A quick aside before I start the real reason for this post. I just got up from sleeping 11 hours straight, and oh my gosh is that amazing! I don't need it all the time, but about once a month, man is it great!
Anyways, back to the subject at hand. So I have officially been working for an entire year now. There's something about being able to say "I've been here a year" that sounds so much more impressive than "I've been here 10 months". It's a huge milestone, like I finally feel like I have some credibility and that I'm not still "in training". When I really sat down to start thinking about it, I realized that I have completely provided for myself--everything I've needed or wanted--for an entire year. Although I have always been very appreciative of all of the help my parents have given me over the years, there is just something about being able to say that I can take care of myself. I've officially become a productive part of society and financially self sufficient! That makes me a real grown-up!
So, as my second year of employment begins, I am to have an evaluation with my boss regarding my work performance, and I am eager to see where I'm on the right track and where I need to get things together a little more. One thing I definitely want to do is to do more independent research to keep up with journal articles/new techniques, etc. This first year has mostly been just trying to keep my head on straight (and I think I need some more post-it notes!) and I haven't done much other than be a sponge and soak up stuff that the other guys already know. I'm on a quest to become an independent sponge so that I can squeeze out some things of my own for them to learn. All about becoming a team player.
My assessment on adulthood? Some things are not as much fun. . .less vacation time, bills, etc. Some things are much cooler though. . .being able to afford quick weekend getaways, having real furniture, keeping a steady paycheck! I think I'm content to stay where I am at for awhile. . .afterall there is no going back now!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Moving. . .
As the rest of the country has felt the heatwave, the LC valley is no exception. It has been between 95 and 110 for over a week now. And, of course, when it is that hot I decide that it is a good time to move all of my stuff to a new apartment. The new place is great, with the main exception being that the previous owner had a cat, and the cat left behind a not so great odor. I've tried several things with only marginal success, so now it's on to talking to my landloards about the need to replace the carpet in about half of my apartment. Aside from that, I love my garage, I have a ton more room, and central air is a definite blessing. For the sake of Raoul and his allergic reaction to cats, though, I should definitely get the cat thing taken care of. We got most of my stuff moved last weekend, all of the furniture and my clothes, dishes, etc. My electronic stuff came over mid-week when my cable was turned on here, and all I have left is odds and ends like coats (which you don't really think about when it's 110) and storage stuff. Hopefully next weekend I'll have some down time to get the apartment clean and turn over the keys so I can be done with the old place!
This weekend after working a 7 hour day on Saturday, we had the pleasure of having Matt and Emily come in from Seattle. . .though they may have wished that they had stayed there after they got a taste of the heat here. We had dinner at the Sangria grill (yummy!) and went to see "Lady in the Water" while indulging in frozen junior mints. The movie was really fantastic. . .probably my favorite M. Night movie behind "Signs". And, contrary to the trailers, the movie is not scary. In fact, it is really sweet and a wonderful story. Today at church we officially became members, and then we took Matt and Emily to the pizzeria where they know us by name. We took in the "Idaho Sucks" video at the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center, and then went out to the Nez Perce visitor's center. Unexpectedly, a park ranger was giving a talk on how to throw an atlal. And, after some instruction, we were able to try it out for ourselves. Congrats to Matt who was the only one of the four of us who hit the cardboard woolly mammoth! Then Raoul took them back up to Pullman so they could head back up to the coast. It was a quick weekend, but a fun time to catch up with friends.
That leaves me an afternoon/evening of some relaxation. I might catch up on some laundry so I have clothes for the next week, and I need to pick up another load of stuff at the apartment because Jaime's coming over tonight to experience DDR for the first time. I have a feeling an obsession with be born and we'll have another mode of exercise besides walking the bridges. Then to face another week of work and try to get this place in some semblence of order. More to come when I finish the move and hopefully some pictures of the new place too!
This weekend after working a 7 hour day on Saturday, we had the pleasure of having Matt and Emily come in from Seattle. . .though they may have wished that they had stayed there after they got a taste of the heat here. We had dinner at the Sangria grill (yummy!) and went to see "Lady in the Water" while indulging in frozen junior mints. The movie was really fantastic. . .probably my favorite M. Night movie behind "Signs". And, contrary to the trailers, the movie is not scary. In fact, it is really sweet and a wonderful story. Today at church we officially became members, and then we took Matt and Emily to the pizzeria where they know us by name. We took in the "Idaho Sucks" video at the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center, and then went out to the Nez Perce visitor's center. Unexpectedly, a park ranger was giving a talk on how to throw an atlal. And, after some instruction, we were able to try it out for ourselves. Congrats to Matt who was the only one of the four of us who hit the cardboard woolly mammoth! Then Raoul took them back up to Pullman so they could head back up to the coast. It was a quick weekend, but a fun time to catch up with friends.
That leaves me an afternoon/evening of some relaxation. I might catch up on some laundry so I have clothes for the next week, and I need to pick up another load of stuff at the apartment because Jaime's coming over tonight to experience DDR for the first time. I have a feeling an obsession with be born and we'll have another mode of exercise besides walking the bridges. Then to face another week of work and try to get this place in some semblence of order. More to come when I finish the move and hopefully some pictures of the new place too!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I'm Engaged!
OK, so I know that most of you who read my blog already know this fact, but the unanswered question from most of you is "how did he do it?" So here goes. . .
My sister, her boyfriend, and I were driving back up to the KC area after a day in Hutchinson with my family. They were supposed to drop me off in Lawrence with Raoul who was helping Paco pack up his apartment. I called him once we got there and gave the phone to my sis for directions to his location. She said he wanted to meet us at the Union. . .and then proceeded to drive around in circles all over campus (passing the Union several times in the process) because she "hadn't seen campus in awhile". Definitely suspect. Then we ended up in front of the CC house and Paco showed up behind us in his car. He brought up a card for me and a packet for my sister. The card said that Raoul had set up a scavenger hunt for me. At each location, Paco would give me a card with a memory written on it from some special time that Raoul and I had shared at that place. My sister would also give me a question with the answer each time being the next location. I took this trip down memory lane and ended up at the Campanile. From there I walked down to the bench where 4 years ago Raoul and I agreed not to date for a year (do you all remember this? and remember how that promise lasted all of about 2 months?).
Raoul was down at the bench and said I needed to sit down because he had something special for me. He handed me a plastic bag and told me to open my eyes. Now for all of you who know him pretty well, you know that Raoul has a habit of giving people gifts in the bag that they came in from the store. So, this part of the proposal made me chuckle a bit. I looked in the bag and saw a Nintendo DS light with Tetris, the Brain game, and Nintendog (complete with a virtual pembroke welsh corgi). Definitely cool, but not exactly what I was expecting. Then he told me he had something else for me. He reached in his pocket and kind of went down on one knee to bring out. . . the Nintendo DS itself--since he and Poco, and others had been playing it for the last 2 days. He then told me that he knew I wanted something else but that he wasn't quite ready for it. . .and wanted to know if that was OK--to which I replied "well, not really, but I guess it will have to be". Then he said "good, because I'm ready now". Then he got down on one knee and pulled out a gorgeous white gold with a 1.5 carat diamond ring and asked me to marry him. And, of course I said yes! My sister and Poco were present to capture the whole thing on camera, so it was a very special time for us that we will always remember.
So, that's the whole story. No plans on a date yet, still trying to figure out a location first. Regardless of location, we will be planning a casual reception in Washington/Idaho and another back home for our friends in addition to the wedding, so hopefully we'll get to see everybody at some point. I'll keep everyone posted as things come together.
My sister, her boyfriend, and I were driving back up to the KC area after a day in Hutchinson with my family. They were supposed to drop me off in Lawrence with Raoul who was helping Paco pack up his apartment. I called him once we got there and gave the phone to my sis for directions to his location. She said he wanted to meet us at the Union. . .and then proceeded to drive around in circles all over campus (passing the Union several times in the process) because she "hadn't seen campus in awhile". Definitely suspect. Then we ended up in front of the CC house and Paco showed up behind us in his car. He brought up a card for me and a packet for my sister. The card said that Raoul had set up a scavenger hunt for me. At each location, Paco would give me a card with a memory written on it from some special time that Raoul and I had shared at that place. My sister would also give me a question with the answer each time being the next location. I took this trip down memory lane and ended up at the Campanile. From there I walked down to the bench where 4 years ago Raoul and I agreed not to date for a year (do you all remember this? and remember how that promise lasted all of about 2 months?).
Raoul was down at the bench and said I needed to sit down because he had something special for me. He handed me a plastic bag and told me to open my eyes. Now for all of you who know him pretty well, you know that Raoul has a habit of giving people gifts in the bag that they came in from the store. So, this part of the proposal made me chuckle a bit. I looked in the bag and saw a Nintendo DS light with Tetris, the Brain game, and Nintendog (complete with a virtual pembroke welsh corgi). Definitely cool, but not exactly what I was expecting. Then he told me he had something else for me. He reached in his pocket and kind of went down on one knee to bring out. . . the Nintendo DS itself--since he and Poco, and others had been playing it for the last 2 days. He then told me that he knew I wanted something else but that he wasn't quite ready for it. . .and wanted to know if that was OK--to which I replied "well, not really, but I guess it will have to be". Then he said "good, because I'm ready now". Then he got down on one knee and pulled out a gorgeous white gold with a 1.5 carat diamond ring and asked me to marry him. And, of course I said yes! My sister and Poco were present to capture the whole thing on camera, so it was a very special time for us that we will always remember.
So, that's the whole story. No plans on a date yet, still trying to figure out a location first. Regardless of location, we will be planning a casual reception in Washington/Idaho and another back home for our friends in addition to the wedding, so hopefully we'll get to see everybody at some point. I'll keep everyone posted as things come together.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Congrats to Bugsy and Bobo!
Well, we have all officially made it through the wedding in one piece. . .and I must say that it was a fantastic experience. I loved the smallness (is that a word?) because it allowed all of us to really spend some time together and not just run around going crazy making sure everything was in place. The bride was beautiful. . .gorgeous actually. . .and both of them kept things really light and fun--no stress or tension here! Overall, a very fun, relaxing, and special weekend that I feel blessed to have taken part in.
Massachusetts. . .what a crazy state! I've never seen so many trees in my life, and I live near the mountains! Driving there was quite a trick, since they seem to have omitted several important street signs and you cannot see around you because of the trees so it's easy to lose your sense of direction. We did have beautiful weather, though, and even got to spend a few hours at the beach. Our hosts were fantastic and made our experience as minimally confusing as possible. A neat place to visit, but I guess I just love my scenery and wide-open spaces too much!
After much craziness at several airports. . .with a big thank you to the guy who got us on the plane to Providence at MCI even though we almost missed it thanks to not receiving an update on our flight changes. . .and a long drive from KC, I'm finally here at my parent's house for about 24 hours before heading back up to KC. Since the US Senior Open is going on right now, we're pretty much caged in to our neighborhood, but Grandma and Grandpa are coming over for dinner tonight. I also got to see my cousin briefly before she left on a flight to see my uncle's side of the family. . .think driving to the airport at 4:30 am this morning. I promptly came back home to sleep after that!
That's a quick update on our trip so far. Plans to go to the Royal's game on Saturday and meet up with some of my classmates in KC on Saturday. A busy trip, but did I mention that I love being paid to have fun? Yippee for vacation time!
Massachusetts. . .what a crazy state! I've never seen so many trees in my life, and I live near the mountains! Driving there was quite a trick, since they seem to have omitted several important street signs and you cannot see around you because of the trees so it's easy to lose your sense of direction. We did have beautiful weather, though, and even got to spend a few hours at the beach. Our hosts were fantastic and made our experience as minimally confusing as possible. A neat place to visit, but I guess I just love my scenery and wide-open spaces too much!
After much craziness at several airports. . .with a big thank you to the guy who got us on the plane to Providence at MCI even though we almost missed it thanks to not receiving an update on our flight changes. . .and a long drive from KC, I'm finally here at my parent's house for about 24 hours before heading back up to KC. Since the US Senior Open is going on right now, we're pretty much caged in to our neighborhood, but Grandma and Grandpa are coming over for dinner tonight. I also got to see my cousin briefly before she left on a flight to see my uncle's side of the family. . .think driving to the airport at 4:30 am this morning. I promptly came back home to sleep after that!
That's a quick update on our trip so far. Plans to go to the Royal's game on Saturday and meet up with some of my classmates in KC on Saturday. A busy trip, but did I mention that I love being paid to have fun? Yippee for vacation time!
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