this morning was that fateful day when as parents you ship off your oldest child to school on the bus. We know that Kylie is going to have a blast and that she’ll excel in kindergarten, but it’s still hard to let go. We’re basically giving her up for 8 hour chunks 5 days a week. Of course, i do that every day when i head to work, so this might be harder on Erica, but i used to leave her knowing that she’d be with Erica all day.

Anyway, it was an exciting morning, and i was able to snap a few pictures to share.

this one is actually from yesterday at Kylie’s orientation

Here’s Erica getting Kylie’s hair ready this morning while the kids eat pancakes.

Kylie and parker ready to head up to the bus stop.

Daddy and his kiddos waiting for the bus.

There’s the bus. It’s go time.

Kylie’s sitting on the bus with her friend who lives across the street. Ready or not, there she goes!

another milestone come and gone…wow.

bry

seems like most of my posts are a collection of the random things happening in my world. this one will be no different…

• i spoke at Catalyst last night. No not that Catalyst, this Catalyst. I thought it went well. Much better than the last time i spoke, both in content and delivery. But it’s so hard to tell with these types of things because you’re basically just glaring into bright lights while you speak so you cant really garner any feedback from the listening (or not listening) faces. If only one person benefitted from it then it was definitely worth it.

• (if you don’t watch LOST, this post might be of no interest to you) I havent really been following along to the LOST Experience Game like i thought i would. Some folks are pretty involved. I’m just planning on reading a good synopsis when it’s finished. Apparently this game is going to give us insight into the LOST numbers (4,8,15,16,23,42) and into the DHARMA initiative (which we now know stands for Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications Initiative). Currently folks have been collecting glyph codes that unlock small bits of another orientation video. when they are all assembled, we’ll have more info on Hanso and DHARMA. I do know that the game has 5 phases. right now it’s in the 3rd or 4th. The cool thing is, they are doing a wonka-esque promotion right now, handing out Apollo Candy Bars at various places. Some have a “golden oracle” on them. This is all being tracked at whereisalvar.com somehow. I would love to get a candy bar, just for the nostalgia aspect of it, and they are giving them away in Harrisburg on 9/2 at the Kipona Festival. Unfortunately i will be at the Beach with Catalyst that weekend. Someone go to the festival and grab me one, eh?

• I’ve got Photoshop CS finally installed on my iMac and i finally got my new printer to work, so things are progressing in my MacWorld. Today I’ll probably purchase Windows XP and Parallels so that we can run some software on the Mac that Erica needs to use for her business. (This same software will help us track business expenses, including XP and Parallels). Speaking of which, her first show is tonight and I’m pretty excited about it. I won’t be there, of course, but I’m excited for her. I just designed some business cards for her that i’ll be ordering through Overnightprints.com this week. I think they look alot better than the business card choices she was offered through the company. Her cards will be pink. That’s all you need to know.

• so i have this mole on my stomach that apparently needs to be removed according to one of erica’s aunts. it’s not raised or assymetrical or anything, but it’s slightly bigger than a pencil eraser which is a red flag. I’m told it could easily develop into a malignant melonoma, so better to have it removed. Guess i should schedule that.

• So many CDs i want to buy: Sleeping At Last’s “Keep No Score”, Anathallo’s “Floating World”, Sandra McCracken’s “Gravity | Love”, Matthew Perryman Jones’ “Throwing Punches in the Dark”, and there’s proabbaly more i can’t think of right now. if only music was free…

• Speaking of free music, my boy Derek Webb is releasing his most recent album, Mockingbird, online for FREE. Not just streaming it, but literally letting you download the entire thing for free. Why? Because he’s crazy i guess. Actually he’ll tell you why on the site he set up for it, freederekwebb.com. It will be available for you at midnight on September 1.

• one final thing, singer/songwriting phenom Andy O pointed out this article in his blog a few weeks ago and i thought I’d share. This mom is apparently completely bored with her kids and isn’t afraid to say it. It’s definitely a polarizing article, as you can see in the comments folks have left. Either you think she’s a self-centered jerk who never should have had kids to begin with, or you think she’s just an honest mom saying things that other moms are too afraid to say. Either way, it’s worth 10 minutes.

a few things i learned this week that might help you out as you walk through life:

1. Never eat taco bell after 7:30pm if the only thing you’ve eaten all day was a breakfast sandwich and some snack mix.

2. Never bet on the Red Sox winning a game when Julian Tavarez is prominently involved.

3. Never, EVER, try to book a hotel at the beach the day before. Especially not in August.

4. Never drink coffee at 8pm when you know it will keep you up.

5. Never think it will take you 30 minutes to get somewhere when construction traffic is involved.

6. Never drive 90 mph in a 35 mph zone (that lesson courtesy of jordan’s new roommate).

7. Never promise your wife a 2-room suite by the beach and then wait until the day before and only deliver a 2-double bed room. (i thought it was worth repeating).

so yeah, we’re off to the beach tonight for 2 nights. It should be fun. First true family vacation with just the four of us. Weather should be fantastic. I’ll be carting along my XM headset to listen to the sox-yanks while sitting in the sand (thanks geof).

next week should be a busy week, so the timing on this vacay couldn’t be better.

peace, love, and salt water taffy…bryan

someone from the Rumor Forum found this video for me. it’s a 3-minute clip of Caedmon’s Call performing Hands of the Potter a few months ago, featuring yours truly on the cowbell. The sound appears to be about 5 seconds behind the video, which is kind of annoying. But still, pretty cool that this is on YouTube. I’m obviously the guy in the Red Sox sweatshirt stage left behind Andy Osenga.

check it out -> Bryan’s prescription for your fever

what a day yesterday. i stepped out of my life for a minute and into someone else’s world. it was a fun day, but in the end i’m happy to be back in my world where i belong. here’s what went down.

6:30am – wake up. head to church for worship practice before the first service. the sets in both services seemed to go really well today. got to play around a little on garageband during the first service.

11:30am – leave church right after worship in the second service and head home. jordan has started packing.

1pm – we have everything packed up and ready to go so begin the 20-minute drive to jordan’s new home: Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology.

2:15pm – we waited in a bunch of lines, confirmed his registration, got his schedule, and headed for his dorm. i notice that there are lots of fans in windows. no Air Conditioning? Ouch. Isnt that against the law or something? The lady in the dorm at first appears to want to bite our heads off, but warms up quickly. Apparently jordan has been moved. off campus. to a hosipital.

2:45pm – after heading through lancaster to the wrong hospital (my mistake), we finally get to the old Community Hospital. It’s about 5 blocks from the school (5 really big blokcs). There’s a shuttle every 5-10 minutes, but Jordan has a car so its no big deal. We head up to the third floor. Jordan is in room 361 (in case you want to send flowers or get well cards). The hospital (or Branch Campus as they call it now), isnt that bad. I mean, it is a hospital, they don’t even try to hide it, but it has Air Conditioning and you have a bathroom in your own room, which is a luxury most college kids dont have. No there are no hospital beds or TVs on the wall. Yes there are stil pink walls, and funky receptacles on the walls labeled “oxygen” and “call button”. It’s been a while since the building was actually used as a hospital (though that was where Erica and I stayed in August 1999 when she had her appendix out), and there are lots of hallways that are gated off, including the radiology wing. all in all jordan is happy to be at the Branch campus instead of in Herrington Hall, and i dont blame him.

3:00pm – no time to unpack as we have to get back for an orientation meeting at 3pm. we did get a chance to meet his roommate in the room. I felt bad for Scott because he thought he was geting a double all to himself. But he was really cool and he seems to be a nice kid. He’s from Punxatawney (4 hours away, and home of the infamous groundhog), he wrestles, hunts, packs a dip, has a girlfriend named stephanie back at home, and was at Stevens all summer so he can show Jordan around.

3:30pm – this orientation sucks. i leave jordan to run to walmart. havent eaten lunch yet so i grab some snacks and water for jordan’s room.

4:30pm – back at orientation. apparently a missed an almost fight between some football players and a latino kid who thought one of them used a slur. Welcome to Thaddeus Stevens! haha.

5:00pm – back at the hospital dorm. Scott helps us move in stuff, which is huge because there are no carts to be found and jordan has alot of stuff. the trek from the car to his room is no picnic. after 5 trips we find a cart and finish off. I help jordan set up his room, computer, and whatnot while he unpacks clothes.

7:30pm -jordan and i make a walmart run for a few cables he needs. we hit up taco bell on the way home, which proves to be a costly mistake. i felt like crap all night after that. i guess you are what you eat.

8:45pm – the TV and computer are set up. my work here is done. i say good night and head home to my fam. I think Jordan’s gonna do real well here. Its nice having him only 20 minutes away. he’ll probably stop over to hang out tomorrow ngiht for a bit. his class schedule is nice 1 morning class from 10am-11am and then computer networking labs from 1230-4:30pm every day. he’ll be able to work some evenings, and sleep in a bit, so it’s all good.

The whole thing was weird for me because i had two different dynamics going on. I was part student – feeling as if it was me moving into the dorm and getting a class schedule, and part parent – feeling like i was moving my son into college. it was a taste of the past and a taste of the future i guess.

but in the end, i was happy to come home to the present. My amazing best friend Erica and my kiddos.

In fact, today happens to mark the 7-year anniversary of when i married my best friend. So happy Anniversary sweetheart. We have a babysitter for tonight, so sushi and a movie it is!

may jordan thrive in his new environment, and may my marriage thrive like never before…what a journey life can be.

bryan