Currently Reading
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journal, Book 2)
By Madeleine L'Engle
see related

I've started reading Madeleine L'Engle's book "The Summer of the Great Grandmother" an autobiography/non-fiction of sorts in which she discusses dealing with her mother's decline into senility and how she and the family coped. I can't believe it took me this long to realize I should read it, given the situation with Grandma. No, she's not going senile, but she does have some memory problems, and most things seem to be at a point of resolution right now.
Nevertheless, I think it will be a comforting book to read. Thank you Ms. L'Engle!

ps-I woke up to singing birds this morning... Spring is definetly on the way!!!

Oh yeah... I found out for certain I've been accepted to both U of Idaho and the graduate program I want to study in. Woop!
Tonight: 7pm at Screenland in Kansas City for the evening of academy award short films:) Yay!
And one more thing... I'm officially graduating... I purchased my cap and gown and announcements yesterday!

"Your application for admission to the College of Graduate Studies and supporting credentials have been reviewed. We are pleased to inform you that you have been granted tentative acceptance for the Fall 2005 semester. This acceptance allows you to register for classes, secure university housing, and process your financial aid if applicable."
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO! I've been accepted somewhere. I am so thankful and so relieved! Now I just wait to find out more from my the College of Natural Resources and the Master of Natural Resources Department. Hopefully this letter signifies the beginning of all my colleges responding:)

Currently Playing
Keep It Together
By Guster
wishing I had the whole album
see related

EDIT:
And now, a poem:

I stand on an edge, overlooking the world
One leap and I enter it
Should I stay, I do not grow
At least I’ll always have the choice

I look behind me
Pictures of a life lived
Shy, laugher, growth, learning
My feet shuffle forward, toes hang over the edge...
Still I stare back at all I’ve known

I can feel excitement crawling up my legs
I feel reluctance tugging at my brain
To enter the world or remain static
I smile to myself as I leap forward
Into the world

It was rough tonight, finalizing relationship issues, I'd not done it before and new thoughts keep springing up in my mind about break-ups. Do we feel like we need to make a point because it is the last time we get to try and change that person? In any case, I have no regrets, though I probably should. All I can say is I've learned some important things, and that now is the time for anger and sadness to pass, it is time to move on.

~~~~~~~
So I worked last night and it went quite well. I was working backstage and with a nice Sophmore, Candace. She's who I shadowed, so she taught me all about it and the recital went very well. Luckily I work with her again at recording on Tuesday for the Graduate Honors Recital auditions. So that's fun. It felt kinda cool to be turning lights up and down and opening the door for the performer and even placing stuff out on stage. So, I guess despite the initial misgivings, I'm going to be ok at this job.
Working on more grading again today. I also have a Mortar Board meeting and a house meeting. I am also going to try to get my research stuff done today as well so I can start up again with Craig ASAP.

Working on grading. Adios!

So today was really tough. I had class 10-6:30 with aproximately 2 hours breaks on and off througout the day... this block of classes also included my 3.5 hour aquatic ecology lab, which is fun but I have to get cleaned up again after it because we get wet and sweaty etc... Then today I substitute taught for Leila in her evening lab 6:30-9:30 with Dave (who is her UTA and quite nice even if he's a cell biologist). THEN I came home to a phone message from him (fuck fuck fuck). Sheesh. I'm tired and have a test tomorrow and have to get the quizzes graded to hand out tomorrow morning and don't have my usual time to study tomorrow afternoon because I've got to sit out at Girl Scout cookie booth sales....
anyways, I just had to complain a little bit. it was a long day and isn't nearly over b/c I still have to finish grading and I need to study at least a little bit before slumber. But you know, it wasn't that bad of a day, just long. I stopped by the booth sales at Wescoe Beach today (our first day!) and things were going swell. They'd already sold a bunch in just the first 10 minutes of being set up! Sweetness! I love planning things so they work out well. And this is me, this is all me. I organized everything barring the signing up of troops. I'm so incredibly proud of me and of the group. All the times we have available are due to the willingness of the group to sign up to help! WOOT!
So, if you need your GS cookie fix, come on up to Wescoe Beach during the next few weeks. I'm there tomorrow from 12:20 to 2:30 and Friday from 12:20-3:30!
Have a nice evening everyone!!
(sorry about the foul language)

Big sigh......

Sam is gone. It was so fun having her here! She got to see where I live and what my life has been like the past 3.5 years. She arrived Friday night at about 8pm and we had some dinner together. Then we went up to see The Notebook at the Union (I <3 Union movies!!!) and it was good and sad and weepy. Then we came home and went to bed after talking for a bit. It was also a crazy night Friday night anyway because Shannon went rushing off to help a friend in need and Sara and I were all worried. But things are better now I believe. Anyways, yesterday I woke up way too early but I had to anyways to go do produce prep. for Abbey. It was nice and relaxing and took less than an hour. So I came back upstairs and waited for Sam to wake up. I'm glad she got to sleep in a bit, she was so tired. She woke up and we got ready and around noon we headed to KC(Missouri! ) and The Plaza. It was fun, we didn't get lost at all, only missed a few turns.... We ambled around and looked at stores and bought a bunch of stuff at Bath and Body Works (the guy was an amazing salesman!). I don't know that we did anything spectacular but it felt like a spectacular visit. It was just SO NICE being with my sister again. So anyways, we drove back home to Lawrence for dinner that was fantastic. Then we went to visit Stephanie so Sam could see her place. It was so nice talking with Steph. I think we could talk forever, Steph and I, and still have things to talk about. Or maybe it's just been a while since I saw her. Anyway, I almost felt like I imposed... we kinda just invited ourselves over... but I think it was ok in the end. It forced Miss Steph to eat dinner (Steph... bad you!). So, after that Sam and I headed to Target so she could get a gift for Tony for V-day (more like D-day if you ask me) and then we met up with Anna and Colleen and Colleen's friends at Rudy's and chatted before heading over to Cold Stone. Then Sam and I came back to the hall and talked for quite a while and watched SNL together and just chilled.

So, in conclusion, it stinks to see her leaving, but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO wonderful to have her visit. I love Sunny Sam.

I'm really glad I have class tomorrow evening. I can just forget all about the Valentine's Day I almost had with a boyfriend. j/k I'm not that bitter... really.

DOH! I forgot to tell about the OK trip... hmm, we're getting long here. Ok, quickly:

The Oklahoma Trip was FANTASTIC!! 5 hours down, 4 hours of concert, which for the first hour or so we thought was very strange (Ben Kweller isn't Ben Folds!!). We had a picnic in the hatchback of my car halfway through the evening, and after the concert at midnight I taught Shannon how to drive stick in the Lloyd Noble parking lot, which she learned in an amazing 30 minutes!!! So, then that meant I didn't have to drive again till 2am when we switched (being somewhere outside of Wichita). We had some good conversation and I finally overcame my driving fear (due to the two car wrecks) but not my passenger side fear (everything looks different from the otherside of the car). We got back to Lawrence at 6am and I slept till maybe 11:30am (totally not enough sleep). It was so worth it, this trip. I needed to do this, and am very glad I did.

Life is good, it could be better, but you have to live in the moment and not let that other goodness you don't have bother you! Happy Day!

WHY? WHY would he try to contact me? I told him I didn't want to be friends if he was going to be the way he was. WHY? And to top it off I heard from Chris this week too. I don't do this to people I used to date. I don't torment them by suddenly popping back into being! Life in this area isn't fun right now. I need to be strong and single right now.

Thursday night/afternoon and Friday morning: random (and by random I mean completely so) trip to Oklahoma to see a concert with Shannon. 1st concert I'll have ever been to and first time in OK. Hopefully everything will be ok. I'm dubious of the highway still. And it's a 10 hour trip or so. But we'll be fine, right?

The Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras party was absolutly wonderful! I am so proud of all the women in this hall, I mean, we really pulled together to make the party a hit. It was well decorated, had good food, and lots of our girls came! We did an even greater job considering the co-sponsor of the event, KK, didn't even send any guys over to help decorate except JP and Lance. JP didn't do one thing (that I know about) to help and ended up going to a concert during the event, and Lance was a god. He was so helpful and nice. Then the other KK guys come and steal the pop to take home with them. Come On!
So I was basically busy last night from 5-11ish setting up and cleaning up. But it was a hit, we had a large number of Schol Hallers come despite the 3 inches or so of snow:) We threw beads, had a lot of karaoke singing.
Afterwards because of a little planned spontenaity Shannon and I walked over to the Hawk at about midnight. She had mentioned earlier that she hadn't been and maybe wanted to see it. So, we did. It was fun, course when you are around drunks it is more fun to be drunk too (I'm assuming) so it wasn't the most fun we could have had, but it was all the fun we wanted to have! It was a good shock back to the reality of campus life. This is a huge part of the culture in college and though I don't really understand the whole getting drunk constantly bit, it was fun. We talked, looked around, saw some people we know and then headed back up the hill to go to bed. I may have to go back with more friends. There was dancing downstairs:) It reminded me of the fun times at the bar this summer with the teachers.
And now I've got to dig my car out of the snow so I can get to class!

Well, I think that grading will be going alright for another week at least. For some reason Hangkyo seems to be obsessed with keeping the averages all very similar amongs the three labs we teach. I understand why you wouldn't want one lab with an average of 87 and one with 95, but ours weren't different like that... they were 97,96,92... not that different. All As. And maybe I grade too hard, but if, as he put it, we are expecting them to perfect their labs while working on them in class then why grade 'easy'? I guess I'll never get used to grading. It's always been what I have the hardest time with. I want my students to succeed, and by in large, I believe all my students do, but that doesn't mean they are always doing A work. I don't know. Any help from the teachers out there?
Anyways... Samantha's visit starts Friday!!! And it is snowing to beat heck!!! Yahoo!

Currently Playing No Name Face By Lifehouse see related

Nothing much new today. Just procrastinating my work... however I don't have an awful lot I need to get done by tomorrow. Currently I am getting slightly annoyed at the GTA I work with when teaching 150 labs. He wants to grade everything in each lab report, not just two or three problems. So I do this, and finish my first round of grading the new way and of grading a new bunch of kids. My average is lower than his two and he suggests that to keep lab averages similar I grade all the lab reports and he does all the quizes. Seeing as though he is already letting me do a lot more work than last time I 'team' taught I feel like his priorities are more important than mine, just because he is a graduate student. Maybe I'm not being fair. Anyways, I do not want to grade 74+ lab reports fully each week. I could barely keep up when I did this last semester with only grading 2-3 questions. I guess I just need to let him know this. GRR. Jason was so easy to work with... I miss him!

Nina gave me a copy of her Lifehouse CD. I love it!! Woohoo, thanks Nina! Hanging by a Moment is my favorite song so far... course I liked it before listening to the entire cd.

Currently Playing Love Actually By Various Artists see related

I talked today to some old friends, which was really great. I'm hoping that we can continue to build up the friendship again because I miss it! We were fairly close a few years ago and I'd like to get there again.

I had a short bout of missing being in a relationship the other day. I don't miss Ryan, I miss the time we spent together before break. It was nice! Then he became who he really was or changed or something. Anyway, aside from short bouts of missing that feeling I'm doing pretty well.

I found out for certain yesterday that Samantha is coming to visit me too! So Naomi and Sam are coming, which is super super exciting! Sam is coming next weekend, Fri and Sat, and Naomi is coming March 4-6. YAY! I wish more friends could visit;)

I had a productive day today. Ended up finally getting to Goodwill to find some nicer clothes for my new job. It took a lot of searching, but I found some great items and managed to purchase 2 pairs of black pants, a long grey skirt (Gap!) and a nice button down blouse for 14 dollars. A steal:) Now I'll look nice for work. Speaking of which, my first day on the job Wednesday did not go well, as simple as the job was. I didn't get any hands-on training, and I know none was necessary... however a map of Murphy would have been nice so I'd have known the Black Box Theatre is different than the Inge! But the situation was rectified and I was there to hand out the Rec 100 slips at Intermission. Nobody took them, so I left work early. Kinda sad though, I could have gotten to see the opera for free if I'd been in the right place at the right time.
Working on a quiz for film class then heading to the rec center to get my workout on!

Yay! I should be getting pictures from last semester in the mail on Thursday:) A package from home is always nice, but especially with pictures.

My last textbook arrived yesterday afternoon, joy!

Talked with Laura today, we should be getting our car rental soon. Also exciting news: friend Naomi is coming to visit for REAL in March! Super super exciting!!! Life is good:)