Happy 2011?

Seems to be a theme with me, never really sure if it will be a good new year.

On the other hand, I did wait about 3 weeks to post (okay longer, so sue me) so that must mean something right? Like, my life is so busy and full that I just rarely find the time to post anymore.

While that's part of it, a bigger part is just laziness. But hey, no need to start the broken record on that topic.

On to the main events.

I drove down to Rochester after work on the Thursday after my last post. Jackie came over to my house and we hung out for a bit and played with Belle, then I went out to eat at Culvers with the parents and she had dinner with her family, then we reconvened at her house, drove to the Dairy Queen in Byron, ate blizzards, then went back to her house and hung out until late. I wish we could hang out more often. I drove back up to Minneapolis on Friday (New Years Eve).

I spent New Years Eve at Nathan's place, drinking and playing games and generally hanging out.

The next Friday after work I headed down on I35 to meet my family in Albert Lea and then continue on to Des Moines for the Coughlin family Christmas. What should have been a drive of around an hour and a half became a 2 and a half hour drive. It was horrible, the traffic wasn't moving and the weather wasn't even that bad. That drive was maddening. Finally met up with the family and had some McDonald's and then mom drove my car down to Des Moines. After Albert Lea the traffic cleared up more but the weather got worse. The roads were slick with ice and the wind was blowing snow everywhere.

Okay this is ridiculous, I'm going to post this one now and continue updating on the next one and hopefully I'll eventually catch up. I've probably already forgotten a lot of what I'd planned to jot down here for eternity but alas, it is now lost forever.

Planet Earth

Planet Earth is brilliant. I've always thought so, but having recently acquired the BBC version on DVD I just felt the need to reiterate that point.

Again, I haven't updated in awhile, which sadly means that there will not be 54 posts this year as there have been for the other two years I've been writing in this blog. This year there will be a paltry 41 or 42 if I actually manage to post again before Saturday (unlikely).

Baby polar bears are adorable. There may be a few interjections like that throughout this post, but I just can't help it. Adorable!

So on the 15th my first Genetics lesson was due. 3 chapters to read, questions from each to answer, and a quiz to take. I started off well, reading the first full chapter and answering the questions, but then I started running out of time. Only read half the second chapter and only enough of the third to answer the questions. Sigh, already a bad procrastinating student. To make matters worse, my second lesson is due in a week but I haven't even begun reading the two chapters for it. I blame the holidays.

Speaking of which (ducklings!) I had my first Christmas the weekend following. Went down to Waterloo, IA to have my mom's side Christmas. Two of my three male cousins on that side brought girls - one a girlfriend of 4 years, the other a new fiancée. It was fun, we hung out on Friday night (played Apples to Apples and I lost horribly), had church and presents on Saturday as well as more extended family showing up for awhile, and ate food and drove home on Sunday. I got a car emergency kit, a winter hat thing, an Amazon gift card, and a check.

OOO Great Whites leaping to catch seals! <3>

The following week I worked, and on Thursday the 23rd Katie and I did behavior and then headed out. I drove down to Rochester and spent the weekend with the family + Megan's bf Kory. Went to see Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and How Do You Know - first one was fun, second was long.

Turn around elephant, you're going the wrong way! That part always makes me sad...

Anyway, on Christmas Eve we all went to church at 4:30 and actually had to watch it on a big screen in the school because the church was full. Afterwards we headed out for Christmas Eve dinner at Olive Garden. It was delicious! We mostly filled up on salad and breadsticks, leaving plenty of our main dish for leftovers. We headed home and changed up tradition by opening presents. One of my gifts was the set of Planet Earth DVDs. I also got a heated mattress pad (which is warming my bed right now), U of MN sweatpants, and a crock pot!

Elephants playing in water - so cute!

Afterwards we watched White Christmas and headed to bed. Mom had to work Christmas Day, which explains the departure from tradition. It made for a strange Christmas - sleeping in, just hanging out, lounging in pj's all day (the last two aren't new but the first certainly is). Megan and Kory went back to Eau Claire to spend Christmas with his family. When mom got home she made the rest of us go on a family walk. We took Belle as well (in the Santa suit) and played fetch with her during the entire walk. The wind was freezing cold and it wasn't that much fun but it did force us to get dressed. We all enjoyed our leftovers for our Christmas meal. That night I gave mom her birthday present (plastic spoons) and anticipated leaving before she got home from work the next day (yes she had to work on her birthday as well). On Sunday I ended up staying and went to Noodles for lunch with Hannah, who got a job down in Iowa starting the Monday after New Years. Exciting for her! Then went home and waited for a few minutes for my mom to get home so I could say Happy Birthday again and then headed home.

But does the excitement end there? Of course not!

I went over to Nathan's house and got to meet his two brothers, Kevin and Brian, and proceeded to play drinking games with them and get smashingly drunk. Shots of tequila and some mixed UV Blue/Mountain Dew drink made for a very very interesting/intoxicated night. First time I've ever thrown up from drinking, and that made me feel great actually - the throwing up excess liquor part at least. I know I know I probably shouldn't be posting about this, especially considering my mother reads this and all, but this kind of stuff happens so rarely for me it's kind of an event that must be shared.

Managed to get to work on time on Monday, worked, and then went back to Nathan's to hang out and then go out to eat with him, his brothers, and his parents at Applebee's. It was the complete contrast to the night before. Whereas I had tons of fun with his brothers and felt really comfortable around them, I felt the complete opposite with his parents. They did not ask me a single question all night and the comments I made trying to insert myself into conversations or start up new ones went ignored/unanswered. I felt extremely awkward, uncomfortable, and unliked the entire time. Sigh. So that was a bust. Hung out again at Nathan's on Tuesday night and tonight he came over here. Been watching PE (obviously) and just now had a nice chat with Jordan about his plans for life etc. I should get to bed but I'll add my plans for the next few days and hope I eventually post about them.

Tomorrow I'm going to work in the morning and then head down to Rochester to hang out with Jackie before she flies back to California. I'll probably stay the night there and then head back up here to spend New Years Eve with Nathan.

My New Years Eves for the past couple years have been marked with events. 2008-2009 was the day that Jasmine died, one of the most heartwrenching nights of my life. 2009-2010 was the first night I ever got drunk, thanks to Tom's margaritas, playing Mario Kart and WoW and having a grand old time, to distract myself from the tragedy of the year before.

Deer with tusks! Seriously - image search "musk deer." It looks like a sabre-toothed deer!

This year I expect to be doing a bit of the same. Different company of course, but same basic idea.

I certainly hope 2011 goes better than 2010 did.

By the way, in case any of you felt a bit of deja vu reading the title of this post, it's because this is my second post by this title. I didn't realize until now, but check out the original: http://welcometothemaelstrom.blogspot.com/2009/01/planet-earth.html

Life Is A Highway

Just a silly thing that I refused to do on Facebook but will do here for funsies.

RULES:

1. Put your MP3 player, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.

4. Have Fun!

IF SOMEONE SAYS 'ARE YOU OKAY' YOU SAY?

Another Day

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?

All I Want Is You

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

Apologize

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?

No Good Deed

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?

You Oughta Know

WHAT'S YOUR MOTTO?

My Happy Ending

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

New Born

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

A Thousand Words

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Black Balloon

WHAT IS 2 + 2?

Shakey Ground

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

Baby, Please Don't Go

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Bleed It Out

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

Invincible

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Everybody Hurts

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?

The Sweet Escape

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Sleep All Day

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Complicated

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?

Bad Medicine

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Name

WHAT DO YOU WANT RIGHT NOW?

It's Gonna Be Me

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Bitch

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?

Life Is A Highway

Kind of lame yes, but some of the answers came out really fitting (like Muse's Invincible popping up for what I wanted to be when I grew up... just funny).

That's all, will update on life etc later.

Happy Turkey Day

So here's my attempt to get back in the groove of updating.

The rest of Wednesday was spent staying up late, packing, and watching the rest of the entire first season of Glee.

Woke up somewhat early on Thursday (~9am), finished packing, and went in to work for about 45 minutes. Then went home, put all the stuff in my car, put the rats in the passenger seat, and headed down to Rochester. Got home a little after 11 am and sat around with the family and had fun reintroducing the rats to Belle. Had the delicious Thanksgiving turkey meal around 1pm and then I can't even remember what we did the rest of the night.

Megan and I stayed up late, then all the girls woke up at 4:30 am on Friday. We headed over to Menards and waited outside in line in the freezing cold. It opened at 6 and a bit before then mom chatted up the security and found out where they were keeping the TVs (22" flatscreen for $100). As soon as the doors opened Sara and I rushed in to the spot while mom and Megan grabbed a car and we managed to get 4 TVs, 2 DVD players, 2 PUR water filters, and 1 bathroom scale. I got one of everything except the DVD player. We piled all the purchases into my car and then I drove home while the other 3 went on to more shopping. I got home and slowly brought in all the purchases. It wasn't until I brought in the last load however that dad woke up and came down to see what all the ruckus was about. Convenient timing I say. Went back to bed then for 4-5 hours. Later on Friday (~4pm) mom took us girls out to see Burlesque. I really liked it! It was a very basic plot, no real new excitement there, but man Christina Aguilera can SING!

I just took a 5 hour break here and completely lost track of what I was doing.

Okay so after the movie I don't remember at all what happened other than probably watching Animal Planet (Life) with Megan and Sara and making more Sneak-a-bite cookie dough. It didn't turn out very well though because I melted the butter a little too much. Then Belle stuck her nose in the bowl and we were done with it.

On Saturday I got up and called Jackie and she came over. We played with Belle and decided to go eat at Green Mill. Spent a long time there chatting about our lives and eating calzones (pretty good) but eventually she had to head out to go to the Holidazzle parade. Saturday evening Sara, Megan, and I met dad at BWW's but it was too busy so we went over to Culver's to eat instead. Ah my old Culver's, how I miss the people but not the actual job. I miss the discount too, but oh well. Don't remember Saturday night but probably more of the same.

Sunday I got up and went off to Noodles to have lunch with Hannah. We sat there and talked all through the lunch hour and beyond and probably could have kept going if I hadn't needed to get on the road. Went home, picked up Sara and packed all my stuff in the car, and headed back to Minneapolis. I discovered immediately that my cruise control wasn't working so I'm going to need to talk to Jordan about that. Got home, unpacked, and then Nathan came over for a bit and we watched Star Trek on my new TV - it was awesome.

Monday I got up, went to work, and had very little to do. After work I bummed around for a bit and then went over and hung out at Nathan's for awhile - watched some Big Bang Theory. Then Nathan, Chris, and I went over to the Cub Foods near their house and went grocery shopping! Although as soon as we got through the door those two took off and left me to my lonely self. It was fine though - I finally have food now and I don't know what to do with myself! Drove home in the rain, started unloading my car and one of the cheap paper bags broke on me. Was a very stressful end to the day.

Today (Tuesday) I got up, went to work, actually spent the whole day working, came home, and did nothing. While I'm often a fan of nothing, today it feels pretty lame. Played some games, watched some TV (Happy Feet!!), ate good food, and otherwise accomplished nothing. Although earlier today I did finally file a claim against the Half.com seller that never sent me the textbook I paid for (I also ordered another textbook from someone else - someone with 100% positive reviews). So I'm hoping that gets resolved.

Well I think that's it for now. My rats are being adorable and clamoring for my attention so I'm going to go give them some love and then shower and hit the sack.

Goodnight and good luck!

and during the last 6 weeks...

And so the bad habits return.

Have I been too busy to post?

Not at all.

I've definitely thought about posting here and there but just somehow never felt motivated enough to actually do it. Now it's the day before Thanksgiving and I have 6 weeks to catch up on - a daunting task indeed.

So here goes nothing!

The order may be a little screwy but I'll start with the jist of what happened the rest of October:

We played in the kickball finals and played great but lost by one run in the first round and then won our second round putting us in 7th place (out of 8). Not great but tons of fun. So that was the end of the fall kickball season.

The Saturday before Halloween I bought a couple of pumpkins and made Nathan carve one while I did the other one. It was the first one he ever carved and they turned out great! His is the kitty and mine is the scary face.

We spent Halloween at my house handing out candy and watching GATTACA and a couple of the Shrek movies.

Moving onto November then, a lot has happened!

On November 1st I signed up to take an online class through the University of Minnesota. It's a genetics class, extended term, and fully online (except for 3 exams), and is basically required for any vet school applications (which I'm now seriously considering). Paid my tuition and ordered the textbook on Half.com on that day and my textbook STILL hasn't arrived... that's been an ongoing frustration. Excited to start moving forward with my life though! I also bought GRE prep books and am planning on taking that at some point.

The first weekend in November Sara and I drove down to Rochester to go to Catherine's (our neighbor growing up, a grade above me) wedding reception. It was very fun and nice to go home. I also gave Belle a bath that weekend which mom really appreciated.

The second weekend in November Sara and I drove over to Eau Claire to visit Megan on Friday night. Emily (Sara's friend) also came and we spent a nice chill night watching movies, bowling, and eating cookie dough. Saturday we all went to Perkins for a late breakfast/early lunch and played a card game that I just don't remember the name of at the moment. Then Sara and I headed back to the Cities in crappy snowy weather. Arrived home to find a package fro m Denmark on my doorstep! Now that was certainly a pleasant surprise - especially once I opened it and found the chocolate, candy, and other random things inside it (including a kickass mustache!).

Had to work that Sunday - about 5 hours of animal behavior and extremely painful. Afterwards I went with Nathan house shopping with his realtor. She had scheduled 10 houses to visit, and since I went directly from work and with a headache that was also extremely painful. But Nathan bought me Taco Bell afterwards so it was all worth it :P

Finally this past Thursday night (Nov 17) was the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. I went to it with Sybylla at the Mall of America theater. We got there around 10:40 pm and the line zigzagged from the theater at the south end all the way to the entrance for the east side parking. And kept growing after we got there! We didn't have to wait too long until the line started moving, but it moved painfully slow. Finally got seated (decent seats) and fully enjoyed the movie. This is probably the best movie as far as accuracy alongside the book is concerned. They did give Hedwig a more heroic role as well as a little speech for Dobby but those were good adds instead of the crappy singing toad crap they added to the third movie. It was a little slow but so is the first half of the book so it was pretty good overall. Really looking forward to the second part though! Didn't get home until ~3:30 so it was a slightly painful day at work on Friday - but well worth it!

This past weekend I worked again on Saturday followed by more houses (only 5 this time) with Nathan and then Dairy Queen as my reward :) Saturday night I went to see Unstoppable with a friend and it was actually better than I expected. Not fantastic, nor worth the exorbitant ticket price, but still not terrible. The terrible ice storm hit Saturday night while we were in the movie so I ended up spending the night (scary roads - passed 2 cars in the ditch on the 5 minute drive). Sunday morning I got up early and drove down to go in to work again just for about an hour to dose animals.

This week has been lame. Worked until about 6pm yesterday and 5:30pm today because we're writing a grant (money is good for lab morale) and it's just really annoying. Tomorrow (Thanksgiving) I actually have to go in for a little while to change tissue and then drive home to Rochester to see my awesome family.

In general, I have been watching a lot of Glee lately (almost done with the first season), am reading the fourth in the Sword of Truth series (on my Kindle - I'm an idiot for forgetting I had the ebook versions), finished watching the Legend of the Seeker as well as the first season of Battlestar Galactica, at some point got a frantic call from my mom about taking Sara to the ER but she turned out just feverish and okay (still went over and took care of her til mom got there), playing some WoW, waiting for my textbook to arrive (finally got to contact the seller since the shipping window expired yesterday), and hoping to start getting re-motivated as far as exercise, GRE, and future is concerned.

Thanks for catching up with me!

Also, I can kill you with my brain.

I need to buy a pumpkin

So Muse was fantastic. Chris and Nathan drove to my house and we took the lightrail up to Target Center from there. It turns out they had already eaten so we stopped at Jimmy Johns so I could get a sandwich and waited for Jeremy and Kyle. They arrived, we went in and found our seats, and then the opening band played (Passion Pit). They were decent - the lead singer sounds like a girl in my opinion - not that that's bad, just an observation (the lead singer is male btw). They got off, and then we all had to wait like 30 minutes for Muse to come on. Seriously, the crowd got so bored we started doing the wave... at a concert... wtf? After that went around a couple of times they finally turned the lights off and started. Had a great entrance - these building looking things just dropped the sheets covering them to reveal Muse playing in the middle. It was crazy! They opened really strong - Uprising, Knights of Cydonia, Supermassive Black Hole, and Hysteria were all played right away. They were great live too - not that it's a surprise but you just never know. It was different enough from the CD that you know they weren't lip syncing but still really good. So the concert was great, but eventually it had to end. When it did we all had to wait in a ridiculously long line to buy lightrail tickets which meant we missed the train and had a half hour wait for the next one. So the boys got hungry and decided to stop in the small pizza place across from the station. Cardboard-looking and tasting pizza was purchased (along with a drink for me) and awkwardness took place inside the shop (owners trying to throw some teenagers out... yea). Eventually got on the train and home. Was a good night.

On Wednesday around 6pm Vicki and I met at DQ and picked up an ice cream cake for Sybylla for her birthday and then delivered it to her house. She was completely surprised (she claims not to have been but she totally was). We interrupted her making dinner, but made her dive into the cake so we could have a piece as well. Stayed for about an hour but then had to let her get back to dinner.

Thursday I went back to Sybylla's house after work and watched her finish making another birthday cake. It was delicious cake but the frosting was less than fantastic. We hung out for awhile but then I went home.

Friday was a whole lot of nothing. People wanted me to go out and do stuff and I was like, no. Instead hung out with Nathan for awhile and accomplished nothing.

Saturday I was supposed to go in to work for an hour but my coworker went in earlier and did it herself. So I did nothing all day until later that night when I went out to see Wallstreet 2 with a friend. It was okay, I guess I was expecting a bit more action, not to mention Shia LaBeouf just seems too young to be playing an adult role. Apparently it's better if you've seen the first one, which makes sense. All I keep seeing is Louis Stevens from the old Disney channel show. Good times.

Sunday was a lot more nothing, other than discovering that my roommate cooked and ate my cinnamon rolls. Grrr. Also discovering that USA was playing all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies in a row... curse you television! Of course I "watched" all three...

Monday went in to work for about an hour (it was Columbus Day!) and then went down to the Mall of America to meet up with mom. She just drove Sara back up to the U and we met there for some tasty lunch at Arby's. I also went to Best Buy and bought 2 Muse CD's (Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations). Afterwards I had to drive Sara's cell phone (which she left in mom's car) up to her at the U and then back home for some quality time with my room. Went for a walk somewhere in there - was gorgeous outside. The whole weekend was in fact. Last October was all rain and (yes, believe it, I was walking to work through it) snow. This October has been beautiful so far! Of course I probably just jinxed it, but oh well.

Today I woke up, came in to work, dosed 17 animals, wondered where my coworker is (still wondering in fact), updated my blog, and will now be departing to try to find my coworker/s.

PS - I need to buy a pumpkin

Muse!

Okay so tomorrow I get to go see Muse live at Target Center and I'm so excited about it that I can't wait until tomorrow to post about it!

Which is kind of lame considering I really have nothing to say about it until it actually happens. Suffice it to say that I'm planning on taking the light rail there and back and going to see them with Nathan, Chris (for his birthday), Jeremy, and someone else who's name I can't seem to remember. Kyle perhaps? Anyway, I've spent pretty much all of today (after work) listening to Muse and reading the remaining 2/3 of A Plague of Angels by Sheri Tepper.

I bought that book in a used bookstore merely because I know I like the author. It wasn't until I started reading it (about a week ago?) that I realized I'd read it before in high school but didn't really get it. Finished it again today and it was so much better than I'd remembered! She has such a way with building crazy new political systems and possible futures for mankind it's almost surreal!

So while I did have a list of things I wanted to accomplish tonight (running errands, doing some stuff for a project for work, finishing tying together my tshirt quilt on my bed, etc) instead it's 11:30 pm and all I've done is eat some dinner and finish reading that book. And now updating my blog, because what better time to do that?

In other news, I have been sick now for far far too long. It's probably only been about a week but I have a continual cough (sometimes dry, sometimes not so much) and it's really just annoying.

Oh yea, I did have a semi-eventful weekend recently. The 24th-26th of September to be precise. Megan came into town and her and I escorted Sara and her roommate Kelli to some frat parties on campus. We also got some amazing burgers and malts at Annie's in Dinkytown - delicious & highly recommended by me! It was lame so eventually Megan and I went back to Sara's dorm and hung out until they got back, which is when we kidnapped Sara and took her back to my house where we all slept. Saturday we got up lazily and then drove over to (wait for it) Saint Sabrina's where Megan and I made a permanent mark declaring our sisterly love. That's right, we got tattoos. Mine says "Live" on my calf and Megan's says "love" on her wrist. Sara is planning on getting one saying "laugh" on her ribs (she thinks). Saturday afternoon then Megan and I drove down to Rochester to find a way to break the news to our parents. Got home then went to see a movie with mom (You Again - not terrible but not great) and then afterwards snuck in to see The Easy A (mom's idea! and again, not terrible, not great). In the car on the way home (because she was in such a good mood) we decided to break it to mom. Complete opposite reaction of what I expected. Instead of surprise and disbelief we got sadness and disappointment. We felt terrible. And then had to go break it to dad! He was less distressed by it but still didn't like it. Drove back to the cities on Sunday.

Lost a kickball game terribly on Tuesday. The ump wasn't calling time, ending plays, so even when our pitcher had the ball and thought the play was over the other team would keep running. We lost and our team got a bit upset but oh well.

This past weekend was much more uneventful. Ate KFC with Nathan, played hours upon hours of WoW (I'm lame, okay?), and pretty much accomplished nothing other than messing up my sleep cycle and experiencing hot Tang for the first time I can remember (delicious by the way - going to have to buy some of that stuff!).

Today was just another regular work day. Performed behavior on mice in the morning, made graphs in the afternoon, so on and so forth. One thing I may have mentioned previously but may not have is my concern about all these papers our lab is trying to get published recently. I am not listed on a single one of them. Some of them I understand since I was either really new when the experiments were going on (just learning) but some of them I contributed as much if not more than others who are listed as authors. I'm feeling very forgotten but I don't know what to do or say about it. Do I just keep quiet? Do I ask? I'm so chicken I'm afraid to ask... help!

My rats are adorable. They always climb to the top of the cage whenever I walk by, just wanting some love and attention (and they usually get it). Luna is still a bit chubby but whenever I feed them I try to give Evaine the bigger pieces so she doesn't get too skinny and Luna too fat.

I'm up way too late, and have done NOTHING. Curses. Well now I'm going to go shower and hopefully get some sleep.

Reminder - if you have any advice for what I should do about the papers at work please feel free to share!

Thanks and goodnight!

PS - Set list! Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1/ Uprising/ Knights of Cydonia/ Supermassive Black Hole/ Star Spangled Banner instrumental, Hendrix style/ Hysteria / Guiding Light/ United States of Eurasia/ Feeling Good (Michael Buble)/ interlude drums and bass/ Undisclosed Desires/ interlude/ Resistance/ Starlight/ House of Rising Sun instrumental/ Time Is Running Out/ interlude/ Stockholm Syndrome/ ENCORE Plug-In Baby/ Take a Bow