Piper's Blog

Second Week

My second week was a little bit better than the first in that I had some actual work to do. Nothing really important at all mind you but at least it was occupying my time.
On Thursday nights the co-ops have parties. I don’t understand why it is in the middle of the week and everyone has work the next day but my roommates and I went. We had a good time.
Friday at work some people were being moved out of our room. So the super decided to use this time to go ahead and rearrange the room we live in. So now we pretty much have all the desks in one big circle. How silly is that! Interestingly enough I have a little bit more privacy now which I appreciate.
Friday night my roommates and I went to dinner with our next door neighbor co-op boys. We went to an Italian restaurant called Maria’s. Rumor has it that it is mob protected. Bonus! Then we watched Transformers at their place on a really fancy projector system with better surround sound than the theater! Too cool!
Saturday I went to the store! It was fun being able to pick what I wanted! I also did laundry and stuff like that. Katie (*one of my roommates*) and I had some bonding time by going to Old Navy and Shoe Carnival. Interestingly enough I got two tank tops for less than the price if I had bought just one! SCORE!
Sunday I worked from 1030 to 5 but I get double overtime. Hopefully I will get to a church this week. I miss those old fashioned hymns!
After this week Ben is coming to visit! I absolutely can’t wait. We always have the best of times.

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Week One…One Week Late

Ben dropped me off at home early-ish on Sunday night so that I could sleep and go to work fresh eyed in the morning. Orientation was fine and unexciting. Then my lead adviser escorted me and 3 Puerto Rican guys (*who were also co-ops*) to our respective departments. It was kinda funny because he essentially addressed all the boys as one and then was always making special exceptions for me! I apparently worked really far from where any of the others worked so my lead kept saying, “First we need to drop Piper off…” like I was a toddler! LOL! So I got settled in my new area. I say area because the room was essentially a temporary conference room with those folding walls. All the desks were just facing the same way and no one was talking. No one had personal stuff on their desks, only the computer and a bunch of papers.

The first week just consisted of me constant filling out forms and faxing them to weird places. For as much as this company relies on faxing for all it’s paper work, no one in my department knew where one was and much less how to use it. Granted almost everyone in my department is from a different country an is only here for work. But still…

The rest of the week was basically just me feeling bad that I wasn’t working. My super would come in and immediately go to meetings so I never saw her. But she gave me Friday off because she wasn’t going to be in and I had nothing to do. So I had a three day weekend! Ben took advantage of the opportunity of my free time and drove out to see me! This was his third straight weekend out in Rockford! We had such a good time! Friday we went shopping and found the local mall. It’s pretty nice and I plan on returning soon. On Saturday we went to the Burpee Discovery Museum! It was so cute! I say cute because it was definitely for a younger crowd but we had a good time anyway! Right next door to the “science center” was the history museum. This particular museum contains the most complete T-rex skeleton. It was a very nicely put together little museum. That night we went to famous Dave’s and I hadn’t been there in a really long time. It was so good …drool…yummmmmm. Sorry I phased out. Then on Sunday we went to IHOP and watch XXX. I love Vin Diesel, he is the only reason such a cheesy movie could be even cheesier but great. Sunday night we ate at Ben’s grandparents where there were these amazing tomato soup potatoes. After dinner we played a card game called manipulation where I was the grand winner! Yay!

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Rockford: City of….Rocks?

Tonight is my first night utterly and completely alone. Well, sure my roommates are here but this past weekend my sweetie of a boyfriend was here too. Now he is not…; Jill and Katie are nice but I’m not sure how often we’ll actually be together. We are all in such different departments. Sure we’ll see each other at co-op events but I bet we’ll kinda run in different circles. It would be awesome if we all became good friends. The past couple of days were full of shopping and settling in. Tomorrow is my first day at Hamilton Sundstrand and I’m getting a little nervous. Everyone keeps telling me everything will be okay. Is there something they know that I don’t? How do they know? (*sigh*) I need to simmer. I’m going to get ready for bed and then watch an episode of Psych. That should help… along with some Chocolate Chex mix…

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Boy am I behind!

Quickest recap in the history of the world…it’s been so long this might not all be in order…and I feel it’s missing things…

1. Went to Youngstown for a programming contest! Of the 3 teams from our school my team of Tim and Roger were the only ones to solve problems! We solved 2 and would have had 3 if we had had 5 more min.
2. Went to Bret’s autocross race and he let me ride in the car! It was awesome and fueled my already growing need for speed!
3. Parents were out of town and two nights in a row the boys came over to watch the Indian’s games. It was so much fun!
4. Had the boys over for a Halloween party!

(*here it gets exciting*)
5. Went to D&B for prospective student night. After all of us were done terrifying the young’uns a couple of us stayed to play pool and hang out! This is where I started talking to my now boyfriend Ben!
6. The very next day was Freshman Phil’s birthday at D&B. A gaggle of my boys and I went…as did Ben (*wink wink*)
7. The day after that was Friday. Ben and I kind of declared that we were going to see a movie and invited anyone else to come if they wished. Well, we didn’t push the issue and it was just us going to lunch and a movie. As the day progressed I realized it was kinda turning into an impromptu date! I tentatively alluded to such and Ben laughed and said that he noticed it too! So even though we didn’t mean to, we had our first date!

All this Ben business happened the week before Thanksgiving. Ever since then we have been nigh inseparable! I love it! I have such fun when I’m with him! He treats me like a princess and we always have things to talk about. We never really plan anything but we always end up having a good time. A couple of weeks ago we went downtown and parked close to the Rock Hall. We walked over to Tower City and ate at the Rock and Roll Cafe. Then we walked back to the Rock Hall. Whilst there I saw a picture of the band Spinal Tap which is from a movie (*of course I own said film*). Naturally when we arrived home we watched the movie and had a rockin’ themed day! Perfect! (*sigh*) I’m going to miss him terribly when I’m on co-op…

Speaking of which the parentals and I traveled to Rockford yesterday. It was a god-awful trip due to me developing one of the worst colds on record. Actually I didn’t think it was a cold because I wasn’t snotty, just coughing my lungs out. It was bizarre. But I could tell I was building a bad fever. Last night I didn’t sleep a wink and in the morning developed a more snotty disposition…oh joy. Sadly I had to meet my landlord and one of my new roommates in this state. Yuck! Anywho, my house is fine and I look forward to decorating my room. The one bright spot of the trip was that Ben was also in Rockford visiting his family. So we met up with him for brunch. We ate at a place called the Machine Shed. My parents raved about it and are only planning on visiting me if they can eat there! LOL! Anyway, the trip home today wasn’t as hellacious.

I think that is all…

For now…

I’ll try to write a little more often during this co-op because it would be good to remember.

But knowing me I won’t

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