So I had a fantastic, amazing weekend that I should never do again because it was very stupid to push myself so far. I agreed to be a pawn in the Marist Human Chess Game on Sat. @ noon. So my plan was to sleep on Fri. evening after leaving SUNY, wake up in time to work at the Sec. Comp., sleep Sat. Morning until 10:30 when I would get ready for the game. Then catch some more sleep on Sat. evening before going back to work at night, then sleep on Sunday. Well, it didn't exactly happen that way because I didn't leave SUNY on Fri. until 9pm because the radio station had their executive board elections which started at 5:30pm. Then I had to get food before going to work, so I only got about an hour of sleep before work. Sat. morning I was wide awake, so instead of getting a solid 3 hours of sleep, it was more like 1 hour because I just wasn't tired (go figure). Sat. was fantastic!! The chess game was so much fun and even though I was force-chocked by the black king, I still took down 2 other pawns in my path. Joe's parents came up to watch the game, and afterwards we all had lunch at the dining hall before heading out to see a couple of the houses that Joe had been looking at. Suffice to say, Joe has a lot to think about now. We then played a game of mini golf which was so much fun, and congrats to Joe's hole-in-one! Though the rest of us came close a couple times. Then dinner at Applebee's and back to the townhouse. Joe's parents headed home and I fell asleep for about an hour on the couch while Joe was returning a phone call. Then I left to go to work, which was a rought night at times. I was ok until 3am, then I started struggling to stay awake. Luckily there wasn't much going on so I didn't have to worry about not being super alert. Though unfortunately I can now sympathize with people that say they hallucinate when they've stayed awake for too long. I saw a couple darting shadows out of the corner of my eye around 7am, and then I thought I saw a young man with short blond hair wearing a navy blue t-shirt and jeans sitting in the chair at the desk next to where I was sitting, and that kinda freaked me out. Right after that some alarms started going off so I was busy with that and then at 7:30am I left. I slept for 8 hours on Sunday, ran some errands, went to mass, got dinner with Joe, and then headed home. I fell back asleep @ 10:30 and slept through until this morning. So I think I'm finally caught up on sleep, but between Friday morning and Sunday morning, I was awake for 46 hours! How crazy and stupid am I? Never again, no matter how much fun I might miss out on. I need my sleep.
I got sun burned on Sat. but it's already going away. I have this funny loking red spot right in the middle of my chest, and when people see me they try not to look because it's on my chest but they still do and then they quickly look away... I have to laugh because I know they're trying to be discrete and not offend me by staring at the patch of sunburn on my chest. ;)
So last week was apparently the time for reconnecting with old friends. My friend John from high school got in touch with me via classmates.com, and then we talked for a little while on IM, catching up and such. Mike, who used to work down the hall from me for NYPIRG during the fall semester but left the end of December, finally came back online and IMed me too. He's out in California now, near LA. Then Lisa, who I knew from UMBC and graduated at the same time as me but haven't really heard from since, left me an IM yesterday with her new screen name. It was all really nice.
Alright, back to work... ciao!
.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.
Thursday, 4/14/2005
It's been 1.5 weeks since I last wrote, but even though I've been busy, not much has really happened. Last week at the college was pretty normal. We (staff) are really frustrated with the TV station because most of the members (not all of them) are sitting back and doing as little as possible but still expect to get paid. Our hands are tied right now (but hopefully not for too much longer) so we're having to almost ignore the problems and focus on the things we can fix. I'll be so glad when the semester is over. True, I'll probably be bored out of my mind by August, but right now I could really use the down time. This week is much more hectic. There's a lot of projects going on and the paperwork is all on my desk. It's been one thing after another and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. But I know it'll start slowing down again.
Last weekend was my first weekend working two overnight shifts for the sec. comp. It's not as easy as I though it was going to be. Not that the work is difficult, but trying to stay awake, and making sure I get enough sleep when I'm not working is. I learned some of my limitations, and I'm also trying to push my limitations because I realized that I don't deal with sleep deprivation as well as I used to in college. Yes, that makes me feel very old. Because I work at SUNY during the day on Friday and then have to work Fri. night, either I have to sleep on Fri. evening so I can stay awake on Sat. morning, or if I stay up on Fri. evening I have to be prepared to collapse on Sat. morning after I get home from work. But what if there's something happening both Friday evening nd Saturday morning? Right now, I'm pretty much screwed. There's no way I can do both, and that's been a little hard to deal with. Oh well, taking on a 2nd job was a necessity and it means that I have to sacrifice certain things. I'm just trying to not think about it, and remember that I have my evenings during the week free, and I'm getting an extra paycheck.
Sat. night Joe and I went over to Greg's house and Sherri, Greg, Joe, and I all made chicken franchaise with cheese and mushroom tortellini. It was delicious! And then we played poker for a while before I had to go to work. It was a lot of fun. I heard that some of the Res Life and Student Activities staff get together on Tuesday nights to play poker and I was invited a couple weeks ago, so I think I might go next week... maybe. It depends on what kind of poker they play and how much the buy-in is.
Oh yeah, the big news last week about the grad school thing. I actually called the director and officially declined the offer. I'm still a little bothered by the whole situation, but I'm very comfortable with the decision I made. Someone told me that she would feel like it was God telling me I should go to grad school at UMBC. But the more I thought about it, I think it was God taking a situation that was a big mistake, and turning it into a way to encourage me that my goals aren't unreasonable and unreachable. I didn't realize until I got my acceptance letter that I seriously didn't think I could get into grad shcool. I felt that if UMBC didn't accept me, then no one would. Well, UMBC did accept me, just not when I had wanted them to. And as someone else said to me, it's never a good reason to go running off to a grad program just because it's there. Well said.
To anyone who is a member of the Old Mill High School c/o '99... we will be having a reunion!!! But only with the help of fellow classmates. We're finalizing a current, updated contact list, and soon we will start sending out "save the date" cards. The date is Friday, August 5, 2005 7:30pm - 12 midnight!! Save the date and spread the word! The only way we can make this happen is if people come! So be looking for information about ticket sales. Come, bring a friend, bring a significant other, bring a spouse, bring whomever you want... Just be there!!!
Also, in other news... Joe's search for a house is going very well. He went with the realtor last weekend, saw a lot that he didn't like, and then saw a great one that he loved. He's going back this weekend with his parents to look at it again, and then depending on their advice, he might be putting in a bid on it. Craziness! I'm really excited for him. OK, that's all I can thing of right now, but I'm also starving so I'm very distracted. Time for lunch...
Ciao!