[

mood

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sleepy

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[new things in my life:]
-learning to longboard. noah is teaching me on his really pretty longboard, but its sortof a slow process bc its a little scary.

-biking a bunch. this past week i went on a 40mi ride and a 27mi ride, and my parents just bought me a road bike. this is also sortof scary because the tire is thinner and i have to lean forward.

-i am a student at UT. technically. i'm considered a non-degree student because i paid them 30 dollars to be able to register for classes and such, but i'm actually just sitting in on a bio class to prepare for the mcat. being a student is still useful though because that means i can do things like go to the gyms and get various advising offices and professors to take me seriously because im in some way affiliated with the school.

-i am going to start being tutored for the MCAT starting this tuesday. i will meet with the [very eccentric] guy once a week, and we will be using the princeton review books for the mcat as well as the lsat for the reading comprehension and verbal reasoning questions.

-the part of my hair that is usually dyed red is currently pretty orange due to multiple washings. i thought you would want to know. also, i'm thinking about potential additional ear piercings.

-hanging out with taner more is neat, and its cool to be able to get to know him better.

-i miss erin.

[general daily life stuff]
so this is my vague daily schedule.
TTH: 9:40AM Bio class, 11:30AM MCAT Tutor
All other days and times are fair game for being scheduled to work, but it seems like i usually don't get scheduled until the mid week, which is nice bc i usually have at least one shift on the weekend as well. i find out what days i work for the week every sunday. i normally go bike riding with noah and my parents at some point during the week, usually on weekends. when i don't work i'm usually hanging out with noah [also grant when he gets back], reading, doing some form of art [stenciling t-shirts and drawing have been the most common ones of late], or wandering around in the old city or market square. if i can swing it i also would like to start learning poi from someone in a local fire arts group.

working at bravo has pretty much stabilized so now i have many less stressful confused days than i used to and i generally feel more comfortable with the job and the people there. the people are generally cool, although a few of them are annoying and noone likes them, and several like causing drama. but in general i like the people i work with, and i'm really lucky that i can say the other hostesses are fine. theres a small handful of people i might want to be friends with outside of work [mary, caroline, andy, ian], so time will tell in that regard.

ok. i've run out of things to say and i'm really groggy so i'm going to go have words with my bed.

&hearts

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mood

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sleepy

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whew. i have officially turned in a first draft of every section of my div 3. currently it's 33 pages long. i worked hard over the weekend and today to get the lit review, bibliography, and discussion sections submitted.

i feel a bit of relief because now all i have to do is revisions. revisions of what i've written and the graphs and stats i've provided. i may have to supplement my drafts and include more information here and there if my committee thinks i need to, and it will still be awhile before i'm done, but now i feel like the hard part is over. especially since i've at least gotten a draft of my lit review out of the way. i really was dreading that, and even if my committee thinks i need to add a bunch more sources at least now i have something to work with. that was hanging over my head pretty much from the beginning, and especially over spring break. in a way, it's what i considered the hard part of my div 3 to be. and i submitted it today, and now i'm actually beginning to feel that i'm about to graduate, and that this summer is attainable.

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mood

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tired

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back in amherst. somehow it became less than two months from graduation.
today i found out that tea is magic. i worked all day and drank 4 cups of decaf english breakfast and 2 cups of this orange ginger herbal tea. i think tea gives me something to fidget with instead of just sitting here staring at the screen and letting my mind wander.

i sent off the first section of my introduction today. i was supposed to also turn in the lit review, but i'll write that over the next week. so far, unedited and such, my div 3 is 26 pages long. i still need to write the lit review, a small section transitioning to the experiments (all four of which i've already written), and the discussion section. once i do the lit review i believe i'll feel that my div 3 is pretty much "done", because its the only other section that really requires a bunch of research and not just spitting out stuff from my head. the month of april will be editing what i've written, re-doing the graphs to be clearer, and running my own stats exercises with my committee's guidance. so not too bad.

[

mood

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thoughtful

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so its my birthday. i'm 22 [weird].

this has been the quietest birthday in awhile so far. mostly i've been tucked away in my room with earplugs, some earl grey, and a phd dissertation that i'm reading for div 3 background material. i'm tackling the introduction/lit review for monday. its pretty peaceful and hopefully, with my fingers crossed, i will make the deadline. its stressing me out a little, but i still have hope of somehow pulling this off and graduating. there's no actual risk that i wont, but i think every div 3 student sees the graduation date soon approaching and has the worst-case scenario tugging in the back of their mind that they somehow won't finish their div 3 in time.

i'm not sad that i'm not really celebrating my birthday actively, not too sad at least. if i can swing it maybe i'll go out for dinner tonight with my parents, and i know noah wants to do something fun for my birthday but i don't know if that will happen till tomorrow. if it doesn't i hope at least i'll be able to enjoy it just as much even if its not actually on my birthday-day.

growing up is weird. yarr.

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mood

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neurotic

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daylight savings time is messing with me. then again, it could be that i stayed up too late last night watching battlestar and the multiple cups of strong tea i drank today to give my caffeine intolerance something to fight with.

i need a hobby. i would knit if i ever liked the end product.
i also need to exercise ever.
and, you know, ever eat anything other than pasta, eggs, pizza, bread, or yogurt.

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mood

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chilly house

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random assorted bits:

-gabe moved out to take a job in CA. this makes me sad. he had a clockwork daily routine, so its weird that at certain times of the day he isn't in the kitchen making eggs/protein powder+peanut butter/spinach salads/chicken, washing dishes, or going to and from a walk outside or the gym.
-when he moved out, gabe left his desk and various other stuff in his empty room. i get to use his desk to work on my div 3, which means i might just graduate instead of getting no work done on my bed and eventually falling asleep. also, when i wake up i don't have to worry that he's already in the shower, which meant i probably wouldn't get to shower or pee before i had to catch a bus for class [he takes 30-45 minute showers and has done this for as long as i've known him]. this makes me happy.
-i need new nail polish, especially because most of the stuff i already have has dried out and become goopy from being old. i especially need black. <./wrist>
-i met with my div 3 committee yesterday and we set up a schedule for when i should submit specific sections to them through the rest of february and march. i am both relieved to have a schedule and a little daunted when i look at how much work i have to do pretty much every weekend.
-i feel the need to go to a concert. when i'm out in the valley i walk around listening to my ipod very loudly. recently its been mindless self indulgence.
-rachel, jacob, and phil are going to visit this weekend for chris's birthday. i'm very excited, especially to see phil bc i haven't seen him since this summer and because he still has my copy of "A Game of Thrones"
-i'm thinking of going to bonnaroo again this summer. i'm just sad tool isn't there this year.
-chris and i are in the middle of season 4 of buffy.
-um, the end?

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mood

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hopeful

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first day of spring classes.

schedule:
mwf: physics lecture 10am-11am
m: physics lab 12:20-2:15
w: work as ash lab monitor 4-11
tth: TA for face perception at hampshire
saturday: work in ash 12-6:30, excalibur at 8

hopefully now that i have to work anyways i'll do my div 3 more.
please?