year round...apparently not. I flew out of DC at about 3 pm Eastern time and was to be home at 10 pm Pacific time. I got to JFK with no problems. 20 minutes before we were to board our flight to Portland an announcement came saying our flight crew for that flight was stuck in Atlanta. Again, are you serious? Our flight would be delayed 2 hours.

Two hours later, again when we were about to board the snow started in New York. Oh yeah, are you serious? It seemed we had our crew so they were going to board anyway. Then began the real hell. The boarding took so long and the snow was coming so hard that the plane had to be de-iced before taking off. So we proceeded to the de-icing station. And we waited. Then, a Jet Blue plane in line in front of us had it's steering apparatus freeze up so it couldn't go forward and planes already can't go backwards. So a maintenance crew had to come out and solve that problem. And we waited. Finally, after 2 hours of waiting to get de-iced it was finally our turn and after another 40 minutes or so we were taxiing and eventually in the air. The flight was pretty uneventful but we were not scheduled to get into Portland until 3 am...well after our initial 10 pm arrival.

All while this was occurring T was at home constantly receiving updates from me about when I was to arrive and when to pick me up. Not only was that happening but she was also coming down with something. By the time I got in she had a full blown case of stomach flu. Holy crap, are you serious? When she got in the car, to come pick me up, she had to stop short and throw up right outside the car door. And as soon as we got home again she had to go straight to the toilet and spew again. Let's just say, that night was Ugly!

So there's the story hope it was as entertaining for you as it was eventful for us.

Izzy's Pizza...

...plus a whole lot more!

We've had a running joke in our family that anytime you say anything about Izzy's you have to say, "Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more." It was their slogan during their commercials. For those readers who have no idea what I'm talking about, Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more is a pizza buffet restaurant in the Northwest. It seemed to be much more popular when I was a kid but now seems to have lost it's flavor (no pun intended) over the years. Since moving back to Oregon I have been craving Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more. We used to go there as a family and we have great stories about the place. For example, they have a deal that if a child is under the age of 12 then the price is some odd cents per year of age. One time when my dad was paying the bill, the cashier asked if my older sister was under the age of 12. We all looked strangely at each other because she was in fact 18 years of age. I'm pretty sure she still holds a grudge against that cashier.

Anywho, the reason for this post is because T and finally succumbed to my craving for Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more. We went last night and as soon as we stepped in the phrase "plus a whole lot more" gained a whole new meaning. I'm going to make a modest estimate in saying 85% of the people would have been considered obese. I'll say, "plus a whole lot more!" Now, I don't mean to be rude or make fun of anyone who eats at Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more, but I call it how it is. Sometimes I wonder how buffets stay in business.

Let's just say, I wasn't as impressed as I was when I was younger so I think I'll stay away from Izzy's Pizza plus a whole lot more...and also hit the treadmill a little more often.

(PS. stay tuned for a post about my trip to Washington DC. I tried to write it now but I'm having difficulties uploading images.)

Griffey Is Coming Home

I love baseball, always have, always will. I love everything about it. I love the strategy, the challenge, watching it, playing it, and talking about it. Baseball is the first sport I ever played and the sport I played the longest. I have more memories from my days playing baseball than I can count. I no longer play but any chance I get, I play softball. Still to this day I cherish the baseball glove my dad gave me when I was younger. There is nothing more nostalgic to me than the smell of my baseball glove. People often marvel at how nice I have kept my glove and how well it is formed.

My favorite professional baseball team is the Seattle Mariners; is has been for as long as I can remember. I went to my first Mariner game on August 31st, 1994, my 12th birthday. It will forever be one of the greatest days of my life. Since that first game I have almost been to at least one game every year since. Though the glory days in Seattle are well passed I have never wavered in my support and love for the team. A few example of my love include but are not limited to: Plastering one whole wall in my bedroom with Mariner paraphernalia. This does not just mean posters, it means everything that had the Seattle Mariner logo went up on the wall. No matter if it could be hung or not, I found a way. This meant: posters, baseball cards, miniature bats, movies, cereal boxes, old shirts, banners, pictures, and even a shot glass. I also spent hours clipping out every newspaper article containing Mariner info and gluing it in a spiral notebook for a whole season. You can say I was

obsessed.

Since I was a huge Mariner's fan, it was natural for Ken Griffey Jr. to become my favorite player. He had been in the league for 5 years when I had gone to my first game. He was amazing; he could hit, seal bases, and make outstanding catches in center field. His popularity grew all around the game of baseball and because his father, Ken Griffey Sr. was still in the league, Jr. was given the nickname "The Kid". I would write "The Kid" on the underside of the bill of all my hats while I was playing.

When Griffey was traded to the Cincinnati Reds I was devastated. What was Seattle without Jr. He had basically cemented his name into the Baseball Hall of Fame and he wasn't even half way through his career. While with the Reds I still followed his play though he was plagued with injury the majority of the time. Because of his injuries his stats are nowhere near what they could be if he was healthy the whole time. Above all, he would be in contention for the all-time home run list, in which Barry "Steroid" Bonds holds the current record.

Last year, Jr. was traded to the Chicago White Sox halfway through the season. Still I would look up hit stats everyday. At the end of last years season I attentively tuned in to any news regarding Griffey as I knew he would be a free agent. Could it be possible for Griffey to ever come back to Seattle and finish his career?...probably not. Then the news leaked that the Mariners had been in contact with Griffey to bring him back. My excitement grew! Then more news leaked that the Atlanta Braves were heading the way in bringing Jr. to their program. Everything seemed to point to his signing with the Braves because it was close to his home and close to where his daughter was going to college. My hopes slipped as I thought it was a done deal. Than I got a text message from my sister saying he had signed with the M's. I replied saying no, he was set to go to Atlanta. She followed up by saying she had just seen it on Sports Center. I instantly ran to my computer and frantically open every sporting web site I could think of to get confirmation. Sure enough it was true, Ken Griffey Jr., my long time favorite player was coming home, back to Safeco field in which everyone calls "The House that Griffey Built." I'm not going to lie, I got a bit emotional knowing I would be just a few hours away from seeing my childhood hero play again. I don't really care if the Mariners come in last place like last year, this will probably be my favorite year to follow the Seattle Mariners and, according to me, one of the greatest players to ever play the game. Plus, I still have a baseball with Griffey's picture on it that I have tried to get signed for years...maybe this will be the year.

And, I still have a very large bin filled with all of my Mariner stuff...maybe it will have to be re-hung in preparation for what may be Griffey's last year.

Twilight

So a couple of nights ago a couple of my friends and I went to see Twilight. Yes, I did read all four books and no, I did not love them. However, I did finish them just to see what all the hype was about. I know you are all thinking I am crazy for not falling absolutely in love with the them, but I just didn't go for the whole fake vampire love story theme. Although I didn't love the books, I absoulutely loved the movie. I got so into it and I am so excited for the second one to come out. So if you did not read the books you should go see the movie and if you did read the books and did not like them, you should still go see the movie.

Ahhh, Now I Know I'm Home

I posted a blog last year when T and I had to register our sweet '97 Ford Contour in Idaho. I mentioned putting the Idaho plates on the car was one of the most depressing events of my life. No offense to all of my Idahoan friends, but there's a Oregon pride thing going on. Oregonians are right up there with Texans when it comes to pride for their stomping ground. Lately, I had the car registered back in Oregon and today I put the new plates on (the ones with the Douglas Fir tree). It finally feels like I'm home and things are back to normal again. Sorry Idaho!

What The Heck Have You Been Up To?

How come you never blog? How come it's like a month between each of your posts? What's the point of having a blog if you never post? How is everyone supposed to know what you're up to if you never write?

To all the followers of this blog I know what's going through your head. I can't stand it when people take forever to blog either but sometimes you just get busy.

We've had a crazy month. With Christmas, family visiting, having all finals from the Fall quarter canceled until the beginning of this current quarter, and a whole mess of trying to get crap accomplished I just haven't had the time to blog. I was just telling T today that it feels like the only thing I do when I'm at the apartment is sleep.

So here I go...

The Holidays

The break wasn't a break at all, really. Though it was fun and eventful I think I put over 1500 mile on the cars in two weeks and never left the Portland metro area. It's crazy that such a task is possible since almost a whole week was spent without leaving the apartment due to the blanket (or six blankets) of snow we had. We spent Christmas Eve with T's sister and her family. Then woke up Christmas day and watched her kids open presents. Then we headed to my Grandmas house and had dinner with her and her husband. She isn't in the best of health right now and it's pretty sad. She has always been a wonderful grandma and I have great memories of visiting her when I was little. I love you Grandma.

New Years eve we spent at some friends of my sister and we pretty much ate or brains out and played Rock Band until the cows came home. No joke, I think we played for about 8 hours straight. At any rate, I know we played until 3 in the morning. Wow!

Back to School

Because most of my finals got postponed I had to take them the second week of school. I did well. In fact, the only B I got on a test all quarter came on my last biochem test. Luckily, it didn't keep me from get an A in the class. So, I am proud to announce that for the first time ever I got a 4.0 GPA in a term. I don't mean to brag but I have always had a goal to get straight A's in a term and I was finally able to pull one out, and in grad school of all places. We'll see if I can do it again.

Best Wife on the Planet

I know most people know how awesome my wife is but I don't know if you really know how awesome my wife is. When it comes to letting me buy things she is always more willing to give in then I am for her. To be honest, I rarely give in to letting her buy anything...but I'm working on it because she gives in for me. Speaking of...

I have been getting more involved with golf and have been wanting to get a new set of clubs for some time now. I have had my eye on the new Nike Victory Reds, yep, the same sticks Tiger Woods now has in his bag. I, of course, wanted the full cavity irons unlike the blades Tiger plays. They are more forgiving then his. When T's sister's husband got a job with Nike the possibility opened up for me to maybe get some new clubs at a Nike employee price, which is about half off. So the wheeling and dealing began. I asked T if I could could get new clubs as a graduation gift from chiropractic school. She was pretty quick to agree. I then asked her if I could get an early graduation gift. She was not as quick to agree but eventually did. Also, through Nike I not only could get employing pricing but Nike offers a custom fitting at a local golf course. Last weekend I spent 2 and a half hours with a golf pro fitting some clubs. On Friday they finally came.

The full set: SQ Sumo woods, Victory Red Full Cavity Irons,

and Nike Tiempo blade putter

Nike SQ Sumo 5900 driver, SQ Sumo 3 wood, and SQ Sumo 3 hybrid

Victory Red Full Cavity Irons, Gap wedge-4 iron. Aren't they pretty?

I went golfing that afternoon and realized I'm the same old crap golfer with a very expensive set of clubs. I now need some lessons and more hours on the course to improve my game.

Not only is T the greatest wife ever for letting me get new golf clubs but she has been willing to try some of my hobbies as a way for us to do more things together. I tried picking up her hobbies but running a million miles a day isn't my kind of fun. So T came up to the mountain with me this weekend and tried her skills out at snowboarding. She was a typical beginner for about the first minute and then she was picking it up rapidly. Anyone who has snowboarded will never forget their first time. It's rough, tiring, cold, hot, frustrating, scary, annoying, and painful all at the same time. And the morning after is much worse. You'll be lucky to get out of bed the day after you try snowboarding the first time. Ahhh, not T! She was a champ. Yes, many of the above characteristics of a first time snowboarder occurred but she was still amazingly good for a newcomer. And the morning pain thing I described...a sore tailbone was her only complaint. I'm so proud of her and am super excited, because if T likes snowboarding enough, that means I get to go more. Now that's worth spending a few bucks on.

T ready to tackle the mountain

Are You Freaking Kidding Me?

This is the same as an "Are you serious?" blog but I am so struck by how much Oregonians over react when it comes to snow that I had to show my true reaction by a slightly different title.

I wanted to post a news video but I couldn't find one that was good enough. So, I'll have to explain what's going on.

The Oregon weather peeps have been predicting this "Arctic Blast," they call it, for about the last week or so. It was the leading story at every hour no matter what else happened in the news. It was an even bigger story than a bombing at a bank that killed two cops and critically injured another. Are you serious?...the weather is more important than the killing of two officers of the law by a bomb? Something is seriously wrong with that. Then again, it is Oregon and people here think when it snows in the valley all hell has broken loose...and let me tell you, after it snows here, all hell really has broken loose (or frozen over, whichever one you feel fit the situation).

The storm was said to hit sometime Sunday morning. T and I were assigned to give talks in church this particular Sunday and I was tempted, when given the assignment, to ask for a rain check because I knew it was finals week starting the Monday following and I knew preparing a talk would take away from vital studying time. I decided to accept the assignment putting my faith in the good Lord above that I would be blessed by my willingness to serve...maybe blessed with a few A's on exams. So T and I prepared and we showed up to church early ready to speak. The Bishop announced the proceedings of the meeting but strangely only announced up to the first speaker, which was a young lady in the ward. She gave a very fine 5 minute talk and sat down after which the Bishop stood back up and said the snow was picking up and he was going to error on the side of caution and cancel the rest of church. Now, we've lived in Idaho for the last five years and we've had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with a considerable amount of snow. We saw a few inches in Portland while in Idaho we often measure snow fall in feet. Never in my life have I ever seen church canceled. For all our Utah and Idaho readers, can you imagine if church was canceled because of snow? You wouldn't go to church for 6 mouths out of the year or more.

Oh, and as I was walking out of the chapel a fellow stopped me and said, "I don't know how many times I've prayed to have church canceled when I had to give a talk and it happened to you."

It's Tuesday night now. School was canceled yesterday, we had class today, another storm (can I even bring myself to call it a storm), another flurry is said to blow over us early tomorrow and I just received confirmation that school is now canceled for tomorrow. This is absolutely ridiculous. A few inches of snow falls, a little ice forms and mayhem breaks out in the Portland metropolitan area. Tons of snow could have fallen and thick ice could have built on the roadways in Idaho and business as usual.

Though Idaho schools do get out for Potato Harvest...that's another one I don't understand.