Renaissance Festival!

"WOO! The Renaissance Festival is awesome! Jackie and I went today and, well like I said, it was awesome! We spent the whole day there pretty much, saw tons of shows and ate food and shopped around. For shows we saw Puke & Snot (the original Snot died recently but they have a new one who's pretty funny), the Washing Wenches, some belly dancers, the Danger Committee (which juggled bowling balls over the others' heads and threw knives around them, all quite entertaining), and Vilification Tennis which was amazing" <-- typed that back on August 30... and then gave up on posting for the day.

I presented at work on Friday August 29 and it went alright... went to the Ren Fest on Saturday (as I said) which was a blast. We got slave bracelets! Neat eh?

Sunday was my birthday so at midnight (Sat-Sun) I called Megs to say happy birthday and of course she was at a mixer... I felt lame. Didn't do anything on Sunday other than go to DQ with my Jackie and of course pack and clean. Finally finished the packing/cleaning, went to bed... and felt lame for having such a boring 21st birthday.

Got up on Monday morning, loaded up the car, and headed off to Gustavus. Moved my crap in, ate in the Caf with mom, dad, and Sara, and then ran some errands around campus (registered my bike, paid my tuition, etc). Got back and did some unpacking/tidying up until Sybylla came. Sort of helped her unload and then we figured out how to arrange the room (it was pretty much done by my family but she wanted to turn her desk the other way and set up some cube shelves etc.). Started wallpapering the wall with posters but cut off around 6:45pm to go get some food at the Back to School Bash. While there we entered a raffle (and didn't win anything) and also watched some crazy mini circus act! There were people hanging by their heads and ankles and fitting through a tennis racquet and juggling behind their backs... it was insane! That was pretty good - afterwards just headed back to the room to chill for a bit before bed.

Tuesday was the first day of classes, and I didn't have any classes until 1:30 pm! Nice eh? Got up late, went to eat breakfast/lunch with Syb and Sarah around 12:30, then went to my first class. Neurobiology. I'm not really worried about it so much anymore - the prof is great and remembered me from Intro to Neuroscience sophomore year, and apparently last year 14/23 students got "A's" in the class. Then I had an hour break (don't remember what I did) then went to sculpture. Was pretty boring the first day, just going over the syllabus and telling us to buy some stuff at the bookmark. The prof is the same guy I had for Drawing freshman year and he's doing the same thing with our class now - making us write/draw something in a sketchbook every single day. I really liked the concept freshman year and it's still fun to go back and read it to see what was going on with me and my life during that first semester in college - so I'm glad I'm doing it again. That didn't really make a lot of sense but basically it's like a sketchbook diary.

Wednesday was a little busier (or will be once the first day shortened classes thing is over). Went to watercolors and got the syllabus and talked to Bruce (he mentioned me losing weight... kind of awkward but hey at least someone noticed). Then got some lunch (since we got out early) and ran into Catie and sat and chatted with her. Went to my Kinship, Marriage, and Human Sexuality class and the prof freaked me out a bit (this is the only one I haven't had before!). She just kept saying her rules then how nice she was and how lenient her rules were so don't complain about them or they'll get worse... it was freaky. But Raelene is in that class with me so it should be fun. Then on normal Wednesdays I would have Neuro lab but none this week. So instead I ran some more errands - got my watercolor paper pad and some postcards/stamps.

Today is Thursday and I started work this morning in the Theatre office at 10am. Made some copies, stapled book covers to a bulletin board, typed up some stuff, looked up email addresses, was kept pretty busy until I left at 12:30 for lunch. Ate lunch with Syb, Catie, Meredith, Sarah, and someone I didn't know. It was ok, but I left early to get some stuff for my class. Went to Neuro and was horrified to realize I was starting to fall asleep in the class. It's only the third day! Paid more attention and it was fairly interesting, if a little random. Then I went to meet with my advisor Margaret about my future freakouts, she made me feel better as usual. I think I'm going to want to take a year off before grad school, at least one year. Not sure what I'll do during the year but I need to figure out a plan before I blindly head off to grad school. Also got her to sign my application for graduation dang it! I just remembered I didn't get Bruce to sign it... I'll have to do that tomorrow. Then I went to sculpture and watched Stan (prof) mix clay, he gave the example batch to me because I kept sneezing and he didn't think my nose would handle it when I made my own (for which I was extremely grateful!). Then I got a ball of molding wax and starting shaping it into a kangaroo. Took me about 2 hours but I think it's good - and it will be my first bronze cast so I hope it's as good as I think it is! Got back and I've just been eating chips and drinking pop, Syb came back from her dinner just to leave me again to go into town with Sarah. Wrote a bit in my new sketch-diary *yes we're allowed to write!* I'm going to enter it here but it's kind of personal so if you don't feel like reading it and truly entering the maelstrom, feel free to avoid it. I'll italicize so it's easy to tell... otherwise that's pretty much it for the week. Been a bit full and busy but hey, that's life!

I feel like I'm trying to walk down the "up" escalator - everyone else is fine going up and trying to convince me I'm wrong to want to go back down, but all I've ever wanted was back at the bottom of the escalator. But now even that is riding another "up" escalator, so even if I managed to reach the bottom, it wouldn't be there anymore. And maybe my memories of being down there are false, and not as good as I think, but I still yearn for it. And going up really isn't all that bad, but I don't know what's at the top, whereas I miss the bottom so much it hurts to remember what I lost. So what is the right course? Do I hold on to my life line at the bottom and fight my way back (as changed as it undoubtedly would be) or do I let go and see where the escalator takes me?

Licensed to Kill

So I'm busy practicing my presentation for work tomorrow, and decided instead of practicing to distract myself by talking to people online, watching tv, reading, and now updating my blog. Really stupid considering no matter what I will be presenting tomorrow, so I should at least be ready for it. Instead... it looks like I'll just be winging it.

So today we moved Megan into college... had to leave at 6am but I just slept in the car until we got there. Started unpacking her stuff and waiting in line for the elevators to get it all the way up to the 6th floor - took a few trips. Helped set up her futon, make the bed, etc. All of her stuff is very color-coordinated; it looked like a Target ad. Anyway, that was emotional.

After we got back from Eau Claire (just me mom dad and Sara) I had to run into work to meet with Tobias and talk about my presentation. All the work I did making the graphs look pretty was wasted because he remade them in a different program. He also added a few slides full of data that are handy yet make my presentation waay too long. But we talked it over and then went on a field trip to find a place to present (not very successfully so tomorrow will be interesting). So I'm supposed to present at 9am but the only conference room we could find available is across Mayo in a different building. So we'll see, maybe that means no one will bother to come. That'd be alright I think.

So I just went through my presentation and it's supposed to be 10 minutes but ended up being 20 ... so this will be interesting. Anyway, its 1am so I need to sleep, goodnight!

Como Zoo and Kirby

So I had a pretty fun weekend even if I did get a little miserable during it. On Friday after work I headed over to Jackie's house (no humans present at the time) to take care of their dog Kirby (and check on the bird named Sunny). Kirby is a sweet old golden retriever and the easiest to take care of of all the dogs I've watched. After giving him a bunch of TLC (and I think wearing him out a little) he plopped down for a nap and I started to get bored in the big house alone. So I called up Megan and Sara (who were just leaving the Century varsity volleyball game) and asked if they wanted to see a movie at Cinemagic with me. And they did! So we went to see Death Race and frankly, it was amazing. I mean ok not quite Dark Knight amazing but still really fun to watch. There was action, gore, death, corruption, what more could you want? Went back to Kirby's afterward with Sara and we slept over on the couch in the basement, with Kirby laying below on the floor (occasionally getting up to remind us of his presence via a lovely kiss on the face).

Saturday was a little more busy (that sounds incorrect doesn't it?). Woke up, took care of Kirby, then drove Sara home and got changed and some stuff together. Then headed up to the Cities bound for the Como Zoo to meet Vicki, Whitney, and Andrew. I took a little detour (ok I got lost and called home in a semi panic but eventually I figured it out!), finally found a parking spot (the State Fair is going on very close to the Zoo so parking was a mess), and then ran into Vicki and Whitney. We swapped stories of our summers (and springs in my case) and ate our packed lunches while we waited for Andrew to get there. Once he arrived we headed into the Zoo to see the animals! It's a lot smaller than I remembered it, but since I haven't been there for at least 5 years (but probably longer) that's not all that surprising. There's a new butterfly exhibit where you walk into this garden (covered of course) and there are tons of different kinds of butterflies just flying around and landing on people etc. It was pretty neat. After the zoo we said our goodbyes (Vicki is going to Africa for first semester and Whitney is going to be in Florida, Andrew and I are both biology majors but don't really know each other that well). Then I drove home, took care of Kirby again, watched some movies on TV (What Women Want, It's a Guy Thing) and then Megan and Sara came over and spent the night there again.

Sunday morning I woke up, took care of Kirby again, and then got ready for my last day of work at Culver's. Work was ok (just 11am-4pm) and luckily I was on drive thru so the time went fairly quickly. Eventually (4pm!) I got to go home. Went home, changed, then went back to take care of Kirby for the evening. My family was planning to celebrate mine and Megan's birthdays on Sunday (a week early) because Megan is moving into college on Thursday. So after I took a little nap in the hammock in Kirby's backyard, I let him out again for the night and then headed over to meet my family at Applebee's for dinner. Had some tasty chicken tenders and watched the US men win the gold for court volleyball (that was fun). Eventually we went home and did presents... sort of. Only presents there were a portable hard drive for me (from mom and dad - YAY!!) and I gave my sister a tool kit. The rest of her present from the parents was in a monetary format and we usually don't distribute birthday gifts between the sisters (too much work!). So then I spent the rest of the night playing with my new toy and making my room cleaner and messier at the same time. Stayed up waaaay too late and now am regretting not being able to just take a nap here at work.

So thats pretty much it, other than of course having wonderful conversations with Alan and amusing conversation with Michael. I must say, I sure hope that I get to see them again.

Damn, I just had to kill another mouse. So much for the supposed end of my killing spree.

Last Sacrifices

So today I might have killed my last mice. No more mice deaths on my account now!

Wow... and I've run out of anything else to say, how incredibly lame. I guess I haven't really been up to much lately. Tuesday night I spent going through tubs of old stuff like high school papers and such and throwing stuff away. Was pretty fun and interesting to look through all that old stuff - I don't even remember most of it anymore! But now my room is covered in stuff I still have to go through.

Last night after a later night at work I came home, ate Dominoes pizza, then headed over to Jackie's house to learn how to take care of Kirby over the weekend. Afterwards we watched Project Runway together and then sat around and talked for a long while. That was pretty much awesome.

This weekend I'm going to be watching Kirby of course but also heading up to the Como Zoo on Saturday to spend a few hours saying goodbye to Vicki for the semester - she's off to Africa! I'm jealous. But I think I am going to try to go somewhere this January - either to Colorado to go skiing with Alan or somewhere else.

Wow I should be cleaning my room... but That 70's Show is on! Lol Eric just said "no" to Red... this isn't going to go well. Ugh and now my mom's trying to get me to go to the RAC.

Oh I read an MSN story today, and it said that if you sleep less than 7 hours a night, you gain weight easier. How the heck does that make sense?? Hold on, have to feed Jazzy.

Well I've run out of things to rant about so, adios.

Ouchies

I come up with some pretty creative titles sometimes. For instance, today's lovely title refers to the injuries that keep occurring to my person. 3 of them happened at Culver's while I was working over the weekend, and in very interesting ways.

Injury number 1: This is a fairly common injury that I managed to get in a new and unique way. Papercuts are not that strange, however how many people do you know who could manage to get a papercut off of a napkin? Well if you know me, then you know at least one person who has managed to! What an incredible feat, I am very impressed with myself. And still not quite sure how I even managed to do it.

Injury numero 2: Chocolate milk. Not generally considered a very dangerous substance (although it does burn when coming out through the nose - but that was back in middle school). While I was busy being productive at Culver's, I managed to get into the wrong place at the wrong time. Let me break it down - the chocolate milk is stored on the far left of the store, and the drive thru is on the far right. So to get chocolate (or regular) milk from the fridge to the customer requires transportation across the store. With me so far? So instead of walking across to get it, the people in the drive thru yelled for someone near it to throw them a bottle of chocolate milk. So someone did, but instead of making it all the way across the store it accidently ran into an obstacle halfway there: me. My shoulder to be precise. So now I have a nice odd shaped bruise on the corner of my shoulder and an interesting story to share.

Injury number 3: This one is more me being clutzy than anything special. Basically I scraped my arm into a corner of a shelf and gouged out a chunk of flesh. Stuck a bandaid on it, took it off a day later and it pulled the scab off with it - cheap bandaids suck. So then it bled again but its finally scabbed over and is in a neat "S" shape. It's also right over my scooter scar on my elbow.

Now this morning when I woke up I discovered another injury that is a mystery to me - my thumb pad got sliced and I don't know how or when it happened. But yea - it looks kind of nasty.

So that's the reasoning behind today's fabulous title, and most of the titles I create are ridiculously obvious once you read the blogs (assuming anyone besides me actually reads these - which might be a big assumption).

Well I'm at Mayo right now, without a lot of work to do other than reading papers that put me to sleep and trying to put together a presentation which terrifies me. So instead I'm updating my blog! Handy use of time don't you think?

Last night I actually made some headway cleaning my room - put a lot of clothes away and started going through some stuff in my closet. You can't tell by looking at my room that anythings been done, but I swear I worked on it! Also spent some time online talking to Michael when I got home and then even more time talking to Alan on the phone. I miss my AU/MR boys. And Kristin too, but she's less in contact nowadays... and doesn't share our feelings of wanting to go back which makes conversations a bit different.

So I finally realized that if my parents can help me out a bit I might be able to afford this semester without any more loans - which would be amazing. It would however suck up all the funds I've earned this summer plus most of my mutual funds. But really, those were set up to pay for my college and that's what I'm going to use them for. That and they've been continuously decreasing for the past few years so I might as well use them now before they go down any more.

So I finished the first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy - it was pretty good. I was happily surprised, but I wish I had the second one to start. Anyway - started rereading Artemis Fowl instead, I'll probably just finish the first one and then find the next Bartimaeus somewhere to read.

I still have to go get my license renewed, dang it I should have done that today.

I should be working on my presentation now... so I'd better get to that. Hope you aren't mind numbingly bored!

Bibliophile

I love books. I love reading books. I think I could be happy stuck in a library for the rest of my life with nothing else to do but read. Why? Am I some kind of freak? Why is reading always such an amazing and pleasant experience for me? I think the answer is because it means I'm not stuck here anymore. I'm not boring Kat C. who doesn't know what she's doing with her life anymore, I get to escape and go live out adventures in the lives of the various characters I read about. I always feel pity for those who don't enjoy reading to the extent I do, because it's like they have no escape. They are stuck here in the real world and can't even delve into the magical world of Harry Potter or elsewhere.

Why am I ranting about my love of books? I have no idea.

I just finished making a couple of graphs for Gini that weren't mine and I had nothing to do with, but graphed simply because I am bored. I have absolutely nothing left to do today, other than eventually leave work and go home. Once home, I'll probably just read the rest of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I'm flying through it again which makes me a little sad. Been reading the whole series again start-finish but finishing is such a downer.

Man it's cold in here. They keep the building on air conditioning all the time and I decided to wear short sleeves today... and I'm cold.

I miss Australia people. And Australia. You'd think, after two long months at home (2 months exactly as of today), I would stop missing it so much and start moving on, but last night I had a dream that made me miss it all over again. Not that I wasn't before the dream but... yea.

I love my family, my dog, my friends here, Minnesota itself, but life was so much different there. It makes no sense because really there wasn't that much that was different but all the same, I miss it so much it hurts.

Alan I believe shares my sentiments, although lately it seems that he has been coping a lot better and starting to move on. Kristin is just glad to be home and I don't think is remorseful about leaving AU at all. Who knows what Michael thinks. Main of course is still in Perth and I haven't heard from Sarah in awhile. I wonder who is living in my room now... Flat 1 will be much different I expect now that we're all gone.

Six months ago today Alan, Michael, Kristin, Sarah, Main, and I went out to Northbridge. It was Michael's birthday (of course at the time no one knew that but Michael) and Kristin and I semi-danced and Michael tapped his foot and Alan watched us. Good times...

I'm almost 21. When did I get so old? I need a car. Or a plane. Or a flying house... yea you heard me.

Well I'm off to go do something else (probably read Harry Potter).

Continuous Fail

Well, as the title states, I've been continuing to fail at the whole blogging thing. Worked at Mayo all week, worked at Culver's over the weekend, working at Mayo again this week... nothing too thrilling to report on.

Been talking to Alan a bit though! That's been fun. Played some facebook version of Risk online with him and together we took over the world... and then I took the rest of it from him. I had no strategy, I'm just an evil genius. So I think that was a sign that I should actually try to take over the world... and include Alan in the process in some way. Haven't heard from Kristin in awhile and of course Michael is still in Armenia (or does he fly back today? I can't remember...). Talked to Main for a couple minutes the other day, but nothing exciting there and I haven't heard from Sarah in awhile either.

Hey I can rant about Culver's for a couple sentences! On Sunday I was scheduled to work 11am-4pm and Sara was working at Buffalo Wild Wings (which is very close to where Culver's is) from 11am-3pm. So when I got to work in the morning I asked one manager (Jeff) if I could possibly get off around 3 so we could drive home together, otherwise she would just wait for me at Culver's or one of us would walk home. He said it would probably be ok so I was looking forward to that. 2:45 rolls around and all of a sudden the other manager (Rachel), not knowing what Jeff had told me, let three other people who were supposed to be off at 4pm go home early. Which meant that I probably wasn't going to be able to get off. That pissed me off sooo much. To top it all off, the entire shift I was stuck doing the dining room AKA cleaning tables and staring blankly into space slowly losing brain cells from lack of use. I HATE dining room. But I put up with it with very little complaint because I was supposed to get out early. Anyway, eventually the mess got sorted out and I did end up getting out a bit early but I was still in a moderately cranky mood when I got back.

On Monday (yesterday) I got out of work early and came home and actually (well after a 2 hour nap) cleaned up my room/desk a bit. Granted at this moment it looks worse than when I started but I have empty desk drawers to fill.

Right well I'm running out of things to rant about... I'm lonely and bored all the time but am too lazy or something to just call people up and go out and do stuff. Besides which I'm not entirely sure what all there is to do, especially in Rochester. I am looking forward to my birthday but I'm not entirely sure why, it's not like I have any plans at all other than to pack up my stuff to move back to Gustavus the next day. I am looking forward to that though, I've definitely missed my school and the people there.

I'm at work at Mayo right now, came back from lunch and I have very little to do today so I'm just farting around on the computer. I should probably get my coverslip/slides staining but it only takes about an hour to do (and that's only because the stain has to sit for an hour) so I'm going to have more free time shortly after I start. Meh, I'm looking forward to getting home and talking to Alan some more and maybe Kristin if she ever gets on MSN! Hopefully Michael gets back from Armenia soon and then I'll have more people to complain to. Hope everyone who reads this is doing well (considering I'm guessing no one reads this I'm sure you are!).

Hey I just thought of a couple other things to add here - this past weekend I dogsat again for the lady from the RAC who read my flyer. That was fun - Rusty and Hannah are the two dogs and they are pretty nice. Also, I finally finished Harry Potter and the GoF so now I'm on the Half-Blood Prince and it's even more exciting to read because it almost feels new. I can't wait to get to the 7th one again. I still have to watch the 5th movie - I'll try to remember to do that tonight. I like how I'm making it sound like a chore, but I do really want to watch it! Of course, Secret Life of the American Teenager is on tonight so I'll have to watch that as well. Maybe it won't be such a bad Tuesday after all...

Gramma's house

Wow so I totally fail at keeping tabs of my life. Suffice it to say, not much has actually been going on. I worked a straight 19 days in a row - either at Mayo or Culver's, and had my first 2 days off this past weekend. We (Megan, Sara, and I) got up early on Saturday morning and headed down to my gramma's house in Waterloo, IA. Was about a 2 1/2 hour drive, Megan drove the first half and I drove the rest of the way. Then we stopped at her house for awhile and dumped our stuff and changed into swimsuits. Got back in the car and drove over to the waterpark there and spent the day waiting in lines and riding waterslides and floating on the lazy river and in the wave pool. It was pretty fun - beautiful day outside, perfect for the waterpark. Granted, a lot of people had the same idea so it was packed and there was a shortage of tubes for the wave pool. Some people were saving some tubes on the side and not even using them - they really ticked me off. But eventually we got some and floated in there for a few rounds of waves. At about 5:30pm we left and headed back to gramma's, showered, ate dinner (with gramma and her boyfriend Bernie... bit strange), and then went out with gramma to see Mamma Mia!!! at the cinema. Was a pretty cute movie - but Pierce Brosnan isn't the best singer. That was a pretty fun day.

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for church... yea... So we went to church which was alright. After church we went back to gramma's and watched a bit of TV and then played "Crazy Bridge" in cards. We had to leave at 2:30pm because Sara had to work at 5:30. So Megan drove the entire way home - some parts were a bit nerve wracking (like when she was passing cars going 75 mph). Anyway, we stopped at a gas station on the way home to fill up and almost thought the Jeep wasn't going to start up again - had to try it a couple of times to get it running but luckily it started up. Got home and saw mom's scrapbook of Australia - it looks pretty good. Makes me want to finish my Europe one and start an Australia one, but I'm just too slow and perfectionisty to be efficient about it. So I started going through my college stuff, throwing tons of old papers and crap that I just don't need anymore and then went to bed.

Today I worked but it was ridiculously slow. Literally I just squirted some stuff into cells (took 5 minutes) and then didn't do anything else. We did have a lab meeting in the morning but it was semi-cancelled because the head of the department had another meeting to go to, so Gini, Tobias and I used the time to figure out what we were going to do this week (because all our experiments from last week failed... again). So we got a game plan, stimulated the cells, and then did nothing. So from 10:30-12:30 I listened to Gini tell me how she chose what college to go to and how she met her husband and etc. It was pretty interesting, but by 11:45 am I was just hungry and wanted to go get lunch. So ate lunch... came back and sat around until 2pm. Then we went up to the microscope place to look at/take more pictures of the cells and that's always a little fun. Got back down to the lab at 3pm and Gini showed me how to access the pictures so I spent an hour picking out good ones and emailing them to myself! Awesome... I'll try to put one in here if I can figure it out (otherwise I put some on my facebook page, because I'm that cool). Here we go : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040912&l=1ee89&id=52902432
That should work! Anyway, just got back from work and jumped online to see if Michael was on to wish him a good trip to Armenia, but of course he isn't so instead I updated my blog! Now I'm going to either take a nap or continue reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.