The MVs honor Stack - 2 years later

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over two years since April 16th, 2007. It is also still hard to believe that it happened, and that our lives have continued despite such a tragic and horrific day. In spite of all of our sadness and hurt, so much good has been done in the name of all 32 Hokies, but especially in Stack’s name. This past weekend, the MV’s dedicated a home they built in Blacksburg in honor of him, for a local family with great need. Check out the story here: Stack's House It is amazing the love and drive that has led the MV’s to dedicate countless hours and thousands of dollars to remember a friend, and to honor the impact he had on all of our lives. Check out pictures of the building process: Construction Photos I am so proud of the MV’s, and so thankful to be a part of such an amazing organization.

A tradition of Excellence

Then, now, and always. Oh how good it is to be in the ACC! I spent a wonderful June afternoon enjoying the great company of my fellow ACC San Diego alumni at the fourth annual San Diego ACC Pig Pickin, featuring North Carolina pulled pork BBQ and the best hush puppies I have ever had. There is something special about enjoying fried food in healthy San Diego, where fried rarely appears on menus. I didn’t realize how many ACC alumni are living in San Diego, but there are a few thousand of us. Boston College and the University of Miami both boast over 800 alumni in the area, and the other alumni sites don’t list numbers, but I am always seeing cars with alumni stickers from those 12 fine universities. By the time I got to the picnic, the Hokie tables were full, but I was invited to sit with the University of Miami, which is quite fitting since we both joined the ACC the same year. Virginia Tech and the U have a special relationship, and Miami is near and dear to mine and James’ heart, as we have made many road trips to the U. The Miami alumni were very welcoming, and invited me and James to Canes (the SD bar where they watch their games) for the VT Miami game this year. They promised to be kind, and I promised to return the favor of kindness. I think we might take them up on it, as their bar is right on the beach, and has plenty of seating, where as Bubs is a few blocks from the water and you have to stand for the entire game. There was a golf tournament before the picnic, and we had a Hokie team in it. As they started to announce the winners, one of the Hokie team members became belligerent, saying the scores were rigged, and we should have gotten 5th place. It was hilarious, as he was going on and on about how Duke and UNC rigged the tournament and how just because we didn’t go to a preppy school didn’t mean we should be left of the rankings if there was a tie. The funniest part is that they had a girl on their team, and hadn’t figured out the handicap correctly, and came in first place! So…this year’s San Diego ACC golf championship goes to the Virginia Tech Hokies! :) Being around so many East Coast natives reminded me how much I miss that side of the country, but I know eventually we will return to cold winters, colorful falls, belligerent drunken football fans, and those beautiful mountains. Only 75 days until football!! Let the countdown begin! (This picture is from my Senior year, during Superman. It is now hanging in Dave's Office!)

“I have… I will… I will!”

Three years ago Angela and I got married on a beautiful summer day. Little did we know what the next few years would entail, but we confidently entered life together. Since then, we have lived apart nearly a third of the time, moved more than I care to remember, dropped out of school, graduated from school, and lived on a boat. Above you see the residences we have had since we wed, but not all of those were together! The point is we have had a busy three years, and can hardly believe it has gone by so fast. We have met many new people in all corners of the country. Though apart often, I am truly blessed with such a great wifey!

Everyday Conversation

Yesterday I was sitting on a rooftop patio at SDSU, where I retreat on my lunch breaks to do some reading and get a few minutes of sun and peace each day. It’s like an oasis, compared to the dark, cold, windowless office I occupy more than 40 hours a week. While I was sitting there yesterday, I got a chill and realized it wasn’t sunny. An older gentleman walked by me and asked me if it was supposed to rain. What an odd question, I thought! Someone in San Diego just asked me about the weather…for the first time in 11 months. I told him I hadn’t checked the weather, but it certainly looked and felt like rain. And then it occurred to me that I haven’t checked the weather more than 4 times since we’ve moved out here. And every time I have checked the weather, it’s because I was traveling somewhere and I needed to know what the weather was like on the other side of the country. But yesterday, I should have checked, because it rained for 3 minutes and there was thunder! I didn’t hear it, but it was all the talk in the office today. For the most part, every day here is about the same. It’s overcast in the morning, with a sea mist engulfing you. By 10:30, the mist has lifted and the sun is shining brightly. By noon, it’s nice and warm, and it stays warm until about 4:00, and then it starts to cool off, getting chilly in the evening. And that happens every single day…winter, spring, summer, fall.

Life Lessons

If there is one thing I've really learned over the past three years, it is take time to enjoy sunsets. You will most certainly feel God's presence, and see the world as it was made to be.

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives is by far my favorite show on Food Network. Guy goes all across the country tasting delicious food, in the most unexpected places. Since becoming addicted to the show, James and I are making an effort to visit as many of these restaurants as we can, all over the country, where ever we find ourselves. (And for us…you never really know where that will be!) One of our favorite restaurants in San Diego was featured on the show, and we have been taking our visitors to enjoy the awesomeness that is Hodad’s in Ocean Beach. Hodad’s specializes in burgers, fries, and onion rings, as well as sunsets on the beach. The walls are covered with license plates, and we are thinking about donating James VTOpie plate to be added to the wall, as we now have California plates. Only a few miles from James in Mississippi is another place featured on the show called the Blow Fly Inn, where each meal comes complete with a plastic fly. They recently reopened after the hurricane, and I am sure the locals are thrilled. The red beans and rice were phenomenal, and I haven’t had shrimp that good since we moved from Texas! I have been craving them for months, and can’t wait to go and visit James again for some awesome Cajun cooking! The show maintains a list of these restaurants all over the country, so I definitely encourage you to check them out. I can assure you, you will be pleasantly surprised!

Assalam Aleikum

Tomorrow will be my 6 month anniversary working at the Language Acquisition Resource Center at San Diego State University. It is amazing how quickly time has flown by, and how much I have learned in such a short period of time. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Arabic and Persian cultures before I began working at the center, nor did I know that much about foreign languages. Of course I took my high school language requirements, and worked towards a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages, but the actual languages themselves, I knew very little about. I am the only monolingual in my office, but am making it a goal of mine to work on my Spanish over the next few months. My brain has been resting after 18+ years of school, but I really need to get back into the classroom soon! So what exactly do I do? After six months, it is still difficult to put into words what I do, since I do a little bit of a lot of things. You can check out our website at larc.sdsu.edu I work mainly with the critical language program, helping coordinate classes in Pashto, Persian, Arabic, Iraqi, Russian, Turkish, and Chinese. I have spent my last few months working with Pashto and Iraqi, but as the summer approached, I began working with the ROTC language program, where the main focus is summer intensive language institutes. Thankfully, the institutes began last week, so I have been able to take a deep breath and relax for the first time in a few weeks. One of the perks of my job is I am able to experience many unique cultural events, especially food. Last Thursday, I attended a classical Persian concert, which introduced me to very unique percussion instruments. And on Friday I enjoyed a meal from Afghanistan, in a traditional setting. I spend most of time doing paperwork, running around campus for signatures, and making sure Marine’s are using their parking permits correctly, but I also get to enjoy the finer cultural events that make the endless paperwork worthwhile!

Oldies but Goodies!

James wrote this a few months ago, and I just realized we never put it on the blog. So, enjoy a few observations made by James when our friend James was visiting...in early February!

A few weeks ago we were enjoying a rare rainy day in Balboa Park with our friend Tall James who had come to visit when he kept commenting on the cherry blossoms blooming in early February and how odd that was (he lives in Washington DC). Upon closer inspection, the flowers were in fact dogwoods, the VA state tree and flower. They usually bloom out east sometime in late March/April timeframe, basically around Easter most years. This brings up an interesting point. San Diego, with slight temperature variations, does in fact have seasons. These are not the typical four seasons we learn of through pictures in grade school, but subtle differences that you have to pay attention to.

With most days being sunny, 60-80 degrees, you quickly stop paying attention to the weather. Angela had a conversation with a student who is from a few hours south of here in Baja California, where they get more typical seasons. He has observed that the seasons here are more names, like the dry season with Santa Anna winds, or the rainy season. I would not characterize these periods as "summer" or "winter", as the Santa Anna’s seem to mostly be in the fall. Recently we have had a few weeks of scattered rain showers. Nothing really special for those from other areas of the country, but people around here were quite excited. Particularly on the roads, where I don't believe people know how to turn their wind shield wipers on. I actually saw snow, on a recent clear day at work. I could see snow covered peaks in the east, as the coast gets rain, and at 4000+ feet, they get plenty of snow. Hopefully the area will get more needed rain as we are still in a 3 year drought, but I thought the subtle seasons are worthy of note when we live in an area famous for its pristine weather... though we realize that we miss regular seasons. I am having a hard time realizing how time is passing, as Valentine's Day is generally much cooler for us...