Apartment selection

*Selecting a moving company.  I will be going with Mayflower and things are arranged, so I now have one less big thing to worry about.

 

*Starting and completing the apartment hunt in less than 24 hours.  After making 10's of phone calls to apartment complexes for availability and other information, I selected one, and checked with Kevin to make sure it was in a good area, and it was.  I mailed off the application and deposit and faxed them a copy as well to get the apartment held.  They called me later in the afternoon to let me know that my credit check had gone through, etc, and that they were going to mail me a welcome packet!  I am now all set to go.

 

*Being able to stay with friends.  I don't know exactly where I will be staying for my homeless days in College Station, but I can stay with either Tara (except the weekend when her parents come) or Andrew, so I'm not worried about it.

 

*Relaxing on a Friday evening and catching a new episode of Psych.  It is one of my favorite shows and I didn't think that there was going to be an episode on until it started to come on.  I guess that is because I didn't think it was Friday, but it was.

Fridays

*Getting a lot done towards arranging the move.  I managed to get a hold of a number of companies to at least get the number of estimates I needed, and start investigating apartments.

 

*Eating dinner at Fridays with Tara, Andrew, and Elliott.  It had been a while since we had been there and we all got something we really enjoyed.  It is the simple get togethers that will be missed the most.  Its going to be rough, but I am enjoying it while I still can.

 

*Doughnut run.  After seeing doughnuts in the Fridays menu, we made a doughnut run to Albertsons then Wally world.  A little spontaneous but very yummy.

 

*Not feeling the pressure to go into the office.  It was my first day of no office pressure since I don't actually have anything there that I have to do.  It let me concentrate on other things that had to be done.

Passed Oral Exam and Job Offer!!!!!!!!

*Passing my Oral Exam!!!! I now semi-officially have completed my M.S. degree!!!!!!!!!  The presentation went really well and I kicked butt on the Q&A portion.  The profs did not have to deliberate much before letting me know I had passed

 

*Large turnout for my presentation.  I don't think they have had as many people turn out for a non-thesis oral exam before.  I know of 1 or 2 that have only had the student and profs, and that was all, but I had at least 15 people total

 

*Getting a job offer!!!!!!  I checked my email right after the oral exam and found out I had just gotten a job offer at AMA!!!!!!  This makes the 2nd huge huge thing to happen in one day.  There is a lot of planning to do and arrangements to be made, but at least I know where I'm going.

Almost there...

*Finishing up my report (minus edits) and sending it to my committee with a reminder about my mini-defense time.  Almost done....

 

*Getting my presentation done early enough to go over it a few times and make small changes until it looked how I would want it to look.  That takes a lot of pressure off of tomorrow, and that is always good!

 

*Getting a continually longer list of people to contact when I get a response from AMA.  Its good to see how many people are interested, even if it means I'll be on the phone forever :-P

Sunday

*Eating at Canes for the first time with Tara and Andrew.  The chicken was pretty good and the sauce was good as well, maybe I'll learn to try new places before I'm about to leave an area...

 

*Finishing up all the non picture/video content of my presentation.  Now I just need to add some pictures/videos and figure out what to talk about for 35 min!

 

*Kyle's sermon at Covenant was really good.  It had been a long time since I heard him preach and he did a great job.

Freedom, Fun, and Fanticipation

*Being able to decide that I didn't want to go out in the rain, so I stayed at home and did my work.

 

*Discovering (after being told by Tara) that there is a laser tag place not too far from here toward Houston.  Simply put; laser tag is awesome!  We may have discovered it one weekend too late for me to go, but we're going to see what we can do.

 

*Calling the HR lady at AMA to ask a question and verify that I had not missed an email.  I haven't missed one yet, and they are going to get everyone together Monday morning for final inputs before they send me an email.  That sounds promising.

 

*Feeling on schedule for my mini-defense on Tuesday.  It will be complete mayhem from this point until I am settled who knows where, but I think I can handle it.

 

*Playing clue with Alison (who came back into town temporarily to go to Houston), Tara, and Elliott.  It had been a long time since I had played, and it was the first time Alison played with the actual rules, and it was a lot of fun.  I might have to get that game sometime.

Work, Food, and Distractions

*Completing the sections of my report that I set out to complete.  Now I only have 2 more sections (though big ones) to complete.

 

*Baked potatoes w/ chicken.  I made baked potatoes and  baja chipotle chicken pieces to put together and it turned out really well.

 

*Woot-off.  I was entertained a large portion of the day by the current woot-off.  It was just distracting enough to make the time go by while I worked, but not too distracting to keep me from getting my work done.

Post Interview

*Getting a decent amount of work done on my final report

 

*Hanging out at Andrew's with Tara and Zeke for a bit in the evening.  I hadn't seen them in a few days due to the interview, and Zeke was really active so it was fun.

 

*Sleeping in as long as I wanted.

 

*Hearing from my advisor that the company called him afterwards for a reference and it seems I left a good "imprint" on the company

 

*Hearing from someone who won't be named that my chances are very good.

Interview

*All flights on, or near on time on the way to Hampton, VA.

 

*Meeting up with Kevin Earle (and his wife) for the first time since his wedding right after we graduated.  We discussed AMA and some other things to catch up.

 

*Going to bed really early and sleeping really well the night before the interview

 

*Waking up 2 hours before my alarm, and then 1 hour before, and then again when it went off, well rested.

 

*Being ready for the interview early and heading over 30 min early.

 

*Quite pleasant interview.  I talked with 5 people in all, including the president of the company (who's cell number I now have too)  all of whom seemed to really like what I had to say, though they did most of the talking. 

 

*Discovering that the company president really knows my current advisor (Dr. Hurtado) and that one of the interviewers is currently a distance masters student under Dr. Schaub!  It really is a small world.

 

*Free lunch!

 

*Finding out my dinner the previous night was also free!

 

*Sitting in the same row as a kid (~7-9) who was on their first plane flight ever.  The amazement and awe of a child's first plane flight is always cool to see, especially on the 6th flight in 1.5 days.

 

*Having my laptop to keep me entertained during my many hour delay in Houston (and so I could type this here at IAH), and giving me the opportunity to start the thank-you for the interviews (though I wouldn't dare send it without rereading it when less tired)

 

*Having the last flight attendant flirt with me because I had moved all the way to the front for more legroom (the plane was sparse and I was assigned second row).  She kept messing up things, probably because it was later than she was supposed to be working, and she thought I noticed and got giggly/flustered which was amusing, so I laughed, which perpetuated it.  It made the 7th time hearing all the flight instructions interesting.

 

*Finally getting home

Completions

*Completed interview travel arrangements.  The arrangements are complete and better than what I had suggested to them.  It will still be 7 flights and 18-20 hrs of travel in 2 days, but I'm kinda looking forward to it.

 

*Finishing my circuit board layout.  It should be ready to be sent to a company to be printed.  Then my electronics will look all fancy on a circuit board instead of on a bread board.

 

*Studying John Calvin.  This weeks UCM person to study was John Calvin and both Mark and Kyle were quite excited about it.  They did a good job with the discussion as usual!

 

*Tacos...mmmm tacos.  I actually hadn't made them in a while (contrary to popular belief!) so it was good to make them again.

 

*Working hard, late into the night.  I found some motivation somewhere that I didn't know existed in the evening and worked until 1:30am both Tues. and Wed. It helped me get a lot done towards finishing this whole thing up.

Transformers

*Transformers.  Elliott, Andrew, Tara, Kyle, and I went to see Transformers and we all walked away quite happy we had gone to see it.  The critics hadn't really liked the movie, but everyone we talked to loved it so we figured it would be pretty good.  The movie turned out "pretty awesome" as Andrew put it.  It is now added to the extensive list of movies we've seen this summer, all of which have been great.  This summer is definitely the best I've ever seen for movies.  There are still at least 2 more I'm looking forward to: Bourne Ultimatum, and Rush Hour 3

 

*Relaxing at work.  I really didn't get much done, but I had a good time chatting with officemates most of the day.

 

*Cheesecake for breakfast.  Need I say more?

Fireworks, Fortune, Food, and Freeing

Over the past week:

 

*Fireworks.  Tara, Andrew, Zeke, and I went to see the fireworks at the George Bush Library.  We hung around outside waiting for them to start and it started to rain 30 min before the fireworks were supposed to start.  We were a long way from the truck so we took shelter and they began the fireworks as soon as they could instead of waiting.   The display was nice and we got back fairly dry (except Zeke since his legs are so short).

 

*Mini White House.  The George Bush Library was open free all day so we went and saw the Miniature White House which changes every time anything in the White House changes.  The detail was incredible and it was pretty cool to see.

 

*Hearing back from AMA with what sounds like they are trying to arrange an interview for me, as long as my references are OK.  Sounds like Dave (Kevin E's old boss) wants to hire me. :)

 

*Lounging around on a Saturday and getting as little done as possible.  I did go grocery shopping to get some supplies for a few meal ideas, so I had cooking on the brain, which is always pleasant.

 

*Cheesecake.  I was flipping through my cookbook to find a good recipe for anything, and as always was driven towards the dessert/cake/pie sections and stumbled on a recipe for marble cheesecake that looked fantastic so I decided to give it a shot.  I was right, its great. :)

 

*Getting a lot done with the experiment so that I could get the necessary plots to Jeremy for his paper.  I will probably just modify the plots slightly and use them as my results for my final report.  If this is the case, then I am done taking data!  Now I have 2 weeks (less a few days for an interview hopefully) to write it up and make a presentation.

 

*Not being stressed.  I don't know why, but I have a ton to worry about, yet I'm not.  Its a nice change

Sea World

*Tara, Andrew, Kay, Jeremy, Meredith, James, and I all went to Sea World together in San Antonio. It was a long drive to get there but it was an amazing day. We left at 6:30am and got back after 1am sometime.

*Seeing the Shamu shows. I was close to getting splashed at the first show, and that was fun in itself. All in all we saw quite a few shows of different kinds and had a blast.

*Roller Coasters. After the first big drop I realized that I couldn't remember having been on a roller coaster in 5 years or so. It was pretty awesome. They are not the most amazing of roller coasters but they were still a ton of fun.

*Chatting. We did a lot of random chatting during the drive there and the drive back. Mostly because it was fun and partially to keep Tara awake.

Opportunity

----Friday---
*I called Kevin E's old boss at AMA in Hampton, VA to follow up on him receiving my resume from Kevin. I got his voicemail so I left a message mentioning who I was and why I was calling, but purposfully did not leave my number and said I would call him back so that I would not get stuck in a position of waiting. He called me back anyway about an hour later after looking up my number on my resume (good sign 1!). I talked to him for about 20 minutes! He was very interested in figuring out what I had done and what I want to do and seemed very enthusiastic about my potential employment. He said at the end that he would talk to the HR person and they'd probably call my references and get back to me soon about going up for a visit (he never called it an interview). This is an amazing opportunity that has come my way and I am grateful that it is going this way! I think this is as good as 3 positives and thus is my only one for Friday.