I'm so full...

Random title, I know, but I ate at Fat Lorenzo's with Vicki and Sybylla for supper today and it was sooo much food! My stomach isn't used to being stretched out so far in one sitting anymore.

Well we went camping (Nathan and I) at Crow Wing State Park. Got a late start but made it there with some daylight left. When we arrived and checked in we learned that, due to recent flooding and excess stagnant water, the mosquitoes had multiplied to threat level cloud. That's right, clouds of mosquitoes were everywhere, a thick fog of bloodsucking menaces. Got to the site, and (after applying as much DEET as we could get out of the cans) started attempting to assemble the giant 2 room tent. Unfortunately, the stakes were nowhere to be found, and the tent refused to go up without being staked down. So we got in the car and drove to the Walmart in Baxter and bought some fresh bug spray and some stakes. Back to the campsite and of course it's dark so we used the headlights from the car and got it set up. We may have made a fire, but I don't really remember.

On Saturday we slept in, then built up a fire. Breakfast/lunch (not brunch, we opted to rename it brench, for a more even distribution of the letters in each meal) was delicious cheesy hot dogs over the fire. We read for awhile (while digesting) and then attempted to go on a hike. We first headed down the steps to the Mississippi River, only to find the usual landing completely underwater. It was also extremely cloudy. As in, clouds of mosquitoes attacking our flesh. So we tried to hike down another trail but eventually gave up and headed back to camp. Unfortunately, with the lack of campfire smoke, the mosquitoes were intolerable at the campsite as well, so we jumped in the car and drove to the movie theater in Brainerd. I know, we were there for camping, but the bugs were just awful. The movie we decided to see wasn't playing for a few hours so we ended up taking an hour and a half hike on the Paul Bunyan State Trail (see - hiking!). We saw 7 garter snakes during our hike and I made us stop and take pictures of some of the pretty wildflowers growing alongside the trail. Got back and saw Prometheus - it wasn't great but it wasn't horrible either. Mostly it was just confusing, the plot went every which way and that made it hard to follow what was actually happening. Went back to the campsite and started up a fresh fire for pie iron pizzas (dinner!). Then just hung out, reading, stoking the fire, and eventually making smores until bedtime.

On Sunday we again slept in (I didn't think it was possible to do that while camping, but apparently my sleeping skills have grown tremendously) and had leftover hot dogs and pie iron pizzas for brench (that's right, I'm making it a thing). Read some more (good books!) and then made dessert pie irons (peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallow for me, the same minus peanut butter plus graham cracker chunks for Nathan). Delicious. Eventually of course we had to pack up the camp and drive back to the cities.

The rest of this week has most just been long and painful. Mostly because last week was only a 3 day week for me with two vacations, and then a full week with not much to do at work. Enough of my whining. Monday was meeting at the Animal Humane Society and then dinner with Nathan (Bosco sticks!), Tuesday was strength training, Wednesday was WW (25lb total!) and dinner with Vicki and Sybylla at Fat Lorenzo's (so good). So I started this blog on Wednesday and am finishing it on Thursday (today). Nothing much happened today either, other than strength training again.

So in life news I've been working on my vet school applications. It's mostly through one common site (VMCAS) and it's pretty intense. It wants you to recall every activity you ever did from high school on, which is a bit difficult when it's been so long since high school (over 10 years since freshman year - I am so old...) So far I've managed to get two evaluators, but still need to get a couple more, plus at least one if not two vets. I'm planning to spend an afternoon with the vet from the VA and I'm hoping he'll be willing to write one for me. I'm also hoping that volunteering with Kindest Cut at the AHS (they spay/neuter animals at shelters) will put me in touch with another vet who may be willing to write one for me.

I think that's pretty much it for now, other than my statistics class is going well (working ahead a lot) and today I got an email from my physiology professor (taking it in the fall) who changed the textbook, meaning I had to resell the one I bought last month. On the plus side the new textbook is optional and I already managed to sell my old one for the same price I bought it for. Win?

June is escaping!

Seriously, I can't believe it's already been almost 2 weeks since I took the GRE - it feels like it was just yesterday! Speaking of which, I finally got my official scores: 165 Verbal (96th percentile), 165 Math (93rd percentile), and 4.5 Writing (72nd percentile - ouch). So yay overall for that.

So on Friday night I drove Addy to Nathan's where I dropped her off (she stayed with his roommate Chris for the weekend) and picked up Nathan. We drove to Breezy Point Resort (with a stop at Taco Bell along the way - the Dorito taco is freaking delicious!) and met up with my parents.

I honestly don't think we did anything that night but I could be wrong - I just don't remember! On Saturday we tried to go tubing but it was really windy and the tube sucked. We spent hours reading - on the beach and on the porch of the condo. Dinner was burgers with the parents' friends and later that night we tried night fishing - the bobbers glow! But we didn't catch a thing.

On Sunday we had a big delicious breakfast and then hung out indoors a lot (it was rainy and windy out). Lunch was hot dogs and macaroni & cheese - delicious. Later, Nathan and I went to see Snow White & the Huntsman. All I can say is that it was pretty to watch, but oh my word the plot was terrible. I'm pretty lenient with judging movies and books but this one was just bad, it was a let down for sure.

Monday we went fishing and didn't catch much (some, but no walleyes yet). In the afternoon Nathan and I went to Pirate's Cove Adventure Golf. Nathan and his family used to go there when he was a kid so it was a fun nostalgia thing for him and a fun "I suck at mini golf" thing for me. On the way back we stopped in Nisswa and visited the Chocolate Ox (yummy candy store) and the Rainy Day Bookstore (this is the store that I preordered the sixth Harry Potter book from years ago and forced my family to drive me there that summer during our vacation and then of course read the entire book in a day). We ate dinner that night at The Commander - great food but the waitress was terrible - kept forgetting us and it took almost an hour to get our food.

Tuesday was the last day of vacation :( We went fishing in the afternoon and I caught 13 perch while dad only caught a couple and poor Nathan didn't catch any. We also played golf (the card game) and ate leftovers. Eventually we had to drive home.

Yesterday was WW and I was seriously considering not going - I hadn't tracked all weekend and ate tons of cookies and candy and chips etc. But I eventually decided I had to go, and I even made myself walk there. To my surprise I only gained 0.4 lb! So that was a relief.

Today was a super long day. I woke up and it was dark and scary looking outside so I made the weird decision to drive halfway and walk the rest into work. It's about a 20 minute walk plus the drive time makes it much longer than my usual bike in. Didn't get rained on too much on the way in, then had a semi-slow day at work, then worked on my statistics homework, then went to my weight training class. After that I was starving but still had to walk back! I didn't get home until 8:30 pm, only to discover that Addy had tried to pull the cat toy off the mirror and instead managed to pull the full length mirror off the wall, to shatter on the floor. UGH. So I cleaned that up, fed her, had dinner, finished my stats homework, and I still have to pack for camping tomorrow!

I'm so tired, I hope I manage to get it all done.

GRE complete!

For the past few years, ever since I realized that I wouldn't be getting very far working in research with only a Bachelor's degree, I've had a "To Do" list. At the very top of this list was "take the GRE." Well ladies and gentlemen, I can finally cross that off my list.

That's right, I took the GRE on Saturday and, even though I stressed out before and during the test, I got it done and actually did very well. I scored a 165 in Verbal Reasoning (96th percentile) and 165 in Quantitative Reasoning (math - 93rd percentile). I'm bragging, I know, but I'm just so dang proud! I think buying the prep materials and actually taking a few practice tests really did help. I'm super excited to never have to take it again though.

So I dropped Addy off at Nathan's on Friday night and spent that night both semi relaxing (caught up on Game of Thrones) and semi studying (just going over the vocab flash cards). Then on Saturday I took the GRE (duh) and drove to Culver's to celebrate! After Culver's I drove down to Rochester, where my parents offered to pay for my test in return for some menial labor. I readily agreed; painting/staining the deck was a wonderfully mindless task after weeks of trying to stuff my brain full of math tricks and vocabulary. I finished up right as it was starting to get dark out and then joined my parents for some TV watching (Beauty and the Beast was on ABC Family - almost over but still!). Then mom went to bed and dad and I watched I Love You Man. It was a pretty slow movie, I wouldn't recommend it.

On Sunday my mom had to work and my dad went golfing so I was alone with Belle. We went for a decent walk to Petco and the dollar store and got sprinkled on by a bit of rain on the way back. Left my parents a Mother's/Father's Day gift, ate some leftovers, and headed back to the Cities. At home I watched some TV until Nathan got home and then headed over to pick up Addy. Nathan and I decided to go exploring so I went on another long walk - this time ending at Dairy Queen (chocolate dipped cone, yummy). With those two walks today I totaled about 5-6 miles, and all in terrible shoes for walking, which means I now have some nasty, huge, and painful blisters on my feet. Hopefully riding my bike won't upset them further.

So my busy-ness is continuing: I'm now free to start my Statistics class anytime (since I no longer have to be studying for the GRE), I'm starting a group strength training course this week (every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 8 weeks), I still have WW on Wednesday nights, and of course my vacations. This Friday Nathan and I are going Up North to Breezy Point with my parents from Friday night (or Saturday morning - haven't quite decided yet) until Tuesday afternoon. Then the following weekend we're going camping at Crow Wing State Park from Friday to Sunday and the weekend after that is my Como Zoo Volunteer training. I've probably mentioned all this before, but yea, my June is hectic.

But the GRE is done! One less thing to worry about.

it starts

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching the end of my lazy days. The GRE is a mere 4 1/2 days away (eek!), I signed up for a fitness class on Tuesdays/Thursdays, WW is still ongoing, and my Statistics class technically starts in a couple of weeks. And then I'm joining my parents up north for a long weekend, going camping with Nathan the next weekend, and doing my volunteer orientation at Como Zoo the weekend after that!

Honestly I'm not sure my scheduling skills are up to the task - I've already completely messed up my GRE studying. I fell further and further behind always saying I'd catch up over the weekends, but of course the last thing I want to do on the weekend is sit and study! So I've put it off like my procrastinating self always does and I'm feeling the pressure now. I took one practice test yesterday and another one today - yesterday I got in the 90th percentile for verbal and the 70th percentile for math and today it was 84th percentile for verbal and 96th percentile for math. Which just leads me to believe that the score is going to end up being pretty random depending on which questions I get, which isn't great to think about.

Other than procrastinating I'm not really sure what all I've done since my last post. I tried to contact the vet down the road to start shadowing but apparently they are very busy and won't be able to fit me in until late July/early August. So we'll have to see if that happens.

I Skyped with Sara (who's in Venezuela), saw Avengers again with Vicki and Sybylla (after dinner at D'amico & Sons - not bad), brought Addy to Nathan's and watched her and his cats slowly stop hating each other, left my lights on in my car causing the battery to die, tried to jump start my car while down pouring rain/hail, have the jump fail and my car dead in the parking lot, and really can't think of much else.

So perhaps my upcoming hectic lifestyle will make for more interesting posts, but probably not. Spending your evenings doing homework isn't that much more exciting than watching anything and everything on Netflix.

I have been watching a lot of documentaries on Netflix and I highly recommend them if you want to learn a lot and then be slightly terrified by what you learn (the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world - The Business of Being Born).

Well I have just 4 nights of studying left until the big day, wish me luck!

My life is about to get hectic

The title is true, and I may have bitten off more than I can chew (and I'm a poet! did you know it? :P)

First I'll give a quick update on my goings on lately and then I'll get to the title topic.

You know, I haven't really done a whole lot, which is kind of sad. This past weekend I went to the Festival of Nations in Saint Paul. It was pretty cool - lots of cheap food, interesting market area, and a bunch of native dances from places all over the world (we saw Turkish, Palestinian, Japanese, and Scottish). We took the bus there and back and on the way there we got on our transfer bus only to see that the bus driver was AWOL (he eventually showed up). The way back was even more exciting as we had to run through the rain to get to the stop and then at one point part of the side of the bus opened up (like a flap for the storage area underneath?) and the bus driver had to go out and fix it (or it could've taken someone out!).

I also went and saw The Avengers with Nathan, Chris, and their friends Rob & Alex. It was a really excellent movie and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. Afterwards we went to Noodles for food, and then back to Nathan's where we all (plus another guy who showed up later) played the Game of Thrones board game. It was slightly confusing and I did not do so well but it was pretty fun. I played as the Lannisters and was immediately in battle with the Greyjoys. Cool story huh? Probably makes more sense if you've seen the show or read the books.

Monday night I got a phone call from Megan and we talked about her situation in Madison. We had some serious sisterly bonding time for a few hours, when we finally called it quits (around midnight).

On Tuesday I ate lunch with Sara who drove up here to take her last final. We ate at Noodles (again, I know) and just talked. She's flying to Venezuela on Sunday morning so it was my last chance to catch up before she's out of the country (for ~7 weeks I think, 6 in Venezuela and then another week in Peru with mom, gramma, and aunt). Tuesday night I met up with Vicki and Sybylla and we went to Merlin's Rest Pub. It's about 3 blocks away from my house and is supposedly an authentic British pub. I had the "world famous" fish and chips, and frankly was not impressed. When fish comes out and the fillets are all the exact same size and shape, it just doesn't bode well for how they taste. To top it all off, midway through our meal this really weird live music started. Banging sticks, weird lyrics, almost folksy but not. Apparently they were Finnish, if that means anything. It was really loud and not very enjoyable, but now I know!

Wednesday was my WW meeting and it went really well. The previous week I had actually gone up (gained weight, sadface) but this week I dropped all that I had gained the previous week and then some, so that was really awesome for me.

Today I have a lot of work to get done, but unfortunately a lot of it is timed so its hurry up and wait (which is why I'm updating this now). I'll probably be here until 6pm tonight at least, so I don't feel too bad about taking a break to type this up.

And back to the title of my post - it's really not all that crazy but I finally signed up for classes and am starting to freak out a little. Basically I have the GRE on June 2, then my online Statistics course starts June 15. I'm hoping to do that one over the summer, but unfortunately it's an extended term course (like Genetics was) so I have until March 2013 to finish it. I just hope I don't procrastinate, especially because once the fall starts I'm taking Physiology at the U of MN as well as Microbiology at Saint Paul College. Then next spring I'll be taking Chemistry II and Physics II at the U. On top of all of this I'm also starting volunteering at Como Zoo in June and hoping to start volunteering/shadowing a vet ASAP. So I'm a bit nervous that it's going to be too much (because of course I'm still working full time as well) but we'll just have to see how it goes!

Physics

Well I haven't been doing the best job keeping this updated but at least it's been under 2 weeks!

So I did in fact go see Bridesmaids and it was just as hilarious the second time (if not more). Apparently a lot of the humor is "female-targeted," so if you're a guy unwilling to laugh at yourself it might not be as entertaining for you as it was for me.

On Friday that week I drove down to Rochester for the night. I basically just spent that night hanging with the family, eating pizza and cookies, and watching Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone with the parents.

On Saturday I got up, showered, and then met Jackie for lunch at Noodles. We spent a good 2 hours there just talking and catching up (also eating, but I think that's implied). Afterwards I headed over to her place to see her parents' new dog (a little thing, pretty shy) and then drove back home. Then mom, Sara, Megan, and I piled in the car, headed downtown, and fulfilled a dream. That's right, my mom rented 4 Segways for an hour and we got to ride around downtown Rochester on them, trying not to hit things or be hit by anything. It was pretty fun - got some pictures and Megan even took some video. Definitely an interesting experience. After that fun was done we all went over to a couple of fabric stores where Megan and I found this microfleece fabric for mom to make us some softy blankets (Happy Birthday to us!). Headed home and then I scrounged through the basement looking for likely camping supplies to borrow. Got my car all packed up and then Adam, my cousin, came over from Owatonna where he was doing some sort of work thing. The rest of the family was getting ready for a nice dinner (fish fry) with Adam but I pretty much said hi and then headed back to the cities.

I guess I had a pretty busy Saturday, but it doesn't end there! After chilling at home for a bit and socializing with my rats, I headed over to Nathan's where we cooked burgers and corn on the grill and ate outside in the gorgeous weather. It was an excellent meal.

On Sunday I think the only thing I did was go to Target for a few things and then hem and haw over Physics. Basically, at any vet school in the US and a lot of the international ones, you need to have at least 1 year of physics + 1 lab to apply. Unfortunately I waited too long to actually sign up for the completely online version at the U of MN. So that class had filled and I emailed the professor to see if I could get in and he basically told me to hope someone drops it. I kept idly searching for a different option (other schools, etc) and eventually stumbled upon an evening class offered at the U. After too much thinking, I finally took the leap and enrolled. It's 3 nights a week (Tues-Thurs) for around 2 hours a night and includes a lab. I'm nervous but also slightly excited - it should be much easier to stay on track when I actually have to attend classes and everything.

On Monday I realized I only have 2 weeks to study for genetics and so I started studying.

So I broke my face...

I did, but since it's been OVER A MONTH since my last post (bad Kat! BAD BAD KAT!) I'll try to give a brief update on the rest of my life.

The week following my last post I started riding my bike to work (and signed up to the bike commuter program at the U) and had a lot of trouble with the rusty stretched out chain.  On my second day riding in to work I was about to head home and noticed my rear tire was flat.  After just getting new tires last summer, I was kind of ticked.  Luckily for me there's a bike shop on campus, so I stopped in and they fixed it (replaced the tube) for like $10.  Later that week, or possibly the following week, I finally got the bike parts I ordered and hauled my bike up into the apartment and got dirty/greasy hands replacing the bike chain.  After that, the bike worked beautifully!  It's amazing what a new chain can do.  

I've also been going to the Rec Center pretty regularly (5 days last week!).  I pretty much only use the stationary bike (it's the easiest to read while doing, plus the treadmills have to be signed up to use and are generally pretty busy).  At first it was harder convincing myself to go, it's no longer on the way if I'm riding my bike!  But eventually I just made it part of my routine to do it right after work.

WW has also been going really well.  I had a few weeks where I basically stopped paying attention and ate tons of crap, but I'm back on track.  As of my last weigh in I had lost close to 20lb on the program (since Jan 17).  It's really made me start eating more fruit and less processed foods, which can only be good.

Work has been getting better - I've  had more successful experiments, but I think my boss is a little impatient with the progress.  Not that she blames me in any way (which is a delightful new experience for me) but she wants to get it done.

Okay right now I'm going to take a short break (because this is hard work you know) and go run some errands, I'll be back to finish I swear!

And I'm back - went to Half Price Books and bought some GRE prep materials (a book and some vocab flash cards) and then Petco for some rat bedding and kitten food.  When I got home Addy smelled the bag and started purring like a motorboat and nuzzling the bag.  It was adorable.

Back to my rehash of the last few weeks, a lot of biking to work, working, working out, biking home, and sitting around watching TV/Netflix.  Pretty boring stuff really.

Things of note:  On the first weekend in April I drove to Eau Claire and then Madison WI helping Megan move into her new apartment.  Long drive, but really nice apartment building.  We also took a self guided tour of her new workplace (Epic) and it is as its name implies.  The whole place is just kind of amazing. Drove back to Eau Claire with Kory on Sunday, and then home solo.

The following weekend I drove down to Rochester for Easter weekend with the family.  Also brought Addy so she could have fun with Belle (they did do some chasing around the house).  We ate tons of delicious food, had some quality family time, and I even got a chance to meet up with Jackie for a lunch at Zumbro River Cafe (good food!).

The week between driving to Madison and Easter in Rochester I decided I wanted to get a bigger TV.  I did some research on the internet, tried to decide what I wanted and how much to spend, and finally drove down the street to Target and came home with a brand new Philips 40" LED TV (with WiFi).  I love it, and am really happy I pulled the trigger.

Hung out with Sarah H (from Gustavus) while she was in town (from the UK), that was fun.  Also, last weekend on Saturday I got to hang out with Hannah (from high school) who was in town with her parents for a conference.  We watched Winter's Bone and man is that a weird messed up movie.  On Sunday Sybylla and Vicki came over and we watched Aladdin on my new TV while eating Little Caesars.

And finally to the title story.  On Thursday last week, my coworker comes up to me and asks if I would mind giving her some of my blood.  She is doing experiments with immune cells and when she uses her own blood she doesn't get very many.  However, younger blood tends to produce more, so she wanted to try mine.  I said sure, not really too worried about it since she didn't need very much.  We walked over to another building where her MD friend drew about 50ml of blood.  I sat there while it was being drawn and got a little light headed, but afterwards just kept sitting until it went away.  I felt better, so we started walking back to our building.  We headed down the hallway towards the elevator when all of a sudden I got very dizzy and next thing I know I'm waking up on the floor of the elevator with blood all over.  I had passed out and apparently landed on my face and knees.  My coworker was freaking out beside me along with a few random people I didn't know and the elevator was emitting this annoying buzz because it wanted to go to a different floor but they were holding the door open.  Eventually I sat up (while constantly apologizing) and they brought in an office chair to wheel me out of the elevator.  Apparently they had also called the U's ER who called a "Code Blue" for me.  For those of you who don't know, Code Blue is the one they call for people having a heart attack or stroke or are in immediate danger of dying.  So next thing we know 4 doctors come pouring out of a nearby elevator and start checking me over.  After a few minutes, another 8 doctors (and no, I'm not exaggerating with the numbers here) come running down the hallway (they had initially gone to the wrong Masonic building - there are two on campus).  So I'm super embarrassed because I'm not in any real danger, there's just blood pouring out of my nose, my face hurts, and I have a little headache.  They insist on taking me to the ER however, so the bring me this wheelchair (after initially threatening to get me a stretcher).  The wheelchair they brought though is in line with the rising rate of obesity in America and is practically a park bench.  Two of me could have easily sat side by side on this thing.  Finally get to the ER where another slew of doctors, medical students, and nurses come in to see the "Code Blue" patient.  After figuring out what happened though (and realizing I was not nearly exciting enough) I lost the majority of my medical staff.  I did have another EKG and the tech looked at it and asked if I was a runner or an athlete (not sure if I've ever mentioned this but the same thing happened in Rochester when I had an EKG for a research study I participated in - the woman asked if I was an athlete).  So I have an athletic heart, which is nice I think.  There was one woman who thought I must surely be pregnant (despite the 0.05% chance of that being possible) so insisted I give a urine sample.  And, irony of ironies, they drew blood to test as well.  While at the ER my boss arrived (my coworker had left once I got there and told her what happened).  She stayed the entire time I was there and even drove me home afterwards - because she's awesome.  Can you imagine my last boss being anywhere near so kind?  My sister Sara also showed up for part of the time, and thought it was ridiculous that after an hour of being there no one had offered me an ice pack for the giant lump on my forehead, busted nose, and split lip.  All in all, I was stuck at the ER for a good 3 1/2 - 4 hours, sitting around awkwardly hooked up to machines and waiting around for people to get my shit done so I could go home.

This past week I've been healing fairly quickly, the only remaining evidence is a bit of yellow and purple bruising under one of my eyes, a still tender nose, small bruise on my forehead, and the cut on the inside of my lip has been slow to heal.  My neck and shoulders are also still slightly sore.

I've also made some real progress on the whole "life goals" thing this week.  I figured out which classes I still need for which schools, and where and when I can take the classes.  I also finally bought the GRE prep materials (today mid-blog :P) and am going to sign up to take it May 26 I hope. That is very quickly approaching, but I wanted to give myself the option of taking it again before the turn in deadline for applying (I have to take it before July 31st).

And that's all folks!

Update: I just registered (and paid) to take the GRE June 2.  Wish me luck!