A Truly Epic Friday

Things are starting to come together, while at the same time, piling up like crazy.  As an attempt to make my 8 AM physics-studio-mornings a little less stressful, I started getting up and going to yoga at 6:15.  It was perfect for studio in the morning because I was totally awake by the time 8:00 rolled around, it calmed me down to focus and face the ensuing physics problems, and it got me to the CTLM Building just in time to miss the line at Einstein's and be able to eat a delicious bagel for breakfast!  The idea would have been perfect, except for the fact that when the work piled up, I simply could not get myself to bed at an adequate time to wake up that early.  I blame our writing class (NHV) (and also multiple applications that needed to be done: applying to be a Resident Assistant (RA), the McBride Honors Program, etc).

I feel like I'm learning a lot about what a real engineer does at his/or her day-to-day job with all this talk about engineering ethics in NHV and writing of clarification memos and letters of understanding in our engineering design class (EPICS).  Although being required to print out and have read 10-15 page papers every Tuesday and Thursday proves to be considerably more difficult when your printer decides to break on you and you end up running to the library to print them off for $1.50 apiece, I do enjoy the break from math and science, however small it is.

But enough talk about all this ethics and EPICS... the really epic thing that happened this winter so far was the outrageous, unexpected, and much needed snow day!  There I was on Thursday night, panicking about Friday's Club Fair which I hadn't planned for at all, trying to figure out how to work my work-study job from 8:00 AM to 11:00 while at the same time setting up my booth, and stressing about the upcoming RA group interviews, when I finally wrenched myself from the computer and gave in to sleep.  I awoke to a confused self answering my cell phone at 5 in the morning and listened to an automated message that I didn't fully understand.  I checked my email a couple hours later and the truth was made clear.  SNOW DAY!

Mines was officially declared a winter wonderland, and without a care in the world, everyone frolicked like penguins to the sledding hill.  From all over campus, people brought their laundry baskets, sleds, tubes, cardboard boxes, snowboards and skis and let gravity do the rest of the work.  I don't remember a day comparable to this day where every person I ran into was just so utterly happy.  Sledding was followed by finishing the entire 2nd Lord of the Rings extended movie, ruthless snowball fights, and a girl's night complete with truth or dare and a finale of Pride and Prejudice.

Another notable event this winter was the 3rd largest (ever) Spring Career Day which also happened to be on Valentine's day (formerly known at Mines as Irish Potato Famine Celebration Day).  One thing to look out for before each Career Day at Mines is free root beer floats!  The Career Center makes an effort to hand these out at random places around campus along with each Career Day's Manual for the entire week before the career fair.  Because I work at the Career Center, I had the pleasure of handing some out, as well as stuffing some 600 bags of Smarties and Nerds (get it, smarties and nerds?) to give to all of the employers that were on their way here to seek out their treasured Mines students.  Whether you're a freshman looking for a summer internship (these do in fact exist!), a grad student looking for a career, or a cheap college student looking for some free "schwag", Career Day is the place to be on Valentine's Day.  I'm pretty sure I just ate chocolate for lunch that day so I could go to Career Day during my lunch break.  Some great finds this year were: a loaf of bread, a kite, an egg full of silly putty, and a set of recycled/compostable pens and pencils.

Happy Valentine's Day/Career Day/ Irish Potato Famine Celebration Day! (duct tape roses made by yours truly)