Posts Tagged ‘Allan Hancock College’

So much going on … Last Saturday Matt and I went to check out a new apartment. There's one on Lompoc that seems a thousand times nicer than our current apartment, so we went by to check out a tour and pick up an application. Quite nice and exciting. Monday I was off school and Carol was off work, so we decided to hang out at Six Flags. Matt doesn't care much for the park, so we left him home and made a girl's day of it. Roller coaster mania! We hardly waited in line at all until we got to the park's newest coaster, XTreme, which was exactly that. A two hour wait in line for a minute long ride, but I'd still say it's worth it. Scariest thing I've ever been on. Six Flags has an old-timey dress-up photo place and we thought that would be fun to do. We got all decked out in huge Civil War era hoop dresses, put on silly hats, and were photographed. So classy! We had a very awesome time. School was okay this week. Had a chemistry test on Tuesday and a conceptual physics test on Wednesday. Both of them went well and it was no big deal. I have a math test and a physics test early next week, which is really what I'm more concerned about. Tutoring was okay. I tutor one guy in calc 1 twice weekly and another guy once for physics and once for calc 2. They're older men and are really great to work with. This past week was a little weird. The one guy for physics and calc 2 showed up each time and either hadn't slept the night before or didn't have any questions and just wanted to leave after 15 minutes. So I get paid for half of the hour, which is sort of a bummer, but I didn't have to work the whole hour either. I met with a new tutee this week for algebra 2 that I'll be working with every Friday. This was the first time I really got frustrated. It's his fifth time taking the class and he sort of has a weird attitude about it. I thought I was pretty patient and tried really hard to explain things he wasn't getting, but he'd get mad and not really communicate with me, just roll his eyes, turn the other way and fidget with something. I didn't really know what to do because sometimes I felt I couldn't possibly explain anything any simpler than I was, and he was still looking at me like I was speaking Greek. Or he'd try to argue with me about how you solve an equation. I tried not to get flustered, but I just didn't really know how to handle. He said he didn't need a tutor who thinks he's stupid, so I stopped there and we had a little discussion about it. I don't think he's stupid at all; I just want to help him understand his math and pass the class this time around. We parted on good terms and he said he'd focus this week and try to come up with questions for me next Friday. I'm going to keep in touch with his teacher about what they're covering during the week and try to prepare myself a little more for our sessions. I think it will be a challenge, but that's a good thing. Since Matt and I were considering moving into a nicer apartment, we figured we'd look at all our options. I looked up adds for condos, townhouses, and rental houses. I was surprised to find a handful of houses that are much more spacious and well within our budget. We drove around and looked at about a dozen houses around town the other day, marked some down because well, some of them were just way too dumpy. I don't mind a place that isn't pristine or needs a little work, but some of them were just too disgusting. We passed by one that we knew would be a manageable price, but we'd be eating ramen every night. It was gorgeous and in a really pretty neighborhood and the owner happened to be mowing the lawn when we stopped by. He let us take a look around the inside and it was marvelous! A brand new home that hadn't been lived in, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, amazing walk-in closets, fireplace, vaulted ceilings … it was just beautiful. But way more than we need! We got all excited about it, which was silly. When we left and sat back in the car, reality sunk in and we had to admit it would be silly for us to get such a nice place. So we went to check out our second choice. The house looked fine on the outside … icky paint and a nasty lawn, but that's okay. We arranged to take a tour and were pretty taken aback. Not in a good way, though. No dishwasher or refrigerator. Tiled living room (and half our bedroom — the other half was bright pink carpet). All the ceilings were stained. The other bedroom was linoleum and just gross. There was a phone jack in one room connected to a splitter with nasty frayed phone cables feeding into ragged holes in the other rooms. The garage was completely dilapidated. It was just really disheartening. So today we put in an application for the apartment we were initially looking at and should hear back about if we can move in by Tuesday. Our move-in date would be March 18th and we already picked out the one we like. Pictures soon! My mother called me today with news that my brother had dropped all his classes this week and is moving out to New Jersey to live with his girlfriend and her parents. Last I heard from my brother, he was going to stick out the semester, hang out with her in the summer, then she'd move out to Colorado and they'd see about moving in together. I guess I'm just a little shocked at this decision. A little disappointed he didn't even try to finish up his second semester. I know it's his life and these are his choices, I'm just bummed out because maybe I don't think his are always the best. But then I remember I didn't always make the best choices either. And no one knows how this will work out for him. I really just want him to be happy and find his place, but sometimes I feel he doesn't know what he wants and it just seems sudden for him to do something like this. I hope he's happy and things work out for him. I do hope he continues his schooling sometime, though. I guess it's sad because I failed out of CSU, Andrea didn't succeed in college, and I was just hoping Matthew would break the trend. I wish I knew Adria better; I've never met her. I know her from Ragnarok Online a little bit and from what I hear from Matthew. I know he loves her and I think that's great, but maybe I'm just a worry-wart, overprotective sister. And I really wish I was more a part of his life. Selfishly, I wish he had decided to move out here over the summer like we were discussing. He talked about how he wanted to work and do school and have some time to grow up, mature, and gain some responsibility. Maybe I'm just skeptical that he's going to achieve that in New Jersey. It hurts me that he doesn't talk to me about things like this. I'm going to call him and I know he'll talk to me about it, but I never hear the news from him. I feel like all our phone conversations about his future or his goals is just him humoring me; saying the things I want to hear. It's not about that. I love my brother despite his choice, and I know they are his to make. I'll let him know my opinions, but I don't feel I guilt him into choosing one way or another. Sometimes I feel that my siblings mean more to me than I do to them. They have their own lives and friends and work and whatnot, and I have mine, but I feel so completely detached from them. I don't need to baby them or see them every day, I just wish I'd get a phone call or they'd want to let me know what's going on in their lives or ask what's going on in mine. I'm just crying about it, I know. I am a bit perturbed with my brother’s latest choice, but I haven't heard anything from him yet, so I'm not getting too worked up. With all that said, I'm going to break now to study. Yes, there's more going on, but no one (if anyone reads?) wants to read a mini-novel about the things that are stressing me out. Ciao!

I have such an awesome husband! Yesterday was a long school day and I was in general feeling a little down and under the weather. I came home at 9:30 to a spotlessly clean house, candlelight, rose petals, chocolates, and the sweetest card ever. Valentine's Day came a little early, but the timing worked much better. We had agreed not to really do much for Valentine's Day except make each other food. Matt broke the agreement, but I forgive him. Unfortunately I woke up this morning to the crud and took the day off to recuperate and study some math. Math is the one class that has me the most worried. The parts that I do understand are really interesting and fun, but I just keep feeling like it's not all clicking. Things are moving really fast because we only meet twice a week and my teacher is a math maniac. I know there's plenty more math in my future and I'm just worried if this is so hard for me now, if I'm even cut out for what lies ahead. I have my first exam on the 27th and I've started my studying now, so I guess we'll just see. It's just right now it has me a little stressed out.

So things are going great! School is awesome. My Mondays and Wednesdays are crazy long, but I'm getting used to it. I have a chemistry lecture at 9:00, three other classes throughout the days, then wrap it all up with a two and a half hour calculus lecture until 9:20. Chemistry is with the same prof as last semester and I don't care for him much, though I do feel I am learning more in this class than Chem 1. I picked up an intermediate piano class twice a week to do something fun, and I'm one of two students enrolled. The teacher has a beginner's class at the same time, so she just sets the two of us in practice rooms by ourselves to do our own things. It's fine with me because now it's more of an independent study sort of course. I play whatever I want, I just need to perform a piece from each of four different music eras. I played for a long time when I was younger, but it's been so long since I've touched the keys, I really wanted to brush up. It's all rushing back pretty quickly, thankfully. My teacher is also the director of the Lompoc School of Music, a nice little academy in town where people to go learn piano and whatnot. Well, I guess they have a shortage of instructors and my teacher asked me to come on down and teach beginners. I'll pop in sometime next week to check the place out and fill out some paperwork, but I told her this semester is so busy, I won't be available much. She thinks this semester would work out if I were a substitute teacher, then began the full-time thing with my own students in the summer. I'm psyched! I figured someday I'd like to teach piano, but I envisioned myself much, much older. This would be a great experience and I'm really looking forward to giving it a shot! My Physics 2 class is pretty much all the same students from Physics 1 last semester. We have a grand ol' time. Right now we're studying thermodynamics, which crosses over with some of the material presented in chemistry last semester. It's not so bad, but I don't find it all that interesting either. Physics 2 at this college is sort of a hodge-podge or random topics fit between Physics 1's Mechanics and Physics 3's Electricity and Magnetism. I love my teacher so much though! Same woman as last semester. I think she's great. I had a six hour break between my physics class and my math class, so I thought it would be a good idea to pick up something during that time. I decided to go for a general education Concepts in Physics class. Everyone in the class are liberal arts majors of some sort and are taking the course to get a science credit out of the way. It's neat because they're people I don't have any other classes with (unlike all my other classes where I see the same faces all the time). It's all non-math based, mostly just talking about, well, concepts and playing with toys. Right now we're still doing mechanics and motion and all that, which is super-dull since I just spent a whole semester on it. The cool part is I get to sort of play assistant, though. I get to work with the other students and help out with experiments and explain whatever they didn't get during lecture. My teacher (the same woman that teaches my other physics classes, so she already knows and likes me) is going to set up an honors course for the class that I can take to get a 2 credits of honors in. All I have to do is continue to play assistant and do a presentation on whatever I want (physics-related) at the end of the semester. Woo! Math is … interesting. It's at night at the end of a long day and I would have thought I'd be too exhausted to sit in a two hour math class, but I was wrong. My prof is so completely hyperactive and writes notes a million miles a minute, I spend the entire time just trying to keep up with my notes and comfort my pen-blistered fingers. It's fun, though. He's really a super math geek. Last class he put a problem on the board and told us to take a few minutes to work it on our own, then changed his mind, "no, never mind, I'll do it for you!" like kid who just couldn't wait another second to open his present. The material is a little heavy, though, and I think it will be the class demanding the most studying. Half the semester is multivariable calculus, then the other half is linear algebra. It has me a little intimidated, especially because a good portion of our class is students that didn't do so hot in his class last semester. We'll see! I also picked up a tutoring job at the college. Since I have tons of time that I'm hanging out at school waiting to go to class, I figured I'd get a job. My calc 2 teacher last semester recommended me to the tutoring department, so I went to see what it was all about. During my little interview I was signed up to tutor Algebra 1 and 2, Trig, Pre-calculus, and Calculus 1 and 2 as well as Intro to Physics and Physics 1. So any student that comes in looking for help in any one of those classes puts in for a tutor request, and if we have compatible free-time, he'll get matched up with me for some session throughout the week. So far I only have two appointments, an hour with a guy on Thursdays for Calc 2, and the same guy for an hour on Fridays for Physics 1. It'll be great because it will keep me fresh on all that stuff and I'll also gain some more experience sort of teaching. And get paid a little bit, hehe. Right now I only have two hours a week to my name, but I'm sure after the first exam, students will start looking for tutors. Anyhow, now that you're bored to death about school stuff … Things are going well at home. My crocheting has suffered some since I'm always busy. Matt and I (well, mostly Matt right now) are playing Ultima Online instead of World of Warcraft now. Matt's been really nostalgic for the game, since I guess it was the first MMO he played and he's always comparing everything we play to it. We both got a little tired of WoW and he seems much happier now with his gaming choice. Work is still sort of boring for him. They just don't have anything for him to do until he gets his clearance. The wait for an interim clearance is still a year, too. I guess his supervisor came to him the other day and said that since his freeze code (he had a 3-year hold put on him when he got to Vandenberg) expires in February, he'll be reassigned as early as March this year. We were told that he would have another code placed on him once he came to this new job. I'm not sure where the misunderstandings began; Matt just thinks his supervisor's kind of a putz and this whole thing was poorly planned. We aren't packing or anything yet, but Matt had to update his dream sheet (base of preferences … he has three Colorado bases, a Wyoming base, and four California bases on it now) the other day to help his chances of getting somewhere he wanted. I guess we could hear any day now that he has to up and go. If he has to go before the semester is over, unfortunately, I'd probably have to stay here. There's no way I'd get through months of these classes just to either get Fs (probably not since we're on military orders) or have them deleted from my transcripts (most probable). Hopefully that's not the case and if he does get reassigned soon, they'll give him more time and I can finish up this semester. It's still sort of a bummer, though. The guard unit I'm at is almost completely non-deployable since we have a real-world full-time mission and can't afford to have people go. We have a sister unit in Colorado that's in the same boat. But pretty much every other guard unit is highly deployable. Now I don't mean to sound like a coward or anything, I'd just rather serve my country at home than in the desert at this point in my life. If we stay in California or Colorado that's okay, but if he gets sent anywhere else, who knows what will happen. And to him. Right now he's not in a deployable situation either, and that's ideal. I guess we don't have a lot of control over it right now, so we'll just have to see how things shake out. As of right now though, we aren't looking at moving into a larger apartment in March for either the luxury or to accommodate Matthew if he moves out here. It would be silly to pack up and move to another place, just to move out again shortly thereafter. Carol's moving to Nebraska on my birthday. I'm a little bummed out, since she's the coolest (only?) girl I really hang out with around here and we've grown pretty close over the past year. Our schedules rarely match up so, so we don't get to see each other that much anymore. Now that she just has a few weeks left, we're trying to plan all sorts of "dates" before she goes. Going out to eat at places she won't have in Omaha, seeing movies, going to Six Flags. All my weekends will be Carol Weekends! It'll be such a bummer to see her go. We can e-mail and call and message on MySpace, but it will be a while before we see each other again. Friday we went out for Thai food and crocheted together. I'm working on a cute crochet scarf for her right now because I know it's cold out there. I know she's excited to get out of the Air Force and be reunited with her husband and all, so I'm glad for her for that. I hope she finds a girl buddy or a nice couple or someone to hang out with out there, too. Melissa and I have been hanging out a lot more lately, too. I was so terrible while I was working about hanging out with her. Last semester and so far this one has been great, though. We see each other at least once a week (unless some visit or holiday interrupts) and are getting to know each other a lot better! I'm going to pick her up here in a few, so I'll be wrapping this up. Today I think we're going to be all crafty and bead necklaces and earrings and work on her crocheting. It's fun and she's getting a kick out of it. She's meeting weekly with a woman from church now too, and when she told me I turned just a hint of jealous. This lady takes her out to do all the cool things that she and I do or that I want to do with her. I have some big-sisterly competition! I know, it's silly. It's for this woman's school project, she has to get to know a teenager and write a paper about her. Now I just feel like I have to keep Melissa as entertained as she does! It's all good, though, I'm glad she's having fun with another cool adult. Anyhow, I'm off to get all crafty with my sis! Ta ta!

Today I just woke up weird, I think. I had another dream I was married to Smallville's Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). It wasn't creepy or weird or anything, just matter of fact. Sorry, Matt. :-\ Something strange must have happened though, because I woke up cranky. Matt's been super-sweet though. He got me all cozied up on the couch with the comforter and my crochet in front of Aladdin and ordered me just to relax. So that's what I've been doing. I'm making Melissa a cute little blue purse. She picked out the pattern and the yarn and I told her I'd try to whip it out as soon as possible. It's uhm, tricky for me. The pattern claims it's easy, but maybe I'm just that much of a beginner. It's starting to shape up, though! I'm going out with "the girls" tonight (Carol and Missy). Carol had her 25th birthday while she was on vacation in Omaha, so we're celebrating late. I couldn't find anything tangible to give her, so I'm treating her to dinner and a movie in Arroyo Grande / Pismo. We're going to see Last Holiday and she hasn't yet decided where we're going to eat. I'm looking forward to a girls' night out (and Matt is stocking up on chips and soda for a WoW-fest tonight!) I got a notice in the mail today that my calculus 2 teacher last semester had recommended to the college that I tutor this semester. I can have however many hours of paid calculus tutoring I want up to 20. Not that I'd be able to work 20 hours a week. Maybe six hours a week, split evenly between Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It's a little bit of extra cash, and some experience. Math tutoring sounds like a nice, second part-time job for an aspiring science teacher. I at least feel honored to be recommended. So my brother and I talked last week. Well, we talk more than that, but we talked about important life plans last week. He's in his second semester at Colorado State, where I went for two semesters before, well … going broke and failing out. He did so-so grade-wise last semester, but says he's just not happy there, living in the dorms. I can't at all say I know what's best for him or what he should do, but I found that I wasn't quite ready for the whole University experience right out of high school. Joining the Air Force, working, and going to school part-time helped me mature and really want to work at going to school. It made my first semester back as a full-time student much easier. When I failed out, I didn't have many options. I didn't have any money, my car had just broken down for good, my parents didn't have any space for me (in either Colorado or Texas), so I felt desperate and joined the Air Force. If Matthew finds himself in a similar situation, I just want him to know he has many options, to include coming to live with me and Matt. Matthew and I talked about it before Matt and I ever got engaged: how cool it would be to roomie-up together and go to school. Well, Matt and I have been talking about it a lot and offered the option of Matthew coming to live with us out here in California, work full-time, go to the same school I'm attending part-time. We wanted to move to a new apartment anyway (they have dishwashers, tennis courts, and allow a second cat, hehe) when our lease is up in March and the cost of adding another bedroom is negligible compared to what we're spending on rent right now. Matthew got all excited on the phone and practically gave me an affirmative, but I told him to think about it and see how school goes this semester, then we'll see about a summer move. Selfishly, I think it would be really cool. I know Matt and I would be sacrificing a little privacy, but Matt and Matthew get along well and I love my little brother to death. I miss him a lot and worry constantly about him (not that there's too much to worry about, I'm just that way). I know he feels alone out in Colorado, and I feel like he doesn't have many people to trust or look up to. I like to think I'm one of those people and that we could help each other out if we lived closer together. I talked to Mama about it first and she didn't seem to think it was a stupid idea. Papa doesn't think it's the best idea. Hey, if this semester goes great for Matthew and he feels more comfortable and at home, I'm all for him staying out there. He complains about not being able to work and never having any money, and his grades aren't terrific, so I think maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to move out of the dorms and do the work/school thing. Matt and I are going to look at these other apartments anyway. Even if Matthew doesn't move in with us, it hardly costs us any more to get a second bedroom and we would appreciate the extra space. So we'll see what Matthew chooses and maybe we'll have a roommate this summer! Phew! I guess I just had to get that babbling out. I made two more crochet hats yesterday. The blue one came out horribly goofy; I think I added an extra stitch in there to make it keep growing. I've yanked most of it out and restarted, minus one stitch per round, to see how the new version turns out.

Well, happy 2006! Yah, it doesn't feel too different. More laid back, I guess, but that's because I'm still on my super-break away from school. (20 Dec – 23 Jan break, woohoo!) Last weekend my mom and Ron flew out to Santa Barbara. On Friday they came up to see the casa de Conklin. We went golfing on base (Ooooh, I am so terrible! It's only my second time out playing 9 holes, though. Matt promises he'll really teach me.) and then out to a nice dinner at Lompoc's finest, Saletti's. Mmm. They returned to Santa Barbara and we drove down Saturday morning to join them on a whale watching expedition. Well, it's been ten years since my mother or I have set foot on a boat, and Matt's never been ocean-bound (Ron practically grew up at sea). The four-hour tour took us out to the Santa Cruz islands and three of us spent most of it asleep or on the verge of losing our breakfasts. We were so miserably sea sick and no one even saw a single whale. It was pretty stormy and rainy out, so maybe the whales were afraid to come up (and get wet??). It seemed like a great idea and we were all really excited about it, but just couldn't stomach it. No worries about not seeing whales though; we got four free, non-expiring passes to go do it all over again (this time, with Dramamine)! (( Whale boat pictures are up here! )) Saturday we also celebrated Matt's and Ron's birthdays. After recovering from the boat trip, we perused the (closed) stores on State Street until our 9pm dinner reservation. Still raining. The restaurant was great, though. We had a classy band and were seated on the patio (it had stopped raining by then, thankfully) and a terrific dinner! Matt's first experience with lobster bisque or filet mignon. Neither of us care much for lobster. Anyhow, it was an experience for Matt, but not really his style. We decided to celebrate his birthday Matt-style on Monday. Sunday was mostly just sleeping in, kicking back, hanging out. My mom and I went out to see Fun With Dick and Jane because the boys just wanted to sit in the hotel room with their new books. :p That's all right, it's nice to hang with my mom! Despite unfortunate weather and motion sickness, it was great to see her and Ron! Since then Matt's gone back to work and I've been playing it lazy. Well, sort of … I took down all the Christmas decorations and reorganized most of the apartment. I couldn't just be a total bum all week! Mostly I've just been crocheting, though. Last weekend my mom got me a Crocheting for Dummies book, and I've been yarn-wild since! Yesterday I finished my first project: a scarf. I didn't go by a pattern, just flew by the seat of my pants with it. It's hideous and I think I'll mail it to my sister. All day today I've been working on an afghan. I think it will take some time. I ordered the spring semester's school books online rather than bother with the bookstore lines. The arrived today and got me all excited! I have a piano book, a physics book, and a linear algebra book and they just get me all giddy to jump right in! It's not that I don't like sitting around at home crocheting and watching movies, but I'm just psyched about school. I looked up my fall grades yesterday. Bragging time. All A's! Well, I'm just pleased because it's my first 4.0 college semester. So now I want to see if I can do it all over again! I really need to work hard to bring up my horrific CSU freshman GPA — at least now my cumulative has broken a 3.0! =\ That's about all in the wonderful world of Mel. Today ends my "weekend" (so what if it was nearly three weeks?) I have to work tomorrow and Sunday. Really, my job seems interesting, and I'm sure it will be someday, but guard drills are the most boring things ever! I can't wait to get my security clearance and go to school this summer so I can actually do work and not just sit around once a month trying to look busy. Argh! I hope you all enjoy your weekends! :p Ciao!

Well, thank goodness the semester is over! I had my calc and physics finals yesterday and I believe they went quite well. I guess I was expecting a lot worse. It’s just great to have that huge burden lifted! I still have a [very easy] chem final left on Monday morning, but I’m not really sweating it too much, then I’ll be completely finished! Woohoo!

What a way to start out my awesome break. Yesterday after my tests I started to feel sick. Good timing, I suppose, but it stinks spending the first day of winter break in bed. Last night was sleepless as I was dealing with sore throat misery. Hopefully it will all subside by tonight.

I finally registered for the Spring semester! I’m all excited about my classes in the Spring, but not too excited that I won’t enjoy my break! It will be fun except my math class is only available on Monday and Wednesday nights. That wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to show up early those days for my other classes. There’s no point making the 30-minute drive home in between classes either, it’s just a waste of gas and time. So two days out of the week will just be really long for me! I picked two fun classes that I don’t need at all, but should help kill time. The college only offers beginner’s and intermediate piano. I know I’m well beyond that, but it will be nice to play again. It should be a peaceful hour. I miss playing and all I have is a crummy electric keyboard that doesn’t even have enough keys for all my songs. :p Anyhow, this is what I’ll be looking at next semester:

Should be fun! Well, I’m going to return to bed to read/recuperate. Ta ta for now!

I know, now I’m just posting for the sake of doing so. I’m just a little bored. Not that I don’t have a gazillion things to do … I just don’t want to do them right now. I changed things around on here a little bit because I was tired of the way they looked before. I hope everything’s legible enough and all.

I feel kind of cooped up. I really started to loathe my job, but I went back to work yesterday to drop off lunch for Matt and found myself sort of nostalgic for it. I think it’s just that I sit around at home all day doing school work and housework. I was really excited about going to my new job with the guard last weekend, but I guess it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. What I did before at the 576th was actually pretty cool, it’s just I got really fed up with policies, sergeants, and all the bone-head 20-year old airmen boys I worked with. Not that I think the grass is greener back there, I was ready for a change. I just feel bored in this transition phase where we don’t know where we will be living come February and I’m still just taking here-and-there classes at a community college. I’m not disgruntled or anything, I just want to get on with the next act …

Hah, so I adopted a penguin today! Tal must be pretty jealous … Her name’s Tela and she’s not so good at standing on her own two feet. If you’re super-bored, you can adopt your own pet, too!

Anyhow, I guess I will actually get on with school work. Ta ta!