Rainy Day in May

Well it hasn't quite been a month, so I'll call this a win!

I have become a lazy slob. No, seriously, I've barely been biking at all (other than to/from work) since two weekends ago.  On that weekend I biked a lot - to work (2.3 miles), to a potential place to live next year (2.4 miles), back home (4.4 miles).  Then I biked from my house to Nathan's (12.3 miles HOWEVER I got lost and went an extra 2.2 miles).  That was all just on Friday (total = 23.6 miles)! Then on Saturday Nathan and I biked back to my place (another 12.3 miles, no getting lost this time!).  On Sunday I biked from Nathan's to Anoka where my mom and sister were having a spaghetti feed fundraiser (for the 3-day walk for breast cancer) - that was 15.9 miles.  So for that one weekend I biked 51.8 miles, and that felt like a lot.  Over three days. I haven't done nearly that much since then, and in exactly a month I will be biking three times that much over 2 days.  I am so screwed!  I did order bike shorts - that were "delivered" but I never received so now I'm dealing with USPS to get that sorted out.  I also took Addy on a bike ride - that was fun for me but not so much for her!  I think I'm going to try to get her used to it, it was fun!

Finding a place to live has also been vexing.  I'm pretty committed to one girl to room with, but she has a 75# dog that is making it difficult to find a place.  At least for only 2 people, and it has been incredibly difficult convincing a third person to join us.  We've had 2 people turn us down and 1 just completely ignore our request. Disheartening to say the least, especially because I found a seemingly perfect place (that I biked to) that has 3 BR.  It's $1250/mo, which is good for 3 people but a bit steep for 2.

Europe has been fun, but challenging.  There is just so much to plan! And I'm definitely not one to just get there and "wing it."  I did that on the cruise with Nathan for the most part and that meant that most of the stops were spent wandering aimlessly.  I don't plan on making that mistake again, but it does mean a lot of research to do. So far I have hostels and travel booked for Amsterdam, London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, and Vienna.  Still have to get things setup for Prague, Berlin, and Copenhagen.  I did book my flight home though, so I will be back in the States on August 16, just in time for my sister's bachelorette party on the 17th (that's been another mess in itself, but not really worth mentioning).  Haven't booked any tours or attractions or planned anything in detail yet though, that's still on the to do list.

Work has also been fun, but challenging.  I've been writing a protocol paper on a protocol I've never done before, so that was interesting.  In more of the fun category, I've finally started working with mice again!  Yep, less than 2 months left and I finally start a mouse project.  Working with the mouse people at the U has been a challenge - getting card access to all the restricted areas a hassle, not to mention all the quarantine rules, but it brings back good memories of working at the VA.  Just the good ones, because no one was ever being mean when the mice were out.

My classes have been proceeding along.  I am so excited to be done with Chemistry - easily the worst class I've taken since graduating.  Each test is 20 multiple choice questions, generally ones that require a lot of equation making and solving long problems with multiple steps, with easy places to mess up.  And of course the answers you get if you mess up a single step are all potential choices - and no partial credit.  So if I solve the entire problem but forget to subtract at the end (say I solved for the amount of gas released and the question asks for the amount of gas left) I get it wrong and lose the same amount of points as someone who just completely guesses.  It's completely disheartening, and I almost always run out of time on these tests - usually I'm a fast test-taker.  Right now I'm averaging a B in the class, but the final is worth about a third of my grade and of course it's cumulative.  Ugh. On the other end of the spectrum, Physics has been a breeze.  I don't know why, but physics just makes perfect sense.  All you have to do is find the right equations and input the numbers and bam, answer.  It's probably all the algebra. Anyway, my physics final is on Saturday and my chemistry final is on Tuesday.  So one week from today I'll be done with classes until vet school!  That's pretty exciting.

I think the weather has finally started to normalize. We haven't had snow in over a week!  At least here, but down in Rochester they had a ridiculous amount of snow last week (well over a foot).  Mom's car got stuck in the driveway - and this was in May.  It's raining tonight, but rain is acceptable to me.  Just no more snow.  It was supposed to be thunderstorming, but I haven't heard any yet.

Here's hoping I don't fail my finals, can find a place to live next year, and get everything figured out before I leave the country!