The Decemberists + Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

So Saturday Amber, Greg and I travelled to the Merriweather Post Pavilion http://www.merriweathermusic.com/ to watch the Decemberists in concert. We discussed we must really like them because this was the third time we've seen them in concert. Not only is it the third time, but it's the third time this summer!

Merriweather is gorgeous! I hadn't been out there to see a concert yet and was very excited to see how beautiful it is. The pavilion is completed surrounded by beech trees and has a great lawn area. While there I learned that the venue was designed so that it would not distruc the natural topography of the site. The acoustics are considered to be best among outdoor centues. Merriweather has played host to such iconic musical groups as Led Zeppelin in 1969 and The Grateful Dead in 1983.
The concert was great! They played songs that they originally intended to record with a full orchestra. It was like watching The Decemberists play out a full movie production. I kept thinking that everything sounded as if it could have been a movie soundtrack. The setting was perfect! Tucked away in the trees :)

If you haven't already heard of the Decemberists, please check them out. http://www.decemberists.com/about.aspx

The Decemberists front man, Colin Meloy is revolutionary in the world of indie music. He studied creative writing while in college and often writes songs based on stories that he's read. The Decemberists current album, The Crane Wife, is a story Meloy found when browsing the children's section of a bookstore in Portland. The Crane Wife is a Japanese folk tale that has been handed down in different variations and translations. Along with the rest of the band-- multi instrumentalist Chris Funk, Keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and drummer John Moen--The Decemberists are producing music that embraces experimentation and celebrates classic pop and folk. Their music is sometimes relative to an Irish Jig or a Sea chant. The band is original and their sound is energetic, expansive and all their own.

Transformers

I have been lagging on the movie viewing and last night made a split decision to see Transformers. Man was it the right decision! Very few movies make me drop my jaw, clap, and yell outloud. I loved every minute of the high intensity, action packed film.

I can't get over how much I enjoyed this film. If you haven't already done so, please see this movie! I loved the special effects! Every Transformer looked amazing. The movie was humorous and action packed. I always worry with movies like this that there will be a slow center to the film. This was not slow in any form.

I loved the audience interaction as well. People screamd and cheered during the film. After the film was over people stood up and cheered! I share their sentiment. What an excellent summer movie and a must see if you ever watched or knew of Transformers as a kid.

Alli

I had to post this because it is a very rare occurance that I found myself laughing outloud at the office from something I read online.

I was reading a blog today and I noticed an add for the new weightloss pill, Alli. I'm curious so I click. At first glance this sounds like the miracle pill the world of women have been waiting for!

"Forget the fad diets and gimmicks. The miracle offers, the empty promises. Welcome to Alli."

Hmm....please tell me more.

"If you have the will, we have the power."

I have the will! Please give me your power, oh great one Alli!!!!

At this point my curiosity is peaked. This the only weightloss pill that is FDA approved. It must work miracles! I decided to click on, "how does it work." Although I'm intrigued I am still skeptical.

The sight continued to tell me that Alli worked by preventing your body from breaking down all the fat that you ingest. That doesn't sound so bad. But then it went on to say, "Undigested fat cannot be stored and passes through the body naturally...In fact, you may recognize it in the toilet as something that looks like the oil on the top of a pizza." Excuse me? Come again? So you're telling me that pizza oil comes out of my bum and floats in my toilet? If it comes out while I'm doing my business does it come out when I least expect it????

I decided to read the side effects:

"you may have bowel changes that are call treatment effects:

-gas with oily spotting
-loose stools
-more frequent stools that may be hard to control"

I'm sorry, you said that the nasty side effects are that I'll:

-shart oil in my pants
-have diarrhea
-have to use the bathroom in my pants while I'm in that important meeting with my boss

Wow, I'm beginning to think this isn't the magic weightloss pill I've been hoping for.

Oh great Alli, I asked for your power, but please....not the power to poo!!!!

Radiology and Ambulances

Today I had to use my lunch break to go to the Radiology lab to prepare for my CT Scan tomorrow. I wasn't thrilled to be going there mostly because I'm not thrilled to be having a CT Scan. My Dr. isn't convinced that my ailment is an ulcer so he wants more tests done. GREAT, more needles!

If you are familiar with the D.C. area at all you know that travelling what looks like 15 min. away could some times end up being an hour away with traffic on the beltway. I had to make it from Alexandria to Annandale. I made it in great time, 25 min. My appointment for a CT Scan isn't until tomorrow. I had to go today to pick up the Barium that I have to drink tomorrow. From what I've been told it doesn't taste that great.

When I checked in and told them what I was there for they asked me what flavor Barium I wanted. I remember being a kid and drinking your medicine when you were sick. Any flavor you add always makes it taste worse! The flavor choices made me gag just thinking about them: berry, banana, or orange. YUCK!!!! I asked them which was least nasty of all the nasty flavors and that left me with orange.

I left the Dr. office and headed to my car. I put my car in reverse and just as I was backing up and ambulance with lights flashing pulled right behind me, parked, and the driver got out and walked away!!!!I was so angry! I stopped myself and said, "Emily, someone is in danger and you are complaining because you are late to get back on the road and get stuck in traffic? Stop complaining." I tried to calm myself down. I decided to use this indefinite amount of time to think. I thought about the other ambulance that pulled up and I watched them point at me because they noticed my despair and they parked in an EMPTY parking space before hurriedly rushing into the building. I thought about ALL the EMPTY parking spaces that flooded the parking lot and ALL the places this ambulance could have parked except behind me. I also thought about the gentleman that came to his car which was also blocked by the ambulance. I thought about how he must be in the same despair as me. I thought about all of this while he wiggled his little VW Golf back and forth until he could pull out from behind the ambulance because on the left of that little VW Golf there were 2 empty parking spaces!!!! I thought WHY ME!!!!! Everyone was leaving the building looking at my face thinking, 'how sad' as they got into their unblocked cars and drove away. My anger was brewing and all the while I couldn't help but think that someone was in trouble and how dare I get so angry.

A good 20 minutes later the driver of the ambulance moseyed on out and moved the vehicle to an empty parking space just literally 3 feet from his original location. He then got out of his car lit a cigarette and sat there until he was joined by the two people from the other ambulance! What kind of emergency is that!!!!!

So tomorrow I have to starve myself and drink this orange flavored chalk water and then go to the Dr. so they can inject me with a glowing dye while they scan my body for problems......I think I'll end up being an orange flavored glowing science experiment.....but that may be just wishful thinking....

Nilla

I went home for the July 4th holiday to continue the wedding dress shopping and finish up some wedding details. My parents anniversary is July 4th and as a gift my dad got my mom a new baby lab. We call her 'Nilla.' She is roughly 8 weeks old and is beautiful. Her and Chloe (their other lab) get along so well. Chloe likes to take care of the little one and they love to play tug-of-war. Right now Nilla likes to eat and sleep. She will fall asleep anywhere. She loves to be all wrapped up and cuddled. I think she will be a big dog! Please enjoy this photos of her. She is the cutest puppy in the world!

Guinness Foreign Extra

Pat wanted to prove to me that beer is really cheap in the island. If you look closely at this pciture from their store you can see that the price is $.20 per can of Guiness. If you look even closer you can see that there is a bar code over the $.20. Pat has informed me that the bar code meant that it was on sale even more! The cans were $.15 each!!!

It's a new day

I just wanted to post a few more pictures of Pat on the island. Here is a recent picture of Pat working at the Post Office in Diego Garcia. Since Pat now has a computer it will be much easier to keep in contact with him. He has been able to send more pictures and communicate via e-mail. I talk to Pat everyday and a few times a day. It is strange to think that at this very moment he's getting ready for bed and I've only just begun my day.

Countdown to the Wedding

For those of you that are interested; our wedding is April 26th, 2008. I have added an official tracker on the bottom of my page :)

Wedding Dress Shopping

So I have been spending the last few months planning our wedding. I don't think I'm stressed. Actually I think I'm very prepared. Things seem to be coming together nicely. As long as I can find a dress I would feel like things are progressing. So I went last weekend with my best friend here, Amber, dress shopping. We went to David's Bridal. I picked Amber up at the metro and we stopped for lunch before. We were both craving Five Guy's burgers......makes my mouth water just thinking about it. So we each got the delicious burgers. I suppose greesy burgers are not the best food to eat right before you go dress shopping.

I suppose everything was catching up with me. I only got one dress on and took pictures before my stomach started bothering me. It felt as though the corset was too tight. Eventually the pain got so bad that I broke into a cold sweat and had to lay on the floor. I had to have the dress shop call and ambulance because the pain was so bad. I wound up getting carted out of the dress shop by the EMT's.....how embarassing. I spend the rest of the dress shopping day in the emergency room while they poked me with needles and poked at my stomach.

The Dr.'s determined that I have a peptic ulcer. Who knows what caused the pain. It could be stress. My guess: it was that delicious, piled high cheeseburger from Five Guys.

Patrick

For those of you who don't know, Patrick is stationed at Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean. He is very far from home and the time difference is significant. He is 10 hours ahead. It works out nicely with communication because when I am waking up in the morning he is going to bed and vice versa. The climate on the island is tropical and very hot. If you want to know more about Diego Garcia check out this website: http://www.dg.navy.mil/web/

Hopefully I'll be able to get Pat to post here on the blog. We are still working on getting him a computer and internet access. Once that is done it will be much easier for him to keep in contact with everyone. For now, just keep e-mailing him.

It's never been hard for Pat to make friends. He's making the most of his time on the island and has made some friendships that I think will remain pretty strong. While on the island he will get to spend his leisure time boating, fishing and golfing....hey, life ain't so bad!

He's slated to come back to the states in April as long as everything goes well. Lucky for him that's when we're planning on getting married! So he'll make it back just in time to get hitched :) I can't wait to see him again and I'm sure there are many others who feel the same way.

For now, just keep him in your prayers and soon we'll have him back home safe and sound!

The Beginning

Well. I've decided to start a blog. It seems to be the new thing these days and since there is much going on in my life I figured it was only fitting....

Today I'm sitting at work staring at the computer wondering when the work load is going to hit. We are rapidly approaching the political season and no one really knows when the dollars will start flying. We are busy pitching business and gathering information.

In the spare time that I have here at my computer I decided to start and update everyone on my status. I recently got engaged to the love of my life, Patrick Milhoan. It was a wonderful proposal. I was back in Parkersburg visiting before Patrick shipped off with the navy. I really had no idea. It was the first weekend in April. We had just finished an evening of board games with my family and it had been snowing for a few hours. His mother had asked us to stop by the store to pick up a few things for the big meal we were having the following day. Pat went out to the car and I followed. I had been extremely thirsty and grabbed a can of pop on my way out the door. As I approached the car Patrick stopped me, took my keys and the pop and set them on the trunk of the car. He was smiling and he hugged me.

All I could think of was, "man, I'm soooo thirsty. Can I just get a drink of my pop?"

He was looking at me, smiling so wide. He started laughing hysterically. You know that nervous laugh that almost makes you want to cry. He just kept laughing, hugging me and laughing. The laughter was contageous and I too began to laugh; for what reason I was laughing I had no idea. Mind you it has been snowing this entire time. My shoulders were beginning to dappen because of all the snow.

Finally I spoke, "Can we get in the car?" (really I was concerned that my pop was just sitting there and I was truly thirsty.)

At that point Patrick got down on one knee and pulled out the ring. I immediately burst into hysterical tears. I don't think I even muttered, "yes!" until he asked me again. So there we were: me with my ugly cry, Patrick kneeling in 3 inches of snow, and me with a beautiful diamond ring on my finger. You can guess that I forgot all about how thirsty I was!

So, there it is. I'm engaged!