I get to see my parents tomorrow. YAY :)

In my mind Betsy and Heidi are now 27 and 29 respectively. They seem much older and more mature than the 23 and 25 year old's I know and am friends with, so therefore I am adding on some year's to their ages. In addition, I think I'll drop back down to being 19. I don't feel like I'm almost 21.

Check out these 6 week grades. I am so glad I switched to an FOS. I am almost certain that if I had remained a CS major I would not have been able to graduate on time. A lot of the people who are majors have D's and F's right now in a few of their classes. If they are struggling, then there would've been no hope for me.

CS401 NG 0%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CS484 A- 20%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT305 A 10%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT460 A- 10%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT485 A+ 9 9%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MS401 A 20%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PE424 B 20%

As I've said before, I'm not Tiger Woods at golf.

What I strive for:

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."

1 Timothy 4:12

On saturday, after being locked out of Thayer Hall and then finding out my project meeting was canceled, I took off for the night and drove to my favorite town in NY, Haines Falls. I met up with Leah, Celio, and Heather, who had already been camping there for a night. I got there around 7pm, and since they were already at the s'more making part of the evening, and I hadn't eaten dinner, I procceded to consume 4 or 5 s'mores over the course of the night. Celio was greatly amused by a chicken carcass that he had on a stick, and was waving it around, sticking it in everybody's face, and trying to get it to burn in the fire. He had roasted the chicken over the fire for their dinner, and from what they were all saying, it turned out very well. Too bad I missed it. We sat around the fire for a long time talking, stuffing our faces with s'mores, candied apples, and the individual parts of s'mores.

The excitment of the evening happened when we heard a rustling over by the picnic table. Celio told me to turn on my lantern, and when I did we saw a huge racoon. We claim it was 50 lbs, but it was probably only 20 or 30 lbs. I'm terrible at guessing weight, so it may have been much less than that. In any case, it was enormous. Celio ran after it with a big stick, and then a man popped out of the woods and asked if the racoon was over by us. The racoon tried to climb up a tree, and celio was running around the tree with the stick, Heather and I were standing off to the side watching, and Leah was asking Celio to not hit the racoon. The racoon decided the tree wasn't the best bet, and decided to try and make a run for it. The man threw a rather large rock at it, but missed, and the racoon ran/waddled off into the darkness.

I eventually got up around 9am, read for awhile until everyone else got up, and then we packed up our campsite. For breakfast we ate at the same diner that Leah, Celio and I ate at after we went backpacking right after graduation in June. The meal we ate back in June was the second best breakfast I've ever had, the first being the breakfast following Robin Sage. Both were so good because it was the first real meal I'd eaten in a few days/weeks. This morning's breakfast was good, but not comparable to either of those two.

Following breakfast we hiked to a gorgeous senic overlook of the Hudson Valley, and then hiked around in the woods for about two hours. We came across the perfect camping spot up on the top of a mountian by the former site of very nice hotel at the turn of the 20th century.

On the way back we made a detour to Woodstock, walked around there seeing the sites/people, and ate ice cream. We came to the conclusion that the hippies have turned into yuppies. For being supposidely so free thinking, diverse, liberal, etc...I noticed that just about everyone there appeared to be middle/upper middle class, and Caucasion. There were numerous BMW's, Mercedes, and other very nice cars lineing the streets. Heather found it amusing that the one ultra-hippey looking man we saw was actually standing there trying to make money by looking like an ultra-hippey person. (If any of this is offensive or not politically correct, please let me know and I will remove it...if you ask nicely).

Now I'm back at school and looking forward to a week of morning practice every morning. Sleep deprivation here I come.

My cell phone is on it's last legs. It's very last legs. In fact, I think these are artificial legs that it is hobbeling on.

This morning I was able to sleep in until about 9am. It's a B weekend, and the break is definetly appreciated. I have a senior project meeting this afternoon, but after it is over I'm headed to the Catskill's once again. Celio, Leah, and Heather are camping there for the weekend. Origionally I was going to go for the whole weekend, but then the meeting came up. One night is better than nothing.

I now understand how Anne felt last year.

I ended up being awarded the Hooah Note for my company.

It states:

Cadet ***
* Company, * Regiment

   I extend my hardiest congratulations on your selection fo rhte Brigade Tactical Officer's Hooah Note.

   You have been recognized for your outstanding preparation for hte TA-50 inspection. Your care for your subordiantes was clearly evident in preparing them for the inspection. You have also performed magnificently as the Company IS Officer; fixing multilple computer problesm within the company during your free time. All of this has been accomplished while serving on the Army Crew Tea.
 
   Your dedication to duty and commitment to excellence are noteworthy. Thanks for going the extra mile. Well Done!

   Hooah!!

*****
COL, IN
Brigade Tactical Officer

I really don't deserve it. Seriously. All I do is what people tell me to do. I half think they just wanted to have a firstie be nominated for it to even out who got it.

Are my expectations/standards too high? Am I too self-centered? Do my warning signals go off too easily? Have I hurt anyone? Do I push people away from me when they get close? Someday...

This evening Bea-hob and I met over dinner to discuss The Da Vinci Code and Christianity. Going into the conversation I knew I would have to rely on Luke 21:15, because I had no clue what to say. We ended up talking for about an hour and a half. It was a very good conversation, but I came away from it feeling exhausted, not knowing if it made any difference, and having to turn it all over to God, because I feel like I just talked in circles and he got nothing out of it.

About a half an hour after we finished talking I went to my company Bible Study where the topic was Romans 6. I try and talk more during the Bible studies, but I was so exhausted, if that's the right word, that I didn't say a word the whole time. I did have thoughts on what we were discussing, but some of them pertained to baptism, which is something I am studying more in depth at the moment, but it is not a discussion that would be helpfull and and uniting for the small company Bible study. Jason, Charlie, and I freely admit that we are staying away from the contriversional doctrinal issues with the Bible Study, because those discussions are probably more than our group could handle, and has time to handle in that setting.

After the Bible Study I stayed and talked to Charlie and Jason for a few minutes and told them about my talk with Bea-Hob. It is really nice to have people in the company who are strong Christians that I can go to and talk about my faith, God, Christianity, the Bible, and other related stuff.

So far, buying a Palm m515 for $20 from a cow has been a good investment. I'm tempted to see if a yuck will be willing to sell me one of their Palm Tungsten T's for $20, but I don't really want to spend money on something that I don't need when I have something that works already. Plus, I'm not a big fan of the Tungsten T. The sliding open feature on it is one more thing that can break and ruin the device.

Good verse that I hope will apply to me.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." - 2 TImothy 4:5

APFT today. Please pray for me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

After the TA-50 inspection I took a nap and proceeded to sleep for six hours. It was awesome.

Why is that back at the end of July on the way down to NC I had a lot of time to think and decided that I wanted to try and not focus on guys/relationships and not date anyone for at least the next three months for a couple of reasons, which i figured wouldn't be hard because there were no prospects, and then two days later began a string of four guys who showed up in my life. When the first one showed up I felt like forgetting my whole plan, but ended up recommitting to the idea. That's the way it's been going, and I've learned some valuable things about myself, as well as what I am looking for in a guy. I don't have the time or the energy to be in a relationship at the moment. I can barely make it through a week with only having to think about myself as it is. When I tell people I want to relax during the weekend, what I mean is crash on my bed and not move for the next 24 hours. Of course, that isn't going to happen, but I just need a breather from things, and not just school things. Give me time. Give me space. At the moment I think Anne's and my NGUET club is actually somewhat of a good idea, and not just a joke we have.

Sleep does a body good.

Yay! Golf class is canceled this afternoon.

October 27th. Waiting until then.

I asked God if this was what he had for me, if it was his will, and the answer I seem to be getting back is "no", or "not at this time". So close, but not quite there.

I just found out my PSG nominated me for this week's Hooah Note. This is what he wrote:

3rd PLT Nominee = **********
-superior layouts amongst the hg section
-consistently clean AMI
-meeting company needs with IS problems (aka computers, printer)
-awesome balance between classes, crew team, and company duties

It's a good thing he didn't see my edge dressing spill last night. I ended up with half a bottle of edge dressing covering my left leg, plus some on my shorts and the furniture. I used a nail scrubber brush to scrub it off, because when I used a paper towel I ended up with a rug burn type thing. It didn't all come off, and I got many comments on my leg at crew practice this morning.

Right after the edge dressing incident the plebes threw Alyson a B-day party. When they knocked I jumped up and tried to keep them out of the room, but they pushed through, tossed four big boxes of packing material, the S shape kind, all over the room, ripped her bed apart, and stole her Full Dress. We spent hte next 45 minutes cleaning it up, and there are still tiny packing pieces all over the place. While we were cleaning up she told me she would've rather had the normal get tied-up-and-have-table-condiments-poured-all-over-you birthday party. I think the table condiments kind would've been worse.

I have a lot to write about the past weekend, life in general, and Alyson's B-day party from the plebes (our room is trashed at the moment), but no time to write, or I'm busy writing other random blurbs.

When eating a frozen apple one should avoid big bites. Now I bet you are wondering what person thinks of freezing an apple, let alone eating a frozen apple. Me. Actually, it wasn't my idea to freeze the apple, the fridge thought of it for me when I stuck the apple too close to the little freezer compartment. Yes, my fridge can think. It keeps Alyson and I on our toes by throwing bottles and containers out at us ever so often when we open the door, and it also decides how warm or cold the food should be. Usually it likes to make the food that should be kept frozen, not frozen, and the food that doesn't need to be frozen, it freezes. Hence, I have a frozen apple. I'm thinking about having my fridge go in my place to a few of my classes for me sometime. I hardly think my teachers would notice that there was a fridge sitting in my seat instead of me. Anway, back to the apple. Since my fridge decided I would like my apple frozen, I figured I'd give it a try. I think I need to talk to my fridge about it's ideas of what I like, because the frozen apple wasn't a big winner with me. Although, I can understand how it may have thought I'd like a frozen apple, since I am a huge ice fan. Oh well. I guess it's the thought that counts.


Yes, I do know that you probably think i'm weird, but I prefer the term "Delightfully Odd." : )

Yesterday I felt like I was on the verge of slipping back into survival mode, and I didn't like it one bit. Last year I lived in survival mode the whole year as a CS major, and it sucked. Yesterday my senior project group had a meeting with our project advisor, and it basically sounded like my life for the next year would be sucked up by this project. Then I started thinking about all of the other projects that I am supposed to be doing, my IT485 project, CS484 project, company website and microsoft outlook project, crew website and database project, IT305 projects, and then a IT460 project, and trying to fit crew and stuff like TA-50 inspections and SAMI's in there. It was rather overwhelming.

After the meeting I walked back to my room feeling quite drained. I once again reminded myself of how I survived beast and plebe year, taking it in small chunks, sometimes as small as a second at a time because that was all I could handle. I'd be walking to a class and stressing out about everything I had to do that day, and I would have to stop and think in my mind "Kate, you are walking to class. You do not have the ability to do anything about the other things in your life at the moment, so stop thinking about them. Just focus on walking. Take it one step at a time."

While walking back I kinda of cried out to God and said "God, you know my circumstances right now and that I am feeling overwhelmed. You are in control, I give my projects to you. Please help me do what I need to do, and bring me peace." My anxiety then subsided a bit.

When I got back to my room I decided to work on my TA-50 and DX some of it, as well as search in the trunk room for my rope gloves, rope, and 3 magazines. I was able to DX everything I need to DX, and then I found my 3 magazines in the trunk room. While I was down there I also said a quick prayer asking God to help me find the box of books that I mentioned in a previous entry, and when I looked up it was sitting on the shelf right in front of me. I also had a feeling that I should look in my trunk for my rope gloves, and when I checked my trunk they were in there. I felt like God was showing me that he is in control and all I have to do is trust in Him. Prayer is an amazing thing.

"For I know the plans I have for you -- plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
~Jeremiah 29:11

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowldege him, and he will make your paths straight."
~Proverbs 3: 5-6

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."
~Proverbs 16:9

God is in control of my life. He has a plan for me. My life is his. His will be done.

Right now I am missing a number of books. I hope that I wasn't really out of my mind last semester and threw them out when I was packing up my room. I think I put them in a box in the trunk room, and every time I am down there I do another search, but so far I've had no luck finding it. I really miss the books. They include:

I Kissed Dating Goodbye, by Joshua Harris (Amanda may still have it. I don't remember if she returned it)
Boy Meets Girl, by Joshua Harris
Strong's Concordance
a book of prayers and daily meditations
a book on SQL
a book on PHP
a book on UML
Wild at Heart, by that one guy (that one may actually be in my trunk)
and numerous other books that I have forgotten about.

My only other thought is that perhaps I took some of them home over summer and left them there. I really hope that I didn't throw them out.

Incredible. That is how I can describe the past few days. I'll write more later.

Sleep at last. Something I've known so little of this past week. Plus, I can sleep in tomorrow until 6:15. Yay for no morning practice :)

Why is this not posting?

hmm...

Currently I have no grips about the new Comm. It's the BTO who is making life miserable. ;alksjf;aslgkhap;eurnj;ksldkaso;ieysa.dghaeu[;wtg;psaughslfhaskfja'seiohtg[uwaefn;sdjfn aslfkha'eosuh adsf (insert any desired words)

I think I have more edge dressing on my hands than I do on the stuff I just blackend.

Sorry, right now I am in a very cynical mood. Today was an emotional rollercoaster. This morning I was on an emotional high, followed by now where I am stressed out. The good news is that I found out I have an all expense paid trip to Orlando, FL about a week before Thanksgiving. My project partners and I are going to present at a conference. I also was informed that basically I have an extremely good shot at getting my dream job at the NSA if I decide to leave the Army after 5 years and want to work for them, due to the nature of the work I am doing right now and who I'm doing it for. That all said, I'm not sure if I'm interested in the NSA anymore. Ah well, that's 5.5 years from now. It's amazing how things change. I may stay in, I may get out, I may work for the NSA, I may be a missionary.

Go School!

I'm rather hyper right now, which doesn't mix well with being in class. I think I got too much sleep this past weekend, and am too happy about the conversation I had with Chad, who is my IT485 project partner, last night. We covered everything from class, to camping, to Christianity. Hmm, I guess the c topics win.

"I'm an amazon princess" -Tyler (I guess everyone is hyper today)

This evening I asked Alyson if I should start checking her hand for a ring when she comes back from a weekend with Drew. No ring this weekend, perhaps Christmas for her. Anne and I still part of the support group NGEUT*, and are thinking of starting an outreach group. It's too late for Brian and Josh, but Anne has decided to try and reach Leah before it's too late.

*Never Get Engaged Until Thirty. After starting the group I promply started dating someone last year. Funny how things work. Anne and I are both convinced that the other one will be engaged before Christmas now that we have started said groups. It's all in good fun.

Thoughts on this week's crew practice training schedule:

Kate10: AAAAAHHHHH!
iren1305: i know!
iren1305: (crew right?)
Kate10: yep
iren1305: SO angry
Kate10: i'm going to be dead by the weekend
Kate10: no energy, no ability to stay awake
iren1305: seriously
iren1305: i think he hates us
Kate10: i think you are right
iren1305: its so sad

Happy Labor Day :)

I spent the weekend camping in the catskill mountains with Anne. We did a lot of reading, sleeping, trying to get a fire going, and eating s'mores. I hope that later this year I'll be back in the catskills backpacking with Leah and Celio.

It's so nice being a firstie and knowing that I no longer have to go to accountability formation for the under three classes.

I hope that Matt S, Matt G and his family, and Charlie's family are all doing okay and that Hurrican Frances hasn't caused any damage for them.

Today was another normal day here. I got up at 5 for practice, after which I changed into AFC and grabbed a quick breakfast down at the boathouse, followed by class from 7:35-11. I miss being able to sleep in until 6:10 and making it to breakfast formation and breakfast in the mess hall. First hour on morning practice days kills me, so I've taken up drinking a little coffee before class starts in hopes of staying awake.

My CS401 class is double blocked and today my instructor let us out of the second hour of the class early, so I headed over to MAJ Burrow's office to discuss the crew website, which I am in charge of this year. My coach was also over there, since they are both EECS instructors, so we talked a bit about how practice went this morning. It looks like we probably will have a strong four this year.

After the meeting with MAJ Burrow I stopped by the bookstore and ended up buying a book. By that time it was time for lunch formation, so I headed back to the barracks, dropped by books off in my room and grabbed my saber and gloves. Then I headed down to formation, followed by lunch. I've been the table comm the past few day's because Alyson has been on quarters after her lasec eye surgery. The plebes at the table are getting better at duties, and learning that a way to avoid being hazed by the upperclassmen is to grab extra fruit, milks, and desserts. They've also been really good about supplying the table with Simpson's trivia and other random facts.

Lunch was followed by an hour of free time in my room where I read the NY Times and grabbed a quick nap. I had to head to golf class at 1:40, and once again had to face the fact that I am no Tiger Woods. From there I went to rehab for my shoulders. Next week I have a follow-up appointment to see if any progress has been made, although I can't tell any difference.

Anne and I were going to go running at 3:30 and then head down to the boathouse, but around 3:25 I heard two sharps knocks on my door. It was my TAC at the door looking to talk to Alyson, but since she was in bed trying to hide from light he grabbed me instead. I had to come up with a plan for him of how to make sure all the firsties had gone to the uniform show, and gather up any stranglers and send them down there in the next 30 minutes. There went my run with Anne. Alyson already had a semi-complete list of who had gone, and so there were only about seven people I had to go check on. I went on Monday and spent $1200 on my real Army uniforms. I was only half joking when I asked my dad if my birthday and Christmas presents this year could be helping me out with paying for the uniforms.

Once I'd accomplished the task of sending the stranglers down to the uniform show I headed down to the boathouse. Originally I was supposed to help out with the novies, but it turned out that I didn't have to today, so instead I had to help install the rest of the launching dock.

After the dock was in I went back to my room, showered, and got ready for dinner formation. Originally it was supposed to be a spirit dinner with a Go Army theme, but that was canceled at the last minute. Instead we had to sport the usual white-over-grey.

Thursday night dinners are usually a little more chill than the other meals, but today it started out almost like a normal meal. One of the plebes was jacked up and had forgotten to put his name tag on his uniform. They also were not paying attention to detail, and were reciting the meals wrong. They were reciting what was on the menu, but the food that was in front of us was different than what was on the menu, and they hadn't made the change, so we got on them for that. Plus, they didn't know the definition of leather, how many lights there are in Cullum Hall, or how many gallons of water are in Lusk Reservoir. After they finished their duties it calmed down a bit. For the Thursday dinner entertainment they sang us the Lumberjack Song and then had the usual Simpson's trivia ready.

After dinner all of the firsties had to meet outside Mac so James could drive us up to the lots and do POV inspections.

Following the POV inspections I went back to my room and started my hw. At 9 I had a quick meeting with my IT305 project partners to discuss the layout of our web portal that is due next week. Now I have to go shine my boots for tomorrow, because it is a Friday, and Friday's mean BDU's :) I'm hoping to get to bed early, around 11, tonight because I have morning pratice again tomorrow. Last night was the first night this week I got more than 5 hours of sleep, and I'd like to repeat that experiance.

I have a little time before I have to go to rehab and class, and I want to take a break from doing work, so I think I'll actually get around to posting something.

Congratulations Brain and Mary, and Josh and Erin for getting engaged this past weekend :)

This past weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, my golf instructor allowed us to have class an hour early so that we could leave earlier. After the class I went back to my room and discovered that I felt exhausted. I had a few hours before my parents got in, so I decided to crash on my bed and take a nap. My parents made it to West Point around 5 or 6, and we went out to eat with Anne and her family, Annah and her parents, and a few other cadets. I was going to go to a movie with Anne and her brother after dinner, but my cold was acting up and the only thing I wanted to do was sleep. My sisters got into the hotel around midnight, and I said a quick hi to them and then proceeded to go back to sleep.

Saturday I woke up around 8:30 and went shopping for a pair of black high heels to wear to the banquet, because my issued ones were in extremely poor shape. Unforutunatly, I couldn't find any that would work. Heidi, Betsy, and I headed out to the sushi resturant in New Paltz around 10:30, and the trip was rather uncomfertable because my AC wasn't working and it was rather hot and humid. My parents met us at the resturant, and we had a nice lunch with a bunch of my friends and their families.

After lunch we headed to West Point and I went back to my room to start getting ready for the ring ceremony. We formed up for the ceremony at 4:30 in our India Whites. As I said, it was a very hot and humid day, and we were standing at attention for the whole thing. One of the guys in my company had to sit down, and I later found out that a TAC fainted. I was afraid that I wouldn't like my ring, but when I opened up the box I gasped at how beautiful it looked. It felt great putting on the ring, and I still can't help holding up my hand admiring it.

After the ceremony I took a bunch of pictures with my family and friends, and then headed back to the barracks. They didn't allow the plebes to do the ring poop outside this year, but there was a 30 minute time span that they could do it in the barracks. I must have been stopped 6 or 7 times just going up the stairs by plebes doing the ring poop.

Following that was the banquet and hop. Sunday was spent going to Church and then lounging around with my family. My dad was really nice and fixed the AC on my car. Of course, that means a cold spell is going to hit now and won't end until my AC breaks.

The best parts of the weekend were giving my parents their gifts, seeing my sisters again, having Betsy visit West Point for the first time, and having all of my friends meet my sisters, and of course receiving my ring. All of my friends commented on how similiar my sisters and I look. I always thought we looked a little similar, but not to the extent that my friends seemed to think. Oh well, I think my sisters are both beautiful, so if I look like them that is fine with me.

So much to say about the past few days, but no time to write. Actually, I have had some time, but I've spent it doing other things, like sleeping, hanging out with friends, reading, talking on IM or the phone, doing that thing called homework, and any other number of things with my little bit of spare time.