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 The virus exploits computers that have an outdated version of Symantec Anti Virus, downloads 100 files all over the computer and then wreaks havoc.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!