nothin' to do but scratch words in the dirt

end of the line

2008-12-31T17:29:18Z

1. what did you do in 2008 that you've never done before?
electrophysiology! worked with rat and mouse brain slices... and loved it. took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D starting in october and haven't had any seasonal affective problems so far this winter.

2. did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
i never really make any past the "eat healthier and exercise" business so i guess i have those.

3. did anyone close to you give birth?
yes! it was the year of people i know having babies! marjery, sadie, danni, and mariah all had the cutest little baby boys and i knit them all cozy little gifts.

4. did anyone close to you die?
nope, not this year.

5. what countries did you visit?
i went to canada with my french class. we went to one of the french quarters of winnipeg and to st. laurent and it was awesome. i definitely want to go again next year.

6. what would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
i have no idea. i'm pretty content right now.

7. what date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
i'm not good at remembering dates.

8. what was your biggest achievement of the year?
getting straight As for the summer and fall semesters. i worked my ass off for them and am very happy and proud. my cumulative GPA needed that.

9. what was your biggest failure?
keeping up with music. i'm reading everyone's 2008 lists and realizing i don't know half of the albums they're talking about.

10. did you suffer illness or injury?
i tripped on my own feet going down the stairs of the physics building in february and sprained or tore a ligament in my foot. it hurt for eight weeks. i am a dumbass. other than that i've been pretty healthy... except now, which seems to be a trend looking back at last year's list.

11. what was the best thing you bought?
yarn and my new backpack.

12. whose behavior merited celebration?
mine when dealing with kurt. it took me a long time but i've finally realized that there is nothing more i can do, no magic word i can say to make him straighten up his act. i can continue supporting him and helping him but he needs to make his own conscious decision to start acting better.

13. whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
people's. mainly kurt's.

14. where did most of your money go?
bills, mortgage, getting my house painted.

15. what did you get really, really, really excited about?
brains! brain slices! neuroscience!

16. what song will always remind you of 2008?
"construction summer" - the hold steady

17. compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? happier. life is good.
ii. thinner or fatter? fatter. for the first time in my life i need to lose 5-10 pounds. i weigh more now than i ever have... including when i went in to the hospital to have kurt.
iii. richer or poorer? poorer. i can't wait until i'm done with school and can have a real job again.

18. what do you wish you'd done more of?
listen to new music.

19. what do you wish you'd done less of?
procrastinating.

20. how will you be spending christmas?
i spent christmas eve with family and then christmas day i went to see my grandma eleanor in walhalla and spent a few hours with my in-laws.

22. did you fall in love in 2008?
nope.

23. how many one-night stands?
none, thanks.

24. what was your favorite tv program?
lost and battlestar galactica. grey's but it's really sucked it up this fall.

25. do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
no.

26. what was the best book you read?
great and desperate cures: the rise and decline of psychosurgery - eliot valenstein
(for those keeping track, this is the first time a non-fiction book has been my favorite of the year)

27. what was your greatest musical discovery?
portishead from a mix tape lukas gave me way back when.

28. what did you want and get?
the hardcover compiled dark tower comic series! yay!

30. what was your favorite film of this year?
"lars and the real girl" and "wristcutters: a love story" both got five star ratings on my netflix list but neither are 2008 movies. i also loved "juno" along with everyone else in the world.

31. what did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
i turned 30 and my friends planned a party for me at mike's pizza with about 30 or so of my friends. it was awesome!

32. what one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
kurt deciding to quit being such a little shit. even if he had just chosen one thing to do better at, like not lying about his homework... that one little difference would have helped my year be amazingly better.

33. how would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
school slob and handknits. not having a real job and gaining weight has really put a damper on my wardrobe.

34. what kept you sane?
research, whether formal or on my own.

35. which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
i don't know that i really fancied anyone this year. oh, maybe daniel faraday from LOST for awhile. ;) (i don't know the actor's name off the top of my head and am too lazy to look it up.)

36. what political issue stirred you the most?
oh, you know, the election. i'm still amazed and proud that obama will be our next president.

37. who did you miss?
jenna after she moved in august. i miss you jenna!!

38. who was the best new person you met?
everyone in the lab and susanna.

39. tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
sometimes it's better to be really poor and do well than it is to stress out at a job you no longer fully enjoy and do poorly at the things you love.

40. quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
this one never works for me. the lyric that reminds me of this year never usually has any meaning for me... in this case it's m.i.a.'s "pull up the people", not even released this year. the lyric is "slang tang, that's that m.i.a. thang, i got the bombs to make you blow, i got the beats to make you bang". yep, that reminds me of 2008.

i voted for science, the economy, and health care

2008-11-05T13:22:49Z

three issues that affect me the most personally.

wow. what an amazing election night. i am proud to be an american today and will probably be walking around with a goofy grin on my face all day long.

congratulations president-elect obama.

maybe i should take the escalator in my dreams

2008-10-21T14:29:33Z

for how many dreams i have about elevator accidents, it's amazing i can still ride in them several times a week without having a panic attack. last night it was me, kurt, and a couple of random people in a hotel elevator while on vacation and once the elevator started moving it tipped over sideways (i assume as one of the cables broke) and then increased speed as we fell. none of us were hurt badly when it hit but i was shocked to find out later in the dream's day that they were already using the elevator again for new guests. last time it was a hospital elevator. before that, just some random elevator.

anyone care to analyze?

what kind of sounds do squirrels make again?

2008-09-26T18:38:08Z

i've been feeling really tired and run down the last couple of weeks. i had a cold originally so i thought i was just still getting over that. then i realized today that it's pretty obvious what it's from: 1) i'm out of shape again and 2) it's sun lamp time. i can't believe how quickly it hit me but i actually checked through my archives and realized that this is about the same time of year every year that i start to feel this way and have to turn on the sunlamp in the mornings. i'm like clockwork. sometimes that's reassuring, other times it makes me feel like i must be a very boring person.

this week has been really super long. mostly due to the super-tiredness but also because i have so much reading to catch up on and had a test midweek and all kinds of kurt type stuff to deal with. it's finally friday though and after my 2:00 pm meeting i will have aaaaaall weekend to catch up on homework and relax and FORCE myself to go to the gym tomorrow. today i came home after dropping kurt off at school and went back to bed. this was the wrong choice because i still feel like shit and like i haven't slept. i have giant dark circles under my eyes and feel like a zombie. if i had gone to the gym instead i would feel at least 40% better than i do right now (yes, i totally pulled that percentage out of my ass).

for any friends interested in my grade obsessiveness so far this semester this is how it's stacking up: anatomy lecture exam 93%, anatomy lab exam 94%, neuroscience exam 83%. neuroscience tests are hard. i thought i knew what i was talking about on the essay questions but got some things mixed up and used the wrong terminology once. darnit. still, i got perfect scores on both quizzes and have some extra credit too so i'm okay so far.

alright, better get to my meeting. free late lunch. i hope it's something good because i'm starving.

p.s. the SAD tag is for Seasonal Affective Disorder, i'm not trying to be all capital letter SAD emo-y.

so it goes

2008-09-14T15:39:45Z

dammit. david foster wallace hanged himself. now there will be no new crazy, overly ambitious but also indescribably fantastic novels to read. such a loss.

it's everything i hoped it would be and more

2008-07-30T15:22:13Z

so it seems that if i put off purchases long enough... i lose the ability to hold out for "less expensive" and just take the plunge no matter the cost. on the verizon website (and in the flyer for the "free" treo), it was cheap because it included signing up for the data plan. i don't want the data plan. i don't want to save $100 now in order to pay $30 a month for the next two years... that's not a good deal to me. so i put out for the phone.

but i fucking love it.

it has everything i wanted in a new phone and more. and there are very few downsides - the only one i can think of offhand is that the camera is not as nice as the camera in my old phone... but that's balanced with the fact that i can take TWENTY MINUTES of video if i so choose. damn. anyway, i have my phone, my calendar, my task list (with priorities and categories for home, work, and school), text messages that show up like gmail with the conversations all together, the ability to edit word and excel documents and view .pdfs... my new phone has it all. now i just have to wait and see if kurt's new PDA will sync with the same palm software. keep your fingers crossed for me.

-----

in other news, i'm dog-sitting this week for my mother-in-law. many of you who know me will know that i'm essentially a dog hater. the only dogs in this world that i enjoy being around are susie's dog, sophie, and my mother-in-law's little dog, leo.

but even with leo i was a little frustrated the first day or so because he is soooo timid. he wouldn't even walk out the back door to go outside so i had to pick him up and carry him and then once outside he was too nervous to pee. too nervous to pee? that sounds like an oxymoron because most nervous dogs tend to piddle when they get excited. little leo though managed to hold out for 24 hours before finally letting go. i think the trick to getting him to loosen up was letting him sleep in my room, which i'm now paying for with the stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and scratchy throat (but they go away after i take my allergy meds for the day). last night he even ate food (in the middle of the night and woke me up but hey, at least he's now eating and i don't have to worry about him starving to death).

the cats still aren't thrilled and, unfortunately, they have begun to get a little less timid themselves. the first day or so they would keep their distance and just stare at him and hiss if he came close. now they're getting up close on purpose and hissing at him. poor leo. but i feel bad for them because they're obviously jealous of all the attention he's getting.

------

in other news, it's the last week of the summer semester. i'm happy about it but also a little sad because it means my summer is over in another few weeks and it will be back to the high stress crazy-grind of fall semester... a semester in which i am taking the most credits i have ever attempted. we'll see if i have to drop any.

i'm getting a lot done while kurt is at camp this week. painting the trim on the garage, caulking the bathtub, running five million errands and working a bit (tech support at the agency). unfortunately caulking the bathtub means i can't shower until tomorrow, or after 8:30 pm tonight if i get desperate. but the mold is gone! no more hard water stains either!

now i'm off to bath in the sink (if only i were my favorite childhood book character, thumbilina) and go make some money.

finally!

2008-07-26T17:59:41Z

cleared something up with verizon wireless today: it's only the blackberry phones that you are required to get the data plan (for $30 a month) if you buy them. that means i can go in on monday and get myself a palm treo!! i'm so excited! i've wanted to take the plunge into the PDA world and get rid of my paper planner for awhile now but have been held back because of this stupid data plan thing.

PLUS, i just bought kurt a new PDA for the school year (because his old one doesn't have a vibrate feature... it was only $10, i can't complain) so now i can keep all of our appointments and crap on the computer and just sync the PDAs instead of writing everything on three different calendars all the time. damn, my life is going to be super-simplified. i cannot stop grinning. i am such a dork.

the only downside is that i didn't know this a few weeks ago when i got a special offer from verizon to get a palm treo for free. dammit. but i think after rebates it should only be $100, which is less than i paid for the phone i have now.

black is the new black

2008-07-22T00:34:51Z

kurt and i are taking the one hundred push-ups challenge. today was day one. the initial test was to get down and do as many push-ups in a row as possible to see what level you're at. hah. i only made two before my poor noodly arms gave up. kurt did ten! so i am rank one and he is rank two. tomorrow we rest, then on wednesday we step it up a notch.

we went and saw WALL-E yesterday. it was even more awesome than i thought it would be. not only is it cute and funny and entertaining but it's got some great social commentary and things to think about. afterward we went out to eat with gina and joey and gina and i realized today that we're in the same research methods class this fall. yay! it will be so fun to see her twice a week and have a class together!

today i ran errands, spent more money that i don't have, and then came home and spent a few hours fixing garage window openings and reinstalling the garage windows that i fixed. wow, it was a lot of work. i ended up having to make a whole new windowsill for one of the windows... and felt very fucking awesome that i did it with no help from anyone! it looks perfect and the window fit perfect once the sill was in. next up: finish the shelves i've been slowly working on in my basement entryway.

not too much else is new. i got my first "B" on a test in my psych class this morning. i just didn't study enough. whatever, i easily have an "A" in the class. next week i have one more regular test and the final then it's truly SUMMER. i can't wait.

it's actually biological psychiatry that i want

2008-06-30T16:53:41Z

yesterday i lazed around and watched the final match of euro 2008 soccer. spain was awesome and germany just couldn't seem to get anything done. decent game.

then i did some psych, worked out in the yard clearing weeds from the "patio", did some more psych, and then finished "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius" by dave eggers. good book. he's funny even though he sometimes gets just on the edge of the hyperbole i hate in other authors. i like how he writes what is going through his head all the time because my brain works the same way. i laughed out loud so many times because i could totally relate to his thought process tangents and digressions. i could also relate to a lot of what he went through with his little brother and what other people thought of them and what he thought they thought of them... even though his situation was very different (he raised his little brother after their parents both died of cancer within six weeks of each other). the whole single parent thing.

i also ordered groceries online this weekend, which i find hilarious. but i really liked it because i could keep better track of how much money i was spending, there were less impulse purchases and, best of all, i didn't have to go grocery shopping! i hate shopping. unfortunately, i chose a bad time to try it out because they got new cash registers recently and it has messed up a bunch of stuff on their website (i had emailed them to let them know stuff was messed up and this is what they told me). for example, many products are missing from the website and even the ones that were there... i somehow ended up with different sizes or types of things (like round tomatoes instead of romas). but it's all good because i think i ended up getting more stuff than i paid for. i don't know. i had edited my shopping cart before checking out to delete some stuff, the total was lowered accordingly, but then when i went to pick it up today i still ended up with about half of those things. anyway, for six bucks i think i'll try it again... but after they iron out all of the issues.

anyway, decent weekend. i've been overwhelmed lately at how much i am loving summer this year. usually i like it but it goes waaaaay too fast and we are waaaay too busy but this year, damn, it's awesome.

the porpoise has a purpose

2008-06-27T16:25:52Z

life on mars possible. the flaming lips were maybe onto something (har har, christmas on mars). of course, they haven't found any organic carbon yet so that pretty much negates all the other great stuff they have found. can't have life without carbon. (and hydrogen and oxygen.)

also, all the neysayers in the comments on this article about a new magnetic treatment for migraines are pissing me off. ignorance does not equal knowledge so i think they should all get down off of their soapboxes and high horses. transcranial stimulation has already been tested and found to be a decent treatment for drug resistant depression, similar to ECT (which yes, is still done and yes, still does work in most cases though it is shorter term) but without all of the nasty side effects. as much as i hate to admit it, the reason this works is explained by physics. as some of the ignoramouses proposed in the comments, it does not work by "realigning ferromagnetic particles" in the brain. i hope that guy did a little reading and is now thoroughly embarrassed for even posting such stupidity. it works, basically, because magnets can induce a current and nerves in the body also sent signals through currents so it basically induces currents in the brain which somehow affect the pain caused by migraines. i think it's neat. i agree, however, that this particularl study may not have been the best proof... if 39% of the experimental group and 22% of the placebo group felt an effect. but i don't care enough to look up the actual study or crunch the numbers myself so i can't be sure. i assume it's at least statistically significant because it was published but maybe it was only a modest improvement overall.

so yeah, interesting stuff going on in science lately. i also read, for my french independent study, some articles on planets that look like they might be able to sustain life and how certain peeps in europe recommend kids under 12 not to use cell phones because of the possibility of cancer and radiation and such over long-term use. it would be interesting to jump ahead twenty years and see if there is any truth to that business because cell phones are pretty commonplace already. hell, i never use my home phone.

whoever reads this may have noticed a huge decline in my posting lately (at least the people who aren't part of livejournal). this is because a lot of what i've been writing about - working in the lab, personal crap - is well, personal and gives out too many details so it's been privatized so only my LJ friends who i know in real life can read it. sorry, folks. if you are really that interested, you can sign up for LJ and email me to be my friend. but i swear it's not that interesting.

ahhhhh!

2008-06-19T00:46:35Z

netflix is getting rid of the profiles feature which allows kurt to have his own queue and rate movies separately from me. i'm so upset! now i don't know whether i'd like to consolidate our queues or just downgrade to a one-a-month deal and sign each of us up separately. would almost be worth it because consolidating and trying to keep track of whose movies are whose so that we still get one each at a time... what a mess.

boooooooo netflix!!!

this is the first time they've ever upset me in the five and a half years i've been with them.

reaching for the honey is best with the left

2008-06-09T04:31:35Z

i didn't realize all those years ago when i got my snazzy nickname for my gmail account - without having to add random numbers or symbols to the end of it - what a pain in the ass it would be later on. all those people who signed up after me, who were probably pissed their preferred nickname was taken, added the requisite numbers and/or symbols but are constantly forgetting to put them in when they use their email to sign up for shit on the internets. so now i keep getting all these confirmation emails of their purchases or, today, the return of their dvd's from their wannabe netflix service*. it's annoying. ...but i'm still glad i got my nickname. hehe.

just watched the movie "cache", which was a complete waste of my time. thankfully i had the forethought to fast-forward through some of the long static shots where NOTHING happens and NOTHING is said for minutes at a time. bleh. it's too bad i chose that movie to watch after watching "evan almighty" with kurt earlier... because that one is a complete waste of time too. i freaking hate steve carell. how many times can someone get hit in the nuts in one movie and people still think it's funny? fuckin' a.

wow, i guess i'm all filled up with vitriol and bitterness tonight.

you know what didn't make me bitter? seeing islands on wednesday night. they were so great! kurt and i were entranced with the violin and viola players. the one guy was the most animated guy on stage - you could tell he was having a blast while the rest were pretty disaffected rockers for the most part. the singer and guitar player had on the tightest pants i've ever seen on a boy. they must not want children. and the singer also had on these little kid sunglasses. total rock star stupidness except they were so fantastic it didn't even matter. oh, and the violinist had a bow with black fibers. kurt and i had never seen that before and kurt thought it was super duper cool. they played mostly new songs but did play "bones" and the song with the rap in it from return to the sea. the guy who did the rap part was one of the openers, despot, and was also great. he had us doing rap aerobics and shit. good times.

the rest of this week has mostly just limped along. i don't feel good lately and i'm not sure what the deal is. i'm seriously beginning to wonder if i have asthma. i get winded so easily and ridiculously worn out after doing the simplest things. this has been happening for a looong time but has gotten increasingly worse this spring. i thought it was just my allergies but i started taking claritin along with my other crap and it hasn't seemed to make a difference. i mean, it helped with my sinus issues but not this overwhelming tiredness and not being able to breath business. i'm going to make an appointment with student health tomorrow as soon as i find out what their summer hours are.

had my first meeting with my french teacher this week to discuss the articles i've been reading. realized how badly i suck at conversational french. i felt like a complete idiot. i knew the words i wanted to use but kept screwing up the conjugations and tenses. aaaaaand haven't done much to prepare for the next meeting either. i'm supposed to read three articles about canadian television, in french, but i can't seem to figure out the best way to search for articles on candadian television. i've tried google searches in french and just end up with canadian TV websites, not news. i've searched news sites and only end up with articles where they barely mention TV. i'll have to search harder this week.

anyway, another boring entry from me. the stuff in the garden is starting to sprout but the weeds are growing faster. i'd like to get in there and weed but i'd prefer to wait until everything gets a little bigger so i can avoid stepping the teeny vegetable sproutlings. uh-huh, not much else is new. i think i'll go to bed now. ciao!

(oh, i'll have to work up a longer entry on the books i've been reading. not that it will be that exciting for anyone reading but i'd like to put my thoughts on them somewhere.)

* the movies were "semi-pro" and "call of the wild". nice taste, person-who-wishes-they-had-my-username. also, i just realized the wannabe service is the one that uses automated kiosks that look like soda machines. we just got one of these at my grocery store recently. it's weird. person-who-wishes-they-had-my-username got and then dropped their movies off at mcdonalds. now i like them even less.

the weekend in pictures

2008-06-02T15:47:32Z

my sister, dad and i all pitched in to buy my mom a new computer since hers was full of spyware, viruses, and old age. as you can see, she was very excited (and surprised, she hadn't known we did it until i showed up at her house with it.) it's a dell vostro 1000 and only cost $400 but more than meets her needs which include: email and visiting one website.

hiking

still hiking. the GPS thingy said it was 4.7 miles from our start point to our campsite. i have never hiked that far in one day before in my life but it really wasn't as bad as i thought it would be.

relaxing in our tents after the hike and before supper.

the boys cooking burgers in a gigantic frying pan.

kurt enjoying a much-too-pink-in-the-middle-for-my-tastes burger. camp food cooked by middle school boys is a little scary. luckily one of the adults cooked food for the rest of the adults. i got thoroughly cooked fried chicken and baked potatoes. (though i think bringing a dutch oven and propane tank to deep fry chicken in is cheating just a little bit.)

meet rupert, a 17 pound solid duct tape cube. the older boys bring him everywhere with them, even on their 10 mile hike. the kid who is making it is trying to beat the record which, in our state, is something like 77 pounds and nationally is over 100 pounds. he has a long way to go.

our campsite where i mostly did not sleep and ended up very, very weary by the time i got home. next year i think i'm going to go home to sleep and just come back the next day for the activities. i don't like camping as much as i used to.

house!

2008-06-02T15:17:57Z

before

after

i love, love, love it. i still hate the aluminum storm windows though but am out of money to replace them this year. i foresee some color changes when i do. not different colors, just different placement of the same colors.

it just doesn't stop

2008-05-28T22:16:22Z

finally got the garden planted today and weeded the strawberry bed. i don't care what the internets say, i'm totally going to break off one of my asparagus spears and eat it. i haven't waited a whole year for nothing!

also ran around town looking at paint cards again to find a better red for the house. they started painting red yesterday, i caught sight of it through the window and just about died. it's terrible. it's so strange how it can look so great on the little color card and so horrible actually on the house. got that all straighted out.

now i just need to get some statistics done. i failed the quiz last night. not sure what the deal was. didn't have my stats mojo going and made some really, really stupid mistakes. friday's quiz will be much better, i'm sure. can you believe i'm already halfway done with this first summer semester?

not too much else new. i've been super busy with so many things and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. next week is june already so i'll have to start working in the lab for my research credits. i'm really bummed the neuroscience lab didn't pan out. i would have enjoyed that much more than organic synthesis, i'm sure. i have been reading some biology and prepping myself for neuroscience this fall though. i'm really enjoying it and have read a lot online lately about research that i'm interested in. for example, did you know the amygdala is consistently smaller in kids with bipolar disorder? (the amygdala is the part of the brain that controls fear and emotional control.)

i'll leave you with that little fact. i'm off to pig out on chickpea burgers in homemade pita bread. yum!

statistics

2008-05-20T20:53:15Z

easiest test ever.

i only hope the other two tests are as simple.

doh

2008-05-20T02:57:51Z

so my stats professor has been harping on us to make sure we do all the problems in the chapter, at the end of the chapter, all the problems online, AND all the problems in the study guide. does he think there are 48 hours in a day? my process has been to take notes on his lectures, take notes reading the chapter and then do the problems in the book. i figured i would do the problems in the study guide as prep for the tests. uh-huh, just realized that most of the quiz questions come from the study guide... which has the answers in the back of each section. dammit. not like my grade is horrible so far, a B is nothing to scoff at, but it could be an A! needless to say, i'll be checking the study guide before submitting any more quizzes.

today i finally, really, truly chose the colors for my house. by which i mean i have hundreds of dollars worth of custom mixed paint locked up in the trunk of my car. the painters come tomorrow to start scrape, scrape, scraping. i'm very, very excited. i only hope the colors look as nice on the house as they do on the house in my imagination.

also, i had an electrician do some work on the kitchen wiring. my stupid microwave has been flipping the breaker pretty regularly since i moved in a year and a half ago and i've just now gotten it fixed. nice. all he did was put the microwave on it's own breaker. it was pretty cheap and only took about two hours. why have i been putting this off?

did i tell you i'm approved to take one credit independent study in french now? my professor chose the topic: current events in french. so i get to read the news in french, translate some of it and then get quizzed on it in french in june. yippy skippy! not as fun as french film class but it is french for credit so i shouldn't complain.

ugh, i'm so tired. i think i'm going to eat some ice cream, call it a night, and take up cramming more in the morning. funny, i never used to be a crammer, now i do it all the time. i hate that about myself.

(what a great positive note to end on! good night!)

in which i make generalizations about humanity

2008-05-17T22:02:38Z

just finished seven freaking hours of ditch clean-up with kurt's boy scout troop and i'm ready to make sweeping generalizations about the people who litter on a certain stretch of road starting at the edge of town and going three miles west of this fair city.

- they drink blue moon and energy drinks
- they smoke... a lot
- they eat at mcdonald's

i also learned that the side of the ditch closest to the road is where the heaviest stuff is and the side farthest from the ditch is where trees with three inch long needle-sharp thorns get full of plastic bags. in the middle, of course, is the nasty stinky ditch water and anything you pull out of it is guaranteed to make your bag 100 times heavier than it was.

i didn't realize this would be an all day project. i'm now too tired to do anything and i really, really have to finish my stats before my quiz that's due tomorrow and my test on monday. shit.

i sound like an idiot

2008-05-14T20:01:27Z

appliance repair person: "your part for your washer is in, will you be home this afternoon or is the door open so [name of repair guy] can come and put it in?"

me: "oh, i am home."

ARP: "oh, i just called the home phone and nobody answered."

me, laughing: "oh, that's because i don't answer the home phone."

WEIRDO. yes, i just let the phone ring and ring and ring until the machine picks up and the message says, "you've reached our MESSAGE phone," but, you know, out of context "i don't answer the home phone," sounds very strange indeed.

but it's true. that's kurt's phone. i never even give the number out unless people, like the ARP's insist, and even then i stress that they should call the cell number first.

hairs

2008-05-13T14:40:55Z

so i got my hair cut the other day finally. i gotta say, two inches is more than it sounds like. i don't think it helps that she took three inches off my layers. my hair feels ridiculously short. no picture though because it looks basically the same and is still actually pretty long. i'm just all weirded out. stupid hair. grow back soon, hair!

while at the salon, i overheard this little girl, all of six-years-old maybe, begging her mom for layers. "please, mom, please, can i get layers?" she was emphatically told "no," and was forced to sit quietly while the lady cut it straight across, no frills, no layers. when i was six... i think i knew that scissors cut hair, sometimes very short, but that was the extent of my hair cutting knowledge. and my mom was a hairdresser at the time! kids these days.

----

i got an email from my french professor - i got the highest grade in the class on the written final! a 91%. i hope french comes this easily to me as i get into the higher levels...

also, i realized yesterday that i'm an idiot. not that this is anything new, i just don't always think things through right away. i actually have enough credits to be full-time already, as long as i keep my two credits of research instead of going down to one - the french film class was over and above that. so i guess i have to go talk to my professor about starting those credits now and am not able to wait to hear about the ones i was going to take in the neuroscience lab. hopefully that will still work out later this summer.

blah, blah, blah, school stuff even in summer.

edgar_graham @ 2008-05-12T13:52:00

2008-05-12T18:53:35Z

my french film class got canceled. boo. turns out i was the only one who registered for it. i guess no one else wants to sit around and watch french movies four nights a week in the summer. who would have expected that?

so now i'm trying to find another class to take so that i'll still be full-time. i'm leaning toward physiology so i'm not overloaded with psych classes this summer and it will help with neuroscience in the fall but if i take research methods i won't have to take that this fall.

View Poll: #1186682

my cats are driving me crazy. they're still fighting off and on and i can't figure out why. when they're not fighting, they're laying around together all buddy-buddy just like normal. the growling and chasing and yowling is not the nicest thing to listen to. makes me anxious.

kurt made me breakfast yesterday: crepes with yummy blueberry sauce.

actually we were a team, he mostly made the crepes and i made the sauce.

that's about it. i'd better get back to stats. i have a ton of problems and a quiz to do.

random bits

2008-05-07T14:11:32Z

found my student ID! well, i haven't really checked to see if it's there but i'm pretty sure it's just been in my gym bag this whole time... which i would have known if i had made it to the gym even one time this semester.

i decided on a painter for the house and they can start as soon as i say the word. i'm just waiting for my financial aid to be confirmed so i know i'll have enough money to pay my bills this summer if i spend most of my savings on painting the house. i'm so excited!

i am still hooked on m.i.a.'s arular cd. but i've also been listening to a mix that aaron made. it's great.

tried reading "foop!", one of my booksfree books, but goddamn if it doesn't suck so i quit about a third of the way through. chris genoa is just trying way too hard to be funny. it's hyperbole to the max, which i hate. but, you know, it reminds me a lot of douglas adams so if you're into that you might like it. i was hoping it would be more like the kind of humor in "sewer, gas, and electric" but, alas, it is nowhere near it.

heroes is a pretty cool show. jenna lent me her season one dvd's and i've been watching about an episode a day. i like it but not like my rabid love for LOST and battlestar galactica. some of the characters just drive me nuts and the story line... well, i don't know how to explain it... it's like it's not written for people who watch it every week, does that make sense? like they have to remind you in every episode of what their eventual goal is (to stop new york from blowing up). i don't know. but i do like it for sure.

got my syllabus for my stats class that starts next week. we're doing SIX chapters the first week. i knew this was going to be fast-paced but holy crap! three chapters the first day and i don't even have my book yet because of this financial aid delay. grr. if i don't hear about that by tomorrow i'm just going to go buy the book myself.

and, lastly, hooray for obama on his awesome win in NC yesterday and near win in IN! it's getting embarrassing watching hillary make those victory speeches... especially when it seemed like her speech was written for a huge victory and it actually came down to only two percentage points difference.

procrastination nation

2008-04-27T16:26:30Z

1. Write A Bestseller. Or At Least Publish A Book.
2. Swim With Tropical Fish/Sea Turtles/Sharks/Dolphins/Whales
3. Win An Award, Trophy, Or Prize
4. Catch A Fish With Your Bare Hands (minnows count, right?)
5. Discover A New Species Or Invent A New Theory
6. Throw A House Party
7. Have A Threesome
8. Realize Your Childhood Dream
9. Learn To Play A Musical Instrument (it doesn't say you had to do it well.)
10. Commit Graffiti

11. Chase A Storm
12. Get A Piece of Your Art In To An Exhibition
13. Meet Someone With The Same First & Last Name As Yours
14. Ride The World's Biggest Fastest Scariest Rollercoasters
15. Stage Dive Or Crowd Surf
16. Get In To The Guiness Book Of World Records
17. Own A Pointless Collection
18. Study The Kuma Sutra & Put Theory In To Practice (uh, um, boy, being married really had it's perks.)
19. Win Big In A Casino
20. Hang Out With A Rock Star (all the time!)

21. Be A Human Guinea Pig In A Study
22. Go Up In A Hot Air Balloon
23. Get Arrested (as a minor.)
24. Watch A Space Shuttle Launch In Real Life
25. Take An Award Winning Photograph
26. Bungee Jump
27. See An Erupting Volcano
28. Go Skydiving

29. Meet Your Idol (i told kim gordon once that i loved her.)
30. Stay In The Best Suite In A 5 Star Hotel

31. Experience Weightlessness
32. See The Aurora Borealis
33. Score A Hole In One At The Golf Course
34. Design Your Own Cocktail
35. Play A Part In Your Favorite TV Show
36. Visit Every Country
37. Make A Fire Without Using Matches Or A Lighting Device
38. See Animals In The Wild
39. Go To A Greyhound Dog Race. Or Adopt A Greyhound That Used To Race.
40. Get A Free Upgrade On A Plane (the perks of being a federal volunteer.)

41. Be Friends With Your Ex
42. Go To A Shooting Range & Shoot A Gun
43. Throw A Dart In To A Map & Travel Where It Lands
44. Attend A Film Premiere
45. Dine & Dash At A Restaurant (i hate to admit this. i was young and dumb!)
46. Go Scuba Diving
47. Milk A Cow
48. Be Present When Your Country Wins The World Cup
49. See Both Solar & Lunar Eclipses
50. Write Your Name Over A Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame

51. Learn Another Language (i'm in the process.)
52. Read The Greatest Books Ever Written (i've read many.)
53. Complete A Coast To Coast Road Trip Across America
54. Make At Least One Huge Purchase You Can't Afford
55. Score The Winning Goal/Try/Basket
56. Crash An A-List Party
57. See The All-Time Greatest Films (i still haven't seen "lawrence of arabia" though but i hear it's great.)
58. Live In The Place You Love
59. Leave A Job You Hate
60. Take Part In A Police Line-Up

61. Get Away With A Perfect Practical Joke Or Hoax
62. Join The Mile High Club
63. Make The Front Page Of A National Newspaper
64. Drive A Car At Top Speed (120 mph is very fast.)
65. Shout 'Drinks On Me!' In A Pub Or Bar
66. Be Part Of A Flash Mob
67. Visit A Famous Place
68. Save Someone's Life
69. In Various Languages, Learn To Say Hello/Goodbye and Please/Thank You
70. Invent A Word

71. Have Adventurous Sex (c'mon, hasn't everyone?)
72. Have Enough Money To Do All Of The Things On This Stupid Ass List
73. Stand On The International Date Line
74. Learn To Fly A Plane
75. Get A Tattoo Or Piercing
76. Invent Something
77. Learn Astronomy (i took intro once. i didn't realize there was so much damn math involved in astronomy.)
78. Drink A Vintage Wine
79. Answer A Personal Ad
80. Spend Christmas On The Beach

81. Get Barred From A Pub Or Bar (does a hotel count?)
82. Build Your Own House
83. Skinny Dip At Midnight
84. Sell All Your Junk On Ebay & Make A Profit
85. Visit The World's Tallest Buildings
86. Walk/Run/Roll/Bike A Marathon
87. Conquer Your Fears
88. Get Married Unusually
89. Throw Away The Instant Noodles (Mac N Cheese, Ramen, etc.)
90. Join The 16 Mile High Club (Fly in a MiG-25 fighter jet)

91. Create A Cult Website
92. Own An Original Work Of Art (haha, MY OWN!)
93. Complete The Monopoly Board Pub Crawl in London
94. Get Something Named After You
95. Get Revenge
96. Be An Extra In A Film
97. Live Out Of A Van
98. Go On A Demonstration
99. Confess Your Sins (back when i believed that it was worth something.)
100. Reach 100 Years Of Age
101. Continue Your Gene Pool / Have A Kid

it's just a mess

2008-04-25T22:26:50Z

today i was putting up some chicken wire type stuff in the basement so the cats can't get in the crawlspace anymore. not the hexagonal chicken wire though - the heavier duty stuff with little squares. so i cut it with my trusty wire cutters, got it up where i wanted it and lightly nailed it in place so i could get my screws and brackets for the corners and the damn thing popped off, curled back down and nailed me in the forehead! i have a line of tiny puncture wounds right below my hairline.

(i bet it would have been funny to see happen though... even though i'm not the type of person to laugh at people getting hurt. less funny would have been if it had hit another inch or two lower and gotten me in the eyes. yikes.)

the bismarck is here tonight! yay for the rock! and for friends in town!

joy!

2008-04-24T02:39:05Z

we found him!!* we both had a feeling of where he was and kurt went to check one more time and saw him but he ran. so we walked off that way and found him. once i got within about ten feet of him, he recognized me and came running just like i knew he would. :) it's funny how quickly everything seems almost back to normal... but i keep looking over at him and getting this huge grin on my face. and every once in awhile he walks up to me and just stands by my leg, looks up at me, and purrs super-loud. awwwww, cute little kickety cat!

life can now continue on as planned.

*of course, after we just spent almost an hour going around to more houses again and putting up about a dozen flyers. isn't that the way it goes? but hey, at least i have a better idea of who all these people are who live in my neighborhood.