Alas, the week has come and gone...

So I'm back at work now. I really can't complain. After all, I like my job. But as always, my off week passes too quickly. I did this past week finally throw something of consequence on my wheel though. Namely, something that I can call pottery because it more than just resembles it. I'm still a little scared to fire anything. I have a feeling that my first firing will end in explosion. But the thought of firing something in a kiln in my back yard in this beautiful weather is somewhat of a charming one. That's what I intend to do with my summer whenever I'm not fishing or working...or doing something else. I have a chess set and some garden gnomes to throw. I need to construct a wedging table of some sort, which I talked to my father about. I'm getting better at the kicking part of the endeavor though, so I might scrap the idea of strapping a motor on my wheel. It's all about where you kick, and I'm no longer kicking it hard enough to throw everything off balance, so...

This past week I saw a lot of my nieces and nephews. I took my nephew up to my sister's house when my friend came to see the llamas and pot bellied pig. It is a cute pig, as far as those things go. And he flew a kite for the first time. My nephew, not the pig. It's been great weather for kite flying and Ultimate. Thursday this week starts the first round of Tournament in League, and it's single round elimination, so hopefully we'll survive to see another disk playing Thursday. Fortunately there's still Saturday and Tuesday. I think I might finally be getting back into shape. Now I just need to hit the gym so I can get some use out of the year I have left on my gym pass. I really should lift some weights, because I'm becoming quite the wimp. And I don't want my right leg to be stronger than my left, now that I'm using it to power my wheel. I've already begun to suspect it being a little longer than my left. I think I tend to lean to the left as well. Hmmnnn... Then I went to the park yesterday. It was windy and somewhat rainy. I think we mostly just sat there waiting for FK to figure out how to convert movies onto her ipod. Why she couldn't just do that in the comfort of her house we'll never know. Then we tossed a disk around, I rather unskillfully I must admit. I was trying to teach Goddess how to flick the thing back-handed, but I have yet to get it down perfectly myself. I just know the mechanics of making it work. I make a better coach than example. I need to work on distance mainly. But the whole thing was worth it just to watch Brian run after the thing though...*he he he*...Quite the spectacle.

The Comfort and Luxury of Mediocrity

Hah. So I stole the title for this entry verbatim from Aaron's last post. I started to write a reply to his, and ended up with something blog entry in length, so I decided scrap that comment in order to spare those reading his blog, and instead wrote of my own thoughts on his subject here. So anybody reading this now has not been spared. And considering the flack I've gotten for not updating this in a while, it should pacify enough people to balance those who feel they should have been spared.

I have definitely never been comfortable with trying new things. If I had 3 friends taking Ballroom, I would not have taken it with them, though I'm sure I would have regretted it later having since seen Clark's oh so remarkable ballroom and shimmy skills. I have gotten better as of late though. As you may know, I tried sushi recently. A big step for my since I hate cooked fish. Those of you who knew me in Elementary school know I was painfully shy, and it has been a gradual process for me yearly to become less so from that point to now. The main differences definitely came when I put myself out of my comfort zone--oh so applicable to my high school track experience as well--and became a better, a more skilled, "runner" if you will. Only then you have to start the process over again with your newly expanded comfort zone. So when I went to Florida it was a huge step for me, but I admit I only did it in the first place because I knew some people who were also going. It turned out to be an amazing experience where I became more confident around complete strangers than I'd ever been before, but it really was a safe bet. On the other hand, when I decided to do a month and a half long English Literature Study Abroad in London knowing no one, I was freaked out. Not only did I know no one, but I was in a foreign country where I didn't know how things worked and had no one to help me. It sounds weird calling England a foreign country, but aside from sharing a common language it really is drastically different, and therefore I stand by my completely applicable statement. I realize that if you switch the "c" with a "p" in cents, and "pound" for "dollar," you pretty much have the money thing down, but the fact that they have a 1 and a 2 pound coin and their nickel equivalent is smaller than their dime totally threw me off. My cab driver upon arrival was very patient in his explanations, fortunately. There's more, but we'll leave it at that--well, that and that I'm really glad they had arrows on the road pointing out the direction of traffic, at every cross walk, because pedestrians do not have the right-of-way there. Anyway, I basically went to England because I'd had such a positive experience in Florida and was looking to experience that again, but also because the very thought of it scared me as much as it excited, which convinced me even more that it was an experience I needed to have... It was no Florida. The first week I was convinced I'd made a terrible mistake and I now had to endure an extended amount of time alone when I could have been home with people I love, and incidentally I'd spent quite a lot of money getting there. My roommates were incredibly nice, but they were mainly about the drinking scene. I like pubs, but pubs are pubs. I admit I wanted to visit all the cliche places as well as those most people wouldn't think of; I didn't want to come home saying I'd never seen Big Ben. Then I met a group of people--who I happen to still hang out with even now, which is quite the achievement--and with them did just that (I swear it took us at least 20 times crossing that stupid road to get a picture of Abbey Road without cars in it), ultimately having one of my best life experiences to date. Point of the matter: I definitely need to put myself out there more, because I like being comfortable way too much. That's really the only reason I ever let myself reach the point of panic and procrastination, because it's hard to have the comfort of the first without the second eventually following. That's my goal for this next semester. I recently applied for an Anatomy TA position. I really hope I'm qualified enough to get it. It would be scary teaching other people about an extremely complex subject, but I know I would gain an infinite amount of knowledge out of it myself. And I really just need to get more involved in life than I currently am. There's way too much to experience outside of work and study for me to stagnate in my current position.

Farewell until Monday

I thought I probably ought to write something before I’m in Vegas and can’t write anything. Other than the distraction of work, I don’t really have an excuse to have not been writing lately. Anyway, here goes.

So as a testament to just how tired I was the morning after my test, on which I actually got 14 hours of sleep, I totally came to work with my shirt on inside-out. Fortunately it was early, so no one was there when I got there, and also fortunately, I wear a lab coat at work, so no one saw even then. But then I went on break. They put the tag for this shirt on the side seam. So I was walking, and as it often does when I walk, my arm was swinging back and forth, as it should for all those who don’t have brain tumors or huge latissimus dorsi muscles. So it was swinging, and every time it swung past my waste, which it does about once a step, it was brushing up against this tag. I looked down at this point, thinking “why on earth would they put a tag there and on the outside?” when I noticed that it was not the outside. That was an unfortunate moment. On the bright side, I got a B+ in my Biochem class after taking that test; that was an awesome test. It’s not an A as I would hope each grade would be, but considering the amount of slacking I did in that class, it’s more than I deserved. So I won’t have to retake it. Now it’s just O. Chem and Genetics. And I think they’ll make me take Statistics.

That said; school is done for the summer. I was going to take classes in the summer, but alas, they didn’t offer any that I needed. So now I’m going to Vegas tomorrow, which is my first day off of work, and I have yet to pack or get ready at all. I guess that will be tonight’s efforts. And I need to remember to go to the bank. I got my bonus check the other day, which is probably good as far as Vegas is concerned. I'm ready to hit all the buffets and arcades!

I'm done I'm done I'm done.

I'm done, I'm done...Too bad you all can't hear the music that went along with those words in my head. Just read them really slow. There also was a jig...In my head that is...I'm at work after all.

So I only had one final. It comes from being a slacker and only taking one class, but I deserved a break after last semester and so I gave it to myself. Unfortunately I took it as just that, and I almost didn't work hard enough to pull it off. Fortunately my professor really is a nice guy, and the final was pretty easy. It was basically questions verbatim from all 4 exams put in one, and I was allowed all 4 cheat sheets from the previous tests (front and back) to use on it. Of course, I put all four exams shrunk to a size smaller than my hand on my cheat sheets, so I was really happy. Of course, I lost the answers to one of my exams, so while I used open book, open internet, I'm still not sure if they were all the right answers. Either way, I should throw myself a party. I think I may have given myself something though, because I don't feel so hot and I totally almost fell over this morning when I leaned over to get something. I got home from work yesterday after my all-nighter at about 3, and I planned on taking a 4 hour nap before Gilmore Girls and House, and I woke up at 11. I then went back to sleep till 4:30 am, at which point I made myself get up. I totally would have kept on sleeping if I didn't have work, and that was a 13 hour nap! So it feels like pneumonia, but it can't be that because I had a shot, so I'm thinking bronchitis?

The Wall

I hit the freaking wall. I thought that after finishing my high school running experience I'd never have to deal with it again--but here it is. You know...You're to the 300 M point of the track, rounding the bend, approaching the stretch...And then this invisible collides with your abdomen and forces you to slow down. At that point I was taught to ignore the pain my body was feeling, and instead push myself as hard as I could to the end. Sometimes I was able to suppress the pain, only to have it come back x10 when back to my senses, but most of the time (like so many others) the desire to stop was so strong I couldn't overcome it. Basically at the moment I just couldn't make myself care; not until after did I regret.

I spent the last 48 hours consecutively studying (with the occasional break to keep my sanity, as well as to help my sister because I can't not stress when she's stressed), and with an hour left to go till my final, I can't make myself care anymore. I'm so ready to be done with this class, and I know I had no other options, but I totally burned myself out this time. An unfortunate side-effect of me being tired is that I lose all desires to do anything but what I immediately feel. Usually it's nice to lose all of my inhibitions, as well as any self-conscienciousness, and just say and do what strikes my fancy, but right now it kind of sucks.