Disclaimer: I cannot take credit for what happens in Freeport

Whats so special about Freeport, you ask? Think about the best outlet shopping you have ever done in your life. It is not as good as Freeport. Freeport is an outlet TOWN. Abercrombie is in the old Library. There are your standard outlet malls on the edge of the village, but in the town itself, the street is lined with stores. Gap, Banana, the aforementioned Abercrombie, North Face, J Crew, you name it. But best of all, Coach. Which is bad. I like Coach. I buy too much of it when I go in there. I'm going back this weekend :)

The surprise went off without a hitch!

My trip to Virginia this weekend was wonderful.

It started out with a nice dinner followed my obnoxiousness to rival even the best night of Don and Charlie at Mo's. Molly, Patricia, and I went to the Murphy's in Old Town and knew parts to the sing alongs that even the guy playing had never heard before. We had guys buying us beers for no other reason than we were entertaining them. We met some fun people, had some beers, and I was constantly reminded why I missed those guys.

Saturday morning was the walk. Molly, her brother Colin, Patricia and I all went out for it, and we were right up to my Mom before she realized it was me. She obviously had no idea that I would be there, I didnt tell any of the family, so she was quite surprised, as was the rest of the family. It was really awesome to be able to do that, especially for Emily. There was an awesome turnout for the walk, it went really well.

We went out in DC Saturday night, then I took off Sunday morning. It was so great to see them, and I really did not want to come back.

On a slightly separate yet somehow related note, I was sitting in the airport in Boston waiting for my connection yesterday, and there was this super hot guy sitting about 7 chairs down from me. I had noticed him when I came into the gate area, but of course didnt talk to him. Well, about 10 minutes after I got there he got up to go to the Dunkin Donuts next to the gate and hes walking away from it this little kid runs up to him and starts talking to him. Im thinking OK, he must be some sort of pro athlete or something (he looked the part) but I still had no idea who he might be. He went and sat across the gate area way in the back, putting his finger to his mouth like he was telling the kid to stay quiet, not to blow his cover or whatever. Then when he was boarding his plane these 2 ladies came up to him asking for autographs, which made me even more curious. The little kid was on my flight, so as we were in line to board I asked him who that guy was. Turns out his name is Matt Hardy, and he was part of the Hardy Boys, some sort of team WWE act. Quite well known to those who are into wrestling. The moral of that story is: If you see a hot guy in the airport, TALK TO HIM!! He may well be that rich, famous pro athlete you've been waiting for!

Blast From the Not So Distant Past

I was cleaning out my Hotmail inbox earlier, and somehow all the emails that I got from Joe the first time he was in Iraq in 2003 ended up in there. Talk about things I really didnt need to see right now... It was kinda wierd. Made me reminisce a little, and there was a little twinge of the heart action (cheezy I know, but not really sure how else to describe it) but I didnt miss him. I deleted them all. I read three- the first one I got, when I found out he was gone, the first one I got from his ship email a couple days later, and the one he started to write and then realized I was on my way to meet him on the flight line as he was coming home so stopped but still hit send. It was refreshing to realize that while I still have some fond memories of him, I didn't cry reading those emails. In fact, I didn't come close. Im coming closer now writing about it, but only to the point where there's a mini lump in my throat. I think thats quite an accomplishment- 2 months ago Im pretty sure I would have lost it and wanted to call him or email him or something. Not happening :)

That darn elusive little E

Is finally MINE!! I have spent the past 2 years at my last command trying to get a ribbon shoot, and, now that I moved to a new command I finally got a chance to shoot again. And I shot expert. Twice. Im very proud of myself. Now its off to buy the little E and the medal :)

Meet Paco.

He's my new guitar.

I have been saying for months (years?) that I was going to buy a guitar and teach myself to play. Finally, this weekend, I did. Its an Ibanez acoustic (hence the name Paco, it kinda fit), fairly simple, supposedly a good starter guitar, and I bought a beginner book and the learning has commenced. I figure it will keep me from spending too much money and going out drinking too much, and will give me something to do when its rainy and gross out here as it has been pretty much daily since I got here... Im excited about it though. What I really want is to be able to play at an open mic night by the end of the summer. Just one song, thats it, so I have lots to work on.

Speaking of music, got to go see my friend Jim's band, Plaid Daddy, in Portland this weekend. I hadnt seen Jim in over 2 years, and last time I saw him he had a totally different band than he has now, but they sounded awesome, and he still did basically the same set with some newer stuff thrown in. It was a blast, met some cool people, and the bar it was in was awesome- sort of an older version of Keagan's. The whole place is made out of remnants of three bars from Ireland, they shipped the peices over and reconstructed it. Its been there for a while, and has the whole range of beers on tap (Guinness, Murphy's, Smithwick's, NEWCASTLE!!!, Boddington's, Stella, you name it...). Too bad its 40 minutes away... The second best part of my evening was definitely the Newcastle- I hadnt had one since Keagans- but it was beat out by the fact that Jim told me that the last song he wrote for his new CD thats supposed to be out by the end of the summer is called Rebecca and the Thief, and that he doesnt know any other Rebeccas besides me so I must have inspired the name of the song. Not so sure about the whole thief thing, but its still pretty awesome :) I havent heard the song yet though, looking forward to it!

Now if it would just stop raining....

USA Today Article on Emily

In today's USA Today there is a special ad section on the Arthritis Foundation. Inside is an article about my 13 year old sister Emily. (If you click on the link to my Walk Page on the left, youll learn more.) Its not online, but if it comes up Ill put it up here!

Little things

How do they expect you to stay in your lane while youre driving when there are no lines on the street? It may sound silly, but thats how it is up here. You cant tell where lanes start and end, and even the lines in the middle of the street are hard to see. And, on top of that, when it rains, it always makes it hard to see the lines on the street, and it has done nothing but rain since Ive been here....

Its those little things that get me...

The Brunch Report

I actually managed to get myself up this morning and go to mass, and then went and checked out the brunch at the brewery down the road. While it wasn't quite the same without the visits from Wayne while Im eating, I must say it was pretty good, as was the make your own Bloody Mary bar. I think Ill be going there again...