i’ve been up since 4.20am EDT, so bear with me if this is short and/or incoherent.

well, i’m back from my exhausting business trip to the east coast. it all went pretty well, despite the fact that i had to travel on my birthday. but i did get to see laura, pudup and chuck in between my trip to NH and MD and that was awesome.

NH was ok, with some good progress made on the stuff i needed to look at. i wasn’t sitting around just reading the paper and working on crossword puzzles :) and i wasn’t under a lot of stress (or any at all), so it was an easy trip for me.

being away from home on my birthday was kind of a bummer. i’ve never been one for big celebrations, but it was kind of odd to go through the whole day without a birthday greeting. at least until i got back to my hotel. i got the usual birthday greetings from my family and my college friends scattered throughout the country. I even got happy birthday greetings from people i’ve never met in my life. kristy sent me a birthday greeting from italy, even though i’ve only really known her for about a year or so. but did i get even so much as a happy birthday text msg/IM from my california CMU friends? no. i heard NOTHING from ducky, na, lynne, wilbur, markus, wynne, bonnie, etc. not a peep. needless to say, that annoyed me and i’m a little pissed at them…

my time at Pax River was a mixed bag. it was awesome hanging out with joe m., even if it was just for one day. the plane inside the anechoic chamber was awesome and it was nice to see Compass Call perform its mission. our system however, was the subject of the week and it was not going well until thursday afternoon. 13 hour days and being put on the hot seat was not my idea of fun, but i did make a lasting impression. i wouldn’t be surprised if when i return next year that there will be a tshirt for me that reads: “it’s not my code.”

well, i’m glad to be back in california. i wish i could have flown back on friday, but that was impossible. i’m supposed to play softball tomorrow morning, but we’ll see how tired i feel to do that. i got a ton of stuff that needs to be done including laundry, food shopping, and tomato sauce making in addition to fishtank planning now that i got my aunt’s old tank and desk.

man, i’m tired…