Where Did May Go?

Huh. Look at that. It's almost the end of May already. Where does the time go?

Well, I have to apologize for a lack of updates this month. Between being very busy at work and two bouts of illness, updating this journal has been the last thing on my mind!

Let's work in reverse, shall we?

Even as I write this, I'm just getting over a painful weekend of what was either a stomach virus or food poisoning. I actually missed three days of work getting over this bug. I spent most of Friday either losing my lunch or feeling like I had knives in my gut. Saturday morning, Kate convinced me to see the doctor, who thankfully told us that it was nothing real serious. My stomach eased up on Saturday...only to be replaced by a vise-like pain in my chest that made it tough to even breathe (a likely result of all my throwing up on Friday). I wasn't able to either eat or sleep in those 48 hours and my whole body ached as a result. Fortunately, with some advice from Kate's dad, I'm finally on the mend. I'm steering away from spicy or acidic foods for a couple of days and trying to keep upright when I sleep. Last night was the first reasonable amount of sleep I've had in, like, three days!

I'm still feeling drained and weak but I'm definitely better than I was this whole weekend. Ugh!

The weekend previous to this one, Kate and I made a quick visit to my folks in Colorado Springs. It wasn't as long a visit as we would have liked because of Kate's work schedule, but we did manage to spend a day at the Castle Rock Outlet Mall where my folks generously bought me a bundle of new jeans, dress shirts, and shoes. Thanks, Mom and Dad! My shoes were definitely in need of replacement and these new sneakers are infinitely more comfortable. I found some clip-on sunglasses that fit my frames perfectly, thus avoiding having to spend the $400 I thought I'd have to spend on prescription sunglasses. Kate did some looking around for new clothes and shoes for herself, but she never did find anything that jumped out at her. She claims that she's just too picky about clothes.

Kate and I are also starting to look into some minor home improvements. We picked up a sunshade for the bedroom porch to block out the morning heat during the summer. My old one got trashed in a windstorm a few months ago and we'd been meaning to pick up a new one since. We're also looking at replacing our blinds with actual curtains, but we're still waffling as to what kind of curtains we want. ('Course, anything's better than the ragged blinds we currently have!) We also realized that our stairs are starting to weaken so it might be time to replace or rebuild them. My dad graciously offered to have a look at the current wear and tear and, if the work isn't too time-consuming, he and I will try doing the work ourselves. Kate made me promise to pay attention to everything Dad has to show me so that I can do this kind of stuff myself someday. :-)

Prior to our visit to the Springs, I had a 48-hour head cold that forced me to miss a day of work. Luckily, classes had slipped into finals week by then so I didn't miss anything there.

And speaking of classes, my first semester back at CSU is finished. Hoo-rah! My final exams went spendidly - I even aced my Wellness exam, which was unexpected. My final GPA comes to roughly a 3.78. Not bad considering how long it's been since I was last in school. :-) After finals were over and grades had been officially posted, I switched my major over from Electrical Engineering to Computer Science. The CS department advisor James Peterson is very cool. He took the time to map out which classes I ought to take over the next four semester in order to finish as quickly as possible, which is cool because now I have a better idea on how the rest of my academic career is going to play out.

There's still a handful of things to get done during the summer. I need to see if I can test out of College Composition. I'll need to see about getting my financial status re-evaluated in August when I drop my tech job. I'll need to re-submit my Advanced Placement credits to CSU. I also need to get on the ball and apply for some scholarships before the fall semester hits. Busy, busy, busy.

Those work projects that have been keeping me occupied are slowly winding down. The biggest one involved technology requests for the library's Summer Reading Program. The majority of that work is now done - just some follow-up and wrap-up to finish. We're also putting together a new patron management system for our internet computers as well as prepping for wireless internet access in the library.

Whew! No wonder May seems to have flown by!

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and it looks like my sister's family is going to be able to visit us in Fort Collins after all. It should be a good time.

Okay, time to get back to work. I'll have to write more later.

Thanks for reading! Hope you're having a great day!