Visit to the ER...New York, New York...Hiking with the Guys...and the Blizzard of 2010

So...this post will be super long cause I have a lot of updates. I could just post a little at a time, but we all know I'm too lazy to do that. I'd post one thing and then never do the rest. So here we go...

I've never been to the ER. At least, never for myself. Well, I found the experience to be......rather uneventful. Nothing like you see on TV. Doctors rushing around screaming, "I need 40 cc's of creamoburoferin, stat!" No gunshot wounds, no severed arms, no one violently convulsing on the floor. But I guess that's what you can expect from the hospital in Reston, VA.

Anyway, you may be asking, "why did you have to go to the emergency room?" Well, funny thing about knives. Don't know if you know this, but they're sharp. Especially brand new knives. Super sharp. Now, I've been collecting knives since I was around seven and Granddaddy bought me my first one at Whitey's Knife Shop inside Happy's Flea Market. Since that time, I've only cut myself maybe three times....never this bad though. I was opening some things I bought in preparation for my hiking trip with some guys from my Bible study (I'll talk about this later), and the knife slipped outta my hand. When I caught it, I accidentally swiped it across my other hand and sliced open my left index finger.

Ouch.

Actually, it was one of those things where it didn't really hurt. I didn't even realize that I had cut it at first...until blood started flowing like a river. Now, I've never had stitches before, so I didn't know if I would require any. I thought maybe I could just bandage it up and it would eventually heal. But then I opened up the wound and realized that I could see about a half inch INTO my finger. It was pretty awesome. So Linz drove me to the ER. As I was saying above, it was dead in there (HAHA....dead! Zing!) I was admitted immediately. However, we were still there for about 2 hours. Kinda ridiculous. Anyway, the doctor was super cool. He put some medicine in my finger that made it swell up to about three times its normal size. I guess it's easier to put in the stitches that way. When he was done, I had eight stitches in my finger. I had them suckers for 2 weeks. You don't realize how much you need that finger until you can't use it. No playing guitar, no video games, and typing up my work papers became next to impossible.

But all is well now. Finger is fully healed, and I'll probably have a wicked cool scar on my finger. Here are some pictures. If you have a weak stomach...look at them anyway. You need to get over it.

This is me after my trip to the ER

And this is my finger without the bandages

See! Not so bad.

And my finger two weeks later when I got the stitches removed...

Now on to New York!

Linz and I went to New York the day after my trip to the ER. We went to visit her best friend Linda and her husband Chris. This was mine and Linz's first time to New York City. We both loved it. I could make this section extremely long...but I'll just post a bunch of pictures...

Linda and Linz

Washington Square Arch

Linz and I in Times Square

Magnolia Bakery!! No doubt that bakery's got all the bomb frostings. I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling! (name that song!)

Yay! 30 Rock! We actually saw Kenan Thompson here...he's a member of SNL and former Nickelodeon star. I was really hoping to see Andy Samberg...oh well.

This is a view of the city from Central Park. Everyone always talks about how dangerous it is in Central Park at night. But we were there at night and saw nothing but a lot of little old ladies walking their dogs. Granted, one old lady tried to shiv me, but unsuccessfully. Old people are so cute...

This is our friend Kat. She was posted with us in Vienna, Austria, and now she lives in NY!

LOOK AT THIS SLICE OF PIZZA!! man i love new york

Ground Zero and the construction of the Freedom Tower

Chris, Linda, and Linz on the ferry to Staten Island

Lady Liberty

New York at night

There's tons more I could post about New York...but we must move on.

The next weekend, I went on a hiking trip with some guys from my Bible study. This was a two-day, 16-mile hike along the Appalachian Trail, and it has been quite a few years since I've done anything that long. So needless to say, it was a struggle. And actually, what made it so bad was my knee. Now, I've always had problems with my right knee. But I guess my left knee was feeling left out, so it decided to give out on me. So, the uphill parts of the hike killed my lungs, and the downhill parts killed my knee. Really a win-win situation.

This was our plan. We took two cars and parked one at the end of the hike and then drove to the beginning. We started at like 2100 on Friday night and hiked about a half mile in to get to the first shelter. We woke up the next morning and set out for the next shelter about 13 miles away. We would actually hike past the place where we parked the second car to get to the next shelter, camp there, and then hike back to the car the next morning. So, 10 miles to the car, 3 miles past it to the next shelter, and then 3 miles back. Unfortunately, I did not make it the whole way. By the time we got to the car, my knee was the size of a grapefruit. Really disappointing, cause despite how out of shape I am, I really wasn't that tired. I could have easily done the remainder of the hike, but God made my knee hurt for a reason I guess. So, I had to cut my trip short. But 10 miles is pretty good. Hopefully my knee will do better next time. Anyway, here are a few pics...

Building our fire at the shelter

Home sweet home...we slept in bivy sacs. If you're claustrophobic, I DO NOT recommend...ugh.

Taking a little break...

Ladson, Me, Andy, and Daniel (making fun of my knee...not very edifying is it?)

And last we have the blizzard of 2010! So, we got 18 inches during the snowstorm in December. That was more snow than we had for the entire 2 years in Vienna. Crazy.

Well, the snow gods, knowing how much I hate snow, decided that 18 inches wasn't enough. I mean it took well over a month for all the snow from the last storm to totally melt away. So this past weekend, we got a little more. I keep reading other blogs, such as my cousin Christopher and his wife Kate's and my sister Nicole's, about how they got like 5 inches and schools have been closed for days. HA! I laugh at your single-digit inches! I mean, we got 18 in December! Anyone want to guess how much we got this past weekend? Keep in mind that Ryan does NOT like snow. Sure, I like to ski and sled and what not. But let's face it, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm gonna have to shovel the snow. And chances are I'm gonna have to go to work (although not today...one of those rare cases where the Gov't actually shut down). So if I don't get to enjoy the snow, it just becomes an inconvenience. Anyway, from Friday to Saturday we got around 26 inches. Let me put that in perspective. I am 70 inches tall. So I'm thinking that if Nicole and the kids were here, we'd probably lose a couple. In other parts of NOVA they got 30-32 inches. And guess what? They're predicting another 6-9 inches on Tuesday. Yeah. Super thrilled about that...

So here are some pictures of the snow (stupid stupid snow).

This is right outside our front door...

This is the parking lot to our cluster. We successfully shoveled out the Xterra so we could actually get out if we needed to.

Our back yard

And here's a little video of the experience...