Planet Olin

Highlights:
Vacation in British Virgin Islands.
Living in Hippy Suite and Gay Hall.
Performed "Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy" in the Vagina Monologues.
Hula Hoop Birthday Showdown with Giulia.
Entered poster competition at ASEE Conference.
Won 6th place and "Best Crash" at HPV Challenge.
Celebrated grandparent's 50th wedding anniversay in Seattle and Omaha with tons of cupcakes.
Worked at Constellation Energy.
Spent the summer in Baltimore - Flick's on the Hill, learning bridge, tribal belly-dancing lessons, okcupid dates.
Visited the beach with high school friends.
Volunteered at the Philly Folk Fest with Central Control!
Volunteering at The Femme Show.
Trying miracle berries for the first time.
Rugby team bonding.
First roller derby bout.
Obama!

And a meme:
1. Was 2008 a good year for you?
An eventful/interesting year at least.

2. What was your favorite moment of the year?
Philly Folk Fest. I am so glad that I found such a great committee - I love Central Control.

3. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
My oh-so-disappointing okcupid date.

4. Where were you when 2008 began?
I think I was at home? I totally forget.

5. Who were you with?
I don't actually remember.

6. Where will you be when 2008 ends?
Abby's House

7. Who will you be with when 2008 ends?
Abby, Meredith, Virginia, Jennie

8. Did you keep your new years resolution of 2008?
It turns out that my goals were as follows:

1. Appreciate my friends.
2. Meet new people (and try to be a bit more outgoing when meeting them).
3. Focus on doing things I enjoy.

I guess I did that.
9. Do you have a new years resolution for 2009?
Have a ton of fun on sea semester. I think I can handle that.

10. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No.

11. If yes, with who?
N/A

12. If yes, do they know?
N/A

13. Are you still in love with them?
N/A

14. Do you regret it?
N/A

15. Did you break up with anyone in 2008?
Depending on how you count it, Simone and I broke up for the second time (or at least decided to stop sleeping together) at the very beginning of 2008.

16. Did you make any new friends in 2008?
Yep! :)

17. Who are your favorite new friends?
Well right now my favorite new friend is Rachel :)

18. What was your favorite month of 2008?
August

19. Did you travel outside of the US in 2008?
British Virgin Islands

20. How many different states did you travel to in 2008?
All of the states between MD and MA, NH, WA, NE, all of the states between MA and WI, PA.

21. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2008?
Nope.

22. Did you miss anybody in the past year?
I missed Simone after she left. I missed Kelly when she was in Africa.

23. What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2008?
Itty Bitty Titty Committee!

24. What was your favorite song from 2008?
Of the hits . . . "So What" Pink

25. What was your favorite record from 2008?
I bought Gina Young's latest album - 3AM Voice. It's pretty good.

26. How many concerts did you see in 2008?
Good Asian Drivers, Regina Spektor, Capital Pride Women's Party (Odd Girl Out, Betty, Bitch, Melissa Ferrick), Philly Folk Fest (highlights include Nicole Reynolds and Jake Shimabukuro), Dan Deacon, Astrotravelers.

27. Did you have a favorite concert in 2008?
Capital Pride Women's Party

28. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2008?
I started casually drinking more. Like I'll drink hard cider while doing my homework.

29. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2008?
None at all.

30. How many people did you sleep with in 2008?
One.

31. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Oh god. That time I made a huge fool of myself putting moves on that Wellesley-girl-who-will-not-be-named.

32. What was the biggest lie you told in 2008?
That I was ready to be friends with Kristen right after she told me she didn't like me like I liked her.

33. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2008?
No idea.

34. Did you treat somebody badly in 2008?
I'm sorry if I did.

35. Did somebody treat you badly in 2008?
Not that I remember now. I'm terrible at holding grudges.

36. How much money did you spend in 2008?
Not going to go back and calculate that.

37. What was your proudest moment of 2008?
Finding out that the reviewers liked the paper that Zhenya and I submitted to the Academic Exchange Quarterly.

38. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2008?
Wellesley-girl-who-will-not-be-named.

39. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2008 and change something, what would it be?
I wish the ASEE conference had been more eventful, I need to be more outgoing in new places.

40. What are your plans for 2009?
Chill out in the ocean. Figure out what I want to do with my life.

Loneliness sets in pretty damn fast when everyone leaves at the same time.

I'm starting to feel like I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time for my love life. I keep meeting interesting, attractive people and then skipping town.

My goals for winter break are as follows:

REGULARLY
Start AHS Capstone
Watch Rachel Maddow Show and become informed
Actually blog at http://caseycan.blogspot.com/
Read books
Learn to play the mandolin

PROJECTS
Make a personal website
HPV
    Seven Cycles Tour
    West Systems Sponsorship
    3M Sponsorship
    Other Sponsorships
Get rid of stuff (mostly clothes)
Back-up computer
Pack for Sea Semester
Make a budget
Visit people
Figure out what my SWE Membership is good for
Figure out what my ASME Membership is good for
Figure out where all the free wifi is in Baltimore
Try out a couple routes to bike into Baltimore
General adventuring
Get a summer job

Currently, I'm setting up my room. My mom put her mannequins in my closet, so I think I will use them to decorate my room. I really like the aesthetic of my room. It has all of this gaudy, vintage-y stuff in it - lots of clashing flower patterns that butt up against the lavender walls. I never quite finished remodeling my room so the floor is unfinished and there are no covers on any of the outlets or switches. It's quite delightful. And now I have this poorly balanced painting that I made of a ship barging through the ocean as the sun sets to also hang up.

Being in Baltimore is so excellent.

I am getting much better at welding. I'm so pleased. Tomorrow we're dropping the HPV off at Applied Plastics to get it powder-coated. Plus I'm totally going to finish my Tesla Turbine for Machine Shop Operations tomorrow. Dave said that I can definitely work in the machine shop next year. I'm excited.

My plans for winter break are as follows:
12/19 Drive home with Molly G.
12/23 First ever gynecologist appointment!!
12/24 Christmas Eve Party at Nora's
12/25 Relatives visiting for Christmas Dinner
12/31 Need to figure out New Year's Eve Plans
1/1 Fly to Bellingham
Have fun cross-country skiing and visiting my aunt
1/6 Fly home
1/7 Young Alumnae Tea at Garrison
~ 1/8 - 1/17 Heena is visiting me (ok she has a job in DC, but hanging out with me!)
~1/19 Mysterious Obama Inauguration event in Baltimore
1/19 - 1/21 Molly is visiting me (ok she's just here for the inauguration)
1/20 Inauguration!
1/21 Head to Olin
1/22 and 1/23 Tour Seven Cycles in Norwood, MA
1/27 Go back home
2/2 Equality MD Lobby Day
2/10 Sea Semester Starts!

Hopefully I won't get bored. I'm a little concerned about that. I may hang out at my high school a lot and potentially tutor people. I also need to finalize my plans for the summer. I don't think I'm going to bother following up with that San Francisco job - it's too much trouble to not live at home next summer. I'm supposed to call the Wheelabrator recruiter tomorrow. I'm not really sure how to follow up on the Constellation job. I should email the people I know again.

Everything is going according to plan (sort of).

I'm becoming uninspired by my current 5 year plan. I originally wanted to do an internship at the Solar Living Institute after I graduate. But maybe I should do something cool on a boat instead like Sea Shepherd (and visit Antarctica!) or Amistad (and work towards an issue I actually kind of care about -- I'm not sure I care about whales enough). It has also become increasingly clear that I probably will want a masters degree eventually. So maybe I should account for that in my plan. There are a lot of interesting sustainability masters degree progams. Maybe I should do the Solar Living Institute thing and figure out if that's really what I want to do with my life.

I also really, really want to live in Baltimore when I grow up. I just have to figure out what I will do there. Although I still think it would be cool to live in San Francisco. That seems like a generally cool place. Hmmmm.