Janet’s Webpage

SO called and reminded me of two things today: 1) Buy pepper spray, to fend off bears and unwanted male encounters during hiking. 2) Take pictures of the apartment.
I did both. I’d show you the mace, but that’d be boring

Went hiking today since I felt guilty drinking all that beer…
I planned on hiking to Black Rock, which would have made the whole trip about 6 miles long. In the end, I missed Black Rock by a quarter mile… Doesn’t sound very far but that quarter mile was pretty steep. Now I’m back and drinking a beer. Life is good

I had a more formal meeting with Harry today (Harry, aka Dr. Liao, is the guy I’m planning on writing a paper with). He is a very polite guy. When I told him one of my paper ideas, “Best Activities for Control Room Operators During Down Time”, he just smiled and told me that my topics are very interesting. Anyway, we’re aiming at 2 conference papers and 1 journal paper… Conference papers by the end of the year and journal paper by mid 2009.

Yay! Comcast man came today!
It’s too much trouble to go back and write about the past week… so I’ll just say that Diana’s wedding was beautiful and very worthy of that 12 hour drive this weekend. Check the photo albums for the few pictures that I snapped.

So I was feeling really down the other day. Work was going fine, but it was just like work back in Michigan. It seems really stupid for me to have gone 500 miles without seeing much changes. Even though I get to see Jennifer once a month instead of twice a year, there are still other trade offs that are not quite balanced.
Anyway, I made a deal with myself to work really hard this week and see if it’ll make a difference. In order not to disappoint myself, I defined “working real hard” as “not surf the Internet” (with the exception of BCC, which I cannot live without). Truthfully today’s been a really great day. I got lots done and the day went by much faster.

It’s been such a long time since I was able to update my blog!! Life without Internet…
Right now I’m at SO’s dad’s place. There’s a wedding tomorrow so we’re all gathered here for the evening.

Okay, updates on life:
I really like my apartment. Now I only have half a box left to unpack and everything else is pretty set in its place. I tacked up EVERYTHING: diplomas, photos, arts… anything that is framed is now hanging on a wall. I used to be really timid about these things (I don’t know why), but they make the apartment look really homey. I also found this copper polish that works wonders, now my Mauviel pans glow.

Anyway, just a quick update here… Will write more on Tuesday once I have Internet installed.

For some reason I didn’t think of ordering Internet right away… Now there is none at the apartment.
Anyway, it’ll probably be a few days before I write the next post.

What a hectic weekend. I’m exhausted but I think Jennifer’s worse off since she did not sleep well both nights she was here.
The mover was scheduled to come on Sunday morning, so on Saturday Jennifer and I went to look for a dinning table. It feels like every time I get a new job, I buy a new dinning set. Last time that was the only big furniture purchase I’ve made also. We got a great deal on this trussle table with 6 chairs and 2 leaves at an antique shop. It was marked at $900 and we got it for $300. It looked a bit awkward in the shop, but it fit in real well in my apartment.
Saturday night, we went to Sushant’s part. I didn’t bring the Shiraz in the end since Jennifer forgot my request and bought a red Zinfandel instead. I also had a chance to ask Mike if I can borrow his truck. He said the same thing SO said: you’re awfully popular when you have a truck.
The mover came on Sunday. I felt really bad for him because my apartment is on the third floor and there are no elevators. Then I felt bad for myself since I had to move a ton of stuff as well. Mike came and gave us a hand with the table, and Jennifer and I unpacked about two thirds of the stuff already. If I had packed and moved myself, I would have tossed out a lot more items. Now it seems that I’ve moved my messy room from Michigan to Maryland with no changes.

I sent Jennifer off and now I’m alone again. Not that I had company when I was in the hotel, but at the apartment it feels different. Out of my 27 long years, I’ve only been alone for less than 1.5 years. One year during senior year of high school when I had a single room in the dorms. The other 6 months was when I started working at AEP and had an apartment in Bridgman. Those times hardly counts though; there were always people in the dorms and I dated/lived with somebody during most of those first 6 months. Maybe it’ll get better…
After I unpack, I’ll take pictures of the new apartment and post them up.

I updated WordPress and now I’ve lost my photo album and links!!

I got a call from SO saying that Jason’s been sick all last night I hope they are feeling better.

The nice thing about the Appalachian Trail is that, unless you’re in Maine or Georgia, you would never accidentally walk off the trail. So I was really miffed yesterday when I couldn’t figure out where I ended up at. After coming back to the hotel, I probably spent an hour looking on Google Map, trying to find my turn around point in that corridor. For a while, I was convinced that I hiked through Gathland and was close to the Virginia boarder. Then I remembered that it’s illogical to think I can hike that fast.
This morning, I consulted Barry’s map again. Sadly, I was just short of Lamb’s Knoll which is close to the half way point between Reno Monument and Gathland State Park. Upon close inspection, I think there’s another parking lot close to the shelter and I may be able to start another hike midway, instead of splitting the whole distance two ways only.

I signed the lease today and felt a little bit sad about it. The apartment’s fine, and I have to live SOMEWHERE. Just that paying $1000 in rent gets me down a bit… I can be paying mortgage with that money, or my car loan… *sigh*

After signing the lease, I went hiking.
I started out at Reno Monument. From the map I borrowed from Barry, it looks about 6 miles from Reno Monument to Gathland State Park. So the plan was to hike south about 3 miles to some random point in the middle from Reno Monument, then drive to Gathland State Park and hike north for 3 miles some other day. About 6 miles round trip for each hike.
Well, I was counting on seeing a side trail that looks about the half way point on the map. In the end, I either didn’t make it or passed by it without noticing. Now I have no idea how long I’ve hiked… but it sure feels like a LONG time…
On the way back, I met 3 hikers going the other direction. They stopped and chatted for a while, which is rare. Hikers usually just nod and walk past without saying much. When I was about to leave, one of them asked if I’d like to join them at a pub tomorrow night. I told him I’d think about it, but now that I thought about it, I guess I don’t think I’ll be going.

This is a revaluation from driving in PA on Sunday (yes, driving alone on dark and narrow mountain roads make you think pretty hard about your life) - I should do more for myself.
I’ve always wanted to take Japanese courses or piano lessons, but those are things that I didn’t pursue because they cost too much. I stopped my riding lessons for the same reason.
Now I wonder if I should try and have a more fulfilling life, something more than a career. Since chasing career is the obvious reason why I was driving through forsaken towns in the first place.