Last Semester of Undergrad

Well I've been slacking a bit updating this thing but that is because I've been so busy! Shortly after Fredericksburg, my new job with Luna really took off. I'm helping my boss with LUNAFEST coming up on March 7th, which is a big fundraiser/film festival to raise money for The Breast Cancer Fund and Texas Advocacy Project. What is cool is that both organizations are about prevention- preventing cancer through avoiding its environmental causes and preventing domestic violence. The project has really taken up all my free time, which is fine because I'm definitely learning some valuable skills they can't teach you in a text book ;-)

January 11-14th was the Texas Cycling training camp, my last big project and contribution as Vice President! It was a little bittersweet for me because it's crazy that I am already graduating, but it will be good for me to do a little less for the team so I can find a job. Camp itself was good- we had 40 people go and many were newbies. We had two beautiful days of riding and then the rain hit. Nevertheless, a small group of us- Joey, Josh, Ken, and Clay journeyed out for five hours the first day of rain and three the second. It was a lot of fun to ride with them and they definitely made the long, rainy hours doable.

Immediately when I got back to Austin, I turned around and went to Houston for the Houston Marathon. It was quite the journey in the car that day from Leakey to Austin to Houston, all-in-all nearing 8 hours. The marathon itself was okay- not as many people were interested in talking about the products which made our day pretty lackluster. Our hotel was pretty darn cool and I definitely recommend it if you are traveling to Houston- Magnolia Hotel. It had free breakfast, happy hour, and milk and cookies :-) The decor was super modern and there was a neat roof-top spa which was lovely in the rain at night. On the way back I was having some car problems and my car kept turning off and coasting to a stop while on the highway. It was a bit scary after it happened three times, but then it made it the last 120 miles home. I took it in on Monday- there had been something wrong with the ignition switch.

School started Tuesday- my last semester of undergrad. Where did college go? Not fair. I am looking forward to working, assuming I can find a job with a company that has solid values. My classes are interesting but also perhaps the most demanding I've had in awhile. I'm in a Data Mining, Marking Policies (our capstone, writing course), Consumer Behavior, and Business Ethics. Most of the teachers a very engaging, one to the point of being intimidating. Either way, it will be a very good semester, learning-wise. I'm definitely not one of those students that will take X class because it is easiest, I'd rather take classes that are harder and can teach me valuable skills- I'm paying big bucks to learn after all!

My race schedule is pretty much finalized. I talked it over with my coach, Simon, yesterday. With my more demanding and stricter classes, I can't miss as much school as last spring, so I'll have less traveling until school gets out. My first warm-up race is in two weeks, I can't believe it!
This weekend is all about figuring out how to balance this whole school-cycling-Luna-VP thing...otherwise I'll end up looking like that old lady in the picture...wait a minute...that's me!

Peter and I at Tammy's Murder Mystery Party

Fredericksburg

Peter and I took a little trip out to Fredericksburg. Neither he or I had been out there for enjoyment of the cute little town, rather, we'd driven through countless times and had done a Clif event or two out there. It was lovely to get to finally check out the town, albeit the weather was quite a bit chilly (I refuse to wear long underwear in Texas, although I probably could have used it). I'm pretty sure 50% of the stores were German restaurants or wineries- haha. We also tried to go check out Enchanted Rock since I had never been, but it was closed. We drove out there anyways so I could at least kinda see it from afar. It was a nice little trip with great company :-D

My date

Me

The sheep ran up to us like puppies!

Downtown

There were lots of neat things in the Marketplaz

He's smiling

A present for the town, handmade from Germany

Enchanted Rock is in the distance!

The rest of this week is a bit jam-packed with plenty of riding, working, job searching, and training camp stuff (that is next week!!), thus why I've been up since 5:30am hehe. Have a good week!

More Fort Collins Pictures

Dress made of Celestial Seasonings tea bags

Snow Shoeing at Lory State Park

Odell's Brewery

Austin, Austin, why are you so cold?

The flight back to Austin went pretty smoothly for a turbulent flight. Austin greeted me with 40 degree and raining weather. Danielle was nice enough to not only pick me up from the airport but come inside and help me with that darned bike case. The day was all about getting settled and somehow the day ended without my little bit of rollers I had planned. Oops. This week had a lot of riding and I had to a lot to catch up on (and still do). Training went very well, but I guess being stuck on the trainer for an awful number of hours at altitude will do that ;-)

Thursday we went to Josh G's New Years Pajama Party, although, I'll admit I was quite wiped out by 10pm. I wish I had taken pictures of everyone in their pajamas...and kimonos...and longhorn slippers. Friday I was supposed to run to the gym and do my gym stuff but I misread the schedule and after I had run there I found out the gym was closed on New Years Day, so I had to run home (Peter was going to pick me up in an hour but he was in church and it was 35* outside!). My joints are a little too weak to run that far so I paid the price and was very sore for a few days after that. Later that day, Peter and I journeyed to the infamous Round Rock Outlets to look for some after-holiday deals and to see Sherlock Holmes at the theater there. Both the Outlets and Sherlock Holmes were pretty good.

Saturday was probably one of my least enjoyable rides because my hips and knees were hurting from the unintended long-run. I started with the Flyers group ride and then headed further Northeast for what felt like a neverending 4.5 hour ride. In the evening, Peter and I headed down to the Austin Flyers launch party and saw some friends. It was good to catch up. It's hard to split time between so many "groups" of friends- I want to see them all all the time. I very blessed to have such great friends in my life. Sunday was pretty chill but enjoyable. I went to church, re-organized my room, went to lunch with Danielle, went for an awesome tempo ride in the 40-degree mist- note: the weather was not awesome- since then, I've just been doing stuff around the house and got in some good living room yoga.

This week is looking like a good and busy one: Fredericksburg trip, much more Luna work, plenty of riding, finishing up everything for camp next week, a lot of job searching, and some fun stuff planned with friends. It's supposed to freeze and snow this week! This is not Austin! Normally it's in the 40's at night and 60's during the day. YIKES!