Graduation Day!

I passed all my classes! 

Graduate today! 

Masters of Science in Civil Engineering with a focus on Structures

Pics to come. 

Motivation

What's the best way to find motivation?    I have a final on monday but my thesis has been accepted, I started sort of running agian this week, but I am so out of shape and have no idea what i'll be able to train for.  Any ideas on finding motivation?  Quotes?  pictures? 

Almost a MASTER!!!

Hello to whoever reads this.

I passed my thesis defense!!  As long as I pass my two classes I will graduate next Friday. 

Been a long journey, but totally worth it.  I have something that is my own work and contributes to society. 

Can't wait to find out what comes next :)  Possibly working for my advisor for a couple of months. 

Christmas dinner with the 20-somthings tonight! 

Missing all my friends from college, but I have to study for my final exam, so I can't call people yet. 

Started running again, its difficult when you are out of shape.  And I'm getting this needling steroid thing done again next week. 

Probably start making projects again next week, I'll try and post pictures. 

Merry Advent to all!!!

processing...

My struggles these days aren't huge, not small either, maybe medium sized.  And they seem to have to decided to just flop down on top of each other all at once.  Nate is worried about getting into med school.  I'm worried about it too.  He broke his leg and now all the household duties and all of Nate's whims fall to me.  I need to have a draft of my thesis in on wednesday.  I have the calculations done now, but not everything is written up, its kind of a mess at this point, though much better than it was on friday.  I also have an exam on thursday that looks like it will be a doozy, not sure how much time I'll have to spend on studying either.  But I have to pass everything to graduate.  Which then means I should have already started looking for a job.  To top it all off, I'm getting sick.  Kind of wish I could just rip off my nose. 

Anyway, don't know if anyone wanted to actually read about all that, but I thought maybe writing about it would help me process and deal with it a little better. 

Fall

Sunshine.  Crunchy leaves.  Crisp Autumn air.  New orange sweater.  Mmm fall.  Maybe we'll go for a hike tomorrow and take advantage of the nice weather. 

Nate said his interview went well.  He was really excited about the school and the area.  So now we wait and see if he is accepted there.  And maybe more schools will want him too. 

The future is coming...

Well life keeps changing.  Nate is in Iowa at a medical school interview.  I'm so happy for him that he got an interview.  He has worked so hard for a chance to go to med school for so long.  Its wonderful to see someone recognize his good qualities. 

That said, it scares me to have to move to the middle of Iowa, where I don't know anyone, with no mountains or lakes or people who recycle. 

My thesis is humming along.  I have to defend by the end of next month, and I finally have a few graphs and results in my report which is really exciting.  I hope that I understand everything well enough that they think I am worthy of a masters degree. 

Not sure exactly what I want after graduation.  I mean I need a job of some sort and I think I want to design, but I kind of like researching earthquake stuff.  There aren't that many people that know a lot about earthquake engineering.  And a lot of the few that do only design to code.  I wish I could be more confident in the knowledge that I do have. 

Anyway.  That's been on my mind lately.

I Yelled!

So a bit of history.  Usually when I get really upset, mad or sad or whatever. 

Anyway, yesterday I parked at a shopping center next to campus and went to the bank and then to kinkos.  Then I was going to study at a coffee shop there, but I had left my lunch in the car, so I went to get it and there was a boot on my tire and a big orange sticker on my window that said I parked illegally and had to pay 70 bucks to get it off.  I called the number and explained that I didn't park illegally.  He kept telling me that someone watched me leave and I wasn't getting the boot off.  I said I didn't leave and I had receipts to prove it and I wasn't going to pay 70 bucks.  He said he would call the guy who watched me "leave" and hung up on me while I was still talking.  I was so furious!  He didn't even have my phone number or anything.  I waited a couple minutes and then this old guy came walking over to talk to me about it.  I explained what happened and he asked if I had a reciept and before I even showed it to him he had taken off the boot, then he asked me about running and stuff.  He was so friendly, it was just a misunderstanding.  Don't understand why the guy on the phone was such a jerk to me.  So when I went back in to the coffee shop I was totally shaking for like an hour after.  But I'm really glad it all worked out.

Then I met up with this woman who had climbing shoes on craigslist for $20 dollars.  I tried them on and they fit!!!  So now I have climbing shoes!  Can't wait to try them out!