I’m Such A Geek

Quite eventful the past couple of weeks have been. I went up to Fargo for a printing expo last weekend, saw some demos on vehicle wraps and even got to get up there and do a little cutting and squeegeeing myself. Is squeegeeing a word? Spell check doesn’t seem to think so. Oh well, you know what I mean.

Vehicle graphics is something I’ve always wanted to do, I once had big dreams of designing paint schemes for race cars. The plan was to move out to Charlotte, NC and the gig would be available instantly, of course. I’d be there in Charlotte designing paint schemes for NASCAR, and within distance to design for the open wheel teams in Indianapolis. Well, the world doesn’t work that way. I can’t see myself way out in North Carolina, I don’t know anyone anywhere near there. But, who says I have to go there? The company I work for is just getting into wide-format printing, so a little vehicle graphics might be in the question. I’ll get a little wide-format printing and signage experience and I’ll have the right stuff on my resume for it. That’s sort-of promising.

So I got to visit good old Fargo for this expo. Stayed up in Fargo at the Radisson Friday night, and then on Saturday night and Sunday I paid a visit to the family up in Cooperstown. Did a little snowmobiling on Sunday, and of course every muscle in my body was sore for the entire week afterward. It was about 50 degrees out so the snow was melting and very sticky, which made the snowmobile ride very bumpy and it was hard to turn. It was kind of like driving a car with no power steering, something I’ve had to do a few times before. It was still a lot of fun. The river was still frozen enough to ride on, and we saw a lot of deer out running around the area. One of the deer that got spooked by the snowmobile I was riding had leaped over a riverbank and landed flat on his head. I thought for certain he was a goner and had snapped his neck, but he got up and kept on running.

It was quiet around there, though. My older brother has been living in Fargo for a few years, so my visits home always included him, until this weekend. He’s moved on to greener pastures and moved out to Colorado. He made what I think is a good move and decided to use his GI bill and go to college, he found a school he liked out in Denver. He’s about 30 years old now, but I don’t think anyone’s ever really too old for college. I had classes with people older than that, one of my favorite classmates in college was as old as my parents and now he’s doing well as a graphic artist in an ad agency.

I’m quite excited for my brother, but it was very quiet and odd without him and his rambunctious yellow lab around this past weekend. Not having him nearby is already taking a toll on me. Yeah, I miss my big brother. We’ve been very close over the years, and I’ve counted on him for a lot. But he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. Who knows, maybe we’ll move out to Colorado too some day, we’ve been talking about doing that for a long time. Probably not anytime quite soon, though.

First we’ve got a wedding, and that’s going to be happening June 15th, 2008. We’re slowly moving into the planning stages, we have some time so we aren’t jumping to any conclusions yet. We know that we want it to happen in Minnesota, we’re going to check out some lake resorts up north this summer. I was informed that June 15th is also the wedding anniversary of my grandparents (on my Mom’s side) so that’s kind of cool.

I’ll keep you posted on the planning. In fact, I bought the domain name dustinandelizabeth.com so that we can have a wedding site. I haven’t decided if that’s geeky or not yet. No need for me to be self-conscious I guess, everyone thinks I’m a geek already I’m sure, and that doesn’t really bother me anymore. The dustinandelizabeth.com web site doesn’t have anything on it yet, but eventually we’ll use that for photos from the wedding, announcements, and even RSVPs. I was talking to a friend who recently got married, and he said that one of his biggest frustrations was that 75% of the RSVPs didn’t come by the deadline. Perhaps an online RSVP will cut that percentage down a little bit. I’ll announce when I have something on that new website, I just haven’t had any time yet.

Talk to y’all later… (yes I said “y’all”… I’m practicing my Charlotte, North Carolina accent dont-cha know).