This semester vs. last

This semester is, so far, a million times better than last. But it's also busier. Funny how that happens.

My classes are ME 513 (Convection) and ME 522 (Fluids 2). Last semester I took Conduction and Fluids 1. So far, Convection is much, much, much easier, slower-paced, and has less homework than Conduction did. And Fluids 2 is pretty much the same as Fluids 1, except the homework tends to take longer (or I'm just spending more time on it...one of the two...). I have a homework buddy that helps keep me motivated to stay on task most of the time, he even was able to get me to do homework on my birthday! I sometimes wish I had more homework buddies though...occasionally we get visitors from our class on Thursday nights (homework is due Fridays), but not too often. I miss our Fluids 1 study group, they were the best!

Work has more responsibilities, and so that's slightly stressful, but I am keeping it so that my "work stays at work," as a good friend put it last week. It's absolutely necessary not to think about, stress over, and worry about what needs to get done at work while I am not at work. Otherwise, life will be miserable, because there are ALWAYS things I could be doing. When I leave work (and a conscious decision needs to be made to leave...otherwise I could find myself spending way too much time there), I change my focus to either homework, eating, or (rarely) doing fun things. I know that there will always be things to get done, deadlines to hit, and I will work as hard as I can to hit those in a reasonable amount of time. And if I don't...oh well. There are other things that define my life. Keeping myself sane is much more important than getting this stuff done. Orders of magnitude more important. If I were to do a dimensional analysis on this, the research would not even exist on the importance scale.

I also am enjoying not having two jobs. I've been keeping track of my hours spent on things this semester, and compared to last semester I spend a teeny bit more time on work than I did combined with my two jobs last semester (like, 2 hours a week more...barely counts). But I don't have to run around back and forth between offices/buildings/class. It's nice. And I have fun at work. Last week I got silicone in my hair and got to spend time on a ladder. Way better than grading homework. It's good stuff.

I will be in Erie on February 11-13. Pray for safe travels, and no snow storms.

Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

Last night, after waiting outside in the cold for the bus for 50 minutes, ice skating, going out to the Darkhorse with my favorite classmates, and coming back and watching the 3rd Harry Potter for a bit, I didn't get to sleep last night until about 3am (after having woken up at 7am on Friday). So I was tired. And when I went to sleep I was ever so thankful that today was Saturday...and I had absolutely no plans for the day. I use the words "no plans" very loosely, because I have absolutely no food in my apartment, my bedroom is a mess, homework has to get done, and I am in serious need of attacking that gigantic laundry pile. Nevertheless, I made the decision not to set an alarm today. Sabbath, after all, is Biblical, and very important for refreshing after a long week of the insanity that is grad school.

So I woke up naturally, and decided to roll over and just rest for awhile. It felt like I was there, half-awake and half-asleep for about an hour. The sun shining on my face, I was finally ready to get up. I looked over at the clock. 10am. Ten. AM. I had only been asleep for 7 hours (less than that if you count the fact that I was awake well before that). I think my body has officially rejected the option of sleeping for more than 6 hours a night. Wonderful.

Time to get started on that laundry :-).

Also, last night it was decided that I will be hitching a ride up to Erie either the first or second weekend in February. Erie-ites, be ready. Although there's not a whole lot I can do in a single weekend. And I won't have my own car up there. Either way, it shall be good.

Happy MLK Day

Today is MLK day and I have no classes (most of my professors have also taken the day off), but yet I am in the lab working. Because of this, I figured this is an appropriate comic to share with you.

To all my grad school counterparts who are also working today, keep it up.

Tune my heart

I have had this song in my head since we sang it on
Thursday night.  So what do I do when I have songs
in my head?  Post them on here, of course.  

Some of the most beautiful lyrics of all time... 

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
 tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
 streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
 call for songs of loudest praise. 
 Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
 sung by flaming tongues above. 
 Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
 mount of thy redeeming love. 

Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
 hither by thy help I'm come; 
 and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
 safely to arrive at home. 
 Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 wandering from the fold of God; 
 he, to rescue me from danger, 
 interposed his precious blood. 

O to grace how great a debtor 
 daily I'm constrained to be! 
 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
 bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 prone to leave the God I love; 
 here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
 seal it for thy courts above. 

Of every blessing

I woke up this morning to the following text message:

"Teach me some melodious sonnet sung in flaming tongues above."

:-) Good song.

I think I'll keep him.

Day by day

This week, I've been working, going to classes, and working on homework constantly. I've also played some cards, watched arrested development, eaten ice cream with my roommate, and consumed a few good meals with some good people. On Friday I am hanging out with the other engineering girls for a "girls night." I am way excited for that.

When I'm at work, I listen to music. Uplifting, happy music. Some music that makes me want to dance and sing along. Some music that makes me want to worship my Savior. All of it good.

I am happy. Despite how busy I am. I am happy. Life is good.

I'd write something more profound, but I am currently at work. So probably shouldn't spend too much time on this. Right now I am waiting for my wind tunnel to warm up to temperature. That takes awhile... but I'm ahead of where I thought I'd be at this point in the day. I might get to leave today before 6!

Yay :-)

Do you remember?

I was listening to this song at the lab, and I like it. Enjoy.

"Do You Remember"

Do you remember when we first met?
I sure do
It was some time
In early September
You were lazy about it
You made me wait around
I was so crazy about you
I didn't mind
So I was late for class
I locked my bike to yours
It wasn't hard to find
You painted flowers on
Guess that I was afraid
That if you rode away
You might not roll back
My direction real soon
Well I was crazy about you then
And now the craziest thing of all
Over 10 years have gone by
And you're still mine
We're locked in time
Let's rewind

Do you remember
When we first moved in together?
The piano took up the living room
You'd play me boogie woogie
I played you love songs
You'd say we're playing house
Now you still say we are
We built our get away
Up in a tree we found
We felt so far away
Though we were still in town
Now I remember watching
That old tree burn down
I took a picture that
I don't like to look at

Well all these times
They come and go
Alone don't seem so long
Over 10 years have gone by
We can't rewind
We're locked in time
But you're still mine

Do you remember?

And so it begins...

Tomorrow begins a new semester, the second semester out of four total semesters in grad school. It's been kind of nice that I could ramp up to it, too. This week I have been back in state college, seeing some friends I didn't see over break (and a few that I did see over break), working 9-6 on my research and doing fun things after work, enjoying the lack of homework. Tomorrow I will essentially be doing the same thing, except without the fun things after work and with homework and the need to physically attend classes added.

Am I ready for it? No. But this semester is already beginning to look better than last. My classes will be (hopefully) ever-so-slightly easier. I already know what to expect in the realm of combining 35 hours a week of work plus classes. I have friends with which to study (although most of my fluids 1 study group is not taking fluids 2. In fact, Dave and Greg are the only two I have left. We will just have to expand our study group I guess. And form a completely new study group for convection...). And I'm used to state college, and actually like it. Today I drove to a house that was out of town a little bit, and almost crashed my car because I was looking at the beautiful mountain range surrounding me instead of the road. It's gorgeous. I have been told it's 100 times more beautiful in the springtime. I can't wait.

This morning I went to a new church with a friend. With the exception of the on-campus Catholic campus ministry, I'm still a bit of a church orphan in state college (or vagabond I guess... there are a few churches that I like to attend but I haven't found a regular one yet where I feel like I belong...), so this was a pretty good time to continue my exploring of the state college area church scene. This one was a small baptist church community (probably about 30 people or so) that seemed to be a mix of half college students and half young families with babies. Everyone was very welcoming and sweet. The pastor who spoke was incredibly energetic, and the message was extraordinary! A few people went to the pastor's house for lunch afterward, and I feel like I made some new friends. And I got to play with kids.

It wasn't a bad way to spend my last day before classes start.

Welcome 2011

I've waited a few days to write this post, moving back to state college and whatnot has been taking up the past few days. But here goes.

2010 was a year of so many changes. It was good in some ways, bad in others, but overall just very stressful and emotional. I am glad that 2010 is behind me. Here's a few things that happened in 2010:

I spent an unbelievable amount of time in the senior design lab working on my senior design project. And my CFD project.

I applied to graduate schools. It's expensive and time-consuming to apply to graduate schools. I wasn't accepted into one of them.

I watched an organization that had such an influence on me in my undergraduate career fizzle out as its members lost interest and passion. However, I saw the woman's bible study that was part of that group thrive and form meaningful relationships.

I said goodbye to a Grandpa that I love very much.

I was ecstatic when a friend who needed a heart transplant got one, but saw what toll that took on his body. I helped him with his walker in our senior design meetings.

I graduated from a college I love very much, and was forced to say goodbye to friends that I love very much.

I visited two graduate schools. I said goodbye to my childhood dream of attending Virginia Tech.

I was on so many airplanes it was unbelievable (14 different flights, all of them between March and August). And if you're a regular reader, then you already know how I feel about flying. On the good side, I think I may have finally conquered my fear of flying. And I rode in a company jet for the first time.

I bought a new car. Reluctantly, but it was necessary in order to not die on my trip to Indiana.

I attended some beautiful weddings. One of them was of a childhood friend that I've known since I was 6 years old.

I moved to a city other than Erie PA for the first time since I was 11 years old.

I moved to Columbus, Indiana. Indiana is a state that I had never set foot in until I lived there. Columbus IN doesn't have a whole lot going for it, but I ended up having a blast. When I left Indiana, I had to say goodbye to my new friends that I had made there, knowing quite well that most of them, I will never see again.

I went cliff jumping. And I went to a tractor pull.

I moved to State College PA. A town that I had visited many times before, and had decided before I got there that I didn't particularly like it in State College.

I spent a few months being very lost in the new graduate school environment. I had a lot of work to do, was overwhelmed by the hugeness of the school, and I had very few friends to distract me from these stressors. I wanted to quit. I wondered why I was here. I spent 7 weekends in a row in places other than State College.

I started dancing again, after taking 3 out of 4 years of my college career off from dancing.

I began to form new relationships at graduate school. By the end of 2010, I could say that I had friends. Good ones. I still do miss my old ones though.

So much in my life changed this past year. And it was expected ... when the year 2010 came I had my typical "Oh no, that's the year I graduate!" freak out. On January 1, 2010, I couldn't have guessed that a single one of those things would have happened. Well, other than the applying to grad school part and the senior design part. But otherwise, the year was a complete surprise, full of change! It was good in some ways and bad in others, but overall change stresses me out ... and I am glad 2010 is over.

Good news: 2011 is entirely predictable! I will NOT be moving, not even from one apartment to the next. I will not be getting any new jobs or attending any new schools. I will likely make a few new friends, but nowhere near the number of new ones I made this year. I also won't be saying goodbye to as many friends as I did last year. I know where I will be spending my summer. I hopefully will not have to buy a new car. Extreme amounts of change? I am done with it for awhile. I am always open for adventures, and I know 2011 will throw some new and exciting challenges my way, but the intensity will not be anywhere near as vast as this past year.

It will be SO REFRESHING. It's like a vacation on the beach after a long semester of craziness.

Happy 2011!