2005: Year in Review

Taken from Jen Lee!!! (who is my most favorite internet person... both on flickr and blogs!)

1. What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Raced a bike. Graduated from college. Went to Chattanooga. Worked an 18 hour day.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

• finally finish my pilot's license - didn't happen
  
• get an internship - didn't happen either
  
• ride my bike a lot (get in shape) - sorta happened
  
• read my bible/pray more often - sorta happened
  
• be better about getting work done early - ?
  
• stretch at least once a day - sorta
  

My new ones will be similar and mostly health/athleticism associated, but they will have more measurable goals.

3. Did someone close to you give birth?
Nope!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope!

5. What countries did you visit?
It was a slow year for the countries... sadly... does south Georgia count as another country? Cause it sure does feel like one sometimes...

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2005?
Better friends.

7. What dates from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 26 - 2 year anniversary
December 17 - Graduation!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduating? Getting a decent grade in aeroelasticity, surviving NASA's ESAS fiasco, racing in a cycling race (ok, only one event, but that counts, right?)

9. What was your biggest failure?
hmm... my several meltdowns

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
It was the year of the illness... 6+ sinus infections, bronchitis twice, almost caught pneumonia, my first asthma attack, ear infection, getting sick from flu shot and the list goes on

11. What was the best thing you bought?
my ibook! helping will get his digital camera, aquarium passes for the whole family, kaya's dollhouse

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Will. He is my rock and my sunshine. And deserves to be acknowledged for insisting that I call him at 330 am when I am having a meltdown... and that he helps me with just about every tough situation that I have

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
All those wonderful girls who turned out to be no different, the kid affectionately known as "biker-pussy" and mostly all politicians.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Eating out, gas, clothes... aquarium passes?

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Spending New Year's with Will, travelling

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
hmmm...

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened? happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter? thinner? who knows... :-p
iii. richer or poorer? poorer... til february, then richer!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
sleep, cycling

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
stress, procrastinate, stay up late, fluids lab writing

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
family and friends

22. Did you fall in love in 2005?
My love keeps growing... pretty amazing!

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Gilmore Girls!!! The Daily Show and The Colbert Report

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I wouldn't dignify them with hate, but thank you to all those females who taught me that women in engineering can be no different that your regular catty, two-faced, shallow high schoolers.

26. What was the best book you read?
Memoirs of a Geisha. Hands down.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
hmm... Lifehouse, Howie Day, Ludacris

28. What did you want and get?
The Friends 10 season collection, an awesome ring and a beautiful necklace. 3 great roomies!

29. What did you want and not get?
a bike rack for my car

30. Favorite film of this year?
Wedding Crashers

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 22 on March 13. That weekend was my first cycling race, and we went out to Mellow Mushroom with my closest friends. Then to ice cream. And actual birthday day was at home.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less drama/disappointment.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Old Navy rocks!

34. What kept you sane?
Will.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Lance Armstrong.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I have to pick just one? All the corruption.

37. Who do you miss?
At the moment? my friends that all have scattered for the break...

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Melissa! And re-meeting Heather

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
To not let people walk all over me. To choose to be happy and not sweat the smaller things.

What is going on?!?

Ok, so I just found out another set of friends got engaged. That makes 6 couples that I know in the past few months... plus the 2 that actually got married.

Is something in the air?

Converted.

I am a convert.

Meet Snow White. Isn't she pretty?

Merry Christ-makuh

I can just see the smoke coming out of Bill O'Reilly's ears. Christ-makuh? Certainly that goes hand-in-hand with his whole War on Christmas.

But the thing is, my little 5 person family (6 during the holidays when my Grandmother visits) doesn't have the luxury of spending Christmas with our extended family. The few that we still communicate with couldn't afford to come up here, and we can't afford to all travel down there.

So, it has been a long custom of my family to open our doors to anyone on all the holidays. I think this stems from our culture. Always the more, the merrier. Over Thanksgiving our house is opened to whoever didn't get the chance to make the trip home. This year it was Lucas, Heather, Christy, and Ryan.

For the past several years we have celebrated Christmas with our neighbors across the street, the Wolffs. We have known them for many years and consider them to be the family we have chosen.

One thing... they're Jewish. And we're Catholic. That means we don't even really say a blessing or a prayer before we eat. Yeah, ok, so what? Some people don't even stop and pause between all the shopping and bad traffic to think about what Christmas means or even to just be a little kinder. What does it matter if you ignore all the details?

It matters to me, though, and I think that's why we actually capture the "Christmas" spirit with our half Jewish half Christian celebration. What better than to spend time with the family we've chosen and to appreciate diversity and learn a little while we're at it?

Plus, since Hanukah starts today, this year we had potato pancakes too. With ham (it helps that they're mostly 'culinary' Jews). :-)

How's the family?

Wednesday, after running around for a few days trying to catch up on stuff, I headed down to Columbus to visit Will at his parent's house. It took me 3 hours to get there, thanks to Atlanta traffic, but fortunately I was entertained most of the time with All Things Considered (up to the point where it started repeating, anyway).

It's an interesting situation. Will has spent countless hours with my family. He is so comfortable with them (and vice versa) that it's ok to leave him alone with them at graduation or talking with my dad while I run errands with my mom (weird, I know). Not so for me and his family. In almost 2.5 years (Jan 26!), I've been down there maybe 6 or 7 times.

They're definitely very nice, but they don't have that friends are family mentality that my family does... most likely because they are blessed to have plenty of family around (a luxury the Carneiro clan does not have). Then there was the stuff about his mom disapproving. He says it's because she doesn't like anyone.

This visit was definitely the best. Perhaps they're becoming accustomed to the idea of me... hey, I think it's about time! Doesn't hurt that I try to butter them up with wine every Christmas. But this time, they had gifts for me too... one for graduation and one for Christmas.

I enjoy spending time getting to know his family. His brother and sister (especially his sister) have really warmed up to me and this time I even met one member of his extended family, one of his aunts.

But mostly I love the visits because I get to spend lots of relaxing time with Will in his element... such as building bonfires for us and his sister's friends to roast marshmallows and hot dogs... and drink booze from Boo's later after his parents have gone to sleep.

There was one hiccup this visit, though. Will agreed to go shopping with me Thursday since I didn't have time to finish everything on Wednesday. His sister went along and we grabbed some lunch. After lunch, Liz and I were in Bath and Body Works while Will was getting something in Bed Bath and Beyond. As we were walking out, they run into someone they know. Then someone's mother. Then I caught on... hey, isn't that Will's ex-girlfriend's last name? To help me confirm, there comes ex-girlfriend herself and another member of her family.

So that was awkward. Even more so for Will since he hadn't seen any of them since they broke up in early 2003. All I have to say is I'm really glad I fixed my hair that day.

I know girls who refuse to leave their house looking like bums, ever... I think I now know why!

Gradumanated!!!

Everything turned out fine with aeroelasticity (in fact, I pulled my grade up a lot, which surprised even the Dicky) and this past Saturday I walked at Graduation.

I guess with the bachelor's degree becoming what a high school diploma once was, graduation isn't a big deal to a lot of people. But, for my family, it is the culmination of the move away from our home country and family in order to have access to better lives. I actually at one point almost became really emotional. I have reports that my dad didn't cry (he did at the high school one). Who knows, maybe when I get my masters?

There are certain things that I will never forget about the event: the look on Will's face, the mayor getting the year wrong (and the idiot kid next to me agreeing with her... shouldn't they not give you a degree if you can't even get the year straight?), the man horribly butchering my name, crazy Buzz and how it looked to be in a white and gold balloon shower.

Afterwards my parents took us out to lunch with the Wolffs, Heather, Becky, Alden, Kaya and the Malloys at Maggiano's. Definitely one of the best meals I've ever had, made infinitely better by all my favorites there with me.

Later that night was my party at my brother's, which was lots of fun. I'm irritated because a good number of people who said they would show didn't, which wouldn't have been a big deal (because most of my favorites were there!) except that it made the keg unnecessary and even more irritated that some (ok, one) that were there shouldn't have bothered! But any, we played all of my favorite drinking games and the night ended with what I like to call "the Will show," this episode being about on-campus bedding and its similarities to a "fuzzy tampon." It turns out that he meant to say maxi-pad... hilarious!

I am just truly grateful for all those who helped me celebrate (Kristy, I know you were there in spirit!) especially Melissa, Stephen, John and Justin who all drove long ways and Lucas who delayed his departure.

As I look back on my 12 semesters (yep, it took 12!) there are a lot of things I did and wish I hadn't, didn't and wish I had, but mostly I am satisfied with my experience. And hey, hopefully getting my masters will be a shorter, funner continuation of life there...

I guess things won't be changing that much for me, unlike many I know who are moving clear across the country. At least not yet. For the time being (til May) I will live with my favorite girls, work at the same place (new desk though!), and the classes will be considerably different. Mostly I just know the time will fly by and before I realize it I'll be walking again... and after that time I won't come back for more! Michelle has already argued with me about getting a PhD... by I think I'm going to stand firm on that one. I could be persuaded to go for an MBA though...

My Growing List of Pet Peeves

For the past few weeks I have been compiling in my mind a growing list of the political/social issues that I stand for (and very often disagree with the government with). This list includes:

1) human rights abuses and capital punishment
2) the right to choose
3) gay rights
4) simultaneous tax cuts and education/health care spending cuts
5) health care

and the list goes on... and on... and on.

This article sums up a lot of how I feel recently. And probably written a lot better than I would write.

And...

I'm done!? Sorta...

Where has the motivation gone?

Invitations have gone out for the kick ass party... 1 week from today it will all be over.

Nowhere can I find the motivation to do the work that is left. I have been procrastinating like no other this week. Or, the past few. This was a rough semester, each week was crazy. Dead week has actually been not as busy (although still extremely busy) for once...

I really need to motivate myself because one grade actually matters. For the rest I try a little (between being sick and having no motivation) because for some reason I can't completely let go.

School Left:
1) Spanish presentation tomorrow (already finished, just needs to be practiced once)
2) Aeroelasticity project... more than half coded, coding needs to be finished, project written up
3) Aero final... Wednesday at 8am... I need to study my butt off for this one!
4) Structures final... ah... I'll try a little
5) Spanish independent study paper... needs a little background story, re-read the Gabriel Garcia Marquez story that it's on and write it!
6) Cats2 (graduate aircraft design class) presentation to Doc at some point

Wow... that looks like a lot. I probably should get going on that.

Hey Melissa... how about we cheer each other on?!? :-)

My (Lack of Good) Health

Will says I have been sick ever since he's known me (right around 2.5 years). I have struggled with many sinus infections, asthma, and various colds and flus since my senior year of high school. This year has been by far the worst.

In the spring I was placed on antibiotics 5 separate times for sinus infections. The last one turned into brochitis and a strong likely hood of pneumonia (I have to admit that the health center was very good about monitoring me weekly and treating what I had). Unfortunately these all happened right after my first cycling race, so that put me out of commission until the summer. Summer was ok (lack of things to be allergic to, lots of rain).

This fall I have fortunately only had 1 sinus infection (actually, it might have been 2... at this point it's hard to keep track). My allergies were the worst this fall. I've only struggled with excercise-induced asthma in the past. This fall I found myself wheezing after the AE stairs, walking to class, walking up the stairs to my apartment. I was put on an every day steriod treatment that helped immensely. I was just about to start back with the workouts when I caught a cold. It went straight to my chest, and here I am with broncitis... again.

Right now I'm just extremely anxious about getting back onto the whole workout thing. On the bright side, today marks the beginning of my last week as an undergrad. I was officially accepted to grad school on Monday. The offer I received was better than I expected, so that was exciting. I also will only be taking one or two class, so hopefully things will calm down for a bit.

I hope to sleep more than 5 hours each night, workout every day, read everything that I want to, and many many more things. Yeah... we'll see how it goes.

Oh, interesting news. It turns out Mike Griffin (or Mr. Gobble, as I like to refer to him) is giving the commencement speech this Fall. He's also stopping by the ASDL for a little bit, since we did all that ESAS work this summer. Should be interesting. Sadly, it means that we have to take down the huge picture of him and his gobble neck.

Good and Bad Things

"Bad things happening to bad people. Don't lie, it makes you feel good because it gives you a sense of justice, even though you know that life is not just and that true justice comes only at the end of all things. It also reaffirms that which you know to be right and good, like our own morals."

Yep, Melissa, you nailed it. I always feel bad because I feel good when I see people who were crappy to me or wronged me get some karma. But it's superly nice to know that in such a crazy world, some things still make sense.

Last night at dinner Will told me the most hilarious thing. I am so evil that I enjoy that. But hey, what you send out in the world will come back to haunt you, so if you've been walking all over people for a few years, don't be surprised if you have some "bad luck" for awhile. Although, in my experience these people don't actually realize that they are the reason they are having hard times.

Last week of classes coming up. The work load has been much lighter since completing the last fluids report. It's amazing how much time those suck up. I only have 2 presentations, a homework, and a project left this semester. Then 2 finals and a Spanish paper. That's like nothing! Which probably explains why I am so unmotivated. Most kids I know are having their last week of classes ever. Not me, I start back in January as a grad student. Although, to my knowledge, I will only be in one or two classes. Thank God, I could use a break! The stupid AE department still hasn't given me my letter, even though Lexie (the financial manager of the ASDL and a total bitch) called Dr. Jagoda and yelled at her. He attempted to argue with her about Dr. Mavris accepting me. I can't wait til all of the out of touch dinosaurs leave, then the department can actually try to be good. I don't blame those who run as quickly as possible after graduation. The ASDL is that department's saving grace, in my opinion (both monetarily and educationally).


I made an album of a lot of my favorite pictures of me and Will on facebook and it made me realize that we've had a lot of fun together, which is great! Not to mention one of my favorite dates ever last night. Too bad he irritated me this morning :-p

Heather and my brother had a good date, which I am excited about. I'm not interested in the details, though.