The begining of something special...

Instead of writing at length about this big event in my life, I will just let the photos do all of the talking.



On May 21, 2011, Emily and I celebrated our Marriage at St. Catherines of Sienna in Mendon.
(This coincidentally was also the date of "The Rapture"... which made for plenty of good jokes.)

My beautiful bride.

Us on the altar.

The wedding party at Honeoye Falls.

What a stunning dress!

A kiss shared at the falls.

An adoring look into each others eyes.

Behave now!

At the covered walkway at Nazareth College.

Time to PARTY!

The wedding reception held at The Burgundy Basin had wine themed favors and decorations. After all, we did get engaged while traveling around Keuka Lake on a wine tasting weekend trip.

Stemless wine glasses as favors.

The COOLEST nerdiest cake in the world incorporating our love of both mathematics and chemistry.

Look familiar? ;-)

Happy Labor Day Weekend.

Labor day weekend 2010 was spent ironically doing just that... laboring! For some odd reason I felt the desire to clean, organize and de-clutter much of the apartment. To pile some more work into my weekend, I had the opportunity to play with a new toy that Emily bought me, a canning starter kit.

Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty lame but when Emily and I went to the Rochester Public Market (recently awarded title of "Best Market in the Nation"), I had this crazy idea that I could take some if this fresh inexpensive produce and preserve it for future enjoyment during the winter. I watched my father and grandparents do this... how hard could it be? Surprisingly, not that difficult at all.

Basically: 1) Cut up stuff, 2) Cook stuff, 3) Put stuff in jars, 4) process in boiling water
DONE!

I made a pretty kick-ass salsa, a marinara sauce (which turned out OK) and just today got even more fresh tomatoes and jars from my dad. I'll keep seeing what I can whip up with this new found skill!

It was not all work this weekend though. Just today Emily and I traveled out to Buffalo to celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday. Yesterday we attended a welcome back party for a friend of ours who recently returned from the Peace Corps. And of course, most importantly, I drafted my fantasy football team on Saturday night. Let the fun begin!

I also fit in an 8 mile run this morning... Rochester Half Marathon in less than a week.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010 Recap

Started off the weekend with an evening walk around the Erie Canal to enjoy the sun set.

We continued with a lot of good food and wine.

Lots of visiting with family and friends and their several dogs. All together a total of 5 were at the house.

Jon finally came out of hiding after a couple of months!

And of course... our new nephew Tyler was making the rounds, mostly in Emily's arms.

Rug pulled from under my feet...

There have been a few times in my life where something happens and it feels as if the rug has just been violently ripped out from under my feet. Something so great as to shake the very core of my being and force me to rethink the way I approach the world around me. Recently, I have had several personal experiences that have met those criteria.

The death of a young man named Peter Cannon was a major story in the news around the greater Rochester region over the past month or so. Peter was 18 years old and lost his life in a car accident while on his way to go cross country skiing (one of his favorite activities). Peter is Emily’s brother… he would have been my brother-in-law. This tragedy has cast a dark dark cloud over the family in the past month or so.

The outpouring of sympathy and support for Emily and her family has been unlike anything I have seen. The experience of seeing Emily’s parents stand by their 18 year old son’s bedside to the very last minute of his life is a heartbreaking that I wish no one should ever have to witness or live through.

So what happens next? How do you rationalize this? I lost my Grandfather in the middle of last summer, but that had a completely different feel to it. It was tragic, but deep down; we all know that we will eventually lose our grandparents (we just don’t like to think about it). But you are not supposed to lose the younger members of your family. Right? This experience is one big slap in the face for me to wake up and cherish the times with the people that you never expect to lose.

Peter was very active with volunteering in the community and helping others out. Perhaps this can be rationalized by noting that now there will be a scholarship set up in his honor that will help many students pay for college. Some of Peter’s organs were also donated allowing for the lives of others to be saved. Maybe it is like a Mitch Abom - “5 People You Meet in Heaven” story where one day we’ll learn that one of those people that was saved went on to cure cancer or something. It is a warm fuzzy thought, but a painfully difficult story to live.

So I am left with the “rug pulled from under me” feeling. No answers or rational explanation. No clear idea of what to do next. Anger and confusion dominate. No scientist like me likes to be in a situation without answers and a rational understanding. I fear I will never have these answers despite a lifetime of searching.

No one should ever have to experience these things.

The good, the bad and the ugly of 2009.

2009 was a year that was both filled with very happy yet some very sad events. There were many firsts. I have not made a habit of sharing enough of the personal events going on in my life, so this may be a good time to catch up. I will try to spend a bit more time writing about such things. (Call it a New Years resolution.)

Let's recap:

1. Engagements! Some big firsts in our family. First, the engagement of my younger brother, Jeremy, to his girlfriend Ellen. That happened in February. They are set to get married on July 24, 2010. Then who could forget... my engagement to my long time college sweetheart, the love of my life, Emily! :-) Read the full story here. We eventually decided upon May 21, 2011 for our wedding. This way we allow our parents to regain some sanity between weddings!
2. A very sad first for me. I had my first experience with the loss of a grandparent. On July 6th, my grandfather (Jon) passed away. This was after a sudden cardiac arrest after which he held on for 13 days. This is pretty unheard of considering that about 90% of patients who experience this don't even make it to the hospital alive. Sitting through the meetings with the doctors slowly coming to the realization that you are about to loose a loved one, having to disseminate that info to your family, helping carry the casket down the aisle of the church... all things that were much more difficult than I could have ever imagined.
   
3. In April, I marked my first full year with my first real job as a chemist. I have been with Kelly Scientific ever since graduating from RIT. Future outlook looks good.
   
4. To add insult to injury, about 2 weeks after the death of my grandfather, my father lost his job of 19 years with Calspan...
5. ...about a week or two before Christmas, dad got a job! He's a mechanic in an ice cream factory helping to maintain the machinery used to make ice cream. Pretty neat! He was out of work for 6 months but starts again in January of 2010.
6. For the second year in a row, our family went on vacation for a week in the Thousand Islands. A nice break for my parents given the loss of grandpa and my father's job.
7. On that vacation... Emily got the wonderful news that she got a job! A long term substitute teaching job for a year.
   
8. Mom had shoulder surgery... then a nasty sinus infection... then pleurisy... then another cold/sinus infection... then the wrong prescription... then... well, you get the picture. Just one to many health problems. No fun for her.
9. Just a couple weeks before Christmas, our family dog Baily, had to be put to sleep. A pretty difficult thing to do since she was home to provide companionship to my mother while she recovered from surgery and my father while he was out of work.

Lots of these things were pretty difficult firsts... so I am glad to put 2009 behind me and start fresh with 2010.

A moment of thanks.

So the last time I talked to you I decided that this blog was going on a diet. Since then I have not posted anything! There's no point in redirecting the subject matter of my blog if I don't continue to write.

I'll start off with bringing up that Thanksgiving has come and gone yet I made no mention of what I am thankful of. Given the current difficult economic times facing our nation, people are loosing their jobs, savings and retirement accounts are loosing value and homes are being foreclosed there is much I can be thankful for. I am lucky enough to have a job, health insurance, etc.

I am thankful for these things, however; in these times when you can lose your job and so on, there is something I am even more thankful of. Something that does not have the dollar amount value of a job, house or retirement account. Refer to this older blog post.

I am thankful for my family and friends. I am thankful to be blessed to have all of my grandparents with us and (relatively) healthy.

I know... that sounds incredibly corny. But in trying times when we are losing the things we place a monetary value on, things that are priceless and unable to lose during hard times take on a whole new value.

This is why above all I am thankful for my family and friends. It is their love that helps me appreciate and enjoy life when things are going well. Their support and encouragement also helps get me through the difficult times that life has.

O.K. That's enough sentimental blogging for the time being.

I am sorry readers... but I can't stop.

So I recently herd some feedback from some family members that I need to relax and start focusing my mind on something other than politics and news. HA! I wish it were that simple. If I had it my way, ignorance would be my day to day bliss.

I know I know... politics has become the obsession of this blog over the past couple of months. I am not alone in this either.

Why can't I stop thinking, learning and analyzing. It's just my nature. I like to know and learn everything I can about how things work (which is probably why I am a scientist).

September 11, 2001 changed me in a profound way. That historic event happened while I was a freshmen in college. During the months following, I was naturally drawn towards trying to understand this screwed up world in terms of history (where we have been and where we're heading), politics, religion and philosophy and what is right and just in the world. This experience shaped me in strong ways and influenced me to seek out knowledge through various courses I took during my years at Nazareth. Since then, I have continued to build on this by reading an endless pile of books and articles. I will probably never have all the answers by the time I die but there's no doubt I am going to die trying to find them!

So in closing... Historical election... *insert generic encouragement here* Exercise your right... *yada yada yada* Go vote...

BUT... if you are planning to go vote for McCain because he's not black or has a woman for VP , or planning to vote for Obama because he is black or stands for "hope"... do the country a favor and stay home. Don't even bother voting. If you are that ignorant... you have not yet earned the right to help guide our country by casting a balot.

Awesome!!!

I have to give props to my brother who has made his first break into the "blogosphere". He's writing a sports blog titled "Skiman Sports". Check it out.

I guess it's kind of like a sports talk radio show but on a blog. Nothing like a blog with a clear cut mission on subject matter... more than I can say about this mish-mash of random thoughts I put down here!

Perhaps following his discussions on sports will give me something else to think about other than current events, politics and the government.

We're on a road to nowhere.

Greetings!

I am traveling on a road to nowhere for this weekend because for once I am not traveling somewhere. During the past three weekends in July I have traveled to Buffalo for my cousin's wedding (see the picture from the previous post) and traveled to the Thousand Islands for a weekend getaway at a cottage my parents rented. Most recently, my travels have culminated with Emily and I circumnavigating Canandagua Lake, tasting wines along the way and staying at a Bed and Breakfast on the way. Is it any wonder I am content with doing NOTHING this weekend!?

So let's start with the wedding of my cousin Matt and his now wife, Emily.

The wedding went very well. It was on the fifth of July which meant hot weather. It was fine that it was hot because the reception was held outside.
I can't remember the place where they had the wedding but I do remember that Emily and I thought it was very nice and had great food. Not like we were taking notes on wedding ideas or anything. ;-) It was also nice to see my brother and his girlfriend that weekend, (and my parents and family too).
As it turns out, Emily and I would be seeing my brother and his girlfriend and my parents at the cottage in the Thousand Islands again the following weekend. You would think I would have gotten sick of them, but we managed to avoid getting on each other's nerves (for the most part). It's hard to get on people's nerves when you are in such a relaxing and beautiful area of New York. I would love to share pictures, but unfortunately my camera seems to be undergoing some malfunctions preventing me from removing pictures. (GRRRR!)

The only thing that marred that trip was a little rain on Sunday and the fact that following a 13 mile run I did up there I ended up getting sick with some vomiting and a mild depletion of my electrolytes. To much protest from my family and Emily I have since went back to a doctor to figure out what is wrong with my stomach. I have a history of acid reflux problems for some reason. Right now it is continuing to make it difficult to run. I'll fill you in on that more later.
Last week, Emily and I went on a trip in which we circumnavigated Canandagua Lake. We stopped at wineries along the way for tastings and pictures. Above is the mansion at Sonenberg gardens.

The gardens were nice even though there was not too much in bloom. It was very HOT! Within the gardens were a few statues that oddly looked like they were peeing into fountains. There was also a fair amount of unclothed statues.Ain't she a stinker! ;-)

Here is a beautiful but hazy view from the southern end of Canandagua Lake. Even though I was reluctant to spend a night at a Bed and Breakfast I enjoyed it a great deal. It was very relaxing and an interesting experience to socialize with the other couples (most of whom were older and getting away from their children). I wouldn't mind doing it again actually.

So you now see why I have been silent through the month of July.

Hmmmm... maybe I should consider shopping for a ring.

Yeah... that's my girlfriend in the sexy black dress plucking the bouquet out of the air at my cousin's wedding. Ehhh... maybe she is hinting at something. ;-)

Congratulations Matt and Emily, I wish you many happy years to come in married life.

It's been a long time running

It's been quite a while since I have sat down and wrote anything meaningful here. There is good reason for that.

The month of May has been incredibly busy for me. In that time, Emily has graduated from Nazareth, Jeremy (my brother) has graduated from Cazenovia and I graduated from RIT (just this past Friday). That's three consecutive weekends of graduations and travels for me!

All three experiences were very special to me. It was a great feeling to see Emily and Jeremy walk across that stage to get their diplomas. I am incredibly proud of them both. My graduation was quite an experience as well. I was very thankful to have my grandparents there. In addition to the congratulations extended to me, my commencement was a great opportunity to express my thanks for the hard work from all the professors that I had the opportunity to work with and the friends and family that supported me throughout the whole process.

I also started my job with Johnson and Johnson. The job is enjoyable so far. All I have done in the first few weeks are read training documents (a rather boring process). This week however I am done with my training and will be starting to work in the lab doing more hands-on activities.

So as you can see, the past few months have been busy for me. Now that things are calming down, life should be much less stressful and enjoyable.

I will keep you posted!

Happy Friday... oh yeah, and happy 2008!

So, one of my New Years resolutions should have been to post more thoughts to my blog! My apologies for not putting anything here for so long.

My last three posts have been a brief recap of my adventures I had in New York City. I did so much there that even those three posts did not divulge all of the minute details, stories, and experiences I had while on that journey. I hope you enjoy reading it. I will enjoy having those details written down before I forget them.

Since that last post, Emily has returned home from her study abroad program in Wales. :-) I am grinning ear to ear over it. Life has been wonderful since her return as I now have my "partner in crime" back. We have been spending a lot of time with each other and catching up.

Emily and I spent some time with each other before Christmas. I traveled to Buffalo to visit my parents for Christmas ans see my family. I spent New Years with Emily as we visited a few of her friends. Her friends Bethany and Stephanie are loads of fun! I rang in the New Year at their apartment, drank a little too much and was seriously hung over the following day. Not a good experience the day after! I think I will avoid drinking like that again for a LONG time (I'm serious this time).

In other news on the academic front, during mid-December, I wrote and presented my interim seminar to my committee for my Masters Thesis. It went very well. I presented and was simultaneously questioned and cross-examined for about an hour and 45 minutes! It was very grueling, but my committee was quite impressed with my work. I have been given the go-ahead to finish up my research and start writing my thesis. EXCITING!

Additionally, the paper that I wrote and submitted to the American Chemical Society national conference (mentioned here) has been accepted for an oral presentation! So, I will be traveling to New Orleans this April to give a talk on it. Once again... EXCITING!

There's more to talk about, but at the moment my time is needed else ware. I promise, I will write more in due time.

*UgggHhHhHhgggggggg...* No more turkey...

Hey everybody! What a great holiday break. Pardon my extended absence but things have been a little bit crazy lately.

I celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend with my family. It worked out to be more like 3 different Thanksgivings... the first one being just my parents and I, second grandparents, aunt/uncle and cousins from mom's side of the family and third grandparents from dad's side of the family. Turkey was had on all three days, hence my disdain for that particular food for the time being!

On my mother's side of the family, I have two little cousins. My aunt and uncle just got married about 3 years ago and made a few new additions to the family. Rosario is 2 years old now. She's the rambunctious one in the movie clips above. So full of energy! My apologies for the horrible quality video clips but I can't help to experiment with stuff like this. I took them with my cell phone. They also have an infant, Jon Diego... no more than 3 months old. He's adorable! When I first saw him about a month ago at his baptism, he basically did nothing but sleep! It was only a week ago that I finally saw him with his eyes open. Apparently he does have eyes after all! I will post a picture as soon as I can.

Other things that happened on my break... watched "Evan Almighty" and "Dodgeball", completed reading "The Accidental Tourist", went to Teresa's birthday party (happy 24th!), Jon also came into town for that. He got to meet my family and see my home town of Derby for the first time. Overall it was pretty cool. Very relaxing.

At the moment I am busting my ass trying to get things done and in order in the laboratory before a major quarterly meeting with all of the collaborators of my research. I leave for New York City immediately after the meeting. Then I return and have a few days to polish up my interim seminar for my masters thesis. DAAAAAAMN! Tough to find time to do much of anything other than work lately!

Now you see why I have not been active with the posts recently.

I'll try to write some more before my departure for NYC. I am sure that I will have LOTS to say upon my return!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mmmmmm... TURKEY!

Kicking back and awaiting the Thanksgiving Feast.

So I at the parents house in the greater Buffalo region. Just a short hop down the NYS thruway is all the traveling I need to do for my holidays. The place has kind of ceased to be "my home" sometime over the past 2 or 3 years as I gradually shifted my life to Rochester. Now I refer to this as "my parents house". I am not even certain of an exact date in which I can clearly claim that I moved out!

You would think that as a twenty-something on the eve of Thanksgiving I would be hitting up the bars and partying tonight. Considering that is is POURING RAIN like buckets and COLD... I am not too keen on driving into the city and waiting in line outside of a bar to get in. It's odd though... I come back here and don't even feel like I know anyone anymore. I have lost touch with people. My friends are scattered in so many cities and corners of the world right now. Hmmm... :-/

Anyway, I watched "Evan Almighty" tonight. I enjoyed it. Classic Steve Carell comedy always cracks me up. It was one of those movies with subtle messages about faith and such. Not to the point where it is obnoxious but just enough so that you can appreciate it. My only complaint was that Lauren Graham bore a striking resemblance to Emily... which in turn led me to thoughts of her.

*sigh*

Geekin' it out over the past few days... and watching football in the process.

Here I am on a Sunday evening watching the Patriots get out to an early 7-0 lead with a stomach full of a garbage plate from Pennfield Hots. How did I get here since we last spoke?

Thursday I went out to McGregors for beer and food in the company of the other RIT graduate students (Matt, Tim, Erin, Mary, Patrick). We were there primarily to welcome Jarrad as one of the new 2007 batch of students. He seems like a nice guy... he will fit in just fine. The food was greasy, the beer was cold and fufilling and the discussion was witty as per our usual custom!

Friday, I succomed to Jon's requests to allow him to update my laptop to make it operate faster. I am quite impressed with what he has done. With the purchase of a bit more memory it will get even faster. Additionally, RIT is getting rid of dozens of computer monitors from computer labs by GIVING THEM AWAY FOR FREE! They are not flat panel monitors... but who cares. I picked one up and made a nice dual monitor set up for my work station at home. (Hence the "Geekin' it out") So, this may lead to increased productivity... or increased procrastination.

Saturday I demonstrated that the extra monitor does indeed contribute more to productivity rather than procrastination by cranking out some serious thesis/journal paper writing during the day on Saturday. Then I went over to Em's apartment where we shopped for ingredients at Wegman's for "Pizza Meatballs"... a recipe we randomly found online. And for desert, miniature graham cracker pie shells filled with instant chocolate mouse. The meatballs were stuffed with mozzarella cheese that melted and oozed out of the meatballs upon cooking. They were incredible... I think I had a "foodgasm" while eating them! We then watched "Stranger Than Fiction", which we both enjoyed.

Sunday I was happy to have my parents and also my brother come up to visit me. The last time I saw them was probably towards the end of the summer. We chatted a whole lot about everything while watching the Bills game. I took them over to Emily's new apartment to show them. Em and I entertained them there for the remainder of the game (a 26-3 loss to the Steelers). We then went for a dinner of garbage plates at Pennfield Hots. This was the first time my parents had a garbage plate. They seemed to enjoy it! Then we said goodbye.

That brings me to the here and now... in which my garbage plate is still gurgling through my stomach (!!!) and the Patriots (much to my disapproval) have expanded their lead to 17-0.

Discussions over a glass of wine among friends

I hate feeling under the weather! Being sick really takes away energy that could definitely be better spent else ware. However, I suppose that slowing down and being lazy while recuperating has its benefits as well. On Saturday I began reading "Tuesdays With Morrie" and completed about 135 pages of it. It was another suggested read from Emily (my girlfriend). I'll comment more on that once it is complete.

Last night, despite feeling drained of much energy, I spent the evening visiting with Emily and her two friends from high school, Christen and Adrian. Nice people... the tolerable type of friends of a girlfriend that you don't mind hanging around with and getting to know.

Both Adrian and Christen (and Emily) are going into their senior year of college... and I must say I envy them! College was loads of fun for me. However, they brought up the issue of dealing with their mothers... who have apparently nagged the hell out of them and spurred many arguments while at home from college. I can relate. This was one of the catalysts for my decision to move out of my house a few years back. Now I can simply leave my parents house after a day or two when I have had my fill of any arguments.

So perhaps it is not such a bad thing that I am no longer in college. But now I get to be discontent with the uncertainty and stress of graduate school and living on my own. So it seems I both enjoy and loathe my past and present situations... *sigh* this must be "the tension of opposites" being referred to in "Tuesdays With Morrie".