Posts Tagged ‘physics’

It’s been a while since we’d been to the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum, but our first visit was so cool that we just had to take Jen, too!

We had fun talking through tubes, looking through lenses, checking out aircraft, control tiny planes, playing catch in a spinning room, getting strapped into a crazy contraption, jumping, chasing the pretty lights on the floor, and of course, pressing ourselves against the giant pin board!

It’s such a fun museum and Rhino got a kick out of a lot of the exhibits. I think it will get only more fun as the boys grow older and can understand more of what things are about. For now he had fun trying to jump on the blue cushion, feeling the different temperature coils, and playing in the really cool aviation-themed play room. There was also a tube that Matt, Rhino, and Jen sat in that shot them upwards that he definitely did not love. As soon as the doors shut he started screaming. I didn’t take Heron in, so I don’t know quite what it was like, but I’m told it was very loud as they bounced up and down in the tube. I guess that wasn’t the best idea for little Rhino!

It always goes this way — I’m never loyal to my journals. I’m just so lazy.

I’m sitting in the school parking lot, wiping sour cream off my Taco Bell order, and waiting for my computer science class to start. School is going pretty well. Next week I have my first exams in math and physics. Physics is pretty tough, but Mr. Jorstad says it gets much easier from here. Math is extremely boring. I took this class (particularly) with spastic Mr. King before dropping last semester. Now Dr. Mesri very slowly over explains everything. It’s better than being too difficult, I guess. My programming class is just an introduction to C and it’s not too tough. some of my days are long (M/W: 9a-7p; T: 830a-3p; R: 830a-930p), but I never have classes on Fridays.

I met a girl at work named Danielle who recently moved to Lompoc (the same street as us.) We’re going to the gym together Mondays-Thursdays before class/work. She picks me up at 4:40 and we do weight training or spinning until Matt picks me up on his way to work. Danielle used to be a Marine and loves to work out, so she is the perfect motivator. This is only our second week into it, but I feel fantastic all day long! I’m very sore and hopefully soon I’ll start toning up. I’ve put on entirely too much weight over the past year.

We also started going back to church after about three months. We were going to a small group at Jim’s on Thursday nights, studying Acts, but we hadn’t been able to attend since school started up. He found a group for us on Friday nights at Wayne & Rena’s, studying marriage. They live right across the street from us and are so great! All of the other four couples in the group have children older than us, so it is interesting to hear about their experiences.

Last weekend Answers in Genesis, a group that teaches creation backed by science, came to Calvary for a two-day conference. We took in a few lectures about apologetics, astronomy, and our foundations. Matt had heard Ken Ham, the founder of AiG, speak many years ago. He believes in intelligent design, a six day creation, that we are the center of the universe, that there was a worldwide flood, and that dinosaurs lived at the same time as man, to name a few. Some of it still sounds pretty out there to me, but some of their evidence was pretty convincing. And science aside, there’s a lot said in the Bible that I never knew about. We picked up some DVDs and a book to research these ideas further.

Andrea sent me a really cute new journal the other day, which I suppose inspired me to pick up the pen again. I’m not letting myself start new journals without finishing the old ones anymore.

Last month we decided what we’re going to do when Matt leaves the Air Force. The plan was: I’d move out to Colorado over Christmas ’07 and go to CSU in the spring. At the beginning of March he’d follow and find a job around Fort Collins. I have two years left in my physics degree and we would try to buy a house. The last time I went to work I learned that many people in my shop will be leaving, another squadron is moving out with us, many full-time positions will be opening up, and they want to promote at least one SrA. The full-time job will be a GS-11 position and we’re getting new equipment that someone needs to learn and teach to everyone else. It’s extremely tempting to stick around for another two years after signing on full-time

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!

I've been up for a few hours. I should be working on math homework, but it's really intimidating. I'm behind on my square trades. I've restarted one for the July trade 4 times now. It was just too difficult. So now I've super-simplified it, am just doing a plain block of single crochet and will backstitch the Feynman diagram onto it. I did finish one for the August trade this morning, though:

Matt and I finally used our little apartment gym room. It's nice in there, with a big weight machine thing that Matt likes, a water cooler, treadmill, elliptical machine, recumbent bike, etc. I've been lazy since I returned from Georgia. It's much more fun working on with someone, especially Matt, and he's agreed to join me thrice weekly. Sitting on my behind in front of a screen all the time has really been getting to me … Mama sent me two packages the other day. She returned all the journals I had left at home, my electronics tool box, an old dress, Christmas mugs, some Astek caribeeners, and sent us two freezer bags of chocolate chip cookies. Yup, they're almost gone. The journals are from '94 to '99 and I haven't looked at them at all for at least 5 years. I've spent most of the morning poring over those. Some of what I wrote is funny, some depressing, some ominous … most of it silly. Bad poetry, goofy doodles, lists of favorites, hearts and names crossed out and circled then re-crossed out, random musings of a 12 year-old, cut out photographs … it's definitely amusing. It's all pretty much from before my life got serious. Pages of role playing game character descriptions and background stories. End-of-my-life dramas about how some boy in my 7th grade class dumped me via a crumpled up note. Drawings, poetry, encyclopedia photocopies, and never-sent letters professing my love of Pink Floyd. The most interesting thing is reading about the day-to-day observations of my family life back then, knowing what I know now. It's all fun … or just an excuse not to do math homework all morning.

I guess that's what I should go ahead and do now, though.

So I'm just sort of sitting around, waiting for Matt to get home from work. It was so nice, yesterday he had to go to work at 5am for about an hour. Then we had the whole day to spend together before he had to return at 5pm, out of uniform and just with one other guy, to clean for about another hour. I think it spoiled me a little bit … I've just been wishing he were around. I ran some errands, though and got some last-minute pre-TDY things taken care of. I picked up my plane tickets. I'll be flying out of here at 6am on Monday and arriving in Augusta around 9pm. Phew, what a day that will be! Just a few days away … hmm. I've been crocheting a bit, lately. Here's my newest square:

It's supposed to be a daisy in the grass, then the sky with clouds, bordered by sunshine. I know, a little cheesy, but I like it. My other trade partner this month is a physics major, so we decided to use that as our square theme. (First thought: "string theory!" Hah … hmm.) I brainstormed all sorts of physics-related things to crochet, but I couldn't figure out anything that wasn't too difficult for me. So my train of thought moved from physics to math … I love fractals and thought that would be a good place to start. I started trying to figure out a cellular automaton to crochet a Sierpinski Gasket, but it wasn't working out too well for me. Lo and behold, someone had already thought this up and posted her explanation online. So I whipped up a couple of my own. Here's a blue one I made. I think it's the perfect start of a crochet bikini top.

Through this I've found that crochet has been used many times to make mathematical models. I think that's great! Two of my hobbies collide! The Institute for Figuring has awesome crochet models of hyperbolic surfaces. (DIY) I love it! I also found really neat crocheted Lorenz manifolds. Oooh! There are also knit Klein Bottle hats which can be modified for crochet. Here are other sweet fiber arts + math photos from an exhibit last year! ♥ Back to the square trade … I found out a little bit about my partner and she thought Feynman diagrams would be a good idea (as well as semiconductor band structures and wave packets). That seemed like a good start, but I wasn't positive what to do with it. There is a particular type of diagram called penguin diagrams, so I decided to do something with that. It's my first time attempting to crochet a grid to make a picture and it's going all right. It's going to be a penguin with outstretched wings and the diagram backstitched overtop it. I'm trying for something like this. We'll see later this week if that works out, though! I feel like I have too much to do before I leave. Jason's room isn't empty yet and it's mostly my junk left in there. I have four weeks left of my online art class, but I really don't want to be doing too much of it in Georgia, so I'm trying to cram all that I can in this week. I bought all new uniforms yesterday and had to get all my name tapes and patches on them and my skirt and pants hemmed as well as have everything washed and pressed before I go. I haven't even begun to pack yet! It's okay … I still have four whole days left, but I'm freaking out a little bit. It'll all be okay …

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!

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

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!