Accessibility Notice

This blog is not listed with Blogger or any of the search engines, however, there has recently been some visitors from the Internet that (as far as we know) are not family or friends. Therefore, we'd like to start keeping the blog a little more private and, starting January 13, our blog can only be accessed by those invited by us. We will be sending out an invitation email to those that we think read the blog. Unfortunately, those that want to keep up with us will need to sign in with a Blogger or Google account (Gmail email IDs included). We're sorry for the inconvenience this will cause some of you.

If you are reading this and HAVEN'T received an email invite by December 27, email one of us (if you don't have one of our emails call us). We don't have everyone's email address and have surely missed someone.

Note: you don't have to sign up for Gmail when you sign up for a Blogger account.

Visitation

The results are in and it turns out Patrick did better than expected- all A's! His first 4.0 ever! He's now officially 1/4 of the way through school and very psyched about his grades.

The two nephews are very cute (possibly too cute for their own good) and Patrick has enjoyed playing with them and having Mark and Daisy around. The whole family (minus Sally and Atalie) decorated the Christmas tree Wednesday evening. Following the tree decorating, Patrick drove up to Brad's house in GR and had a fun time visiting with him and some friends. Brad got a Xbox 360 a while back and the two of them stayed up way too late playing it. But it was fun! We went ice skating yesterday evening with Mike, Jim, and Jill which was great fun and then picked Sally up late and drove to Okemos.

Home for Christmas

We made the long trip from Missouri yesterday, foolishly braving freezing rain, sleet, and eventually snow. To be sure, the roads were less than inviting; but we did it anyway and were safe. We spent the night in K-zoo again this time due to a snow storm. Patrick gingerly made his way to Okemos this morning to see the family that has already began to arrive for the Holidays and Atalie went up to GR with her Mom this afternoon.

Finals went more or less well and he's glad to be done with his first of (hopefully) four semesters at graduate school. He is excited to find out his grades on Tuesday as he thinks he did rather well (refrigerator material!). Atalie sent out a bunch of resumes and is anxiously awaiting responses.

It is nice to be back with family again but we can't help being a little apprehensive about leaving our apartment alone for three weeks. More time to blog now so expect updates more regularly. We're with most the people we blog for so maybe there won't be more updates... :)

Finals!

Nothing exciting to report except that Finals are next week! I have one 'actual' final exam to take in a class, two presentations, three papers (two of which are on basically the same thing), and two presentations. I am officially done with classes in my first semester at Grad School and expect good results. I finally got my act together. This semester has been a good growing experience and I am really glad I made the decision to come down here. It sucks being away from all my friends and family but I think I made the right decision. I fit in really well down here and am happy. But don't worry, my heart still lies in good ol' Michigan.

Atalie has applied for 10 jobs this week (go her!), 3 regular jobs and 7 Ad agencies. Hopefully she'll hear back from some of them soon. I know she hates job hunting and I'm really proud of her. It didn't take too much poking and prodding to get her going at it either. :)

Jill: The package has been delivered. Repeat: the package has been delivered.
We played merry messenger last night for one of our friends (Jill) from GVSU who has a friend that lives down here. She's been suggesting that we meet and finally had an excuse for us to do it. Suzy (her friend) is really nice and I can see how she and Jill became friends. We spent around 20 minutes over at her apartment just chatting about ourselves to get to know each other and decided that the next time we plan something we should give them a call. It's always nice meeting new people!

We'll see most of you readers (all 7 of you) the end of next week! Can't wait until this is over!

Oh yeah, I finally got to play with the X-ray gun. Next time...

Taking Care of Business

While we've become a bit lazy about some things around here lately (laundry all over the floor, and a monster dish pile that has taken 3 or 4 batches of wash n dry to take care of, for examples), we've been getting other stuff taken care of.

Thank goodness, our futon has finally had the broken part replaced, for starters. Just past a month since calling the store, they got around to calling us back with arrangements for picking it up this week. Patrick's semester long projects are due this coming week, and we spent the weekend in the computer lab, so he could finish up most of the work on those. I also, after much procrastination, have started my job hunt. (yuck)

Luckily, while still in Texas, I revised my cover letter, began editing my resume, and started a list of agencies I could look into, so it made getting started a little easier for me. So far I have focused on a few of the agencies to dig up some information on, I've looked up specific job postings on career-finding websites (some advertising related, some not- such as receptionist jobs), and I am almost finished with two applications.

Only two more weeks before we're already back in Michigan for Christmas break, and it looks like that time will continue being spent taking care of business: studying for exams for Patrick, job hunting for me, dropping off a package for a friend of ours (probably late this week, Jill!), completing the last of the Christmas shopping, and maybe hosting a movie night or something at our apartment for our buddies to attend before everyone leaves town. Hope you're all staying pleasantly busy too! :)

A welcome break

Thanksgiving was great! It was nice to visit with family and friends that I haven't seen for three months. The drive up was pretty uneventful; Atalie and I rotated driving (of course I had to drive through St. Louis and Chicago!) and spent tuesday night at Atalie's younger sister Brittany's new apartment in Kalamazoo. I drove over to Okemos the next morning and the two of them went up to GR. We both spent Thanksgiving day with our separate families and Mr. A dropped Atalie off in Okemos later in the evening (Thanks!). Following an early morning on Black Friday we drove to GR and spent the evening hanging out with two of Atalie's high school friends. Saturday we relaxed and spent time with her family and watched the Lakers beat North Dakota! Saturday night we spent visiting with our GV friends which was great fun and then went to bed only to get up early Sunday for the drive back. I drove all but the last 100 miles, which passed quickly due to Atalie reading out loud to us. We made it here in record time (with only going five over) 10 hours, 45 minutes, including 30 minutes for stops. The car obviously survived but we definitely should check into getting the cruise control fixed...

Glad to get back in the swing of things, but we miss everyone back home! See you in 3 weeks!

Getting in the swing of things

Now that I've been in Missouri for about a month, I'm starting to get a little routine going. Of course it's only temporary since I'll be planning on getting a job in a few months, but in the meantime, life seems to be falling into place.

Our apartment is slowly coming along, as I've gotten basically everything put away and cleaned up, and the maintenance guy has been over a couple times to get some things taken care of like the patchy tiling in the bathroom, yellow blinds, and the gap under our front door letting in a nasty draft. Things should be even better around here after we pick up a few more belongings when we visit Michigan next week, and when we have our futon replaced. Have we told you about that yet??? The darn $600 futon got a major crack in it for no reason less than 3 months after receiving it, and after we called them out on it, they told us to wait 3-4 weeks before we could get it fixed since they're "totally out" of our specific futon. That month is running out and I do believe I had better hear from them soon....

Aside of that, I've been enjoying my time off of school getting a lot of reading done- mostly murder mysteries- and I recently started exercising again. I tried aerobic kickboxing at first, but after nearly throwing up and dying of lack of oxygen, I decided to start out smaller with some yoga. Today (about 3 weeks later) I tried the kickboxing DVD again, and I did a lot better! I definitely notice the difference the yoga has made in my muscle strength and flexibility!!! (Although I felt like I'd nearly throw up again- best to wait a while after eating before doing extensive exercise, I suppose. haha)

I've also been hanging out with Patrick and his friends on the weekends. Last Saturday, we went to a cowboy bar for one of our pal's b-day. I rode the mechanical bull there!!! I was pretty nervous, but after watching a couple of our party members give it a try, I decided to have a go. There's a guy who operates it and he'll adjust the skill level for each person, so it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought. Still didn't stay on very long though! Haha- as soon as we get some pictures from our friends, I'll have to post one!

In the meantime, we just got a pic from one of our friend's Halloween party, so here we are as Jack and Jill! It might be hard to see, but we smeared black eye shadow on us and put bandaids on to simulate injuries from falling down a hill, Patrick had gauze wrapped around his broken crown under the hat, and we don't have our dented pail with us in the picture either. But hopefully you can tell that we put together a good couple's costume! :)

Crappy Day

So as Patrick pointed out to me, men and women react to disappointing situations in quite different ways: men get mad, women get sad. Hence his venting in the previous post, which is very focused on the situation. And, hence the way I'm acting. It's quite pathetic really: I was completely excited to go hiking this weekend to try out my new gear, get outside, and spend some quality time with Patrick. It's a reasonable thing to be disappointed about, except instead of just leaving it to being upset that I can't go now, I sprawled out on the bed like a mope, haven't changed out of my pajamas, started an argument with Patrick for blaming our misfortunes on hunters which might offend some people we know, and am sort of determined to do nothing today now. I kind of start making everything bad, and to boot, I later accidentally squirted lotion up the sleeve of my shirt too. That didn't help!

So basically, I wanted to tell everyone sorry that you all have to deal with an immature, miserable couple who could learn how to control their disappointment in a way where they don't blame everyone else or don't turn everything into a rain cloud following them around all day- both methods that could potentially make a crappy situation more crappy. (Although, this is starting to sound like advice that most people really could use now that I think about it. Maybe I could spin this whole thing to sound like a parable or a fable instead: Take home the lesson everybody!)

Sooooo, hopefully Patrick and I have both gotten a little of that out of our systems now. Tune in later for the return to our more cheerful and grown-up style of updating from Missouri. :)

Long live Bambi!!

Caution: The following is in no way meant to send offense to hunters we know, just the ones that took over our state forest this weekend.

Begin rant.

Springfield is full of trigger happy alcoholics who love shooting their guns and drinking beers whilst freezing their tails off waiting for that prize buck which, much to their dismay, usually never shows up. I suppose their in it for the thrill of the hunt, yes, sitting in the same spot all day long maybe seeing one doe (correct me if I'm wrong, please). These so called "hunters" have full reign of state forests which is where Atalie and I wanted to go camping this weekend and the Dept. of Conservation is only giving camping permits to hunters because opening day is tomorrow.
I hope Bambi kicks some tail in the upcoming month and the hunters, who probably couldn't hit the side of a barn if they tried-especially after drinking a six-pack, go home empty handed.

Rant over.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Hey everybody! Hope you all had a nice Halloween. Patrick and I didn't do too much the night of, but we did carve pumpkins a few days in advance in anticipation of the holiday. Last week Wednesday is when we got started, and although I normally do a simple but cute smiley face, we opted to print off some more complex stencils from the internet. Problem was, the more detailed designs don't turn out so well when all you have to work with is a steak knife.
[Atalie working on prosthetics...]

Patrick decided to quit cutting his out before he got too far, figuring we could pick up some of the smaller pumpkin saws meant for carving out more intricate patterns. I, however, was stubbornly set on finishing mine, which explains why my witch riding a broom had a missing foot, hat brim, nose and only half a broomstick when I was done with her. I managed to mend her up enough to look decent when lit up, but by the next morning, her prosthetic parts fell off again, and by night the whole design fell out of the pumpkin, leaving a giant gaping hole in the front. (It's ok if you laugh- we did too.)

After buying some pumpkin saws over the weekend, Patrick was able to finish carving out his cat, and I began a ghost on a new pumpkin with much more success. Both looked quite good afterwards, especially lit up! Unfortunately, because Patrick's had been cut up a half week earlier than my new one, his didn't quite last to see Halloween night, on account of daily hair and fungal growth. But with a handy camera, you all can still see them all in their glory!

Don't huff Goo Gone

Atalie has now been here for a little over a week and most of her things are now put away. She worked diligently all last week and the place is becoming more organized and homey! By far, the worst thing to take care of was removing the adhesive from the price stickers on the dish set. It took 3 or 4 hours just to get all the goo off of the accessory ice cream bowls!!! (And that’s even with letting them soak in hot soapy water and using Goo Gone).

There are still a few projects to be done such as painting the TV stand, putting new photos in the picture frames and organizing albums, sorting paperwork that’s askew in the office, signing up for internet/cable, and finding a coffee table. But since Atalie is waiting to start working until the beginning of the new year, those things will eventually be done in her free time.

Meanwhile, Patrick’s been busy on the weekdays with work and school as usual, although the two of us went out this past Tuesday night for his friend’s 24^th b-day. Atalie met a couple more of Patrick’s Missouri posse, and felt pretty comfortable with them right away so it was a fun time. We refrained from going camping with some of the group over the weekend though, as we needed to complete a few errands, but with the arrival of a new backpack we ordered online for Atalie, we anticipate a hiking trip very soon. We just need to get her some hiking boots first, then we’re good to go!

As for this week, we might be doing something special for our 5 year anniversary one of these nights. It’s crazy to think that the two of us have been together that long! We’ll let you know what we decide to do!

Atalie Arrives!

Painted by Mom A.!

Atalie arrived Thursday around 7pm CST (for those of you in MI)! Patrick had just gotten done driving for a day-long field trip to Rolla, MO with a Geography class and was busy getting some quick groceries and dinner with Kat when Atalie called announcing their arrival. After some hugs and greetings the rental van got emptied straight into the previously clean dining room. We all watched a bit of TV and then headed to bed.

Friday began with breakfast at the Pancake and Waffle House on S. Campbell followed by trips to Goodwill, Mama Jean’s Natural Market, and Salvation Army. We ate dinner at Garbo’s Pizzeria (yum!) and then headed to Andy’s Frozen Custard to get some dessert. That evening we watched Transformers and ate popcorn (Mom is the master of popcorn)!

We went to breakfast again on Saturday, this time at Ziggie’s, followed by more shopping at Cosmic Fish (a hippie-ish store) and a couple of grocery stores (this city is full of medium sized supermarkets that don’t always contain everything you want at one). Mom and Dad were generous and paid to fill up our cupboards with food for the next couple of weeks! They also helped pick out two pumpkins so we can have some jack-o-lanterns at the apartment for Halloween.

While we put the groceries away in the apartment, Mom and Dad explored the flea market and found a cute nightstand for $20 to bring back to us to use as a TV stand. Our DVDs fit perfectly in the drawers and the bamboo wood styling on it fits pretty well with the slightly Oriental feel of some of our other home accessories and decorations. One of our projects this week is to paint it black to match our furniture.

Later on, we made a nice sit-down dinner at the apartment, consisting of chicken pesto pizza and strawberry cucumber salad, with leftover frozen custard for dessert. The evening was finished off by gathering on the futon for another movie.

At the early hour of 6-something in the morning, Mom and Dad woke up us younglings to fix them a pancake breakfast before they hit the road back to Grand Rapids. It was great to have them visit and be able to see the apartment but Atalie was sad to see them go and misses them already. Spirits were brightened by going back to sleep for a few more hours, and spending the afternoon at Target and Lowe's to get a few little things for the apartment. Finally Patrick was forced to work on his homework while Atalie prepared dinner and began a book.

Meanwhile, the apartment is a mess from all of the unpacked boxes, but with the two of us together, it already feels more homey! Atalie has her work ahead of her this week though!

Eve of my Departure!

Tonight's the night before I leave for Missouri, and I'm getting excited! :D Luckily Dad was able to rent a mini van, because it is pretty well packed (although I must say I did a fairly good job, having even left a good foot and a half or so above my stuff for driving visibility!). I don't think my parents are looking forward to the 10-12 hour drive, but I'm glad they're helping me get there.

I'll miss my family, friends, and Michigan, but I had nice visits with everybody before I left, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Patrick! Well, I better get going to attend to a few last things before bedtime and tomorrow's journey- next time you hear from me, I'll be in Missouri!!!

Sam's Throne

This weekend four friends and I went down to Arkansas to go rock climbing and camping. We went to a place called “Sam’s Throne,” a popular set of sandstone bluffs that are excellent for rock climbing. The campsites are up on the bluffs and we got in around 9pm to set up camp. Saturday we went down the bluffs and had a short hike over to the “Throne” where Derek and Amanda began setting up the ropes. Both Amanda and Derek have done lots of climbing so they did a quick review of safety and then we got on with it. I had forgotten how fun it was! It’s pretty tough but it sure feels great to get to the top of the wall. We climbed until around 4pm and then headed back to camp to get dinner started. Dave had this idea to make pizza in Aluminum foil on the fire so we tried that and it turned out ok. We didn’t know how long to leave it in the fire so the first couple pieces were fairly burnt on the bottom. After dinner we went over to the bluffs to check out the sunset. We missed the sunset-proper but we stuck around and watched the moon set right after. A couple of drunken people came down to check out the sunset as well- I’ll just say they were annoying. Luckily they didn’t have any patience and were getting thirsty again so they took off after a few minutes. The rest of the night was spent chatting around the fire.

We got up a little later than anticipated this morning and were all pretty sore so it was decided that we would go sightseeing today instead of doing some more climbing. We drove west to this place called Lost Valley where there are some campgrounds and a nice little hike to a cave. It was a fun little excursion and the drive was pretty cool.

It was a great weekend, I really enjoyed the rock climbing and we’re definitely going back down there later this Fall.

Social Butterfly

Although last week was pretty laid back, that's quickly changing! This past weekend was a lot of fun, as my mom, sisters and I all had a slumber party at my sister Brittany's new apartment where we made dinner and watched movies on Friday night, and Saturday was spent hanging out w/ my best friend Cassandra and our other best friend from high school, Amy (who I haven't seen in a couple of years!). We saw Amy's new apartment since she recently was married, went shopping at the mall, and tried to make some chocolate dip in a fondue maker Amy bought while we were out (unfortunately it burned a little).

I'm also busy every night this week: Monday I am going to see some friends over at Brad's for the weekly Heroes-watching-party; Tuesday I am hanging out downtown with a group of friends from a past advertising class; Wednesday I am meeting my old boss for lunch and spending the night at my Aunt Cheri's; Thursday I am visiting Cassandra's grandma to play cards and get cookies; Friday I am spending the night in Okemos to visit the Wombles; Saturday is my sister's birthday celebration; and Sunday evening I am going to Mike's for the lovely party he's hosting for me! I'm sure hearing about my calendar isn't as exciting as hearing about the aftermath, but trying to contact people and coordinate schedules has taken up a large part of my time this past week so that's about all I have to report on for now! I'll let you know how it all goes though!

Tasting Springfield

This past Saturday my friends and I went to the Taste of Springfield. Tents were set up downtown in the streets for local restaurants to show off some food. Sounds cool, right? Tickets were a dollar a piece and there were 15-20 vendors there. Food cost $2-3 depending on the place and could only be bought in packs of ten. The servings were small and wouldn't suffice a full meal, but the food was pretty good. After that we all went back to Lukes apartment to hang out. It was a good time and involved some Karaoke, talking on the balcony and a movie (available through Lukes cable subscription).
Sunday I just relaxed and played with the blog. I spent most of the day trying out different things in Photoshop which I'm getting better at (though nowhere near some of the people out there!).
I'd like some more photos of Atalie and I so if you have some, could you email them to me? Thanks!

New look!

Changed the look of the blog. I don't know if I like it better than the other layout and I'm thinking about taking matters into my own hands with a self-written template. I suspect that Brad might be getting some emails soon if I do choose to compile my own.

Let me know what you think!

X-ray Gun!

Yesterday I went to this GIS workshop put on by the Southwest Missouri GIS User's Group at a place called "The Library Center" on the SW part of town. There were talks all day long from people in and around Springfield that use GIS on a daily basis and what they specifically use it for. Some of the talks were pretty interesting while others were not but it was cool to see how much GIS is really used. People are doing things with GIS that I had never really thought of.

School is starting to pick up with mid-term exams next week and I'm getting more of an idea of what my thesis is going to be. On Tuesday we had a meeting and demostration on how to operate our new portable x-ray fluorescent spectrometer (x-ray gun!). It's a neat little contraption that tells you the concentration of elements in the soils. I'm going to be using it to identify soil layers with very high Lead and Zinc concentrations which represent the height of the Lead mining industry in the area and help give a timeline for how much sediment has been deposited in the past 100 years. I'll be doing a lot more research than just using the x-ray gun, but I think it's going to be one of the fun parts.

Tonight is ArtWalk again (first Friday!!), although I don't know how much I feel like going.

GR has it's coolest resident back! hehe :)

So sorry, everybody, that I haven't written in forever! I was pretty busy my last week in Austin, but I am back in Michigan now and have had no good excuse. But here I am again!

I got back in Michigan around 11 p.m. on Saturday night- an hour and a half later than originally planned. The morning of my departure, Sally received an automated voice call explaining that my connecting flight in Memphis had been canceled. After calling the airport, she worked out a change in airline and time, seeing as the airport otherwise would have had me stay the night in the Memphis airport and reassign me to a Sunday flight. Definitely glad that worked out differently.

That was a late night since my family and I stayed up to hang out a little bit, but I've had plenty of time to catch up on sleep since I've spent the last couple of days lounging around the house. Yesterday I started to try to contact people to set up times to visit before I leave in two weeks for Missouri though, so I'm sure my schedule will quickly become much more busy. In fact, it already became a little busier today since my best friend's car broke down in a middle lane on US131 during morning traffic, had to be towed and walked to her apartment from the dealership. I was able to borrow my sister's car and later take her to her dentist appointment and back to the dealership later at least, but that was an unexpected twist for the day (especially for her- poor thing)!

Anyway, I'm sorry again that it's been awhile since any of you have had a new entry to read, but I'll try to be a little better from now on since I am not working at the moment. I'll be reveling in my little vacation time, but I'll try to hang on to those few responsibilities I still have, such as writing on the blog. :)

Another week done-ish

Now that we're on the last part of the week I can write something. Not much, mind you, but something never the less. School/work was exceedingly boring this week. Looking for camping stuff (also known as shopping) online for the past two weeks or so anticipating some camping with Atalie is the only thing that was remotely interesting. You'll all be pleased to know that I put that birthday money to good use and then shredded the paper trail (thanks to Sally). Not that it needed to be shredded, it's just fun to shred things now that I finally can. Did you know those things chew up CD's?! I don't think this one was supposed to but it did anyway.

I think the first batch of beer is going to be crap. I just have this feeling that because I followed the packaged directions and not my own that it is going to be pond water. Alcoholic pond water, but pond water nevertheless. I'm sure my friends won't notice... Batch 2 will be properly done (hopefully with a larger brewpot).

End note #1: For those of you that didn't know, today is Google's 9th birthday. Alas, another excuse to eat cake. I fully expect, and I'm sure Brad agrees, that by the time they turn 18 they will have taken over the world as we know it and we'll be eating off of Google subsidiary manufactured plates or something.

End note #2: "Google's" is a typo in the Google-owned Blogger posting text editor. Can they not recognize the proper use of an apostrophe? http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

La Fin du Monde

It was great hearing from everyone back home and abroad yesterday as I am terrible with keeping in touch (my excuse is that I truly am keeping in touch via this blog...). I’ve gotten some great cards in the mail and despite the miniature mailbox that I’ve been assigned they were still in decent shape when I found them. I talked with Mike K for a while and am excited to hear that he and Brad have been talking about coming and visiting me/us sometime in October or early November. Now I just have to think of some stuff we can do…
Last night my friends here at MSU threw a great party for me. I decided to get back to brewing again and we decided to make it the center of the party as my friends were excited to learn how to do it. Derek held the festivities over at his house and my friends went party crazy. They brought a cake, a pie, some gifts, music and some games. It was good fun. Kat gave me this really cool beer mug with the Missouri State logo on it (which she bought earlier that day on the way back from having lunch with Luke and I) and Amanda gave me a bottle of la Fin du Monde, a ridiculously strong Belgian wheat beer brewed in Quebec. We called it a night around 12:30 and Kat drove everyone home- she’s had a rough week and while she probably needed a drink, she didn’t really feel like it.

Anyway, it was a good 24^th. Thanks everybody!

Buffalo River Weekend

This weekend I went down to Arkansas to do some canoing and camping with some friends from school. It was a blast! We hijacked the Departments canoes Friday evening and set up camp around 9:30pm right on the banks of the Buffalo River. After a good campfire we got some sleep under the stars. Saturday morning two of us shuttled a vehicle to our take-out spot while the rest of us broke camp and dried out our wet sleeping bags and tents which resulted from a heavy dew.

We paddled all day and stopped only once for a lunch break. The river was really low so we had to walk the canoes through some of the more shallow rapids. We saw lots of birds along the side of the river (something like 30 heron's) and fish in the pools. We had to paddle a lot because the river was also running really slow and we wanted to get 15 miles done by the end of the day. A large gravel bar along the bank of the river provided a camping spot for Saturday night.

Sunday we woke up to a cold morning and another heavy dew. The bonus was all of the fog in the canyon looked really neat. Breaking camp took a while as we were trying to prolong the inevitable usage of our sore muscles from the previous day of canoing. The day started out overcast with some sprinkles on the river, but around noon that cleared up to a nice sunny afternoon. After paddling the remaining 10 miles to our take out point we enjoyed some nice swimming in the river and tossing the Frisbee around. All our stuff was packed back up into the cars and we headed home!

I really enjoyed the trip and it totally wetted my appetite for more. We can't wait for Atalie to get down here to (hopefully) enjoy it too!

Austin City Limits

Due to Sally's good luck, I was able to go to the popular 3-day music fest that took place this past weekend! Sally had bought two tickets ages ago and invited a friend to visit and attend, but the tickets are expensive, sold out pretty much instantaneously, and originally I wasn't going to be here this long, so I sadly accepted that I would not be able to join them. However, the day before the festivities began, Sally casually told me, "Oh yeah- I won an extra 3 day pass to ACL."

Yah-hooo! :)

Unfortunately I didn't go on Friday because I had to work (although my coworkers saw it fit to leave early and not tell me they were going) and I was feeling worn out after the long work week. So while it was probably good for me to take it easy that night, I missed out on some of the best performers that were playing at ACL: Joss Stone, Kaiser Chiefs, Spoon, The Killers, and Bjork, for example.

Aside of a rocky start (I temporarily messed something up w/ my camera card and got no pictures my first day, and the ACL store was totally out of my size in my first couple choice t-shirts) Saturday and Sunday were a lot of fun, and I'm sure the extra rest Friday night was needed. I was out in the heat and sun for about 8+ hours each day, and you're constant standing or walking. We were definitely sore and tired after the weekend, but it was still time well spent. Of the people I saw, some of my favorites were: Ryan Shaw (what a voice, and just a lot of fun to be in the audience!), Young Love (cool music, even if it felt like being at a high school field trip when I was in the crowd), Blue October (some really awesome loud, heavier rock songs!), and the Little Ones (fun music and the group was just so happy and passionate).

I'm super grateful that I was able to go, although it's back to a regular workweek for me (I worked from 8:30 to 9:45 today- yikes). I've only got about 12 days left now in Austin though, and only 1.5 weekends, so hopefully I'll get some more fun and unique things in during the rest of my stay!

Virus!! Run away!

Last Wednesday evening, Missouri State’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS) got blessed with a lovely virus. A laptop initiated it somehow (I don’t know all the details) and things went downhill. The virus exploits computers that have an outdated version of Symantec Anti Virus, downloads 100 files all over the computer and then wreaks havoc. Done with the computers, the virus then spread to the servers which went kaput instantly. Thursday morning, a CNAS-wide email was sent telling people to update their Symantec. Those of us that are mere peons and lack Administrative privileges can’t install updates (or anything else for that matter) and when damage control kicked in Thursday afternoon, every computer that didn’t get updated in the morning got their port shutdown. All of my work is done off of one of those servers and one week later my port is still firewalled.

The best part about this whole ordeal is that the one person in charge of software for CNAS was on vacation the whole week prior. Her sole purpose in life is to prevent this kind of thing from happening and well, she dropped the ball. She is in charge of something like 400 computers, including 2 Geography labs (which had classes cancelled Thursday and Friday) and unfortunately she won’t get fired because the powers at be weren’t inconvenienced at all.

Do your job, software lady.

Epiphany

So, I think I've come to the conclusion as to why I've been moping about the past week. Other than the obvious reason (Atalie leaving), I think it's because I've never lived by myself . Since day one I've been living with either parents or roommates- there's always been someone at home when I get there. (I miss my Brad!! haha)
Going solo is a big change- no body to share your day with, cook dinner with, or just sit around with. It kinda sucks. Maybe I should get a fish.

Annoying

This weekend was almost fun. It involved too much partying Friday night, too much sleep yesterday, and today I’m still really tired and lazy.

It all started when some other Grad student friends and I went out to a pub Friday night to listen to a couple of bands. The first one was WAY too loud for such a small space, but the second one was much better. Yesterday we went bowling which ended up being another late night. Therefore, today I’m really tired and not motivated to do anything, despite the need to do laundry and get groceries. It’s really annoying.

Hooray weekend!

Even though it was only a four day week, I felt so ready for the weekend. Maybe it was being sad from the return to regular life after a great Labor Day holiday w/ my beloved, that I was catching up on sleep after waking up at 3:45 on Tuesday to catch my flight back to Austin, or having a busy work week, but whatever it was, I felt ready to leave the office at about 2:00 on Friday, making the remaining 3.5 hours I was there rather difficult.

Friday night was fun, having met up w/ the posse (myself, Patrick's sister Sally who I live with, a family friend of the Wombles named Becki, and a couple- Paul and Kathleen) to celebrate Paul's birthday. After a bottle of wine Sally received in France, and some fruit and cheese for appetizers, we all headed for one of the art museums here for an event held by a networking club. The exhibit was a little weird, but the permanent pieces were quite interesting- gorgeous oil paintings from pre-Victorian era, plasters from the original stone statues of Greek gods and goddesses, and some unusual sculptures and gadgets.

Afterward we went to a ritzy new Italian restaurant with delicious, and kinda fancy food. We arrived just before it closed, so not being very busy, the owner came out and chatted w/ us, and also pulled out some of tomorrow's food to make a dish that Kathleen had wanted but was told earlier had run out for the day. We thought all of that was quite cool. Afterward, we returned to Sally's for the final part of the celebration- birthday cake in the form of coconut cream pie.

At this point, we had a couple of extra guests though, as Sally and I went over to the neighbors' house to pick up their two golden labs to dog-sit for the weekend. They are both very friendly dogs, but Cayman is fully grown and wanted to climb on everybody, and Casey- the puppy- is hyper and decided just to jump on everybody. Casey christened Sally's brand new carpet w/a little "carpet apple" and I caught Cayman just in time reaching for the pie with her face and paws up on the cupboard. As Sally says, they are high maintenance.

Much of Saturday was spent lounging, taking care of the dogs, and hanging out w/ Paul and Kathleen again. We went to the movie theatre to see "Shoot 'em Up" and I think we are all a bit scarred for life. Any of my family reading this: DON'T WATCH IT. The rest of you: see it if you have a sick desire for creative forms of violence and disturbing filler scenes with the occasional irony or corny/clever humor thrown in. And if you're not sure- ask me more information because I am opinionated on the matter.

Dinner at Potbelly's and dessert at Kathleen's lightened me up a bit though, so now I'm back to gleaning the rest of the weekend. I received a video tape from my sisters in the mail today, and I enjoyed watching that much more than Shoot 'em Up- honestly, I think I spent more time laughing than I spent thinking about how retarded they are... but probably not that much more time. :) It was like SNL's cast did a rendition of what my family has been up to over the summer, if that gives you any idea of the film's content. I plan on keeping it forever! :D

Well, that's pretty much what I've been up to- it's been a pretty good weekend so far. I hope you're all enjoying yours too!

Enchiladas!

I guess I'll follow At's chapter with a shorter entry, wrapping up the weekend.

We had a wonderful evening last night with rigorous games of backgammon (I won finally!) and a superb dinner- I love enchiladas! I must say, the dishes she got are pretty cool and the whole ensemble looks rather sharp on our little table. The silverware we bought this weekend is nice as well as functional. We wrapped the night up with a movie and went to bed.

I dropped her off this morning at 5am (yuck) and she made it back to Texas safely just in time for work. I couldn't really get back to sleep this morning after dropping her off and had to live with that all day. Plus, nothing at work was terribly interesting anyway.

Note: Should blogs be called "online journals?" These feel like journal entries to me. Maybe I just don't know what blogs should be.

Labor Day Weekend

It’s nearing the end of my visit, and so far it’s been great! Aside of my flight coming in 30 minutes late on Friday, Patrick and I had the perfect evening in, making spaghetti for a late dinner, angel food cake he had baked earlier for dessert, and cuddling up on the couch for a movie. I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes, thinking I’m getting too mushy, so I’ll spare ya. :)

Saturday was also fabulous as I was able to sleep in for a long time. Springfield seems so quiet in the morning, which makes it very easy to lie around doing nothing underneath the ceiling fan for hours. After yummy eggs and toast for breakfast, we made up for our laziness by getting a lot of shopping done. It seems like when we’re shopping together, we suddenly become experts at spending money.

So the 3 new main items in the house include stools to the tiny bar at the window connecting the kitchen to the dining room (which ended up being perfect height!), a chrome and glass shelf for the bathroom, and the start of a set of silverware (it’s so expensive we only bought about ½ the place settings we ultimately would like to have). For most of you reading this, you are probably aware that I am grossly in love with my dish set. That being said, I’ve sought out placemats and flatware to compliment it. Well, I found some placemats at Ikea just recently, but silverware has proven to be more difficult.

Patrick and I spent probably at least a half hour looking through silverware at Bed Bath & Beyond, left to look at other things in the store, and came back to look through it for another 15 minutes or so. We’ve looked at other places all throughout the last school year, and it’s like the longer we look, the pickier we get. I had no idea silverware would be that challenging, but when you’re paying $40 for just a service of 4, all the minor differences between them start to seem major, and there are a bazillion different kinds to go through. We finally decided though, and while still slightly unsure, we’ve committed to opening and washing one box for now. Oh, the drama!

That night we met up with our friend Kat, also from GVSU, to make dinner and watch some movies, and after another morning of sleeping in and being lazy, I met a few new friends during Sunday’s activities. Patrick, Kat, their friend Derek, and I all went disc golfing in a nearby park, which proved to be very humbling. I had never done it before, and not surprisingly, I threw the disc at crazy angles that only went a third the distance of my competitors (not that there was much competition with me). However, once I got used to the idea of being terrible and realized that nobody cared that I was, it really wasn’t too bad. I’d definitely be willing to go again.

Later, the 4 of us and their friend Dave all went to the cheap movie theatre hosting movies that just left the larger main theatres ($2.50 per ticket!). We arrived about 10 minutes late into the movie, and the theater was packed, so we had to split up, but afterwards we reunited and spent several hours chatting at Derek’s house over some ice cream bars.

Even though we were very tired, we dragged ourselves out of bed so we could enjoy as much of the last day of my visit as possible. So now that we’ve had breakfast and cleaned up the house a bit, we’re getting ready to leave to go check out more of the school and the Bass Pro shop than what I was able to see during my previous visits. That means I had better go- I’m not even showered or dressed in my day clothes yet and the day is fading away!

T minus 20 hours!

After a busy and productive work week (I was given an assignment or two from a higher up superior than I'd typically work with, forcing me to be a little bit more resourceful and proactive) I'm getting pumped up for Labor Day weekend!

I just got off the phone with Patrick from our daily call, but tomorrow night I'll be talking to him in person instead! I'm almost done packing and it's about time to call it a night, so I only have three quarters of a work day standing in my way. The office might be closing a little early, so I reserved a 5:00 flight, and I'll be in Springfield by 8:00. I come back just in time for work on Tuesday morning, so I'll be spending absolutely the whole weekend w/ Patrick, although I'm sure it still won't seem nearly long enough.

I can't wait- it's going to be awesome! We'll keep you literally posted! :D

Flugtag!

After a long work week, I very much enjoyed the weekend (and am missing it now). I slept in for a nice long time, lounged in pajamas for hours, and Friday night I went to Red Bull's Flugtag event which happened here in Austin.

For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a goofy sort of competition that people enter "flying" contraptions into. A 30 foot tall ramp was built over Towne Lake in the near middle of downtown, and teams took turns pushing their inventions off the ramp, to see who could gain the most distance from the ramp before falling into the water. However, seeing as none of them could fly in the least bit, I'd say it was more a competition of who had the most creative crashing vehicle than flying machine.

At first, I could not exactly say the event was fun, because I really didn't see much of the event at all. Thousands and thousands of people crowded the riverfront, which was also occupied by tall trees whose canopies blocked the way. On the way into the park I had seen a girl wearing platform wedge sandals that made me cringe to look at, and I thought, "What is wrong with her- why would you wear those to an event and a place like this?" As I peered into numerous shoulder blades ahead of me, I understood why, simultaneously wishing I had brought along a step ladder.

Every now and then I caught a snippet of the action between people's heads or through some branches, but despite the visibility issues, we were always moving around looking for a better spot to see. Myself and one of the guys I was with got separated from our third group member, so we spent a good 30-45 minutes tracking him down on top of that. However, when we finally spotted him, the fun could finally begin, as he had found a spot on the nearby bridge, with a straight shot view of the end of the ramp.

Luckily, nobody in the crowd minded that he pulled me up to where he was against the railing. (Perhaps because I miserably reached through them to poke him, and made sure to say in a loud enough voice how I was so happy I had finally found him and unfortunately I hadn't seen any of the event yet because I'd need to grow a few more feet in order to- what nice people to sympathize with me.) :)

Most of the contraptions were some variation of a glider attached to a holding vessel that held one member of the team, that the rest of the group would push down and off the ramp. It was the way in which the vehicle was decorated, the costumes the team would wear, and the crazy little dance or show the group would put on before plummeting off the edge that differentiated them usually. One group was dressed like the flinstones and modeled their machine after the car the flinstones drive; one of the contraptions was decorated to look like a giant cockroach spreading its wings and smiling; and a group of soldiers who had served in Iraq entered a piece and performed a "secret mission" in their camoflauge uniforms before deploying, to name some examples.

There was one in particular that, although did not travel far from the ramp, did actually hover in the air a bit more the others, sort of floating to the water. It was a device that strongly resembled a patio table with an umbrella, but had a guy sitting on top of it in a basket, with the bright green umbrella spinning around beneath him. The rest of the inventions corkscrewed, tumbled and crashed, much to the amusement of the giant audience.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures of the machines or their launches (or crashes) came out well, as we were still quite far away. But standing on the bridge overlooking the many boaters and waders who gathered to watch while the sun set over them, I was able to get an awesome little nature pic- a little solace for the inconveniences I suffered I suppose.

In any case, I still had a good night, and we went to Amy's Ice Cream afterward (home of the most delicious flavor of vanilla in the world!)- so of course my evening out was well worth the heat and the reminder of my height challenged stature. :)

The first week is over

This week was pretty exciting and marked my sixth Fall semester at a university. Classes were ok- I don’t really have any homework yet. Thankfully, my math course is starting slow and explaining all of the concepts before throwing equations at us and expecting us to understand them. My schedule is nice, though, with plenty of (perceived) time to work on homework and OEWRI stuff. It’s crazy, though, because I’m not like the vast majority of Grad students: I’m not a teaching assistant. I work outside of the department, heck, I’m not even on the departments mailing list. Doesn’t matter- I think I’m going to enjoy the work I’ll be doing.
It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was first moving in at GVSU. These years have rocketed by, one after the other, so quickly I can barely remember experiencing them. It’ll be 5 years in October for Atalie and I- half of a decade just flew by in a flash. I’m not complaining- they were the best years of my life (so far). Then there’s going back onto campus at 24- now I’m starting to feel a bit old- as Brad can attest to, looking at all of the young Freshmen is weird.
It’s funny, the only thing you really think about as a Freshmen is being cool, making friends, and well, going to parties. Now, in their eyes, I’m lame. The only thing I worry about now is school, thesis work, and going to bed by midnight. After all, I am a professional now :)
Anyway, it’s way past my bedtime…

long day at school

Well, Wednesdays are going to be my long days. Class from 8am to 6pm got old last semester at GVSU, so it's nice that it's only one day a week this semester. Tomorrow it's laundry and running to the grocery store after I get back from school/work.
Of note: The gym is right across the sidewalk from the building I'm in, so I figure I might check it out and try to work off some of that *cough* soda gut that I've been working on sometime. :)
I have an idea for what my thesis might be. In short, it's possible that it'll be looking at concentrations of Zinc and Lead in some floodplain soils downstream of an old mine then mapping the elevations at different parts of the stream. It'll be useful for developers and builders so they can avoid building on sites with really high concentrations present (not that they'll listen). The nice thing is it should make me pretty employable since pollution from mining is a hot topic right now.

Atalie's going to be here to visit in a week!

I better not burn out yet!

Sorry I haven't been writing posts super often, but this job of mine is taking up a lot of time! I do like it fairly well, and get along well with my co-workers, but boy oh boy- there can be some long days. Last Monday, as well as today, were both 12 hour days, for example, which did not include my 15 minute lunch break.

Today seemed worse for me in comparison to a week ago though, because we got done at the same time even though we did a lot less (we decided to leave the geographic-targeted ad reporting that we did last week to just once a month). This could be because even though 3 of us were working on it last week, only I worked on it today. Yet it is still capable of being finished in that time frame by one person, and the others even chipped in to help me as the end of the evening approached.

I was pretty pooped at one point. Hadn't eaten much, been staring at the screen for hours on end, and some of the stuff is very tedious and I knew there had to be faster ways to do it. The girl whose desk I occupied the last two weeks is back from vacation now, and I hope I didn't seem like an unenthusiastic or bad-attituded worker. I am sure she must not think of me as exactly upbeat though by the looks of me at 6:00 when she called me over to offer me some advice. I was the worse for wear and should have acted a little bit less like a walking pity party.

She tried to teach me some things to help some of the work go faster, but go figure I had already done the most tedious and time consuming parts of the report already. I should have asked for those tips earlier!!! I guess this week she said we could reformat the report so that it will be much easier to withdraw the information from it in the coming up weeks. That will be totally awesome, although I must admit that I like thinking of the $$$ a 12 hour day will help get me.

First day of classes

Today started off with a bang- literally. Thunderstorms rolled in last night and a deluge ensued stopping right around the time I was walking into Temple Hall. Classes started bright and early at 8am. I had all three of them today and they seem to be mostly undergraduate courses with extra projects for graduates. Linear regression is probably going to be the toughest and most intellectually demanding as the other two classes involve a lot of map making theory and implementation, most of which I’ve done before in some form or fashion. In short, this year is looking like it should be good with time open for both work and study (theoretically).

This end of last week was pretty uneventful. I received 24 professional papers to read in the next couple of weeks and was tasked to find some more recently published papers. Yuck. Anyway, I’ll be looking at the stratigraphy and concentrations of metals in the floodplains of the James River. It’s not exactly the project I wanted to work on, but I suppose I’m sort of in this for the job opportunities afterwards. Although, the more papers I read, the more I realize how applicable it might be to environmental reclamation and a future job.

I’ve been busy settling in a bit more this weekend- assembling some much needed shelving, moving furniture around, attempting to find things that a certain oldest sister hid, putting some privacy film up in the bathroom, fixing the towel rod, and arranging some rocks around the apartment to make me feel more at home. The futon didn’t look right in the front room, so I moved it into the fireplace room, where it seems to fit better. We do need some area rugs or, more specifically, money to buy them (hint for b-day coming up). The population of the area exploded over the weekend due to the students moving in. Traffic has been terrible; silly parents not knowing where to go.

Well, it's back to reading for me...

Futon!!

The futon is here! I have yet to try it out as a bed, but I think it'll be nice. So, here's the official invitation: COME DOWN AND VISIT US! There's a nice full-size futon with your name(s) on it.

Professional??

I just got done with the free lunch that went along with Orientation. It was spaghetti- the same thing I had last night for dinner which I’m also eating tonight. Go figure. Anyway, the first half of Orientation was EXTREMELY boring- all this talk of applying and paper work and stuff I won’t need to worry about until next year. The second half involved current Profs and Alumni and was much more informative. Apparently, now I am not only a student, I am a Professional. Expectations will be higher and taking the initiative is the only way to survive. I know this blog is titled “The Pro and the Geek,” but now I’m unsure as to which role I fulfill. I was perfectly fine with having all the attributes of a Geek and relinquishing the title of “Professional” to my advert-loving partner in crime. Who knows now? Another thought: maybe this takes me to a higher plane of Geekdom… Maybe I'm a SuperGeek! Not to be confused with Superfreak, although, come to think of it, that might be fitting as well.

I did my laundry yesterday and with what I spent at the Laundromat, I think we could buy a moderately high-end washer by the end of this year and a dryer by the end of next year. The nice part about the Laundromat is that I can do all of my laundry at once in the multiple machines available. I did get the evil eye from the Attendant as I accidentally used three of the four “Attendant” washers. Who knew? Apparently, you can just drop off your laundry, she’ll do it for you, and then you pick it up later in the week. Crazy Laundromats.

Kat (a Geology friend from GVSU) and I went shopping on Saturday for clothes. JC Penny was the store of choice and provided ample clothing for the time being. Seen as though I pretty much need to replace my whole wardrobe, I figure we’d done alright. I must be getting old and here’s why: the vast majority of the shorts were too long. It’s like they were a cross between Capri’s and shorts (regular shorts). Side note: there is something to be said for short shorts- they cooler (temperature wise) and not as constricting. However, they do show off some pretty bright white thighs that could be distracting to Pilots flying overhead. By regular shorts I mean shorts with around an 8” inseam. These suckers at the store had the crotches down to mid-thigh and darn near foot-long inseams. Ridiculous!

"On the Move in Business: Former intern Atalie Albin left ECPR to become the newest Interactive Media Coordinator at GSD&M."

If things had gone as scheduled, I would be leaving tomorrow for Michigan, but instead, it is the end of week 1 of 8 more that I will be spending here in Austin. The nice thing is, I am liking my new job so far. What I am doing is using a program to generate reports on AT&T's online advertising campaigns, then taking the data and dropping it into a spreadsheet template that is given to the client to more easily understand the campaigns' performances.

One of the reports takes a really long time to do, and you have to be very careful- it's such detailed work- but it's not difficult, just exercise for my mind and eyes. Everyone there is really nice too, and right now I'm sitting at someone else's desk while she's on vacation so I'm amidst everyone else in the main media block. (Unfortunately when she's back, I'll be moved to my desk in a more isolated room down the hall, but at least by then I should have a better idea of what I'm doing and won't need to ask the people around me for help as often.)

Already I am excited thinking about my first paycheck (even though I won't receive it for about a month) because I carpool w/ Sally, who tends to work 10-12 hour days on average, meaning I'm going to have a lot of hours. And, because I am an hourly paid worker, I will make time and a half on anything over 40 hours a week (and my regular salary is already nice at $13/hr). Basically, I am going to be cashing in!!! :D

My hours this week were a little shorter, however, because I was finishing up my internship at the public relations firm I was at. My last day was today, so I made a treat to bring in to the office and wrote everyone there a personalized thank you note in some really pretty (and a little pricey) cards. Everyone at the office LOVED it all and said that they didn't think any other intern had done anything like that before. How's that for a great lasting impression?! :)

They also gave me a parting gift, which I like a lot. A shiny silvery business card holder with my initials engraved on the top, a letter of recommendation, and a small pack of fabulous looking photographs I picked out from the mounds of pictures taken during the Lady Bird Johnson tribute work. Very nice tokens of my time spent at Elizabeth Christian & Associates!

Nowhere to sit!

I called Sherry at Futons & More and asked about where my futon was. She told me a week ago that it would be about a week until it was delivered. That's changed. Much to my dismay, I'll be sitting on the floor for another week. She said she'll call me as soon as it comes in, but that won't be until Wednesday or Thursday. :(

The good news is, my enchilada leftovers tasted great for lunch.

Out in the field

I went out into the field this morning with my Professor and Supervisor to measure some cross-sections at a drainage in S. Springfield. It was good to get to know everyone a little better and see what they are like in the field. It was something like 95 degrees with ~70% humidity as well, which made it quite sweaty.

I’ve cleaned up a bit to make room for the dresser and night stand (I’m sick of playing with them). They look pretty good even though I don’t have all of the hardware for the dresser- which is expensive! My handyman days are over for now. So sad…

Enchiladas were on the menu tonight and I got to try out the oven and stove. Both work like they’re supposed to but the downside is the oven heats the house very well- not a fun place to work in when it’s hot. The food turned out well and now, if only I had somewhere to sit and watch my limited time only free cable TV…

One thing I’m learning about wood floors is that they are NEVER clean. They never feel clean no matter how much you sweep and vacuum. I’m becoming obsessed with cleaning the floor- it’s like I’m Cinderella or something- it’s driving me nuts! I thought I always wanted hardwood flooring in my house but now I’m rethinking that (carpet hides a lot of crap and I like that). Now I understand why Mrs. A is constantly cleaning the floor…

It's official

Well, I went over to school today and got all straightened out with employment forms, school ID, and with keys for my office on the way (yes, I do have an office but before you get excited, it's a shared office). I also met my GA supervisor and another current Grad student whose Alma Mater is Northwest Missouri- the same Northwest Missouri that Grand Valley spanked TWICE in the National Championship- needless to say, he had definitely heard of GVSU. The prof in charge of me offered a spot on a small field trip to me with the rest of the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OWERI) staff. Technically, the project I'm going to be assisting in research with is through OEWRI, so I'll get a chance to get to know the people I'll be working with.

The dresser and nightstand are coming along; both are painted and drying. The paint is still kind of soft so I haven't gotten to put the cool new hardware on yet. I feel Like Atalie's Mom as I haven't taken up upholstery as a new mission. The Scotland crews' desk chair seat foam has disintegrated and is exploding out of the bottom. SO, with Martha Stewart by my side I'm going to re-cover that chair. All of this stuff has been fun, though.

Oh yeah: The money draining out of my bank account is not fun- Atalie SEND MONEY!!

Some more pictures...

The kitchen from the front door and facing the front door.
















The bathroom










The bedroom

Some pictures...

The soon to be living room (even though it's still the dining room) - imagine a large mahogany futon in the middle of the room


















The "dining room," lacking the table and chairs. Notice the beautiful sideboard on the opposite wall- thank you Mark and Daisy!!







The bland, empty office (we need some more bookshelves).

Hasta luego! (I'll see you later!)

After an 11 hour drive, Sally and I are back from our trip to Missouri. It was a long time in the car, but it was definitely worth it. I am so happy I was able to see the apartment (which is super cool) and ecstatic that I was able to see Patrick (although it made me miss him even more now).

As Patrick mentioned, we spent a lot of money this weekend (and I feel guilty that none of it was mine- I’ve only got about $80 in cash and bank at the moment!) such as our $600 futon, but our apartment is going to look awesome when everything comes together. The futon is a cool looking hardwood frame with a spring filled mattress so it should last a long time and any guests should appreciate our expenditure, and all of our smaller purchases such as pillows, a nifty looking shower curtain, and an area rug compliment what we have and make the place look more cozy. Everything we bought will come in handy but it still surprises me how much all the stuff for an apartment costs. I don’t even want to think about the money needed in purchasing and furnishing a house!

Not only does moving require a lot of money, but a lot of work too. My feet hurt so bad after shopping all day yesterday, and I’m sure Patrick is extremely exhausted after doing not only that, but also unloading the trailer and cars, putting stuff away, and all his work today sanding and painting some of our furniture.

In a nut shell, the trip was great regardless of the costs, but I wish I could have stayed down there all week since Patrick will actually have some free time before school starts and since I’d like to help shape up the apartment with him. I hate thinking that he’s all alone in the place for the next two months because I’m already feeling lonely (and I’ve even got a roommate!). Basically, I am hoping that time goes by really fast- I’ll be back soon, Springfield!!!

Weekend full of spending

Atalie got into town late Thursday and then she and I started our day out Friday meeting the family at Bass Pro Shops. After lunch we headed down to the main shopping district. Our mission for the day: a futon (since we didn’t have room for the couch and the spare bed, we decided we’d kill two birds with one stone). Well, we found one, and boy was it expensive. It’s great looking and will go well with the other fabulous furniture from big Brother, so despite my reservations about spending that kind of cash it should be great to have.
The Michigan crew left this morning, leaving just Sally, Atalie, and me (of course). Atalie and I picked Sally up after breakfast and started our store hopping. The first store was Bed, Bath, & Beyond followed by Target, Applebees (lunch), Lowes, Home Depot, Lowes, Target. Seeing a pattern? Let’s just say we lacked proper previous planning (ie, kept adding stuff to the list of things to buy and price checking at different stores). It was good, though: we got our bathroom sorted out, some shelves, a pantry cabinet to compliment our bathroom lacking all storage space and an area rug for the living room. Don’t ask why it took all day and multiple trips to each store.
The apartment is coming together and looks like it’s going to be a pretty nice place to live in this year.

We've arrived!!

After a Jackie and I's 10 1/2 hour drive and annoying truckers flying down the road, we arrived and got the key to the apartment. Mom and Dad joined us 2 1/2 hours later and we quickly emptied the trailer and took off for the hotel for a nice long sleep. Jackie and I started off early at the apartment emptying boxes and waiting for the mattress to be delivered. The furniture from Mark and Daisy looks amazing (it's REAL furniture, not the particle board stuff I'm used to and have come to love). Atalie and Sally will be here at some point tonight- can't wait! I'm so excited! There is one problem- the only place to sit is the floor. We're going to run errands this afternoon and see if we can't make this place look more like a home.

Preparations & Anticipation

Today I received the official phone call offering me my new job at GSD&M and the information regarding my first day on August 6^th. As sad as I am about waiting even longer to be with Patrick and to visit my family and friends, I was still pretty excited after hanging up the phone. I guess I just want to clarify that since this is public and I don’t want anything from my last entry twisted in the wrong way and getting back to the company. If that is the case, then listen here, you leak: I will be a very enthusiastic, hard worker, and you don’t have any reason to doubt having hired me! :)

That all being said, as I prepared to stay in Austin for a little longer (which involved a $200 bill at HEB to restock my groceries- cringe), Patrick and his family spent all today finishing packing for their 10-12 hour haul to Missouri tomorrow. Unfortunately, the sofa and the guest bed are going to be left behind due to limited cargo space, but that leaves us with a great excuse to buy a futon when we get down there!

I’ll be spending tomorrow at my public relations internship, but Sally (Patrick’s sister who I’m living with) and I are going to be meeting them in Springfield on Thursday. (Which means we will be missing out on all the fun of unloading everything from the cars and the trailer.) I absolutely can’t wait!!! I think 12 weeks of not seeing each other has been quite long enough! Our visit will only be for a couple of days, but I’ll take what I can get, and I already know it’ll be fabulous.

Last day in Jenison

After a rousing weekend of good bye parties and stuffing myself at Olive Garden with the lovely Cassandra and Tyler, it's time to go. Today is my last day living in Jenison with my hetero lifemate, Brad :( . Tomorrow, Dad is coming up with the trailer to help cart all of my stuff down to Okemos and then that'll be it! I guess I should start packing...

Bittersweet Symphony

Well, I hate to sound so negative in my first entry, but I just got a temporary job at a nationally recognized, full service advertising firm. Darn.

I know I should be jumping up and down for joy, and I guess part of me is; otherwise, what point would there be in taking it? This job will get me noticed when my name is hidden among many others in a pile of resumes on a Springfield desk, and it’ll provide about $2,500-$3,000 to take with me to Missouri after a summer of no income.

Believe me, I am thrilled about both of those things. But after 3 months of not seeing my boyfriend, my family, or my friends (or my cat, dog, and the new pet frog in our backyard pond, for that matter), I am just reluctant to tack on another 2 months, especially when those 2 months are ones that I’m leaving Patrick alone in the apartment in a brand new city where he knows nobody. That would have been a fun and exciting situation if I were there too, but alas…

Maybe it sounds like I’m being dramatic- and maybe I am. After all, we’ll live and we’ll be a little richer and I’ll be a little more experienced. But:

1) I was surprised that I challenged myself to simply take the plunge for the first 3 months since I hadn’t ever been away from home for more than 2 weeks. They went faster than I expected, but I was excited that I only had 2 weeks remaining! How am I going to handle what turned into a 5 month absence?

2) When I first came to Austin, I was really depressed being away from everybody, and I hate knowing that I’ll be doing that to Patrick. That's especially difficult.

I know that at the end of these next 2 months, I’ll be happy I did it, but I guess for now, it's time to buck up and take it all, both the good and the bad.

Final realization...

Atalie may have come to this realization three months ago, but I'm a little slow. I just turned in my keys to the labs in the Geology Department and walked off the campus for the final time as a student. I had to sign up for a class to get on the payroll this summer so this is it. I just realized, as I was setting up my email address for Missouri, that I no longer have any privileges as a student or student employee. I'm really finished at Grand Valley State University and I'll be a visiting "Alum" from now on. A great place that has been my home for the last five years is no longer. Strange.

That's all I thought about it.
Missouri here I come!

Only a week...

It's only a week until the Uhaul departs from Wombleland at 0500hr. Crazy. Atalie might not show up until October, but we're really excited to get moved in regardless. Anyway- this is just a blog to record what's going on in our lives as we start afresh in a new place.