I see my friend Friday approaching!

Here are my observations for the day...

First, people who go to Georgia Tech are freaks of nature. What the heck am I doing there? GT has the #1 Industrial Engineering Program in the country, so ya know, I know it's no joke. But this class that I'm taking is seriously kicking my butt. I didn't go to bed last night. My last homework assignment took 15 hours. And the handout has 4 problems. And these other crazy people in the class are like at the playground. The most shocking thing... they seem to think this class is normal. I swear I was intelligent once. I know I didn't dream these memories of catching on and understanding things quickly. But this is serious work. I mean hard work. And just to pull a grade that is slightly below the class average. So the only obvious conclusion is that my classmates are from another planet. On the same topic... people at Tech joke about "the ratio" (girls:boys) and I know most academic institutions have above-average amounts of foreigners. I have been taking a count recently. In a class of ~75 students, here are the statistics. 3 Caucasian Females. One of which is confirmed from Germany. 1 Black Female, ~5 Indian/Mid-Eastern Females, and ~5 Asian Females. The rest are all males, the majority of which come from the Eastern half of the world. Today the professor (Sigrun Andradottir, who is herself from Iceland) was handing out tests by calling each person's name one by one. Her accent combined with the names from all ends of the earth made me giggle. And then there was "Jonathan" and "David"... and Erin.

Second, I really enjoy the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It makes me laugh out loud. It's very silly. I was getting my oil changed today and was having a good old time in the waiting room with the Banks.



Third, every time I get my oil changed, on the drive home I convince myself that my car is on fire. I have this internal talk with myself concerning whether I should pull over or not. The smell is not comforting. Do you think they wash the outside of the motor in oil too?

Fourth, I got my hair cut on Tuesday and I love the girl who cuts my hair. I love that I can walk in and sit in her chair and just go "I don't know, I'm bored... do something new and interesting" and she just goes "ok" and I love it every time. No stress, no decisions, I just know my hair is in good hands. And I appreciate that. Her name is Krista and she works at Urban Body Salon on Ponce de Leon Place if you want to go have her give you a new do. And have you seen my sister Stephanie's hair? I covet it on a regular basis. It's a Krista masterpiece.

And last but not least, I love Travis Wall, one of the choreographers on So You Think You Can Dance (he was a contestant a few years ago!). His dances are so good. The dance he did this week for Ryan and Ellenore was a story of a long-lost couple who ran into each other in the park... it was really good, gave me chills.




That's it for now. My final observation is that I need a nap!


Another good addition to this post... A funny video that Ashley sent me:

Particularly funny is the "utter social ineptitude" ... Does anyone want to take a field trip to Tech? I'm making it seem so awesome huh? Haha, no really, in all honesty, I love Georgia Tech, it holds a dear special place in my heart and there are some fantastically amazing people there. I married one of them :)

Forever Young

I purchased my first bottle of "age defying" lotion. It's never too early, right? I hope I look like a 17 year old in 4 weeks. But really, I just really hope I don't get a saggy neck.

The GT football team pulled through again this weekend and beat Wake Forest. I wish I was a professional athlete. I always feel so excited for the team when they're running off the field after they win and there are so many people cheering them out, particularly when they run by the student section and hit their hands as they go by. I always think what an amazing feeling that must be, to have so many people desperately stretching out to touch you, especially when you're just an 18-20 year old kid. Wouldn't that be amazing? I wish people would come cheer and jump around while I do research and write papers. I can picture them, desperately climbing over my cubicle wall, just to get a glimpse of the action and maybe touch my hair.

Here's a picture Lee took in the stadium. I like it because you can see Tech Tower in the background...

Football season has been really fun this year so far. Only 2 more home games left... hopefully the streak continues.

Welp, it's Sunday night. Lee and I went for about a 5 mile walk, which lasted almost 2 hrs. I love looking at all the houses and making my list of what I do and don't want in our future dream house. And the weather is perfect right now. Then we went and ate wings. Had to refill the calorie bank. Mmmm what a good finish to the weekend. And tomorrow the week starts allllll over again. It's gonna be a productive one, I can feel it.

Shambo's mullet

I am taking a vote. Will Shambo still have her mullet on the Survivor reunion show? I think she'll still have it. When you've rocked it this long, you're committed. And I also am betting on Jeff Probst bringing the mullet up for discussion. What do you think???

Growing Pains

I guess a part of maturing is just a matter of accumulating experiences. For me, first-time experiences generally aren't a complete success, but over time, lessons are learned and added to the knowledge and skill bank. Growing pains come in for example when lessons are learned the hard way, or when they aren't learned the first time, leaving me confused with what's going wrong.

After some time of thinking and processing the past few weeks, I have decided that I am and have been experiencing this semester a good healthy dose of growing pains. I am right smack in the middle of a lot of new roles and experiences, most of which are a good bit outside of my comfort zone (side-note: I willingly chose these things, and don't regret them for a second... just wish I could hit the pause button for a minute). It's not just the new experiences, but the fact that I'm not getting things quite right yet, and have gotten a couple of them quite wrong actually. I generally enjoy new challenges, but the accumulation of so many roles that I'm still figuring out all at once has been making a big mess all over my plate. And the mess of doing so many things "not quite right" in such a short period gets to me every once in a while. It tends to take a toll on the self-esteem. So that is my explanation for my previous, oh-so-dramatic reference to hating life. But after the dust settles, I have to remember that I'm just doing the best I can in situations that I've never been in before.

And the good news is that I am learning so many lessons! I will be so wise. You can just call me Solomon. The top lesson for this week (after coming the all of these realizations) is that I need to not be so hard on myself. And now I will share that lesson with you. Let's all not be so hard on ourselves. We're just doing the best we can with what we know, and when we know better we'll do better. Whew, what a relief.

On another topic, So You Think You Can Dance is BACK! And I've already picked my favorite couple ... [drumroll] ... Legacy and Kathryn. I love them already. Watch for them, you'll see, they're great. This week they had to tell the best thing and the worst thing about their partner (they always do a cheesy intro to their dances), and Legacy's favorite thing about Kathryn was that she's emotional. And the reason he likes this is because he's emotional and it makes him more comfortable that she is too. How precious is that? And I have to admit, Legacy's crying and emotions were part of what won me over, as suuuper-cheesy as that is. But it's not really dramatic or weak or feminine, as you might be picturing. He's definitely male, and he's a breakdancer. It just seems like he can't hold it back. And I find that endearing. So there is my pick. Let's hope my horse wins.

And now I hope you have the theme song to Growing Pains in your head for the rest of the day.
"Show me that smile again (Oooh show me that smile!)... Don't waste another minute on your crying..."

Hello November :)

I feel the need to not have that post at the top any more... Hating life no more. I try not to dwell in my self-pitty for TOO long. So I'll share with you our lovely jack-o-lantern from last night.I love him and I'm sad that he serves no more purpose after last night. We got to see my nieces and nephew in their costumes over Skype last night and they were prrrrecious. They were a skeleton bride, a buccaneer, and Captain Jack Sparrow. And they looked awesome. My sister did an awesome job on their makeup. I got to see them at the beginning of the night, and then at the end of the night. There was quite a difference. When they got back, there was no wig on the skeleton bride, no hat on the buccaneer, and the captain's once awesome beard and eyeliner were a mess of black smear. But as cute as ever of course. It's amazing how such a ragtag bunch of kids can make you wish you were there to squeeeeeeeeeeze them.
Edit: My sister posted pictures of the kids in their costumes on her blog, so you should go look at how cute they are. And her blog is good in general. She's cute and funny and her family is cute.

Well, it is officially November and I won't lie, I can not wait for the holidays. When I hear people talking about how much they are so disgusted by the Christmas stuff already being out in October, inside I'm thinking really?? what's your problem? just close your eyes then. I will admit that I see their point, because the stores might be getting a little out of hand in trying to fully take advantage of the money making business of Christmas. And I do enjoy really taking full advantage of each holiday for its wonderfulness (for example, I'm having a little difficulty letting go of Halloween). But I have to admit that when I see those Christmas trees in October, I try to come up with some excuse to walk through that section and get excited. But don't worry, I don't get the Christmas decorations out til the day after Thanksgiving... I wouldn't want to overshadow. But I can secretly appreciate the crazy stores.

Aaah that extra hour from daylight savings is so wonderful. It gave me time for a blog post while enjoying my morning coffee and listening to our new speaker system (Lee's early birthday present... football is a good enough excuse to get it early). I have to run and get ready for church, which I love that I can not wait to get there. Our church is great (cheesy, I know, but I get excited that I am so excited to get there). And then my parents are coming to have venison chili with us. What a great Sunday!

Have a good week :)