I'm a lucky man

I spent the Christmas holiday with my Dad's side of the family in Philadelphia. This consisted of me, Dad, Uncle John, Aunt Shelley, and my cousins Jake and Bill.  I'll be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this visit.  My uncle is the bully of the family and makes everyone uncomfortable with his comments and behavior.  Of course, he was no different during this visit.  

I have to say that I feel sorriest for my Aunt Shelley.  When it is just her and I, she is so much fun.  She gets my sense of humor and we have a good time.  But with John she is miserable and the thing is, she's his second wife!  John's first wife left him in a nasty divorce with my three cousins getting caught in the middle.  

The reason I consider myself a lucky man is I consider myself one of the two normal members of that side of the family (the other being my brother).  Matt and I have been together for 13 years now and the thing I love most is we still make each other laugh.  It can be over the silliest of things, but the laughter is still there.  

My family sees success as finishing your education, having a successful career, etc.  For me, my success is simply being happy.  My three cousins are successful, but I don't see them as happy.  None of them has had a seriously relationship (and I attribute that fact to how much their father screwed them up) and they are all older than I am.  

The Hawaii Trip

The weather outside is truly frightful tonight.  It's currently -3° and it's predicted to be -15° tomorrow night.  So this would be the perfect time to recall our trip to Hawaii.  

Matt and I had been planning this trip since we found out the ISU women's team had committed to play in the University of Hawaii's tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I was able to use part of my remaining Jeopardy! money to cover the cost.  It was great not having to charge any of the travel costs and relaxing to know that the trip was paid for 7 months in advance!

Traveling to Oahu wasn't the adventure we were expecting it to be.  For once our flights were on-time and relatively trouble free.  I spent the money and bought exit row seats for the flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu.  Having the extra leg room was well worth the cost. Once we arrived in Hawaii we received the traditional Lei greeting (another expense worth the money) and my skin started tingling just from the humidity soaking in.  We were greeted to a rainbow as we left the airport on our ride to the hotel.

Our hotel, the Princess Kaiulani, 

was AMAZING! The hotel is next door to the International Marketplace and across the street from the Moana Surfrider, the team's hotel and the oldest hotel on Waikiki Beach (built in 1901).  What really surprised me about most of the hotels in Honolulu was that the lobbies were open air.  I'm sure they have ways of sealing off the lobbies in case of hurricanes or bad storms, but you can pretty much come and go as you please.  

On our second day there we took a tour of the island.  We were taken with the natural beauty of Oahu.  From the coast to the inland, there is no shortage of things to see.  On the windward side of the island, the mountain has been eroded so much over the centuries that it looks like someone has taken a giant fork and just carved huge gouges.  

On Thanksgiving Day we hiked up Diamond Head. 

The hike was a challenge but it was worth it. The view from the crater rim was incredible. Something that struck me about Hawaii was for how "touristy" the state is, that the majority of things to do are physical.  Whether it's the beach, hiking, etc., you can choose to do as little or as much as you want to, but it's very easy to stay active.  For as well as we ate out there (and we did eat well) I didn't gain any weight because we were always doing things.

Another of my favorite moments was heading to the beach on Thanksgiving Day.  How great is it that you can be on the beach before going to eat Turkey and the fixins.  It was the first time in a long time that I had been shirtless in front of a lot of people and while I was self conscious, I wasn't embarrassed.  The working out and eating better had paid off and while I still have a long way to go, I loved the progress that I had made. :-)

Thinking Warm Thoughts

So later on tonight, I'm going to be reminiscing about our trip over the Thanksgiving Holiday to Hawaii.  It's snowing outside right now, so I'm going to post a warm photo put my mind in a happy place.  Plus it's one of the best photos of me ever taken sans shirt.  The young lady in the photo with me is my good friend Amanda.

Has it been over a month?

Hard to believe how much time has flown since my last post.  I'd like to say I've been incredibly busy and haven't had time to post, but that's only partially true.  Mostly it's been trying to figure out what I want to say.

For Thanksgiving Matt and I went to Hawaii to see the Iowa State women's basketball team play in the Rainbow Wahine Tournament.  We had an amazing time that I'll blog about this weekend. I promise.  What I am going to write about is gay marriage in Iowa. 

Today the Iowa Supreme Court hear arguments in the case of Varnum v. Brien. The verdict in the original case was for the plaintiffs and allowed same-sex couples in Iowa to legally marry. The judge in the case put a stay on his ruling until the case could be heard by the Iowa Supreme Court.  

The ruling could go either way.  If the judges uphold the verdict, Iowa would become the only state in the midwest to allow same-sex marriage. It would be difficult, but not impossible, for an amendment to be added to the state constitution.  That would require the state legislature to approve the amendment for two consecutive terms and then a state vote. With the Democrats in control of the Iowa legislature, it would be tricky for an amendment to be passed.  But with Governor Culver, you can never be too sure.  I don't trust that man.

But with the possibility of marriage to Matt being so close, it does bring out the romantic in me.  We've both decided that we will have a simple civil ceremony with just family and very close friends.  The reception on the other had will have everyone invited.  Matt will be in charge of the music (of course) and my main responsibility will be the cake.  I kinda live for cake at a wedding.  Hell, it's the only reason I go to most weddings. 

I've been trying to come up with ideas for our first dance.  Right now I'm leaning towards "At Last" by Etta James, but that could change tomorrow.  I just want that one moment of Matt and I dancing together in each other's arms.

Election Day

This morning I turned on "Good Morning America", as I always do before heading off to school, and the thought just hits me "Oh god, this is it.  Today is THE day."  Being an Iowan, I've been one of the chosen few who have been inundated with political candidates, ads, slogans, yardsigns, etc. for the past two years.  It's been a long road and now we are at the finish line.

While Robin and Diane were chatting away about Obama and McCain's final hours of campaigning, I started to tear-up (I am so the bride).  I guess what started to get to me was that we are so close to having a president that I can be proud of.  I'm a Democrat and proud of it. The thought of McCain being president makes my stomach turn, but in all probability that won't happen.  Not that I'm counting the chickens too early, I'm still nervous as hell before the returns actually are counted and verified.  But just to be this close and see the end in sight is such a relief.  The finish line is only hours away.

Time to Commit

I had my final training session with Nate tonight.  We discussed what I plan to do now that I've finished with my formal sessions.  For the time I spent with the personal training staff, I do feel like I've made a lot of progress (I'll find out how much when I have my exit evaluation next week).  But I explained to Nate that it's time for me to fly solo for a while.  I feel like if I'm going to be successful at losing weight then I have to prove that I can do it on my own.

For me to be successful, I have to motivate myself to get to the gym and workout.  I know where I want to get to (180 lbs and 15% bf) and I have the road map to get there.  I simply have to put the key in the ignition and drive.  Plus as I've said before, the scenery along the drive is worth taking in (good lord it was like a buffet tonight!).

Mad Men Madness

Tonight was the season finale of my favorite show - Mad Men (the show that everyone is talking about, yet very few people watch).  For those who have seen the show, they fall into one of two categories - those who LOVE it and those who HATE it.  The one criticism that I've heard from those who don't like the show is that it moves too slowly, and the funny thing is, that's what I love about it.

My brother Mike once said that a good television show is like a great book - at the end of each chapter of a great book you want to get to the next chapter.  Mad Men unfolds slowly and in subtle layers. This is the type of show where you not only have to pay attention to the dialogue, but also to the facial expressions and body language of the characters.

This is one of the few shows that I have ever watched where the characters are, for lack of a better term, real people.  Last week a character was raped by her own fiance and I was devastated.  The last time I could remember getting that choked up over a TV show was when Kevin and Scotty got married on "Brothers & Sisters".  And that was a happy event!

I'm anxiously looking forward to watching the second season again knowing how it ends. I'll be able to look for the little things that have such large ramifications in the end. Mad Men is a great book that I will enjoy reading over and over and over.  Not to mention the joys of seeing Jon Hamm, Rich Sommer and Aaron Staton.

Now I just have to wait three months until Battlestar Galactica's final season.  FRAK!