Sleepy in Seattle

In the wake of all of the despair in Haiti, I found out today about an initiative that could bring a lot of hope to an otherwise extradordinarily bleak situation.

At any given time, there’s a lot of adoptions pending between American families and adoption agencies in third world countries. Right now about 1000 kids in Haiti are in limbo as they were going down the long process of being adopted (takes 3+ years sometimes) but now all the paperwork and such is probably buried in the rubble of some demolished building.

So apparently, America has been known to inact something called Huminatarian Parole in situations like this, where basically US diplomats make the case to the government to have the soon-to-be adopted kids placed with their new families immediately, regardless of the adoption process status. While it doesn’t circumvent the adoption process, it instead allows it to continue while the kids are with their new families in the States (and thus out of danger).

That really struck me. Apparently people are becoming activists for this to happen (as it’s only happened twice before in Rwanda and Romania) by writing letters to officials, etc. I just sent mine in. Crazy that 1000 kids could be essentially rescued just by writing email and making phone calls.

My pastor’s brother’s family are personally affected by this, as they are currently going through the process of adopting a child from Haiti. In fact, his sister-in-law was on the ground visiting her (hopeful) soon-to-be son when the disaster struck.

If you want to read her story or send an email or make a phone call to help get this initiative in motion, definitely check out her blog post on the subject.

Last night I hosted my lifegroup Strings & Friends for some dinner. It was great seeing everyone, and it was our first time back together in the New Year. This lifegroup sesh came with Hybrid Synergy Drive, as we brought in some new friends to join. Here are some highlights in photos.

Carrie addresses Keira as “Girlie”

Andrew breaks out the closest thing to a combover without actually crossing the line

Anto asks guests a simple question, “If I were born Italian, do you think I’d be called Antonio, Tony, Tonio…?”

Wong attempts to run the table.

There’s a guy sitting 2 tables away from me at the coffee shop. He’s having a conversation with what seems like an interviewer. Guy A is talking loud enough that I know a couple things: a.) he’s a college senior about to graduate in the spring, b.) he considers himself a designer, but goes to a Christian college and apologizes for it and  c.) he wants this Guy B to give him a job.

Guy B is so not into it.

Awkward. Very awkward. I should tell Guy A to leave right now and enjoy what’s left of college before the real world comes.

Back in 2002, college was just getting rolling for me. At the beginning of that year, I was living it up in the second half of my freshmen year. My rooommate Josh was a one of the most interesting guys I had met at that time. He brought a lot of variety to our dorm room. His day consisted of 4 basic elements:

1. Class
2. Workout and protein shakes
3. Drinking your face off
4. Watching Fight Club

Every day. Rinse, wash, repeat. Occassionally a Taco Bell run would make it’s way between step 3 and 4, and you can guess who was Designated Derek. I actually was fine with it, though. Josh had a PS3 so by my count, our living arrangement was very synergistic- especially when Grand Theft Auto III came out that spring.

I don’t think we even played a single mission in the game, it’s just as much fun (arguably more) just running over women and children, chopping cars, and shooting rockets at helicopters.

Anyway, Josh was a fun guy – and rooming with him was a heck of a way to start peeling away my extreme type A behaviors. As I found out throughout the course of the year, maintaining one pile of clothes and conducting the “sniff test” can be just as efficient as using a closet or dresser.

Here’s a shot of us getting ready for one of our dances. Yeah, our college had dances… just like high school.

And for the record, I refuse to confirm or deny any rumors that suggest we had our tips frosted together.

This past week I was in Las Vegas for CES 2010. The interesting thing about Vegas is that you instantly feel dirty… literally.

After about 4 hours your eyes start to burn from the smoke and all the strange scents each hotel and/or casino tries pumping into their respective ozones. At the end of day 1 there is an actual layer of dirt stuck to you, and by the end of day 2 even the best shower (waterfall, double headed, what you have you) can’t get you clean.

The event itself had its usual charms -  mostly in the form of hoards of people crowded around the latest, thinnest, LED TVs. Meanwhile, booth babes try to smile at you, but take care to not put cracks in the primer layer of their shellacked high grade war paint. It’s a delight, truly.

That said, we had some productive meetings and it was good catching up with both old and new friends. The Herminator was in full swing at a fantastic party my friend Kristin hosted – complete with the look of desire as seen in pretty much any scene from Zoolander. I tried it myself in a shot with Kristin, to no avail.

It’s good to be back in Seattle. By my calculation I’ll be here for approximately 20 hours before shoving off once again. Getting 3-4 hours of sleep each night (at best) has taken its toll, so apologies to any incoherent babbling that may have made it into this post.

Goodnight, Seattle. Manhattan, stay classy and see you tomorrow.

Long before Flight of the Conchords were singing about it, six young men were bringing business time to the world. And by world, I mean the tri-county Central New York area.

In an effort to prove our existence with the ladies of Cicero-North Syracuse High School, six guys from the likes of the math league, glee club, and (d)orchestra joined forces to create an unstoppable musical force. That’s right people, 2001 marked the year of The Businessmen.

The best part of it all was that I had no business playing with these guys. As Kristen (Sciaruto) Embry would be quick to point out, I could barely use a sustain pedal. How was it that I found myself part of the group that would rise to the top of the local high school radio charts?

Simple. I had a performance spot at our high school’s Prevention Night, that’s code for ‘ambiguously themed talent show’.

I was going to form a band to perform a cover of the Tom Jones song, It’s Not Unusual. It was a brilliant plan, which worked basically like this:

1. Find trombone and trumpet player
2. Create band and play It’s Not Unusual at high school talent show
3. Take my pick of any girl in the school (like on The Bachelor)

Instead, my good friend at the time (and future lead singer) convinced me to do otherwise. He said that I should join their band and surrender my spot at the show. He would just hand me a guitar, saying all that mattered is that we would all be in a band together and that the “business would come”. Luckily I weaseled my way in as the piano player once their original member didn’t show up for a practice. Or at least that’s how I like to remember it.

It’s business time people, and my senior year of high school was never to be the same.

A new decade is upon us, and it got me thinking about how much can change in 10 years. I’d be willing to venture a guess that the last 10 years have held more than any other period every will. Just think about how much stuff transpires between the age of 16 and 26. Big stuff. Big life stuff.

In the last 10 years I’ve graduated from high school and college, got my first car, first kiss (because of the car), first girlfriend (because of the kiss), first job (because girls are expensive), and first home (because being homeless isn’t really popular right now). I thought it’d be fun to recap the highlights from each year in the last decade, in a new series called Ten Years in Ten Days. Buckle up, time for a quick trip down memory lane.

In the Year 2000…

The year 2000 was possibly the most over-hyped year ever to exist. People were busy buying powdered milk and canned food, all the while significant technology spending and the likes of e-commerce fueled the economy (sock puppets anyone?). Tw0-thousand was also when I started my senior year in high school.

I remember the first week of school it was all about the vests. Old Navy had been brainwashing us all summer with their Tech Vest commercials. Ah yes, the Old Navy Tech Vest. Truly technology at its finest. Remember kids, it was hip to zip.

Favorite memory? Zipping my way up and down the hallways of Cicero-North Syracuse High School, fresh with frosted tips and and some sort of beaded necklace from my cousin. Oh, and a Messenger bag too. Sounds about right.

Here’s a shot with my future r-blading partner and Summer 2002-03 BFF, Bridget Frio (Fredenburg) sporting said style.

Gosh, was I ever a sucker for those Lisa Loeb glasses.

Today was a pretty low key day. Contemplative. Spent a good chunk of time just recharging the batteries, and in the background of my mind I began to mull over a few things. Namely, how people approach a new year.

It’s strange, but I see so many friends putting a disproportionate amount of stock into the first 24 hours of a new year, as if this crucial first day sets the entire standard by which the following 364 will be counted. They get into new workout routines, grind the gorging on fatty foods to a near halt, and line their Facebook status updates with optimistic sayings.

Perhaps this is just the pendulum swinging back extra hard – we start out each year with the best plan and intentions, and we gradually start missing the mark. And by the end of a year, it’s so clear that were not even close to where we want to be that now only drastic measures (read: a ‘fresh’ start) must be taken.

And we know it’s coming. Family members gorging on food at Thanksgiving and Christmas often remark that it will all change after the first of the year. If we were seriously committed to changing our lifestyle, why couldn’t we just make the change instantaneously?

Maybe it’s systemic of a bigger problem, perhaps we just don’t feel like we’re in control of our lives anymore. What we know we should do and what we desire to do never actually match up with the things that we do.

One thing is certain. I’m going to be wading through layers and layers of office-garbed resolutionists at the gym. I look forward till the third week of January when they’ll be back at home falling into their 2009 routine all over again. I’m sure Idol will be on by then, right?