Construction after 5 weeks

My parents are doing major construction on the back of our house. Our contractor is hammersmith (http://www.hammersmith.net/) .

here are some pictures of the progress as of today on the back of our house:

Don't mess with me.

During Lunch yesterday, David, Richard, and I decided to go to the shooting range down the street from work. Now , the only weapon I’ve ever shot was a black powder civil war era rifle back in High School. So, the weapon of choice yesterday was a 22 pistol, and Richard and Dave each got 9mm guns. Once I got the hang of it, I was actually pretty good, hitting the center target about 15 times! I took a shot each with Richard’s and Dave’s guns, and with dave’s, I hit close to the center on my only shot, and with Richard’s, I nailed the goal (the middle of the guy’s head) dead on! It was pretty cool. I came home and told the ‘rents about it, and my dad commented “That’s good, everyone should know how to fire a weapon”. My mom said “that’s nice….wait, that was a REAL GUN??? WITH BULLETS???” “COULDN’T YOU HAVE GOTTEN SHOT!!! I DON’T LIKE THIS”… funny.

Well, I am assigned to my first project out of town! I am going to Wisconsin in a few weeks (yeah, I know…not in my top 10 places to visit either). But it is just for a few days at a time I think. I am excited though, because it is my first real project, and I am the only Design engineer assigned to it. So it is sink or swim for me.

I’ve decided to buy a house. I was teetering for a while between condo and town house, and then decided on a townhouse, and now I’ve decided it just isn’t worth $250 a month to have someone mow my lawn and fix my roof if it breaks. I’d rather set aside the money into a bank account earning interest, and then pay for the mishaps and upgrades when they need to be taken care of. On the same note, I am sick of people telling me what “they think” is best for me via homes. If you got your place on daddy’s money, don’t tell me where I should/shouldn’t live or what is too cheap/expensive unless I ask you about it =)

I’ve started researching joining the JCC, and I think I’ll join. There is an offer that members can use the Emory U workout facility on Clairmont. That is right by where I am living right now! So, when the weather gets a little cooler and it’s too cold to run outside, I’ll suck it up and pay a membership fee.

My laptop that I got a little under two years ago is full. I thought I bought it with 60 GBs of space, but it actually just had 30. I have less than 500 mb left on it, and that is after clearing out a lot of stuff. So, I bought an external hard drive yesterday with 120 GBs, and now I am queen of storage. I can do it all now on my computer!! =)

So, you think you can dance?

So, you think you can dance?
Well, I don’t. I must say, that until I started college, I’d pretty much have to be paid to set foot on a dance floor. Even now, unless it is something I know how to do (AKA partner dances), I am still not one of the first on the floor. I guess I am just self-conscious and unless I am being “told” what to do on the floor, I don’t want to be out there. It’s funny because for a long time, I thought I was the only one out there that didn’t like dancing, and now more and more, I see people not wanting to get on the dance floor. It doesn’t count if you’re drunk, people. But conversely, when I meet people that are afraid or unwilling to try learning how to partner dance, I am almost insulted! It’s like this: I can talk until I am blue in the face about how much fun dancing is, but I think a lot of people have the same perspective on partner dancing as I do on “club” dancing. They’re just not interested. I wonder why that is. I suppose as a guy, it is more understandable, because really, the ball is in their court. They are the ones responsible for knowing what to do, how, and when. But what they also don’t realize, is that with a lesson or two, they can be pretty decent at it! It’s a great learning curve =). People say things to me sometimes like “you must be really good at swing dancing”. And to me, I’m not. I just watch people and drool over their style, technique, and grace – hoping I can be half as good one day. But then I realize that with how long I’ve been dancing, there are people out there thinking that about me (not many, I’m sure, but I’ll flatter myself with one or two)! The funny thing is that if someone takes just two lessons, someone who has never seen them dance before thinks they’re amazing!! So people, get off your butts, and give it a try. Just twice! (once tripping over your feet, and once actually learning). I bet you’ll like it!

I decided to break my mold and learn other dances besides swing era ones (IE Lindy Hop, Balboa, east coast, etc.) So, this semester, I am taking two classes. Every Sunday. One set of classes is beginning salsa, and the other is beginning ballroom (where we’ll go over Waltz, Tango, and foxtrot). So far, they have been pretty good. I like my salsa class better, but they are both informative, and both my teachers think I can dance, so I like it =). I am someone who likes what she’s good at, and doesn’t like what she’s not. So, it took me a bit of time to really enjoy dancing, and now you can’t tear me away from it. Come to think of it, I am going dancing tonight!

Attached Earlobes

It’s amazing to me how much we depend on certain people in our lives. Yeah, with that first sentence you probably thought I was going to talk about “significant others”, but no, I am talking about Football team’s quarter backs. It’s their fault when something goes wrong, and you want them desperately to be OK when they’re gone. Ok, I suppose it is kind of like a boyfriend! Georgia Tech has gone 3-0 so far this season, whooping every team we’ve played. It has been exciting and fun, and everyone ends up in a better mood at the end of the day. But our dear Reggie Ball, the QB for my beloved Yellow Jackets, was hospitalized last weekend, and had to sit out the game. Luckily, our second string man did the job beautifully, but on the other hand, we were playing the University of Connecticut – Not exactly known for their football team. But this weekend we’ll be playing Virginia Tech - currently ranked #4 I believe (we're #15). Yikes. I hope this weekend goes well!!

Work this week has been a bit slow for me. My boss is finally back, but I haven't really been feelin' it this week. I pack up as early as I can get out. Yesterday, I left work at 3 to go to the doctor. This sounds ueber strange, but my left ribcage, near the top, has felt really weird for about a month...like my rib is poking me or something. Well, I thought it would go away, but it is still there, and it is not pleasant. So I went to the doctor, and after taking an X-ray, he (like he always does) told me I'm fine, and to go home and if it still bothers me in a week, to come back. He did however say that it was strange because my rib cartilage, instead of caving up, caves in. but that it is "nothing to worry about, just 'different'". I have all these weird health quirks, and I am always sent out saying keep track of it! or there is nothing wrong with you! for example, every few months, I get this shooting pain in my left shoulder for about 7-10 seconds, so painful that I can not move or think, just horrible. It is so random though, that he has no idea. Another weird thing: I don't have asthma, but sometimes I can't take a deep enough breath, or I feel like I need to, and gasp. if you have spent any amount of quality time with me, I've probably scared you with my gasps once in a while =). I think I must be a quirky person in general because hey, I do have the striped eye, red hair (in a family of brunettes), and of course, attached earlobes! =)

Totally differnet thought: I have been SO good lately about working out. I count going for a run or going dancing working out. Last week, I worked out 6 times, and this week so far, I am 4 for 4. I think I'll be going 7/7 too! I am going to nip this work munching habit in the bud!

Have you ever seen the TV show HOUSE? I just started watching it (beginning with like 6 saved episodes on the TIVO). It is like ER mixed with Law and Order. I really like it! if you haven't seen it, you should watch! it is on at 9:00 on Tuesdays.

Since my last post, Moshe left for Spain for the year, and my mom is flipping out. I saw she saved the comics this weekend after reading the paper (the comics are all Moshe reads), and she put them on his bed at home. I said "mom, he's gone for a year. I think you can get rid of the comics". She responded saying that she will save the comics every week until he gets back. Before he left, Moshe took some pictures with leah in the yard....actually I took the pictures with his camera. Every time I see this picture:

I crack up laughing.
OK, I also wanted to see if I could post a picture here since I never had =)

Spanglish

Well, since the last post, I went to 6 flags which was a lot of fun. IT’s cool hanging with all GT students, alumni, faculty, and friends. I rode a lot of the roller coasters, and when we were one step beyond exhausted, we drove home. Ross and I stopped at the Majestic Diner on the way, and the food was much better than I remembered it…or I was much hungrier. Of course, there were other people that we knew there who had also come from six flags, so we chatted a bit, and then headed for my house. Finally got to sleep around 3 am and woke up the next morning to head out to GT to tailgate and get tickets to the game. Standing up for 3 hours before the game and 4 hours in the sun at the game drained my system. I came home and changed to go out to a dance on the other side of town, and stayed a few hours (I had to work the dance for a couple of those hours). The dance was part of an all balboa exchange weekend, and I am not much of a bal dancer, but it was cool watching anyway.

Sunday I was still tired, but I ran a few errands and then went out to Moshe’s for his going away party. He is leaving tomorrow to go to Spain for a year to teach English. The party was fun, and he had some cool friends over.

In keeping up with the non-stop schedule, I went to work yesterday, and left a little bit early to hit a reception at GT for Dean Boyd leaving. It was nice catching up with some of these people. After the reception, I had dinner with Billie and Richard, which was nice as well. From dinner, I went to Hot Jam to dance, and it was a lot of fun because there were still some people in from out of town from this weekend’s shindig of an exchange. I especially liked dancing with Josh from Chicago. He is a good dancer. Julie, a girl I met last week at the Hillel event, showed up as well, so that was cool!

I will try to be more humorous in future posts. I think work fries my brain.

In the real world

It's funny. I thought I had exhausted the entire Jewish datable population of Atlanta, and last night I went to a Hillel GAP (Graduates and Professionals) event, and met so many new people! it was a lot of fun. Like I've mentioned over and over again, I am really trying to get out there and meet new people. So far, I've been keeping up with it.

Tonight I am going to GT night at six flags. I am excited. I am going to meet up with ross and probalbly then meet up with other people that we'll run into. I'll give the full update after the event.

I am going to keep a book blog too. I will post up which books I've read and what I think of them, and people can post suggestions or whatever. That will be at http://belabook.blogspot.com/

so you can start enjoying that. Meanwhile, GO JACKETS!!! Have a great weekend!

Military people are cute.

Well, it's been a while. A lot has happened since my last post. Mostly things that are probably not of interest to you, but since they're of interest to me, I am going to write about it.

I just returned from spending the long weekend in Pensacola. I went to visit Leah Weber, who if you haven't met her before, is a friend of mine from GT and has since joined the Marines and is right now stationed in Pensacola for flight school, etc. Anyway, Leah is one of the few people who gets (and laughs at) all my corny jokes - mainly because she makes the same ones, and there I am, laughing too. I have a lot of respect for her. It takes a lot of guts doing what she does, and being proud of it. I know I don't have the same kind of strength. She and another of her friends that is in the USMC with her, Josh, were talking on Saturday night about regular stuff that they do each day, and then they mentioned about how they've made their wills and who they left things to. It was an eerie conversation that I was sitting in on. I for one, rarely think about death, and when I do, it frightens me. It is a selfish fear as well. Of course I feel bad for people who might miss me, but ultimately, I think - wow. There are so many things I wish I could've done or that I could've done better. I don't want to die. And here they are, Leah and Josh, proud and seemingly fearless of how their future could turn out after training is over and they're deployed into whatever struggle the US is meddling into at the time. I'd just like to say that I am truly amazed and grateful that there are people like them, to stand forward, and protect the wusses like me. You guys rock (oh yeah, and if I learned anything this weekend, it's that the USMC is way better than Army, Navy, or the Air Force).

On a brighter note, the weekend was fun. It was a lot of fun catching up with Leah. We watched a lot of movies (and went to see 40 year old Virgin), read books, chatted, went to the beach and the pool, and really just relaxed. She invited over a few friends to hang out as we watched Georgia Tech upset Auburn at our season football opener, and I have to say, she did have a pretty cute friend join the crowd that night, so that was fun. Overall, it was nice to catch up. It's too bad Leah lives so far, because I like hanging out with her.

I've been spending random evenings with different friends over the past few weeks. It sure does take a lot of effort keeping in touch with people when you don't see them on a daily basis anymore. I hope I don't lose my network of friends because we just don't happen to run into each other. I'd like to think that I've built relationships that are stronger than that. But on the other hand, as I still have the opportunity to see people, others have left town and are starting new. I'm sure they're having a much harder time. It's been a weird transition from college to the real world for me. Maybe it's because I am still in town, and I can still cling to my old relationships for support, or maybe it's just that I really loved my time at GT, but I don't think I have really adjusted into the working world. I still feel like eventually this "semester" will end, and I'll be back in school.

Those are all my latest thoughts. I could think of something witty to put here, but I have nothing. I think my lack of social interaction is melting my sense of humor (or lack thereof)