p.s. ~ I registered yesterday to vote in the Michigan Democratic Caucus because voter apathy was beginning to creep in. This year's election is really important, so register HERE to be eligible to vote next week, February 7th. The deadline to register is the end of today, January 31st, so sign up soon!

Blek. I am really sick. This week kicked off with my throat feeling scratchy and extra dry, but it has definitely blossomed into a full-on upper respiratory assault, which has not been fun. Besides the inherent unpleasantries of feeling sick, my "non-drowsy" medication makes me very, very drowsy, which is a bad thing because I have my first physics exam on Thursday and can't afford to sleep the weekend away! Rar. I'll have to push myself to stay wide awake today and tomorrow. Luckily, my mom and dad are coming into town for a quick visit to baby me and take me out to lunch today :)

Anyhow, the end of the week went pretty smoothly despite the consistent sub-zero temperatures. Thursday night I went to public open skate at Yost with Stephanie and had a really good time. I haven't been skating in a while but ended up doing alright. I took ice skating lessons for a short time when I was little because I was convinced that I wanted to be a professional ice skater when I grew up. It's something I'd definitely like to get better at. I saw Emily there, who is a figure skater, so I kept watching out for her fancy moves on the ice :) Afterwards, I hung out with Stephie and Adina for a little while, but started to feel really sick and went home early. Yesterday, I woke up and thought there was a porcupine in my throat. ALL I did yesterday was lounge around, complain about feeling sick, sleep, and let Wanton take care of me. I tried to do a little physics, but that was pointless. We'll see how today unravels, though.

That's about it for now; nothing too exciting going on. However, my cousin Shoma called and might be coming in to GR from Baltimore for Valentine's Day weekend (a.k.a. President's Day weekend for single folk, she reminded me) to go skiing! She's a snowboarder and wanted to hit the slopes on her rare weekend off, so I think I'll be strapping on my goggles and practicing my slalom in my living room soon so that I don't make a fool of myself in a few weeks. Then, in stark contrast, I'll be on my way to the Gulf of Mexico the following weekend! Que buena! :D Ahhh...I'll leave on that thought. Later skaters.

Okay, I stole this from Emily...it's a fun map of all of the states I've visited. Hooray! It's not as impressive as I was expecting, either. HOWEVER, I will be adding 3 more states soon on my way down to TX for my cruuuuuuise: Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas!



create your own visited states map

Looking at this map just reminded me for the umpteenth time how ridiculously HORRIBLE I am at geography: once again, I forgot Iowa was in the midwest (but in my defense, doesn't it just sound like it would be one of the square-ish West states?), and also completely guessed as to the location of Nebraska; blast that elusive state. *sigh* Some things I'll never be good at. Oh well :)

Okay, I've got to make this quick because I've already wasted a lot of time tonight...yikes!

So, I finally did it - I bought a hat. My ears were simply in PAIN walking to class yesterday, so Josh took me to JCPenney, where I had a random left-over gift card from the holidays, to buy some of those wrap-around-the-back-of-your-head 180 ear muffs. Well...OF COURSE they only had bright red and hunter green left, neither of which match either of my coats, so I decided I'd settle for a fleece headband. Lo and behold, there were none of those left either! I'm not talking just Penney's anymore either, folks; I mean in the mall. I swear I searched every store that could possibly carry hats high and low and found nothing except weird, weird ones. A word to the wise: don't winter weather shop after Thanksgiving. Finally, having worked myself into a fluster and wasted about an hour and a half, I suggested we try Meijer where, if worse came to worst, I could just get one of those lumberjack Carhartt hats. Now, of course I wasn't actually seeing this as a viable option, but worse did indeed come to worst and guess who rocked a black wooly men's hat today? *sigh* Although I was noticably warmer, this experience has only deepened my aversion to winter headgear - I kid you not, I look like a burglar. I swear people were giving me furtive glances and clutching their purses and backpacks a little closer to there person today in anticipation of some criminal activity on my part. Some salesperson at Michigan Book and Supply today, even as I was standing by the door waiting for Wanton, asked me very suspciously if he could help me with something...the nerve! :(

Hat trauma aside, things have been going pretty well. I've had 2 good runs in a row this week and am planning on going strong right into Spring Break...and mabye even after, unlike last year! The CCRB has become markedly busier this week, which I think is directly correlated to the quickly-approaching break. I don't mind, though...having company on the track helps me pace myself and stay motivated watching all of the hard-bodied, dedicated runners in there. Hopefully I'll be one soon, too :) Also, one of my faaaaavorite holidays is coming up soon - VALENTINE'S DAY! I love love and have already noticed an increase in the number of sappy love songs on my playlist. I'm lucky to have a very special Valentine, too. Keep your eyes peeled for some Valentine's Day-themed posts in the near future maybe. *For all of you love haters out there, insert gagging noise HERE*

Well, that's about it. I'll leave you with a final picture from Rick's 2 weeks ago. I SWEAR I'm not there all the time, although one would get that impression from reading my weblog. This is from when Shadi's friends visited:


From left to right: Me, Josh's head, Shadi, Alice, Anna, and Marty in the front

Two things:

1.) I'm going to Mexico for Spring Break...hooooooray! :D Our cruise disembarks from Galveston, TX on Monday 2/23 and sails to Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, Mexico, then returns to TX on Saturday, 2/28. I'm so excited!

2.) Here's a cute pic from Rick's last Saturday night. We definitely wanted to take an Indians-only picture to represent our love for the subcontinent. Also, we always laugh that you can never see Indians in the pictures that are taken outside at night except for the whites of our eyes and MAYBE teeth!



From left to right: Solomon, AJ, John, Sheila, Me

And, that's John's symbolic representation of West VIRGINIA, not West India, because he's definitely from the dirty South. Toodles! :)

By the way, here are some older pics from our mini-Thanksgiving dinner and Sheila's 21st birthday:



Three talented Thanksgiving chefs!



AJ, Sheila, myself



Celebrating Sheila's 21st at Charlie's!

Ahhhh. No Friday class is truly a blessing. I actually got up reasonably early today, however; lately I've been sleeping in past 11 a lot, which I rarely do. Sure, I don't go to bed until 3-ish, but I hate wasting an entire half of the day - I feel so unproductive, so I'm glad I'm up a little early today.

This week was nice because it was extra short due to MLK Day on Monday. Classes weren't bad at all and Carrie came in to town last night to say her last goodbyes for the weekend before she leaves for South Africa next week for 5 months...*sniff, sniff* I can't believe she's leaving already! Shadi and I didn't get to see her that much last night, but she'll be here until Saturday, so I'm sure we'll get some good ol' Friend Marathon-style time in together. Other than that, this weekend brings me a lot of work to do since I accomplished quite literally nothing last weekend. I did finish a novel, but this weekend I definitely need to ratchet up the productivity. I'm talking maybe even a library DAY - I know it's early in the semester to be having these thoughts, but my first physics exam is slowly creeping into my peripheral vision. Blek.

In other news, I've seen a glimmer of hope regarding the cruise. My parents are very much on my side - they know how desperate for sun I get this time of year - and having both of their support as travel liaisons is certainly advantageous. I know my dad can fannagle (how the heck do you spell that?) something or at the very least have some good suggestions. I was actually giving up hope for a while, but I got that annual Sonya-Spring-Break resolve and burst of energy back, so I'm pushing for it a lot now. It would be so nice to lay on a beach in sunny Mexico in 4 weeks. Ahhh...understatement of the year - I hope it happens.

Also tonight, big game for the Pistons against Timberwolves at 8:00 pm. We lost our last game to the Pacers, which ended our 13 game win streak, but we had played 6 games in 8 days and were tired. Not to mention Indiana is really good and Jermaine O'Neal and Reggie Miller are definitely forces to be reckoned with. Winning tonight in Minnesota would be big, so hopefully I can park it on the couch to watch for a while.

Well...I guess that's it for now. I've got some work to get going on and I'll try my best not to leave the apartment. The wind chill is -5 degrees outside today in Ann Arbor. Brrrr! Bundle up!

So, it's been about a year and a half since I've posted last - that long weekend threw me off big time. It was relaxing and fun, but as always, I didn't quite get the amount of work done as I would have liked. Oh well.

Thursday night I went to Rick's with Shadi to meet her friends who were visiting from Cali. I didn't feel like being out too much, but I stayed for a little while - her friends are so cute. Friday I had lunch with them at Zingerman's, the well-known pricey deli that had a hand in making Ann Arbor pseudo-famous. After that, I gave myself a pedicure and hung out with Adina and Stephie at night. We made some strawberry daquiries and played Scruples, a board game that pretty much makes you guess your friends' response to tough ethical questions, such as the following: *You feel as though your mechanic has overcharged you on labor, but notice he forgot to charge you for a $16 part. Do you mention his omission?* They joked that my self-righteousness makes me an easy target in this game because they could just pick the most morally sound answer as my predicted response. Hey...I'm not THAT predictable! Anyways, it was fun to see them. Saturday I again wasted the day but at nighttime, my roommates, all of our boyfriends, and my sister and John went to Rick's. I had a blast and got a good dose of dancing out of my system :) Everyone kind of dressed up a little and I think our hot moves on the dance floor were the envy of many that night...seriously though, it's not easy being a dancing machine. Hehe. Sunday I did some work in the morning, grocery shopped in the afternoon, and learned how to play hearts with Josh, AJ, and David at night. For some reason, we got obsessed with wanting to play Clue the board game and tried to convince Sheila to buy it from Meijer, but were unsuccessful. *sigh* I did make some pretty good blueberry muffins, though...maybe that'll be my bribe next time when I want a random Milton Bradley game. Monday I headed home for the night to visit my family and returned this morning. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to go to any of the MLK Day events, but being with my fam was important. Overall, it was a long weekend, which was nice, but I need to be a little more productive this coming weekend.

In other news...I'm bumming out about Spring Break this year. I found an awesome deal on a 5 day cruise to Mexico and Josh and I are both game, but no one has the funds to accompany us. Hell, I barely have them myself, but we all know how sun-starved and desperate I get around this time of year. Anyhow...I hope that the cruise falls into place somehow; at this point, I don't really see too many options, but I've felt the same desperation in past years and something has always fallen into place. Hopefully, this will too - my legs are looking a little too jaundice-y from the lack of sun for my own taste.

Well...I guess that's it. I need to start getting back into my weblog rhythm. Things are starting to pick up this semester and it would be wrong of me to deny you, my adoring fans, the intimate details of the goings on in my life, I know this. I'll try harder in the future. Goodnight :D

*A few conclusions I've reached today*:

1.) I need to move from Michigan. I think I reach this conclusion every year, but this time I mean it. I feel so depressed and irritable during the winter that literally getting out of my bed in the mornings becomes a seemingly insurmountable task. I need to live somewhere where winter is much, much milder - and shorter.

2.) I need a hat or at the very least, some sort of ear-covering contraption. Even though I look terrible in hats, I'm tempting frostbite every day and losing unmentionable amounts of heat through my head.

3.) Electrical charges and fields are confusing. Thus, Physics II -- "Electricity and Light" -- will become the bane of my existence this semester. Starting now.

4.) I'm pretty darn good at algebra. I even impressed myself today doing my physics problem set and Wanton agreed. It makes me feel good to be decent at something science/math-related, even if it is 9th grade level algebra.

5.) Allison and I agreed today that, with all due respect, our "Literature of the British Empire" professor resembles a bass. Yes, the fish.

6.) Being a senior rules. No class tomorrow. No class Monday. I think I draw this conclusion every day now.

Have a good night. See ya later, Ralph Naders.

Well, look out your window because pigs might be flying - I actually went for a run today. Normally, this would be an accomplishment, but it isn't so much anymore because I've been talking about getting back in shape since September. Oh well - even though I ran half today what I normally run when I'm in shape, I ran more than I was expecting, which made me feel good. Now, the trick is sticking with it - once I've got 2 good weeks in, I'm golden.

In other news, it's Wednesday night and since I only had two classes today (done at noon) and no class on Fridays, it already feels like the week is winding down. Sweet. I mean, I'm still taking 13 credits and also studying for the DAT (starting next week - yikes!), so my slacker senior schedule isn't as impressive as some other people. However, it's a nice break for me. AND...since MLK Day is next week Monday, I have a mini 4-day vacation! However, this year, I definitely want to take part in something MLK-related organized by the MLK Symposium. The University gives us this day off for a reason and personally, I don't know as much about MLK Jr. as I'd like to or should, for that matter. Yes, it'll be tempting to go out Sunday night and lounge around Monday...very tempting..., but I'm lucky that U of M has so many interesting events planned for Monday :)

Okay, my raucous neighbors are having a snowball fight outside my window. I hate snowball fights because I've only ever been in two real ones and BOTH TIMES I got hit in the face with an ice ball. Seriously. Both times. I don't like pillow fights either because I always get a headache - speaking of which, a new student group has recently been formed at U of M with intentions of breaking the Guinness Book record for the longest and largest pillow fight on the Diag, planned for this Spring, I believe. I'll keep ya posted. Anyhow...it's time to do some reading, since tomorrow's my last day of class for the week. Ahhhh. Sleep tight.

Today I found two gray hairs on Josh's head - an unsurprising discovery, according to him. Apparently, he's had silver hairs ever since he was little, which I believe since he so closely resembles his Uncle Eddie who is completely gray at a relatively young age. Once at his grandma's house, I saw a picture of Uncle Eddie at his wedding in the early seventies and it definitely took me a moment to realize that it wasn't Josh...getting married...in a tweed suit with elbow pads. Weird. Gray hairs = getting older = now I have to enter the real world. :(

Anyhow, today was uneventful except for the fact that I finished my first novel of the semester. That's right, it's been a week of class and I'm already done with one. Oh well, I enjoyed it a lot. Also, I don't have class until noon tomorrow which means I can catch up on my beauty rest. I've felt so drained these past few days and have fallen asleep reading some much today that it'll be nice to get some sleep. Speaking of rest, I'm also trying to figure out what to do for our rapidly-approaching "spring" break. Now, the University doesn't even try to kid itself and officially refers to it as a "mid-winter recess" because that's exactly what it is - it isn't spring ANYWHERE in the western hemisphere from February 21-29. Anyhow, because warm weather is what I seek and it helps to revitalize me and cure me temporarily of my winter blueness, I usually opt for those types of vacations: 75+ degrees and miles of beach. However, due to lack of funds/participation this year, I might just have to live it up in GR this break. Basically, if we can't go anywhere sunny (which is more for therapeutic reasons than vanity), I'd rather save my money for my upcoming dental school application expenses, which I'm estimating to be upward of $3K. Hmph. We'll see - if you're a wolverine and have a cheap and warm-weather vacation in the works or are interested, drop me an email.

Well, I guess that's it for tonight. I'm yawning and my contacts are protesting me against staying up much longer tonight. Sweet dreams.

Well, I'm back, ladies and gents. There was a little communciation glitch between Blogger and the U of M server recently, which meant I couldn't post anything for a while after I got back from break. However, my techno-savvy friend Emily came to the rescue and figured out the problem, so I'm back in the game. I might not be posting a lot in the next few days due to an increasingly busy schedule and a few other issues that have arisen, but stay tuned - I'll be back soon. Goodnight.

Well, it's been over three weeks since my last post, which is wholly intentional. I decided that instead of making 15 or so mildly boring posts over break, I'd just summarize at the end into one big post and include all of the interesting things that happened over break, which brings me here. Tomorrow is the first day of class of my tenth and final semester here at good ol' U of M...well, as an undergrad, at least - I'd jump for joy if I was accepted to the U of M dental school.

Anyhow, I'm going off on a tangent here - back to winter break: I had a fun time this year. Since this break was the longest I've had from school in a year and a half, it was very welcome. It started with me going home and watching the early 90's hit "The Cutting Edge" on TV by myself eating popcorn and sitting in my Dad's Lazy Boy. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of break. I saw Lord of the Rings with my sister and a handful of her friends shortly after I came home which was incredible (and Viggo Mortensen is too hot - and a great actor to boot!). On the 22nd of December, Josh and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary by spending the day in the Windy City (Chicago, for my non-Midwest fan base...do I have a non-Midwest fan base?). We visited Shedd Aquarium (I was, of course, thisclose to tears AGAIN during the dolphin show) and shopped the Magnificent Mile. We had a very fun and romantic day as the weather was near 50 and we got a great parking spot. We were also so proud of ourselves for managing big city public transportation, using the complicated bus system AND taxis, although neither of our families seemed to be too impressed. See, Wanton and me, we're not big city travelers, so this was a small victory for us :)

Christmas soon approached and our family friends from Bloomfield joined us to celebrate. On Christmas Eve, we attended Calgary Church's service, well known in West Michigan for having thousands of lights decorating the interior of the beautiful church, after which we had a huge dinner at home. On Christmas day, we had a nice gift exchange - I got almost everything on my short wish list this year. You seriously know you're getting older when you actually ask for underwear and a nice thesaurus as gifts. Also, for Christmas day dinner, my extended family and Josh went downtown to Degage ministries to make and serve dinner to homeless and needy people in Grand Rapids. My sister recently started volunteering at Degage and suggested our family volunteer on Christmas. For me, it was a very important experience and I'm so glad that we all went together; in addition to interesting conversation, it was a reminder as to how fortunate I truly am in life. We all had little "jobs" during the evening and mine was to take a checkers board around and see if anyone wanted to have a round or just sit and talk. Josh played basketball in the gym, my cousin worked the grill, etc, etc. I know that everyone had a great time. After that, we came home, stuffed ourselves again, and played Cranium, a fantastic game, by the way.

Generally, my time between Christmas and New Year's was spent doing in-between-Christmas-and-New-Year's type things, such as gift returning, cleaning the house, and trying to get in touch with my friends from high school. Also, my Mom gave Josh and John (my sister's boyfriend) tickets for the four of us to the see the broadway musical "Mamma Mia!" as Christmas presents, which we saw during that time. I didn't know if I'd enjoy it very much since I was only familiar with 2 ABBA songs at the time (whose songs the musical is based on), but it was very fun and charming and I now have my new "Best of ABBA" cd spinning non-stop. Finally, New Year's rolled around and my friend Adrienne gathered together a group of us to go out to dinner and then go downtown to two different college-ish bars. We pre-bought our tickets and everything, so it was well organized. We had a good time...it was fun to see some friends that I hadn't seen in a while and meet some new ones that accompanied others . My good friend Michelle and her fiancee Jason came into town from Minnesota, so it was a treat to see them. The next day, they came over and watched the Rose Bowl with Josh and I - let me pause here and wipe a little tear away from my cheek. Although we didn't play our BEST, USC is a tough team to beat and I'm happy we made it this far my senior year. As always, GO BLUE!

Well, I think that's about it...it's been a nice 3 weeks. I wouldn't say that it flew by or that it dragged on, either. I got to spend some time with my sister and my parents, as well as some time by myself. We played some great board games and also did a few new things this year for the holidays that were fun and made all of us feel good. Although I'd like to stay home for a little while longer and be pampered and have incredible meals cooked for me, it feels good to be back in A-squared and also, a little bittersweet that this is my final semester here. I want to make it a good one :) Tomorrow's post will be my look back on 2003 and my resolutions and projections for 2004. Hold on to your seat...it's gonna be a crazy year! For now, my fingers are getting tired and my eyes heavy, so the hay I must hit. Sweet dreams tonight.