I'm in the mood for a colored post again, so there you have it. Not too much is new on the homefront over here. I only have class until noon on Wednesdays, which is nice, but I have a tendency to stay up too late Tuesday nights in anticipation of my shortened Wednesday. I definitely nodded off a few times in my physics lecture this morning - not very classy for sitting in the front row. Josh and I went out to sushi for lunch and I spent the afternoon reading. I had to attend a SAPAC in-service lecture by the Washtenaw County Prosecuting attorney tonight, then watched the majority of the Pistons game instead of doing homework. Ay caramba. Senioritis has definitely set in in a big bad way. I do have a lot to do this weekend, however, and am expecting to spend quite a bit of time studying for my physics exam between tomorrow night and next Thursday. I'll probably head home next weekend to hang out since I'll only be home for 2 or 3 days between my last final and graduation and will then start working that following Monday! Sheesh - apparently the real world doesn't believe in recuperation.

Also, tomorrow is not only April Fool's Day, but apparently National "I'm Embarassed by My President" Day, as well. I thought this was pretty funny. Thank goodness it's an election year.

That's it for tonight. I think I'll stay up and read a little more tonight, hit the hay early, and get up early to work on my British Empire paper. I'm really enjoying both of the books I'm reading for my respective English classes right now - Julian Barnes' A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters and E.M. Forster's A Passage to India. They both come with my personal endorsement. Sleep tight :)

It's kind of dreary outside today and it's supposed to stay like this the entire week. I'm glad that at least it's warming up a bit, but for some reason, I always seem to be the only one with soaked jeans working their way up to my knees whenever it rains. Oh well.

So I'm doing this post in pink because I've been in a serious *love* mood lately. I just want to listen to cheesy love songs and watch a romantic-o movie. My great love songs of the day are:

- "Only You" - The Platters
- "This I Promise You" - N'sync (I'm not even gonna lie about loving N'sync)
- "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" - Bryan Adams
- "Say Goodbye" - DMB

What more can I say? Spring and apparently love are both in the air. Maybe I can convince Josh to take me out for a romantic dinner sometime this week. Or to a movie. Or a bunch of daisies would be nice. We'll see :)

Anyhow, not much else is new in my world today. I have to work on a physics problem set, do my physics reading, take the short online reading quiz, and then read E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, tonight as homework. I'm trying to use my time well this week since I have a paper and physics exam #3 next week - hopefully I'll get enough of a start on my paper to devote a lot of time to physics this weekend. I can't believe it will be April day after tomorrow; this year has really flown, but I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Okay...time for physics. Sheesh - when isn't it time for physics? Peace out.

p.s.~ The word of the day is vulpine, meaning of, relating to, or resembling a fox, foxy, or crafty. Use it!

Apparently, this weekend was all about weblog neglect. I'll try to make up for it.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday my mom came up to hang out and I basically spent the rest of Friday night worrying about DP Day with AJ and wasting time. Well, not wasting time, really...we were trying to come up with ice breakers for our volunteers to do since we were both site leaders. Some of the examples DP suggested were pretty lame (alliterate your name with adjectives that describe you, i.e. "I'm slippery Sonya and I like smiling at snakes"...AJ's brilliant creation), so we tried to come up with our own. Eventually, that just turned into ideas for "ice breakers" that we thought would give us a laugh, and we finally decided that making 20 volunteers who are all complete strangers play spin-the-bottle would be totally inappropriate albeit funny as hell. DP Day the next day turned out to be a lot of fun and we had absolutely gorgeous weather. I was co-site leaders with my pal Adina and our site was working with St. Christine's Community Center to clean up trash in a community garden, playground, lay soil and woodchips in the garden, and help demolish and clean up a deteriorated garage. Our site was pretty large with 21 volunteers and they were pretty darn hard-working. I was definitely impressed even though the pep was non-existent at 10:30 in the morning when I asked if everybody was ready to have fun (come on...I'm an ex-cheerleader!). Perhaps that was way too lame. At any rate, everything at our site went smoothly (they even provided veggie burgers for lunch) and DP Day 2004 was a great success. Congratulations are in order since Stephie is on the Planning Team and works her tail off year-round to make DP Day and other DP projects run smoothly, so congratulations Steph on a job well done! :)

Saturday night, Sheila, AJ, Josh and I literally sat in my apartment ALL TOGETHER not making a peep and studied for a solid 2.5 hours even though we were all within 100 square feet of each other. Why the intensity on a Saturday night? Basically, we decided that if we all worked hard enough for a few hours, we would reward ourselves with a trip to Rick's...and some Backroom pizza. Even though we all did a great job and deserved a night out, apparently the rest of U of M had the same idea because we ended up waiting in line for over an hour. I should have known that the hint of warm weather would drive every college kid in a 10 mile radius to the bar! Anyhow, we ended up having a good time and Shadi and her friend Sandra ended up joining us, too. Sunday I worked like you would not believe on my 3 lab reports due today and went to a Crisis Line potluck and game night. Let me just tell you that physics is slowly beginning to drive me crazy - I'll be the first to admit that I love buouancy and that I'm fascinated by centripetal motion, but 126 is the most tedious class I've ever taken. *sigh* Just a few more weeks to go!

Finally, I got a new hot air popcorn popper today because I eat so much popcorn and sometimes the artificial flavoring and too much butter upset my stomach. I'll have to give it a test drive tonight :) See ya later alligators!

Let me shed a little tear because there are no new questions for The Friday Five this week. However, being resourceful, I decided to check out the archives and answer The Friday Five from this Friday last year. So...

(from May 23, 2003)

1. What brand of toothpaste do you use?
I am and always will be a Crest kid (even though I'm currently using a Colgate that I got at the dollar store...but I don't like it one bit). I use the Whitening Crest because Diet Coke, tea, and coffee are staining my teeth.

2. What brand of toilet paper do you prefer?
When you're a college kid living in an apartment, you stop having toilet paper preferences. As long as it's 2-ply :)

3. What brand(s) of shoes do you wear?
Just about anything cute. I just got a new pair of red Chuck Taylors :) I wear tons of flip-flops from Target, too.

4. What brand of soda do you drink?
Is this even a question? Diet Coke (see above).

5. What brand of gum do you chew?
Extra Polar Ice. But I like Big League Chew as a treat. Did anyone ever notice that Big League Chew is basically marketing tobacco products to children? They finally put a disclaimer on the back that says "Real Athletes chew Big League Chew." Yeah, right.

So, there it is. I love the Friday Five so needless to say my heart dropped thismuch when I saw that there weren't any questions this week. *sigh* I had a really fun day today. My mom came up to Ann Arbor around noon to hang out. We hit up the lunch buffet at Madras Masala which my mom totally killed! After lunch, we went to Caravan, my favorite store in Nickel's Arcade, and then drove to the Kensington Outlet Mall. We shopped around for a little bit and then met Josh and his sister Jamie in Brighton for dinner. It was fun and I have some goooood vegetable lo mein left over for tomorrow night. Tonight I'm going to do some work on a lab report and then try to hit the hay early...I have to be up and at 'em at 6:45 tomorrow morning for DP Day. I still have a pretty bad cough, but other than that I'm feeling great. Hopefully I'll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow. TGIF.

It's 3 pm on a Thursday and my week is over...ahhhhhh. I just took my British Empire Lit exam and it went very well. I wasn't too worried anyway and although I woke up at 8 this morning to finish studying, I laid down for a nap in lieu of learning the date of the Battle at Waterloo. Oh well :)

I still have a problem set of Mastering Physics to do tonight, but that shouldn't be a big deal. I just hope that I finish it in time to go to Dance Mix, a conglomeration of a good number of the dance teams at Michigan shakin' their money makers on stage. Why won't I be up there with the best of them, you ask? Well...Carrie and I DID plan on trying out for Dance 2XS (get it?...to excess?), but then we had awful visions of a Vaudville-style hook yanking us off stage during our tryouts. And she found out she was going to South Africa. *sigh* Anyhow, here's hoping that I finish in time!

In other news, my near-death sickness from this past weekend and earlier this week is practically gone, leaving just a cough in its place. I can't believe how effective those antibiotics are - I mean, the doctor said it'd be a night-and-day change for the better, but I wasn't expecting to feel this good so soon. I could run a marathon! On second thought, maybe I'll just sit here and watch TV...hehe. Actually, with the weather warming up a bit, I'm feeling in the mood to exercise lately, so feel free to accompany me on a run sometime soon. Maybe a cute, new mini ipod would get me excited to run...pink, please! *sigh* Maybe for graduation.

Finally, the word of the day according to Merriam Webster is INDISSOLUBLE, meaning permanent or incapable of being undone, broken, or annulled. Use it! (and leave me a comment telling me HOW you used it!) Okay, time to write some emails...enjoy the spring day! Adieu.

So I'm perhaps feeling my worst tonight but at least I muscled UHS in to giving me some antibiotics today. After I woke up with my eyes practically glued shut and my sinuses feeling as though I lost in a bar-room brawl last night, I called UHS and told them to schedule me for today, baby, because I was misdiagnosed yesterday. This level of persistence is uncommon for me, particularly with regards to my health, but as my mom advised yesterday: "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Advice well taken.

Besides that, not too much else is going on. I'm trying to study for my exam on Thursday with little success, but I'm done at noon tomorrow and am not too worried anyway. My mom *might* come up to A2 and hang out on Friday, but no plans are cemented as of yet. I definitely just feel like watching a romantic movie tonight and eating Gushers (for some reason, I'm craving something gooey - maybe I've seen too much phlegm lately. Eww). Perhaps after I finish reading "The English Mail Coach" I'll call it a night. Sounds riveting. Good night.

Well...I'm sicky Mcsick sick again but apparently, unusually colored mucus and other alarming things in your tissue doesn't constitute an illness OR infection at University Health Services, so I'll just have to tough it out without antibiotics. I guess I don't want to breed super-resistant bacteria anyway.

Basically, I spent the entire weekend reading on the couch, watching March Madness, and complaining about my runny nose. Luckily, I have a pretty laid-back week and can take the time to recover wholly. I have an exam in my British Empire Lit class on Thursday, but I'm not too worried about it. This weekend is DP Day and Adina and I are co-site leaders. Together with our 21 volunteers, we will be helping St. Christine's Outreach Center clean up their storage facility and work on a community garden. Fun! It's supposed to be pretty nice weather, too, so that's definitely a plus. Also, this weekend is the Annual Ann Arbor Pow Wow sponsored by the Native American Student Association - I've wanted to go every year and hear that it's really cool and interesting, but never quite got around to it. Hopefully I can make it on Sunday morning. I guess that's about it for now. I'm going to go put on my sick uniform (Michigan hooded sweatshirt, gray sweatpants) and sit around. On second thought, maybe some new shoes will make me feel better. We'll see *wink* Catch ya on the flipside :)

p.s. ~ UAB over Kentucky?! My bracket is gone to hell...but what a game!

With all the commotion of my busy-fun day yesterday, I totally forgot to do the The Friday Five! So, without further ado, here we go...

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
Without a doubt, my restaurant would have to be dessert and coffee/cappuccino only, somewhat like La Dolce Vita in Ann Arbor. I'd have an extensive cheesecake menu as well as fine chocolate.
2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Used books. Or wands, if my store was in Diagon Alley *wink*
3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Non-fiction/biography. My sister and I are actually planning on co-authoring a book about the hilarities *and oddities* of living with my parents. We're compiling stories right now.
4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Dance.
5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
I would love to be a singer/pianist like Norah Jones or Alicia Keyes and put out music like theirs.

There you have it, folks...one day late, but still made with loooooove :)

Kinda of weird series of events today. That project that I was going to do in Detroit today unfortunately got cancelled - there was a fire at the school started on accident by some people re-tarring the roof, so they had to send the kids home. I'm disappointed because I was getting excited *and nervous* for my project and put a lot of time in to preparing for it! I really hope it can get rescheduled on a day that I can attend...otherwise, ALL of my friends will be getting alpana lessons in the next few weeks! :)

So, since I had my afternoon free because of the DP project cancellation, Josh and I went to see a matinee show of "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" - the new Jim Carrey/Kate Winslet movie. I loooooved it. It's been a long time since we've seen a movie that we both enjoyed so much. Especially if you're into movies like Being John Malkovich (Sunshine is produced by Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter for Malkovich), I highly recommend it. Then...we squeezed in a quick trip to T.J. Maxx's to kill time before dinner with Stephanie's family...man, I forgot how much great stuff that store has! I had to stop myself today from buying shoes and bags that I neither need nor can afford. I walked out successfully empty-handed. Finally, we had dinner with Stephanie and her family in Livonia at Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant with a funny-as-hell name. Everything was "family-sized" (and therefore family priced), so we had a LOT of food. I'm still stuffed! It was so fun to see the Schmidts again...it's been a while since I've spent some time chatting with Mrs. Schmidt and Biakabatuka was fun, too. I mean...Buca di Beppo ;)

Finally, Josh and I came back to Ann Arbor, grabbed some coffees, and wandered around Barnes and Noble for a while. I love strolling through the bookstore and looking at all of the Time/LIFE photography books - even though I literally choke up every time I'm in a bookstore looking at pictures of "American Splendor" or the "Life of Elvis in Pictures". I hate being a Palit; it's a double-edged sword of having startlingly good looks but a wicked emotional side as well. *sigh* I'm kidding. Well...I'm feeling not-so-hot tonight. I think my cold is moving toward something more serious and I guess I'll find out in the morning what that is exactly. Sweet dreams, amigos, and if I'm sick tomorrow, bring me some chicken-free noodle soup...or some chocolate. Nighty night.

Well...it's now officially St. Patrick's Day and I'm sure that somewhere on campus, somebody has started to drink. I've never been able to figure out how anyone can imbibe alcohol before 12 pm, but hey...I'm personally no professional. I think we're heading up to the bar sometime after class but before the lines get really long around 3. I'll have a couple of drinks to celebrate good ol' St. Patrick, but probably won't stay out all night. My fragile frame can't take thaaaat much drinking.

Anyhow, just wanted to wish ya'll a little luck o' the Irish today and tell you this joke:

Q: What's Irish and stays out all night?
A: Patty O'furniture!

Haha! Have a wonderful day, me lassies and laddies :)

Oh, I almost forgot...well,...I DID forget. Thank goodness Emily is on top of everything! :)

Yesterday was PI day (3.14), so here's a little joke in honor of everyone's favorite never-ending number:

Q: What do you get when you take a bovine and divide its circumference by its diameter?
A: Cow pi!

Also, today is the Ides of March...Et tu, Brute?

Whew...it's been a fun weekend and now I'm getting back in to the rhythm of the work week...only to be interrupted by a mid-week St. Patty's Day and of course, an extended three day weekend! Yay! :D

Anyhow...I had a lot of fun this weekend. My physics exam on Thursday was done at 9:30 and I was dressed to go out to the bar at 10! We had a great time celebrating AJ's birthday at Skeeps and a bunch of our friends turned out so it was a good time. Friday I literally watched TV for about 9 hours including a super cheesy love movie on ABC Family Network by myself - it was perfect (the evening, not the movie!). I rarely watch TV these days, so it was fun to relax with AJ and David and eat junk food :) Saturday my sister was in town so I had lunch with her and her boyfriend John and she took me to Target for some toiletries and other goodies I needed to buy. I worked pretty hard on my physics lab report Saturday, too, but couldn't resist a few rounds of drunk Scattergories at night after which we stayed up late telling scary stories and scaring Josh, my sister, and myself half out of our wits. See, AJ loves scary stories, movies and scaring everyone else - that girl is mean, let me tell you! Besides having to keep one eye open while I was washing my face before bed, it was a fun time. Sunday my parents came in to town for the University Honors Convocation and then took me out to dinner and to a chocolaterie on Main Street. I had a good time (and some expensive and veeeery good hot chocolate) with them and the 4 of us haven't hung out in a while so we had fun. Also yesterday, I finally checked out *Big Ten Burrito*, the new hole in the wall fast-food Mexican place that just opened this week on State St. (right next to Campus Corner) and it was awesome. The food was fast, cheap, good, and they don't charge customers any tax, which makes for even bill totals for those of you who don't like to carry change (Josh and Stephie!) - what a cute gimmick! I'm very excited for Big Ten and encourage you to be, too!

Well...that's about it. I had a packed and fun weekend and it was nice to relax a little after my exam on Thursday. I don't have a very busy week, but I am going out on Wednesday for a little while, seeing Shadi either Wednesday or Thursday (or both!), and volunteering with Stephie on a DP project in Detroit on Friday in which I'll basically be teaching elementary schoolers an Indian artform called alpana...and we all know how nervous I get in front of groups of kiddos! Wish me luck!

Before I forget, here are three cute pictures from our skiing extravaganza on Valentine's Day weekend when my cousin was in town. They're a little grainy because they were taken using her camera phone but cute nonetheless:


My cousin Shoma and I chatting in the morning


At Bittersweet Ski Resort; L to R: Josh, Me, John (Tanya's boyfriend, Tanya


Shoma, Tanya, Me after a loooong day of skiing

Sleep tight :)

Here we go! Taken from www.fridayfive.org, it's

The Friday Five!

1. What was the last song you heard?

The last song I heard was "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks as we were leaving Scorekeepers last night...and I'm NOT ashamed to say that I was singing along :)

2. What were the last two movies you saw?

Unfortunately, I saw "Along Came Polly" at the cheap movie theatre last weekend and before that I saw "Love Actually" for the second time on a romantic date with Wanton...again, at the cheap movie theatre.

3. What were the last three things you purchased?

Yikes. Okay...if drinks don't count, I bought my sexy black top that I wore last night, an adorable pair of pink boy-short underwear with red hearts on them, and cake batter and frosting for AJ's birthday cupcakes!

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?

Laundry (in a big, bad way), write a lab report, read Don Delillo's "White Noise", and I GET to hang out with my sister who will be in A2 tomorrow.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?

I just got off of the phone with my daddy, AJ and David and I were chatting and watching TV together, Sheila stopped by, and Josh called shortly before that.

Yay! I'll post again later with some details from last night - typing is kind of hurting my injured finger right now. Later gators!

p.s. ~ Feel free to answer the Friday Five in a comment to me. I'd like to hear your answers, too :D

Quote of the Day:

(in reference to David's twin Adam)

Me: Twins weird me out. It's just weird to think that they shared a...
AJ: Womb?
Me: Yeah.
AJ: They share genes, too.
Me: *pause* But how do they get them to each other?

Well...today's the big day - physics exam #2 at 8:00. I haven't studied as much as I would have liked, but I'm sure it'll go okay. Afterward we're celebrating AJ's 21st birthday at Scorekeepers which I am very excited about :) Last night at midnight, we bounced around from Mitch's to the Brown Jug and ultimately to Charlie's. It ended up being really fun and AJ had a great time finally being a legal bar patron. Well...I guess that's it for now. Think of me between 8 and 9:30 and... HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, AJ!

Okay...I haven't posted in forever and I know it must strike to the very bottom of your hearts to excitedly click my link and then see the same post as yesterday (and the day before, and the day before that) on your screen. SO, for your sake and your sake ONLY, I will post today :)

I guess there wasn't much to say this weekend. My massage on Friday was very good - it was less a massage than the physical therapy that I need on my neck and shoulders. I'm going to try to go at least once every two weeks now. It's a little pricey, but it helps my headaches a lot and hopefully working on those muscles now will alleviate the tension that could cause more headaches in the future. Saturday Josh and I saw Othello, which was good. I've never seen it performed before and it is one of Shakespeare's most intense and poignant plays, so I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I liked the way Othello was played very much and he seemed maybe a little over acted at times; then again, I guess believing the love of your life is an adulterer, recognizing yourself as an outsider, and then committing homicide and suicide call for a little drama. Oh well *shrug*

Other than that, I just worked on my formal lab report and studied physics all weekend and obviously straight in to this week. My exam is on Thursday from 8-9:30, which seems so far away. Tomorrow I have my first training session for being a DP Day site leader this year - if you're not signed up to volunteer yet, the deadline is March 14th, so sign up! Also, we're celebrating AJ's first *legal* trip to the bar tomorrow night at midnight at Mitch's, so I'll drop in for some fun there. Finally, after a long study day on Thursday and my physics exam, we're heading straight to Scorekeeper's to celebrate AJ's actual birthday (and I'll personally be celebrating the conclusion of physics exam #2, too). I'm excited for the end of the week! :)

Anyhow, I should get studying now. I've had both "Black Magic Woman" by Santana and "Henry the Eighth I am" stuck in my head NON-STOP since Sunday. What is wrong with me? Also, I have to do laundry at some point this week/weekend...I'm down to underwear that is either too tight or too baggy - which one is worse, I don't really know. *sigh* I'll leave you with that question to ponder. Later gators.

Here it is, everybody!

THE FRIDAY FIVE!

Taken from www.fridayfive.org, the five questions for this Friday are...


What was...

1. ...your first grade teacher's name?

Mrs. Granzotto. I had her the year after my sister. I don't have a memory of her of my own, so here's one of Tanya's: even though my mom would put Tanya's hair in to two neat braids every morning, she would come home looking like she'd been in a hurricane every day. It got so out of hand that one day, Mrs. Granzotto PINNNED at letter to my mom on the front of Tanya's t-shirt (because she couldn't be trusted to not lose it) saying that something needed to be done about her hair. Hmm...not much has changed!

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?

Whoa. I don't think I watched cartoons :(

3. ...the name of your very first best friend?

Lauren Aldrich - I distinctly remembering playing "Princesses" in her bedroom.

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal?

Josh and I actually battled this question out a few weeks ago: it's a three-way tie for me between Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and plain Kix.

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school?

Check CNN online and make myself a cup of tea.


Hooray for my first Friday Five! :)

Hey! Here's something fun! I just installed my new scanner in a flash tonight (yes, I quit working on physics pretty early) and here are some cute pictures I just developed. The first two are from a night out at Rick's this past January, the third is of ice skating with Stephie, and the last one of Josh is during the life vest drill from our cruise. Check them out:


Tanya and I



AJ, Sheila, and I


Lookin' good on the ice!


Josh getting used to his sea legs

Well, it's Thirsty Thursday and I'm sitting at my apartment writing up a formal lab report on the "Determination of the Charge-to-Mass Ratio (e/m) of the Electron". Boooo :( I wish I was out having fun and being young and carefree. *sigh* Now I'm just getting tired of physics...and BELIEVE me, that's saying a lot considering I recently came out of the closet, if you will, as a desperate lover of physics (keep that one under your hat, though). Hopefully I'll ace my exam on Thursday which will in turn revitalize my love of the science. I won't wait around for that one, though. Hehe.

Anyhow, I'm excited for this weekend which should be a good balance of both having fun and studying. I was hoping that my parents would be able to make it for Othello too since they're both Shakespeare buffs (in an applicable situation, my mother admirably quoted The Merchant of Venice to me in a conversation the other day). However, I think those two socialites have other plans to visit other friends on Saturday (*tear), but they MIGHT still pull through. Also, I officially got that research position that I wanted for after graduation! I still have to sign the paperwork and such, but it'll be my first salary position ever and I'm pretty sure I get my own U of M healthcare coverage! I've done gone and growed up now :) (yeah, right...my parents are still footing my cell phone bill. Not to mention my groceries, haircuts, tuition, the list goes on and on...yikes!) So, that was certainly some good news today.

I guess that's basically it for now. I don't imagine I'll be up too late tonight - I'm just glad I started my lab report at the very least; I can always finish the rest tomorrow. I'll probably do a little reading and then hit the hay. Oh yeah: watch out for a new post called "The Friday Five" in my weblog tomorrow. Emily sent me a link to a website that apparently has 5 fun questions for you to answer in your weblog every Friday aptly named "The Friday Five," so hopefully that will become a little weblog treat at the end of every week if I can remember to do it. Sweet dreams tonight!

YAY! I'm soooo excited for Saturday because I got tickets to Gutherie Theatre's production of Othello at U of M! :D I can't wait. Not to mention I have a massage scheduled for Friday afternoon - however, this is more for therapeutic reasons than indulgence. My headaches have been particularly bad these past two weeks and my migraine last night put me over the edge and left me a little shaky today. I'm having a lot of painful tension above my right eye and am hoping that the therapy neck massage will help alleviate some of the stiffness and pain...but I guess I can't really complain about a massage! Also, Friday night is another Angell Hall Observatory open house night; last time it was too cloudy to see any stars or planets, so they didn't even open up the telescope, but here's hoping it'll be clear Friday night. If you're interested in coming, email/call/comment me and let me know! It's Friday from 8-10pm :)

Despite studying for my physics exam and writing a formal lab report, I'm looking forward to this weekend. AND...only 8 more days until AJ's 21st birthday. Yipee! :)

Despite having a migraine and consequently feeling sick to my stomach, I decided to write a post about the cruise while I have the time. I'm planning on hitting the hay after this because I'm feeling so sick, but of course my loyal readers come first :)

Overall, the cruise was fabulous. I had such a good time and feel very refreshed. I've had a lot of personal problems lately and had become so absorbed in them that my health and well-being were beginning to suffer, so I'm lucky that I had the opportunity to get away for a little while.

We left from Galveston, TX on Monday afternoon - the drive down wasn't bad at all. My dad drove Josh and I to Memphis where we stayed on Saturday night. Sunday morning we toured Graceland, Elvis's estate. I definitely choked back some serious tears - it's unforgivably corny, but I was raised on Elvis and his house was preserved so beautifully and I learned so many things about his generosity and community involvements that I got really emotional. I felt very close to The King :) I'm so glad I finally got a chance to go. Anyhow, my dad stayed in Memphis on business for the week and Josh and I finished up the drive to Texas. Luckily, the book on cd that we bought was perhaps the best investment of the trip; seriously, I wanted to KEEP driving so that we could finish the engaging story. I never thought it would be that effective, so it helped with the drive a lot. Monday was cloudy in Texas, so we spent the afternoon exploring the ship, the M/S Celebration, and unpacking and such. Unfortunately, and OF COURSE, I got really seasick and could barely get out of bed the first night. Let's just say that I wasn't looking forward to being at sea for 5 days. Because they're so big, few people get sick on cruise ships, but I wasn't surprised that I did - being a migraine sufferer and highly sensitive to changes in light, noise, and motion, the sea is just not for me. Luckily, a little seasickness medicine from the front desk made everything okay for the rest of the trip.

It would probably be waaaay too much writing to detail every day and evening of the cruise, so here are the highlights: in my opinion, the best part was the food. I mean seriously, we had the option to dine at either a 5-star formal sit-down "restaurant" (in quotations because no check to pay at the end of the night!) for every meal AND/OR eat at the casual buffet upstairs, not to mention a 24 hour pizzeria, frozen yogurt and nightly midnight buffet. I kid you not, I gained about 5 pounds in 5 days on the cruise; I have to start my post-cruise detox just to get back on a regular eating schedule! So...I enjoyed the good food. The service was fantastic, too - everyone made you feel so special and taken care of. The stewards cleaned our cabin about 3 times a day, turned down our beds at night, and made towel animals on our beds (pictures to come)! Everyone was SO friendly. All this and not to mention that Mexico, Cozumel and Playa del Carmen being our ports of call, was fantastic. The weather was perfect both days and I got to practice mi espanol mucho! I bartered with the street vendors who definitely gave me a break for speaking in spanish with them - well, at least trying to! Playa was probably my favorite because the beach was amazing - not because most of the women were sunbathing topless, but because it was simply beautiful :) *sigh* The cruise was packed with activities to do when not in port, ranging from Vegas-style shows to a full casino to bingo (to which, unfortunately, Josh and I became addicted and spent way too much money - hey, the jackpots got as high as $2250!) to comedy shows and dancing. Overall, the cruise was the best value for the money spent on any vacation I've taken so far. We are so lucky that we got good weather, help with the drive down, a fun group seating at dinner, some wicked duty-free deals on alcohol, and also got to make some new U of M friends on the boat as well as meet up with some old ones.

I can't think of much else to say right now, but I'm sure a few stories will surface in the next few days - I turned in one roll of my film today, so I should have those pics by Thursday, and I'll probably finish the other roll sometime next week, so keep an eye out for those soon to be posted! For now, I'll leave with a picture of our dinner table for the week. We had such fun conversations and enjoyed dining with them; they're all from Texas, so they got a kick out of our "Northern" ways. Tamra sent this picture to us from the Captain's Formal Night:



Back row: Me, Josh, Melissa, Chris
Front row: Tyna, Clayton, Brad, Tamra

Three cheers for a fun spring break! Now...if only it would be sunny and 85 degrees in Ann Arbor. If I wasn't a born and raised Michigander, I'd be inclined to believe that spring is on it's way after today's bout of "warmness." However, I know the way of the mitten state - we'll see at least one more snow storm this year. Who knows. At least my tan lines will remind me of a sunny beach on the Yucatan peninsula for a few more weeks. Sweet dreams :)

p.s. ~ "Too bad we don't know the word for 'shark!' in Spanish." ~ Josh, to me, while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.

*broken hearted* Things have been rough lately. Cruise details will come eventually. Right now I just need some love.

Whew! I'm back from my spring break cruise to Mexico and am feeling both exhausted and refreshed right now. The cruise was a lot of fun and I ate some great food as well as soaked up some Mexican sun. It was a blast to practice my spanish in Mexico by bartering in the marketplaces and it is a well known fact how much I appreciate a good dose of sunshine, especially this time of year. Despite a little initial seasickness, I'm definitely going to miss the MS Celebration, our cruise ship - it started to feel like home after a while. *sigh* I'll write more about break later and will certainly post some pictures. However, I need to do some physics reading, unpack some clothes, and hit the hay for now - more later about the cruise :)

*Quick post-spring break contemplation*: It's time to muster up the strength to finish out the last 2 months of my undergrad strong now. It's bizarre and slightly scary to imagine myself with a degree on May 1st and I'm trying to see it optimistically as a time of "opportunity" and not anxiously as "not knowing where I'll be or what I'll be doing," which isn't always easy. For right now, I'm just trying to enjoy my life as a college student, enjoy my friends and great roommates, and savor the uniqueness of being at U of M. Sweet dreams tonight.