Lions, Tigers, and Conferences, Oh My!

This past weekend I attended a conference for the Georgia Communication Association. I also stayed for the business meetings and I, among others, submitted a bid to host the conference at my institution in the coming years.

It was a good conference, but it was only one of many things I did this last weekend. I got to visit with my friend Taylor, that I don't see that often. Taylor and I are friends from my undergraduate years at Georgia State University. Back then Taylor and I both drank quite a lot. See, I had several German roommates back then and Germans, well,... Germans like to drink,... a LOT. We sortof drank just to keep up with them and hang out with them. That was a good bunch of guys, but admittedly, I don't like drinking as much as I did back then. I like being more in control. It turns out that Taylor doesn't drink nearly as much as he did back then either. We had a good time. Thanks for hanging out with me, bud!

Also, I spent some time with my buddy Chang, who lives in Atlanta. We did everything from playing pool to beating the crap out of each other in a game called Magic: The Gathering (MTG). Chang and I usually have some lively games of Magic, as we're both pretty bright and pride ourselves on coming up with new combinations and ways to do things in the game. I spent the night at Chang's one night before I headed back up. Thanks for the good times, pal!

Most everything went well this weekend. All in all, it was fantastic. One thing that didn't go well for me though was reeking of smoke due to the pool hall. I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke in my clothes. I guess it reminds me a lot of mom's house and how I hate that she smoked even when she had cancer. But really, its not even that that makes me hate the smell. It just,.... stinks! Nasty stink!!! I went and bought a new pair of jeans because I only had one pair on me and I couldn't stand the smell anymore. Eh, I needed a new pair anyway, and these were on sale too. Yay! I actually don't mind shopping, but sometimes it is frustrating to find a pair that fits me well. My body is shaped weird, so I have to try jeans on. This is the first time I've bought a pair of Chaps jeans. I didn't even know they made them. They fit pretty well. :) I guess I'll tackle buying a few new shirts another day. That's a whole different story.

Frantic February

Its mid-February and I'm going ninety miles a minute. At least staying busy is keeping me out of trouble, but right now I feel like I'm barely hanging on with all the work I've taken on.

I recently moved offices, I'm on a few task forces & committees at work, I dedicated some time to write more on my future research project, I've been researching stuff for work, and I've been researching graduate school again. Yeah, I considered going on for the doctoral degree, but I still haven't made up my mind yet about that. I'm also considering a side-job to make some more money. So right now it is somewhat a toss-up as to what extra activity I'll be involved in, whether its a new job or new schooling.

I do feel somewhat stretched financially right now, as you've read in past posts, so I really want to do something about that. The thing is though,... I have a BRILLIANT idea to make money using my current education and specialty. The only problem is, I don't know how to start it, and I wish I did. I KNOW it'd make some excellent cash. I do mean EXCELLENT. But getting started is the major battle. I think I need to just stop freaking out and sit down and construct a business plan. Maybe that will help.

Even though I feel stretched and a bit frenzied momentarily, don't get me wrong. I am happy right now overall. There's always room for improvement, but currently I am in a good place so-to-speak. I've dealt with more stress than this when I worked in engineering, that's for sure. Thanks to some "fantastic" friends I'm coping quite nicely with all my new duties. It does make one wonder though, why do I volunteer to do so much?!? LOL Maybe I should volunteer less where I don't get paid much and put that energy into my side projects that have the possibility of paying me a lot. Hmmmm.... something to ponder.

Hope everything is well with you all. Thanks for staying tuned! :)