Back to the Grind

Yup, School of Mines is back in full force. I'm just about to start week 4, and honestly, this may be my most challenging semester yet. I'm already so tired, and have been working harder than ever just to keep up. I can't imagine what will happen when tests start. I've got 18 technical credits this semester, essentially the rest of my Civil degree. Scheduling was a pain this year. Next semester will be a few last liberal arts classes to round out the degree, and either a few classes towards a Humanitarian Minor or starting my graduate work. After talking to the guys at work this summer, I decided to pursue graduate work here at School of Mines in Engineering Technology Management (essentially project management). Helps a lot at a smaller firm where we don't have dedicated business people to keep the financial and organizational side of things straight. So anyhow, if I take a few of those classes now, I can keep my load next year down to 12/semester, which is generally considered average. That'd be nice.

Beyond the classes, I also have the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam coming up at the end of October. It's not supposed to be very hard, once you've spent 4 years at Mines, but I'm still spending a good bit of time studying for it, just to refresh on everything.

And on top of that, working for SpecOps, the coffee cart, the disabilities office (which is a sweet job, the school is paying me to take notes in a class for a visually impaired student.. score!), on call for SEH if they need me... Anyhow, you get the idea. Life is hectic.

Thankfully, I'm adapting pretty well to 6h sleep a night. Not ideal by any means, but I'm adjusting. I get to see Laura almost every day, we have one class together and we eat lunch on the other days. God has provided, is patient with me, loves me like I've never known. I'm now a "Team Leader" with theMILL at Northern Hills, which means I help organize and coordinate setting things up. That's always fun, and a nice mundane mindless thing to do to end the week. We had swing dancing after theMILL this past week, which was a blast.. got to teach a lot of friends some of the basics. Not that I'm qualified to teach anyone. I also get to man a booth at the Career Fair this year, instead of trying to find a job. I guess they liked me enough at SEH to offer me a position once I'm done with school. That's a huge blessing right there. (Oh, by the way, I didn't mention it, working this summer went very well).

Everyone in the house is getting along great (a nice perk, since we had Ben move in to fill the spot Jon left a few months ago).. although I really need to take the next chance I get to clean the floor. I really appreciate the guys we've got though, laid back, clean up after themselves, hardworking. A great group. I'll be sad to see Ryan and maybe some others move on after this year. At least Michael, Ben, Jeff and I will be staying to finish undergrad work or for grad school. (yay for not moving!)

I suppose that's a decent update. Certainly not everything that's on my mind, but the vast majority of you don't care about deformation optimization of statically indeterminate bridge spans. So... I'm done.