Summer Wrap-up

Let's see. This might be choppy.

I head back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. It all seems to go by so fast... Relaxing, visiting friends... I made a trip to Binghamton to visit Kristen and that was a lot of fun. We went to one of the 500 nature preserves that sit on every street corner up there (Almost like drug stores here in the Lehigh Valley). We also grabbed some jelly at Wegman's for waffles that I had for lunch today (Look in front of you now. Do you have a waffle? Wouldn't you be happier if you did?)... We also grabbed some pizza and ice cream. Sadly, my camera fell out of my pocket while I was still at home and I didn't realize this until I was already on the turnpike so I couldn't easily turn around then.

I also visited my grandparents in Lancaster. Of course I watched The Price is Right... and also saw Bob Barker (though it was on a PSA speaking to us about the upcoming switch to digital television... I was disappointed that he didn't remind us to have our pets spayed and neutered at the end). I ate lots of good food (but no Ramen). Yum.

Last weekend I went to Cockeysville, MD and visited my grandparents there. This visit further reminded me that my house will need a screened-in-porch.

I didn't see Anik yet again. I guess I should probably blame myself for this one as I never took any initiative after the first weekend to set anything up... On the plus side, I saw Noggle, Mr. Ohl, the Shark, Adam, Rebecca, Mrs. Eggert... and hopefully Frau Torchia and Ms. Sebastian today.

Yesterday, a comment I made about Applebees got the whole family talking about the EGMTD & family...

Summer grade result: Ochem 2 Lab: A, Short stories in context: A. So my GPA now rounds up to the next hundredth (hundredths digit being 5).

Most of my boxes are packed. There's a lot of stuff. I really don't need half of it to live comfortably--much of it is "extras": desk chair, table, speakers (2 sets) lights (5), I think I'm bringing 4 pillows... I'm also bringing more dress shirts and ties than I will probably wear in a year, but as long as Alex continues to bring 3 times as many I won't feel like I'm being too excessive... Of course Alex is probably only bringing 1 light... Of course some of the stuff I'm bringing is so I can be "organized"... shelving, crates, closet organizer. And of course all my desk and bath supplies are spread out between 15 different boxes and crates that I will need to unpack everything before I can even live.

I'm also bringing curtains for my window... and wall decorations. Anything to add a dash of colour.

And that concludes what must be my longest blog post to date. I'm leaving for Pittsburgh before 5:00 AM tomorrow.

Famous Names

So I was looking at facebook today and I saw the line "[insert one of my friends here] commented on Steve Perry's photo" and it got me to thinking, "I wonder if Steve ever gets any comments about having the same name as this guy." For a second I pondered this question and thought, "If I met this guy, I'd ask him how it feels to have the same name as the singer." All the while totally forgetting that I have the same name as a famous author who died in 1997. I honestly don't mind being asked about it (No, I'm not named after him; my middle initial is G, and it's a family name going back over 100 years), likely because it really doesn't come up that often--probably only two times this year, but I wonder how many people think about mentioning it, but then decide not to.

Back in Pittsburgh

Yes, I'm back in Pittsburgh until the end of July... Taking classes, working at the library and doing a bit of research as well. As you may know, it's been a while since I've blogged. Much has changed. Much hasn't. But about that changing part: We didn't go to Florida--scheduling conflicts with Brendin's aunt prevented us from making the journey. Instead, following a brief jaunt to Washington DC, Brendin and Mohammad made the trip to Macungie. From there we took various day trips to Philadelphia, Binghamton (where one can find a road named Harry L Drive and a lecture hall named--how appropriately--Lecture Hall), Reading, and Hershey. We also took in a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs baseball game where we saw the home team fall 1-0 to the Syracuse Chiefs... and they didn't get on the board until the top of the 9th inning. The highlight of the game was the privilege of seeing TJ Bohn play for the second time in 5 days. He was on the major league club when we saw the Phillies play the Pirates in Pittsburgh the previous friday. Thankfully, the Phillies won that game, though I was the only one in our party of 5 actively rooting for the Phils. I also took in my high school orchestra's concert and had a good time.

Time for a new post

Not much has been going on in my life in the past 2 weeks since I last blogged. (Really, could someone please tell me when I last did something exciting?--No that really doesn't need to be answered)... But things are going well and I'm into cruise/study-for-finals mode now. I'm out of the fog that has plagued me for the better part of the past month and I'm committed to being less stressed and more focused... so we'll see how that goes. Plans are coming together for a trip to Florida for the week immediately following finals (April 21-26)... so hopefully that's a go.

Back in Town

I arrived back in Pittsburgh on Sunday shortly after 4:15. This was a full hour earlier than our arrival back in January after winter break. I'll chalk the difference up to faster driving, no bathroom break for the other driver, and no rest stop. Thanks, Dexter!

Quite easily the highlight of the day was seeing Kristen walking along the side of the road near Carlisle. I thought it was her, I KNEW it was her, but I just couldn't believe it until I talked to her later in the day. Wow!

Later I worked on my ChE homework and ate pizza. That's always awesome.
Then I went with Alex and Brendin to pick up Mohammad at the bus station.

Today was laundry day and they have new machines! Finally! They did a nice job.

Outta here!

Spring Break

I'm in Macungie now, and I'll be here until 10:40 AM on Sunday. I arrived home shortly after 8:00 on Friday the 7th with a surprise for my mom. The busride was uneventful despite the bipolar driver who decided to follow another bus at a slow rate of speed for nearly three hours, and then he blasted past the other bus at 5:01 PM, just east of the Blue Mountain tunnel. After this, the driver asked everyone to be back on the bus in 20 minutes at the rest stop... and he nearly left the without two people who didn't get back to the bus within 17 minutes. He was angry about the delay, but this leads me to wonder why the driver waited so long to pass the slow moving bus if he was in such a hurry.
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And for that ochem thing, you'll need sodium borohydride.

The Department has a new address

Today we selected housing for next year using the wonderful online system that Pitt has provided for us. We are living in the Bouquet Gardens apartments, APT 401E next year.