The New Roommate

So, he got in on Sunday night around 1:30AM. I hung out with him for a little bit and then went to sleep. I did get to hang out with him on Monday. I didn't make it to class so I made dinner and then we played basketball.

He is really nice. He wants to be a surgeon. He is single, but has a girl he is dating. He is really laid back and has a nice car.

I haven't seen him since Monday. He works nights and is gone when I get home from school and I am gone by the time he gets home from work. So, it is kind of like I don't even have a roommmate. I will see him tomorrow because I don't have class.

TONIGHT!

The roommate gets in tonight! I am excited and tired. You see my house is kind of a fixer upper, and I never got all the fixing up done.

So, this weekend I finished tiling the master bathroom and replaced the toilet as well as tiled part of the shower wall (which still looks bad but will function, someday when I have money again I will get it done professionally).

Then I cleaned the house. You see the guest bedroom he will be in was my changing room. So I had to move all of my clothes to my master closet. I also had to clean the garage which is where I was cutting the tiles. I also cleaned out some of my kitchen cabinets so he can have a few cabinets to himself as well as a shelf and a drawer in the fridge. If you have been to my house you will be amazed at how much I have gotten done!

So, you know I have to put a picture on my blog, it is my favorite thing to do, althought I don't know how to size it. Here is a picture of my nephew preparing some snow for the snow castle him and his sister built (with a little help from my sister and brother-in-law).

SNOW DAY!

So, two days into the storm and I have made a bunch of food, watched too much tv, and cleaned some. I am starting to think about driving to the store just to see people!

Roommate

So, I am going to get a roommate. I found a guy on Craigslist that is going to be doing a residency at a local hospital for a month. I am kind of worried, but excited at the same time. I have a few guest bedrooms, so now I just have to move my stuff out of them and have them ready for the roommate. I haven't met him, but I looked him up on facebook, googled him, and did a background check on him. He sounds like he could be fun.

Well, wish me luck. Hopefully it will work out. My semester already has not been good. My schedule has changed 7 times! I really think this school is a joke!

Fan Club

So, the guy at the gym that stares at me finally came up and talked to me. This guy has been watching me workout for years. Everytime I look up he is staring at me. Kind of weird, but since I am so buff I kind of expect it. Can you sense the sarcasm there.

He is a little guy in his 40s probably. He came up to me and asked where I worked. I told him that I work at a University. He thought I worked with him at the Air Force Base. I told him that I have never been there. The guy then would not stop talking to me. I tried to walk away and he followed. So finally I just left. I hope he didn't follow me. If he did, he followed me to Wal-Mart as I went shopping for my dinner supplies and TP of course.

I hope that he doesn't want to talk to me now. I didn't mind him staring at me, but now he will want to follow me around the gym and talk to me. I don't mind talking to people at the gym. I have friends at the gym, and have heard some good stories at the gym, like my mom's friend's son getting suspended, and a few other good stories.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So, I have one New Year's Resolution....

It is to stay positive and not let life get me down. I know that I let life get me down the last few months, but I am going to try to make lemonade as much as possible with all the situations I have.

Salvation Army

So, I am taking a load to the Salvation Army tomorrow. Does anybody know how this process works? I just drop it off? Do they take glasses? The person in my house before me left tons of wine glasses that are really ugly and I do not want to take them with me or leave them for the renters.

Semester from Hell is OVER!

Hey guys,

I am back. The semester from hell is over! I thought it would never end. It was nothing like I thought it would be, but it is over and I don't want to talk about it ever again! I managed to get out of it with only one B. Yes, my GPA is ruined. I know the semester has been over for a week and a half and Christmas happened, but it really depressed me through Christmas, so until I got my grades it was still lingering over me.

Now I can look forward to next semester. I still don't know what I am going to take. I heard that one of the classes I am going to take is cancelled and another that I wanted to take conflicts with another class that I am required to take.

I am going to be moving out of my house to the college town. I am not looking forward to it. I have lived in my house for 4 1/2 years. I have decidede to rent it out. I am supposed to live with a guy in the program. He is supposed to buy a house, but that hasn't happened yet. So, I am in limbo. I don't really want to rent the house out and not have a place to live. I am trying to get rid of stuff, but it is hard when you don't know how much stuff to get ride of. I have been giving away plants left and right. I am going to have to make a road trip to grandma's with my truck full of plants to save as many as possible. I took a few up there for Chistmas.

I hope you are all doing great. Sorry about the hiatis. I hope that I will be able to get on here again.

Old Friend

I was walking to the Student Union last week to get a Starbucks, when I bumped into on of my friends from Little League and high school. He is teaching a course at my school. It was so good seeing him. We had lunch today. It has been so long since I have seen him. He has done so much with his life. There is so much to catch up and learn about him.

I enjoy seeing old friends in random places. I miss the days of being a kid and making friends on trips to new places and playing like there is no tomorrow. Ah to be a kid again. I guess now the only thing we can do is to strive to maintain our childlike enthusiasm for life and try not to judge people by first impressions. Kids are so great about accepting people. Although kids are honest, they do make friends so easily. I guess they haven't been burnt as much as adults on shady friends.

Just remember to keep your eyes open for the good friends from your past and heart open for the good friends of the future!

Long Week

So, first week of school is over. I have a book, nine chapters in another book (that I ordered from Amazon and haven't gotten yet), and 15 different articles to read by monday! I am a bit stressed already. Then I have a few customers calling to do landscaping that I am going to take a look at this evening. I hope that I can find time to do them, as well as the other two jobs, that are going pretty well.

I am going to take next weekend off. I am ready for the Georgia-OSU game!

Last Night

I finally called and told IT Girl it wasn't going to work. It went really well. I ended up talking to her an hour after I told her that we should just be friends. She told me all about her day and everything at work. She insists that I keep calling her? So, I hope she got the point that we broke up, or whatever we were we aren't anymore.... I just don't know. I suck at breaking up with girls.

MOST STRESSFUL PART OF MY LIFE!

I have been stressing all week if I should quit my sand volleyball team. They play on Wednesdays an hour after I get out of class. It is a 40 minute drive.

I just decided that I am going to play.

First Days of School

Yesterday was my first day of school! I loved it! There are so many new people in the program. It is going to be a lot of fun getting to know them. My classes are going to be great too. I have a studio for designing parks! How much fun does that sound?

The only problem with the first day of class, was I had to work from 7AM-12. Then have class from 1:30 to 9PM. In between I had my hour commute across OKC.

There are finally some international students in the program from some awesome places. Spain, Greece, India, Vietnam, and a guy in my Urban Design Theory class from France.



My second day of class was good too. There are 4 people in my Tuesday class. The regular Joes from last year and a new guy from Spain. He seems pretty cool.

Crazy Day! Sorry I had to vent!

I got up this morning and was heading out to get to work a few minutes early. I got to work lat yesterday because of the storms. Gary England was saying hail was on its way to the part of town I work in, so I waited. It didn't hail at the office, so I waited 30 minutes for nothing. Anyways, I tried to start my car this morning and the battery was dead! Yes, my new Tacoma I got less than a month ago had a dead battery. So, I had to hitch hike to work and home AGAIN!

I got a call from my old roommate from undergrad. He just bought a new house. It is huge! I can't emphasize how big it is. It is over 8,000 sq ft. I can't wait to go see it. It is 4 stories, well three with a basement that come out to the backyard. It has an elevator and three patios. It has an insane view of the hills east of Tulsa. The picture is a view of it from behind. You can see all 4 stories. The picture was taken before he bought it two weeks ago. It isn't finished out yet, but it is a month away from move in ready.

The best part of the day was when my admin brought me chocolate covered strawberries. She makes them daily and made some extra! She is the best admin ever! My old admin at my old job was good, but she never made me any tasty dishes. She was good at getting some great catering for the group meetings.

I finally after getting the truck jumped and to the dealer got a new battery. It took them 2 hours to get me a new battery. I was a bit frustrated, but it happens. I actually was surprised how well I took the whole situation today. I think the long crazy week I had kept me from making a big deal about the situation.

Did I tell you that my boss had me train two people this week to be my back up. Really? Two people to back up my part time job. Then I had to do some really boring testing! Accounting is boring, but testing accounting in the computer system is even more boring, so it was a very tough week as far as motivation to work goes. Plus it was close this week, and the accountants in Houston and Division Orders had problems that I had to fix all week. Oh yeah, the other accountant in my group has been gone for a month because she has liver cancer. So, I have basically been doing most of her job and mine for the last month. She will get back in a few weeks, so I will have a few crazy weeks with grad school, the first job, and my second job.

Oh, did I mention I have to get a new laptop for school. This surprisingly has been the thing that I have been stressing out more than anything else. I have to get a powerful computer to run all of the architecture programs and graphics. So, I am leaning toward a Gateway gaming computer.

I have so much to do this weekend before school starts! I hope I can relax some before Monday! My rides home kept saying I needed to mow my lawn. I told them that Sunday was the earliest I could do it. They kept saying to do it now. I said, really, I think getting my truck to run is a bit more important. The grass can wait!

P.S. I haven't heard from IT girl since I called her Monday to see how her new job is going. I have decided that I am not going to call her. It hit me Tuesday that she has never originated a phone conversation.

Started New Job

So, I started my new job yesterday. It is going to be awesome. There are two other Graduate Research Assistants. They are just a year and two years younger than me, so I don't feel too old. They are also both ladies! Which I like because it is great to have a different perspective on projects. With the professor being a man and then me, it is good to have both male and female perspectives. One of the GRA's was in my class last semester, and the other one is a new girl that is getting her Masters in Planning. She graduated from OSU in 2004 and has been a Landscape Architect/working for one for 5 years! So she has a lot of experience. I am so excited about it. I am going to learn so much from all three of them.

Getting Sentimental

I don't know why, but I am sad today. My parents are selling my old car today. I traded them my old car for their old truck, so I could do the Cash for Clunkers.

I know my car has served its purpose, but we had some good times.

Ah the memories!

I remember the 5 car pile up we were in the first month I had you.

The time we hydroplaned and re ended that crazy lady in the S-10.

The time you got hit by a hit and run school bus at the mall. Sorry I never fixed this dent, but you did help me with my down payment on my house!

Driving 20 miles over the speed limit and getting pulled over, and the cop feeling sorry for me for having a Corolla and not giving me a ticket (3 times).

The many bad dates that we went on. You saw me through some really nice and crazy women.

The two good dates we went on. Ah, if only I could have had a few more.

Seeing you asleep in my garage all warm and cozy while it was sleeting/snowing/and icy outside. Knowing I wouldn't have to scrape you off in the morning before going to work.

The trips around Oklahoma with all of my stuff crammed in the trunk and the backseat.

The trip to Missouri with crazy Sonia, and her throwing up on your floor after that party. I still feel bad about that, I tried to pull over! Really I did!

The trip to Stillwater and the crazy night. Sorry about the fire extinguisher. I didn't think that Matt would shoot it off inside you! I know you never were the same after that.

Our final trip where you blew a gasket and 90 year old grandma and I had to drive 60 miles with no air conditioning in the 95 degree heat. Fortunately grandma is a trooper.

Ah, the memories. A piece of me will always be with you. The last 8 years have been great. I just hope that you can have 8 more years of fun.

Commute

It took me an hour to get to work today! Evidentally some suicidal thug in his Miami Heat jersey decided to sit on the 63rd street bridge over Lake Hefner Parkway during rush hour morning traffic. I had to zig zag through the city with everyone else. Really could he not have done it last night around say 2AM when I didn't have to be at work at 7AM. The really bad part was I forgot my cell phone at home, so I couldn't call in to warn anyone of the crazy on the bridge

Did anyone else get stuck in traffic this morning? I am so ready to move somewhere that I can just get up and walk or ride my bike to work and not have to worry about a crazy on a bridge.

New Job

I got the job! I start the week before school starts, which is the same weekend that The Jobless Wonder (IT Girl) is coming to see me. I am not sure the logistics of that because she has her flight getting in at 3:55 on Thursday. The problem with that is I still have my other job that I am going to be getting my 40 hours in, and the new job where I will have to get 10 hours in. So, I will have to work a few 12 hour days to get to the airport in time to pick her up.

We will have to see how she handles being alone. This could be the make or break weekend. It will also be the last weekend I could possibly see her in a long time because my schedule with two jobs (sometimes three) and grad school will be insane! Not to mention my busy social life, sports, TV, cooking most of my meals, and the regular chores around the house.

Oh yeah, did I mention I got a new bench for my backyard. It looks really nice. I put a pot next to it with an awesome yellow flowering shrub. I finally have a destination place to sit in my backyard.

I also got rid of the old Corolla. My parents came over and got it started and took it away! I was so happy to see it go. That car and I had the longest relationship of anything I have ever had. 8 years of fun and adventures, but I am ready to move on! I got the car out just in time to put the new truck in for the crazy storms we had last night.

Interview

So, I forgot to mention. I interviewed for another job on Friday.

It would be as a graduate assistant. I am not sure what I would be doing there are a few grants that I could be working with. The assistantship would be one or two years long. I think the professor wants me because of my analytical and horticulture background. He mentioned green roofs and installations. I am really excited. I hope I get it! He also mentioned that I would be writing papers and articles in magazines to be published if I get it.

We shall see what happens.

New Car!

I finally got it! No more Old Gray Hair! I got a new 2009 Tacoma. I love it. It feels so good after driving the Corolla for 8 years.

Now I just have to get a better bike. My little girl bike isn't good for long trips or offroading.