between school and more school, there is...

- Road-tripping with high school friends
- Learning to surf in San Diego
- Waterskiing in the 55-degree Mississippi River
- Camp counseling for high schoolers ALL SUMMER LONG

Goodbye freedom!

I am excited, heart-wrenched, exhausted... and nervous. We'll see how this whole thing shakes out.

I miss normalcy.

and then I wrote another post eight months later

It's been a long time since I've updated. Quick run-down: I passed my classes last semester, struggled through finishing med school applications, probably would have complained about them here if I had been keeping this thing up-to-date, dated a friend for 4 months, broke up with that friend in January, started my spring semester, interviewed with UMN Med School and Penn State School of Medicine in February, cruised Mexico with my family, discovered new perspective on life and met a new friend, and now, as of last Friday, know that I will be going to med school next year somewhere at least! You have no idea how loud I screamed when I ripped open that Penn State logo-emblazoned envelope, and if you do, then you are probably Alli or Bethany, who thought that I was experiencing some kind of emotional and/or cognitive breakdown... well, I guess I was.

Anyways, I don't mean to ramble. These posts are needlessly long anyways. I have gotten into being even more of a foodie nerd than I was before... so when I sit down to write important things like papers or my thesis, or study for exams, I end up visiting sites like eatingoutloud.com and 101cookbooks.com. Yep, not your typical 21 year-old.

But the upside is, I'm learning to make some pretty tasty stuff. Here's a link to some curried kettle corn I made this afternoon: http://www.eatingoutloud.com/2008/03/curry-kettle-corn-spicy-sweet-salty.html

I ended up altering the recipe pretty significantly, since I never have the right ingredients, plus I have this sometimes troubling tendency to be different just for for the sake of it. Here's the amounts and ingredients I used:

1/2 c. popping corn
1/4 c. oil
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

2 T. white sugar
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cumin powder
1/4 tsp. cloves

It was a little hot for North Dakota taste buds, but perfect for me. Granted, I did win a BWW blazing wings eating contest. It's your call.

Expect more in the future, I promise to come back and update you more frequently.

1/4

one fish two fish

BEST WEEK EVER!! Well, it's been good, but I just wanted to start this out on a good note, a little MTV-esque (mmm... what an awful channel ... ignore it then), for the sake of implying that the past month has not been an utter shamble of nothingness. It hasn't! Lots of good stuff went on this month... tubing on the big Red and girls' night, taking care of el jardin, waterskiing in Pequot and Maple, lots of work, lots of teaching the kidlets chemistry, getting started on the personal statement (meh), making mistakes, learning from them, having or listening to pointless, awkward conversations, getting stressed out at work, and the list goes on.

Thinking about going kayaking next weekend with my papa... could be a lot of fun!! Waterskiing and enjoying the lake out in Hibbing this weekend.

I neeeeeed to finish that personal statement.

Okay, enough of an update. To summarize: my life is gaining direction, I hope in a way that I'm supposed to go. Boys are still dumb - enough said :) The summer is beautiful, and I am trying to enjoy it while I still can!! The crushing realization that school starting in three weeks is almost upon me... Time to get the ol' brain in shape again!

it's confirmative

It's 8 in the morning... I'm sitting in Biochem, waiting for these washes to be done so I can put the membrane in blocking and then go home... biking today? Definitely. Maybe cereal first... I still have the taste of buffalo wings and blue moon in my mouth, not a good thing in the morning.

My garden is finally looking like it's going to produce some veggies... although the beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and leeks didn't survive too well. One of the pepper plants is completely bare of leaves; time to get out the 22 and take care of a couple rabbits ;)

Okay, done! But before I go... what has happened in the past month... I got hired at Lowe's and then got laid off a month later, due to interesting managerial issues... I went home and waterskied for Waterski Days... I started teaching chemistry for the UND INMED program, which I have one more week left as of now... I flew to Wisconsin for July 4th :) ... and life has been pretty good to me. If I could only get the AMCAS application done; I still have my personal statement to write, the work/activities descriptions to write, have to decide for sure which schools I'm applying to, and the somewhat important question: where that money is coming from :)

Perhaps more later, my stomach is ready for b-fast now.

if all the raindrops?

Umm... so it rained today, and my pant bottoms got soggy. I hate it when that happens!! Seriously, can't they just make pants that are not so long? Well, maybe I should just have longer legs. Or high heel shoes. That would probably help.

Why am I getting another job? This is ridiculous. I am going to be working from 8 am to 9 pm, pretty much every day. And then some more hours on weekends. Well okay, truth be told, I am actually trying to prep myself for the typical resident 80 hr + work week. But why? Masochistic tendencies? Perhaps.

We have internet, but I'm not going to let that stop me from getting outside yet tonight. After all, the new job hasn't started just yet... time to enjoy freedom while it lasts!!

Mmmmm CAT!

You heard it here first! Or maybe second, or third. I don't really care. But it's true, I'm done with the MCAT (as long as it went okay and I don't have to retake it)! It's kind of strange not having anything to stress out over; just have to go in to Lowe's and interview for a job... take care of cells in Biochem... plant a garden... take care of the herbs.....

You know, the good stuff.

But the oregano didn't grow.

Time to spend some well-deserved days at home with family!!

Oh, and I should look for that missing checkbook, too.

silly

Heartbreak. It's a silly word to someone who's never experienced it. Heartbreak makes you feel sick, physically sick, as if someone just punched you in the stomach and then took out your brain for good measure. I cannot concentrate... I really hope this MCAT goes well. My checkbook is missing; it's been missing for 4 days now. I still can't find anyone to rent out my old place. And I found out that someone who I thought I was over is still able to hurt me. And it hurts, a lot.

I can't decide whether I want to throw up or cry. My head hurts, and my chest is tight as if I have a vice clamp around it, squeezing my heart until it can't take it anymore. I'm shaking. Is it because I'm so angry, confused, disheartened? Maybe I'll throw up.

Excuse me.