Sunshine Ahead

Here I am being excited about skiing

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Utah.  Even though I didn't get to meet up with my friend I made in South Africa, didn't have any snow, and didn't go wild and do any back flips or anything, it was a fantastic vacation.  I improved my ski skills, fell fewer than 10 times in 7 days, spent time in the mountains, got a great workout every day, and spent a lot of quality time with family.  To me, that is a successful trip.

Tomorrow I return to the sunshine state after 9pm.  It will be New Year's Eve.  Luckily I have already made arrangements for a friend to pick me up.  As for now I haven't packed but I'm too tired to do anything so I will save it all until the morning.  Inevitably everything is going to be stuffed into the suitcase so I'm not too concerned.  I came here with some room to spare in my bag anyway.

The forecast for my first day in Miami appears to be sunny with a high of 26 (nearly 80F) and I can hardly wait!

In Other News

Samoa has officially decided to cancel Friday 30 December 2011.  This is not a joke.  I can't help but feel a little second rate that Samoa is completely skipping over a day.  Here I thought the US was mighty enough to remove days from the calendar but I guess itty bitty Samoa beat us to it. 

Yes of course this is tongue in cheek but I still find it fascinating that Samoa can skip over a day thus forcing the international date line to jump to the other side of the small island nation.  It also makes me wonder what their December calendars look like with an empty space for Friday and then the 31st all alone.  Why did they decide to skip a Friday?  I would have much rather voted for a Monday or Tuesday.  How about all the Samoans who have birthdays that fall on the 30th of December?  If someone bought a plane ticket for the 30th, would it be completely invalid?  What about those who got engaged and decided to have their wedding on that day?  If someone bought a 3-day pass on the 28th to an amusement park for instance, could it still be used on the 31st?  What happens to TV programming that has a Friday time slot?  What about Samoan food that expires on the 30th?  Is it just going to be good forever?

These questions and many more are just going to have to wait until I meet a Samoan and ask.  Don't worry folks, I will be very ready when that day comes.

Rain Delay

It rained last night and into this morning so conditions will not be favorable.  I'm taking most, if not all, of today off from skiing.  I will rest, work on other things, and hopefully meet up with a Salt Lake City friend I met when I was living in South Africa 3 and a half years ago.

Too Much to Ask?

Flying into Salt Lake City.  Not much snow in sight.

All I want is some snow.  Talking to a semi-professional skier friend of mine who grew up and still resides in Salt Lake, I found out that this is the worst ski season of at least the past 20 years.  Pretty much all the snow on the mountain is man-made and quite a bit of it is icy.  Frankly it's what I'm used to skiing in the East except now the runs are much longer.  I always seem to have big ski trips at times when the weather is not cooperative.

This being said, I'm still having a fantastic time here in Utah, I enjoy the skiing, love being with family, and I am thrilled to see mountains.  Even with horrible ski conditions, I still consider this trip a great success.  Merry Christmas to all!

2 Days and Counting

Photo: www.zimbio.com

This is going to be me in 48 hours.  My flight leaves tomorrow morning so by Saturday I will be hitting the slopes as if I was born to do nothing but ski.  Yes I am also excited to see my family and I feel like that goes without saying.  Other than last winter when I went for a day in Maryland, I cannot remember the last ski trip I've taken.  It is time.  The weather is not in our favor with a terrible lack of natural snow but even if it's man-made, at least there will be something to ski on, I'll be in the mountains, and I'll have my family with me.

On My Mind

I am not a needy person.  It's because I really like her and spent a week and a half with her non-stop that I am constantly thinking about Christina.  There's no dependance or even reliance on her but instead it's simply the fact that I love spending time together (even if only a phone call) and always look forward to it because she makes it so easy for me to be happy.
 
I've been trying to piece together a divemaster course for a friend.  Due to time constraints, it's been killer so far.  She leaves on Thursday and it is only going to get harder from here to fit everything in.

Speaking of leaving, I am headed to Utah on the 23rd!!!  I have never been there before and I am seriously looking forward to it.  The last time I went skiing was with Nathan last year in Maryland.  Before that?  I can't even remember.  It's one of the millions of things I love in life so I assure you all that I will be having a fantastic time out there.  Not only will Utah fill my skiing quota but it will also give me a long overdue dose of mountains, something that Floridians are constantly starved of.  Here's hoping for snow!

I have been slacking bigtime on my housing search.  I have made no progress in the past 3 weeks and I'm embarrassed to admit it but it is the truth after all.  I'm going to need to get on it because I really am ready to move out of here and into my own place.

Developments

Wow, a lot has happened and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to say anything about it.  I won't quite pick up where I left off but I'll at least hit the highlights that have been going on since then which consist of three things: end of the semester, motor boating certification course, and Christina.

1) The semester finished up about a week and a half ago.  It marked the first time I have ever had to grade twelve 8-12 page papers which as I have discovered is not as exciting as one might think.  For my first semester, I think I have performed well in my new position.  The lab that I manage on main campus is much more organized now than it was when I first arrived and every one of the diving students is much improved from day 1.  There are 1 or 2 who are still struggling but they are at least as good or better than the average recreational diver.  As for the others, they are far beyond recreational dive industry standards and are really great divers now.

2) Over the past week, I have been taking the Motorboat Operator Certification Course (MOCC).  This is a course offered around the country by the Department of the Interior and is designed to give a lot of academic and hands-on training at operating a small power boat.  The day I heard this class was offered through UM I was begging to be put on the waiting list for it and that was when I was willing to pay for it.  Now they've enrolled me and haven't asked for a dime because their plan is to eventually have me teaching this course as well.  The course was a bit of a breeze since I have so much boating experience but it was still loads of fun.

3) There's this girl and her name is Christina.  I have liked Christina since early October which makes about 2 and a half months.  I didn't know it then, but she has liked me since pretty much the same time.  She is a masters student from Texas, is essentially a dive instructor, and we can't seem to get enough of each other.  The only thing that's really caused a problem is that she has been one of my students.  Due to something called conflict of interest, I am forbidden to hang out with students outside of class until grades are out of my hands so until the night of the 8th, we were forced to be apart.  (We actually did such a good job of it that I still questioned if she really liked me - that being said, I am pretty oblivious to that sort of thing.)  Since the 8th, we have been spending as much time together as possible (which includes the MOCC course we were coincidentally signed up for together by UM).  A few hours ago I finally dropped her off at the airport and it is starting to sink in that a week and a half of being together non-stop is going to make a month apart particularly difficult.  Christina really is absolutely stunning but my stance is one that is reflected by one of my basic life philosophies: if it is meant to happen, it will come together but if it dies away then so be it.  There's no sense in forcing anything that shouldn't have to be forced.  If instead it grows, which is what I'm really hoping for, then that would be wonderful.  I'm not committing myself to what may or may not be but I'm along for the ride and I'm going to make the best of whatever happens.

There is a lot to look forward to in the coming month but since it's getting late and I'm terribly tired, I'm going to have to save all of that for later.

Hold Your Breath

My goal is to post about my recent life and adventures within the next couple days.  Keep an eye out.  A lot's happening and life is ever wonderful.

Through My Fingers

I am, I was, and I will always be a Physics major.  I did it.  I spent 4 years of hard work, late nights, grueling exams, and probably knocked several years off my life, but I did it and no one can take that away from me.

In the 2 and a half years since then of hardly doing a single Physics problem or exercise, I think I've lost it all.  I still have the fundamental intuition that will hopefully never fade, but can't really do it anymore.  I can't walk the walk anymore.  I can't list off the postulates of relativity, find the eigen values of a matrix, solve a non-linear differential equation, simplify a wave equation, know the shortcuts for solving even and odd functions, use the cross product to find the flux through a loop of wire and with that calculate the magnitude of the magnetic field created, I can't do any of it.  It's all been slipping away and what's worse is that there is no indication that I will need to use any of these skills in my line of work so they will slowly continue to completely disappear.  I still proudly say that I majored in Physics and will do so whenever I am asked until the day I die, but my foundation that backs up that statement has fallen away.