Maude rocks....like granite! :)

The Rat Rampage was last Wednesday and it went really well. Maude performed pretty well seeing as how there were a ton of people in the room and it was really loud which kinda freaked them all out, but it's ok. She performed every event except the weight lifting, which she tried, but with the time and trials we were given, she didn't do anything. No worries, she was good in everything else. :) I don't care if she wins at all in anything, she did her best, go Maude! And now she is retired and can get as fat as she wants and never has to climb a rope again. :P I don't have many pictures, I am hoping to get some from my professor soon.

Our Jr. Ring ball pictures came in today and man do we look hot. rar. ;P Don't worry, I will bring them home this summer so you can see them. I don't have a working scanner or I would post one.

The weather is remaining good and I can't wait to go home! :)

Thayer and Fairfield with their rings too! (Thayer's is 36 penny-weight!! Fairfields is probably 44!) 

Mike and Caldwell with their new rings! woo! 

Heather and I! :D 

Jr Ring Weekend!

Well, Friday evening was the Jr Ring Ceremony and that night was the ball. The ceremony was really well done. The civilian Juniors who bought a class ring were there and they did a really nice dinner and ceremony to give them all out. The Junior Ring is a really big deal here. Especially for the corps. As you can see from the title of this entry, there is a whole weekend devoted to the ring. After the ceremony, I got ready for the ball. Amanda did my hair and make-up, Imust say, I looke pretty sassy. :) My dress fit me perfectly! Mom did a brilliant job. The juniors get announced when they walk into the ball (they all go together). The civilians went in first and not a soul clapped or said anything. The minute they called the beginning of the corps, everyone crowded around and started cheering like crazy. Really makes you realize that it doesn't really seem the civilians are wanted here. Oh well. The ball was pretty fun, saw heather and a bunch of my friends. :) After the ball we crashed. So...tired....Sat was pretty good. Wached Solaris on a prjector in one of the classrooms in the science building. Didn't do much else during the day, and I was on duty that night. There were going to be a ton of activities on the UP like sump wrestling, jousting, a bull riding thing, a beer tent and the Dropkick Murphys came. But it was raining, so everything got moved down to the field house. Disappointing because I couldn't just look out my window and hear the concert, but good for being on duty because NO ONE was around. It was silent all night. While I was on duty, I watched the movie The War with Amanda, Terri (who was on duty too) and Tedward. It was a really good movie. :) It has little kid Elijah Wood in it! Who knew he was ever a little kid?! lol. Mike, Derek, Grotz, and Karthik watched a bunch of sci-fi movies. I stopped in for parts here and there, like part of 2001, and part of Tron. Woah, Tron is wierd. Apparently they also watched Santa Claus vs. Aliens or something. The things that people thought up decades ago. haha.

It was a good weekend. :)

Beautiful

Doc's service in the chapel was today. It was really nice. This whole thing has seemed very surrealistic; it just doesn't seem like it happened. I didn't know Doc very well, but it just doesn't seem like he really is gone. It is a very strange feeling. But all of his family was here and a lot of students and friends and fellow faculty members. The whole service was people sharing stories about Doc. Happy stories, funny stories, there was a lot of laughing which was nice. Crying too, but that is ok. Crying is perfectly healthy. I think he would have enjoyed it. :) It was a bit of closure eventhough it feels like I am going to walk into class on Tuesday and see him sitting in his office.

On top of the beautiful and touching memorial for an amazing man, it was a beautiful day outside. It was 70 degrees and sunny. It is about time for nice weather around here. Unfortunately, after going to the memorial, I really felt like hopping in a car and driving to the occean or some place quiet and peaceful and just sit there. The bad part is that I have no car. Drat.

Viva le Doc

Doc Hammond. Say that name in the psychology department and everyone knows who you are talking about even if they haven't had a class with him. He was an ispiration to all of us. His dry humor and no-shitting way of telling you what he thought wasintimidating as hell, but some of the best advice you could get. He was the head of the psych department here and had been struggling his painful way through cancer for a while. It had gone everywhere in his body. He was clearly ina lot of pain. But he, literally, dragged himself into school three days a week to teach Learning and Motivation. His dedication to teaching students was one of a kind and irreplaceable. This morning, the cancer took him. He was an amazing teacher and man. I only had him for this one class and that was all I needed to know who this man was and how special he was to everyone. He will be dearly missed, but his spirit will live on.
Doc, you were a one of a kind. Rest in Peace.

Great Saturday!

This weekend was good. :) Amanda was on duty Saturday night and I had been wanting to try and see how rag curls would work in my hair for the Jr. Ring ball. So Amanda, Terri, Maggs and I got pizza, sooo good. :) Poor Terri was really tired, so she went upstairs to do a little hw and sleep. Meggan was on duty too (exec staff) and stopped by when we were going to do the curls and she knew how to do them so she covered my head in an old t-shirt. :) Somewhere in out talking ice cream came up and, of course, we wanted some. Meggan's fiance was going to come over so she called him and because Keith is AWESOME he stopped and got us each a pint of Ben and Jerry's and he didn't let us pay him back for it! He is so nice. :P We were very happy girls. We hung out listening to my strange collection of music, doing some trading and finally decided that it was time to see how the hair worked. Well....it worked a little. There was definitely curl, but not really in the back and it just needs some refinement. It was a lot of fun though. :) Maggs and I stayed up with Amanda until she was off duty at 2am and it was a great time. Mike and ACM was hosting a LAN party the same night, so he was off at the armory the whole day. I went down to visit a few times and it was pretty cool. Computers, XBox, hacking challenge, Pizza, chips and a LOT of caffiene. Wolf, a sophomore ME and a fellow teammate on the rifle team mixes his own music and was asked to DJ the event. He is amazing! They borrowed DJ equipment from one of the ME professors and Wolf technoed it up! :) AND, earlier that afternoon, Amanda took me to the gym! I know, hard to believe, but the really amazing part is that while I was at the gym, I actually worked out!! I know! I may even go again this week! :D Anyway. Really, it was a great day.

Tellyphone??

Sorry that last post was so depressing. I am better now. So I was on duty last night, Mike was at a party so I was by myself. In fact I was enjoying rotting my brain in front of season 2 of Sex and the City, a terrible, but addicting show. lol. So there I was, watching smuty TV when all of a sudden my lights went out. Right at midnight. hmmmm I said to my self....and went downstairs to Chris who was on duty with me....and found out the entire UP was out. When Jose, our exec staff on duty got up to Dodge, the power had come back on, but he told us that the whole town had gone out. And both the power and the phones had gone out, and the phones are still out as of now. Wierd.

down and out....

For some reason this week has had my head reeling about next year. Most of my friends outside of the engineers are going to be gone next year. Maggs and Terri will be graduating and Amanda will be in France. I guess it made me realize that I need a close girlfriend that will be here. I need my Colorado friends out here. I am not trying to say that I have no friends because I do, but I don't feel that I have many friends that I hang out with much. Sometimes I want to just hang out in my room and chill, talk, watch a movie, go to her room whenever, stay up to the wee hours in the morning talking about stupid stuff, I dunno. I can't replace friends from CO or those I have had for the past two years, but having someone there after these VT friends graduate. I feel like an asshole for typing all this. I love Mike. I love hanging out with the Engineers. I love my friends now. I feel that by writing this I am putting them all down, which is the last thing I ever want to do. I guess it has just been on my mind and I wanted to get it out.

I just looked out the ME lab window at our "student center" and the whole thing is dark. It is 330 on a Saturday after noon and the food is closed and the bookstore is closed and pretty much everything on this campus is closed or dark. Sad, very sad.

The fact that it is raining and gloomy today doesn't help, but sorry for the sad post.

PS send sun.