keep it to yourself

Today was a decent day. I accomplished a few things.

I finally submitted my application to Dental School. The darn thing is done. I applied to Creighton, Nebraska, and Iowa. I am also thinking about Marquette. We shall see. I either have to go to a public instate school or a private school. Nebraska is an exception though. For those of you who know me well enough you understand that.

I'm feeling better about it. I just don't know what to expect. I am starting my job search too. I need to have something to fall back upon. Engineering isn't bad. I'd really like to do business consulting. I like making things but I think the social aspect of consulting would be more of my style.

We lost our second game today (8-6). I think I am more upset about the sportsmanship that my team showed than the loss. After the game the kids were getting water and they were talking to some of the other team that didn't play (because it was a reserve game), and something was mentioned about another player on the other team. I'm not going to repeat it but it was unacceptable.

I wish they would just respect others. It isn't that hard. I think an old saying applies.

If you don't have anything good to say don't say anything at all.

I am trying to decide upon my birthday event and what I want to do for it. The only thing I know I am doing has nothing to do with the bars. Right now I'm thinking I'll buy a cake for my football team since I am leaving practice early for Pittsburgh. I have to order it soon. I'll figure that one out this weekend.

Well I'm going to shower and get ready for Andy's birthday shin-dig.

picture day

I haven't done much homework tonight. I've done my reading quiz for Friday though. I need to read another article and do a summary on it for tomorrow.

I'm starting to become less confused. I met with my career adviser today. It helped get things started for me. I'm really going to have to hit that hard this weekend after the game. It just is a lot. He said I could probably have a job offer by Christmas if I work on it. That would be exciting.

The computer lab this morning was buzzing. I had someone call down that was having problems with email. I can't really help them as an ITC monitor and they got "hot" and hung up as I was about to give them the ITS Help Desk. I wanted to help them out, but I'm not the person in charge of the Exchange Server at the University.

It was picture day at practice. It went smoothly. I honestly thought it was going to take up a huge amount of time. I'm glad that it didn't. The kids were kind of lethargic today. We have a game tomorrow; hopefully what we worked on today gets fixed. We will see. It awesome how football is such a big part of my life right now. I like creating match ups and solving problems on offense and defense. There is so much strategy involved it is addicting.

I'm on a flag football team with the Drumline. It should be a lot of fun. I don't know how involved we're going to get. I guess it really depends on what the other teams do. I'd like to have a few plays to run and I think Chet has got that covered really well so far. There are three of us that played in High School. I guess I'm kind of ticked at the rules. They really prevent you from running some basic schemes on offense and defense. First game tomorrow. I just want to play hard and have fun. It is going to be really hard to avoid contact though. I'm a pretty tough competitor.

I have my Beat State shirt now! Picked one up at Hy-Vee tonight; for some reason they didn't have them at the bookstore. I got my hair cut too! Hooray.

promising to be here when the world comes down

I am thoroughly exhausted. I just want to keel over and sleep. Today was a long day. I didn't get done coaching until 8:00. I'll have to say my nap this afternoon was an accident.

Jen called me right as I got into bed. It sounds like she had a good time in LA. I'm glad to hear that. I will probably talk to her later this week. This week is really super busy for me. We have "Picture Day" tomorrow and another game on Thursday.

I also scheduled a meeting with my career adviser so I can begin a job search. That reminds me I need to print my resume. It is all shiny though. I also have my Dental School Application finished. Just have to pay the man now.

The game tonight was good and bad. The kids just gave up a few big plays and that was the difference in the game (we lost 22-12). Other than those three plays the defense was good, and the offense was much more consistent than I anticipated. I have a laundry list of things that we need to work on. I'm going to highlight the positive things too. I think that is important. We could have won the game tonight.

One thing that kind of upset me was coach was trying to shuffle kids in at the last minute that didn't get in. I don't think it is appropriate. We have another game on Thursday that they will play in. For the kids they just get to go in and stand there while the other team takes a knee. I don't think it makes them feel any better. Maybe it does. I just assume play them the whole game Thursday and tell them that they can show us something if they want to get in the next game.

I made some mistakes today too. One kid got injured and wasn't sure if he was ready to play. I told him if he was injured to sit down. The other coach wasn't pleased because we don't want to be teaching kids to be injured. That is fine and I respect that. I apologized to him after the game. Personally I don't think an injured kid should play. The kid was fine and got back in after walking it off. I overreacted. I guess if the kid is really hurt he will be on the ground. I'm still learning just like the kids are. I think that is a wonderful thing.

I am having Diet Mountain Dew and Chips for dinner. Not so healthy but it is around nine and I am not cooking. I have some stuff to get done for tomorrow.

one down five to go (for a perfect week)

My long fun day has come to an end. At work I had a good time. I was able to answer the simple questions that people presented to me. I dislike when printer problems occur. I don't have permission to cancel printer jobs, and I have to call in to reimburse people. Luckily nothing too dramatic happened this morning. I like that job. I get my homework done.

Monday's are packed with class for me. Four in a row. I made it through them today. I really enjoyed PASPA today. I answered a few questions and I kind of felt like a big deal. Actually it was kind of just one of those kinds of things that is a coincidence. I just happened to have the random tidbits of knowledge that were required to answer the questions.

Design for Manufacturing was funny too. We got to watch some videos on the fabrication of certain materials. The videos were just funny. I didn't really think I'd appreciate Biomaterials, but some of Dr. Park's quotes are hilarious. We are visiting necking; "What is necking? No it is not between a man and a woman." Also he believes he is tougher than people because he is more compact. Dr. Thomas had a good quote the other day too, "We want our shafts to be hard. (Pause) That didn't come out the way it was supposed to."

Senior Design today was amazing too. We got to listen to a U.S. Patent person talk. Some of the designs that he showed were funny. Also some of the examples that he used to illustrate points were great. One was for an "off-shore drilling anchor." I forget the exact patent idea but it was something so generic that a pillar could be included in the description of the anchor.

Football practice today was interesting. We have our first game tomorrow. That means the season is going to be in full swing. Today involved a lot of teaching. I just hope when we go to Kick-Off we have eleven guys on the field. I think we got them set straight on that. We shall see.

So one of the things that would make my week good happened today. Packers victory! I didn't get to watch too much of the game because of Swing Dancing, but I got to see the first touchdown of the season. I liked summer swing dancing better. There were fewer people. The room was really crowded tonight and I kept bumping into other people. Maybe it will thin out. It is fun and I get to meet a lot of different varieties of people. I hope I didn't stink tonight. I came directly from coaching.

I need to head to bed now. I have an 8:05. Tomorrow I get to buy a Beat State shirt. Go Hawks!

giving of the business

So maybe ISU will come out in their 1977 jerseys this weekend. Ben sent me a link to the photo. Heh. The Iowa player is "giving the business" to the Iowa State kicker. I can't believe they used to use pads for kicking field goals in college. That is a story for another night.

Iowa State does some tacky stuff. The "Cyclone State" billboard. These jerseys. Only selling Iowa vs. Iowa State tickets with season tickets.



Ben also sent me this:

this is your song your greatest mistake

Today was relaxing. I needed it to. Sometimes I just worry too much about the future. This week is going to be super busy. I went to dinner with Ben tonight. It was good to talk about some football and catch up on things a little. I invited Matt and Eric too but they were just going to grill burgers.

I know Matt mentioned something about it earlier but he didn't call or anything. I would have loved to go over there this afternoon and then have dinner and watch tonight's game with them. I just didn't want to be sitting around here all day so I asked Ben if he wanted to get food. It worked out okay.

This week should be fun. Packers/Swing Dancing tomorrow; first Junior High game Tuesday. Wednesday is free. Second game Thursday. Friday is kind of up in the air right now. I'm going to stop by Amy's gathering for a bit but don't know how long I'll be able to stay. Hopefully the whole time but I can't really control how other people will react towards me. Again not something I'm going to worry about because I can't control it. I think it would be kind of sad if anyone took sides (either side that is). I'm happy with the direction my life is heading right now (except for I'm really confused about what the hell I want to do when I finish this year).

So a perfect week for me would be Packers victory, a great effort out of my kids (win or lose I just want them to do their best), finish my homework, have a good time seeing old friends Friday, and an Iowa victory in Volleyball and Football. Oh, and it would be nice to sort out some of the things I have going on in search of my life for next year. I don't think that is something I'll decide over night. It is just overwhelming to be applying to schools and starting a job search. I don't even know which I want to do.

I also have to figure out if I want to do a birthday gathering. I am unsure of which day to do it. We leave for Pittsburgh on my birthday so it is either the 18th or sometime the week afterwards. I'm leaning towards the 18th right now. Not sure yet though. I have a few more days to decide.

I was deeply in thought about my twenty second today. It doesn't seem to phase me. A lot of my friends that have turned twenty two have said they feel old. I don't have this feeling. I don't feel like I am any older than I was last year. I don't know why people have such a resentful feeling about getting older. I definitely don't. I'm really comfortable with it at this point; it is just a number.

the udder u

I feel like throw up right now. I'm not going to though. Stadium Clean-up. in a few hours. It is ridiculous how I drive there. I'm drinking some water right now. Probably a good thing.

I confused myself even more so tonight. Whoops. Oh well. Someone has to step up to the plate eventually. That part is out of my control. I guess we shall see what happens.

I am going to strip down and get in bed soon. I know what I want at this point. I guess we'll have to see what happens. I can't really worry about things that are not in my control. I've learned that one the hard way.

I guess it is Sunday and that means it is Beat State Week! The only thing that I ask is that we whoop them this year. I don't think I could really ask for anything more. Blackout Sunday. We better roll up the score on them too. Ferentz is too good to let them roll us up. We're not the ones copying the USC uniforms or making the ISU/Iowa game require season tickets. We're better than that. We can sell the single game tickets for the game; they can't. Besides they believe changing their uniform every year will make them a great team. Ever heard of tradition?

We better take down "The Udder U".