Category: family

01 Dec

I’ve Been There

It’s not often I watch something on TV or check out a clip online and see some place I’ve been.

Of course, that doesn’t count big things like the U.S. Capitol or New York, but rather more unique experiences.

This morning I got an email updating the latest news from the Ice House Cafe, a restaurant and bar my family has been going to forever. Well maybe not literally forever, but often when I’m there the bartender, Dan, will tell other patrons stories about me and my siblings as little kids climbing up on the stools and demanding he change the television to a sports game.

One piece of news was that the Oyster Bar area was recently used in a music video by R&B artist Akshan. It’s that part of the restaurant where my family has spent most of our time, including many years of eating at the exact same table by the front window.

A really great part about the Ice House is the decor, which you could easily spend hours examining. That also makes it easy to see that in the video, around the 3:25 mark, Akshan is sitting exactly where I have sat dozens of times. From there you can look outside at the cars passing by and across the street at what was for many years a sports card shop.

The real perk — in addition to the sweet old-time football picture — is that right next to his left knee, there’s a heat vent, which is an excellent addition to any wintertime dining experience.

By cjhannas family food Uncategorized
28 Nov

And The Shirts Came Back

It took a series of text messages, a home watch company, a multi-part chain of custody and more than five months, but I have now been reunited with three shirts that for a short time threatened my sanity.

In June, I went on vacation in Naples, Fla., where I stayed at my aunt’s house. Two weeks later, I did some laundry and afterward noticed an empty hanger on the left side of my closet. A maroon polo shirt was supposed to go there, right next to the orange one of the same style.

I double-checked the dryer, the washing machine, the space in between them and behind, but didn’t find the shirt. Back in the closet I searched every nook where it could have fallen — nothing. I dragged out the suitcase I had taken to Florida, opened every pocket, and still found nothing. Checks of my roommate’s closet, the guest bedroom, under my bed and at least three repeats of all of the above still resulted in no shirt.

If you know me at all, you’re probably aware that I’m ridiculously organized. I don’t lose anything. Ever.

I asked my then-former, now-current roommate (don’t ask, long story) if he had maybe borrowed it one night when he was staying with us. No dice. I searched the closet one more time, this round focusing on the right side (yes, there’s a system involved) and noticed two more empty hangers.

WAIT. WHAT SHIRTS ARE THOSE?!……..FLORIDA!!!!!

It all came back to me. When I arrived down there and unpacked, I hung up those three shirts in the closet — none of which I wore while I was there.

After my revelation, I texted my aunt, explaining how I was driving myself crazy looking and asked if she could check the closet the next time she was at the house.

“Don’t go nuts,” she said. “Don’t need more nuts in the family!!”

So true. Concerned for my sanity, she sent someone over to look, and sure enough the shirts were hanging right where I left them.

Flash forward to last weekend in New Jersey, where we were visiting for Thanksgiving. I walked into my grandparents’ house and was immediately handed my shirts.

Sanity fully intact.

By cjhannas family not smart Uncategorized
15 Nov

Run, Neb, Run

I’m just going to throw this out there — last weekend rocked.

The big event was traveling to Richmond to run a half marathon, which seemed like a bit of an overly ambitious task given that I hadn’t exactly trained a ton for the race. In case that sounds like I’m just being humble, consider that when I set my personal best at this distance two years ago I was running about 25 miles per week. There have been several months this year in which I didn’t run a total of 25 miles.

With that in mind, I started the race with my sister-in-law Bethany, as we worked towards a somewhat lofty goal of finishing in 1 hour 50 minutes. The last time we ran a half marathon together was when I did get my best time (1:43:08), and this course was much flatter, so at least I had the right conditions going for me.

In the first mile Bethany asked me how I thought our pace was:

C: “Good…a little fast maybe.”
B: “Fast?! I was thinking slow.”

In order to hit our goal time, we needed to keep a pace of about 8:23 per mile. Our first mile time — 8:45. We picked it up from there cranking out 8:04, 8:04, 8:07, 8:41, 8:07, with watch-less, psychic Bethany guessing our sixth mile time exactly on her first try.

From that it seems like things were going great, but we were asking each other after each mile, “We can’t actually hold this pace, right?” Fortunately we slowed down a touch for the next three, going 8:13, 8:37, 8:25.

In Raleigh in 2009, I went ahead after mile 7 and felt great picking up the pace straight through the finish. This time, I left Bethany with a high-five after mile 9 and as I surged ahead immediately felt like I may have made a poor move. My left knee started hurting and I could feel the effects of all those early fast miles catch up to me quickly.

Fortunately, as I walked for a second at the water stop in the next mile (8:24), the knee quieted down a bit and my brain was able to convince my body that with just three miles to go I should just suck it up and go. I also did some quick math and told myself that if I could just keep them under 9 minutes, I could reach what seemed like kind of a crazy goal just an hour earlier.

The result was closing out with miles of 8:20, 8:14 and 7:52, and covering the final tenth of a mile in 42 seconds to finish at 1:48:41 overall. My second-best half marathon ever on easily the least training.

Given that my best time came after a ton of training and was followed two weeks later by a stress fracture in my foot, maybe there’s something to this whole non-training thing. Though as we walked to the car after the race, I couldn’t help but think, “Man, what if I had trained more?”

Maybe next year.

And next year I think may be a requirement. My aunt and cousins in Richmond were awesome hosts, giving us a ride to the start line at 6 a.m., feeding us and cheering us on. They had as much fun as we did, and it was great to experience that with them.

Another highlight, my brother’s forethought when signing up for the race. They gave us the option of putting our names on our race numbers, which means random spectators on the course can call out your name and give you encouragement. I didn’t have mine on there, Bethany had her name, but Ben, who ran the full marathon, went with this:

Go Neb!

By cjhannas family running Uncategorized
02 Nov

Hey Taylor

It’s been a long time since I mentioned Taylor Swift here, mainly because her quest to ruin my life appears to be over.

We never had direct peace talks, but both sides seemed to have lost the will to continue the fight and we settled back into a sort of neutral stance. However, that’s not true for her and another member of my family.

Last weekend I went to see a “Moneyball” with my mom and brother Pat. Mom, a country music fan, was driving and when the very first notes of a Taylor Swift song came on the radio she immediately changed the station. This was not nearly the first time I had witnessed this phenomenon, but in case there was any doubt as to her feelings towards Ms. Swift, my mom added, “I don’t understand why everyone else thinks she’s so wonderful.”

Last night mom and Pat went to a hockey game at the Verizon Center, and my brother sent me a text message saying they saw a Taylor Swift poster go by as they went up the escalator to their level. “She’s trying to follow mom,” he said.

I get that maybe Taylor was tired of feuding with someone taller than her, but I don’t get why she has to keep pursuing these quarrelsome relationships. Hey Taylor, it’s OK to just play your guitar and sing. I’m perfectly fine with that. My cousin, who has used your picture as his Facebook profile photo, is definitely fine with that.

Though maybe you shouldn’t do it when my mom is around.

By cjhannas family Taylor Swift Uncategorized
31 Oct

Stunt Double

Facebook has added in a lot of features over the years — some good, some not so good — but there’s one aspect of their technology that may help solve a lifelong question.

If you meet me, there are certain facts that are likely to elicit what I consider overblown responses about their novelty, mainly that I am left handed and have a twin sister. Yes, I understand neither of these are tremendously common, but each brings its own series of questions I have answered a hundred times.

With the twin thing one of the most frequent questions is if we look alike. The answer, I say, really depends on whom you ask. To some people there’s a big resemblance while others think we don’t look anything alike.

Thanks to Facebook’s face recognition feature when you upload photos, we may have an answer. At least, we now know what computers think:

I uploaded a picture the other day with all of my siblings in it, and Facebook only tried to tag one of the faces. It’s mine, but Facebook think it’s my sister.

What do you think? Here’s perhaps the greatest picture of us that will ever be taken:

And one more for good measure:

By cjhannas family technology Uncategorized
15 Apr

On Eagle’s Wings

I usually write stories that get no immediate feedback.

Sure, some people comment right after they read something here, or an editor might say something after going over one of my scripts. I’ve also spoken to many fine residents of Jacksonville, Florida, who wanted to lodge some complaint about one of the news shows I produced.

But that’s not the same as having people react in the moment — to see their faces and sense them as you’re reading something.

Last week, I actually did that, presenting a short piece at a “coffee house” event held at my church. As I may have suspected, it was an odd experience having a crowd instead of just sending my story off as a bunch of anonymous electronic signals.

But at least they applauded at the end. My normal audience may do that, but not loud enough for me to hear.

In case you weren’t in attendance, I recorded a version here (3.5 mins). Brace yourself for the part where I made the questionable decision to sing, letting what I thought the story needed at that point supersede my total lack of ability to adequately provide it.

By cjhannas audio family piano Poppop Uncategorized
07 Apr

Helping Haiti

I know what you’re thinking, you really want to help me out right now.

And by that I mean help out my “family.”

And by that I really mean help the people in the town of Grand-Bois, Haiti.

My step-cousin (yes, that’s a thing) Paige is going to Haiti this summer as part of her grad school thesis research. She’s studying art therapy counseling, and while I don’t have an exact definition, I think it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Maybe I should let her explain what she’ll be doing:

“I am going to be working with students from nearby schools as well as other community members on completing a mural at the community Health Clinic. Documentation of the process will be used to help support my research about how community arts can help highlight and support resilience, as well as build community and celebrate culture.”

Here’s where you come in. Supplies for this project cost money and you definitely want to give some, even if it’s just $1. Just click here.

Don’t think you have the cash? Skip Starbucks tomorrow. Think the donation process is hard? You can use your Amazon account and donate in roughly seven seconds.

Think this post needs a photo? Fine:

That’s a collection my siblings and cousins, with a kid, some girlfriends and a dog thrown in there. Paige is in the green/white in the back row. Hopefully you can figure out which one is me.

By cjhannas family Uncategorized
01 Apr

Play Ball!

Get excited, spring is officially here.

Walking into a baseball stadium yesterday with temperatures around 40 degrees didn’t scream “spring,” but the fact that I was there for Opening Day baseball said otherwise.

For the second consecutive year, I saw the Washington Nationals open their season along with my brother Pat. For those of you who don’t know him, he looks like this:

It’s possible that’s not the most representative picture. Lucky for him, this year our mom was around for the game too:

Oh, and I guess I was there:

The weather was far from ideal. At one point I had to resort to taking my arms out of the sleeves of my coat and having my brother zip me up like I was in a straight jacket in order to get my hands warms again.

But there are few better days this time of year than Opening Day. That’s when even Nationals fans can pretend our team has a chance. Mathematically, it’s fun to watch all of the percentage-based statistics like batting average and earned run average that can swing so wildly with such a limited data set.

Plus there’s just something right about sitting among a crowd, eating a hot dog and watching some baseball.

I brought along my flip-style camera with the intention of taking lots of video. Due to the frozen nature of my hands, I didn’t get anything past the first inning. But again, with Opening Day there’s a lot said in those first six outs:

The Atlanta Braves ending up beating the Nationals 2-0, so it was a respectable showing. And at least this year there weren’t legions of annoying Phillies fans around.

One last comical moment. This game was played in March 2011 — not April — but someone forgot to tell the graphics guy at the stadium:

By cjhannas baseball family Uncategorized video
25 Feb

Working for the Memories

Last week I posted an audio story about how my mom and her family communicated with each other by tape when my grandfather was deployed in Vietnam.

I mentioned the incalculable hours that in some way went into making that post and said I would explain some of the background work you didn’t see.

In 2009 I was working part time for a company that among other things converted all kinds of old media to digital. That included things like 35mm photo slides, 8mm movie film, reel-to-reel audio tapes, records, VHS tapes and cassette tapes.

Sitting in my parents’ basement were a box of reel-to-reel tapes, a few movie reels, a film projector and a reel-to-reel player. Since I learned how to use that older equipment, I set to trying to digitize my grandparents’ old stuff.

I started with the audio tapes:

Which involved this machine:

A few years earlier, my younger brother and I had tried to use the machine, but couldn’t quite figure it out. Turns out it was broken anyway. After opening it up, and a quick (lucky) find on eBay, I had a replacement belt for one of the motors and a working machine.

The transfer process can sometimes be a bit convoluted. In this case, it involved running an audio cable from the tape player to my camcorder, which was in turn connected to my computer. Slightly complicated, but it worked.

Things went well for a few tapes. For being as old as they are, they sound remarkably well.

Then while I was playing a tape, a loud BANG and a puff of white smoke came from inside the machine. I quickly unplugged it, recovered from a minor heart attack, and found that it had just blown a capacitor. I had to wait a few days for the new $0.15 modern capacitor to arrive, but it was pretty easy to solder in place and finish the recording process.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I listened the audio files from each tape on my computer. Using Adobe Premiere editing software, I was able to make little clips of each section that sounded like something I might use in the story.

I just happened to be going to dinner with my parents, and brought along a (very cheap) microphone and recorder on the off chance my mom was willing to sit down for an interview. I was kind of surprised that she immediately said yes, and her insight I think added a lot to the story I was already forming in my head.

The next day I started writing the script, but stopped after about a page. What I had wasn’t terrible, but I just wasn’t happy with the direction it was going. Mainly the issue was that I did a lot more of the setup before you ever heard any of the old audio, which is really the whole story.

I stepped away for a day, and on the Metro ride into work I brought along a notebook and started over. It took a second night of writing on the subway, but I think the result was much better the second time around.

The next step was recording my audio. Without access to a recording studio, I opted for the next best location — the closet in my bedroom. With the Flashlight app on my cellphone lighting the way, I was able to record my track and feed the audio into my computer.

From there, it was just a matter of using the editing program to splice together my audio, the interview with my mom and those small clips I had pulled from the original audio.

The post last week included two pictures from the era. Those are part of more than 1,700 of my grandparents’ 35mm slides that I scanned in 2009. Just like the audio tapes, the pictures are things I had never seen and provide a look into what their lives were like back then.

They even help connect to our family today. In some of the pictures you can see a striking resemblance between my mom and aunt and some of their kids. The backgrounds of the photos inside their various houses are interesting too. They show a lot of the artwork and decorations they had that were the treasured keepsakes in their house when we packed it up five years ago.

Many of those things are in our homes today. For example, check out the wall behind my grandmother in this picture:

As I type this, I can actually reach out to my left and touch one of those scrolls, which are hanging in my bedroom.

Here’s a bonus piece of audio (50 seconds) from the tapes that didn’t make the original story, with my grandfather talking about where he got the scrolls:

So, lots of overall work, but definitely worth experiencing those memories.

By cjhannas audio family Nana Poppop technology Uncategorized
17 Feb

Voices From the Past

Some of these posts, I admit, take really no forethought and about three minutes to write.

This one doesn’t have much text, but I assure you I couldn’t begin to count how many hours went into it.

It’s a radio story — think “This American Life” — so you’ll need about 13.5 minutes and either some speakers or headphones.

It might also help to have a picture of the people involved so you can have something to look at while you listen:

Enjoy.

Next time, a little about how all of this came together. Stay tuned.

By cjhannas audio family Nana Poppop Uncategorized