Well, welcome weekend at Taylor is all done now. The dorms opened up yesterday for everyone else. It’s an interesting feeling knowing that Taylor is coming back to life, that the dorms are filling up - and knowing that I’m not there this time.

To them, today is the last day before classes start. To me, it’s just another Monday. Another day when getting up at 6:00 AM was not fun, but where I am in life right now.

In a way though things are just getting started for me here. I have most of the stuff I need on my computer now, and I should be getting the rest of it today. I’m taking my computer down to the lab in a bit and the people there will load up the rest of the stuff I need.

On another note, yesterday was a good day. Karyn, Abby and I went up to the Gibbs house to hang out with the youth group and to see Eric. So I was with friends that I enjoy being with, and it was so much better than sitting around at home doing nothing. I ended up spending most of the time there working with Anne and Eric on cutting boards for the new dining room floor they’re putting in. Apart from being fun, it felt good to be helpful.

And now back to this thing they call “work”.

Today was the same as usual. I sat around browsing the web and doing random stuff because I still don’t really have anything to do at work. That will all change soon though, so I’m all right with getting paid for sitting around for the time being.

I did do something interesting though, but I’m not done and I’m still not sure if I like the design. My high school website is pretty lame in my opinion. It uses outdated frames and stuff like that, and doesn’t look all that great. So I set out to come up with a new design. I’ve come up with something, but it’s incomplete as of yet and I’m not sure if I like it overall. It’s not easy coming up with a design using the school colors - green, black, and gold. So I’ll keep working on it as I have time.

Tomorrow I have a meeting all day down at NUWC, the naval base in Newport. Though I’ve heard the meetings can be boring, at least it will get me out of the office for the day. Not only that, but the next day will be Friday, which is always nice.

Speaking of Friday, that’s when all the freshmen will be getting to Taylor. In a way I’m sad I won’t be going back again, but at the same time it’s a really, really good feeling to be done.

Enough of this, I’m going to bed.

Today is Brian’s birthday, so a few of us from work took him out to eat at a little Chinese place down the road.

Now we’re back, it’s hot outside, air-conditioned inside, 1:30 in the afternoon, and the MSG is starting to kick in. I propose we make a mid-afternoon nap obligatory.

Can I get someone to second that?

I cast all my cares upon you.
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet.
And anytime that I don’t know what to do,
I will cast all my cares upon you.

It’s incredible how much more easily that is said than done.

I made myself a checklist a while back of things that needed to happen to take me into the next phase of my life. That list slowly got checked off, and now it’s done.

I’m all done with college. That’s only starting to hit now that other people are going back to school and I’m not. I made it out to Massachusetts. I’m moved in with Dan and Abby. I even have a job.

But I have absolutely no idea where my life is heading. I’m working full time, living day-to-day, and making it by. But it’s pretty blah. I have fun with friends. I have money to spend now. I’m with family. And yet it’s still kind of blah.

I guess I just need to rely on God no matter where I am in life.

He’s in control, and He has a plan.

I want to extend a much needed apology to a friend of mine. I said something that wasn’t true, that I didn’t really mean, and I said it in a public place where other people saw it.

And that’s just plain stupid. Talk about thinking before acting, and making sure you don’t regret things you say or do. Well, I blew it this time. I really blew it. And now I regret it.

I’m really, really sorry. Please forgive me. I’ve done damage that can’t be undone, I’m sure.

Hopefully I will learn from this mistake.

and I won’t be there this time.

Welcome Weekend starts next Friday. I still remember my welcome weekend four years ago like it was yesterday. I arrived at Taylor on Thursday night and stayed in Fairlane with my brother. He was student teaching that year and was already established in his apartment. We took one of the matresses from his room and put it out on the living room floor. I didn’t sleep all that well that night - I was really anxious about moving into the dorm the next morning.

Well, I made it through welcome weekend and the four years that followed it, and now hear I sit. I have a job now, and I’m not going back to Taylor. It’s an interesting feeling, but I already know I enjoy working more than going to school. The realization that I’m not going back probably won’t fully hit until mid-September when everyone is in school again.

So I went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in - hmmm - has it already been 5.5 years??? Yes Alex, I do believe it has…

The news was as I expected - my wisdom teeth need attention and I’ve been referred to an oral surgeon. I also have some cavities that need to be filled, so I have another appointment today to go in for that.

Yay for dental insurance!!!

Other than that life is the same as before. I’ve been spending a lot more time at home just hanging out with Dan and Abby than doing anything else. Since I arrived back in MA I’ve spent a lot of time out, but now it’s back to my usual unsocial self. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just me. And that’s ok.

Well, the end of the week anyhow. It’s Friday, and today is payday. And that’s a good thing because I have absolutely no money. It’s so bad that if I decide to go bowling tonight with friends I’ll have to borrow some money from Abby.

Oh well, once my check is deposited I won’t be quite as low, though most of what’s coming to me is going straight to my credit card. It’s more like a trade-off, and I’m just the middleman.

Today I’ll be trouble-shooting a PDA to computer ActiveSync problem. We’ve found that after a hard reset of the PDA we can’t re-sync without changing the name of the device. So if the name is apgF, then we have to rename it to apgG, or something like that. What we would like is to be able to keep the name apgF - keeping all the settings that are in the apgF profile. So today will be fun with newsgroups and google, seeing if anyone else has had similar issues.

I’m sitting at work, and at the moment I don’t really have anything to do. My boss is on vacation and the work that he left for me to do is as done as I can get it at the moment.

And he’s gone for two more weeks.

Oh well. Such is life. I know that once he’s back and things pick up I’ll be busy all the time, so I don’t want to take “slow” time for granted.

New in my life? Yeah right, like anything actually happens in my life. Get up. Go to work. Come home. Maybe hang out. Go to bed.

At least it’s a pretty set schedule. I like knowing my schedule.

Other than that - same old, same old. I still get confused.