Comfort/Time Zones

With the utmost certainty, I am losing my mind. My dog has been lodged in the pet hotel off Creighton, and I still have the ghost of one following me around. Every time I go to open the door I stall, as I'm waiting for somebody that's not there. Curse allergies and the repercussions of wanting a cuddly, fuzzy canine around! While trying to forget my dog is temporarily living elsewhere, I've also been cleaning like I do when I let OCD take over. My good friend is moving out, which sucks because I feel like we fought more than got along when we lived together, and that always bites hard. We're on great terms now, but if I had just a bit more time for boozing and being a rowdy frat dude this would have been a great arrangement. He's not moving far, so now I get to visit him in Northern Bama and go rock climbing up there. Horsepins is awesome.

As my ridiculous December descends to destruction, I can really only rely on refuge in runs. I've finally started running again, it's the greatest release on earth. I truly think, after reading Born To Run, that everyone should run like ten miles a week.

Chris McDouglas goes anatomy on your ass if you read the chapters on evolution, and proves a pretty solid point. Our nuchal notch, the divot on the back of you head, anchors your skull to your body like a horse's or dog's. Monkeys don't have that, nor apes. We also have glorified legs and some intense feet bone structures. We evolved weird. To run. So that's what I'm going to do. I have seven or eight people coming in to town to accomadate for, and it'll be interesting to see how it all works out. Both my little sisters graduate this month, with my bloodsister's celebration this weekend. (somewhere between the work conference and the visits to my dog) My brother gets married, too. He already IS married, but the celebration here should prove to be amazing whether the legalities are polished or not. My nerdy music friend from elementary school passes through Florida this month too! I'm really excited because he's been touring and teaching music in Hawaii these last couple years, and we've both aged and matured a lot since the last time we hung out. He's probably the most regular pen pal I have, and he always has great insight to the music industry and what's good. He can play 3245881759 instruments, too. It's ridiculous. If I can get through the family drama and logistical problems, this December could be amazing, we'll see as it hashes out though.

UkeRock and MeatJuice

I've met more interesting, amazing people in the last two weeks than I did in the rest of 2011.

So the last two weeks I've been working on Design Engineering 302 courtesy of my corporation's training path, and it has been a blast! Seriously. That may sound like a bore to some people, but I don't think I'll ever get enough of the 'college' atmosphere. Given that I've been to three different campuses to learn, and I live a mile from the last one I attended, I still walk my dog on campus all the time. Just to people watch. This class took place in a nice hotel in Houston and we crammed a lot of stuff in 2 weeks working 11 hour days, but it was definitely worth it. I feel like a REAL engineer now, which is ridiculous, as I'm closer to an environmental patroller than an engineer in college credits. Protect the earth! Go hippies! In the meantime I'll study HVAC and take notes on submittal completion. My coworkers made the class for me. There was Greg, a Yankee from Yonkers that loves ice hawkee and had a wit that could cut glass; and Lucas, a demented-ly silly guitarist that wears Batman hoodies (complete with the bat-ears and original grey and black color scheme...awesome)

and Marlene. Marlene is probably my favorite person I met in class because of her German accent and frankness. Not to be confused with frankforts. Marlene was the only one in the class with a background that wasn't engineering, so we kinda toddled behind the class learning as we listened, and she told some of the best stories of all time. Anyone older than 50 from a different country should have half the repertoire of stories she does.
The whole class was twelve people strong, and we went out every night to eat dinner on the company's dime and drink. Marlene and Tony (a friend of mine from Nawlins branch) got down on some Coronaritas one night, and their drink captivated me. As a huge lover of booze and boozing options, mixing a Corona and Margarita sounds gross. After that night, I came away with a newfound respect for the drink and a couple hilarious stories.

Hybrid Cocktail and Beach Beer... fun ensues.
One of which, is the meat juice.
We finished up dinner and one coworker had french dip sitting. Cold. Gross. Well the bet arose that nobody would drink the inch-tall bowl of nasty, and eventually, a rather large fellow, took the bet and chugged that crap. It was forever known as meat juice, due to some inebriation and a bet, and we didn't stop making gay jokes for the rest of the class. Working for Siemens and swallowing meat juice isn't gay, but the combination of the two results in hilarity. You'd think penis jokes get old with a company name like ours... buttttt.... heheh.

The rest of the inadequate sleep habits and hard hours I won't talk about, as it was boring and not worth the time to type into blog format.

The other great thing about this trip was my extremely long layover on the flight back to Pensacola. In Charlotte. How they sent me up here first I will never know, but I do know I'm glad it happened. I was bored, strolling through the Charlotte airport, when I heard the radio permeate the crowd more clearly. Then I realized, it was no radio, it's some college nerds sitting in the corner playing ukelele! Weirdos. I crept closer, sitting in some rocking chairs nearby. When I say I thought it was radio, I wasn't kidding. The asian girl in the middle had a voice that could sink more ships than the mermaid tales of old. She was playing uke and singing, while another girl was strumming along, and a guy about their age was singing too. I had a million thoughts about how to approach them, as I'd have died to been able to play uke as the girl, (Shannon btw) could sing. I ended up just walking over and talking to em, completely forgot about the ukes and the music. They were just too interesting and nice. I got into a discussion about Marvel vs. DC, discussed anime, shared facebooks and ate Mexican food. We ended up eating together and watching Adventure Time until I nabbed some candy from a USO and their flights left. The impression they left on me made me write this though, nerd culture is ALIVE! Alive and kicking like Chuck Norris. Round house that!
Yeah I'm an FPS nerd. Get over it.

How Bad Do I Want It?

Freedom! It's intriguing to me that without a social networking application- Facebook, I decide to start blogging again. It is a nice alternative to being in everyone's business, and somewhat reminds me of the solitude and stalwart loneliness that Hemingway and Chris McCandless from Into the Wild felt. (Sidenote-Emile Hirsch is my hero after a combination of that movie and Lords of Dogtown) After what, 48 hours of no Facebook? Yeah I guess I am that lame. My 700 'friends' and all the pictures mean absolutely nothing in real-world applications, soooo why did I focus so hard on it for years? Like I said... Freedom. I don't think adults realize how psychologically attached kids today (yeah, I'm a kid still; ask my ex) are on social networking devices. With my addictive personality, I would check on people I never liked in real life, everyday; it's tough to admit the level of creepiness I was on. I would go with heavy-breathing four-eyed freak from Hey Arnold-level weird.

The ungodly amount of time that I spent on Facebook is nice to have back too. I'm so obsessive that sometimes I'd click on the website, see if anyone updated, then get back off. Only to repeat ten minutes later. Scary right? This is the reason I haven't joined Twitter, played World of Warcraft, or tried crack. Also, drugs are bad. Having time for myself is nice, especially after I've been working hard at something for the second or third time in my life. In the last couple months I've been on the Siemens training path for design engineer, and they've sent me to three different courses outside of my humid, poor city of Pensacola. New Orleans, San Antonio, and now Houston; they all have been progressively getting tougher. Well, I take that back. New Orleans taught me how to put together submittals, which is about as tough as making airplanes. San Antonio taught me the basics of mechanical physics and electrical configurations (as provided by Siemens); Houston, so far has taught me EVERYTHING ELSE. It's a two-week course and cannot be any more compact and useful. We've gone over everything from AutoCAD to wiring diagrams, variable frequency drive selection to reading a blueprint. After spending six months as an electrical installer this should come easy- I was TOLD. I'd have to disagree. Turning a screwdriver and cutting drywall while bleeding and carrying 80 lbs of tools is not the same as sitting behind a computer eight hours a day. It didn't teach me to read diagrams or understand voltage either. (I shocked myself by shocking myself so many times.) I hope that this doesn't sound like complaining though, as I'm overly ecstatic about my job and wouldn't trade it in for anything. I'm learning a trade I've never thought about, making good money and perhaps even growing a set of balls in the process. The most manly of manly men I've ever met work in my office, they're like gorillas with man-brains. Big, burly dudes that are all competitive and let me know on a daily basis that I'm the bitch at my branch. That's okay with me for now, as I'm one of the youngest and still am learning a lot. I mostly keep my mouth shut and ears open.
The things I overhear from conversations between them are captivating though. I love books, video games, and computers. I'm a nerd. I don't think any of the guys at my branch really can relate. The common source of male bonding at work is discussions on motorcycle building, Jeep modifications, and the ever-present complaints about abbreviated software programs. CSAL, SAP, ANSI ratings, ASHRAE, CAT updates, job numbers and other things that basically serve no purpose minus confusing newbies. I've literally just grunted to fit in on several occasions. What's worse, that I did it, or that they grunted back in agreement?

(This part is something new that I'm going to start doing... given that I actually stay up-to-date with my blog...)
Song/Artist That Captivated Me Today- Brothers on a Hotel Bed/ Death Cab For Cutie
One Thing I Learned Today- I'm the worst in my class at engineering.