It's been a while since I've written in this space. I've been tumbling away, but sometimes you just have to go back to the blog and express. First, some catching up:
Winter break was fun. It wasn't exactly everything I had hoped it would be, and I can definitely feel all of us growing into our separate lives more and more as time goes on. In some ways it's a bit depressing, but it's also nice to watch. The easy, dumb, laid-back fun that comes easily is always nice to get back to. I think I timed my departure perfectly to prevent myself from getting too incredibly bored after the UCers left, but now I'm longing for more relaxation time.
The few days I spent near Philly visiting E were pretty great. Not the most restful of weekends, but a ton of fun. Meeting and fam and friends is always an experience, but it was survived with no disasters, and with a lot of fun mixed in. Going in I was definitely a little bit worried about getting through a full three days together without getting sick of each other's presence, but we thrived and kept up the happiness. More on that later, though.
I'm through my first week of the semester, and for the first time am legitimately worried about possibly having over-committed myself. On the face of it, interning 3 days a week while stacking my 5 classes on the other two is the same as last spring, which I quite enjoyed. Only now I also have college dems work/events on top of it, the classes I'm taking are harder, and the internship days are longer. Not sure if I'll survive at this rate. Thinking about asking to drop down to two days a week instead of three, but not sure if that will work.
The work itself is pretty mixed. Unlike last spring, I'm not in a really social office with constant interaction and plenty of interesting things going on. Where I am now is definitely plenty political, and has it's interesting parts, but is not that social. I have my own cubicle and get most of my assignments over e-mail, and it's just kind of a depressing way to spend the day, even when doing cool things. I certainly am learning a lot about gubernatorial candidates throughout the nation, though! Yay! hehe.
I'm also a little bit sad that I am not required to suit up for work this spring. Barney would be disappointed.
Classes are... classes. This is my first semester ever with no math, and it's a little bit weird to not think numerically at all for the entire week. No math means that everything is text-based, which is actually quite a bit of work. I also completely ignored my math classes, so having another class I should actually prepare for is going to be tough. But combined with work and my general apathy about classwork, I haven't been doing any of the reading for anything, and just generally have no idea what's going on in any class. Having all 5 of them in a row on Tuesdays and Thursdays (20 minutes breaks between each one to move between classes!) doesn't help that either, since they all kind of run together in my mind and I have no idea which syllabus had what on it. Oh well.
College Dems continues to be a good experience, although it really does add some hectic days into my schedule. Going straight from work to fast food dinner to setting up for an event doesn't leave much me time. I continue to be very pleased with the organization, though. We've made it much more social and really done a lot better at keeping a large and active base of members than in years past. Especially awesome since no big election fun this year to motivate people. This upcoming Friday we have our one-year Obama Inauguration anniversary party and it should be really good. Tons of political dorks who will be showing up prepared to have fun. And E has a cute dress to wear to it!
It's only been a week, but my body is sore all over and I'm pretty exhausted. Since classes haven't really ramped up yet, I've still been getting to hang out with E frequently, which is nice but certainly not perfect for my sleep schedule.
I continue to battle occasional feelings of hating it here. The group of friends I really want to have just doesn't exist, and that doesn't help my insecurity about being clingy with E. The whole thing kind of builds on itself and is just shittastic sometimes. I felt like being really busy would help push this aside and let me enjoy life more simply, but weekends are still weekends and not yet full of backed up classwork to use as an excuse for not doing fun things with fun people. One of these days I'll learn how to convert acquaintances into real friends and life will be better.
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Fake Summer Vacation
It's been a while since I've blogged. That is the duration of my happiness, basically. Now that I am in a foul mood I can return to the medium with a proper amount of angst.
Visiting Katie in Santa Barbara was fantastigreat. I spent around 5 days in the sun/fog enjoying both her and her friends. The meeting of the parents went pretty well (duh) and I felt like a part of her friend group surprisingly easily. I guess I have been well-trained for hanging out with a bunch of semi-obnoxious girls. Plus, I keep discovering that Katie and I have more in common than I thought. Basically our families are near identical matches for each other, just shifted a little older. It's nice.
It was a nice relief to have the (stretched out) visit go well, too. The first half hour after I arrived was definitely a little weird, if only to be seeing her outside of DC. It was sort of like we both had no idea what we were supposed to be doing and couldn't tell if the other person was the same off-campus. Luckily we got past that and had a blast for the next five days. Which I spent pretty much all of in her presence without tiring of her. Fantastic.
Also shitty due to the whole her-going-abroad-all-of-next-year thing. But I'm not thinking about that yet. Or so I keep telling myself.
Can't wait for her to come up here in a couple weeks and see how she fits in with you all. Will be interesting to watch, at least. (CS2 knows how true this is for me.)
Umpiring has been weird this year. There's an old umpire saying, which is that people expect you to, "be perfect on day one and keep getting better." I missed over half of the season, which is normally the time when everyone is working out kinks. Now I am still in that stage of slight discomfort with my mechanics and inability to focus while everyone else is geared up for the post-season. I have a couple more games this week, then a week off before the important games start. Hopefully I can get both the physical and mental stuff worked out before then and rock out when the time comes. This may be the first time I've ever had any doubts that would happen.
I'm really excited for everyone to be home. Good luck on your finals and (quick!) trips home.
Visiting Katie in Santa Barbara was fantastigreat. I spent around 5 days in the sun/fog enjoying both her and her friends. The meeting of the parents went pretty well (duh) and I felt like a part of her friend group surprisingly easily. I guess I have been well-trained for hanging out with a bunch of semi-obnoxious girls. Plus, I keep discovering that Katie and I have more in common than I thought. Basically our families are near identical matches for each other, just shifted a little older. It's nice.It was a nice relief to have the (stretched out) visit go well, too. The first half hour after I arrived was definitely a little weird, if only to be seeing her outside of DC. It was sort of like we both had no idea what we were supposed to be doing and couldn't tell if the other person was the same off-campus. Luckily we got past that and had a blast for the next five days. Which I spent pretty much all of in her presence without tiring of her. Fantastic.
Also shitty due to the whole her-going-abroad-all-of-next-year thing. But I'm not thinking about that yet. Or so I keep telling myself.
Can't wait for her to come up here in a couple weeks and see how she fits in with you all. Will be interesting to watch, at least. (CS2 knows how true this is for me.)
Umpiring has been weird this year. There's an old umpire saying, which is that people expect you to, "be perfect on day one and keep getting better." I missed over half of the season, which is normally the time when everyone is working out kinks. Now I am still in that stage of slight discomfort with my mechanics and inability to focus while everyone else is geared up for the post-season. I have a couple more games this week, then a week off before the important games start. Hopefully I can get both the physical and mental stuff worked out before then and rock out when the time comes. This may be the first time I've ever had any doubts that would happen.I'm really excited for everyone to be home. Good luck on your finals and (quick!) trips home.
Friday, May 15, 2009
What 2nd Semester Was
This post is a follow up to this one.
Okay, so my predictions weren't great, but they weren't terrible either. Not too shabby overall, I'd say.
While a full class schedule and an internship three days a week was definitely quite a bit to handle, I got through it with minimal damage to my GPA. Learned some new skills because of it too, chief among them being how to function on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Important for someone in my (hopeful) line of work! The internship was a high point though, not a low one as I had predicted. Ended up being that work days weren't hard to wake up for and I really enjoyed myself. I was right that I would make plenty of connections, but way off on the cynicism.
While I thought I would be on the low end of the cynical spectrum in the office, it was probably the other way around. Most of the staff wasn't very transparently political and focused on the hard work of their substantive jobs. The amount they actually cared about sappy letters I occasionally passed on to them was quite a bit more than I would be able to show. I think it may have done the opposite of what I thought it would and made me want to be in politics more, but definitely on the campaign side where I am free to be a bit more emotionally detached.
The jaded-ness definitely occured, at least a little bit. By the second half of the internship I didn't get excited to speak with the Congressman on the phone or walk through the winding basement of the Capitol. By my last week I was a bit more into the coolness of it all, as I reminded myself to take it in before my ID got taken away and I no longer had access. Might be a while before I have it back.
I was very correct that I would have a fun spring break, without seeing too many people for much of it. The dual C.S.s made my week a blast. And yeah, I'm getting bored out of my mind waiting for people to return home and looking for a job. Hoping I find one soon. The prospect of a Santa Barbara trip sometime soon is also going to remove some boredom. Yay.
I'm kind of surprised that I errored a little bit on predicting my keeping in touch patterns. Had quite a bit less communication with Cupertino people than during first semester. I guess a lot less contact with GW people too. Just too busy to keep up the same level of chit chat as before. Still miss you guys though and am really looking forward to your shitty quarter system schools ending.
This semester made me realize a bit how much I enjoy delving into classes. First semester I had a lot of fun (looking back) actually doing the huge reading assignments for my poli sci class, going through dense articles for interesting tidbits. This semester pretty much everything I didn't have to do got blown off, and I miss the amount of secondary learning I got before. Still got through classes okay, which makes me wonder how people who are getting Cs in these classes manage to fail at life so hardcore. Not like I'm a hard sciences guy or something that requires actual thought.
Have I changed? Yes. Pretty much no doubt in my mind that I am a (slightly) different person than before. I am both more confident in my professional abilities and more mature. Working in an office (even if it wasn't the most serious one on the Hill) has helped me tone down some of the crap when I need to, while not excluding it from my personality as a whole. I was very glad to see that doing well at MV and GW has translated into being able to work well. This internship definitely hasn't harmed my ego.
And that brings me to the other obvious change, to me. I don't know what all I will have learned from Katie by the end of everything, but I know it'll be interesting and probably quite a lot. At least I'll have some stories, no matter what. Right now isn't the easiest time ever, but I was happier (and busier) for the last month of school than I had been in a long time, and I think that's worth some hardship. Especially when that pain can be anesthetized by a few hours in the car (e.g. sb trip mentioned above). I feel like this summer will be different personally than I would have predicted a couple months ago. Hope it's not a bad decision to pursue this and not other things.
But once again, something needs to pierce my ego. Maybe I'll fail to find a job this summer. Maybe I'll just read this in the morning and that will do the trick.
Okay, so my predictions weren't great, but they weren't terrible either. Not too shabby overall, I'd say.
While a full class schedule and an internship three days a week was definitely quite a bit to handle, I got through it with minimal damage to my GPA. Learned some new skills because of it too, chief among them being how to function on 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Important for someone in my (hopeful) line of work! The internship was a high point though, not a low one as I had predicted. Ended up being that work days weren't hard to wake up for and I really enjoyed myself. I was right that I would make plenty of connections, but way off on the cynicism.
While I thought I would be on the low end of the cynical spectrum in the office, it was probably the other way around. Most of the staff wasn't very transparently political and focused on the hard work of their substantive jobs. The amount they actually cared about sappy letters I occasionally passed on to them was quite a bit more than I would be able to show. I think it may have done the opposite of what I thought it would and made me want to be in politics more, but definitely on the campaign side where I am free to be a bit more emotionally detached.The jaded-ness definitely occured, at least a little bit. By the second half of the internship I didn't get excited to speak with the Congressman on the phone or walk through the winding basement of the Capitol. By my last week I was a bit more into the coolness of it all, as I reminded myself to take it in before my ID got taken away and I no longer had access. Might be a while before I have it back.
I was very correct that I would have a fun spring break, without seeing too many people for much of it. The dual C.S.s made my week a blast. And yeah, I'm getting bored out of my mind waiting for people to return home and looking for a job. Hoping I find one soon. The prospect of a Santa Barbara trip sometime soon is also going to remove some boredom. Yay.
I'm kind of surprised that I errored a little bit on predicting my keeping in touch patterns. Had quite a bit less communication with Cupertino people than during first semester. I guess a lot less contact with GW people too. Just too busy to keep up the same level of chit chat as before. Still miss you guys though and am really looking forward to your shitty quarter system schools ending.
This semester made me realize a bit how much I enjoy delving into classes. First semester I had a lot of fun (looking back) actually doing the huge reading assignments for my poli sci class, going through dense articles for interesting tidbits. This semester pretty much everything I didn't have to do got blown off, and I miss the amount of secondary learning I got before. Still got through classes okay, which makes me wonder how people who are getting Cs in these classes manage to fail at life so hardcore. Not like I'm a hard sciences guy or something that requires actual thought.
Have I changed? Yes. Pretty much no doubt in my mind that I am a (slightly) different person than before. I am both more confident in my professional abilities and more mature. Working in an office (even if it wasn't the most serious one on the Hill) has helped me tone down some of the crap when I need to, while not excluding it from my personality as a whole. I was very glad to see that doing well at MV and GW has translated into being able to work well. This internship definitely hasn't harmed my ego.
And that brings me to the other obvious change, to me. I don't know what all I will have learned from Katie by the end of everything, but I know it'll be interesting and probably quite a lot. At least I'll have some stories, no matter what. Right now isn't the easiest time ever, but I was happier (and busier) for the last month of school than I had been in a long time, and I think that's worth some hardship. Especially when that pain can be anesthetized by a few hours in the car (e.g. sb trip mentioned above). I feel like this summer will be different personally than I would have predicted a couple months ago. Hope it's not a bad decision to pursue this and not other things.But once again, something needs to pierce my ego. Maybe I'll fail to find a job this summer. Maybe I'll just read this in the morning and that will do the trick.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
It's hot and it's cold
This weekend was kind of terrible and kind of great. Yeah, one of those.
Friday was my class registration day for next Fall, which meant I had to get up and get on the computer at 7 am sharp to get classes I wanted. Spent a typically long time figuring out what to take and when, especially once upperclassmen filled up some of the cooler classes I was pondering. Well, anyway, I got up on time and got all the classes I planned to. Listed below!
My internship is still going pretty well. Due to other interns quitting early, I now work alone every day I'm there, which is a little annoying, but also kind of nice in a weird way. The small difference in the amount getting done without them is kind of pathetic in terms of how little they actually got done. I also don't understand what I did first semester. I'm working 3 days a week and still have time to get all my school work done and go to all my classes and such. I'm doing a tad more work on the weekends this semester, but not much. What the hell did I do during what must have been hours each day of completely free time?
I gave my first Capitol tour on Friday as well. Due to the influx of tourists (damn them always) for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and generally good weather, the official tour guides are all booked and I have to pick up the slack for our constituents. Did the training a week ago, which was very good, since my very first group had a wheelchair involved, meaning all the mobility-impaired access routes we learned for hours a week ago really came in handy. Only got lost looking for a wheelchair ramp once! Of course, I did that right as I ran into a friend from school who was randomly there, which was a little embarrassing. Oh well.
You all know how I love random facts. Now I am required to know a bunch of them about the Capitol building. Fun.
Friday night I went to see I Love You, Man with some friends. It was okay. I laughed quite a bit during it, but by the end (especially the final scene) I was very ready to be done with it. Looking back I don't think I can remember a single joke from during it. Wonder if I would have laughed if other people around me weren't. That's okay though, 'cuz the social dynamics of the evening provided me with plenty of mental laughter.
Saturday and today can pretty much be summed up in one word: research. Checked out 13 books from the library, most of them having been written in the 60s. Always a joy. Plenty of time spent on EBSCO and JSTOR too. Might be headed to the Library of Congress tomorrow after work to go through their microfilm of local papers in Georgia during the 60s.
Got to chill with a semi-new friend last night after my brain officially turned off. I really like enjoying new people. It's such a nice little surprise. Plus it's fresh and I can recycle all my good stories again. Will be harder next year as I got assigned to the shitty dorm building full of anti-social singles across campus from everyone else. Great.
I'm noticing more and more that I crave a social atmosphere. I used to think of myself as relatively introverted, but I'm seeing that that isn't really very true. Whether it's in a group or one-on-one I am just happier to be around people in general. At least I am conscious of it now, since then I can act to make it happen.
On the horizon for this week is 25 pages of writing spread across two papers. The first (which I have been doing all the research for) covers the effects of apportionment changes in Georgia in the 1960s. The second is some theoretical international politics thing about solving global warming. I should combine them into a theory about black power overcoming carbon dioxide through balanced representation. Right.
So, so crazy that 5 weeks from now I will be done with freshman year and back chilling at home. Ridiculous. Really need to figure out where to store/ship all my crap and what to do over the summer.
Friday was my class registration day for next Fall, which meant I had to get up and get on the computer at 7 am sharp to get classes I wanted. Spent a typically long time figuring out what to take and when, especially once upperclassmen filled up some of the cooler classes I was pondering. Well, anyway, I got up on time and got all the classes I planned to. Listed below!
- Beginning Chinese - Decided to take the plunge and try learning a language that will actually be useful. The 4 days a week of classes is a little gross, but hopefully it goes okay. At least I know plenty of people who can give me tips? Might regret this a lot...
- Intro to News Writing and Reporting - Excited for this. It's my first non-super-intro class in my planned minor, Journalism and Mass Communication. Going to be plenty of writing, but I think it will still be a pretty good class. This prof is supposed to be great but a hard grader, so we'll see how much I regret this choice later.
- 20th Century Political Thought - Should be an interesting class at least. I'm such a political science nerd that I'm not too worried about it being too boring. Might end up being terrible if the prof is too existential about the whole thing, but I'll survive.
- International Political Economy - Fulfilling the end of my international politics requirement and planning to never take anymore... I just don't give a shit. Combines that with econ which just makes it worse. Oh well. Professor supposedly makes it interesting and induces vibrant discussion, but I'm having trouble imagining that happening.
- Introduction to Sampling - The most politically relevant stats class I could find. I'm enjoying my intro stats course well enough, so I'm hoping this continues that trend. Plus some good stuff for me to know for my planned career. Nice how that works out. Prof reviews are terrible but are mostly from intro courses and center on his thick accent, which doesn't generally bother me too much.
- Squash! - Never played. Not sure I've ever actually seen a court in real life. I wanted to do something and this is what was the coolest sounding available thing in a workable timeslot. A couple hours a week learning to play and having fun sounds pretty good.
My internship is still going pretty well. Due to other interns quitting early, I now work alone every day I'm there, which is a little annoying, but also kind of nice in a weird way. The small difference in the amount getting done without them is kind of pathetic in terms of how little they actually got done. I also don't understand what I did first semester. I'm working 3 days a week and still have time to get all my school work done and go to all my classes and such. I'm doing a tad more work on the weekends this semester, but not much. What the hell did I do during what must have been hours each day of completely free time?
I gave my first Capitol tour on Friday as well. Due to the influx of tourists (damn them always) for the National Cherry Blossom Festival and generally good weather, the official tour guides are all booked and I have to pick up the slack for our constituents. Did the training a week ago, which was very good, since my very first group had a wheelchair involved, meaning all the mobility-impaired access routes we learned for hours a week ago really came in handy. Only got lost looking for a wheelchair ramp once! Of course, I did that right as I ran into a friend from school who was randomly there, which was a little embarrassing. Oh well.
You all know how I love random facts. Now I am required to know a bunch of them about the Capitol building. Fun.
Friday night I went to see I Love You, Man with some friends. It was okay. I laughed quite a bit during it, but by the end (especially the final scene) I was very ready to be done with it. Looking back I don't think I can remember a single joke from during it. Wonder if I would have laughed if other people around me weren't. That's okay though, 'cuz the social dynamics of the evening provided me with plenty of mental laughter.
Saturday and today can pretty much be summed up in one word: research. Checked out 13 books from the library, most of them having been written in the 60s. Always a joy. Plenty of time spent on EBSCO and JSTOR too. Might be headed to the Library of Congress tomorrow after work to go through their microfilm of local papers in Georgia during the 60s.
Got to chill with a semi-new friend last night after my brain officially turned off. I really like enjoying new people. It's such a nice little surprise. Plus it's fresh and I can recycle all my good stories again. Will be harder next year as I got assigned to the shitty dorm building full of anti-social singles across campus from everyone else. Great.
I'm noticing more and more that I crave a social atmosphere. I used to think of myself as relatively introverted, but I'm seeing that that isn't really very true. Whether it's in a group or one-on-one I am just happier to be around people in general. At least I am conscious of it now, since then I can act to make it happen.
On the horizon for this week is 25 pages of writing spread across two papers. The first (which I have been doing all the research for) covers the effects of apportionment changes in Georgia in the 1960s. The second is some theoretical international politics thing about solving global warming. I should combine them into a theory about black power overcoming carbon dioxide through balanced representation. Right.
So, so crazy that 5 weeks from now I will be done with freshman year and back chilling at home. Ridiculous. Really need to figure out where to store/ship all my crap and what to do over the summer.
Friday, December 26, 2008
It's Good to be Home
The title is from the end of a commercial I just heard. Can't remember what it was for. Bad marketing.
Having been home for Thanksgiving not too long ago at all, this break doesn't have the same hurried must-hang-out-with-everyone-a-lot feel of the previous one, which is quite nice. A lot more relaxation mixed into the often fun.
Some things haven't changed since Thanksgiving. The group of friends I spend the most time with continues to evolve, and there are nice new connections being formed within that group. Always good to find new gems in the (not so) rough. I continue to be amazed at the depth of some people and how easy it is to completely overlook entire parts of personalities until they hit you in the face. Honesty is nice too. [:
I'm happy I have been getting to cook more stuff lately. It's always fun to do when in the mood, and it's very therapeutic, especially when a good cooking partner is around to lend a hand. Plus it's a good life skill. Pros all around! Feel free to provide suggestions for me to cook next time I am around you. And be reasonably critical so it can improve. Honesty.
Christmas was good. We kept it to practical gifts within the family this year, which makes it a little boring on Christmas morning when opening up presents, but it definitely the way to go. Low key family time for a couple days is good as well. It was a very nice break to get to reunion with tut krew ® on Christmas night and have some good times. You guys are great and I'm glad we've kept in touch pretty well so far.
Unfortunately I am pretty sure someone (NATALIE!) got me sick and am not feeling amazing. I've been upping my regimen of remedies to combat it so it isn't too bad yet, but it puts a little bit of a damper on the Christmas spirit (and the amazing tastes of the season). Hopefully I don't pass it along to anyone else, that would be annoying, right?
I really need to get on a more normal sleep schedule. My sleep times have ranged within 12:30-6:30 am to 9 am-2 pm. I think it's wreaking some havoc on my body, but I don't really want to modify anything enough to fix it. At least I get to set a new earliest wake up time tomorrow morning to go shopping for my final Christmas presents all the way in Gilroy... YAY...
To-Do List:
Having been home for Thanksgiving not too long ago at all, this break doesn't have the same hurried must-hang-out-with-everyone-a-lot feel of the previous one, which is quite nice. A lot more relaxation mixed into the often fun.
Some things haven't changed since Thanksgiving. The group of friends I spend the most time with continues to evolve, and there are nice new connections being formed within that group. Always good to find new gems in the (not so) rough. I continue to be amazed at the depth of some people and how easy it is to completely overlook entire parts of personalities until they hit you in the face. Honesty is nice too. [:
I'm happy I have been getting to cook more stuff lately. It's always fun to do when in the mood, and it's very therapeutic, especially when a good cooking partner is around to lend a hand. Plus it's a good life skill. Pros all around! Feel free to provide suggestions for me to cook next time I am around you. And be reasonably critical so it can improve. Honesty.
Christmas was good. We kept it to practical gifts within the family this year, which makes it a little boring on Christmas morning when opening up presents, but it definitely the way to go. Low key family time for a couple days is good as well. It was a very nice break to get to reunion with tut krew ® on Christmas night and have some good times. You guys are great and I'm glad we've kept in touch pretty well so far.
Unfortunately I am pretty sure someone (NATALIE!) got me sick and am not feeling amazing. I've been upping my regimen of remedies to combat it so it isn't too bad yet, but it puts a little bit of a damper on the Christmas spirit (and the amazing tastes of the season). Hopefully I don't pass it along to anyone else, that would be annoying, right?
I really need to get on a more normal sleep schedule. My sleep times have ranged within 12:30-6:30 am to 9 am-2 pm. I think it's wreaking some havoc on my body, but I don't really want to modify anything enough to fix it. At least I get to set a new earliest wake up time tomorrow morning to go shopping for my final Christmas presents all the way in Gilroy... YAY...
To-Do List:
- Make more delectable dishes
- Figure out New Years plans
- Get unsick
- Get out of the bad mood I was in all day today
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
