It's cold outside

So Christmas has been awesome! All but one of my gifts was EXACTLY what I wanted. That one black sheep will soon be sheared and all will be perfect. I have barely been home lately. After coming back from Houston I open presents with V and got some super sweet stuff. Then on Tuesday I came home and relaxed until Thursday, at which time we went to Little Rock for Christmas and then back home for a Halo III tourney. Cory and I owned some major tail and had a decent time. On Friday we drove to Dallas and relaxed there too. I got some really useful stuff: shampoo, soap, toothpaste and some tooth brushes too. I also got some money, which is always nice. I even got money to buy Vanessa some Christmas presents. Amazing! Speaking of Vanessa, I hit three different stores to get a CD for her and never lost my nerve. It was great; I felt like I really earned this one for her.

So we opened presents at my house last night and like I mentioned earlier, it was great. I got a super sweet DVD recorder, so now I can keep all my F1 races on DVD instead of those old boxes with that film stuff in them. I got good clothes and a bunch more useful stuff.

Now I'm in West Memphis. My grandpa is in the hospital with a lot of problems: collapsed lung, kidney failure, and his blood pressure is low. He's in good spirits, though, and that makes me happy. It's sad to see his body going since his mind is still so sharp. He's in a nice VA hospital in Memphis, so they're taking good care of him. Tomorrow evening we'll head home and I'll be there for a day and then we've got a hotel room for a few days in Hot Springs. I'll be swimming, working out and watching Chelsea dunk on some girls in Summitt Arena. Good times, as long as the 360 hooks up to the Embassy Suites' tv.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

HP...here I come

well I'm sitting here in Houston watching "Bruce Almighty" and anticipating what questions I will be asked tomorrow. I'm actually kinda scared about it; a lady I know from HP said the guy is a tough interviewer and asks some tech questions. I know a lot but under pressure like an interview...I don't know. Houston's cool though. I drove around for about an hour today and found some cool little hang outs. I ate at Arby's and had some cotton candy ice cream from TCBY. Oh man, it's been forever since I had cotton candy ice cream. Soooooo good. This part of town is so nice. It's away from the main area and there are some amazing houses.

Hanging out at the house has been fun. Cory and I played some extreme Halo 3 and I've been playing Xbox and cooking tons and just relaxing. I cleaned the house a few times; I mopped and bleached the tub and sinks and organized some of the kitchen. It's been raining and snowing, so I'll probably mop again when I get back. Plus Michael's coming over to winterize the house, so I want it to be a little cleaner.

Christmas is soooo close. I don't really know what I'm getting. I have a long list of possibilities, but nothing I'm sure of. Well I know I'm getting some CDs and a sleeping bag and a jacket and...not sure what else. Speaking of things to come: I'm PUMPED about boarding. Joe and I are going to tear up the slopes. Hopefully those RFCs don't own me too much. I am excited about Vanessa learning to board too. I think I'll be able to help her some.

Well this movie's almost over and I think it's time to start winding down and maybe review some standard ME stuff. I am looking forward to flying again tomorrow. I love flying, especially since I know all about the engines propelling the plane and I love hanging out in airports. It's like Christmas eve, everytime.

Holey moley

I'm going to Houston! Hp finally called and I'm heading down there for an interview on the 17th. I suppose I will fly down to Houston on the 16th and then interview all day the 17th and fly home the 18th, I hope at least. I've been told by an inside source that one of my interviewers is tough and I need to brush up on my general engineering stuff. Woohoo.

Tomorrow is the A-prop final. I'm excited about getting it done. Once it's over, though, there is only TSAD left and that's not a test I'm looking forward to getting ready for or taking. I only need a B on it to get my grade, so here's to only missing 20 points or less.

Finals throw me off. I can't believe today is Friday. I'm less than a week away from my last semester here. I'm a bit apprehensive, honestly. I've got to make some big decisions about work and Vanessa. I love the girl bunches, so I'm sticking it out. I will fly up to see her every weekend if that's what it takes. She'll have breaks and such, so she can come see me some too. Come see me in my kickin apartment. It'll be small, but sparkling clean and filled with all sorts of cool stuff. I'm pumped. In case you can't tell, if they offer, I'm taking the HP job in Houston. Being back so close to my birthplace is reason enough, but factor in the job description and you get the perfect package.

Played basketball tonight. I was so out of it. I had in my contacts, which doesn't happen often and so my eyes were crazy sore. Jeff Fort played with us and I thought that was super cool. He's quite the baller. I played two full court games and man it was tough. I got better as I broke in, but I still couldn't hit jack and was too out of it to go 100%. It was cool seeing everyone, though.

Okay well I think this is all that's going down in my life. I'm out.

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

Finals are upon us. It's nights like tonight where I am so proud to be an engineer. Not just any engineer (because some engineers aren't engineer at all) but a mechanical engineer. I left the ME party around 930 and went to the ME building until 1am. I hit some hardcore German and tomorrow, er...today, I'll study it some more and study some ICE and call it a day, probably at about the same time. It's so insane to know that you could study all semester and be totally on top of things and most ME classes will still kick your butt. Man oh man. Life is too good.

I...er...Vanessa got Seether's new album. It's really good. They've got some nice lyrics and awesome guitar playing. I love music. It makes my life so much better. That and having a wonderful girlfriend and a few friends I can always count on. Life is way too good.

It's funny, I don't care about the house stuff anymore. It could be that I've become a bit of a slob myself or it could be that I know what happens in the end. I do care that I haven't been paid rent yet, so I suppose I'll have to go break some legs tomorrow. Fun times.

I only need a 78 on my final in TSAD to get the grade I want. I think my GPA is going to be nice this semester, despite working 13 hours a week and spending 30minutes a day traveling back and forth to the house. Plus if you factor in job hunting, which BTW is going AWESOME, I think I've done well this semester. I've honestly dealt with more crap outside of class than in it, but it's all good. Karma.

Okay well I actually do need to get up and be productive, again, today so I suppose this is it. In case you were wondering, I have a job offer from Albemarle for much more than normal and an interview with HP in Houston coming up. Joe's bonus might have been better, but my salary slaps his in the face.

Gimme a break, gimme a break...

Man oh man...PT cruisers are so sweet! I rented one this weekend for my interview and it basically rocked my socks off. I mean the way it strains going up hills and how you have get a run at really large hills; it's just an amazing piece of machinery. Eh it was free, had satellite radio and was spacious. Fun times. Magnolia isn't half bad, it's really just about a third bad. The place is a bit downtrodden, but I didn't dislike it too much. If the company offers some good money, I might take the job, who knows. I have plenty of options out there, so I'm not worrying...yet.

Razorbacks blow. Last year almost turned me into a fan, but I've decided I really have just cheered against them all along. I hope Miss St embarrasses us in front of all those LR fans. Yeah D-mac is pretty darn good, but a great player doesn't get shut down like he does. Great players are versatile and make stuff happen.

I love apathy. It's really a nice feeling to quit caring about stuff. It's killing me in my classes, but it's still a nice thing to have for all sorts of other reasons. It can be too much, though, and you have to watch out for that. Before long you'll be running in front of cars and such. That'd be unfortunate.

Okay well it's time to cut this break short and go to bed. I don't think I have EVER worked on school stuff as much as I have this year. It's quite ridiculous really. I have friends that I haven't seen in ages, but then I suppose that's not all because I've been busy.

"He doesn't care what other people think about him. He's 100% who he wants to be."

It's too much. I can't handle it. I stayed in the ME building yesterday until 6, ate dinner and watched a movie until 11. I woke up at 6:30 to take a test that will make more of an impact in my life than the tests I take in my classes and yet was easier. It lasted 8 hours. The only good thing that came from it was realizing I chose the wrong major. I've been lying to myself about knowing anything about engineering. Yeah I like cars, yeah I can do econ and make smart decisions, but I honestly don't know jack. I have successfully crammed my way through college; I flush it at the end of every class. I got to the ME part of the test today and I skipped those, the econ ones were really the only ones I 100% got. ECON! A business class. Oh yeah, I also had a super fine proctor.

Decisions are fun. It's amazing how I spend all this time pondering what to do in some situations and then in the end, it's all for naught. Things happen or they don't. I have been hanging out a lot with Kelly Jackson lately. It's exciting to get to know new people and especially new girls. Not sure where this is going to go, but I'm along for the ride and trying my hardest not to hurt anyone in the process. I've got such an amazing girlfriend, but my inquisitive nature always keeps me looking. It doesn't mean she's doing anything wrong, far from it, it's just a part of me. I don't know if it's right, if it's wrong or if it's normal. I can't even really say I'm looking for someone else to be girlfriend. We'll see.

How's this for a friend, girlfriend, person: driving 30 minutes at 1am to get me a calculator and while she's at it, picking up some donuts and drinks for my test this morning? What would Jesus do?

Things could be worse...

30ft down, looking up through glass

The first day of open water diving went well. I scrambled a few times for my regulator and took some nice shots of water in my eyes, but overall it was quite fun. We passed a ton of Corvettes and some Ferraris on the way to the lake. When we showed up to the lake, there were a ton of 'vettes at the lake. After diving, we followed the Corvettes to Eureka Springs and took a ton of pictures. I hung out the window and sunroof a few times and took some cool pictures. It was absolutely amazing! I was smiling the whole time and saw some super sweet cars. On the way back home, V saw the Ferraris on an underpass and I quickly snapped some pictures. Of the three shots I got, only one had them in it. Then while I was reviewing those pictures, an Ariel Atom drove by. Ugh...I couldn't believe I missed both of them in such a short amount of time.

I feel bad when I don't do homework or study. I know during the week I will be soooo busy, but there's really no way to get ahead during the weekend. Once I'm caught up, there's not much else to do. I've been slowly working on a presentation for next Thursday, but I finished most everything else that's due this week (that I can do). I think therein lies the problem: I can't do the stuff for TSAD or Aprop. I know there will be a test in the latter sometime this week, but I don't have the slightest idea what to do to get ready for it.

I'm tired, as always and my ankle is gimped. I can walk on it fine, but my lateral motion is shot. Not sure if I'll be taking part in OMG's second victory.

October, October

It's finally that time of the year. Things are getting hectic and although I'm super busy, I love it. The weather's just right, Halloween is coming and football season is in full swing. I want to hit someone. Just line up and knock some people down. Oh the days of suiting up.

We won an intramural game on Sunday. I was super pumped, but a bit apprehensive about the next team. We've got a lot to work on, but a win is a great moral booster. I was a bit upset about some things going on with the team earlier, but I don't care as much now that we pulled off a win. As long as the said upset doesn't interfere with my playing, I don't care.

I feel like cussing. Things have put me into this foul mood almost continuously. There are only a few things left that really make me smile. I'll save those for a rainy day. I will mention one of those things and that is the Bible study. It's so great to hear people putting their ideas out there for everyone. We've got Catholic, Methodist, Baptist and other and it's so impressive to see us all getting along. Last week was a great improvement over the previous week and I hope this week is even better.

Bikes, Blues and BBQ is this weekend. Reminds me of old times. I am taking a MASSIVE group of freshmen down there this semester, so it should be fun times for all. We'll see you there...if we want to.

How many 4000 level classes?

I'm tired. I shouldn't be typing this right now, I should be doing propulsion homework or reading or maybe some TSAD studying since I'm clueless (I'm actually pretty clueless in most all my classes at this point) or maybe I could be reading for ICengines. All of these things I need to be doing, on top of getting ready for class on Thursday, reviewing resumes, finding a job and studying for the FE. I'm just too tired right now. I stayed on campus until 5, with not much time to do anything but study German (I've got a test in a week). That's one class I don't worry about much. I should take honors German. hm...I can't stay awake in my 8:30 on MWF. I don't know why, but I fight sleep the whole time. The rest of my classes are okay though. I tell ya, I like the subjects I'm taking, but geez I wish we'd get through all the crap.

This weekend was nice. I watched "Smokin' Aces" on Friday. On Saturday we had a...um...practice? I don't understand the ideology behind never showing up for practice and expecting to win. Then I went to an awesome British car show with Schoolcraft and his dad and V. It was awesome and Vanessa wandered off the entire time taking tons of awesome pictures. I just wish we could've taken more of the Atoms. Oh well. Then we went to Target and bought scuba bags and groceries and then made sweet-n-sour chicken and watched Texas win and then went to Drew's place to watch the Hogs suck. It was cool hanging with the crew again, but I remember now why I love living off campus so much.

As for hanging out with people, it's be crazy lately. People are coming and going every weekend and I never know who's around and who's not. It's been nice not really doing any big get-togethers lately, I've enjoyed the more intimate settings of just a few people. Did I mention the hogs lost? What a bummer.

Oh yeah one last thing. V and I tried this new church this weekend and I won't say which church it was, but man it was horribly boring. The preacher read right off the slides and presented some pretty basic material. The singing was decent, but the preacher blew it for that church. I really don't mind Old Wire, I just thought we'd try something new. I still can't find a church that competes with my boring, preacher isn't great, all old people, church this summer. I wanted to go to church just to see those people smile and talk to me. It was great! The first Wednesday I was there, I lead a prayer. I've went to North St and Old Wire for months and didn't lead a prayer.

Time to sleep. My eyes are burning and it's only 11:15. Sad...

One last thing, one awesome point to my day was some pretty interesting corn bread and some great Mexican chicken. Oh yeah, you know it. Oh yeah and Kimi Raikonnen won too! Go Ferrari!

Stupid Alonso

Gaw...why can't my team win? It's Ferrari!!! C'mon guys. My racewatch went pretty well. I bought some pizzas and about 7 freshmen showed up. I figured as many, so I was glad I decided to go to Joe's instead of renting a HPER room. Raikkonen still has a chance to win, but it's not much anymore.
Last week lasted forever, but this week's looking better. Most of my freshmen showed up for the 1-on-1 meetings and we had some good talks. They're starting to open up a little more and tell me what needs to change in the program.
I've been really tired lately. I wonder if I'm not eating right or something. I've been eating just about every food group, but I could probably use a few more fruits and veggies. I'm just physically exhausted. I could barely stay awake in my first class. Ugh... Anywho I am going to read for just a bit and then crash...and burn. Have a great week.

Friday

It's been a little bit since I posted but I thought I'd get a quick summary of how things have been lately. My parents came to the game on Saturday and brought a grill and tons of food. I invited 15 or so people and we just chilled out, ate and swapped ring tones. We then rode to the game in the back of Adam's truck and got dropped off just a mere 30 minutes before gate time. Got good seats and I sat next to Cory, Vanessa and this other guy named Adam I know. It was fun. We sucked and the game was super boring for the most part. We won, of course but Troy made us look like a high school team. Texas won too, although they struggled a bit with Arkansas State. I suppose it's the first week jitters.
FEP is going good. I enjoy meeting with my freshmen and most of them enjoy meeting with me. I did have one leave this week to go home and I really liked him. I'm sad to see him go, but I suppose everything happens for a reason. We met for coffee yesterday morning before he headed out. This weekend a few of the freshmen are coming over to Joe's to watch the Italian Grand Prix, that should be fun times. I hope there's enough room for everyone. We'll see.
Classes are good, but tough. I have lots of homework and reading, but I enjoy them all so it's good. I still have enough time to get in time for a Bible study with Vanessa once a week and that's been a real blessing. Other than that, I don't have a whole lot of free time. I do occasionally play some Xbox, but that's normally when I'm caught up or ahead, which isn't normal at all.
I plan on going camping this weekend with the guys. We're going up to Joe's neck of the woods, so that should be interesting. Thinking about taking my car and rolling a little rubber off of the tires. There's some amazing curves. That's it for me. Have a great weekend.

Whew...it's over

This week has been long. Long and very, very busy. The sad part is that I haven't really started work yet. That fun ride will start this week. My four hour break on Mondays is now gone, but I think I'll get most of my mentees visited in convenient fashion. I am really pumped about getting to know the freshmen. They seem like an interesting bunch. I spoke with many of them, at the Friday picnic, about cars for 45 minutes solid. It'll be fun times and a little extra pay to get by with.
My classes are interesting. They'll be rough because of all the work, but at least they're interesting. Propulsion is already uber hard, but ICengines and and German are going to be okay. I really enjoy German so far, but it could be tough come the first string of tests. Ethics is not too tough and is really enjoyable and I think Lab III will be good stuff too.
Hm...let's see what else is going on. Oh yes, the house. The house is quite nice. Although there are plenty of things left to do, I really like living all off campus. Getting to and from class is kinda a pain sometimes, but it's well worth it. I've found that reading on the bus isn't too hard, so I can make good use of the time spent riding it. I even met a former ME on there who was super interested in cars. He joined ME but felt he wouldn't get to work with cars like he wanted to so he went to communication. I don't understand his logic, but oh well.
That's it for tonight. I doubt I have much time during the week to post here, but I will try to update as I can. I know once work and classes and football season get into full swing, I'll be out of luck for time. I'm good at making it, though, and I hope that skill gets put into full use this semester.

Guess who lives across from the Hog House???

So I'm moved in and my parents rock!!! My mom was so awesome decorating my room. I still have lots of room on my walls, but now it's dark in there when it's light outside, the colors match and it's the most beautiful burnt orange EVER. I've got my burnt sienna room, my burnt orange sheets with the horns, and some nice black curtains. It's cool cause I can look out my window and see this house covered in hog gear. It's all over the yard and stuff. So when they're having some pity drinks, I'll be sipping my party mixes.
So I got the two couches in, the recliner, my bed, and my drawers. I'm really happy with how the house looks, but since it's not done yet I'm a bit worried about when it will be finished. Michael mentioned reimbursing us for the days we're not going to be in the house, I hope so.
I finally heard from Steven. That lil punk's been hiding out all summer and so I was glad to hear he was still alive. It's going to be an awesome time this year with Jordan and Steve. We're going to have some sweet parties, some sweet Saturday mornings in the garage and some gooooooood cooking.
Work's almost over. It's enjoyed it, but I should've managed my time a little better. I am about half-way done with this project and I feel horrible. I hope the guys can finish it off. It'd be a shame to see all my hard, quick work go to waste. Anywho, I'm going to go read and enjoy my last night here in the country clu...er...villa. Good riddance.
Oh one more thing. I spend 2 hours yesterday making this awesome slideshow, with music and all, for Vanessa. I really think she liked it and that made my day. Check out onetruemedia.com to make your own. ;)

He thinks he can dance...and don't tell him otherwise

This weekend was amazing! I left on Thursday, alone, and headed for my grandma's house. This weekend could've been better if V would've came with me, but oh well. It was awesome nonetheless. I drove and drove and drove and finally made it into McKinney. I spent the night and the next morning hit up some thrift stores. I had planned on bringing all my dirty clothes to wash at my grandma's but I forgot them. I luckily brought a few extra sets of clothes to wear. I didn't bring any undies or socks though. I hit up some thrift stores and finally got everything I needed. My front tires were a little bald, so I got some new tires too. I ate some Arby's with my grandma and then headed off to Plano.
I picked up Amy in Plano. I planned a nice route on some turnpikes through Dallas. Earlier, on thursday, I paid 3.50 in a check to Oklahoma for the turnpike. Well we made great time, but it cost us over $2 to get there. When I showed up it was crazy! Everyone was dancing, the music was loud and the vibe was great. I was nervous. I hadn't really been this energetic in a long time and honestly hadn't hung out with anyone of a different race for more than a few minutes since high school; this weekend was going to be an awakening. I mixed and mingled and met this crazy short girl named Domonique. I laughed with her and Tori and Carol until I cried and then we ran off to McD's. I won't go through the rest of the trip, but let's just say I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
Saturday morning came early. I grabbed breakfast, with one of my room mates and headed to registration. I only thought Friday was wild; Saturday morning was off the hook! We were yelling and dancing and I was not looking forward to the weekend. I shrugged it off and yelled along with them. That's when it started; I began to lose all inhibition. The rest of the day was a blur. I met a ton of amazing people, and thought about all I'd been missing out on in life. I spoke up when asked and followed with needed. We came up with chants "We represent" "HP, HP" "Nortel" "HP, HP" "Nortel". It was great. I learned about resumes and interviews and even more I learned about myself. I met a guy named Jonah, who was crazy loud and exciting. I met Charles, who was from Pine Bluff and a true leader through and through. I met PArker, who was nerd all the way and very proud of it. I met Gilberto, who really could relate to others. I met Alamzeb, who I never really got his name but made me laugh for his nutting speeches about dancing...er not dancing. I don't remember much of the day, but I do remember the Target party. It was WILD! Red lights everywhere and punch and food and crazy awesome dancing. At this point I had been wanting to bust my stuff, so I found a group of girls and jumped in the middle. It was awesome. Charles, I think, ran up to me and was "work it, Blair" or "there you go". I felt awesome at that point and danced until the lights came up. At one point some DLP guys drug me into a circle, mainly because I was stopped for a second to relax. That was cool. But yeah, Alamzeb wouldn't dance, but I did get Gabrielle to dance and even this cool guy from HP, Daniel. It was fun and I was so sweaty and hot afterwards.
Sunday I woke up with a killer sinus headache and a sadness inside. I knew it was the last day, of only two days, and I had just started meeting these awesome new people. We learned about diversity and did the coolest activity I've ever done. It involved beads and a clear box and the beads represented races. I found it sad that my box had 20 or so white beads and three other colors. THREE!!! I've been half way across the world and I had three off white beads. The questions were mostly out of my control, but still...I really felt sad. I learned that although most people tend to float toward one personality trait, I'm really right in the middle. Well we chanted and practiced more chants and then turned out to not get to use them. I danced some more and then....get this...I wont some money for being myself all weekend. I got $500 from HP and the HP people in our group picked me. It was me and Jonah and Charles and this other real outspoken girl, Randesha. I got up there, dancing and got Daniel to dance too. It was soooooo cool. I couldn't believe it. I was shaking and stuff. I listened to an awesome speech about getting my kindergarten confidence back and an even more amazing poem about living my life to the fullest from the coolest emcee, Trey. Then it was over. I packed up, hugged everyone and left. On the way out I ran into alam and Charles. We got a few more pictures together and left. Slightly before that, Alam told me he'd pick up one of those awesome Longhorn magnets to put on my car (he goes to UT). That made my afternoon. So yeah I'm pumped that I went, some for money, but mainly because of all the awesome people I met. I can't get over the leadership I witnessed this weekend. It was life changing in all ways and I can't wait to see where everyone else takes their lives.
I made it back to Gege's, after having a nice conversation with Amy and not hitting any tolls. The drive home was long and thoughtful. I jammed to every rap song I had on my iPod and danced and thought about all the good times I had.
Then it ended. On the way to work today my car overheated and stopped running. I had it towed into Joplin. It's going to cost most of the money I have left that I made this summer. All things end in time, I hope the same isn't true of my friendships with the people I met this weekend.

wow, that was fun

So I went to Joe's this weekend. It was cool; he's got a really nice place. We sat around, worked on our CP project and enjoyed just being lazy. It was nice. I played more pool and fooseball than I've played in the last year. I got pretty good at Joe's amazingly crappy pool table. I could just tap the ball and it would go in the hole, regardless of how far away. We got a great start on our CP project, despite Steven not being there. Then the weekend went downhill fast; I bought books. Not horrible this semester, I've saved a ton by buying online. Close to $90 or so I've saved and that's including a few other books that I got for myself.
This past week was fun. I was in Lean/5S meetings all week and got to meet the CEO/president of EP and also the chairman of the board. He wasn't too nice of a guy, but the CEO was a real cool guy. Probably in his 50's or late 40's, which seemed pretty cool. Dan, one of the other engineers, was gone all week so it was bonding time for me and the other intern. That was interesting. I got to avoid the nice hot snake building for most of the week and, of course, he didn't do much so it's still messy. I'll wrap that up this week, hoping it's not too hot.
I got my list of mentees for this semester. I looked up a few on facebook and even had one kid add me before I got the email. It's fun to think about how I felt when I was going to be a freshman; how excited I was and so eager to get started. The crazy thing is that I still feel that way towards the end of every summer. This summer didn't help much, though, as I saw just how much you don't have to know out in the real world. I'm glad I do know it, regardless, and this weekend really brought that out.
Well I'm heading out for a run, since this week's going to be a tough one. I'm trying to get off work on Friday and next Monday, so I have to really work hard and get my 40 in early this week. I'm thinking 10.5,10.5,10,9 or something like that. I do want to get in some more golf this week, it's almost time to put up the clubs for a little bit. ugh...

What a surprise...

This weekend was pretty nice. V and I went to this sweet little Japanese steak house and had the guy cook right in front of us. I ate some great sushi and some shrimp. Then we saw "license to wed". It was pretty funny, mainly because I could see myself reacting in a lot of the same ways as the main characters. Robin Williams was prett funny too. That was Saturday. Friday we watched "Shooter", which I was pleasantly surprised with. It had some sweet action scenes and awesome shooting. Saturday we watched "Premonition" cooked and then watched "Smokin Aces". Both were good. Smoking Aces was crazy; within 30 minutes 7 or 8 people had died, some of them who appeared to be main characters. Once again some great action scenes and shooting. Premonition was a "say what?!?" movie. V and I were discussing what was happening during the whole thing. It was neat to think about some of the stuff going on and wonder how it would turn out. Today we went to my church. It was so funny because I helped with the Lord's Supper and the preacher praised me for a few minutes, so I think I really impressed Vanessa with my involvement there. They're an amazing group of old people and so, so nice. There was a line waiting to meet Vanessa and to talk to me. She dressed perfectly for the conservative nature of the church, but at the same time looked amazing.
Vanessa and I talked alot about our spiritual growth. We're growing so close together and minus a few setbacks, we're doing great. We're talking more about our past and our future and especially our spiritual nature. I think that we're going to set up a Bible study for at least twice a week next semester. We pray before every meal and most every night. I fall so in love with her when I hear her pray. It's amazing the people God blesses us with, especially our exes, who we learn so much from. I can't believe how well God's plan always turns out.
So work's been rough this week. I'm working in a large, hot building filing away some old work orders and such and trying to keep from having everything I wear stick to me. It's not been too bad, but the other intern is rather lazy at times and I feel like I'm doing all the work. Oh well, I guess. I can do most of it better and quicker by myself. All in all, though, I'm learning a lot about the work life and seeing just how little from class you actually use. Yeah it's fun to throw out big words and talk about novel new ideas with the other engineers, but mostly you just have to know how to think your way through the problems. Simple enough.
That's it for me. I've got a busy summer for the remainder. Going to Joe's next weekend to work on CP stuff and then going to Dallas the next weekend to shop and go to a leadership conference at UTArlington. I'm going to buy one of those cool metal, magnetic longhorns for my car! Hook em baby!!!

Golf anyone?

So I've played golf four times this week. I am getting better and today I hit par on a hole or two. My dad and sister came into town this weekend and we've been having a blast. Yesterday we went to the driving range and hit a million golf balls and then I cooked them an awesome meal of green bean rolls, sweet-n-sour chicken and some crazy good rolls. This morning we teed off at 1030 and played 9 holes. I did really well, but still got beat by dad by 2 strokes. I caught him at his worst, he's breaking in some new clubs. We then ate at Arby's, hit some thrift stores (where I almost bought some super awesome jacket with lots of wool and stuff, kinda like Vin Diesel's jacket in XXX but shorter and tan), and then saw Transformers. I'm okay admitting I'm a super nerd, so I'll say that movie rocked my socks off. The CG was superb, the acting decent and lots of sweet eye candy (the robots, of course). BTW, there's a certain girl out there who likes the new Camaro and I want to say I'm sorry if I ever doubted your tastes in cars; the Camaro is AMAZING! I'm buying one, but only if they come out as wide as the one in the movie.

Okay, so catching up on a few other things. Mom's in Peru, and there are strikers everywhere catching places in fire and trying to stop the trains and such. V's recovering nicely from her surgery and getting around quite a bit. She could even grace me with her presence next weekend, we'll see. Work's going okay. I start a huge grunt job this weekend. I've got to organize some files and parts and such. And there are a ton of them!

Time to go for a run. I've been playing a lot of golf lately, instead of running and I think I need to do a bit to get my heart racing some. (As if the movie wasn't enough.) Have a great week.

She's a gimp, but she's still smokin hott

So V's ACL surgery went well. She made it through and now has rehab and crutches for a few weeks. I drove over to see her this weekend. When I got there she was asleep on the couch with this massive knee brace on. The thing seriously weighed five pounds. She also used a walker to get around, that was a real hoot to watch although I felt bad for the girl who was making moves and burning me to the basket just a few months ago. She's strong though and has already gotten off her pain meds. But I hung out at her place all weekend and slept on the floor in the den one night to help tend to her if she needed anything. We toured her old stomping grounds and although it was small and very country, I enjoyed hearing her talk about the good times she had owning the softball field or getting beat up by special kids. hehehe. That one really cracked me up. Her mom made some AWESOME food and I thought her dad opened up a lot more to me and we talked quite a bit. I'm not planning on seeing her this weekend, but the next weekend she might roll up here.

Work last week wasn't too bad. I put in some more long days trying to clean up this storage room. It's still not done, but I'm finished messing with it. The rest is up to the other intern. He's been rather lazy and I think it's time for him to do some real work. I really like my work, but I wish I had more to do. I don't like going in and not knowing what I'm going to do all day. I try to keep myself super busy and I like it better that way.

Golfing has been fun. I went twice last week and I plan on going a lot this week. My family is coming in this weekend to play and I've got to be ready to own them on my home course. I will to, you watch. Anywho I haven't showered since Friday and I think I'll go take one now. Think it's time?

What a weekend!!!

Vanessa is back, I got paid and this is a four day week. Things don't get much better. I picked up V at the airport Friday and I didn't expect it, but my heart was fluttering. It was like Christmas or something. She looked like she had been traveling for a while, but I didn't care one little bit. She had on a huge smile and my face hurt from smiling so big. She got her bags, told people good bye and we headed to the house. After she got cleaned up and I changed into some more comfortable clothes we went to a Mexican restaurant to eat. We split the fajitas and they were oh so good. She picked Mexican, as she didn't get any for three weeks while in SA. We then went to Hastings and got "The Painted Veil", "Deja Vu", and "Apocalypto". All three turned out pretty good. She showed me all her pictures, which sadly was only half of the ones she originally took (sorry V). She's much more of a landscape and natural beauty picture taker than I am, I would've take lots of pictures of cars and structures and people, but oh well. I liked them and I actually transferred most of them to my computer.

Saturday we ran to McD's and Wendy's for lunch. We then went back and watched "the painted veil". I then poked and prodded Vanessa to start getting ready for our big night. I made reservations at James at the Mill. After she got ready, I was knocked dead on my feet. She had on this white dress and was set to kill. As we ate, she banged her fork on the plate and drew lots of attention, and then she caused me to throw my bread "stick" on the floor. We both ordered things that we didn't know what they were and they both tasted great. Then came dessert. I ordered banana break with ice cream, pecans, and caramel syrup. V got a chocolate covered ice cream chunk. It was good too, and had some coffee sauce on it. All in all, the dinner was great. It wasn't cheap, but I suppose that is what you pay for good custom cooked food. Plus seeing her look that good was well worth every penny.

That's pretty much the highlights of my weekend. Lots of sitting on the love sack and movie watching. Oh yeah and Raikkonen won this weekend! And guess who just got a nice new Ferrari shirt to wear to show my support? V got it for me and it's made of the same super soft, stretchy cotton that my FIFA shirt is made of. So nice on my skin...hehehe. But yeah, it's great being able to pick up the phone and call her whenever I want. Real nice.

Loma Linda Drift

Disclaimer: If you are a Jasper County law officer, the following is not true. It is a figment of my creative imagination. Seriously, I drive a front wheel drive car, it's not possible to drift.

Yeah so I officially roasted the big curve outside here. I did it yesterday and some old guy shook his finger at me and then I did it today, but a little less awesome. I whipped it around and the tail got out from behind me a little bit, just enough to know it was out of line. A moving truck was coming, so I had to cut it short, but man it was a rush. I don't plan on doing it often, mainly because of the possibly legal percussions and due to the rapid heartbeat I experience. I've just been in a let's race mood lately. My clutch stuck some today and kinda scared me, but I think it's okay. Let's pray it is.

Work's been picking up. We've got some serious problems with a few processes and so myself and another engineer are isolating the problem and I think we have it by the horns. I'm still doing lots of drawings and my back hurts from sitting at the desk most of the day, but it's cool. I put in 10 hours yesterday and today, so the overtime money should be good. heheh.

Heard from V Sunday and wish we could've talked longer. I figure I might hear from her two more times before she gets back, boo. I'm dealing pretty well, though. I have been keeping myself busy browsing the web and I just starting reading the Bourne Supremacy. It's a slow read, but good so far.

I had something I wanted to post on here, but I've forgotten. Maybe it'll come back to me and I can post. Oh well. Have a great rest of the week!

Wow, that was fun

This weekend's been crazy. Friday I ran into town and deposited my first check, woo! I also got my car aligned, which makes those curves near the apartment extra fun. I ran to wally world and got some groceries and made myself some fajitas. Good stuff. Saturday was when the real fun started. I went for my daily run and decided to try a new trail. This trail took me all around the golf course, a whopping 5 miles or so, and took me about an hour and a half. I didn't run the whole way, but it still was quite a run. I went shirtless and the sun ate through my shoulders. Oh well, I'm tan now.

I stayed up late and watched blood diamond. Good movie, I've got to tell you. Really makes you think about what people will do for some rocks. It's cool that the guy in the movie who plays the mummy in the mummy returns actually speaks Afrikaans. Learn something new every day.

Vanessa called this morning. It was real nice to hear her voice, saying my name, it sounded so sweet...hehehe. But even though it was 7:30 when she called, I was glad to actually hear her. We only got about 10 minutes, but we covered a lot. Got off slightly on drinking and the conversation almost turned bad, but I suppose we'll deal with that later, if there's any dealing to do. I don't know why I don't like the idea of my girlfriend drinking. I don't think she'll cheat on me or anything, but I can't really tell you why it makes me uncomfortable. But anywho, I don't know how much drinking will be going on, but we'll deal with whatever when she gets back.

I'm looking forward to popping out some more CAD drawings this week. I've really got to get those to my boss for some revisions and such. Fun stuff!

Work week almost over...

So I experienced some funny stuff today. I went to Wednesday night church at this little church nearby. The average age is probably like 65 or something. I honestly only saw 4 people less than say 50 or so. They're really neat though. I like going to the church for some old reason; the music is poor, the preaching isn't anything special and there's no one within 20 years of me, but I like it still. So back to my funny stuff. The preacher asked me last night to say the dismissal prayer Sunday morning. I had planned on going to Joplin's church of Christ, but looks like I'm going here. Second, while I was driving back there were some kids out playing in a yard. Well two kids, probably 5 and 6 or so, were walking across the roof of a parked car. I don't know why, but it was really funny.

V emailed me yesterday. They had to make a slight change of plans due to the 20k or so people on strike in Johannesburg. She was having a great time and sounded like camping was fun. I can't wait to hear her voice, but who knows when that will be.

I'm in a weird mood today. I went to work and sat in on a meeting long enough to get a free lunch. I actually did learn alot and it was really interesting. I worked some on my main project, firing up an induction soldered, and worked more on some CAD drawings I've got to convert. I then came home and watched a movie about the trail of tears and now I'm watching a documentary about fathers. I like it because it reminds me of the movies I used to watch at governor's school. Ah...those were good ol' days.

I'm going to run some more. I have gone out every night this week and it's really peaceful just running along the roads here in loma linda, checking out the nice houses and stuff. I found a cool 1.75 mi route which goes through some woods and along the interstate. It's enjoyable. That and counting some calories has resulted in some decent, but slow, results.

Week one is over

Vanessa loaded the plane for South Africa today. I didn't think it'd be too tough, but it was harder than I thought. So she's on her way now. We had a great weekend. Friday we went to Lokomotion, after cooking some awesome sweet-n-sour chicken. She cheated and beat me in putt putt, but I OWNED her in karting. I didn't realize how awesome the track at Lokomotion is. Geez you can get some serious drifting there. Saturday we ate lunch with her family, which is always a crazy time. Her sister is so attention craving and wild. It's really funny to see how her family deals with each other and especially her sister. Today, at 4:30am the apartment woke up and everyone was busy getting ready. Anywho, Vanessa's headed to Africa now. I'm a little jealous, honestly, but I can't wait to hear her stories when she gets back.

Work last week was crazy. I didn't get a computer until Friday and one of my main goals this summer is to transfer a ton of ICI drawings into CAD drawings. So I finally got my computer on Friday and started work and within an hour, th electricity went out. I lost everything I did on my drawing. Now that I have a computer, I should be able to move along pretty quickly. I've got over 230 drawings to convert to CAD, so I'll be super busy. I'm looking forward to getting paid for all these early days, I've spent quite a bit so far.

My uncle died last Monday night. His funeral is this Monday in LR and I can't go. I feel kinda bad, but there's no way I could miss work for the first full week. Rest in peace uncle Tony.

Day two down...

Well I finished day two today. It was slow, but I found some stuff to do. I'll start with my day yesterday. I got there and first thing they told me was that I wasn't supposed to be there until Wednesday. So I got a cool desk right in the middle of the office. I had no cubicle, no computer and a ton of other people's junk on my desk. I went straight into an intern meeting about the two projects. I'm in charge of working out a new process for this induction solderer. It's going to be cool and I'm finding out more and more about it everyday. I overheard this super cool engineer guy talking about it and he found out some more information about the project for me. He's super cool and just graduated from college a few months ago, he's in his 50s or so I'd guess.
So on with my first day, I then had a safety meeting with Joe at 9. He forgot about it, so we went to him. He was really fun and we got to visit the super high, 8 people allowed at a time, cars can only be parked 100ft or more away, explosives mixing area. It was sweet, although nothing more special than seeing like concrete being mixed. We then did some other things which I'm not at liberty to discuss, but basically we got rid of some scrap stuff.

Anywho today was a lot of the same. I spent much more time on the production floor today, which was really fun. Everyone was super friendly and would talk to me about anything. So I did some research about the solderer and tried to find out a little about the problems and such with it. Well Ian is cooking dinner tonight and I'm going to help, so I'll finish this later.

Dinner was pizza and a salad. Good stuff. I think I've become much less picky since I got of college age. I still don't like a lot of stuff, but I'll eat it if I need to. I really don't have much else to talk about. A very old friend of mine from elementary had his sister contact me on facebook earlier and that made my day. I look for him on there all the time. It's cool he found me, finally.

I'm finally settled into my place in Missouri. It's not as nice as I thought it was going to be, but it's okay. My roommate, Ian, is an ME and seems interested in cars, so I think things will go good. I've got a drug test tomorrow and hopefully I can start work on Tuesday.

I feel like driving at an insane speed and hitting some curves. V sent me a Mercedes she designed and I must say she's got some good tastes, albeit expensive ones. http://www.mbusa.com/models/features/specs/overview.do?modelCode=SLR&class=06_SLR
But back to me driving fast, I changed some suspension parts on the front and now my alignment is off. I fixed the toe out problem by adding a bit of toe in, but now it's toe in and straight ahead isn't straight on the steering wheel. Oh well. It drives great and there's some AWESOME curves close to the apartment. I'm looking forward to hitting those when I get it all aligned again.

A new job?

I GOT A JOB!!! I'll be working for Eaglepicher technologies in their explosive devices plant. I'll basically be working as the utility engineer, basically just doing odds and ends work. Pay is good and the housing is amazing. I live in condo on the country club. Yeah, here I come golf course. I am super excited and hope I learn some good stuff and get lots done. Plus making money is always nicer than just spending it. But yeah, I start work on Wednesday or maybe Tuesday, it depends on when I get drug tested and such.

Well I'm in Fayetteville for the weekend, just hanging out before Vanessa goes to S. Africa. I'm still jealous of her trip and her new camera, but plans are in the making for me to go to Hawaii or possibly somewhere in the Carribean for Christmas vacation. We'll have to see, though.

In other interests, I put some new parts on the front suspension of my car and the toe was way out of whack. I could barely hold the wheel straight and it was shaking like crazy. I finally fixed it and went the opposite way, so now it'll run an awesome high speed straight line but steering is off (straight is actually about 10 degrees left of straight up and down on the steering wheel). It's running great though and I look forward to getting a few parts for it over the summer.

perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Still waiting on word from Eaglepicher. I've basically decided I'm either working for them or working here at the house. I've been offered a job here as a utility man, and pay will be a set number on a check at the end of the summer. Food and housing will be provided and all that jazz. We'll see, though.

It's been fun at the house. I've lost 8 rockets and used almost all my engines up. It's been awesome though. One rocket landed right next to me and one shot off like a missile towards the house. It's so fun seeing everyone scramble. I launched two for the elementary kids and they really liked that. One kid said "hey you, thanks for launching those, that was really nice and cool." Yeah I never found those two either.

Vanessa leaves in two weeks and I'm super excited for her. I know the feeling of waiting to go to a whole new place. It's going to be a blast for her and I am super jealous. I'm probably going to Jackson Hole for the summer, so HA! There's cool stuff there like trees and moose and such. Oh yeah!

Keep praying for me and my church. They're dying. It's always the same old service every morning. It's like a bad song stuck on repeat. The youth group is the only light right now. They're really busy doing lock ins and such and I think the future of this church is in their hands. They just need to get more recognition for that. We'll see. Have a great day and be careful who you talk about, you never know if that person is related...hehehe.

geo...what?

So my dad got my mom a new GPS handset and tomorrow they're going to look for items my dad bought and we hid all over this place. We drove all over this county and the next to hide those buggers and they're going to have lots of fun finding them. I've been busy cleaning this place up. A ton of people came up Friday and so all week I cleaned the pool and the house. I've got a nice tan now and the house is clean.

I'm going in for two interviews Monday. One is with Eaglepicher in Joplin and one is with an ironworks place in West Fork. I like parts of both, but the EP one is my pick. They provide housing and it would be a really great opportunity for me to get my foot in the door and learn a lot. Speaking of jobs and such, I talked to an old family friend Friday and she really got me excited again about being a mechanical engineer. I really want to do the whole automotive thing I really, really know I can. It's going to be work and not something that I jump into, but it will happen, mark my words. She was so encouraging and I really appreciated it. Thanks Renea, although I doubt you read this. hehehe. Maybe though...

Saw V on Tuesday at a horrible track meet. It rained and rained and thundered and rained some more. Funny story with her mom though. Some random black guy came and jumped in the back seat of her car and scared the poo out of her. It was so funny seeing V laugh as she told the story. It was good to see her and Hot Springs wasn't too bad. I did drain my battery on the way there, so had to fork out the mula to get one of those today. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Heading to Faytown tomorrow. Looking forward to being back in the city with good internet and such. Oh yeah and maybe looking forward to seeing Vanessa. Just a little bit though...a small little bit...;P

This is my 100th!!!

I figure since I won't have internet at home, I should go ahead and update everyone for one last time before I head out. I ended up with a 3.35 this semester. The only two A's I got were MED and Communications. I should've gotten A's in Astro, LARC and Lab II, but for some reason or another, I didn't. Figures. This semester has been really exciting. It started with Jason, Joe and myself getting attacked by blizzards on the way to Jordan's, splitting paths with Megan and applying for summer internships. It has ended with me being hooked up with Vanessa, Jordan and Kara finally making themselves into a couple and still looking for a job for the summer. Somewhere in the mix, we had an awesome trip to Gulf Shores, some amazing .40 shooting by Steven and Joe and a victory for OMG softball. So it's been fun.

Some things to look forward to next year: living in a real house, getting a dog?, maybe actually having money to spend assuming I get a job this summer, some super duper fun classes (scuba is going to rock!), and hopefully some relationships continuing to grow. I am excited for the break, but also excited to see what fall 07 has in store. I know I will be a senior and that will be sad, but lots of planning for the future will be taking place and I hope I can find ways to keep my friends involved with that. I hope to grow closer to God and bring all that I know closer to Him too. I especially hope for God's hand more in my relationship with Vanessa, as only God can ensure a lasting relationship.

I hope you had a safe trip home and I hope to see you soon.

Two down...

well I just finished another test I needed to ace. It was for LARC, which surprisingly turned out to be a pretty tough class. I think I did well, but I never know. He adds half a letter grade at the end as an incentive for attending all the classes. Now for heat and comm and I will be done...for the day.

I studied all day yesterday and Saturday. I had a final at 730 Saturday and a wedding at 1, but those are the only things I did besides study. I have NEVER studied as much as I am. I feel a little nervous about heat, mainly because I need an 83 to get a B, but not too bad. Comm will be a drop in the hat. Speaking of such things, it amazes me the amount of people who don't have finals or that have easy finals. I hear about people just chilling all week or people who done already for the semester. I wonder what their majors are and sometimes wonder if I should've picked an easier major. Honestly, though, I can't imagine being the one everyone picks on for having an easy major and I can't see myself enjoying anything other than mechanical engineering. It's just a bit frustrating sometimes, which is probably why I stay.

Funny story: Saturday night I was at V's apartment. Well Kristin ate dinner with Ryan and so she came over afterwards. We were all talking and stuff and then Steven showed up with some pizza (I'll pay you eventually, how much do I owe?). So we all talked and ate. Well about an hour later they were both still there. So I went to the bathroom and then stayed in V's room to study some more. Well eventually I worked my way back out to the living room and Vanessa left to study. It was just funny because we were both taking turns entertaining the guests, and neither of us wanted them to leave or make them feel bad. BTW, if Steven or Ryan is reading this, I'm glad you came over. I've never seen a funnier episode of the Soup.

No news from any companies about this summer. I'm a bit bummed out; my resume is impressive and I applied to a million places. I can't understand why I don't have a job. I did get news from this guy, who lives near my house and is working for an oil company making a large sum of money, who is planning on starting his own business doing what he is currently doing for the oil company. Supposedly it is just reading graphs and taking samples of stuff. Might be a prospect for some good experience and money. We'll see. God will provide, right?

Went to UBC Sunday. It was nice, although I felt like I was going to a concert. I don't mind the instrumental music, but I do mind having it drown out the singing and it being front stage. I don't understand why the players, and choir for that matter, have to be in front. I wish it were a pit, like the one at plays and such, that kept them out of view. Otherwise I feel distracted by what they're doing. Another thing I didn't like was the solo singing by the choir. Why can't we all sing together all the time? Okay enough badgering, I really enjoyed the preacher. He took a bit to get into the lesson, but once I figured out where he was going he made some really good points. The church is beautiful and the people were nice. I actually felt moved a few times during singing. It was good and I plan on returning, as long as the instrumental thing doesn't bother me too much.

Time to study for three more finals! I am soooo excited about them. I can't wait to score an 83 on my heat final, and get a B. Then my comm final, score a really high score and get an A. Finally my MED final. If I get a high 90 I can possible pull off an A. Otherwise, put it down in the beautiful B column.

Going down, down in an earlier round

I went and blasted a target today with Joe's new handgun. It was quite relaxing, but I wish I could've blasted all 50 out at once instead of just 10 at a time. I wasn't too bad a shot, but Steven hit a dead bull's eye and impressed all of us. I then came back for a bit and then went to the ME pic-nic. That was fun too and the hog we ate was great. Right after work I am going to see Spiderman 3. It's at midnight and I am super pumped. The whole crew is going and it's going to be uber awesome.

Well I finally took down my postsecret board. I got a few good ones this year, but since I'm not in my room I can't remember what they said. I will try to post them later. I have so many myself, and I think I could post them forever. I might make some up and also throw in some real ones and post them all on here. We'll see I suppose.

I'm not ready for finals. I don't know how to properly study and trying to do so is killing me. I've got so much on my mind about a job this summer to where I'll be living to my grades to grad school to my CP project to money issues. It's wild. I have a C in heat and a B in MED. The B can't change unless I get a 100 or super close, and the C's going to take a middle B to bring up. It's going to be a close semester. I'm taking all my tests and that's something new for me. Wish me luck.

It's the calm before the storm

So I got a 91 on my MED test! I pretty much have a B sealed, but an A is still slightly possible. I think I need a 100 on the final, though. My heat test Monday went really bad and I heard the class average was a 52; can't wait to get that back! If I have enough for a B, I'm taking it and running.

Today's been somewhat nice. I played PS2 all day; I played everything from guitar hero to need for speed. It was nice. Steven and I fixed some AWESOME cordon bleu for Kristin and Vanessa. That and some bacon wrapped green beans and some rolls and some...that's it. Oh yeah and some crazy good sauce for the chicken. SO GOOD! I honestly think I am going to open my own food joint. Speaking of joint, I finally picked some paint for my room at the house. It's a burnt red-orange. It's called burnt sienna. Should look good with my blue and red comforter or my Texas one. I can't wait to get in that place!

I can't believe I'm almost a senior. Even more unbelievable is the fact I don't have an internship yet. I applied to Union Pacific yesterday and got a reply that they're not looking anymore. I'm still waiting on Marvin in Tennessee and a few others, but I'm starting to lose hope. No one said getting an internship was hard and I can't understand why my resume isn't selling me very well. Oh well, I suppose I will wait and see what's going to happen. I guess working in McKinney wouldn't be bad, just wouldn't make much money. That's not what it is all about anywho.

Super quick

Interview went well, the day not so much. I woke up late and showed up 10 minutes late. The factory was cool, but it is windows and doors. They're super nice though and the engineers there are cool too. Ate lunch with the crew at some little ma and pa joint, not too bad. The town of Ripley is pretty nice too. Towards the interview, found out they're not paying for my trip. It cost me about 100 in gas alone. Heading back, I blew out a tire and drove for about 30 miles on an almost flat donut to find a walmart that only had one tire that would fit; cost: $135. Total cost for trip: 245 or so. I better be getting an offer. Pay is pretty decent. Well I ended up leaving the plant around 1:45 and got back to faytown around midnight. It was a long day.

Had a MED test Friday afternoon. I am pretty sure I rocked it, but who knows? Drove another 3 hours to get home. Starting Wednesday, I have driven 25 hours of 100 hours total. Fun fun fun! Good thing I love driving my car, bad thing gas is 2.89. Okay I have another test tomorrow and a major project due and all that jazz. I am going to bed.

Oh yeah and Patsie was super happy to see me, although a bit cockier. I guess I just have something for girls who are sassy. That's right, I'm talking about you; you brownie bashing meanie! And yes I did run my finger around the bowl to get all the leftover batter! so HA! I'll type more later, maybe after my test.

One last thing. I had about 15 launches of model rocket and ballistic missiles on Saturday. Special thanks to my mission control specialist, Steven Reynolds and my search and rescue leader, Paul "I'll stop the missile with my body" Shelton. We started with 4 usable rockets and ended with none, with one built in there and four lost. How's that for statistics? We'll find big mama, just give us time.

it's gotta be a quickie

Well I've got this new awesome F1 book I am positively stuck on right now, so I'm going to keep this short. I'm in a F1 stage right now. I've recorded and watched two Grand Prix so far and can't wait until the next one. This book is about building the perfect race car and it has gotten me dreaming about building one of my own.
Internships are still up in the air. I have a guy working on one for me in Oxford at the MiniCooper plant. It would be amazing, but I'm not sure how likely it is to come through. I've got an interview with Marvin windows and doors in Ripley, Tennessee on Thursday. I'm going to spend the night at V's and meet her dad, pray for me, and then leave early to head to my interview. Should be lots of fun; I'll drive 12 hours round trip for less than a three hour interview. It is a job and it looks sorta, kinda interesting.
MED final test and heat final test are coming up. I need to knock both out of the water, but especially the heat one. If I do really well, I can skip the final and, maybe, pull out an A or maybe just a B. It's going to one of those decisions I will have to make eventually. MED's final is required, so I need this test to help me fix that early 47 I got. A 98 on the last test should help me though.
Things have been quiet lately. Everyone's buckling down for finals and projects and such. I miss smart conversations, about intelligent topics in a mature fashion. (that just popped into my head.)
Today was a good day; lab was canceled and I spent all day doing homework and listening to the storm and chilling at V's apartment. Good day all around. I even managed some laundry! I know, I know, I shouldn't wait for 3 weeks to do it. :) Oh well. Lucky I do it at all.

Oh yeah one final remark. I don't want to be bragging or anything, but I was the RBI for the only two points in our game Sunday. I batted almost 1.000 this season. I think I ended up around .900. Not bad, considering I suck at batting. Good season, next will be better. Time for sleep and reading. Tomorrow I head to Ripley, Tennessee or Cord, Arkansas, whichever appeals to me more.

Now for the random ponderings...

WARNING! I'm not in a good mood right now, so the following might be hateful, stupid, ugly or just plain rude, but I'm typing it. You don't have to read any further, but if you choose to do so, do it at your own risk. I am not responsible for nonsense, gibberish or otherwise retarded logic.

PArking and transit is just a business. Honestly, do they care?! I was driving around on campus tonight and every single Gregson, Yocum, and Humphrey's spot was taken. As a matter of fact, every handicapped, metered and unmarked place was taken as well. Where are the nazis tonight? Oh, that's right, they're watching to make sure no crazy drunk Greeks go drive around. I suppose to keep one law from being broken, we'll place most all others on standby. But drinking and driving is so dangerous and what's a parking place? Along those lines, I'll go rob a bank. It's not going to hurt anyone, but those Greeks driving drunk will. Kudos to you fair, just and nice parking and transit officials.

Next in line, the Razorbacks for Christ. I don't know where to go here. We spend time and money on going as far away as possible, yet we let countless people slip out from our reaches. I haven't been to devo in two, three, four weeks and yet not one person has asked where I've been. Does anyone know what's up with Jolie? What about Aspen? Anyone talk to Brandon about why he quit coming to devo? How about Jonathan Edwards? I hope so. I keep trying to get in touch with Jolie, but no luck. Aspen is good. I hear, from Kara, Jonathan is done with that stage of his life. Hm...okay. I'm done with you guys for right now. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just you, regardless I am done. Oh and for the record, no one is perfect. NO ONE!

GOOD PART STARTS HERE ---> We finally got the deed done on the rental house. It's going to be super sweet next year. I am ready to move in now. Get this whole parking, heat/ac, meal plan stuff done and over. It's going to be nice. I'm looking forward to all new problems, house fights, cool formal parties and having a room with a tv where I can watch all the car/football/whatever I want. It's going to be nice living with Steve and Jordan. I think things are going to go good, although we might have some disagreements from time to time and I am ready for that.

The past two days have been utterly amazing! I went to Jose's yesterday and had some great Mexican with a super lovely, charming, intelligent girl. Today I worked at the battered women's shelter sorting clothes and wore this nice lingerie piece almost all day and then my joys were shattered by some girls informing me it was a button crotch. Hehehe, it still brought out my eyes really well. Steven had on this crazy little skirt. It was blue and see through and looked so out of place on such a huge guy. Jordan got a "redheads are more fun" tight shirt and Kara went all Tex-mex on us. Good times, good times. I then went with my family to eat at Colton's. Awesome ribs, amazing rolls and some good peanuts. Great day! Tomorrow we're cleaning campus up at 2:30, which kinda stinks cause I want to chill with my parents more, but oh well. Obligations are obligations. It'll be fun, I hope.

I'll tell you, but I won't elaborate...

I am loving this stuff. I mean I have been working like crazy on this new spring design for an air compressor and it's really hard, but I actually kind of enjoy it. I guess this is my thing, too bad the tests are more like this. I have a ton of projects right now, so I probably shouldn't be typing this up, but I am. I've got stuff in Comm, MED, and astro. Luckily, my desire to have nothing over my shoulders has caused me to be almost completed with the astro and working like a maniac on this MED. Now for homework due in those classes.

The past couple of days have flown by. I don't know if it's because I am so busy or what, but man oh man. Today's my super hard work day, so I am living up to that by living in the basement for a few hours. I think my current relationship with Vanessa is changing. It's doing some weird stuff. We've decided to take a step back from the physical aspect of it and focus more on what's inside and God. I think it is a good step and look forward to seeing how it goes. So far, so good. The only hard part is the fact she's so smokin' hott. Ah temptation...gotta love it.

The house stuff still hasn't come through. I am waiting on an email from the owner about possibly reducing the rent a little each month. It isn't too bad like it is, but I could stand to spend a little less. Either way, we're taking it. Steven, Jordan and myself, what a great crew. Plus Taco Bell is right there, not a five minute walk away. Oh yes, oh yes.

I'm on edge, FYI. Keep it up and things are going to get messy.

We won

I've forgotten how to celebrate. We won today in softball and everyone was super happy and all, but I was just like "about time". We all played really well and it was a close game and super suspenseful, but I just wasn't happy about the win. I guess I've told myself so many times that it's not all about winning, that I really believe it now. Yeah we won, but more importantly, we all had fun. It is softball anyways.

I've got a dilemma and I'm stressing over it. I don't have any job for this summer yet, but I did get a phone interview with a company in west Tennessee today. They makes expensive doors and windows, boring, but it is a job. The only real problem is that they want me to come in for an interview. It's a six hour drive and they want me there at 10am on a Thursday. Not normally a problem, since I have one class, but the Thursday they want me is an exam day. So I could get it moved up a day, but Wednesdays are super packed already. That leaves me with a problem of scheduling. There's really not much time for moving it to the next week and I hate to ask the guy for another day for him to check on. Plus, six hours of driving there and six back. Man that's some crazy road time. fun fun fun. It is a summer engineering job, but geez.

I'm excited about the possibility of moving into a house next year. We found a nice one about 2 blocks from lot 56, so I really think we're going to grab it. I like it and so do Jordan and Steven, or so they say. Could be some uber fun times.

Pray for me. I'm struggling with a lot of negativity and doubt and fear right now. I have many things up in the air for me right now and I really need to get some resolutions on them. I am drinking less Dr.P though.

LARC 1003...WOOOHOOOO

So I've got a LARC 1003 test tomorrow. Should be some fun stuff. I studied some, and I feel like I'm ready for it. I always have this problem of studying too much for easy tests and not enough for hard test. Maybe I just don't study correctly.

Practice sucked today. Why is it that the players that don't need practice as much, show up and the ones that need it don't show up? I can't understand it. Make time! It's not as hard as you can imagine, you just have to be smart about it. But whatever. I did pretty good, but I rolled my ankle again and that hurt like a mo-fo. It'll heal, eventually. I just need to quit signing up for stuff until it's all better.

So it snowed today! It was over 80 a few days ago and it snowed tonight. It's been crazy cold and I am utterly confused about the weather from day to day.

I believe that's it for me. I did a bit of grad school researching today and it looks like I better get my GPA in gear or I could seriously be suffering. Well that's something to worry about later, I suppose.

...

Maybe I'm the curse. I can not pick winning intramural teams. I've yet to win a game on a team. Ugh...but I'd still rather lose every single game than stack my team or exclude people who want to play. That's just too mean to me. I'd love to win every game, but not if I knew I didn't let certain people play who wanted to. Hm...

Oh yeah, we lost tonight, in case you didn't get that. I played pretty poorly, let a couple by and let a couple slip out. I just couldn't focus or something. I did well batting and had a couple of nice fielding moments.

This week's looking good. I had one test in comm yesterday and a test in LARC friday, but no worries. I can ace em both. I'm sure I aced the comm test. Oh yeah and I aced my MED test and did decent on my heat test. I'm super proud!

My parents want me to come home this weekend. I want them to come here. I think they might. The reason I don't go home, is well, I finally have a break this weekend and I want to be lazy. I suppose if I think along those lines, I'll soon be just like the entire human race eh? Well I really hope they come here and get a hotel and all that jazz. I love hotels!

Time for sleep.

See ugly people can be successful

Congrats to the Gators. Way to represent the SEC.

This week's going to be nice. I have tests in my two easy classes and finished testing in all my hard classes last week. The only thing is that I'll be getting those tests back. I did decent on my HT test, but I have no clue about the MED test. I need that one, hardcore. HT can be salvaged as a B, but MED, I don't know...

Still no news on an internship. I'm a little worried, but I know some companies will be missing out hardcore if they don't hire me on. I'm not the smartest in the world, but I work like nobody's business.

Okay well I've got to take care of some non-class stuff.

I'm a stud...muffin

So softball tonight was fun. I tweaked both ankles, but I'm cool with a body that is falling apart. Eventually I will sit around and do nothing for a few days and heal 100%. I played okay. I let a fly ball get out of reach, even though it was a foul and then one line drive flew by me, which kinda sucked, but oh well. I did bat a perfect 1.000 but I still should've done a bit better. I suppose there is next game. I get so nervous before athletic events and then get in the zone when play starts. It's funny but I always go through that same cycle. I got so nervous before football games, I thought I was going to die, but as soon as I strapped up and stepped on the field it was game time.

I think I'm ready for the heat test. I've been studying since Saturday, so I think I've got it down pretty well. I kept up fairly well with the homework and the stuff isn't too bad. Pray I can keep my composure and concentrate on the task at hand. MED, on the other hand, is going to be a tough one. I really need a good score on that test. I did the homework a little differently this round, and I think I got the processes and concepts down now. Tomorrow will be dedicated to machine element design...all day. It's going to be good stuff, can't wait. Then relax for a short time and hit astro project, comm project and study for that super hard comm test. YES! I love having my week planned out so well. I have a feeling I'll be smudging the time to make sure I get a little more to spend with some other homework. hehehe, that one is for the Gregson readers.

Yeah, it's hot. Yeah I'm sweating. Yeah, I'm a bit aggravated, but I've finished two books in the past week and I'm stinking happy about that.

Oh yeah and I don't have a job for the summer yet, so pray for that to work itself out. Maybe I might end up going on another mission trip. Can the money be raised in time? Can I find a place to call my own? I bet with a certain thing called God on my side, everything is possible.

Smile at a stranger, wave at a friend and tell someone good morning. Have a wonderful day!

Back again

Well it's back to the books for me now. I studied most of yesterday evening for heat and soon I'll plunge into the real challenging stuff for MED. I had a bit of humor hit me as I submitted a request to do a research project for astro and totally misspelled the project name. Dr. Roe simply replied "that'll work, just be sure to spell it right." hehehe.
So I'm going to vent for a second, because I know if you don't want to hear it you can read on. It's over 80 degrees in my room right now. I'm not sure I ever really went to sleep last night. Oh wait, yeah I did because I dreamed about dragons, Germany?, and some other random things. But anyways, I slept like poop. I hope it's cooler tonight. Man oh man. It was nice to be in a bed again though. fun times!
Pray for me this week. I've got two really important tests coming up. Heat's not that important, but with only three tests I need to do well. MED, on the other hand, is going to have to help me get out of a rut I've dug for myself. I've got a softball game tomorrow night and have to watch a movie with my small group tonight. It's going to be a busy week. I suppose the best way to get used to the water is to just jump in, so I'm doing that hardcore.
On a lighter note, Orange beach was awesome! It was a bit windy and kinda cooler, but we had so much fun. I slept like I've never slept before, every night. Our condo was super nice and we ate really well. We had sweet n sour chicken, hamburgers, pizza, mac n cheese, and then all sorts of seafood at this little hole in the wall restaurant. I tried oysters on the half shell. Not too bad actually, but nothing I'd eat over and over. A bit like eating thick snot, or so I guess.
It's off to class for me. One review class, one new material class and one waste of time class. Looks like a great day brewing. Hope yours goes well.

It's so windy and I love it!!!

Spring Break! Woo it is great. I'm having a wonderful week, although my skim boarding skills are lame and it's rather chilly in the water. Today was cool, Vanessa and I were the only ones not severely burned and so that was kinda nice. We didn't spend as much time on the beach, after I nearly tore off my big toe, I quit skimming for the day. I'm not near being done though.
After we left the beach, we went to eat at some steak joint. It sucked...mine did at least. We then went to the movies and saw "300". Not too shabby a movie. Although it wasn't exactly accurate, I liked it quite a bit. First movie I've seen that I might actually buy. Maybe not though.
A friend of mine is getting married sometime soon. We were friends and then she went to one school and I went to another and I wonder so often how different would things be if I would've gone to school with her. She was really great and I'm not sure if anyone can come close to her, but I guess that's why I date people, so find new great girls. Every one of them is a little different in their attributes as a great girl, I just kinda wonder how things would be different if I would've gone to school with her. No friends like I have now, but a whole new set instead. Maybe more opportunities since the other school was bigger. I don't know, I think about her a lot since I'm out skim boarding and such and it's spring break. Last time I was on the beach for spring break, I'm pretty sure I was with her.
Tomorrow's looking promising. Almost everyone is going to Mobile, so it'll be much calmer and quieter and I can get some reading done. Yeah right, but I'll tell myself that. Anywho I'm tired and need to get to that reading. Tomorrow's Wednesday. Two more nights here...ugh.

when it gets warm outside...

It's so warm in my room right now, I want to scream. I hate the dormitory.
So I watched Reno 911 and Borat within three days of each other and I feel a little smarter for doing so. I am glad there are people out there to make us average joes look so smart. Both were really funny, but the crudity was a bit much at times. I have to admit I was crying due to the hard laughter I experienced during Borat. I can see many lines being quoted from the crew over the next couple of days.
Speaking of couple of days, it's almost spring break! I'm pumped about everything. I've basically given up on organizing anymore, I'll let everyone else do that. As long as I don't end up paying for stuff I shouldn't pay for, I don't care. If people want to drink, let em. If they bother me or annoy me while drinking, I'll kill em. What do I care? hehehe, not really but maybe I'll bury them with bread crumbs sprinkled around their head so sea gulls attack their face. That'd be super funny.
I'm such a baby sometimes. I love time with my girl and when I don't get as much as I like, I get sorta pouty. She's got a ton of tests and stuff, and although I think she studies too much and gets too stressed out about them, I do need to give her room to study as she pleases. I just really want to hang out. Poopy.
This week is already moving quickly. I can't wait to get home and see my long, lost family and work on my car and then go see my grandpa. Fun times to be had indeed. I might get my hair cut and I will probably run around in my undies some. WOOOHOOO!
I think that's it for today. I have quite a bit of things to do before the break, hopefully I can get them all done and even more. Did I mention spring break is only 4 full days away. The beach is 5.5 days away! I'm pumped.

My friends

I think I will write ppl my thoughts about them. I'm not going to list everyone, just those that pop up in my head.

Kara: You're awesome for your unorthodox ways. You love thrift store clothes and aren't ashamed to show that. Always laughing, but you've got so much more to you than just kicks and giggles. I like it. Keep it up. Don't be afraid to take a chance. But I understand

Jordan: Awesome room mate. You're always bringing me stuff I forget and never asking anything of me. You're a tight-wad, but that's okay it keeps me in check. Don't ask for attention and you'll get it.

Jason: I don't know what to say about you and since you never read this, I won't.

Joe: I doubt you read this either, but keep being a nerd. You're about the coolest nerd I know and it's really funny to hear you ramble about the crazy stuff you do. Lose the mom jokes, seriously.

Steven: You're crazy. Mainly I say crazy to mean dorky. I like it, it reminds me of me alot of times and the things I'd never say because I want to keep my cool points. It's you, though, and you're not afraid of losing those points, which makes you cooler. Keep on, keeping on friend.

Libby: Learn to spell. Man it drives me nuts. You've got a long ways to get really ready for college, but I can't wait to hang out with you some more and your whiny voice. Thanks for going with me to the bunny slopes, that meant a lot.

Vanessa: You never read this either, but thanks for waiting. Thank you a million times over. That about says it all.

Megan: I read your blog sometimes, but I doubt if you ever read this. Hope traveling the world makes you happy. I hope you find what you're looking for.

I think that about sums up all the ppl who might wander onto this site. If your name isn't on here, well then maybe you should post comments more often. Or don't. be that way.

I miss Austin

I miss the flat land where you can see a storm coming from miles away and smell it much sooner. I miss my old house in Chico with the burrs in the yard and the "grasshopper" oil wells. I miss walking to the store in Tomsk and looking for hott cars in Frankfurt with Chris. I miss the clubs in Chihuahua City and I miss riding in the irrigation canals in Delicious with Alfredo. I miss waking up and sitting out by the pool ALL day, by myself. I miss going crabbing with Krystal and Brittany and playing air hockey with Krystal and Danielle. I miss chasing girls with my little brother and I miss hurting Saturday mornings. Man I miss that one a lot. I'm in a reflective mood. I've had a good life. If I were to die today, I would leave behind a ton of awesome people and I would die with an amazing mind full of amazing places and random strangers. I hope as long as I live, I don't forget the things I've done up until now. Especially football, I miss it and my other fellow "pie eaters" so much.

I love people. I sat in the Union today and just watched people (and studied). There are just so many different kinds out there. You've got those who you can tell are watching out for one person and those who don't even care what happens to themselves. People who care what others think and those who don't, but are careful not too offend and then those who don't care one bit who likes them. My favorite person to watch is this girl in the cafeteria. She puts on this show like she doesn't care what ppl think; her hair is stupid and messy and she never dresses up, but she does it because she's cute and she knows ppl do care. Annoys me: girls who think they're hott stuff. Stay away from those! They're bad news.

I'd like McD's baked pies more if they had icing. Otherwise, they're kinda bland. Thanks for the food, btw. It's the fastest way to my heart. ;)

I've got an astro test tomorrow and right now engineering classes are killing me. Go figure right?

It's a beautiful day!

Man it is so nice today. It's warm, which means my room is sweltering, but I love it. Although I have a big test this Friday, among tons of other things to do, I think I am going to throw some football around. It's just too nice to be inside all day.

I've been swimming like crazy here lately. I bought a three pack of goggles yesterday for Steven, Jordan and myself and we ended up switching twice to find the right pair for each of us. I started with some super cool clear ones and ended up with some pretty cool blue ones. Swimming is really doing its part for toning and I can see the difference and feel the difference after I swim. I can't wait for spring break! It's less than 2 weeks away and I can already see myself laying out and skimming all day long.

That's really all I've got today. It's such a beautiful day, I hate to spend it inside typing away. I read your blog, are you reading mine?

my secrets...there are so many

and I really miss working with you and telling you all my worries and asking your advice. Thanks for calling me all the time for random things (I know you just want to hear my voice, I just want to hear yours).

I am whatever you say I am...NOT!

I hate style. I absolutely hate it. I am prey to it's always taunting appeal, but I hate it. Some people think they know all about it and I think they don't. I just so happen to think popped collars are dumb, along with guys wearing bright pink shirts. So what if I still wear t-shirts I got in high school, so what if I wear a jacket with fur on it? Abercrombie and Fitch want you to think it's instant coolness if you wear their stuff, but I hate to tell you A&F, in 10 years your stuff will be like duckhead and the people who wear it will be made fun of. I assure you.
I also hate people who cut others down. I won't say hate, how about greatly dislike. I do it sometimes too, but doing it all the time and being known for doing it is sad. I'm sorry you feel like you've got to pump yourself up by cutting others down. It is really hard for me to show you your true worth when you're cutting others down. Oh and while I'm on this. I don't care if Steven Reynolds wears sweats, thick glasses, walks like a gorilla and smells like crap, he is one of the nicest guys I will ever meet. If you think he's contrary to any of that, well then you need to recognize people for the real person inside. Keep laughing about what you like and keep rolling your eyes when he says something off beat, but don't think that it makes you any better than him. For that matter, Blake's the same way. So what if he makes comments that stop a joke or he makes comments that don't make sense. If your transmission ever goes out, he'll gladly come and see what's wrong and help you in ANY way he can. I know he will and I will happily take two friends like that over fifteen who dress cool or act cool or whatever.
Now that that is done, I feel much better. It's been a somewhat eventful weekend. I had this awesome scavenger hunt today. V made it for me and it was pretty cool, that is until Steven and I took it to the extreme and then it became amazingly cool. We had so much fun being totally stupid in every picture we took. Heheh. Thanks for coming along, you made it much more fun. Then we found this other killer clue she left and man it took us all night to figure it out. I finally figured it out once I realized that some numerical operations were ambiguous and didn't matter. Man you calculus level girls. hehe. Just kidding, it was fun for all it was worth and I can't wait to claim my prize.
Man watching the Bourne Supremacy tonight really made me miss foreign language. I wish I could find a way to fit some more of them into my schedule. I really do like Russian and Spanish isn't too bad. If I could just get Russian and German down, I could understand almost all the movie without subtitles. Woo, that'd be super cool. Anywho, I need to brush my teeth, work out and read.

we're all doomed

The human race might as well just start shooting people. I swear there are so many lazy, crude, rude, mean people out there it makes me sick. I put up my post secret wall again and today I got two cards which absolutely infuriated me. One was about little kids and had lots of crude language and the other was about having relations with animals. Neither came from the heart, they both came from "hey this would be so funny to put up". I swear...This weekend Gregson became some residents' dump. The bathrooms were disgusting, the trash chutes backed up because ppl just piled crap in them and downstairs, 20 feet from a dumpster, there was a pile of trash. Honestly, do people not have manners or sense or what? It makes me so mad that someone doesn't beat their faces in and let them know that this sort of stuff isn't acceptable.

Man today went so well. I did tons of stuff and had some wonderful company all day. Although she spent most of her time with the organic book, we did get a little time to talk and that's always worth the wait. I finished all but one assignment I had planned on doing and got lots of reading done. Man oh man! Tomorrow I am going to swim and burn some uber calories and eat the rest of my sushi and spend, hopefully, more time with V.

Watched the illusionist tonight with the crew. I managed to get some money alloted for a weekly movie night, complete with pizza and drinks and snacks. It's super fun and, like the Bible study tomorrow night, a good way to sit back and relax for a bit. Hm...well that's all on my mind right now. Jordan's got me jealous with his situps and pushups, so I'm going to climb down onto the floor and do a few myself. Spring break is in...3 weeks!

Yeah I'm moving in with you...

So this weekend has flown by. I got really sick Thursday night/Friday morning and lost everything I had eaten for the past 2 days. Man it was so bad. I went to my 930 class and that was a huge mistake. I ended up sleeping for the rest of the day, and I felt a little better. I went to the baseball game, which was fun, but I miss the old days of Steve and Aspen. Pirates just aren't the same with out those crazy guys. I had to leave early, I started feeling bad again and came back to sleep some more. At 9, I went and balled for about 5 minutes and felt sick and my ankle hurt some more. Poop!

Dad came in today. I love my dad. He's so cool in a like a college kid way. He could totally pull it off again. We watched the Tennessee/Arkansas High game. Those crazy hogs players, they couldn't have beaten a good high school team tonight. I felt bad for buying those tickets for $20 apiece. Oh well, I got to see dad.

We talked some tonight about guys sleeping with girls. Just sleeping, nothing else. Is it wrong if everyone who knows they do it, knows they're just sleeping/talking? I talked about this couple who are both serious Christians and how they were so anal about making sure everyone knew that the house they bought they weren't living in together until they got married. That seems economically dumb, I mean it's really between God and them right? I don't personally see the problem with a couple sleeping together, from time to time when they haven't got to see much of each other lately, as long as everyone knows they are just sleeping. But then I guess there's no way to possibly know that 100%.

Well my weekend's almost shot now. I need to get to bed. I'm actually in the room before 2 am for a change. I am going to work on Sarah's car tomorrow. Should be some fun to get down and dirty in the car engine bay. Wooo. I hope I'm remembered some day for being the guy that would drop everything and come help my friends. If not, I'm trying to be that guy.

Healing, but still needing some TLC

Man oh man, I miss clubbin'. Granted I've only been like 3 times ever, but I've been to enough club-like places to know what I'm missing. I think when my ankle heals up I might try el Dickson street and see what's happening. Speaking of ankle, it hurts more when I ice it than when I heat it. The doctor said the opposite would happen, but he was way wrong. It is healing, slowly, but nonetheless getting much better.

I'm done! I am caught up with everything in my classes that I can do. I am not caught up totally, because I pay people to teach me things and they don't, and I can't figure out the problems. I feel so good to be wrapped up for the week. It's been the busiest week I've ever experienced; I had something every night. From going to see Kara's dad in Rogers to Bible study to lame meetings of five people, I've done so much.

I can not get toned up and it's really frustrating me. I feel like a chunk when I take my shirt off and sit down, but whenever I stand up and stretch I look pretty good. I dunno how those guys do it, I've even been dropping my cal intake like wildfire. I guess I could do more, though. I think perhaps the two weeks before SB I might not eat much of anything. Maybe just breakfast and lunch and snack on apples. Yum.

This apartment search is some killer fun. I rode the buses and talked to some really nice people. AHHH I just slammed my knee into the desk drawer...ugh...pain... We found some place with three bedroom, three bath and super big and cheap. We'll be checking that out soon, and hopefully the houses that Jordan's bro lives in. Three bedroom, two bath and a two car GARAGE!!!! Woo, my baby might get a roof over her head finally!

Well I'm going to go browse some car sites and see if I can get a good heart rate going for a bit. I have LH-M interviews next week. Should be some fun times. Hope I can get loaded this summer and work on my baby some.

I can't believe it's not butter..

I give up. I freaking give up! I took two tests last week that I knew I aced. They were tough, but I did really well. My answers made sense and worked out so good. Then I get them back. A 47 and a 69! The 69 is fixable, plus I should be able to get some points back, but 47 man! I can NOT believe it! The best I can get in there is a 91 now. THE BEST! I know I'll pull this out, but I can't believe it's happening again. I was ready for those. If you heard this from me last year, then you know it always seems to happen to me when I do "good" on a test. Ugh! I'm not worried, I'm not worried...

Bible study is such a blessing to me. It's basically just my friends and me discussing the wondrous words of the Almighty. It's nice to see people coming out and making comments and I wish everyone would be a little more outspoken. Sorry if I cut you off or make you feel like your comments are wrong, please keep them coming. I get on my soap boxes sometimes. :)

Lab II is not too bad. Dr. West is a really cool guy and we have a lot of fun in there just getting down and dirty and dangerous.

My ankle's not broken and I'm glad I went to the doctor today. He was a cool guy I've met before and we talked for a while about spring break and athletics and getting older. He cracked me up because I could barely talk because he wanted to so much. He was a bit of a hippy, I think and he kept telling me how no medicines would really heal me faster. But yeah, it could be up to six weeks before I'm anywhere near where I need to be. Fun stuff, I might try ball this week, we'll see. Otherwise I'll go to the pool and swim around in my speedo. YEAH!!!

C'mon spring break! I can not wait to skim board. I am going to tear it up and I'm ready to try some new moves I saw on TV. I have no skimmed in forever and I've got some catching up to do. Plus all the peeps going are going to be tons of fun. I can't wait to see Ryan's denim bikini and Steven with his shaved chest and Jordan running along in slow motion in his spee...uh...g'night.