Here goes...

A lot has been going on. May was a busy month what with finishing school (for good), having some family for graduation (fun) and moving (fun in a lame kind of way). June has been exciting too so here's a quick rundown of what's been going on with a few pictures to bring sense to my rambling.

Graduation was a lot of fun. Mom and Dad came to visit and join the festivities along with Eric, Linnaea, Jordon and Andrea. It was great to have fun with them and show them a very little of the area we'd been in for the last four years. There were two graduation ceremonies, the first was strictly for our college and we were handed our hoods. The second included all the professional programs at the university and was really hot but not too long. I got the hood put on me and a real diploma! I hope everyone enjoyed it. Susan took off early to go and pick up the cool cake she'd ordered along with our friends for our delicious taco celebration after graduation with the Gerritsens. It was so much fun spending time with them again and with our families. We're going to miss the Gerritsens VERY much. I'm sure they'll do just fine in life and I hope our paths will cross again soon. We made a lot of good friends in our class partly because of the shared suffering and common lot I hope we can stay in touch. (ie. read this blog every once in a while) Staying in touch is something I've not been very good at.

(hood distripution)


(it's a phoropter! refractions have never been so delicious!)

A few days after graduation we finished packing (Susan had already started in April) and loaded up an over-sized Budget truck with our stuff and drove it all to Bozeman Montana (specifically my folk's house), just before a big spike in diesel fuel. I should relate also that providence was on our side the whole time. Many things worked together for our good on our move. We are grateful. We're also really thankful for my mom and dad who helped so much with the move and my brother Duane who even avoided leaving work early to help me unload into a storage locker. I hope someday we'll be able to take care of ourselves but I doubt it.

Our car took it easy during the move and spent the entire time on a rented trailer behind our rented truck. It's inactivity worked to its detriment however. If you're interested in a gross story about what got stuck and how it got out, read on otherwise, skip the colored writing and move on to Lucy's birthday party.

So, the Sunday morning after our move we piled into our car to go to church. When I started the car, a terrible thumping sound started to come from the passenger's side of the car. Startled, I turned off the car and tried again. The noise continued. Using a little reasoning I started down my list of differential diagnoses and started ruling them out. A kind of relief came over me when I discovered the noise subsided when I turned the ventilation fan off. The thumping increased in frequency when the fan was on high and decreased when on low. Something was wrong with the fan and the chances of our wheels falling off on our way to church seemed low enough to chance it. The next day, or was it two days, I decided to see if the problem was simple enough for a new eye doctor to fix or if it was one we could afford. I took parts off and kept track of most of the screws and weird little bolts under the dash and watched the fan motor gyrate rhythmically while I adjusted the speed of the fan. Looking back, I don't know why I figured I had to see it rattling and thudding around so much. After investigating further, I figured taking the fan motor out of the car and opening it up was too big a job for me, so I tried going at it from the air intake under the hood. After more parts came off and getting a little light down there I found the source of the noise. A little dead mouse and found its way into my fan and built a little nest. I guess thought the little mouse was not dead when it spent all afternoon and evening building a nest in a ford focus death contraption. Long story short, he's out and lysol was applied liberally to any vent I could reach. (thanks again dad).

Wow, that was longer than I expected. Anyway on to Lucy's big birthday celebration! Our little girl turned 3! and we had a party for her at the Missouri headwaters with both sets of grandparents, a great aunt and uncle, uncle Shawn, some cousins, Aunt Wendy and her little dogs too. We had a really good time. Lucy was very cute and grateful, she got lots of nice toys out of the deal too. Thanks to everyone who participated. We chased bubbles, played ball and frisbee and pin the bow on the princess. We had hotdogs (Dallin had to cook his own thank you very much) and an awesome princess castle cake. A little rain blew through at the very end and sent us home with full bellys and tired eyes. A good time.

(ta-dah, great job Susan!)


(worth a thousand words)




(pin)

(nice shirt, thanks Grandpa)

(fake food! she got some cool toy kitchen tools too, thanks everybody!)


(real backpack thanks Grandma)

While waiting for licensure to go through, I decided to look for some kind of employment both permenent after license and temporary to keep busy and get some of that elusive income. While perusing the classifieds I came accross an ad for auditions for a feature film being shot in Helena during June. After some emails, I figured it would be a fun way to spend a few days of June having never been in a movie. I have been in several plays and I even took an acting class in undergrad. Anyway, I was told the maximum amount of time commitment would be 10 days out of June. Shooting will be done on the last day of June, a little while before optometry licenses are issued. So, I headed to Helena and read some lines and was told I'd be called. I went back to Bozeman and filed an application with a temp agency, and started looking at local bike shops for a minimum wage-style job. Then I got a phone call and a script in my email inbox. After some thinking and stuff I decided to take the part they'd offered me: a slow guy. The slow guy does have a pretty big role though and so I've been at the dorms at Carroll college most of the days of June. Susan and the kiddoes came to visit a few days as well as Jordon and Andrea. It's been fun and interesting seeing what goes into puting a film together. All the work and organization has been pretty impressive. We've got a great cinematographer, sound guy, costume designer and script supervisor who all seem to know what they're doing. Seeing how it comes out on screen makes it look pretty good. I'm learning about apple boxes, lollipops, and C-47's (even C-74's). Also, Gaff tape is awesome stuff and I'll probably get a roll some day to keep handy. After seeing all that goes on in filmmaking and what's really important I think that when the credits roll at the end of a movie, the crew's names should come before the cast's. It's easy to say a movie was bad, but I bet you heard every word and all the images were in focus and smooth, lighting was probably great and things mostly made sense. You can read more about the movie shoot by clicking here. Anyway, Here are some pictures from when Susan and Lucy and Dallin all came and were extras also some of me on set.

(he's getting so big!)

(two lovely ladies on the carrousel)



("roll sound"..."sound is speeding", "roll camera"..."camera has speed" *marker* action)

It makes me think of the days I was thinking about becoming a professional actor. I'm really glad I didn't, being an eye doctor is much better, especially for family life.

These last few days Susan has been in Buffalo and Cheyenne Wyoming. I miss her and the kids but job prospects seem to be taking shape and the NBEO posted a passing score for me which is good. Things are going well for us in a way and we have a lot to be thankful for.