Posts Tagged ‘school’

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

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!

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!

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 don't know why, today is just sort of a down day. I skipped school today, half because I feel crummy, and half because I'm just not in the mood for it. I really wanted a day to be alone. It's not that I don't love Matt's company, or that of my buddies at school, it's just been a while since I had some time to myself. Granted, I've been doing housework and all day, it's still nice though. Tuesday I got my third calculus midterm back. I've taken the class before and I've done fine up until this point. I don't know if I've psyched myself out or what. My first two midterms averaged a 98%, but this one dropped my average a whole letter grade. I think I get the material; I did fine on all the homework and I studied. Maybe my brain was just saying "hey, you always fail at this point, so why should this time be any different?" It's silly and my grade is still fine, but it frustrated me so much. Classes are just getting me down a lot right now. I was looking forward to going back to school so badly when I wasn't able to, but now that I'm here, I just can't wait for the semester to end. So registration for the spring opened today. I had the choice to apply to transfer either in the spring or wait until the fall. I chose to get one more semester in at the junior college and just transfer in the fall. I'm looking at my classes for the spring though, and I don't have many options. My Mondays and Wednesdays I can all ready tell will be draining. I have a classes 9-10, 12-1, and 7-9:30 … What long days those will be. I have no choice though, I need them. Matt and I went out to dinner on Tuesday with "the gang". It's nice having a group to hang out with. Marc's introducing us to new people every week at our "Friday Night Thing", which is turning out to be way more fun than I had anticipated. Carol and Ian went with us to see Chicken Little afterward. It was cute and all, but I wasn't super-amused. Matt and I just got Mystery Science Theater 3000's 8th collection volume in the mail the other day. I haven't seen any of them yet and he's seen one, so I guess we're picking on that no one has seen for tomorrow night's MST3K showing. Hopefully it's a good one. I guess that's enough whining for one day. I'm off to bake a cake and do some physics. Mmm.

A bunch of people just left. It’s amazing; we actually have semi-regular visitors! On Halloween we had a little party (games, movies, and grub) for my buddy Marc, two of his friends, Carol, and Erick. Matt and I were the only ones to dress up, though. Matt was an 80′s rock star and I was his groupie! It was much more fun than I had anticipated! We decided to have a regular Friday night get-together for the crew. Tonight Marc and his buddies and a sister of one and Carol hung out for an MST3K and an episode of UCB. A blast! It’s good to hang out with people … I’ve missed it.

The spring school schedule came out today, so I’ve been figuring out what classes I want to take. I want to apply for Westmont, a small Christian college in Santa Barbara, and it’s not too late to get in for the spring semester. I have my application, but I still think I want one more semester at the community college to prepare for transferring in the fall. So one more semester in Santa Maria and a little more time to save up for tuition (private school, ugh). School is getting a little bit tougher. Next week I have a quiz and two midterms, which I don’t feel 100% ready for. I still have time to study, though.

This weekend is a guard weekend. Hopefully it’s not too boring. If so, it’ll give me a little bit of time to study while getting paid. Speaking of which, this will be my last weekend as an A1C (woohoo, SrA!)

That’s all for tonight. More to come later. Ciao!