Cancun!

I leave early tomorrow morning for Cancun and will get home super late on March 31, Ill blog about my trip when I get back; take care!

Bittersweet

Well, Im afraid I have some bad news. My Grandpa Bryner (mom's dad) who was 74 passed away two days ago. I hear that he went peacefully in his sleep, something I am grateful for. Its never easy to lose someone you have met once, much less a family member. My grandfather was a very special, intelligent man. He graduated from the University of Miami, was a Staff Seargeant who served out of Germany during the Korean War. He met my grandmother there on a blind date actually, which I think is a wonderful story. He had four kids including my mom, owned several businesses and began publishing a few books in the last few years. He has 3 published (Ive read two and have the third just havent read it yet) and supposedly has 9 more manuscripts finished on his computer ready to be published. He has had some health issues for years, so its not completely unexpected but still weird. I hadn't seem him in like 9 years, but we had recently been emailing fairly often about his books and some other things. I don't know if it has really sunk in or not. I just seem to get the most sad when talking to my mom because she is the connection to him I guess. Ugh, I don't know. I know I owe him a lot though, I really think that a lot of my ability as far as school and my intelligence comes from him...


On a happier note, Roger Federer plays Andy Murray in 15 minutes for a spot in the final. If Roger wins, I will get to see him live in the final tomorrow which Im really excited about. Murray has beat him the last few times, but I really have a feeling Roger is going to win today. March Madness: I picked 24 out of 32 first round games right and im 1 for 1 in second round games so far. I lost one of my final four teams but I still have a shot of winning if the other teams make it through. Uconn looked good, so I like their chances. Im probably going to head out to Indian Wells tonight and stay at my uncles.. the gates open at 10am tomorrow for the final and it will be the last chance I get to get Rogers autograph if he makes it to the final.


I need to get a hair cut from Jennie while Im out there, its starting to get shaggy and I want to be all trimmed up for Cancun. 5 days now.. im pretty excited, but I wont be like estatic until I get there im sure. Ordered new bank cards, canceled the old ones, and ordered my new license from the DMV (PITA= Pain in the ass). My Senegal books came so im looking forward to beginning my research for my masters thesis. Thats about it... There was something else but I can't think of it right now. Talk to you soon

Post- St. Pattys Day

Well well, the Moscow deal was only up for one day so I missed out on that. Hm, I had an epic St. Pattys Day. Got pretty drunk before class with Brittany and Stephanie and then went out with my uncle and Jennie. It was so epic, I broke a Urinal, lost my wallet, and lost my cell phone holster. I was pretty sick all day yesterday, just felt like I had a bubble of gas stuck in my chest and then last night I had to do my final presentation for my graduate class oh man. It went pretty well though, Im definitely getting an A in the class. Here is a quick school update:

SSCI 600: Done
Hist 360: Done (Just need to edit my final paper and email it in)
Hist 370: Final on Tuesday


School is pretty much wrapped up, I have a few more assignments for my last online credential class, but I think im just going to recycle a few papers from other classes because they are similar assignments. Called my bank and cancelled my cards and ordered new ones. I have to go to the DMV later and get a new license. Other than that I only had like random business cards and a best buy reward zone card in my wallet. The wallet was hella nice black leather from buckle which cost me like 30$ its only like 2 years old too oh well. I have a backup wallet from last x-mas that I haven't used. Also, I had like 45$ in the wallet, thats what sucks the most. Oh well, I guess its good I spent so much of the money I had on St. Pattys day haha otherwise there would have been more left.

Sunday I get to see the men's and women's finals at the Indian Wells tournament. Roger is still alive so hopefully there is a good chance Ill see him. He plays Fernando Verdasco today though which is going to be a tough match. I leave for Cancun in a week too which is insane.. Im totally not ready for it but its coming fast. Thats all I have for now.. Oh yeah March Madness started, which is my favorite and Im in a bracket pool which is sweet. See ya later.

Indian Wells

Yesterday was so awesome. I have like 60 pictures and probably 15 videos.. all I can say is tennis tournaments rock. If you want an opportunity to meet, talk to a little, get pictures of, and autographs of famous athletes, this is as good a place to do it as there is. I got James Blake, Marat Safin, and Fernando Verdascos autographs. I saw and took pictures of all the top players in the world minus Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, but Fed, Nadal, everyone it was so sweet. Im going back for the night session tonight and the final on March 22. Its the 1st round and even tho the best players dont play, its actually better because you get like courtside seats to watch them practice and most of them are scrimmaging with other top players anyways so its like your own private match.

In other news, all I have left for my three classes is this Hist 360: final paper (5 pages), Hist 370: final test, and SSCI 600: Final presentation. I have 100% in the last 2 classes and a 96% in the first one so the chances of getting a 4.0 are looking good. I decided to drop out of my teaching credential program too and fully pursue a PhD (Can't remember if I posted this already or not). If I decide to go back im almost done with the program anyways so it wouldnt take me long to finish... just two classes.

Uconn lost to Syracuse yesterday in 6 OT's.... 6! Second longest game in college basketball history. So we are out of the Quarterfinals of the big east tourney. Im guessing we will be a #2 seed, but since Pitt and Oklahoma also lost who knows. Louisville and UNC will def by 1 seeds and the only 2 are in the air. Im guessing Memphis gets one, with either Uconn/Pitt getting the last one and the other one being the top #2 seed. Since Pitt has beat us twice, Im guessing we will be the two. I guess ill find out Sunday.

Been out in the desert/hanging out with my uncle all week... good times. Lets do a quick recap: Tues night we went to two bars and partied back at the house and was up until 5am, Weds night we went out to two bars and went to a little house party afterwards and was up until 4am. All day yesterday I was at the tennis tourney and went back to uncs and crashed at midnight I was exhausted. Oh yeah, on tuesday me and these two girls from my class went to a bar during our break and had drinks haha probably the funnest thing ever. Next week we are going to meet up an hour before class and drink before we go... Lots of fun and crazy stuff in the desert never a dull moment for sure.

I leave for Cancun in 13 days... Im so god damn excited. Trying to plan the NY trip too, dates are locked in and just waiting for a good deal on flights. Saw a crazy deal to Moscow too so who knows I might use my tax return money and take a little weekend trip to Russia. Haha, see you all later

Big Shit Poppin'

Im going to keep this short, simple, and sweet since I tend to write so damn much when I post. First, Im dropping my high school teaching credential program after this class. As of right now, I dont plan on teaching high school anymore and continuing the program is just a waste of time and money. Its sapping energy and thought that I could be using towards my thesis or other useful venues. Second, I have a new business venture that Im going to keep under wraps until it unveils in about 6 months or so, but just know something is in the works and I will be working very hard on it. Third, Indian Wells in four days which I am freaking out about . Fourth, Im going to Cancun in less than THREE WEEKS HOLY SHIT! Its going to be so nice to leave the country and get away. Anyways that it is, oh I played tennis yesterday and for 2 of the 4 sets served the best I ever have. So some exciting news for sure. Peace to everyone

I don't have a good title to put here

Today was a good day. I met with my professor from last quarter Dr. Chau and he agreed to be my Master's thesis mentor. This is a huge relief, I wrote about my topic earlier (Senegal for those of you who dont rememeber... wait who am I kidding? No one reads this hahaha). Anyways, he really liked the idea and was super excited about it. I also talked to him about pursuing Phd's, and some other stuff. Im glad he liked the idea, I was worried it might be crap but he said Senegal is different an interesting case regarding African nations. He said I probably have a good shot at getting published if I can write a good thesis too, which would be sweet.

What else is new lately.. level 40 in Halo, been running and working out quite a bit. Oh yeah, been getting some great music thanks to Kenzie. She knows so many Indie bands that my library is growing hella fast haha. So thats been good, plus U2 realeased their new cd so I need to get that. Im hoping to play some tennis tomorrow, played last sunday and my serve has improved a lot so im getting really excited. Oh yeah! Indian wells is next week so Ill get to watch some professional tennis live which I am completely stoked about.

School is good, quarter is wrapping up just 3 more weeks including finals. Im going to try to knock out some papers this weekend. My third to last class for my single subject credential just started and it is retarded. I am seriously considering either stopping after this class or just finishing my course work and skipping student teaching. First of all, the chances of me starting off my teaching career in high school are looking slimmer by the day. Second, if I have my masters or PhD and I decide to teach high school , all I would have to do is student teach and I can intern and basically skip the student teaching. Plus, its just time that would take away from focusion on my grad studies and my thesis. The money has already been spent as far as loans for the program but i dont know if there is any point in student teaching if I might not do it.

The only thing is I still really want to coach and I dont know how that will all work out if I decided to become a professor or not. Eh... might have to suck it up for a few more years and not coach as weird as that is. Who knows.. I still have time to think about it, this class will go until April and if I decided to just finish the classes Ill be done in June and I wouldnt student teach until next fall so.

Thats about it, need to get some books on Senegal and begin my literature review. If I can finish most of my reading by summer, knock out my paper over summer, and then just touch it up in the fall it would be ideal.