The Holidays Are Here!

Hello!

Hope that you are getting into the holiday spirit, and signing your Christmas cards and mailing them off today, if you haven’t already done so.

I will be spending Christmas with my sister, which I am very excited about, since we haven’t had an actual Christmas together since I was like 8 years old.

 Santa on Socials

Fun fact:  Santa Claus is on social media.  He has his own Facebook page, and he live streams a lot.  

He live-streams from snow-covered places he visits, and you get to hear plinkly, plunky holiday music laid overtop the gently pitter patter of snow falling whilst gazing upon a wintery, relaxing scene.  It’s fun to have on, just playing in your earbuds whilst you are typing away completing your normal activities.

Of course, people tune in and start writing in their comments.  Don’t spend too much time reading the comments, because you’ll get bored or depressed.   Most people are just saying fun things like, “Santa is real! I believe!” "Hello to my grandchildren, from Denver, CO!"  And there is a lot of fun connection from people from all over the world saying where they are and sending well-wishes, prayers, and lots of encouragement. 

There are also lots of people who use the comments as a live connection to a proverbial deity figure, sending prayers for their loved ones,

Trying to cope with misery,

And there are plenty of folks sending Santa-sized requests like, “Santa, are you real? Could you possibly bring home our troops this Christmas?”

And then others may respond and send very encouraging words, and sometimes it briefly turns into a support group for cancer survivors or the like.  

It unites people together, and therefore, I believe in Santa.

 

I did so many fun things over Thanksgiving!

My brother (the 7’ tall brother) came to Maryland for the week from his new state of residence, Tennessee. He’s lived in Louisiana the past almost 10 years, and now he is starting over in TN. So, he took a bus over.

A few highlights: We went to NASA, where my stepdad works, and took a bit of a private tour there. Are you into outer space? Well then buckle your seatbelt.

Mario explained to us all about the new telescope they are sending out, the James Webb Space Telescope (click here)

We got to actually see it!

This actual thing is going to be launched into outer space, and will be able to see where life began, and if our universe is still expanding, and other things about the Big Bang!  It was very cool. 

Then, we went to my stepdad’s office area, and played with his toys.  Well, we didn’t actually touch anything, but he explained all the things, and showed us compression chambers and stuff.

This compression chamber could probably suck up Baltimore!

So, my stepdad made this thing with his hands.  It's a compression chamber which will test space matter to see if it can withstand the temperature and pressure.  That machine was set to something like -220 degrees F.   He makes all sorts of things like this!!

We also saw this machine/mirror that is for optical engineering (I have no idea about what its actual purpose is,) and it has a ton of little mirrors which zoom right in on your eyeball as soon as you get in front of it.  I went to take a photo of it, and it thought my phone camera lens was the eyeball (which is true) so that’s what this photo is:

Here is the machine, stand in front of it but DON'T TOUCH IT

Look up close:

ICE! and E.T.

We also went to ICE! at the Gaylord National Harbor.  You should totally go!  It was so much fun.  I went a few years ago, and it was cute (they did “Frosty The Snowman”), but it wasn’t as good as this year!   This year  is something like, “Christmas Around The World,” and it was fun!

Nativity scene

Flag ornaments

Bet you can't spot me!

E.T.

We also went to The Kennedy Center to see the National Symphony Orchestra play the score to “E.T.”.  I didn’t realize that they were actually going to play the movie, and have the symphony play in front of the screen! 

It was absolutely amazing, I loved it.  You should definetly look to see when local orchestras are doing stuff like that again.  This morning I passed a billboard that was advertising “It’s A Wonderful Life” by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.   Here, here is the website.  click here.  You better go!  I want to see that Facebook check-in!!

Finally, we made a trip up to NYC to visit our great Aunt again, as you may remember we did a couple of years ago.  It’s so good to see her and her family. 

Okay, so that’s my news!

Also, at around 3 AM Thanksgiving morning, I got a message from Mike with this photo:

I love the story of Veronica.  I remember connecting instantly with her when I saw the depiction of her actions in the movie “The Passion.”   

As Jesus was stumbling and falling and bleeding and desperate walking towards Calvary, he fell a few times carrying his own gigantic cross.  One time when he fell, this lady ran to him, devil-may-care, and brought him water and wiped his face and just took a moment to BE with him, amidst the chaos and panic and torture.  

Probably, she could have been executed right on the spot, but the Lord put his hand over the whole situation.  Nothing else mattered in the world at that moment, only that she was going to run towards who she believed in.

When she looked at the rag used to wipe his face, his image remained in the blood and sweat soaked fabric.  Hence, she was dubbed the lady of the True Icon – Vera Icon. Veronica.  Click here for more.

I’d like to think I would do the same thing.

I’m going to start signing all of my emails with this signature:

Veronica

True Image, LLC

Okay, have a nice holiday!

Saw this sign at a barber shop in Pennsylvania

End of Summer - Ed, Camping, Birthday

The end of the summer was a whirlwind.  Of course, for most of us, life is a whirlwind, but it usually consists of days upon days packed with minutiae and before you know it, it's practically November and you have no idea where the year has gone.  Fortunately, my end of summer was the kind of whirlwind full of lots of good times with people, times which I can point to for many seasons to come and remember fondly.   (And also minutiae.)

Ed

I wrapped up the summer concert series with an Ed Sheeran concert in D.C., accompanied by Elaine Crossfit.  Ed was fantastic.  

Opening act was Christina Perri, who has huge musical guns.  Her enviable vocal talents are some of the strongest I have ever seen.  

Our seats were not so bad...

But even still, in typical Veronica fashion, I talked to some people and so we were upgraded to like the fourth row from the stage.

We got out of there and decided to hang back from the crowds for a bit, and it was a good thing we did, because the Metro line broke, and we would have had to walk through the tunnels to get out of there.  We didn't even know about it till we were already on a train, about 30 minutes later, when one of the Metro workers happened to tell us that we were on "the test train" but that we were probably safe at that point.  

Camping

Kake got married at the end of September, and she looked beautiful.

Before that, we went to Shenendoah to fit in some camping before married life began.  It was actually awesome weather - the warmest I have ever experienced in Shenendoah.  

We didn't even need a fire for survival purposes - just for recreation.  That's not to say that we didn't need our survival instincts. 

We spent the day at the apple butter festival, which was lovely. 

Then we set up camp, and then drove around until we found a good perch for sunset, and (later) for sunrise.

We did find a good perch for the sunset... and an even better one was off the side of the road and down a cliff.  Realizing that there was no safe way to walk down the hill, I found one way particularly effective.

Thus, the invention of Mountain Slide.

After sunset, we made our way back to our campsite.  

Within moments of arriving and starting to set up our fire, the campsite next to us caught on fire.  I mean.... caught... on.... fire. 

There's a phrase folks use often: "Adding fuel to the fire..."

PEOPLE.  THIS IS A VERY DECEPTIVE PHRASE.  Please, under The Laws of Science and Physics, do not, under any circumstance, ever ADD FUEL TO A FIRE.

The kids at the campsite next to us decided that it would be a good idea to enhance their campfire using fuel.  This, of course, resulted in literally everything catching on fire.  The fuel can immediately caught fire, and then the kid holding it started flinging fuel everywhere, which caught evverything on fire.  Within seconds, it was so lit up that it seemed like daylight.  

Fortunately, folks from all around came running out from the woods to assist.  Of course, pouring water on fuel only made it worse, so all anyone could do was stand around and watch and wait.  God bless the guy behind us, who had a gigantic cooler of water, and soaked the ground all around the flames so that the fire didn't spread any further.  For a good 20 minutes, all we could do was wait for queue of fleeing whilst their campsite burned.  

Accurate representation of the camping fire scene.

Other than the few moments of absolute terror, the trip was rather lovely.  We spent the next day touring several vineyards and vast spaces.

A bear!

Cows!

Sheep!

Birthday

I had a rather quiet birthday, with a few small but wonderful surprises and gifts.  Some colleagues were really sweet, and Kake sent me a fruit thing!!

Also popped up to NYC for a weekend to celebrate my great-aunt's 80th birthday.  Before we did that, we did some tourist-y stuff and saw a show. 

 I want to take another trip up soon, because I always feel rushed when I am there.  Being given 45 minutes in Macy's is nothing... it takes 45 minutes just to make it to the department I want.

It was noted that it's somewhat of a talent that I can go up 9 flights of elevators without touching the handrails.  

One of the best parts of Macy's is the old wooden escalators.

Also around my birthday, Sara and I got VIP tickets to the Maryland Million race.  It was my first time at the horse races... and I had so much fun!  I really loved it.

VIP tickets allowed us all-you-can-eat and open bar.  Yeah, I'm spoiled, I know.  But let me just set the record straight on one thing:  I am all set on the oyster consumption front.  I do not need to eat oysters ever again. 

PSA: Do not ever serve me an oyster.  Thank you.

Prepare your house and your life - I think we are in for a brutal winter.