8am Sam
This week was insane. I had a lot to get done in a short amount of time. For the past three weeks I have been coming into the office at GVSU at 8am or sooner. I am generally the first one into my office. It is strange because when I worked at Johnson Controls as an engineer I would normally get into the office at 7am and everyone else would generally be there already. This is a nice change of pace though. I like getting in early, I get a great parking spot (nice end spot to avoid door dings) and no one is in the office to distract me from getting work done.

This week I got a lot done. Tuesday I was in the office from 7:30am to 11:30pm... long day. Then Wednesday I was in from 8am to 10:30pm... almost as long. Thursday my schedule ramped down a little more... I was only at GVSU from 8am to 7pm, not even 12 hours... easy. So I worked a lot, got my survey instrument almost completed for my practicum research, more articles read for my thesis, meetings with the IFC guys about the upcoming elections, Greek conference planning, 2nd year grad student meeting, professional development, lunch with Dean Merkle, and the list goes on. Today is much slower, just working at CompuCraft and looking forward to a weekend of reading for my thesis and starting on the research proposal with Becky.

So what happens after a long week? You go out of course! Last week it was the typical BFE trip with the Betas for some pool and then for Heather's birthday us grads hit up Taps and Gardellas. This week us Betas got to BFE kinda late and both pool tables were taken so we just chilled and Ramiro explained his fear of not getting free refills on pop (hence why he asks for only a little ice). I was paying so why did he care? And anyways, who worries about that?

Then I headed downtown with the grads. It was was Ken's birthday. We hit up this place called Z's Sports Bar. It was my first time there, and we made up more then half of the crowd. The place was not too bad, the juke box had much better music then the one in the basement of Gardellas. The bar tender was not very good, but our waitress was awesome. She was fast, funny and very creative. When Jody mentioned that pitchers of beer tend to get warm, she came by with a glass full of ice and floated it in the pitcher. This way the ice does not water down the beer, and it stays cold. I never saw that before... what a great idea!

Throughout the night I for some reason managed to get into several discussions about GVSU's grad program. Talking with Heather about class discussions, Jen about practicum and internship ideas, Carissa about setting up a meeting to give background information for a case study project and Kacy about the ethic fest. There was some non-program talk though. Oscar was there with his wife and we talked about Novali and his daughter hanging out when I have Novali here, that will be fun! Then did some soccer talk with Pablo's friend, I miss Futbol. I also learned that I no longer know how to yo-yo. Which of course is a very important skill.

Back to today... I am hoping to get my haircut, then do some laundry and clean my place up a little. Tomorrow will be thesis day... got a lot of work to get done. Going to be a busy weekend working on school projects. Ah.

Two Post Day
I am aware that I already posted today, but I wanted to also include a recap of the events from my weekend. It was a fun one, relaxed one, and I still got a lot of work done. I was very productive, and fun at the same time.

Saturday was IFC's Fraternity games. It was cold, but we had a good time. We modified the originally planned games and played Kickball in stead of Softball, football still went on as scheduled, the water balloon WAR turned into "see who can hit Gaff's car" from 20 feet, the food... don't get me started on the food, and the final event was the chicken breast toss (everyone sucked equally).




If you click on the link above or right here you can go to IFC's pictures and see all the great shots from the day. Cooking never seems so hard until you have 10 fraternity men, trying to figure out how to defrost, cook, and eat frozen chicken breasts and brats. Whose ideas was chicken and brats anyways... Cobb.. Cobb... It was fun throwing the meat though and counting how many tongs we managed to drop on the floor. Man Down! I had a good time, can't wait for the one next semester.

Sunday was my day with Novalí(Click here to see more pictures). This trip was special cause Hermen joined me on the voyage. The trip started with the traditional stop at Speedway for gas, coffee, and hot dogs. This time it was two coffees, and four hot dogs. When we arrived Novalí wanted to watch a movie, so we sat and watched Finding Nemo. I never saw it before, so it was good. The entire movie, when Hermen would laugh, Novalí would look at him like, "who are you? why are you here? stop laughing at my movie."




Then we ran to one of my favorite Mexican food places in Chicago. Really I just like it cause they have Menudo and Pozole on the weekends. Hermen got a burrito and pozole, I got menudo, and Novalí ate rice and chips. It was a feast, after we finished I felt like sleeping... but instead the three of us rolled downtown.

We had a nice trip downtown. Novalí was good the entire time and really started warming up to Hermen. Every store we would go into if she lost Hermen she would tell me we had to look for him now. She walked, ran, and had a good time just enjoying all the people. We saw some kids playing plastic buckets downtown until they got chased away by the cops. Novali got excited over the horses. Hermen and I got excited in the Apple Store. You know...

Thanks Hermen for rolling with me. I had a good time, lets do it again soon. Alright I got to get to work now... Later.

Mom and Dad
Today is my parent's 30th wedding anniversary. Wow. This summer their present to themselves was a trip out west. They saw the Grand Canyon and took a great train trip around some different places out west. This whole year they have been doing cool trips. Several times they have been to Stratford to see plays, weekends in Chicago with Novalí, and just time for themselves with all the kids out of the house. Must be nice.

So I wanted to wish them my best on my blog. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I don't know what else to say. What me? With not much to say? Yes... it happens on occasion and this is one of them. They are the worlds best parents.

My dad let me learn lessons on my own (remember when I bought that second Camaro... what was I thinking? And better yet, why'd you let me do it?), taught me that usually the hardest decision is the right one (something I still have trouble with), and that I can do what I want if I apply myself. My mom always ate breakfast with me on Saturday and Sunday mornings after I finished my paper route (got me addicted to coffee), reminds me to go to church, showed me what true strength is (when she had cancer), taught me how to be a parent (I learned from the best), and she stood her ground when she knows she needed to (even though I hated her for it at the time). I have great parents, and my goal in life is to make them proud. Cheezy I know, but if you had parents like mine you would to.