A Good Day

I already posted some status updates on Facebook about my wonderful day; but I'm going to tell the story here.  God blessed me today.  :)

So it was just last Sunday that the crippling part of my grief for all of you passed and I realized that I was excited about, well, doing things again.  This has been carrying over, and I started reflecting vaguely on how I was going to spend my time... this semester's pretty light for me, 13 units... I wondered about getting a job... I've pretty much depleted my spending money... so I was pondering whether I should do some looking, but I didn't want to grab anything with crazy hours.

Well, when I woke up this morning, I got online and went to my USC inbox.  The first thing I saw was an e-mail from a professor.  He said that he is teaching EE 357, Basic Organization of Computer Systems, this semester.  I took that class last semester from my favorite professor, Professor Redekopp, and loved it.  This professor said that he was looking for a grader and had my name recommended to him by Prof. Redekopp.  There are 23 students in the class, so it's not some intense 100-student GE - if I were to have chosen a number, I would have probably said low 20's.  I think most of you know I graded for Circuits two years ago, and I loved it.  Ever since I've been interested in a grading job, but I didn't know where to look at USC.  Since USC has a large graduate program, normally graduate students wind up doing the grading.  So this was a totally unexpected, unsolicited, but much appreciated job offer out of the blue.  I sent an excited reply immediately, and almost immediately I got a reply back.  Just like that, it looks like I have a job.  I just need to e-mail a secretarial-type person and meet with the professor on Monday to find out the details.

Well, then I looked at my next e-mail.  Professor Redekopp had sent out an e-mail about a week ago telling all the former 357 students that he was looking for an undergraduate student to help him do research on system architecture and how it affects energy usage.  So far it sounded very exciting to me... I had been thinking about wanting to take advantage of the research at USC but didn't know where to look to join in... and the topic is interesting to me, and as aforementioned, Prof. Redekopp is far and away my favorite professor at USC, someone I would love working with.  But his e-mail said he needed the student to know Linux and Apache, skills I do not possess, so I regretfully did not answer the e-mail.

But this morning, I got a personal e-mail from Prof. Redekopp, asking if I had gotten his earlier e-mail and if I was interested - and if I would be interested in learning Linux and Apache.  *cue excited squeals and floating on a cloud all day!*  So in other words... even though I don't already have the skills, he's willing to take me on to help him with his research while I learn Linux and Apache... which are very useful skills for an EE major anyway, things I was thinking it would be good to learn!  And so I have a chance to do research this semester!

So even though it might be pushing crazy... I think I will be accepting both of the joyous proposals I woke up to.  It'll be work, but I do have more time than normal, and, well, they're just so perfect!  Such gifts!

Then I, you know, got up and went about my day.  Did some homework.  Went to class.  All that good stuff.  In between classes, I had to work on a partner project for one of my classes.  Different sections are due at different times, but it's all this weekend or Monday, so if I didn't finish, I was going to have to drive back tomorrow to work on it.  But my schedule is such that I don't have to go to school tomorrow otherwise - I have a couple optional discussion sections on Friday, but I'm comfortable in those classes so far.  Well, I finished the project just ten minutes before class - another gift.

In the hallway just after working on that project, on my way to class, I ran into Prof. Redekopp!  This was the first time I have seen him this semester; it's not like it's an everyday thing.  Big campus, you know.  He said he got my e-mail and asked me what I thought about it; I told him I expected I would do both.  (I had thanked him for the recommendation for grader along with telling him I was interested in the research.)  He asked if I really thought I could do that and I said I thought so because my schedule was light this semester.  He asked, "Really?  I heard you were taking both 454 and 457 this semester," which showed more knowledge of my affairs than I had expected.  :)  At which point I rapidly explained that I only had 13 units and my other two classes were easy, and he nodded, smiling, and we hurried off in our separate directions.  :)  But that was yet another nice thing, a gift from God.

Finally, this evening was the first day of choir practice for the season at church.  I drove over straight from school and got to sing.  Of course I know I love choral singing; but sometimes I forget just how much.  And we're singing some amazing songs.  If the rest of my day had been a bust, that could have picked me up a long way.  As it happens, it wasn't a bust.

So that was my exciting day.  And now it is quite late and I should get some sleep.  Tomorrow I will try to get ahead on homework and chores - so that I can have lots of time to do my JOB! and my RESEARCH! and sing in CHOIR! next week.  ^__^

-Melanie