17 Years and Counting

Happy Birthday, Claire! Its my sister's birthday today, and I am so happy for her. She rocks my socks. She blows my mind with her awesomeness. She... She is always on my side. I tell her I took a girl on a date, and she instantly loves the girl. I tell her the girl said no to a second date, and she instantly hates the girl. I can always call her and know she will side with me. Its good to have such a dependable source of support in your life like that. Seventeen years have gone quick. I still remember the day she was born. I remember the exact moment, actually. Mind you, I was not there in person. I think that sort of experience would have been too much for 5 year old Eric. BUT, I remember where I was when I was told Claire had entered our familyI was outside in our backyard running around doing who knows what kind of mischief, when my Grandma Hardester came outside to tell me that Claire had been born. I was so excited to have a sister that I yelled, "YEESSS!!! YEEAAAHH!!" and did a cart wheel. It was a sweet cartwheel, too. Best I have ever done, probably. And she deserved such an awesome cartwheel, definitely.

        This also brings up a bitter sweet moment. I am going to graduate this April! I decided that last week, got permission yesterday, and signed up for the senior classes last night. Now, this is awesome. I will be done with school; free to go off and work on sweet things in sweet places, or go learn more sweet things at sweet schools and get a graduate degree. However, this also means I will not be going to school with Claire when she comes to school here in a year after her NEXT birthday. There's the bitter part. Claire, if only you had been born one year earlier. Actually, that's not your fault- Mom, Dad, you should have had Claire a year earlier. So unless I decide to stay at BYU for my Master's, no school sharing. We'll see what happens. A lot can happen in a year ;) . Anyway, the other cool part of that story is that with this senior class I am signed up for now, I will have a year long project working on a real engineering problem. Got an email this morning about a particular project that will involve designing a super efficient car. They need someone who is short and not too heavy to be the driver for the car, someone between 5' and 5'6" and 130lbs or less. For once, my vertical challenges may actually end up working to my advantage. I sent an email back to let them know that I fit this criteria and would love to be a driver for such a car. We'll see what happens! Life is AWESOME. and again... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!!