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At midnight last night I turned off my pager. My medical training is officially done. 9 long years.

[world's loudest sigh/]

i'm getting married. again! and after four decades i'm finally going italy! as a former art student this is very exciting. i will be getting married in may in positano. overlooking the almalfi coast.

 

ceremony will be here:

 

 

we'll be staying here.

 

 

then off inland to the parma region to stay in a villa and ride bikes for a week.

 

then off to sweden to find my heritage and hopefully some old family homes.  

 

i'm really excited for this.

I'm currently co-producing and directing a piece for the series NFL Films Presents about Phish and the Seahawks, as it relates to Trey's requests in Seattle and at the Gorge for Seahawks fans to do the Wiiiiil-sooooon chant when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson takes the field at home games.

 

While Phish was wrapping up the Fall tour in Atlantic City, the band and Red Light Management provided us with outstanding access: I interviewed Trey and Fish, we did some backstage filming, and we shot virtually the entire 11/2/13 concert.

 

Our next set of shoots is in Seattle this weekend, and at the Seahawks game this Monday Night. If you, or if you know of a group of Phish fans who will be at the game on Monday, please let me know below.

 

We don't have exact air-dates yet, but will be sometime in January on ESPN and NFL Network. I will update this thread as soon as I have more info. In the meantime, you can follow me (@Weaver_NFLF) and NFL Films (@NFLFilms) on twitter for any other updates.

 

ETA: Here are links to the final piece:

 

 

PART 1:  http://www.nfl.com/v...-Russell-Wilson

 

 

PART 2:  http://www.nfl.com/v...he-Wilson-chant

Like a bucket of cold water over the head, I think most addicts could benefit from hearing (in so many words) "Fuck you. Make an effort to change and then maybe I'll decide you're worth my time and sanity." Unconditional love does not equate to the unconditional granting of indulgences and it does not equate to the avoidance of potentially nasty conflict for the sake of perpetuating the illusion of peace. 

One year ago today, my life was essentially over. I had messed up, AGAIN, and my wife had had enough. She kicked me out of the house. And she did it in front of my kids and everything. In no uncertain terms, it was the ultimate "fuck you". And it saved my life. At some point soon after I realized just what it was I truly wanted. I wanted peace. serenity. I wanted to be able to make a decision without totally fucking things up. And at this point in my life, when I say "decision" I literally mean the only thing I was doing correct in a 24 hour period was going to sleep. If I went to sleep. Getting humble with yourself is such a hard thing to do. It goes against the very nature of everything you or I have been taught growing up. Humility showed me to give up. Stop fighting. Because I had not only lost the battle, I had lost the war. I surrendered. Thank God I had my brother around to help me(he has been sober 7 years) because he took me to my first meeting that day. It has been the roughest year of my life, but I know I am a better person, husband, and father because of it.

Just heard from my doc at Sloan Kettering. Biopsy results in. It was a benign cyst. I do not have cancer!!!! 

 

Thanks to all of you for your vibes and well wishes.

 

Now on to rehabbing my knee and getting back to life.

Yay holiday photos!!!  

 

 

Well, my company ain't sending me anywhere, and I'm certainly no Dr., but I did manage a pretty killer toast at my sister's wedding on Saturday without crying OR throwing up. In my world, that's progress.  

Just got the grade for my LAST CLASS EVER. Final PhD GPA >> 4.0

Only dissertation-related credits, research and publishing from here on out.

can't remember the last time I posted in here. If ya don't know, I'm the white male......

 

 

Someone photoshop a possum over that halibut.

 

Only had a couple of minutes before I had to leave. Not bad.

 

i'm gonna resign today

My wife had our baby girl on Saturday. I's a proud papa.

holy shit. this won't mean much to you all but i'm still literally shaking with joy. one of my dearest friends and dead tour bestie, who left a couple of years ago to build water wells in africa as part of a catholic mission, just showed up at my office door. out of the blue. with a beard bigger than jesus. he and  i had spoke three to five times a day for 15 years before he left. he is part of me.  we were unable to communicate the entire time he was gone. i didn't know if i would ever see him again. i am crying right now. the happiest man on the planet. 

Crazy story here... we took the girls to see the manatees on Saturday afternoon. In the shuffle of getting them out of the car once we got back home, I foolishly set my phone on the roof of the car. I proceed to enter the couch vortex and take a nap. Meanwhile, herc drives off to the mall. I woke up an instantly remembered where it was only to see the car gone, and no phone in the house. She didn't get home until after dark and it of course wasn't on the roof any more. It also rained overnight.

I woke up at dawn on Sunday and suddenly had the idea of trying to find it. I retraced her path and got out at the places where she turned to see if it was sitting anywhere around the intersections. Nothing. Then, I got on the interstate - six lanes in an urban area with exits every mile. Two miles in, I see something on the shoulder that looks like a black rectangle of the right size, but I couldn't stop since on an interchange bridge that's directly in the middle of one of the merge areas and there's someone behind me, so I circle around. On lap 2, I slow enough to see it definitely looks promising, but hesitate on the best place to stop, so I circle around again. On lap 3, I decide to pull into a little spot right on the narrow shoulder of the bridge rather than park someone off the exit and walk on. Sure enough - it's the black rubber back of an Otter box phone case, but there's no sight of the actual phone or the rest of the case. I quickly scan the rest of the shoulder then glance across the lanes to the median shoulder, where I see a couple yellow spots a hundred feet upstream that looks to match the color of the inner phone case. Circling back on lap 4, I pull into the median shoulder. Sure enough, it's the two plastic pieces of the phone case, but no phone. Quickly looking around, I see it face down about 50 feet up. I pick up the phone, and hit the button - working perfectly. Not a scratch on it, just a bit damp.

I put the case back on it, and there's only the faintest scuff on the outer black rubber part of the case. I found the damn thing. It had clearly been hit and scattered to opposite sides of the interstate. It works perfectly. I repeat, I left the phone on the roof of the car then found it in working condition scattered on opposite sides of the interstate miles away. Win.

14 days clean. Longest I've gone without an opiate in 5 years and I feel amazing. Working the steps. Hitting meetings. Life is good when you day isn't consumed with scoring extracurriculars.

Gonna post my lady's boast since I ain't got one...she's the best art teacher in the state, y'all.

 

 

She got the award a few weeks ago, but the school decided to honor her I guess. 

It's taken a little more than 3 years but I'm finally getting to the point where I can [almost] visualize a resignation from the Corporate World^TM and transition to a career that really makes a difference to someone. Anyone. Maybe I mean me.

 

I had an extremely emotional shift at the Ronald McDonald House yesterday. I work there part time as the House manager, filling in for the full time staff on holidays and weekends and such. A woman cried in my arms yesterday. We just lost a child who drowned, the news still echoes through the house. Poor Brittney fighting a brain tumor at 10 is swollen and not well. But our other 10-ish-year-old cancer fighter is doing pretty well--saw her walking yesterday for the first time in probably 6 or 8 months. I don't know how much longer I can ignore the fact that those are the moments that give my "career" meaning, and that I don't know how many more "urgent" deadlines and hoops and "firedrills" and "important" "projects" I can manage for this bank, with little to no "thank yous," "great jobs," etceteras..... I am slowly admitting to myself that I am ready for a change. I think I've been preparing for it for 3 years and it may take me 3 more to fully make sense of it, and get the nerve to do something about it. But I'm finally verbalizing what I've been feeling in my soul, slowly, cautiously. [/confession]

In case you hadn't heard from me in real life or on Facebook or from some other blabbermouth.

 

That's pretty sweet, right? She's beautiful, and bright, and creative, and all that sappy stuff. We already have a mortgage and a spunky eight-year old running around, so it only seems right to make it official. Meghan's an awesome human being, all smartassery aside. She also barely even knows this place exists, and her eyes have glazed over the few times I've tried to explain how I wound up here and what I do here. That's cool, too. Charming, even.

 

Here we are posing, me wearing a scarf for some reason, and being intentionally cute for the camera. We both hate that shit. We're a great fit.

 

Apparently, I can wedding good.

 

So hey, I got that job I been hurtin' for!    

 

It took 6 - 8 months of serious effort but holy cow, I did it. I'll be working more closely with leadership again, handling their big meetings, announcements, speeches, etc. Basically helping them communicate with people as if they're people. It's perfect for now, and preparing me for later. So ready for this change.

 

My current boss is basically fuming--it's most excellent

 

 

The amount of people constantly asking for donations at my place of work is a bit out of control. I'm all for everyone's charitable efforts, and I donate to some of their causes. I don't mind if people put up a website to collect funds, but walking around person-to-person with a bucket asking for donations (making people who don't donate feel guilty) seems over the top. If I donated to every single charity people here are constantly asking for contributions to here I'd be broke.

 

I fully understand that guilting people into donate by going around to everyone will bring in more $ for your cause, and I appreciate the effort, but it just doesn't seem like the most appropriate thing to do at work. Am I just being a jerk?

 

No, you're not being a jerk. This is exactly why most (larger?) companies have policies against this. Unless it's company sponsored (which there are a bunch, to combat the we-dont-support-your-cause backlash,) ALL this personal shit is seriously on the down low here. You could hang a flyer at your desk or maybe send an email to a small group of work-friends, but I've never seen anyone walk around with a bucket asking for money. That's kinda nuts for the workplace, IMO.....

 

I don't know. Where do you draw the line? 501c3s only? What about my church fundraiser so we can have our annual campout? My son's baseball uniform fundraiser?!? Those aren't charities....that's just asking for money so you can do stuff/have stuff.

 

 

This whole networking thing is killing me right now. I rarely keep in touch with people I've worked with. Work is work and I generally don't care to hang out with work people outside of the office or talk to them after I move on. Now I need to figure out references for my job hunt and it's a pain in the ass. One company want to talk to one reference before they even interview me so I don't want to bother really busy former coworkers with just casual chat about me with no promise of an opportunity.

 

Anyone want to be a reference?   You guys know me way better than anyone I work with anyway lol

 

Jenn I know it's awkward but if it's a job/interview you really want, sometimes you gotta ask! I think email is easier:   "Hey, I am really trying to land an interview with this great company. Would you mind talking to them briefly, if they call you, about how you know me from ___ or how I did that one thing about ___ or whatever?" I have found that most people are glad to help people with career stuff. Sometimes you have to remind them they promised to make a call or connect you with so-and-so, etc., but I think it's OK to be a little persistent.

 

And, yes, I'd happily be your reference any day