Piper's Blog

The Empty Cup

On Tuesday, I had to have a drug test done for my co-op. Well, the collection cup was huge and I couldn’t quite fill to the required amount. Sadly, that means that they have to dump out what they had and I had to stay in the office and drink water until I had to go again. (*My poor mother was with me and I had to keep her entertained by showing her games on my phone*) I was semi-curious as to how long it would take to refill my tank so I watched the clock. In about twenty minutes of non-stop drinking…I was beginning to feel an urge. After thirty minutes, I actually had to go. (*All of this of course happened after mother and I had just eaten at a Chinese restaurant and had had tons of hot tea*) Boy did I go! I could have filled like 2 of the huge cups! That would be like 10X the amount needed for the test! It was the purest water that ever came out of my body! I swear I had turned into a Brita filter! What’s worse is that I had to go to the bathroom every fifteen-ish minutes for like the next hour after that!!!!!! (*sigh*)

Now onto a more polite topic…

I saw the movie “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and it was cute. Of course it was based off of The Christmas Carol. But instead of Scrooge vs. Christmas, it was Matthew McConaughey vs. love/weddings. Matthew’s character was named Conner and in order for Conner to learn a lesson, he had to be pretty bad to begin with! He was such a jerk! I am a fan of Matthew. More often than not he plays a gentleman and from what I have read he is a gentleman in real life. So, it killed me to see him being so rotten. Of course it ends well (*like every other romantic comedy in the world*) but it’s overall feeling isn’t quite as light-hearted. They were really trying to impress on the audience how incredibly hurtful he was and how his lifestyle may have short term benefits but a long term failure. Granted I have heard that the original Christmas Carol was fairly dark so that it would contrast to the “light” at the end. Anywho…it’s fun for a chick flick but you don’t need to see it in theaters. A Friday night rental works fine.

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Strange Week

On Tuesday I had my first “woman” doctor’s visit. I especially wanted a female doctor for obvious reasons. Well…while she was going about her business in my business…she said “oh”. I was like “oh?”. She said that she would like a second opinion and that HE would be in in a second! So before I knew what was going on, a man walks in to see me in all my glory! I blush and he essentially shook my leg instead of a handshake and was like so nice to meet you. LOL! It was probably the most awkward introduction ever! Anywho, I left with a tetanus shot and it still hurts.

Thursday was my first wedding cake tasting! Mother and I trekked to Kathy’s Cakery in Richfield. It is a husband and wife team who work out of their MANSION!!!!!! Their cake is absolutely fabulous! My favorite part is the buttercream frosting they make. They use real butter and it is so soft and creamy tasting. NOT like sugary birthday frosting. Not sure if we are going to use them for the wedding yet because we plan on visiting some other places for a frame of reference. BUT we will most likely use them which is exciting! One more step to a complete wedding!

I’ve been rather depressed lately with this semester being rough and other things. But I’ve found that it seems to get worse when Ben and I are apart. It’s amazing what one day with Ben can do and how my mood does a 180. Granted, today we went above and beyond awesomeness! After lunch at 5 guys, we went to PetCo. We marveled at the beautiful fish and birds. Then we watched some of the mice play in their wheels. They were SO funny! The sweetest thing happened when we were looked at the old cats to adopt. One kept licking Ben’s finger!

Ben has been toying with getting a newer XBox 360 for a while. We enjoy playing video games together. SO we decided to get me an XBox! When I go to Rockford we can play Gears of War together! Yay! Don’t get me wrong I still plan to have a PS3 someday and I love my PS2 games. But the PS3 doesn’t really offer the games to play with people that we want. PLUS after we finally are in one abode together more permanently we will sell Ben’s old XBox. Another fun thing was that we put a beta of Windows 7 on one of my laptops.

I’m leaving to go play with my new toys!

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My How Times Fly!

Well since I have been home from Rockford, it has been like ALL school ALL the time. Oh and wedding planning. LOL! I feel as though I should review…

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School
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With Electronics, Signals and Systems, Operating Systems, and statistics, life has been full of homework and anger. It’s very hardware heavy and I am learning that I’m not interested it in. I am more of a software person. And of the software, I’m not so much a coder as I like to apply my knowledge of software and logic to other things. Don’t get me wrong, I still think coding is cool and I enjoy it. But I don’t want to be pegged a code monkey!

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Wedding (* http://www.weddingwire.com/piperandben *)
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My last post mentioned something about bridesmaid dresses. Well, apparently I wanted brown! Funny story, I now DO have the dresses and they are indeed a yummy chocolate brown. Emma and Sarah look stunning in them! Granted, I still need to get them shoes and figure out their hair.

I have a dress! Let’s just say that I look like a cloud! The dress is awesome and I just glow in it! I really can’t wait for Ben to see it! I hope everyone thinks I look as amazing as I feel in that dress!

I have my first cake tasting next week so I will let you know how that goes.

Flowers are a work in progress. Since there are going to be so few flowers, it is looking like we will just order a kit online and have a flower party the morning of the wedding. I have heard of a couple people doing this with great success. Plus, my dad’s secretary has been a florist before and said she would be happy to help. So, yay!

I need shoes and hair accessories. BUT my hair and make-up are taken care of.

The men-folk are completely taken care of. Ben will look so handsome (*dreamy stare*).

We have the reception site (*Dave and Buster’s, I know…it’s badass*) and the pastor.

It’s really coming together!

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Work
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I go back to work the day after Memorial Day! It is coming up fast. I’m trying to get more done on the wedding before I go because it will obviously be difficult to do some things when I am gone.

I am going into a new department which is actually something I’m interested in doing for my career. It is called software quality and basically I just make sure stuff does what it is supposed to do. Plus I write documents and I have discovered a real knack to make technical stuff understandable. Sadly, many people I was looking forward to working with have been laid off. Not only did I consider them friends, but i knew they had a lot of knowledge to offer me. I won’t be working with my favorite Supervisor Sue either. But at least we are in the same building! LOL! I can’t wait to see my Rockford best buds Alicia and Cheryl. I’ll feel like a girl again! My lunch buddy Mike and I will have much to discuss upon my return!

Plus my soon-to-be little sister Ali and I will have a blast! I love her to pieces!

Basically if you can’t tell I am super excited for summer. I know it will fly by and then when I come home it will be about time for a wedding!!!!!!!!!!

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Summary
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This year has been hard. With the above mentioned stressful school, wedding planning, AND having people I have been looking forward to work with, I had my first grandparent death. Then an aunt was diagnosed with cancer. There was arson at my school. My parents have been having trouble with our church. Some plans and goals I have had will be postponed (i.e. I don’t think I will be graduating when I thought I would be which would be delaying when I get a job). The only true bright spot is the wedding! I really am just getting through day by day to get to October 10th. Throughout all this stress, Ben has been SUCH and help and comfort to me. Plus we have been working on our faith together which has been a real bonding experience. I know that there will be more rough stuff ahead for the next couple of years but I know together and with God’s help we will be more than fine.

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THE END

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3 Day Weekend with Mom

I haven’t posted in a really long time. Well, let’s see. There is no way to recap everything so I will just say that currently my department is in a weird 3 week rotation and I have certain 3 day weekends. Mom came out from OH to have some fun with me! Yay!

We have basically done nothing but shopped.

We did start looking at ideas for bridesmaid dresses though. It is looking like either a yummy chocolate brown or a really pretty blue. I think that I am rooting for the brown actually…

This is my first post since I have been engaged! woohoo! I love you Ben!

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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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SOOOO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!!!

Alright there is just so much to recap I will break it down.

1) 9/18/07 I went to a NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction) dinner where I was awarded a 500 dollar scholarship for being awesome. Actually I don’t think they fully understood what I did because the people at the table hardly spoke to me at all. The bulk of the conversations I was politely listening to all involved either a father or a husband with cancer. Hmm…good dinner talk?

2) 9/20/07 I had to traverse all the way to the mother campus of Toledo for the co-op fair. I had an awful experience with a man who made me feel like I was worth absolutely nothing because I wasn’t doing enough. I wanted to scream that if he could find time in my schedule for me I would gladly build whatever he wanted. ARGH! I could write a whole other entry about this but he isn’t worth it. Long story short I had a good time and got to bond with some of the freshies I didn’t know.

3) 9/21/07 The Reverend, Mama Jo, and myself traveled back to Toledo for I had an interview with a company called Hamilton Sundstrand. I felt my interview went swimmingly! So the family and I had a day in Toledo! We went to this absolutely gorgeous seafood restaurant that I highly recommend. It was called The Real Seafood and was located right on the river. Then we went to The Glass Pavilion. All I can say is COOL! The entire building is made of steel and glass. The individual rooms were made of glass so you could see through the entire building! Sadly the reverend did run into a wall. (Hehe) Here is a small glimpse of this stunning little place…http://www.toledomuseum.org/Visit_GlassPavilion.htm

Then on the way home we stopped at a lovely little chocolatier in Vermillion,OH. It was a wonderful end to a great day.

4) 9/27/07 Dave and myself skipped assembly language to go visit a company with potential co-ops. The company, Brulant, was having an open house for almost anyone interested in them. They had great presentations about what they did, there was good food, and they had Halo 3 playing on a huge screen for anyone to play. I fell in love with the company and would have gladly worked for them. As fate would have it, it wasn’t meant to be…(dramatic music) Read on for details!

5) 9/29/07 A gaggle of nerds (myself included) piled into a van and went to Columbus for the LinuxFEST! It was so much fun! I left the expo with 4 free t-shirts, at least 2 full operating systems, and tons of stickers. There were some great presentations and some awful ones but the most interesting one was the One Laptop Per Child program. It’s this little laptop that in theory will only cost 100 dollars and can be given to almost everyone in Africa. I have read about this laptop and seen little pictures of it in Popular Science magazines. BUT I GOT TO TOUCH ONE IN REAL LIFE!!!!!!!

Okay I think that was all the important dates. Now, what happened with Brulant. I got offered the co-op that I wanted at Hamilton Sundstrand! Sadly, Brulant just wasn’t on the ball because they are a very “green”, up and coming company. They just aren’t ready for co-ops. But HS has a great track record and will support me! Of course this means that I will be moving to Rockford,IL in the spring which is a little nerve-racking but I had to get away from home someday so this is it! I’m so excited!

The boys in my program have recently all been about first person shooter games for the PC. Well, I just never got on that bandwagon but one, Bret, keep talking about this game expansion pack thingy that included this little puzzle game. Puzzle games I do like! It’s called Portal and it is so much fun! Bret let me play it on his laptop and I’m almost done. But watch the trailer for an idea of what it is about http://orange.half-life2.com/portal.html.

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I hate “The Notebook”

Now before you get appalled, I cried for an hour and a half of this 2 hour film. I was in physical pain afterwards. It was so beautiful, sweet, and sad. I don’t do well with things like that. Oh man I was a mess. What was truly funny though was that almost immediately after the film there was a phone call. I pulled it together enough to answer the phone. Lo and behold it was my lab partner/one of my boys asking about physics the next day. As soon as I realized it was someone I knew and he asked what I was doing I started crying again and told him I just saw the saddest movie I’ve ever seen in my life. He was (*needless to say*) a little creeped out and told me to “Be a man! Suck it UP!” Yeah…right.

Later that night I was talking to another one of my boys online and I told him how I felt awful. He told me to talk to him about it (*how sweet of him to think it was an actual problem*). Of course I told him it was nothing serious just I had seen “The Notebook”. He laughed and said that that was nothing to be ashamed of because he had seen it 3 times and cried the first 2 times! LOL! What a guy!

I think I had another story to tell but it escapes me for the moment…

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