ummm so i'm studying for that horrible test set on aug 14-16th. my hell will soon be over. they assure me this is the hardest part about getting your phd...funny i think they'll say that every step of the way. so after the test i may be leaving to get a real job for a bit. i can use a touch of reality i think. oh guess what....i quit my job at aggiesat! yea! it feels so good not to be program manager - that was a lot of stress! best part is my advisor is still paying me to study. uh don't ask me what i'm doing in the fall. cuz i don't know. i do know on july 29th i'll be in dallas playing the harp for a really good friend's wedding. fun! ok that's all. so i spend my days studying and my nights playing harp. who wouldn't be jealous (ha as if)...ok ... bye!

have an interview in phoenix next week. that's exciting. ummmm oh oh oh i went riding on my hog (his/her name is pedro or caroline depending on the day) for 3 hours to bastrop and back. i met my dad and we went kayacking. (i didn't even get a ticket for kayacking or speeding!)

ok busy studying. for real yo.

So my weekend was awesome. I did crafts and stuff, and practiced for the wedding, it was incredible! This 40 hour week thing is pretty nice.

While at dinner with a friend in Houston, I called my Mom because they were planning on coming to visit Sun-Tue. My dad answered and we started talking casually, then he goes, "oh, your mother is in an ambulance on the way to ER". I was like, "what!?!" Apparently she had a bicycle riding accident: she hit a pothole at the same time she grabbed her front brake and just flipped with the bike landing on her. Thank God she was wearing a helmet. She landed on her head and right shoulder and was clearly in a lot of pain. Then my dad starts talking about how he's feeding the dog cuz he got a ride home in the fire truck and he's on his way out there but the fire truck was sooo cool. I was like "dad! I know you don't like hospitals, but get your butt to mom's bed!" She's okay though. Broke her right collarbone where it meets the sternum (sp??) so her right arm is in a sling for the next few months. It will be hard for her too, because she talks with her hands....hehe, like me.

Less sad news, in fact somewhat funny: I just got out of a managers meeting here. One of the guys I work with, lets call him 'ass' immediately started talking, again, and took up the whole hour, again, the arrogant jerk. I was looking as his crappy document that he made, and he added up the amounts wrong. He was overpricing by $1000. So, there's a break in the conversation, and I try to talk to let him know. I say one word he looks at me and immediately begins talking and never gives me a chance to say what I was planning to. So about five minutes later when it's clear he's not coming back to me, I circle the number on the paper and write "the numbers don't add up. You're $1000 off" and throw the damn thing across the table. The ass. He continues to shut me up the rest of the meeting. What the hell is wrong with him? He's such a cocky jackass. Literally everything I suggested, he mocked in front of my boss and everyone. I said "I think it would be nice if we came up with a lab motto and stuck with it" since we have the old one my dad randomly used and this new one he's putting on shit "Reach for the stars" (oh gag me). He says, "we don't need a lab motto" and started talking about something else, like the subject was closed. My boss looked surprised at me and just moved on in the new conversation. So I retaliated every caddy chance I got. His document had 'AggieSAT' on the front of it and so at the end of the meeting when everyone was leaving I said "AggieSat is spelled with a lower-case 'at' and needs a 'Lab' after it" and he tried to get into an argument with me about it asking if I wrote a document with that because no one ever told him and it changes so often. I looked at him and said, it hasn't changed since Sept, and I have given this lecture many times at many meetings, so it seems you're the only one who doesn't know, in addition to the fact that it's spelled correctly on every released document and in both templates". My boss bolted.

He's such a jerk - he belittles me every change he gets and I have no idea why. I realize I'm the only girl in the lab (soon to change) but I have way more experience than him with this, plus I have a masters and he doesn't. He'd just starting his MBA and he's freaking old. Granted he did a military tour or two, which is exactly how he 'talks' to his employees and coworkers, but friggin eh, he's in the real world now. Get over himself.

yes i realize this is funny in how dumb it was. I get that. But he is such an ass and no one is standing up to him! I printed out the emails of what I've asked him to do for AggieSat1 and I realized he hasn't done a single item - I did all of them last week after waiting for 2 weeks of nothing. who the hell does he think he is? he's new here. He belitted me today at one point for not forwarding an email to him from the Air Force because that's information he needed to know immediately. I said, I assumed that's what these managers meeting are for, to bring up now, which is what i'm doing. UHHHH He's such an ass! and the worst part is, he's going to continue being one because after i leave, everyone else will just put up with it. This organization is forgetting everything I think is important and becoming so what I'd hoped it wouldn't be. I'm glad I'm leaving.

Ok so step 1: I quit my job 2 days ago. (No end date in sight, I'm just no longer Program Manager)

Step 2: I decided to quit the phd program (about a week ago). I didn't do well on the qualifiers and may or may not retake these in August. I haven't decided. I do plan on coming back to get my PhD, but not right now. (oh and I was planning on quitting for a while so it's pretty unrelated to the failing the test thing).

Step 3: I applied for a bunch of jobs (11) last Saturday with different companies all over the US. So I applied to this systems engineering position for spectrum astro/general dynamics last saturday and I had a phone interview with one of the systems managers "Chip" I think was his name, last tuesday and he said he wanted to get me out there for an interview. Today HR called and gave me their application and asked me to send it in. I'm getting set up for an interview out there - and I didn't even name drop that my Dad's best friend is a program manager there. (I did use Dr Reed's name though...she's all over my resume and she came up in conversation). Apparently the position I applied for was pretty senior level but they're opening up a junior level position that I can apply for. I'm probably headed to Phoenix for an interview....all within a week of deciding to get a job! Yeahhhh!

Step 4: Wait....learn to be patient, and make a few decisions:

 

Questions I am unable to answer at this point (so don't bother asking):

1. Am I retaking the qualifier?

2. Will I move to Phoenix?

3. Will I sell my house?

4. Am I going to Canada at the end of July (dunno b/c the retest is the week I get back. so I wouldn't exactly be studying in Canada).

 

Questions I can answer:

1. Why might I retake the qual? B/c I do plan to come back and don't want to lose all of the knowledge I had and I'm kinda annoyed I didn't pass it.

2. What is systems engineer? It's the person who makes sure all the individual designers are talking to each other. That person also writes requirements and tests to make sure those tests are verified. It's 1/2 dealing with people, 1/2 doing engineering.

3. What is the job I really want? working with USA for NASA in Houston training the astronauts (I could also keep my house this way).

4. What is the #2 job? General Dynamics. in phx

 

 

So I found a way to cheat the $1 DVD rental system: You need to return the movie by midnight, but no matter what time you rent, you need to return it by the second midnight. Ok, so what I do is I rent a movie Sunday, so it's due Mon at midnight. Then I stay at work really late on Monday (not entirely by choice) and get to the machine and return the movie at 11:55pm. Then I go get gas because I'm low and mail off this letter I've been meaning to send, come back to the DVD machine and rent another movie at 12:05am. I now have 48 hours (Return it Wed night) to watch the movie, thus minimizing the time I spend coming to the grocery story on a daily basis, and plus since it's technically Tuesday, all the cool new movies are available and I have first pick. Last night I got Failure to Launch and King Kong, that last one mostly because I was so excited there were new movies I got one I didn't really want to see.....plus I figured if I have a 3 hr movie waiting for me at home, I'd just leave work really really early.

Well my Saturday was odd, funny to you I'm sure, but odd to me. I'm going to give you the long version, because it was too wierd for the compact version and too many funny/random parts would be left out. Besides you know I don't do well being concise. So, I went to a house party with the gang at an undergrad Aero's house, saw a guy from work there, and then we all went to Northgate. We met up with a friend Jeff and a bunch of his friends and now 1 of 2 wierd parts: there was this Columbian guy there. I think he was drunk but he really just could have been wierd. (He's not cute in the least, short, and I could probably take him on 1 foot hopping backwards). Anyway, Jeff bought a round of beer and I helped him carry them back, and I gave one to this guy (I think his name was Davide). Well Davide says "the woman of my dreams, bringing me beer", and I kind of laughed because I thought he was joking. So we talked for a minute and then he talks about how he's this cool grad student, a chem major...a phd even, and how some girls have actually swooned when he said this before while some thought he was a nerd. I responded with, "I'm an aero major in the phd program" (Leaving out the part that I won't be for long). Well he was shocked, although I don't know whether it was from the revelation of my extremely impressive major (haha) or the fact that I'm a phd. I don't know if I looked young Sat night or what, but every new person there asked if I was a Soph or a Junior and am I allowed to be drinking....rude!

 

So anyway he asked me to marry him. He said "A smart pretty girl who brings me beer, there is nothing more in life a man can want", to which I wanted to respond, "Screw what you want, thank you for the compliment, but considering the source....ew!". Anyway I pulled a 'Tuesday' from Popeye and said "ask me next week, I'm not dating this week", which is sort of true. Friday night killed my want for a guy for a while. Stupid Todd. So Davide then laughs and says "now you have to marry me, but I'll wait until next week if I must". So the rest of the night he called me 'wife'. I don't know what happened to 'next week'...I think it was forgotten. I was stuck in that scary conversation with him after this occurence for about 25 minutes while he orated to me about how American women are not romantic enough and he is romantic and that is wasted here in this cultural wasteland of the US and Texas and College Station... Blah blah blah...the guy talks more than me. I finally squeezed away while he was mid-sentance about something and pretended friends (from the other side of the room) asked me a question. He would randomly yell "wife" across the bar anytime he felt like it throughout the night if I was talking to a guy. "Wife", he'd say, "why are you cheating on me?". He used that horrible 'w' word because he couldn't remember my name. Finally (an hour later) he asked if I wanted a divorce. I blurted out "yes" and smiled for the first time all night, thinking he came to his senses and his little world of crazy would be over. The rest of the night he now referred to me as "ex-wife" and anytime I talked to a guy, he'd come over and ask why I didn't love him any more. Oh boy....no joke. He was a crazy one.....and the good news was he followed us back to Jeff's place where I stayed until 4am and was the first to leave. I was "wife" or "exwife" for 5 hours that night.....uuggghhh!

 

Ok part 2: back at Jeff's I was about to leave when Jose comes up to me. There was this guy Jose: Chubby guy from New Orleanes, very cocky and pretty much all around jerk. I've never really liked him though have tried to give him a chance like 4 different times, because if my friends really like him, there must be something I'm just missing. I don't think so. He walked up to me while I was mid-conversation with this guy (as I was telling the guy goodnight because I was tired and was about to go home) and I don't know what I thought he was going to say, but I never expected this: "So I was just thinking about it, and I've known you for a while, and when we first met, I didn't like you, I want to be honest with you. I don't like you. I was talking to my best friend Jeff about this and just couldn't figure it out. I just didn't like you" What? I was quite literally speechless, on top of the fact that it was 4am, I was really really tired. I only had 1 drink so I wasn't tipsy or anything, but very confused and speechless. So I just kind of stood there and listened. I responded with a simple 'Thank you' and said, "I don't really ever need to know that. It's kind of a mean thing to say" (Understatement of the century) "I don't really care whether or not you like me, but I don't really need for you to tell me". Then he got really mad at me. I became even more confused. He was mad at me?? He tried to pull me aside where we could talk. "I don't want to talk about how you don't like me!" I said in an extremely calm, even voice, considering I should have been outraged and mad. Then he got mad and walked off cursing something in Columbian or Brazaillian or Mexican - I don't know where he's from. Later on (like 5 min later) I went outside and told Jeff, I guess to get his response, and partly because he was in the back so he and the chick with him were literally the only 2 at the party who didn't witness this whole scene with Jose. I wanted my humiliation to be complete, I suppose. Jeff just said, "Oh f***, that man" and continued to look wasted although slightly annoyed at this point. Yes. I am more confused.

 

The story gets better: Jeff asked me to grab him a cigarette and I obliged going to the front of the house to bum a cigarette of someone for an extremely sick Jeff who lost a bet and was forced to drink an entire bottle of some nasty sugary drink that should have made him sick hours ago. His mood was most foul. Wouldn't you know, the only one who was smoking was Jose, so I walk up to him, pretend like he didn't just come tell me he thought I was a witch with a 'b', and asked for a cigarette for Jeff. He pulled one out, lit it, handed it to me, and said "Hi I'm Jose, what's your name" with a completely straight face. I felt like I was in a world full of crazy people. Like this has to be fake because even for my twisted life where crazy things often happen, this surpassed anything I had ever expected. I told him my name was "Sam, short for Samantha and I was extremely please to make his acquaintance" then he and Gerardo went back to speaking Spanish. Random. So I brought the cigarette back to Jeff and wished I had left when I planned to - right before crazy part 2. Yeah. You know, I don't like him, but at least I have the decency not to tell him, even while he's telling me. "i just want to be honest" - who wants to hear that!??! As I was walking out of the party all I could hear was this random voice yelling "wife, wife, don't leave me wife, you are the woman of my dreams".

 

Stop laughing, or actually I hope you're laughing. I'm not at the laughing point yet. I'm still too confused. I believe that pretty much everything happens for a reason, like God has a checklist to put you through, but I'm trying really hard to reason through Saturday night. Your thoughts???

 

Bottom line: Saturday was way too random - read the whole entry. This one's a good one.

I went to CU Boulder and launched our balloonsat - it went up to 60,000ft and came back. I officially sent a satellite to the border of space! We got videos and everything!

 (pre launch)

  

 

  (post launch)

 

Back at college station. had a super weekend in san antonio. back at work. working a lot. yea.

going waterski'ing this weekend at amber's....yea! they bought a boat.

i miss my dog. i don't get to go home much cuz i'm working a lot.

ok that's all......