James broke my heart

So I thought I had a flu, maybe strep throat worse-case scenario. So I go to the UT Health Clinic and they diagnose me with the flu and the doctor does the routine stethoscope on your back and says "take deep breaths". And then she pretty much says "WTF YOUR HEART IS WEIRD! WE NEED AN EKG IN HERE STAT!" And she had a point, I checked it out and she was right, my heart was skipping every third beat and it was a little scary. 

So I get an EKG.  And it looks really weird. The doctor consults a cardiologist and she says I have an irregular irritated heartbeat. And she's totally freaking out because she doesn't know what to do. I need tests to figure out what's wrong. There is some kind of electrical imbalance in my heart and my natural pacemaker is off. But UT's health test system is a little lacking in resources, so I need to go the ER. Now. 

All those big bumps and jumps in the EKG shouldn't be there. Everything on the right 1/3 is normal, and all the stuff on the left side is "WTF YOUR HEART IS WEIRD!" And my blood pressure was over 120 after resting in the UT clinic for an hour.

So James picks me up after he gets out of processing lab and he drives me to the ER. By this point I had already cried a lot because the doctor totally freaked me out and made me feel like I was going to die. Even though I felt just fine. I got James to feel my heartbeat and he admitted it was pretty weird. 

So after a while they take me back and run a bunch of tests: X-rays of my heart, another EKG, pee tests, blood tests, throat test, and other stuff. And they hook me up to the heart/lung/oxygen monitor with the screen. So I have those probes all over my chest and I'm just confused and being pumped with fluids through an IV. And James left after an hour to go to work, so I'm all alone. And I may or may not have breathed in and out really heavily to make a square wave on the lung chart. 

So after waiting over two hours to get all my tests back, the doctor pretty much tells me I'm fine. An irregular heartbeat isn't that big of a deal. If I want to follow up, he referred me to a cardiologist. But I'm fine? My heart's okay? Everyone just scared me for no reason? I mean, I guess it's kind of a big deal, but I don't think I'm dying anytime soon. So then I walk home from the hospital and go to sleep for 4 hours.

First day of school

So I think I'm one of a handful of girls in the world that think it's totally inappropriate to move in with a guy before marriage. Is that weird? 

Also, maybe I should have backed up my datas. Because now they're all gone :( We'll, I recovered most of them, and 61,000 other files, so I'm having to go through each one individually. Thank goodness for cover flow.

And my K team is going to DOMINATE. Total confidence.

And the rest of the first day of school wasn't too bad either.

My MacBook Pro is on its 4th life

After receiving two DOAs from Apple, my graphics card is defective so I'm out a computer for 5-7 days. I have my iPhone but it's not exactly meant to be all-purpose computing machine. Aka this kind of sucks.

And I regret forgetting to back up my data before sending it in to replace the motherboard.

Another Update

I guess I'll just do this bullet point style again. Here's what's been going on in my life recently:

• I just ended my internship at NI yesterday. Holy crap I loved it. It was hands down the best job I've ever had and could ever hope to have. The people, the work, the company. It's just a package you can't beat. But I want to get my masters, so I'll have to put that off for a while. 
• Along those lines, NI just released wireless DAQ!! This is a big deal to me, because it's what I was working on all summer. Check out this video on environmental engineering and wireless DAQ and the new Wireless Node and Gateway. I know the prototyped product looks a little rough right now, but it won't get released for another year. This is more like a sneak peak. If it means nothing to you, just talk to me and believe me, I'll be able to get you excited about it!
• My brothers just moved in to their condo today, which is in apartment 206. And I'm in 205. So yes, my brothers are literally right next door. Whoa. And they went to London without me. But they got me a really sweet tartan flask from Harrod's. They totally made up for that whole "We got to go to London with Dad but Ashley didn't" thing.
• Temporary roommate bullshit is lame. Especially when you can't even blame the girl because she wasn't raised with something called "common courtesy" so things don't even cross her mind. If she honestly didn't know what she was doing was wrong, I can't get mad after the fact.
• I am not Catholic.
• It turns out when I have a few beers, I turn random gingers into my ex-boyfriend. Even though I swear it looked exactly like him. But he was in North Carolina. I might be a little paranoid.
• I have been studying regularly for the GRE. It sucks. I have the worst vocabulary ever. Hopefully I can dominate the math at least.
• I love James. And his family.
• I got a Nikon D40 and am going to take an intro to DSLR class in the fall. I'm going to turn into one of those hipster photographers.
• The Olympics are AWESOME. Go America!! But Michael Phelps looks like a monkey. But literally 30 seconds ago he won his 8th medal. It was incredible. For a monkey.
• Tim is married. And Barley is adorable. But she peed and stained my carpet. But I wasn't there when she did it, so it's sort of not my fault. But more importantly, the guy that proposed to me two years ago is now married.
• I got an iPhone 3G. Totally worth the $2k. I love it. I can constantly prove I'm right (and occasionally wrong) in everyday conversation via Wikipedia. And reply to email with an uncanny timeliness. And I love Shazam. 
• I'm going to miss Victor and Stephen so much. So so so much. I miss them already. I really loved them. I hope they're reading this. I love y'all. 

Cliff diving at Pace Bend Park

Barley, my rent-a-puppy

Love of my life

Update

Regarding life choices,

• I love my job at National Instruments as a DAQ Mechanical Engineering Intern. I've never been challenged this much and I love it.
  
• I am definitely going to graduate school in mechanical engineering in fall 2009. I'm not sure where because I haven't even taken the GRE, let alone applied, but I am confident that grad school is the path I am going to take. I changed my mind again and I think I want to study Manufacturing and Design. I want to design things that make the world go 'round. 
• I wish UT ME offered courses on industrial design. I think that's one of the most fascinating things ever right now.
• Someone from Lockheed Martin called about a position as an ME in Fort Worth. Lockheed Martin! I really hope that works out; I really need a co-op for the spring semester after graduation and Lockheed is one of my dream jobs.

Regarding boring details,

• I'm going to clean my room finally! (maybe)
• I waxed my right hand, especially my right two fingers. I've been out of the cast for a month and it was still black and manly and I couldn't take it anymore. However, I did get my entire range of motion back.
• I'm doing yoga at work
• I am the tannest I've ever been in my entire life thanks to floating the river twice. I have tan lines!! My butt is totally bruised from floating, but the rapids were worth it!
• I want to get an iPhone, but hate that it's a $2000 commitment
• Ex-boyfriends are lame, except ones that let me borrow their puppies while they get married and honeymoon. Rent-a-puppy!

I haven't updated in a while

I'm working on top secret stuff at work and it's totally time consuming, but I love it.

Boom de yada!

Ashley's hand: the movie

I <3 Victor and Stephen

I am going to miss these guys so much. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Rivers looks less hot with a mustache

But the video for "Pork and Beans" is brilliant, especially for huge YouTube addicts like me. Finally I can really look at him as a nerdy Harvard student.

My screen is dirty

Adorable puppies to the rescue!

Tim is happy

I just had lunch with the guy I dated for two years, who I haven't spoken to for two years. It went astonishingly well. He's happy and has an adorable puppy and fiance and he's graduating in only 3 1/2 years. He really grew up. I want to puppysit Barley while they get married this summer. No joke. 

Berkeley

Let the application process begin. Crossing my fingers for Stanford, Berkeley, and CalTech. This is so adorable!!

I'm so proud of Kingwood

Gotta love this:

3 accused of using corpse head to smoke pot

It's even in perezhilton.com and drudgereport.com. Honestly, Queens of Armed Robbery, now this? It's just disgusting. I could go on a really long rant, but it's frustrating to type with only my left hand. Only 16 more days!

Apple WWDC '08

I have nothing to do with this conference, but I'm digging the poster templates and design advice. Mac + Science = Sexy.

Check it out here. 

Finals

I only have one! So I'm doing virtually nothing. Not cleaning. Not studying. Not working. Not graduating.

On another note, I'm excited getting soo excited about LeaderSahpe-Texas! It will prepare me to be a great Treasurer of TBP, haha.

I got an A in golf! Is that something I can even brag about?

Yummy

What a nation of fatties

Excuse me while I go get Wendy's. No joke.

Video Conference Drama

I have a new respect for professors and the stuff they have to put up with. Needless to say, our joint research project with UCSD is not going smoothly.

Land Locked Blues

And the world's got me dizzy again
You'd think after 22 years I'd be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I'm always pacing around or walking away

I said I'd start applying to graduate school and studying for the GRE and preparing the NSF fellowship application when school gets out. School's out. 

I know I'm leaving but I don't know where to

Coachella

So incredible. See Facebook for complete album.

What the heck, Apple?

Does anybody else's Mac do that? What does "Not Charging" mean?