How annoying. I wrote a long post this afternoon and the Blogger server went kaput just as I was about to publish it. *sigh* Anyhow, the bottom line of the post was that I had a good weekend and got to see both "The Last Samurai" and the "Lights Before Christmas" display at the Toledo Zoo, two things I've been wanting to do lately. Also, I'm also only 2 days away from winter break of course I'm REALLY looking forward to. AND, it snowed here last night, so that means that by now, there's substantial snow in Grand Rapids for a sledding/skiing fest this break. I hope all of my EK friends are up for some good ol' winter fun this year! :)

Well, I should get back to studying - I'm trying to finish strong since being done with physics has given me this deceptive and dangerous feeling of finality for the semester. It's nice to think that in two days I'll be reading in front of my fireplace with no homework to worry about and only relaxation to look forward to. Ahhhh. Have a good night!

Well...it's official - I don't stand a chance for dental school. Okay...that's not wholly true, but it sure feels like it.

I don't know why, but for some reason, my personal experience at the University of Michigan has shown me that my success in science classes is not proportional to the amount of work I put into them. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I know that I work very hard and believe that I understand concepts and problems, yet am consistently disappointed with my performance in these classes. Physics and physics lab dominated my semester and I actually sacrificed my three other classes for it...I even was off to a very strong start in September, but in the end, I'm disappointed in myself and discouraged for my future...just like every semester for the past 3 years.

I really wish that I could get back on the horse like other people and have enough confidence in my abilities to shake this off, but this certainly isn't the first time I've felt like this. I almost wish it was an issue of just not studying hard enough and knowing what to do better next time. However, I don't know what to change or improve. *sigh* I'm applying for dental school this coming May and I can honestly say that I won't be the least bit surprised if I don't get any calls back. I know U of M is competitive and I'm not looking for inflated, high school-scale grades, but just for a grade that reflects my hard work. Clearly, I'm doing something wrong.

*okay, I posted this earlier, but due to a glitch with my FTP space, I couldn't publish it. Enjoy!*

Well, today's the big day: my physics final is at 7:30 tonight. I must admit that this has been kind of a weird impending test for me - since I've spaced my studying out so much, I'm not feeling too nervous at the moment, but I'm kind of nervous that I'm not nervous. Should I be nervous? Am I actually nervous? I just don't know! Well, I'll just try my darndest tonight and then physics will be over for the semester at 9:30!

I got up really early this morning and in a valiant effort to encourage me, Josh said he'd make breakfast for me, so I had scrambled eggs, veggie bacon, an english muffin, and coffee at his place this morning, then popped on over to the library. Right now I'm home taking a quick lunch-and-TLC break, but I'm about to head back up to the library. I'll probably stay until about 6, then come home and try to eat dinner and not look at my notes anymore. I don't know about this laxness I'm feeling in terms of this exam - hopefully it's because I know subconciously that I'm prepared (?) rather than being lazy. Either way, think of me between 7:30 and 9:30, or longer than that if you'd like :) After tonight, the rest of finals should be smooth sailing right on into 3 weeks of doing nothing...except for finally finishing Harry Potter 5 and seeing the Lord of the Rings on Wednesday (we already got our tickets!). Wow, that last sentence was SO geeky. Have a wonderful afternoon!

Yay! It's the last day of classes for the stinkin semester! I can't believe it's finally over because I definitely felt like I'd be studying "the rise of the American novel" for the rest of my life. Whew.

Soooo...guess how I celebrated? Well, first I went to the Grad and worked on some physics (yipee!), then I coerced Josh into buying me a McDonald's sundae (no clue why - I've been craving one for about 3 weeks now...), and THEN I went to the Great Union Study Break with my buddies Stephie and Carrie. There were a lot of cute things to do, even though we stood on the sidelines for most of them since we only had an hour with which to pick and choose our activities wisely. There was gingerbread house making and let me tell you that SOME people do not know how to make a damn gingerbread house. Steph definitely pointed out the shoddy no-pointy-roof one...hello? The pointy roof is the quintessential characteristic of gingerbread architecture! How dare anyone omit that! We also saw the gingerbread Pentagon, which was pretty funny...but I guess low-scoring in the difficulty category (I am such an elitist). Also, we checked out the "inflatables" in the Union ballroom, which consisted of the infamous joust, moonwalk, and sumo wrestlers. Obviously, I almost pee my pants everytime I see the sumo wrestlers...I actually think Carrie and Stephie were on the verge of being embarassed from my laughing so hard. Oh well. At least I didn't pee my pants.
After that, we played 3 rounds of Survival Bingo ("Survival" because the grand prizes were packs of paper towel, toilet paper, dryer sheets, etc. - hey, I'm not complaining). It was fun and Carrie won a round. I never win :(

Finally, we took a Pasadena-bound themed picture of ourselves in front of the M flag and holding tissue paper roses - this was purely a show of UofM pride and loyalty because we had another option of a backdrop which was a menorah and dreidels to celebrate Hanukkah, which was equally enticing. I'm serious. Check us out:


GO BLUE!

All in all, it was a good night, besides the fact that I got lost in a random physics lab at 10:30 looking for my review session...I just haven't had any luck this week. Anyhow, I'm going to look over my notes and hit the hay. The grand plan is to be up by 8 and at the Grad by 9:15 tomorrow morning. Ha. Good night! :)

Here's a fun pic Andrew took on his camera phone of Carrie and I at Scorekeepers last Thursday:



YAY for being able to do pics!

Hooooooray! My friend Emily just came over and showed me how to jazz up my weblog a little. Now I know how do to colors and sizes and pictures are soon to come!

So...keep an eye out for my new-and-improved WEBLOG! :D

Oh boy. I am sick...as...a...dog. That little tickle in my throat on Saturday is going to turn into a full-blown, flu-like fever any minute now. This is horrible. I worked hard to finish everything early so that I could just study physics all week, but I've already had to take two short naps today...since 3! I'm in bad shape, not to mention that I definitely got Josh sick and maybe Carrie too. I hope I can at least hold out until Friday night, but we'll see. Josh told me all of these geeky endocrinology-related things to do and to not do in order to keep my immune system working overtime until after my physics exam because it doesn't look like echinacea and Vitamin C are gonna cut it. Yikes.

Just thought I'd warn anyone who has been around me lately: preventitively take some vitamins now so that you don't get sick, too. I'm sorry :( Wish me well...I'll need it by Friday!

Quote of the evening - Josh: "Let's go be sick somewhere together, Son. Like at the movies." (fever and finals do not mix!)

Well, this weekend was literally nothing but studying...which is good, because I got a lot done and am not feeling too stressed about anything right now. Just wait until Friday morning, though, before my physics final...yikes! Also, I'm getting a cough and sore throat, so I'm trying to ward off any sickness that might present itself in the next few days. I had an orange for breakfast with my tea and am drinking a lot of liquids...sure I had 3 cans of Diet Coke today, but that counts as liquid, right?

Well, instead of listing off all of the things I have to finish and worry about for finals, I thought I'd make a list of why finals hasn't been and isn't going to be *that* stressful this year...I'm trying to be more of a freakin' optimist :) Here we go:

1.) I bought a 24-pack of Diet Coke on special for $6 to get me through finals until next Tuesday. It might sound like a lot to you, but believe me, I'll polish that bad boy off by Sunday, no doubt. (subliminal message: YOU WILL FORGET THIS BAD HABIT OF MINE WHEN YOU COME TO ME FOR DENTAL CARE IN 6 YEARS...).

2.) AJ taught me how to make popcorn in a saucepan on the stove tonight! Seriously, it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen...I have no idea why. You just put a 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a saucepan, put one layer of popcorn kernels in the bottom of the pan, and heat that puppy up. BUT, make sure you hold a plate or a colander over it because I almost lost an eye tonight. It was so funny...for some reason it reminded me of something out of Dr. Seuss. Not to mention that the back of the bag explained the physics behind why popcorn kernels pop, which was so cute. Sure I've mastered microwave popcorn (no, seriously...less than 10 kernels and perfectly popped EVERY time), but I've never done this before, so it was a lot of fun.

3.) The GUSB, acronym for the "Great Union Study Break," this Wednesday from 8-11pm. They'll have free food, comedy, a raffle, sumo wrestling and joust, gingerbread house making, massage, and tons more, so I'm definitely stopping by for a quick study break!

4.) I made one of the best purchases of my life on Friday. Okay, maybe that's pushing it, but sometimes I see these products that I could SWEAR were made just for me. I definitely bought a "Sandwich Saver," made by the WonderBread company, that is this minature tupperware container shaped like a piece of bread (isn't that hilarious?) in which you can carry a sandwich without risking squishing! Yay! I always take a PB&J to the library and it always gets squished by my can of pop and the jelly seeps through the bread, so this is perfect. Okay, not to mention it's shaped like a sandwich, for the love of God! :D

5.) Emily's coming over on Tuesday night to help me supe up my weblog...we'll see about adding in those pics and who knows where it might go from there!

Wow...I could keep going with this list! I'm really excited for a lot of things coming up in the near future so finals doesn't seem as intimidating this year...or it just could be that serious senioritis has kicked in. Either way, I should draft and wrap up my final paper for Caribbean lit, then head to bed early so that I can get a good start on my non-stop physics week. Have a wonderful night and good luck on finals!

Whew! The bar last night was a trip. We headed out early to Scorekeepers to celebrate Josh's birthday and I think everyone had a great time. It was really fun to hang out with a big group and honestly, who can complain about $1 Long Islands? The only downer of the night was that someone left with both AJ's and her friend Solomon's jackets...sure it could have been a mistake, but we feel much more justified in our anger if we assume that someone intentionally and maliciously stole them. Rar.

So...I think Josh had a nice birthday. Carrie made her famous applesauce cake for him and we popped a few bottles of champagne to celebrate his 22-ness before we went out. For my present, I got Josh a ChiaPet Herb Garden (it's a long story - the bottom line is that he killed his old herb garden, so this one should be much easier to manage) and tickets for the two of us to the January 11th Pistons game vs. Dallas. We're both really excited to see the Mavs play, so I think he was happy with that.

Also, my exam went okay last night - it's always hard to tell with anything physics-related, though. Who knows, really. I'm glad it's over and I studied pretty hard for it, so hopefully my grade will be reflective of that. On a related note, today marks the beginning of studying-for-finals hell, so I'm trying to brace myself. I have to head out tonight and get some Diet Coke and studying snacks (and some dinner stuff, too) from Meijer to get ready for the long haul. December 16th can't come soon enough!

Finally, one of my best buddies Carrie will be studying in South Africa next semester from February until June (or something crazy like that), and I think the reality of her being gone is finally starting to set it. I'm sooooo excited for her and truly believe that it will be an amazing life opportunity, I just know it'll be a little hard to not be able to talk to her every day...at least we can all be thankful for email...and digital cameras. We've really got to push friend marathon these last few weeks so we all see each other a lot. I'm gonna miss you, Harrie!

Okay...I'm gonna go run and grab some sushi with Josh and his sister Jamie, then it's on to work work work. Take care.

p.s. ~ How'd you like that italicize action in the last post? ;)

HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY, JOSH! :D

Wow...I AM a champ. That review session for physics lab I was heading off to at 7? Yeah, wrong physics class. I don't know how I goofed that one up, but I'm taking 127 and the review was for 241. I believe the saying "smooth move, ExLax" is in order. Oops. Now that I've apparently missed reviews for both my class and for 241, I'd better hop back in the reading room and make up for lost time.

Hmmmm....I'm starting to notice a theme. I always seem to have an overwhelming desire to post when I'm sitting here in the Grad and staring at a sheet with equations for moment of inertia and error analysis on it. Yeah, I'm sick of physics.

I'm studying for my lab final, which is tomorrow. It should be okay, but we'll see how I'm feeling after I go to the review session at 7. If I can just push it until tomorrow at 6, I'll be golden. Then, we'll do a little celebrating for Josh's 22nd birthday...hooray for deuce deuce! This weekend will be pretty packed, but I'm really looking forward to classes ending. I think this feels like the longest semester in my college career so far, it's weird. As far as the last day of classes goes, there's a little party in the Union with a bunch of games and prizes (generally, dorky things that I like to do), so let me know if you're up for a short break from studying next Wednesday night.

In other news, I'm currently working on getting a research assistantship in the dental school and am talking to some people, so cross your fingers for me! Working in the dental school next semester could be extremely advantageous right now as I'll start my apps in May, not to mention the cash-money couldn't hurt, either. Maybe I'll take my pals out to dinner ;)

Okay, it's that time in my post where I start feeling guilty about putting off my work (and self-conscious that some graduate or PhD student is looking over my shoulder at the "Blogger" screen on my computer and scoffing at my immaturity...hehe). Have a good night!

Yikes. I'm having a horrible night. I'm at about 24% productivity and am just getting more and more frustrated by the second.

I really do think I could handle things a little better if my stupid head health would improve...I literally have a raging headache by 2:30 every day, and I can't tell anymore if my caffeine dependence is causing them or if I need to drink some or suffer from withdrawal. I know it's a little of both, but I can't just quit. Being a student, I have weird and inconsistent hours, not to mention fluctuating levels of stress. Sheesh, I sound like an Excedrin commercial.

Anyhow, I'm just contemplating my bad student health and state-of-mind right now instead of getting at my paper. I'll drop a line later, when I'm not doing it just to procrastinate further. Peace.