Daily: March 2008 Archives

When Jose gets a girl flowers for her 30th birthday, he really gets a girl flowers. :)

Overall, I have to say that my birthday was pretty awesome. Yes, there was the downer of having to go to class, but at least it was the 3D modelling class that I enjoy (even if the program sometimes makes me want to tear my hair out), and we got out a half hour early. In addition to the flowers above, Jose gave me a beautiful orchid because he's noticed how I always stop and admire orchids and similar flowers -- even fake ones -- when we're out and about. I have never bought one because I'm scared I'll kill it, but I'm going to do my best to keep this one alive and well!

I also got to enjoy an awesome lunch at Tokyo Bowl with Jose, Becca, Debbie, Jason, Gavin and Jen that left me so happily full that I didn't even eat anything else until I got back from class and had a snack and some ice cream. I didn't eat too well yesterday but hello -- birthday. Birthday trumps all.

Today it's back to the same old, same old. I don't have a lot going on at work right now. My cert sim for my backroom rendezvous position is next Wednesday, so I have something big on the schedule, but it's not exactly something that I need days and days to prepare for. At this point, I either have the knowledge and skills to pass...or I don't. I know that I do. So while I'll do a little bit of reviewing past sim cases and the like before next Wednesday, it's not like I have hours of cramming to do. I'm not sure what the next six months will bring. We've done two shuttle flights in the past two months, but now the next one isn't until the end of May and the one after that probably won't launch until September.

Life has calmed down a little for me after the craziness of late February and early March, and ironically I now find myself feeling restless. There's been enough to keep me occupied though. The rodeo left town last weekend, but I did make it out to one show with Jose, Jason and Debbie. We saw Brad Paisley (who was ok; I'd heard of him but I don't really listen to country music) and hit up the carnival for some food and rides. We went the afternoon after Jason, Debbie and I had all run the Seabrook Half Marathon, so none of us felt up to any crazy jerky carnival rides. Instead, we rode the ferris wheel, the sky chair ride, the swings, and went through one of the funhouses. We also each got an airbrush tattoo, highlighted mainly by Jason's decision to get his done on the back of his freshly buzzed head.

Easter weekend was highlighted by a couple workouts in between lots of laziness. Well, actually, I spent a ton of time working on 3D modelling -- the tutorial he gave us took FOR. EVER. I find that my patience for modelling in Maya is limited. I am happy doing it if I feel like I am making progress, but once I start having issues like not quite knowing how to make the program do exactly what I want (because I'm so new to it, and it's so complicated), I lose patience very quickly.

The next three weekends will be filled with triathlons, Corpus Christi, and Karen's wedding, so I should have plenty to write about. That about wraps it up!

So Owl wrote... and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
"I'm just saying 'A Happy Birthday'," said Owl carelessly.
"It's a nice long one," said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
"Well, actually, of course, I'm saying 'A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh.' Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that."
"Oh, I see," said Pooh.

Today is my 30th birthday and I am super excited!

My dad called last night to wish me a happy birthday (he said he was afraid he'd forget to call today, so he decided to jump the gun). I complained about how I have to spend my birthday evening in my 3D modeling class, and he commented that birthdays aren't a big deal as adults anyway. But I beg to differ. I know that 30 is supposed to be a sad and depressing birthday or whatever, but honesty I have been looking forward to this since Christmas. I mean, I'm 30!

Think about all the cool things that I've been able to do in three decades. I learned to walk, I learned to talk, I went to school, I made friends, I graduated from college, I helped launch some space shuttles, I saw the world... It's all pretty dang cool, and while the next three decades may not be as dynamic, I expect to do some pretty awesome things in my 30s, 40s, and 50s as well.

Here's my own retrospective of my first three decades. I don't have many photos of my elementary and middle school years (probably because I went through the standard hideous teenage girl phase and prefer to block that out of my mind), but I was able to dig up a few.

Here I am as a wee baby in 1978. This looks like it was taken at my house and not in the hospital, so I guess I'm a few days old here at least. But look at my hands! I'm still all wrinkley!

Here I am with my grandparents in their RV at Myrtle Beach. My grandfather died just before I turned 2, so sadly I don't have any memories of him -- just some photos. But my grandmother is still going strong at 93 years old, so it looks like I probably have many, many more years to go.

I'm 5 years old in this photo, and I know that with certainty because I'm pretty sure what I'm holding is either my little sister Katie or my little brother Brian, as an infant right after they came home from the hospital. (I'm probably holding Katie, since I think she came home first.) They were born in 1983.

I don't know for sure, but I'm probably about 5 years old in this photo as well. That's one of my childhood best friends, Thomas, in the background. Obviously I was easily amused. Sandbox + water hose = hours of fun.

This is one of the only photos I could find from my elementary and junior high years. It was taken at my family's dairy farm in Pennsylvania the summer when I was 11 years old. Also in the photo are my sister Katie, cousin Michael, cousin Pam, and brother Brian.

A few years later and here I am during my freshman year of high school. This was actually taken at Epcot Center on the trip that made me want to be an aerospace engineer. I won a trip to Kennedy Space Center after writing a paper about an experiment that could be done on Mars and entering it in a contest. The other two girls were from my high school as well.

Here I am as a high school senior in 1996. I'm sitting in the door of my first car -- a hand-me-down (from my mom) 1986 Pontiac station wagon. With wood grain trim and everything. Aw yeah.

Fast forward another 5 years and here I am right smack in the middle of graduating from Georgia Tech. My friend Daniel was taking photos for the college newspaper (for which I was a section editor) and he got this great photo of Becca and me with our diplomas.

And finally, here I am at 27 years old. This was taken on the shore of Lake Tahoe when we all went skiing there just over two years ago. I had been dating Jose for a grand total of 2 months, and I remember being slightly nervous about the prospect of having him along on a big group vacation when I was just really getting to know him.

Obviously things worked out just fine.

Happy 30th Birthday to me!

So it turns out that 2.5 weeks of constant activity is my breaking point. I'm not sure that I can handle much more. I'm sitting here doing my 3D modelling homework and hating it. This is the class I like, but I'm hating it because all I want to do, with every fiber of my being, is lie on the couch and read my book. The book that I have not picked up since, oh, about mid-February.

This morning my throat was a little sore. A sore throat is a tell-tale sign that I'm about to get sick. I really, really do not want to get sick right now, a mere 36 hours before my Vomit Comet flight.

So.

I have had sims.
I have had software testing.
I have had load checkouts.
I have had homework, and a test that I didn't do very well on.

I completed an 80-page program for the upcoming Miss Houston and Miss Houston Teen pageants and sent it off to the printer. That was really exciting. It was my first paid graphic design job. It was also a lot of work.

I have had no time for stress relief, which means I have had no time for working out, since working out is my stress relief. It sounds funny to say that I haven't been exercising, since I did a 200+ mile relay with 13 of my friends. But that's the only running I've done in 2+ weeks. Last night I got on the bike trainer for an hour, which was the only time I've cycled in 2+ weeks. I can only hope that I haven't lost too much fitness.

I switched from the Half Ironman to the Quarter Ironman. I didn't want the distance hanging over my head after this period of zero training. I know I can get back on track to do a Quarter Iron, so I'm excited. It was the right decision.

I'm signed up for the Pelican Challenge at Seabrook this weekend, but it's going to be ugly. I'm considering backing out of the Sunday race, but I think it's far too late to transfer the entry, and that makes me not want to waste it. Last year I ran 2:21 on Saturday and 2:29 on Sunday. This year I don't expect to do that well. Maybe 2:25 on Saturday and 2:35 on Sunday. I'd be happy with that.

Karen Thibodeaux got a couple great photos of our team as we approached the finish line on Sunday. Hey team -- we should go ahead and order 14 of them at once and take advantage of Karen's deal -- $20 for the first 8x12, but $5 for each one after that! That's only $6 a print. Very reasonable. This one or this one looks good.

I'm busy busy busy busy. I'm writing my final TIR recap in my head, but haven't had time to type it out yet. I also haven't had time to do anything with my photos, however, my photos are pretty much crap compared to what I've seen (and stolen) from everyone else.

I have probably spent $50 at Starbucks in the last 3 days.

BUSY.