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I feel like I actually have a moment to breath – I can hardly believe it myself! It has become apparent to me, after trying it for a month and a half, that working two jobs and going to school is… shall we say less than desirable. So one of the jobs must go. There are benefits and draw backs to each, and while some would say the decision is easy, it wasn’t. I have decided to keep my normal full time, network analyst position, and let go of the part time GISish one. I will have to break into my new career by another means at a time shortly in the future. There is still some question with the longevity of my current full time job, so we will see what the next few weeks bring and what I am going to do. Regardless of all the job hassle, school is still going really well and still loving my classes. Can’t wait to get started on next semester too. I will be taking my first 500 level classes!

One other piece of exciting news, after 7 years of wanting new couches – we finally bought some this weekend! Seven years you say?! Yes…. I guess I am a slacker, what can I say. But two soft, cushy, comfy, chocolate brown leather sofas will be delivered to my house on Friday!

You all know where I work, and I’m sure have seen my company and the closing of three of it’s sites in the news last week. It’s hard to comment on this situation. I’ve been here eight years, and as I said to a friend tonight, for all the complaining I’ve done over the years this is like home. I grew up here, built a career here, and it is sad to see it go. Most of all there are so many people I will miss. That is what I loved most about this place, the people. I’ve made a lot of friends and while there are many that have become a part of my life and I will keep in touch with, there are many that I’m not so sure about. Not because I don’t want to make the effort to maintain the relationship, but it would be foreign and potentially uncomfortable to try to do so outside of seeing them on a regular basis at work. Even people that I may not be the most found of, it will be strange not to see them regularly.

Before I get to down and nostalgic I have to say, I actually still have a job, I have not been laid off. I work for headquarters and there is a different plan for my group. This makes me feel some what guilty as everyone around me has been given notice of the end of their position. I’m not sure what else to say on this just now. I am ready to move on and am prepared to become consumed by masters work and career transition, which makes me feel even just that much guiltier. Someone who needs this position more should have it.

There is still a lot to come as this shutting down process takes place. I am anxious to see how it all goes and concerned for the well being of so many of the employees here. There has been a large out pouring of support from our community which I have very pleased and surprised to see. I hope that these efforts will pay off for many of those losing their job.

I had so much fun at school today! I know I am a nerd, can’t help it. The day started out great in geology with a discussion about ocean sediments and ocean levels, plus discussion of sediments in the desert and how wind is a major factor. Good stuff. But that was just the tip of the ice burg! Later in the day in geography I had the coolest lab ever! Last weeks lectures were on GPS’s and compasses. We got to go out and play with a GPS for a bit. Today though we got to play with compasses and GPS’s! We did a scavenger hunt using a compass to guide us and marking way points with our GPS along the way. The end destination was a little coffee shop off campus where my professor was waiting and bought us all coffee. I had so much fun. I had a great time navigating around and calculating the azimuth and what not. Plus the UNM campus is a great plus, the weather was so fall like and crunchy leaves were falling every where. I had a blast. I am so pleased with the program I chose to go in to. =)

An instant message conversation that should have occured between myself and my, shall we say, “liberally oriented” friend. Instead, the conversation ensued between myself, using of course the business sanctioned group screen name used for all contacts, and my bosses boss.

Me on Business Sanctioned SN: hey… ever watch jay leno’s headlines? thought you would find this one amusing hehe http://www.nbc.com/nbc/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/headlines/H_3219/34.shtml#headline

***Horrified I stare at the screen trying to comprehend what I have just done***

Me on Business Sanctioned SN: eek my apologies, that was meant for the other window

***Thinking I could make this better by adding some humor went on to say***

Me on Business Sanctioned SN: it did make me giggle though lol

Big Boss: hey no worries

Big Boss: now stop wasting company bandwidth

My gut reaction, instant mortification! Let’s hope and pray that the some how the context of the humors link was lost on him. Not possible… Next week when “random” drug testing is requested all co-workers will blame me! Innocent lil me!!

Maybe that second job will come in more handy than first suspected.

Between last Friday and today, I have acquired and started a second job!! Why in heaven’s name would I do such a thing? haha It’s actually really cool. I got an internship style/part time job at a business specializing in the supply of geographic technology tools and resources. I interviewed for two hours this past Friday with the owner/ceo and was hired on the spot by him after he genuinely found out about my goals and ambitions and then customized the position for me. It was a great experience! I had a fun first day, learned a lot, and I think this is going to be a great opportunity as I begin to transition career fields into geo tech. Good stuff.

However… I can’t let go of my ball and chain job just yet. They pay me to well and I want to make sure all goes well with the new gig before giving it up. So in the mean time, or until I can’t take it any more – I will work my two jobs and go to school. Wish me luck!

In other news, weekend before last was an awesome trip to Colorado. The weather was beautiful. I got to hang out with my friend Tim and his family and catch up which was great. I also went to my friend Shasta’s wedding. It was a fairy tale wedding held in a castle in the mountains. It was spectacular, no expense was spared and no preparation was left un-thought of. A more detailed account of the weekend and pictures coming soon. In my free time. lol

Yawn.. I’m tired! But if I don’t seize the moment now I will never post about this weekend! Over the weekend we flew out to Dallas to attend a football game. We met Mark (aka MadMup, Mupmadellan) there. Mark is someone Brian made friends with online several years ago. I have to admit… I thought it was weird. But after a few years of getting use to the idea, and after Brian met him once in real life before – I warmed up to the idea. Also playing WoW with Mup really helped me to get to know him a bit myself. And what do you know, Mr. Mup is a very nice guy whose company I enjoyed! (No offense Mark, just a lil nerve racking in this day and age of suspicion!) We also got to spend some time with another Internet friend of both Brian’s and Mark’s – Mike. I have also played WoW with Mike and his girl Meags. So since I had taken so long getting use to the idea of Mark, it didn’t take me as long to get use to meeting Mike. Mike is also a very nice guy whose company I enjoyed! Both M&M were fun and comfortable to be around – good conversation and good times were had over all and I would do it again. I am glad I got to meet them both. Now.. on to the weekend summary list.

Saturday – Flew out on a 6am flight, got on the flight having about 4 hours of sleep. Got into Dallas around 11:30 I think and met up with Mark there. Got the car, a purple eggplant like thing, and headed off to the hotel where we met up with Mike (who had driven up from Houston). At my insistence we then had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. I love that place! I know it’s just common normal food, but so tasty. The one thing I didn’t like is how noisy it was in there. The ones I have been to before in Oklahoma were not so noisy. Some day we will get Buffalo Wild Wings in ABQ. After lunch we headed downtown to the JFK Sixth Floor Museum. I enjoyed this a lot more than anticipated. I learned much that I didn’t know about this historical event, and I’m pretty sure I saw a conspiracy theory believer lurking about. After we drove down the famed stretch of Elm street and past the grassy knoll. The weather was hot and gross. Then we headed back to the hotel for a little rest, after which met another friend of friend’s in the area for dinner at Chic-fil-a. I love that place! The real thing tastes so much better than the express place in the UNM student union. The oreo shake was delicious. Dinner was followed by browsing about Fry’s super duper electronics store. They do have a ton of cool stuff there. Finally we headed back to the hotel which I was most thankful for as I was soooo tired. My party can attest to this, when I am so tired I just stop talking… and they didn’t hear much more than a peep from me for the whole evening.

Sunday – Slept in and headed to the fabulous Dallas Galleria around 11:00. Mark actually dropped the three of us off while he headed out to meet another friend for lunch. Popular guy that Mark is. I drug poor Mike and Brian over every square inch of the mall. It was totally worth it because I got this beautiful Coach purse which I am very found of! By the time we were done at the mall it was time to get ready to head to the game which we had been warned would be super busy. Mike actually didn’t go to the game, so we said our good byes to him as he headed off back to Houston while we headed to Texas Stadium.

The Game – We got to the stadium way early, but it was cool because we got to check out the stadium all up close and personal like. I had actually been there once before for a Steelers/Cowboys game. We wandered around, ate delicious stadium junk food, and called people we knew to brag about our whereabouts. It started raining like crazy and it was awesome to watch the rain streaming in thru the open air stadium – don’t worry, only the players get wet, not the spectators. lol Although no one believes me I had inadvertently and unintentionally packed a blue and white shirt combo to wear to the game, thus I was forced to cheer with the home town locals. They wouldn’t have it any other way! That’s ok though because they are crazy committed and were fun to cheer with. Our seats were awesome and we had a great time. The bad part that I won’t spend to much time on… when we had finally made the mile trek back to our car and where waiting for the other 65,000 people to make room for us to leave, or eggplant was struck by a big stupid truck. We weren’t even moving. No one was hurt and we don’t have to pay… but it caused us to be at the stadium until waaay long. By the time we got back to the hotel we had about an hour and a half before we had to get ready and head to the airport to go home.

Monday – We all headed to the airport half asleep. Poor, poor Mark had to go super early with us. I know that was no fun for him. But it was nice that we got to visit just that much longer. He waited with us in the long line and then we said our good byes.

I had a great time and really enjoyed the trip. Hopefully we will get to meet up with our new friends again in the future. Check out the pictures in the gallery!

Although you wouldn’t know it from my lack of posts. I’ve even had a lot of different things to write about lately that I just haven’t gotten to. Here is a quick summary that some day I will write posts about.

• I changed what classes I am taking and I am much, much happier with this. I am now taking Geology and Geography. My Geology class is like sitting in a live version of a Discovery show, its awesome. My professor cracks me up. Viscosity is cool.
• Thanks to a great friend I have discovered and investigated this whole world previously unknown to me of Geographic Information Technology. A perfect fit for my skills and interests.
• The above have prompted me to meet with the Geography graduate advisor, and he and I have officially made a plan for me to pursue a Master of Science degree in Geography. If all goes accordingly I will be admitted to the program for Spring semester and I will become a full time grad student.
• I went to my 10 year high school reunion. It was… lame. I have some pictures, they are still on my camera. Some day I will pull them off and post them. I did get to see one friend from out of town that I was pleased to see, and hang out with a friend I still see regularly so that made it worth. We did get a little bit of gossip material out of it as well, so I guess I can’t completely write it off as a loss.
• Next month Isaac turns 3! Brian and I took him to the Natural History museum and had a blast. It was so neat. Eric is now 2.5 months old and starting to smile. He is an adorable, chubby lil guy.
• I want to start a new feature on my site where I just have a list of all the books I read, and then just do a review when something really stands out to me. I think a record of what I have read would be neat, but I just can’t get reviews out on it all.
• We are going out of town this weekend and next. This weekend we are flying to Dallas and meeting MadMup there to watch the Redskins beat the Cowboys. Next weekend, we are driving up to Colorado to attend Shasta’s wedding and hang out with my good friend Tim from high school. This will be extra fun because Katie is coming with us.
• Life is good!

I made it through the first week back to school. It is a little overwhelming to get back into the swing of things, but I think it’s going to be ok. What really stressed me out was the math “pre-requisite” quiz that I had to take. While nothing will happen if I don’t pass it, it is strongly recommended that we reconsider the class we are in if we fail it. This was difficult because it was tons and tons of different topics that I had to review and study, for what turned out to be a 12 question quiz. I will get my results back on Tuesday. While I know I didn’t get a 100, I think I got a fair amount of the problems correct. Time will tell.

My earth & planetary sciences class and lab will be interesting. Based on first impressions, I like both the professor who is lecturing and the TA I have for lab. I think the lab has potential to be pretty challenging, a lot of material to learn.

The thing that is most frustrating is the parking situation. I have to park at the football stadium, and then ride the UNM shuttle bus over to campus. This is hard because at the time I get there on Tuesday and Thursday, there are a ton of people waiting for the bus, all trying to shove their way through the crowd and onto the bus so they don’t have to wait for the next one. All this takes time and so I have to get up even earlier and fight my way through mobs of grimy college boys and sluty college girls. It is at this point, and when I actually have to sit down and do homework, that I have to remind myself I have expressly picked this path!

Oh sweet weekend why did you go so fast?! I can’t believe it is already over. I took a three day weekend and it was wonderful. I didn’t do anything particularly eventful but it was great. Here’s a quick list of things I did. More tomorrow or some time this week about my first day back to school which happens tomorrow!

• Played lots of WoW. Got my new hunter Chai to level 10 and got her a bear cub for a pet. Got Hylaa to level 57.
• Bought books for school, a new back pack and a fancy dancy calculator.
• Went to my parent’s neighborhood BBQ. Brian was supposed to entertain the kids by juggling and making balloon animals, but luckily for his sake he got out of it.
• Registered to attend my 10 year high school reunion and made unsuccessful attempts to find something to wear.
• Looooved all the rain.

I, and all my Gemini friends, are notoriously indecisive people. We blame this all on our Gemini status. It’s quite true, the split personality thing totally applies causing one to be either incapable of making a decision, or switching between decisions non stop. Well today I made a big decision. And the most awesome thing about it… no regrets, I am totally confident in what I decided.

I had been doing some looking around since sooner or later I won’t have a job where I am currently employed. I had found, and applied for a District Trainer position with a huge international company. I was lucky enough to get an interview. It went very well and I proceeded to complete four interviews with various stakeholders. I was fairly nonchalant through out the whole thing because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make this kind of move or take this kind of position. Apparently this attitude helped because I think I interviewed really well through out the whole thing. I guess they thought so too, because yesterday they offered me the position. It felt good to know they had selected me. But after careful consideration, I decided it’s not right for me. For some reason it was rather nerve racking to call and decline the offer. But other paths are calling me.

I’ve always wanted to be a scientist. I was the president of the math, engineering, science club in high school for crying out loud. So why then, am I not a scientist? I guess life just ends up taking you down a certain road and it is very easy to give in and take the path of least resistance. But no more. I passed up the offer from the big company so I can go back to school and become what I should be. I’m going to stay with the position I have now, which easily allows me to go to class during the day and still be paid well while working the nights. I’ll ride this out until the ship goes down, or I’m able to start working maybe part time in a lab or something of that nature.

I am really excited and happy with this. I am all registered for classes and will be starting school in two weeks. I am thankful to have such a supportive husband in all this, who always encourages me and is there to take care of me and help me transition careers.