August 2007
I passed my private pilot exam on August 4th. Woohoo! That evening a bunch of friends and I went out to dinner at Stoney's on Solomon's Island to celebrate. Afterwards, two of my neighbors (and friends who will be labeled A and K) as well as another friend (who will be named T) went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for drinks and a little bit of sub-par live beachy music. A was driving, so I could actually partake -- if you don't know anything about me, I'm a HUGE lightweight and usually get tipsy off of half a drink -- partially because I drink so infrequently and partially because of my small stature. So, needless to say I was slightly tipsy after my sex on the beach. T had a number of beers too and after we got back to our apartment complex (since the 4 of us had carpooled together), I insisted that he wait a little bit before he drove home. So we hung out for a bit and watched TV and really got to know each other just by talking... I found out then that we had a lot in common... and I don't know if it was just that we were both a little more open than we would normally have been because of the slight buzz but I really got the feeling that he liked me.... but because he knew that I was dating D (I was still with my boyfriend of 3 years at the time), he knew not to act on anything....

Anyway, after that we hung out a few more times -- he has NFL network, so I came over a couple days later to watch one of the preseason games that I couldn't see because I don't have NFL network. Later that week, I invited him over for dinner and a movie... but still we were just friends hanging out.

That weekend was when D and I parted ways -- although amicably, so we're still friends. When I came back from hanging out with D for the weekend -- that week T and I hung out a few times, including on a Saturday when he and B (another person we know from work) used my guest tickets to the Redskins game -- so we all went up to the game and had a good ol' time. After the game, T was staying in a hotel because he had to catch a flight early the next morning for work travel. I ended up crashing in his extra bed so I didn't have to drive home half asleep.

T got back from TDY on Tuesday night and so he came out to lunch with a bunch of us on Wednesday. Wednesday night after work I was on my way to Redskins band practice when my car broke down -- so after calling AAA to get a tow truck and my parents to get dad's word on things, I called T to see if he could come pick me up and give me a ride home. So, while we were waiting for the towtruck to unload my car T mentioned that when he had gotten home from work he was just so lazy and hadn't eaten dinner and probably wouldn't have -- so I told him that he should come over to my place and I'd make us dinner (I hadn't eaten either). So, I made dinner and then we started watching tv.... at some point in the evening, i noticed a scar on his hand and asked him about it -- and that conversation ended in us holding hands. A little bit later he put his arm around me so I was kinda leaning on his shoulder... at this point he said "Is this okay?" I said "yes" thinking that he was asking if I was comfortable. And he followed up by saying "I don't want to be getting in the way of another guy." Which was super considerate of him to not want to complicate things if I had still been with D... But I confirmed to him that everything was okay and that I was no longer dating D. Later in the evening he kissed me..... :) :)

So that was the start....

On Thursday evening, Green Bay was playing a preseason game (T is a big Green Bay fan) and so he invited me over to watch that game. Again we cuddled some more and he drove me home.

Friday evening, we hung out again... we went out to dinner at Nicoletti's and then thought about going to see a movie but neither of us were really dying to see anything in the theater, so we just went back to T's apartment and watched tv for a bit and then watched a movie. We hung out forever -- and as quiet of a guy as T is in normal social situations, I've found that he is a gentle, sweet, compassionate gentleman. He's a smooth talker too -- he said it felt good to kiss me and later that I was beautiful. I fell asleep in his arms while watching tv on the couch and ended up just sleeping there.... geez we move so fast.... but on Saturday he was leaving for TDY in the Netherlands, so I would have to go at least 10 days without hanging out with him.... before I left he said that he really thought he was going to miss me over the next week. What a cutie!!

I'm crushing so hard!! And I can't wait till he gets back.

An Update
September 2005 was the last time I posted before this morning -- at that point, I believe I was at the beginning of my senior year at VT and since then A LOT has happened. So let me recap --

Collegiate Life: I majored in Aerospace Engineering and was really active in the Marching Virginians (where I was a rank captain during my junior and senior year for the mellophone section). In addition, I was an officer in Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society, and Sigma Gamma Tau, the aerospace engineering honors society. I co-oped at GE Aircraft Engines in Cincinnati for 2 terms. During my senior year, I was on the International Design team -- a joint design project between VT and Loughborough University in England. During that project I served as the VT Team lead and also got a free trip to England out of that team. I graduated in May 2006 summa cum laude with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. I had a really great time in college -- learned a LOT, met a LOT of really great people, and had a TON of really great experiences.

Work Life after college: I accepted a job at NAVAIR Flight Dynamics in Patuxent River, MD (its on a little peninsula between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay) where I started July 24th, 2006. The job description was everything I wanted in a job... I have been in a rotational development program since then. My first job rotation was in Flight Dynamics, where I worked on Small UAVs. Some of my job was cool, and a lot of it was boring and monotonous, however, the work I saw people in my group doing was pretty cool and I want the chance to experience that. My second rotation was with the Flight Controls group, where I worked mainly on the Firescout UAV which was a good experience but the workload fluctuated a good bit -- also during that rotation I got the chance to work on a really unique investigation of the A-7 rate gyros for the Greek Air Force. This rotation also gave me my first trip to California (San Diego). Now I just started a rotation in the Carrier Suitability Flight Test group which should be a really fun rotation and give me some unique experiences, most likely including a shipboard test (on the USS Reagan?).

Other Life after College: I'm pretty active in the ESDP (Engineer & Scientist Development Program) and am my competancy's council rep so I try to organize activities for ESDPs in my competancy and for all ESDPs so I can meet people and keep busy... its taken me a while to really start meeting people that I feel like I mesh with and can hang out with but finally in the last 5 months. In addition to that, I joined the Redskins Marching band last year and continue to do that which is pretty fun and gets me (and 2 guests) into all home games for free. This spring/summer I finally got my private pilot license, so now I fly all sorts of random places to expore or just grab a bite to eat.

Personal Life: While co-oping at GE, I met a boy whom I started dating in May 2004. He also was an aero engineer at VT, but started a year before me -- we ended up graduating at the same time. We liked to travel a lot and have been a lot of really great places together -- including England, France, Las Vegas, and multiple sporting events (Indy 500, Pepsi 400 at Daytona, VT football game at Miami, and NCAA playoff games in Columbus), and many other places inbetween. As of this May we had been dating for 3 years, but I started really thinking about things and wasn't sure that I saw myself marrying him -- after meeting a new ESDP up here who had been dating a girl for 3-4 years and was starting to think about the "M" word, and then realized that they weren't meant to be together... I decided that it probably wasn't fair to either of us to keep things going if I didn't see it going there.

So that's a brief recap....next time an update of the last few weeks since I became single again....

BACK TO BLOGGER
Its been a long time since I participated in the blogger world, but recently I've been looking for a place to record everything I've been up to and what's on my mind -- somewhere other than facebook and somewhere that less people I know look at... I used to be against the menial posting of what I do from day to day and would only post messages about deep thoughts or other things like that... I'm going to say that my new posts will probably not be as deep all the time, but don't discount that I may get deep at times as well....

Expect the next post to be an update on where I am in life and from that point anything is fair game! :)