Belle Rae

Friday happened. Woke up, and went to go get my massage. That was wonderful; she realized I was ticklish and managed to figure out a way to not tickle me. Headed back and slept for a bit, then did some more packing and got dressed for the semi-formal boat cruise. Went to Eckman mall for free pizza and then loaded into the busses. This time we had coach busses, which was extremely nice. Almost immediately I put in my headphones and fell asleep for the majority of the 2 hour bus ride to Hudson, Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Sybylla's iPod froze and so she couldn't listen to it. Got there, loaded into the boat, and got a table right near the door to the front of the boat. Spent the night talking, wandering around, enjoying the scenery, and waiting in lines for food, drinks, and the bathroom. Slept on the bus ride home as well; it was a fun night.

Saturday was long and boring. Basically bought food from the Caf, cleaned and packed, and then watched a movie and some Firefly with Sybylla before heading to bed.

Sunday was the big day. Got up, got dressed, and waited for the family to arrive. Once they did we headed over to the Country Kitchen to get some breakfast. Then back up the hill where we started some packing into the car and partial cleaning. And finally, I put on my gown, got help figuring out the hood, and headed to the Chapel to line up with my classmates. It was alphabetical and they allotted over an hour just to get into the line. And my idiotic classmates needed it! I couldn't believe how long it took people to figure out how to line up alphabetically. And then we all learned how to do our hoods the correct way. Then we proceeded around Old Main and then towards the stadium and into our seats. Names called, crossed the stage, shook hands with all the big wigs, and then went down into the faculty area. Once down there I hit the Art Department first and shook hands with Stan and got a hug from Bruce, then Biology was right next in line. Got my degree/diploma from Pam and went down the line shaking hands with the rest of the professors. After that we listened to more speakers and then headed to the scoreboard to meet up with the family. Took tons of pictures and then went to the reception with each of the departments. Eventually my family got bored and went back to my room to keep packing and cleaning while I kept talking to people. Walked back to the room with Sybylla and checked out. Family and I then headed down to Whiskey River (restaurant) for the after-graduation party given by Sarah and her family. Ate good food, took lots of pictures, and eventually headed home.

On Monday Megan and I drove all the way down to Des Moines to our uncle's house where we met all five of the cute little lab puppies (3 black and 2 yellow). Spent awhile playing with the pile of puppies but eventually we headed towards home with our new yellow female puppy, Belle. We set up the kennel in the backseat and one of us drove while the other sat in the back with her. We stopped at nearly every rest area on the way back, making the drive about an hour longer than it should have been, but we wanted to make sure there weren't any puppy accidents on the way home. As soon as we got home, mom took Belle in her arms and she immediately fell asleep. We watched her running across the yard and we all laughed at her big ears flopping as she ran. When we discussed what her middle name should be, dad suggested "Ears" because of that. But then I thought we should mix up the letters and have her middle name be Rea (like ray-a) but they didn't like that. Someone then suggested we reverse the letters and have it be Rae. Sara didn't like it much but the rest of us thought it was pretty clever so that's what we ended up deciding. Belle Rae. That night Megan and I slept in the family room and I got up about every two hours when Belle cried to let her outside.

On Tuesday I mostly just watched Belle and hung around the house. At one point Megan, Belle, and I went on a little walk over to the new Petco by Wal-Mart. Belle walked for a bit and then we also carried her and she rode in a backpack as well. While there we got her some puppy shampoo, a little blue collar with Hawaiian white flowers and a little ID tag. Later that night, my paternal grandparents arrived after a long drive from Illinois (and my cousin's high school grad party). Megan and I slept downstairs again to let Belle out.

Wednesday was mostly a blur. Not much happened, other than a lot of puppywatching by me and a couple of accidents.

Today a lot more nothing happened, other than early this morning I finally started getting cranky about the puppy. 3 nights with no REM sleep can do that to you I suppose. Later, Jackie and her mom stopped over to see Belle. She was really there for me when Jazzy died, and I was sad to learn that just a few weeks ago her dog Kirby died. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent being lazy. I actually started this post hours ago and just keep leaving it and coming back to it. Basically, the moral of the story is that I'm lazy and that my puppy is cuter than the one on the Cottonelle toilet paper commercials. I'll add pictures as soon as the website lets me...

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Well it has certainly been an exciting week.

On Monday, Sybylla had her last two finals, and afterwards we headed down into Saint Peter to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Everyone I talked to and all the reviews pretty much said "it's terrible" and "Hugh Jackman is shirtless for half the movie." The positive outweighed the negative in my opinion. So we walked down and watched the 2:50pm showing of it. And it was awesome! Well not exactly the best cinematic production I've ever seen, but definitely entertaining! I mean, they turned him into a lumberjack. A lumberjack! So then I called him "Hugh the LumberJackman" because I'm clever like that. Afterwards we headed back up the hill and sat down to "study" for Tuesday night's "Disney Night Dos." We watched Mulan, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear before finally heading to bed.

On Tuesday we got up and did stuff... riiight. That night was the Fiesta night in the Johnson Family Courtyard. Free tacos and nachos and churros! Along with a champagne toast (still not a fan). During that little senior party time we got to take a tour down into the mysterious tunnel system, where we saw a crazy window that shows from underneath the GAC pool! Made me wonder if people were down there watching my Kayaking class back in sophomore year. After that we headed over to Vicki's apartment for Disney Night Dos. This time there were eleven people (including myself) so a much larger turnout than last time. We started with a game of Disney Scene It. First round it was everyone against me. Actually, they split up into two teams of 5 against me. Strangely enough, I still won ;). I'm still not sure if I should be proud of that or not, but that's what happened. Then we watched The Lion King, which turned into a big singalong with everyone singing along to the songs. That was exciting, I took a little video of us singing "Hakuna Matata." I'll probably put in a bunch of photos and videos in this blog. After that a bunch of people left, and the remaining four of us played another round of Disney Scene It. This time we did teams: Sybylla and Vicki vs. Emilirose and I. And my team lost. Vicki was so happy that I finally lost, but I figure on my own I beat everyone so I wasn't too broken up about it. Afterwards we watched Meet the Robinsons, and then headed home and to bed.On Wednesday we got up and went swimming in the GAC pool. It was exciting. Sarah, Vicki, Sybylla and I were all going to go to the pool and just mess around but it ended up just being Sybylla and I because Vicki had to work and Sarah ran out of time. So we swam and messed around and then we actually grabbed kickboards and swam laps for like 20 minutes. That was fun (and my calves are still feeling that burn). We (Sybylla, Sarah, Vicki, and I) then went to the "Fun in the Sun" picnic in the arb. It wasn't sunny out and there was a bit of a line for the food but eventually we got to the front and got burgers and hotdogs. We brought the food back to Prairie View to eat it (chilly outside!) and watched Ratatouille. After that was over we (Sybylla, Sarah, and I) basically had to immediately leave for the bus to the Twins game. And was there a nice bunch of coach busses waiting for us at 3 flags? Nope. School busses! Seats sized for middle schoolers crammed with 5 busloads full of rowdy college seniors. Oh goody. And half the people had already been getting their drink on. Sigh. While my patience was constantly tried by the idiotic drunken behaviors of the people on my bus, we eventually made it up to the Metrodome. Once there we got to our seats and waited for the game to start. Sybylla and Sarah got nachos while I got a nice jumbo sized Diet Coke. Not really what I wanted but I figured drinking was better than eating a whole bunch of junk. Eventually I gave in to the popcorn (it smelled so good! tasted a bit old...). Went to the bathroom once during the 4th inning, but mostly just watched the game (and took video!). We were sitting right behind the left outfield and it was the Twins vs the Red Sox. Kind of an exciting game, but we (the Twins) ended up winning 4-2. Woohoo! My favorite player was #2 Denard Span because he just kept stealing bases! He was so sneaky, like a pirate-ninja! So he was my favorite. Afterwards, we piled back into the busses and I realized I had to pee. The busses pulled out of the parking lot and all of a sudden I had to PEE. Jumbo sized Diet Coke, remember. Crap. So I spent the next almost 2 hours in nearly excrutiating pain, attempting to not piss in my pants on a schoolbus. That was the longest bus ride I have ever been on. As soon as we pulled into the GAC parking lot (at around midnight) I headed to the front of the bus (before it stopped) and as soon as it did stop I got off and ran (literally ran) to Prairie View. Then I went to the bathroom. And it was glorious.

Thursday (today I guess) started early. Woke up at 8:30 and started getting ready for Valley Fair. Valley Fair!!! Eventually decided to bring my backpack along with a swimsuit and towel (in case we went to the water park part of it). Headed over to 3 flags at 10 to 9, where we got on yet more school busses. Finally left at 9:15am, after being told we had to be back on the school busses at 2:30 pm or they'd just leave without us. Got to ValleyFair at around 10:20am, and I immediately wanted to get started on the rides because we only had a little over 4 hours there. Unfortunately, this time we were in a gigantic group (9 people: me, Sybylla, Sarah, Vicki, Hannah, Stephenie, Emilirose, Catie, and Jill) and so it took us twice as long as it ever should to decide what to do and in what order to do it. Eventually we headed toward Wild Thing, making a quick stop at some lockers and bathrooms to dump our stuff (hehehe). Rode Wild Thing and I attempted to take a video while riding it, but must have clutched the camera too hard during the first huge drop and accidently stopped the recording.

After that we headed over to High Roller, another roller coaster but a wooden one. I don't know why I consented to go on it, I hate wooden roller coasters. They're so rattly they always make my head hurt. This was no different, and we waited in a line even longer than Wild Thing. After that we did the swing ride quick, where Vicki and I had a contest to try to catch the floating fuzzies that were everywhere. I won, catching two unwillingly in my mouth. During that time a couple of people went to get food. Then we headed over to the Corkscrew, the roller coaster that goes upside down. I love that one and there was only a short line, but we had a lot of rides yet to get to and not a lot of time so we actually split up there into two groups: one that wanted to ride Steel Venom and one that wanted to ride the wave ride (that gets you soaking wet). I was in the Steel Venom group and was so glad I was. The five of us (Catie, Jill, Stephenie, Vicki, and I - Emilirose had left earlier to hit the water park) walked over there and found ourselves facing NO line. Like, none. It was amazing! We got right on and it's an amazing fun ride. After the first run, we determined we had enough time to go a second time and Catie and I did Steel Venom again while the other 3 went to ride the Enterprise. We then went to meet the other group at the Power Tower. Met up with them and everyone except Sarah and Hannah went on the dropping tower. It was terrifying. I was wedged between Sybylla and Vicki, but I had to close my eyes once we stopped at the top. I just can't handle the suspense of waiting to drop. Once we started dropping I opened my eyes and was fine. I wanted to do the shooting up one as well, and there was hardly a line, but no one else wanted to so instead we headed over to the new wooden roller Renegade. I can see how people would think it's fun, but my head just got rattled so much it wasn't worth it. Not to mention it was the longest wait yet and right at the end of our remaining time. But we rode it then headed back to the lockers and restrooms and out to the bus. We got to the bus at 2:25pm (5 minutes early) and found out we were some of the only ones there, and the bus drivers weren't even there. A few minutes later we learned that the bus company had decided to send nice coach busses for us but that they wouldn't be there until 3pm. So we wasted 30 minutes of our Valley Fair time (plenty of time to ride Steel Venom a couple of more times at least) sitting around in the parking lot because our idiot bus drivers decided to be nice or something. Ugh. That was so annoying! The trip back was nice at least, the coaches were obviously a lot more comfortable than the school busses, and I mostly slept. A couple of times however I was rudely awoken by the same idiotic drunk that annoyed the hell out of me on the way to the Twins game. Sigh. But we made it back and I immediately loaded my pictures onto my computer and then got dressed up for the President's Banquet. We left at 5:30 and then sat around or socialized outside the caf for about 45 minutes until we were let in to sit at the tables. Same old caf tables, just covered with fancy tablecloths and food. Listened to some speakers, then ate, then listened to some more speakers, and finally a ridiculous song where they referred to Gustavus as "G.A. College." No one has called it that in at least 100 years, and no one refers to it as that. It's either GAC, Gustavus, or Gustavus Adolphus College. Whoever decided that "G.A.College" would fly was obviously not a part of campus community. Headed back to the dorm around 8pm and Catie, Meredythe, and Vicki came over to watch Casino Royale with Sybylla and I at 9pm.

That pretty much sums up the week so far. I probably should have posted earlier than this, but Sybylla is taking down posters now and the room is feeling empty and cold. I don't know if I want to take mine down yet... I'm sort of afraid of the room being entirely blank-walled. Well I'll figure something out...

A Beautiful Wedding

Well, the studying for the final sort of continued after my last entry.  At least, I went through the study guide and retyped all of my notes, which is about what I usually do for the tests.  

Thursday night we went to Midnight Express - something GAC puts on right before finals.  Basically a lot of free food, a band, and a photo booth.  Went with Sybylla and Vicki and just ate and took pictures and then headed out.  

Got up at 10am on Friday and went back to studying but was rudely interrupted.  A couple of weeks ago I had gently reminded someone of the money they owe me, with no response.  So I gently reminded them again and boy did I get a response this time.  Not from the person in question, but from his girlfriend.  Do I know this chick? Nope.  Does she know me?  Not at all.  So she's sitting there having an argument with me about him paying me back.  WTF??  She first tells me to be patient, and just so you all know this matter of me paying for something for him happened six months ago.  So I think I've been pretty damn patient myself.  Then she starts talking about how he has money issues, but I know for a fact that they (he and the girlfriend) went on a vacation together over spring break - when I was working my ass off at Culvers.  So a lack of money is no valid excuse either.  Basically, she managed to get me all pissed off an hour before my final exam.  And it wasn't even any of her business!  I could almost forgive her because I know she's just a stupid little freshman, but still.  Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong or you risk getting it bitten off.  Sigh.  At least I managed to calm myself down adequately enough before getting to the test.  It was scheduled to start at 1:30 so at 1:15 I headed over (and was there by 1:20).  Got there and like 3/4 of the class was sitting there already working on the test.  I semi-freaked out and talked to the prof and apparently on one of the calendars he printed he listed the test as starting at 1pm so he let the people who thought it was starting then start it at 1, but I wasn't late.  So that was a mild freak out but I got through the test and it pretty much felt like all the other tests I've had in the class so far.  Which, I hope, is a good thing because I got A's on all of the others.  Once I finished that final, I was officially done with all the studying and schoolwork I'll have to do at GAC.  Kind of a terrifying realization.  

On Saturday I got up around 10am again, hoping to get some stuff done before my sister arrived at 11am with the car.  I managed to sell back my textbooks and get my mail before I had to figure out where my sister had gotten lost at.  Eventually figured it out and she got here and her and I drove down to Mankato.  Dropped her off at my empty aunt and uncle's house and then  drove over to Kwik trip for some gas and Target to buy a gift card for Heather and Ryan.  Got back up to GAC about 10 minutes later than I originally wanted to, then had to get my stuff ready and headed out with Sybylla to pick up Vicki.  Then we drove up to Rice, MN (outside of Saint Cloud) for Heather and Ryan's wedding.  We stopped once at Arby's in order to not starve and only overshot once.  We managed to get there about 15 minutes before the ceremony started (plenty of time!).  It was a beautiful sunny day and the wedding was outside on Ryan's lawn.  Heather looked gorgeous in her dress and the justice of the peace had an awesome accent.  It was a short and sweet service, only about 20 minutes long.  We threw lilac seeds at the happy couple and then drove over to the Kelly Inn for the reception.  Spent more time there, eating the good food and feeling bad for Heather and Ryan as they were forced to stand and kiss over and over again.  Eventually got around to the cake (vanilla) and got some pictures with the newlyweds.  Throughout the day, Vicki Sybylla and I were busy planning our future weddings.  A semi-depressing thought for me, realizing that I now know a friend who's married and that my mom got married when she was my age.  Ah well.  We headed out at around 7:30 and stopped once at Dairy Queen on the way back.  Then I dropped those two off, packed up the car with the stuff I wanted to send home, and headed down to spend the night with Megan in Mankato.  She was starving so we went to Perkins for some food and then came back and watched Iron Chef America until we were too tired to stay awake.  

Got up this morning at 11am and Megan and I packed up and headed back up to GAC.  Then sent her on her merry way, and came back and slept more in the room.  Got up, showered, played some Sims, and now heading out to Ruttles for some Saint Peter fun.  Adios!

no study :( i don't wanna

I don't want to study.  I've been sitting around here for hours today (about 3 1/2 hours to be precise) not-studying for my final final exam tomorrow.  Instead, I have been putzing around on the internet and finishing the third book in the Inheritance series (Brisingr).  Just now I finished looking up what paltry sums the Bookmark is planning to reimburse me for my textbooks. That was really depressing... 

So instead of studying I'm recording my thoughts here.  For no point or purpose other than to further procrastinate.  Curse me... I need to study!  It doesn't help that this is the last of 4 exams, the other 3 of which I aced, and it's not even cumulative.  So what's my motivation to study?  Other than I could finally get my first "A" in a class that is in my major.  Depressing that it would wait until my second semester senior year to happen.  Although Gustavus did give me an "A" for my Conservation Bio. class that I took in Australia so I guess that counts.   

I'm trying to get people to entertain me, but they aren't doing a very good job. 

As for how the week went, it was pretty boring.  I went to my classes, did some errands, and read a lot of that series previously mentioned.  

I finally got my cell phone back on Monday, my awesome aunt and uncle drove it up for me around 6pm.  Then I immediately checked my voicemail and called the Dell technician who agreed to come up and fix my computer.  Basically, he just had to replace the monitor and my baby is working again.  Hooray!  So that led to more Sims playing as well, although Sybylla is mostly hogging it.  Which is sort of a good thing for me because it means I'm forced to do other things.  Not to mention as soon as we graduate I'm taking my game back to Rochester (or wherever I'm going) with me so she only has so much time left to play it.  

Had my last classes.  Skipped badminton this week because I could, which also allowed me to eat lunch with people on Monday and Wednesday.  Gave my presentation in Women and the Holocaust and I think it went well.  Had our website critiques in Intro to Interactive Media and no one had anything bad to say about mine (http://homepages.gac.edu/~kcoughli/).  

On Wednesday I had my last day of work and my last class, ever.  It was Evolution and we just had a mini lecture about carnivorous plants, and then class evals and then I was done.  For work I had to run mail (for the last time) and then help set up for the end of the year picnic (again for the last time).  It was a day full of lasts for all of us.  After setting up, came back to the room and then headed to the "End of the Year Carnival" out on the college mall. That was kind of a joke... basically just a lot of stands of free food and a cake walk and a dunk tank.  While it was semi amusing to see the kid from many of my previous bio classes getting dunked, the thrill was short-lived. Headed back to chill in the dorm for awhile and then went to the Theatre/Dance picnic.  Got a burger and hung out with Kristin and had some fun thinking about the past year (The Other Shore and the spring dance concert).  Been working in that office for the last four years and it's kind of strange to realize I won't be working there anymore.  Went directly from that picnic to the Biology Department picnic.  That was less fun, I knew more people there but less well.  Said a lot of "hey, how are you?" and ate a bunch of carrots but eventually I got bored and left.  Went back to the room and did some Sim playing, some Brisingr reading, and some studying for my final.  Later, Sarah, Sybylla, and I watched Shrek, which was slightly frustrating but okay overall.  Came back to the room, took a quick shower,  and then Sybylla and I watched Dark Knight.  Actually we just watched most of it, but at 4am we decided to go to bed and watch the rest later.  Probably tonight, although we both need to study for exams.

Which brings us to today.  Woke up when Sybylla's alarm went off at 11:30am and she didn't wake up.  Literally the thing was going off for a long time and I was like "Sybylla, your alarm. Wake up!"  But she didn't, and eventually it turned itself off.  So I rolled over and went back to sleep.  She eventually got up and headed out around 12:20 to her Latin-y things.  I think tutoring and then some sort of Classics get-together.  My alarm went off right before she left, and then again at 1pm.  That's around when I got up and just continued reading Brisingr and doing my procrastinating thing.

And now I'm sitting here having a strange conversation and listening to Sarah and Sybylla study for their Latin final tomorrow. And feeling like I should definitely get my act together and study.  Damn, I started this like an hour ago.  It really did not take me this long to write it, I've also been distracted elsewhere.  

sleep is a good thing

So the week went by, finished my paper for Women in the Holocaust and got ready to present on Thursday but never ended up getting to. Just means I'll have to on Tuesday now. On Wednesday night my computer monitor started just randomly going black. It would fix itself when I just turned off the monitor and turned it back on, but then it just kept staying black longer and longer and going black sooner. So I called Dell and the idiot didn't listen to me, but eventually he decided to send a new LCD screen and motherboard to a tech. Who is going to call me on my cell on Monday to set up a time to fix it. This becomes a problem...

Later on Thursday my mom came over and saw the art minor show and loaded up the bug with my crap.

Friday I woke up at 6:30 am and got ready for my interviews. Mom came around 7am to pick me up and we headed up to the cities for the first one (at VA Medical Center). Got a little confused about where to meet them but I ended up having the interview in the visitor's entrance lobby (awkward). Basically their lab works with bone pain and bone cancer pain. So they break mice legs and give mice bone cancer and monitor how much pain behavior they exhibit. I just kept thinking... evil. That's evil! I mean, I get that people feel pain and that's what they're working to cure or alleviate but... evil! Not sure I could handle working there...

Then we drove to Rochester and I hung out at home for a few hours before going to my interview at Mayo. I think that interview went fine, although I never really did learn what their lab is doing (other than working with guinea pigs). And both labs are associated with neurobiology (which is the bio class in which I got the lowest grade... sad). After the interview I stopped in at the lab where I worked last summer and said hi to people there. They got all excited that I might be working in a lab again. I mostly just want to find a job that at least is somewhat related to my major. And it would be a bonus if it was in Rochester. After that I went home and chilled with my sisters. Actually that's a lie, I went home and was put to work working on the garage sale. I had to delete personal info off an old computer, haul tons of crap out to the garage, and go through all the stuff in my closet to get rid of stuff. Then we had to set up the stuff in the garage and price everything. In the middle Megan and I took a break and watched Prince Caspian. That was fun. All in all, we were working out in the garage until about 2am. And then we came in and watched Ocean's 13. Which meant we were up until around 4am. And then we slept in the living room, where I nicely gave my sisters the couches and I attempted to sleep on the reclining chair. Not comfortable at all! My lower back was killing me when I woke up at 6:15 am...

That's right, I woke up at 6:15am on Saturday morning because my mother insisted that we be ready for customers at 7am. So we were. And it was freezing cold and windy and only one person came before 8am. Which meant that we were awake an hour early for no reason (because he didn't even buy anything!). So we spent the morning in the freezing cold attempting to get other people to buy our unwanted junk. In the midst of that, our neighbor from across the street (who is moving) came over and bought some of our old toys. He then mentioned that he might be selling his car - for very cheap if we were to buy it. My sister only wants to buy a Jeep though and I have no money, but it would be absolutely amazing to have a car for next year. Especially since I have no other plans, having a car might help me find a job. Or maybe I just want a car. Either way...

So around noon my dad came home from the RAC and we headed back to GAC. Got here (finally) and ate some lunch at the Caf, found out from my sisters that we each made $47 from the sale (not bad!). Then my dad dropped me off at Prairie View, I got inside to my door and realized my phone wasn't in my pocket. So I threw my shit inside my room and ran to try to catch my dad. I knew I had brought it because I texted my sisters on the drive over. But he was already out of sight. So I asked one of the people in the computer lab to borrow a cell and called him, but he didn't pick up. So I tried using the GAC phone to call, but that failed, so I used that to call my cousins and Travis tried calling my dad for me. That also failed. Dad didn't check his phone until he was in Owatonna, which meant he was too far to just turn around and drive it back to me. Which means I don't have my phone and my computer is busted AND I can't get my computer fixed without getting my phone back! Evil cycle of evilness.

So yea. After that drama I took a nice long nap to try to make up for the two hours of horrible sleep I got that night. Woke up and got ready to go to dinner with Sybylla and Sarah, went to dinner, came back and got online in the computer lab for a little while. Went back to the room and read until it was time to go to the outdoor movie. That's right, on the most randomly freezing day of May the weekend movie was showing outside. So we put on layer after layer and grabbed all of our blankets and headed over to the rugby pitch behind Southwest to watch He's just not that into you with Sarah, Emilirose, and Vicki. It was a pretty funny movie with a lot of familiar actors, plus free popcorn and cotton candy, but it was freeeeeeeeeeezing. I couldn't feel my toes by the end of it. Came back to PV afterwards and took a nice long hot shower. That felt better. Finished reading Eragon after that and went to sleep.

Woke up today around 1pm. Since Sybylla's mom was coming in about 45 minutes I cleaned up my crap a bit; took out my garbage and the recycling and made my bed. Then headed into the computer lab to check my email and see what the plan was for phone retrieval. Talked to people online, checked my email, and now just updating this.

What was I doing last year?

So I still have no plans for this summer or the rest of my life. But the past was pretty wicked cool...

I am a Disney Champion

This weekend has pretty much been awesome.

On Friday night I went to dinner with Vicki at 6pm and there were Aztec dancers performing for cinco de mayo (three days late) and then after they were done a mariachi band came on and performed. That was fun! Then Vicki went off to her concert and I headed to Anderson theatre to see the play The Impresario from Smyrna. Before the play started, some idiots started the rouser... that was annoying. As for the play, it was... interesting. I think I enjoyed it more than I normally would have because I had typed a large part of the script during work a few months ago so I knew what was basically going on. Otherwise, it was mildly humorous, but there was a lot of random Italian in there and sometimes their accents were overdone, making it difficult to follow what was going on. But it was pretty good! I had to leave at intermission in order to run over to Nobel to meet Vicki and Sarah there to see the weekend movie. So then I saw Confessions of a Shopaholic, pretty funny but not the greatest movie of all time. Headed home and spent the rest of the night reading Eragon and watching episodes of Chuck. (By the way, if you're confused as to why some things I underline and some things I italicize, well join the club. I have no order to which gets what, just whatever I'm in the mood for. I'm told they mean the same thing so it doesn't really matter which I do. Although I probably should be consistent. Y'all can figure it out though.)

Saturday was a bit slower to start. Woke up, went back to sleep, woke up again, back to sleep again, did that for a couple of hours until I finally got up. Then I started doing my laundry and continued my Chuck marathon. Eventually I headed over to Vicki's for our long-awaited Disney Night. Vicki, Sarah, Meredythe, and I were all there at Vicki's apartment in College View. First thing, we ordered pizza from Dominoes online and actually got to track where it was in the stages of making it. That is pretty sweet. So every few minutes we'd look up and be like "ooh they're done prepping it now it's in the oven!" And so on. Ate the pizza and decided to start off the night with a quick round of Disney Scene It. Now, I'm not going to lie, I LOVE this game. And I'm fairly good at it. So we played teams, and first round I played with Meredythe. And we won. Then we watched The Little Mermaid, and proceeded to another round of the game. This time I played with Sarah, and while she definitely contributed, this time we stormed the field. Then we watched Aladdin, and at the point during the "I can show you the world" song when they fly around the cloud into a swirl I stated how much that scene made me want ice cream. Which made everyone else want ice cream. And so after the movie was done we all piled in Sarah's car and headed down to Perkins to get some chipper sundaes. We got there and realized it closed at midnight (I've never seen a Perkins close so early!). But it was only 11:20 when we got there so we figured no worries. Got in and the guy working there was like, "You guys know we close at midnight, right?" And I thought to myself, "yea... what's your point?" Like, can they not make food in 40 minutes? It was just really unwelcoming. We explained we only came for dessert and he looked relieved. We all got the chipper sundaes (warm chocolate chip cookie, vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry) except mine was without the whipped cream or the cherry. As soon as we got them and dug in, we started making all these "mmm oooh yeaaa" noises. And of course, that started a huge round of laughter and sexual innuendos and more laughter. Then the waiter asked if we wanted separate checks, we said yes, and he comes back with one bill. Wtf? Why did he even bother to ask us if he wasn't going to listen to our answer? Eventually we figured out how to divvy up the bill and left a tip of all coins (with a lot of pennies) and headed back to GAC. The drive home was spent playing more of Vicki's mind games (Chinese number, Thing 1 2 and 3, and Paint the moon) and then we headed to our separate homes. I continued my Chuck marathon and took care of the laundry that had been left running when I left.

Today (Sunday) I woke up at noon and went straight to work. I took out the first round of recycling and garbage and finished putting away all of my laundry. Then I tackled the big stuff. I cleaned out and organized all the stuff under and on my bed and around, on, and in my desk. Had to make a few more garbage/recycling trips but it was well worth it. I also did dishes, and discovered I'm missing 2 forks and a knife and I have no idea where they could be. I also can't find my camera case now. I did find the cord, and as soon as I plugged it in the battery on my camera died, so that's charging right now. Had dinner in the Caf with Sarah and Sybylla (who went home this weekend) and spent the rest of the evening finishing my final paper for Women in the Holocaust. Which means that I'm finished with one of my 4 classes pretty much.

Now I'm going to the computer lab to work on an art project.

PS - Here's my finished design thingy!

Phase One, Complete

So this week and next week are my crazy weeks, leading up to finals of course. This week I had a presentation on Wednesday and a rough draft of my paper due today (Thursday). Next week my final paper is due along with me having an interview in the cities at 9am on Friday.

The presentation was... difficult. The actual presentation itself went fine but the preparation for it was painful. My partner finally got around to reading all of the papers I found, but I ended up making the entire power point myself. The first time we met to talk about the presentation was on Monday night, that's right, two nights before we were due to present. So we met up and split up the slides (for who would talk about which during the presentation). Parted ways and practiced separately, until the next night when we had decided to meet to go over it a couple of times together, just to make sure it flowed and the timing was alright. Tuesday afternoon she sends me an email saying "sorry but I can't get together tonight - keep in mind that we're presenting the next day - but I have an interview and I need to practice for that." Now I know that interviews are incredibly important, but we had never even gone over the presentation together and she wanted to just "wing it" when we were being graded for it. I quickly replied with a "no, we're meeting" and so we ended up going over it together. But then she had to ask me what her slides were about and what those papers were trying to say. So, basically, I did the whole damn thing myself and all she did was parrot what I told her to say. Maybe I'm being harsh, but seriously. But the talk did go well in class, at least I'm fairly certain the prof liked it (we referenced some of his friends) and that's all that really matters.

So since I had been putting all of my time and effort into that project, I hadn't even started my paper until Wednesday evening. Which means I had a long Wednesday night going through all my sources and notes and attempting to write a semi-cohesive paper/outline. It actually isn't that bad, it will definitely be long enough and may even go over the page length requirement.

Backtracking a bit, I went home this past weekend! Mostly because I wanted to pick up some of my artworks to submit for consideration in the Art Minor Show. Which I did. Anyway, I went home on Friday (thanks to my cousin, aunt, and uncle) and spent the evening doing NOTHING! But I did get to watch Dollhouse on an actual TV, which was nice. There was a lot of TV watching over the weekend, including finishing The L Word series. It was my youngest sister's prom on Saturday, so she was busy all weekend (and so was my mom) and my dad did a lot of hunting/golf playing/softball playing so there was a lot of alone-at-home time for me. I baked cookies on Saturday afternoon, and burned my arm in the process. But they were/are delicious. I still have 2 left here, which is probably more than what's left at home. I also got my drawing of Jazzy framed, and it looks very nice. That was one of the 5 pieces I brought back to GAC for submission in the show. Came back to Gustavus on Sunday, again thanks to my cousin and aunt and uncle.

On Tuesday I brought in 6 pieces of art: drawing of Jazzy, Wicked watercolor, necklace watercolor, GAC sweatshirt oil painting, flash sign, and my acrylic painting of the person/lioness. Of all of them, I mostly wanted my drawing to get in. But nope, the woman there said it was a well-done study, but "not very artistic." I sort of wanted to explain to her that realism is just as artistic as that ridiculous abstract shit that I saw other people bringing in, but I kept my mouth shut. She ended up choosing the flash sign, the necklace watercolor, and the GAC sweatshirt painting. Also, my Interactive Media prof made a DVD including my flash animation which was destined to play on the TV in the show, so overall I have 4 pieces that made it. It's a decent number, but they aren't the pieces I desperately wanted to show. Oh well. I have pictures of them hanging in the show (which opened tonight at 5pm) taken by my wonderful roommate that I will hopefully add here once I find the cord that connects my camera to my computer. Hopefully I didn't leave it at home... that would suck.

Interviews! I got emailed from two jobs in two days about wanting me to come in for an interview. The first is from a veteran's research lab in the cities but the second is from Mayo. I hope I get the job at Mayo, then I can live at home for free and just work on making money instead of also spending it.

Finally, I got another forwarded email with puppy pictures! I don't know which one is Belle, but I'll put up the pictures anyway as my final statement for this post. So cute!