Weird Feelings

These past few days have been weird for me.  I've been in all sorts of different moods but none of them have lasted long and some of them have been completely new even for me.

Wednesday was probably one of the best days I've had this semester.  Though it was a Wednesday, it was a long day for me.  I only had a 2 hr break in the morning and didn't really have breaks for the rest of the day.  I did get my friend Steph a guest ticket to come to the PSU-Purdue game while she is in town for Homecoming weekend.  That night I had a WEP Wed meeting where most of my girls came which was exciting.  Later, when I was walking home, I saw the lights in my friend Katie's house were on so I stopped by and we ended up chatting for half an hr about life and our summers.  I left because I was waiting for a text from Em to know when we were going to go for a run.  I ended up getting a call at around 10:30 and went up to meet her.  We ran for 10 mins, took a stretch break, then ran back and sprinted the last little bit.  It was an awesome run and the temperature was great.

Thursday afternoon I was in a mood that was even weird for me.  I didn't want to listen to music.  I didn't want to watch a movie.  I didn't want to see friends.  I just ended up laying on my bed for almost an hour in silence and staring at my ceiling.  Not really sure why but it was really relaxing.  I rarely have any completely quite and still time and it was kind of relaxing.

This weekend is the first canning weekend of the semester and has some interesting stories so far.  If I get the chance I'll post them.

I have time to update my blog?

The past few weeks have gone by so fast and have been so busy.  I'll try to summarize.

Two weekends ago was my brother's wedding.  I had my trip home all planned, sold my 'bama ticket, and was ready to go.  However, mother nature had a different plan.  We (meaning PA) got 13 inches of rain between Sunday and Thursday and the 3 highways I take home were closed due to flooding or mudslides.  Awesome.  For a few hours it was up in the air if I was going to make it home at all, but we found a route that would get me home with minimal issues. It ended up taking 5 hrs to get home instead of the normal 2.5 but I did get to see some towns I would never have seen otherwise.  I also got lost a few times and my GPS had a few issues but I did make it home with about 3 hours to spare.

The wedding itself was typical Burris craziness and I wouldn't have expected anything less.  Braydon wouldn't get dressed and was screaming for his mom who was locked in the bedroom with Niki (the bride) because they were doing pictures.  Riley ripped her dress and was in a mood. No one knew the family dance we were supposed to learn.  However, we all had a blast.

Last weekend I went to visit my friend Bethany at Texas A&M.  It was so much fun and wonderful to see her again.  I got to see and participate in some "weird Aggie traditions" as I like to call them.  It was a little strange to be on a different college campus though.  So many things are similar yet different but it was cool to see everything.

Sunday night when I was flying home, I picked up a Dow recruiter at each stop.  One of the new hires was on my plane from Houston to Philly.  In Philly we ran into the person who originally talked to me about Dow.  Once we landed in SC, on of the recruiters I know fairly well was there to meet them.

This week was Fall Career Week which meant info sessions, recruiting events, and interviews.  I helped out with some Dow events where needed and finally got a Dow shirt.  I'm not sure why I was so excited for this but it was definitely long overdue.  Wednesday was the career fair and I went as someone looking for an internship as well as helped out Dow with recruiting and answering questions.  I talked to a few companies and applied to a few more online.  I ended up getting an interview with Boeing which I wasn't expecting at all since I had just talked to them for the sake of doing so.

My Boeing interview was this morning and somehow I wasn't too nervous about it.  It was in a familiar location but was 3 interviewers vs. me.  Not what I was expecting, but they liked me because I'm getting an offer to intern with them this summer.

I now have GE Energy and Boeing and am still waiting to talk to someone about going back to Dow.  I'm not sure how I feel about all of this, but I guess it's a good problem to have. 

Ginia's Wedding

Last weekend was my cousin's wedding.  She and her husband are really laid back and ourdoorsie people and for years have wanted to get married in the Adirondacks.  That's exactly what they did.  It was a small wedding of close family and friends in a little chapel on Big Moose Lake. 

All of us family members stayed at a place called the Waldheim which was on the same lake.  There were cabins with a few bedrooms in them so between all of my family we were in 2 cabins.  The cabins don't have locks and every morning the fire boy comes in and starts a fire in the fireplace.  He's also in charge of the bonfires at night and preparing the sticks for smores.

In the price of the cabin is breakfast, lunch, and dinner - all sit down meals.  Someone comes through and rings the meal bell.  As long as you are in before closing time, you will be served.  There was a menu and you could pick anything and everything (even some things that weren't on the menu.  If you weren't going to be at lunch, they would pack you a picnic lunch in a basket with a blanked and everything. 

The wedding reception was at an Inn about 20 mins away on 4th lake.  The reception was fairly informal - most people changed into comfortable clothes (jeans, nice shirts, etc.) and played games like horseshoes, croquet, or just chatted.  I sat in a chair on the lake and read a book.

Sign Language

So this semester I am taking CSD 218 which is American Sign Language. It is not a required class for any major (elective for a few majors or minors) so it is all people who actually want to be in the class.  While most are Education or Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) majors, there are a few of us who aren't and are taking it for fun.

I have CSD right in the middle of the day on MWF and I always leave it in a good mood.  No matter how stressed and freaked out I am when I get into class, I always end up laughing and leave with a smile on my face.  I'm not sure why but I'm sure that is a good thing.  It also breaks up the day nicely so I don't have all ME classes.

Since the class started, we have learned the basics such as our ABCs and numbers, moved onto names/asking some questions like "What is your name?"  This week we have done a few more questions and phrases/words like "Are you a hearing person, deaf person, or hard or hearing person?" and "What are your mother, father, sister, and brother's names?"  Today we learned "Where are you from?" and how to sign the States and some cities that we are from.  It is interesting because some cities/states have name signs but others are finger spelled either the entire name or the abbreviation.

Week 1 and Weekend

The first week of classes was crazy busy.  I'm hoping it life will slow down a bit once I adjust to being back at school.

I am definitely having a hard time re-adjusting to classes during the day and meetings at night.  8 months of work ending at 5 and having the rest of the night to do whatever I want makes it hard to get used to this.

My Mondays and Tuesdays don't make it any easier because I go basically straight through from 8 or 9 to 5:30 or 6:30 because of class and TAing EDSGN.  WRF are a little better and will be nice relaxation times before night time meetings. 

This weekend way pretty crazy.  Hurricane Irene was coming up the coast and predicted to hit Jersey/NY pretty hard.  I was supposed to leave PSU at 4, change planes in Philly, and land in Syracuse at around 8:30.  I get to the airport at around 3:30 and find out that our flight is delayed 45 mins.  Fortunately I had a 2hr layover and my second flight was delayed.  So I land in Philly and grab some dinner, find an outlet, and do some homework.  At about 7, I head over to the gate where my flight is scheduled to leave at 7:47.  At about 7:15 the reception person announces that one of the flight attendants hasn't arrived yet and they don't know where she is but will update us when they know.  About 5 mins later I get a call from my mom and just as she is telling me my flight is cancelled, the receptionist announces that our flight is cancelled because the flight attendant isn't going to make it in.  Fortunately for me, Philly airport is only 40 minutes from home so mom came and got me and we drove up to Syracuse together Saturday morning.

The showers weren't bad but I didn't really know anyone except my cousins.

Today, my mom drove me back to school.  We knew before I got on the plane on Friday that my return flights were cancelled in anticipation of the storm.  It was raining pretty hard when we left Syracuse but about halfway through the trip it was bright, sunny, blue skies.  The storm didn't seem to hit anywhere as hard as they expected.  I don't even think our basement at home really flooded which is amazing!

2nd week of classes starts tomorrow.  Hopefully it is less hectic than last week.  We shall see...

First Day of Fall 2011 Semester

Somehow I made it through the first day of "senior" year.  Yes, I am finally kind of admitting that I am a senior. 

My morning started off bright and early with Machine Design (ME 360).  We discovered that the class is basically everyone who started in 2008 but went on co-op at some point between then and now.  Kind of sucks that it's an 8am but what can you do...

After that was IE 312 lab.  Basically today we just saw a tiny part of the lab.  This class could be annoying for not other reason than we have to wear boots and jeans to every lab and because I have it between two other classes, I'll be wearing them all day.  Once it gets colder though I'm sure I won't mind much.

Since it's "Syllabus week," classes like IE lab were short so I had some time to spare between them so I hung out in the HUB for a few hours and did the crossword puzzle.  I then went to Sign Language (CSD 218) and found out that one of my SRCC friends is in it.  I'm super excited.  The professor started off the class by signing her introduction and not talking or mouthing the words and then kinda laughed at us because we all had blank stares on our faces.  She then finished the class talking and told us she would do that same introduction again at the end of the semester but we would be able to understand it.

After CSD, I went to Reber to get some forms to get my degree audit up to date.  I had more time to spare so I just hung out in the ME lab with my friend Meghan.  At 2:30 was Heat Transfer and we learned the 3 types of HT - it reminded me of a conversation I had with NASA friends at Wild West one night.

I got a little break and go to go back to my apartment between 410 and the EDSGN class I TA.  I actually learned some HTML and refreshed myself on Solidworks during EDSGN even though I'm not actually taking the class.

After I finally got back to my apt at 7, I went for a run and have just been relaxing all night.  Mondays are definitely going to be my long and exhausting days.

On to day 2...

WEPO 2011

I’m not sure words can describe how absolutely amazing this year’s WEPO was.  From the girls to the leadership team, the old sessions and new, and everything in between everything was awesome.  

All summer, my girls were really easy to communicate with.  If I called them and left messages, they would call me back.  They would respond to e-mails and if they hadn’t responded in a week, they would apologize for being late with their response.  I couldn’t have asked for a more awesome team.

Tuesday was the leadership team meeting.  After the meeting, Brandi, Ashley, and I met up with a few of our girls at Dunkin Donuts.  They were all really excited for WEPO to start.

Wednesday WEPO officially began.  We were Team E and our color was Aqua.  We had all sorts of goodies for them from buckets with their names on them to tye-died leis to friendship bracelets.  We were also the first team to have all of our girls there so we were the first to lunch.  After lunch, we did some ice breakers and celebrated one of the girl’s birthday with *ndulge cupcakes. We then went up to NLI for the Air Products teambuilding session where they are split up into different groups and make balloon towers.  We, the leadership team, were actually allowed to participate by blowing up balloons this year.  After teambuilding was the picnic at Spring Creek Park.  Since my first WEPO (2008), my friend Amanda and I have signed the bridge and wrote the slogan from WEPO on a bridge at the park.  It was something she started at MTM camp and we continued in WEPO.  Since she is graduating in May, this was her last WEPO so we decided to show Cheryl (the woman in charge of WEPO) what we had been doing and had her sign the bridge with us.  She thought it was wonderful and was very happy we shared it with her.  After dinner, we went and played Broomball.  I couldn’t actually play but everyone seemed to have a good time.  They learned some of the PSU songs we sing at games.  At one point, Cupid Shuffle started playing and everyone on the ice was dancing to it.

                       

2011 Bridge Signing

WEPO 2011 Team E with our aqua leis and capes doing the "Cheryl" pose

Cupid Shuffle during broomball

Cupid Shuffle During Broomball

 

              

Thursday is the long day of WEPO.  Breakfast is at 7am and we’re not done for the night until after 11pm.  This year things were changed up a little due to different sessions and times of activities.  Instead of having group picture immediately after breakfast, we went to our first session.  For my team, this was the Wellness Strategies session (formerly the scavenger hunt).  The girls learned about time management and how to be well and eat healthy.  We then went on a mini scavenger hunt as a team.  They had to take pictures at places like SBS, White Building, HUB Fishtanks, UHS, Green Lamp Room, Rec Hall, and 208 Hammond.  I think they would’ve gotten more out of a traditional style scavenger hunt like I had, but they still enjoyed it.  At the end of their scavenger hunt was the whole group picture.  The girls had purple t-shirts and the leadership team and kiwi green polos.  After the group picture was team pictures at the lion shrine and lunch.  Everything went fairly smoothly and quickly with these pictures and we actually had some free time to finish our scavenger hunt.  The afternoon session was Design where they were to make something that the Nittany Lion could use to launch himself across the football field.  I think the most impressive thing that was used by one of the teams was a turkey baster.  My team was awesome and already had my questions answered before I could ask them.  They also finished early so they had some extra time to get ready before the career dinner.  They career dinner went fairly smoothly too.  We started with our networking reception of Apples to Apples PSU style.  The girls always seem to enjoy that and it gets them talking.  The dinner tables are always different than the Apples to Apples tables so they get to meet more people.  My table this year was sponsored by Dow so I actually knew the two recruiters at my table.  It was the first year I wasn’t intimidated by the dinner because I knew the people at my table.  It made it easy for me to facilitate the conversation and I also recognized a lot of the things Lisa and Lauren were talking about.  After dinner was Spirit Night.  We didn’t get started until almost 11 though which is when they usually want us out of the ballroom.  We didn’t actually finish until 12 but I think everyone had fun.

WEPO 2011

WEPO 2011 Team E-1

Team E-1 Design Project

            

Friday was the last day.  The day started a little later and the girls were happy about that.  Our session for the day was Professional Development.  They learned a little bit about the PSU websites they will be using a lot as well as how to use Solidworks and make a Resume that they can take to the career fair.  I was really impressed that no one was on Facebook during the session event the girls who were here for summer session and knew what was going on already.  After PD, the girls presented their design projects to the judges and then we went to our end of WEPO picnic.  We were planning on being outside but just as people were finishing up presenting, the sky turned black and we got a PSU text about hail and wind and stay inside until further notice so we had to move lunch inside.  The leadership team gave Cheryl an awesome gift this year.  It was her 10^th year running WEPO and she has all of the past participant t-shirts.  The leads put them together on a quilt and the leadership team plus alumni all signed it.  She was speechless.

Cheryl's Gift

Back at State!!

I'm giving up on trying to post a bunch of summer pictures...they're not cooperating again.

Past few days at home were fairly uneventful.  Most of our plans were cancelled due to rain.  I think I should start bottling it and sending it to Texas.

I'm now back up at  PSU and moved into my apartment.  I did a small job of unpacking and am now relaxing.  I'm meeting my friend from dinner (hopefully) and I'm really excited because I haven't seen her in way too long.  Tomorrow will be running errands then WEPO.  I'm super excited to finally meet my girls!!!

Roadtrip Home

Slowly I'm posting about the last few weeks of the summer.  This one will be about the trip home and hopefully the next will allow me to upload some pictures.

So the last Friday in Texas, my mom's flight was scheduled to land in Houston at 2:30.  Since I technically had to be out of my apartment by 10, Steph and I decided to go out to Clear Lake and get some of our NASA friends together for lunch.  We met Grier at 11 because she had class at 12 and Alan and Pete met us a little before 12 just as Grier was leaving.  While we were eating, I got a message from my mom that her flight had just landed in Charlotte but the airport was closed so she couldn't get on her connection.  Steph and I went to the Kemah Boardwalk for a little bit then she went to meet her friend at a museum and I headed up to near the airport to find a Starbucks or Panera so I could get wifi and do homework.  Mom ended up landing around 5:30 so we had to spend another night in Texas though weren't too far from the TX/AK border.

Saturday was the long drive to Nashville.  We left around 7:30am and got to Nashville at 5:30 and had enough time to eat dinner and get over to the Opry for the show.  I really didn't recognize most of the performers or songs but it was a good show anyway.

Sunday morning we did a bus tour of the homes of the stars.  I took some pictures but don't really remember whose home is whose.  After the tour we went to lunch with my friend Michelle and one of her friends.  It was really nice to see her again.  It seems like we catch each other for 2 hours in passing through where the other one is but never really plan to see each other and never see each other at home.  We then continued our trek home and stopped on the TN/VA border for the night.

Monday we finished the drive.  We stopped in DC to meet up with Bethany and her family for dinner.  We got there around the time their tour ended.  We were trying to find each other and discovered that the roads on all sides of the Capitol are the same names except for NW/SE, etc.  We were on the corner of 1st and C as so were they but we were not on the same corner.  About half an hour later we finally found each other and went to dinner at a family style Italian restaurant called Carmines.  It was pretty good.  After dinner we finished the drive home and got back at about 10:30.

End of Summer 2011 - BSMTTDL

I can't believe that the summer is basically over.  The past two weeks were full of  a lot of fun things keeping me busy - I don't even remember them and that would be a really long post.  I focus this one on our BSMTTDL

So as our time was winding down Steph (S) and I (M) asked Bethany (B) what we needed to do before leaving LJ/Texas.  This became Bethany, Stephanie, and Maria's Texas To-Do List (BSMTTDL).  We completed everything on it before leaving.

• Burritos
• S and I wanted to have burritos one last time before we left.  Since we had never been to Freebirds, we decided to go there one Wednesday and meet up with some friends on our way up to Clear Lake.  Freebirds is kind of like a Chipotle.
• Chicken Fried Steak
• So this is huge in Texas but we hadn't tried it.  We had B think of where we could get a good one and one of the places was where co-op lunch was one week so we got Chicken Fried Steak then.  I don't really know how to describe it but it was good.
• Space Center
• We ended up going with two of our friends from NASA and they showed us around a bit.  We didn't have enough time to go on one of the tours that would have been interesting but that just means we need to go back.
• Steak Fingers
• They're kind of like Chicken Fried Steak but in Chicken Finger form.  We did this for lunch one day.
• Creamsicles
• This Way/That Way Picture
• Names in downtown LJ are all some sort of "Way."  There's circle, winding, parking, and of course this and that.  Well, the two intersect and the street sign is easily accessible to pedestrians...
• Fried Pickles
• S had never had some so the same lunch we had chicken fried steak,we also had fried pickles
• BSM Pictures
• these happened whenever we remembered - matching outfits (only partially planned), dancing, etc.
• Dancing at Wild West
• I really wanted to go to Wild West one more time before leaving TX.  Fortunately the tropical storm cooperated and let us go.  I think that is going to be one of the things I miss most in PA
• See Grier
• Yes she was on our TTDL and we saw her twice.  She came to Freebirds and S and I ate lunch with her on my way to the airport to pick up my mom for the drive home.
• Emperor's New Groove/Men in Tights
• We were going to watch Emperor's new groove the one night at B's house but never did so naturally we wanted to watch it.  Crazy movie.
• All summer B has been quoting Men in Tights but I had never seen it.  One night a couple of us got together, made pizza and brownies, and watched it.  Actually a decent movie and there were things B had been saying all summer that finally made sense.
• Beach
• So it didn't look like this was going to happen, but it did.  We were coming back from Clear Lake for the last time and B and I had had Barefoot Blue Jean Night stuck in our heads ALL day.  We're on our way home and would have been home at a normal time of 10:30 but we decided to go down to the beach in our jeans and put our feet in the water and have a Southern, Summer, Barefoot, Blue Jean Night (SSBBJN).  We stood in the water and sang a bunch of random songs for about an hour.  Definitely an awesome way to end the summer.
• What happened to the cow
• On our way to Clear Lake, we passed this event center that had a cow on it's roof.  A few weeks ago we noticed the cow was missing and wanted to know what happened to it.  We called up the event center and the receptionist said she had wondered the same thing at first but that someone had borrowed it so it was in the back room waiting to be put back up.
• Jimmy Johns
• B had never been to Jimmy Johns and a new one opened just across the street from NASA so we went there for dinner on our last trip up to Clear Lake.  I don't think that B is a fan...

I'll add pictures of all of this later.

Only 2 Weeks Left

I cannot believe that I only have 2 weeks left down here.  This summer has gone by so fast and has be so much fun.  I really want to figure out how to come back down here next summer - whether it is with Dow again or with another company.

This past week things have started winding down at work.  My projects are more less done and I'm not really getting any more just because of timing.  The next two weeks have a few plant tours and presentations to fill up the days.

On Monday Bethany and I went for a 4 mile walk.  We started walking through her neighborhood and got home over an hour later.  It is amazing how you can start walking and talking and lose all sense of time.

Tuesday was Ultimate.  The field we usually play on had a sign on it that said it was closed but the other field had a bunch of kiddos at football camp on it so we decided to play on our normal field anyway.  A few minutes into the games, someone comes over and kind of yells at us for playing on it.  We were going to move to the outfield of one of the baseball fields but they were all locked so we ended up playing on a kids sized soccer field that was more of a square - it was short but wide.

Wednesday night Bethany, Steph, and I had a Disney sing-along on the way out to Clear Lake.  It was definitely a good time.

Friday morning, the three of us woke up early to go watch the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.  It was pretty despite the sun being behind a giant cloud. Pictures aren't cooperating right now so if I can get them to wokr later I'll upload them in a different post.  Friday night a few of us went to The Armadillo to go dancing.  It wasn't as fun without our normal crew but it was still a good time.

Saturday afternoon Bethany, Steph, Bethany's 5 year old cousin, and I went to the Children's Museum in Houston.  I love children's hands-on museums because they are always full of awesome science facts and activities.  Did you know that peanut butter is a liquid not a solid?  Saturday night we spend the night at Bethany's.  We were going to watch a movie but ended up just sitting around the kitchen and chatting while her mom baked for today.  We made our bucket list for our last few weeks here.  I will try to keep that updated on here too.

Today we experienced breakfast tacos for the first time.  The ones we ate had egg, cheese, bacon, and potatoes.  It was very good.  At Church we spent the entire time in the daycare room with the kiddos.  There were four that showed up today so it was fun to play with them.  The room we were in is the 15month-ish old kiddos who are adorable.  After Church we (the co-ops/interns/new hires) went to one of the families houses to hang out in their pool.

Fitting In

Have you ever gone to a new place and instantly felt welcomed and that you belonged?  That is how I feel with the JSC Bible Study group.  This is the group I went to San Antonio with a few weekends ago.  Since then, I have gone with Bethany and Steph to Church on Sunday's and to Bible Study on Wednesdays and I am completely comfortable.

I had been struggling with feeling like I belonged with our Dow crew.  Not that they weren't welcoming, but I felt like I was pretending to be someone I wasn't.  A lot of the group is all about "getting wasted" every weekend and they just aren't really responsible and I'm not comfortable around many of the guys.

I really hope that once I go back to school I can keep in touch with the group (especially Bethany and Steph) and even find a Bible Study/Church group that I feel as comfortable with.  That is something I have struggled with in the past but I am hoping this summer's experience will open me up to the new environment more.

Crazy Life

The past two weeks have been really busy after work.  I've been going non-stop and don't even really remember everything that has happened. 

Week after 4th of July was fairly slow at work.  My supervisor was out so I didn't really have much to do.  He had given me a few projects but the people I needed to work with were either out of the office or did my job for me and e-mailed my supervisor the results.  My officemate Bethany wasn't really there either so I was left to fend for myself.

Last Friday night I went with my friend Steph to see one of our other co-ops in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at the local community theater.  Saturday I went to Galveston with my Brittany, Madelyn, and Suchit.  We hung out on the beach for a bit then went to the "shopping" district to wander.  Saturday night a group of us went up to dance at Wild West.  Sunday was Church, but most of the NASA co-ops weren't there because they were on their way back from Florida after the last launch.  After Church, those of us who were there went to the beach for the afternoon.  It was fun to spend time with people who don't just want to lay out on the beach all afternoon.  After the beach we went to Bethany's house for a game night.  We played Quelf which is best described as a board game, alcohol free version of Kings.

This week at work was a little better.  I learned how to use a program called Caesar to input pipe isos and do stress analysis.  I felt like a real engineer.  It also stressed me to the point that I went for a 2.17 mile, 25 minute solid run (which is long for me).

Thursday night, Brittany and I made pizza in our apartment.  It came out really well despite having issues with the crust.  A group of us then went to the midnight Harry Potter movie.  However, we didn't think our tickets were assigned based on when we bought them so we were split up.  Fortunately, there were 2 of us in each theater so we did have company.  Bethany and I were together, slightly delerious/tired, and were in a theater of high schoolers who knew each other for 3 hrs prior to the start of the movie.  It was definitely interesting.  The movie itself was pretty good.

Me, Steph, Mary Katharine, and Bethany

Friday, Bethany was heading out to College Station (Texas A&M) to visit some friends and invited Steph and me along.  On the way we stopped in Brenham at the Blue Bell Creamery and did a tour.  Once we got to A&M, Bethany took us on a driving tour.  I find it weird to be on the campus of another school but I actually liked it.  I guess in a sense it reminds me of PSU.  We did get out at one point to go to the "clapping tower."  They have a meteorology building which has sections that if you stand in them and clap, you can hear the echo and it is really cool.  Friday night we went The Hall and met up with Alan (a NASA intern) and some of his roommates.  It was really cool to dance with guys who I didn't know but who knew what I was doing.  I learned that I am actually fairly good at following even when I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.  One of the guys didn't believe me that I hadn't done country dancing until about 4 weeks ago.  I took that as a complement because he was really good and had danced with a lot of people before.

Today we went to Layne's for lunch.  It is basically a little hole-in-the-wall chicken places in College Station and it is pretty good.  We then went to the George Bush Library which was pretty cool.  I learned a lot I didn't know.  After the Library, we drove the 2 hrs back to LJ and tonight is just a lazy Saturday night.  Tomorrow is Church and depending on the state of my homework I may go up to the Space Center in Houston.

Fourth of July Weekend

Over the weekend I was supposed to go to New Orleans (NOLA) with some of the co-ops but for multiple reason I decided it would be better for me to not go.  So I stayed here in LJ and had a nice relaxing weekend.

 

Wednesday and Thursday after work a few of us drove up to Clear Lake (NASA) for Bible Study and Game Night respectively.  Both times coming home we got pulled over.  Fortunately the one was a warning and the other was just because they though my friend was a drunk driver but it was just that we didn't know where we were going/which lane we needed to be in.

 

Friday night I went up to Wild West with Bethany and two fo the NASA guys - Alan and Pete.  Alan is the one who is really good at dancing and so he's the one who always teaches everyone.  Pete and I were dance partners for the night and by the time we left we had kind of mastered some of the spins.

 

Saturday I slept for like half the day (accidentally).  I got up, took a shower, then sat down to watch a movie like I usually do when I wake up at 9 on a weekend.  Wel I fell asleep and didn't wake up again until 1.  Guess I needed to make up sleep from not getting home until 3am Friday morning.

 

Saturday night I hung out with Bethany and her friend Jeana.  Jeana was housesitting in Bethany's neighborhood so we went over there, watched The Italian Job, and spent the night.

 

Sunday I went to Church with Bethany.  We went early so we could hang out with the little kiddos in the nursery.  A group of the people from Bible Study comes down to Grace Bible Church (Bethany's Church) on Sundays (thats how she met them) so after Church we all went to Sonic for lunch.  Sunday afternoon I spent forever writing my paper then went for a 1.65mi (non-stop) run which I'm still not sure how I did that.  It felt really good though.  I've started running through the neighborhood next to the park as well as my normal route through the park just for a change of scenery.  I'm trying to convince Bethany to come running with me so if I can we may go running through her neighborhood which will be another change of scenery for me.

 

Yesterday, Bethany and I drove up to Sarah's house in Clear Lake for a cook-out and to see fireworks.  Sarah just moved into her house this past weekend so it was exciting to be able to use it for a large get together so soon after moving in.  At 8 we left for the Kemah Boardwalk to watch fireworks over the bay.  They were absolutely amazing and had a good mix of music (mostly country and clearly america related) in the background to og along with the fireworks.

 

This week at work is kind of low-key.  My supervisor isn't here so I'm kind of fending for myself.  Bethany wasn't here today and isn't here Thursday so I really am on my own.

San Antonio Pics

Here are some of the pics from San Antonio.  Some of them I took and some I stole from the people I went with.  In total there were about 30 of us on the trip.  The only time all of us were together though was at Schlitterbahn (no pictures) and the Caverns (no pics of all of us).

My office mate Bethany and me in the Natural Bridge Caverns

The girls in the hotel before going to the Riverwalk the first night. L-R is Sarah, Nikki, Bethany, Steph, and me

We didn't actually eat here because of time but this was our main group who were always together.

Our car on the dinosaur at Natural Bridge Caverns.  Alan was our driver (NASA intern) and Nikki (also from NASA) then me, Bethany, and Steph from Dow.

We stopped at the largest Buc-ee's.  It's kind of like a Wawa or Sheetz I guess.

Our group from The Alamo

San Antonio

 Over this past weekend I went to San Antonio with some NASA co-ops and two friends from here.  There were about 30 of us total on the trip.  We left from Houston on Friday after work and left San Antonio on Sunday to come back home.  In San Antonio we went to the Riverwalk, Schlitterbahn, Gruene Hall, The Alamo, and Natural Bridge Caverns.  Throughout the trip we had a common theme of "Nerd Alert."  Since most, if not all, of the group was engineers, we had a lot of conversations that "normal people" wouldn't have had.

 

Friday night we went to the Riverwalk for some dinner after checking into our hotel.  It was already kind of late so we just wandered a bit, ate dinner at a Mexican place called Casa Rio and then went back to the hotel.

 

Saturday morning we were up and at 'em early for Schlitterbahn.  Schlitterbahn is a waterpark in New Braunfels, TX which was about half an hour or so from our hotel.  My car got to the park at around 9:45 but the person who was in charge of the tickets didn't get there until almost 11 because of traffic and having to park someplace else because the lot was full.  We went on a ride called Master Blaster first then went in the "lazy" river for a bit.  I say "lazy" because it had a wave maker that would send waves through it periodically.  We then went out to one of the other two parks for some more tube rides.  In that park we had to carry our tubes from ride to ride with us.  They were innertubes out of truck tires basically.  When we got off of one ride, all of us were actually together so we decided we would all go to the next ride together and try to stay in line together which we hadn't accomplished yet.  So we decide to chain our tubes (grab the tube in front of you and behind you) and walk across the park like this.  We had 20-25 "kids" aged 19-25 walking through the park all attached to each other by tubes.  It was so much fun and people were just laughing at us.

 

Saturday night we went to a country dance place called Gruene Hall.  It is the oldest place of its kind in Texas.  We were going to eat dinner at a place called The Gristmill which was right next door but the wait was too long so we went back to a counter serve bbq place called Rudys.  At Gruene Hall, some of the guys wanted to learn how to do the spins with girls so the one guy who knew it taught the guys and we, the girls, learned as well.  Next time we go to Wild West in Houston we will actually know what we are doing.

 

Sunday we woke up a little later and at breakfast as a group.  We also did Sunday Devotional because we couldn't go to church.  We then had some free time to explore San Antonio on our own.  Most of us went to The Alamo for a bit then headed to the Riverwalk to find food before we left for Natural Bridge Caverns.  Natural Bridge was pretty cool.  I didn't take many pictures because I was more focused on not falling and getting hurt.  Basically it was a self led tour.  There were guides in the "rooms" who would speak about that particular room and what we would find in the "hallways" to the next room then send us off on our own to the next room.

 

All in all it was a awesome weekend and I'm so happy I went.  I made a lot of new friends and had so much fun.  I'll post some pictures in the next post.

Week Recap

This past week has been fairly uneventful.  I am still having a great time down here though.  I can't believe it's almost halfway over already!

Monday - My supervisor finally took me out for my "welcome" lunch.  We went to a place on the beach.  He purposely drove his Mercedes convertible to work so we could take it down to the beach.

Tuesday - Co-op/New Hire training. Pretty much we sat in a room all day and listened to people talk about how great Dow is and how to be safe, expectations of us, etc.  We did have a decent lunch and snacks though.  Ultimate as usual.  They are fixing the field we normally play on or something like that so we had to play on the other field which had a lot more cracks in it.  We only played 2 games but played longer than we normally do.

Wednesday - Bowling after work.  We went to a different place last time that was a little better than the last place we went to but still really outdated.  Madelyn had gotten an 8lb ball from behind the counter and was given specific instructions not to let any of the guys use it.  Well, Brent wasn't paying attention when we told them all that and he goes to bowl, picks up the 8lb ball and when he goes to throw it he managed to bounce it off the wall.  The owner didn't like us too much after that but he couldn't really do anything because we were the only people there so if we left then he didn't have any customers.

Thursday - Tried to figure out logistics of the NOLA trip for 4th of July weekend.  We didn't get too much accomplished though.

Friday - Went to the beach for the afternoon then had a party in Residence.  It was a fun day.

Today - My roommate just got here and is moving in.  Tonight we are going over to Villages for a bit then to Armadillo's Country Ballroom for some dancing.

Houston - Take Two

Our second venture to Houston was a little better than the first.  One of the co-ops had been told that he had to go to a bar called Howl at the Moon before he left.  Unfortunately this bar is 21+ to get in so all us youngins wouldn't be able to go.  We compromised with them that they could go to Howl early for Happy Hour and stuff then come over to Wild West around 10.  Wild West is a 18+ to enter country bar/ballroom kind of like Armadillos (which I think I described in an earlier post) but better.  So come Friday night, Lyds and I are all ready to go but hadn't heard anything from the Howl group so she texts them and they tell us they aren't going to Wild West after all.  After some discussion and texts to some other people who were at Howl, we determined that some people would go over so off to Wild West Lyds and I went.

Apparently Lyds is a magnet for old guys because we weren't even in Wild West for 5 mins when this guy who was probably close to my dad's age came up to her and started hitting on her.  Then this kid who she described as "he's so young he's an undecided major" asked her to dance so she did.  I then found my officemate/friend Bethany with some of her friends who are NASA co-ops and I hung out with them until the rest of our group got there.  I learned how to two-step differently and learned some spins and stuff which was amazing.  I can't wait to go back there.

Let me explain something about the music they play at these "country ballroom" places.  They play 6 or so country songs ranging from older songs to current songs that people two-step to.  They then play a line dance such as Copperhead Road (our favorite) or Cotton Eyed Joe (which is done differently down here), etc. They then play one or two hip-hop songs for the younger crowd (aka us) to dance to "normally."

Saturday, Lyds and I were going to go to Wal-Mart to get cups for the night and ended up coming home 4 hours later with cowboy boots.  Definitely a good investment for down here!  I also got my dad a cowboy hat for Father's Day.  I will post a picture of the boots soon.  So this excursion started with us trying to find a place that was supposedly in Lake Jackson.  After a few laps by where it should have been, we determined it wasn't there.  So, we use my phone for internet and GPS and find a place out past Sweeney which is about 35 mins away.  So we drive out there and this place is a little shack on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.  We go in, but most of the boots were only in one size per style and were quite a bit more money than we wanted to spend.  So we drive back into town where there is cell phone reception and decide to go to this place that is a chain in Houston called Cavenders.  This is now about an hour or so from where we were.  So we drive out there and were successful then came home.

Ultimate and Kolaches

So I'm officially back to being able to run again so I could finally play Ultimate Frisbee with the group this past Tuesday.  I ended up playing one of the three 25 minute games and it was so much fun.  I still can't really pivot/cut/jump/stop running quickly, but I didn't do too bad.  I think my team lost the game I played in but we had a lot of fun.  The field was a little muddy due to a storm we got earlier in the day (which is another story) but we really didn't get too muddy.  There is a huge drought here though so the 1/2" of water we got was basically all the rain they've gotten in the past year.  I'm so sore from Ultimate though.  Going back into something like Ultimate full swing after not really be able to do much as far as exercise for a few months sure makes your muscles hurt.  I've also started running after work.  The park where we play Ultimate has a little trail that is a little less than a mile.  This week I've been running one lap and it hasn't been too bad.  I'll probably start adding more laps throughout the summer so I can get back into shape before heading back up to PSU in August.

On our way down to Texas, my mom and I keep seeing signs for "kolaches" at doughnut places.  We weren't sure what they were but we never stopped to explore.  Last week, my tech supervisor was trying to explain them to me and I wasn't really grasping the concept.  Well today I had my first kolache.  I guess the best way to explain them is kind of like a cross between a pig in a blanket and a hot pocket/stromboli.  A kolache is a sausage wrapped in a doughnut/bread dough (it's sweet like a doughnut but has the consistency of bread).  It is a breakfast food that is popular in Texas.  They can also contain things like cheese, jalapenos, and ham among other things.  The one I had contained cheese, jalapenos, and sausage but I took the jalapenos out because it was too spicy for 7:30am.  It was actually pretty good and I would definitely have one again.  Here is a link to a website about them.  http://www.alwayshungryny.com/thought-for-food/entry/alwayslearning-kolaches/

Houston Adventure

Last night we went to Houston to celebrate some birthdays that have happened this past week/over the weekend.  There are so many stories so I'll just tell a few.

We were going to 18+ places so that everyone could be included.  That meant that those of us who are under 21 were asked if we could DD.  My car is falling apart so I said I would as long as I could borrow someone's car.  After a few issues with drivers and people not being able to go then other people wanting to go, we figured it out.  Lydia, Megan, and Amy drove to Houston and Lydia, Megan, and I drove for the night.  So my car (Amy, Sarah, Suchit, and me) were the last ones on the road after switching cars around and we started about 10-15 minutes after everyone else.  Megan was following Lydia because Lydia had directions.  So our car is finally on the highway and there are cops everywhere.  Suchit and I immediately say "Lydia got pulled over" because we've both been in the car with her and have experienced her driving.  So we pass one cop and realize he has Megan pulled over.  Now I hadn't really met Megan at that point but she just didn't seem like the kind of person who would get pulled over for speeding.  We pass another cop and are surprised to see that he doesn't have Lydia pulled over either.  So we determined that Megan was pulled over while following Lydia.  About 15 minutes later we see Lydia on the side of the road waiting for Megan.  Our car arrived in Houston about and hour at least before the other two cars.  It took them two and a half hours to go what should have been about an hour.  Once in Houston we switched cars around again and I was driving the car of people from Houston, Megan was driving the three I rode up with and Lydia had everyone else.  This will come into play later.

So, now we're in Houston.  Everyone who wasn't driving was pre-gaming a bit before we went to this club/bar called Rich's.  We get to Rich's, go in, and are a bit surprised that the cover is only $10 for guys and free for girls.  We were all expecting to pay $10 or $15.  We got there early so it wasn't crowded yet and we just all sort of hung out for a while.  As the night progressed, it got really crowded.  The best way to explain it was a colorful frat, that played techno music mixed with some hip-hop, served liquor in addition to beer, charged for water, and you had to pay to get into.  Now I don't mind going out, but I'm not too big of a fan of having random people I don't know and are of unknown sexual orientation trying to get with me in an unfamiliar place like Houston.  I should probably note that this was not a "gay bar" so to speak but there were quite a few people/groups who we were unsure about.  Even my friend who is bi wasn't sure what they were. (I know this is all sounding really bad but I'm not sure how else to explain it).

At around 1:30 the three of us drivers started trying to round people up which was hard because no one was answering phone and just when we thought we had everyone, someone else would disappear and we would have to go track them down.  By this point I was tired and getting very bitchy and not wanting to deal with drunk people (especially this one kid in our group who drives me nuts when he is drunk).  We finally get everyone together and my car heads back to the Houstoner's apartment and so does Megan just to drop people off.  We (Amy's car from the drive up) were spending the night in Houston instead of driving the hour back at 2:30am like everyone else.  Well, on the way to their apartment, Suchit gets sick in Megan's car.  Poor Megan has never hung out with on the weekend and probably never will again after last night.  My car had Jake (whose car I was driving) in the passenger seat and he was so focused on music, Rob passed out in the back, and Cody and the Houston girl talking and driving me nuts as well in the back seat.

This morning, we all slept until like 11 or so then decided to go to 5 Guys for lunch since some of the people had never been there before.  After lunch we hung out with the Houstoners for a bit more then came back to LJ.  I am still so tired from it that I'm thinking I'm going to bed early tonight.

Memorial Day Weekend

I am officially in love with being down here in Texas!!!!!  It is awesome and I am having so much fun, meeting a lot of people, and learning a lot of things.  This weekend has been so much fun but also really tiring.  I didn't really take many pictures but I'll post what I have at the end.

Friday we went to the beach.  Some of us had off on Friday due to our work schedules so we got to the beach around 1:30 and set up camp.  Some of the other people came down after work so we had a pretty nice sized group by the time we were ready to leave.  First thing we did was go in the water.  It was so nice especially compared to what I'm used to the water being when I go to the beach.  It wasn't too warm but wasn't too cold and there were only rocks/shells for a few feet when you first went in.  As you were walking out, you would get to about chest deep in water then come across a sandbar so you could go out pretty far.  When we came back up to the beach, there was a grandma with her granddaughter and a dog and they told us about man-o-wars.  Basically they are like jellyfish but worse.  None of us had seen one but there was one washed up on the beach that she showed us.  We threw around a frisbee for a bit, a few more people arrived, then went back into the water.  When we came back out we had found that another man-o-war had washed ashore right where we had gone into the water.  It was kind of scary to think that we were swimming with that thing.  We had bought a cheap volleyball (note the word cheap) from a local gas station and were playing with that when all of a sudden on of the seams came undone.  We continued to play and noticed that the ball inside that inflates was beginning to bulge out of where the seam was ripped.  We still kept playing but after a few more minutes it was to the point we couldn't use it anymore.  So being engineers we decide it will be a good idea to remove the outer layer of the ball and just play with the inner piece.  some of the guys ripped some more of the seams and we finally got the inner ball out.  The outer shell then made for a pretty cool looking hat.  Unfortunately, the inner part was too light to use.  We also had a kite which wouldn't stay up even though it was windy so it became a game of "how many engineers does it take to fly a kite."  At about 6:30 we called it a day and went to a place on the beach called Pirate's Alley for dinner.  After dinner, we all hung out at one of the full timer's apartment and then migrated to my friend Amy's apartment.  There's a lot of stories from the night that I'd rather not post here.

Saturday was fairly low key.  A few people went to Galveston, but most of us didn't want to go spend all day on the beach again so we just stayed here.  Saturday night we went to a country ballroom called Armadillo's.  It was totally not what I expected.  It was almost like a warehouse/barn that they put a dance floor and tables in.  There was a live band who would play about 6 or so country songs (a mix of old and new songs), a line dance song, then a Hip-Hop/Top 40 song and kept repeating that cycle.  It took some getting used to but was a lot of fun.  We all learned to two-step the Freeport, TX way and also learned some versions of line dances like Copperhead Road.

Sunday we had a cookout by the pool in my apartment complex.  We had burgers and hot dogs, chips, brownies, and cookies.  We then had the whole group of us in the pool and ended up taking over like half of it.  We found a ball and started playing monkey in the middle and by the end it was getting very physical and competitive.  Sunday night we went to a bar called Pier 30.  When we arrived around 9 we were told that everyone "under age" meaning under 21 would have to leave at 10.  We stayed anyway and no one ever told us we had to leave so we just stayed.  I'll just say that it was an experience and I'm not really sure if I would go back there again.  We all left around 12 or so and went to IHOP.  We were "that" group in the restaurant that was just loud and obnoxious.  We were all so tired that everything was funny and somehow we had the "dominant personalities" at the same end of the table so we were just attacking each other.

We're still not sure what we're doing today but I think we're all so tired and worn out from the weekend that no one really wants to do anything.  Maybe we'll do a movie night later and all go to bed early for work tomorrow.

The first man-o-war.  It had been washed up for a while.  The kind of look like plastic bottles from a distance.

The second one that washed up while we were in the water.  This one got buried later and a bunch of us almost stepped on it.  They can still sting even after they're washed ashore, deflated, and dead.

The Gulf of Mexico!!!

Lydia and the remnants of the volleyball covering.  It makes a perfect hat.

Where is the time going?

This summer is going by so fast!!!  Two of twelve weeks are already over and I'm loving every minute of it.

Monday night a group of us got together to watch HP7.  It was a lot of fun.  Madelyn hadn't seen it yet so she kept asking questions and Lydia and I would fill her in.  Meanwhile, Lydia was ready to kill Chase at some points just because of his comments.  Lydia is the master of saying unexpected things that are completely true and making everyone laugh.  We were all joking about how we weren't going to sleep well (with the exception of Chase) because it was already dark when we started watching it and LJ (Lake Jackson) is still a new area for all of us.  Well, walking back to my apt a building away, an air conditioner turned on and scared the crap out of me.

Tuesday was Ultimate.  I went and threw the frisbee around before the games started and sat and watched the games.  My knee is feeling awesome but I don't want to push it too much yet so I'm going to go slow in going back into doing things.

Last night and tonight I am just hanging out in my apt and relaxing.  I can feel myself starting to get sick and I'm trying to fight it off before it gets too bad.  Tomorrow those of us that have off are going down to the beach around lunch time and everyone who has work is joining us after work.  The plans for the rest of the weekend are still up in the air but may include rafting, going to Houston, a cookout, and more beach time.

First Weekend

I definitely like having other people around to hang out with.  I have made a lot of new friends and hope to meet more as more people arrive. 

Thursday night I went to dinner with my friend Amy and her mom because they had just arrived in the area.  I then went to get frozen yogurt at a place called Cherry Berry with two of the other co-ops Madelyn and Lydia.  We then went to a party at one of the full timer's apt in our complex but we were tired and ultimately left at like 10 even though only one of us had work the next day.

Friday I just kind of hung out on my own.  I ran some errands, did laundry, and unpacked a bit more.  Friday night we went over to the other apartment complex that has co-ops and spent the night there.  It was interesting when we went to play drinking games like Kings because we are from all over the country and have different variations of the same games or know the games by different names.  We all agreed on a set of rules and wrote it down for future reference.

Saturday I actually slept in until 9am which is awesome after waking up at 6am all week.  After breakfast I hung out with Amy in her apt until her roommate arrived.  We discovered Harry Potter Weekend on ABC Family.  Saturday afternoon Amy, Madelyn, Lydia, and I went to the pool in our complex for a bit.  It was a bit overcast but the temperature and breeze were wonderful.  Last night a group of co-ops over 21 were going to Houston so those of us who weren't 21 or didn't want to go stayed here.  Amy and I were playing on her Wii and watching HP Weekend until we found out that High School Musical was on.  We then looked up the HSM drinking game and killed a bottle of wine in 40 mins.  We then discovered that we can get Rugrats on Netflix and began a list of thing to do this summer.

Today was just a lazy day.  We continued our HP watching marathon for most of the day.  At one point Amy's roommate went for a run so we decided to go to Target because Amy needed a wireless router and I needed a new bathing suit.  Our trip was a success and ended with a stop at Sonic for limeades, tater tots, and mozzarella sticks.  I then took Amy and her roommate Sarah on a trip out to where they need to go for work tomorrow.  All in all, it wasn't a bad day or first real weekend in Texas.