Author: ceckman

Standard Report Form as Expected

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I figure I’m already overdue for an update. Do you figure that as well, faithful readers? I think you do. If not, you’re getting one anyway.

Adventurer’s Log – Day 9
We have established a small base in the enemy camp and they seem to have accepted us as a variation of their own. No one knows I am from the midwest and appear to believe I could be from Provincetown, or something, probably. The dogs are more conspicuous, barking at neighbors and threatening to blow our cover. We have resolved to keep them on active probation, with some reservation. There is not much space in our temporary base, so we have already been looking to expand our operations. Unfortunately there are not many options currently equipped with out list of requirements for such a task, but we persevere. It seems there may be a possible match and we are moving to claim the area in the coming days. I must now update my superiors on our progress, they will be anxious to hear of the invasion…

Either way, we can be certain. I do not have a hopeless love affair with Philadelphia the city itself. This is no Julia Child moves to Paris scenario, at least not yet. It has less to do with the friendly people in the city and more to do with the russian roulette driving, the beautiful but ultimately disappointing old homes we’ve looked at, and just the side effects of packing so many people into such a tight area. And probably none of it is really that bad, it’s just difficult to move to a new city, go to new places for everything, and just generally not have any of the bearings that I established over the last 10 years.

A delicate balance of lane and curbcheck

Moving can be difficult, even with close friends. No friends yet, but the plan is to meet some new friends at some meetups or something in the city or more hopefully out in my suburbs, although just trying to keep the dogs and I afloat in the apartment right now is taking considerable energy. If we do put in an offer on the house we’ve been looking at, it will be soon and hopefully we can get more settled by around Halloween, which is – lets be honest – more exciting than my own birthday. Whether this happens or not, I am devastated to think that I might not be able to swing my murder mystery party for the first time in… is it 3 or 4 years? I guess I could always do a make-up party (not that kind of makeup Matthew and Anastasia. This isn’t Ru Paul’s drag race, it’s “A Murder Gone To Wong”) in November once we’re settled in. We might be in Keystone over thanksgiving instead of Japan this year and in that case I’m sure I would have some people willing to attend. Its difficult to say where we’ll be and when, especially as I haven’t even found a place to board the dogs here yet. It’s that weird sort of culture shock… the kind where everything is ALMOST the same, but little differences unnerve you. Like not being able to buy beer at the same place they sell wine and liquor. Or curbs on the right side of roads that have no sidewalk. At least when you enter a completely different culture, you give up having any idea how to navigate and put yourself at the mercy of the locals. This is hard because you have directions which you think you can navigate with, but when you try to use them you sometimes end up with unexpected results.

All in all, we’re doing pretty well so far. It’s difficult and scary and still a little sad, but for me – I came up with an analogy for this, but you’ll have to wait until next time. Love to all –

Chris

Bon Voyage Denver, Bon Appétit Sonic, et Bienvenue Philadelphia

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I know what you’re all thinking – getting this blog update on a Wednesday afternoon. Chris is on NOT on vacation… and yet he blogs. What can this mean? How is this possible? DO I UNDERSTAND ANY PART OF THE WORLD I AM LIVING IN?
Fear not, readers. For it is true, I am not on vacation and yet I still blog. At least until I find a decent therapist in Philly anyway….
Sunday morning against a heavy swamp of nostalgia and chronophobia I piled in the car with my two best pals and my best friend and we set off on our three day road trip.

The events of which were pretty, well, uneventful. We suffered through Rob Lowes audiobook “Stories I only tell my friends”, which I THOUGHT was going to be amazing but… well…. the person that recommended it to me reads entertainment magazine on a regular basis so I should have known… YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. The dogs were quiet and obediently left souvenirs scattered across the midwestern united states. We stayed in Residence Inn’s, and gut bombed our way through Colorado, Kansas, Missouri,

Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and finally, Pennsylvania.
We arrived here Tuesday afternoon, mustered up what strength and mental power we had left (which was like, almost none. Seriously, we couldn’t even pent speakances at pat thoint) and made our inaugural mega trip to Target. Our temporary corporate housing is clean and modern, albeit a little dark and cold (perfect for playing Star Wars). The dogs are quickly adjusting, there is a dog park just for our building less than 20 feet from our front door, and all in all we’re all doing pretty well. Tim is already fully engaged in his new role, and I’m taking a few days to recover before I start going out to meetups to meet some new friends and find some things to do in the city. While we wait for our home in Denver to sell, we’re heading out Saturday and Sunday to look at potential new homes (vacation getaways for the rest of you!), just taking it one day at a time.
I’ll keep a running log of any goings on through this blog, and look forward to your witty comments (and text messages), while I embark on my new adventure and you all continue your own. Thanks for such an amazing last 10 years Colorado, and Philly – I hope you’re ready for me – God knows you all weren’t!!

Chris

Basketball, Closing Ceremonies & Departure Day

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The next day we had most of the morning to sleep in. Our only events of the day were the Men’s Basketball Finals and Closing Ceremonies.

We won Gold, which was awesome, but it wasn’t even a close game. I actually started feeling bad for Serbia near the end of it as we had double their score. It was a swift victory, and I was glad we weren’t playing against Brasil because people get really into their teams there. There was a fun break from basketball though when the Mascot came out to dance. He was doing Whip and Nae Nae before I got my camera out so sorry Stasia, but this is still pretty good too.

Afterwards, we took a bus directly to closing ceremonies. Traffic was horrendous, because you know everyone who was going to see events all over the city all week were now all headed to the same event at the same venue at the same time. I would guess the bus ride took about two hours. Also, did I mention the rain? It was raining very hard. Even after we arrived….

Everyone was soaked. The athletes, the performers, everyone in their seats (it was an open air stadium). I could have been pretty miserable but I had a raincoat and a poncho on top of it and just tried to enjoy it the best I could. Which was great, because Douglas and Randy finally spotted us on TV!!!

 

 

I went back to theNBC Closing Ceremonies Live Replay on NBC’s Website and around 2:30:00 I snagged those shots above. I look like I’m wearing a Hijab but whatever, it’s cool. We left soon after this, but what was awesome was that during the announcement of the 2020 Olympic in Japan Mario came out of the stage!

Nintendo almost NEVER does any agreements for anything so if they are involved in the Tokyo Olympics that is just going to be so awesome. The way home didn’t take near as long, and we were back to the hotel before we knew it!

Departure day was a LONG day. Our flight didn’t leave until late evening so we spent most of the day packing and getting ready in the hotel. By the time we got to the airport the place was swamped – everyone kept telling us that it was the busiest day in the airport’s history.

Getting through security wasn’t too horrible with NBC, and we actually boarded on time as well. But then we got stuck on the tarmac for almost 2 hours, and even though we sprinted as soon as we landed in Houston we missed our connection. Sticky, stinky, and exhausted, we finally got on a standby flight (middle seat coach!) and got home safe. It was a great adventure we both really enjoyed. Brasil is a beautiful country, although I don’t know that I would have done something like this without the group we had. We were chaperoned, carted around in busses, and we had a security detail following us almost everywhere we went. It truly was a safe, super awesome vacation.