5 Things...okay, more like 10, because let's face it, I often get carried away.

My friend Becca tagged me to write 5 semi unique things about myself. None of them are unique in and of themselves, but I'm sure it would be a sad thing indeed were you to find another person who could encompasses any five of them at once. The thing was, I got to writing, and since school has made me forget how to do simple math, I kept going, till I realized I was still going, and then I stopped. So here are some things:

1) My memory is the single most unreliable thing ever. Don't get me wrong, like many other people I have an awesome short term memory when I commit things quickly, and later they vanish like thin air. Well, when it comes to run of the mill every day things, I generally can't even remember what happened to me yesterday, until I'm reminded by something someone said, or something I see...then it comes rushing back to me with extreme clarity. Put on the spot I can't even remember my first name. That's why I love taking pictures, especially in a digital age where my camera takes note of the date and time. It's amazing how much feeling a single image can bring with it. For instance, this particular image shouldn't particularly stick out as anything special in my childhood, and yet looking at it I'm reminded of exactly how I was feeling and what I was thinking at that moment in time. I was trying to convince my mom and dad that I did indeed like pees. The fact of the matter is, I did not like peas. Even now I don't like pees unless they're fresh out of a garden, but at that moment I was trying to be less disagreeable, because I was a very picky child.


In this picture I remember being more pleased than with any other birthday gift just about ever. I was in kindergarten, it was my birthday, and my teacher was giving us these giant birthday scrolls. I was very pleased indeed. My cousins are in the background, and at the time I felt they surely must be jealous of my giant birthday scroll.

I was pissed here, and it was Easter. I would almost bet on it having something to do with not finding as many eggs as I wanted to. And probably what I was wearing, though I think I remember it being quite comfortable. I want to say I was 4.

And below, me next to my lil' sis, dad, big sis, and big bro (behind her). We were at Sea World or some place like it, because we were waiting to watch the bird show. It was wicked hot, and was beginning to take it's tole on all of us. This was a particular moment of trial for us all.


2) I'm both a pack rat and a neat freak, both compliments of my mother. Those two aspects clash constantly. Usually messiness from acquired objects prevails, but it doesn't sit well with me.

3) I'm incredibly paranoid. Or at least I was as a wee lass. I used to wake up every morning at 5 am as a child to say goodbye to my dad as he went to school (he was a high school teacher). I was afraid it might be the last time I ever saw him if he got in a car accident on the way to work. I also used to worry that I'd all of the sudden hit a growth spur in my sleep (as most that occur do) that would leave me without any clothes that fit me, and I wouldn't be able to go out and buy new ones because I wouldn't have any to go out in public in. Basically I was afraid I'd be naked when I grew up. My mother still laughs about this.


4) I see things in my head differently than they really are. I could have sworn this cherry antenae topper this one time was in fact a firefly on Mars. In my defense, it was faded and there was only one stem, but still. I also could not for the life of me find the fridge in my basement the other day even though I was inches from it. It was like Grimhold's place in Harry Potter. I was looking for your standard white fridge, and it was black instead, so I just kept looking from my dad's model car cabinet to the piano in confusion (there isn't usually a fridge in the basement). And for some reason I was looking for a ceramic cat instead of a real cat at the end of my parents' bed one day, because my dad told me there was supposed to be a marker by it which I needed. The story there is that they have this ceramic chicken in the cupboard that holds markers usually, so I ask you, was that really such a far fetched thing for me to be looking for in the first place? And of course my family gets such a kick out of these things. I love them, but I'm pretty sure they think I'm stupider than I actually am. My little sister says that she's never known someone so smart with so little sense. Luckily she's family, so she can think that and I just don't care.

5) I'm awesome at hitting inanimate objects with my car. So far under my belt (I figured that particular expression would be appropriate, or innappropriate, with Becca in mind--mull over that one Becca) I have a mailbox, a garage door, a cement freeway barrier, the chainlink fence to the side of the freeway, a metal pole, some plant in my front yard my dad seemed intent on preserving, the neighbor's wooden fence, my brother's not moving truck that happened to by in my spot in the driveway, garbage cans, a ditch, endless curbs, and most recently, one of the cement filled red curved metal poles (as pictured) at the gas station.


6) I get the hiccups at least once a day. Pretty much any time I drink anything. If ever after eating I get to the state where I'm full, I have the hiccups. Even if I only hiccup a couple times before they're gone again.

7) Lighting and aesthetics really affect me. I think I'm bipolar or something. If the lighting isn't just right, I can't study, and my mood in general suffers. Along the same lines, sort of, I love old ugly looking cars. Aesthetically I find them pleasing. It's the boxy look that I like so much, or at least the many boxy angles, because as it happens I think hummers are horrid looking cars.

8) Simple tasks seem to evade me. I've never been able to do cartwheels or hand stands. I used to could whistle really well, when I had a bird, but alas that skill too has left me. I also can't trill or roll my tongue--though it's my life long dream, and one day you all will be amazed. And I can't swim, despite having had lessons.

9) I love horrible laughter. I'm a major people watcher, in a not creepy way of course. I find way too many things funny that are not. I'm constantly laughing at peoples' reactions to different things, and I don't even notice that I'm the only one really amused, but I can't even help it. Idiosynchrosies draw me in.

10) Unlike Becca, I've always loved animals. we've had just about every kind a person could growing up. Of course we had your normal variety..cats, dogs, mice, rabbits, fish, finches, snakes, a love bird, a caterpillar when I was 6..but then we also had a feather footed chicken, a newbian goat, a goose..pretty much every kind of animal we could drag home and talk my dad into keeping, or any kind that would randomly adopt us. My dad would firmly and sternly say no, but we knew if we just ignored him he would let us keep them anyway, because he's a total softy at heart. I've wanted a monkey for as long as I could remember. Currently I'm pretty happy with my angel fish, shark, etc. But I would really really like a turtle or tortoise I could name Waffle.

And

11) As you might have noticed, I am really not good at brevity when it comes to writing. I was super shy as a child, and as such my social skills were stunted to the point that I'm still not very good when it comes to talking, but when I'm writing I have no control. Or stop button. Wouldn't it be nice to have a stop button?

Look at the good I do.

Can I just say that I'm awesome when it comes to thinking about writing on here? I have more drafts than actual posts right now. In my defense I've been really busy lately. However, finals finally ended and I'm positively giddy with anticipation. It's so nice to just sit back and breath. And think of all the things I need to do before school starts back up. 1st on the list, as always, is cleaning my room. Then I have Turkey Bowl pictures I promised to send to people, and Ugly Christmas Sweater pictures I promised to send to yet other people. I still have one day left of work before I can really get on these things, but I'm looking forward to it.

Get this, I was so bored at work last night that my coworker Brock and I had a philosophical discussion about the inner psyche of zombies. Man I enjoy working with that kid. He sings terribly but terribly often, and I love it. There's no rhyme or reason to the genres he picks either--they range all over the place. I've been considering switching to the other week. Two new night positions have opened, and the other Melissa and Stevie Boy have tried to convince me. It would be the power week for sure, and I love those two people to death, but I'm not sure if Scooter would go for all of us on the same week, and all of the new people on the other. Plus I would miss Brock, Austen, and Traves. If I could take them with me, it wouldn't even be a question. Having Christmas and Thanksgiving off next year would be nice, school would be easier next semester because I wouldn't have to worry about work as much...at least potentially. He'll probably have both positions filled before I make up my mind.

So the power was out last night when I got home. It was out all around the stadium. All the intersection lights were out the entire way home, and so I was glad to be driving home past midnight when there is no traffic whatsoever. I lit a lot of candles before I realized that I needed to get to sleep. I had a hard time staying at work till that point, though I was wide awake when I got off. I went in two hours late as well. I was home cleaning and watching Planet Earth. And as a complete aside, but one that's related to that train of thought, how cute are baby musk oxen? I think they're pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. I couldn't find the pictures of them they had on Planet Earth in the snow, but trust me, they were adorable.

I love my new camera.

And snow. This I took while driving, which will surely lead to my death.

( I still need to post Thanksgiving stuff, but I was using my sister's camera, so I don't have the pictures. I'll do it later though, when I have less school stuff to worry about.)

It snowed yesterday! A lot. And I was surprised how happy it made me. I've been very anxious lately, and not in the best of spirits, because I have this huge research paper due tomorrow, and a presentation where I need to use powerpoint due with it, and I've yet to finish either. I work this week, so it's a problem, and if you know me at all it shouldn't surprise you that presenting in front of people is an equation for disaster where I'm involved. That said, I'm anxious.

So it's amazing how snow can change your whole outlook. Maybe I'm just bipolar. I've actually been seriously considering that lately...it would make sense. Bipolar and anemic, oh the tragic life I lead. But speaking of snow, I had a riot of a time driving yesterday morning. I arrived at work positively giddy after skidding wildly out of control various times, and I mean that without sarcasm intended. In the words of my good friend Mody, I "scream with delight" whenever I lose control of my car in the snow. That's so how I want to die I've decided. I know I'm not the only person to think of how I want to die so I refuse to think of these thoughts as morbid, but while most people settle with 'of natural causes' in their sleep, I have to say that doesn't so much appeal to me. It freaks me out quite frankly. This is probably due to watching a Body Stories video (PBS or Nova style) at work on just that. Basically you're internally bleeding to death or the like, but just don't know it. You're thinking it's indegestion or something. So now when I'm all old, every time I get indegestion I'll think, "I'm dying." No thank you. Nobody wants to drown (at least I don't like the smothering feeling), nobody wants to be burned to death, I personally wouldn't like to freeze to death because I'm a huge baby where cold is concerned, cancer is drawn out...yeah, I think a car accident is totally the way to go. Possibly painful, but I think the euphoria of losing control of my car would make that manageable. I know this for a fact because 2 years ago when I almost hit that dog on the freeway at 4 in the morning, and I swerved to miss it (yeah, I know you're not supposed to do that, but it's more reflexive than you'd think, so don't judge until you've experienced it yourself), my car went wildly careening out of control and my (last) thoughts verbatum were, "this would be so much fun if I weren't about to die." Multiple 180's on the freeway when you're the only one on the road=Screams of delight. Think of rollercoasters. Of course I would never try to get in a car accident, and to be truly happy about it I'd have to be old and it'd have to involve inanimate non-living objects, and not another car, and I'd have to have only have one leg before this point so I can experience the whole phantom limb phenomena (which I've always been curious about)... You have to admit, that's a good way to go. I've already got the getting into accidents with inanimate objects part down (to an exact science actually), so the whole thing is not too far fetched.

And these are just some of the things I think about when I should be studying.

Lacking. Sleep that is.

So a while back I actively decided to post more pictures, wrote just that, and then twice in the last week I was given grief for not having enough. How much can one person do people? Honestly. I decided that the answer to that question was to post a picture with every edition. I can't think of a word better than "edition" right now to take the place of post, which I already used in that sentence. I may be deliriously tired right now. Anyway, this is a picture of Seal and Heidi Klum, because who doesn't think of them every once in a while? Some time ago a friend at work called my extension specifically to ask me if I ever found myself thinking about them, and I realized that every once in a while, I totally do. Of course, not by choice. But I do love trashy magazines every once in a while. I generally don't know half of the people in them since I rarely listen to music on the radio and I don't watch that much tv lately, but I love looking at people that other people have deemed important enough to devote their lives to watching--very fascinating. My little sis calls them my Rags. I also think about Abraham Lincoln.

I haven't so much slept in the last few nights. I was studying the night before last, and then working late Monday because it was my last work day on. Last night I went home, fell asleep reading, and woke up late because my phone (which doubles as my alarm) decided that it lacked the battery power it found to be sufficient. I got to school late, making that 2 of 3 guest speakers I've been late to. My talent at showing up late and having legitimate reasons for doing so grows with every passing day. I found that our guest speaker today was actually a girl I used to play frisbee with. She is a few years older than I, but it was still strange to realize that my peers are now mostly all grown up with real jobs, and here I still am at school. She, like myself, has not been to play Ultimate in quite some time, though her excuse stemmed from having a legitimate life whereas I currently only have a pseudo one. I chatted with her a little after class, mainly because we were waiting for Steven and Steven seems to be drawn towards the front of the class like a bug to the light. He has all of these questions, and motivation that Devin and I will never have. For instance, we have a parasite packet, a research paper, and 2 tests right after Thanksgiving; did we work on any of these endeavors today? Of course not. Did Steven? I'm not sure, but the way he openly worried about them at school today implies a yes to me.

One day this summer--after Devin and I ditched out on our Stats class--we ate dinner at his sister Hoover's house. We then watched AFI's(?) 100 greatest movies of all times. It's amazing how many we hadn't seen, but felt we should. To enhance our knowledge of pop culture. So we made a list, a list which has only grown as time has elapsed, and now we have this ever growing never shrinking list of movies to watch. Today we decided to sacrifice our time towards accomplishing this noble goal we've set, by watching some of these movies in leu of our homework. Actually as it happens, our Micro lab, which was our last class of the day, was canceled. I was so happy. My plan upon ariving home (before my class was canceled) was to take a nap, because I was tired enough today that I actually fell asleep during Micro lecture, and was in an awkward enough position to be snoring ever so slightly. This is usually Devin's role. This probably looked especially bad because Devin and I had been drinking Henry Weinhard's rootbeer and my teacher actually stopped midsentence during our lecture when she noticed the bottles to ask "is that beer?" Just taking the edge off really, is that a crime? Of course I did not go home and sleep after the glorious revelation that I would not have to listen to a guest lecturer for 2 hours and take notes that I would then be required to turn in. As a child I remember waking up one morning and having the most intense desire I've ever had to not want to go to school. I was exhausted, and so I found myself trudging into my parents' room and passing out on the bottom portion of their bed--my older sister was sitting on their bed already in her pajamas, and they with her were watching the news. That was the first snow day I remember having, I was in the third grade I believe, and the moment the news anouncer voiced that I wouldn't have to go to school that day, I was wide awake with joy and excitement. I spent the day with the rest of the neighborhood kids being pulled around in tubes tied with ropes to the back of a neighbor's 4 wheel drive vehicle. That was followed by sledding in my across the street neighbor's yard, for their dad had plowed all of the neighborhood's snow into massive piles on their lawn. We had forts and snow caves everywhere in those mountains of snow. Today was much like that day, only really not at all like that day, minus the no school part. I went home and read by the large window in my living room, enjoying the day light and my very comfortable couch. Then much later Devin and I watched Citizen Kane with crazy bread and soda, whilst my roommates and the like made copius amounts of noise in the background.

If I had as much money as Heidi Klum and Seal, I would definitely have more time to sleep.

Time not spent studying.

So I'm looking at this packet of silica gel that came in the shoes I just bought (you know, to keep them fresh), and it says, "do not eat," (as all silica gel packets do) and I'm thinking to myself, "would anyone capable of reading this actually eat it?" Well, I for one feel lucky that I now won't make that mistake.

I bought a lot of stuff yesterday. i only really kept track of the money I spent in the first store, and the rest is kind of a blur. I only go shopping maybe twice a year for clothes, so I feel it's justifiable, but I'm pretty sure I went overboard. Not enough to regret it, as they're all things I need, but enough that towards the end of the endeavor I felt that grumpy feeling I get when I spend too much time in any store. I really do hate shopping, and the mall, but some things are necessary. I mostly did my own shopping too, even though I had my personal shoppers there. They're the main reason I don't feel the grumpy feeling sooner any more. That was a somewhat awkwardly phrased statement. I finally bought a p coat, something I've wanted since working at Disney. It got surprisingly cold there in the winter--especially at night--and they had these massive black p coats that were the warmest things ever. I so would have stolen it if it wasn't checked out by bar code under my name. The Fantasyland coat I wore my one night working at the pretzel wagon was also very warm, but definitely looked fantasy-ee enough that it wasn't steal-worthy. Anyway, back to the present of yesterday (I realize how redundant that sounds)...

Later that night I went to William James' house and played Guitar Hero for my very first time. We didn't stay long because I'm pretty sure all involved in the shopping felt a little nautious after Victoria Secret. Too many smells in one place for too long of a time. But it was nice to see old friends from high school. I actually still hang out with a lot of my friends from high school, only I don't really consider them as high school friends any longer, on account of us hanging out so much since high school ended 5 years ago. What's weird is running into people from high school that I don't see on a frequent basis. I liked the people then, but that doesn't mean I want to mindlessly chit chat with them. I hate that. If there's something I legitimately want to find out about someone I haven't seen in a while, or vice versa, that's cool, but if it's just about appearing nice and friendly and making conversation where it normally wouldn't be...I have no patience for that. I was never good at it and I hate being forced into it. But that didn't happen, so there you go. I was pretty okay at Guitar Hero, so I can see why people get adicted, but I was no scion by any measure, and I'm pretty sure it gave me carpal tunnel. By the way, speaking of my medical maladies...for anyone who's interested, I do not have leukemia. Kind of dissapointing. I expected my blood smear to show at least something interesting. All I found out is that I have pencil cells in there which means I'm anemic. I pretty much knew that. But it was cool to look around at all my nicely developed red and white blood cells and be proud of myself for that. A little worried that I've had cold like symptems for months and yet I have no extra white blood cells, thus implying my immune system may be crap, but proud nonetheless. The human body really is quite amazing. Such little machinery going on beneath our skin. I pocketed my smears, although I have no idea what I'll do with them now.

If you get through all the nonsense at the first of this post, you'll get to hear about me drawing blood.

I used to have a test tomorrow, but then it was pushed to friday. Ultimately it doesn't make much of a difference because I'm working tomorrow, but it is a bit of a relief...enough of one that I'm writing on here instead of studying...and that I went to dinner tonight with friends instead of studying. Man I love the meatloaf at that pub. I did study before though, and that's something. I really enjoy Microbiology actually, and I don't mind studying for it because it's interesting. But it does tend to make me paranoid. When you spend a year learning about all the different diseases you can get, and what organisms cause them, and all of the everday places you can pick them up... Well, there you go. Right now I'm learning about moulds, which is kind of nice because we do allergen testing at my work for most of them, so I already know the names of the species and genus's for many. And our lab for that class this week consisted of us making slides of molds we obtained from sandwiches, cheese, and random things people brought in. My favorite by far was the Alternaria growing on a pumpkin someone brought it. It looked like little caveman clubs growing off of wood. There's probably a better way I could have described that to do it justice, but I'm not willing to take the effort of making that into sense.

Today was actually a pretty enjoyable day at school, if you take out most of the anxiety ridden moments that preceded the Hematology test I had last. It was my final, I didn't feel ready for it, and I'm really bad at knowing what it is she'll put on there. There's so much to remember, and she has a lot of non multiple choice stuff on there. A lot of diagnosing people and listing the etiology and mechanisms of diseases, and further testing to confirm the diagnosis, and symptoms and treatments and stuff. It's a face full. But that's over with and I'm fine. What I really want to write about is my Intro to Lab lab today.

We finally got to do some phlebotomy today. Very basic stuff, but still pretty cool. Earlier on they broke everyone else in the program up into two groups, so it would be more managable to handle all of us and give us the support and encouragement we needed but could not get with there being so many of us. Not that 32 is a paricularly massive number, but it's more than 2. Anyway, Worm ended up in the group that had that rotation last week and the week before, and Steven and I didn't have it until today. There are three of us in our little posse, which consists of we who work at ACME in the Immunology lab. It took quite the lengthy interview process--wherein I had to commendate my skills and capabilities--before I convinced him to let me stick a needle into his arm. Apparently he has a problem with people drawing his blood, the big baby. I had to point out my steady hands during pipette calibrations, and also my extremely visible veins, which made it easy on both of us where drawing blood was concerned. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty awesome at tying a tourniquet. I actually wasn't so much the first day we did it weeks ago, and we haven't done it since, but for some reason I could today. Maybe it's because someone up there knew Steven would freak out if I showed any signs of weakness today, as to my drawing abilities. But yeah, things went off without a hitch. We both practiced on the fake arm and our techniques were fine the first time, so we moved right onto actual arms. Two of our friends, who are in the other ACME posse, Jacob and Noel, did not fare so well. They both had to practice on the arm one more time, which to be fair was probably because they tried before us, and we got the benefit of learning from their mistakes. But it was awesome watching them draw blood after we were done drawing each others--I don't think I've laughed that hard for a while. I drew first of all of our bay, and it went pretty well. It wasn't perfect, but thanks to Steven's massive veins so close to the surface, I would have had to poke his arm with my eyes closed to miss the mark. Actually, because we were encouraged to not look at the veins, but to instead "feel" them with our "feely" finger (a.k.a. the pointer finger due to it's delicate nerve endings), I bet I could have still got it with my eyes closed. Steven was so worried about hurting me though, and thus his hands were shaking like crazy before and whilst the needle was in my arm. I kept telling him I could care less, but it didn't seem to make a difference; I mean, it was such a small needle, and with that needles don't bother me, and that I donate blood frequently enough and with a much larger needle in my arm--the fact of the matter is that he would have had to stick the needle straight into my median nerve for me to have felt it. Noel drew Jacob's blood after Steven, and it was farely awesome. She had the needle in his arm before she warned him that he was about to "feel a little stick" (we're supposed to warn the person by telling them that before we actually do anything). He was like, "okay..." She didn't so much get his vein as she did not get his vein, but she did leave the tourniquet on his arm for far too long. I have to give him props for being really calm while these events unfolded. So he mentioned that his arm was starting to hurt and the tourniquet came off after the needle came out (a big don't), and Noel quickly grabbed what she thought was a swab, but was actually an alcohol wipe. I think each of them noted in their heads that it was wet before the realization came that something was not quite right, and at that point Noel got the real swab and switched it. But not before exacting it's tole. I don't think it hurt a lot, but I would imagine it stinging at least a little. Jacob's needle went through Noel's vein, spurted a little in the tube as he pulled it out a bit, and stopped when he pulled it out too much only to reconvene it's exit through the skin of her arm. Again, full marks for professionalism. He's the guy that would draw your blood and could completely mutilate your arm with a needle while doing so, and the only thing you'd think afterwards is, "wow, what a nice guy that was that drew my blood." All in all it was a wonderful learning experience for all of us.

This is Noel trying very hard to evade Jacob's swinging fist, which I don't think he realized was so wildly out of control while trying to tie that tourniquet. And of course Steven and Jacob smiling in anticipation.
This is me and Steven with the tube of my blood after I got got. And there's Jacob and Noel again, with him wafting the alcohol wiped area dry--very important stuff. If you see a blond lady in the background, that's Donna, one of our lab teaching assistants. She likes us the best.

Leukemia Shmemia

I am officially sick of school. I have been to a degree almost since the beginning of school, but now I've really had it. I can't take it anymore! Only I will. But just know I'm ready to be done. I have my last Hematology Practical on Wednesday, and did I mention I'm not ready? Partially because of procrastination, and not enough time to study even if I hadn't, and partially because when I do study I'm too anxious to remember anything for this class. This class makes me anxious. And if I do badly I might have to retake it. I would hate to be put on probation, especially when Heme II starts next week. I don't even know how that would work out. I can't take this class again because I could not stand to. Hopefully I'm just working myself up, and when it comes down to it things will work out. But I do have a practical, a lot of differential cell counts to perform, and an Immunology compresensive final...all to be completed this week.

And so it stands to reason that I spent no time this weekend studying. This is how I'm doing so well in that class. I visited family, watched tv, I cleaned my house, I cut up 10 lbs of chicken breasts my mother sent me home with, went to a concert, I caught up with some friends that live in Provo, I watched a session of conference I missed, and today I went to the movies with friends at the dollar theater, then went to Graywhale to buy music. It's not really my fault they had a buy 2 get 1 free music sale I couldn't miss. And I went to breakfast at V.I. with Worm. I have work tomorrow, which makes me sad, but I got part of Thursday off to study, so we'll see how that works out. Wednesday should be pretty ghastly in and of itself. And so I end this post to instead study slides of leukemias that I will need to be able to identify comfortably in two days time.

Stupidity At Its Finest

It's 10:29 pm. I have a test tomorrow morning. It's in my hardest subject, and I performed less than admirably in the last two exams, so I really have to do well for my self esteem and for my work to pay for my school and for my school to not put me on probation. I studied, and I should study some more, but I really don't want to study anymore. I hate it. But I do need to study some more before I can call it a night.

In the mean while...

*These are both pictures walking to our car after the race, which took FOR-EV-ER*


So I ran this half-marathon this past weekend in Moab. I've known about it for months--because I was talked into doing it a while ago--and because it cost 60 bucks I had to go through with it. It was doubtful that I'd ever get as ready as I should for such a thing, but I think even I managed to more than magnificantly eclipse those expectations with my entire lack of readiness and ability. Basically I went into it without having exercised in any way for about 3 months or more. Not only did I not find the time to run, but I've been so busy with school that I haven't made it out to Ultimate Frisbee in forever either. Then let's not forget my stellar eating habits...Whoa buddy. Basically my good friend Worm and I have a theory. To do our best when it comes to studying, we need brain food (aka. barely edible junk). So we head to our friendly neighborhood grocier and buy mass amounts of soda, candy, and all other types of "food" we can find that fit into the category of having no nutritive value whatsoever. After a hard night of cramming we take our test(s), then reward ourselves for getting through such a trial with exactly the kinds of things we deserve; for myself personally it's gummy coke bottles, peanut butter m&m's, really anything chocolate, orange soda... I can see the pictures forming in everyone's heads of how this all goes down.

Actually it wasn't that bad. In a perfect world I would have gotten what I deserved, and for the record I did have really painfully sore legs the next day and for the next 2 days following, but my experience overall was very positive. (Also, I did go running once before the race, the week prior, and I ran for 6 miles and felt pretty good the whole time.) So for the record, I'm glad I did the race because I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the day where I can actually run one after training. For starters, the scenery in Southern Utah is beautiful. It was a little cold, as it's now October, and the day before the race had me worried with all the wind and rain, but come the next morning it was perfect. A little nippy to begin with, but that's what happens at 730 in the morning. But, once I started running things were good. It was nice and overcast the whole time, which happens to be perfect running conditions, and only in the last mile did the sun come out thereby making me consider the possibility of taking off my long sleeved shirt. I didn't, because at that point I was pondering on the unthought of situation I then found myself in, that is, one where all of the muscles in both of my calves decided to seize up. That's never happened to me running ever. Of course, even in distance in high school I've never run that far all at one time, but it took me by surprise. I made it through 8 miles and I felt great and like I could run 8 more, then it started getting all hill-y for the next 2-3 miles and my legs didn't like that at all. At mile 10 I managed to tweak my left knee pretty good as my body put weight on it coming down a hill in an unexpected way. It kind of twisted out somewhat more than it was meant to laterally rotate in the joint, and away from the place where my medial collateral ligament really should have held it in. At that point I had to stop and walk a little bit. I was more than surprised that I hadn't walked up to that point. True, my slow but uniform pace to that point could hardly be described as true "running" as it was more akin to "creaping along," but it was at least faster than my walk. The last 2 miles were downhill. They had these ladies playing those big 'ol tribal drums at the top of the mountain there as we passed. It was pretty cool.

I had been so excited up to that point at the prospect of running downhill (that was always what I was good at in cross country), and I actually hadn't counted the last 2 miles as actual miles while I was willing myself forward, because I thought there'd be nothing to them. Come to find out they were the hardest 2 miles of the whole thing. My calves teamed with my knee made downhill an agonizing and traumatic occurance. I could not for the life of me kick it in for the last mile. It was all I could do to keep going and not slow down. Think of running with 2 charlie horses at once--that was it in a nutshell. I conceed that I deserved it, but it was unpleasant all the same. When I finally stopped, there was Villnave with bananas and bread for me (that was agreed upon beforehand as we knew she'd be much faster than the rest of us), and one Joel minus the poster he should have made. Tarris and Rachel were wandering about still having finished 14 minutes prior to myself (I came in with a leisurely 2 hrs and 24 min), so I walked with Joel to look for them, and for an excuse to not stop moving knowing that when I stopped it would be permanent. The bread was really good, and reminded me of somewhere in between a roll, a cinnamon role, and a scone. There was cinnamon in there, and that's all I really noticed. It was actually more of a joke than anything that Villnave should stand at the finish line holding food for all of us slow folks--mainly myself as Tarris and Rachel were actually in shape--but she was nice enough to actually do so. I finished, she exclaimed "I brought you bread!" and I replied "I hurt." That's how it all went down. Then we gathered up all the free food stuffs we could that were assembled there for us, and trekked our merry ways the 2 miles it would then take us to get to our cars. We went to a coffee shop for breakfast and I bought hot chocolate, then we spent the next 4 hours in a car driving back to Salt Lake so I could work that night. I managed to spill the hot chocolate everywhere in the car, but other than that we made it back safely and quickly without a hitch.

(Just a note: I have no time to use the little brainpower left to me after a draining semester of school to come up with aliases for people anymore, so I'm heretofore just saying it like it is, and if anyone gets kidnapped by strangers on the internet...It's not my fault. I will of course retain those I already have, for what it's worth and for laziness's sake. Not that laziness needs my help, but we're good friends laziness and I.)

I guess I should mention that the race was on a sunday, and we went down Saturday morning so that we could boulder and hang out at arches before I potentially killed myself the next day. It was super windy, and I got a lot of red dirt in my eyes, ears, mouth... I wasn't much good as I was the only inexperienced climber in our group. My friend Tarris from work organized this whole trip, and her almost-sister-in-law Rachel (a personal trainer), and her Swiss friend Joel who she knew from when they both started climbing some 10 years ago, came as well. They were really amazing to watch maneuver about these huge boulders from crevice to crevice. Rachel mostly slept on the boulderin pad, but Tarris and Joel were freaking amazing and made me want to get back into shape, because it looked like that much fun. I wish my legs were strong enough to support all of my weight poised on a small crack in a rock, but I rely too much on my arms for stability. And my arms are pretty devoid of muscle at this point.

After that we decided to go to the national park that is our backyard. We wanted to hike to the Delicate Arch, but by that time it was just as windy and pouring rain as well. At one point the rain hit a lull and we hoofed it to the View point. It was still pretty amazing to look at, and the sky was still beautiful with night coming on and it being moderately overcast. We then left to get some food. After walking about trying to find the place with the least amount of wait we ended up at Jay's Pasta (?) and whatever I got was the best. It was tortellini and chicken in a creamy pesto alfredo sauce. It came out green and literally boiling around my pasta. It took a while before I could get it cool enough to eat, but it was amazingly good. Whilst we ate we fastidiously called around town looking for a hotel room. The plan was to camp, but once there we decided that sleeping outside in the cold on the hard floor was not the way to spend the night before a half-marathon. Everyone was booked, and finally we called the hotel where we registered--which also happened to be the place where the busses would pick us up and carry us to the start of the race up the mountain--thinking they had to be the first place that filled up. We ended up getting their very last room, and felt pretty fortunate about it. I have to say, the pillow was really comfortable, and I got a shoulder massage with some SoreNoMore gel before I went to bed, so I felt pretty good and had about as nice a sleep as I possibly could. Tarris was forsightful and generous enough to insist upon bringing me some running clothes that were all about not chafing, so that was nice. I think my shoes I ran in had only been run in that 6 miles prior to this race, so that too was not in my favor, but I obviously got through all of this fine and feeling famously, until the next morning that is. Work was okay, but boring, and I was tired so I left early.

You'll be glad to know that I'm finally to the point where I can walk down stairs again without looking like an invalid, and hopefully by Saturday I'll be able to make it out to the frisbee field having promised to be there this week.

*This is Tarris, Rachel, Joel and I at Arches on a rather blustery day. I might be the one 2nd closest to the camera*

Hah hah...I am such a sucker. So I just bought "Hip Hop Abs" from off the tv. I've never ordered from an infomercial before, and I wondered what it'd be like, and I figured this would work out nicely. They're so good at just vacuuming you in. So, with my love handles, zero exercise lately, and a lack of any dancing skills I decided, "why not?" So yeah, there you go. We'll see if anything happens, but I'm not placing any bets on it. My mother will probably kill me when it gets to their house. I hope it doesn't have anything written on the outside. My parents are used to getting cds for me in the mail, but I do owe them money for my car still... Yeah, she'll most likely skewer me.

A Life

Oh, so many things to write about.

Let's see...my English skills are rapidly deteriorating. I blame this on school, because I can, and I think that's about right. I'm in a constant state of worrying about having to think, and with that kind of pressure I don't. Half the time even I don't know what I'm saying. I have two good friends--Guy and Stevie Boy--who are in my same school program, and we're all starting to show similar signs of digression. A few weeks ago Guy accidentally said "we're Scienticians" instead of scientists. I think that about sums it up.

Speaking of language that doesn't quite add up, we had someone other than our professor teaching our immunology class today, as is the case quite often for some bizarre reason, and she had a Russian accent. Consequently we learned about "wiruses and antibois" today. Mostly I just sat there looking over my Microbiology notes and eating gummy soda. I eat nothing but junk lately, very literally. Guy and I buy mass amounts of Mountain Dew and rootbeer or cream soda (mainly), and then they end up in my fridge--because my house is more condusive to studying as I live with girls and not 7 guys--and then I drink them because they're there. Also, the hospital cafeteria fails to impress me with meals, and I don't like eating food that isn't good; unfortunately they happen to have amazing gormet desserts, so I eat them instead. Their pecan pie is amazing, they've had all of these different kinds of cheesecakes varying with the days, tiramisu...and they all come with freshly whipped cream and a strawberry/raspberry/pirouette. I have absolutely no restraint.

So I really need to step up as far as studying goes. The time put into it isn't as much a problem as the quality of studying. I have so many tests that I just don't want to study most of the time, and that's my mindset when I do. I've been settling for mediocracy pretty much from the beginning. The problem with this is that once you stop shooting for the stars, you tend to shoot yourself in the foot instead. My last two tests have made me see the light. I will be spending at least some of my fall break next week catching up on stuff I should have learned better by now.

I really am excited for fall break. I have a myriad of uneventful and somewhat trivial things planned. I'm so excited to not have to plan on doing anything for once. I mean, I have some plans, but mostly I'm planning for some much needed "nothing" time. For once I don't work or go to school. The last few fall breaks and spring breaks I've worked. I do work one day in the week, and this weekend is Conference--for these reasons, and my lack of money, I'm not going to Washington like I was thinking of doing (sorry Duckling!)

Speaking of work: I'm still training on the MMV's. You're probably wondering, "still?" because I'm pretty sure I never mentioned the MMV's before. Measles, Mumps, Veriscella. I love that once you get started you just babysit, and you're not expected to build anything more onto your run, and you don't have to deal with samples they didn't send enough samples for (you do that before, and there's such a small amount needed in the first place...). However, the machine is ancient and has a mind of its own, and thus it will randomly stop working whenever it feels like it, and maybe will pick up where it left off if you hurry and turn it off and back on. Very technical, I know. And even if it doesn't stop running, it fails runs a lot. If the calibrators and controls come in out of range, which they do often, you rerun everything. So far (that is, since I've been training) the amount of run failures have exceeded run passes. But despite this, Seahawk (my new night person, who is on the ball and really just makes me laugh) is back from his honeymoon and I'm no longer running the ship by myself. Also, I'm being trained by Tybot, who is quite possibly my favorite person ever. Think of the dryest sense of humor possible, then of random comments whose origins are baffling, and the occasional hassling of someone entirely laid back. At first you're like, "what the..?" but then anything less is far inferior to working conditions. With him and Texas working on the same bench as me...well, I really like my job right now, even if it is stressful.

Miracle of all miracles, my fish has not died yet. He's such a trooper. In case you were wondering, our tank filter broke, and we noticed it and also that our angelfish had lost it's black stripes and had red rimmed eyes. They're especially fragile to environmental stress, but I think they could potentially live a decade. After talking to some people and reading up on it, I found that they usually don't come back after the stress has gotten to them initially, but he is looking much better. He has some stripes and his eyes look better. He could still die tomorrow for all I know, but I hope not. Walsh is my favorite. We also got this puffer fish that's tiny beyond belief, and he's stirred up the atmosphere of the tank quite a bit. We named him Butch. He's maybe the size of a horse fly. He seems to scare our shark, who used to hide in the driftwood, but now Butch steals his spot half the time and Randall just looks longingly into the wood. Xavier our catfish actually swims around now instead of hiding unseen all day behind the driftwood. Unrelated to Butch, Blaird no longer swims around after Phineas and Ellis (our striped budgies) thinking he's one of them instead of the ugly orange/green fish he is (all three are schooling fish, but we neglected to get Blaird a friend). So you can see just how sad my life is right now, when the most excitement relating to my life has to do with my fish.

Speaking of excitement: the sophisticated technology that goes into holding my mattress up (several pieces of ply-board) has given up its integrity in the middle, and I'm sinking even as I write this.

----------line of time-------it is now 2:32 am on October the 5th-------

So I'm studying for 2 tests I have tomorrow. I didn't work today, though it's my off week, because I worked for Something McVillnavekins last week (my opposite and I share the first same name, so we go by last names). After tomorrow I have a lovely week off from school and work. I think a considerable part may be devoted to studying, but it will nice to be studying instead of cramming for once. But for right now I'm cramming. I don't care as much as I should about immunology, and I'm almost done looking over the slides from class (that's all the effort I'm willing to put forward). That class is all about luck and mercy anyway. On the other hand, I've looked over microbiology quite a bit, but I think I need to go over it all again as well. There are a lot of different bacteria that cause various diseases, and right now I need to memorize the species and genuses of all gram negative bacteria, how to identify them, what they cause, and what media and reagents are specifically are needed for each. I think I have the chart of identification down, but I'd better make sure. I have about 4 hours till I have to go to school, so I'd better get back to work. I already had a 2 hour nap, so hopefully I'll be able to make it through work tomorrow after school.

Another Thing

So I'm still alive. Barely.

I never realized school would be so intensive. I knew it would be tricky and moderately hard (especially working full time), but I never knew there would be so much testing involved.

So on my On-week this is how it goes: I wake up at 730 (which is later than I should, but I can't make myself get out of bed before then, whether I'm awake or not). So I get up and rush to get ready in the morning so that I can drive to work and catch the 8 am shuttle to school. School goes from 830 am to 230-330 usually, and till noon on Thursday/Friday, but regardless of the day I go straight to work afterwards on the shuttle. On days that I get out later I'm behind in hours, and on the two days I get off early I'm making up work for those hours I didn't get...and so all said and done I get off from work at about 1230 am every day I work. Then I go home and take a shower, then I pass out and wake up in 6 or so hours for the next day of school.

I have no time to myself to even think. I don't have time to study, to hang out, to read my scriptures (I listen to them at work on my ipod), to run (I have a half marathon coming up in October that should be interesting)... And they're cross training me at work, which wouldn't be a big deal if they had people to cover the up front stuff I don't have time to do while training. As it is, there are two of us at night to run our respective instruments and to split the remainder of our time bringing in samples to lab, splitting tubes of samples that have different tests on them, sending samples to storage, and filing SPEPS. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, and the person I work with at night is a total greenie. I think that's what I'll name him. He's awesome, but he's new and can only do so much given that. He's actually awesome, but the old night person who is now the day person on his/our instrument, is a total slacker. He does what he has to, and nothing more. It drives me crazy. So I'm trying to help Greenie, train, and we're both doing all this stuff that they really should hire a third person to do at night which is frustrating. I need to talk to my supervisor.

School is another thing. We have 2-4 tests a week. This is not easy material either. Hematology, Immunology, Microbiology...We're accountable for everything mentioned or even eluded to. Plus we have labs with all of them, which are time consuming. My Basic Immunology (I have a Clinical Immunology class as well) professor is an evil dictator (which I'll get into on another day). So on my On-weeks I struggle through, and on my Off-weeks I spend myself cramming for tests I have the next day and which it's the first time I've even looked at the material. Those rare days I have off with no school (saturday/sunday on my off-weeks) I spend studying for the tests I have on my on week. This is hard considering for some classes the material taught on the day before the test will still be covered on the test. So I've acquired a myriad of grades, none of them failing (I have to get C's to not fail out of the program), and we'll see how this all goes. Next year will be cake actually. It will be all clinical rotations and no testing, so the days will be long but not intellectually taxing. Just draining. I can live with that after this year so far. I can't believe it's only been less than a month. It feels like ages. I have my Clinical Immunology final on Wednesday. I think that's why so many tests. We have a bunch of classes that only go part of the semester, but to be certified at the end of our program we will be taking tests designed by the state, not our professors, which is why they're cramming so much knowledge into our courses.

Luckily I went into this program with two friends. Worm is on my on-week, so though I see both friends the same amount of time at school (which is a long amount of time), I'm actually able to study with him. Plus Steven is married and the little free time he has is spent with his newly pregnant wife. We're all happy to see each other suffer with us. Steven stresses out a lot, and has reason to with so much on his plate. He's kind of my opposite, so he has the same amount of crap to deal with as I, with the added problem of a family to worry about. Worm, who I will now refer to as "Guy" after finding out that this is his legitimate middle name, is the most lax person I've ever come across in all of my years. It's impossible to be stressed out around him much, because the concept is foreign to him. He's also super cynical, and is me essentially in guy form. We bring out the cynicism in each other, and are ultimately more cynicism than ever will be present in one room at the same time. We can say anything to each other without worry of the other taking it badly, and others are often baffled by how seemingly rude our humor is towards each other without any insult being taken. We also talk about stupid and random things that come into our heads suddenly, and It's altogether a refreshing thing. He's kind of keeping me sane right now. Plus it's just always good to have a study buddy to learn more. We generally go buy mass amounts of sugar and caffeine, then takes random breaks to reward ourselves while studying to places we feel like going on whims. Like the 7/11 for slurpees or Graywhales to buy myself cds. The best thing is that I have no romantic interests in him in the slightest. That I think is why it's so easy to talk to him. I LOVE guy friends like that. I don't have to be inhibited in any way in what I say, because there's not even a glimmer of a spark there. I did realize that I will not have a glimmer of a dating life for at least the next year, which is depressing. I'll live, but I'll come out of this whole experience very much isolated...more than I already was. I wish there were cute guys in this program, because we all spend so much time together, but there are only 32 people total, so the odds weren't good to begin with. Considering half are girls and many of the guys are married...not so much. I do have a slight crush on this one kid, but it is just that; slight. Most of the time I can't so much decide if I have a crush on him after all, and then sometimes I do. Whatever.

So that's my uneventful eventful life in a nut shell. A truly crappy nut. A walnut? I'm not a huge fan of walnuts in the shell. Or walnuts not incorporated into something with sugar in it actually. Man I should really go to sleep right now. I have a practical exam tomorrow I'm not studying for right now. Guy came over tonight to study, and we ended up taking brownies to people we know after we each consumed 3 of them. It was partially to be nice, partially so we wouldn't get hugely obese from our horrible newly acquired habits of eating nothing but junk, and partially to get out of studying. So basically it worked on all accounts. I think we've just needed a break lately though. After cramming for our 3rd test in a row this past week we reached delirium. He would ask me questions he knew I didn't know the answers to, I would make up my own snide definitions, he would respond snidely, and we would laugh with no control over it whatsoever. At one point I snorted and we laughed about it for 20 minutes. That's how burnt out we were at that point. I'm super excited for Fall Break incidentally.

The Week of Ends

I titled this with the intention of writing the actual content of this post the next day. Come 2-3 weeks later...

I haven't written in a long while. I should change the name of my blog to that. I really don't have a good excuse either, other than that I don't tend to have any free time to think to myself lately; unless it is composed of the maturation of cells, immune responses, or different bacterial/pathological diseases that can occur from a lack of hygeine and common sense. Then there's the fact that I have nothing to write about, which will also tend to do it--whatever it is. Thus the week of ends where pretty much in the course of days everything changed, and most of the normalcy in my life terminated. But despite those facts, I do have a computer at my command at all times, and we have the internet at my house...both ideal situations for others to hear about my non-life.

So 2-3 weeks ago I started school and changed positions at the lab to be working nights instead of days. All this was like being thrown into a swimming pool without the prior knowldege of how to swim--which I should know considering I can't swim--just hoping that desire to live would trump the tendency to drown. I guess school has only been going for 2 weeks, but it feels like a wide expanse of eternity stretching out both from behind and in front of me. I had my first exam in hematology 10 days from when class started, and on my birthday no less. I'm not sure how I did, other than that I was prepared and that I didn't fail. But I do now know how that particular professor will test, and I'm not too worried about it in the future. It will be a lot of looking at stains on microscopes and differenciating cell types and stages, which would be interesting if I could dwell on it more instead of rushing from one subject to another. Immunology will be another matter for sure. I have two Immunology classes actually, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about them. On the one hand, after working in the Immunology department of my lab for 3 years, it's cool to see the names of the tests I've heard thrown out over the last few years and to finally know and understand a little about them, and what's involved with them. I answer a lot of phone calls at work with people asking questions about sed tests, and it's quite something being the middle man in a conversation between two people who know what they're talking about when you yourself are off in a distant land where English is still the national language and latin is extinct. But both classes (basic and clinical) are exremely involved, and if my professors could talk any faster than they already do my hand would fall off from the effort involved in writing it all down. I did get a nifty digital recorder for lectures, which I think is more of a security blanky than anything else, because I have no idea when I'll have time to relisten to any of these lectures. Microbiology, like Hematology, shouldn't be horrible. We do a lot of culturing of bacteria in agars in the lab, and I actually quite enjoy myself. Why, just the other day I accidentally stabbed my agar with my thumb, simultaneously wiping out my developing community of chicken broth bacteria and in its place laying down the beginnings of what would become quite a beautiful array of skin flora. This was the part of my Genetics class I actually liked.

Anyway, I have 4 classes and 4 labs to go with them. On my on weeks from work I go straight from school to work, and straight from work to bed. Then I wake up and go to school. Factering in showers, brushing of teeth, eating...I get far less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep that I'd like, and there is no time left over to even study, which makes for delightful evenings of study on my off weeks. Going from school lab to work lab has thus far thrown me for a loop. I'm used to the morning people, and considering I'm the only person working at night right now for the most part (until the new kid I will work with gets trained and starts nights), it's just kind of eery getting to work and having the lab so empty. The morning people are so happy, and the only morning people still there when I get to work are the former night people, and we're all still getting used to the changes so I generally have no time to think at work either. There's a lot to do at night, far more than two people should have to handle on all days except Monday/Tuesday, so it's even more fun when one person is doing them and doesn't quite have the schedule down that is required to finish them all in a 10 hour period. On the one hand work is just different enough that when I go straight from school to work I'm suddently trying to let my mind adjust to the changes, like ones eyes would to a change in light or darkness. But it's the same in that both are fast paced and there's a lot of science involved, and for someone with a lot of varying interests and hobbys in addition to an interest in science...It's a lot more monotonous than I'd like.

All this has taught me that I will either have iron self-discipline by the end of this whole experience (the next year for sure, and the one after that though it will be less intense than the first), or I will have a nervous breakdown which will probably result in a name change and a life spent outside of the country documenting the lives of flatworms. We'll see how it goes and hope for the first.

Back to Black. And Some Blue Too.

I changed my template back to black. That blue was driving me crazy.

I guess a lot has happened, but I can't think of more than a few things. First of all...wait for it...I got a macbook. I've been opposed to macs for most of my existence, but my pc crashed after the power outage of two weeks ago and I needed something fast. I'd been thinking about it for a while now--especially after roommate #2 got one at the University bookstore a few months ago--so it wasn't entirely an impulse buy. The nice thing about macs are that they start up in about 10 seconds, everything else loads up fast (like mu-zac), it's really thin and pretty, they're cheap, no viruses and no virus protection needed, and apparently they're very good for designing graphicky things. Mine was especially nice as it came with a free canon printer and an ipod. It came with the 4 GB, but I already have one and instead upgraded to an 80 GB. It all came to just barely over 1.7 thou. The main thing is getting used to it coming from a pc mentality. I'm already pretty good at using macs luckily, because all of the computers at the Marriott Library are macs, and I've been using them for 4+ years now--*sigh*. It's sad when you take the 8 year plan for college and don't end up a doctor at the end of it.

That same day I got my computer Worm came with me to buy fish after we donated plasma. Scratch that--he came with me to buy a computer, to lug my printer home, and THEN to buy fish with me after we donated plasma first thing in the morning. He's pretty much been my form of transportation since my car died, as he lives within comfortable walking distance, which is saying a lot in this heat. What's with this weather lately? Then we went to the movies and to Spag Fac with Duckling. If I had a penny for everything I love about the two of them, I'd have many pennies.

Back to the fish: we spent a good hour at least trying to decide what kind to get. I called #2 to see if she had any preferences, but unfortunately she had every confidence in my ability to choose them. I was trying to decide between tropical ones, which are all colorful and pretty but otherwise dull, and semi aggressive, which I felt would have more distinct personalities but were unfortunately lacking in color. Most were blackish, whitish, grayish. I went with semi aggressive...I know, quite the shock to you all. I got an angel fish with these two long whisker-like projections from it's mouth area, a catfish with whiskers--that have nothing "like" about them, two bulgies (?)--budgies maybe? which are striped and apparently more school oriented, and a shark. It's more of a wanna-be shark, since it looks nothing like the picture you have in your head. He's little more than an inch, thin and long (as long as you can be when you're an inch), and black with red fins in all of the spots where one has fins. I LOVE him. I also got a pretty ugly fish for Devin to keep in our tank, and it's greenish-orange? It's slightly bigger than the two striped, and it follows them around like it thinks it's their family. I think it too is a more school oriented fish, but I didn't really think of whether it would get lonely or not, like I did the others, because it wasn't my choice. He needs a friend, so I suppose I'll soon have two ugly fish in my tank. Getting the fish seriously give me as much joy as did the computer, which is kind of sad. Which goes to show that I love the fish a lot, not that I don't like my computer as much as I could or should--because I do. I also bought some fake plants and stuff. Maybe I'll post pics of my fish later...cuz I'm a nerd like that.

Multifarious Happenings

So I made my template blue. I don't know how I feel about this decision quite yet. Anyway, I decided it was about time I put down a new post that was actually new. And so I now get to write about stuff that's going on or went on before I got lazy and busy and stopped writing on this. So without further ado:

#1) I finally got the internet. That means I have no excuse not to post more often anymore. With that we also got cable. I don't so much watch it, but sometimes I do. I rather enjoy the cooking channel and Animal Planet. Are there anything animals can't do? The answer is yes by the way, but they're still pretty amazing.

#2) R.I.P. my dear beloved Eve. You were my first car, and my last--until I get a new one. You were passed on down the family until you met your untimely demise in my hands. I don't think anyone was surprised, but it still wasn't how you deserved to go.

#3) I got a bike. I don't really fancy the idea of buying a new car any time soon, because I'm far from rich and have been trying to save up money for various things for quite some time no, plus I'm a terrible driver to boot--and no one needs to deal with that right now. Actually I'm not sure if my license is even still valid at this point. I haven't heard otherwise, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that to be the case. Thus I will be riding my bike to work for as long as I can stand it. Before when I tried this little experiment I only made it two days, then borrowed my parents' van, and then my little sis's car...but I recently figured out how to change the gears, so I'll be trying again. I figure I'll be okay once I become less lazy. My particular bike at the moment was given to me by my supervisor at work, Scooter. It was his wife's and he really is such a nice guy. As you can see by the picture enclosed, it's from about the 70's, it's pink, it has a stand holding thing attached to the back, the bars curve, (those last two things were essential on the list of what my bike must have), and I put a bell on it. I'll probably hook a basket onto the back pretty soon. I'm not very particular, so it will do. If I get more into biking in the future I'll get a nicer bike, but for now, as I've already said, it'll do.

Sheidi and I rode down on bikes to the Farmers Market my last Saturday off, and for some reason it wasn't as bad as riding to work. I still walked when we got to the monster hill between 9th and 13th East, but it was bloody hot and not nearly as painful. It was a fun little excursion anyway, and I bought a lot of food-stuffs while I was there. I rather enjoy food markets. Now I just have to take up cooking again.

#4) I was tricked into signing up for a half-marathon in Moab in October. Actually that's a lie, I let myself be coerced, and I don't quite regret it. It'll make me start running again for starters. I wasn't horribly pleased to find out that the last 5 miles are uphill, but it won't kill me I suppose.

#5) I've taken up rock climbing more seriously (that's a lie at this point), or at least I intend to (that's not a lie). I went a few times with Aaron, Brett and Clark last year, but I'd like to go more. This is because my good friend at work (who coerced me into the half-marathon) works part time at a climbing gym and is certified when it comes to teaching people how to climb. She gets all sorts of climbing gear for free, and she's the nicest person pretty much ever, and she gave me her current climbing shoes so I wouldn't have to get my own. As you can tell she's one of those naturally athletic people who's very outdoorsey and is ardently engaged in such activities at all times. We're going to go climbing the day before the half-marathon down in Moab, and I've already gone with her and Sheidi up Little Cottonwood to climb. It was a lot of fun, she gave me tips and help while there, and I think it'd be an excellent hobby to pick up. So the next time you guys go rock climbing Aaron, you'd better call me.

#6) My roommates and I are getting fish. I really want a fresh water shark, and my little bro-in-law says I need to get a chinese something or another (it's supposed to keep tanks clean, but doesn't get too big), something with stripes, and I want some sort of angelfish. I already accomplished the rather massive task of cleaning out the tank he and my little sis gave me (it's a 29 gallon), washed the rocks that go in the bottom after they spent the winter and fall in my parents back yard in a bucket, and filled it with water in pots and pans with the help from roommate #2 and her boyfriend. We had a bit of trouble figuring out how the filter works, and because we didn't know what we were doing it made a delightful grinding noise at first. Now it makes normal, quiet, gurgling noises, and we've already added some water conditioner, so the tank is ready for fish. I've already decided on some names, and now I just have to find fish to fit them.

#7) Roommate #1 finally got married and moved out. I still see her because she's one of my London girls, but I'll miss her, even though we're never all home at the same time anyway. Rather than calling my new roommate #1 now, I've decided just to call her roommate #3, and if any more come along I'll just continue to move down the line of numbers.

#8) I'm in summer school, or bummer school as I like to call it. That's actually the first time I've ever called it that, but it definitely fits so I'm keeping it. I'm taking a psychology class (which I rather enjoy, but I may have already screwed it up with not having enough diligence for an online course), and statistics (which I don't really enjoy all that much on account of it being pretty basic and boring). My friend Worm is in my Stats class with me, which is good because it's from 730-9 pm, and I need someone to keep me awake. It's also good because it's in Murray and I don't have a car. He moved recently to about a block away from my house, so we can carpool, only it's not really that because I don't contribute and thus it doesn't precisely fit under that category. Anyway, we sit in the back drinking sugary beverages and sniggering at everything and anything. We're much too much sarcasm for two people to contain, so that works in our mutual favor/disadvantage. My professor also happens to be a 3rd grade teacher, and his method of teaching us does anything but ensconce that fact. I don't study for that class, so it's little inconvenience, and I'm doing just fine.

#9) I got into the Med Tech program in school for the fall. I don't remember if I've mentioned this on here already, but there you go. I also got a promotion and a raise, and another raise, so I'm going to try to work out my schedule to keep working in my same section for the fall. I don't know if it will work, but I think it'd be just as hard for them to have a brand new person doing my job than having me for less and odder hours. Ultimately it's about what's best for them, so if I have to move on I will, sad as it would be. I really enjoy my job at the moment, and all of the people I work with, so hopefully it'll work out. I'll talk to Scooter on Monday. However, I really need to start going into work on time from now on. That will be my goal this coming week. Night school and Ultimate on Thursdays makes it difficult, but I think I can do it if I discipline myself into getting more sleep. Of course, I need to start running again, so I'm not sure where this spare time to sleep will come from. Arrrrrrgh. That's the problem with my fall schedule I'm coming upon as well.

So these are the things that have been happening. That puts me semi-up-to-date, at least as far as the things I can remember go. Maybe I'll go back and look through my pictures and remember more things I can write about, since they're a more accurate representation of what happens in my life, but I'll probably forget before I get to that point anyway.

Beyond Belated

I think I'm pretty good at the "pity me" approach to this blog. In fact I'm mainly writing now so that there's a recent post that's not somewhat depressing. I simply never have time to write when I'm busy and happy.

So today is the last day of my on week. I have a list of activities to keep me busy on my off week, and most of them are errand type things. I love errands. I mean, I like doing things that are planned and really fun, but they take a lot out of you and usually include quite a bit of spending. Just loafing and watching movies while you clean your room is awesome on the other hand, and free, and I just found out that I can check out Nova/PBS/History Channel movies from work and take them home! This is for CEU credit, which I need 12 point of for work a year, but I'm not particularly in need of the CEU's; I just love those movies. So interesting. Anyway, I also plan to organize all of mine and my family's pictures into the many frames and picture albums I have accumulated over the years. Also on the list is finally finishing the putting together and sending of Kristen's care package, planting the remainder of my tomatoes, lots of reading the Count Of Monte Cristo (which a few friends and I are reading for what we decided is our own book club), and playing with my sister's 5 baby ducks! She saved them from an overflowing canal last week and they are the most adorable things I have ever seen! I don't think I can talk about them without ending the sentence in an exclamation point! But I will because that could get obnoxious. They are beyond tiny because they're younger than you'd get them at the store. There used to be 7 but the little one died and one escaped from the green house. My neices are so excited about them, but they're not allowed to hold them because they're too little. But I did! Okay, enough about the ducks. I will end with a picture of me holding all 7 in my hand. I just put my hand in the swimming pool they live in palm up, and they all clustered onto it for warmth (they'd been swimming in the little pool within the big pool they live in just prior to that moment, so their little feet were cold). So cute and fuzzy.

=(

I have an archaic draft in my post section from the 9th which I will eventually post, but am going to ignore for now because I want to.

I'm at work. I have a media assignment due by the end of tonight online. I also have a 30 minute quiz on 3 chapters I have yet to read due on Saturday, and an exam for 60 on Saturday at noon for those same 3 chapters plus the two preceding them. I could really use some sugar right now. Thankfully I've started the assignment, and it shouldn't be hard to bust out the rest of it tonight. I think I'll wait till after Frisbee though. It's the last night of League, so I have to show up. I'm a little sick right now with some sniffles, so I can't have Mtn. Dew--it aggravates my condition, and I'm pretty sure it's what caused it in the first place.

Despite these things I'm a little sad. That doesn't make sense, but basically none of those things is causing my mood. They may contribute slightly and definitely aren't helping, but they aren't the cause. The same goes for work. I just woke up with a sadness in my heart today. I would watch a really depressing movie with junk food, but I have studying and sleeping to do. I've started going to bed earlier so I can get to work on time. Just a few more days till I'm a little more free. I'm still doing overtime, and I can feel myself settling into brokeness as I contemplate the many things I will need to spend money on in the next little while. That might have a larger part to do with my mood.

Having said all of that...I guess I should say that I got accepted to my program for the Fall. I will be spending the next 2 years studying Medical Laboratory Science with at least 2 people I already know. I'm excited, though I will not be able to work full time. It should be interesting. I also got my raise at work, so we're happy about that, though if I switch departments in the Fall it will be short lived. We'll see. Other than that I am finishing off 2 pre-reqs for my program this summer, which is not so good this week. My night stats class is super boring and late, so my friend Worm and I sit in the back drinking loads of soda and snigger at random things, and at the fact that we have to take a class that doesn't challenge either of us. And that is life right now. And I think I'm going home right now.

Bleh

I decided something needed to be written in red.

As per usual I have nothing to write when I do have the time to write, and no time to write when I have things to say. Last week I know I did a lot of things, but remember practically nothing. I didn't work, and that was nice. I finally got over my month and a half cold/bronchitis, which makes me very happy. I bought a lot of new books, and cds. My car was broken, now it's not. I made cookies last night, and now I'm tired.

I'm supposed to be getting a letter in the mail this week back from the program I applied to for school. I didn't really feel any anticipation or anything about it till now. There's no reason I shouldn't get in, but if I don't I'll cry and cry and cry... And suddenly I'm here thinking of all the reasons they wouldn't let me in. I'm also supposed to find out if I get a promotion at work this week. If I don't I'm outta here, that's what I decided. I deserve it more than everyone else, save one person, and if they don't appreciate me enough now, then everything else about them saying they'd "work around my school to keep me here" is bogus too. If I don't deserve it now, I won't deserve it any more then. And frankly I deserve to be getting paid more now, because I work hard and my job is hard, and even if they budget for more tech III positions in July, it's not worth it for me to stick around and work this hard till then without getting paid for it, not with the year that awaits me in school if I get into my program. It'll be hard regardless, but if I start making more now I'll feel more obligated to stay on in my department, which I do love. But if I don't get it, I'm switching either to part time in another department, or just to an easier department. That's that.
-----------------------------------------------------
So that's my patented "line of time." It's now tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure I'm quitting my job. I've looked into a few positions, one of them part time, but I think I'll wait to see if I get my letter this week, and then I'll know what my schedule for the fall will be before I make any rash decisions.

"...and God said 'I hate you Alfalfa'."

It happens to be a very ungodly hour of the morning and not only am I still awake, but I'm still at work. The last few days have gone about as wrong as they could go, so much so that it's actually quite humorous when I think about it. And actually I'm not at all upset about it. I haven't been upset for quite a while when things go wrong. Sometimes you just have to roll with the way your life is going. For instance, just yesterday (meaning Friday) we experienced an unexplainable instrumentation problem where the screen froze and so therefore I couldn't silence the loud beeping the instrument was emitting (I did however find out how to make it louder). So I made a sign that consisted of an unhappy facial expression with a thermometer in its mouth and a word bubble above it that basically told people to deal with it. I couldn't stop the beeping without aborting my run, so it ended up beeping for about an hour. After we finally got that one restarted, another error occured, which turned out to be my own stupidity, but we didn't run it again till the next day after I called the guys from bioengineering. I brought up our second instrument and everything went fine till it didn't. Some problem with the development pipette, which still isn't working and won't till after Monday since they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. So we're down to one instrument, and we have about 3 days worth of samples.

So I had a lot of sample issues to deal with, plus I decided to run samples earlier than I normally would to ensure we get a head start on the problems that are suddenly present. And so after many hours of getting all the messes that were created this week out of the way, I'm finally restarting up our sole working instrument after a half hour rest to defrag the hard drive. I basically have an hour to kill before it gets to the point where I can actually start it up. Hence I'm here writing in my blog. I think I'll probably do some pipette calibrations while I wait. I figure I'll be here till at least 8 am, then I'll go home and take a nap till the noon fifteen pot luck, then I'll go back home and sleep some more. I have a ton of overtime as of late.

Other things that have gone wrong are that some hose or another in my car is leaking. If I don't refill the coolant area of my engine with water daily, my car refuses to go faster than 25 mph and shakes like a bandit. I have to drive down to my parents Monday, which means I'll be stuck there a while. Of course I have somewhere in SL to be on Tuesday, and I work the Wednesday overtime shift. I hope it's a quickly solved problem. Also, it was too windy to go skydiving today--which I guess was good considering it allowed me to get a jump start on work junk. We rescheduled for Monday. I can't remember what all else went wrong, because I'm kind of sluggish right now, but more certainly did. Storage is still down, so I can't get a hold of my samples, but I AM the sole member present in my department, so I get to listen to music loudly.