Not too much exciting news today. Surprise, surprise, right? Well actually, I *finally* heard back about my research position and I should be starting in the lab sometime in the next week, so I'm very excited for that. I have a U of M orientation early tomorrow morning to go over my salary, health benefits, and the like. Hooray for my first ever salary! :) I should hit the hay soon so that I can be up with the sun. Also, I went for a run this morning, so I'm proud of myself for that. It didn't go as poorly as I was expecting it to so I'm not feeling as anxious about starting up again. I guess I should take it one day at a time, though - let's see how tomorrow goes.

AJ and I went to go see "Mean Girls" tonight. Typically, I'm not a huge fan of movies like these, but I AM a self-professed Lindsay Lohan fan and have loved her since I saw the new Parent Trap. The movie was pretty funny, was written by Tina Fey, and had a lot of cast members from SNL in it. Also, despite a pretty generic storyline about the new girl turned popular turned repentant, the movie certainly tried to address issues of "meanness" within high school cliques and discrimination toward people of varying sexual preference, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc. In the process, however, it managed to make all high school girls seem petty and materialistic. Oh well - at least I wasn't expecting a masterpiece or a strong social critique. AJ and I reminisced on the way home about the degree of cliquey-ness in our respective high schools and also about how pathetic middle and high school seem in retrospect. I wish I knew then what I know now. But I guess in that way life truly is a learning experience and a ride. At least I can honestly say that I've changed and more importantly *grown* from who I was even 5 years ago. I can't believe I'm a college grad! Weird.

Okay, sweet dreams tonight.