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[Nov. 1st, 2009|09:17 pm] |
Thursday I volunteered to man a table for Harvey Mudd at a college fair for local schools. It was pretty interesting. I'm glad I went. The tables were alphabetical, so HMC got put right next to Harvard. Needless to say, for long portions of the evening my table was eclipsed by the long line of clueless, pretentious private school kids telling him they were going to go to Harvard Law or Harvard Med. I'm amazed that he never got visibly agitated after explaining to these people, for the fiftieth time, that those were graduate degrees, and they needed to get a 4 year bachelor's degree before they could do that. He was really cool though. He kept sending the kids over to my table. The guy from Harvard was sooooo impressed by Mudd. Before the fair started, he stopped me and said, "Oh WOW! You went to Harvey Mudd?! The member of the Claremont Colleges, the number 1 engineering school in the country?! I'm HONORED to be at the table next to yours!" I looked down at his table, realized he was from Harvard, and stammered, "Wow, I'm honored that you're honored!" All night he went on about how they knew all about Mudd, and how the smartest person he'd ever met had gone to Mudd. It was extraordinarily flattering.
The students at the career fair were a big mix. I met a few who seemed like good fits for Mudd. They were excited to learn about it. Most students walking by either avoided my glance so I wouldn't talk to them about the non-Ivy school (did I mention these were all private school kids?), or shook their heads and ran away when I said, "Are you interested in science or engineering?"
Possibly the most well-spoken, intelligent, well-rounded, interesting student I met all night threw me for a loop when he asked me the only question I had no answer for ... "What is your policy on undocumented students?" Wasn't expecting that one. I checked with the admissions staff, and I have to email him back with the answer. I feel bad, because I have to tell him that even though it won't hurt admissions, his chance for scholarship funding is slim to none, and that's probably a deal-breaker for him.
Halloween was fun. My costume evolved organically. I was considering just wearing last year's fairy costume, or my belly dance costume, but I didn't have to. I wore a black turtle neck one day, with a cool 20's style hat. Then I was fooling around and borrowed Michael's black mask, and realized I looked like a 20's cat burglar. Which of course meant I needed to buy a cat nose, ears, and tail. And tadaaaa! Cat burglar costume. Definitely the most comfortable (read: least revealing, most warm) costume I saw all night. And totally cute. Michael and I went to a haunted house downtown first. It was sooooooo creepy. The people in killer clown costumes kept following me around and getting in my face. Then we went up to Austin, where they closed off 6th street so people could mill around and see everyone's costumes (usually while drinking copious amounts of alcohol, but we didn't drink). It was pretty fun. I saw a few really good ones.
We stayed at a hotel in Austin Saturday night, and spent most of today there, just enjoying the weather and wandering around, hanging out at the park, etc. It was a very chill weekend. I had a lot of fun. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|05:14 pm] |
It's funny how it's OK to look at/make faces at/talk to little children you don't know, but nobody would do that with adults. In fact, we usually avoid looking at or making eye contact with adults we don't know. I guess it's because we don't want the other person to think we're weird/awkward/overly friendly, but kids are genuine and not caught up in what is and isn't socially proper. If they want to talk to you, they talk to you. If you say something funny to them, they laugh. If they want to stare at you, they stare at you. Nobody feels self-conscious when a little kid is staring at them. They're just ... genuine, and not catty or anything.
This is what I started thinking about after a funny encounter at a restaurant yesterday. A bunch of coworkers took me out to lunch to celebrate my birthday. We went to a restaurant that is pretty popular with people form my division. When I sat down, this little kid (maybe 6 months old) was making noises and turning around in his highchair to stare at me. So I said hi, and I waved at him. Didn't look at his parents at all, for the purpose of not being creepy. 20 minutes later, a coworker mentions the cute kid. Michael turns around and says, "Oh yeah, that's Gus and his family. He works in our division." The father, sitting right there the whole time, is somebody I've worked with a lot before. I didn't even notice. But I had been interacting with his kid for 20 minutes. It was embarrassing. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|02:00 pm] |
My dad was in the hospital. Found this message on my answering machine last Saturday. NOT happy. As it turns out, he's fine. He got mad at my mom for leaving the message, because he doesn't think it was a big deal. Turns out my mom was worried over nothing serious, but my dad found out he has disturbingly high blood pressure. He's mad because he has to face the fact that he has to choose between sitting on his butt and eating lots of meat and cheese and taking blood pressure medication "like the rest of sick America," or actually putting effort into being healthy. For my whole life he refused to go to the doctor or even use my mom's blood pressure monitor (she has high blood pressure too), because he didn't want to admit that he was sick, just like most men his age. He knows that high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and many leading types of cancer are lifestyle diseases, and never wanted to find out if he was at risk, because he felt fine and didn't want to have to change. So he's fine, and taking a pill. It was funny - when my mom told me, I joked, "Haha, now you'll have to eat like me, right?!" My mom exclaimed, "Yeah! That would be great!" totally seriously. My dad responded, "Um, no, not going to happen." My response: "K, well, get used to taking the pill then. And send me the name of it so I can make sure it's not going to screw your body up like it did to grandmom." It makes me sad that my dad is keeping my mom from adopting a healthier lifestyle. He does most of the cooking and makes most of the food decisions for the house. At least she goes to the gym without him. She's soooo gung ho about that - it's awesome.
My grandparents moved out of my parents' house and up to my aunt and uncle's place in PA. Apparently they were at each other's throats. My PopPop isn't the easiest person to get along with. We'll see how long they last with my opinionated aunt. :P Should be funny to watch. It seems that my PopPop got cabin fever when he realized that "he couldn't leave the house to go on walks" in my parents' neighborhood. He turned the wrong way out of our driveway on a walk and tried to cross the road at a blind corner. Keep in mind that he is 90, walks about 1 mile an hour at top speed, and is mostly blind and deaf, so he couldn't see/hear cars. Yeesh. I think at least my aunt and uncle's place has fewer blind corners. Plus they'll get to see their great-grandchildren on a weekly basis, which I'm sure they like.
Bellydance show tomorrow. Hope I don't die.
Also, there have been interesting developments on the Thanksgiving front, which I'll post about later. |
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| Um. Wow. |
[Oct. 8th, 2009|08:13 pm] |
1 week from tomorrow is my dreaded dance show. I received my costume yesterday. It's ... I don't know if I love it, but it's certainly ... umm ... flashy. Interesting. Kind of heavy. Very sparkly. Now I need shoes.
The teacher has started to dot the i's and cross the t's as far as the show is concerned. She gave us our placements yesterday and had us start practicing as if we were in the tiny stage space. She stuck me in the front row on all 3 dances. Front and center of 2 of them. Literally, front and center. I'm freaking the hell out. And considering starving myself for a week (not really ... well maybe a small crash diet lol).
Got interesting news at work today too. At a conference call today, a client suggested he wants to send some of us to Ecuador and Panama for field tests. Guess who has been doing 90% of the testing to date for this client? ME! Oh man that would be cool. :) |
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| Blueberry pie skillz |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|02:03 pm] |
I'm totally lame, so I'm posting pictures of my blueberry pie.
Before baking:
After it came out of the oven (I didn't have quiiiiite enough crust to properly seal the edges ... not that my pie pan actually would've accommodated edges *grumblegrumblestupidpiepan*):
Sliced, with some vanilla-bean-flavored coconut-based ice cream. Because it's just not a blueberry pie without vanilla ice cream:
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| Firsts |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|11:01 pm] |
First #1: I got my first ticket last week. No, I wasn't speeding, or doing a single thing wrong, my registration had just expired and some cop was actually so bored he was looking that close at license plates. I actually didn't know it was only good for a year. It's such a pain in the @$$ keeping up with everything - bills, rent, cooking, cleaning, car-related crap, etc. I mean, I do it all, it's just a pain. I feel like it'd be only half the pain if I lived with somebody. Kasey, can you confirm? ;P Congrats, by the way! I want pictures!
First #2: I just pulled my first homemade blueberry pie (solo - I've made them with my dad before) out of the oven. Fresh, organic blueberries and half whole wheat crust. I'll tell you later if it's edible. I bought vanilla coconut-based ice cream at Wholefoods yesterday, so I can do the blueberry pie a la mode thing. I'm very excited. I didn't have an occasion or anything. Just felt like it. I didn't even make dinner tonight like I was going to. Just ate take-out veggie sushi and made pie. :P I can't eat a whole pie myself though, so I might end up bringing my creation to work, just to show off. I didn't want to eat it so much as I wanted to make it. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 23rd, 2009|09:06 am] |
Have you ever been convinced that you have the information to quite literally save someone's life, only nobody will listen to you? It's maddening. I'm 99.9% positive I found the cause of (and remarkably simple solution to) the life-threatening medical problems my grandmom has been having for months. I found this information months ago. The answer is written on the warning labels for the very drugs she's been prescribed. The solution, if I were wrong, is non-prescription, and not dangerous in the least. In fact, it would still help, even if that weren't the underlying cause. As of yesterday, I've even been given medical confirmation that my prediction was correct. But NOBODY IS LISTENING TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've sent extensively detailed emails to my mom and grandmom. All they'd have to do was print it out and hand it to the doctor. Nobody did. I've talked to my mom, who is remarkably scatterbrained. She didn't bring it up to the doctors. I've talked to my grandmom, who found it interesting, but is too timid to bring ANYTHING up to the all-powerful, all-knowing doctors. Last night I talked to my dad, who FINALLY seemed to get it, although he'd read the email as well, and seemed to entirely miss the point. He promised to talk to the doctors today, but I have my doubts that he'll say it correctly, if he remembers at all. So if things don't work out to my satisfaction by Friday, I'll be home and I'll talk to the damned doctor myself. I WILL get people to listen to me. I don't care if people ignore me when I give them less vital information, but this is life-threatening.
The thing about medical journals that is different from other types of scientific publications is that almost anyone with average literacy can read them (or at least the abstract and conclusions) and get the relevant information from them. And if you have more time than your doctor to devote to a single patient, you're likely to come to better conclusions than him. They're often brilliant people, but they don't have the time, and they aren't taught to think outside the box, or think of root causes of illnesses rather than just treating symptoms, even when they KNOW the cause in the back of their heads. EVERY doctor and nurse my grandmother has ever seen knows what I may have to tell them on Friday. All of them. But it's not getting fixed.
ANYWAYS, yeah, I'm going a bit nuts. And I'm very seriously considering going to medical school now. I have to take a couple of undergrad classes before I can apply (damned physics major lol), but I'm strongly considering it as an option. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 15th, 2008|10:28 pm] |
I had a makeover day! lol
First I went to a salon and got my hair cut. It's layered and pretty and still long enough (but no longer ridiculously long) and I love it! Then I went shopping. Came back with a few adult-looking work clothes. On the way out, I let one of those kiosk people selling mineral makeup do my makeup. And all of this means ... Sandi's wallet is uncomfortably light right now! But I really like the haircut and the makeup and clothes, and I'm hoping one day I'll stop being asked what grade I'm in. I'll post pictures later. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 13th, 2008|07:00 pm] |
I'm finally able to keep busy at work, and I've found that I really enjoy being busy. I'm learning a ton too - mostly electrical engineering and signal analysis (the bits of the curriculum I kind of hated at school).
I got roped into spending my lunchtime today judging a 5th grade science fair at the local elementary school. Their projects were so cute! It was like an episode of "Kids Say the Darndest Things." Except they wrote them in reports, which made it cuter, because the report was trying to be so formal. One kid decided that scientists should breed "higher voltage fruits" to solve the energy crisis. His project was the classic stick electrodes in a lemon and measure the potential difference thing. Except he tried to do it with bananas and kiwis and stuff, and was distraught that his fruits were not "energetic enough" to get a reading. He added that it would be super cool to be shocked when you bite into an apple. One thing that was kind of sad was the amount of kids who mentioned the bad economy as a motivator for their project. One kid did a really cute analysis of dish soap "to see which works the best so that you can buy less and save money." Another tested the longevity of 3 brands of AA batteries to see if the expensive brands really did last longer or if they were wasting money (they did last longer). One of the technicians who came with us to judge got all upset at that one, because the kid was correlating longevity with expense and not taking into account that the different brands used different chemistry in the batteries. Seriously, what 5th grader would really think to do that type of analysis? At least he didn't just print out a Beakman & Jax website and hand that in like the project next to his. |
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| Apartment pictures |
[Nov. 8th, 2008|11:35 pm] |
Pictures of my new futon/chaise/sofa (both sides fold up or down), the table I painted, and my pineapple plant, right before it decided the pineapple was done. I wanted the table to be a lotus, but from the top down, a lotus looks like a girlie sunflower. Oops. O well.
And Hershey checking out the new stuffs
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 8th, 2008|11:06 pm] |
The grocery store was playing Christmas carols. :O
It was absolutely ridiculous. Now seriously, I'll be the first to admit that I have a weird obsession with carols and all things festive, but not before Thanksgiving! I feel bad because I love the musac carols piped into all the department stores and such, but this just pissed me off. Wait until December, people! lol
But the weather is starting to cool down (at night at least), and things are starting to seem festive. Maybe that is just the influence of the beautiful trees I saw in Providence last weekend (I MISS PRETTY TREEEEEEEES!!!!). Consequently, I'm on a comfort food kick. My parents visited a couple of weeks ago, and on their last evening here my daddy made me homemade soup while I was at work. I had completely forgotten how much I missed simple comfort foods like soup. So I made a new batch this evening - enough for a small army. Did I mention my parents bought me a large soup pot? :D Tomorrow I'll make bread again, and probably a huge batch of pasta sauce so I can freeze individual servings and not have to work hard on week nights. I go in weird cycles with cooking. I'll be too lazy to make anything much for weeks - even resorting to throwing things in a blender for a smoothie for dinner - and then I'll go on cooking sprees. I just stumbled onto an Indian food blog, so I'm thinking samosas sometime soon ...
In semi-related news, I have my first home grown pineapple. The green top is about twice the size of the actual fruit, which is only about the size of a softball. But the plant insisted it was ripe, by pretty much dropping it when it got yellow. I've got pictures ... and I did promise to post the pineapple plant pics a while ago, didn't I? I should get to uploading. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|08:59 am] |
Just for amusement and education:
Did you know you can ship a pecan pie halfway across the US and have it arrive in the same shape you sent it in? I found a recipe for vegan pecan pie and made one for Michael's birthday (today). I wrapped it in seran wrap, then bubble wrap, and 2nd day express mailed it to CA. :D It worked! I'm way overly excited about this, because I was paranoid it would just arrive as a gooey mess coating a lot of plastic layers. Also excited that vegan pecan pie can exist. :P |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 2nd, 2008|05:51 pm] |
Decided yesterday that it was getting to me that my apartment looks like crap. Went and bought a bare wood table from this guy down the street who makes them. Got tips from him on painting it, and went and bought paint. As of right now, I have 4 mostly painted table legs. Yay! I'll take pictures when I'm done. Since I was at Home Depot for paint, I decided to pick up a plant or two too. The only food plant they had (really wanted tomatoes or herbs or something) was ... get this ... a pineapple plant. Pictures of that to come too, as it's pretty much the silliest-looking thing ever. I've also got a basil plant from the supermarket, but that looks like it's going to die pretty soon. It actually wasn't meant to be a long-term plant, I think, as it came packed in water, not soil. But we'll see. Lastly, I ran into this 6' tall garden fence made out of reeds at Home Depot that was pretty cheap. Oh yes, that got bought too. It actually makes my living room look awesome, I think. Especially since I really have nothing else to cover those offensive white walls.
My next order of business is ... I found my dream couch! :) I looked all over San Antonio, and I found my answer in my email. Pier 1 now has DOUBLE WIDE PAPASANS! I already got one regular papasan, and I love it, but it pretty much wouldn't match any couch, and I couldn't afford most couches anyways. This way, it'll be awesomely comfy (so hard to find in a couch, interestingly enough), cheap, and will match. The down side: It took 2 guys and a good 15 minutes to get the normal sized papasan into my car, with about 1 cm of clearance on my trunk lid. No way in hell a double wide one will fit. So ... I either need a friend with a truck (so far all my "friends" here have sports cars), or I need to tie the damned thing onto the hood of my car, which sounds like a horrible idea. Any other ideas will be appreciated. I want that papasan! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 28th, 2008|06:12 pm] |
I had an interesting day. Most recently, I think I just got asked out by a cop. He wanted to know if I'd go country dancing with him on Friday. He was bald and graying. It was ... weird.
Okay, the rest of the day wasn't that interesting. I helped Leigh rearrange a lab for like 2 hours with the intern, Adam. Leigh kept doing silly things with the furniture because "it's prettier this way." Well, yes, but being able to reach the internet connection takes precedence over pretty. Sorry. :P It's fun hanging out with Adam because he's actually my age (going to be a senior next year) and one of the 2 people I know at Southwest without a spouse. It's weird hanging out with older, married people all day, though I was reminded at lunch today that boys really don't grow up anyways. Went to lunch with Todd and this guy, Michael, who looks exactly like Adam. Actually, it's funny, they look alike, went to the same high school, same college, were in all the same clubs, and now work at the same place, and now Adam has Michael's old office, but they were spaced out enough in years that they never met until SwRI.
Hmmmm nothing else interesting to say, unless you want to hear me bitch about Texas drivers again. I had TWO people pull the oshitturnhere move on me on the way home, which consists of darting in front of me, without a turn signal, leaving no space, and immediately STOPPING when they got into my lane because they had to turn. On the up side, one of those guys helped me teach a tailgater a lesson. :P |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 22nd, 2008|09:42 pm] |
I'm amused as hell that this made it to an actual news station.
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5183215
Work is a little better. I'm writing up my strain gauge experiment, learning someone else's Matlab code for a different project, doing sketches for yet another project I can't know the details about, and constructing an ultrafast laser from scratch, by myself.
Still hate driving here. People don't use turn signals at all, and one guy nearly got me into an accident yesterday. Oh, and my now completely updated GPS still tells me to drive on roads that no longer exist and turn left on roads that are now one way. Fabulous. |
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| The cure for the common drought |
[Jul. 6th, 2008|09:39 pm] |
What is it about me being in Texas that makes the sky go, "Let's flood the place!"? Last year, when I went to Austin, it was ridiculously hot for like 3 days, then record rainfall for the rest of the time I was there. The city flooded. Now, I'm at work for a day, and the next day, it rains. And rains. And it's still raining off and on. A guy told me today that they hadn't seen a drop since March before I got here. I swear I thought my car was going to float away today. I had to cross this stream in the road, and I was seriously hoping I wasn't going to be one of those idiots you see on the news standing there saying, "It didn't look that deep!" while the camera breaks to their car floating down the river. I think it was around a foot deep. IN THE MIDDLE OF A MAJOR ROAD! Oh, and I think I found the "creek" in "Winding Creek Apartments." There's a drainage ditch that goes next to my apartment that definitely qualifies as a creek right now. At least Texans drive reasonably in rain. That's a nice surprise.
Job is ok so far. Well, honestly, it's unbelievably boring and frustrating. But that's mostly because the only guy who gave me a project LEFT for vacation without telling anyone the day after he gave me said project, and he isn't back yet. And I'm pretty sure what he told me to do is physically impossible, not to mention useless. When this other guy, Todd, gets the goahead though, I get to help him build an ultrafast laser from scratch and set up other optics experiments. Sweeeeet. Todd seems cool. He invited me and another noob to the smallish 4th of July party he had this Friday. It was nice to have somewhere to go. And everyone ate the food I brought, which made me super happy. I brought a shit-ton of cookies and cornbread muffins, and they were all gone by the time I went home. And nobody knows I'm vegan, so "They're excellent" was not followed by "for not having eggs or dairy," which was nice for once. And on that note I just realized I was going to make banana bread tonight and I'm going to bed soon. Got to go! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|08:39 pm] |
Studying and freaking out for my first day of work tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be pretty laid back since it's supposed to be mostly an orientation day, but I have to make a lot of good impressions. Getting there on time is one of them. Did a test run today, and damn, it takes like a half hour to get to work. I'm not that far! It's mostly that all of the roads are under construction. No, seriously, all of them. It's ridiculous. And about half are unpainted with lane dividers or anything of that nature. Signs are lacking. For instance, there are no "merge" signs - you just lose a lane without warning. That is, if you have any clue that there is more than one lane in the first place, because often, there are no marking lines. Had a slightly (okay, very) traumatic experience just getting to the grocery store yesterday. Accidentally went the wrong direction on a one way road. It was a multi-lane road, and completely unmarked with anything helpful like "one way" or "do not enter." Luckily I figured it out quickly and the other drivers let the crazy person across to the safety of a parking lot.
In other news, there is weather here. A summer downpour hit as I was test-driving to work. It's nice to know that people here actually slow down in low visibility conditions. It's funny - people here don't really speed. Even though the road sizes are large enough to warrant at least 10 over the speed limit most of the time. They're not accommodating drivers, but they're not crazy aggressive speed demons either. I get the feeling that there are numerous speed traps around here helping to enforce that mentality. |
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| Ohmigod I have internet |
[Jun. 20th, 2008|02:40 pm] |
I haven't had a reliable internet source since I graduated college - mid May. And I've had absolutely no access in the past week or two. Going INSANE!!!! Really I just needed to check my emails ... and fill out that form for work ... oh I hope they don't kick my butt for not finishing that already. I had no internet! It's 22 pages! I did half on Mike's computer, but then I had to pack and leave for San Antonio. Cable guy just left a few minutes ago, so now my apartment has internet.
Oh yeah, apartment. So, I'm in San Antonio now. My parents caught a plane back to Maryland this afternoon. So I'm officially alone here (except now I have access to all of my lovely friends again via lj and such). I have pretty much no furniture. Couple of cushions from Target and a box on my floor serving as seating and a table. I slept on the floor for a couple of nights, but my bed was delivered yesterday, so I've got that. I've sat on probably hundreds of couches (tiny loveseats are actually what I want), but the two I liked, I was told, "They discontinued this, and it's our last one, so we can't break the set. You have to buy the couch, the loveseat, and two chairs, or you can't buy it," and "This one was just sold." Grrrrrrrrr. Oh well. Not necessary at the moment.
I really like my apartment, which is lucky, because I didn't get to visit and check it out. I've got the large one-bedroom model, which comes with kitchen, dining nook, living room, fireplace, one bedroom, one bathroom (big countertop), a walk-in closet, a linen closet, and a screened-off front porch. It's way off the road, so there's no noise from passersby. Not too far from the pool/mailboxes/workout room, but far enough that I can't hear the kids splashing and yelling. My neighbors are apparently old people who have been here forever, except for the person above me, who is a single mother with a 4-year-old girl who just moved in too. The girl is surprisingly quiet. I've heard virtually no noise from my neighbors except an occasional thumping as the girl runs across my ceiling. 4-year-olds have early bedtimes, so I couldn't really care less if she runs around. The management and maintenance guy are very nice too, and always available.
Spent the last few days running around San Antonio shopping with my parents. Picked up things like food, pots and pans, dishes (FINALLY found some cute ones I liked), a cheap desk, a bed, and a TV. Didn't think I wanted a TV, but TV cable service is fairly cheap once you pay for internet anyways. The city is soooooooo spread out, it's driving me nuts. I got used to California, where land is so expensive that they don't waste it. The shopping centers here - there can be like one store in them that is still open! The rest is vacant, and they're building somewhere else! It takes FOREVER to get anything. Found only ONE indoor mall, and it was only one story. It just went on for what seemed like miles. Completely ridiculous. Stairs were invented for a reason, people. And driving is just the most stressful thing ever. I used to think LA had the worst drivers and most stressful roads. No, it's San Antonio, hands down. EVERY road has been widened to the point where 35 MPH residential roads are at least 5 lanes wide. And these assholes with their giant SUVs and pickup trucks do NOT let you merge or change lanes. At least CA drivers will let you in. These people are just not nice once they get behind the wheel. They'd seriously rather plow into you than slow down or speed up to let you get across the lanes of traffic so you can make a friggin' turn. To your face though, they're pretty much the nicest people ever. Oh, and the whole city is under constant construction. To the point where my GPS does not work at all. I've traveled all over the country with that GPS system and never had a problem until here. Roads aren't there anymore (it told me to "continue .5 miles" when the road clearly dead-ended into a parking lot yesterday), and others have moved. Freeway exits have moved or closed. NO store is where it was 2 years ago when my GPS software was input. They've all moved. The best you can do is try and stay off their crazy, useless freeway loop (while not getting killed by a pickup truck or wandering into a bad section of town) and drive until you find what you're looking for. I'm hoping that I can update my software online and MAYBE it'll be more correct (for a couple of months until everything moves again).
Oh, and I didn't mention how my road trip with Mike went yet. We had so much fun! Quick summary: Started at Livermore so he could check out apartments (none had fabulous ratings). Then to San Francisco. Down to Muir Woods and Samuel P Taylor State Park, and the little hippie town of Marin where we met a crazy Harley guy outside of the health food store. Saw Oakland and Berkeley (best Berkeley drinking game ever: spot the Prius). Went to Yosemite, saw a bear! Headed south. Stopped in a smallish town for a day to chill out in civilization, do some shopping, and eat some Chipotle. Then saw Sequoia and Kings Canyon state parks. Huuuuuuuuuuuuge trees, lots of mosquitoes, lots of fun. Got a great view of everything from a hike to the top of Moro rock. Got kinda sick from either (1) accidentally eating dish detergent (long story), (2) eating a contaminated tomato, or (3) drinking contaminated water from a hand pump at the campground. Then headed southwest again to start home. Stopped at Hearst Castle (saw the outside and a movie, because no tours were available) and spent a day at the beach. Saw the city of Ventura and its little mission. Ran into parents of Mudders who recognized Mike. Finally, came home (Mike's house) via downtown LA, where we ate in our favorite restaurant ever: Real Food Daily. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 25th, 2008|01:02 pm] |
I signed the forms and am holding a room at an apartment complex in San Antonio. I feel pretty good about it, and at least I'll have a place to live immediately when I get there. No furniture or bed ... but a place to live.
Mike and I drove up to Livermore on Friday evening. That's the city in NorCal where his job is. He had a few places with not perfect reviews to choose from, so he wanted to check out apartments. Now we're in Hayward. About to leave for the train to San Francisco. It's only about a 20 minute ride. We're gonna be touristy :) I want to see Chinatown, and eat some yummy San Franciscan foods. :P Ooh, and I want to ride a trolley. We'll see how much I actually get done, seeing as how we're leaving after noon. |
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| Woooooo graduation |
[May. 19th, 2008|08:47 pm] |
I graduated yesterday! Exact opposite of Jason's, I see. Ours nearly gave us heatstroke. Okay, I'm pretty sure at least someone passed out. It was over 100, and sunny. There were tents, for most of us, but they packed in the chairs so close that we were shoulder to shoulder, and sweating off half our body weight. Seriously, I usually don't sweat - ever - but I was drenched. Long black polyester robes over clothes ... fantastic. The ceremony was great otherwise though. They put water bottles under our seats so we could survive. Bill Nye was our graduation speaker. Poor guy is getting old, and he was kind of tired-looking, probably because he was dying of heatstroke. He's a PhD engineer apparently, so he was dressed like the professors in full heavy robes and a suit. But his speech was awesome - funny and super nerdy. The other speakers kept it short, which was greatly appreciated by all. We had to shake 5 hands before they'd let us off stage, and Dean Chris was doing a funny 5-part ghetto handshake to make us laugh.
The reception was nice. I ran around taking pictures with everyone. Too bad the reception was outside in the sun though. It really was ridiculously hot. I got a picture with Mike and Bill Nye! I'll post it when Mike sends it out. He talked to me! :) I loved his show as a kid.
Went do dinner at Macaroni Grill with my parents and Mike's family (mom, dad, sister, sister's boyfriend). It was a lot of fun just hanging around. My parents left early this morning.
Last night I went and hung out with a bunch of other seniors who just graduated, for our last night on Mudd. It was crazy and fun. All the crazy rumors and secrets over 4 years came out - just the funny ones of course.
Good times. It hasn't hit me that it's over yet. I've been in one-day-at-a-time mode for so long that I can't comprehend large, long-term change, I think. |
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