Chris' Updates

The past week I've been a working fool. Four of the last 5 nights, I've taken bus runs ending after midnight. At least I'm making decent money. Saturday, Ashley and I attended a Catholic pre-marriage seminar that explained much of the theology behind marriage. I was surprised to find that they were fairly vocal on sex. We were informed of the usual notion that it's a defining marital act and shouldn't be done outside of marriage. However, in the past 40 years, and especially during the reign of Pope John Paul II, the role of marital sex has been recast as not just necessary, but also holy. Every time a married couple has sex, they are expressing a love for each other that is a mirror image of Christ's love for the church. They are also re-stating their wedding vows, through a certain chain of logic. It was a very interesting workshop. The next couple of days look pretty open, so maybe I'll get some down time. I hope.

Alright, so this morning, I woke up at about 6. I carpooled with Holly to Rational Data and worked for free. After that, I went to Fitzsimons and signed my request to transfer Army reserve units. From there, I dropped Holly back at home, and raced to Operating Systems recitation and Linear Algebra lecture. I then careened across Boulder to meet a guy and bought the Xbox he advertised on craigslist. (Yes, the original Xbox. I'm a little behind the times. It was cheap.) And directly after that transaction, I raced to the Transportation office for a charter run. By the time I walked into the office, I was pretty burnt out. I must've looked it too, because when I mentioned it to the schedule lady, she took pity on me and arranged a trade. All I could do was thank God that she was so kind. I was just about at the point of nervous breakdown, and she helped me out. I was able to eat a peaceful meal, attend my technical writing class, and now I'm taking a moment at home to relax. G...

Ashley and I went to Nativity tonight and met with the deacon again, and received the results from our bubble tests. According to the test we're fairly compatible. I could've told them that! Oh well. We're still waiting on the dispensation, though.

Well, what to say? In light of the deployment opportunity, Ashley and I have talked about moving the wedding to this spring. We had intended to wait for a year or two, possibly October of 2009. However, I think we both have the intention of getting married before I deploy. So, just to get the ball rolling, we went to the church on Saturday to meet with the deacon. He laid out the process a bit, telling us about the paperwork that had to be filled out, the pre-marriage classes and counseling we'd have to go through, and the steps we could potentially skip because of the short time frame. He is going to ask for a dispensation from the archbishop in order to waive the normal 6 to 8 month waiting period, and he sounded pretty confident that it would come through. Ashley and I also took a personality compatibility test, and we'll get the results sometime this week. School started Monday. I've got 4 classes this semester, and they all seem like reasonable classes at the outset. L...

The life-changing news just doesn't stop coming, does it? While working today at the second day of setup, I ran into a gal. She's our unit's payroll specialist (for lack of a better title) on the civilian side, but she's also the First Sergeant of one of our subordinate units. I was setting up a conference room for her, and she noticed that I had no patch on my right shoulder, an indicator that I haven't been deployed. She asked if I would want to deploy with her unit, and I'm seriously thinking about it. Here's why: If I volunteer: If I don't volunteer: I know when they're leaving, early summer, and I have plenty of time to prepare. I will be in a local unit, and I will know a few faces. I will be in a subordinate unit, so any paperwork issues can be resolved by people back here at home. (Big Advantage) I will be in my own specialty, communications. As long as I'm in a commo position, I'll have lots of access to communications to keep in tou...

It's been a bit of a week. I've been working at the internship not quite full time. This past weekend, the Campbells had their belated Christmas party, and Ashley and I attended. It was good to see everyone in Ashley's family. Today I took the day off of the internship so that I could work for the Army. SGT Nieto and I are setting up for a paperwork updating event called an SRP, and that setup is going well. Also, SGT Nieto is just fun to hang around. This afternoon I met with Lesley McDowell, the CS undergraduate adviser. We talked about my transfer credits, decided on the requirements set I would follow, and filled out a degree audit. After bringing everything home and looking it over, I've decided that it will only take me 4 more semesters to graduate! And they should be fairly comfortable semesters. I'm giddy all over again. If everything works out, I could be graduating in December of 2009. Thats just next year!

Freakin' yeah! I just got the e-mail, I've been accepted to the College of Engineering and Applied Science! This is absolutely amazing! My grades were really decent, but only brought my GPA to a 2.48, just shy of guaranteed acceptance. God must've been looking out for me, because I'm in! I feel ecstatic! All of my hard work this last semester paid off. I've known since halfway through high school that I wanted to attend CU for Computer Science and get my bachelor's degree, but a crucial step in that was being admitted to the College of Engineering. I've been working toward this for about 4 years. And after a couple of detours, I've finally done it.