The Prodigal Blog

I stumbled upon my blog site again, and I realized that I haven't written anything since September of last year. While this was certainly not my intention, life just kinda started happening and my little blog got pushed to the dark recesses of my mind. Because I find writing to be therapeutic, I think I'll catch you all up on what's been going on these past few months.

As previously mentioned, I left off just as fall quarter was beginning. I was just starting my classes, and I hadn't yet been to any football games. Well, those classes are behind me (two As and a B), and I've now been to four Buckeye games in the Horseshoe. My seat wasn't exactly primo, as I hadn't completed any coursework at OSU when I bought them so I was lumped in with the freshmen. But I was able to see the entire field, I had a clear view of the Jumbotron for replays, and I could clearly hear the announcer. All in all, good seats...though I'm hoping for better ones this year. I won't give you a play-by-play of every game I attended; you can find that on ESPN.com if you're that curious. Spoiler alert: we won.

While we're on the subject, I really don't have an opinion on the suspension of Coach Tressel and five of our players. I think that what Tressel did was shady, but I also feel that given the "crime" committed by the players, the whole thing is much ado about nothing. Was an NCAA rule violated? Yes. But get real. If you don't want college kids selling their 24K gold jewelry for spending money, DON'T give college kids 24K gold jewelry. I think it should go in a shoebox that they get when they graduate. "Here's all the stuff you amassed while you were here. Best of luck in the NFL." Anyway, I hope that we can pull it together with the younger kids and put together a good first half of the season. It really sucks here when they lose. The whole city is bummed. And that's all I've got to say about that.

I had a busy break after fall quarter. I spent the first week in Dayton with the Reserves serving part of my annual tour. It wasn't bad, but I'm very ready to not have anything to do with aircraft maintenance ever again. More on that later. After that, I spent a weekend in Cleveland. The following week, Jess flew in for Christmas. We had a great visit; I showed her around Columbus, we played in the snow, ate too much, drank too much, built fires, opened presents, and just enjoyed each others' company. Unfortunately she was only able to stay a short time. After she flew back to Florida, I loaded Sam into the truck and headed down to my property in Southern Ohio to get back in the woods and do some deer hunting. I haven't hunted since 1995 or so, so I was really excited to get back out there. I got down there just as night fell and discovered that the heater that we thought was on the fritz in the trailer had officially bought the farm. As it was 12 degrees outside (and in the trailer), I contemplated just heading back home. But I was able to secure lodging at our friend Mary Kay's cottage just around the corner (thanks, Mary!), so I was able to fall off her porch and into my tree stand in the morning while Samson slept on the couch. I wasn't successful in harvesting any deer, but I did manage to see eight of them in two days, and they were all close enough to be within range. I actually got a shot off at one of them, but either she jumped or Cousin Dave's crossbow shoots low, because I missed her clean. Must've been that crossbow...always blame the equipment, right? But even though I came home empty-handed, I felt like I accomplished a lot. I saw a bunch of deer on our property, I got back in the woods, and I cleared my brain with some cold, fresh air and a dead-quiet forest. After my hunt I came back to Columbus, dropped off my dirty clothes, grabbed some clean clothes, and headed back up to Cleveland to spend New Year's Eve with family and friends. Tony and Gerri Polo threw a great party (as usual) with too much food, too much drink, and too much fun. After the confetti settled on the New Year it was time to head back home and face reality.

Winter quarter started without any issues. This was the first quarter that I had all business classes, so I didn't have to trudge across campus from building to building with a frigid wind whipping me into submission. In fact, there's a tunnel system that connects all the buildings in the business complex, so once I walked from the parking lot to the first building, I didn't have to deal with Ma Nature until it was time to go home for the day. I had a full slate of business classes to keep me busy; accounting, linear programming (the second in a series after my business calculus class in the fall), and an ethics/public speaking class. No real curveballs here, though I'd heard horror stories about the OSU accounting gestapo. They turned out to be just rumors, likely propagated by 19-year olds who felt some sense of entitlement and who didn't want to put forth the effort needed to succeed. Me personally, I did just fine. I managed to keep my streak going of two As and a B, though this time it was an A, an A-, and a B+. I believe that's called a trifecta. In any event, I've managed to secure a spot on the Dean's list every quarter, and my goal is to keep that streak alive until I graduate.

Wow, this is a longer post than I was prepared to write. I guess that's what happens when I ignore das blogge for six months.

After winter quarter, Jess and I decided that we needed to go somewhere new, so we met each other in Washington, DC. We let William Shatner book us a swanky hotel with his Priceline negotiations; we stayed at the Mayflower near Dupont Circle. It's the same hotel where Eliot Spitzer entertained hookers. It was really posh, but also really expensive, as was pretty much everything in DC. But we enjoyed ourselves; we went to see museums and monuments, we took a tour of the Capitol, we ate and drank a lot, and we just generally had a good time. We got there the week before the Cherry Blossom Festival, so we saw all the blooms but none of the crowds. It's a busy city with lots to do, and we both really like it there. Who knows...we may find ourselves living/working there before it's all said and done.

So once again, I'm back in the school routine, this time at the beginning of spring quarter. I have a manageable course load; another accounting class, my final Earth Science class (the planets...should be neat), and a marketing class. Of the three, I see the accounting class being the most labor-intensive. I'm also trying to get back to my regular workout regimen. Now that the snow is (for the most part) done until next winter, I'm taking advantage of the milder weather and running again. I also hit the gym three or four times a week. My plan is to be back in fighting shape by summer. This college lifestyle is starting to take its toll on my midsection, and we can't have that!

Oh yeah...I told you I'd come back to my comment about the Reserves. I'm angling for an opportunity to retrain out of aircraft maintenance and into intelligence this fall. If the chips fall in my favor, I should be working for an intel squadron before Thanksgiving. Then once I finish my degree I'll take a few months to head off to Texas and go through tech school to officially become an intel guy. Keep your fingers crossed, this could be the chance to finally get the hell out of maintenance!

I'll keep you posted. Hopefully in intervals shorter than bi-annually.