You know you've gone to the right University when the director of your college uses a joy buzzer when he shakes your hand as you cross the stage during Convocation.

I kid you not!

My dad has film of my reaction to prove it.

Gradumination, or Granulation, or whatever it's called, was pretty cool. And now it is done. Done, I say! Still, I don't think the fact has yet trickled it's way into what is left of my gray matter. It will probably hit me sometime around 3 AM. As I love to kid my parents, "4 years ago I couldn't spell Engneerr. Now I are one."

My parents and little bro were able to come, and my Aunt Sally made a surprise appearance! I think my dad was just ready to bust his buttons, well, he would if he was wearing a shirt that had buttons on it. Not exactly his style. He's more of a 'polo with snaps' kind of guy.

Anyway, I just want to send my congrats to all of you fellow 2006 grads!! And you December grads too!). We've gone through a lot in the past four years, and now, even more than in High School, we are all going our separate ways.

Some of us are going to work, some out of the country (Sarah!!!!!), others to MORE school (some all the way to HARVARD!!! Way to go Ting!), some are going to be working buried under large piles of math and paperwork (me. Gotta love Engr. internships), and THEN back to school...I mean, wow! Look at us!

Happy Graduation everyone! Go forth and be productive members of society. (pfft! ha!)

Ya know what? I'm getting old. I just looked at the calendar, and it's my half-birthday today. Remember counting your age in half-years? Or in my case, percentages? Ok, so maybe I was an exceptionally nerdy child.  Anyway, today I am 22 and a half years old.

Approaching 23....*shudder*

Of course, my chugging up the mountain-o-age doesn't change the fact that my baby brother is now as tall as I am. Lol. I'm as tall as I'm ever gonna get, and little Keegan isn't so little anymore. He's twelve, going on 35, I swear! In fact, I'm pretty surprised he still lets me call him "Buddy" or "Doo-dad" or "Keegie" or "Keeglet" or any of the other diminuitive terms of endearment I've pasted to him over the years. Actually, he seems to really appreciate them. Am I lucky or what? I mean, how many little brothers do you know that let their big sister hug and kiss them in public, or even more, hug and kiss them back?!

I know the cheese factor of this post is reaching critical levels, but at this time of year (around St. Valentine's Day, which has always been a rather family-oriented holiday for me) I realize just how blessed I am to have such a strong support system.

I just have so much to be thankful for: I have wonderful friends (thank you all, and I love you much!), an invaluable Ebo Gubble, and a loving (if a bit dysfunctional, but who's isn't?) family. Yeah, I just have to say it again...I love my little brother. (gush gush, schmooze, smarm)

Well, in case anyone was wondering, I survived the Evil Paper of Non-Sleeping, and am around and sane (sorta) to tell the tale. In the end, I was up for a whopping 34 hours straight. go me!

So, in a nutshell: I got up at 6:30 AM on thursday, went to work, went to class, worked on project "A", went to class, worked on project "B" (the evil one), went to another class, went to work, got off work at 7:30 PM thursday, went to Fears to work on evil project "B", stopped for coffee at around 1 AM friday, went back to work on project "B", did so until around 6 AM (when I updated my xanga), worked some more, spewed incoherent but potent curses at the world, worked some more, drove to work on campus at 7:30 AM, finished and printed out the paper, went to class to turn it in, went to my other classes until 3:30 PM, at which point I FINALLY went home, took a shower and SLEPT!!!

Yay sleep

So, a summary: awake from 6:30 am thursday until 4:30 pm on friday. Then I slept solid until 9 am saturday morning. I don't think I want to make this a habit.

On the up side, I made saturday my day for "cleansing" rituals: I had my hair cut, went to a book store, bought some new shoes, and read. Read a LOT. Oh, and I watched a cheezy chick flick with my roomies. That was fun.

Thanks to Merrow and Messica for the words of...um...support? Sympathy? Pity? Whatever. They were appreciated.   Lots of love and hugs sent your way.

Hmmm. It's nearly dawn. Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

Probably not, cuz my brain is pretty fried...not much pondering going on, but lots of fluff flitting about through my tortured gray matter. Doo be doo be do. Oh, did I mention that it is now 6 AM Friday, and I've been up since 6 AM Thursday morning? Yup, hit the 24 hour mark, um, 3 minutes ago. Have to love design projects. I have one due at 11:30 today. Yep, fun to be me.

Strange thing, this lack of sleep. I must have hit a little pocket of adrenaline, because although I would probably sell my right big toe (although I don't know why you'd want it) for a cup of coffee, I don't think I could really get to sleep now if I tried. I've had a lot of coffee in the last few days. I should probably halt the caffeine ingestion right about now...I have a feeling that if I suddenly were called to donate blood, all they'd get is black, two sugars. Okay okay, so skim mocha latte. Sue me.

Still too much to do before I turn this monster paper in. Another thing: this is not my first all-nighter at Fears Lab, but it is kinda the lonliest. Most of my class buddies are doing the project elsewhere, or darn them, they've already finished. Grrrr. Well, maybe that's the reason I'm sharing my hazy sleep-fogged ramblings with the world instead of buckling down and writing the last page of this report. I get the feeling that I completely missed Thursday. It just slipped away....(and before I forget, happy belated Thursday Jessica!)

On the up side, the sunrise really is beautiful in Oklahoma.

Hiyo. I hadn't in a while, so I thought I'd give everyone an update.

Number 1 on the list: I passed the FE Exam! *insert happy dance* I'm now officially an EI (Engineering Intern) until I take the PE Exam...yet another one of those 8-hour-scribble-a-thons that I believe are actually endurance tests: you come out sane, you pass! And you get a new pencil to boot. I won't have to take that for a few years though.

And since I haven't updated this xanga in, well, a really really long time, perhaps you'd like to hear some of my Winter Break Adventures. We shall begin with: "The Tumble Weed of Doom".  Ahem ahem....

"The Tumble Weed of Doom" or "Why Oklahomans Shouldn't Put Christmas Trees on the Curb" by: Me.

New Year's Day in Oklahoma City this year was anything but a quiet affair. As the weather was far warmer than is usual for January in the Midwest, my father decided that a sail around the lake would be just the thing to usher in 2006. My mother, being 'allergic to sailing in the winter' in turn decided that she'd rather take our annual trip to the mall. And I do mean annual: the mall and my family don't exactly mix. At any rate, while my dad channeled his inner pirate, my mom and I went on our own quest for treasure.

Now, I will never truly understand why, but it seems an American tradition to spend the entire month prior to Christmas hanging decorations, revelling in the season, putting up the lights...and in little less than 24 hours after the day is done, it's all packed up, thrown out, and forgotten. Hmmm. Honestly, I always get a little sad when I see poor abandoned Christmas trees on the curb, bereft, and awaiting their fate in that big compost heap in the sky...or dump. Whatever. The point is that on this particular New Year's Day....I was almost killed by this tradition...the largest tumbleweed I had ever seen: the Yuletide Tumbleweed.

I have already mentioned that my dad spent the day sailing. This should imply that there was a great deal of wind that day. Um yeah, no joke. It was in the height of the great drought we've been suffering, and the extreme winds had picked up enough of our wonderful red clay particles to block out the sun. No, I'm not kidding. Not a cloud in the sky...but the heavens were a murky red. Spooky, to say the least.

I digress...

My mother and I were driving on the middle lane on Penn, and 'admiring' (read: 'being freaked out by') the sky....when we were pounced upon by a 7' Christmas tree! This tree had literally flown half a block, only to tumble and roll into the path of my poor little Saturn. Playing cat-and-mouse with a very large conifer is NOT how I had planned to end my life, so a little swerving and not so little cursing, and we were safe. Of course, after the huge gust of wind that had blown the tree into my path in the first place, the wind died down...and the tree stayed where it was. In the middle of the blasted road. I was halfway surprised it didn't come after me...but I'm convinced that it backed down after I yelled at it. I need to work this skill into my resume: "Adept at Cursing Rabid Christmas Trees into Submission."

So, unneccessarily long story short: My mom and I survived our little run-in with the Tumbleweed of Doom, and learned a valuable lesson: When in Oklahoma, tie your Christmas tree down, lest it escape to scare innocent motorists.