Today is the last day of 2008 and I thought I'd sum up what I did this year:
January: Went up north for MLK weekend and snowboarded for (basically) the first time and had fun, can't wait to do it again in Feb 09!
February: Went to VEGAS for spring break with 4 boys...
March: I'm struggling with this month, probably studied a lot
April: Graduated with my master's in Biomedical Engineering from Michigan
May: Went to DC to pick out my first place, also spent lots of time lollygagging on various beaches and boats in northern Michigan.
June: Matt moved to New Jersey...I was sad
July: I moved to Alexandria, VA to begin my new life in the big scary real world
August: Struggling here too, probably went out a lot with my new DC friends
September: Made it back to Michigan for a football game, best game of the season and one of our 3 only wins
October: Went back to Michigan again for the football game against MSU, did not go so well but got to see lots of college friends
November: Thanksgiving with Matt's family in Owosso and then weekend with the fam in GP
December: Christmas in Tampa with the grandparents and my brother's family, including my baby niece Leili, who is adorable (for those of you facebookers out there, I posted a video of her on my profile because blogger video is stupid)
Well that was a brief synopsis of my 2008, all in all pretty good, can't complain.
Looking forward to 2009!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Trans-Siberian Orchestra aka 2.5 hour live version of Windows Media Player visualizer
If you are just tuning in, there are three new posts from today, so be sure to read them all!
Saturday night we had tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra who (whom?) I have loved for a while now. The concert was at the Izod Center (which is where the NJ Nets play). Now, both Matt and I were expecting a concert in line with seeing a symphony orchestra with some electric guitars and singers, but man were we wrong. This was like a rock concert/laser light show/chamber orchestra hybrid of madness. It was really awesome though, the first half was basically their christmas cd played live but with some added narration telling a Christmas story and the second half was more mainstream famous instrumental music transformed for electric instruments.
There were about 6 musicians who sat on the stage playing for the whole concert, and then there were two violin players who were running all over the stage rocking out on their electric violins (the girl had a pink one!) and there were about 4 guitar players and 8-10 singers. There were neon and laser lights going to the music as well as fire and fireworks going on all over the place and strobe lights, it was crazy to watch.
Throughout the show, they kept saying no one should leave early because they had a big surprise for us at the end of the show that was only happening for the NJ show, nowhere else. I wasn't sure if it would actually be someone sweet or if it would just be a big buildup and the person would be a letdown. But, after the show, they announced that Steven Tyler was there and he was performing with the orchestra. He sang sweet emotion and dream on to end the show so that was an awesome welcome surprise considering before we went there, we thought we were going to an orchestra concert. Here are some pictures:
The stage before the show, our seats were in the second row of the upper bowl right at center court
Steven Tyler singing Dream On
Saturday night we had tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra who (whom?) I have loved for a while now. The concert was at the Izod Center (which is where the NJ Nets play). Now, both Matt and I were expecting a concert in line with seeing a symphony orchestra with some electric guitars and singers, but man were we wrong. This was like a rock concert/laser light show/chamber orchestra hybrid of madness. It was really awesome though, the first half was basically their christmas cd played live but with some added narration telling a Christmas story and the second half was more mainstream famous instrumental music transformed for electric instruments.
There were about 6 musicians who sat on the stage playing for the whole concert, and then there were two violin players who were running all over the stage rocking out on their electric violins (the girl had a pink one!) and there were about 4 guitar players and 8-10 singers. There were neon and laser lights going to the music as well as fire and fireworks going on all over the place and strobe lights, it was crazy to watch.
Throughout the show, they kept saying no one should leave early because they had a big surprise for us at the end of the show that was only happening for the NJ show, nowhere else. I wasn't sure if it would actually be someone sweet or if it would just be a big buildup and the person would be a letdown. But, after the show, they announced that Steven Tyler was there and he was performing with the orchestra. He sang sweet emotion and dream on to end the show so that was an awesome welcome surprise considering before we went there, we thought we were going to an orchestra concert. Here are some pictures:
The stage before the show, our seats were in the second row of the upper bowl right at center court
Steven Tyler singing Dream OnWhew, that was a lot of posting for one night, now it is past my bed time!
The Christmas tree of Christmas trees!
Saturday, we went in to the city to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller center and the window displays in the department store windows. It was also my first time seeing the empire state building:
After seeing that, we pushed and shoved and pushed and shoved our way down 5th avenue looking at the windows of Macy's, Lord and Taylor, and Saks Fifth Avenue. I didn't get any pictures of the windows because they were really crowded and I was afraid of getting yelled at by angry tourists for holding them up just to take a picture. Then we got to Rockefeller center and saw the big tree!
We also saw the skating rink (which was actually a lot smaller than I thought) and the NBC news building and the area where everyone gathers outside for the TODAY show, it was really cool. Then, we had to push and shove our way all the way back to Penn Station to catch our train back to NJ so that we would make in on time to the trans-siberian orchestra concert, which will be the topic of my next post...
After seeing that, we pushed and shoved and pushed and shoved our way down 5th avenue looking at the windows of Macy's, Lord and Taylor, and Saks Fifth Avenue. I didn't get any pictures of the windows because they were really crowded and I was afraid of getting yelled at by angry tourists for holding them up just to take a picture. Then we got to Rockefeller center and saw the big tree!
We also saw the skating rink (which was actually a lot smaller than I thought) and the NBC news building and the area where everyone gathers outside for the TODAY show, it was really cool. Then, we had to push and shove our way all the way back to Penn Station to catch our train back to NJ so that we would make in on time to the trans-siberian orchestra concert, which will be the topic of my next post...
A night at the races
This past weekend, I went to NJ to visit Matt for a very christmas themed weekend! A lot happened so I am splitting this into several posts so get ready!
The first night was Matt's company's holiday party at the Meadowlands racetrack in NJ. It was really fun, I met a bunch of Matt's coworkers and everyone was really nice and had a good time. It was in a huge room overlooking the track (which was a mile long) with lots of other events going on at the same time. There was a huge buffet with tons of good food, my only complaint was that there was no shrimp! Matt and I bet on a few of the races but didn't win anything. One of the horses I bet on to win ended up dead last by about half the length of the track, I guess horse betting is not my calling, although it is probably easier when you have a sports almanac from the future...
Here is a picture of me and Matt from the banquet room with the track in the backround:
After the party we went back and hung out at Matt's friend's apartment and things got a little crazy, I was going to put a picture up that summed up the evening, but there are none that would pass the strict blog censor. We ended up leaving at 4:15am and had to walk two miles back to Matt's so didn't get to bed until 5:00am...sleep schedule was messed up for a few days for that one
Next up, the NYC christmas tree!
The first night was Matt's company's holiday party at the Meadowlands racetrack in NJ. It was really fun, I met a bunch of Matt's coworkers and everyone was really nice and had a good time. It was in a huge room overlooking the track (which was a mile long) with lots of other events going on at the same time. There was a huge buffet with tons of good food, my only complaint was that there was no shrimp! Matt and I bet on a few of the races but didn't win anything. One of the horses I bet on to win ended up dead last by about half the length of the track, I guess horse betting is not my calling, although it is probably easier when you have a sports almanac from the future...
Here is a picture of me and Matt from the banquet room with the track in the backround:
After the party we went back and hung out at Matt's friend's apartment and things got a little crazy, I was going to put a picture up that summed up the evening, but there are none that would pass the strict blog censor. We ended up leaving at 4:15am and had to walk two miles back to Matt's so didn't get to bed until 5:00am...sleep schedule was messed up for a few days for that one
Next up, the NYC christmas tree!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Christmas time is here!!
My favorite time of year has arrived :) And to commemorate it, I have put up christmas lights on my balcony and my little christmas tree in my living room. I had a little trouble taking the pictures of my balcony lights, they all turned out blurry, I tried with and without the flash and nothing was great, but you sort of get the idea.
My little christmas tree, I've had for a long time, (I think since before college) and every place I've ever put it up (dorm rooms, apartments) it has never come down until I have actually moved out of the place (which in one case was a year and a half!), so we'll see how long it stays up this time!
FYI, I get really happy when people comment on my blog, so please write something!
My little christmas tree, I've had for a long time, (I think since before college) and every place I've ever put it up (dorm rooms, apartments) it has never come down until I have actually moved out of the place (which in one case was a year and a half!), so we'll see how long it stays up this time!
FYI, I get really happy when people comment on my blog, so please write something!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thanksgiving!
Matt and I went back to Michigan together this past weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. We went to Owosso Wednesday - Friday and Grosse Pointe Friday - Sunday. Wednesday night, mom and dad met us at the airport to give us a car (Ted style) so that we could get to all the places we needed to get to. We went out with a lot of Matt's friends on Wednesday night in Owosso which I thought was really fun, man do I miss Michigan bars being in DC where the drink "specials" are $10 pitchers of bud light during football games. In fact, that is the only time you can even get pitchers in DC that I've really found, so that was a welcome treat :).
Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Matt's house with 34, that's right, 34 members of Matt's family. I can not even come up with 34 member's of our family. Mom and Dad's side combined (including the canadian second cousins) gives only 32 and that is including EVERYONE I can think of (okay, not everyone because I'm not including the wilma contingent because we've really never celebrated any holiday with them). These 34 relatives of Matt's were all first cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents so not even second cousins or great aunts and uncles and it didn't include everyone. It was both sides of the family all in one place, which I don't think our family has ever done but I thought was cool! Matt's mom went all out with planning stuff, there was tons and tons of food and some games such as "name the beanie baby." I made the apple dip that Sara made at Tgiving last year and it was a big hit so I was happy. Most of the family members I met were all saying they were excited to finally meet me and that had heard a lot of good things about me, which is good so I was happy about that. All in all it was really fun.
Friday we made it over to Grosse Pointe and had a good time hanging out with the fam. Mom made another thanksgiving dinner so after that we were stuffed!! So much food in 24 hours!! We did a lot of relaxing and tv/movie watching. Saturday we went bowling and I have to say, our family is good at bowling. Dad had a 207 in the first game and Matt smoked the competition in the second game with a 190 and the average for our family was over 100 for everyone. Saturday night I went out with a few friends to a bar in St. Clair Shores and it was really nice to see everyone again and catch up. The visit went by really fast though and before I knew it, we were back at the airport leaving Michigan...again. We both had delays, Matt's were worse than mine though. All in all though, I think it was a great weekend and visit. Can't wait to see the family we missed for Christmas!!
Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Matt's house with 34, that's right, 34 members of Matt's family. I can not even come up with 34 member's of our family. Mom and Dad's side combined (including the canadian second cousins) gives only 32 and that is including EVERYONE I can think of (okay, not everyone because I'm not including the wilma contingent because we've really never celebrated any holiday with them). These 34 relatives of Matt's were all first cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents so not even second cousins or great aunts and uncles and it didn't include everyone. It was both sides of the family all in one place, which I don't think our family has ever done but I thought was cool! Matt's mom went all out with planning stuff, there was tons and tons of food and some games such as "name the beanie baby." I made the apple dip that Sara made at Tgiving last year and it was a big hit so I was happy. Most of the family members I met were all saying they were excited to finally meet me and that had heard a lot of good things about me, which is good so I was happy about that. All in all it was really fun.
Friday we made it over to Grosse Pointe and had a good time hanging out with the fam. Mom made another thanksgiving dinner so after that we were stuffed!! So much food in 24 hours!! We did a lot of relaxing and tv/movie watching. Saturday we went bowling and I have to say, our family is good at bowling. Dad had a 207 in the first game and Matt smoked the competition in the second game with a 190 and the average for our family was over 100 for everyone. Saturday night I went out with a few friends to a bar in St. Clair Shores and it was really nice to see everyone again and catch up. The visit went by really fast though and before I knew it, we were back at the airport leaving Michigan...again. We both had delays, Matt's were worse than mine though. All in all though, I think it was a great weekend and visit. Can't wait to see the family we missed for Christmas!!
Where the heck have I been this month??
I have no idea how it is December already and I'm not going to keep making promises that I obviously can not keep, therefore I make no more guarantees about blog post frequency, but I promise to TRY to post approximately once every one to two weeks (hopefully more).
I'll start with an update about work. Work is still going well, I have not been fired yet! I have now been working at the patent office for 4 months so I am officially half way through the patent training academy. We had a slight lull in lecture frequency for a few biweeks, however we are now starting to have more frequent lectures because we are starting to review for our proficiency exam in February. Now, I thought that this test was something that sort of decided if we got to keep our job, but I've more recently found out that it is more just a gauge of where we are and they would like us to get around an 80%, but I don't think anything too terrible will happen if someone doesn't get an 80%. I guess this is the test that they have you take when you become a grade 12 examiner. (I am a 7, 12 is three grades above me. Don't ask me about how they came up with the numbering, you go from 7 to 9 to 11 to 12, after 12 they stop skipping numbers up to 15. After 15, you are in a different category of federal employment and you are a big wig when you get there.) When you take the test to become a 12, I think you can only get one question out of fifty wrong, so they expect alot more than they do of a 7, but I guess it is there to give you a starting point.
In January, I will move out of my training room and into my official office, which will be exciting and a little sad. My training room is a large room with several windows (see picture below) and 14 other people, we have all become pretty good friends so it will be sad to not be in the same room as them every day (although in all honestly I'll probably get more work done) but we will all be within a few floors of eachother in the same building. My new office will be on the inside of the building, so there will not be a window, and I will have one office mate, who may or may not be a new examiner like me, or they could be a few years in to the job, it just depends on where they have space. I will actually be working in close proximity to others in my art unit (which to remind people is radiation and magnetic therapy and cardiovascular testing) which means when I have specific questions about my cases, I won't have to trek over to another building to talk to my supervisor or the experts in my area. It will be an interesting change, having to meet new people all over again. The nice thing is that after I move, I will still have two months of training, meaning I will still have two more months to get up to 100% of my production goals and I will still report to my trainer rather than my supervisor in the art unit, so not everything will change at once.
View of the whole room, we have two "corridors" this one on the left is next to the windows, my cubical is off of the other "corridor" on the right toward the back
Me working hard at my desk :)
My desk, it's not too messy, but not too neat, just how I like it. And yes, that is a drawing of the little mermaid on my wall, I drew it before Matt and I went to the show and actually really liked it so I kept it :)
That is enough about work, I managed to make it up to Jersey 3 times in November, which is more than normal, but was very welcome! I drove for the first time and had pretty good experiences so I think I'll stick with driving as my go to mode of transportation for the time being. The night of halloween (which was a Friday) I decided I wanted to see Matt so I called him and said I was driving up there the next day, even though I could only stay for a one night trip. That went really well with driving and was a nice trip even though it was quick. I drove up there again the next week for a regularly scheduled visit. Then two weeks later I went up there again for Matt's and my two year anniversary, which happens to coincide with the Michigan - Ohio State football game. We went to the bar to watch with one of Matt's friends from work and I think we all know how that went so we don't really need to talk about it more.
About driving: from my place in Alexandria, to Matt's place in River Edge, it is 244 miles taking the most direct path. However, that path includes like 50 toll roads and I HATE toll roads!! So, I google mapped a route avoidind all toll roads that adds about 4o miles to the trip and makes it about 45 minutes to an hour longer (according to google). The trip takes you mostly through Pennsylvania, rather than New Jersey. I was worried that avoiding toll roads would put me on little podunk (sp?) dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, however, only about 20 miles of the trip is on a road that does not feel like an interstate. That part actually has stop lights and is only a two lane highway, but I think over all the route is pretty good. I also usually drive up on Friday mornings so I avoid all traffic and I can make the trip in exactly 5 hours, which I honestly think is the best time I could make taking the toll route anyway because I think it has more traffic.
This past weekend, I was back in Michigan for Thanksgiving and had a great time, but that will be discussed more in my next post.
Again, I'm sorry for being so lazy this month!
I'll start with an update about work. Work is still going well, I have not been fired yet! I have now been working at the patent office for 4 months so I am officially half way through the patent training academy. We had a slight lull in lecture frequency for a few biweeks, however we are now starting to have more frequent lectures because we are starting to review for our proficiency exam in February. Now, I thought that this test was something that sort of decided if we got to keep our job, but I've more recently found out that it is more just a gauge of where we are and they would like us to get around an 80%, but I don't think anything too terrible will happen if someone doesn't get an 80%. I guess this is the test that they have you take when you become a grade 12 examiner. (I am a 7, 12 is three grades above me. Don't ask me about how they came up with the numbering, you go from 7 to 9 to 11 to 12, after 12 they stop skipping numbers up to 15. After 15, you are in a different category of federal employment and you are a big wig when you get there.) When you take the test to become a 12, I think you can only get one question out of fifty wrong, so they expect alot more than they do of a 7, but I guess it is there to give you a starting point.
In January, I will move out of my training room and into my official office, which will be exciting and a little sad. My training room is a large room with several windows (see picture below) and 14 other people, we have all become pretty good friends so it will be sad to not be in the same room as them every day (although in all honestly I'll probably get more work done) but we will all be within a few floors of eachother in the same building. My new office will be on the inside of the building, so there will not be a window, and I will have one office mate, who may or may not be a new examiner like me, or they could be a few years in to the job, it just depends on where they have space. I will actually be working in close proximity to others in my art unit (which to remind people is radiation and magnetic therapy and cardiovascular testing) which means when I have specific questions about my cases, I won't have to trek over to another building to talk to my supervisor or the experts in my area. It will be an interesting change, having to meet new people all over again. The nice thing is that after I move, I will still have two months of training, meaning I will still have two more months to get up to 100% of my production goals and I will still report to my trainer rather than my supervisor in the art unit, so not everything will change at once.
View of the whole room, we have two "corridors" this one on the left is next to the windows, my cubical is off of the other "corridor" on the right toward the back
Me working hard at my desk :)
My desk, it's not too messy, but not too neat, just how I like it. And yes, that is a drawing of the little mermaid on my wall, I drew it before Matt and I went to the show and actually really liked it so I kept it :)That is enough about work, I managed to make it up to Jersey 3 times in November, which is more than normal, but was very welcome! I drove for the first time and had pretty good experiences so I think I'll stick with driving as my go to mode of transportation for the time being. The night of halloween (which was a Friday) I decided I wanted to see Matt so I called him and said I was driving up there the next day, even though I could only stay for a one night trip. That went really well with driving and was a nice trip even though it was quick. I drove up there again the next week for a regularly scheduled visit. Then two weeks later I went up there again for Matt's and my two year anniversary, which happens to coincide with the Michigan - Ohio State football game. We went to the bar to watch with one of Matt's friends from work and I think we all know how that went so we don't really need to talk about it more.
About driving: from my place in Alexandria, to Matt's place in River Edge, it is 244 miles taking the most direct path. However, that path includes like 50 toll roads and I HATE toll roads!! So, I google mapped a route avoidind all toll roads that adds about 4o miles to the trip and makes it about 45 minutes to an hour longer (according to google). The trip takes you mostly through Pennsylvania, rather than New Jersey. I was worried that avoiding toll roads would put me on little podunk (sp?) dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, however, only about 20 miles of the trip is on a road that does not feel like an interstate. That part actually has stop lights and is only a two lane highway, but I think over all the route is pretty good. I also usually drive up on Friday mornings so I avoid all traffic and I can make the trip in exactly 5 hours, which I honestly think is the best time I could make taking the toll route anyway because I think it has more traffic.
This past weekend, I was back in Michigan for Thanksgiving and had a great time, but that will be discussed more in my next post.
Again, I'm sorry for being so lazy this month!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Update
Just an fyi, I haven't forgotten about the blog, it's just that nothing interesting has happened in my life recently :) Sorry
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
We know how to have a good time at the USPTO
(I added two posts today so make sure to check out both!)
Today at work we had an ice cream social/pumpkin carving contest (which is sort of weird because Ted and Sara just posted pictures from a pumpkin carving party they had this weekend as well). I am on the "social committee" for my training class at the pto. We decided to have a pumpkin carving contest at work and then have everyone in the class (about 70 people) judge the pumpkins. Each lab (14 people) was given a pumpkin and had to plan what they were gonna do with it and then were given 30 minutes to do the carving.
They turned out pretty good for the most part, here's how they look:
I have no idea what the theme of this one was, it has a sun on this side, and the other side had the travelocity gnome (which i think was actually a witch but they were trying to be funny when they described it) and a unicorn...
Black Cat
Tiki pumpkin, this was my favorite one
Joker from Dark knight, this was my lab's pumpkin. It actually looked exactly like Heath Ledger in our pattern, but not so much on the pumpkin. We brought in a dremel tool to create our design (we didn't actually carve out holes) and people kept saying it was really obvious we were from Technology Center 3700, which is mechanical engineering...I guess they were right about that.
We don't find out the winner until tomorrow, but I think it will be hands down lab 4.
Maybe this is why we have a backlog of a million patents...
Today at work we had an ice cream social/pumpkin carving contest (which is sort of weird because Ted and Sara just posted pictures from a pumpkin carving party they had this weekend as well). I am on the "social committee" for my training class at the pto. We decided to have a pumpkin carving contest at work and then have everyone in the class (about 70 people) judge the pumpkins. Each lab (14 people) was given a pumpkin and had to plan what they were gonna do with it and then were given 30 minutes to do the carving.
They turned out pretty good for the most part, here's how they look:
This one is Bowser (which actually is a lot easier to tell in the picture than it was in person)
I have no idea what the theme of this one was, it has a sun on this side, and the other side had the travelocity gnome (which i think was actually a witch but they were trying to be funny when they described it) and a unicorn...
Black Cat
Tiki pumpkin, this was my favorite one
Joker from Dark knight, this was my lab's pumpkin. It actually looked exactly like Heath Ledger in our pattern, but not so much on the pumpkin. We brought in a dremel tool to create our design (we didn't actually carve out holes) and people kept saying it was really obvious we were from Technology Center 3700, which is mechanical engineering...I guess they were right about that.
Maybe this is why we have a backlog of a million patents...
There's no place like home...part deux
Well, at least I made it to one of the wins we had this season. I went back to Ann Arbor again this past weekend for the Michigan State game. It didn't go quite as well as last time as far as the game was concerned, however it was a much bigger turnout of college friends this time so that made up for it. I didn't even take pictures at the game, but I took a bunch before so here are some for people to enjoy:
So, there was this tent set up by an ann arbor leasing agency that was giving out free hot chocolate and hot dogs and stuff. Matt and Tommy left to get some hot chocolate and this is what they looked like when they came back. Apparently they had some football target throwing game and these were the prizes they won.
A little bit closer up view of Matt and his sweet sunglasses that ended up dying his skin orange
Me and Emily, my former peer advising buddy who doesn't go to Michigan or live in Michigan anymore but still has season tickets...I am jealous
Me with Katelyn, Steve, and Emily, all former peer advisors and pretty awesome people. For those of you who do not know, Steve is the person that introduced me to Matt, they were housemates the summer we were peer advisors (and for the rest of college for that matter). Thanks, Steve :)
This picture is for the lurkers that I recently found out about who read my blog, and by lurkers, I mean Tommy, I'm pretty sure no one else in this picture reads my blog, and yes, I realize Matt is in this picture :). For those not in the know, this is Matt's whole house and then some from Michigan. (They were all in the same hall their freshman year in East Quad and have lived together ever since, except for that random guy in the back between Andrew and Alex, I don't know who that is).
Michigan Football team arriving at the game
So, there was this tent set up by an ann arbor leasing agency that was giving out free hot chocolate and hot dogs and stuff. Matt and Tommy left to get some hot chocolate and this is what they looked like when they came back. Apparently they had some football target throwing game and these were the prizes they won.
A little bit closer up view of Matt and his sweet sunglasses that ended up dying his skin orange
Me and Emily, my former peer advising buddy who doesn't go to Michigan or live in Michigan anymore but still has season tickets...I am jealous
Me with Katelyn, Steve, and Emily, all former peer advisors and pretty awesome people. For those of you who do not know, Steve is the person that introduced me to Matt, they were housemates the summer we were peer advisors (and for the rest of college for that matter). Thanks, Steve :)
This picture is for the lurkers that I recently found out about who read my blog, and by lurkers, I mean Tommy, I'm pretty sure no one else in this picture reads my blog, and yes, I realize Matt is in this picture :). For those not in the know, this is Matt's whole house and then some from Michigan. (They were all in the same hall their freshman year in East Quad and have lived together ever since, except for that random guy in the back between Andrew and Alex, I don't know who that is).
Sunday, October 19, 2008
My Phone's Great Adventure
I get really happy when people do nice things/the right thing so I wanna tell this story:
Yesterday, I went in to DC to watch the Michigan game and then go out with a group of friends for the night. After a long day and night and watching Michigan lose (again) and hopping from bar to bar and in and out of a few cabs, I finally decide it is time to call it a night around 2am. So my friend and I hail a cab to head back to Alexandria (the metro stops running at 2am on weekends and we were too far from a stop to be able to make it). In the cab I was texting and calling people so I knew that I had my phone with me at that point. I get back to my apartment, pay the guy (thankfully with a good tip) and walk through my apartment door and realize I do not have my phone. CRAPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (other things were said/yelled but I like to keep the blog clean).
So, its too late to run back down because the cab has already left and I have no idea what cab company I took. Also, while I have a land line phone, I couldn't use it to call my cell phone because I don't have long distance service, and my number is still my Michigan phone number (I don't even think I could have just done it and paid a fee, I don't think it even works long distance). So the next morning I realize how hard life is without a phone. I had no way of contacting people other than IM and if they weren't at the computer, I was out of luck.
So a little while later, mom calls my land line phone because she had received all of my IMs about losing my phone and she gave me a calling card number to use so that I could make long distance calls. I called my phone a few times hoping anyone would answer it and I got nothing. Finally, a couple hours later, I decided to try again and the cab driver answered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never felt so relieved, it was great. I talk to him and he gave me his home address so I could drive there and pick it up, which I did about half an hour later.
It makes me so happy when stuff like this happens, he could have made no effort to get my phone back to me, I can't believe he gave me his home address but I am so relieved I got my phone back, I had no idea how attached I am to my phone until I was without it for about 12 hours.
I definately need to start being a lot more careful about grabbing my things when I get out of cabs!
Yesterday, I went in to DC to watch the Michigan game and then go out with a group of friends for the night. After a long day and night and watching Michigan lose (again) and hopping from bar to bar and in and out of a few cabs, I finally decide it is time to call it a night around 2am. So my friend and I hail a cab to head back to Alexandria (the metro stops running at 2am on weekends and we were too far from a stop to be able to make it). In the cab I was texting and calling people so I knew that I had my phone with me at that point. I get back to my apartment, pay the guy (thankfully with a good tip) and walk through my apartment door and realize I do not have my phone. CRAPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (other things were said/yelled but I like to keep the blog clean).
So, its too late to run back down because the cab has already left and I have no idea what cab company I took. Also, while I have a land line phone, I couldn't use it to call my cell phone because I don't have long distance service, and my number is still my Michigan phone number (I don't even think I could have just done it and paid a fee, I don't think it even works long distance). So the next morning I realize how hard life is without a phone. I had no way of contacting people other than IM and if they weren't at the computer, I was out of luck.
So a little while later, mom calls my land line phone because she had received all of my IMs about losing my phone and she gave me a calling card number to use so that I could make long distance calls. I called my phone a few times hoping anyone would answer it and I got nothing. Finally, a couple hours later, I decided to try again and the cab driver answered!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never felt so relieved, it was great. I talk to him and he gave me his home address so I could drive there and pick it up, which I did about half an hour later.
It makes me so happy when stuff like this happens, he could have made no effort to get my phone back to me, I can't believe he gave me his home address but I am so relieved I got my phone back, I had no idea how attached I am to my phone until I was without it for about 12 hours.
I definately need to start being a lot more careful about grabbing my things when I get out of cabs!
Monday, October 13, 2008
More new stuff for my apartment
Wow, two posts in one day...that is nutters!
For graduation this year, mom and dad gave me some money to buy "fun stuff" for my apartment and I finally finished spending it today! I have been looking for a small hall/console table to put next to my front door for a really long time and I finally found one today at homegoods. It's a place where I can put my keys and mail when I come in the door to try and keep some of the clutter off of my desk.
I also found a great deal on a set of kitchen ware including some canisters for flour and sugar, a container for my wooden spoons and other large kitchen utensils, and a ceramic thing to put my hot pans on.
Before today I also bought a throw pillow (which can be seen in the picture of my couch a few posts down, it the one with embroidery) and two tall bookcases from Ikea that I now have in my living room and bedroom, so all in all, I think I got a lot of good stuff. The apartment is pretty much complete for now, I have all of the essential pieces of furniture to not feel like I'm in college anymore, yay!
For graduation this year, mom and dad gave me some money to buy "fun stuff" for my apartment and I finally finished spending it today! I have been looking for a small hall/console table to put next to my front door for a really long time and I finally found one today at homegoods. It's a place where I can put my keys and mail when I come in the door to try and keep some of the clutter off of my desk.
I also found a great deal on a set of kitchen ware including some canisters for flour and sugar, a container for my wooden spoons and other large kitchen utensils, and a ceramic thing to put my hot pans on.
Before today I also bought a throw pillow (which can be seen in the picture of my couch a few posts down, it the one with embroidery) and two tall bookcases from Ikea that I now have in my living room and bedroom, so all in all, I think I got a lot of good stuff. The apartment is pretty much complete for now, I have all of the essential pieces of furniture to not feel like I'm in college anymore, yay!
Go USA!!
Matt and I went to the US soccer game vs. Cuba this weekend at RFK stadium in DC. I got the tickets for Matt's birthday about a month ago so I was excited the weekend was finally here. The game was a world cup qualifying match (for the 2010 world cup in South Africa) and Matt tells me that winning this game got us in to the next round of qualifying. The US won 6-1 so it was an exciting game because there was a lot of goal scoring, most soccer games are pretty low scoring. Matt also told me that this was the first goal the US has allowed in a qualifying match yet, and it was a bogus goal because the Cuban player was offside anyway but they never called it (no instant replay in soccer!). Also, a Cuban player received two yellow cards in the first half and therefore was ejected from the game.
In soccer, severe enough penalties result in a yellow card being given to the offending player, this serves as sort of a warning that you better be careful because if you commit a second yellow card offense, you will receive a red card, which means you are ejected from the game. Sometimes, if the penalty is bad enough, the red card will come out right away with no yellow card. The most significant result of getting a red card though, is not only are you ejected from the game, but your team has to play one man down for the rest of the game, they can not send in a substitute when a player is kicked out. So for the end of the first half and the second half, Cuba had to play with 9 players on the field, while the US got to have 10 (not counting goalies). Matt tells me that red cards are relatively rare, however I feel like whenever I watch a soccer game, I see someone get ejected from the game so I must pick the good ones to watch :)
Here are some pictures from the event:
View of the field from our seats, there weren't very many people in the upper deck but the lower sections on both sides seemed to be sold out, so I'm not sure they even tried to sell most of the upper deck seats
US team warming up
US soccer flag over what seemed to be the crazy fan section, everyone on the other side of the field seemed to be very organized with their cheering and they were all jumping up and down in unison, it literally looked like they were on a platform moving up and down because they were so in sync, Matt and I were trying to figure out how to get over there...
Final score
Self Portrait, I am sweet at these :)
So all in all it was a good time, I would go to another game but the only problem is they play all over the country, never consistently in one place so it might be tough to be in the same place as them again.
In soccer, severe enough penalties result in a yellow card being given to the offending player, this serves as sort of a warning that you better be careful because if you commit a second yellow card offense, you will receive a red card, which means you are ejected from the game. Sometimes, if the penalty is bad enough, the red card will come out right away with no yellow card. The most significant result of getting a red card though, is not only are you ejected from the game, but your team has to play one man down for the rest of the game, they can not send in a substitute when a player is kicked out. So for the end of the first half and the second half, Cuba had to play with 9 players on the field, while the US got to have 10 (not counting goalies). Matt tells me that red cards are relatively rare, however I feel like whenever I watch a soccer game, I see someone get ejected from the game so I must pick the good ones to watch :)
Here are some pictures from the event:
View of the field from our seats, there weren't very many people in the upper deck but the lower sections on both sides seemed to be sold out, so I'm not sure they even tried to sell most of the upper deck seats
US team warming up
US soccer flag over what seemed to be the crazy fan section, everyone on the other side of the field seemed to be very organized with their cheering and they were all jumping up and down in unison, it literally looked like they were on a platform moving up and down because they were so in sync, Matt and I were trying to figure out how to get over there...
Final score
Self Portrait, I am sweet at these :)
So all in all it was a good time, I would go to another game but the only problem is they play all over the country, never consistently in one place so it might be tough to be in the same place as them again.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
"Well it turns out, I have a rose garden"
Well, I blew it, I went more than a week without blogging and I didn't even realize it until today! I need to set some sort of alarm that goes off if I forget to post.
Well, moving on, I got to do something this week that was really spectacular. Mom, dad and I got to tour the west wing of the white house! My dad's friend's cousin is Brent McIntosh, whose official title is "Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary". I got the impression that his job is to take bills that congress passes to the president so that he can sign them, his U of M and Yale degrees don't really help him out with that but whatev, he works in the white house and therefore, we got to tour. Here's a brief rundown of what we saw:
The Oval Office - pretty much sweet, I had no idea we would get to see this on the tour so that was awesome.
The Roosevelt Room
The room where the cabinet meets (I dont know if this has a special name)
The rose garden
The press briefing room
Here are a bunch of pictures, there was also some sort of breast cancer awareness benefit going on and the white house was lit up with all pink lights and looked pretty cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, except for in the press room, so all the pics are outside:
Well, moving on, I got to do something this week that was really spectacular. Mom, dad and I got to tour the west wing of the white house! My dad's friend's cousin is Brent McIntosh, whose official title is "Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary". I got the impression that his job is to take bills that congress passes to the president so that he can sign them, his U of M and Yale degrees don't really help him out with that but whatev, he works in the white house and therefore, we got to tour. Here's a brief rundown of what we saw:
The Oval Office - pretty much sweet, I had no idea we would get to see this on the tour so that was awesome.
The Roosevelt Room
The room where the cabinet meets (I dont know if this has a special name)
The rose garden
The press briefing room
Here are a bunch of pictures, there was also some sort of breast cancer awareness benefit going on and the white house was lit up with all pink lights and looked pretty cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, except for in the press room, so all the pics are outside:
Sunday, September 28, 2008
There's no place like home
This weekend was my first trip back to Michigan since I moved to Alexandria. I went to Grosse Pointe Thursday-Friday night, then picked Matt up at the airport on the way to Ann Arbor where we got to see lots of friends who all came back for the event. We went to the football game (I'm hoping anyone who reads this knows how that went). It was in my top three best Michigan games I've ever been to. The other two are OSU 2003 (my freshman year) and MSU 2004 (my sophomore year). It was so awesome to be back in the big house and to feel the energy of the student section during that comeback, it was such a rush! The pictures below are a recap of my football game day. I included pictures of the stadium contruction for people who have been to Michigan stadium...it was really strange to see all of the steel framework going out around the stadium but I am interested in seeing what the finished product looks like, hopefully it turns out looking good. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
