Well, all my grades did finally come in. One grade left a little to be desired, but I guess you can't have everything in life--everything was pretty good overall. So while I'm not ecstatic about my performance, I am happy about it.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out the summer. It's a little stressful--suffice it to say, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I sent out a few packets of my cover letter/resume/transcript/writing sample on Monday. I'll post more on that when I know exactly what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll know everything for sure within the next week or so.

One day, Kelsey and I are going to become rich and famous when we invent the ideal study chair. This chair will be a recliner, but it will be adjustable and will include desk space for computers, books, etc. Kelsey even wants to include a page-turner, but I think that's a little much. So we do still have a few kinks to work out, but I think it's a good idea nonetheless.

Hi!

It has definitely been a while! I was holding off on posting for one main reason--I wanted to either complain or be happy about my grades once they were all posted. Well, I got my first two on the eighth, and finally got the third today. It's been interesting getting them in. And I'm not going to complain or be happy yet because there's still one more grade to go. And one more grade--when it's a four hour class--makes a big difference in GPA in your first semester. I will also refrain from commenting on the time delay in getting grades back when the other sections at UH have all theirs. This is me refraining. See?

Life has been pretty good lately. I had a great last week (from the 8th-15th) before classes started on the 16th--I got to see Kaci, meet a friend's friends who have recently moved into my apartment complex (yay, I know some neighbors), spend time with my family, have lunch with a secretary I worked with at the law firm this past summer, and hang out with Chrissy. I also had to start on my reading for school that week--which wasn't so exciting, but oh well.

Then classes started last week. Last week was also strange--early in the week, Texas was in the midst of a nice little "winter storm" that caused many parts of the state to shut down for a couple of days due to snow, sleet, and ice. Even though I entertained hopes of postponing starting my second semester, that didn't happen, though there was a two-hour delay in starting classes on Wednesday. That two-hour delay was better than nothing. I'm a little jealous of current Trinity people, though--they got a whole two days off from school! For the most part, the weather in Houston has been pretty consistently cloudy and cold lately. We saw the sun for a few hours on Sunday, but that's been it in over a week. And this week isn't looking good sunshine-wise either.

I'm not sure how I feel about classes yet. I will say that I am a little apathetic about getting my work done so far this semester. Perhaps when my writing class picks up steam and it's time to start outlining, I will get a little more motivated. Until then...I will continue going to bed early and doing things like updating my blog and reading fun books.

One more thing--I had a hankering to put a picture on my blog profile that will show up on the main page. But to post a picture, you have to have a URL, according to "Blogger Help." So I'm about to try and post one in this entry that will show up in my profile from now on. And I know it's not really me, but I like to think that it's what I'd look like on a good day...if I actually owned a top and blazer like this one...

Walking and Weekend Trips

I just found the coolest thing ever. Well, maybe not the coolest thing ever. But I think it's pretty neat. Using http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/, you can measure how long walking routes are. I figured out that Beth and I walked just over three miles through West University on New Year's, and that the route around my block that I most often take is about a mile and a half.

I had a fun weekend in Waco with Alicia. Got kind of lost going up there--Waco roads do weird things--but made it all right. I have now watched the first seasons of both 24 and The Office. Alicia and I also ate out a couple of times, and on Sunday, I finally got to see the Dr. Pepper museum. And this morning, I got to meet some of Alicia's friends at Baylor Law ("where fun goes to die")--who did a great job of helping me appreciate the fact that I have one more week off before classes start.

I have a random complaint. Alicia and I also watched some episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street this weekend. It's a pretty good show, by the way. But even though the shows are on DVD, they are not subtitled or captioned. This is not the only DVD with which I have recently encountered this situation either--the copy I have of the musical Cinderella isn't subtitled either. This is no good. If you're going to release a DVD, why not take a little effort to make sure that it's captioned? Then an all-the-way deaf person can enjoy it too.

This week will be spent seeing a few random people. Oh, and working on trying to figure out what I'm doing this summer. I also probably need to start reading for classes--if professors would post the assignments. I am not ready for school to start yet. Not ready at all.

Christmas Post

Scroll down to the second entry of January 2nd to see the Christmas post. Or just click here. Because I started working on the entry the 2nd, it seems to have back-dated itself and appears under that day.

Well, in a slightly annoying turn of events, Blogger's "add image" function does not seem to be working at the moment. Hopefully it'll do what I want tomorrow. If not, I might have to just put up a very long, wordy entry and post the pictures elsewhere.

It's frustrating when things don't work for you in the way you want and at the exact moment you want, isn't it? Oh well. That's life, I suppose.

My Winter Break, So Far

Well, after a little bit of fighting and learning that some of the pictures I was trying to load needed to be renamed to work, I got some pictures up. Some of them, though, just refuse to load--regardless of whether I rename them, move them to a different file, etc. So this isn't quite what I wanted it to be, but almost. The next paragraph starts the entry I started working on a few nights ago...

Since I finished my last final, I've visited San Antonio, and also parts of Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Needless to say, this has been a welcome change from the intensity of law school.

The San Antonio trip was lots of fun, as trips to San Antonio usually are. Staci, Melissa, and I left the Friday morning after finals (December 15th), and spent that day in San Marcos at the outlets. That evening, we made our way to San Antonio for the rest of the weekend. Saturday was pretty relaxing--Beth, Melissa, Staci, and I got to go out for lunch, see The Holiday, and take a short walk around Trinity. Then, after Staci and Melissa left to spend time with their respective friends, I enjoyed seeing and catching up with the San Antonio crew. On Sunday, we made our way back to Houston. Again, the whole trip was great fun, and I enjoyed meeting some of Staci and Melissa's friends.

I didn't do too much the following couple of days. My activities mostly included cleaning the apartment and shopping for and making some Christmas presents. Then, Thursday the 18th, my family left for the mountains of northern Georgia. And this time, when I say "my family," I mean my parents, my sisters, me, and my sister's fiancee. This made for some interesting car (okay, mini-van) time--with six people and their luggage, things can get a little crowded.

We got to Georgia on Friday evening, and mostly just ate and enjoyed time with family. That was also the evening we were assigned to one of the three cabins--there's no simple way to explain exactly who was placed where, but suffice it to say that I think the "older cousins" ended up in the nicest cabin. And I think we made it the most fun cabin as well. At the times all of us were there, eight of us slept comfortably--all of us on a bed (or pull-out couch), and no one on the floor. There was no reason to use even one of the fifty-two (yep, using my license to exaggerate) blow up mattresses various families brought. When we weren't sleeping, we were relaxing, playing games, watching movies, spending time in the hot tub, attempting to figure out how to work the fireplace, learning about how hot air rises and basements are cold, etc.

And when we weren't in the "Cousins' Cabin," we could most often be found in the main cabin eating, talking, shooting rocks with our brand new slingshots, decorating the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, playing with the younger cousins, rocking in the rocking chairs, watching movies, playing games, and putting together puzzles, and when we weren't there, we were probably hiking, taking trips to nearby parks, or taking trips to town--usually to buy food.

And that about summarizes our time on our Mountain Christmas Vacation. Other fun things that occurred: Uncle Lewis' surprise arrival despite the fact that he had just returned from Iraq and told Grandmamom he didn't know if he'd be able to make it, the men's return with the uprooted Charlie Brown Tree, various compilations of past family events, a short but sweet Christmas Eve production, and an awesome trip to watch an NHL game in Atlanta.

The pictures:

The cabin just up the road from the one I was in. It is, from the outside, a good representation of what the cabins typically looked like.

A few people on our walk on a trail near the Ocoee Whitewater Center in Tennessee. I'm not sure what Sarah's doing--tickling Millie? Behaving strangely because she's scared of licking the slimy rock?

People in the Ocoee lake. Or river. I'm not sure which it is.

The Charlie Brown Tree, pre-decorations, just after some of the men brought it back.

Decorations in process. We had fun with fake snow, glittery construction paper, and glitter pens.

The Charlie Brown Tree after decorations.

People playing with slingshots. Slingshots are way cool. Once I hit a tree with mine. I'm talented like that.

Sarah, Kelsey, and me, when we were almost done with our Christmas Eve hike down and up (and up and up) the mountain.

Kelsey and me--again on Christmas Eve, but on a different trip down and up the mountain. And don't worry, we were watching out for bears.

Cousins in a hot tub. After the cousins came back to the cabin on Christmas Eve, we spent time in the hot tub, and the girls watched Pride and Prejudice. Does it get any better than that?

Dad and Kelsey at the entrance of the Smoky Mountains National Park. We couldn't go too far into the park, though, because the road was closed due to ice and snow. According to some articles I read after the fact, a couple of cars and rangers got stuck up top the day we were there because conditions were so bad!

But we did get to walk a little way up Smokemont Mountain. And there was snow! So I threw a snowball at Kelsey.

Pretty snow picture.

The family.

The family and Ben. We don't really know how I ended up next to him and Rebecca didn't. That's just the way it worked out.

We got home from Georgia late Thursday night (I think we decided that the drive was about 16 hours on Thursday, and then I had to come back to my apartment), and I spent Friday doing...well, not much of anything. I didn't like that--apparently I like having things to do that keep me occupied. But then Beth came on Saturday, and we had a good time seeing Alicia, having a Christmas/New Year's celebration with my dad's side of the family, enjoying a nice New Year's Eve in (this involved eating pasta and garlic bread, watching a movie, then watching the ball drop on TV), a long walk on New Year's Day, and just generally doing what we do when we're together--being a little silly. Fun times indeed.

This week, I've been to Sugar Land a couple of times, helped Melissa get ready for a very exciting interview, cleaned, and run errands. Oh, and I started watching the first season of 24 today. I didn't think I was the type to get addicted to the show--but I'm afraid I can feel the addiction coming.

Happy New Year!

This is just a quick random post to say, no, I haven't forgotten that I have a blog, and yes, an update is coming soon. I'm going to start working on a picture post of our Blue Ridge trip right now, but it probably won't actually be posted until tomorrow. I've been pretty good tonight--I worked on my resume and crossed off half of the people on my contact list. Hooray for feeling productive.

P.S. Yes, I survived finals. Phew. However, I don't like waiting for grades.