May 31, 2011

Well, I'm back in Lincoln after a nice Memorial Day in Grand Island with my family.  When I left on Friday night I had to outrun storms that were forming right on top of Lincoln, but I managed to get out without too much trouble.  There was a really bizarre haze over the land between Lincoln and Grand Island, and by the time I got to GI it was extremely dark, gloomy, and misty.  Then, Memorial Day was unbelievably windy and fairly hot.  There were Weather Channel stormchasers in Nebraska all afternoon and evening due to a strong possibility of severe weather.  Ultimately, they did not find the tornadoes that they were looking for, though Grand Island did have some nasty wind blow through.  Despite all of the weather issues yesterday, I really enjoyed hanging out at home with my family and doing nothing.  God knows that I won't have much time for "nothing" in June.  I basically work every single day for the next months AND I have a class.

Anyway, I can't say much about the weather in Lincoln today because I didn't spend much time in Lincoln.  I only got back about an hour before my shift, so this picture was just quickly snapped before I forgot completely.  In GI, at least, today was much more pleasant than yesterday.  It was a little hot, maybe, but at least the wind had calmed down.

May 29, 2011

Look at this revolting weather...  Fortunately, I don't have to look at it because I'm working a noon to six shift behind a desk.  I'm hoping that this foggy mist stuff is gone by the time that I get off.  Either way, I won't have to deal with it too much because I'll be on my way back to GI shortly after my shift.  Only four and a half hours to go!   We have seen one person since our shift began, so it hasn't been the busiest of desk shifts so far...

May 28, 2011

The picture above shows you the scene that I woke up to this morning: wet sidewalks, strange patches of blue sky and sunlight, and an even stranger haze lingering in the air in Lincoln.  Much to my surprise, when I ventured outside later that morning, the air was not thick with humidity.  It wasn't muggy at all, and the air was cooler than I expected.  I know for a fact that the humidity was fairly low because my hair didn't curl when I went outside (that's right, I use my hair to measure relative humidity).

Speaking of hair, I had nothing going on this morning, so I decided to head over to the nearest hair salon for a few touch-ups.  I had my bangs trimmed up and the sides of my hair evened out.  One side has been longer than the other since January, and cutting it myself wasn't the best idea I've ever had.  I got it to the right length, but you could still tell that something was off.  I also had my first all-over color.  I've been trying since last fall to phase out all of the blonde highlights in my hair, which left me with two-tone hair: dark roots and bright ends.  We found a color that matched my roots almost perfectly and dyed it all.  It wasn't super cheap to get the cut and color, but I figure I'll save more money down the road (no root touch-ups to worry about) and won't look so white trash if I neglect my hair color for too long.  The difference is fairly subtle, so I'm not going to mention my dye job to any of my coworkers just to see how observant they are.  They'd have to have a pretty keen eye to pick up on the differences.  I went from sort of blonde to sort of brunette, so it's not incredibly obvious.

Anyway, back to the weather for moment.  The rest of the day looked exactly like the picture above (minus the haze).  It was a great day, honestly.  Good temperature, quite a bit of sun, and not too windy.  I won't make it outside again tonight because I am on duty in a nearly empty building.  We literally have a 1:1 staff to guest ratio right now, so it should be a quiet night for me.  Tomorrow I work at the desk in this same building, and then it is off to GI for the weekend.  It'll be my last chance to jet home before my schedule prevents me from doing so.  I am pretty much booked solid for the entire month of June between classes and work.  It should be pretty hectic.  Well, this has become a pretty long, TMI kind of post, so I guess I'll wrap it up for now.  Goodnight!

May 27, 2011

Well, it wasn't the sunniest or warmest of days, but it wasn't awful.  When I woke up all of the sidewalks were wet, so I assume we got at least a little precipitation overnight.  It hasn't rained a drop since I woke up at 8 a.m., though, which makes me very happy.  According to the satellite radar, the clouds are slowly drifting away, but the nearest sunlight is still about 100 miles west in my hometown (Grand Island).  If the sun makes it out today at all, I will probably not be outside to see it.  I work a six to midnight at a desk, so I would only be able to see a few feeble rays of light through the main door anyway.

Normally, I save blogging for desk shifts to help pass the time, but today I chose to post earlier in the day.  I'm working a shift with a new coworker--a "First Year" if you will--and I felt it would be rude to ignore them to post while I'm supposed to be teaching them about the job.  Plus, I'm not positive that I want any of my coworkers to be aware of this little blog.  As a college student, ranting about the weather doesn't exactly make me the hippest person in the world.  The fact that I just used a form of the word "hip" probably isn't helping my cause either...

Note:  If you are a coworker of mine, please let me know that you're reading this.  Better yet, avert your eyes and go to a different website.  :)  There's nothing to see here...

May 26, 2011

As you can see from the photo, the weather did a complete 180 overnight.  It was 100 percent clear and sunny all day.  The temperature was absolutely perfect (right around 70) and there was only a light breeze.  You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day.  I was able to get outside multiple times today to walk around, soak up some rays, and relax on my day off.   There were some clouds rolling in around 7 p.m. and it got a little cooler, but the evening was pleasant as well.

Anyway, my sleep schedule is still somewhat out of whack, so I may go to bed fairly early tonight.  I don't think I ever fully recovered from my midnight to six shift a week and a half ago...  Goodnight!  Let's hope for a decent Nebraska day tomorrow!

May 25, 2011

I have to invent a word to describe how utterly disgusting the weather in Lincoln was today.  I think the most accurate word would be "sucktacular."  It was cold, it was misting/lightly raining the entire day, and gale force winds were knocking everyone sideways.  In other words, it was probably the worst possible conditions Mother Nature could have cooked up for the second day of the state golf tournament.  Miraculously, the weather did not hurt my brother or his team's level of play, and they ended up taking the state runner-up trophy.    Still, my condolences go out to all of the golfers and spectators that had to stand out in those awful conditions for 5 or more hours.

Though the outdoors conditions were depressing, today wasn't all bad.  It was the last day of my job training!  I got to stay indoors during training, so I had to face the nasty weather relatively little.  Also, it was nice to get everything squared away so we can all get into the swing of things and get on with our work schedules.  The crappy weather also gave me motivation to run a few errands since I had nothing better to do.   Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that the forecast for tomorrow holds true: 70 degrees and clear with a very low chance of precipitation.  I don't have to work tomorrow and I would really appreciate being able to be outside on my day off.

May 24, 2011

Shockingly, the forecast for today was correct.  This morning there was a great deal of blue in the west and south, and around 11 a.m. it began raining cats and dogs in Lincoln.  Naturally, a few minutes after the downpour began, I had to be at a shift.  I was fortunate enough to hitch a ride from a supervisor, but I later got soaked running to a dining hall to grab lunch.   I was reminded that my jacket is definitely NOT waterproof and soaked my socks and shoes so badly that they were still wet five hours later when I clocked out.  Oh, well...  I guess it's not really summer until you get drenched while fulfilling a work-related duty.

Anyway, about an hour or hour and a half after my shift began, the rain dissipated and it was sunny for much of the afternoon.  My brother all of the other kids at state golf were able to finish out their rounds, but they started significantly later than the original tee times.  All afternoon (from what I could tell), it was decent outside.  When I got off my shift, I noticed that it had started clouding up again, and by 9:00 p.m. there was a particularly nasty lightning storm in the capitol city (which was immediately followed by more pouring rain).  Glancing at radar, it appears that there isn't going to be a break in the precipitation for quite some time.  The state golfers will be very lucky if they are able to finish an entire round of 18 holes tomorrow.

In better news, tomorrow is the last day of training!  I think everyone is ready to get into a regular--ha!--work pattern and out of the "classroom."  We finally got our work schedules, and already I can tell that my summer schedule is going to be as erratic as last summer.   I have a summer class that will be thrown into the mix as well, but I'm not complaining.  It's better than being bored all summer with nothing to do. Well, I shall wrap up this long, rambling post.  I still don't feel completely caught up on sleep, so I think I'm going to turn in early once again.