The Life of a Nomad: Experience the Unexpected

Wow! What a fun weekend in Kalamazoo. This weekend we were able to see many of our great Kalamazoo friends: Julia, Theresa, Erin, Will, Kristen, Matt, Nathan, Ben, Kris, Noah, Lydia, Patrick and Ray.

Thank you so much for joining us at Dino’s Coffee this weekend. It was our pleasure to hang out with each of you. We posted pictures. Now go check yourself out!

Although we had a great weekend, Justin and I missed a few of our Kalamazoo favorites; Bryan (in Seattle), both Emily, Ellie, and Patrick Hill (in Sandusky), Chris and Jamie (in Grand Rapids) and Joanne (in Papua New Guinea).

Our summer has been going well and we hope yours has been great too.

Continue to enjoy the beautiful Michigan weather!

So last weekend, Natalie’s cousin Jessica (a non Italian cousin) got married to this outstanding guy. His name is Chris. Luckily for us, they decided to get married in Pittsburgh, PA (Jessica is more or less from Pittsburgh and Chris is from some city in Indiana. Apparently, most of the people from the place Chris grew up are related to him. That’s pretty neat.)

Plane tickets to Pittsburgh are a bit expensive and it is only a 4-5 hour drive from Detroit so we decided to drive. We = Kevin, Debbie, Phil, Amy, Natalie and myself. This is the first road trip the 6 of us have taken together and, overall, we had a great time. I mean, seriously if renting a gold mini-van (it had an Ohio license plate) and going on a road trip across Ohio is not a recipe for fun what is?

So Pittsburgh.
This was my first time (more or less) in Pittsburgh and I was impressed. About the only thing I knew about Pittsburgh before making this trip is that apparently, the city had, at one time in its illustrious past, made a great deal of steal. (Hint: The Pittsburgh Steelers). From what I hear, making a lot of steel dirties a place up a little as Pittsburgh has a reputation for being a rather dirty city. Well, a couple of recessions later, all of the steel plants are

closed and Pittsburgh is one of the cleanest cities I have been in to date. I really enjoyed the architecture of this old steel town. Built along a branch of the Ohio River, a number of bridges allow both pedestrians and traffic to move cross over the water with ease. They also provide a great landscape for those of us who like industrial age architecture.

Pittsburgh, as a city, was great but Natalie and I were there for a wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. The celebration after the ceremony was one heck of a party. Great food, excellent drinks, and, most importantly, a killer band. Natalie and I danced for most of the night and I left the wedding tired, and very very sweaty. If you want to see the pictures from our trip, check them out in our gallery.

Next time you are looking for a road trip make the drive to Pittsburgh. After all, with gas prices as low as they are what is holding you back!

I will write more details, and perhaps an entertaining story or two, when our apartment get hooked up to the internet but for now the facts are these.

Natalie and I left Loveland, Colorado (yes we were sad) at 4:00 am (Mountain Time) on Sunday January 27th. We arrived safely in Clermont, Florida on Tuesday January 29th at 4:30 am (Eastern Time). We were a bit tired. My brother (Jason) and his wife (Sheryl) have been very helpful and made Nat and I feel at home right away. (That was convenient because we spent two nights at their house.)

We have leased an apartment and are currently in the process of organizing all of our crap into a livable arrangement.

So there it is. Natalie and I are once again residing in Eastern Standard Time. So, all of you who were thrown off by the two hour difference between you and us over the last 6 months breath easily. The confusion has ended :).

No, not a new JustinandNatalie site but rather, a new website that I just put the finishing touches on. (By finishing touches I mean that I just fixed “all” of the problems”.) The web site is for a new ministry that is launching this summer in Sandusky, OH - Ministry To The Point. So check out www.ministrytothepoint.org to find out what the ministry is all about.

Also, if you find any writing/functional problems with the site….ah…please let me know me.

Thanks.

Natalie and I traveled to my brothers house, in Clermont Fl, to celebrate Christmas this year. It was a good time.

On a completely different note, Natalie and I decided not to buy a Christmas tree this year. As we have never purchased a Christmas tree before, this was not a hard decision. Last year however, Natalie and I decorated our apartment for Christmas by using a small artificial tree that I had obtained during my childhood. The tree did not come to Colorado with us. As a result, Christmas left us with a bit of a conundrum.

We had no Christmas tree.

We had no Christmas decorations.

We did not want a real tree (not enough room).

We did not want a fake tree (if we had wanted to move a fake tree all around the country we would have brought the one we had with us).

With this problem firmly in mind, Natalie decided to make us a Christmas tree out of paper mache. I was skeptical. At the same time, with the tree created and painted, I had to admit that a Christmas tree, made out of cardboard, newspaper, flour, and water, was in fact a viable alternative.

To make the tree more interesting, Natalie and I decided to “make” our own decorations. By “make” I mean that Natalie made a variety of cool deocrations and I rummaged through the apartment looking for small things that I could hang on the tree. Like a bottle opener.

All in all, the tree greatly increased the about of Christmas joy in our apartment. Success!

This weekend Justin and I had the privilege of driving to Leadville, CO and heading about another half and hour south to a cabin in the mountains with a group of our friends. John a friend of Christin’s is the proud owner of the cabin. John incase you ever read this, thank you. Our memories that we have made and the joy we have been able to share has been a direct result of your spirit of generosity.
The individuals that were a part of this magical mountain cabin experience include: Christin, Justin, myself, Paul, Hannah, Phil, Sarah, Tyler, Michelle, Jonathan and Kandace. We had an absolute blast! Driving up late Friday evening, in the dark, it was truly magical to wake up Saturday morning and to look outside and see the spectacular view of the mountains. I went outside and used my Minolta (non-digital) camera with a roll of black and white film. I hope to have these photo’s developed soon, and I will most likely scan in a few favorites to post on the website.
It was really neat to observe various individuals partaking in a quite a lot of different activities. Some of the activities individuals pursued over the weekend include reading, journaling, playing chess, playing other board games, cooking, taking photos (I was not the only photographer in the group), knitting, crocheting, drawing, cuddling by the fire, hiking, snow shoeing, ice fishing, and probably a few other activities I forgot to include.
Oh, right! That’s one I forgot! Chopping wood. Justin and Phil used an ax to chop wood for the fire. Thanks guys!
I had a marvelous weekend and will treasure our time in the mountain cabin. Thank you Christin for allowing such a wonderful time to occur. And thank you again John for allowing us to enjoy your cabin and all of God’s beauty surrounding the cabin.

This Thanksgiving was characterized by the happy arrival of three of our closest friends: Cup, Bryan, and Theresa.

The 5 of us spent the better part of a week bonding and taking a grand tour of the Front Range. (For those of you flatlanders, the Front Range is the part of Colorado that is geographically located east of the Rocky Mountains. However, to be in the front range you need to be somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes from the mountains. I think.) Needless to say, the week was full of a vast number of amusing incidents. As I do not have either the time or desire to relate all of the stories, the following will have to do.

Natalie and I have one car. We like having one car. Most of the time, having one card is not inconvenient. This was not one of those times.

As I was saying, Natalie and I have one car and on Thanksgiving morning, Natalie needed to be at work at 4:00 am. Usually, when Natalie needs to go to work at a time best left unexperienced, I roll over and go back to sleep. Thanksgiving morning represented a bit of a problem though. The problem was that Cup was arriving at the Denver airport (about 60 minutes from our apartment) at 7:25 am. What this meant was that Bryan, Theresa, and myself ended up taking Natalie to work and hanging out at Starbucks until about 6:15 am.

Bryan and Theresa did not need to come with me to the Bucks or to pick up Cup. They more or less volunteered to put themselves through this less than desirable experience. For that I commend them.

Now I feel the need to highlight the fact that Starbucks is in no way the place where I wanted to be at 4:00 am. On Thanksgiving morning.

Being resourceful, Bryan, Theresa, and myself attempted to make the best of the situation. Planning ahead, we brought Settlers of Catan. Now I enjoy a good game of Settlers the same as the next guy, but 4:00 am is a little early even by my standards. The upside to all of this was that if you are forced to be anywhere at 4:00 am, you could find yourself at worse places then a coffee shop. I mean seriously, they are America’s Favorite drug dealers. I personally feel that each Starbucks Employee should wear a shirt that proudly declares the reality of their existence. Caffeine Dealer. A visible tattoo would be even better.

I digress.

All in all, kicking it at the Bucks was not that bad. Natalie’s Assistant Manger took pity on us and kept us very well caffeinated and, as it turns out, Settlers is a good time even in the wee hours of the morning. Who would have thought?

Bryan, Theresa, and myself left Starbucks at 6:15 am and made the journey to pick up Cup. This was of course excellent. On the way back to the apartment we picked up Natalie and proceeded with our Thanksgiving.

A good time was had by all….but we were a bit sleepy.

First things first: I have once again let a great length of time pass between posts on this blog. Rest assure that I have, at least, 3 great stories that I want to tell. That being said I feel that I need to start with this.

Today, Natalie and I received a Christmas card from this charming couple, Colin and Amy Rose.
The problem is, and I am rather embarrassed to admit this, neither Natalie nor myself know Colin or Amy Rose. What makes matters worse, as if that were possible, the address that we currently live at is not exactly common knowledge. It is not that we have purposefully kept our current address a mystery; rather, we have simply not told many people. No change of address announcement cards. No mass emails. Nothing. That means that the individuals who sent us this Christmas card probably do in fact actually have knowledge of one of us. (The envelope is addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Justin Boyd so if anything it is my fault).

So here is, as is often said, the deal. If you know either of these two individuals, or if you are one of these two individuals, please let me know who you/they are and where I know you/they from. I apologize in advance for my complete lack of knowledge and social prowess and I fully admit to being both embarrassed and ashamed by this situation.

To Collin and/or Amy Rose, please accept our humble apology. I am sure that, after this amusing but awkward situation, I will never forget either of you again.

So it turns out that making, as in actually creating, sushi is quite a bit easier than I had originally thought. (Sadly, I do not have quite the respect I previously had for those intimidating and fierce looking Japanese guys at sushi restaurants….) Anyway last week (yes I know I should have written this 6 days ago….) a good friend of ours, Christin Booth (the gourmet chef and all around amazing person), agreed to put her skills to use in the service of teaching a group of us how to make sushi. Christin is also an expert at making a whole host of other things and yes, Natalie and I are blessed enough to partake in many of Christin’s creations. But I diverge…..

So on Saturday night Natalie and I, as well as a large host of our new friends (pictured below), gathered in the great room for the purpose of learning to make sushi. Just so you know, the great room is not located in mine and Natalie’s apartment. Seriously, our jobs are profitable but do you really think we can afford an apartment with an industrial size hood in the kitchen? Not likely. In reality, our apartment building (Lincoln Place) has a community room that comes fully equipped, conveniently, with a kitchen. A nice kitchen. With lots and lots of counter space. And, as it turns out, counter space is quite necessary when 15 people attempt to learn how to make sushi. Simultaneously.

Needless to say, although some individuals insist on ruining sushi by adding fish, Natalie and I, taking the higher ground of course, perfected the art of sushi making through using only fruits and vegetables. When I say Natalie and I, what I really mean is Natalie. Although I did make one batch of sushi roles, I inevitably fell into my familiar role as the agent of quality control. With our powers combined, we were able to make great sushi. (Although, with only a small amount of practice, Natalie worked me out of a job - with no complaints from me.)

To make everything even better, Christin sent the extra sushi rice home with Natalie and I. This of course lead to me eating primarily sushi for the next three days as Natalie worked through several thousand different combinations of seaweed, rice, and vegetables. I was, as you can no doubt imagine, immersed in a happy sushi bubble for days. The effects are just starting to wear off.

My happiness, and the untold levels of happiness distributed throughout the world (at least where sushi is involved), was a direct result of the great work of Christin Booth. So picture this. You gather a whole boatload of random, yet significant ingredients. Next, after driving to the teaching location, you attempt to teach a bunch of 20 somethings, with the average attention span that would rival most 2nd graders, the art of sushi making. After this instructional process, you get to enjoy sitting around watching them butcher your instructions. Did I mention that you had to get up at 4:00am to work your day job? This is more or less, with limited exaggerations, what our good friend Christin went through. To say that I am impressed and indebted to her is an understatement. So, if you ever run into Christin, give her a big hug and understand that you are in the presence of greatness.

I had an absolute blast just recently on a cruise with my mom, grandma, Aunt Lynette, Pat, Sandy, and Colleen. Hope you have had a chance to check out some of the fun pictures. We did so many different activities and went on all sorts of adventures. Some of the highlights include a Hoola-hoop competition, a Shuffle Board Tournament, winning several games of BINGO, casino-slot machine fun, Karaoke, YMCA with the Village People at the Disco, meeting the International Crew from over 60 different countries, post BINGO nap time, elegant evening dinners, Live Art Auctions, and Live Musical shows, Game Shows, and Comedic Relief. And that isn’t even everything we did!

I thought Loveland would seem boring after our Royal Caribbean cruise. However, we’ve been having our fun too! Just this past weekend Justin and I kept really busy. We volunteered for a work project at our church, volunteered at a local theater (The Rialto) and got to see the show for FREE. We also hosted a “Learn How to Make Sushi Night”, with over a dozen friends participating and our friend Christin, a Gourmet Chef taught us. Then Sunday we volunteered at Cafe Bleu, serving coffee in the new cafe, we also drove out to Greeley, CO that afternoon in search of the Hot Air Balloon Festival. By Sunday night we hung out with some friends at Phil and Sarah’s new house. Justin and I decided we were ready for our fun-filled busy weekend to end!

Feel free to call or email me with Cruise highlights.