Aftermath...

Not really much of an update but I figure it would be worth writing what's been going on with my life...

It has been a little over a week since I last wrote on here. The week following the weekend when I visited my uncle down in Idaho Falls, he passed away. You can read about it here. The viewing and funeral services were beautiful and conducted perfectly, I got to see my dad and many relatives during this time. Overall, last weekend was eventful and then this past weekend was uneventful. Thankfully, my instructors granted me reprieves on several big assignments in order to build in flexibility into my time. And that's what I've done this past weekend. In geography class, we've been working on a rather large assignment worth a lot of points; we're currently in a geomorphology unit and we've spent the last two weeks working on a workbook covering several chapters in the textbook. It was a rather constructive assignment. Then in writing class, we've been working on the two words every student dreads: Research Paper.

(Cue dramatic music)

Funny thing is, the entire class is required to write a research paper on the same issue as the main topic. Then there's good ol' science class. Took an exam; didn't do as well as I hoped... Basically, I've been swamped with homework this past weekend. Even with due dates pushed back one to two days, it's still a lot of work. I think the main struggle was managing time properly, especially when I wanted to relax on the weekend! Believe me, it was hard disciplining myself with time this past weekend. Considering how early on in the week was the services with my family, the new reality I had to face and then go back into the grind, it wasn't easy to adjust. It's one of those times you just wish the world could stop while you attended to personal matters. But that's never the case and everything else around you goes on, whether you're on board or not.

So yeah, the main update regarding the recent loss in our family is detailed in my religion blog so go there instead of wasting time reading the filler on my home page...

I promise to write a REAL update next time.

Love ya uncle Paul! Miss you so much...

Pizza Pizza!

Last night I went on a group date. I won't go into any further details than that! We ate dinner at a pizza buffet called Pizza Pie Cafe. Quality-wise, it's an alright establishment. The place also has a salad/pasta bar. There are several of these restaurants throughout the Rockies and having one in a college town is a good thing I suppose since prices are reasonable and you can get your money's worth of food quite easily. A pizza's a pizza:

My favorite thing about this place is the unlimited refills from the soda fountain and then there's the dessert pizza; ranging from Oreo, cookie dough, apple cobbler, cheese cake, etc.

I was very full up to this point so I only got a small slice...

So there you have it, a pizza buffet (Tabehoudai if you speak Japanese.).

I am a Thunderhead

This past weekend was so-so; there's no other way to put it. It wasn't the things I had to do this past weekend. It was more along the lines of having so much going through my mind and so many things happening around me. That, plus we had to "spring forward" by setting our clocks ahead an hour so getting an adequate amount of sleep was difficult enough with church early on Sunday mornings...

Saturday, I wasn't on planning on anything other than homework and watching full episodes of Dogfights (History Channel) on YouTube. I ended up going to Idaho Falls to visit my uncle Paul who was in the hospital; apparently, he suffered a stroke. After that, a visit (and dinner) with my grandparents. We went to a place called New Hong Kongs and I had some General Tso's chicken:

Yeah, I know; Americanized Chinese food doesn't compare to.... Never mind.

I expected it to be somewhat spicy but it wasn't. I texted my dad and even sent the above picture to him expressing my disappointment of the lack of spicy. I kid you not this was his response:

"Spicy probably means something different there... Idaho is a long way from Hong Kong."

I bursted into laughter! I responed by telling my dad that he should be a comedian.

After dropping my grandparents off, my aunt and I ran a few errands. And I FINALLY got my hands on my new Celtic Thunder album:

Yes, I am a Thunderhead.

Let me just say the music is sweet! Sure some of them are covers of arrangements already done in the past but I think Celtic Thunder do a good job covering popular songs and other arrangements. Out of 15 tracks, here my personal favorites from this album:

#1 Voices
#3 Now We Are Free
#6 Carrickfergus
#11 Carolina Rua
#12 Katie
#13 Turning Away
#14 Tears of Hercules
#15 My Land

Sunday, church was routine. Nothing special other than staying up to date with my assignments for class. Just a lot happening around me and a lot going through my mind... Then again, when am I suppose to not think at all???

Typical Weekend Boredom

I better start finding other things to do on the weekends, or else I'm gonna run out of blog title ideas for my weekly updates!

Actually, having the weekend was a welcome thing considering some of the important class assignments I needed to accomplish. I've got a Geography exam coming up, and an essay for my English class was due this week. I spent a lot of time at home finishing up my essay. Perhaps I should share what this essay was about...

So a couple weeks ago, I realized that I had a second-cousin going to school here. Better yet, he's in my math class! I never even recognized him until he asked me who I was... I've seriously lost track of certain family members, especially my older cousins. So Tanner's mother is my cousin and his grandfather is my uncle and so on and so forth. Moving on with this story, the main motive of my most recent essay was to profile someone and write about a specific "slice" in that person's life. I was originally planning on profiling one of my Japanese relatives (because Japanese people are cool and my Japanese relatives are a lot cooler!) but then I realized the impracticality of the idea mainly due to time and communications inconvenience; sure, I could have used Skype but then I would have been required to translate the Japanese into English. Not a process I was willing to go through with... this time.

When God shuts the door, He often opens a window so I decided to profile/interview Tanner. Doing so killed two birds with one stone by getting this assignment done AND taking the opportunity to get to know my second-cousin. So I spent this past Saturday adding the finishing touches of my profile essay on Tanner. Other than that, there was math homework and then a little study/review time for an upcoming Geography exam.

Sunday was church followed by more studying. That, plus a little TV/couch potato time. I had to play piano in church as well. I'm not gonna tell you how that went. But I will tell you that practice time is precious.

So, that's what I did this past weekend. Boring but sorely needed. I'm just glad I got a lot of homework done!