Strange Occurrences in A106

Last night, the group went to Dave and Buster's, and when I left, everything was normal, but when I came back to my room...I thought everything was normal, but then I went in to the bathroom. The toilet seat was up! Don't get that one... I don't think they clean at night, and I certainly did not put the toilet seat anywhere new. I locked my door when I went to sleep last night-- latch and dead bolt.

Oh the adventures of being an actuary!

From the website beanactuary.com--

Top 10 Reasons to be an actuary:

10. You want a career that is dynamic and challenging. aka-- smart people are making codes confusing and nearly impossible to read
    
9. You don’t want to go to graduate school. aka-- only 13 exams that you can pass in 7 years if you are a genius
   
8. You want a career with superior job security through economic cycles. aka-- no one wants to learn how to do this no matter what the price!
   
7. You want a professional title, but don’t want to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant. aka-- because even though they have to go through more exams, actuaries are waaay cooler, especially than accountants.
   
6. You want a career with many opportunities that will provide you with skills that are transferrable across multiple industries. aka-- SCUBA diving, rock climbing, photographer, fudge maker, bread baker
   
5. You would like to "earn while you learn." why is that in quotes? is it supposed to be sarcastic?
   
4. You want a career that you control because advancement is merit-based. aka-- what's the rush?
   
3. You want to be able to choose among outstanding job offers. aka-- get a job straight out of college!
   
2. You want a highly competitive salary and excellent benefits. aka-- if you're in the business of pension plans, you better have one.
   

And the #1 reason to Be An Actuary is ...

1. You are self-motivated, goal oriented, and have superior math aptitude and communication skills. aka-- this is a job where telling math jokes is not only acceptable, but highly encouraged!
   

Haha! Whatever! My 10 List for being an actuary:

10. Free drinks (like cokes and chocolate milk and juice) whenever you want
9. Dessert twice a day during training. Plus snack time, twice a day also!
8. Walking to training and almost falling over because you’re still not so comfortable in heels and turning around cautiously just to find out that you were not in fact the only witness (anything to make someone’s walk to training more pleasurable, right?).
7. Being in retirement at 22.
6. Having clients casually say “I think those people are at summer camp” and be serious.
5. Mini golf, indoors with black lights. The greens were about 7 feet long by 3 feet wide with different “obstacles” like shoots and bumps.
4. Global locations.
3. 48 math nerds. Dave and Buster’s. Scavenger hunt. Running required. I’ll say no more…
2. Conversations that include, “If you touch my calculator, I’ll kill you!”

And the #1 reason to Be An Actuary is ...

1. Free flight to St. Louis to visit Trey for the middle weekend of training in D.C.!

Washington D.C.

I'm staying just outside of our nation's capital in Potomac, MD for training for my job! It's not very close to D.C., but we have a free night tomorrow, so I'm hoping that a few people will want to go into the city to check out some monuments and do some typical D.C. things. I've never been here before, so it would kill me not to check out the sites. Flying in, we flew right by the Washington Monument and White House, so that was awesome! So, I grabbed my first cab by myself, and he took me to the place where we're staying, and he was a really interesting guy. He was from Sierra Leon, but then he moved to London a long time ago and finally came to D.C. a few years ago. He and his family travel all over the US, and they drive everywhere because they can get out and see the sites in the different cities they go through. Then, it was time for training to start. Some of the sessions have been really interesting, and others have been really boring. I like being able to practice rather than just listen to people talk. Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun getting to know people and learning that actuaries are actually fun, social people!

Yum!

Breakfast:
6 biscuits
6 Turkey sausage links
6 tablespoons of syrup

Lunch:
5 sandswiches each with:
1 hoagie roll
3 slices of turkey
1 oz of cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon of mayo
5 nectarines
6 oz of chips

Snack:
1 oz of cheddar cheese

Dinner:
24 oz filet mignon
4 twice baked potatoes (2 whole potatoes)
41 spears of asparagus

Dessert:
6 pieces of fudge

Yes. That's a lot of food, I know. Surprising how I keep my figure, huh? Well, not quite the truth, but that's what I would have eaten yesterday if I were to get the number of calories that Michael Phelps has on a daily basis. Yes, 8-10,000 calories a day! So, if you love to eat and want to keep your figure, here's the diet for you: the Olympics.

Welcome to Watson Wyatt Worldwide where we want to work!

This this the view from my cubicle! My cube needs to be spruced up a little more to feel like home, but I can't complain because I have a window! If you look closely, the big open area on the very right is Love Field airport.


Yesterday was kind of a slow day at work. I don't remember what I was doing, but I dropped my purple pen (which is my favorite), and look at how it landed! Whoa dang!!


Now, sit back. I'm going to tell you two stories.

Story Number 1:
Courtney and Phil found out by chance that their pastor was going to Maine for the wedding of President Bush's nephew. They thought he was going to be one of a few officiants in the wedding. Cool, huh?

Story Number 2:
One of the girls at work was on PTO when I started on Monday. When she got back on Tuesday, I asked her where she went on vacation. "To Maine with my family," she said. She also happened to mention going to a wedding-- the wedding of George P. Bush and Amanda Williamson. The President of the United States was going to be there, and so someone told her not to bug him for pictures, but apparently he came up and took a picture with her and a group of her friends just because he felt like it. Cool, huh?

Wait! What?
Walking to lunch today, I was talking to Elizabeth and said, "Hey, I think that my sister's pastor was at the same wedding you were at this weekend."
Elizabeth: "Really?"
Me: "Yeah, I think he was an officiant or did some readings!"
Elizabeth: "Was he the Episcopal minister who did the ceremony?"
Me: "No, he's Methodist."
Elizabeth: "Oh. I can't think of anyone else who did the ceremony...Hmm...Wait, is his name Jim Bowden?"
Me: "Yes! I'm pretty sure that's him!"
Elizabeth: "Crazy! Yeah, he gave the blessing before dinner, and I sat next to him!"

So, out of the tons of people I'm sure were there, Courtney and Phil knew 1, and I knew 1. Little did we know that they would sit next to each other at dinner! Cool, huh?

Saturday...Monday...Wait! Where'd Sunday go?

Saturday night, Courtney, Phil, and I went to the Rangers' game! Some of their friends from church have season tickets, and when they can't go, they offer them to the Moser's. Unfortunately, the Rangers lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, but there were a few really cool plays. At one point, we were down (I don't know by how many), we had no outs, and the bases were loaded. I was soo hoping to see my first ever grand slam, so I got out my camera...

They didn't get it that time, but they got another chance! I took another picture, but then I looked up. The picture wasn't quite as pretty: 2 outs, 2 strikes, 2 fouls, bases loaded. It would take a miracle to have this batter hit a home run for a grand slam. So, I put my camera down. Then...smack! He hit it right past the third baseman, and they were running!!

After a while, we all got a little tired of the game, and so we began trying to find our hidden talents! Look at us!

And today was my first official day of work! I'm not sure where Sunday went... I was so grateful that traffic was not bad today. I left a little before 8 and was up from the parking garage by 8:35! Wow. Anyway, I got to re-meet a lot of people from last summer, and I got a new cube with a window view! Apparently, hawks come and sit on a ledge right outside my office, and sometimes they bring roadkill! Eww! I have my first meeting to talk about client work on Wednesday afternoon, and I leave for training in D.C. in less than two weeks now! Crazy!

An informative note about the poll on Trey's blog: I am really really really really really terrified of snakes! Please submit your vote accordingly.

Ye also ought to wash one another's feet

Dora is such a Godly pug.

Waaaay Beyond the Bubble...and sorry, Courtney, I blogged first!

In fact, 704 miles Beyond the Bubble. My favorite place to go around Prin was surprisingly only 10 minutes away, a feat that seems impossible for a college located in little old Elsah. It's a drink store run by a Principia alum and her mom called Beyond the Bubble, which is an ironic play on words because it was supposed to be a way to escape the phenomenon of the Prin bubble where you never see anyone other than fellow Principians. However, "the Bubble", as we called this little place in Grafton, was almost another little Prino satellite. You were pretty much guaranteed to run into at least one other student or faculty or staff member when you went there. Nevertheless, no matter who you ran into, this was one place that was hard to say goodbye to. What can I say about those little bobas of tapioca goodness? The tea part is basically a milk tea base combined with fruity flavors of your choice, and the bubbles are actually called boba, which look like large fish eyeballs but are really giant tapioca balls. It's great to watch someone who's never had it before get there first boba. They give you gigantic straws so you can suck the boba up, and the first reflex is usually, "What the heck is this in my mouth?!", but after you get used to it, you start to like chewing your drink.

Anyway, on one of our last visits, my roommate Marcia and I decided to purchase at-home Bubble Tea kits. She got pineapple, and I decided on honeydew, and then we swapped half of each of ours so we could try both flavors. It's been sitting around waiting to be used all summer, and yesterday was the day! Courtney took the day off work, so in the afternoon, we watched Becoming Jane and made Bubble Tea.

First of all, uncooked boba looks and smells like dogfood. They're these brown, crumbly balls, and they permeate the entire bag with their smell.
Then you plop them in boiling water. Gotta get better, right? Wrong. Ewwwwww
But, finally after they boil for about 30 minutes, they turn black and start looking like boba are supposed to. I was going to say normal, but there's not really anything normal about these things! You can kind of see them through the steam.
Courtney liked the next step a lot! Give the boba a little shower... She liked the plopping, slurping sounds it made. It reminded me of the banana noise, and for those of you who know me, well, yuck!

Sorry, folks, the video doesn't want to upload right now.

After it was all rinsed, we made our smoothies. We used Jasmine Tea, which was recommended, but it smelled (and consequently tasted) a little too much like herbal lotion, so I don't think I'd do that again. Here are Courtney and I with our finished products--she had Chai and I had honeydew:Courtney and I decided that someday we'll have th Baker Sister's Cafe, and one side will serve fried dill pickles and fried green tomatoes, and the other will be Bubble Tea. Emmeline and L-Louise look forward to doin' business with y'all in the the future, loves.

By far, the funniest part of this experiment was the warning label. Watch out Gramma!

Inspirational

If you haven't seen this yet, you should watch it. It is well worth the time.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture.