Back in Black

Soooo...I post my 9/11 tribute and then disappear from the face of the earth. Yep, that about sums up what's been going on in my life lately!

Here are some random thoughts, bulleted because I don't have it in me to write in paragraph form:

• The wedding is in ONE MONTH!!! ONE MONTH!!!! Too bad the priest hasn't called back to set up all our meetings yet. Stressful? Hell, yeah!
• School is actually trying to kill me. I mean it. We just had our second exam in two weeks, and those suckers are hard!
• Otto continues to be cute, and he is getting better at not freaking out in the crate that much and also can be trusted to hang out in the bedroom in the morning after I get up and go to work so Bill can sleep on the weekends and this has cut down on all the fighting we were doing about it. Now, we are a happy little family. And when Bill's kids are visiting, Otto gets so excited that I think he will someday jump right out of his skin. So cute...and one of the main reasons I wanted to get a dog. Every boy needs one.
• I have my last two wedding-related appointments next week. I can't wait for this thing to be over.
• I have a paper due on Tuesday that I haven't really started so much yet. Must get cracking. Luckily, Bill is out of town for a Boys' Weekend in Cleveland this weekend, so I will have some quality time with the computer to get this done.
• The weather has taken a turn for the colder. Time for sweaters and Uggs. Can't wait!
• Some of my blogging friends have been forced to go underground with their blogs because of some repercussions that come from either sharing too much with too many people or sharing too much that was found by one unfortunate person. I don't think anyone really cares about the drivel that I right, so I am not worried about that, but it kind of sucks.

Alright, that's all I've got! Look for more coherent blogging sometime soon(ish...oh, who am I kidding? You get what you get!)!

**********

Edited to add: For some reason, bullets don't work, so numbers are what you get. I am too tired to try to figure out what the heck is going on! Why can't Blogger just cooperate? Why?

Five years later...remembering Dennis O'Berg

At 494 Dean Street in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn stands the building housing Engine Company 219 and Ladder Company 105. The two companies have shared that building since 1977. Prior to 1977, they were located in separate houses, about ½ mile away from each other. Ladder 105 has its roots in a volunteer company, Ladder 5, from the Greenport section of Brooklyn that was organized in the latter half of the 19th century. After spending time as Ladder 5 of the Brooklyn Fire Department, Ladder 5 of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), and Ladder 55 of the FDNY, Ladder 105 was organized on January 1, 1913 as a part of the FDNY.

One member of Ladder 105 who was lost on September 11th after responding to the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center site was Dennis O’Berg. Dennis was 28 years old at the time of his death. He was a resident of Babylon, on Long Island, where he lived with his wife of less than one year, Christine. Their first wedding anniversary would have been September 28, 2001.

Dennis didn’t always plan to be a firefighter. He graduated from the State University of New York at Geneseo with a degree in accounting and worked for the Big 4 accountancy firm Ernst & Young after graduation. However, he followed his father’s footsteps as a firefighter, entering the academy because he felt shackled to his accountant position. He graduated from the academy not long before the September 11th attacks and was assigned to Ladder 105. Being a firefighter changed him into a happy and smiling and easygoing person. On September 11th, he had been a firefighter for only seven and a half months.

Dennis’s remains were not found in the wreckage at Ground Zero, and his family held out hope that something would be found so that they could plan his funeral. After only his helmet, his jacket, and one of his boots was found, Dennis’s family held a memorial service for him on June 28, 2002, burying an empty casket. Dennis’s father, Lt. Dennis O’Berg., retired from the FDNY on September 11th to dedicate himself to finding his son. However, when all the wreckage had been cleared, it was not to be so.

Family and friends remember Dennis as someone who was young at heart. He was a fan of Harry Potter, Norman Rockwell, Star Wars, and the New York Rangers. He collected baseball cards and enjoyed all kinds of music. He was a romantic and often gave his wife roses for no particular reason, took her on long drives and picnics on the North Shore, and left her notes telling her that he loved her. She found one of those notes in her bed the evening before September 11th as she was preparing to retire for the night. His dream was to be there as a husband and father for his wife and kids and to raise a family on Long Island. He never got to fulfill that dream. Instead, his life was cut short by the terrorists who attacked America on September 11th.

Dennis P. O’Berg. Forever in the thoughts of his friends and family. And now, forever in my thoughts as well.

To learn more and pay tribute to other heroes lost to us on September 11, 2001, please visit the 2,996.

Oh please, oh please, come right on in...we're ever so glad to see you!

As I mentioned last week some time (or maybe earlier...I have lost track), I am taking part in the Bloggy Tour of Homes. Therefore, I rushed home this evening to move piles of mess around in my house so that I could take pictures with no mess in them. Remember how I said I was going to clean for you? Just kidding!

Anyway, please come in...



As you can no doubt tell, this is our front door. We never use it. We prefer to enter through the garage. However, the garage is a mess, so you won't be seeing that!



Here we have the living room. Before I moved here, this room got very little use because Bill would just retire to the bedroom to watch TV at night. Now I used this room a lot because it is the room with the air conditioner in it. I also love my couches, and I sit on them often!



This is the kitchen, where I don't cook too often. But I will when I am done with nursing school. I have promised Bill. Those dish towels say "Sister Mary Margarita." That's three-fold funny for us because (A) we are Catholic, (B) my name is Mary Margaret, and (C) we love us some margaritas! Okay, moving on!



Bill's office...also, I guess, my office. Home of the blogging "magic." That's about all in the house. The master bedroom is not at all done, so we will not be going there. The boys' room is, well, a boys' room, so no visits there either. Let's head outside...



This is some of the woods behind our house. We have many wild things that either live in them or cut through them on a daily basis. They are my favorite feature of our property.



This is the view from our front porch. That is not our house...it's the big house across the street. That tree-covered mountain the in the very background is Camelback Mountain, home of one of the Poconos' many ski resorts.

And that, my friends, is our happy little corner of the world. We plan to fix this here place up and make it more home-like (paint and pictures on the walls will be a great start), but for now, this is where we spend part of our days and most of our nights.

Thanks for stopping by!

Claiming my own little corner of the web...

I have become addicted to reading blogs. My first addiction is the daily, hilarious, and oddly inspiring www.dooce.com. Heather Armstrong is, to me, the quintessential blogger. She lets us in and makes us laugh. My friend Kat also just started a blog, so I have added her to my Favorites list and will now check in on what's going on with her everyday. These blogs, along with my eDiets addiction, means that soon I will no longer have to buy books for entertainment. I will be able to get everything I need here on the web.

And cutting down on my book habit would actually be beneficial to me. You see, a few months ago, I quit my relatively secure job working in the not-for-profit world and became a student nurse. I got paid for 24.5 days of vacation at my old job, which I socked away in my savings accout, and I have been issuing myself a "paycheck" every two weeks so I can pay my bills. The money is running out. I have a plan...I am going to become a substitute teacher. I am pulling my teaching certificate out of the mothballs and using it once again. However, to make money as a substitute teacher, the school district has to call you. CALL, ALREADY!

I have had to give up some luxuries. First to go was the professional highlights I had put in my hair every 12 weeks. And that was actually going a little too long...it should have been more like eight weeks. Yesterday, my mom took pity on me and my roots and bought me a box of hair dye at Giant. I dyed my own hair yesterday for the first time since just after I got out of college. My hair now looks like it did in college...a uniform dark auburn, not a highlight in sight. But you know what? The roots are GONE! And that means that I no longer look like the girl who can't afford to get her hair re-highlighted. Instead, I am the cute redhead with the sparkling personality...and that's not a bad thing to be.