Strawberries Everywhere!

Look at me, 4 posts in a row - a sign of a busy week! With graduation preparation, end-of-the-year good-byes, and C's girlfriend EG visiting it has been a very busy time. This afternoon we all headed over to the Arroyo Grande Strawberry Festival to enjoy food, and not all of it was made out of strawberries. I actually can say I didn't have any strawberries at all today and it's not due to my lack of liking them - I just can't seem to enjoy eating food sitting on a curb in the wind with a million people around. It was a good time with friends, but I wasn't that impressed with the festival - the only benefits being strawberries and the fact that it was free!

Student Appreciation Day

The Human Resources staff at Cal Poly threw a very nice Student Appreciation Luncheon for the many students who work in the department (pictured above). It was so much fun and the perfect thing to do before finals. A few students are going to be gone on internships this summer so it was our chance to say good-bye.

I have worked for almost five years (4 years and 10 months to be exact) in Human Resources, so it is going to be hard to leave at the end of June. In the academic world it seems that life changes so fast and turnover is very high (which is expected as people graduate and move away). I have seen so many staff and students come and go, and sadly now it is my turn. It is going to be so sad to leave, but at least I will still be working on-campus for the summer so I will be able to stop by and say hi to everyone.

It's Official....

....I'm graduating in two weeks! Evaluations processed my paperwork and I purchased my hood, tassel, and tickets today so everything is ready for June 10th.

Stadium Arcadium

Best Buy was having the new Red Hot Chili Peppers' CD for only $12! S got one but then decided he didn't want it (something about not buying CDs anymore...), so I bought it off of him today and love it. I highly recommend purchasing it!

An Oldie

With it pouring rain outside (making it less desirable to drive down to SLO to work in the lab) I decided to have a quiet afternoon reading papers and surfing the web. I was exploring on myspace and came across my high school alumni board. Someone posted a picture of how the school looks now that the wing addition is completed "for all the oldies", and it's funny to think of myself as an "oldie". It is amazing how fast things change.
(FYI - I posted the picture for any other SLHS oldies out there. Enjoy!)

More Choices, No Decisions

I was able to avoid a decision for my advisor about my future, but then today I was asked if I would consider working part-time as a Research Assistant until they are able to hire a permanent full-time employee in mid-July. Taking this on gives me a crazy month as I still am a Graduate Assistant at the Dairy and a Student Assistant in HR until the end of June, but gives me one possibility of full-time employment if I choose to stay on the Central Coast. Giving me more choices, I saw beautiful old homes in the New England area in an article on www.msn.com and so did a search on monster.com for any positions in the area. There were many positions and I found one that I liked and am qualified for at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Connecticut as a Research Scientist in the field of In Vivo Pharmacology. This has tempted me with more choices and not really leading me closer to a decision.

The BIG Decisions

Everyone has points in their life when you need to make a really big, important decision. A decision so big that you worry that you will have future regrets if you make the wrong choice. My friends and I are all facing a pretty big one at the same time - the future. I am dealing with a wide variety of choices on what to do in a couple of months (more school, jobs, fields of work, location, etc.) and have never felt as nervous about a decision before. I knew this was coming but the procrastinator in me was hoping to avoid it as long as possible. This suddenly all came up as I had a meeting with my advisor. He asked my plans after graduation and I expressed some interest in staying in the area and working. This bothered him as originally I had planned to go on to a PhD program somewhere. We discussed the options and his worry that I will have regrets if I don't get my PhD. What has freaked me out is that he ended it with a desire for a decision tomorrow so that we could start networking (either for a job or a graduate program). It is an uncomfortable thought that I have to figure out my immediate future within 24 hours!

Spring is Here

It was a beautiful warm day, hinting at what is coming - summer! For a few the lazy days of summer have already begun.

3 signatures...priceless

My mission today - track down 3 committee members to get signatures on a form and turn in the paperwork to the Dean's office before they close at 5pm. It sounds easy, but I knew having to deal with busy professors is never easy. The two I was most worried about happened rather quickly to my surprise, but the one who works in my building turned into the problem. It took 3 hours of waiting around doing nothing to catch him for 5 minutes, but my lurking was beneficial as he left right after I got the signature. On the good side I got all of the needed paperwork in for me to walk in the June graduation ceremony to the Dean's office at 4:40pm. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute - one month to the ceremony! Now it is just up to Evaluations to process it fast enough for me to be able to purchase the cap and gown at the end of May...I'm crossing my fingers.

The oaks rule el Paso de Robles

I ventured out of my indoor prison because I felt better and I couldn't stand being inside on such a beautiful weekend anymore. Sitting for four days left my car covered in tree sap and little branches from the large oak tree, not pretty. I didn't realize how bad it was until I was driving and when I tried to clean my windshield it just smeared. This gave me a flashback of an o-chem lab when something bubbled over and got all over my goggles. Usually I didn't make a mess, just broke everything (future students should really thank me for supplying them with brand new glassware), but I was definitely having an "off day". I thought I had cleaned them well enough and put them back in my drawer, but at the next lab I found them frosted over with this dry white substance that couldn't be removed. I figured I could still see a little bit and would just make it though this one lab and the buy some more after class. My professor walked over and took one look at me with dirty goggles smiled, shook his head and pulled out a new pair of goggles for me from his desk. I guess he always had a spare for the klutzy students. It was that day I knew I was not meant to be an organic chemist.

So, I enjoyed my day of errands, including $3.49/gallon gas (I promise to post a picture if and when I buy $4 gas) and a visit to the carwash leaving my car now sitting covered in the driveway. I am determined that there will be no more morning surprises from the oak tree.

So Sick :(

I woke up yesterday morning very sick with the flu. I thought it was food poisoning and would go away rather quickly, but I still have it today (though I am starting to feel better). I can't even remember the last time I was this sick, it's been years. I remember as a child it would be great to get to stay home from school for a few days, but now I just find myself bored - there is really only so much sleeping, TV watching, and web surfing a person can do. The worst part about all of this is that I was suppose to drive down to Riverside with Emily to go to our sister Rachel's graduation tomorrow morning, which sadly I will be missing. I can't wait to be 100% better, this is not fun.

The random classes we take are worth it!

Right before I was leaving the dairy this afternoon one of the owners of the creme fraiche operation stopped me and asked me if I was an agricultural student. I said yes, not knowing exactly what she meant and if I would be able to help her (when people say agriculture I tend to assume they are referring to crops, not animals). She then asked me about feeding dairy cattle and I was surprised that I actually remembered my Feeds and Feeding classes (not one of my favorite subjects) and was able to answer her questions. It's a good feeling that a class I took a couple of years ago will prove to be useful and those hours of studying weren't a waste of time.