sleepy time

It's Friday night. I'm going to bed at 11.

Oh! I saw Devil Wears Prada tonight and it was really, really cute. I saw Superman on Wednesday and it was also amazing. Anywho, I'm exhausted. I *get* to work tomorrow, too. Woo hoo! Wish me luck.......

Whew.

What a week. My boss (who had previously only been around for 3 days since I started) came back from his business trip to South Africa, Geneva (Switzerland) and London. Just in time for my performance review. Spectacular. It wasn't terrible, it wasn't great, it was just exactly average. I guess it's good to get feed back earlier than later. He also mentioned that they haven't hired interns into this department for the last 5 or 6 years and back when they did hire them it was only 1 in 3 that got hired...which is a lot lower than I had anticipated. If I want a job here I have to sell my soul to the devil. Haha, just kidding...kinda. Oh, I have to not let my GPA drop, too. Apparently they don't even consider anyone for this department with lower than a 3.6... I guess that says a lot for the department, though. It's a pretty elite group of people, but in the good way. They're all so nice and smart and sarcastic... Overall a really great group.

Anyway, the job is still going well. I ended up working 8 hours of overtime this week...one day was a 13 hour day. I'm creating a database to track all of the 545 projects based on 30+ attributes that have been completed so far... Each project takes on average 10 minutes which is 91 hours which is over two weeks of work... if I were doing only that. Anyway, I've been doing overtime and my boss finally put someone else on the project with me so it'll get done. I'm also researching a way to put the database into a different database system (right now I'm just creating it in excel)...and then I have to convice my boss that it's a good idea to move it. Anyway, I have my work cut out for me.

I'm in Champaign this weekend hanging out with people. Peoria's fine, but it's good to get away, too. I'm sitting in the union (we don't have wireless in my apartment anymore) and there are two weddings going on here this afternoon. That's devotion. Weddings at the union? I guess they're big Illini fans. =) One of the brides just walked in but she didn't exactly look happy...haha, the flowers are pretty, though.

Anyway, I'm still alive. My ego bubble has a puncture wound from my review, but I guess it'll just make me work harder for the rest of the summer. I hope everyone's doing well. Keep me updated on how your summer's going, please!!

Weekend #1 in Peoria

So, this weekend was my first in Peoria. I've learned some very important things:

1. Peoria - Champaign - Batavia. No matter where you are, no one can pick anything to do on a Friday night. (Erin and I ended up renting Match Point [pretty good movie].)
2. The sun. The pool. The odd tan lines. (I went out to the pool that's in my complex and got some funny tan lines. I was only out for a little bit, but it was enough for some color, yay!)
3. When you only bring books in Spanish 1 of 2 things can happen: 1) you force yourself to actually read the books...thus advancing your Spanish abilities, or 2) you start reading the books, realize that it's kinda tricky and that your Spanish abilities are semi-nonexistent at this point and then borrow a book (in English) from a friend. (I picked option 2 and went from reading Fiesta [the Spanish translation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich).
4. Festivals + 5pm on a Saturday does not equal a crowd. (Erin and I went to the Washington Cherry Festival at the town just east of here... and it only took about 5 min to walk through. So small, so empty, so... sad?)
5. Ivy may grow in the forest, but they both came and visited me! (One of my roommates from UofI (Ivy) and her fiance (Forrest) visited me on Saturday cause they were in town for a wedding reception. Yay for visitors!)
6. Even with nothing on TV on a Saturday night I will still sit and watch it for HOURS until 2pm when I can't keep my eyes open. (I think Ron White is hi-larious...thank you Comedy Central for showing 3+ hours of back to back Ron White-ness. Too bad the jokes sometimes repeat themselves... =) )
7. Sam Lipman has a lot of stuff. (I helped Sam/Focker ;) move into her apartment today... it was a lot of trips, but I was glad to do it. Her family took me out to dinner, too! Free food!!)
8. I miss being in Spain. (KTP came home from Granada on Thursday and I talked to her for a long time on Friday. It just made me miss Europe even more...)
9. YOU should come traveling with me next summer. (The plan is to spend a month in various parts of Europe/Asia?/Australia before my [potential/hopeful] job would start in the fall. Of course, I have to have a job lined up so that I'd be able to pay the parents back for the loan I'll need to travel, but still. Here's my temporary list of places to visit: Portugal, Spain (again ;), Italy, Greece, Singapore?, Japan (to see Saori!), and end in Australia--where my oldest brother Brian and his wife will be living (!) for over a year and a half when he moves with his job. I also wouldn't mind hitting some of Germany, England, and Ireland, but I think it'll be easier/more probable that I'll get to those countries when I'm older. BUT, if you want to come with me and you really want to see those places or more... let me know. =) )
10. But I am le tired. (Getting up early stinks. I have to start getting ready for bed at about 9:30 (oops) if I want to get to bed in time to get "enough" sleep.)

On that note I should pack my lunch (!) and pick out clothes for tomorrow. Haha, I'm such an old woman.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend. I'm thinking about heading to UofI next weekend (night of June 9th-11th) and I'll be home in Batavia Father's Day weekend (June 16th-18th). I may hold off on UofI until after that. Let me know if anything is going on...