I wanted to practice playing with my camera and doing some special effect editing.  I’ve been an avid fan of the tutorials on videocopilot.net, so I thought I’d try one.  Here’s the result…. Miriam’s Dark Side!

Hannah has really flourished under the instruction of her great Piano teacher, Olga (@olgapyles). She’s had about a year of weekly lessons and is doing far better than we could have hoped for.

Here we are at the top of Husum Falls.  I’m the only one in the boat actually paddling with any shred of power.  Of course, I have lots of experience paddling.  Yeah, I pretty much just tooted my own horn.

Hunkered down in the “crash” position, we’re take the plunge!

We’re going under!

We have achieved submarine status!

Steve almost fell out!  Luckily our guide had quick reflexes and grabbed him before he did!

We’re alive!

Hannah resting in the living room

Miriam resting in the living room

Simone in our bed after a shower to clean up after an accident.  My poor baby. She’s still so cute though!

You can some of our favorites from the entire shoot on my Flickr page.

No such luck.  My head was pounding and I continued to dry heave.  At about 1:30pm, I called my wife and asked her to pick me up as there was no way I could drive in my condition.  My boss came into my office to check on me and when I told here that Beck was on the way and there was nothing she could do, she shut the door (so others didn’t have to hear my heaving) and left.  My head was hurting so bad that I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I began to sob.  It was unbearable.  I put my head down on my desk and prayed that Beck would get there soon.

Next thing I know I find myself on the floor of my office looking towards the interior window.  The pain is extreme and completely debilitating.   I can see the occasional person walking by and although I’m screaming in my head, I cannot make any sounds louder than a whisper.  No one hears me.

The next thing I remembern is some voices, someone calling my name, and somehow I ended up in the hospital.  My head is pounding, I can’t stand the light, and moving any of my limbs makes my head hurt more.  This isn’t migraine pain, this is “I want to die” pain.  Morphine comes and a wave of relief washes over me.  My head still hurts, but it’s now only a 6 or a 7 on the pain scale.

They do 2 CAT scans, one without dye and another with it.  Nothing.

They then do a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  Although they find that I don’t have meningitis, they do discover that I have high spinal fluid pressure.  I don’t remember the exact figures, but the doctor said something in the nearborhood of about double normal.  This can cause extreme headaches, nausea, vomiting, seizures, sight loss, etc.

After ruling out life threatening issues, they give me a prescription for dilaudid (hydromorphone) and send me on my way and told me to follow up with a neurologist.   We stop by the pharmacy on the way home as the doctor said that I would need to pickup the prescription myself with ID since the narcotic was so potent.  As a note, Ride Aid did not ask for an ID, but it could be because I was still wearing my hospital arm band.  My pain on the ride home was about a 7 and by the time we got home, it had reached 8 or so.  I raced straight to bed, curled into the fetal position and hoped it would subside.  Luckily, it did for the most part and I fell asleep.

Thursday, I woke with a level 5 headache and decided to take a pill before it could get worse.  I’m a serious lightweight when it comes to drugs and man that pill sent me to the moon.  I don’t like the disconnected feeling it gave me, but it did work… very little pain.  By noon, the pill wore off and I had a mild headache (3 or so).  I took 2 aleve and they worked.  My head pain was gone by 3pm.  I called every neurologist that’s covered by my insurance plan and none of them were available until next week.  I have any appointment next Friday.  Here’s hoping something good comes of it.

I returned to work today and although I had a level 3 headache that spiked to level 4 occasionally, it never went beyond that.  I worked all day without much effort and without any medication (well, 2 ibuprofen).

I haven’t had to take any more of the morphine pills although I did take 2 aleve when I got home.  My head hurts only a little now (about a 2-3) and it makes me wince every once in a while with a sensation similar to eye strain.  My eye prescription is current and my vision isn’t blurred, so I don’t think it’s really eye strain.  My lower back started hurting today after I did some low impact aerobic walking excersizes.  It’s sore around the lumbar puncture location, but they said that’s normal and will subside withing a few days.

Anyhow, that’s all the news for now.

I scanned it and sent a copy to Don via email for kicks – he was, after all, the first Christian concert I attended and remains one of my favorite Christian artists.

Hi Don,

I’m sure you won’t remember me, but my friend Chris and I saw you at a concert in Long Beach, CA in the early 90′s at a small church.  I can’t recall the year exactly, but we were probably 15 or 16 years old when we saw you.  I had never heard your songs before the concert, but I was so moved by your music that we spent all the money we had to buy 2 CDs and two T-shirts.

We sat right next to a woman who claimed to be your sister.  After the concert, she invited us “back stage” to meet you.  You were kind enough to autograph our T-Shirts and CD’s.  We wore those shirts at school (which raised some eyebrows).  I attached a picture of me and my friend Chris from our yearbook where you can see Chris wearing your T-shirt.

Anyhow, I stumbled across my yearbook recently and I thought you might get a kick out of the picture.  Chris and I have grown up and have families now, but we still listen to your music.  I’ve met several “celebrities” in my life, but none quite compared to the humble Christian singer I met when I was a teenager.  You are a true celebrity to me (and Chris I’m sure).

Thanks Don.  Your music has inspired us both in ways we cannot express.

God Bless,

Jim

Three days later, Don sent a reply:

Jim,
Thank you very much.  That photo is just wonderful!  Wow, we’ve been around awhile.
What a great God we have.
In Him,
Don

In case you’re interested in Don’s awesome Christian folk music, please check out his web site.  You can download pretty much his entire library as MP3′s on an honor system, but you can also buy CD’s if you prefer.

I recently started a new job as the Director of Support at Optilink, a Division of The Advisory Board Company.  Yeah, it’s a mouthful.  It’s quite a culture shock from Jive, but I’m getting more comfortable with each passing day.  I still miss Jive and often wonder if it will be the pinnacle of my career.  I really miss the people there.  But, perhaps my new boss was right when she said to me yesterday, “The best decision you made in 2008 was to come here”.

My friends Chris and Karen had a new son, Ryan Donald, on December 21st.

My friend Kevin and Val just had a new daughter, Alexis Lee, on December 30th.

Rebecca is due to give birth to Sophie Grace any moment now.  If she doesn’t deliver on her own beforehand, she will be induced first thing Saturday morning.  We are all very eager to receive the new addition to our family.

My mom and Thom were just here for Christmas and had a somewhat sad departure as they had to leave just two days before her new grand-daughter arrives.  Unfortunately, my mom is responsible for payroll at the fire department so she had to leave today.

As if three babies wasn’t enough, God saw fit to ensure that our good friends Damon and Monica were also adding to their family.  Their daughter (tentatively named Alison) is due sometime in April.

2009 is sure to bring many things, but I am hopeful that much of it will be good.  Only 19 days until Obama is sworn in and I pray that he leads us well.