The Three Hundredth Post!!!

Can you believe it, I've been posting to this blog for three hundred posts. Whee.

I had great aspirations on what I was going to do with this post. Then today got long and drawn out and I had all sorts of other errands to run, and packing for the Aspen trip, and...

I'm super tired, but Troy and Amanda and Michelle are on there way tonight to try to beat the storm...it's already snowing out, so they didn't, but they will be here sometime between now and 4AM. I am going to get zero sleep tonight.

On top of that, I haven't finished packing. Par for the course, hey Rachel? I'm mostly done. I think I'm over packing, but I can't tell. Eh. Now, to figure out shoes, brush teeth, contacts out, and bed.

Good night all, and I'll blog about my super nice Christmas and such when I get back.

It's Over

My second to last semester in grad school is over. Whew. For a while, I wasn't sure how I was going to get everything done. Still...here I am, it's 1 am on Thursday, December 22nd, and I'm just about to go to bed. I finished up on Tuesday morning actually, but then my computer crashed again so I haven't had a chance to blog. Plus, I've been knitting.

I started packing for going home at midnight...typical Tricia Style. I can't pack before midnight, right Rachel? It would be completely going against tradition. I'm mostly packed, but I think I'll think about the rest of the stuff in the morning.

Happy Christmas and all the rest to all, and I'm sure I'll have an update for you when I return from GB. May it snow for you on Christmas/holiday of your choice morning, and may you travel safetly to any destination you choose to travel to...even if it's just from the kitchen to your own dining room.

Knit Knit

From now on, and especially when I'm procrastinating, you may here the distinctive click-click of knitting needles eminating from my abode. Why, you ask? Because Wednesday night Katie and I took a knitting class at Michaels. In two hours they taught us to cast on, knit, perl, and bind (or cast) off. Now I just have to remember each of the steps, and get good at them. For awhile I forgot how to perl and was gettting pretty frustrated (this was yesterday...day 1.5 of knitting experience) Last night I got Katie's extra needles...I have to go buy some...and retaught myself so I could do a good job on my current project. I have no idea what said project will turn out to be. If I get sick of it, it'll be a odd shaped pot holder. Otherwise, I'm voting for scarf. Tee hee. I'll do a couple of scarves and then I'll move on to something harder, like hats and mittens and maybe even sweaters.

In fact, I think I hear my needles calling me now...

SNOW!!!!

Whee! Yay!!! **Happy dance**

I love snow, I do! Even when it makes driving a nightmare and gives me a sore back from the shoveling I do, because shoveling = money off rent, and snow is wonderful! There are a plethora of exclaimation points in this post. Oh well. I just shovel anywhere between 3 and 5 inches of the white stuff, depending on what the total is and where it had drifted. Some drifts were over a foot high. Luckily for me, the snow is mostly fluffy currently, or that would have been much harder work.

It's still snowing, I'll have to shovel again tomorrow and probably friday **rubs hands with glee**

Happy Snowy morning all!

They're Back!

Remember our furry four-footed little friends from last winter? No? Perhaps this will help you to refresh a year-old memory...




Yeah, that's them. Maybe not an exact portrait. Still. It's winter, there's snow outside so the mice came inside. We have no idea how many there are...only that it's a relatively (as in the last day or two) problem. We intend to be very proactive about this situation. Traps will be placed tonight. We're going to start with snap-traps. I hate the sticky ones because I feel like the poor little rodents suffer too much with them, but I'll break them out if I have to. Absolutely no poison...all it does is draw more of the wee beasties into the house with the promise of accessable food. Oh, and then they go and die in unaccessable walls and stink.

Day one of the battle: Mice - 3 items of food. Humans - 0

The home stretch

It really must be getting close to end of semeseter time. I'm sitting here blogging after a long day of homework/tests/etc, eating ice cream (peanut butter cup) at my compute, and making lists.

For instance, today I:

1. Did laundry
2. Paid rent
3. Finished my last biostatistics homework set
4. Started and finished Environmental Chemistry HW #6
5. Started and almost finished EC HW#7
6. Started EC final exam (really a doozy, worked for 1.5 hrs and still not even done with #1 part a.
7. Went to the bank
8. Went to the grocery and bought food
9. Did some mentoring (and reviewed my geometry)
   
10. Worked on my part of the EC paper
11. Worked a bit on my Policy paper (mostly rereading the assignment and brainstorming, but that counts!!)
12. Reorganized the fridge, food cabinet, cupboard above the stove, and tea/cereal cupboard.
    
13. Ate (very important)
14. Did dishes

Pretty long list, huh? See, if I list out exactly what I did, then even though I'm nowhere near done I still get a mini sense of accomplishment. #12 is something that happens around finals time for me. I get into organization in a big way. Something about organizing helps me focus. Maybe it's that "I'm done and it looks good" feeling I get at the end. Or perhaps it's just a leftover from my procrastination past? Or maybe ANYTHING is better than the work required in the last week(s) of class? I don't know. I do know the kitchen looks lovely and I'm not going to be able to find anything in the morning.

Snow.*.*..**

It's been snowing for almost a week straight. If I heard someone say that, I would begin to picture the blizzards of yore, with their 30 inches of snow dropped, near white-out conditions, and traffic nightmares. Or perhaps of being trapped in the house for so long you are left with only ramen to eat, or your left shoe, and you are seriously considering how boiled left shoe would taste, perhaps with salt or lemon-pepper seasoning. The 30 inches of snow is not the case here. We've had snow off and on since Monday late-night, and have seen maybe 3 inches of the white stuff fall onto our porches, yards, or cars. All of said snow has been either the fluffy white flakes that resemble small cottonballs floating towards earth, or the really itty-bitty shiney crystals that make everything sparkle in the light of the street lampposts.

It has been a long time since we've had appreciable snow before Christmas, it seems. I seem to recall only one or two truely "White Christmas" situations in the last ten years or so. Should I blame global warming? Perhaps there is a global shift of jet streams? El Niño? La Niña? I have no idea. I do know I'm thrilled to look out my window and see the white stuff silently falling from the sky. The world outside my window is grey, it's about sunset now and we've almost entered that surreal time where light and almost light combine to create a bit of a dream world. I almost don't mind having to sit at my computer all night working on my homework.

I can only hope and pray that the current pattern of snow holds all winter. Maybe not snow every day, because I really like the cold sunny days of winter too, but nothing like last winter where we had a few ice storms, one major (6 inches) storm of snow, and a bunch of piddly little half inch falls in between intense, bitter cold. I want at least 4 to 10 big snowstorms this winter, including one where over 2 feet of snow falls in one stretch. I want fluffy snow, and small glitter-snows, and heavy, wet, snowball snows. I want to have to shovel a bunch (this has nothing to do with the fact that I'm paid to shovel :P ) I want a real midwest winter with lots of snow and stories that I can pass along to future generations. Sorry if I'm waxing maudlin on everyone, but I remember when I was 6 it snowed so much (and lots of blowing too) in 'ole GB that the snow drifted right up to our roof in the back of our house. My dad went outside and packed down the snow into a suitable sledding run off the roof and through the yard. My little brother and I played quite happily back there. We built a snow-dragon we could ride and had many an adventure on him. He was quite happy to carry us wherever our imaginations could take us. In the front yard, there was so much snow built up at the end of the driveway from both our shoveling and the street plows, and compacted in such a manor, that we had two snow forts. One by the mailbox, and one on the other side of the driveway. Sometimes they were castles and sometimes they were battlements, where our snow missles could be hurled with enthusiasm if not percision.

I'm not too old to play those games again! I want to build a snowman in the front yard even bigger than the last one Katie and I made in GB where we needed to devise a leverage system to place his torso and head upon his lower section. I want to put on boots and snowpants and go to como park and build snowforts with friends, complete with snowmissles. Maybe we could even coax the snow dragon to return amongst us. I want to put same snowpants and boots (and jacket and hat and mittens and scarf, of course) on and go sledding down a hill on a 2 dollar generic sled. I want to be able to USE my skis this year. I realize that all this wishing and hoping is going to cause royal traffic problems, so I hope that all people out there realize that snow means slow (see the resemblance of words there? I don't believe it's a coincidence.) That way everyone can enjoy the snow and we won't have to worry about accidents. Mostly, I'd like to go home for Winter holidays, and wake up to celebrate with my family to snow falling in an already white yard. Maybe this is the year.

Car Update:

My car had a bad battery cables and corrosion of the battery. The nice Saturn doctors...er...mechanics have made her better and she's staying with my parents for a few weeks. I have Mom's car, which is nice because it has magical door-opening buttons. Still, no offence to the Century, but it's a boat (that has a better turning radius than the Super Saturn).

Thanksgiving was great. I went home Wednesday morning and then up to DC wed. evening. We (mom, dad and I) spent Wed/Thursday at the condo w/ my Aunt and did turkey dinner there. We played in the pool and hot tub, went down the water slide, and even all played volleyball in the water. Mom and Dad played too, and dad stubbed his toe and probably broke it :(

Friday Mom and I braved the malls to get a few deals, and then made cookies all afternoon. That will probably become tradition (the cookies, not the shopping -eep!)

Saturday we had my mom's family over for dinner - ham and cheesy potatoes because we were all tired of turkey. Saturday evening I went over to visit Jenni and Chad and tried my hand at that guitar game they like to play. I wasn't overly bad for one try and I see how it could be addicting and tiring.

Sunday I went to church and had dinner with my parents and then drove back in the rain and fog in a different car. By the time I was back to MN the Century and I had figured eachother out.

Hm, now my tummy is crying for leftovers, I had better answer it's call.

VROOOOM....putt putter....click hiss...cough arrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

Just when I thought my problems had ceased, it being Thanksgiving Holiday and all, I get a nasty wake up. My lovely Super Saturn is at it again. She loves a good practical joke, but this one is going to cost me. Last year about the middle of winter, she started playing the ‘lets turn off all the gages and then turn them back on while Tricia is driving’ game.** Not so amusing, but as she only did it occasionally I learned to live with it. At the beginning of this winter she decided to begin the game again, but like a two year old with a new toy (or the box from said toy) she will not give it up. It’s exasperating I tell you! Yesterday she played the game 10 times in the time it took me to get from my house to the highway (roughly 5 minutes) and then a few times on the highway just for good measure. During one of the highway times, she actually shut off the radio along with the gages. It only shut off for a moment, coming back on with the rest of the stuff, and the time was short enough that I didn’t lose my programming. Still, we are getting progressively more extensive in the game.

**Explanation of game: Super Saturn takes the gas gage, the odometer, speedometer, and tachometer and turns them off, they all go to zero as though the car was not on (we are usually driving while she does this, but she will do it in the parking lot while warming up just to practice). Then the brake like comes on and a second or so later (after they have slowly floated from wherever they are to zero) they will go back to normal. The car clicks and all is normal until the next instance of the game. Occasionally if she is feeling really fiesty, she will turn off the cruise control when you turn on your blinker. She's only tried that version of the game twice though, and we hope it doesn't catch on. It would be damned pesky trying to change lanes if you constantly had to adjust the cruise...

I called Saturn today to find out just what the game might be called. After all, I have to drive to Green Bay tomorrow for the Holiday and don’t want the game to progress to “sitting on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck”. The nice mechanic told me it’s probably not a fuse or short (like I thought) but rather loose or corroded battery wires. Hmm, now this I can probably deal with, yes? I didn’t get a chance tonight to go look at the cables, and it’s dark now. I will take the car into the Saturn Mechanic in GB to have them fix it permanently, but tomorrow before I leave on my journey I will check the oil and the cables. I just hope if they are lose they don’t require a metric socket to fix. I have English ones, but the Super Saturn is eclectic and cannot decide if she prefers the English or metric system of measure. Consequently, as I recall there are both types of bolts under her hood.

Oh, and before you yell at me for looking under her hood, I had her permission, and she had her Serpentine Belt on!

A girl sits at a desk, sneezes, and looks around. “Where has the last hour gone? Have I really been checking email, writing email and going though various paperwork for that long?” she asks herself? The clock doesn’t lie, and neither does her empty tea cup. Sighing, she gets up to go start more water in the cheap coffee maker that serves as her quickie version of a tea kettle. It’s fast and easy, but it doesn’t whistle when it’s done. Disappointing, that. So is drinking tea out of a cup that isn’t the normal ‘tea mug’. That’s what happens when one leaves one’s mug in an inaccessible location. Resourcefulness, that’s the ticket. Back at the computer, the girl looks over those things in front of her. A stack of CD’s recently ripped to her computer for her listening pleasure sits in one corner while a pile of scrap paper for taking notes on, including one full of notes from this afternoon’s environmental chemistry exam, has exploded over the writing surfaces. “It was good of me to leave them on the desk this morning, where they’d really help me study.” She thinks sarcastically at herself. “Not that they would have done any good. They were wrong material all together. Good thing most people in the class thought the same thing. Not that the professor curves or anything, but maybe she’ll realize it wasn’t the best of tests and take that into consideration while assigning final grades.”

She sighs again. The stapler, stack of post-it notes, random pens, and various receipts taking up the back of the desk don’t respond. The phone to her right remains silent as well. “There’s nothing for it, I guess. I’ll have to do my biostats homework. Though what’s the world coming to when you have nothing left to procrastinate with and have to do your homework?” The biostatistics texts, wisely, remain silent as well. The rest of the room beckons. A stack of papers in the corner practically screams for organization and the state of the dresser surface doesn’t even bear mentioning. A random pile of clothes on the bed needs to be sorted into the ‘laundry’, ‘clean’ and ‘wearable around the house’ categories, and then sent on to their appropriate destinations. The floor could use vacuuming and the surfaces dusting. All this she sees and dismisses with a quick glance around the room. She gets up again to see if the coffee maker has finished producing hot water for her third? cup of tea. Is it really three when it was one cup, half drank, reheated, sipped, forgotten, reheated with more water and another teabag for reconstitution, forgotten again, and reheated a last time before consumption? Who knows? All that is a travesty to the marvel that is hot tea with honey. Ah. The faithful little coffee maker has done its job and a green tea has been selected and left seeping in the kitchen. The biostats books are looking faintly miffed about their continued state of neglect. How can one student be so cruel? They were created for that single purpose, to educate and inform, and they sit dejected on the corner of the desk. They hold down the stack of scrap paper (should it be in the mind to wander), and gather dust.

Hoping to procrastinate just a little more before tackling her homework, the girl goes onto the internet to check the weather. Her favorite weather site states that tomorrow will be warmer than today was. Enough that the miniscule amount of snow that fell on Tuesday night will turn to slush, melt, puddle, churn with mud, and eventually just become a sloppy quagmire of filth. No surprise there. Fall has not yet given over completely to winter. The warm breezes vie with the icy wind and one is as likely to be hit in the nose with a snowflake as a raindrop. One dresses in layers, Alaska for the morning and Florida for the afternoon. Ok, maybe not Florida, but at least a balmy mid-to-lower Illinois. “Sheesh” The girl is now exasperated. She has plenty of good books to read, just on the shelf behind her. But her conscience states that she just finished a book and if she wants to start another, she must first at least review her biostats lesson online. She tells her conscience to get stuffed and leaves the computer yet again to go get her green tea, add honey, stir until ‘just right’ and then return to the computer.

Nothing seems right to her. She’s been doing various levels of procrastination – all useful things – for the last hour and a half, but she’s just too restless to sit down and begin work. That she is already sitting down, at the very same computer she will need to use for her homework, is irrelavant. No, it’s not so much the sitting on her back pockets that is important as the state of mental being required to begin such a dry topic as this set of biostatistics homework problems. If she didn’t want to do that, she reasons with herself, there is always the economics paper, the other biostats homework (rather un-doable until the first is completed, but it's really the thought that counts), or even more research for her Master’s project. There are many avenues open to her; she has but to choose one, set her feet upon the path, and begin. If it were that easy, noone would procrastinate, there would be no world hunger, war, or disease, and the question needed that results in an answer of 42 to the life, the world, and everything would have been determined. Another gargantuan sigh is the result of this current line of thinking, and the tea begins to be consumed; it’s a bit heavy on the honey side, but still good.

Finally, she makes up her mind. Biostats just isn’t worth doing at this juncture. The tea is hot, her mind is fairly aware and alert – though not in the mood for scholarly thought, and the bookshelf beckons. She gets up, walks over to the bookshelf to find a suitable title for her mood, and goes back to the futon, overstuffed pillows, and blanket that were her companions earlier in the evening. Sometimes, one just needs a night off.

Goin Skiing!

My bro called the other day to ask if I want to go skiing w/ him and his girlfriend and his girlfriend's sister this winter. Sure. Why not? Send me the info. Aparently my bro got the hookup for a trip through LifeStylez who hosts winter and spring break college trips. So, for a total of 348 (including all applicable taxes and fees, but not including food or transportation) I will be headed to Aspen to spend 6 nights/ 5 days at the Aspen Hotel and skiing for 4 days at Aspen/Ajax, Snowmass, Highlands, and Buttermilk. Dude, usually 4 days skiing at Aspen would be close to that. Sounds like fun to me. With driving our own car, and splitting gas 4 ways, that shouldn't be more than 50-60 bucks a person for gas, plus food for 6 days and I can pack lots of snacks and PBJ. Sweetness. Loads of fun and some QT w/ the bro and such.

Now, I just have to lose 20 to 30 pounds, get into better shape, go skiing a few times before then so I remember what to do with said long sticks attached to my legs, and find the money to pay for said trip. No worries, right?!?

I would have extended the deal out to my other skier buddies, but as it is, I have to mail this by Friday to make mine count. Next year, we'll do it again, and get all the peeps involved.

Note to self: Learn how to ski moguls.

Emotions...

I just recalled that I used to have an imood indicator on this page. It's back. Woot

Oh, and Happy Day-of-going-door-to-door-to-hunt-for-sweets.

Rustle, Rustle? Boo!

I am sitting here listing to the sound of my computer humming, the coffee maker puttering out my tea-water, and silence. The sound of silence really is deafening. Noone else in the house is home right now…

I had just started typing this entry, had a whole bunch of things to say, and was contemplating the emptiness of house and discombobulation of my thoughts when my phone rang. I just changed my ring-tone too. My phone now plays the Super Mario Brothers theme song. Bu bu bu, bu-bu BUH bu….do do do, du do do do…Well, you get the idea. Off goes the phone and I sat here and sort of imaginary-bopped my way though the beginning of board one until I decided I really should answer my phone instead of letting the board play through to Voicemail. Not only am I a geek, but I’m now in a totally different mindset that when I started this post. It was Katie on the phone, and we were discussing this evening’s entertainment. I believe it will involve some tea or hot cocoa (it’s a hard call, but if we’re baking cookies and/or eating cake, it may have to be tea to cut the sweatness). There will also be the watching of that wonderful Halloween tale - Hocus Pocus. I just love that movie. One of these days Katie, me, and one other female will have to be those three sisters for Halloween. I want to be the one who bounces around sing/saying ‘amuck amuck amuck…” Good fun.

That will have to be some other Halloween though. This year we were characters from InuYasha. I was Kagome, and Katie was Kikyo. I will add a nice picture of the two of us in all our splendid glory. We had two Halloween parties. Friday night was to go to, and Saturday night was here. Both successful I think. Katie and I took live bows as part of our costumes, and many people were impressed. I think, though, that the bows helped to confuse people as to who I was. Katie looked her part in her Hakama and Kimono, and so not many people confused her even if they didn’t know what she was supposed to be. I, however, was called Xena, Legolas, Robin Hood, and Zelda before the night was over. Only a few people recognized me as Kagome, or as someone from an Anime. I was also called Sailor Moon once, so at least that person had the right genre. Still, everyone applauded our costumes. Saturday night at our house we were joined by Miroku (aka Lance). All we needed was an InuYasha, a Sango, and a Shippo and we would have been set. I think we did just fine on our own though.

I’ll have to write more about our Halloween party here and such later. I just realized that I’m quite hungry. I am going to go get a bowl of cereal before Katie and Chris get back and then change my laundry.

Kikyo and Kagome get ready to shoot demons. In the house? Working together? Something is obviously not right here...

Here's Miroku making a play for Kikyo (don't let InuYasha see you trying that!) Kagome is holding onto Kirara for Sango, who's off finding a very big rock to hit Miroku over the head with. She's a bit jealous, you know. 

I went outside just now and it was snowing. SNOW!

I'm going to bed.

I walked outside just now, and it was snowing. SNOW!

I'm going to bed.

This past week I have been absent from classes at the U. The reason? My training as an Emergency Responder-technician level. It's a 40 hour class that covers everything from PPE (personal protective equipment) to Air monitoring, to the rules governing hazmat in general industry - namely one 20 CFR 1910.120, to the laws passed in our illustrious country such as CERCLA, SARA, RCRA, etc. No, I will not spell out said acronyms, look them up. Monday was all lecture, and as it was 95% review of what I've learned in the last year during my IH classes it was quite a challenge to stay alert to catch that nugget of information I may not have gleaned. Tuesday we got to move around some, and wednesday even more. Wednesday we practiced "Decon", or the process of un-messifying a person before they get out of their protective gear, so as not to re-messify their much more sensitive skin and lung bits once out of the 'hot zone'. So off we went to don our PPE, some in fully encapsulated level A - full hazmat suit, SCBA (read SCUBA for those of us needing to breath clean air on terra firma), and nonslip, chemical resistant boots; some in level B - tyvek (cool material, except that it doesn't breath, so you get really hot) suit, double gloves, same type of boots, full face respirator and that wonderful SCBA -and duct tape which plays the vital role of shutting up seams in the suit; there were level Cs - same as B but with an air purifying respirator instead of a cumbersome air tank on their back; and then some level Ds - those in normal work attire. We set up our scene, including make believe spill out of 5 gallon bucket. The scenario was those in level A went out to survey the scene, but were unable to fix said spill by themselves (our bucket was really a metaphor for something much bigger) so they call for help. Our backup team in B (who should have been in A but were playing in B for varieties (and material scarsity's sake) went in with tools to help. They contain said spill, and then head to decon, where those in C clean them with water and scrub brushes, and then get out of said suits.

Let me say, being scrubbed on whilst in (I was in B) clothes by others is an odd feeling, and makes you laugh. Getting out of your suit is also fun. Today there was a much smaller group of us, so we played in level A suits in the afternoon after spending the morning doing air monitoring labs. We had great fun. We played with an actual drum full of chemical (H2O) and patched a hole and then put it into a much bigger drum. The drum weighs about 200 lbs, and I think my partner and I were maybe 260 together, 300 if you add the tanks of air and suits which really only hinder...so maybe that is 220 as a negative effect? Anyway, we had trouble just tipping our leaking drum on it's side to get it into the nice bigger drum. But, we are stubborn, and we figured a way. After which, we all (mostly) had some air left, so we played catch in our level A's to get used to moving and trying to communicate. We did this til our warning bell went off indicating low air. Let me tell you, if you have never gone SCUBA diving or been in an SCBA, you probably won't be able to appreciate the anxiety of hearing that bell, feeling the vibration saying 'you have maybe 5 min of air left'. Recall than in a level A we are fully encapsulated, and the only way out is if someone else lets you out. Talk about trust. You put your arms up like you are under arrest, then grab your buddy and go to decon, hoping to have enough air left to make it though decon so you don't die of chemical exposure instead of lack of air. It's good to go through that warning bell situation in practice though...it can get the heart going, and it is good to know if you can handle that stress before there are chemicals added to the mixture.

Tomorrow is the last day of that class, and then I'm going to head back to GB with Katie and Chris for the weekend. I'm exhausted. I just finished my biostats online exam, I'm going to pack, read a bit, and go to bed. I'll probably sleep all the way home if I don't end up driving.

Looking for a housemate...

Jenny found a house to buy, so I'm in the process of finding a roommate from now until at least June 1 of next year. Possibly longer, if I get a job around here, or if I have to finish thesis work, etc. Believe me, it's an interesting game. I had two people come and look at the place last night, and they were both very nice. Unfortunately, I'm not sure either will work. One only needs the place until Mid-January, and the other just might not be a good fit. I placed another ad to Craig's List and I've responded to another post there this morning. It's only the seventh so I don't feel like I have to take the first person to respond to me. After all, I'll have to live with this person for the next 7 months.

If I can't find anyone, I guess I'll have to start looking for efficiencies or 1 br apts in the area. I really don't want to do that at all. I like it here. So, anyone know anyone who is looking for housing in the Twin Cities area, I have a bedroom available at my place! My only hardcore requirement is that the person be a non-smoker as I'm hugely allergic to cig. smoke.

Bleah.

Overbid...

I decided not to buy the car. It was a really hard decision, but now that I have made it, I don't regret it. That may be the biggest indication that it was the correct choice. I loved it, and will probably get one just like it when I'm graduated at have a real job and my Super Saturn breaths her last gas fumes, but it just wasn't feasible right now. The estimate on financing game back too high.

The gentleman called me again today to tell me that the car was still available for a test drive, should I want to. Why? Why would I want to go reaquaint myself with the car I cannot have. And I do know that. If they were willing to adjust the financing, perhaps we could do a deal. They are not. I told him I'd keep him in mind when I do decide to buy a new car. I will keep his card, but I don't feel any particular loyalty to him. After all, he was just doing his job.

Now, on to more pressing things. Like homework and makeup and daydreaming. NOT in that order.

…A NEW CAR!!!!!

Why is it when I think of my actions in the last two to three days, I am reminded of Wheel of Fortune? I wish that were the case, and the car I’m thinking about was free. It would be such an easier decision then.

It is noon on Monday. Today is the day I decide if I buy the car I ‘sort of bought’ on Saturday(pictured here). To explain: Saturday Katie and I went to the Saturn dealership to get the oil changed in our cars. We were not first in line. So we turned over our keys and went out onto the lot to take a peak at the used cars. Out came the salesman. I got talking with him about what I was looking for in a “new car”. New to me, you understand, not necessarily a brand new with no miles on it. So, there I was, explaining what I wanted and out from his mouth comes the ‘perfect’ solution. The 2005 Vue with all these options and this great pricing…So I take one for a test drive and I like it and I have my old car appraised for trade in and do some preliminary financing and tell them I’m definitely interested. They will hold the car through Monday at the end of business for me. At this point I still don’t know if I want the car for sure. I mean, I love the car, but do I need a new car right this minute? Wouldn’t it be easier to wait until I’m out of grad school to have a car payment? Shouldn’t I start saving for a house and not worry about a new car on top of everything else? I called the insurance people. The new car would cost a grand total of 17 dollars more per 6 months. That is not the issue. Mom and Dad are leery, but they say this is ultimately my decision. It would be so much easier on me if they just said yes or no, or if they gave me a really good reason to say yes or no. They brought up some things I didn’t think about, such: What if I don’t find a job right away? What about the fact that I don’t have a garage? Do I really want to be spending that money on a car payment, or would I rather use it for something else? The thing is, my car has about 2 years left in it…maybe more. I could finish school, get a job, and then buy a car. A new 2006 or 2007 car, or even buy a hybrid car. Do I really need to do this now?

It’s now 1:22 on Monday. I’ve talked with Saturn, they are applying for the car loan for me. It’s not necessary that I buy the car yet; I’m trying to determine my financing. What will my payments be? In the interim, I was talking with Cliff and he told me Missy is looking for a new car, and what will I sell mine for? I tell him blue book, and then tell him about my random electrical gremlin, and give him a price. He calls Missy. He calls me back. They will look at it tonight at 6PM. What they will give me is more than trade in value. Mom is looking for the Title for my current car. It’s still not a for sure yes. If I do sell it to Missy rather than trade it the amount of my down payment goes up. The Saturn Financier knows that I may do the trade in, or I may do simply cash down. He’s pricing both options for me. I still don’t know if I am ready for this. I know I can afford it, but is that the point? I want it, but is that the point?

Why is this so hard for me? I should be able to make the decision. Saturday night I was so gung-ho. Sunday I talked with Mom and Dad and had some doubts thrown in. I talked with my friends some more and was about 50/50. Today I have to make the decision. Now I know my old car could help a friend who needs a vehicle, and I could still have my new car. I had anxiety dreams last night. I feel like this is going too fast. I have til 9PM today. I can still say no. I can still keep the Super Saturn until she dies. Still, the new car is essentially half off, and will most likely never be this good of a deal again. So much to think about, and I don’t have so long. I am tempted to say, put it back out on the lot. I’ll think about it a bit more, and call a credit union or two. If it sells before I call you back, it was not meant to be. Is that the answer, or is that just hedging the decision.

Here I thought I had gotten better at being assertive, and at decision-making. If this is what I’m like today, how bad was I in the past? How will I be at buying a house? In this case I even know the car I want. It’s not like I am trying to decide whether or not to buy and what to buy. The longer I think, the more I think I should wait. But will I wait or take the plunge? Who knows. I don’t. I hope to by 9PM tonight.

I am going to go do homework and encourage a 7^th grader. That is from 3-5:30…but in reality from 2:30 to 6 (with drive time). At 6 I’ll have Cliff and Missy and I take my car for a test drive. They can decide if they like it. At 6:45 I’ll be headed to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. So by 6:45 I have to call Saturn back and say yes or no. I really should decide before I let Missy drive my car. If she likes it, and then I say…but I’m not selling, that would be cruel (though it would answer the question about if she likes Saturn’s…) I have homework to do, I should not be doing this. I really need to not get my oil changed at the Saturn dealership. See what happens when you are not first in line???

My 2nd Northshore Inline Marathon

I had three goals for my 2nd marathon...I met 1 of them. I managed to finish. I didn't finish faster than last year (by 7 seconds), and I didn't manage to not fall down. If you take a peak at the picture below, you will see me sporting a new pair of elbow accessories. I fell twice. The first time I bruised my left hip and took some skin off my left elbow. The second fall was straight onto my tailbone/lower back and took the skin off my right elbow (and a little more on my left elbow. I looked up my condition on WebMD and have what is politely termed, "a high energy fall onto the buttocks". There is a nice purple bruise forming there (no picture included). All in all, I have a very bruised bottom and lower back, and sitting is a pain in the ass. I can't lay on my back in bed either, I have to choose the stomach or side options. Still, I'm getting better each day, and the marathon was still fun, even though I crashed and burned twice. I'm looking forward to next year when I will kick the races butt, and manage to finish faster than 1:47.

Our team probably took 2nd (the team results aren't posted yet). Karin went with me and was also a bit dissapointed in her race/finish, but we're confident in next year's race hopes. Tessa (Lance's older sister)talked about doing it; we should hold her to that.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to sit through class tomorrow...maybe I'll bring a fleece sweatshirt just to sit on :) I think I'll ride the bus standing as well.



Me after the race. Notice the nice new elbow decorations I've aquired? Yeah, oops. At least they gave me a wheeled version of an albatross to wear around my neck. My very own 10th year Anniversary Wheel for the NSIM.

Five members of the MPCA Inline Skate Team. We Roll! 

Another year had been and gone.

Yesterday I celebrated my 25th b-day with a whole bunch of friends. It was so great! I figured if you are going to turn a quarter of a century old (or young) you should throw a bash. We went to Olive Garden for food, they have the all you can eat pasta bowl thing going on right now. Good food, slow service. We got there about 7, but they didn't have a table ready. By the time we sat down, ate, and left it was 10 PM. We came back to my place and I got some really cool cards and presents from people...including the InuYasha movie 3...Just wait til that shows up in the mail. Then there will be a watching party for all interested in the genre. (Lance, Katie and I for sure...any other takers?) I also got a most wonderful gift certificate to B&N...now the question is, what do I get there? There are so many options! After all that we ate the cake - a most delicious ice cream cake for Dairy Queen. Between the 16 of us here, we still didn't manage to finish it, but that means there are leftovers for me for today. Yay! Then there was some random games of the trivia persuasion, and then people had to leave.

Over all, it was one of the best B-days I've had in ages. I was surrounded by people who are great friends, and had a great time. Thanks all! Now, the only b-day present I have to buy myself is a new Eeyore. My 9 year old Eeyore has had a stuffing hemmorage that was (and is) unfixable with stiches. Anyone want to go to the Disney Store with me and help me to pick out another Eeyore to love?

Here we all are at Olive Garden celebrating my 25th. All but Amanda, who is behind the camera. Good food but slow service. We kept ourselves from getting bored by chatting and playing Telephone. 

Lee, Elyssa, and Amanda. They all live together next door to where Chris used to live (and Lee used to live as well). Amanda took the nice group picture. 

Here is the wonderful b-day cake in question. Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cakes rock. Oh, and so does haveingt Strawberry Shortcake as the decoration. 

Just one week left

I have one week until I do my second inline marathon. The Northshore Inline Marathon is set for next saturday (so by now I'd be done) at 7:30 AM. Of course, since you don't do loops, that means loading a bus no later than 6:30 AM in order to reach the starting point for the 7:30 start. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm just a trifle scared as well. Part of me is convinced that I'm not in the same shape I was last year, which means I'll so worse, and then I'll be grumpy. Hell, just to finish two years in a row will be an accomplishment in my book. I just finished rotating my wheels and cleaning and oiling my bearings in preparation for said race. My hands feel milky soft now from the cleanser and oil. Hehe, I also smell like citrus cleaner.

I'm house sitting again this weekend. So nice, as it has decided to turn hot, and this house has A/C. I'm very medicated, watching the puppies requires oodles of allergy meds during the ragweed season, but they are fun too. We went for a walk this afternoon, first Addy and I for a half hour and then Dylan and I for about 15 minutes. He is a puppy, and still learning the finess of walking. Mostly he jumps at the leash. By the last five minutes he was doing really good, so I decided to end on a high note.

Tonight Katie and I are going to chill. I'll do homework tomorrow!

Back to School

Here we go, back to school again. I started my two at-school classes today, but haven't yet looked at the content of my online class. I know I should, but I think that is a project for after dinner. I just finished rollerblading, and it was one of the least rewarding experiences I have had in the sport in awhile. I probably did 10 miles, and it took me a whole hour (very slow for me), and the whole time I was doing it nothing felt right. I think I will have to rotate and clean my wheels tonight and give it another go tomorrow. On the drive back from the trail my car turned off its cruise control by itself (maybe it felt ignored if I wasn't pushing the pedal) and then did the random gages-going-to-zero-and-then-resetting-themselves-trick (she really likes that one). I am about to eat some pizza and hopefully make my grumpyness go away. And then I'll take a shower and make my smelliness go away. And then I'll get into the grind of schoolwork. Doesn't that sound like barrels of fun? I think I'll make some tea too.

This weekend was really cool. Karin and I went to Door County and did much winery tours. I came back with a case of wine. All different sorts. I am excited to drink them as well - I got a cool toy to keep the wine fresh. It is called a vacuvin and it pulls the air out of the bottle to keep the wine fresh with it's specially designed 'cork'.

I am thining th ebeginning of this semester will be a breeze, and the end will suck. Personally I am a bit afraid of what might happen. More on that later. I haven't posted pictures in a while, maybe I'll get around to that later tonight as well.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

This Friday is my last day at work. I can't really believe that almost 3 years have passed since I began this job. I am sad to go, because I will miss the people. The work - well, it's "student work" and as such rather boring 90% of the time. Still, the time has come to pursue a different avenue of thought, and a new adventure.

That adventure will be named "Master's Thesis". Many such endeavors have been undertaken by Master's students throughout time. Peruse your local University Library thesis section if you should like some examples of the Works That Have Gone Before. My Work will be done on the crucial topic of decontamination of methamphetamine in HVAC systems in meth labs, and the air sampling that goes along with it. No, that is not its current title. The current working title (on the Work Plan anyway) is: Sampling for Methamphetamine Contamination in Air and HVAC Systems in Former Meth Labs. It’s just about as long and bulky as the description listed above. As I really detest long trumped up academic titles, I am currently in the market for a nickname for my project. Should you have any ideas, please contact me. I fully intend to use the winning nickname as the title of my Master’s Oral Defense. The Oral is the Final Exam of All Final Exams that I will need to pass in order to gain my degree. I am determined that it will be a fun and low key affair, as the topic is already weighty. I intend to bring powdered sugar covered donuts, and maybe even rock candy, and soda as a snack, and name it after the nick name, and have a great time with it.

School begins September 6th, as does my Thesis Work. I will be working mostly from home, with some time at school and some time in the ‘field’ (read: busted meth labs). I hope to finish the data collection by December and the writing of the thesis by March. I think I’ll be making a poster for the AIHce conference in May. It’s in Chicago this year. Anyone want to go to Chicago w/ me?

On a side note – pun intended – I have added a few new blog links to my Friend’s Blogs links in the sidebar. My friend Chris’s Blog, Canyons of the Deep, and my friend Lee’s Blog, Dinosaur in Trouble; my apologies Chris and Lee for taking so bloody long to link you. I am not so good at remembering to make template changes.

::Sniff, sniff:: “A-choo!”

Bloody allergies. Seriously. They are terrible right now. I finished my house/dog sitting and thought perhaps it would get better. After all, even though there are still house allergies and outside allergies, there are no more pet allergies. Still, no luck. Katie has it worse than me though. She never really had allergies until she moved to MN. I’m so used to them; I can’t remember a time without them.

I’m in the home stretch for my ‘day job’. Soon (sometime next week) I’ll leave the office in favor of a research assistantship with the U. It will count as my field experience, my project, and my job for the next one or two semesters. I have a whole bunch of stuff to finish at work before I can leave for good though. I didn’t quite realize everything I did here. I have my hand in many proverbial cookie jars, and need to write out what I do for each. Then there’s the mundane cleaning of the desk, and packing of personal shite. Oh, and training the new worker. I think he’ll work out good for my Unit. Oh yeah, I also have to make sure my files are complete when I leave and take some info with me. It’s rather bittersweet. Heh.

Jenni and Chad have most wonderfully found out that Chad got the job he wanted. They are working on moving this weekend and I’m thinking I may go up and baby sit during the festivities. Other friends are going to the Renaissance Festival during the day. I also need to clean and organize my room sometime before Labor Day so that I can fit my new desk (when I buy one) in there and buy a bookshelf so that I have room for all my books and plants. I also want a flat screen monitor.

School starts just after Labor Day, and the Fair ends then. Today marks the beginning of that Get-together. Luckily the weather was threatening rain so traffic wasn’t so bad this morning when I left home. As Fair progresses, though, it will only get worse. Still, I love where I live. The two weeks of the Fair are the only downside.

::sniffle, cough:: Right now the plan is to find someone who won’t mind my stealing a bag of tea, as I forgot mine. Tea helps allergies, I’m convinced. If not, at least it will sooth my scratchy throat.

Busy Busy

It has been one busy week. Last Thursday Rachel came to town to pick up the plants I’d been watching (they have a tendency to run away without careful supervision) and to visit people here in the Twin Cities. We have had great fun; playing chess, going to the zoo, watching movies, going canoeing, and playing Frisbee. We went to the farmer’s market Saturday morning and found some chocolate raspberry sauce that is so very nice. We decided that it would make a good topping for some nice, thick brownies. We were right. The brownies are gone now (sadness abounds, and I’m thinking that only another bake-fest will alleviate the problem) but there is still some sauce left. I started house- and dog-sitting for a coworker yesterday. Rachel got the joys of spending the night up there, since I can’t just leave them alone all night.

Puppies have the energy of 50 two-year-olds combined. I feel like I’m being run ragged, and it’s only been one day. I should be there through the weekend, though the exact end date is undetermined right now. Addy, the older dog, I’ve ‘sat’ before; she’s the sweetest, calmest, dog anyone could ask for. If they both had the energy of Dylan, the puppy, I’d be done for.

I’ve almost finished my online classes. Management is completely done, and I’m one quiz and one final away from finishing my Epidemiology class. With those completed, I’ll have two weeks off before fall semester. Fall semester I’m taking Environmental Chemistry, Social and Behavioral Science and Biostatical Methods I. I’ll also take my field experience credits then. I’m taking biostats online, so I’ll only have to go to class T/Th from 11:15-2:40. Not a bad schedule at all.

Those two weeks off coincide with the State Fair. Yes, those two weeks that are the “great Minnesota get-together” are also my two weeks of “get off my lawn! Stop blowing off fireworks when I’m trying to sleep! Could it get any dustier? Why are there so many people ALWAYS? Traffic Sucks!” The fiar is a great idea, I’m sure…it just blows that I live a block or so away from the fairgrounds. It means a free fireworks show every night, which is nice…but it’s also people and cars and dust and noise and tempers. I plan to go to WI for Labor Day to avoid the last, very chaotic, weekend of it. The rest of the time I’ll just have to deal. I went two years ago, and missed last year, so I may go this year. It depends on how much money I want to spend on entrance, food, and stuff. I may just go to the fair by association. I don’t need ________-on-a-stick anyway.

I told you I'd eventually post some pictures from the wedding. It only took 2 weeks. Here's the lucky bride and groom, about to cut the cake. Or maybe they are just teasing us and are going to stand there posing like that for 10 minutes? 

Jasmine and I pose for a shot in the flowers. See how nice our dresses look?  

Hm, one of these things is not like the others...I am so tan in comparison to mis amigas. Still, there we all are, the Green Bay girls. 

Who says you can't golf in a formal? After dinner, I decided to hit the range. 

Today's the Day!

I am going to pick up my new futon today! I'm so excited. It's a wood framed, forest green mattress - innerspring, not just foam - and it has a warrenty and everything. This isn't your run-of-the-mill Target futon. Nope, this one comes from Sleep Comforts, a most excellent store. It's setting me back quite a bit monetarily, but I think it will be worth it. There will now be more than one place to sit down in the living room. Well, two if you count both my la-z-boy and my wicker rocker. I have the end tables set the prerequisite 82 and 3/4 inches apart so as to accomadate the length, and I've moved the coffee table to the side for ease of placement. I have to go buy a sheet set to cover this thing now so that it doesn't get too dirty. Then poof! Instant living room. It will even match the green in the 'bricks' of our fireplace. Wow, it's almost like I planned this. (Mostly, I got the green to match my plants. How lame am I?) Jenny's dad will be loaning us the use of his truck (and probably his muscles) to get it into the house. Whee, I can't wait til 6:30 tonight!

Stagnation

I have been writing too many papers for school. Dry, drab, fill in the blank, memorize and regurgitate, form style papers have sucked all semblance of imagination and creativity from my writing. I try to write an interesting post for my blog, or to write poetry, or to work on other storytelling, and I hit a giant black hole in my head. I have ideas, but they can’t beat the gravitational pull of the Black Hole called School and burst out. The forest of my imagination is locked in a state of always winter but never Christmas. I start down a new literary trail and lose the path to the weeds that inhabit my life. I have too many distractions around to write coherently. Coursework, reading books for classes, cleaning the apartment, wanting to organize all my stuff, and a few other things suck up all my time and ambition for fun things like writing and daydreaming. My daydreams have been uninspired lately, and only in sleep to I find the escape my imagination desires. I think the increased number of strange, but strangely mundane, dreams I’ve been having reflect this boring normalcy and stagnation my life has fallen into lately.

This is not to say that I haven’t been having fun. On the contrary, I’ve been active physically with all the running and rollerblading and rugby (the three R’s) as well as climbing and walking. I’ve been hanging out with friends too. This past weekend Erin and Lance were married, and it was a beautiful ceremony, a great time, and a fun weekend. I saw so many people I knew, and we were all in the same place at the same time…I have a picture to prove it, which I’ll post sometime soon (read when I get all the pictures off my camera and onto my computer, when it cools down enough outside that I can bear turning my computer on in the first place). When I have some wedding pictures downloaded, I’ll talk more about that…hopefully sometime this week. I have fun, I enjoy myself. I am in no way depressed or despondent. I am just without inspiration. I need a muse. I can sit here and imagine great things, inspiring things, wonderful things. There are funny things I could write about, stories I’ve made up and dreams I have had. I just don’t. I think I have to get back into journaling. I haven’t since I got back from New Zealand. And the kind of journaling I was doing in NZ and in my other ‘home’ journal were more of the telling details sort rather than the free association or storytelling type. Maybe I need two journals? How many places should one have to record their musings, life happenings, etc. I think I’m too much the engineer and need to compartmentalize everything. I can’t have one journal that I write everything in because then I couldn’t find something easily. I want to have one for musings, and one for personal shit, and one for daily life happenings. I am like the ‘My Documents’ folder with 10 little folders inside it, and another 10 in each of those. I’m so bogged down by my compartments that I can’t find those things I used to hold most dear.

I also have no idea where this post came from. Originally it was going to be a recounting of the weekend, until I realized that all I’ve been doing on my blog lately is retelling my life. I had wanted to use this space for that too, but also for random postings like this one, or poetry, or whatever. Maybe I don’t know what I wanted to do with it and that was the problem. Or maybe I knew what I wanted to do with it, but never made a strong enough decision to do just that. I am pretty indecisive sometimes. This post is a good start, for all its rambling and incoherence. I didn’t create Whimsical Doodles to be a place of publishable final drafts. This is a place for shitty first drafts, for ungrammatically correct postings, and for random details. Ok, I think I can stop my free association into the whither-tos and why-fors my journaling has gone astray. Maybe I should take a few creative writing classes. I not sure if that would help. I need an impetus to begin writing what I want to write again, and in the style I know I’m capable of. Writing about writing it isn’t going to get it done. I feel like I’m losing my control over the English language and the basic skills I was so good at in high school and the first few years of college.

That being said, it’s time to wrap up this post and go do something about everything I’ve written here. Though, I’ll have to put it off a bit, as I have other things to do first (hm, I’m a procrastinator too…and I’m already making excuses). Seriously though, my brother and his girlfriend are coming to visit and I have to make ready my abode.

Weekends to come and weekends past

In two days, two of my good friends are getting married. It’s amazing how time flies. I remember all the way back to when they started dating as though it were just this last year, but it’s been years. I get to be the Best Person. Being that I’m not a man, I can’t be the Best Man. Still, I’ve never before had the opportunity to stand up in someone else’s wedding, and I’m excited. I have to make a toast at dinner, I think I’m going to wing it, and I have to hold onto the rings and not lose them long enough for them to actually get married. These are fun tasks J

Last weekend I got to do another best-persony thing…I got to throw the bachelor party. I don’t know many girls who get to do that. We had a great time though, I have to say, I am pretty good at it. Too bad I’ll probably not have another chance at bachelor party throwing. Bachelorette parties, now I’ll probably get to throw and go to a few more of those.

The weekend before that was July 4th weekend. Katie and I headed over to Door County to run in a 5K, which you probably read about on her site since she’s been a better poster than me lately. Ever since then, I have wanted to A. run better/longer/faster cause I suck at it and B. not run at all because it’s been so bloody hot.

I can’t believe that we’re actually having summer this year. It’s been so warm out for the last two weeks. Over 90 for at least the last 5 days, and I’m not certain if we even had a total of 10 days over 90 all summer last year. We have to be over 10 already this year, and the weather people say there isn’t an end to it in sight. I like the heat, I do. I just don’t like having to move around in it. Swimming, yes. Running and rugby and rollerblading and working, oh no. I do believe that I’m actually pining for a nice 65 degree day.

I’m so tired right now from being out in that same weather, that the whole purpose of this post has completely slipped my mind. I started out with a plan, and it’s turned into a random reportation of facts and events. I don’t promise more creativity later, but I can promise more coherence. With that, I think I’ll go lay down…once I leave work that is.

Family Reunions…

This past weekend was the family reunion for my dad’s dad’s side. There were 150 people there, and that was not even all that were invited. If we were to count everyone, there would be 250 or more of us. And that is just my dad’s dad’s side of the family. (Next year, we have Mom’s mom’s side of the family, as well as dad’s mom’s side of the family. Each will be between 50-150 people.) The reunion was hosted by my immediate family, one cousin, and a few aunts and uncles. We organized the invitations, the food, the location, and the entertainment. I think it went pretty smoothly. Relatives from all over the US came to visit, though as always happens at these things, most stayed in their own family groups. It was like we were at a great clan gathering from somewhere back in hunter-gatherer mobile tribe history…and yet not. For one thing, I am pretty certain those hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t have water balloon toss contests, or eat brats and potato salad, or bring a dish to pass. I’m fairly certain they didn’t have the convenience of indoor toilets either.
Still, some things don’t change. There were the usual stories, some of which I had never heard, and some about ‘cousin so-and-so’ that were traditional favorites. There were the littles running around with their newly discovered cousins, ignoring parents well intended advice, and generally tiring themselves out and getting dirty. There was the typical one side/group/person blatantly or covertly snubbing another side/group/person. There was that feeling that no matter how much you mingled, you just didn’t have enough time to talk to everyone, or you talked to too many people and didn’t really talk with anybody.
Our family reunion was set to start Saturday at 2PM until whenever. Of course, in typical clan fashion, we started a few days before and went a few days after the official reunion within my aunts and uncles, and those cousins we are particularly close to. The Montana cousins are some of these; they arrived Tuesday or Wednesday and the partying went on until Sunday or Monday (depending on the person and when they were leaving). As usual, most of this partying involved copious amounts of food. I think I probably gained 10 pounds this weekend eating cheese curds and brats and lasagna and artichoke dip with French bread and potato salad and vegetable salads and puddings and cakes and bars (I’m beginning to sound like a hobbit I think).
I had to leave Sunday afternoon after a rousing game of mini-putt with my younger cousins, and I was sad to go. As tiresome and complicated as having such a large family can be, I really do love having them. I almost feel sorry for those who don’t know the joys and pains of having such a clan. Still, I do feel for those who marry into the family, or those (like my brother’s girlfriend) who were experiencing us in full force for the first time this weekend. I admire them too; I think we’re probably pretty overwhelming to the uninitiated. And I wonder, when I do find someone whom I care about to be introduced to my entire family…will they stick around or run screaming? I had better add fortitude and strength of will to my list of qualifications…

Where Have I Been? There and Back Again.

I’m back. I’ve actually been back since last Wednesday, but it’s been a crazy time since then. I still don’t feel oriented back into “States life”. When I returned I had work, and then a bridal shower/bachelorette party, and I tried to organize my stuff, do my laundry, and catch up on sleep from the trip. Monday was work again, and also the start of summer classes (online). Hence, the not quite real feelings of being back.

The Trip
If I wrote down everything about my trip, I would be writing a novel. Rachel and I had more than our share of Adventures on this particular adventure. Somehow, we always manage to do that, even if it’s just camping at the property. I had my share of Adventure too, even before I got to New Zealand…

California: I had a great time there. The conference was overwhelming, huge and too much to choose from. I did manage to see a few presentations, walk the expo for a few days, and have a fairly extensive look at the posters – both professional and graduate. I saw most of the people from the U of M there, though I never did make it to lunch with them. I met a bunch of other students from UBC and UW (Washington, not Wisconsin) and chilled with them at night. I did manage to make it to the beach and the Aquarium at Long Beach one day, and to Disneyland another day…so the trip wasn’t all work and no fun. I also managed to get a bit of a tan, and almost avoided the strap-lines. The first night I was there Sabrina, Tim, and myself also enjoyed the pleasures of ‘drunken skeeball’. (In parenthesis because I wasn’t drunk, but it was amusing to drink alcohol whilst enjoying a game.)

NZ: I left for Auckland at 11:30 Wednesday night, and arrived Friday morning, their time. I would say I lost Thursday completely, but my blog has a post that day saying I arrived…so obviously that was a trick. Auckland played home base, but we spent as little time there as we could. We started out by going south on the train to National Park – base camp for excellent trekking. Unfortunately, this time of year, the excellent days for trekking are few and far between, and we couldn’t get up high enough (because of gale force winds) to climb Mt. Doom. We still did some excellent treks, through the rain, but had a great time. We left there in a snowstorm to head to Rotorua. Rotorua has thermal stuff, along with spas, Maori cultural stuff, Kiwi birds, and rugby (or at least it did whilst we were there). It was also our jump-off point for going to Hobbiton. Since we didn’t get to go climb Mt. Doom, we went there instead, and it was a great tour. I’ll have to talk more about it when I download my pictures. From Rotorua we went to Waitomo Caves, and went abseiling (rapelling), caving, blackwater rafting (tubing in a cave), and climbing. After that it was back to Auckland for a brief stopover to check email, see the war memorial museum, and get rained on some more before heading to the Cormandel Peninsula. There we went Sea Kayaking, Biking (and they get to be capitalized because they were Adventures), and walking on the beach. We also went to Hot Water Beach, a place where you can dig your own spa. After that it was back to Auckland again for some souvenir shopping and to catch a plane. Catching my ride home was also an Adventure, but I made it back on time, and here I am in the states, taking classes, working, and playing softball. Oh, and joining a rugby team…I think.

I have three minutes left at the net cafe I'm at. I'm not dead, and I'll be home tomorrow. Really. It will be tomorrow for me anyway. Oops, only 2 minutes now. Better post before this thing goes black. See everyone soon!

Auckland, New Zealand

I have a lot to fill everyone in on about my trip so far, but I'll do that on a different day. So, to sum up: Anaheim was loads of fun, and I got a lead on an internship. The flight to New Zealand is long. I am now chillin w/ Rachel at the Queen's Street Backpacker's and planning the rest of the trip. I will try to post again while here, otherwise...When I return!

Sneaking up on a Leprechaun

I bought a digital camera and took it home for the weekend. I took many pictures of random things, and erased them, but some didn't deserve the fate of the trash bin. The weather was really odd, it would rain, then clear, then be clear and rain, or really cloudy and dry. When we were at the lake, this downpour came from nowhere, and then cleared, and this was the result:


I came upon an unsuspecting rainbow, and snuck up a hill to see if the coast was clear.

Seeing that the coast was clear of leprechauns, I came out of hiding to take my picture. 

You can really see the colors in this shot. I couldn't believe how bright it was. And look at Lake Michigan, almost like glass. It was a strange day. 

Drowning in a sea of papers, and water, and…snow?

Yes, I’ve been getting drenched, and being drowned today by inches. Inches of water and inches of paper. Inches of snow? Not yet, and hopefully not at all. It is almost June after all. I woke up this morning and got ready to go to work, thinking longingly of the end of the day, when I’d turn in my design project and be done with the semester. I looked out the window and it was raining. No surprise there, it’s been doing that a lot lately. So I finished getting ready and went out the door only to find that there were snowflakes mixed with raindrops. Not fair! It was COLD too. Below freezing with the wind chill it was, and me with only my hoody to keep me warm. Still, I braved insane semi-truck drivers, near collisions, and wet windshields to get to work.

When I arrived at work it was to find an ocean of photocopying on my desk. So-and-so needed such-and-such right away, and they’d brought in the Lawyers. So off I went to the photocopy machine – who needs a time out by the way. I copied all morning, and then ate lunch and finished my elevation view for the design project, the last bit of homework for the semester. I then copied until just now. When all was said and done, I had 4 inches of paper piled up from all the copying I did. It wasn’t the easy ‘feed-the-machine’ kind either. No, someone had to go and staple every three pages together. I got rather adept with a staple remover.

It’s still raining outside, and we’ll be getting a half inch to an inch of water. There are already flash flood watches in effect in some areas. That old saying about it never raining but it pours is certainly correct today.

On a better note, I am going to buy a digital camera. I’m not certain what kind yet. I may indulge myself with a 10x optical zoom one, or maybe I’ll go with a ‘pocket sized’ 3x optical zoom. I know I want 4 megapixels. Beyond that, the sky’s the limit. Well, actually the limiting factor resides in my pocketbook…but I can dream, can’t I? I’ve always wanted a camera with multiple lenses and many settings and shutter speeds. This probably won’t be it. But it’ll be a start.

Under a week and a half til I leave for California and then New Zealand. I bought a new day pack and a travel towel-y thing for the trip, and I will most certainly head back to REI before they close tonight to buy more things (man that store is a money pit for me). I’m getting excited, and I think I’m going to stop blogging and start making a list of everything I need to remember to bring. This time, Rachel, I will not leave my glasses in the U.S.

I know, I suck

It's not that I don't have a lot to say - I do, but it is that I have no time to say it in. Or, rather, the time I have to say it in is taken up by other, equally important things like sleeping. The semester is officially done on Friday the 13th. Ominous, isn't it? I have everything done except for my design project for one class, which I was going to finish this weekend, but didn't even start. Oops. I was having way to much fun doing other things. I went to a classmate's graduation party on Saturday night. Great times; we spent the evening sitting around a fire and playing guitars and singing songs. Yes, I played a guitar too. I know now 5 chords. Then I knew two. But you can go suprisingly far knowing E and A major. Really. I played a whole song. Then I played along on the Peter Gunn Theme, which is quite nice and easy all on the 6th string. Then, my playing being exhausted, I sat back and used the guitar as percussion. I learned a few more chords as well - as the night progressed. I was charged to learn the lyrics and tune to John Barley Corn Must Die by Traffic. I am to sing it at the next get together, while another coworker plays. Now, to look up the lyrics...

I went day-pack and digital camera hunting today. I didn't get anything, but found some price comparisions and I'll look up more info on the web. I realized today that I'll be in CA two weeks from now, and really should start getting everything in order.

I applied for one internship, and have an interview set up for a second, so I may actually have a summer job when I return from NZ. That would be nice. Not that I don't like the MPCA, but...I need something in my field. Speaking of the MPCA, I had my first game of Softball with the team. Great times, I am 0-1 as a pitcher, but I blame that on the fact I was the relief pitcher, and well, the other team hits hard. Still, it was the first time I've put on a glove or thrown a ball in about 10 years, so striking two people out and keeping the game relatively close is not a bad thing.

Ok, I'm going to go and get some sleep now. We just had a lovely thunderstorm, and I went outside and played in it until I was drenched through. Man, I love doing that! Rachel - I missed playing in the first good storm of the season with you :( I'm all dry now, so time for bed.

Now that I’ve shown you the plan, I’m going to go…

And show the plan to somebody else. Well, I did it. Wednesday of this week I booked my airfare on Air New Zealand for 2 weeks. I will be headed to Anaheim on the 21st, and then late the 25th (11:30 pm!!!) I’ll leave LAX for New Zealand. I’ll get to NZ at 7:15 AM NZT on the 27th (Friday). Then, let the fun begin. I went out and borrowed a Lonely Planet travel guide from the library for both Auckland and New Zealand. I will be perusing them this weekend in between homework assignments to decide what exactly I want to do. I can not wait to get there and to see Rachel. It’s been far too long. I will be there till June 8th, then back to Minneapolis.

I still don’t have a summer internship, I have a job, but not an internship…go figure. I’m waiting to hear on some prospects, and will call next week to find out how those are going. In the mean time I have to finish this semester. It’s down to the wire. I have 4 more discussion postings for ethics, one more lab report for lab, a book report and a rewrite for my Applications class, a homework and design project for Ventilation, and then a smattering of presentations to do between now and next Wednesday. I plan on doing a good portion of it today and tomorrow. I have to have the book report done by Sunday at 5 because the library would like their book back. I had to beg to get one more week out of them. Picky picky, it’s not like any one has reserved the stupid thing. Who ever heard of writing a book report in grad school anyway?.

So, I plan on working my buns off between now and next Wednesday, and then celebrating the end of my first year of grad school by going out for a pint at Kieran’s Irish Pub.

Am I really doing this?

Yes, I do believe I am. I looked up airfare to New Zealand today, to Auckland. 684 roundtrip from LAX. I can't find it cheaper from here. When I call next week to set my airfare for the trip to Aneheim, I'll check to make sure I can fly out a week and a half later and from LA for my return trip. Then, From the 25th to the 6th, I'll be in New Zealand. Whee!!! There are still a lot of kinks to be worked out of this plan, but I can't help but be excited. Now I just have to focus really hard on the here and now and not on then. When will then be now? When I have finished all the shite I have left to do this semester. It is winding down, but I still do have a lot to do. And here I am blogging instead of working on said homework. I need to make a to-do list I think. Otherwise I'm not going to get it all done. Hm, and a "I need from my parent's house list" too. Ok, that is a good place to start - here I go!

Sunny CA here I come

I don’t post for a while and a whole bunch of stuff happens. I went home last weekend to pick up some things I need when Katie moves up to three. Dad was feeling kinda in the dumps all weekend and on Sunday decided to visit urgent care. He’s all better now, but they admitted him to the hospital for a few days because he was having a reaction to an antibiotic he was on. I’m just happy I was home so that I could help Mom out.

Monday I got an email about the internship I had applied for, and I didn’t get it. I was rather grumpy as I felt that I was deserving of it, but another classmate – also deserving – got it instead. No worries there, but I do have to find something ASAP. I decided to apply for a full time job, just to see if I’ll get it. It could make things difficult if I get it soon though, because I have about 3 weeks of time where I want to be traveling.

Thursday I got wonderful good news. I found out that I won the scholarship I had applied to. I haven’t been holding my breath because 1. it is not smart to hold your breath for that long, and 2. Only 5 people from the US (and one from outside the US) win this scholarship every year. Them’s long odds, as they say. Yesterday I got the call that I had been awarded the scholarship, and now I’m all giddy. There’s money for school of course, but there is also the opportunity to go to Anaheim, CA, for the national conference held by the American Industrial Hygiene Association. They pay for the flight, the hotel, the conference, and give me money for food. Yippee! Sunny California, here I come! I am not sure what I will be doing out there yet. I have the conference to go to, it’s a week long May 21-25, but I’m sure I’m not going to listen to every person speak about everything. I plan on going to Disneyland, since I’ve never been, and maybe doing some other sight seeing too. I’m not sure what else there is out there. I’ll have to do research.

I’ve also been meaning to visit Rachel in NZ about that time. Now I’m thinking, it would be convenient to link the two together. I could fly to Anaheim, do the conference, get to LA somehow (haven’t figured that part out yet), fly out of LA to NZ, spend a week and a half or so in NZ chillin w/ Rachel, and then fly back to LA and catch a connecting flight back to MN. That would mean being gone for 2.5 or so weeks, but that doesn’t bother me. I like to travel. I have to see if that is ok with the travel agent-y people that I get the airfare from for the scholarship. It is substantially cheaper to fly to NZ from LA than from MN though, so this works out quite well. I really do hope I can pull it off; I want to visit NZ before Rachel gets back to the states in July.

Oh, and I have some tickets to go to Hawaii between May 31 this year and the 31 May next year. I have to book them by them soon though, so I have to determine when I can go. So, the bad and the good were intermingled this week, but I think the good won out. Big time. Now all I have to do is get serious about my exercise so I don’t feel like a dunce should I wear a swimming suit a month earlier than I thought I would be, figure out what the temp is in CA this time of year, and figure out what I want to pack. Oh, and finish this semester…yeah, not to forget that.

I went running last night with Katie. It actually felt good! I can't believe it. We ran down the road and to the lake, then all the way around the lake. It's about one mile to the lake, and 1.6 around. So we did a total of probably 2.5 miles or running last night. I started out saying, let's get in one mile and see how we feel. We were both in the groove, so we kept going, and going, and going. We were very much like the energizer bunny, passing people, rocking out to our music. I'm not even stiff today thanks to a excellent post-run stretching session. I am pretty tired today though. I have to decide if I want to chase my coworkers around the lake on my rollerblades, go to the Public Health film festival (showing sex ed films tonight), take a nap, or read my book out on the porch. I will have to see what people are up to. If I can't wake up soon the nap or exercise will win though, or I'll be worth nothing all night.

What a series of glorious days!!

I think that Minnesota forgot spring this year. Yes, we are having the grass change from brown to green, and the flowers are starting to bloom, and the bugs are unfortunately coming back, but the 35-50 degree days never happened. Usually in spring there is a series of days between those temperatures with either a chill to the air or a long day of rain. This spring, not so much. I swear we went form 35 to the 58-70s weather without a transition. Suddenly, I went from heavy jacket to short sleeves and capris. I don’t think I’m the only one who has noticed it either. After the strangest winter in my memory (with only one ‘snowstorm of 6+ inches in our area) I’m beginning to believe that there is a definite weather change going on. I can’t say for certain if it’s El Niño or La Niña, or if it’s global warming or global climate change, or just some X number of year pattern the weather in these parts sees. Or maybe it’s that we’re on the end of an ice age (well, we are) or going into another one. Who knows; I have lived on this earth for less than a quarter century, who am I to dictate patterns. The earth is billions of years old, and we’ve only been keeping weather data for 200-300 years. Oh, I know we have some information about what the climate was like from fossil evidence and tree rings and the like, but no one was really there recording it. There’s no oral tradition talking about the winter of 850 and how the snows were so bad that year that…

Still, after all that blathering, I like what I feel. It’s nice to have 70 degree days sans mosquitoes and other annoying little creepy crawlies. (I guess they will show up earlier this year though, since we are having the nice weather.) I’ve decided that I’m absurdly out of shape, and need to get into shape again soon. (Don’t ask what type of shape I’ve turned into, I’m not sure I have a creative enough name.) The weather is perfect right now for running (which I dislike but find very good exercise), walking, etc. I would add rollerblading, but the sticks-and-sands-of-death haven’t been removed from the road yet. Katie and I have taken to trying to exercise three times a week together, and I’m sure once Jenny moves in, she’ll be joining us. I really think that 5 days a week is better, so I’m going to aim for that. I’ll be running three days a week, and then ‘other cardio’ such as fast walks or blading or biking for two more. I still have to fit climbing in there somewhere, and I think I may take up softball. I really don’t know where the time will come from; maybe I’ll have to alternate my activities. I basically have 2 months until normal swimsuit season to magically return to normal woman shape (thought that time could be shortened with the current weather unpatterns). At least it’s much easier to eat healthy in summertime with the farmer’s market and such.

Because I'm tired, but wanted to post something, and it makes me laugh.

My pirate name is:

Iron Grace Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.