good lord, it has consumed me. actually, that and interviews.
fletus, molly, and i left boone on thursday morning after class bound for charleston. ryan, ron, clark, and corey drove down later and met us. i stayed at a hampton inn about 16 miles away from everyone else so i got to be a loner on the trip. it was kind of exciting–my first time staying in a hotel by myself (king size bed FTW! it was the comfiest bed i’ve ever slept in), first REAL job interview, first time treating myself to a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant in a business suit, etc. it was fantastic.
i actually went to wild wings the first night. i got to the hotel, showered, drove to the closest “college-atmosphere” i could find off my exit which happened to be wild wings. i got a seat by myself and the waiters and waitresses would not leave me alone. i think they felt bad for me when in reality i was having a grand old time by myself! i had a few whiskey sours and made friends with the guys at the table next to me who bought me a few beers. we watched the WVU game and then fletus and ryan showed up. i proceeded to spill a red cocktail all over both of them simultaneously and i have yet to hear the end of it.
those guys showed me around downtown charleston and i discovered the market street saloon which was an experience. i was sobered so i couldn’t enjoy it to the fullest extent, i guess. i’m not used to big cities like that and i stood on the sidelines most of the night taking it all in, but it was fun. i got a free rose from some strange man selling them on the street and i got a free 4 AM breakfast at denny’s so it was a good night.
my interview was the next afternoon. i slept through all 7 alarms that i set and whoever is supposed to make the wake-up calls at the front desk never gave me mine. i woke up at 11:30, showered, was in my suit, was out the door and on the highway by 11:58. just my luck, it was POURING and charleston happened to have severe flooding this weekend. if you happen to live there, you know just how bad it was. especially driving in a saturn sc2. i didn’t bring a rain coat and i no longer own an umbrella so i ran to and from my car with a hoodie draped over my head. whatever works, right?
my interviews went well. the first half was in front of a panel of 5 people and the second half was only 3 people. i was expecting 3 on both so 5 was a bit of a surprise. i walked in and couldn’t help but laugh… they seemed to like me. we’ll see what happens.
after my interview, i was all jitters so i treated myself to a really nice lunch at o’charley’s. some guy said he thought i looked lonely so he bought me a beer and sat and talked to me for a while. i ended up making a few more friends there, left around dinner time, and relaxed at the hotel for a while before meeting up with fletus and ryan for the evening. to make a long story short, the three of us drove to a bar named red’s near their resort, had to run through the pouring rain and about 8″ of flood water in the parking lot (pants hiked up and all, shoes FULL of water), and got to the bar just in time to have one beer before they closed for the night. we have the best luck.
we settled for a 12-pack and wendy’s and football at the hotel for the rest of the night. that ended up being much more fun, anyways.
i woke up bright and early saturday morning, checked out of my hotel, and hit the road for myrtle beach. the AITP officers (logan, gary, jonathan, and one of our professors) were staying at a hotel there for the weekend for a chapter meeting so i drove up to meet them for the night. i got there around 2 and we drove around town for a while, did a little sight-seeing, and then hung out at the hotel and a bar about a block away the rest of the night. we took advantage of the hot tub and probably the last chance to play in the ocean for the rest of the season. the water actually wasn’t that cold, and i wish i stayed in longer. the guys were too chicken and wouldn’t go in.
gary rode back with me on sunday so we made a pit stop at broadway at the beach and margaritaville. we fed the fish, had THE BEST margarita i’ve ever had in my life, basked in the sunshine, and it was a good time. we made another “pit stop” in raleigh on “the way home”. it was more like a 2 hour detour but my uncle was down from new york and i got to see him for all of 30 minutes before his plane left. it was nice to see him again. :cry: i know he had to miss the family.
after such an incredible weekend, it was hard getting back in the swing of things today. i skipped my first class this morning to study for my second one–project management. we had our second exam today. i got 100 on the multiple choice but i got an embarrassing 73 on the open ended part. let’s just say i can’t read and did not do what i was supposed to do at all. we get to re-do it though, so i guess it all works out in the end. i went to my last class and then went to the security lab for my instructor time and we ended up having a fire drill. of course they picked the first day it snows of the season to give us a fire drill. freaking FREEZING!
rob has been here all weekend from raleigh presenting to classes and he presented to AITP/ACM tonight and that was one thing i actually was looking forward to today. we had a huge turnout (40+ people) at the meeting and i found out that ALUG (app. linux users group) is kind of sort of being transformed into OSUM (open source university meetup) which was great news. when alug dissolved, it was pretty disappointing. this gives me hope!
now i have to go prepare an outfit for tomorrow–i was basically forced into signing up for intramural dodgeball with AITP (they needed 1 more girl and i was the only girl at the freaking meeting) and i am not looking forward to it. what do you wear to play dodgeball?!