Memories

It has been awhile. But, as I said in my last post I am no longer apologizing for this. However, I can shed some light on to why I have been a little MIA and why I will hopefully be writing to you more soon.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks... and I sure do mean a lot. First, and most important, things first. I graduated from college. What an amazing feeling it was. Not the actual graduation. The actual graduation was a waste of 3ish hours of my life where I stood in the hot sun for an hour, almost fell down and broke my life on the steepest ramp of the world in my heels, waited inside in chairs that were too close with other graduates who were just as hot and miserable as I was, and after all of that I walked across a stage for less than 30 seconds.

It was riveting, as I am sure you can tell. I understand that this was for my family so I sucked it up and did it anyway. And I have to say thank the universe that it is over. The actual amazing feeling came when I stepped out of my last final, a final I must say I only studied about 2 hours for. It was Ecology... and I did not enjoy ecology to say the least. And as my last final in a class I was about 90% positive I was getting a B with or without studying, I really did not see the point in wasting a full day of studying for it.

Regardless, after the final I had to walk through a large chunk of campus to get back to my car. And that is when it hit me. This was the last time I was going to walk those grounds as an NMSU student. The last time I was going to cross the Horseshoe (a chunk of grass with a street around it shaped like... you guessed it... a horseshoe). The last time I was going to pass that horrible Bell that chimed every 15 minutes, always a couple of minutes early of the actual 15, 30, 45, or hour mark. That stupid bell that would wake me up in the middle of the night when I lived in the dorms.

And suddenly I found myself actually missing it a little. I would never listen to it again and think well, I'm officially late to class.

So many other little things triggered great memories of midnight walks, mud puddles, stress, happiness... and now they are officially that... memories.

I write this from Boston where I am currently getting a little nostalgic about NMSU and New Mexico. Something, I knew would eventually happen but something I was running from too. But it feels good to be done. I closed a little chapter of my life and it feels... Sad. Amazing. Scary. Exciting. And 50 other things rolled into 1.

I would like to mention I did in fact get a 4.0 which means I got an A in Ecology... which really was a horrible thing to happen. It just backed up my decision to not study... which is a horrible habit to have.

So, right after my final I pretty much jumped into graduation, and parties, and more parties, did I mention I went to some parties ;) But really, it was almost exhausting!! Then I packed about a quarter of my life and got tired so I stopped and took a little gallivant to Maryland and the HHMI headquarters which was fun as usual. Next stop was 30 hours to do some more packing and hop some more planes and end up here in Boston/Brookline.

As you can see, I've been fairly preoccupied. And I know this post was not funny or particularly interesting but I needed you to get caught up before I can get into the random occurrences.

Character Flaws

I think we are all on the same level here. I am a failure. So, I am no longer going to apologize for my lateness in blogs or long intervals of time between some of them. There really is no point. It's a major character flaw that is a permanent fixture in my life. I've accepted it.

Right this very second I am doing my all time favorite activity... procrastination. I have a huge paper due tomorrow and I just don't seem to want to do it. I need to do it. It's 25% of my grade, so yeah I need to do it but I don't want to. This is also a character flaw. I've been noticing more of them lately.

On the positive, I have several pages of this paper done. There is no page limit or recommendation for how many pages we should have so I suppose this really has nothing to do with the productivity of the actual paper. I still have the virulence factors, a case example, and a health fact sheet to do. In case you were wondering, this paper is about Campylobacter jejuni a sweet little bacterial food-borne pathogen that causes some not-so-sweet problems with your insides.

But holly hell, this thing has like 85,000 virulence factors (factors which make it toxic and make the infected person really wish they had cooked their food better and washed their hands) which means 85,000% more writing to do. I should have gone with a simpler one who simply produces a toxin and causes you too poo. But no, I had to be difficult with my 20ish citations and hating life on my last week of classes.

I really cannot take this paper right now. I have 2 weeks exactly before I leave for Maryland, then Boston, then Michigan. Does the universe really want me to be doing papers and taking finals... NO. The universe wants me to eat amazing food, drink tons of wine/liquor, have good old fashioned sleepovers, watch movies, go look at beautiful houses, visit my old high school one last time, and of course see all of my friends.

These are just some of the planned events I have coming up on my last 2 weeks. Obviously, there is no time for papers or finals. Or packing... I've decided I should really pay somebody to do this for me. Lets just graduate and be done with this nonsense.

At least work is done! Bye bye sheepies, and cowsies, and all other farm animals that I had the distinct pleasure of working with for the past 4 years. But really, it was time for me to move on from smelling like a barn and instead get ready to freeze my behind off in cold Michigan winters.

I am actually quite scared for this. I just watched The 5 Year Engagement on Monday and it was like my cold frozen life was flashing before my eyes (Emily Blunt ends up being a postdoc at the University of Michigan).

Well, ladies and gents I hope you enjoyed these random paragraphs of my life's nonsense but now a cup of very strong New Orleans Chicory coffee is calling my name along with the end of the school year. I must fight my ongoing battle with procrastination!

Changing In Your Car

I recently... as in just this morning... was asked a strange question. Actually, the only thing strange about the question was that it was being asked at all. And then I realized maybe the fact that somebody had to ask me this question just meant that I was a little strange too. So, I know you're sitting there wondering... what was the question?

Did you just change in you car?

In which I replied, with a sort of quizzical look on my face... Yes. Doesn't everybody?

No. Apparently people don't change in their cars. Which really is a new fact that I am stumbling upon. The guy friend who happened to ask this question saw me entering my car in jeans covered with sheep muck, an old t-shirt, and boots with my hair in a high messy bun.

Less than 5 minutes later he saw me getting out of my parked car in a different parking lot wearing jeans, knock off Sperry's, a blue wrap t-shirt, and my hair in a side twist.

At this fact he just simply laughed at me, said I was always a strange one, and explained that my life is really too hectic if I have to change in my car and then he proceeded to buy me a coffee.

I never really thought about how changing in your car might be considered strange. I mean, when your day consists of waking with a 2.5 hour horse riding class, then several hours of normal class, then off to the gym, then meetings that required dress attire, then hours of studying in the library... all within the same day. Every single one of these events calls for a different outfit. It's not like I can just show up as President of the Panhellenic Council in jeans, a t-shirt, and cowboy boots. Or show up for my riding lessons or work with the sheep in a dress and heels. This is not acceptable. So the only obvious choice was to just change in your car in the middle of events because I was not about to carry a duffel bag full of clothes all across campus.

This is how my car (poor old Coop) got turned into one gigantic closet. At all times I had a dress, t-shirt, jeans, nice shirt, dress pants, work out clothes, pajamas, sweatshirt, heels, flats, flip-flops, tennis shoes, and cowboy boots in case the occasion called for any of the above. And trust me... I went in to my stash of extra clothes several times every week.

There were times in college where I didn't even have time to go home and shower so I would just stop off at a friends house close to campus and jump in their shower really quickly. It is quite convenient to have extra clothes always at hand.


Plus, if anybody needed an extra shirt or a jacket or heels to wear to an event, I always had them covered. I'm pretty positive my car also had a first aid kit, several board games, pom poms (which was strange because I was never a cheerleader), an emergency car kit that I didn't know how to use, my dad's wrench that he thought he lost for 2 years, 87 dollars in change, a research poster, AA and AAA batteries, a flashlight, 5 novels, 3 textbooks, and countless other things that I couldn't even begin to explain. 

But now Coop has gone far away and I am driving my sisters old car to school because I am not about to have my new car smelling like a barn and I am also not going to leave it in the ghetto free parking lots where Coop was often broken in to.

Now that Coop has gone to live in his fancy junk yard and my days have grown less crazy, I find I don't have a closet in my car anymore. I also find that because of this I can't actually fit all of my clothes in my room closet anymore.


Who knew after five years of a crazy hectic life I'd actually be sad about trading in the days of living in my car...

I know... I'm kind of a failure

Sorry, I have been failing at posting. These early mornings and traveling along with school and homework are kind of starting to wear me down! As a matter of fact I have to head out for 5 straight hours of class including a quiz here in a minute. And I just took three tests on Tuesday (Happy V-day to me). So... I'm kind of a tired wreck and really just want to sleep forever. Or just drink 18 gallons of coffee. Either will do.

I have some good news though that I will be writing about very very soon! Also, some beautiful pictures of my trip to Michigan. I absolutely love it there.

Stay with me folks and I promise to get stuff out within a day or two!

The Top 10 Moments of Spring Semester... Thus Far

The beginning of school has been particularly interesting. And by interesting I mean: Absolutely horrible (with few minor exceptions) and I wish to fast forward to May and never think on these past few days again. 

For your information/enjoyment/knowing-that-your-semester-is-probably-way-better-than-mine-and-can-feel-good-knowing-that-somebody-may-just-have-it-worse (Though I know people have it way worse than I do and this doesn't make me in the slightest happy. But hey, whatever floats your canoe) I have made a list of the top 10 moments that have occurred with school starting. Which, I kind of think is a huge feat seeing as how we are only 4 days in to the semester.

1. I had to drop my statistics class. This is a HUGE problem. No statistics = no graduation. Who really wants to graduate anyway? Not me. So why exactly did I have to drop it? In short, because my teacher was an insane crazy person (I realize insane and crazy describe the same thing. But really, she needs both of these adjectives) who has absolutely no respect for the school's scheduling system. She declared that all of her tests were on Thursday nights and not during our scheduled class time of 8:55-10:10 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Well, one of the tests is on a day I am heading to Michigan for an interview. After class, the teacher blatantly told me she didn't care that I had an interview and I would indeed fail her class. I think this is illegal. The ONLY reason I am in college is so I can go to graduate school and now you're telling me that because I am actually striving for that I will fail your class. Which in turn would not cause me to graduate thus meaning no graduate school. Well, you are an awesome teacher. As a matter of fact, your awesomeness was so incredible that I just couldn't handle it and I had to drop the class.

2. Obviously, I had to find another statistics class. I did. The only one available: from 4-6:30 at night on Tuesdays. So now, I leave my house at 6:15 am and don't get home until 6:15 at night which makes for a very exhausting day.

3. My new statistics teacher uses a different book than the old teacher. I already have my book from the old class which I bought from somebody on amazon and cannot return it. So, I had to spend an additional $70 on another statistics book. Both of which cover the exact same things. It's ok. I like to throw away money every chance I get. It's actually a hobby of mine.

4. I received my first rejection letter from a graduate school and felt officially defeated by my last first day of school. I knew they had to come but it doesn't make seeing them any less hard.

5. In my fluster of a horrible first day of school, I thought my new statistics class was on Thursdays and not Tuesdays so I stayed at school till 4 and found out I was indeed wrong and I had just wasted the last 2 hours of my life waiting for class to start. Did I mention I also forgot my wallet AND lunch so after having a 300 calorie smoothie at 6 in the morning I didn't get to eat again until I finally got home at 4:30. Apparently, eating is overrated anyway.


6. Found out one of the universities I applied for grad school to received my GRE scores... then lost them through a computer glitch or whatever. And never reviewed my application. As this was the last thing that happened on my very horrible first day of the semester, I had a complete meltdown in the middle of the dirt parking lot after walking all the way back from my class that was never actually scheduled to be on Thursday. 

5. I had an interview with a professor from Duke which was amazing. His work is exactly the type of science I am looking to get in to. But, I won't hear back from them till March and thus the continuation of the waiting game!

7. My sister's guinea pig, Nutmeg, passed away on Friday morning. Her other guinea pig, Lola, passed away two weeks ago so this was a very hard time for her and my mom. And my dogs who keep going in the pigs' room and crying/sleeping under where their house used to be. It really is quite depressing.

8. WINE CLASS. Spectacular... 7 wines in one night with snacks and actual learning going on. In 14 weeks, I plan to be a wine connoisseur. You can forward me your pressing wine questions then!

9. I got to sleep in on Sunday. It was the absolute best gift somebody could have given me. The first day in about 3-4 weeks that I have slept past 5:30. Granted, I only slept till about 7:15 but it was splendid. And guess what... I get this WHOLE upcoming weekend off.

10. I got sick :(

I am a little concerned for how this semester is going to turn out... You shouldn't be. It'll make for some good stories.