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I walked away from work today feeling very very different.  In some ways I was ecstatic, but in others kind of sad.  The last 12 months have not been easy for me.  I have had a very tumultuous time on the personal side.  Heidi has been there through all of it by my side and I know that she is happy the last 12 months are over.  I won’t go into too much depth online but let’s just say that today was a day that some people have wanted for a while.

I walked out of the DUA office today, never to return.  As of this moment I am currently unemployed, something I have not been for quite some time.  When I left Australia just under 3 years ago, I had a plan, I had a goal to work in the USA for a couple of years and return home.  That obviously has changed, and for the better of course.  But although the last few months at work have not been easy, they had to be done.  I don’t hold bad feelings towards my old work, but there was a lot of negativity for a while.  But they helped me get here over to the USA and without them I never would have met the love of my life, I wouldn’t be married.

So right now as I sit here in front of my pc on a Friday night, for the first time in 3 years I have no job to go to on Monday, who knows what the future will bring.  I need to start applying for jobs and get some focus in my life, but either way, there is a future ahead.  I just need to work out what that is.

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This is not the post I was going to write this week, it was going to be full of Avgeek Porn, but that didn’t happen (haven’t finished the photos yet) and then I was going to write something else about the visa process (that can wait too).  Since the reason I am behind in my photos is because I skipped going for a run yesterday morning, I should at least talk about that.

Right now, Thursday morning, my body despises me.  It hates my guts!  Why? Well because I decided to sleep in yesterday morning (only an extra 30 mins) instead of going for a run.  What I decided to do was keep that run for when I got home.  Yeah, not a good idea.  In the past I might have gone to the gym in the morning and then maybe a short run in the afternoon.  Everytime I did that, I only lasted about 2-3km before my legs where just crap.  A day at work with my legs stuck under a desk, or having to be cramped in a bus for an hour to get home (yep, yesterday took an hour and a quarter to get home thanks to traffic and rain & delays), never leaves my legs in good shape.  So running in the afternoon never happens properly.  Except yesterday I pushed through it and ran the full 5kms (in the rain as well).

This was the dumbest idea I have had in a while, and right now my legs hate my guts.  My shins are tight and feel like someone has been jumping up and down on them.  My calves feel like someone has been stabbing needles into them, and all of this because I decided to get some extra sleep.  Since I run at least 3 days a week and Friday morning is always a run day before the weekly weigh in, I have no choice really but to run tomorrow.  I hope to god that my legs are better by then or I will just be making it worse.  Well the main thing is that I did run and I got out there, but I seriously am not doing that again… my legs just can’t handle the afternoon run.  I don’t know why but a morning run is always more refreshing to me.

Eh… maybe I should just stop whining?

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It’s Friday.  All over the USA (And some parts of Europe as well) people are hopping onboard aircraft, jetting their way towards Seattle.  I am sure there are many people heading here for business or for the Seattle Food & Wine Expo or for Alton Brown Live this weekend.  But some people are heading their way towards Seattle for some Avgeek time.  This weekend is the Annual Aviation Geek Fest (AGF) and this will be the third year running that I will be helping out.

Although this year I didn’t help as much as the past for planning (since I believe a lot of it was done behind the scenes) I will still be there over the weekend, running around like a crazy person I am sure.  But the weekend is also great for the fact that I get to meet so many people.  I get to share my passion for Aviation with many like minded people, and also get to just be open about all of it.  No need to hide the fact I like planes when everyone else at AGF does too!  Catching up with friends on this annual visit is also fairly handy and I can’t wait to do that.

Although this year I won’t be able to make the social gathering on Saturday night (since I will be at the aforementioned Alton Brown Live.  Heidi & I bought tickets last May) it means that social time with everyone won’t be as great as last year, and my first AGF as a married man will be spent without Heidi around (she will be working most of the time).  It doesn’t change the fact that I will be having a heap of fun but it would have been nice to have her around, so she can experience some things for the first time.

It’s a big weekend, I can’t wait to get up to Everett tomorrow and get on that factory floor again, have a blast with everyone  and just enjoy myself.  Everyone who is coming to Seattle for AGF should have a really good time, and if you don’t, well… take a look at yourself!

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Everyone knows Valentines Day is about the ladies.  It is a day that is very commercialised, and is meant to be full of flowers and chocolates.  To be honest, I have never been that much of a fan.  But I do enjoy the day where I get to spoil Heidi.  So that is what I did.  I was determined to make up for last year when we didn’t plan anything and it was really just a day where we ended up catching up at the last minute and had Teriyaki.  Classy!!

Well this year was much better as I had a few different things planned.  I made sure to keep Heidi entertained and made her breakfast anything she wanted.  I also made sure she could do whatever she wanted in the morning after some errands (she wanted to study so I gave her total peace and quiet while I was doing chores by having my headphones in and staying silent the whole time).    I then took her for a picnic to an undisclosed location, well the location of the picnic was disclosed, what food we were having was not since we were going to get some takeout for lunch.  So Heidi had decided she would spend the entire car ride there trying to guess where we were going.  I even drove in the wrong direction to what I normally would to get there to confuse her.  She was sooooo excited to go to the Aussie Pie Company for lunch and then as I turned onto I5 North she was even more confused.  I had the time of my life confusing her.  We picked up some Japanese from a small asian deli in Georgetown and then headed over to West Seattle for a truck picnic by the water.

I then took her to downtown for an activity I knew she would want.  I ended up telling her the activity the night before but I was originally just going to not tell her.   I took her to the Seattle Meowtrapolitan Cat Cafe.  They were having a pop up to help raise funds for some charities and get started for their cafe which is due to open sometime soon.  A cafe where Heidi can play with cats is like the best thing ever to her.  I was a little Meh about it, but hey, if it makes her happy.  She got to play with 1 or 2 cats and the coffee was fairly Meh.  All in all to keep Heidi happy for 30 mins of Cat time, well worth the $$$.

We ended off our day with some games on the wii at home, and then a special dinner of Heidi’s favourite foods, Mac & Cheese and Ice Cream (not together of course).  All in all a pretty good improvement over last year and getting to spend the evening in with a movie is always a good thing right?

To next year!

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Things have been quiet on the life front as of late.  My life has really consisted of the usual things.  Wake up, Work out, Work, Cook, Eat, Sleep.  Rinse Repeat.  Add in some fun random times with Heidi and that is pretty much my life right now.  But this is really the calm before the storm (couple of big weeks coming up with Valentines Day and Aviation Geek Fest over the next two weekends).

One thing that has surprised me this week has been the process of looking for a new job (yes my time at DUA is coming to and end, that is a story for when I finish up, not after).  I haven’t been through a proper interview process since before my time at Sunlover, well over 10 years ago.  I haven’t even really updated my resume since I started the process for working over here in the USA, and even that was the first time I had done it since I started at Sunlover.  This whole process is new for me.  Thankfully I have some help.

I have David helping me out with interview tactics, resume preparation etc coming from his perspective as a Career Counselor.  Something he does all the time, on a day to day basis.  Then I have Heidi helping me from her teachers perspective, which to be honest can sometimes put me on the defensive when I shouldn’t be.  She is trying to teach me speak American and also helping me to translate my resume from Australian English to American English.  This isn’t an easy process for Heidi as I am a stubborn person at times, really stubborn.

But either way it is a long road ahead of me.  As I play the waiting game with the USCIS (anything involving an immigration process is heavily spent waiting, lots and lots of waiting) I have time to prepare all the things that I had taken for granted back home.  One thing that caused me to have a bit of a meltdown with Heidi yesterday was all over a folder for my resume.  Over here that would be called a Portfolio but the folders I wanted don’t exist over here and by the time I had conceded and gone with Heidi’s suggestion, I then realized nothing would work over here because the folders are all the wrong size.  Why can’t the USA use proper paper sizing!

It will be an interesting couple of months as I work towards getting a new job and earning some money.  It is a time to decide whether I stay with the career I have or the kind of jobs I have stuck with over the last 10 years, or do I go for something different.  Time will tell!

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It is Saturday morning, you are lying in bed, looking out the window at fog that comes all the way to your window, what do you do?  Well on Saturday we had planned to go hiking on Cougar Mountain, but with fog all the way to the window and so thick that you couldn’t see a single thing, that was off.  It was a little bit dangerous.  It seemed to be fogged in just about everywhere in Seattle.  Friday night it was really foggy as well so it looked like it was going to stick around.  Heidi & I just had no idea what to do and were bouncing ideas off each other.  I didn’t really want to be cooped up inside the apartment all day so suggested about getting out of town.  Neither of us wanted to drive our car though, purely because the truck eats so much gas it isn’t funny and Heidi hates putting unnecessary miles on the Mazda (totally agree with that purpose too).  But then what do we do?  I had a free day from our Honeymoon with National Car Rental (they gave us a freebie for the hell of it and we never applied it).  Well thank you National because we used it!  We both agreed a free car rental for the day would be fun and grabbing something sporty from the Executive Line would be fun.  If it failed, we could just cancel the reservation on my phone and walk away from it, nothing lost.

So Heidi dropped me at the SeaTac Rental Facility and parked just down the Street at the big park and ride (where we could return later that night to grab Heidi’s car back) and after a while of waiting, the National staff were able to bring around a nice Black/Grey Challenger for us.  Now back during our Honeymoon Heidi had told me she wanted to drive a Challenger and that is what I tried to get for her.   Unfortunately  LAX at the time had none at all in attendance, and they checked everywhere.  So unfortunately we had to settle with the 300C (which was a fantastic car anyway).  But I was able to deliver the Challenger for her and she loved every minute of it.  The car was fun to drive and we had a blast in a nice little two door car for the day (be it in the fog and cold for part of it).  We headed off down to the coast south of Aberdeen down towards Long Beach and over the border into Oregon (not to Portland).

We spent more time in the car than out of it at times, but it was still fun anyway.  We finished off the day back in Seattle at Federal Way for dinner and then doing the grocery shopping with the Challenger.  It was a fun day and many laughs were had.  We dropped the Ghost back on Sunday morning before doing some of our morning chores (Heidi was happy she got to drive the truck since she wanted me to return the Challenger) and I was sad to see it go.  Maybe when I have my Mid Life crisis I can have a Challenger?

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Pictures in the Above Folder

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Well, it had to happen.  At some point in my life the Patriots would have to make the Superbowl against the Seahawks.  My beloved team (ok my team, I don’t know if i would say Beloved since I haven’t followed them my entire life etc) beat the Colts last night (in a wet wet thumping) and now play against the Seahawks (who beat the packers in a pretty epic game to be honest) in 2 weeks time.  Now how do you handle a person who has been a Seahawks fan all her life, lives in Seattle, breathes Seattle and is die hard.  Well I just have to.

But this post really has a history stemming back to the start of the season, Heidi & I put down a bet that had to do with our teams.  If either of our teams make the superbowl, then that person could have a new jersey ready for the superbowl if they want.  However there was a 2nd clause.  If either person’s team won the superbowl, then the other party in the marriage had to have a jersey of that team.  This could get very interesting, as now that both of our teams are in the superbowl, 1 of us is getting 2 new jerseys, it is just going to be a matter of who gets an unwanted jersey 😉

To ensure safety and sanity in our household for the next two weeks, Heidi & I have banned all football talk, so this will be the last from me in regards to this game.  Heidi & I both want to make sure we come out of this in one whole piece and intact with sane minds.  But I know we can do it!  I am not going to spend the next two weeks throwing the patriots out there, I will be respectful (since I like my life in one piece) and I will only talk about the game unless someone approaches me about it.  That way I don’t have people saying I am the one starting stuff.

I will end with one thing.

GO PATS!!!!!!

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It’s movie night tonight in the Muir Household and it is always a tough decision about what to watch.  We managed to score tickets the other day to a preview screening of The Kingsmen, so probably won’t be going out tonight to the movies (original plan was saturday night movies to see American Sniper).  But now it comes down to what to watch on the couch.  There are plenty of movies we could watch, a romantic comedy to keep the wife happy (ugh, pass) or something classic.  At one point we were going through all the Star Wars movies, but now we are finished.

But now it comes down to should I introduce Heidi to some quintessential Australian movies?  The kind of movies that every Australian knows about.  My two favourite movies from Aus would have to be The Dish or The Castle, both pretty good but very different to each other.  The Castle is clearly the Comedy about the Australia of the 90s, and the “typical” australian.  However the Dish shows a good serious look at Australian life in the country in the 60s.  So many choices!

What should I show to her?  I do think it is something I need to introduce her to, a little bit of Australia at home here in the USA.  I already have her eating Vegemite, the least I can do is slowly slowly convert her 😉

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Yep, I am sick.  It sucks 🙁  They always joke that the worst kind of sickness in the world is Manflu, and I always think that is stupid.  However right now I know that is me, just a little.  I don’t handle being sick that well at all, I never have.  I remember back to being in school and being so sick with the flu one year that I was hallucinating.  I thought that I had lost money in the bathroom cupboards where the sheets were stored.  I was diving through them like crazy.  I thought this was a kind of dream, turns out I was doing it for real.  That did not go down well at all.

I always seem to get sick though, every year I usually deal with tonsillitis at least once.  I can easily deal with that, I have had it so many times in my life now.  A little amoxicillan from the doctor (a type of antibiotic) and my life is all good.  However I don’t often get smacked down with a cold or flu and if I do, I can usually handle it fairly well.  This time though is a little bit different.  I don’t think I have been this sick in quite some time.  It all started last week, on Thursday.  I couldn’t swallow at all, and figured it was a case of tonsillitis coming on.  Since I was working from home I took an hour or so off to head off to the doctors.  We changed health plans at work last year and since I have a new location as well, It meant a new doctor.  The doctor didn’t think I had tonsillitis and ran some tests but didn’t give me anything, I wasn’t happy at all, thinking that I knew better.  He said he would get back to me friday with the results.

Friday came, and it went with no call from the doctor at all.  By that stage I was getting worse and my body was going from Tonsillitis mode into full blown viral infection.  I have no idea what I have but it kicked in badly.  I had to work Saturday as well and the sickness was partially being put at bay with some cold & flu drugs.  But it was like paddling upstream against a waterfall.  It was inevitable that today would happen.  Yesterday I barely kept it together but by the end of the day, I was struggling big time.  I had barely slept since Friday and the night time drugs were just not working at all.  I was battling upstream and loosing.  This morning I let the stream win and over the falls I went.

The doctor called through this morning with my results.  Shock Horror i don’t have tonsillitis but I am coming in anyway to get rechecked out.   Not only was I not sleeping my right eye was being gross (no descriptions trust me) and the whole thing was just disgusting, I was a mess.  Heidi stayed with me for the morning looking after me and taking care of me (which I didn’t expect).  I wanted to do everything I could to not make her sick and get what I have, whatever it is.  The doctor checked me out and told me that I do have some form of Influenza (wooooo mandatory flu shots really work /sarcasm) but the weirdness is that the virus was also affecting my eye.

So he sent me home with a couple of prescriptions and plenty of orders to rest up, no gym and take it easy with the eye today since I would be putting drops in it.  I ended up back on the couch around lunch watching tv and trying not to cough.  I have to drink ginger tea (something the doctor told me on the first visit, and I actually am listening to him this time) and rest and get plenty of fluids.  I feel like I am a four year old, carting around a water bottle everywhere I move, taking an afternoon nap since i have no energy.  I have orders to stay out of the gym as well for at least 4 days, and even then I can’t push myself too hard.  That is going to be the hardest part as I haven’t had that long off the gym in almost 4 years!  Going to be a tough time I guess.

Being sick is still crappy, and I don’t know if I really ever want to deal with it.  But the main thing is you know that in this life we will always be sick.  It is more about dealing with the bad parts of it, while enjoying the things that you can out of it,  Getting time to relax, time to catch up on TV you might not get to see all the time.  Personally, I am looking forward to a treat to make me feel better, because that’s what happens when you are sick right?

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2015 will certainly be a different year than 2014.  For first I am married now so I guess this year will see me trying to be a better husband as well as a better husband.  The hardest part of my life this year will be uncertainty.  I want to know what is happening with my life but I am so far away from everything it isn’t funny.  Life is pretty much in a holding pattern so I want to make sure whatever goals I set for myself this year are attainable.

One of the biggest things I try to do every year is set some fitness goals.  Since Heidi is going to have her own goals (and hopefully she will post them here as well), my goals might be fairly similar.  Like for instance I know that Heidi wants to run a 5k this year, something she wants to do to push herself.  So I figure I should at least do one myself right?  I think my fitness goals for 2015 should be:

* 2 x 5k runs
* 1 x 10k run

I also want to continue getting my weight back down.  It is too high in my opinion so will do whatever it takes to get that back down.   I know people will say that I don’t need it etc, but I do and I want to fit back into my Hong Kong Suit and prove Heidi wrong after a comment she made about it before the wedding.

As for Travel Goals, well that is a different thing this year.  Ideally Heidi & I want to go to Australia.  That is all we really care about, that is all we really want to do.  Nothing else matters, everything else is not required, everything else is just icing on the cake (i do like cake and i do like icing).

I want to work towards changing my job this year as well, finding something that will make me happy.  I don’t want to be in this job forever and I don’t want to be stuck in the same job for the rest of my life, so finding something this year will be one of my goals.  Now to just work out what I want to do… any ideas?

So that is enough pondering the future for one night.  I am looking forward to a new 2015, one that brings in some challenges and some surprises.