So an update:

1. Fundamentals of Management - done!
2. Tourism Promotion - Done!
3. Tourism Impacts - Done!
4. Tourism Planning - Done!
5. Economics of Natural Resource - Taking final on Wednesday
6. Event and Conference Planning - Taking final on Wednesday

And that, folks, will be the last (well, maybe) test I'll take for my undergraduate career.

Among other news, t-minus 1 week before I head to the unknown area of Alaska. Getting more and more nervous by the minute! Other than that, though, things have been calm.

I've been thinking about doing a Master's program more and more. I might end up doing a Master's for business or some other related area at Wyoming, maybe the last couple years of Laura's Ph.D so we can both finish at the same time. A Master's will help out a lot.

Well, that's all for now. We're going to go eat dinner in a few hours with Holly and Susan. Laters!

It's May 3rd. Here's an update on my classes for the last semester of my undergraduate career!

1. Fundamentals of Management - done!
2. Tourism Promotion - Done!
3. Tourism Impacts - Done!
4. Tourism Planning - Just gotta turn in a 90% finished group paper
5. Economics of Natural Resource - pending - maybe a final, maybe not
6. Event and Conference Planning - 1 test and 1 presentation left

I'm outta here in 1.5 weeks. Scary and exciting at the same time!

Less than 2 weeks until I leave for Alaska...I can't believe how fast it's going and how fast this semester went. I have a grueling next 3 days to tackle in terms of tests, presentations and papers, but after that, I'm done! Well, for the most part.

Today's our monthly anniversary! I love you Laura!

Last night we went to the Carousel Dinner Theatre and Beauty and the Beast was playing. It was a great time! The food was good and the play, including the cast and set, was great. I would even go again if we have time before I leave.

Anyway, I just made some experimental soup and I'm waiting for Laura to come back.

Wow, interesting turn of events...one of the people that got accepted to Wyoming's Ph.D program decided not to go, so naturally, the next person in line was picked...and who was that? Laura! I'm so happy for her that she got in. No more $30,000 loan for her!

Now, this might change some things...such as whether or not I'll still move down to Denver to work at a hotel or something to get some experience. I'm not sure yet though. There is a Holiday Inn Express that is being built right now right where my work it and I would like to work there and get experience, but we'll see. I don't know when it will be done, so I'll have to swing by sometime and take a look. Otherwise, I'll worry about finding a job when I get back.

Only 3 more weeks until I'm done with school and I'm out of here for the summer! It's going by so quick. I should really get going on getting ready to go, as in buying the dress I need and buying some bathroom necessities for when I arrive in Denali. I probably won't be able to write in here for the entire time, but who knows. I might.

See ya laters.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough day! Luckily, one of the teachers generously moved her test tomorrow to Friday because we're giving a presentation in the class after that. Still, I have a test and a presentation tomorrow. Poo.

Already less than a month to go before I'm off to Alaska. Time is flying by quick. A few things to report today.

Yesterday, Laura and I headed up to Estes Park and RMNP and hiked up to this lake called Bierstadt (?) Lake. It was 1.2 miles, but it felt much longer. The middle part of the hike was the best and easiest, the beginning and end had snow on them. Anyway, the lake was frozen, but it was cool. It would have been nice to see it thawed out. My legs hurt a little today.

I saw my Mom today and she gave me the new digital camera that my brother go me for my graduation gift. It's sweet! 3.2 megapixels and a whole slew of features that I probably won't use, but yeah, it's pretty neat. I love the focus feature. I'm hoping to take some great photos in Alaska and use them for my wallpaper since the resolution is MUCH better than my piece of crap old one.

That's about it to say.

Ashley just called (like JUST) and said they were lost in Boulder. They're headed the right way now.

I want to take some pictures with my camera, but I don't know of what! I need a bigger memory card which I might ask Laura's Mom to get but yeah, it's convenient because the type of card it uses is also the slot in my laptop. w00t!

And yeah, www.csuconnection.com is once again closed. :)

I hope you get in Laura. :)

A little early-night blogging from me.

I'm now realizing that in a little over 1 month, a lot of things are going to happen really quickly. Let's go over briefly what's going to happen.

1. I'm going to be living in fucking Alaska for 4 months! It hasn't hit me yet, but it will soon. Apart from moving from California to Colorado in '96...and, well, to Fort Collins in 2000 I guess...I haven't really done anything this drastic until now. I know no one there. Don't know the area. Don't know what kind of job I'll have (yeah, it's front desk, but you know what I mean), and so forth. I'm going to have to get used to it pretty quick if you ask me.

2. I have to get all my shit together fast since I have, like, a day after I graduate to get everything ready to go. Granted I'm going to start packing much earlier than the day before, it's just going to be chaotic to say the least. I have to take care of car insurance stuff the day I leave, I have to finish up work (last day will probably be the 11th of May), say bye to friends, get internship papers ready, etc.

3. The biggest thing is that I'm going to be with people I don't even know. Yeah, I already mentioned this, but anyway. I'm going to be away from Laura for 4 months. I can't even imagine that. She was away for about 2 months or something last summer and it was hard. Laura just called to say I love you and made me think about the summer and how it's going to be. Making me more nervous I guess.

4. I guess the good thing that will come out of this is the fact that it's an experience that I'll probably only be able to have at this age. I have to try and look at the good things that will come out of this job. You know, I should say internship, but it's weird as it doesn't seem to look like an internship right now. Anyway, yeah, it'll be good for my future job plans.

School is sort of going steady, nothing too hard coming up and it should be a "breeze" the rest of the way in. That's good to here. I am going to make one resolution for tonight until I leave for Alaska. I need to try and spend as much time with Laura as I can! I am going to miss her a lot.

Well enough of this. Laters.

Laura's happy and that makes me happy!

So it's about a month and a couple of weeks before I'm off to pretty much frontier land. We all got a team e-mail sent to everyone who's going to be working at the front desk. Seems like I'll be working with 9 other people and those include the managers and assistant managers and stuff. Should be fun! I like small group work forces. But yeah, the bummer part of this is that I guess I'm going to be missing 2 days of training by the time I get out there. I guess they train Friday and Saturday...that sucks! I'm going to miss out on the first couple of nights of "hangin out" with the work group and getting to know each other. Dammit! Oh well, hopefully I can sneak myself into it.

I just remember that I have an economics homework due tomorrow, so I'm going to get on that right now. Laters.

Man, my visual-related headaches seem to be back again. It was good for a few days but it's back now. I took a couple of Advils and it's getting better. I'm listening to some classical music to see if that does anything. I think it does. Classical is so calming.

I can't wait for this week to be over already, school-wise. Just lots of stuff to do.

Just wanted to post that.

Well I guess it's time to finally sit down and write some details. So, I accepted the job at the Denali Bluffs, not my first choice but anyway. The reason I did that was because I felt as though Talkeetna wasn't really trying or interested in hiring me. I probably did have the job since the hiring lady told me they were just waiting for a spot in the housing to open, but I don't know what would have happened if they didn't find any spots. Plus, since I didn't get the internship job there, I didn't want to further ask if they could work with CSU to make the job an internship. The hiring lady at the Bluffs was really nice, talked to her a couple of times and was willing to work with making the job an internship, but long story short, Denali Bluffs won out. I'd rather be working with people that are nice than a place that's nice but not nice people. Hopefully I'll know soon who I'll be working with and all that. All and all, I can't wait to do this!

I don't have much time to get ready either, I leave pretty much right after I graduate, so I have to be ready a couple of weeks before I go. It's going to be hectic and then I have to do training and get settled into the Alaskan way of life, which is going to be weird at first. Hopefully I can make some friends quickly and all that and settle down. It's sort of nervous, you know, considering you're moving somewhere you haven't been, with people you've never met, for 4 months taking only a week or so worth of clothing and so on and so forth. Heck, I haven't even met the employer that's hiring me! It's strange to think of how the world works when you're actually part of the process. It would be weird for me to hire someone over the phone and internet. I would have lots of doubts whether or not the people I'm interviewing will be fit for the job and stuff. And since it's Alaska, there are lots of people who just go there seasonally and probably their first time there, like me. I intend to have a good time though. Gonna take lots of pictures! The thing I'll miss the most, apart from Laura, :), is probably all the amenities I have here. Well, I'm not quite sure how much of it will be there, but you know, internet, computers, etc. I'll probably have intermittent internet access...well, since I'm front desk, I'll probably have access. I don't know whether I should take my phone there or not. I'll take it anyway. Waste of minutes if I don't try and use it at least!

That aside, we went to Colorado Springs for a couple of days this Spring Break. Did some hiking at the Garden of the Gods, went to the Cave of the Winds and had some local foods. It was overall fun. AGAIN, we couldn't do the lantern tour because this time it was because it's weekends only and we failed to catch that little tidbit. Oh well. Spring Break is over and now it's back to the normal routine again. I don't really want to go back to work tomorrow, but I have to obviously. School is (I know for sure) going to get rough again the next couple of weeks since I have a few big things that I have to get done. After that, though, like after mid April, it should be a breeze. Hell, if you think about it after mid April, that's all the school I have left. The last big project I think I have is due first week of May. I leave the 14th. Wow, time is flying by really fast.

My brother was nice enough to get me a ticket with his miles to Alaska, so that saved me a hefty $450 or so. I'm probably going to get a hotel room near Anchorage for the night I get there, even though it'll be for like 10 hours. I need to save money since I won't get paid for the first few weeks I'm there.

And yeah, after my job there??? Who the hell knows! I was thinking of working and travelling Ireland/Europe, but I don't know. That's even bigger than working in Alaska!

Anyway, I'm going to go watch Laura play some Baten Kaitos. She's almost done with it.

Hello!

I'll get straight to the point this time. Well, I sent in my signed fax form to my employer for the summer. Where you say? The Denali Bluffs Hotel, run by Aramark. Why not Talkeetna you say? Well, a lot of things adding up to the decision, but I will just leave it at indecision and testing my patience did it.

I'm going to leave the details at that right now, because I'm not 100% sure yet, but I'll right back when I hear more stuff!

So, where to begin?

I guess let's discuss my internship situation. So on Monday I was like, I wonder if anyone is going to write back or call about my applications and what not. Around 5:00pm, I decided return a call to Denali Park and Resorts about an offer they wanted to give me. I was stoked. The hiring lady is really nice and sounds like a fun place to work. I officially got an offer letter from them yesterday and I have 10 days to respond. The interesting part start here. Talkeetna, my first choice, also replied within minutes of that call and said they're looking for housing since they want me at the front desk. Now, I'm a little confused whether or not I got the job "officially" so I don't know. It would be weird for them to look for housing if I'm not offered the job, but anywho. That's that. So I e-mail today since they said they'd get back to me yesterday. They are now just waiting for a spot to open up. What does that mean? I have to just sit here? What if a spot doesn't open up in the 10 days I have to accept the other job? So yeah, I'm getting a little nervous here but if I don't hear back from Talkeetna in, oh, 4 days or so, I'm going to e-mail them back and see what the dealio is. Otherwise I'd take the Denali Park and Resorts job for sure. ANOTHER funny thing is that today I got a call from Crater Lake Lodges in Oregon saying that they want to offer me a job, but I have to call to talk with them about it. I don't know what to do! I think I'm going to decline the Crater Lake one, though it looks pretty cool.

All this amidst midterm-ish week. I have had so much shit due this week it's unbelievable. I have a paper that I already finished due today and there's a midterm today as well. I think I should do all right in this one. Tomorrow there's a huge paper that I have to work on after my class tonight. I just actually have to add citations and tweak it a bit since I'm already done with the bulk of it.

Anyway, that's my rant for the moment. Next week is Spring Break and Laura, Ashley, Chris and I are going to Colorado Springs for a couple of days next Thur/Fri. Should be fun. I am dog sitting this weekend again for my coworker. Hey it's money! I am going to work on some projects I have for work while I'm there since I usually have NOTHING to do there. It's relaxing though.

Other than that, everything's good I guess. All these things that are happening I guess aren't really negative, but things that just happen, you know? Next week will be a good break. Finally.

However, I am getting nervous (yeah, already!) about working and staying up in Alaska. I guess it just hit me. lol. But hopefully I'll make some friends quickly and see how it goes. And then the big question of what the hell is going to happen AFTER the Summer. What am I going to do? Laura's not sure yet where she'll be going, but she'll find out soon, though, probably before I leave. The thing is, I graduate on the 13th of May and I'll have to leave for Alaska within a couple of days of it! It's crazy. And then I have to sign up for the internship, which is another story. I have to talk to my coordinator to see whether or not this "job" will apply as one. It better, or I'll be screwed! Then the shit with tuition will be up my ass as welll. It's nearly $1000 for 5 fricken credits. What a rip off. Anyway, just lots of shit going on.

Well, I'm going to go eat my bratwursts and then get ready for my class/test. It's going to be a long night!

Laters.

It certainly has been a while. School suddenly got busy and all that jazz, so I've actually (probably for the first time) been strapped for time since there are so many damn things to do and so many projects that are going on (of which I'm behind in). Anyway, I have some time now to update on things. Well, things went downhill on the TJ situation, but I'm not sure what the status is right now. Work is going good. I got a big project actually that'll keep me quite busy. I haven't really heard back from my internship stuff yet...which sucks. Spring Break is coming up, but you know, there's always troubles of what to do. We may end up going to Estes Park for a couple of days.

Other than that, I sent a few things I wanted for graduation to my brother since he asked me for a list where he could choose on thing was. I sat down and thought, but I really couldn't think of anything. I put a DVD player, digital camera, and a muffler for my car. Yeah, there's really nothing that I want.

I've been REALLY into first person shooters lately. I got into the PC Halo addiction for a while there and then now it's Starcraft. I think this weekend we might head down to Laura's parent's house for me to play Halo 2. Yes. All the way down to try out Halo 2. It looks awesome. I can't wait to play it if we are going down.

Ashley got a ferret. I saw it a few days ago. It's pretty cool I guess. I still want a dog though. I'm almost done with school in 3 months! That's crazy. After that, I'm hopefully going to be doing my internship somewhere in Alaska...and then, after we know where Laura goes to grad school, I might be taking a few months off, just working and travelling before I settle down. I was thinking of working and travelling Ireland for like 6 months. That's a long time, but I think it would be so cool to do. Yeah, it's definitely a little nerve racking, considering I'll be at a place I don't know ANYTHING about and I don't know ANYONE. Sort of scary. I don't know, maybe I'll work somewhere in the US, but we'll see. It'll take some time to think about it.

It's starting to become Spring time, sort of. It's getting relatively warmer, but it's still chilly when the wind blows. I'm ready for Bandimere to be open. I'm only going to be able to run my car a few times before I leave, though so I better make them count. I was then thinking about what I was going to do with the insurance on my car. I think I decided if I do go out of town for that long, I'm just going to cancel my insurance for that time and save some money.

I just got the urge to go online and search for some jobs in Nevada.

I'll continue again soon. Laters.

Happy b-day Laura!!!!

Well, I just wanted to put this blog before I forgot. I saw Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp a few weeks ago and I want to say this was one of the best movies I have seen in a looong time. I don't recall one part of the movie where I wasn't interested or unengaged or was boring. I really liked the storyline and so forth. I'm not a fan of Kate Winslett (because of Titanic), but she was ok in her role. A+ for the movie. It didn't win a Golden Globe, but it's nominated for an academy award, so we'll see how it does in that.

Just saying a quick hello! Gonna head to bed now.

2 hours until my birthday. Time to reflect huh? 23 years old. Come to think of it, 23 is soooooo old, relatively speaking. But then again, it's pretty young. I've got a long life ahead of me, full of surprises. I just hope that my life isn't some boring little adventure. I want it to be full of excitement and stuff, ya know? I think travelling the world with Laura would be awesome. I think we're going to try to go to a bunch of places including Africa, Europe, Asia, and S.A. I guess that's pretty much all the continents, but yeah. You get the point.

I filed my taxes last night and if all goes well, I'll get roughly $1400 back. All of which is already "spent". Car insurance and credit card payments baby. I will also pay SOME of my balance for my laptop. I would like to get that out of the way. Other than that, that's a lot of money I get and so little time to see it.

It feels like a long weekend. It's only Sat. night and I feel as though it's Sunday night. Good or bad I guess depending on how you look at it. Got back into Halo again. Playing online now. It's fun. That's all for the update. Tomorrow's a time to relax!

Another edition of weird thoughts going in my head.

So sometime (today? yesterday?) Laura was telling me about how a person at her work was dancing and stuff while listening to music (at least that's how I interpreted it) and I thought to myself what...well, let me start over. I always think about what others are thinking, doing, etc...you know, how they live their lives and such. When you get down to it, everyone needs certain things to live. Everything apart from that is filler I think, to make our lives more enjoyable, etc.

Okay, that didn't make sense at all...even I don't know what I'm saying. Anyway, I just thought that man, people are basically the same at heart and they do the same things as me and everyone else, they say the same things, experiences (more or less) the same things and think the same way. I wonder if they have worries like me. I wonder if they are happy like me and so forth. I know everyone's lives are different, but they can't be all that different. College kids go to school, work, come home, and hang out. Pretty much it until you graduate and then you just take out school...that about covers it doesn't it? I guess you replace that with an optionial "take care of your family" huh?

Bottom line, I guess I want to say for the moral of this night's blog to be that friends are super important in life. It's hard to make them, but you can erase them in a second. Hold on to what you have I guess. If you think of life as a sin curve, I wonder what part of the curve I'm at right now...the bottom? Top? Middle? On my way to going up to the top? Down to the bottom? We'll see soon enough.

Mid February is when I'll know about my internships. I'm sort of nervous. What if I don't get either? I guess it's not that big of a deal since I'm not in any hurry after May...well, I'll be strapped for cash BIG TIME if I don't do something then...but yeah, I guess I should keep searching for internships. My boss has been supportive saying I'll get at least one of them. We'll see about that eh?

I'm gonna head to bed...my classes are early tomorrow...I need to stop spending money...and I need to get back into school mode. I haven't done much except take notes in class, so...but then again most are discussion classes...which I'm not good at discussions. I think I'm going to have to change a bit of my style this semester. I'm going to have to be a little more outspoken...it's going to be hard but I think it's for the better.

On another note, I've pretty much conquered Tales of Symphonia...beat most of the side quests, the ones I can do anyway. If I want to do and get everything, I'll have to start another game and I don't think that'll be good considering I've just started a semester...my last one at that. ;)

See ya.