ha HA! back in potato land!

Poop! I'm really bad at this whole "staying on task" thing... I think I attempted to start this post about an hour ago, and I've been distracted by facebook and other wonderful things until now. Anyways, time for an update.

So, I've been in school for almost a week now. 4 days is pretty close to a week. And in those four days, I've gotten an amazing amount of homework already. I have to write a coversheet and some other junk for Sophomore Honors Portfolio class. Spanish comp requires a lot of reading and memorization of South America geography. I would have a lot of stuff to do for anatomy if the textbooks would only come in (which they haven't yet, damn publishers. And Barnes and Noble. I hate them all). OChem is pretty exciting... and I have a quiz already this Tuesday! Yikes! DiffEQ is pretty good, and I only have to write up this homework quiz thing for Wednesday. Comparatively, not so bad.

Things are really getting going. Honors is pretty much in full swing. APO will be starting up this Tuesday, as will Karate AND Emerging Leaders. (Yeah, uh, who decided to move the EL meeting time to Tuesday??!!) Tuesdays are starting to sound ridiculous. what else... I start tutoring at the Math Learning Center this Thursday... NRHH already started... oh, and Hall Gov starts up tomorrow evening. I'm pretty psyched, considering we had about 10 girls volunteer to be wing reps for J3 :) Amazing girls, they are. I'm convinced that J3 is going to be the best it's ever been this year.

Okay, now for more interesting things... so, apparently Stephie is pretty interested in this F3 guy, Ryan... well, more widely known as Opie... and, I've gotta admit, he seems pretty sweet. But you have to watch out for those boys... especially when they are interested in your sis...

I went to this random party last night and saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in a very long time... and the way in which I knew them was entirely unique from person to person, so that was pretty cool. Let's see... Ramsey was there... a guy I knew from EL last year... and another guy I worked on the JFS Quadbecue with. The party itself was particularly unimpressive, especially in how a number of the guys there kept pushing us to buy cups for the keg. Bleh. Not exactly how I imagined my first GF party would turn out ;) Anyways...

Time to make some oatmeal cookies, I think. Girls Night In tonight with loads of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies... a few chick flicks... what could be better? And Karate-Q tomorrow! I'm excited to see how Jordan's pies are, along with the rest of his esteemed cuisine. Update to come (sooner than before, I hope).

off we go again

So, there goes another summer. But it's really not "just another" summer. I think this one has been perhaps the fastest summer I've ever experienced... Honestly, I didn't even meet up with my Brainerd cousins... we didn't go on the houseboat trip... didn't go to Canada at all... but... it was still good.

5 o'clock is pretty early... That means I can sleep a max of 4 hours and 20 minutes, if I type this one really fast. And that doesn't account for waking-up-time and eating-breakfast...

Things to remember: laptop, camera, CDs, clothes, toothbrush... and... sanity. I better find that one quick.

It was a good evening :) Thank you to everyone who took part!! Yes, even the whipped-cream demons ;)

Time for bed, and then driving 6 hours to GF!

seattle, portland... and more

It's been a long time without an update... time to let you all know what I've been doing :)

Flying out first-class was pretty sweet. I'm not going to deny that. Getting free Toblerone and ginormous lounge chairs on a 4 hour flight? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. But flying home and finding out that your chair is completely soaked through with .... something... (we're going to say it was water... that's what I'm hoping) yeah, that's not so awesome. Seriously. If you've got a first class ticket, you'd think that they would take care of something like that a little bit quicker than, say, 30 minutes??? Meanwhile, I'm halfway between standing and squatting, trying to avoid both the low ceilings of the window-seat-area and the wetness of the seat cushion. Ughh...

I climbed to the top of the tallest waterfall in the US! I hope I can get a picture of that up here. Maybe someday.

Umm... there was a lot of shopping... I saw the perfect shirt "Oh him? He's a friend." ;) But someone might get mad at me for wearing it... tee hee

And the most awesome tank top ever... "Made in the '80s" ... ON SALE!! Yes, now I'm going to wear it around everywhere :) Until it gets too cold for it in GF... which is about 4 weeks from now...

Okay, time for bed. I think we're going to Gay 90s tomorrow. And salsa dancing on Monday. After X-rays in the morning... yay! Night!

flying out

So, this is my last day of work this summer. I'm so glad to be done presenting my projects... it's been a long summer, but yet unbelievably short when I look back on it. Anyways. It's not quite time to get sentimental.

I leave for Washington today right after work... we'll see what kind of experience that is :) I'll have a 2 1/2 hour layover in MSP on both the flight out and flight back... but I am going first class, so I guess it makes it a little less horrible...

Oh yeah! Supposedly some peeps from UND are going to be up in Seattle the same weekend! Totally sweet!!

I have nothing. I'm exhausted from presenting yesterday. I just want to go home, and not have to clean out any more flasks.

ghetto superstar

See, you never know what will happen when girls' minds grow idle. That's probably why Rochester is such a dangerous place to live in. Out of boredom, we create games, such as "dance and run" (park at a gas station, grocery store, Blockbuster, or other well-lit, late night venue and dance until someone sees you and then drive away) or the ever-favorite chinese fire drill, except minus the running and plus our fantastic groove moves... yeah *wink* Brittney and Emily are my heros!! Oh yeah, and we AREN'T stalkers... even if we walk to this one guy's house at 11:30 PM, and then later stop by the restaurant he's supposed to be at... tee hee hee...

A success, indeed. It's amazing how much fun you can have without spending or drinking anything :)

Tomorrow shall be a fantastic waterski day... although that does mean getting up WAY early and piloting the boat the entire day. Oh well. Any excuse for hanging out with friends in the sun is a good one. Basically anything that doesn't involve being in freezing cold buildings is good. So... maybe I should tell the people who control the temp at Stabile to turn the freaking AC off. Or just bear it for 4 more days.

So, in case any of you don't know, I'll be flying out to Washington (first-class, cha-ching!) Thursday afternoon... Exciting!! I get to see real mountains for the third time in my life!! And the Pacific Ocean for the first time!!!! Exclamation points!!!!!!

Time for bed, and time to take off the whitestrips. Feel the burn, burns so good.

pee shivers

Hee hee... do you ever get the need to shiver after you pee? I don't know why, but I've always done it, ever since I was little. Tee hee hee...

Anyways... almost time to go back to school!! I'm pretty excited... although that's probably already apparent, since I've been talking about this for about... 3 weeks now... yeah, time for school again. And time to order some school shoes! Seriously, what the heck is wrong with shoe stores these days?! They have nothing!! Hear me? Nothing!!! What is a girl to do?? Well, probably what she did last year... yep, stick with the same old shoes that I've had for forever, and a half. Hmm... what does the internet hold...

Umm... well, that's taking too long. On another note... the other day I was driving out to Emily's house, and I started thinking about how Minnesotans on average are way better drivers than drivers in other states. Then about 5 minutes later, I realized I still had my right turn blinker still on. Haha, well, at least other Minnesotans are better ;)

Time for beddy bye! Wish me luck on my paper that I have to write for work... and pray for Emily, that her brain tumor isn't cancerous... please...

sugar high

Right now I'm way too hyped up on DQ ice cream to get any decent quality of sleep. So... what do I do? Yay for blogger.

Just finished carrying Emily's little sis out to the car... we watched Spainglish (which, btw, was fantastic... kind of makes me wonder why we all can't have guys in love with us like Adam Sandler... and why I can't have perfect morals like Flor...) and Sierra (as I would do if I were 4 years old) fell asleep within the first half hour, so we let her sleep in my room.

My current life is decidedly a combination of stinking crap that I have to deal with, some meaningless hints of worth (such as a few x-z slices on confocal showing excellent basolateral staining on a number of MD-1s and wt MDCKs) and the friendships that carry it all through...

Oh, I did manage to get new bedding for school :) I'm probably more excited than I should be for a few pieces of cloth... but it is green...

So, it's been decided that a list will be made among all girls as to the qualifications of a dateable guy. More on that after the weekend has had its course.

Talking about the weekend, I guess there's camping going on? Give me a call if you want to go waterskiing!! (And yes, I am perfectly able to drive the boat, thank you very much... grrr... boys...) Pero ahora, va a dormir!! Hasta luego...

Oh yeah, P.S., I thought this was a really cute picture that needed to be posted... For all y'all who missed out on the Roch fest street dance... this is what you were missing out on! Look at these babes, ow ow!

umm... okay

So it's been realized that I tend to only write blogs when I'm in bad moods. Probably not a good thing, especially for those people that I tend to be mad at/frustrated/disappointed with. And since I would only feel intense emotions like those for people that I'm close to and/or care about a lot, people who read this tend to get the idea that my friends are terrible. Well, they really aren't. And I should probably find a way to vent my feelings in some way that isn't so passive-aggressive.

More later...

On the way home from work, I passed this truck that had a sticker on it that read "SPORTSMEN FOR BUSH '04". That got me thinking... what if other, typically pro-Dem groups decided to make stickers symbolizing their support for GWB. Take, for example, lesbians. If I were a lesbian, I think I would still side with the conservative view of equal opportunity for all (for eg., less of the outrageous advantages awarded to minorities solely based on their skin color, responsible governmental spending, etc. etc.). But for some reason, I don't think the campaign slogan "LESBIANS FOR BUSH" has the same effect... *wink*

taking back saturday

It's been another one of those long, drawn-out weeks that makes you want to use the weekend for everything it's worth... Or be used by your friends for all it's worth. You know, either way.

So... umm... okay. Starting with ... Friday? Wasn't really that exciting... Well, I did happen to see my supervisors in random places, which was pretty weird. I had to pick up my bike from the repair shop after work that day, and it just so happens to be that my boss and two of my lab supervisors were enjoying HUGE mugs of beer outside Dos Amigos at exactly the time I walked by :) It was really interesting, because that's pretty much the first time I've actually seen them outside of the work setting. And even though they're REALLY OLD (tee hee, like, 29 and older), it was fun sitting with them and just talking about random things (like how Ed would look good wearing tiny bike shorts! weird!!)...

Party at Emily's on Friday, but nothing much exciting happened. Played some cards, half a game of pool... jumped on the trampoline, which just happened to have an enormously heavy kiddie pool underneath that we could not have possibly moved... needless to say, it looked like I peed my pants after awhile :)

Saturday... ah, Saturday. Picked up Emily and little sis Sierra and headed out to meet Jess in LC. Of course, we had to pick up something on the way (namely, ice and water), so we stopped at the Zumbro Falls BP... I grab my wallet and open the door to get out... and for some reason, this buzzing sound turns on. I check the lights and just figure that it must be because the CD player adapter is in the tape deck... so, we head into BP, buy ice, water and all that good stuff... and as we get back to the car, I realize that I don't have keys anywhere on me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I locked the keys in the van. NOT ONLY that, but since I wasn't paying attention last weekend when my dad told me exactly where the spare key is, I spent a good 20 minutes on my back under the van trying to find that damn box. And since our cell phones were locked in the car, we had no way of reaching anyone...

Well, that's where we were without the awesome help of the girl working at the gas station. She just happened to have a boyfriend who works towing trucks and would of course unlock the door for us :) Seriously, how many times do people come to your rescue like that? The rest of the ride to LC was a haze to me, because I kept thinking about how much of a miracle it is that there are still good people in the world...

Whereas, sometimes your own friends (and etc.) can let you down.

I mean, I know how much of a loser I am. Honestly. I don't need my own friends repeating embarassing stories to the whole world.

Also, it hurts to know that regardless of how many times I invite people out to do stuff, those same people would not in the world do the same favor of inviting me to something of theirs. I'm tired of being used for my hospitality. I know I'm not perfect, but at least I go through the effort of trying to keep up friendships. Maybe there's just something about me that I don't know. Like how I embarass my friends with how much of a dork I am. Yeah, that's probably it.

Have a good weekend, all. Don't try to reach me today (not that you would), because I've had it for this weekend. Time for some shopping by myself, and maybe a haircut too.

time to return?

I'm feeling more and more like it's probably about time to head back to college...

No, it's not that I hate being around home. Nor is it that I don't enjoy being with my family, or having the chance to see high school buds. It's just that every day ends up being longer than the last... and it doesn't hurt experiencing the awkwardness of "hey" "hey" "how's college" "good" conversations with people I barely knew in h.s. (yet somehow as we have been released from the prison of century, are those we feel obligated to acknowledge... or maybe I'm just antisocial) ...

Just made some chocolate chip cookies. Mmmmm... cookie dough is definitely just as good as the cooked kind... and it even has tasty salmonella sometimes...

Summer is more than halfway over. Well, the break of it, at least. Doesn't that make you want to take a road trip to Canada? It must be done.

Talking about things being done... time for cookies :)

everybody to the limit!

Everyone needs to come to Hok-si-la campgrounds this Friday for some awesome camping adventures! We're going to carpool from Emily's house at 6PM and hopefully show up before 7 at the campsite. Seriously, everyone should come, because it's going to be a blast. And a half. And Saturday we'll get to enjoy lovely Lake Pepin.

So, Independence Day has come and gone once again. I don't even have any cool pictures of the day. A shame, but nevertheless, a magical day indeed.

I want to wax my legs. The hair is now about 1/3" long. Yep, prrrretty gross.

The last 3 days I have been sleeping on the downstairs couch in a sleeping bag. I decided about a week ago that it would be a good idea to strip all the wallpaper off my walls and paint. Bad idea, when that wallpaper's been there for over 19 years. Yuck-o.

Talking about things that are yuck-o, I just noticed this nasty spider crawling on the floor.... I screamed really loudly... twice... why do I have to be such a wimp?? I even get all this negative reinforcement from my dad, but still I do it. I put my sister's UND folder on top of it and kind of mushed it with my foot a little. YUCK. I hope it's dead.

My ears are wet, I'm tired, and I want to go to bed. And Waseem is coming in two days. And I still haven't started painting yet. Ohhh man. Please, if you have time, pray that I don't get eaten by this gross spider that I may or may not have successfully squished under Stephie's folder. (Bleehehhhh, spider thoughts...) Goodnight!

capture-the-flag, reinvented

So, anyways. I have a lot to catch up on. Celebrating Steph's birthday was fun (especially pissing off her stupid boyfriend by stealing her away from him on Friday night, yay!). The wakeboarding's been pretty safe... slaloming too... although there was one fall last weekend that completely took my bottoms off :) haha, thank goodness for the murkiness of Lake Pepin!!

Time for work, but this is just the beginning. More excitement to come :P

childhood days

Yesterday I got a couple big reminders that life is impossibly short. After dinner, Suzy (my aunt) called to say that she was having severe chest pains, so she was wondering if I could hang out with Gabs (her granddaughter) while she and Jimmy went to the hospital. First off, it's shocking to know that someone close to you could be potentially in a life-threatening situation... I haven't heard back from her yet on how she's doing, but she had to stay overnight ... so it was definitely severe enough for the doctors to worry... Second, how can you expect to take care of a 7-year-old girl when something that serious is happening to her grandma? Gabs probably knew what was going on, but being the good sport that she is, she didn't show that she was scared. Man, it's hard enough trying not to be worried myself, imagine having to calm someone else??

Gabs and I did have some fun yesterday :) We took off in a rocket headed for the moon and then the sun and then Mars... I found out that male seahorses are the ones that have seahorse babies... (take that, boys) ... we bought some horses, zebras, and elephants with our leaf money... got some ice cream at DQ (where I got some weird looks from concerned parents... NO, I'm not her mother)... played around at Hoover Elementary, where I discovered how much my arm strength has diminished in its capability to swing me across the monkey bars... and watched a little Wallace and Gromit before Jimmy came to pick her up for bedtime. It was a good day :)

We'll see what the weekend holds... perhaps a little waterskiing (pllllease, Dad?)... some birthday celebration for Jess, Laura, and my fam... a work party for Kaori...most likely some awful, messed-up dreams, like the one I had last night... wishing that Emily wasn't so busy with soccer tourneys... yep, that's about it.

a bit distressed

Hmm... not exactly sure what to do at this point. We'll see... indeed, we will...

I still have the smell of Greek food on my hands... and on my breath :) I wonder why anyone even wants to hang out with me! It's not because I'm totally lame that I'm at home on a Tuesday night. Well, yes, maybe a little bit. But for real, I need to start getting enough sleep. Raid (my French supervisor at Mayo) has caught me more than once dozing off during one of his procedural lectures. ;) Shame on me. And shame on all you who keep me out late at night!! tee hee :)

I guess I have to stop talking about it and actually do it. Good night, y'all.

ski deprivation sucks

Well, it does. And so is my consistence on updating my blog. I'll work on that. But first I must complain... It will be at least 2 more weeks until I get a chance to do some real waterskiing. Rollerblading just does not cut it. Biking is a little better, but it is a distant comparison at best to the wonders of skiing on water. Yep. So...

I've been working for a full 6 days as of today, and it is definitely getting better. I did fall asleep in today's lab meeting, but really, it was the best I could do when I could hardly understand the acronyms they were using for the molecular receptors and compounds and stuff. Seriously. The next few months of dreams for me will be filled with R-Smads, DMEM, TGF-beta, Cre-LoxP Recombinase, MD-1 cells, Hygromycin, Neomycin, Trypsin, dnTP, Abl-GFP chimeras... do I need to go on? Didn't think so.

Steph's grad party was a grand success. Hanging out with the family (and extended family) was definitely worthwhile, as was finding out that Aaron Freeman will be going to RCTC next year ;) Poor Aaron. Well, I guess I'm really not all that sorry. Oops. I also got a chance to talk to Danny, which was excellent, as I haven't talked to him in ages. I think he may have gotten over the fact that I'm a horrible and cruel person. Anyways, this summer should be good. I hope.

I still have scrapes and bruises from wrestling Emily the other night... ;)

becoming the working girl

Work starts tomorrow. That means... I need to find either a pair of closed-toed shoes that I can wear with a skirt, or black shoes to wear with black pants. Sadly, I believe I have neither. And I need to find my passport. Or birth certificate.

This is really boring. Umm... I'm le tired. So I'm going to sleep. Good NIGHT!

need a car wash?

Well, you definitely wouldn't have to pay for one today. Yuck! Does it ever stop raining? God, this is me telling you that all of Olmsted County is fine, rain-wise. No more, please.

Ooh, lightning...

So, today I went in for my pre-employment physical. My first experience of peeing into a cup. Kind of weird, I have to admit. I couldn't even do it the first time... too dehydrated, I guess. Anyways. Too much information, I guess.

And another wonderful gynecology appointment... ehhh... enough said.

While I was inside Papa Murphy's getting a pizza for the fam, God decided to let it pour. I wish I was plastic-wrapped like that pizza when I walked outside. Bleehhhh.

Anyways. Time to drive Grandma Kaye somewhere to pick up her green card pictures. She's currently an illegal alien, but don't tell anyone. Silly Grandma Kaye ;)

let's get (a) physical...

I'm really grateful that I'm a girl. Thank you, Waseem, for letting me know all that I'm missing out on with male physicals... oh yes. I'm still not necessarily looking forward to it, though. "Necessarily" is interjected for the sake that it may be a 25 year old male pre-doc doing the evaluation ;) On that note, maybe that should be one of the reasons that I dread it, as well... thinking of Dani's experience with Pracs... Well, I guess the only thing I should be hoping for is that it's fast, also considering that I have another appointment to go to. What a basketcase of medical problems I am...

So, wake up for a run, go to Mayo to get a physical, eat lunch (necessary part of day), go to another appointment at 2, and then... oh yeah, back to wondering what to do. I think I might be looking forward to being busy with work. Trying to fill up a day is difficult to do after spending 9 crazy months on homework, karate, EL, NRHH, NSCS, Honors Program, tutoring (crap, I still have to write something to them... s#$^h%#;%) and hanging out with wonderful J3ers. Anyways. Wow, yeah, I need to do that. So, moral of the story is, it doesn't matter how busy you are when it comes down to getting stuff done. I feel like I just don't have any motivation to do some of this stuff.

Poopy list to get done by... Thursday?
- Send letters to kids that I tutored this year
- Mail my available hours to UND, so I can tutor in the MLC (math learning center, whoo hoo)
- Also mail evals to Matt for the tutor program
- E-mail my boss to get more info on what I'm actually doing... and if I can get a week off for vacation? :) Wow, this may not be a good thing to do before I've even started working...
- Talk Emily into letting me play DDR with her soon
- Get a tan
- Get a life (well, at least something to occupy my idle mind, besides my lovely OChem book)

current mood:

Poop on everything. I mean it.

home at last

Yay!! I'm home!!!

Okay, enough exuberance. I'm almost all the way unpacked. And I've succeeded at rearranging all Steph's crap so I can have space enough for my toothbrush in the bathroom... yesss... So, it's almost safe to walk through my house, now. Apart from some illegal extension cords... a pile of stuff that has to go off to Goodwill... and my guitar in the middle of everything... yeah, there's still stuff to do.

Ahh, the simple joys of watching Zoolander for the billionth time... "I turned left!!"

What is it about being home that makes me want to fall asleep all the time? I think we have a carbon monoxide leak. Seriously... I get 11 hours of sleep two nights ago, and then 10 hours last night? And I'm still compelled to go to bed at 7PM?? What's wrong with me???

More later. Time to be a bum and watch TV. Time to get offline. Enough with the waiting.