Today’s the Day…

….That our new bed gets delivered!

Last week, after months of looking, we finally decided on a mattress that we both agreed on. Its not that we have different tastes when it comes to the selection, its that we couldn’t find a good bed at a relatively good price that we both thought was comfortable, and would last awhile. We settled on a Stearns & Foster Plush king-size mattress.

After coming to the conclusion that we located the bed that we both loved, it was then time to find a place to buy it from. We ended up passing up an offer from MattressFirm and signed off on ours from…another MattressFirm, for a deep discount. Its truly amazing that the same company, in the same city, will give you two completely different prices on the same product.

For posterity’s sake, we ditched the air mattress last night and gave the old bed one more night of rest. It was my idea, partially for that reason, but mostly because I was tired of the cat attacking me sporadically throughout the night…every night. Alas, tonight’s the night our fortunes change. The new bed gets delivered, amazing sleep will commence, and we won’t have to deal with a crazy cat (whose normally sweet and cute til the darkness falls) disturbing our rest.

As far as everything else that’s happened this week, Wednesday was my grandma’s funeral. It was held at All Souls Catholic School in Sanford, and was very sad. I haven’t really had to deal with death in my lifetime directly. My grandpa passed away when I was young, so while I remember him, I don’t particularly remember his passing.

Luckily, everyone seemed to handle the proceedings very well, and once the ceremony had ended, everyone in attendance met back up for the reception. It was here where I got the chance to catch up with family I hadn’t seen in a long time, eat and introduce Kara to a lot more folks in my tree. Kara made my mom a card from her family, and she continues to prove that she’s one of the most thoughtful, caring people in the world.

Today I go back for my second day of work training. Yesterday was five hours of orientation videos, manuals and paperwork; I’m guessing today will be the start of my product orientation. So far the job seems like its going to be a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to hit the sales floor.

Oh, and one more thing….

We’re going to HoliWood Nights!!!

Kara booked our flights to Holiday World and Kings Island in early June a few nights ago. I can’t wait to finally get to ride my favorite coaster with her, ride new rides and camp with a whole bunch of friends. We’re both extremely excited about the trip, and it definitely can’t come soon enough.

Playing Catch-Up

Ya know, posting would be a lot easier, and probably less time-consuming if I wrote every/other day instead of scribing a novel to cover everything that’s happened in two weeks’ time.

The day after we saw the shuttle launch, Kara began her new job at Give Kids the World Village. Its been her dream to be in a position like this, and her experience thus far has been both exciting and a learning experience. I’m extremely proud of her for making the decision to take a risk in securing the job, and acquiring what she set her sights on.

Last Thursday, Todd and I headed out to Universal for an afternoon of park-hopping, and once again, I was reminded of the horrible state the company is in. Its unbelievable how badly run it is now. I’m planning on a blog on my thoughts sometime soon, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Last weekend awarded me time to spend with two friends I had not seen in practically a year. Sean and Virgie came down for Valentine’s weekend and the four of us had a great time catching up. Saturday was spent playing ping pong and pool at our community center, hanging out at the apartment and a trip back to Clearwater to introduce them to Quaker Steak & Lube. Sean and I split an 88oz Lube Tube, and we all feasted upon piles of buffalo wings.

We said goodbye to them on Sunday, and Kara and I had a nice Valentine’s Day relaxing and watching Time Traveler’s Wife.

Wednesday night we had an amazing dinner at Outback, thanks to a V-Day gift card my parents gave us. I feasted on bread, a Caesar salad, bloomin’ onions and Alice Springs Chicken. I looooove Outback, and can’t wait to go back again.

Now, with the arrival of another visitor, this time Kara’s mom, we’re in for even more touring and exploring. SeaWorld’s on the bill for today, and probably Gainesville tomorrow. I’m hoping to make it to Tallahassee for a couple of days this week, but with my dad being sick, don’t know if that’s gonna happen now, but we’ll see!

1 Outta 3 Ain’t Bad

Saturday was a blast!

Saturday was also blast-less.

Kara, Dan and myself all felt the incredible urge to see some alligators, so we headed out to Kissimmee for a trip to GATORLAND! I used to visit this park with my parents as a kid, but it had been years and years since my last visit.

We arrived around 12:30, and just in time for the Gator Jumparoo show! We bee-lined it to the center of the park to get a center stage view of this incredibly corny and underwhelming show. The gators didn’t seem to want to cooperate and therefor, didn’t provide too many huge jumparoos. The skits and the scripts were incredibly horrendous and made southerners look really, really bad…BUT, that’s why this place is so much fun. Because, well, it’s a redneck-owned and ran little park with thousands of alligators.

After the show, we headed to the alligator and snake photo op booth where the three of us got our picture taken holding a mid-sized gator. Dan even held the boa around his neck. Kara was very reluctant to even touch an alligator, let alone hold one, but we managed to get her to do and I know she loved it. I can’t wait to compare our pictures with mine from when I was a kid.

The rest of our day at Gatorland was spent avoiding shows at all cost, and checking out each and every animal exhibit we could find. Kara soon came to find that it’s a lot more dangerous to live in Florida than it is to live in Minnesota or Michigan, especially when we got to the “Snakes of Florida” exhibit. They had cottonmouths, water moccasins, little rattlesnakes and a huge Eastern Diamondback, as well; my personal favorite. She also didn’t believe me when I told her we used to find rattlesnakes’ rattlers and played with them.

The three of us also enjoyed a 30-minute or so experience with the Gatorland petting zoo…Not gators, however, goats and llamas! I’ve petted my fair share of these animals in my lifetime, so I opted to be designated picture-taker while Kara and Dan shmoozed with all the four-legged creatures they could find.

Before heading out into the swamp tour, we spent a couple minutes looking at the four rare albino gators they had in the park. The billboards around Orlando just don’t do these guys justice. The walk through the swamp felt like it took two hours, but was probably only about 45 minutes. It was really cool to get out there and let Kara see what her surroundings would look like if she somehow managed to get lost in the Florida wilderness. The swamp walk ended and we went through a dirt trail tour of more big, nasty gators; as well as nile crocodiles.

Our day at Gatorland was winding down, but before we left, I had one last goal: Get Kara to pet a snake.

It took a bit of coercing, but eventually, I got her to do it! The snake that hours earlier was on Dan’s shoulders, became the first snake that Kara ever touched. It was a quick pat on its back, with one finger, but she did it and I was proud!

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the gift shop where I managed to find a rattler on a keychain to prove to Kara I wasn’t telling fibs, and we hit the road to our next stop: Zaxby’s!

Dan had never eaten there, and we needed some replenishment before spending the rest of our day at Universal. Predictably, he loved it, as did Kara and I, and we were then off to Universal. I had one goal for this trip, and one goal only…Ride Rockit at night.

Thanks to Mardi Gras, Universal was open til 8pm tonight, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to get a night ride in with somewhat minimal waits. It was not meant to be. When we arrived at the park, the ride was down due to high winds, but they were hopeful it would open before close. We spent about an hour or two walking around, riding Mummy and Men In Black, and then headed back over to Rockit when we saw it testing.

By the time we arrived, there was already a 75 minute wait, but what REALLY angered me was (a) they closed the single riders line (and lied about the reasoning) and (b) were only running two trains. Now, I know they’ve been having issues with this coaster, but to only run TWO trains on a coaster that can handle SEVEN, after the ride had been down for a couple of hours, right before closing, AND to close the single riders line and lie to guests about it…Really, REALLY pissed me off. Kara and I became passholders earlier this week, and this incident has angered me to the point I have NO interest in going back to the park anytime soon.

So there was our first “Rocket” fail of the night.

After coming back to our apartment and saying goodbye to Dan, Kara and I headed to bed so we could get a couple of hours of sleep before making the one hour drive to Titusville to see space shuttle Endeavour take off at 4:39am. We managed to find a GREAT spot near Paul’s Smokehouse in Titusville on US1, and joined thousands upon thousands of other bystanders who had a phenomenal view directly across the river of the launch pad.

Alas, it was not to be.

Due to a low cloud ceiling, the launch was scrubbed with less than ten minutes until liftoff. Dejected, again, we made our way back to the car, and then endured an exhausting 3.5hr drive back to Orlando. Not only was I on edge from Universal rubbing me the wrong way, now we got up in the middle of the night, drove across Florida to not see a shuttle launch, and our drive home was extended by 200x because of horrible, horrible traffic.

We ended up getting home around 7:30am and promptly went to bed and ended up sleeping until around 4pm. Even after waking up that late, I was still exhausted, and not too happy when Kara told me she wanted to go back the next morning and try to see it launch again. I started talking to friends about a better place to view it that we could also get back on the road quickly and my friend Cory told me to check out either the beaches, or the Causeway.

Promptly after the Super Bowl concluded (congrats, Saints!) we headed to bed again, only to manage about an hour of sleep before getting up and getting ready. Hitting the road around 1:30am, we got to Cory’s condo right at 3am and spent some time with him before leaving and finding a prime spot on the Causeway.

I am SO, SO happy we went back!

This time, the launch went off just as scheduled, even though there was doubt surrounding the international emergency landing sites. Kara had never seen a shuttle launch before, and she absolutely loved it. It really is an amazing experience. It had been years since I had been out to see one, and I’m glad we got to experience the last night time launch ever together. The blast off lit up the sky like sunrise, and the boom a minute later was deafening, and the reflection off of the water provided a view neither of us will ever forget.

Driving Into the Storm

Yesterday ended up actually being a great day!

We planned on getting up early and trying to make it to Busch Gardens around opening because we knew a big storm would be hitting around noon. That didn’t work out. Finally dragging ourselves out of bed and getting ready, we managed to leave Orlando around 12:30…right as the storm was pulling into Tampa.

As we’re driving down I-4, the radio keeps telling us about tornado warnings all around the area. We knew we’d be getting ourselves into some bad weather, but not that bad.

First on the agenda was Bed, Bath & Beyond where we failed, once again, in finding suitable bathroom floor mats. We ended up purchasing some nice, circular dinner mats for our bar area, instead. Next was a trip across the street to the Westfield Mall; which was most likely the strangest footprint and layout of a mall I’ve ever been to. We killed about an hour there and made the decision to try and get some rides in at Busch Gardens, regardless of the weather.

The drive to the park was littered with more tornado warnings, and once we arrived, we were delighted to find that they were not only open, but we were one of maybe 100 other cars there. Trudging through the rain, we made it in and realized, after miles of walking, that nothing was running except the Ubanga Banga bumper cars. Figuring “why not,” we rode and were treated to probably the worst, slowest bumper cars in the world. But at least we got to ride something!

In defeat, we started heading back to the front of the park to leave when we heard Sheikra’s lift horn sounding. Making a quick turnaround, we saw Rhino Rally running, and considering its always about an hour wait, we jumped at the opportunity to get a ride in with no wait. And boy am I glad I never waited for this ride!

We then headed back to Kumba, which was still not operating, and ran over to Sheikra to try our luck there. Much to our delight, Sheikra was open, and we got a front row ride with only two other people on the train; unfortunately, right as we were going up the lift, the skies opened up again and we got absolutely soaked! It was a lot of fun, however, even though we got drenched.

By the time we got off, the park was closing and the rides shut down again due to weather. In the end, the trip was worth it as we had a lot of fun playing in the rain and essentially having the park to ourselves.

After leaving, we made the 45min trip southwest to this amazing place named Quaker Steak & Lube. Kara had been raving about their wings, and we decided to check it out.

Oh my God was the drive worth it.

We started our dinner adventure with Magna Fries (fries loaded with cheese and bacon) and then moved onto two Compact Buckets of wings. I got half and half of Dusted Chipotle BBQ and Medium. Kara ordered Permesan Pepper and Louisiana Lickers. We spent our hour there trying out each others wings and wowwwww, do I have a new favorite wing joint or what? The Dusted Chipotle BBQ and Louisiana Lickers were easily my two favorites.

Stuffed to the brim, we made the drive back to Orlando, made a quick stop at Publix and finished the night of with The Invention of Lying. Overall, it was ana amazing day, and I’m very glad we decided to brave the weather and not just sit around inside all day.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Another week in Florida in the past, and even more memories.

The rest of my parents’ visit went well, and everyone enjoyed the time together. Saturday was spent shopping, and the night ended with a trip to Amway Arena to watch the Magic take on the Atlanta Hawks (and Al Horford!). It was probably the last time we’ll all go to that arena together for a game before the Magic move to their new digs next season, so I’m glad we got to do that together.

Sunday was spent grocery shopping, watching Florida lose at the last second to Tennessee (again ) and ended with grilling burgers and playing ping pong at the community center. It was a nice, relaxing day and night, and was a great last day spent with my parents.

Monday afternoon I went into meet with my (hopefully) future employer for about 30 minutes. It was a meeting that I felt went fairly well, but I’m still waiting to hear back. Kara and I relaxed that night and watched the Michael Jackson documentary, This Is It.

Tuesday was spent making calls and getting more stuff taken care of before meeting up with Corey and heading to Universal Studios around 4:30pm. We got to the park and headed straight for their new roller coaster Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit. We’d been trying to get here for the entire time we’ve lived in Florida, and finally decided to just get flex pay passes. The ride was fun, but wasn’t anything that great. The non-inverting loop was definitely cool, however, but the ride had a bit of a shimmy to it.

We had dinner at Chili’s and headed back to the community center and played ping pong, pool and virtual golf til about midnight. Corey left and headed to a friends house, and we went home and to bed.

Wednesday was a full-day at Universal and Islands of Adventure where we all had a great time riding roller coasters, exploring and just hanging out. We ended the night playing even more ping pong and then finally watching Zombieland. Absolutely loved that movie the first time around, but for some reason not so much this time. Unfortunately, I had one of my allergic reactions to cheese, and had to take benadryl this morning which effectively knocked me completely out all day today.

Now that I’m finally caught up on this, its time to go eat chicken, taters and corn on the cob and finish watching this When Animals Attack show. Tomorrow?

Busch Gardens!

Much Accomplished

Everything that’s gone on since the last time I posted has been pretty much a blur. When moving, even when you think everything is done, it really isn’t.

We thought we were settled and had everything ready to let us just kick back and relax, but that proved to be far from the truth. Monday morning, Kara had an interview with the company she’s wanted to work for her whole life; her dream job, in other words. She felt the interview went very well, and based on the events leading up to it, I never had a doubt in my mind that they would select her. It wasn’t until Thursday night that she heard back from them, when on our way to dinner, she got a call back congratulating her on the new position.

I was, and still am, so proud of her!

The rest of the week was spent finishing up around the apartment, Kara getting a new drivers license/insurance, and running more errands. We spent a lot of time exploring the area, looking in pet stores (I’ve got her convinced to get a Corgi!) and checking out home stores. We’ve managed to find a whole bunch of stuff we want at Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and IKEA.

Our “free” time during the week was spent checking out and enjoying the amenities of our apartment complex. One particularly fun night, we battled it out playing billiards (I won 2-0) and then moved on to ping pong (where I, also, won 2-0). The thought crossed my mind to let her win, but she told me not to, so my competitive side gladly respected her wishes.

Thursday night my parents got in town, and it was on the way to a new Mexican restaurant (to us) called Garibaldi to meet them and my grandparents when Kara got the call about her new job. The news came at the perfect time, as it afforded us a chance to tell everyone at the same time. Dinner was good, reminded me of Los Compadres in Tallahassee, and afterward the 6 of us headed to the Altamonte Mall for a bit.

Kara and I came home, watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (eh….) and passed out.

The following day, Friday, my parents met us at our apartment. After a couple hours of relaxing, we headed off to SeaWorld! The day really couldn’t have gone any better, either. The crowds were light, we saw everything we wanted to, pet a couple dolphins, got to see another hiccup in the Believe show and…

Got my dad on Manta!

He was apprehensive about it, and vocalized his decision on the lifthill by asking, “Why am I doing this!?!” but in the end, he loved it. I was proud of him, and we all had a had blast.

After the park closed, we had a nice dinner at TGIFridays, and had planned to come back to the complex and play ping pong but everyone was exhausted. Instead, my parents headed back to their hotel and we rented Saw IV from the community RedBox and fell asleep.

Definitely a good week, and with my parents here two more days, it should be a great weekend!

Like A Chicken With It’s Head Cut Off

Today was the last full day I had to get everything taken care of that I needed to get taken care of. Below is a list of what I needed to accomplish:

Change my address

Get an oil change

Get my tires rotated

Get a haircut

Finish packing

Help clean up the apartment

Photog Kara’s last day at work (and all the rides in the snow)

Surprisingly…I accomplished everything.

It was stressful, however, to say the least. On top of everything listed above, I took a bit of time out of my day to surprise Kara with lunch at her work. I thought it was a nice gesture, and she seemed to appreciate it. Everything else that I had planned ended up working out great.

Discount Tire, where I go for everything tire-related, had a zero minute wait to start the day. It was truly incredible. For all of the years I’ve been taking my car(s) to them for service, I’ve never seen the place deserted like it was today; I was in and out in less than twenty minutes. Leaving from there I headed to Best Buy to recycle an old TV of Kara’s and then it was off to Goodyear to get my oil changed.

While there, they tried to poach me of $15 to replace a light bulb…Uhhh, no thanks!

After thirty minutes there, I headed to my haircut place, but was greeted with a 30 minute wait. I opted to then head to Valleyfair and bring Kara a chicken caesar salad to brighten up her last day employed with the same company she’s been with for the past seven years. We ended our food together and then I headed back to get my hurr did, headed home to get a shower and then took off again to get my change of address taken care of.

Once that was done (and stunningly, they informed me it would take place tomorrow…score!) I made my way back to Valleyfair and we took a 45-minute lap around the park, getting photos of all of the rides draped in snow. Most of the pictures came out very good, and I’m glad we took that last opportunity to do that.

The rest of my day was spent hunting down a Mobil station, almost running out of gas (literally…check my Twitter upload) and making it back home to unload the huge boxes from my car, rearrange the boxes already occupying the apartment, and prepare for Kara’s arrival. Once she got home, we had three solid hours of packing, cleaning and rearranging.

And it truly is amazing what two people working together can get accomplished.

Now it’s 11pm on Friday night, and I work my last shift ever in Minnesota tomorrow from 8:45am to 5:00pm. Kara is on her way to the airport to scoop up her dad who is helping us with all the finishing touches, loading of the Penske truck, and the trip down to Florida. I even had time to get a couple games in on Modern Warfare 2 with my boy B-40.

For as hectic as the day was (and it could’ve been half as much if I wasn’t such a procrastinator) it sure did turn out well.

The next time I get to scribe, we’ll probably have already completed the first leg of the drive to Illinois. Here’s to a good weekend of packing, and a safe trip!

Getting It Together…Sorta

Kara and I are both huge procrastinators.

Likely the two worst in the world, and if not, we get honorable mention.

It is now T-Minus 4 (FOUR!!!) days until we load up the Penske and hit the road to Florida and tonight is the first night we’ve actually gone gung-ho on the whole packing situation. She gently crammed her amusement park cup and shot glass collection into a box last night, but that was the first of any packing for either of us.

For me, it’s not such a huge ordeal as I tossed most of my crap when I moved from Orlando to Minnesota in July, and most of what I did bring has been sitting dormant in boxes the whole time I’ve been here. For Kara, however…This may take awhile. On top of all the packing anxiety, she hasn’t been feeling too well this evening and I’m convinced is because of stress and uncertainty. We both know everything is going to be alright, but the fact that we’re finally getting around to actually getting everything taken care of is wearing on her.

This week, on the other hand, has been a food extravaganza! We’ve been making our Minnesota food rounds, trying to eat our way through the state; filling up on all the amazing delicacies that we will be missing out on once we get to the south.

Monday night we gorged ourselves at the amaaaaazing Mystic Lake Casino Buffet, where you’ll find anything and everything. I started off with a humongous caesar salad before moving onto my first plate of blackened grouper, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, barbeque chicken breast and garlic cheese toast. That plate alone should’ve been enough, but oh no! One plate is never enough at Mystic Lake. Plate numero dos was egg pasta, some pepperoni and sausage pizza, and some more garlic cheese toast. The food extravaganza ended with a delicious mug of vanilla ice cream topped with hot chocolate and M&Ms.

Tuesday for lunch we headed to one of my new favorite burger places, Culver’s, and munched out on free cheeseburger kids’ meals, and topped the stop with homemade Rocky Road custard. But the food fun doesn’t stop there! Today for lunch we hit up Buffalo Tap and shoveled a large cheese curd basket down, and shared a barbeque chicken, bacon sandwich. Hopefully before we take off, we’ll get the chance to feast upon BD’s Mongolian Grille for one last time.

That’s this evening’s update. Most of my stuff is all packed and ready to go, now time to turn around and help out the Misses in her never-ending quest of sorting out jump, packing away memories and setting aside clothes for Goodwill.

Maybe we’ll get some sleep before Monday.

My 2009…

…Was amazing.

There’s really no other way to put it.

New Years 2008/2009 was spent with a bunch of my closest friends. We spent the night hanging out around a bonfire, playing games and just enjoying each others’ company. Soon after the New Year, myself and two friends from Chicago headed south to Gainesville and Orlando to celebrate the Florida Gators winning the 2009 College Football National Championship and theme park-hopping. It was in Orlando where the foundation was laid that would lead to so many life-changing decisions that would take place the rest of the year.

While in Orlando, my friend Corey played the middleman in bringing together me and the best thing to ever happen to me. Her name was Kara.

A few weeks after getting back to Tallahassee, I packed my bags and flew up to Minnesota to meet Kara for the first time. Now, I had a lot of big plans for this year, and none of them included visiting Minnesota, but it turned out to be the most life-changing trip of my life. I instantly fell in love with this girl and we enjoyed a short 5-days together touring the state, playing in the snow for the first time, visiting the Mall of America and getting to know this amazing girl.

Shortly after returning to Florida, I moved to Orlando with my friend Rob, and where I’d hoped that Kara would soon find herself as well. Things didn’t go the way I had planned, but my time spent in Orlando provided me a few months to build a great friendship with Rob and provided us the opportunity to have some of the best times of our life. The work situation was far from ideal (more like non-existent) and it really seemed more like a five month vacation, but the memories were irreplaceable and I’m grateful for having that time there. We spent all of our time hanging out, park-hopping, checking out the Orlando nightlife and becoming best friends with his puppy Corgi, Kumba. These are five months that I’ll always look back on, thankful that I got to spend all that time there having fun.

While living there, a month and a half of the time was spent living in Minnesota with Kara, and her visiting me in Florida. While out of state, we managed to hit a couple of parks that provided us great memories. In May we hit Silver Dollar City (Branson, MO), Six Flags St. Louis, Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, MO) and Adventureland (Altoona, IA) and rode a ton of amazing rollercoasters and made a bunch of great memories. In April, she visited me in Orlando and we enjoyed our time relaxing, as well as attending a boat wedding in Ft Myers and visiting Busch Gardens Tampa for the first time together.

Revisiting my earlier comment about Minnesota not being in my visit plans this year, July would provide quite a life change that was far from expected in that we made the decision that the best thing for our relationship was for me to move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. And so it was, I packed up all my stuff into my little 2-door, threw away what I didn’t need, and hit the road on a 3-day, 25hr, 1,600 mile drive to Shakopee, MN.

On the way I stopped in Louisville, KY to stay and visit with my cousin Brett. it was great getting to see him as it had been awhile since we hung out. The second leg began with a quick stop at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and ended with a stay with my friend Scott in Chicago, and the third leg began with a quick trip to Six Flags Great America. Finally arriving in Minnesota, I was afforded the opportunity to meet Kara’s mom for the first time. It was so great to be back with her, and I felt fortunate to finally get to meet the amazing woman who raised her.

My time spent in Minnesota has been all of a culture shock, a great learning experience, frustrating and amazing all wrapped up in one snowy package. For one, I LOVE the food here! Cheese curds are my new favorite snack/appetizer. I’ve got a new top 3 favorite restaurant in BD’s Mongolian Grill, and all the dives I’ve experienced have been amazing as well. If there’s one thing I’m gonna miss the most about this state, it’s the food.

What I’m not going to miss is the way everything is done. It took me six weeks to get my driver’s license. The highway system is absolutely absurd and whoever designed the roadways here needs to be shot. Also, there’s a saying here about people and it’s called “Minnesota Nice,” as in people are nice to your face and not so nice behind your back. I’ve definitely noticed that this is alive and well in a few instances, but there have been a few people I’ve met that this does not apply to. In fact, there’s a couple people who I’ve become friends with that I’ll actually miss.

In August (and again in October) we visited the Wisconsin Dells for Mt. Olympus, Timber Falls and general touristy stuff. That place is just amazing, and is easily one of my favorite places to visit now. Also in August we visited the Minnesota State Fair where we gained 20lbs each gorging on anything-on-a-stick (my favorite was Hush Puppies), checking out the portable rides and seeing Quietdrive in concert. We also witnessed (for about 3min before we got sick and had to leave) a cow giving live birth to a calf.

Let me tell you about how amazing Kara is. She’s never been a big football fan, but liked going to games for the tailgating and cheers. She had never experienced southern football, and my parents warned her that when football season began to be prepared for how crazy I am about it. She handled it like a champ. She put up with every Saturday being dedicated to sitting around with 4 games going at a time, and she was very considerate of my requests. She took to heart the fact that I couldn’t call up a bunch of friends at anytime to come over and watch the games, and did everything in her power to be understanding and enjoy the time together.

For the first game of the season we met up with the Twin Cities Gator Club and met a bunch of people and got to watch the game surrounded in orange and blue. It really made the transition a lot easier for me. The following week we headed to Michigan where we spent a day at the Michigan State-Central Michigan game, touring East Lansing and meeting up with a couple of her friends. We spent the rest of our time in Michigan visiting with her family, jet skiing on Lake Michigan, visiting Michigan’s Adventure and getting to know where she came from. It was an amazing trip and one I’ll never forget.

In this time I also tried getting back into school. I was determined to do it, enrolled and started taking classes at ITT before realizing that it was a sham and I got out before I took a hit. It felt good to get back in school, but that just wasn’t the right way to go, and after reading through other people’s experiences, I’m extremely happy with my decision to get out when I did. I also got a job here working at Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has been fun in that I’ve gotten to meet a couple of friends and have had, for the most part, fun getting out and doing something.

Thanksgiving we spent in Florida visiting friends and family. Our time was split between Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Orlando. I’m not gonna go all into this trip since I wrote a long post on this site recapping that amazing week, but suffice to say, I couldn’t have wished for a better holiday. Christmas was spent alone as Kara went back to Michigan to spend it with my family, and I had to stay in Minnesota to make up for not working over Thanksgiving. And New Years was a nice, relaxing night of having some champagne, playing Battleship and celebrating EST and CST New Years. It was a great time, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate the New Year.

So what now?

WE’RE MOVING BACK TO FLORIDA!!!

I can finally talk about it! Two weeks from today we will be hitting the road and heading back to Orlando. Kara has finally had it with the winters here and wants to pursue her dreams of palm trees, grad school and a dream job. I’m grateful for finally getting out of this state. It’s been a great experience and I’m thankful for getting the opportunity to live in another state and experience a whole new world, but my roots are calling and it’s time to go home.

2009 will go down as the best year of my life, and with the upcoming changes, 2010 should be just as good if not better. I can’t wait to get back to Florida, and I especially can’t wait to live there with Kara. She turned me into a northerner, and now she gets to be transformed into a southerner.

That alone should make the year one to remember.

Birthday Date-Night

So last night, Kara and I embarked on a mid-birthday-week date night, that was funded almost entirely by coupons/free meals received via e-mail from local restaurants. She had the great idea to sign up for their newsletters, and in turn, receive free meal offers.

The plan worked out beautifully last night.

Our evening started with a great dinner at Noodles and Company where I loaded up with a large buttered noodle and crispy chicken breast bowl. We had eaten at Noodles once before, and I didn’t find it all that filling (we had trios), however, this trip was far different. My biggest knock on the place was the price-to-filling up ratio wasn’t in my stomach’s favor, but this time I was pretty close to bulging.

Once we conquered Noodles, we headed down the road to Champps Americana Bar and Grill, where we had a coupon for a free Mile High Ice Cream Pie. And MAN, they didn’t lie about the whole “Mile High” part!

This ice cream treat was about 9 inches tall, with each end wrapped in crunched up oreos, and whipped cream. Composing the rest of the “sandwich” was a layer of chocolate ice cream on each in, a layer of mocha ice cream on each end, and a thick layer of vanilla ice cream in the middle. The entire thing was sitting in a lagoon of hot fudge.

My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We staggered out of Champps, full to the brim, and headed across the street to the Eden Prairie Center where we would venture to see Paranormal Activity at the AMC theaters. This movie was pretty much a last-minute decision as we had heard a couple of bad reviews and almost decided to see The Fourth Kind instead. So glad we didn’t!

This movie was pretty much terrifying. Kara kept repeating “it’s just a movie. It’s just a movie!” throughout the whole thing. For the budget it was very well done, and I’d definitely buy it on DVD. There were a few standard horror movie “scare tactics” used (and by that I mean quick, jump-out-at-you-kinda-scares) but most of the fear came from the unknown. Not knowing what was next, and the idea that this situation COULD be real.

Overall, it was a GREAT night, and I’m so glad we got to spend it together.

Coming Around

I love my parents, equally.

Neither is better than the other.

But for most of my life, my dad hadn’t been the most outspoken person as far as feelings go. Him and I rarely told each other that we loved the other. It was known on both ends, it just was never vocalized.

With me moving, it has opened that door and now I feel closer than ever with him. Being able to talk about more than just football and bills has been refreshing. I think it’s made us both appreciate more how special the other is (not to put myself on a pedestal or anything). And now to be able to come out and say “I love you,” it feels so good.

I know I have full and complete support from both of my parents no matter what choice I make in life. I honestly used to be scared to go to my dad about things because I always feared I’d get nothing but negative feedback, even though I know he loved and supported me. Now that those fears are gone, I feel like I can turn to him for anything and that’s an amazing feeling.

With me moving across the country in two days where I’ll have no friends or family, to finally feel this much closer to my dad is going to make things a lot easier. And I’m extremely thankful for that.

Packing…Again

Well, my time in Orlando has come and gone.

These past five months have flown by, and while I’ve had an incredible time living here, things just haven’t worked out. So where’s the next stop of the Steve Nuss World Tour?

Minnesota.

Yep, it’s true…I’m moving to Shakopee, MN to live with Kara. Just the thought of that is mind-blowing, and while I’m going to be extremely sad to leave Florida (and nervous,) I can’t wait to actually start my life together with her.

We made the decision about two weeks ago, and this coming Saturday morning I’ll be hitting the road on a 3-day, 24hr drive with overnight stays in Louisville, KY and Chicago. I’ll be making stops at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and Six Flags Great America. And best of all, I’ll be making a permanent stop with the love of my life.

This is a huge step, and frankly, a bit “out there,” but I know deep down it’s the best thing for me, for her and ultimately…for us. I’ve got full support from all of my family, even if things are extremely emotional. My parents and grandparents all feel like this is the best thing for me to do right now. I’m just so glad they’re as supportive as they are, and so thankful that they love Kara. It’s gonna be the start of a new chapter in my life.

And I’m confident in it being the last.

Hello, Hello, Allow me to re-introduce myself

It’s been a long while since I’ve sniffed this thing…

Life is going great on most counts. I’m still as in love with Kara, if not more, but the day to day yearning is growing stronger. My trip to Canuckville went very good, aside from being cut a week short. We made millions of memories, had tons of fun and miss each other immensely now. Hopefully it won’t be too long before she moves down here, otherwise, I’m not sure when the next time we’ll get to see each other is.

The job search is essentially stalled, and in saying that I don’t mean I’m not looking, I just mean there aren’t many options around right now. The down time has given me plenty of time to meddle in Photoshop, however, and I’ve been experimenting with new methods and learning new things I’d never touched on before. It’s taken me a long time, but I’m starting to feel like I finally have a bit of direction in my life. And while Kara has been a huge contributor on guiding me that way, I just wish I had listened to my parents years and years ago when they kept telling me that’s what I needed to be doing.

Nussastic: The Site, not The Blog, will be launching relatively shortly. It really is nothing incredible on the coding side, as I’ve realized my potential isn’t in web work (too much programming for me) but I’m very happy and proud of the actual design, so hopefully I’ll get that up and running in the near future.

It was great to get to see my best friend Chris on Monday. He came down to visit SeaWorld with me for the day and it had been awhile since we’d hung out. Rob ended up meeting us there for a little while and I don’t know why, but it was a little awkward in that, Old-girlfriend-meets-new-girlfriend kinda way. Maybe it’s just the case when you’ve got two awesome friends who don’t know each other and have to co-exist. LOL, this whole paragraph sounds incredibly strange, and I can’t really describe what I’m trying to say. Speaking of SeaWorld, their new for 2009 Bolliger and Mabillard flying coaster, Manta, is incredible. I’ll go into details eventually on here.

I guess that’s about it for now. I will be getting back into the habit of posting on here, so keep reading.

Life in The Sota

Well, our trip of midwest  coasters is over and now it’s the downtime.  I’m staying in Minnesota for a month to work and make soe extra money, but my background check hasn’t cleared yet sooooo all I’ve been doing is sitting around Kara’s apartment all day, everyday.

I don’t mind it too much, honestly.  I love relaxing and that’s essentially all I’ve been doing.  Me and her have been getting a nice  taste of how it would be to live together, and so far it’s not bad.  And besides, I get someone to hold every night and that’s always a plus.

So now, I just wait to begin work.  It should be an interesting time being there are her job everyday…I just hope we don’t get tired of each other.

Not that I’m worried.

Under the Weather

Ugh, why again?  Didn’t this just happen?

So, I’m feeling under the weather once again and really beginning to get sick of being sick.  This time around I feel like it’s being caused by the enormous stresses that I’ve been under lately, however.  Between still being unemployed, money issues and slight depression, it would not surprise me what-so-ever if stress was my biggest enemy right now.

On the other hand, I’m so incredibly lucky to have Kara in my life supporting me.  If her words and motivation weren’t there, I don’t want to even imagine the mindframe I’d be in these days.  I do have plenty to look forward to, though, and as long as I just make it through this week til Thursday, things will definitely start getting better.

Hopefully.