Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘Allan Hancock College’

Wow, it’s been a while. Well here’s the scoop …

Matt’s parent’s were out last weekend from New York. They flew in to San Diego to hang out with Matt’s uncle for a day then took the train up to meet us in Santa Barbara Friday night. We went out for Hawaiian BBQ at L&L for dinner then headed home. We pretty much just sat up and chatted before crashing. Saturday we split up: Matt and Dad went golfing while Mom and I toured around Solvang. She and I had lunch at the Solvang Restaurant, of course (I had to introduce her to the delicious Aebleskiver!) We stopped by my favorite local yarn shop, hung out in a windmill, and took plenty of photos (on her camera … they’ll be posted as soon as I receive them.) Saturday evening I cooked my “famous” chicken parmesan and we played Star Wars monopoly. Sunday morning was church. It’s about time we attended. A mixture of my TDY, Matt’s wacky weekend work schedules, and super-laziness have kept us away from church for months. Although we can still only attend every other Sunday, it’s still very nice to be back. After church made the winding drive out to Jalama Beach to bottle some sand, wade in the frigid water, have a terrific hamburger lunch, and pick up a really cute coconut windchime. We made sloppy joe turnovers again to enjoy over a game of Mad Gab. Over the weekend we watched a few movies (our #1 must-share, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, provided us with much shrieking laughter) and spent a lot of time just relaxing and chatting. Matt and Jason both had to go to work early Monday morning, but we stopped by Matt’s work for a picnic lunch before heading down to Santa Barbara. I dropped them off after getting lost around the town so they could enjoy a few days of 25th anniversary celebration. It was a great visit!

Other than that … nothing else terribly interesting has happened. Matt’s on his Panama schedule now, so he works all of this week (but had Wednesday-Thursday as a “weekend”), but has all of next week (minus Wednesday-Thursday) to hang out at home. It’s a little wacky, but once we get used to it I think we’re really going to like this new schedule.

Matt’s computer has been on the fritz lately. We’ve taken it in to get checked out twice now and they can’t find anything wrong with it. It reboots after 5-10 minutes consistently when it’s at home. Gaming is impossible. Whenever it tries to boot, there’s a very high chance it won’t POST and will just beep every three seconds. Of course, Best Buy can’t reproduce this and has run through all their stress tests and it’s been behaving excellently all week. It must be our room. It’s been a nice break from gaming, though. We spend more time doing crafts, reading, and, well, sitting in front of the screen still I guess. Matt’s been cross stitching this cool wolf scene (only his second attempt at the craft) and it’s really coming together. He still has a lot to do, but it’s a big project. Here’s what he has finished so far (about two weeks of on-and-off work):

Math is going all right. I have a test next week and, of course, we’ve all ready started into new material that won’t be covered on the upcoming exam. I hate doing learning and doing homework for new material when I want to focus all my attention on studying old material. We still haven’t gotten our first exams graded and returned, but I hope we will on Monday. My teacher is always so excitable about problems that we do. He’ll write a problem up on the board and tell us to take five minutes to do it. He will get so antsy that he can’t contain his excitement and will just do it for us within the first two minutes, telling us all the time how we will be think it’s so cool. I like math. I’m pretty good at math. I’ve just never felt really excited about it or found anything to be particularly beautiful. Until last Wednesday. I had checked out a book from the library last week about cool tricks and neat things in math. It had introduced Euler’s formula, e^it = cos(t) + isin(t), which is really neat, as well as the awesome relationship between five fundamentals of math: e^i(pi) + 1 = 0. I thought this was all very cool, but the book didn’t say too much about them. I was psyched on Wednesday, though, because we ran into these while discussing homogeneous linear differential equations and got to prove them! It suppose part of the excitement came from not being mostly lost in class and that I actually recognized something that we hadn’t yet talked about. I’m sure non-math people can look at the two equations and not care at all, but really, they are very beautiful and amazing. I think it was the first time I really appreciated an equation as elegant and realized what a genius Euler was.

Not too much of interest has happened since my last blog. Jason’s still here and workin’. Matt just got off an exercise, during which he had to work the 11pm – 7am shift. Today was his first day back working a normal schedule, thankfully. I had my first math exam last Monday which, after 7 hours of straight studying prior to the test, I think went pretty well. Really, for not being in class for half the material I think it went all right. It’s a good thing there are 4 more exams this semester, though.

I finally had my investigation interview for my clearance (after completing the paperwork over a year ago!)

Matt, Jason and I went to a BBQ at my friend Brian’s last Saturday. Brian was in my math and physics classes for the last couple of semesters, but is moving to San Diego this week. We had a blast playing a few crazy games of croquet and hanging out with friends.

We’re getting ready for Matt’s parents to come out a week from Friday. We’ll head down to Santa Barbara to pick them up on Friday evening, then they’re leaving us on Monday morning, so there’s not a lot of time. I’m really looking forward to it, though!

Matt and I gave up our WoW addiction last month for a new one: Guild Wars. I’m enjoying it more, though. Our main characters are level 19 (out of 20) right now and got up there pretty quickly, but there’s still so much more to the game, not just leveling. He has a ritualist/necromancer, I have a monk/mesmer. We also have rangers which we haven’t been playing as much. I’m having a blast and it’s always nice to run around with Matt.

Melissa came over last night and we made dinner and baked cookies. We tried these awesome sloppy joe turnover things (just sloppy joe filling scooped into a rolled out biscuit, then folded over and baked) that everyone gobbled up and she made peanut butter cookies. While I was working on the sloppy joe meat, I saw her pouring salt into a 1/4 cup. Wondering what she was doing, I checked the recipe and saw that it only called for 3/4 teaspoon both salt and baking powder. I missed the part where she added 3/4 cup baking powder, and she was almost finished with the salt! We tried to salvage it, but it just wasn’t happening. It was a good laugh, though. We’ll never forgot to pay attention to measurements. :-p I’ve really just been hanging out with Matt during his off-time while this exercise was going on, so I haven’t spent too much time by myself. That’s started back up again, so I filled today with chores and crocheting.

I collected a lot of cheap practice yarn when I first taught myself how to crochet, but didn’t use it all up. Now I have baskets full of yarn I never really want to use. I gathered up eight skeins to make an afghan for charity with or something. I’ve done a few rows on it now and it’s grown a lot on me. I’ve been wondering what on earth to get my brother’s girlfriend for Christmas and haven’t really come up with anything. I’m sure it gets pretty cold in New Jersey, and an extra afghan can’t hurt. That is, unless Matt really wants to keep it (I think he likes it more than I do!) I also finished my Stitch My Square trades. Unfortunately, it’s not going on this month, so I don’t have any squares to stitch. Here is my community post with photos of all my squares, sent and received.

Well, Matt should be home from work soon, so I’m off to figure out dinner!

Yes, it certainly is. Matt was a sweetheart and picked me up at the airport last Wednesday looking all handsome in his nice suit, and greeting me with chocolate and a rose. It’s been a nice, relaxing week for me to adjust to being back home. It’s cool hanging out with Jason and having him around. We play a lot of games together and whatnot. It’s also nice having a third seat at dinner; we don’t have leftovers that will never truly be eaten. Last night the three of us went over to my buddy Brian’s house (joined by my other school pals Missy and Evin) for some food and Office Space and [if we had not been tired and stayed a little longer] Halo 2. It was a good time and it’s nice to introduce Jason to some new people. We went to a new church that Jason picked out last Sunday and stayed later for a great potluck. It was a good time and a nice, small church and it suits Jason really well. Matt and I are going to return to Calvary, though. There is a lot about that particular church that we like, we just have to find a way to be more socially comfortable. That’s up to us, though, and not really any fault of Calvary’s. We also went to Jalama Beach last weekend, which is a very pretty, tucked-away beach right in our backyard.

We had a good time walking up and down the beach and sunbathing. The water was nearly freezing, but Matt and Jason jumped in anyway. They got a tad sunburned and Matt has been suffering all week, but we plan on going back hopefully every weekend. Good times.

I also finally got a chance to upload the photos I took while TDY. I have an album up of visiting with Andrea. I said earlier that we did some origami and crocheting while I was there, here are a few of our finished products.

I also got a chance to do a bit of crocheting while I was hanging out by myself in the hotel room. I started working on a baby afghan and worked on a bunch of squares for Mama’s afghan. These are the squares I completed:

So there’s that. Jason and I played a bunch of pool today. I never really learned how to play, so today was sort of instructional. Of course, I’ve played plenty of games before, but I learned today that I’ve been doing everything incorrectly. We practiced for almost two hours and had a grand ol’ time.

I got an email from Andy yesterday saying that he had been sailing from San Diego to Santa Barbara as part of some crew, proving his seaworthiness in order to be part of some large Mexico –> New Zealand trip. I was so excited to hear he was in Santa Barbara and sent off an email immediately making plans for today. Alas, he called today from Colorado as soon as he received my message. I was a little bummed that he was in California and didn’t even think to get together. He’s a world-traveler now and I’m not sure when our paths will cross again. I’m sure they will. I think sometimes I just get nostalgic for times in my past. College in Colorado was fun most of the time and I do miss the friends I had then. Being that they’re all males, I often feel it’s inappropriate to keep in touch or be as close as I’d like to. They’re good guys and I think of them often. It’s always good to see someone or get an email hearing about all the great adventures.

Matt and I are planning a quick trip next month. Neil Gaiman will be up near San Francisco, about 4 hours away from us, for a book signing. He’s cutting back a lot on his appearances and I don’t want to miss an opportunity. I’ve never been to a signing before, but I think it sounds like a good time. And of all the famous people I know of, I think he is the one I’d like to meet the most. Matt will take a day or two of leave and we’ll probably stay the night up in the bay area. We had only been once, for a Switchfoot concert, and didn’t get to explore the city at all. So maybe we’ll make a big event of it. Anyhow, I’m excited to pick up Neil’s Fragile Things and get to say hello.

Wednesday was my first day of math class. I was really nervous about the whole thing and ready to drop the class that day. I received a text message from Erick earlier reporting that they just started chapter 5. I had just finished chapter 2 and started freaking out about how I’d never catch up. It really bummed me out a bit because I’ve been struggling on my own with the coursework. Then I received another text informing me that they had skipped chapters 3 and 4, renewing my confidence. I went to class and found I wasn’t really that far behind. I just have to do some super-studying for our first exam two weeks from now. I’m not working (though I am researching some exciting jobs) and this is the only class I’m taking, so I shouldn’t have any excuses not to do well enough.

I went to the dentist today for a first exam and cleaning. It went well enough at first and I really like my dentist. Before going to Georgia I had toothaches and learned I needed a root canal due to decay around some poorly installed Air Force filling. Bummed about that, got over it though. I still need to get a crown on my tooth-stub. Today they found another filling that had improperly bonded and didn’t do it’s job. So I have some deep decay in that tooth as well and will go in to look at it again next week and see if we can avoid another root canal. And another Air Force filling cracked and will need to be redone. And my gums are receding around the implant I got when I was sixteen, exposing the metal. It could get worse and become a bad thing, so I need to go to someone else to see about some bone grafting. Fun … and cheap, I’m sure. Ughh. So it was somewhat of a disheartening day at the dentist, but that’s life I guess. I’m just wondering how our wallet is going to take to all this work.

Well, that’s my overly wordy update for the week. Jason starts work on Tuesday, then I’ll be home alone during the week. I have class at night on Mondays and Wednesdays, but during the day I’ll be alone … studying, crocheting, and most likely blogging. So ta ta ’til then.

I go back to California one week from tomorrow. Hooray! Our class tested out of Block III last night and I aced the test. My first test screwed up any hope for Distinguished Grad, but that’s okay. We started Block IV, which is all troubleshooting. Only two or three people can be in the lab on the equipment at a time, so the other two or three have to hang out in the break room and watch movies or play cards. It will be a long week, since there’s so much waiting around. I think it’s a positive thing, though, since I have tons of math homework to do.

Yup, I started my Linear Algebra / Differential Equations class last week. I’m on my own with it, but the book seems pretty good and it’s not troublesome yet. My instructor is good about sending me information and being there if I need any help. And I get to attend the actual class in another week and a half, so it can’t be too bad before then.

The weekend was really, really boring. Saturday morning Lance, Rick, Jesse and I went horseback riding on post, which was fun. We didn’t have to use a trail guide (because “we’re experienced horseback riders”), which is nice. I was a tad uncertain, seeing as I’ve only ever been near a horse once before. They’re pretty trained, though, and are used to just following each other around, so it wasn’t really a problem. Anytime I wanted the horse (“Ruby”) to do anything though, she wouldn’t listen to me. We were supposed to be out there for 2 hours, but they guys were bored of it after 1. We didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day, so I got dropped off at the mall to pick up a dress for next weekend (clubbing in Atlanta + Six Flags). I treated myself to a pedicure and a haircut and did some clothes shopping. The guys were all exhausted from little sleep the night before (to what was I not invited?) so they slept all Saturday. Jesse, Rick and I went out to see The Descent Saturday night. It’s the bloodiest movie I think I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t really all that scary, just startling and gory. It was nice to not be sitting around in the hotel room. Sunday we were supposed to go the Y (Rick was supposed to call …) I got a call Sunday afternoon from Lance while they were all ready at the Y (“oh, I figured you wouldn’t want to come …”) Hrmph. We got some dinner afterward at a sports bar and studied for the next day’s test. That was pretty much everything that happened this past weekend.

I’ve been downloading a lot of music, since I’ve gotten bored with the small selection I brought. I’ve been a slave to Last.fm’s charts and forums lately. I’ve been enjoying some Medeski, Marin and Wood and Matisyahu for the first time this week. I’ve also been talked into the Loose Change hype. I know it’s old news, but I talk to many people who are adament about the whole 9/11 conspiracy. So I’m in the process of watching the Loose Change video, as well as the counter-arguments Screw Loose Change. So far so interesting …

Anyhow, now it’s time to get ready for school. More later.

Well, I guess it’s time for my monthly update! ;p

Finals went pretty well. My semester grades were acceptable. School continues into the summer. I just finished a 15-day online physical anthropology course. I’m so glad it’s over! A semester’s worth of material from two books was pretty demanding for two weeks. I passed, though not happily. Too much work? … or I’m too lazy. I started an 8-week art appreciation course online as well. It seems more interesting and should be considerably more comfortable than my anthro class.

Matt met a guy at ALS in April, a cop named Jason. They play World of Warcraft together and apparently get along pretty well. Jason has a long-term girlfriend, Becky, who just moved out here. The four of us went out for an Italian dinner last Saturday and had a blast! I love meeting new couples, since we’re so antisocial and have no one to hang out with! The evening was a jumble of the boys talking together about video games and work while the girls talking about other random things and getting to know each other. We invited them over for dinner at our place on Thursday, which occurred last night. What a great time! I spent all day in the kitchen preparing almost-from-scratch spaghetti sauce and meatballs (the awesome recipe can be found at spaghetti sauce and meatballs .com !) Everyone enjoyed the food — the dinner was definitely worth all the effort! We played guys versus girls Scrabble, in which the girls BEAT the guys by a whopping two points! They stuck around for almost five hours chatting, eating cake, and trying to encourage the cats into being more sociable. We’ll definitely have to do it again soon!

Matt and I celebrated our first anniversary last Sunday, June 11! It has been such a wonderful year! We spent the day in Santa Barbara, visiting the zoo (I had to observe primates in action for an anthropology paper), having lunch, and going to a concert. Concerts “near” us are generally in L.A. or San Francisco, neither of which we like to frequent. We saw that there was a show in Santa Barbara, which is so convenient for us, and snagged a couple tickets. It was a radio station thinga-ma-jig with four big bands and two openers. The only ones we were interested in was Franz Ferdinand and (slightly) The Strokes, and hadn’t heard of any of the others. No worries, it was cheap and bound to be a good time! We got there at 3 to discover that the concert goes for 7 hours. Well, we hadn’t been anticipating that (though we should have realized it, considering there are six bands playing). We sat through the first two acts, Hard-Fi and She Wants Revenge, which were so-so. The show was at the beautiful Santa Barbara Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the ocean. It’s almost five thirty by now and we’re getting a little overwhelmed by wild and crazy obnoxious girls. I think in general we’re okay with groups of people, but crowds of pushy, high, noisy people get to us a bit. We watched Panic! At the Disco perform, which we had never heard of before but were pretty amused by. They drove all the crazy girls around us wild and we listened to a bunch of screaming and singing, but that’s okay. What I liked about the band was their sort of skit performances. As the band played, they had a wildly costumed troop of dancer/actors perform along with the song. We didn’t have amazing seats, so some of it was a little hard to see, but a lot of it seemed pretty neat. Panic! did perform a Smashing Pumpkins song, Tonight, Tonight, which I thought they did a great job with. And they had their dancers dressed similarly to those in the Tonight, Tonight video waving large fans. I was really waiting for Franz Ferdinand, but they wouldn’t go on until five hours into the show, and we were both a little grumpy at the audience and the length of time we were sitting on stone benches, so we decided we’d be better off leaving anyway. We’ve yet to sit through an entire concert together! I think this one bummed us out a little bit because they aren’t bands we really care too much (or know anything about) anyway. So we went to Borders and blew some money on Neil Gaiman and R.A. Salvatore novels! Overall, it was a nice anniversary celebration!

Anyhow, I’ve written this blog four times today because of recurring power outages. What’s going on out there?! And Matt just got home, so we’re going to play some WoW (our level 10 mage & priest, woohoo!) then hopefully go out to see The Lake House tonight. Ta ta!

Phew!

It was a pleasant enough, but very busy semester. This week is finals week, but I (luckily??) had all my exams scheduled for the first day. So as of 9:30 pm last night, my semester is over! Finals weren’t so bad. First thing in the morning I had my chemistry final, which was a breeze and took about 30 minutes to complete. Then I hung out for hours anticipating my Physics 2 exam. It wasn’t so bad (light, optics, quantum), but I goofed on a bit of the math, so I expect a B on it. No big deal. Then I had my conceptual physics test, which was … well, not really even an exam. Our instructor had given us a list of 20 short-essay questions earlier in the semester and told us five would be randomly selected to make up our final exam. The “exam” was also open-notes, open-book. Sunday night I typed up all the answers to these 20 questions and brought them in with my notes. Easy enough. To make it even more so, she announced before beginning the exam that had anyone prepared the questions in advance, we could just turn them in and leave. So that was that. I went home and ate pizza with Matt, watched an episode of Monk, and caught a quick nap before heading back to campus for my math final … the only one I was slightly concerned about. The exam wasn’t cumulative and didn’t include any calculus, just linear algebra. The stuff is a breeze and I’m really good at the mechanical aspect of it. I had studied and felt prepared. The only thing that I stumbled on was the proofs and justifications. I’m never that bright when it comes to those. The whole course was pretty tough for me, especially when we got to vector calculus. If I made 45-93% on this exam, my final grade will be a C. If I had happened to manage a 94%, I would have an overall B. I’m positive that didn’t happen. I’m almost completely certain of my final grade, but our instructor will post them on Friday so I can be sure. At least I survived the class and can move on.

So now it’s the summer! Today I’m not really doing anything, just cleaning and putzing around online. When Matt gets home from work I’ll go pick up Melissa and we’ll have dinner and do something fun, maybe go over her homework. She still has another week of middle school before the summer. I’m making up a guard drill tomorrow and Thursday, but then Matt has Friday-Monday off for Memorial Day and I’ll get to spend that with him. Tomorrow I go to my anthropology class orientation. I have a whole week off before that 3-week super-class starts up. It should be fine, just a lot of reading.

Anyhow, now I’m going to go … hmm, play some Sims 2 or something.

Today was the last day of instruction at the college. Yippee! Next week is finals week, but I have all four of my finals on Monday. Yah, it’s a bummer of a stressful day, but at least I’ll get it all over with at the beginning! I have high hopes for As in three of my classes, just not math. I don’t expect to fail, I just don’t expect an A. Thank goodness I’m all finished with calculus; this last semester was a bear! School’s been good the past month, just busy. I finished up tutoring earlier this week. I’m praying my Algebra 2 tutee passes. He’s worked so hard and it’s the sixth time he’s taken it. It’s time to move onward try something else.

Things haven’t been too exciting over here, really. Matt graduated from ALS on the 4th of this month. Last week we went over to our new friends, Dave and Clarissa’s for a lasagna dinner and some board games. Yesterday we bought a new digital camera (here are random photos of my playing around with it last night.) Matt is back on WoW and I made a character, too. He also picked out a new game to play, Rise of Legends, which seems really cool. We’re getting ready for a trip to Colorado next month. We’re spending a week in Colorado Springs with my mom and Denver just hanging out. We’ll go to the Renaissance Festival, do a bit of hiking, check out Denver’s Museum of Nature & Science’s BodyWorlds 2 exhibit, see some of my pals in Fort Collins, my mom and I will have a little spa getaway — it’ll be a blast!

So I’ve been pondering what to do with my near future. I need one more math and one more physics class and a health class and then I’ll have three associates degrees from AHC and nothing more to take in the way of transfer credits. Matt could be transferred any time or, at least, he’ll be getting out in less than two years. I don’t have enough time to transfer to a university (the closest of which is at least an hour’s drive from home) and finish a physics program. I figured I’d take my math class at night at AHC and my health class online next semester and work full-time during the day. Then the following semester I’d take physics at night. So I need a job. I was looking into PG&E’s nuclear power plant; they need an operator and I’m qualified. That sounded interesting, but it’s quite a ways from home and it would be shift work that rotates all the time, which would make transportation difficult. I had heard that the squadron where I work for the guard once a month, needed to fill a full-time Mon-Fri technician slot doing the same thing I do on drill weekends. I guess the slot was opened, but the window closed and I can just keep checking back on the website to see if it ever returns. That would be the perfect job for me right now, but it may never reopen. I enjoy being a student, so I thought maybe I’d just continue studying at the junior college in a different field. UCSB has a BA program located at AHC for a few majors (not physics). I was thinking, if I were to study one of the arts, I’d be most interested in an English program. UCSB provides that where I’m currently going to school, so maybe next semester I’ll pick up a few literature classes. All in all, I guess I don’t know what I’m doing until Matt finishes his commitment and we can move somewhere where I can complete my degree of choice. We’ll see what happens.

I’m looking forward to the summer. On the 30th I start a 3-week, 3-credit physical anthropology course online. Then I’ll start an 8-week art appreciation course, followed by a 6-week psychology course. They’re all online classes, which I enjoy doing. Plus, I get tired of driving out to Santa Maria or relying on a carpool. I can’t realistically attend on-site classes anyway, since I’m going TDY at the end of July for 6-weeks to Georgia for more military training. It’ll be a bummer being away from Matt, but it’ll be nice to earn some extra cash, have more time to do online classes, and explore the local area. I’ll drive up one weekend to see Andrea and Michael at Langley, maybe check out a concert or two (there’s a ton of interesting musicians playing nearby during my stay), and see the sights.

That’s all that’s really been happening lately. I have today and the weekend to finish studying for Monday’s finals, so that’s what I’m off to do. That and play with the new camera …

Jen, Matt’s sister, spent some of her Spring Break with us last week. We only had four days with her, but they were a blast!

Day 1: Took some time off school to pick her up. Met the kitties. Looked through photos of her Martha’s Vineyard internship. Listened to recordings she and friends did there. Cooked dinner. Watched Alias. Chit chat.
Day 2: I had to go to school. Matt and her hung out and played Halo 2, Monkeyball 2, and some other games. Mystery Science Theater 3000. Went out to Sugar Magnolia’s for dinner. Watched more Alias. Played with the kitties. Relaxing and more chit chat.
Day 3: Turned in keys to the old apartment. Early Bird miniature golf special at Boomer’s. DDR (man, are we out of practice!) Ordered pizza. Watched more Alias.
Day 4: The self-proclaimed cat-hater falls in love with our kitties. Gabby didn’t want Jen to leave (or she wanted to go with her!). Drove down to Santa Barbara. Walked along State Street. Watched some guy play the drums. Saw the beach. Strolled along the pier. Ate enchiladas and burgers at Ruby’s. Saw her plane off. Spent half an hour watching the cool clock at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Jen is such a cool chickie. I wish we could have spent more time with her or at least see her more often. We’ll fly out to New York for Thanksgiving this year, so we’ll have some time then. Matt and I had an awesome time visiting with her. I think we’re a little boring to come and visit, but she argued that we aren’t. I’m glad she enjoyed herself.

My mom and Ron are out on the east coast spending time with my sister and cruising around the little states. I’m so jealous. From the sounds of everything, Andrea and Michael are doing pretty well. Work is a bit of a strain on her eyes (being that she just sits and looks at screens non-stop), but it sounds like she enjoys it enough. Michael is working at Olive Garden now and it sounds like a good job. I found out what dates I’ll have long weekends this summer when I’m down in Georgia so we can coordinate a time to visit. Andrea needs plenty of advance notice to apply for leave and I need to get plane tickets to Virginia whenever she gets it approved. I’m not especially looking forward to six summer weeks in Georgia, but having a weekend to visit with Andrea and Michael will be worth it!

My classes are canceled today and I’ve been a bit under the weather anyway, so I’m taking the day off. So far I haven’t done much: a little bit of math studying, chatting with my brother for a tad, updating my photo gallery, watching part of The Squid and the Whale, and hanging with the cool cats. It’s nice to have lazy days.

School is school. Still haven’t heard back about my second math exam, though I don’t have high hopes for it. I’m trying to get a head-start on the third exam at the end of this month because I hear it’s the toughest and all this doesn’t exactly come easily to me. It’s getting more interesting/fun, though. I’m just having my doubts about whether or not I can handle future math classes. Physics is fun, as usual. The school is hiring a new full-time physics professor and they’re in the interviewing stage right now. The picked ten candidates to do a short teaching demonstration of Gauss’s Law. I attended three of them yesterday to give my feedback. It was actually a lot of fun. I’m not really allowed to discuss the candidates … physics teachers are just funny people. It was kind of neat because I aspire to be a physics teacher one day (high school preferable, then possibly moving on to college eventually) and I got to hear critiques of how all these teachers presented the material. It was pretty informative and hopefully somewhat helpful when I’m up there one day.

Matt is almost finished with his first week of Airman Leadership School. He was really dreading doing this class, but it seems like things aren’t nearly as bad as he had expected. The material seems pretty easy and he can get all his homework finished during class breaks. I wouldn’t say he’s making friends, but there are a few cool guys in there that he chats with and maybe could turn into something more. It would be nice to have some couple-buddies to hang out with. Today he had to attend in full service dress, which is very uncomfortable. It seems men have it worse than women on account of their neck ties, but they look much more striking than women do in blues. So he’s at work right now getting choked, then in a few hours he’ll have to do his PT evaluation. We’ve been pretty lazy lately and haven’t run all that much, so he doesn’t expect to do so well. But come the end of the month when he has his final exam, the difference will be quite significant. I’m sure he’ll do perfectly fine, as he has long legs and is built to run; he’ll probably just be sore this weekend.

That’s all for today. I’m off to download some more MST3K and lounge around lazily. Woo!

Yup, still alive. It’s been a pretty hectic month. School is stressful as usual. Had my second math exam, which I know didn’t go nearly as well as the first one. It’s tough stuff and I just need to study harder.

Since my last post a few things have happened. I had my birthday. It wasn’t really all that exciting, but it doesn’t seem like 23 is supposed to be. It was the weekend my best gal pal Carol left town for Nebraska. It was all sort of bittersweet, as it’s an exciting adventure and she’ll be back with her love, but sad that we got really close just recently and now she’s gone. I should be used to seeing friends come and go by now. We had a really nice going-away / birthday dinner at a cute local cafe. I had to go to school on my actual birthday, so it was fairly uneventful.

So Matthew’s out in New Jersey now. I’m excited for him because it seems so romantic to just drop everything and set up in a completely new place to be with someone you care about. I know he’s struggling some with personal issues right now and I hope she’s the influence and encouragement he needs. My only concern is his lack of employment. Hopefully his restaurant prospect will work out. It’s just sad that he’s now that much farther away. I’m way out here with the Pacific Ocean in my backyard and my two siblings are way out as east as can be. I just miss ‘em.

So Matt and I have been trying to plan a first anniversary trip for this June. We figured we’d drive out to Colorado and see my mom. We were thinking about IndieFest, which is in beautiful and relaxing Pagosa Springs, but I guess we both just aren’t feeling it. A lot of the bands are pretty cool, just no one we’re passionate about. Then we were considering Wakarusa, which isn’t that much farther of a drive and would be completely cool because there’s a bunch of bands there that we would absolutely love to see. It’s just that we’re driving the whole way there and back and are all ready short on leave, so it seems like too much of a hassle. Last summer we did the High Sierra Music Festival and next summer we hope to do Coachella, which seems like the only reasonable festival to attend, since it’s within a 5-hour drive. Next month Dave Gilmour will also be in San Francisco for his On an Island tour … hmm.

So we moved into this new apartment. It’s only about 5 miles from our old one, but it’s “in town”, which I suppose is better. We can walk places now, if we were to go anywhere. The place is so much nicer than our old one. It’s a lot newer and cleaner and has a second bedroom and a dishwasher, woohoo! We got bedroom furniture (finally) and a new couch yesterday and have completely moved everything, so we’re starting to settle in nicely. Pictures to come soon! A driving factor was being able to get a second cat: our old place only allowed one pet. So of course last weekend we went out and adopted a kitten. She’s a four-month old gray tabby with three legs (had to be amputated earlier this month after she got caught in a car belt). At first I thought that was kind of creepy, but she’s so pathetically cute and I just love her to death. We named her Gabby because she’s a Gray tABBY (hah yah, I know, lame), but mainly because we were looking for someone to name her for and we decided to go with Gabby La La (one of our new-found favorite artists … and playing in Santa Monica during my spring break … hmm …) She and Tal were really hesitant and curious about each other at first (a bunch of pictures here). Gabby just sort of sat in her house and Tal would stare at her and slowly approach. He whacked her on the head a few times and I think that ticked her off. For the next two days they’d hiss a lot and swat, but now they snuggle together, hang out, wrestle (and she makes the most horrible quack/groan things when she wrestles), and share everything. I think they’ve adjusted to each other really well, which makes things a million times easier. I’m glad Tal now has a playmate, since we’re at work and school most of the day and he just hangs out alone at home. So we’ve just been spending a lot of time with the kitties the past few days.
So I’m skipping school today because Jen, Matt’s little sister, flew in from New York for her spring break. She spent yesterday in LA and is on a bus on her way to Santa Maria right now. She’s staying through Sunday, but I can’t get out of school tomorrow (physics lab and I tutor … kind of important) and I have drill all day Saturday and Sunday (and this weekend is mandatory, unfortunately). So today is really the only day I’ll get to spend with her, which is a huge bummer because she is one awesome chicky and I’m so glad she’s traveled all the way out here to see us! At least Matt will have Friday – Sunday to hang with his sis. We don’t have any huge, exciting plans. She just spent a few months at an internship at Martha’s Vineyard writing songs and performing, then just had a trip to Nashville to hang out with all sorts of cool bands, then hung out with hot guys in LA, so I kind of feel like our visit is the low-point of her vacation. Ahwell, we’ll take her out to a nice dinner and play video games. Matt will be the entertainer really, so he’d better come up with something fun to do, hehe.

Well that’s about all for me. I need to move some of the cardboard boxes out of the way and make the place a little more presentable for our guest. Ciao!

Edit: I snapped some quick apartment photos for your viewing pleasure. The place is still somewhat messy, but we’re working on it. Enjoy!

A quick rundown of my week:

Monday math test – Ack! Skipped all my other classes to get done what I should have done over the weekend. Studied for 6 or 7 hours. Felt like I aced it. We’ll see next week!

While cutting Matt’s hair, he took off his glasses and I stepped on them. They were mostly fine, but he went and tried to bend them back, snapping the metal completely beyond repair (well, at least beyond either of us repairing it). Of course, it’s his only pair of glasses. We tried duct tape, but it was pretty pitiful. Our prescriptions aren’t too far off, so he tried wearing my glasses, which is fine for a short duration, but eventually gives him a headache. Kind of silly, but it bummed him out a lot until he finally got an optometrist appointment yesterday for contacts. Woo! Then we got to go sun glass shopping.

I usually tutor two guys on Tuesdays. Tutoring takes place after all my classes are finished, so I only stay on campus for that. The first guy completely stood me up, so I still just sat around waiting until the session would be over. It’s all right, I get paid for half an hour even if he doesn’t show. Then my next guy shows up 15 minutes late just to declare that he doesn’t have any questions and is going home. I guess that’s fine, I got paid for another half an hour. It’s just that I could have spent my three hours doing something else completely.

I completely destroyed a pie trying to eat just the crust. The filling was gross and crust is oh, so good! But what a mess. ^_^

Wednesday I got my conceptual physics test back. Hooray, an A! The class is fun and nothing for me to stress over, I just get the test jitters and always expect the worst, so it was nice to be wrong. I started feeling icky though and went home after my first four classes, missing math. The flu bug is going around the school and I was feeling so run down and really wanted to just go to bed. Matt picked me up at 5 and we stopped for some food. Left the keys in the ignition and locked the doors. It’s only the second time Matt’s ever locked himself out, and somehow it’s my fault because both times have been when he’s with me. :p It was a bummer too, but it gave us time to eat. 15 minutes and $40 later we were on our way, so it’s no huge deal. I went home, played some Sims 2, and crashed.

Thursday, not much better. My physics class was canceled and I skipped my boring chem class to continue to recoup. A lot of sleeping, Sims 2, water, and studying. It worked, though. We bought Sims 2 the other day for Matt, but well … he hasn’t gotten a chance to play yet. I never played the Sims before; I always thought it sounded kind of pathetic. Well, I was right, but I had no idea it’s so much fun! I keep making Conklin families, Sims that look like me and Matt and a baby thrown in there. Within the first hour, Matt was so dead. In the living room in his underwear with some weird NoodleSoother helmet on his head. The real Matt was upset, but humored. Hey, I was just getting the hang of how it works. It’s much more fun now that we have a teenage daughter, Matt is a SWAT team leader, and I’m a top secret scientific researcher. I think I’ve finally found My Game. Haha.

So today is Friday and I just got out of my physics 2 exam. It was all on thermodynamics, which I don’t really find all that exciting. I’m pretty sure it all went well; there’s only one that I’m sort of concerned about. My teacher is awesome for partial credit though, so I’m not stressed out about it. Tutoring went really well. I met with the guy from last week that’s repeating Algebra 2. I was so stressed last Friday about our session, it was really frustrating for both of us. He picked up an extra hour during the week to meet with me, though, so that’s a good sign. And today went really well! We solved systems of equations with three variables. I think he kinda-sorta gets it. I got him started on how to tackle his homework so he can work on that this weekend then meet with me on Monday and review it. He was a lot more communicative this time around, I was a lot more patient, and things just went much more smoothly. The lady at the front desk sort of monitored our session because she’s been working with him for years (on the same subject) and knows him really well. I was really pleased to hear that she thought I did a terrific job because he’s been through a ton of tutors and really tries their nerves. He’s in the learning assistance program and has retaken the class more times than is technically allowed, but I’m hoping this will be his last. My other two tutees are great and really driven, which is nice, but it’s also interesting to get the challenge of working with this guy. I’m really enjoying it a lot.

I got my first birthday card in the mail today, which made me all giddy. I know it’s just a birthday, but it’s my birthday! I love my birthday. The card is 10 days early, but it’s nice to start the birthday excitement early! And it’s from Matt’s dad’s aunt, who is just the sweetest lady ever.

Anyhow, Guard weekend is upon me, so the time I have tonight will be my only time to really relax. Polish boots, iron uniform, bake some brownies, and yes, Sims. Mmm. Actually, tonight I’ll probably get some crocheting done. I’ve been working on an afghan, but I got bored of making the same squares over and over again, and school got hectic, so I put it down. Last night I started my first-ever ripple afghan, though. It’s really fun to do, so I think I’ll relax on the couch like an old lady with my yarn. Hooray!

Okay, so I guess that wasn’t so quick afterall. :p