The presidential elections are going to be interesting ;)

I'm going to Huntsville!!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not excited about Alabama. I'm just really happy because in 10 days I'll spend the week-end with Robbie. Some kind of an ISU reunion... with 2 people ;)
I hope that by then I'll know my "West" from my "East". Everything is still East of Atlanta for me. I'm still not used to the fact that I'm not on the West Coast anymore and that the majority of the country is now West of where I live.

Learning to let go

I had an unexpected good time last friday night. Usually on Fridays I go home around 7-ish, read a bit, and crash to bed quite early because I'm dead by the end of the week. This friday though, was different. A colleague took me out for some drinks next to where I live. It was the first time we were actually spending some time getting to know each other. It was nice to exchange with someone who shares similar ideas about what we want to do with our lives (and doesn't run when we get onto that topic). And it was good because totally unexpected. He really surprised me. Doing a PhD can be a very lonely experience. Even though you're in class with 50 or so people, you spend most of your time alone, trying to bring ideas together. You see people everyday but you don't really know them. So I was happy to get to know him better and to let go. And if I learned a lesson that night, it was probably something like "dont' judge a book by its cover".

Too much thinking

I’m having a hard time getting back to work. I have been thinking a lot recently and a lot of things are now making sense. I just realized that the person I have been sharing everything with hasn’t been totally honest with me for the last past months. Though I understand why, it still hurts really bad.

To lighten my mind a bit more, I received a box with the very last pictures I left in Oregon. I went through all of them. And I wish I had never opened that box. It just makes me feel so sad to realize that we had everything and that we lost it. I still don’t understand how you can be part of somebody’s life and projects for so long and wake up one morning alone with nothing else than memories. Life really sucks sometimes. And the worst is that I still don’t know where we screwed up and what else we should have done to prevent this from happening.
I guess we just change as time goes by till the day we realize that we are not satisfied with what we have anymore and that things won’t get any better, so we call it over. I wish it ended differently. It started so well...

Back in ATL

Hartsfield airport sunday night was a terrible mess. They had all the bags from 3 different planes arriving on the same belt... I'm so glad Cyril was there to help me! We finally dropped my stuff at home at about 12:30am and at 1:00am we were on campus jump-starting his car under a warm pouring rain... But I was so happy to drive my car again!!
So I'm back, with tons of mail and bills waiting to be opened, an empty fridge (always better than a rotten one though), and tons of laundry to do. I brought back the very remaining of all the things I left in Oregon and Europe. I now have my guitar, snowboards and scuba gear with me, and I added a few Fat Tire to survive till my next visit to Oregon ;) So for now I'm going to make some progress on my research, try to save some money for a future trip, and enjoy my week-ends as much as I can. Yes, I'm going to take it easy (well Olivia-easy) ;)

Good times

It’s time to try to catch up on the posts. The end of 2006 was crazy but paid off : 4.0 GPA, I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish this freaking year. I went back to Europe for Xmas and it was nice to finally relax and enjoy some family time. For now I’m in Corvallis, Oregon, my second home. I’m writing this post from the Interzone, which used to be the headquarter of the French community of Corvallis. According to Max nobody is coming here anymore but I couldn’t leave Corvallis without stopping for a «medium hot chocolate with no cream and a coffee cake». The hot chocolate is still delicious but it’s kinda weird to be here alone. A few things have changed in town. The College Inn has been remodeled, the Freddy on Kings looks brand new and there is a new McMenammins on Monroe. I spent Thursday afternoon on the coast with Max. Walking the beach and watching the Pacific Ocean made me feel good.
We all went to Squirrels on Friday afternoon and I had a heck of a good time. We had Weird Hat Friday again and I have some amazing pictures that will be posted soon. I can already tell you that some of them will end up on my walls at home ;) I never thought Jim would look so great with a Varsity hat and that Max would be so cute as a Viking! It was so good to see everybody again. I wish I could come over more often… And to survive till my next visit, I’m bringing back 3 packs of Fat Tire to ATL ;) I’m flying back tomorrow to Boot Camp Part II, though it’s supposed to be more relaxed than Part I. I’m looking forward to having some « Me time ». Thank you all for the amazing time and memories. I'll miss you, as always...

Happy New year!!!!!

I'm on my way to my second home!!! And I'll post longer news soon...

from: http://www.time.com/time/cartoons/20061217/9.html