September 26, 1999
There and Back Again

Stuart and I got back from Tampa this morning at 10 AM. We drove my car down there on Friday afternoon because I had to be the one to drive back today. Stu went rock climbing in Jacksonville after we got back to Gainesville and he didn’t want to drive back from Tampa and then a round-trip to Jacksonville and back. I didn’t blame him. Anyway (that was kind a long explanation of why I was driving) I am back home now.

We got to Tampa on Friday around 7:30 PM. Friday was kind of a funny day. First of all, our dynamics test wasn’t a lot of fun. The two problems on the test were ones we had gone over in class, but with different numbers. After the test was over it turned out that almost all of us had gotten stuck on the same aspect of one problem and that was unusual. It made me feel better since at least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand that part, but I still think I did pretty badly on the test. I’ll find out soon enough – maybe sooner than I would like. In space systems design our professor strongly encouraged us to attend a lecture on payload mechanics at 3 PM that afternoon. Stu and I flipped a bottle cap to determine whether we would go or not and it told us we should. So around 2:30 PM I am sitting in my room and Stu calls to say he will pick me up in 10 minutes. Thirty minutes later his little red car turns onto sorority row and we decide that the lecture can be skipped. About two and a half hours later I picked him up to leave town.

The car wash on Saturday was for Robyn. She is raising money so she can run in a marathon benefiting a leukemia foundation and this car wash was one of her activities to get some money. We washed cars outside the Burger King where Stuart worked two summers ago. He knew some of the people working there too. After about six hours washing cars Robyn raised about $270. That seemed like a lot of money to me considering we had a slow start and we only had about eight people working on the cars. At the busiest point I don’t think we even had anyone standing on the road holding a sign to advertise! I had fun, but I did get a lot of sun (including a weird burn on my feet from my flip-flops) and I’m pretty stiff today. Washing cars is a good arm and shoulder workout, however. We watched the Florida vs. Kentucky football game last night, but since it was a runaway for the Gators the game wasn’t too interesting. I kept dozing off during the last ten minutes or so. I was tired from the car wash and the game ended around 11 PM.

This morning we drove back to Gainesville. I got a new keyboard from Best Buy after I dropped off Stu at his apartment. I thought you’d like to know that this entry is the first to be typed with it. My old one must have been damaged when I brought it from Tallahassee to Gainesville in August. I am excited to know that every time I turn on my computer now the keyboard will type what I want it to. Isn’t that nice?

The Big Sister/Little Sister activities at Alpha Chi Omega are going to start at 4 PM today. I have seen some sisters setting up already. I wish I had an addition to my family to get excited about, but that's just not happening. Also I have to go to a Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI) pledge meeting at 6 PM tonight. My fluid mechanics homework will have to get some sometime – we’ll see what happens. I hope everyone had a good weekend!