We had plans yesterday to head over to my wive’s parent’s house for dinner. My parents, brother-in-law and his wife and their son would also join us. My wife and I were both looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, my wife awoke each day this week to increasingly intense back pain. The back pain on Thanksgiving Day was to the point there she wasn’t able to be mobile without experiencing sharp pains throughout her back. We made an attempt to get her to the car a couple hours before Thanksgiving dinner was about to start, but the pain was too intense.

We spent the day together, but we were both upset we could not see our family. Still, her health is priority. Later in the evening my folks swung by with leftovers, which most excellent of them. The brought back the two pies my wife made: Banana Creme Pie (aka: OMFG! Pie) and Pumpkin Pie (pie was great, but I am not sold on the idea of eating pumpkin in any capacity).

Today, my wife’s back is better. It is still very painful, but she’s recovering, albeit very slowly.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. To be honest, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving. Being with family would have been fun, but I was able to be with my wife and help/care for her (something I take great pride in).

I love you sweetie, hope you get well soon!

And so, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The last stop before the Christmas Express really picks up steam. Football will be played, thousands of calories will be consumed and millions of naps will be taken.

Most importantly, however - thanks will be given. I am thankful for many things this year. I am thankful that I started my 365 Project as it has been quite a journey. I am incredibly thankful for all the love and support my wife and I received in the days leading up to (and including) our wedding day. I am thankful, lucky and blessed been married to my wife this year. Thankful that our wedding day was simply incredible and went off without a hitch.

Beyond giving thanks, I’m also remembering. Tomorrow will be five years ago exactly that I awoke to my ex-girlfriend’s mother screaming. My ex (we’ll call her T) went to see what was the matter, then I heard her screaming and yelling. Within a few minutes her mother came back to her room with her - she was sobbing.

Sometime during the night, T’s brother, and two of his friends were coming home. The driver was driving too fast and was under the influence. He lost control of the vehicle, hit a large boulder and the two passengers (her brother and a mutual friend) had died.

The days that followed were easily the most intense days I have ever experienced. I had never been around so many heartbroken people while dealing with the loss myself. I had met T’s brother when we first started dating and I immediately found him to be a genuinely awesome guy. It isn’t easy to explain, but he was just down to earth and I immediately felt like I had known him for years.

Today, what’s left of that period of time in my life is a slide show of sorts with sparse bits of audio.

In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, I’ll spare you the details of the days following that Thanksgiving. What I want, is for you all to have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Be safe tonight if you are going out and enjoy your Thanksgiving and subsequent food coma tomorrow.

I don’t like this blog too much sometimes. I look at the categories and think “What was I thinking?” I want a more concise blog. I want a blog with direction. I find it more difficult to blog as twitter has gotten to be a sort of substitution to blogging. It’s easier, it’s limited (in that, I can only type 140 characters), it’s (very) useful.

I say twitter is very useful loosely. To many, there is no point. To me, it’s become a place to share information, to ask, to answer and to be pointless. I like being pointless sometimes - but not with my blog. I see news blogs, design blogs, etc. As twitter is for “here’s what my day is like”, I want my blog to be for “here’s what my passion is like”. A place to hold/share information on things I’m passionate about and knowledgeable about.

This leads me to a tangent. I just finished reading a post on Noelle’s blog and it sums up some of my feelings as of late. There are ups and downs in life (speaking of moods, that is) and I find I’m in a bit of a valley as of late, looking forward to the “up” portion of the ride.

To assist with my mood (and my slowly eroding physique), I’ve decided to sign up for a two quarter membership RIT’s Field House. Picture a Gym, then super impose the word “Awesome” over it and you get the general idea. I’m looking forward to it - I like getting up early (6am is okay with me - even on weekends!). I can see myself sticking mainly to the stationary bikes and the pull-up/chin-up bars. What I’d eventually like to do is head back to the Red Barn and get my Bouldering on. I’ve missed climbing a lot. If only they opened at 6am.

Lately, I’ve been wondering what, if anything, I should attempt as a photo project after my 36r project is over with. I have less than 100 pictures to go. I’ll definitely feel as if something is missing come January 1st 2009.

Taking a photo everyday is not a big deal, really. For me, it was the whole uploading, tagging, etc part that grew tiresome. Perhaps my workflow was/isn’t the greatest though. I’ve enjoyed it for the most part. Getting going was difficult and Winter proved to be the hardest time for the project as I am pretty much a hermit when it comes to winter (I hope to change this though, as I’ve started going for walks after work).

I am thinking I’ll hold off on starting anything like 365 though. Really, I want to focus more on this blog, and graphic design as more of a side career. I have a tendency to load up my plate full of things to do. This would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that I get irritated if I can’t do everything at once. I guess this is the problem with enjoying all the items on your to-do list.

I have rather sad news to report today. On Saturday, we decided to let one of our cats go to rest. In an earlier post I talked about Gatsby having another round of seizures. We thought he was recovering but this was not the case.

Last week Gatsby’s health declined to the point where we didn’t think he’d be able to be the cat he wanted to be. We were not able to get a diagnosis but a CT Scan did reveal a chance that he had some swelling in his brain caused most likely from the seizures.

We went down as many avenues we could and he did not show signs of improvement. It was an incredibly difficult decision - maybe the hardest I’ve been a part of.