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!
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