Anyway, yesterday I found out that those guys were civil engineers. I didn't even know that.
Here I've been married to a civil engineer for nearly 4 years and I had no idea that my husband was one of those who had to do all that embarrassing surveying crud on his university campus while everybody walked by making fun of him in their minds (high school kids make fun of people overtly while university types make fun of people in their minds or under their breath or in general statements on facebook).
And you want to know how I found out about my husband knowing how to take all those very "serious" measurements? He made me help him. On Saturday he calls me outside during the boys' naptime, hands me this enormous rod, and orders me to carry it to various parts of the yard, use a level to make sure I'm holding it perfectly straight, and stand there like a dork while he looks at the rod through a spyglass on a tripod and writes down decimal numbers that apparently mean something to him about the layout of our yard.
And people were driving by.
How embarrassing. And I know they were feeling sorry for us because we looked so dumb. But at least now my sweet husband can design retaining walls for our yard which is like a dream come true for him. I guess looking like a dork for 20 minutes wasn't so bad.
15 comments:
And did you get to wear the funky orange vest??
Well, you see, when I did the survey class, my lab group was on Monday afternoons during fall semester right after my mission. I was so geeked up to do it that I never realized that we looked stupid to normal people. We didn't have to war orange vests and in fact we always did it in shorts and flip flops. It was very comfortable and fun to be in the sun. The worst part was that we were in 3-person groups and since I was new at school I didn't know anyone else in the class, so I got set up with strangers. The other two were a boy and a girl and they started dating shortly thereafter which made it kinda hard on me, but they were perfect for each other and so deeply in love that they ignored me a lot. It's hard when you need a spotter and your teammates are making out under a tree.
Okay - I have so very much to say about this. First of all, it's news to me that you (and your hoodlum friends, were ever bothered about being dorky. A nose flute? Really? So that's "A." And "B," the philosophy in MY major was actually to be as dorky as possible in as many public venues as possible, sometimes even under the auspices of an actual play or show. So we made a science of publicly embarrassing ourselves.
Conclusion: at least Dan was going to make money off his skill. This is a good thing.
And the security word I got this time? finuckin???
HAHA I was going to ask the same thing about the orange vest!
No I did not wear an orange vest. Dan informs me that they did not do that on his campus.
Secondly, I did not play the nose flute. I owned one, but couldn't play it. And looking like a dork to friends is different than looking like a dork to peers and acquaintances.
hah! That is seriously hilarious that you didn't even know Dan was one of the standing-out-there-with a weird-tube-to-look-through guys.
I unfortunately knew that my husband was in the marching band in college (just for a semester) but I could see the coolness in him despite that and married him anyway. Some things we just have to deal with-and sometimes we have to be dorky too! :)
Hehe! This reminds me when I was in 2nd grade and we were talking about artists. I thought to myself, how could anyone make money being an artist? Guess what I married? Yep, an artist!
I'm glad you didn't have to wear the vests. That would be waaaay more embarrassing. Yay for the retaining wall!
I love it! I can totally picture it in my head, but I think it would have been better if you were wearing the orange vests!
How romantic. I can picture you two now... I don't like it when those guys are standing in the middle of the street doing their business. I always feel like someone is going to hit them with their car. Just make sure if Dan makes you stand in the middle of the road, he lets you wear an orange vest. It's just safer that way ;)
You are SOOOO hilarious. I'm honestly very happy/jealous that you'll get a sweet retaining wall out of this whole deal! :)
I am shocked on two accounts.
1) That you didn't know we learned surveying.
2) That you felt bad for us?
When I took the surveying class I was so excited to go out and use the equipment on campus. I always thought "everyone is looking at us thinking we are so cool." Admit it Megs! You thought we were cool and you just couldn't bring yourself to change majors just so you could take the surveying class. Right?
Oh, yes. Our university was predominantly engineers (my husband is industrial). This wasn't so out of the ordinary or dramatically dorky. Haha! This is your karma for laughing at all those poor engineers in your college days. Haha!
but he's *your* dork in the orange vest... it's how you say... cute.
LOL!! Brad and I both got a kick out of this post! Surveying was Brad's favorite class and he still points out surveyers on the side of the road and speculates what they ARE doing and what they are GOING to be doing! Does Dan do this also?? Also--- Your yard looks flat. Where are you going to put a retaining wall?? Will you be raising your whole yard?? When Dan gets a plat map design made up- POST IT!!! I can't wait!
Ah, what fun memories of my childhood! I guess my mom wasn't as cool as you, because the kids always got this privilege.. haha..
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