Tough times

David here. We’ve been going through some serious talks in regards to our future plans. Laura’s grandfather died of Huntington’s when he was 48. Now her dad is the same age, but shows no signs of Huntington’s. He’s fit as a fiddle, still going strong. You should have seen the way he danced with Julie at our wedding, he was ballroom dancing like a pro.

Now the question that we're wrestling with is whether Julie should have a genetic test done to determine her status. Is she affected with Huntington's? Does she have to worry - was her father a carrier? She's been hitting the books pretty heavily the past few days, trying to get this all figured out, in between tutoring and plugging herself for a full-time position as a teacher. I'm somewhat rusty in my biology knowledge, but I'm sure she'll hit a place where there's something she doesn't understand. I'm going to hit some of my contacts back at UNC - I heard there's a new chair of biology - Steven Matson. Wonder what he's like...

In any case, I've got to take off... the Originals are recording! We'll have a new CD out, um, sometime. That's the plan right now, but Rockjam has been kind of iffy, so we'll see what goes on.

The rub... with my life.

David and I have been married for about two years now, and though I may be jumping the gun, I want to start thinking about starting a family… I’m one of the types that likes to be prepared and plan ahead… I have a touch of OCD, I think.

But therein, as the Bard would say, lies the rub. I may have more than just OCD. My father’s father died of Huntington’s disease.

That’s right. Huntington’s. The big one. Where, if it’s in your family, it’s there to stay, and complicate your life, and generally just be a big pain and make you question your existence, God’s existence, everything.

When my grandfather died of Huntington’s, I was very small and did not understand what was going on. I still don’t know very much about Huntington’s… my family didn’t talk very much about it.

They didn't talk about it at all. Want to know how I found out?

I was talking to my mom the other day about starting a family. She looked at me kind of funny and then started to cry a little. I couldn't believe it. I thought they were tears of joy, so I asked, of course, "Are you happy?"

Never have I been so shocked by an answer.

"No. No, baby. I'm not happy. I'm devastated. I don't know if you can do this. I think you might be devastated too. I'm sorry we had to do this, but we thought it was for the best."

Basically, she brought dad in, and he was SO MAD about being brought in, but he gave in, and they told me that my grandfather had died of Huntington's.

I had a big fight with my parents when I asked them how my grandfather had died – they had lied earlier and told me that it was old age. I don't know very much about Huntington's, but I figured it was something like that, just sped up and terrible. My father is adamant about not knowing his status in regards to Huntington’s. He absolutely does not want to know. But if I find out, then somehow he will know about it, so he's very against me getting the test. But that makes no sense, because I don't think that passing this gene on to my kids (if I have it) would be responsible at all.

Now the question is: should I get tested for the Huntington’s gene?

Maybe I’ll do some research first.

More later.

Back!

We're back, and if you couldn't guess, we went to China for a year... it was a pretty intense place, it was hard to adjust (and I still don't think I adjusted all the way, I was mostly going through the motions) but it's SO GOOD TO BE BACK! Now we can settle in, and do all those family sort of things once more ;)

-Thankful to be back on American soil,
Julie

Communication breakdown

Hi, everyone, David here... we're going to be on extended (and I mean EXTENDED) leave here for a while. Think about a year or so. I can't really talk about it a lot, but the firm is sending us on business overseas and we're going to live for a year. The problem is that we're not allowed to keep travel diaries or anything where we're going - access to the Internet is very restricted for security reasons. Check back around summer '07 for more updates.

Have a good year!
-David (and Julie)

Gigging!

What's up everyone, David here, just wanted to share something with you all... my band, heretofore unnamed, but now known as The Originals, has been gigging a lot lately, and (a digression) I am SO glad that Julie bought her Les Paul... she's been practicing so hard, getting back into her prime form... oh you should have seen the day she bought it... when I came in the door, she was playing Hendrix (not very well) but really trying very hard... it was so cute that I just had to laugh, and then one thing turned into another, and we nearly broke her guitar ;)
But in any case, WE (Julie joined as backup rhythm guitar, along with the rest of the band) GOT SIGNED. It's an indie label, Rockjam Records, but we're not in it for the money - hell, I pull in enough from my job :)
Just thought I'd share. It's been a really good month so far.

Job!

Hi, everyone! Ah! I got a job! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
It's been a long time, but my guitar skills paid off! I just got a temporary job as a tutor at Juilliard! Yep, THE Juilliard. You know, the premier music school in the US, if not the world ;) I'm really excited, and I hope it can be a stepping stone to maybe a career in music education. God, I'm working at JUILLIARD! I'm going to go do a little happy dance now, perhaps for like an hour.
:) :) :) :) :)

- Committed to bringing ROCK (but most likely classical guitar :-\ ) to a new generation,
Julie

Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Our first Christmas in the big city has been AMAZING - ice skating in Rockefeller Square, the ENORMOUS tree, 5th Avenue all lit up with incredible displays... I LOVE living in the city.

-Hoping your christmas has been as nice as ours,
Julie

I did it...!

I finally bought a guitar :) :) :)
It's a Les Paul Classic, it's got a slick black finish, and I absolutely love it to death.
Check it out!
http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/divisions/gibson%20usa/products/lespaul/classic/
Time to get back into the swing of ROCK! :-D

- In Rock,
Julie

So...little...time

Sorry that I can't post very often, but my job and the city keeps me very busy. It's so cool living in this place - there's always something to do, and most often that is mutually exclusive with keeping a blog. Just wanted to throw that out there. If you don't hear from me, it's not because I don't love you, internet, it's just because I'm very rarely here. I'm like one of those kids of soccer moms - all my time is structured, I'm always doing something or the other.
-David

Pictures...

So as it turns out, the pictures from our Swiss trip didn't come out as we had planned... they're pretty bad and this camera isn't cooperating with us, so I don't think we'll be able to post pictures. Sorryyyyyy :(

-Julie

Julie - the OFFICIAL autobiography ;)

So David roped me into it, and I guess I'm free enough, so here it goes.
So my name is Julie (obviously) and I was born in California. I also went to the WONDERFUL University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I graduated with a double major in English and education, and I am currently looking for a job as a curator in a museum or perhaps a teacher of some sort... I'm not really sure what I want to do but whatever it is I want it to be historical and interesting!
My hobbies include video games, yoga, gourmet cooking (and eating, of course!), fashion design (I like to dabble in creating new dresses for myself, and I LOVE walking down 5th Avenue and getting inspiration and ideas for new clothes. Maybe I'll even join a design company instead of being a curator... hmm... it's worth exploring.
I love watching David play the drums in his classic rock band, which I jokingly call Golden Days... it makes me ache to get back to playing the guitar like I did back in high school. I just don't have the time anymore, though, it seems, plus I don't have a guitar.
Other than that, there's not much more to me... I'm a straight shooter, I hate people who lie and deceive, and I always want to be the best that I possibly can, and do the best that I can possibly do in anything I attempt. Do you try and live your life this way?

-- Love, Julie

Hello, everybody!

Hi! This is David posting... hello world!
Let me tell you a little about myself... I'm an investment banker, I was born in Maryland, went to school at UNC-Chapel Hill (go Heels!), where I met my beautiful wife Julie. I did biology in undergrad, got my B.S., decided med school was not for me, and got my MBA from the Kenan-Flagler school of business.
Now Julie and I live in New York (it was kind of scary moving in even this long after September 11th, but we figure that now that we're being reactive rather than proactive, we're probably pretty safe).
I play classic rock in a cover band, but we've been branching out to originals more and more lately. Guess we're getting better :-)
In any case, we're usually fairly busy with work, so we'll post as often as we can... I'll get Jules to post a similar autobiographical piece within the next couple of days, so keep a lookout for that... hang tight.

Hi!

Hey everybody! This is Julie posting. As you can tell, we just started a blog! David and I have been on our honeymoon, we just came back from Switzerland! My god, the things we saw there were beautiful beyond words! The Alps, Geneva... the chocolatiers ;) It was simply amazing!
I'll post photos as soon as I can, but I still have to learn how to work our new camera...
In any case, have a nice day! We'll see you later!