Mountain Man

I went camping this weekend with my wife and a couple of friends. My wife and I had been wanting to go so we decided to jump into it sooner rather than later. It turned out to be a huge success! We made tin-foil dinners at the apartment before we left so our meal would be quick and simple at the camp site. Our tent was easy to set up. Sleeping soundly through the night was difficult--we slept on a slope that caused us to slide down our sleeping mat throughout the night. Other than that, however, we had a blast! We look forward to at least a few more camping trips this semester. Soon we'll be qualified mountain man and woman!

$800 lesson

This week I learned a very expensive lesson: DO NOT be less than 40 minutes early to an airport when catching a flight!

My wife and I were leaving on our honeymoon last Saturday when we decided we would grab a quick bite to eat with my wife's mother. The airport we were flying out of was small (3 gates) so we wouldn't need to be super early. We came strolling into the airport 36 minutes before our flight was scheduled for take off. The lady behind the check-in counter informed us, without much sympathy, that it was too late to to check-in or check luggage. We would have to get another flight.

After a lot of frustration and $800 later, we had two new plane tickets leaving later that evening to Los Angeles so we could go on our honeymoon. Not a great way to start a honeymoon, but a very valuable lesson learned...

That's HOT

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in my first session of hot yoga. It was with my mother-in-law. She's an avid yoga-doer (not sure what the term is for that). I have not been to a gym or done any type of intense workout in nearly 6 months. Needless to say, it was an hour and fifteen minutes of hot, sweaty, scrutinizing pain! 

Fortunately, my body was in need of this sort of readjustment and I was grateful to have participated. My muscles feel more relaxed than they did before. My back feels better than it has in months too! Therefore, I have learned that hot yoga is not a fad to be overlooked. I'm very seriously considering finding a hot yoga place near campus to start going regularly myself. Hopefully I can get my wife to attend with me. This way we can enjoy a more relaxed and healthy lifestyle together.

Today I completed my third day of classes in this new semester. While I have already learned many things, one lesson stands out the most. On Monday, day one of classes, all I brought with me was my laptop. No paper. Not even a pen or pencil. I thought I could use my laptop for any note taking I would need to do. While I may have been able to make it work, note taking on a laptop was not effective for me. On day two of classes, I decided I would try the original method of taking notes in class. Boy what a difference it made. It seemed that by virtue alone of having my paper and pen ready at the start of class, my mind was ready to start learning. Day three of utilizing the same note taking method was equally as effective.
This is important because I am not just taking these classes to go through the motions and get a grade. On the contrary, I am taking these classes to internalize the concepts to jumpstart my career. I really don't have much concern for the letter grade i Receive at the end of the semester. Therefore, because of this lesson learned, I will always begin each class period with my notebook and pen ready.