This is Halloween

I just got my Genetics test back. I'm afraid to look at it. I got physically ill when he was going over the test in class today. The average was 48, so higher than I thought. But a lot of people felt very cheated, and weren't afraid of expressing it in class. So then he gave some speel about how he must have done something right because that's where the average should be, and it was a great test because it tested people, and it's his divine right apparently to weed out anyone who shouldn't go onto medical school by testing us on material he didn't prepare us for... A whole lot of crap. I can now add him to the list of people I've hated in my life, which is only comprised of 3 people, because he's a total tool.

A little bit of anger and resentment should have come across in the above. That said: I'm somewhat worried about this O Chem test Wednesday, because mechanisms and synthesis problems aren't easy, at least not when you procrastinate. Not that I've had a choice with Genetics and work. Speaking of which, I'm really not looking forward to Tuesday. I don't hate my supervisor, or the now Immunology Group Manager, but I can't say I like either of them very much right now. I'm worried to see the state of things this upcoming week. And if it gets any worse I'm switching departments asap, or I'll go work at the lab my roommates work at, culturing mice or something.

So last night my home teachers came over. They were really nice; and we had Libo and Brad over studying with #2, and #1's hip extension over as well, so it was a real party. Church was good that morning, and I went with #2 and her friend Brad, who works with her in the lab. After church I went hiking with Sheidi, which was a nice Sunday activity. Brandon came over later that night and explained a few things to us while #1 and I studied O Chem with Mr. Cynicism. I think he was distracted by all the noise, because with all the people there was a lot of noise.

Saturday I went to the movies with my 13 year old nephew and 11 year old niece, and my little sis and her hubby. We saw the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, and let me just say, that movie was meant to be seen in 3D. The visual details put into it are amazing in the first place, but on a big screen coming right out at you with the quirkiness of Tim Burton and the perfection of sounds from Danny Elfman...Just spectacular. And seen with so many of my favorite people... My niece and nephew used to make us watch that movie at least once a week when they were 4 and 6, and neither had seen it in a few years, but we all still remembered all of the dialogue and lyrics. Good stuff. That night I went to my sister's ward's Trunk or Treat, and all of my nieces and nephews save 1 were there and dressed up for Halloween (except for Jessilee, who is too cool for that now). I was glad because I will be working Halloween and the day after super early, and I have a test to study for the day after. Usually I like taking them out Trick or Treating, so this was nice. The twins were witches, so was Girlfriend, Best Friend was a Ninja Turtle, and Churtis Ja'mames was a power ranger. Doll Face was a Hobo. Soooo cute. and I stole some of their candy, so I felt pretty good about the evening.

The last few days...er, day.

Genetics has now eaten my breakfast, lunch, and is eying my dinner. Yesterday was test #4 of 7. I felt pretty prepared. My roommate and Libo were as prepared as they come. The second I opened that test I wondered why I had studyed at all. It did not resemble any of the problems we were given, or the practice exam in any respect. It was one of those moments where you're too surprised to panic. When it was over I asked #2 and Libo what they thought. Words were beyond all of us. Untell we started walking to Libo's car, and then colorful words were spoken with an impressive frequency; not by me of course. I can't even believe our professor. Teaching was not his calling. He's actually just filling in for the guy on sabaticle right now, but for someone who doesn't believe in giving tests, he sure has high standards for those taking them. I think the fact that he doesn't like them did come across in his utter inability to write one though. It was hard to understand what he was even asking. Anyway, we were all in surprisingly good moods considering the massacre that had just taken place (if the class average is above 40% I'm dropping out of school right now), and actually I think it was because we all found it so ridiculous we couldn't help but laugh about it--through tears of course (there weren't really any tears, but there might be if someone got a 90 on this test). Not to mention disbelief, frustration, and of course a little bit of bitterness and anger. So we threw a pity party for ourselves and went out for sushi at Benihana. I got a spider roll, the spicy salmon rolls, a spicy tuna wrap, and it was all very good. But I was still somewhat upset after our trip. So we all sat around on the couch at our house afterwards, each with our pints of ice cream, and watched an episode of South Park. Very fitting for the mood we were in. It actually amazes me that my roommate can have so much on her plate right now and not be a nervous wreck. Or at least that she can be a nervous wreck that still finds plenty of laughing time. I enjoy hanging out with the two of them. And they're smart, so I really should study with them more. I did the night before the test, but it availed us nothing.

After the drama of the morning I went over to the HEB to study O Chem with my roommate and some people from our lab. Basically our lab TA, Brian, decided to be nice enough to come help us understand things we should already understand, but haven't had the time to understand with our busy lives, before our test Wednesday. A great deal of my Saturday will be devoted to family, but the rest will go to studying mechanisms and synthesis reactions. We were there for 2 hours, and actually I quite enjoyed it. Other than that I hadn't looked at any of the material beforehand, so I had no idea what was going on a great deal of the time. But I knew more than most, so yay for me.

Then I was stuck in traffic for an hour getting to my parents house. I meant to go there for multiple reasons, but only had time to print off some stuff before going to the game store for this Halloween thing they were throwing. We really didn't play any Halloween games, which was dissapointing, but fortunately I enjoy my friends enough that it didn't matter too much. Duckling, FK, some guy FK knows but none of us did, Pinkie, and Joshuar were all there playing games for multiple hours. I intended to start calling Joshuar Corn Flakes from now on, but he's actually been very reliable lately. Weird. But he stole my yellow pawns, and for that I stole his glasses and subsequently misplaced them. There was food there as well, and we all had way too many cream sodas. That about sums it up.

Blah

So I am truly gifted when it comes to failing my o chem lab quizzes. They ask questions I never thought to think of, and on points that were never mentioned in lecture or lab. Why do they do that? Do they really expect us to scour an experiment and find out every bit of information we can about it when it's only worth a credit and that would take hours? I already spend too long on that stupid lab. Thankfully it's over for the week, just in time for me to worry about my Genetics test tomorrow, and my o chem test next week. I'm ignoring the second till after tomorrow.

My Genetics test should be pretty horrible. He gives us all this information in lecture, and in the book, then asks questions that neither tells you how to do. I have no idea how to do most of it, and he promised that the exam won't reflect the problems given in class and on the practice exam, but will encorporate similar ideas. And this from the man who doesn't really believe in testing. Man I hate that class, even though I like the subject.

Already the day is passing too quickly. I should be home studying, but I have to give my roommate back her books, and I can never get a hold of her...ever.

A Little Time Spent In The Marriot Library.

I've been posting on my other blog as of late. I can't get over how much more I like the format of it than this one. Oh well.

Anyway, I just got back my 3rd Genetics test. I'm afraid to look at it. You see, I have this ritual with tests. I get them back, then I let them sit for a while before looking at them. I like the anticipation, or maybe I don't. I wait till I'm calm, and somewhere other people are not, I take a few deep breaths, prepare myself for the worst, and hope for the best. Either way (meaning whether I did horribly or not) I am planning on going home and implementing at least 2 hours of "Genetics" time today. And I'm watching Arrested Development, because I can. I guess something's supposed to go down tonight, but I don't know what. Something in So Jo, because it's seriously been too long since I've seen people.

Yo La Tengo were awesome, and very diversified in their presentation of songs. Seriously, they sound so different in pretty much all of their songs, so it's hard to classify their music. But they have excellent instrumentals often. Randomly at this concert I ran into the roommate of someone I dated briefly, so that was bizzare. Bizarre? I never know. The opening band lasted forever, and they were not good, in my opinion. I went with Sheidi, and our friend Jerry from work was there as well. And at one point I saw him nodding his head along to the music. It's not that often we see him break out like that. In other news, there was this really loud guy, and this other crazy dancing guy. Loud Guy talked insanely loud, and I'm pretty sure he was on drugs, which I deduced from him talking about them, along with his behavior. Crazy Dancing Guy thought that jumping up and down on one foot, while moving forwards and backwards, was dancing. Or doing lunges (which by the way is not dancing) and my personal favorite move, him randomly stopping all this insanity to throw his arms up in the air and yell. I felt sorry for society. His girlfriend/wife kept trying to calm him down, as he was bumping into people within any sort of radius to himself, but persist he did. Thank goodness he found someone to put up with him. But yeah, I was incredibly surprised that there wasn't a smackdown at any time that evening; however, Loud Guy did start yelling at Crazy Dancing Guy at one point, and if someone hadn't somewhat restrained Crazy Dancing Guy from invading Loud Guy's space till he left, I'm sure there would have been. I felt very disappointed all in all...in regards to that particular part of the concert anyway.

So that was yesterday and today. I'm really glad I don't have work this week. I think I'm going to go run errands today, after I do some awesome studying.

I'm So Over It.

School that is.

So this week is another where I'm completely swamped with things to do. I have this test on Wednesday I haven't studied for, and work has been insane. I guess Fall Break was this past weekend, and my intent was to study a lot, but somehow I got stuck working with Leon's opposite this whole weekend, and when I work with her I end up not even having a moment's thought to myself because I'm so incredibly busy. Part of it is that both of them are training on other instruments as of late, so I'm left to handle a lot of stuff alone, whereas I'm used to having someone share the load. Then there's just the fact that our week does things differently from their's. And I'm pretty much on my own for effort when it comes down to telling her I'm leaving at a particular time; she seems to find a bunch of stuff she wants me to do before I leave, instead of helping me do the stuff I already have to do so I can get out by my goal time. I never do, and it's a problem. I'll sure be glad when Leon comes back.

So in addition to working with her we had some major instrument problems. The fact of the matter is, I barely got out of work the day before last with time to get in 5 hours sleep before coming back again. Bleh. But that's a lot compared to lately. Yesterday I worked from 1 am to 1:30 pm, and my goal time of getting out was one. I wasn't particularly happy, but I went to lunch with my roommates, roommate #1's fiance/boyfriend/whatever, and this kid Libo from me and #2's Genetics class. It was an Asian buffet, and I think we mainly went for the sushi. It was ok, and surprisingly I'm finding I really like sushi (as long as it's in a roll, not by itself, and it's not something crunchy like crab) even though I hate fish. But none of us were hungry after we watched #1 and company down some octopus. They ate it to say they could--probably part of their "goal book"--and it looked disgusting. I guess it didn't taste good either; not bad, but not good, and I think the terrible texture pushed it over the edge of the line seperating good from bad, along with the fact that apparently it squirted stuff out when chewed. Uggghh. Still just the thought of it makes me lose my appetite. As Libo aptly stated, it looked like cancer. If ever I decide I want to diet, that's how I'll do it--thinking of that moment. But #2 cracked me up; she sat there with a sick sort of fascination towards the whole thing, saying things like, "Chew it," over and over again (rather forcefully), and "swallow, swallow." And #1 for some reason totally listened to her. But none of us could eat after that. Only I did. I felt full in my throat, not my stomach, and having paid for the thing I figured I could always make myself eat cream cheese wantons and sugar flatbread. My roommates are pretty funny, so it was enjoyable.

After that I studied for a while, but Brandon our neighbor came over and was grading Biology papers for a class he's TA-ing for, and between him and the two of us (#2), talking not related to Genetics happened quite a lot. I love that kid though; he makes me laugh so hard. I ended up leaving at a quarter to 7, to go to this concert down in Provo, at the Valour? It was a bunch of local bands, and I had fun, but it could have been better music-wise. Not bad, but not exactly my cup of tea. Mainly I rather enjoyed watching people get their freak on. I love people watching when people are doing random things, and there was an abundance of that happening. Lot's of people dancing who managed to look completely spasmotic and all over the place, in a way likely to hurt anyone nearby, and yet at the same time weren't completely devoid of talent--and seemingly had no inhibitions when it came to their random moves. There was this one kid, who looked like he was in high school, but Sheidi and I totally wanted to adopt him he was so adorable. Very awkward looking dance moves, but he was moving the whole time and was obviously in his zone. But yeah, certain hand moves would turn into rubbing his nose or smoothing the back of his hair; things you would do if you were pretending you hadn't done something you just did. And he was wearing this red sweater with colar poking out, and a pink bandana around his head. He looked a lot like a kid at my work. But I found myself thinking outloud, as Duckling would have said, "I want to be his friend right now."

I basically got no sleep last night because of all this. I went with Sheidi and some of her friends--and randomly this kid her sister and his sister-in-law wanted to set her up with, and one of his friends. It was so hot inside (I want to say "the club," but there were a lot of young kids and no drinking, so I don't know what to classify it as), and was freezing outside. And then we got icecream. All in all it was a pretty fun excursion, but now I have to buckle down and start studying like there's no tomorrow. Rather, like there is a tomorrow, because if there wasn't I sure wouldn't be stuck studying for this thing.

So here's something pretty exciting: my Muslim friend from work invited me to eat at his house Monday night for Ramadan. I'll have to skip most of League, but it's totally worth it. I love Middle Eastern food, and I really love learning more about different cultures, so I'm completely psyched about it. I figure it will be a nice little break from studying that night, and I don't have work the next morning, so it'll be alright. And I'm going to my ward for the first time this morning, with both of my roommates, so finally I can transfer my records, pay my tithing, and renew my temple recommend. That will be nice to get out of the way. Incidentally, with all of my ward hopping, and shere laziness on top of that, I owe 8 months worth of tithing, which adds up to over a thousand dollars. I have it all just waiting in my bank account to be paid, but it will be slightly sad to see such a large chunk go at once. Actually that part will be fine, but how my account will look afterwards will be sad. But it needs to be done.

I Can't Remember A Time Before This Story Began.

So I just had a story happen to me. It starts off on a rather pleasant night/morning, one that by all accounts (both recent and previous) should have been much colder and wetter. As it was, the wet came later, and unfortunately, was within doors.

I spent most of the night studying Organic Chemistry with my roommate, #1. Or I should say, alternately studying Organic Chemistry while talking to both of my roommates. And 2 guy friends who were there because they were long boarding from the stadium to my house in the dark, and to whisk away roommate #2 to do the same, who doesn't have an Organic Chemistry test today. If not for that we would have all been long boarding in the dark. I contemplated doing it anyway, on the grounds that if I injured myself (an unavoidable occurrence in this case), I would have a legitimate excuse to not take my test. Already throughout this semester I've noticed an unpleasant trend of me not working as hard as I could and should. I really do love school and what I'm studying this semester, but I've also found a lot of opportunities to play hard, and those generally tend to trump homework in any given situation.

This weekend being General Conference definitely heightened that fact. I briefly, or not so briefly, break from my story here, only to start another story that might eventually tie in to the first, but will most probably instead stem into yet another story from an earlier time. I absolutely love Conference, and this one was especially good, but I slacked off in between. Saturday was the regular Conference Breakfast, and though there were no crepes, there were German pancakes, which made up for the first by diffusing powdered sugar throughout my system. A lot of other stuff was present, and I had it all, save the Chocolate chocolate cake donuts. During Conference we colored pictures in coloring books, which is something I forgot entirely about from last Conference, and is something I've missed acutely since moving out of the West Valley house. In between sessions we went to tea at GV. I really love clotted cream and peppermint tea, so I was brimming with both come the start of Session 2. Still I managed to eat some of Joshuar's fries during the talks, and I really don't know how I managed to take 2 very large German pancake slices home with me, covered in powdered sugar, as I was leaving FK's house that day. It wasn't the taking of them that is unfathomable, but I did finish them both in the car on the way home. That night we (ironically all of us girls, though we waited till Priesthood was over), went to a pub and got the best meatloaf ever. FK, Duckling, and Pinkie had to pick me up as my car was broken. Which marks the beginning of yet another story. One that happened before I went to Graywhale and bought myself cd's, which made the aforementioned 3 wait at my house for a good 30 minutes, or a bad 30 minutes as it more likely was, because I lost track of time borrowing my parent's van, and those 3 were nice enough to drive me home to Salt Lake that night.

The reason why I was bumming rides had to do with a certain 1985 Pontiac Sunbird deciding not to start, yet again. This time it had to do with wires my dad cut in his search for the previous problem, and which didn't stay together when twined. Incidentally, Friday night I had to take Traxx to So Jo, because my sisters and I and my mother were going out to dinner that night. My oldest sister decided we needed these monthly Girls Night Out dinners a while back, but we got out of the habit and just started it again. I got some studying in there, but minimally, and once I got to my parents' house I really just needed to use the internet. So then two of my sisters arrived, and at that point I thought, "I wonder what they're doing here and where they're going (because it obviously wasn't a coincidence); I want to come." Then I voiced basically just that to my sister Kim, and then I immediately remembered why I was there, and that I did get to go to wherever they were going. I'm a genius sometimes. We went to a Sports Bar, but I don't remember the name. I really like my sisters, so it was enjoyable. My car was fixed Saturday night, but was at my house and therefore unattainable.

So I really should have spent more time studying Organic Chemistry. The problem is that I get it and it makes sense, but I can't make myself take the time required to do all of the problems, and some things just need a lot of practice to do really well on come a test. I did spend 2 hours at work yesterday doing homework, because I was donating platelets at the same time. Before that I hadn't yet admitted defeat to the beast that is O Chem, so I cancelled a lunch with friends to do homework, then decided I would go after all; but alas, I had locked my keys in my car. Unfortunately my windows were not cracked at all, and I learned that it's harder to break into a metal car than a plastic one. I ended up calling the U's campus police to jimmy it, and that took about 2 hours. From there I did platelets, and directly after that I went to our group meeting just long enough to get cake, then went to Institute and had the coolest lesson ever. We talked a lot about Orthodox, and Heresy, and got into some very deep discussions. Mainly about the nature of God's omnipotence, because apparently Brigham Young said something about God's ability to progress throughout time, and how he is continuously learning things, as we do. He then mentioned Willard Richards' (?) opposing opinions, where instead God progresses only because we as his children are progressing, and he essentially gets the credit for that. We talked about a child's perspective of his parents, in comparison to his own. Basically we were given a lot of different opinions, but none of them definitive. And so it mostly came down to thinking for ourselves. My own thoughts are that God is much smarter than I'll every be, and knows more than anyone else on any given subject in the Universe, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to learn. What's important is that he knows more than me, and thus can adequately guide and lead me, regardless of what I don't comprehend, in the situations of my life.

Class went late, and then I drove Sheidi to her aunt's house, who got sent home with the chocolate Sheidi's mom bought for her presentation on chocolate of all things. Then I drove her to her class. Curiously, her car too broke down, but the day after mine, as it also did the first time my car broke down, 2 weeks ago. I can relate to the not being able to get around thing, so that and my extreme desire to not study chemistry led to my willingness to drive her around for a while. I guess our friendship factors somewhere in there as well, but mainly I was in it for the chocolate.

Cut back to the first story. I really should have spent more time studying Organic Chemistry. One of the 2 long boarding guys at my house, Brandon, has apparently spent a lot of time as every kind of tutor you can think of, including said subject. It was actually nice to study in a group environment for once; I learned a lot I couldn't have by myself. If only it was easier to make #1 study with me more often, instead of her concentration being glued to her fiance. The drawback was that there was way too much talking happening that had nothing to do with the topic at hand. We discussed the option of choosing to know about fatal genes beforehand, stem cell research and the ethics involved, all-you-can-eat sushi buffets, and of course, among other things, long boarding. I pried myself away soon after some in depth discussions on chiral molecules to go to work.

Where my story ends is in the lab, which I just spent the last hour mopping, because the second Immunocap 1000 sprung a leak where the DI water hose is connected. While I was trying to fix the problem, the whole tube broke wide open, and where there was a pretty big puddle before, there was then a lake of an impressive quality for being inside of a building. Oh, and the rack loader on my instrument just broke. It's looking to be a stand-up day for one already promising. I guess it's good I have things like this to keep me busy when I've gotten no sleep and have a test in mere hours. I can't fall asleep if I'm shooting myself in the foot.