It was a long semester. Every semester, I freak out about my grades and then get pretty good ones...All A's.

I wrote a 50 page paper on risk perception for Research Methods in Economics. I got the second highest grade on I believe two Game Theory exams. I kicked butt in a presentation on Switzerland for International Business. I studied workplace violence in Violence and Destruction in Society. And I....did math stuff...in Finance. Ok so Research Methods and Game Theory were definitely my favourite classes, and definitely my hardest classes.

Now, I am a Senior. It's been nice this last semester though, in classes full of econ majors, most of whom were seniors. I've always enjoyed chumming with people older than myself.

It was a good semester with the dive club as well. Learning a ton about being a leader. Did several awesome trips!

I'm stuck in Orlando over the break....but by my own choosing Melissa is in town and I'd rather stay with her and keep working here and there to earn some extra cash.

I've moved into sidemount diving for safety reasons and have done some amazing dives to rarely visited cave recently...so beautiful in the lesser traveled portions, so little diver damage. Sadly, it looks like two caves I wanted to visit over the break are about to flood thanks to seasonal rain in Georgia.

It's been a productive year. First Aid, CPR, O2 admin, Rescue and AOW certs done...sidemount, done. Game theory and research methods kicked butt....I have awesome roommates and a nice room I share with two wiley ferrets and my beautiful girlfriend and I still hang out enough even though we live a lot further away this year, I was kinda worried we'd never see each other but it's worked out real well.

Have there been snags this semester? Obviously, because I didn't have enough time to update dA...but most of those snags turned into fun snags.

Worst decision of the semester? Taking the GMAT during finals week. My finals weren't too bad and because I worked my tail off from the day Thanksgiving break started until the end of finals week, I managed to avoid having to cram, by studying ahead of time. Then, I ended up cramming for the GMAT because even after lots of careful, patient studying over the last few months, I felt woefully unprepared.... Would have helped if I'd looked at the scoring though, my practice test grades weren't half bad, I just didn't take the time to read the scoring so I thought they were terrible. I ended up with a pretty good score and I'm applying to grad schools over the break!

Coming soon...this saturday, to be exact, I'll have been dating Melissa for a year!

It actually gets confusing. See, I asked her out at like, midnight, or so, on the night of the 25th. So technically, it was the 26th. But it still feels like we should celebrate on the 25th sometimes because that was when I headed off to the path in the woods with the candles and all to ask her to date me. And see, we were sort of dating for a week or so before. It's a crazy story but pretty much she knew I was gonna ask her out and the dynamic between us changed a week before I actually asked her out.

I've got plans...I'm hoping they are good ones. I pulled out all the stops for Valentines Day, and this isn't nearly as...impressive? I don't know, all I know is, best year of my life, and I'm gonna celebrate.

This past weekend, I snuck up to Gainesville for 24 hours or so to go visit a good friend and get in a cave dive!
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Go look at my pictures I think they are cool!

Goodness does time fly! I'm back in the thick of classes and I suppose I'm enjoying them. I didn't have much time off...oh well, life moves on.

Parking sucks this year, more than last year in my opinion. I spent over an hour one day looking for a spot. After that, I decided to primarily bike to campus. It's only 2.5 miles, but it is pretty hilly. I live in a lower part, on the same plane as the campus, but I have to go up a large hill, then down it, then up a smaller hill, to get to campus. So it's a good workout. All said and done I've biked an average of 75 miles a week the last few weeks.

And it was yesterday while riding to my girlfriend's house to take care of her pets that I had a tyre blowout. Technically just the tube...they sound like .22's when they blow, it's impressive. I have a spare tube with me most rides, but I hadn't yet put on a frame pump, so I limped to an auto repair shop and got them to fill the tube once I'd changed it. Today, I went to a bike shop and bought a nice frame pump

I love pets, but they are an inconvenience over holidays. I had hoped to spend the weekend diving in Gainesville, but my roommates were gone, and Melissa was gone, so I had to stay in town to watch pets. I could have gone up to Gainesville for a day, but then the marginal cost of the dive shoots way up, and the marginal benefit stays roughly the same or even declines a bit, and makes the proposition not worth it... I have been dry for several weeks now and I'm going stir crazy, but I can't afford to drive myself up just for one day. *sigh* cave diving is a crappy hobby. It's expensive, and you have to drive a long way to caves.

And it kills my friends. Just two days ago, a person I believe I had met a few times died in a cave, and some other, better friends of mine recovered his body. Not as bad as my friends Joe and Yessic, who died about 11 months ago, but still, it sucks.

I've been having a ton of dreams lately. They are often extremely odd, and I guess I wake up often because I remember a ton of different dreams. I don't think about dreaming much until I hit one of these spots where I dream a ton, but usually I guess I don't remember very many dreams, maybe one or two a week, if that.

I want to get married so I don't have to cook. I am so sick of cooking and it's only two weeks into the school year... I hate having to plan meals and think about what I am going to eat. I want someone to cook the food for me. I'll supply the money, I'll do the dishes, but I hate having to decide what to cook, and then having to cook it. I guess food just doesn't excite me the way it excites other people. Today, I got some fries because I was really wanting some fries and really not wanting to cook, and the silly fry cooker person put way too much salt on the fries. I mean, it was ridiculous. Using salt like it was going out of style. Kinda ruined the fries for me.

Speaking of food, I'm going to go cook something.

2k' in Peacock 3, a beautiful cave I'd never seen before. Definitely going back there, but perhaps in sidemount. No steps and getting in with my doubles and a stage, I'm amazed I didn't break a leg or twist an ankle. Beautiful dive except for our attempt at going down the P2 line, which gets too tight for backmount now after the last flood...that got silty.

Good deal on a new neck seal, and Tekna fixed again by Gamble.

Then, to the Heinkle and back in under an hour. I have to say, there is some amazingly beautiful cave back there, it's just incredible. Quick bathroom break then turned around and zoomed out, exits are always fun at Devil's due to the flow. Slows you down a lot coming in, speeds you up a lot coming out.

Nothing broke and I saw some beautiful cave.

What a long and hard summer! Four classes was too much for comfort. Intermediate Micro, intermediate macro, quantatative business tools II, and Cornerstone. Quant II is business and econ statistics, Cornerstone is like, business leaderships and ethics basics but it requires a service learning project. My teachers told me I was stupid to take all those at once, and over summer.

But I managed to end up with A's in everything but micro, where I got a B. And before you say "oh no you got a B, that's terrible!"....try taking that class. Especially from my professor, who is used to teaching graduate courses in econ. He made it very tough. All said and done, it was a good summer though, I suppose.

Lola broke on her second dive but now I think I have her fixed and will go test-dive her again tomorrow night. My drysuit broke on that same dive but it's being fixed as I speak and I'll test her out tomorrow night as well.

Working this weekend at Ginnie, moving next weekend, then moving Melissa, then working at Ginnie again, then I have a weekend or two to focus on getting rescue and divemaster certifications out f the way before classes start in the fall.

That's a short update on my life...now it's time to get ready for a grueling 10 hour shift. Yesterday I was lucky and got one 15 minute break, today I'm hoping to get atleast 30 minutes of break time but that might be a pipedream...