Birthday Weekend!

My birthday was on Saturday, woohoo! I'm 18 now...and it feels so weird! But also so good! I can sign for myself and buy lottery tickets and smoke cigarettes and the whole shibang! Not that I would. I still can't drink alcohol which is kind of weird but whatever.

Saturday, I woke up early and went into Boston to meet my mom's friend Bridie, her husband, and her sister at 10:30. We went to an Irish pub for breakfast/lunch/brunch/breakfast bagel which was really good and talked. Then we walked around Quincy a bit, and then went to the old US customs building (Now its a Mariott hotel, 26 floors) and we got to go to the very top because Bridie's husband owns some small part of a Mariott somewhere in California), and we got a pretty amazing view of the city from up there.

Then they left, and two friends met up with me and we went to the aquarium to study the motion of penguins in the water for our Design Nature swimmers project. In the end we chose to make a toy based on a penguin by the way...Anyways I found out that nobody...NOBODY smart is at the aquarium on Sundays. The woman working with penguins tried to convince me that the wings flap straight up and down without any rotational movements. Way to go. Well we had a fun time at the aquarium and then we left.

Me and Natalie then went to Mike's Pastry and each got a free canole cause they didn't take credit and we didn't have any cash on us. Nice little surprise birthday present.

On the way I saw Andrew D's university music group tour bus, the Tamburitzans from Duquesne University. I was really excited and tried to get his phone number through various methods so I could see him but I never did in the end. Never got to see him, but oh well.

Then some people met up with us and we went to the Hard Rock cafe which was pretty cool. I was exhausted at that point so dinner was a bit unenergetic, but it was nice that the waiter made me stand up in front of the restaurant and made everybody in the restaurants scream happy birthday to me. Well at least I got a free ice cream!

Then went to Urban Outfitters and bought a new t-shirt that I love, as displayed here

[I'll take a photo and put it here later]

And then went on the Babson Shuttle back to Olin. Slept the entire way, walked back to my room, and went to sleep at 9:30 pm. Told Natalie to wake me up at 10, and supposedly she shoved me but I just rolled over in bed and didn't wake up. Next thing I know my Sibb is in my room and telling me that it's 11:30 pm, it's my birthday, and I'm wanted at the party. So I got up and headed over, and had a lot of fun! I definitely needed the 2 hours of sleep though!

Well it was a fun night overall. Decided I'm not going to drink at Olin any time soon at least, and if I do drink, it'll be with old friends who I know don't binge drink like crazy.

So for our swimmers project, we're at the stage where we're supposed to be doing initial sketches of our toy, but to be honest, I can't think well on paper and pencil with complex mechanisms. So I SolidWorks-ed it, and now I have the exact motion of the wing that I want and the motion of the beak up and down (so that the little kids can catch toy fish in the pool with the mouth!).

And here it is! Kind of interesting, considering I hated using SolidWorks about a month ago. Now I can do a whole lot...even sophomores here were impressed with what I did, so that made me feel a bit less stupid and a bit more qualified to be at this school I guess.

So I flew today for an hour, and turns out my Logbook isn't completely in ruins. I don't need it to get resent from Europe with a different format or anything, I just need to make some changes by myself and it's good. My instructor's very precise, and it's making me work very hard while flying! Which basically meant, after flying, I was exhaustedly tired. And I still am. So goodnight!