It's a beautiful day

Today, was probably my favorite non-weekend day in State College so far. And probably the first day that I've been here that I didn't regret the decision to come to grad school instead of going out and getting a real job. It's funny too, because today wasn't particularly out of the ordinary in any way. It was just...good.

This morning: I woke up early enough to have a substantial quiet time. Lately it's been a few rushed minutes in the morning where I've tried to read a few chapters of my Bible and reflect quickly on the reading, but this morning was good. I also switched it up, and went for Romans 9. It's some thoughtful stuff, and actually reminded me of my summer. Read it.

I was at campus, as usual, by 9:00 am. I started my day working at the lab doing research. I was able to sort thermocouples and use a power drill. It was a good and productive few hours at the lab.

After lunch, I went to my second job, the job of TA. I finished grading my students' quizzes and entered their grades into their little spreadsheet. I also edited the professor's first draft of the test they will be getting on Monday, sending him a little helpful email containing the suggestions I have. After organizing those things, I was done with grading until tomorrow, when they will hand in their 4th homework assignment.

At 2:00 I had a teleconference with the industrial sponsor for the research I've been working on. Now, this research isn't really mine, I will (hopefully) get my own funded project in January. For now I'm helping out another grad student with his. Regardless, the teleconference went well and it was fun hearing feedback from Pratt&Whitney about our progress.

After that, I ran into a friend in the hallway. We chatted for a bit before I headed off to the library. I then spent the next 3 hours there, studying for my fluids exam (next Wednesday, eek), and doing some conduction homework (due on Monday, more eek). I was able to condense all of my fluids notes into 4 pages, and got the beginning figures and boundary conditions set up for my conduction homework. I also read over my conduction book to make sure I understand the concepts.

I then walked down to Panera and ate my favorite bagel ever (asiago cheese...mmm) and a pumpkin spice latte (it's falll!!). I ran into another girl in my fluids class while I was there, and we had dinner together with one of her friends. It was good to relax and eat some dinner with new friends.

I then walked a few blocks downtown to check out Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), a Christian organization on campus that a few of my friends who had transferred here from Behrend were involved in. We sang some awesome worship songs, I got to meet some new people, see some old friends, and the topic was really helpful. The speaker essentially spoke about losing our focus and falling under the false assumption that we need something other than Jesus to be fulfilled. He spoke about the "I need Jesus AND to do well on this test (or fill-in-the-blank with your own: have a boyfriend, wear perfect clothes, never swear or drink, always go to bed before 10, have everybody like me, have my sports team win, always pray for 32 minutes a day, be first in my class, etc.) in order to be happy and for Jesus to love me" sort of mentality that plagues me often. It was a good message. It put into perspective a lot of the issues I've been having with being happy about being here. He also mentioned thankfulness, and how if we're not thankful for what we've been given (which is...kind of everything) then we need to refocus.

After exchanging phone numbers with one of the senior girls there, Kim, I went to the bus stop and learned that I would be waiting for 40 minutes. So then I called and chatted with a good friend for a little while until I got on the bus. I love talking to him. He's helping me pick out a bike, which for me is a complicated situation, since I finally settled on a bike that's not currently in State College. Oh well, I will get one eventually.

When I got back to my apartment I headed over to the neighbors' and had some leftover chicken and gnocchi while watching the office (DVRs are the best things ever). Those boys are fun to have around, I'm glad they came here with me. Having a little piece of Behrend with me here is incredibly comforting. And they give me food. I mean, seriously, awesome? Yes.

Oh, and it monsooned all day. I did not wear my rain boots. But that was okay :-)

So today I made new friends, saw old friends, and got a lot of work accomplished. I'm getting my motivation back that I lost over senior design, and I am figuring out how to fit this whole new timing/commuting thing into my schedule. I can do this grad school thing after all.