I love food

So, that was entirely too long of a time to keep from updating. Then again... it was a rather busy week. Here's an attempt to sum up the last five days...

On Friday, I found out that I definitely did not understand intersections of 3-D planes enough to bluff my way through our quiz. Oh, well. At least I can accept responsibility for it. On a better note, I found out that the Honors coordinator thinks that I should run for vice-president of HPSO (Honors Program Student Organization) in a couple weeks... which would be TOTALLY SWEET. That means that I would probably be working with Sarah (as she is the potential prez for next year). I think I have a picture of her somewhere around here... we took pictures in prep for our side ponytail fundraiser, and hers was definitely the best, so I put hers on all the posters :) Yay!

I don't know if I explained the fundraiser ... nope, I didn't. Basically, we're collecting a dollar from everyone we know, and by the end of the week, we'll have a bunch of money to give to the American Heart Association in remembrance of the father of a girl who was on J3 last year (he died of heart disease in September). And in thanks for all the donations, we'll be wearing side ponytails on Friday!

So that's basically been my life the past few days. Friday night was pretty exciting ;) We (Amanda, April, and me) decided that we were way too cool to go out, so we stayed inside, did a little homework, and then invited Jeremy Bold over for some intense speed Scrabble scrimmages. Saturday night... was promising to turn out similarly, but then we received an out-of-the-blue call from Dave and Kurt. Finding out that they had nothing to do either, we ended up watching "Shaolin Soccer" (which, imho*, is an awesome movie)and making some brownies :) Oh, and I guess we sat around in the J3 lounge for awhile (as you can see below; wonderfully decorated by April, Amanda and yours truly). Dave looks like he's on drugs, but you must understand that this was about 2AM.


Chillin' in the J3 lounge at around 2 in the morning...
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After a good amount of chill-age, April did a little gaming over at Kurt and Dave's, while I attempted to better master the skill of driving a manual (namely, Dan's little grandpa truck) :) However, that plan was quickly thwarted by vicious security guards who couldn't understand why I would want to learn to drive in such an open place as the Columbia Mall parking lot. Poop heads. Anyways... I guess some other people could use driving lessons, as well... :)


It's amazing what some people can do with their cars.
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You know, you really have to give this person credit for doing whatever he did to get his car like this. This is what Dan and I saw on our way to church this morning. :) Tee hee hee


Look! Here's proof that there are black people in North Dakota! (P.S. Kurt is super cool)
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After church, we proceeded to have a lovely dining experience at Wilke! This is our friend, Kurt. We love Kurt! In fact, the * above signifies that I used one of his "super cool" 1337 terms (imho = in my humble opinion). Perhaps more tutorials will follow.

Anyways, it is time to celebrate the end of Martha's teenage years (yes, she's turning the big 2-0!) But before that happens, April and I have to run out to Wilke to snag some foodies for our fridges, since our single remaining meal pass would go to waste otherwise. Talking about foodies... we made chicken and pasta with a cream sauce yesterday!! Well, I mostly did it, but everyone was helping with cutting the bread, grinding the cheese, making the salad, buying the groceries (THANK YOU, DERRICK!)... All in all, an excellent production. Oh geeze, that makes me hungry. Food!

something's missing...

No, I haven't lost my keys, camera, or anything else again. What I'm missing is something more... what am I looking for... something more internal, like peace of mind... or peace of spirit... Anyways, the meaning of telling you all this is perhaps to explain why I haven't felt completely "centered" the last week or so. I know that I need to let God into my life more, but it's difficult for me to let him take all that power from me. What can I say? I'm a control-freak (as anyone who has been in the kitchen with me is sure to know) and it's hard for me to let someone else handle my life for me. Even if He knows all the answers. Even if He could do such a better job than I could. Do you get an idea of how hard this is for me, God? Anyways, that's probably what I'll be praying about the next few days...

Biology lab is in about 1/2 hour, so that's kind of a downer. I have a quiz, because aparently being in Hon lab requires you to take a quiz before starting lab each time. Blah blah ...

I'm still in the process of finding a job for this summer. Hopefully Ed will have some suggestions for me, so I can apply for the SMURF program. I don't think I have enough experience to apply for SURF, but I guess I can always apply for it next year. One thing is for sure... fire-hydrant painting is probably not going to get me very far in the med school application process ;P

Time to head off for lab, but hopefully I can come up with something more interesting to add to this post later. Like... how I learned how to drive a manual on Sunday night?!

UND life, in pictures

Dave plans his attack on the unsuspecting April after a long hour of karate class.
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Here, we have a delectible assortment of brains, courtesy of Hon: The Brain class... Look at those girls, what hotties!
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For all you poor souls who haven't had the opportunity to visit my humble abode, here's a taste of what you would get...
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... and the other side of the room. Mom, please ignore the unmade bed; it is a freak occurance that I didn't make it this day ;) tee hee
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a result of getting that camera cord in the mail...

April doesn't look very happy... tee hee :)
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An intense game of Scrabble, as you can see.
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sleepless in North Dakota

So, I haven't made any muffins quite yet, but fear not: I will probably have to cook at least a couple meals for myself this weekend. I guess having breakfast every morning kind of screws up having the opportunity to eat without needing to care if I'll have enough passes to go through the weekend. Oh well. But I guess that's good news, since I'm actually going to be using all my meal passes this week. (Mom and Dad start cheering)

Today is definitely one of those days where you can feel the insides of your nose start to freeze. Wait, let me rephrase that. The insides of your nose freeze as you step out the door, and by the time you are halfway through the quad, your legs have lost all feeling, your cheeks have started to wonder why they allowed you to move up here, and the inside of your partially frozen nose is now fully frozen solid. It's also one of those days where the gas tank is a block of ice and the antifreeze loses its ability to do anything and instead just makes a frozen mess on the windshield of your car. Thank goodness I don't have a car today. Last night, I believe the temperature was around -30. That's without windchill. Yeah. Saturday is supposed to be about -51 with windchill, so I guess I should be thankful for now.

Things are going well scholastically up here. I'm actually doing my Calculus homework, even though we're going through the material at an impossibly slow pace. I may go crazy, but at least I'll get a good grade in the class :) Chemistry'll be coming up here in about half an hour, so for now I'm just enjoying the nicely heated library.

Oh! So, it turns out that I will be tutoring this semester, and even the same two kids. Except this time... it'll be at 8 in the morning! Bah!! Good way to start out a Wednesday morning, eh? That's what I thought.

And... I'll have to get some actual research experience before I send in the application for the SURF (student undergraduate research fellowship) application, since they require 2-3 letters of recommendation from my research advisors... I only have one real experience, and that was in high school. Needless to say, it'll be an interesting couple of weeks leading up to that February 1st deadline!

It's going to be an interesting weekend, what with Martha and Amanda being away at the FOCUS conference until Monday... Maybe I'll talk April into making muffins with me :) Meanwhile, I'm going to totally get started on some of that Calculus homework. Flippin' sweet!

i'm back!

Okay, so I'm finally settled and feelin' the UND vibe again here in Grand Forks. Life is good. Dealing with a little PMS, but that's life too. Break was truly a perfect blend of rest, family, and some crazy times with friends. Especially the rest. I think in that last week of break, I probably got a full 10+ hours of sleep somewhere throughout every day. Okay, so I took a lot of naps in the middle of the day, but I do sort of have the excuse of coming down with some icky virus sometime after New Year's Eve. Recuperation, you know.

Anyways, due to the fantasticity of the break, I think I'm definitely ready to take on my new semester in an academic duel of the century. Just kidding. Hopefully this 15 credit load will be enough. I seriously can't find any classes that I would want to take that are, like, 1 or 2 credits. Maybe I'll sign up for a partial semester "Books You Should Read" honors class. Take that back... umm... I do still have to figure out when I'm tutoring this semester. That'll be difficult, seeing that I don't really have a vehicle, and Dan (owner of a fantastic Grandpa-truck) has flight lab when I have 5-6 hours of no class in the middle of my Tuesdays and Thursdays. AND... I'll have a mega-load of Emerging Leaders stuff (supposedly) this semester. And I should take a CNA (certified nursing assistant) certification class, which will add in a good 6 weeks of additional work into this spring. On top of that, I have to figure out where I'm working this summer? Yikes!

Enough of that jib-jab. It's excellent to be back, forgetting the fact that I have to pay for everything out of my own pocket once again. MAJA is now reunited, and that is good. I get to be made fun of by Derrick again. Yeah, so I know, you don't bury survivors. Poop on trickery. ;) We're in the process of Northern-izing Russ again, as his time in Kentucky has affected his speech. Poor fella.

Well, I think I've blabbered on enough for this blog. Next blog: muffin making? :) April has already made fun of my muffin pans. We'll see who has the last laugh when I take those wonderful bakery creations out of the oven, and eat them... by myself... mwah ha ha




Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?

staying up late

This is a message to all you younguns out there: Get your sleep.

Personally, I LOVE sleep. But for some reason, other people out here do not. Let's go through the past... week? for proof... We'll see if I can get more days in there; at this point, I haven't a clue how talented my brain is going to be at that.

Yesterday night: Invited Josiah, Wole, and Emily to sleep over... I guess when people know they're going to be sleeping over anyways, they forget that sleep is an integral part in that. Just because everyone else is staying up until 6 AM doesn't mean that you have to do it too. Unless it's your house. My mistake there. I mean, my sister was up taking a shower and getting ready to go to school before we went to bed.

Sunday: Everyone came over here again, but of course we had to pick up Wole (no matter how many times you ask us for rides, Wole, it's not going to convince us to buy a car for you). So we spent some good time sliding down Wole's driveway (COMPLETELY iced over, fun! Except for nearly scraping the palms of my hands off on the ice). That was a fun time, and I got to see some people that I haven't seen much of this break. So, everyone ends up staying around until... 4 AM or so. I nearly convince them to just sleep over, but they were concerned that their parents would worry... aww...

Saturday: Did not have anyone over, and didn't do anything with friends! Weird! Definitely had quality family time, however. Got to watch "Garden State" and "Eternal Sunshine" with Mom, Dad, and Stephie. "Garden State"'s definitely the more excellent of the two.

Friday: New Year's Eve celebration at Emily's house!! Stayed up ALL night long, and then proceeded to go home at 7:30, sleep until 10:30, whereupon my parents woke me up with promises of walking to Dunn Bro's, which we ended up not doing anyways. Really feeling sick this day. Throat was all crappy and yucky... bad headaches... flashing between hot and cold spells... Too bad I didn't have any school to miss, because then all my pain and suffering could have been justified.

Thursday: Hmmm... oh yes... movies at Emily's, where I fell asleep around 1AM, woke up at 2:30 and found out people wrote on my face again with magic marker (yeah, well, they'll go to hell anyways :) j/k). I kinda drove home in a huffy after that. It's sad that this was a good night's sleep (in respect to the other days of this week).

Wednesday: Okay, so this is where my memory kinda craps out... Oh geeze, I completely forgot. We went up to the cities this day! Went shopping at Mall of America, bought a $130 Airport Express for Peter Fritz (which he finally paid me back for, like, yesterday), hung around at Dan's house and watched "Early Edition" (do you remember that show? I love it! I kind of forgot it even existed until we flipped on the TV and it was on. Wonderful television.), and went to Stargate Night Club. The club was pretty fun, except for the drunk creepy guys. And the nasty smoke smell. It was good company at the club at least... Good protection from the creepy guys.

Well, that's about as much as I can list off for now. Today I get my digital camera!! I'm very excited about that!! So, in no time at all, I will get to post lovely pictures of temperate North Dakota on this very webpage. Aren't you excited? I know I am :) Let's see... what else happens today... Emily is leaving for Malibu today (traitor :) tee hee). I'm in the midst of cleaning up everything. So that's pretty exciting... Probably have to take a shower somewhere in the next few hours... I probably should go on a run, if I can motivate myself enough to follow through with that... I guess that's about it for today. I have only 5 more days left, so I should definitely be enjoying every last second of it. However, I'm going to say that staying up until insanely early hours in the morning is not going to be included in that. Cross my fingers for good sleep and family time? :)