An Excerpt from Today's Honors College Tour

Me: ...and so this is our front desk. This is where you'll come if you get locked out of your room, or want to check out a vaccuum or anything. There are tons of resources here at the desk. So if you'll all follow me, we'll cram everyone in the elevator here and see if it will hold us all. We're going up to the 3rd floor to see one of the student rooms there so you can get an idea of what it's like to live here.

15 people cram into elevator. I look up and notice sign: 'Weight limit: 2500 pounds.'

Me (chuckling): I will laugh if we get stuck in here.

Nervous laughter from the group of students and parents. The elevator doors close and the car begins to move.

*CLUNKCLUNKCLUK!* Elevator bounces and stops moving. I stop smiling.

Parent (in back): Ummmm...I think we're stuck.

Me (furiously jabbing 3rd floor button): Hehe...I spoke too soon!

Parent (in back, weakly): I'm claustrophobic.

Me (stabbing emergency intercom button): Well, let's see if this works.

Dial tone. Dialing. Static.

Elevator doors open. We're on the 2nd floor. My heart resumes beating and my stomach crawls back out of my butt.

Me: Oooookaaaay then, let's take the stairs for the last floor, shall we?

Homework Party

Okay, just kidding. I'm not going to upload any pictures from DC for two reasons. First, they're already on facebook anyway, and second, I'm not in them, and I'm sure you all know what the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, etc. look like. So I'm going to spare myself the work.

This Friday night was spent doing homework. How awesome. Is it May 1 yet? I am so ready for the end of classes. Projects, papers, presentations....it never ends.

I'm very tired in more ways than one.

I'm Baaaaaaack

Well, everyone, the event in Washington DC is over and I'm back on campus. After 6 hours of hallucinogenic and fitful sleep on the plane caused by my taking Tylenol PM right before boarding, I arrived back in Phoenix at 2am last night and proceeded immediately to fall into bed. It was so weird because I was so tired that I was having dreams that I was waking up - and there were points that I was completely disoriented and literally had no idea where I was. Kinda scary when you don't know whether you're awake or asleep.

Anyway I'm back, I have LOADS of pictures from my little romp around DC after the conference was over, and I will post some of them later. After missing nearly a full week of school, I am now playing catch-up. Rule #1 of playing catch-up is that you have to get organized enough to allow yourself to stop hyperventilating before you start tackling stuff.. More later.

Retraction:

It's NOT a done deal with the thing about mom's car. It's just a POSSIBILITY. Sorry, I re-read the post and it definitely gives the wrong impression!

And then it happened.

Mom and I were discussing the Great Car Search and what methods/models/makes we should go about when she suddenly just said,

"What about my car? What if we just sold you my car? I might get promoted soon anyway, I could just lease something until that happens."

Oh. My. Goodness. Resolve not to get too excited.

Quote of the Day

America is a country where the minute one person stands up and says, 'That's impossible,' somone else walks in the door and announces, 'We just did it.'

-Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Cats vs. Dogs

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook, and I almost wet my pants laughing.

Excerpts from a Dog's Daily Journal:

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!


Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary:

Day 683 of my captivity: My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.

Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomited on the floor.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates of what I am capable. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. The audacity!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow but at the top of the stairs. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded! The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe... for now.

Ach, Tuebingen...

I've been thinking about Tübingen a lot during the past couple of weeks. I was watching some videos on YouTube that people had shot in and around the city and it just really took me back to see all the familiar sights. So many memories, so many experiences. I wish I could do it all again. Ride the S-Bahn to Herrenberg, over the Neckar, with the Schloß on the hilltop in the distance; run my old jogging route and come to that point in the forest where the trail opens up and the entire valley is just to your left, and there, in all its glory, is the tiny medieval town of Hagelloch, with the Würmlinger Kapelle in the distance; to walk through the Altstadt eating a Döner and hear the church bells ringing to count off the hours; to lay in the grass on the Neckarinsel and look at the beautiful Neckarfront and listen to the ducks quacking.

Sometimes I feel like I just didn't appreciate it enough while I was there. I'd give anything to go back. My friends from Germany have all been asking when I am coming to Germany again and the tough part is that I have NO idea. To make matters worse, I'm about to graduate and that means the end of summer vacation. The real world is on my doorstep and in the real world, you don't get to just skip off to a foreign country for a year whenever you feel like it (unless you've got one heckuva lot of vacation days saved).

My goal is to get an international placement in Germany within five years of graduation. Five years...such a long time! But if it's God's will that I get back over there soon, it will work out. I just hope it's in the near future!

High Gear

...Aaaaaaaaaaaand the exhaustion begins to set in. It's now 1:18am and I am still working on projects that need to be done before I leave for Seattle on Thursday night. I am exhausted and just can't seem to focus anymore. Bedtime after this post.

So here's the rundown. On Thursday I leave for Seattle and will be there until Monday, during which time Matze and his family are coming to visit us at my mom's house. We are all incredibly excited to see them again and introduce Matze's parents to the United States for the very first time.

On Monday night next week I catch a red-eye flight to Washington, DC for the NAFSA conference, arriving at 7:30am on the day the conference begins. Fabulous. The conference lasts until Wednesday afternoon, after which I'll have a few hours to wander around D.C. before catching a return (and equally red-eye) flight back to Arizona at 8pm. I'll arrive in Phoenix at 1am Thursday morning. Shoot me. Please.

There won't be much time to rest and catch up, because as soon as I wake up Thursday morning I have to run to classes and jump right back into the fray. I have only that following weekend to catch up on anything that doesn't get done in the next few days as well as finish my homework/projects for the entire week afterward, because Matze and his familiy will be coming down to Phoenix to visit my grandparents and I during that first week of April.

So basically the end of March/beginning of April are going to be exhausting but exciting. I won't have a chance to catch my breath until about April 5th, and even then it will be time to kick it into high gear again. Thesis research, papers, tests, and projects are all on the docket during the first half of April. On top of that, there's more car research to be done. Out of curiosity I submitted requests for price quotes to a few dealers in the Tacoma area for the VW Rabbit. Still need to look into insurance.

Senior year is just absolutely insane. I'll be so happy when finals roll around and I can just take my tests and get the heck out of here. This semester's end is not going to be pretty - I just hope it goes by fast. I'm looking forward to summer and everything that it will bring with it.

Swimmers Rock.

A fun fact occured to me while I did my geography studying today. The deepest point in the Pacific Ocean and the lowest elevation on the entire planet Earth is the Mariana Trench. The bottom of that trench is 6.7 miles from the surface of the ocean.

What makes this fun is remembering our annual 100x100's event while I was on the swim team. Every New Year's day, we'd swim 100 100-meter intervals. Hence the name "hundred hundreds." This is equal to 10,000 meters or roughly 6.3 miles.

This means that each year we swam the 100x100's, we were swimming a distance roughly equivalent to swimming to the absolute bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It usually took us about four hours.

Seen another way: the average depth of the Pacific Ocean is 2.6 miles. This means that during the day we did the 100x100's, we swam a distance equivalent to swimming to the bottom of the Pacific and back to the surface two and a half times.

How freakin' cool is that?

"I Have Been Here FOREVER!"

You know that thing they say about car wrecks? Like how they're so bad, you WANT to look away, but you just CAN'T? This clip is kind of like that.

I think watching the failed auditions of American Idol is WAY more fun than the actual competition.

Some Thoughts

1. Nice Saturday. Slept in, and then went to Mills End cafe to read for my footnote 18 project. I love reading about globalization. It's so fascinating.

2. I never know what to do when I get approached by a homeless person asking for change. What's the proper response? I mean, if they are mentally disabled, my pocket change isn't going to help. And if they're an alcoholic or drug addict, it's REALLY not going to help. Either way I always feel like such a jerk when they ask me for money and I lie and tell them I have none (when it's totally obvious by the latte I'm carrying that I do). Should I feel bad?

An Announcement

Toad the Wet Sprocket is friggin' AWESOME.

Rubber Buns and Liquor

This blog never ceases to make me almost scream with laughter.

Tonight's the Night the World Begins Again

I don't think I'll be going on the hike this weekend. There are too many things hanging over my head and I wouldn't be able to really relax. I have also not been feeling well since Sunday night, which is starting to really irritate me. I have stuff to do, and I can't afford to get sick right now.

I downloaded Anberlin's new album from iTunes. I love it and have been listening to it over and over. How is it that it's taken me this long to discover this band?

In a good mood now. I like good moods at night.

Sucktastic.

What a weekend. It started with the thrill of some great news, then the stress of all that needs to be done but wasn't, followed by the disappointment of some sad news. This isn't a positive-slope trend. I am not looking forward to the week ahead of me, and honestly I'm not even looking forward to the beginning of spring break because at this point I don't want to go on the hike. And even if i wasn't going on the hike, I would be pretty bummed about spring break because of all the work I have to do during that time. It's so incredibly pathetic to not even be looking forward to your spring break! I'll be so glad when this semester is over.

Internship!

After an absolutely awesome prayer session at Danforth chapel this morning as part of our 24-hour-prayer-for-40-days event going on right now, I decided to call Fluke and check in on the status of the internship. I had been waiting for a couple weeks to get a resonse on the interviews, which I thought had both gone superbly well.

I ended up getting a hold of the recruitment director and was immediately extended an offer! I GOT THE INTERNSHIP! Praise God, this is just an amazing thing for me! It means I get to go and work for one of the hottest supply chain companies on the market right now and see how they do things! And best of all, it's in the Seattle metro area, which means I get to be back at home in Washington this summer. AND they provide an apartment for the interns to live in near the company campus!

I. am. so. friggin. STOKED.

Start Your Engines

Aaaaaaaaand we gear up for yet another fun catch-up weekend and a busy week to follow. March, as usual, promises to be a crazy month full of deadlines and lots of stuff to accomplish. My process improvement project for one of my supply chain classes is hanging over my head. I'm worried about access to the data I need. I need to stop worrying.

Speaking of supply chain, I was sitting in my logistics class today and we were studying inventory and production forecasting. I realized that I was actually really excited and fascinated by this whole forecasting process. Building production schedules was FUN. And I had this moment of realizing how much I love my major, which of course was immediately followed by a warm fuzzy feeling of realizing how much I love loving my major and knowing that I picked the right course of study. Supply chain management is where it's at for me.