Grid Project - Week 2

Unfortunately, right after I decided to start a new project was when things were heating up around here. Everyone is safe, not to worry, but there is just a lot going on. Since I do have today off, I wanted to post some Grid Project reports before I fall farther behind. So here goes!

Wednesday, September 8: ate dinner outside
In between our building and another res hall, there's an area with a fire pit, fountains, and various seats/chairs/benches/rocks. Since I had time to spare, I ate dinner in that area and simply enjoyed the weather outside. It was pretty sweet.

Thursday, September 9: V8 Fusion and a minor Facebook milestone
When I was a kid, my parents would occasionally get V8's so growing up, V8 always made me think of tomatoes and other stuff that just didn't seem right to drink. I'm not sure how long ago this happened, but now we have this V8 Fusions that have a serving-and-a-half of fruits and vegetables and have various fruity flavors. So I tried out during dinner... it was pretty good, but very sweet. Oh, and the minor Facebook milestone was not having any unread messages. I still have people to write, but there aren't any old messages that are left as unread.

Friday, September 10: cajun spice chips and unexpected Facebook chat
This was one of those days when the new/interesting/meaningful thing that happened just sort of stumbled upon me, rather than me deliberately setting out to do something. The first thing was a student offering me some cajun spice chips during my desk shift, which definitely had an interesting kick to them. The other thing was that I had left myself online on Facebook chat and a friend who I hadn't heard from in years randomly started a conversation. She was in my hometown visiting her family and asked if I was going to be around. It turned into a really nice 'catching up' conversation, since she had moved out to Pennsylvania and finished college last spring.

Saturday, September 11: outdoor Relay for Life
I've participated in Relay for Life before, but this was the first time that I walked at an outdoor event. Last year, I brought students to help set up and even took students to walk, but this year, I was able to walk myself; the student interest grew from last year so we had people staying the whole time. I know the students were glad that I came, even if it was that I brought food at midnight and helped with taking people back. (Part of the midnight food was honey BBQ potato chips, which were pretty awesome.) I did walk a good amount and had some nice conversations with students, including some students that I didn't really know before that. Of course, the best conversations happen at 3am when everyone is a little silly and sleep-deprived. The word that stuck in my mind from Friday and Saturday is "refreshing". That was a word that was used in the conversation over Facebook on Friday as well as one of the conversations with the students at Relay. I just love the imagery the word "refreshing" evokes - like a cold glass of water on a hot summer evening.

Sunday, September 12th: Newman Center mass
Being on campus during the summer has some drawbacks, including limited operation of things like the fitness center, computing services, and the Newman Center. They started mass last week, but this was the first week that I was able to go. It's a heck of a lot closer, although I still have yet to fit into the Newman Center community. Even still, it's nice to be around people my own age in a spiritual environment.

Monday, September 13th: GRE
I was going to make some grand title like "GRE Day 1: the start of something big", but I think GRE is also good. I've been going back and forth about starting grad school here, and today (the 13th), I decided to get grad school information, get GRE practice material, take a practice GRE, and sign up for an exam time. My GRE will be December 16th, so any well wishes will be well-received around that time. My initial practice score was decent (510 V and 670 Q), but I definitely need to study vocabulary because I want to blow that part out of the park. There's a co-worker of mine who also wants to start grad school in the spring, and since the 13th, I've been able to convince her to plan to take the GRE the same time as me so we can study together.

Tuesday, September 14th: rooftop staff picture
That's right, *rooftop* staff picture. The reason for the rooftop was to try to capture the Administration Building behind us. That was accomplished with decent success, but we took some pictures inside as well, and each of us is coming to the conclusion that those ones just look better. It was still cool to be assembled on a rooftop as a staff just to take pictures. The new picture isn't up yet, but stay posted.