February 14, 2005. God, it feels like just yesterday I was in the trunk of a Subaru Wagon chatting up Mie and Marika. Nine months of my life is done with, nine months that is to be demarcated as spectacular from my point of view. I'm finishing up my first year at Western Washington University next Thursday and I am scared. I am homesick already. Though technically I originate from the place I am headed, I have almost no connection with it anymore except family and a few select friends there. I already feel like the social fire has burned out, leaving us all with what we have. I've got big plans for next year. I'm already a little depressed I have to leave all this behind for three months. But when I come back, I'm seizing the reigns and taking hold of my life. I've got a lot of stuff planned out, surprisingly forward-thinking compared to normal. Most normal of them all, I switched majors again, twice since I last posted. First I went to vehicle design, then to plastics engineering. PE will let me stay in the Pacific Northwest and work with composites, which is a nice set of skills as far as I am concerned.
Summer is set aside almost exclusively to work, bicycling and cooking. I applied for a job as a 'helper' at the parks dept in Kitsap, which entails good pay, 40 hours of work a week and random hours. I'm crossing my fingers for night-shifts. Why? I'm picking up a road bike around the middle of this month and a better mountain bike near the middle of summer. My grandma bought me a Giant Rincon for dirt earlier, but it won't be capable of trail-riding without me eventually breaking it. I'm looking at a Trek 1000 or the Specialized Allez for the road and a dirtjump bike of some sort for the trails (hucking looks fun), probably a Kona of some sort. Cool by me. There's plenty of trails around my hometown, too, ones that I can run for hours and have fun. The Rincon's going to have to suffice for the first month and a half, though it will need new tires. That thing's a good concrete bomber, though, so I may reserve it for campus riding. As far as cooking goes, I am picking up a Weber charcoal grill sometime early-on. Why charcoal? Can't use gas where I will be living next school year.
Fall quarter entails living in an on-campus apartment. My roomie's a friend, a geek as well. The two other people living in the apartment, while, one wants to be Batman and the other's a noder (though I can't point fingers, as I don't know his signin...). We're going to geek it the hell up, you can bet your pennies on that one. My room will have three or four computers (a laptop and a desktop per each of us), two other computers in the apartment, two PS2s, two Gamecubes, and an Xbox. Wow. Amazing. We'll end up with four bikes on the balcony, minimum, as well as my grill. Just amazingly fun sounding.
Spring Quarter and yes I skipped Winter Quarter. Not eventful for me. Spring Quarter is make it or break it for me. I'm signing up for a sprint-length triathalon that our school puts on each year and am going to attempt to place in the 1:30 range or so. Then, I will hopefully have a team organized for the annual Ski-to-Sea, a seven sport relay. Starts with a cross-country skiing portion, then a downhill skiing or snowboarding portion, then a run, then a road bike race, then a canoeing portion, then mountain biking portion and finally a sea kayaking portion. I've got someone willing to do cross-country skiing, someone possibly for downhill skiing, someone for road cycling, someone possibly for kayaking and I will do the mountain biking portion. Why? Why not! That's my opinion on it. I've specifically stated that if I organize the team, it will only be for fun. While individuals on the team might be competitive at their particular sport, we're not vying to place on the podium when it comes down to it.
Since my last entry, I followed through on my resolutions. She hasn't a feeling for me, so I dropped that quicker than you could blink. There's not been a word between us since, as we don't live in the same building. But, being the fool I am, I fell again. This time, I don't have any time to act on it, so I have to hold off. But I have a chance this fall, so it works for me. It will give me a chance to get my mind of classes once they start again.