The never ending cough, So Cal, finals, Haoles, and home

Hey look at this... two posts in less than a months time span!

OK, so things have been pretty uneventful

since spring break, I've just been super busy with classes (which I am officially done with following the Theology final I finished about an hour ago), with intermittent drinking, San Jose Earthquake games, and a combination of the two. A little over a month ago I missed a week of class with a sore throat, bad cough, congestion in my lungs and sinuses, headache, minor fever, etc... All the symptoms went away in a little more than a week, but the cough and a little of the chest congestion remained. After two weeks I gave up an called my doctor for a phone appointment at which point he didn't listen to any of my

symptoms I tried to list for him, and just assigned an antibiotic and an albuterol inhaler (which I didn't want or need, and will be fun to explain when I apply for my asthma waiver for the Chaplains program), don't you just love Kaiser Permanente?! So I took the antibiotic and it... did nothing... SHOCKING! So I called and was able to get in for an actual follow up appointment face to face with the doctor, and he came up with the conclusion that I have post viral inflammation of the lungs (I probably had Bronchitis) and he prescribed a cortisone inhaler I will need to use for the next two weeks. It seems to be having some effect already after just two days, so hopefully this will take care of it, and it would have been nice to have gotten this two weeks ago.

I spent last weekend in Orange County with my sister, brother-in-law Ray, and niece Sophie. It was Sophie's first communion weekend and I made a point to get down for it since as of spring break no other family could make it. As it turns out Ray's parents were able to fly in from Missouri for the occasion too, and we all spent the weekend together. Saturday started with a trip to Long Beach where we met up with Ray's Great Uncle (I think his name was Ben?) where Ray's dad Raymond was able to catch up for a little bit, then we all went to a kosher restaurant/deli/bakery... it was amazing. really good food in decent portions, and the bakery afterwords was calling out with giant delicious desserts. After filling up we went to The Aquarium of the Pacific, which isn't the Monterey Bay aquarium by any standards but fun none the less, and spent the remainder of the day there. It was interesting getting to the aquarium because there was a pride parade going on that weekend, so the closer you got to the beach the busier it got. Sophie got to pet some sharks and rays in a touching tank, and we watched lorikeets in the Lorikeet forest, where the birds were unfortunately not hungary for the nectar they sell and weren't interested in people. There were a few people that tried to get the birds to stand on their hands though, and one resulted in a man having a lorikeet latched on to his finger drawing blood, and a lorikeet attacking one woman's earrings (Ray tried to help, and the bird drew blood on him too). When we got back to Brea my Sis and Ray decided they wanted to check out Iron Man 2 so Ray's parents and I stayed with Sophie. We watched dirty jobs, then Raymond and Sally left and I put Sophie to Bed. The next morning was Sophie's first communion, I was grateful for it being overcast because it was supposed to be in the 80s later int eh week, and I don't think I could handle that in a sport coat. The mass was very nice, and Sophie was pretty in her gown. After that we went out for brunch at a great Greek restaurant, skyped with Mom, and then I flew home to work on my prophets paper (that was due the next day and I finished about a half hour before it was due).

I have my prophets paper turned in, and took my theology final today for my last class experience of the semester, next I have a Pastoral Care paper due tomorrow, two church history papers due Tuesday, and a OT exegesis paper due on the 29th. Then my first year of Seminary will officially be over. After that I will be attending the next Quakes game on the 29th against Toronto, then it is off to Hawaii on the 31st. Ian and I will be the token Haoles (white guys) when we visit Gavin Tokuda, AKA DJ Tokes, AKA bruddah Tokes, AKA Galvin. It will essentially be a week of the beach, drinking, eating, and lovely hawaiian ladies. When i get back I will spend a few days in San Anselmo, probably head down the city at least one of those days, then Drive up to Eugene for my sister's commencement as she graduates with her PhD. Then it is back on to Great Falls where I will spend the Sumer. I wont be going to Naval Reserve Officer training this Summer because I have talked a bit with my mom and there is a lot of stuff that still needs to be done back home with Dad not there. The Navy isn't going anywhere, and this will give LT Smith and myself more time to complete my waivers beforehand so I don't end up getting there and having to do an asthma test like I had to for the Marine Corps when I got to Quantico.

Wow, this one was long, That is probably good because I most likely wont update it again for about a month! :)