Senior Trilogy: Part 2

Senior Trilogy sounds so much cooler than super senior.  Senior Trilogy evokes Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.  It also is appropriately nerdy. 

I worked during winter break but went skiing with a small group from the university.  I hadn't met any of the ski trip members before the event.  I enjoyed getting to know everyone as we attempted to ski and snowboard on what was basically ice with a little snow on it.  We laughed and joked.  We played games.  Four of the group members are foreign exchange students from Asia.  We had a funny night trying to teach them some English tongue twisters.  (Which also included trying to explain what a woodchuck is...) 

School started.  My schedule is unusual with my afternoons dedicated to work.  Mornings and evenings are classes.  Classes have been in session for a couple weeks and I am still trying to find a balance for study and work.  I ended up turning in math homework that was basically unfinished (every question had an answer but none were complete) because I underestimated the amount of time my total studies would take for the week with my current schedule.  Someone at work noticed that I'm a little off on getting a rhythm set for the term.  It's embarrassing. Hopefully, this week I'll have more of a rhythm and will be able to post more funny/cool/interesting things!

2011 in Numbers

32 Pages:  The most I've written in my college career.

1 New Job

13 Cousins Visiting

5 Knots:  The fastest day on a sailboat.





















2 Power Outages

1 Year in My New Home

40 Minute Presentation

1 Barn Built for 3 Goats.




















18 Units: The highest course load taken in my college career

4 Plants lost to gophers/rabbits/deer.

90 Years Celebrated: Grandma's Birthday

Countless Books: Read ;)

3 Elementary Classrooms

• 2nd grade (2xs)
• 1st grade

20 Socks Used in P.E.


6 Crochet Projects Started

1 Crochet Project Finished

25 Years Celebrated: Me

1/3 of my Senior Year Completed

1 Epic Family Vacation

38 Blog Posts


Numbers don't adequately reflect the human interactions, the relationships, friendships, experiences, heartache, joy, frustrations, blessings, and life that occurred in 2011.  Thanks for joining with me on the journey. 

Let's see what 2012 brings!

Top 11 Ways to Know You're a Geek

11. You get really excited about the fact that work is getting all new computers so you'll have to back up the old ones and set up the new ones

10. You also get really excited about updating the OS on faculty computers and iPads

9. You use the acronym OS as part of your everyday vocabulary

8. Someone tells you about a teacher's conference where the teachers were learning binary and you respond "Binary? Really?  I learned that in 7th grade."

7. Going to Fry's makes you giddy.

6. You set up the TV so it can connect to the internet

5. Why get a CAT5e patch cable when you can get a CAT 6 or 7? 

4. You take pictures of cables.

3. While at Fry's you stop and look at all the pretty towers. 

2. You know that Bonjour is not just hello in French.

1. You've built your own computer.
 

Details

Looking at the course calendar, I read:

Last Day of Frustration - December 9th

It actually says:

Last Day of Instruction - December 9th  

Of course we have assessment week after the last day of instruction so the official "Last Day of Frustration" for me will be December 16th.  Then, freedom!  Glorious freedom!  

Is this really me?

 Picture from North and South

I was looking over my blogger profile recently and I started laughing at what I had on there.  Who was I trying to impress?  I liked all the books and movies but really?  If you were trying to get to know me on the basis of the profile, I would be pretty girly girl with my period dramas and Jane Austen books.  I like my movies funny and semi-romantic but my tv shows?  That's a whole different genre...  I love mystery and action with a little science fiction.  Favorite TV shows: Castle, Rosemary and Thyme, Stargate SG1, Star Trek: The Next Generation, MacGyver, Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Walker Texas Ranger, NCIS, Covert Affairs, you get the picture. Not exactly what you'd expect from the period drama nut.

So Many Reasons... pt. 2

Funny how thankfulness sinks in.  I've been struck by all the little things that I take for granted during my day.

22.  Caffeine
23.  Clean socks
24.  Sisters (genetic and "adopted")
25.  Hot water
26.  Alarm clocks
27.  Transportation
28.  Trader Joe's
29.  My Parents
30.  Blogs
31.  Meeting my neighbor
32.  Hanging out with friends
33.  Reading with 2nd graders
34.  Hearing children speak Spanish
35.  Children that don't laugh when I speak Spanish in return.

Nerdyness

I went for a hike today.   And not just any hike, a hike with some plant nerds like me.   Ones that initiated the plant talk and had a game going looking for fungi.  So much fun!  I've missed that type of thing.  My family gets that I'm plant nerd.  My mom's a plant nerd.  We like to be plant nerds together.  But being a plant nerd with peers... a little harder to come by.  When I was taking environmental studies classes, no one else really got excited about plant id, drawing plants, or finding out more about the plants.  I was "weird' even in that context. 

During high school and my first year of college, I was involved with a plant group.  We were all plant nerds.  We did plant nerdy things together like getting excited about new plants, arboretums, and plant identification.  It was fun having friends interested in the same thing.  It's times like this I wonder about my major. 

The same type of situation comes with period dramas.  In high school and early in college, we had a group of girls that appreciated period dramas like A&E's Pride and Prejudice, Wives and Daughters, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility.  Tonight, my sister and I were discussing how we miss meeting people who appreciate period drama.  She just met up with a group who are interested in period dramas.  Kindred spirits are in short supply here in this area. Or I need to look a little harder for them.  :)