I Survived!!! (For Now)

I would just like to report that I have survived my first week at my new internship! It has been quite a week. Between driving almost 500 miles for work purposes (wow, I didn't realize it was that much) and trying to keep my learning curve as steep as possible, it has definitely been full of new experiences. I even got to try gumbo! Though I can't talk about specifics of my new job, I can say that it is definitely going to be a challenging opportunity. I'm completely out of my element in a new industry, climate, and culture to say the least. So far so good though. I've been really enjoying the new gym I joined, tried to embrace saying "y'all" at least once every hour or so and have been proudly rocking my new flame-retardant suit at work.

I guess that kind of gives y'all (there's another y'all use for the day) an idea of how things are going thus far. I'm hoping to schedule some road trips soon to visit friends so hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stories real soon.

The Roadtrip

Well...I'm here! It only took five days, 16 armadillo roadkills, 100+ reminders of my new company logo, 1300 miles  and ~40 Waffle Houses, but we made it! I just wanted to take a few minutes to jot down a few fun stories from the road. 

Day 1 & 2:

As mentioned earlier, before we even departed on our trip, I got the sinus infection of the century. This wasn't exactly the best start to a really long road trip, but we made it work. Our first stop along the route was in Cincinnati to visit several of my friends there. Getting to go back was great! After living there for a few months while doing a co-op, my affections for Southern Ohio grew immensely. I think it was mostly because the friends I made there were outstanding. It also helped that places like Penn Station and Graeter's Ice Cream make my

 taste buds extremely happy. Anyway, it was great to go back and have a few more adventures. 

My road tripping buddy even got to meet some of the outstanding friends. Some of the highlights of the stop included going down to Newport for the day to watch the riverboats go by, an incredibly uneven suntan I got from resting my arm out the window, being reminded of Cincinnati traffic, and snoring loudly while my poor friend wanted to chuck me off the side of the air mattress. Okay, so that's a little scarcastic. It was great to hang out with friends and I'm happy to have been able to spend ti

me a place I hold near and dear to my heart. 

Day 3

This part of the trip included the most driving (about 8 hours) and the beginnings of our armadillo road kill sitings. Surprisingly enough, the driving wasn't too bad at all. Kentucky and Tennessee are gorgeous states to drive through for the most part! All the hills and rock formations by the roads are great to look at. And let's face it...it's way more exciting driving through there than it is through central Ohio which is flat, flat, and more flat. We were lucky enough to not encounter too much traffic which was real nice as well. Overall, a solid day of driving.

The place we went to dinner in Mississippi is worth dropping a few lines about. This little pizza place has a presidential seal on the wall because according to google reviews, George Bush liked the pizza so much, he go one of his guards to run over there after their meal and give them a presidential seal. We even saw the seal! 

Day 4

This day of driving was pretty much just a general tour of Mississippi. To be quite honest, it wasn't too exciting. All the exciting stuff was after we reached Baton Rouge. We stayed in BR with a friend of mine from college and also got to catch up for a bit with one of my driving buddy's friends. The highlights of our stay included walking around the Mall of Louisiana, going to Tsunami in downtown BR, and having my friend make us a fantastic breakfast!! : ) While in the Mall of LA, I was introduced to one of the most ridiculous massage chairs I've ever seen. This this definitely had a mind of its own. Our dinner at Tsunami was fantastic. We got to sit out on the patio overlooking the Mississippi River and take part in some great conversation. It's always great to catch up with old friends and introduce new friends to how crazy you and your friends really are. Best of all, our breakfast the next morning prepared us for the final leg of our journey to my final resting place in Texas. 

Day 5

This last day of driving was our shortest part of our journey, but it also included the most overall time driving through the bayou. I'd say that at least 1/4th our drive was on bridges. We also learned that in Texas, bridges are suuuuuper tall! Aside from the Mackinac Bridge, I've never been on bridges quite that tall. It was a little like being on a rollercoaster. Though a little scarier because you're the one driving the car. 

Overall, the most ridiculous part of our entire trip happened in a matter of a few minutes as soon as we arrived in Texas. After meeting my new roommate and getting settled into my new apartment, we went on a mission to find groceries, a gym membership, and other essentials. Our first ridiculous incident came in the form of a total fail by my GPS. My GPS accidentally steered us down the wrong way of a one way expressway. Good job GPS. : / Before we could get creamed by oncoming cars, we turned back around and went the correct way down the street. 

Not far from this little detour, we were sitting at a stop light. The truck next to us had a full set of hydrolics and as we watched, proceeded to drop the back of the truck into the ground. After the initial crack, the truck then proceeded to creep forward, allowing the back bumper of the truck to scrape across the pavement. At this point, I realized that I'm definitely going to need my passport to live here. 

Our next incident was far scarier. As we were about to stop at a light, a motorcyclist in front of us started losing control of his bike and fell/slip a few feet down the road in the lane next to us. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet and was able to avoid any cars. We all immediately stopped to check on him since he had some fairly significant road rash because he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I'd just like to include an aside here to thank all of my motorcyclist friends who ALWAYS wear a riding jacket, helmet, gloves, riding boots and long pants. You guys (or gals) rock. 

After making sure the motorcyclist was okay, we continued on to the HEB to grab some groceries. As we were about to park, a girl who looked about 11 years old was running to her car after her mom. As she ran, her shorts pretty much fell down right in front of us. If everything is determinted by fate or luck or change or whatever, I don't know who decided it'd be a good idea to have us get mooned by a little girl. The problem was, they were parked right in front of us so we had to try and keep from laughing as to not completely humiliate this girl. By the time we finally got out of the car, we had to hold each other up just to walk into the store we were laughing so hard. 

I'm not quite sure how we survived our road trip, but we did! Many thanks to everyone at our stops who provided us with a place to sleep and good conversation! Starting tomorrow I will have to begin what I refer to as "having to be a big kid". I'll have orientation all day then it's back here to start at the plant. Wish me luck! 

So Far So Good

I'd just like to report that our road trip down south is going well! We made a stop over in Cincinnati for a few days to visit some of my friends from a past internship and have no continued on south. Driving so far has been pretty good! Nothing too exciting along the way. Except of course our first armadillo road kill spotting!! An ARMADILLO! It was quite sad looking! We named in Bogart so that Humphrey (the Half-A-Dillo) would have a friend in armadillo heaven. The story of Humphrey is rather long so I won't go into detail. It has something to do with a motorcyclist friend, a rather unfortunate incident, and my odd ability to make up stories about how narcoleptic armadillos bite the dust in Oklahoma. Yes, I'm odd. 

Anyway, all is well and my wonderful friend who volunteered to drive down with me can still look at me without feeling ill (I hope..). My sinus infection is even getting better. It no longer sounds like I have bees up my nose. Though it was reported that I snored last night. : / Sorry! Hmm...other highlights of our trip have included a happy visit to the Ohio River. It has been almost 10 months since my last encounter with the Ohio River. I've visited its buddy the Mississippi River recently, but left it alone. It was good to be reunited and watch B & B Riverboats float down between the many bridges of Cincinnati. Like usual, no trip to Cincinnati was complete without stops at Graeter's Ice Cream and Penn Station!

That is about all I have to report so far. The trip is going well and I am alive! For anyone who saw me a few days ago when I was at the worst of my sinus infection from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, no worries because I'm feeling much better. Time for a little relaxation before bed. We have five hours of driving tomorrow and hopefully so touristy fun at our next destination!  

Oh, the Power of Zithromax!

Since my last post, I have had a substantial amount happen. I've finished up all my coursework (yes!!) of my penultimate semester, had to reinstall Windows on my computer (with help from a CompE friend), completely moved out of my apartment and back into my parent's house, and somehow managed to come down with the sinus infection to end all sinus infections. And now I am about to start packing because in 24 hours I will be moving down south for my summer internship!

I hasn't quite hit me yet that I'll be leaving home for the next three months in the next day. I guess I'll be able to be eased into the idea while road tripping the 1300 miles across the U.S. with my good friend. We'll be stopping to visit a few friends along the way including a few of my work friends in Ohio! : )

As I am clearly still a little fuzzy in the brain from too much cold medicine, I will continue my entries later on this week as we reach our check points. Wish me luck! This is going to be an adventure!

D-O-N-E Spells Get Me Outta Here!

It's official! I have finished Finals without too much mental or physical pain! It's a little bitter sweet since a whole lot of my close friends are going to be graduating, but I wish them all the best. In about 8 months I will be following in their footsteps at Breslin.

In addition to finishing up my classes, today I also added a new electronic gadget to my repertoire. Thanks to the help of my bosses @ The Center, I was able to purchase a Flip Video to add supplemental videos to my career blog! (http://www.spartanjobseeker.blogspot.com) Plus I can use it to send videos to my friends and family at home or wherever they will be. Kind of like little video-grams to prove that I'm still alive and well while I'm far far away from home.

Beyond all that jazz, things are quite uneventful around campus. The crowds are starting to clear out and even the gym was empty at 7 pm on a Tuesday night. I'm just a few details away from getting everything wrapped up for the year AND being ready to move! Yaaay! : )

Being Overwhelmed 101

As of right now, I am in full-on crunch time. And to be honest, school is driving me about as crazy as shown in the photo below (reference Figure 1...I've been writing too many lab reports). Luckily, I've been finding small portions of time to collect my sanity and really get things done. The really only daunting parts of the next two days are a heat transfer final and all the stuff revolving around Design Day. I've been blessed not to actually have a project for DD this year so that will be a HUGE contributing factor to me not being a hot steaming bowl of crazy by Friday afternoon.


Aside from the obvious stress factors in my life, I'd like to share a little something that my Aunt sent me over Christmas. I have taped it into my planner as a reminder. Though I rarely satisfy any of these rules in my daily life, I like to pretend that I'm making an effort to.

The 10 Commandments for Reducing Stress

1. Thou shalt not be perfect or even try to be.
   
2. Thou shalt not try to be all things to all people.
   
3. Thou shalt sometimes leave things undone that ought to be done.
   
4. Thou shalt not spread thyself too thinly.
   
5. Thou shalt learn to say "No."
6. Thou shalt schedule time for thyself and for your supportive network.
   
7. Thou shalt switch off and do nothing regularly.
   
8. Thou shalt be boring, untidy, inelegant, and unattractive, at times.
   
9. Thou shalt not even feel guilt.
   
10. Especially, thou shalt not be thine own worst enemy but be thine own best friend.
    

Okay, so maybe I'm doing a terrible job at doing any of those things considering that in the past 24 hours I've purposely scheduled too many things to do in a day, said "yes" to things I probably should have said "no" to, and kicked my own butt at the gym in a healthy, but not still probably not entirely healthy way. I guess I can just chalk it up to being an upwards battle for now.

Currently, other things on my mind include sleeping and how I'm getting very excited about moving to Texas. The thought of actually having to physically move again makes me a little sick (I hate hauling crap around), but if I suppress that part of moving I'm really looking forward to doing something new. My college town has become old news. I'm ready to meet all new people, try new food, live in a new culture...all the fun things about getting to relocate. It's amazing how a few weeks of catching up on sleep and a new routine can make you feel like you're much more rested and interested. Even though I'll probably be working just as hard or harder than I am now this summer, since it's all new and exciting I won't even notice how tired I am until around my last few weeks. Then it'll be time for school to start again and another big change. Ah, the joy of changing settings every 4 months.

I'd better get to bed as I'm much too tired and blurry to study and this entry is getting a little long. Another roll through in my head of what I have to do tomorrow...errands to SBS & Meijer, Design Meeting, Learn 2 Chapters of Heat Transfer, Take Heat Transfer Final, Mount Posters from 6-9, Go to Bed Early, Design Day, Bar Crawl...Finals...Done.

Okay, I think I can do this. Peace out.

8 Days Until Finals are Over...

Hello and welcome to my personal blog! My overall goal for this blog is to chronicle my adventures over the summer in Texas and continue it as I search for full-time work after I graduate in December. For now, I am finishing up my last few weeks at school and trying to stay sane while all the work piles up. Currently, I am avoiding study for two of my exams on Wednesday and Thursday of this week along with a final project.

Aside from school, my main focus lately has been getting my life in order so that my move to Texas is as pleasant as possible. I've been blessed because my best friend from growing up has agreed to drive with me from school to my internship location deep in Texas. I sincerely hope she is still my best friend after having to tolerate me for 1,300 miles! As of right now, I have my applications for my leases (apartment and furniture) completed and sent in so now I'm just in the process of signing leases and paying way too much money. I can't argue much since I'll be making money soon enough. I guess that's one of the advantages of being an engineer! You can move all over working challenging jobs and you even get paid for it as a student!

I guess that really sums up what all is going on right now. I won't bore anyone with my assignment lists. Those are meant to be scribbled in my packed planner. I just have to keep on telling myself...8 days until my 2nd to last set of Final Exams are over and I can shake things up for a while.