Spring Break and Summer Plans

I have been in Orlando on spring break since Monday night. Yesterday I got my birthday present at Fantasy of Flight, it was a ride up in an open cockpit airplane. There are pictures on my flickr, just click on this one for more.



Last night I finally checked my email, to find two acceptance messages from physics REU programs that I applied to for the summer. Even better, one of them is right here in Orlando, so yay for me! Now I just have to figure out what to do with my parrot and my apartment in San Angelo over the summer. Troy offered to let Rigel stay here, but he has a cat. As laid back as Athena is, I will never trust a cat around one of my birds. So if anyone in San Angelo is looking for a place to live over the summer, and would be willing to birdsit as payment on rent, talk to me.

More pictures and fun as they happen.
~Tanya

Girls Rock!

I had fun today, helping Girl Scouts make electric guitars. Each girl got to make her own; it had one string, a hand-wound (by us, painstakingly) pickup, and an amplifying circuit. Plug it into your computer speakers, and rock until your parents take it away! The physics guys mostly made the circuits, which they soldered into card stock instead of circuit board, which I think is infinitely cool. I think it was fun for everyone, and I didn't once feel the need to strangle someone's child. See how I've grown!?!?!? Actually, these were really well behaved kids. Nobody got frustrated or upset, most everyone seemed interested, and they all left with a working physics toy. We had a couple extra guitar strings left after the kids were done, so I even got to make one for myself.

Of course, I've been up since 0630, in a failed attempt to go to the YMCA and exercise this morning. Turns out they aren't open that early. That's probably a good thing, because I was standing or riding my bike from about 0830 to 1700, and I'm so so very sore right now. Zero studying was accomplished today, for the record. Zero. 100% nothing.

BSG Drinks

Last night, while watching Battlestar Galactica, Danika and I tried some of the BSG Drinks from BattlestarExtras. So, I have some info for those of you who like both BSG and alcohol.

Okay, the Lay Down You Burdens is good, but strong. Recommend adding more milk, and taking a lactose pill beforehand. Choca-booza-holics rejoice! Needless to say, the super-sweet, fatty, adult beverages gave me a bit of a tummy ache. I recommend not drinking like 3 of the LDYB.

Ionian Nebula is like drinking cherry chocolate cough syrup. I do not recommend it at all. Or maybe buying a higher priced cherry brandy, or subbing half the cherry brandy for regular brandy. Something, anything. Gag. Down the drain.

Then john rushed out to buy us some orange soda so we could try a Knuckle Dragger. Quite tasty, and a refreshingly light drink after all the creamy sweetness.

Be advised: we made all of these shaken or on the rocks, because we were far far too lazy to bust out the blender. All our opinions should be taken with a big rim o' salt.

In non-BSG drinking news: I acquired the ingredients to make a Sidecar. I'm going to try making one tonight, and hopefully it will be my new favorite drink. I'm tired of only ordering Long Islands and Amaretto or Whiskey Sours.

I also got a copy of some video and pictures from a very fun drinking night in December. I'll re-watch it sober sometime this weekend and maybe post it for you to laugh at me.

I'm still working on not double-spacing after a sentence. Its harder to change than you might think. It appears that either Facebook or Blogger goes back and fixes it for me; odd.

Regenerations

Who fans know that The Doctor changes. Something happens to him and he's the same, but different. As Jason said: "Looking back at my life i realized i can do the same except i don't get the whole new face thing to go with it." He wanted to know if anyone else felt like their lives go in regeneration stages, so here we go:

The First Tanya:
I would say that my first incarnation was this terrified, timid, lonely kid. I'm naturally pretty quiet, and moving schools every 6 months and being teased kept me completely within my shell. There were several years where I can say I had no friends, zero, none. I was once assigned a friend...which still makes me not really trust that people want to spend time with me. This began to change towards the end of middle school, when I put my foot down about the changing schools thing.

The Second Tanya:
I guess that's the beginning of the second version of me, the first regeneration. I began speaking up for myself, speaking opinions and knowing that others would not agree. I was still painfully shy in many ways though, and most people from back then would be surprised to know that it was an improvement. Having a consistent set of sincere friends, joining a few groups/programs, and getting back into band all helped me become more comfortable with people. My family was still pretty nomadic, but within the same couple of counties, and I insisted on being driven to MY school. I think this version of me, the one that continuously improved, lasted through me joining the military and my first year in Okinawa. I tried to keep it going through the first year of my marriage, but, well we know how that goes.

The Third Tanya:
Lets say this regeneration started as I lost alot of ground when I met Michael. He was such a social type that I expected spending time with him would make me more social. Instead, I was partitioned off from his social life, unless it was some event "We" were invited to by mutual co-workers. My social awkwardness embarrassed him, and the loneliness of being married was far far worse than the loneliness that drove me to get married. I still completed my associate's degree during this time, and developed a few work friends. We aren't going into the ultimate downfall of the marriage, but lets just say trust is an issue again. I don't know that I can trust myself anymore to know that someone is bad for me. I don't trust my own decision-making.

The Third Tanya(current incarnation):
Hoo-boy! This one is more interesting than the previous, and it took longer to come about. First I left the military, started a physics degree, and finally the divorce finished the regeneration. I'm still getting used to the new me. She buys clothes, the kind with colors other than grey and black! She can do more with her hair than just messy ponytails! She can even wear makeup! (no shit, I've learned to wear makeup before) She flies to see a hot friend at the drop of a hat. But this is just surface change, a reflection of the internal changes I've brought about. I'm still not ready to articulate those changes, its too soon. I may not even be able to recognize them until the next regeneration...

But for sure, one of those changes involves not double-spacing at the end of sentences. Apparently its soo last decade. Who knew?!?!!

Lists of Stuff

Reading List:
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown [alternate subtitle: Tanya's adventures in Orlando]

Movie List:
Day the Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly
Invisible Boy (failed attempt to watch Forbidden Planet )
Yes Man with Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel
When Worlds Collide with
Waitress with Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines
White Noise 2: The Light with Nathan Fillion and Kaytee Sackhoff
Outing Riley bunch of people plus Nathan Fillion
The Giant Gila Monster with Don Sullivan

Television List (various episodes of...)
Star Trek: TOS and DS9
3rd Rock from the Sun
Boston Legal (holy wow I like this show)
Mad Men (which Amanda is sending me the dvd's of in..5.4.3....)

And of course....BATTLESTAR GALACTICA FINAL SEASON PREMIER IS TOMORROW!!!
And I'm kind of excited about that.

Oh hi, This is a blog!

A request was put in about a week ago, for a blog post about my winter vacation. Seems I ought to get around to that, eh? First, an excuse: I'm suffering mightily from a sinus infection because someone likes to bathe in cologne. Feel free to send me comforting words and a cup of your best homemade soup. Please act as though I am suffering from some incurable malady more terrible than anything anyone has ever experienced. It'll make me feel better. A little. Ahem. hack cough wheeze die recover

I spent Xmas with The Whitehill's. The turkey was baked golden brown and then brutally devoured, as is right and just. I got a giant book of bird pictures. This book shall be used as a coffee table one day.

I had not planned to travel at all this vacation, but shit happens. Sometimes good shit happens, and I get to fly to Orlando and spend a spectacular New Years with Troy. You can see the pictures I posted already. There was more preparation shopping than I'd like to admit to. Scary shoes and eye catching dresses were purchased. Besides a couple very nice nights out, and a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, we mostly watched alot of television. There was the Nathan Fillion mini-marathon that became a short lived Kaytee Sackhoff mini-marathon. She was fun and purple-haired in White Noise 2 and we watched about 20 minutes of some terrible...horrible...well it was boring and then Troy got to see side-boob and then it was boring again. We watched alot of Star Trek, of course. I sat in on a meeting of the local SF club.

Well we did other stuff, but you would be bored with the details, I'm sure. Suffice to say, I had a really really great fun relaxing geeky time.

And then I came back to TXass on a plane, sitting behind a small bouncy child who threw her wet whipe at me. So I threw it back, and her daddy can just stick his damn eyes back in his head because I'm not sorry. That's just nasty.

So I've been sick, but I've still managed to visit the gym at the YMCA every day since I got back, and ran around getting tuition and books paid for, and helped Janae shop for some nice new work clothes, and read some more. Janae, Juan, and I watched a very strange movie about pot and ate fajitas and played Speed Scrabble last night.

All in all, I had a delightfully unproductive break.

Photos

Hey all my interweb friends, I am relaxing in sunny Orlando. Here is some photographic proof from Kennedy Space Center and The Vine. Click over to flickr for more photos.

YawnWave

Packing is officially done. Phone charger, camera, understuffs, hot dress, crazy tall scary shoes, book to read in the airport...all accounted for.

My house is fairly clean and Rigel is snug in his bed. I feel really bad leaving him for so long, but he will be in Janae's capable care.

I feel a little dumb for booking a flight that leaves so early, and a little afraid I will miss my alarm in the morning. I should go to sleep in the next hour or so.

My dear internet friends, I will let you all know how much awesome fun I'm having in Orlando.

*waves*...*yawns*...*zzzzz*