Spring Break

Well, after going to gulf shores, AL, the last four years for spring break, this year was a little less fun.  I spent most of the time moving boxes of stuff from the old apartment to the new apartment.  It seemed like Mary Poppins bag, where you just keep taking stuff out, and there's just always more stuff in it.  But we're mostly all moved into the new apartment now and having separate rooms is amazing.  There is so much more space. 

Last Saturday I had a chance to run a steeplechase.  It  was very slow, but steeplechase is always fun.  Plus I got to wear my Calvin Alumni jersey for the first time! 

On Friday, I realized I needed to do something spring break-ish, so I put some snacks in a bag and hiked up Flagstaff Mountain.  The trail was a fairly easy one, very pretty, but it crossed the road quite often.  Here is a view of the plains to the east. 

Can you see the white chalk on the rock?  People boulder in Boulder :) 

The view from the Summit looking north along the Front Range. 

The trail got steeper!

Suprise find at the top.  If I wasn't married already, this would be an amazing spot to get married, at the top of a mountain at sunrise.

So anyway, the hike was a nice excursion into nature for a bit. It's fun to explore Colorado.  I'm so blessed to live in such a beautiful place. 

Friday the Eighteenth

Oh man, well we finally signed a lease for a new apartment.  It was not easy.  First of all the apartment we originally wanted turned out to have mice in it, so we decided against that and the company had two other apartments so we tried to sign a lease on Wednesday.  When I got to the office to sign the lease the agent told me she had to reschedule and rushed out, even though I rearranged my day and Nate left work early to sign the lease and we wanted to move in on Friday.  Anyway, so I got to the office today, and she starts telling me the conditions but the rent listed is the price for a two bedroom and we are renting a one bedroom apt..  She however, did not know how to fix it, so it took a really long time.  But finally we have the lease signed and have keys.  The apartment is not that much bigger really than what we're in now, but it has actual rooms!  Also, hopefully it does not have really loud neighbors.

Also, I'm steeple-chasing tomorrow! 

Goals:
Me: do the meditations from the lifting coach
Everyone: take a moment from your busy life and just sit and don't think about any of it. 

The Events of Yesterday

Well yesterday was quite full of happenings.  I woke up to a text from Nate telling me about the earthquake in Japan, so I spent the next hour reading about it.  It's horrible.  Then I noticed there was a tsunami warning out for the west coast, and my parents live in seattle.  So I called my dad, and he didn't know about the earthquake becuase he was up all night helping my brother who had crashed his car in the middle of the night in the middle of Montana.  Also, one of my friends texted me that her mother had a stroke.  So many items of bad news. 

I also had to write a report, finally it got done, it was hard to concentrate on. As I was getting ready to leave, there was a knock on our door.  It was our landlord, she had a girl with her that she was showing apartments to and the girl had seen our ad online for a sublet.  So she came in and immediately said she wanted it.  She didn't even look around really, it was just bigger than the others she saw.  So then I called around trying to find out where we are going to move to.

Today we looked at a couple apartments again, and hopefully will be moving this next weekend.  Not excited to go through the moving process, but I am excited to live in an apartment with actual rooms.  And cupboards.  And a closet. 

So I'm not sure I'll have to specifically try to put sunshine into my life this week, I think moving and starting a thesis will be enough excitement.  However, I have realized that while I do think about God a lot and what He would want, or what I should do, I haven't really been praying lately.  So yesterday definately brought me back to my knees.  So this week I am going to attempt to pray more. 

Everybody:  So I would encourage everybody reading to try and talk to God more too.  And while you are at it pray for all the victims of the earthquake and for my friends mother and my sanity this week.  :) 

Thesis

Me: Well the new thing I did this week was start my master's thesis!  I'm so proud of myself for getting on top of things and actually figuring it out.  There is no guidance for this type of thing.  So anyway, I chose the topic of Improving the Estimation of Seismic Performance Modification Factors. 

Everybody:  Do something that you have been putting off for a while.  Maybe FAFSA?  or calling someone you've been meaning to call?  Try a new restaurant?  It's different for everybody. 

Seismic Performance Modification Factors:
FEMA put out a seismic risk screening process called the rapid visual screening process.  Basically a person can take a worksheet and go through the worksheet.  Different components of the structure can be visually assessed, like the shape of the building, the number of stories, if it has a soft story or parapets, things like that.  Each category gets a score which is called a seismic performance modification factor, the scores are all added up. The final score determines if the building will probably be okay in an earthquake or if you should have an engineer analyze it and see if it needs retrofitting.   Some of these seismic performance modification factors are based on expert opinion.  My job would be to use computer models to develop a method of estimating the factors based on analysis rather than opinion.  

Hopefully that gives you an idea of what I'm doing for my thesis.  I don't know much more than that yet.  I start with a literature review so hopefully I'll know more soon. 

Everything and Nothing

Well, I haven't written for a while.  Mostly because I felt like I had nothing to write about.  So I'm going to recap everything which isn't much, so nothing. 

Running: So I had three indoor races in a CU uniform, but now I'm done with collegiate racing.  I'm still training with the team.  I have class on the days they do workouts though and I can rarely keep up with the regular pace.  So its hard to really feel like part of the team or feel like a legitimate runner.  My feelings about running are very volatile.  One day, I'll be really excited about running and the fact that I'm running with the buffaloes and the next day I feel like quitting running altogether.  I think I need to just stick it out until I'm actually in good shape and then see how I feel about it. 

School:  School is going pretty well, I think I'm close to starting on a thesis, so life will get busier.  Nate got his MCAT scores back, he improved but he wants to try again and see if he can improve even more.  This weekend we are going on a retreat with the intervarsity graduate christian fellowship.  That should be really fun, but that means that today I have to pack and get all ready to go before practice and do a bunch of homework.  I've been getting up earlier which is nice because then I get more accomplished during the day, however I haven't gone to bed earlier so now I'm kind of tired and grouchy. 

Intentional Sunshine:  Instead of talking about me all weekend I'm going to try and ask people questions about themselves and give more compliments.  I challenge you all to do the same.  Less "me" more "you".