Dangerous Encounters

I have successfully made it through the third week of grad school and I am absolutely loving it. I love the subject matter, the teachers and the people in my classes. Ok...I like most of the people in my classes. I've already given a 15 minute presentation in front of my class, turned in 3 papers and have picked out a research article for a large research paper due in a few weeks. Surprisingly, even though there has been a large workload and I am still working at my job full time, everything has been very manageable. Maybe its because I only have a very limited amount of time, I've had to work more productively or that I just use my time more wisely, but I'm thrilled with what I've been able to accomplish.

Yesterday while I was pulling into my parking space in the garage at school, a girl was walking and past and told me and my friend Lauren that there had been a snake sighted in the garage earlier in the day and to just be careful of where we were walking. Because of this warning, Lauren and I were on high alert when we were walking as we walked back to the garage when our class got out last night.

We were coming up to a set of stairs behind a building when I saw something out of the corner of my right eye behind one of the trees. I thought to myself huh, thats a very large squirrel and all of a sudden that very large squirrel whips around to the side of the tree that we are on and its not at all a very large squirrel, its a really mean raccoon.

The mean raccoon sees us and crouches down into attack mode and starts hissing at us. Suddenly it lunges forward. At that point Lauren and I are screaming and running in the other direction. After a few hundred yards we stop and turn to each other wondering how in the world we are going to get back to our cars. Out of breath and utterly terrified, we logically think that maybe because we were so loud and caused such a commotion, that the raccoon was himself scared off and we began walking back to the garage.

Unfortunately, we were mistaken and the raccoon was not only not scared by the scene that we had caused, but it was emboldened and was waiting for us to return. As soon as he had us in his sights he started running towards us. In true form, Lauren and I again screamed, bolted in the opposite direction and sought refuge from the vicious animal. This search for refuge took us across on overpass into some of the dorms on campus where we found an on duty RA who kindly informed us of an alternative way to get into the garage and reported the deadly animal to the proper authorities.

Lauren and I then made the trek through the dorm to the dorm garage then back across the street on the ground level and then back up 3 flights of stairs to where our cars were only to have to be on the lookout for the snake.

It was an eventful evening.

Do People Still Blog?

   
     I'm not sure Blogging is a thing anymore but I figured that I would start blogging again even for just a personal history for myself.

     Last night was my first day of Graduate School. I am in the Marymount M.Ed program which will give me my Masters in Elementary Education. If you had told me a few years that I would be getting a Masters in anything Education, I would have outright laughed. I can even remember walking down the hall in high school one of my last days of my Senior year (I can still remember the exact place that I was... outside of Dr. McKee's classroom on the second floor) and having the thought come into my head, Jessica-You should be a teacher. I thought about it for maybe 10 seconds and completely dismissed it. School was really hard for me it wasn't something that I overly enjoyed so the thought of coming back to school as a teacher was something that never appealed to me, that is until I got to teach my first class in college. Sports Psychology was the class. This particular sections was filled just with student athletes and I loved it.

     I wasn't nervous at all to back to school until it all hit me Sunday night. I couldn't sleep and then was just really nervous Monday all through work. I walked into the classroom and the professor was so welcoming. It was really a different experience than I had ever encountered in my education up until that point. It turned out to be a pretty eventful evening.

     I got to class about 10 minutes early and was sitting talking with some of the people around me, making my name tag for my desk with various colored markers and stickers (did I mention its an Elementary Education program) when all of a sudden I hear a huge crash and almost like a popping sound as I see something out of the corner of my right eye. At first I thought a balloon had popped but I hadn't remembered any balloons in the room. I looked over and the window is just completely cracked and shattered. There were some shirtless (yes my grad experience has been really different from undergrad experience) guys playing baseball and the one had hit the ball right into our classroom window.

     Later on during the class, we were in small groups and all of a sudden the girl sitting in front of me stands up and runs out of the classroom grabbing the trash can along the way and starts throwing up in the hallway.

     I didn't damage any school property and I didn't throw up so all in all I feel like I had a pretty good first day of Grad School.

Catch Up

Having a little time to spare, I will catch up with my blogging. August, September, October, November and December have absolutely flown faster than I could have ever imagined and although it seemed to fly, there certainly has been a lot that has happened since the last post.

Katherine is back from the Philippines! I'm so glad to have her back. I was mostly lost without my sister.

I went to a lot of baseball this summer. DC baseball really didn't disappoint this year and I was happy to be at a lot of important games for the Nats...and a few Orioles games as well.

I have a new found ability for craftiness and used it a few times to make baby diaper cakes for friends these past few months.  

J.C. had sinus surgery the week of Thanksgiving which made for an all too quiet holiday. With him recovering and family going in every which way Thanksgiving just wasn't the same. 

I've been able to travel a lot! I went to visit Katherine in Utah for a long weekend, went to visit a friend at UVA in Charlottesville, flew to Oregon for a friends dad's funeral and to see an old roommate, and now I'm currently in the Outer Banks with my family. Every weekend for about 2 months I felt like I was repacking the things I had just taken out of my suitcase the weekend before. I'm been grateful to have been able to be on the move though. The traveling has been a nice excuse to see old friends and has made me better at keeping up with other friends whom I have not seen. 

Thanks to my travels I've seen:

in order of appearance

Katherine

Lauren (and Santino)

Jordan

Rafa (and his parents...love them and the new tattoo)

Amber and friends

Whitney P.

 (thanks so much for hosting me! I had so much  fun and can't wait to do it again soon)

Whitney N. 

Katie 

Kim!!!

Steve 

David

Rafa (again) 

Kelvin

Jess

Kim!!!(again)

Shelly and Stephen

Allie

Tyler

Gaby

I hope I didn't forget anyone and I know I have quite a few more stops to make to keep up with everyone but if you invite me I'll probably find an excuse to come.  

This past week at the beach has been really enjoyable. I can't think of a better way to spend the week before Christmas than drinking hot chocolate by the fire in my room overlooking the ocean. I've been able to relax and rejuvenate before the holiday. I've also taken advantage of the hot tub, experienced hurricane force winds, saw dolphins play outside my bedroom window, did a polar bear swim, watched the sunrise every morning, pet a shark (my favorite part of the whole trip), had delicious food and caught up on some reading. I really wish I didn't have to leave.  

Can't Wait

I cannot wait to watch these guys tonight at the Closing Ceremonies.

What a Way to Start the Week

A man came into my office building this morning and shot and killed himself in the lobby bathroom. 

I have never completely understood when some people say that after a burglary or something of the sort they feel violated but after today I do. To have someone come into your building, a space that you feel safe in, in an unstable mental state and shoot themselves was really scary. We were all very lucky that this man was only interested in taking his own life and not the lives of other's but it honestly makes me sick just thinking about it. I knew I should have skipped work today.

Que Guapo

I woke up at 4:00 this morning to be able to see this handsome little guy swim in his first ever Olympics. I hardly got any sleep last night because I was so nervous and anxious for him to swim but I couldn't be more proud of him for working so hard and am so happy he got to fulfill one of his life long dreams. 

Here's an interview with him talking about the whole experience.

E Pluribus Unum

I love everything American so I was so excited when I got invited to go on a tour of the Capitol today. Despite living here my whole entire life, I had never been on a tour of the Capitol before, let alone the VIP tour. Thanks Shelly!