Thought I'd put up another post just so that last bitter post isn't the first thing at the top of this blog. ;) There isn't much going on. I'm trying to get a lot of homework done. I've been very busy so far this quarter. I'm working a lot of hours in the library and biostatistics has a large homework load. Speaking of work . . .
I'm going to be a TA for plant biology next quarter!!!! O_o Look out freshmen! I'll be going to Blakely Island one weekend which means I'll putting the knowledge I gained from my GIS summer class to use. In fact, it and Stephanie are basically the reasons I have this job next quarter. ;) Steph has a lab next quarter for an animal physiology class that I'm not taking during the same time as the lab for plant biology. Anyway, I'm a little nervous about being a TA. I hope I don't scare them too much with my love of plants and I also hope that I can keep up with grading . . . my kids had better be on the ball because my schedule is going to continue to be pretty rigid. Make-up labs aren't really going to be possible.
The only other thing going on in my life right now besides homework is Andy. I am finally going to get to see him tomorrow. Yay!!!! It's been waaaaaay too long. I miss that guy . . . He's coming over here and bringing his DS in case I need to work on homework. I'm trying to decide if we'll actually get out of the apartment and do anything like Chinatown or the Seattle Center, but I'm not seein' it happening. On a final note,
www.angryalien.com (watch the movies you've seen)
www.msdewey.com (you have to experiment in order to get her to say anything amusing. Mostly she's just disturbing. But "nuclear weapons" is kind of funny. )
The Happy Homeworker
It's me, happy!
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
Dear Resident
(Some long and bitter thoughts on a recent experience. Note: Resident should actually always be under-lined as well but blogger makes no allowance for this. I tried to scan in the actual note but my new scanner/printer has defeated me.)
Dear Resident:
First off, I must congratulate you. The chivalrous note you left on my car window on Saturday managed to make me feel utterly reviled. It takes true talent to make the courtesy of a note into an insult. Not only did you belittle my intelligence by assuming that I can’t read, you also made me feel quite thoroughly hated and outcast. You managed to make me sense that I was somehow less worthy because I am in possession of only a lowly commuter parking permit and not the hallowed and rare Resident parking permit. It amazed me how much of your abhorrence for my infraction into your ordered world managed to leak into a note that I’m sure you intended to write in a spirit of pious condescension considering that at first you nobly refrained from involving Safety and Security. This note was even more poignant for me because I am a Resident of the 35 W. Cremonas, as you put it. I was only issued a commuter parking permit because the quota of sacred Resident parking permits had apparently been filled and given to persons more worthy than myself. All this from a sheet ripped from a graphically-designed paper pad and inscribed with just two sentences in a girly handwriting stuck under a windshield wiper. Only a person of prodigious endowment could manage to make such a small number of polite words so enormously full of loathing.
However, you didn’t stop there. Oh no, your chivalrous behavior went much further than that. With me already feeling generally disliked and misfit, you decided that clemency is overrated in such cases and, when given the choice between offering a benevolent mercy and an impartial justice, you chose instead to teach a lesson. So, when in the morning you discovered my rude and mean 1990 Dodge Spirit still in the rebellious location, your righteous indignation was fully fired. Consequently, at 9:30am of a Sunday morning, you called Safety and Security with nostrils flaring. And, when asked the momentous question by the polite and perfunctory phone operator, “Would you like the car ticketed or towed?” you uttered a fateful and decisive, “Towed.” Now, feeling almost sentimentally paternal as you hung up the phone, you thought to yourself how much you would be teaching this deprived Dodge and its obviously idiotic owner.
Fast-forward to 10:00am on the same Sunday morning. I sat in a pew, naively listening as my pastor taught a lesson on Christian connections being the true source of knowledge when my phone rang in church. Mystified and embarrassed, I quickly reached into my purse and silenced it. Every one of the contacts on my phone list knows that I regularly attend the first service at my church and work in the nursery for the second. The number was one that my phone didn’t recognize and I was even further mystified when the caller left a message. Intending to check the message after first service got out I immediately proceeded to forget all about it. I headed blissfully to the 25-35 month-old room unaware of the lesson I was currently being taught.
Fast-forward again to about 12:00pm. Finally free of charming but clinging infants, I decided to check my messages. A respectfully bland voice informed me that my car was to be towed immediately unless I called by 10:45am. This was, quite obviously, not an option unless I suddenly discovered a thus-far hidden but remarkable talent to control time. I informed my friends and co-workers of my misfortune and they express their distress as well. Downcast, I hope at least that the bill will not be more than fifty dollars. Ha. Poor, simple driver . . .
I thought I might as well try to put a little balm on the wound since my car was most obviously already in impound, so I accepted an invitation to a home-cooked meal. After a very pleasant lunch at the home of a lovely lady from church, my friends and I headed home in our small carpool. Once home, I call Safety and Security. Another bland, polite voice informed me that the ever-obliging Lincoln Towing had been more than happy to pick up my infringing vehicle. A call to Lincoln Towing was next on the list and after the simple and mostly non-threatening questions of “Where?” and “When?” had been answered, I dropped the bomb and asked the central query, “How much?” Now, up until this point, I was attempting and almost managing, a nonchalant and almost laissez faire attitude. It was when this crucial question was answered that I decided there was going to be crying involved. A lot of crying. What was the ill-fated answer to this all-important question you ask? The answer was a song to the tune of $212.16.
Well, after crying for awhile, checking my bank account balance and then crying some more, I decided to call my parents. Choking out the dire news of my now apparently ended life through one end of a telephone wire for what seems the ten-thousandth time in my experience, I struggle painfully through the whole tangled mess. My sensible and caring father reminds me patiently of the existence of credit cards, tells me that they’ll be willing to pay for it, and calms my panic, if not my guilt. The guilt I refer to stems from the fact that my stupid conviction is now costing my parents a totally unnecessary $212.16. This conviction I speak of is one I previously held that anyone who got annoyed enough with me for parking somewhere incorrectly would have me ticketed first, not towed. This has been my experience with the system thus far and I assumed, based on my experience, what the outcome of remaining in a parking spot twenty-four hours after receiving a most courteous note demanding that I get out would be. My room mate for the previous two years regularly had people parking in her spot. She, however, had the strange tendency to ticket them first before assigning them the massive punishment of towing. Only if she recognized a previous offender would she ever even consider a towing order. Now, she never did have to even try to have anyone towed because there was never a second offender. This is odd and there must be some key difference in the approach used that I am missing because I currently have the most passionate desire I have ever possessed to park in a horizontal position across at least three parking spaces behind this building. Yes. Very odd indeed.
Next, my friend Emily, being sweet and generous and everything else my splendid and good parking teacher is most apparently not, she blithely agreed to take me to Lincoln Towing. She actually agreed to interrupt her studies, waste her gas, and risk driving a car that may or may not be at 100% currently in order to drive me to retrieve a car that had been parked incorrectly and towed justly. Not only that, but she refused any gas money from me because she took pity on me in my situation and decided to be compassionate. Now there’s a word that’s apparently new to at least one member of this community . . . compassion.
It may surprise some of my readers at this point to find that I am not writing this missive in any attempt to clear myself of guilt. Oh no, I am definitely guilty. I am simply trying to point out the wrongness of my accuser’s attitude. I admit it. I have a commuter’s parking permit. The four-space parking lot where I was located behind the 35 W. Cremona building at 9:30am this Sunday morning when the call was made to have me towed is reserved for, as we all know by now, Residents only. I was parked there with an incorrect permit. I know that according to the law I am guilty. Does any of this sound familiar to any Christian theology majors out there?
Anyway, Emily and I arrived without incident at the Lincoln Towing headquarters. Irony of ironies, there was a Christian fish on their sign. (And for the readers’ edification, I would also wish to inform you at this time that there is even more irony contained in this story. The most painful irony of all is that this Sunday was my turn for carpool driving duty and had I not been concerned about a chronically overheating engine, I would . . . well, to be honest I probably would only have been towed at a later date as I somehow cannot doubt the conviction of my most virtuous teacher.) All irony aside, Emily waited in the bowl of a parking lot as I walked up to the graffiti-covered “guest center”. (Can I really be called a guest if I receive not an invitation, but a detainee notice?) I walked in determined to be polite and as pleasant as I could be under the circumstances I thought that they must not see very many friendly attitudes and really all they did in the end was take the call and charge slightly exorbitant prices for it. They truly have a minimum modicum of blame in this, certainly less than that owned by myself and my most moral teacher. I was going to be grown-up and strong. I held onto this ideal for all of about thirty seconds when my turn at the window came at last.
As I told the woman behind the window my car’s license number and make and model she just shook her at me and half-smiled while saying, “No.” “No?” I queried, thoroughly confused and somehow minutely hoping that that smiling, “No” meant something good. “No.” she repeated again before continuing on, “My driver did not like getting you out of the space,” she grinned in what I suppose she thought was a “lighten-the-atmosphere” manner, “Man, he sure did have a time.” I stared at this apparently kind-meaning woman with no thought in my head but the one screaming, “If he had such trouble then why didn’t he just leave it there!” This woman went on with the process of pouring lemon juice in my wounds in the guise of friendly jests and advice designed to make me feel more at ease by informing me that her parents had a 1991 Dodge Spirit too that, “went up like nothing else.” She asked if I am currently experiencing any engine problems because a new engine would run me fifteen-hundred dollars. When I told her of the overheating problem she said, “Yep, that’ll about do it. My parents were having oil pressure problems when their engine exploded. I would be thinking about upgrading if I were you. My little 1999 Dodge Neon out there only cost me twenty-five hundred.” Stupefied by this onslaught of cheerful torment, I only nodded in dumb agreement as I began to sign various papers. I tried to act tough as I felt tears starting to come again, but I only managed to hide them only for about a minute by pretending to have something in both of my eyes simultaneously until they begin to spill out at a rate where I could not prevent them. It was not active crying, just tears, so the towing lady doesn’t notice anything different until she looked up as she handed me another paper and said with an open-mouthed look of shock and sympathy, “Don’t cry!” I smiled and thoroughly forgave this kind-hearted, if somewhat tactless, woman because she has such a gentle heart. “I’m okay.” I reassured her as I finished signing the last paper.
Finally, our interaction was done and I headed out to my car and added some more anti-freeze and water into the radiator as my dad has been directing me to do in case there’s an air bubble in the line. Emily had been waiting in her car for me the whole time just to make sure everything was alright. As I got in my car assured at last that the ordeal was, for my part, over, I let out an ill-timed sigh of cathartic relief. Key in ignition, I attempted to start my car. The key would not budge. The car was thoroughly in park, and I had no idea what else could be causing key-turn failure. So, out of the car I went, shooting a quick word of reassurance to the still-waiting Emily, and headed toward the towing Mecca. The kind woman proved once again how kind she truly is and didn’t even wait for me to come to the front door but saw me coming and instead got up and met me at the back door. She informed me that my steering wheel may be stuck, reassured me that the car isn’t actually harmed and that if I would like to wait for someone to help me she’d have a driver returning in fifteen minutes because it is going to take a “strong hand.” A little confused, I returned to my car and attempted what I thought may have been the nice woman’s instructions, turning the steering wheel as hard as I can while turning the key in the ignition. It worked and I was glad to have had this woman’s help in my ordeal. Emily saw me start it and announced out the window that she intended to follow me home because of my over-heating problems. As I began to pull away from my parking space half-under a cedar tree on a slope, I waved at the kind woman in the graffiti Mecca to let her know her advice worked. I switched on my blinker to signal a turn that was apparently worth $216.12.
Once back at home, I went to the commuter’s parking lot across the alley from the back of 35 W. Cremona from which I have already once been kicked out by a note claiming a reservation of an un-marked spot (which started my parking endeavor in the consecrated Resident parking spots in the first place) but someone had some sort of yacht club truck that was blocking at least two additional un-marked spaces besides the one claimed by the fancy silver car. So, I headed to the outcast parking lot: the Cremona lot by the Bertona Building. I slipped into the first spot I found that didn’t seem to be the territory of anyone in particular, noticed that my engine was once again dangerously overheating, and promptly headed in a direction opposite of my apartment. I plunked myself down at one of the cold, concrete tables outside of the SUB and just thought blank, bitter thoughts. Cheek down, I gloried in pity until I had had almost enough and headed back to my apartment and the much-contested parking spot.
Even now as I write this, the much-desired parking spot is still empty. I cannot help but wonder if all of my jest about someone wishing to teach me a lesson has more truth in it than I’d suspect. I cannot help but wonder at all the combined irony of this story . . . that my “lesson” was taught to me on a Sunday, while I was in church. What would I be doing in a resident spot on a Sunday if I was actually a commuting student? Wouldn’t I be at home somewhere else? What’s more, why on earth did this anonymous teacher decide to bring the towing company down on my head when she would have had to at least try to assume that I would be at church even if I were somehow there without my car? I cannot honestly pretend that I believe for even one second that any person on this earth is so utterly un-imaginative that they cannot think of another way for someone to get to church besides taking their own car. The second irony I find is that were it not for the off-putting tone of the note in the first place, I probably would have minded it in spite of a car-load of groceries that I had to abandon to my room mate to unload because of an immediate need to run to work, pop tart in mouth, and a concern for my engine which was apparently about to undergo pyrotechnics according to the towing lady. The third and most ironic irony of all is that this lesson was taught to me so enthusiastically at an institution that claims to “seek to model a grace-filled community.” That believes that each person should, “strive to treat each other and all people with respect, kindness and care.” And finally sets for its members the goal of “becom[ing] examples of grace, forgiveness, and civility in a culture that is too often polarized and contentious.” (taken from the Statement of Faith for Seattle Pacific University)
So park, 35 W. Cremona! Park to your hearts’ content! The hero of the empty parking spot has triumphed! Never again will this lowly alas, resident, not Resident darken the spaces of the Cremona alley parking lot. Rest assured I will walk across the street with my groceries. I will never again dare to raise myself above my station or trust in the compassion of others. Tried and convicted within a span of twenty-four hours by a jury of one, I receive my judgment. I will avoid being a part of this community of which I am apparently an undeserving member. I acknowledge my plain commuter status. You need not charge my parents another $212.16, my teacher, the lesson is learned. March on Christian soldier, knowing that you are painstakingly right. My lesson is thoroughly learned.
Dear Resident:
First off, I must congratulate you. The chivalrous note you left on my car window on Saturday managed to make me feel utterly reviled. It takes true talent to make the courtesy of a note into an insult. Not only did you belittle my intelligence by assuming that I can’t read, you also made me feel quite thoroughly hated and outcast. You managed to make me sense that I was somehow less worthy because I am in possession of only a lowly commuter parking permit and not the hallowed and rare Resident parking permit. It amazed me how much of your abhorrence for my infraction into your ordered world managed to leak into a note that I’m sure you intended to write in a spirit of pious condescension considering that at first you nobly refrained from involving Safety and Security. This note was even more poignant for me because I am a Resident of the 35 W. Cremonas, as you put it. I was only issued a commuter parking permit because the quota of sacred Resident parking permits had apparently been filled and given to persons more worthy than myself. All this from a sheet ripped from a graphically-designed paper pad and inscribed with just two sentences in a girly handwriting stuck under a windshield wiper. Only a person of prodigious endowment could manage to make such a small number of polite words so enormously full of loathing.
However, you didn’t stop there. Oh no, your chivalrous behavior went much further than that. With me already feeling generally disliked and misfit, you decided that clemency is overrated in such cases and, when given the choice between offering a benevolent mercy and an impartial justice, you chose instead to teach a lesson. So, when in the morning you discovered my rude and mean 1990 Dodge Spirit still in the rebellious location, your righteous indignation was fully fired. Consequently, at 9:30am of a Sunday morning, you called Safety and Security with nostrils flaring. And, when asked the momentous question by the polite and perfunctory phone operator, “Would you like the car ticketed or towed?” you uttered a fateful and decisive, “Towed.” Now, feeling almost sentimentally paternal as you hung up the phone, you thought to yourself how much you would be teaching this deprived Dodge and its obviously idiotic owner.
Fast-forward to 10:00am on the same Sunday morning. I sat in a pew, naively listening as my pastor taught a lesson on Christian connections being the true source of knowledge when my phone rang in church. Mystified and embarrassed, I quickly reached into my purse and silenced it. Every one of the contacts on my phone list knows that I regularly attend the first service at my church and work in the nursery for the second. The number was one that my phone didn’t recognize and I was even further mystified when the caller left a message. Intending to check the message after first service got out I immediately proceeded to forget all about it. I headed blissfully to the 25-35 month-old room unaware of the lesson I was currently being taught.
Fast-forward again to about 12:00pm. Finally free of charming but clinging infants, I decided to check my messages. A respectfully bland voice informed me that my car was to be towed immediately unless I called by 10:45am. This was, quite obviously, not an option unless I suddenly discovered a thus-far hidden but remarkable talent to control time. I informed my friends and co-workers of my misfortune and they express their distress as well. Downcast, I hope at least that the bill will not be more than fifty dollars. Ha. Poor, simple driver . . .
I thought I might as well try to put a little balm on the wound since my car was most obviously already in impound, so I accepted an invitation to a home-cooked meal. After a very pleasant lunch at the home of a lovely lady from church, my friends and I headed home in our small carpool. Once home, I call Safety and Security. Another bland, polite voice informed me that the ever-obliging Lincoln Towing had been more than happy to pick up my infringing vehicle. A call to Lincoln Towing was next on the list and after the simple and mostly non-threatening questions of “Where?” and “When?” had been answered, I dropped the bomb and asked the central query, “How much?” Now, up until this point, I was attempting and almost managing, a nonchalant and almost laissez faire attitude. It was when this crucial question was answered that I decided there was going to be crying involved. A lot of crying. What was the ill-fated answer to this all-important question you ask? The answer was a song to the tune of $212.16.
Well, after crying for awhile, checking my bank account balance and then crying some more, I decided to call my parents. Choking out the dire news of my now apparently ended life through one end of a telephone wire for what seems the ten-thousandth time in my experience, I struggle painfully through the whole tangled mess. My sensible and caring father reminds me patiently of the existence of credit cards, tells me that they’ll be willing to pay for it, and calms my panic, if not my guilt. The guilt I refer to stems from the fact that my stupid conviction is now costing my parents a totally unnecessary $212.16. This conviction I speak of is one I previously held that anyone who got annoyed enough with me for parking somewhere incorrectly would have me ticketed first, not towed. This has been my experience with the system thus far and I assumed, based on my experience, what the outcome of remaining in a parking spot twenty-four hours after receiving a most courteous note demanding that I get out would be. My room mate for the previous two years regularly had people parking in her spot. She, however, had the strange tendency to ticket them first before assigning them the massive punishment of towing. Only if she recognized a previous offender would she ever even consider a towing order. Now, she never did have to even try to have anyone towed because there was never a second offender. This is odd and there must be some key difference in the approach used that I am missing because I currently have the most passionate desire I have ever possessed to park in a horizontal position across at least three parking spaces behind this building. Yes. Very odd indeed.
Next, my friend Emily, being sweet and generous and everything else my splendid and good parking teacher is most apparently not, she blithely agreed to take me to Lincoln Towing. She actually agreed to interrupt her studies, waste her gas, and risk driving a car that may or may not be at 100% currently in order to drive me to retrieve a car that had been parked incorrectly and towed justly. Not only that, but she refused any gas money from me because she took pity on me in my situation and decided to be compassionate. Now there’s a word that’s apparently new to at least one member of this community . . . compassion.
It may surprise some of my readers at this point to find that I am not writing this missive in any attempt to clear myself of guilt. Oh no, I am definitely guilty. I am simply trying to point out the wrongness of my accuser’s attitude. I admit it. I have a commuter’s parking permit. The four-space parking lot where I was located behind the 35 W. Cremona building at 9:30am this Sunday morning when the call was made to have me towed is reserved for, as we all know by now, Residents only. I was parked there with an incorrect permit. I know that according to the law I am guilty. Does any of this sound familiar to any Christian theology majors out there?
Anyway, Emily and I arrived without incident at the Lincoln Towing headquarters. Irony of ironies, there was a Christian fish on their sign. (And for the readers’ edification, I would also wish to inform you at this time that there is even more irony contained in this story. The most painful irony of all is that this Sunday was my turn for carpool driving duty and had I not been concerned about a chronically overheating engine, I would . . . well, to be honest I probably would only have been towed at a later date as I somehow cannot doubt the conviction of my most virtuous teacher.) All irony aside, Emily waited in the bowl of a parking lot as I walked up to the graffiti-covered “guest center”. (Can I really be called a guest if I receive not an invitation, but a detainee notice?) I walked in determined to be polite and as pleasant as I could be under the circumstances I thought that they must not see very many friendly attitudes and really all they did in the end was take the call and charge slightly exorbitant prices for it. They truly have a minimum modicum of blame in this, certainly less than that owned by myself and my most moral teacher. I was going to be grown-up and strong. I held onto this ideal for all of about thirty seconds when my turn at the window came at last.
As I told the woman behind the window my car’s license number and make and model she just shook her at me and half-smiled while saying, “No.” “No?” I queried, thoroughly confused and somehow minutely hoping that that smiling, “No” meant something good. “No.” she repeated again before continuing on, “My driver did not like getting you out of the space,” she grinned in what I suppose she thought was a “lighten-the-atmosphere” manner, “Man, he sure did have a time.” I stared at this apparently kind-meaning woman with no thought in my head but the one screaming, “If he had such trouble then why didn’t he just leave it there!” This woman went on with the process of pouring lemon juice in my wounds in the guise of friendly jests and advice designed to make me feel more at ease by informing me that her parents had a 1991 Dodge Spirit too that, “went up like nothing else.” She asked if I am currently experiencing any engine problems because a new engine would run me fifteen-hundred dollars. When I told her of the overheating problem she said, “Yep, that’ll about do it. My parents were having oil pressure problems when their engine exploded. I would be thinking about upgrading if I were you. My little 1999 Dodge Neon out there only cost me twenty-five hundred.” Stupefied by this onslaught of cheerful torment, I only nodded in dumb agreement as I began to sign various papers. I tried to act tough as I felt tears starting to come again, but I only managed to hide them only for about a minute by pretending to have something in both of my eyes simultaneously until they begin to spill out at a rate where I could not prevent them. It was not active crying, just tears, so the towing lady doesn’t notice anything different until she looked up as she handed me another paper and said with an open-mouthed look of shock and sympathy, “Don’t cry!” I smiled and thoroughly forgave this kind-hearted, if somewhat tactless, woman because she has such a gentle heart. “I’m okay.” I reassured her as I finished signing the last paper.
Finally, our interaction was done and I headed out to my car and added some more anti-freeze and water into the radiator as my dad has been directing me to do in case there’s an air bubble in the line. Emily had been waiting in her car for me the whole time just to make sure everything was alright. As I got in my car assured at last that the ordeal was, for my part, over, I let out an ill-timed sigh of cathartic relief. Key in ignition, I attempted to start my car. The key would not budge. The car was thoroughly in park, and I had no idea what else could be causing key-turn failure. So, out of the car I went, shooting a quick word of reassurance to the still-waiting Emily, and headed toward the towing Mecca. The kind woman proved once again how kind she truly is and didn’t even wait for me to come to the front door but saw me coming and instead got up and met me at the back door. She informed me that my steering wheel may be stuck, reassured me that the car isn’t actually harmed and that if I would like to wait for someone to help me she’d have a driver returning in fifteen minutes because it is going to take a “strong hand.” A little confused, I returned to my car and attempted what I thought may have been the nice woman’s instructions, turning the steering wheel as hard as I can while turning the key in the ignition. It worked and I was glad to have had this woman’s help in my ordeal. Emily saw me start it and announced out the window that she intended to follow me home because of my over-heating problems. As I began to pull away from my parking space half-under a cedar tree on a slope, I waved at the kind woman in the graffiti Mecca to let her know her advice worked. I switched on my blinker to signal a turn that was apparently worth $216.12.
Once back at home, I went to the commuter’s parking lot across the alley from the back of 35 W. Cremona from which I have already once been kicked out by a note claiming a reservation of an un-marked spot (which started my parking endeavor in the consecrated Resident parking spots in the first place) but someone had some sort of yacht club truck that was blocking at least two additional un-marked spaces besides the one claimed by the fancy silver car. So, I headed to the outcast parking lot: the Cremona lot by the Bertona Building. I slipped into the first spot I found that didn’t seem to be the territory of anyone in particular, noticed that my engine was once again dangerously overheating, and promptly headed in a direction opposite of my apartment. I plunked myself down at one of the cold, concrete tables outside of the SUB and just thought blank, bitter thoughts. Cheek down, I gloried in pity until I had had almost enough and headed back to my apartment and the much-contested parking spot.
Even now as I write this, the much-desired parking spot is still empty. I cannot help but wonder if all of my jest about someone wishing to teach me a lesson has more truth in it than I’d suspect. I cannot help but wonder at all the combined irony of this story . . . that my “lesson” was taught to me on a Sunday, while I was in church. What would I be doing in a resident spot on a Sunday if I was actually a commuting student? Wouldn’t I be at home somewhere else? What’s more, why on earth did this anonymous teacher decide to bring the towing company down on my head when she would have had to at least try to assume that I would be at church even if I were somehow there without my car? I cannot honestly pretend that I believe for even one second that any person on this earth is so utterly un-imaginative that they cannot think of another way for someone to get to church besides taking their own car. The second irony I find is that were it not for the off-putting tone of the note in the first place, I probably would have minded it in spite of a car-load of groceries that I had to abandon to my room mate to unload because of an immediate need to run to work, pop tart in mouth, and a concern for my engine which was apparently about to undergo pyrotechnics according to the towing lady. The third and most ironic irony of all is that this lesson was taught to me so enthusiastically at an institution that claims to “seek to model a grace-filled community.” That believes that each person should, “strive to treat each other and all people with respect, kindness and care.” And finally sets for its members the goal of “becom[ing] examples of grace, forgiveness, and civility in a culture that is too often polarized and contentious.” (taken from the Statement of Faith for Seattle Pacific University)
So park, 35 W. Cremona! Park to your hearts’ content! The hero of the empty parking spot has triumphed! Never again will this lowly alas, resident, not Resident darken the spaces of the Cremona alley parking lot. Rest assured I will walk across the street with my groceries. I will never again dare to raise myself above my station or trust in the compassion of others. Tried and convicted within a span of twenty-four hours by a jury of one, I receive my judgment. I will avoid being a part of this community of which I am apparently an undeserving member. I acknowledge my plain commuter status. You need not charge my parents another $212.16, my teacher, the lesson is learned. March on Christian soldier, knowing that you are painstakingly right. My lesson is thoroughly learned.
Monday, October 02, 2006
After the First Week . . .
Hey all-
After the first week of being in the apartment, Stephanie and I are finally getting settled in. I only have two more pictures to hang and all of my boxes are unpacked. I also have a box of stuff that will be taken home with me on my next trip. ;)
This Saturday morning, Steph and I finally broke in the appliances in our kitchen besides the microwave by making ourselves a big breakfast. It was tasty. We made pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. :)
Yesterday (Sunday) Andy came over after church and got to see our place. :D He showed me a game called Okami that I am terrible at like every other game. ;) That doesn't mean it wasn't fun, but at the end of the day I was still drawing (a major part of the game, uses the joystick) like a scribbling two-year-old. :P But we had oven-baked pizza with Brad (who was also visiting) and Steph so it was kind of like a double-date-day. :) Then we watched The Village which I convinced Stephanie wasn't a horror movie by saying that she liked it. Stephanie still isn't sure if she feels the same way about it, but she admitted this morning that she felt better about it this morning than she did last night. Something about the distance. ;)
Tomorrow I have a beautifully mostly unplanned day. It's been very busy with all my work hours so it'll be nice to be able to dedicate a few hours together to doing relaxing, non-work things. :)
Anyway, I'll be blogging about something boring and most-likely apartment related sometime soon.
-The Relaxing Resident
After the first week of being in the apartment, Stephanie and I are finally getting settled in. I only have two more pictures to hang and all of my boxes are unpacked. I also have a box of stuff that will be taken home with me on my next trip. ;)
This Saturday morning, Steph and I finally broke in the appliances in our kitchen besides the microwave by making ourselves a big breakfast. It was tasty. We made pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. :)
Yesterday (Sunday) Andy came over after church and got to see our place. :D He showed me a game called Okami that I am terrible at like every other game. ;) That doesn't mean it wasn't fun, but at the end of the day I was still drawing (a major part of the game, uses the joystick) like a scribbling two-year-old. :P But we had oven-baked pizza with Brad (who was also visiting) and Steph so it was kind of like a double-date-day. :) Then we watched The Village which I convinced Stephanie wasn't a horror movie by saying that she liked it. Stephanie still isn't sure if she feels the same way about it, but she admitted this morning that she felt better about it this morning than she did last night. Something about the distance. ;)
Tomorrow I have a beautifully mostly unplanned day. It's been very busy with all my work hours so it'll be nice to be able to dedicate a few hours together to doing relaxing, non-work things. :)
Anyway, I'll be blogging about something boring and most-likely apartment related sometime soon.
-The Relaxing Resident
Friday, September 15, 2006
Permanent Duty Station
It's not Iraq!
My Marine brother Adam is staying in the U.S. for the next two years!!!! XD
He called us up tonight and let us know that he's been assigned, not to a combat position in Iraq as all his drill sergeants were telling us was likely, but to guard duty at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C. for the next two years!!!! :D Yay! It's so exciting I've put out the news in every digital medium possible! He'll even be getting Thanksgiving and Christmas off!
It's a prestigious and honorable position and he will probably get to meet the president. :D If you want to know any more I recommend you check my MySpace account. ;) I posted a bulletin there.Bonnie's MySpace
-The Sprigthly Sister
My Marine brother Adam is staying in the U.S. for the next two years!!!! XD
He called us up tonight and let us know that he's been assigned, not to a combat position in Iraq as all his drill sergeants were telling us was likely, but to guard duty at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C. for the next two years!!!! :D Yay! It's so exciting I've put out the news in every digital medium possible! He'll even be getting Thanksgiving and Christmas off!
It's a prestigious and honorable position and he will probably get to meet the president. :D If you want to know any more I recommend you check my MySpace account. ;) I posted a bulletin there.
-The Sprigthly Sister
Monday, September 11, 2006
Resurrected?
Are all the blogs coming back to life? :D That's exciting. I'll have to start mine up again pretty soon . . .
. . .
Hey I know! How 'bout now! :D Now is a good time. XD
I washed all my kitchen stuff and packed it up. Man, I have a lot of things to fit into that little kitchen. Eh, we'll make it work. ;)I am very excited about having my own apartment and this means that all of you people who got into school so early and get to leave early will now have to come up and visit me on a weekend when you get back to Yakima. You'll most likely have all summer since it's one of my goals to be able to get a steady enough job to enable me to stay over the summer in Seattle this next year. Something in my field. Yeah, that'd be good . . . I would have to get a lot more room mates than I currently have if I wanted to be able to afford an apartment in Seattle . . . the most expensive city in the U.S.
I only have two weeks until I'm heading back to Seattle! I leave the day of my grandmother's wedding. I'll still be able to go and be the guestbook attendant, but it's going to be a hurried lunch afterwards. ;)
I'm so much faster at typing when I'm thinking it than when I'm reading it . . . I should read out loud more often to be able to speed up the transformation of information from input to output or some such.
Today, I helped out at MOPS. It went just fine for the most part. There was one little girl named Brianna who had a little trouble. I had to hold her in a rocking chair for half-an-hour. She really liked being held tight. Every time I shifted one of my arms off of her, she would whimper and pull it back . . . so cute but sad . . . :( She finally decided that she had had enough crying and got down to play with only the occaisional sniffled "Mama?".
I have a couple more babysitting jobs lined up before I go, but other than that my schedule is all school preparation. I have a lot of sewing that I should do. We'll see how much of it actually gets done . . . any bets? :P I have . . . two items out of nine. ;)
Until later,
The Supposedly Sewing Sitter
. . .
Hey I know! How 'bout now! :D Now is a good time. XD
I washed all my kitchen stuff and packed it up. Man, I have a lot of things to fit into that little kitchen. Eh, we'll make it work. ;)I am very excited about having my own apartment and this means that all of you people who got into school so early and get to leave early will now have to come up and visit me on a weekend when you get back to Yakima. You'll most likely have all summer since it's one of my goals to be able to get a steady enough job to enable me to stay over the summer in Seattle this next year. Something in my field. Yeah, that'd be good . . . I would have to get a lot more room mates than I currently have if I wanted to be able to afford an apartment in Seattle . . . the most expensive city in the U.S.
I only have two weeks until I'm heading back to Seattle! I leave the day of my grandmother's wedding. I'll still be able to go and be the guestbook attendant, but it's going to be a hurried lunch afterwards. ;)
I'm so much faster at typing when I'm thinking it than when I'm reading it . . . I should read out loud more often to be able to speed up the transformation of information from input to output or some such.
Today, I helped out at MOPS. It went just fine for the most part. There was one little girl named Brianna who had a little trouble. I had to hold her in a rocking chair for half-an-hour. She really liked being held tight. Every time I shifted one of my arms off of her, she would whimper and pull it back . . . so cute but sad . . . :( She finally decided that she had had enough crying and got down to play with only the occaisional sniffled "Mama?".
I have a couple more babysitting jobs lined up before I go, but other than that my schedule is all school preparation. I have a lot of sewing that I should do. We'll see how much of it actually gets done . . . any bets? :P I have . . . two items out of nine. ;)
Until later,
The Supposedly Sewing Sitter
Monday, April 10, 2006
Short Update
Wow . . . things have been . . . busy. Well, not that busy, as classes are just starting, but it's been kind of hard to blog. I've been having lots of fun. Scrounge was this past weekend and my team and I had fun and managed not to get lost too badly . . . Plus, I learned how to get to a lot of places that I didn't know how to get to before. Or at least I'm more confident about getting there now. :)
I'm staying up here for Easter weekend. I'm working at my church and going over to Andy's. The guys on second are also throwing an egg dyeing party, which should be fun. :)
In other news, Moyer banquet is coming up. The masquerade theme is giving me some trouble though . . . I have my outfit all figured out, but we're having trouble figuring out something for Andy that will have a mask . . . he really wants to be a character from Killer Seven called Mask de Smith, but that would involve a white suit, which is . . . difficult to find. Renting one would cost too much. :\ Oh well. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
In other news, check out my deviantART website to see the pictures I've been taking recently. :) I even got to run around downtown Fremont with Stephanie taking pictures. That was fun. :Dhttp://www.deviantart.com/bemusedbonnie
I'm staying up here for Easter weekend. I'm working at my church and going over to Andy's. The guys on second are also throwing an egg dyeing party, which should be fun. :)
In other news, Moyer banquet is coming up. The masquerade theme is giving me some trouble though . . . I have my outfit all figured out, but we're having trouble figuring out something for Andy that will have a mask . . . he really wants to be a character from Killer Seven called Mask de Smith, but that would involve a white suit, which is . . . difficult to find. Renting one would cost too much. :\ Oh well. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
In other news, check out my deviantART website to see the pictures I've been taking recently. :) I even got to run around downtown Fremont with Stephanie taking pictures. That was fun. :D
Anyway, another more-detailed update should be forthcoming.
The Short-Winded Scribe
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Post-Valentine's Post
It's the day after Valentine's Day. The actual day of Valentine's Day wasn't that special for me this year. I mean, I got some Valentine's from friends, but I didn't actually get around to doing anything for them and that's usually the best part. Last year I made all my friends hand-drawn Homestar valentines. ;) Plus, Andy and I celebrated over the weekend. He got me a huuuuge card (which I still don't know what I'm going to do with), some "coupons" for things like, "a date where I don't complain about you paying" and, "a hug whenever you need it" and a pair of nice silver earrings (the boy has taste ;).) I got him a "Roy Rogers" kit (Coke, cherry syrup, maraschino cherries) on the recommendation of Steve and the movie The Last Samurai. We spent most of the day at the mall attempting to pick out my present and getting Andy a haircut. :) It was a nice day. I also went to the Cheesecake Factory for only the second time in my life and it was quite good.
Laura has friends coming over this weekend. It should be fun. The room will actually be clean for Laura's friends because Andy is also probably going to be visiting me On Monday since I won't be going to Yakima for the weekend. Even though I really miss my family . . . :\ The other day, as I was walking out of the science building with Steph, I heard a sound that I thought was a sprinkler and the weirdest thing happened. My heart actually jumped for joy. My whole psyche was literally squealing in happiness at this sound which I associate with the dry climate and irrigation of home. I was quite crushed when we came through the outer doors and I realized it was only a very choppy-sounding lawn mower. :( That right there can tell you that I'm missing home a lot right now. I'm crushed that I didn't hear a sprinkler. I think the sunshine we've been having recently has done it. I also think it has officially started my spring fever today. I couldn't keep my eyes off the blue, blue sky . . . ~sighs regretfully~
Anyways, I got offered a TA job next quarter for the plant section of general biology. Dr. Nelson teaches it and he highly recommended me for the person who handles these things. ;) Hmm, wonder why. :P However, I am also going to be taking care of the greenhouse, working at the library, keeping up with o-chem and its lab, AND taking plant taxonomy which has two lab times per week. Just a hunch, but I don't think I would be able to fit in another lab time and time for grading papers in on top of that. :\ I hope I'll be able to TA for this class next year. I would love to.
Speaking of my plant taxonomy class, it features a camping trip to, of all places, Eastern Washington! :D Hey hey! Maybe I'll be camping somewhere close enough to home that I can visit. ;) It will be sooooo cool to finally be able to identify all the different sages and tumbleweeds and grasses. XD I've wanted to be able to do that ever since we got the plant identification book on flowers of the Cascades.
My classes this quarter are fairly blah. Statistics, UCOR, and the death-bringer organic chemistry combine to make a thoroughly boring, sometimes frustrating quarter. Good thing I'm halfway done. Anyway, the one bright spot is, once I'm done with organic chemistry, I never have to take another chemistry class again! Woo hoo! :)
Well, that's all I can think of for now and I am getting hungry. See you again soon, blogging community!
The Pleased Planter
P.S. I am surprised that no one suggested names for the other fish in my photograph. There's still just Sherbet and the big orange one and the little white one . . .
Laura has friends coming over this weekend. It should be fun. The room will actually be clean for Laura's friends because Andy is also probably going to be visiting me On Monday since I won't be going to Yakima for the weekend. Even though I really miss my family . . . :\ The other day, as I was walking out of the science building with Steph, I heard a sound that I thought was a sprinkler and the weirdest thing happened. My heart actually jumped for joy. My whole psyche was literally squealing in happiness at this sound which I associate with the dry climate and irrigation of home. I was quite crushed when we came through the outer doors and I realized it was only a very choppy-sounding lawn mower. :( That right there can tell you that I'm missing home a lot right now. I'm crushed that I didn't hear a sprinkler. I think the sunshine we've been having recently has done it. I also think it has officially started my spring fever today. I couldn't keep my eyes off the blue, blue sky . . . ~sighs regretfully~
Anyways, I got offered a TA job next quarter for the plant section of general biology. Dr. Nelson teaches it and he highly recommended me for the person who handles these things. ;) Hmm, wonder why. :P However, I am also going to be taking care of the greenhouse, working at the library, keeping up with o-chem and its lab, AND taking plant taxonomy which has two lab times per week. Just a hunch, but I don't think I would be able to fit in another lab time and time for grading papers in on top of that. :\ I hope I'll be able to TA for this class next year. I would love to.
Speaking of my plant taxonomy class, it features a camping trip to, of all places, Eastern Washington! :D Hey hey! Maybe I'll be camping somewhere close enough to home that I can visit. ;) It will be sooooo cool to finally be able to identify all the different sages and tumbleweeds and grasses. XD I've wanted to be able to do that ever since we got the plant identification book on flowers of the Cascades.
My classes this quarter are fairly blah. Statistics, UCOR, and the death-bringer organic chemistry combine to make a thoroughly boring, sometimes frustrating quarter. Good thing I'm halfway done. Anyway, the one bright spot is, once I'm done with organic chemistry, I never have to take another chemistry class again! Woo hoo! :)
Well, that's all I can think of for now and I am getting hungry. See you again soon, blogging community!
The Pleased Planter
P.S. I am surprised that no one suggested names for the other fish in my photograph. There's still just Sherbet and the big orange one and the little white one . . .
Friday, February 10, 2006
Blog Rennaisance
Wow! I am posting again within the same week that I last posted! Shocking! I may be experiencing a blog rennaisance! I'd be experiencing it all by myself, but who cares? ;) And it's probably a good thing that I'm starting to blog more often because I don't believe that I will be making it home for President's Day weekend. :/
Spring has been turned on full blast in Seattle. There have been two sunny days in a row now and it has been heavenly. I can tell my body thinks it's officially spring because I have started writing poetry. Every year it's like clockwork. When the first poem shows up, we're definitely in full-swing spring. (Heh. "Full-swing spring. Sounds funny. Maybe I'll use it in a poem. ;) ) So even though there's a depressing weather forecast ahead, I'm doing my best to take advantage of the nice weather. Darn groundhog . . . Bet he saw his shadow. :
I won a contest. Did you know that? :D I entered the family recipe for rotelli in Gwinn's Homecooking Contest and I won! (along with several other people) They served rotelli at the vegetarian station without the tri-color noodles, fresh mushrooms (theirs were canned), and fresh garlic (they used garlic salt instead) but it was still good. :) I had to kinda steal some in order to try it since I'm supposed to have only my sack meal for lunch on Fridays, but I figured they would forgive me since it was the recipe that I had turned in. ;) The prize I got was a ten dollar certificate to Barns and Noble which is also good at the SPU bookstore. :D
I am going to throw away the papyrus tomorrow. It is dying. How sad. Oh well, life goes on. In more exciting news, I got a letter from Dan as I'm sure many of you also did. :) Yay! I had written him at the same time he had wrote me so he complained about me not having sent him anything, but I had. So there, Dan. :P I've already written him another letter, but we'll see how long this one takes me to send . . .
In final news, I left my glasses at Andy's apartment during Super Bowl weekend and man, I could tell. I have been struggling with headaches all week. Now that I'm used to being able to see correctly, my eyes complain when I can't. I'm looking forward to getting those back. I have been losing a lot of stuff recently. My mind has not been where it should be.
Anyway, I'm pretty tired and it's only eight o'clock. My room mate is psyched for the Olympics, so she'll be watching those tonight. I may just change into my pajamas early tonight and lay in bed while we watch. :) See everybody soon.
The Pooped Poet
Spring has been turned on full blast in Seattle. There have been two sunny days in a row now and it has been heavenly. I can tell my body thinks it's officially spring because I have started writing poetry. Every year it's like clockwork. When the first poem shows up, we're definitely in full-swing spring. (Heh. "Full-swing spring. Sounds funny. Maybe I'll use it in a poem. ;) ) So even though there's a depressing weather forecast ahead, I'm doing my best to take advantage of the nice weather. Darn groundhog . . . Bet he saw his shadow. :
I won a contest. Did you know that? :D I entered the family recipe for rotelli in Gwinn's Homecooking Contest and I won! (along with several other people) They served rotelli at the vegetarian station without the tri-color noodles, fresh mushrooms (theirs were canned), and fresh garlic (they used garlic salt instead) but it was still good. :) I had to kinda steal some in order to try it since I'm supposed to have only my sack meal for lunch on Fridays, but I figured they would forgive me since it was the recipe that I had turned in. ;) The prize I got was a ten dollar certificate to Barns and Noble which is also good at the SPU bookstore. :D
I am going to throw away the papyrus tomorrow. It is dying. How sad. Oh well, life goes on. In more exciting news, I got a letter from Dan as I'm sure many of you also did. :) Yay! I had written him at the same time he had wrote me so he complained about me not having sent him anything, but I had. So there, Dan. :P I've already written him another letter, but we'll see how long this one takes me to send . . .
In final news, I left my glasses at Andy's apartment during Super Bowl weekend and man, I could tell. I have been struggling with headaches all week. Now that I'm used to being able to see correctly, my eyes complain when I can't. I'm looking forward to getting those back. I have been losing a lot of stuff recently. My mind has not been where it should be.
Anyway, I'm pretty tired and it's only eight o'clock. My room mate is psyched for the Olympics, so she'll be watching those tonight. I may just change into my pajamas early tonight and lay in bed while we watch. :) See everybody soon.
The Pooped Poet
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Fishes
The goldfish! I used my handy-dandy polarized lens so now you can actually see them through the reflection! :D I got some where you could actually see to the bottom of the tank as well, but those didn't have all three fish in them. The fish don't have names, but I think I'm getting closer to naming them . . . we'll see. So thanks parents for this Christmas present. It works! :) All you have to do is take several "pre-picture" adjustment shots before you take your actual photo because you can't tell from the digital readout whether or not the polarized lens is at the right angle. You can only tell once you've taken the shot. But it still works. ;)
Newspaper Hat
My room mate Laura who I neglected to mention in my post on floor pictures. She too had quite the awesome hat. ;)
The Greenhouse
The greenhouse for those who have yet to see it. The other half is not in the picture and this is at night so the screen is down and the sun lamp is on for the lotuses.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Papyrus Orphan
I have been attempting to keep a stalk of papyrus from the greenhouse alive in my room for the last few days. It's over five feet tall and it's in a one foot tall vase. It has semi-tipped over several times and is now wedged gracefully between the edge of the bed and a book. :) I am enjoying looking up at it over my head even now. And no, I didn't pick it. It had fallen over onto the aquatic plants tank. That's what they do when they get old. Fall over.
Tonight was our floor picture and we all wore a white t-shirt and our favorite hat. Mine was, of course, the orange kitty ears hat I got from Andy for Christmas. :D It was, by far, the most unique hat of the bunch. ;)
I think I may end up spending a little more on Andy than we had previously planned . . . just maybe five bucks or so. I can admit this on this blog because Andy doesn't check it. Tee hee! :D And no one clue him in. I want to get away with my five buck surplus. ;)
Last night, around midnight, someone burned popcorn to the point where it actually set off our extremely reluctant fire alarm. Actually, the poor guy burned it enough to ruin the microwave, which I thought was remarkable. He must have set it for 30 minutes when he meant 3 or something. So, once we got outside away from the terrible high-pitched beeping that is the fire alarm, we spent about fifteen minutes huddling outside waiting for the fire department. I did think to grab my blanket before heading out, which helped. Even if you're not supposed to actually grab anything . . . but I was sitting on it, so I thought that would be okay. ;)
I left my glasses at Andy's house on Sunday. I took them off while we were watching the Super Bowl and now I am definitely experiencing some eye strain. :\ I may be going to bed any minutes here. Well, that seems like all that is going on. Homework, work, and other boring aspects of life eat up the rest. ;)
The Fatigued Freelancer
Tonight was our floor picture and we all wore a white t-shirt and our favorite hat. Mine was, of course, the orange kitty ears hat I got from Andy for Christmas. :D It was, by far, the most unique hat of the bunch. ;)
I think I may end up spending a little more on Andy than we had previously planned . . . just maybe five bucks or so. I can admit this on this blog because Andy doesn't check it. Tee hee! :D And no one clue him in. I want to get away with my five buck surplus. ;)
Last night, around midnight, someone burned popcorn to the point where it actually set off our extremely reluctant fire alarm. Actually, the poor guy burned it enough to ruin the microwave, which I thought was remarkable. He must have set it for 30 minutes when he meant 3 or something. So, once we got outside away from the terrible high-pitched beeping that is the fire alarm, we spent about fifteen minutes huddling outside waiting for the fire department. I did think to grab my blanket before heading out, which helped. Even if you're not supposed to actually grab anything . . . but I was sitting on it, so I thought that would be okay. ;)
I left my glasses at Andy's house on Sunday. I took them off while we were watching the Super Bowl and now I am definitely experiencing some eye strain. :\ I may be going to bed any minutes here. Well, that seems like all that is going on. Homework, work, and other boring aspects of life eat up the rest. ;)
The Fatigued Freelancer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Arrival of Spring
I saw my first robin of the year today!!!! :D That's exciting. I always kind of use the day of the year that I see my first robin as the first day of spring. Well, early spring.
The rest of my Christmas present from Andy finally arrived. It's a fleecy orange hat with, best of all . . . kitty ears! XD XD XD It's sooooo awesome! I wore it on Sunday when I visited Andy and I wore it yesterday to class too! Sooooo cute! It certainly got some looks, but most people seemed to like it. My UCOR professor was opening class and stopped right in the middle of a sentence and looked at me and said, "Nice hat. Are you cold?" She was slightly surprised. And it fits really well which most hats don't. :) I had a really nice time with Andy even though I sucked it up at Guitar Hero. I'll just never have enough coordination for that kind of thing. It's like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head while winking and hopping on one foot. Well, that's what it's like for me anyway. For Andy I'm sure it's more like . . . breathing.
Speaking of my UCOR teacher, I swear that woman has an ongoing battle with spell check. Last week when we were learning about China during the Middle Ages, we were learning about Confucius. However, several times throughout her powerpoint, "Confucian values" was replaced with "Confusion values" which made me smile to myself. And yesterday on her powerpoint, she had written that someone had written a book "anomalously" insted of "anonymously." Apparently this book was quite an aberration from the norm. ;)
The greenhouse has been hard to keep up with. Lots of stuff going on and sadly, lots of procrastination on homework too. :\ But I'm doing my best to mend my ways. The banana tree had a pod on it that I discovered a couple weeks ago and wasn't sure of what it was. Turns out, it's a flower! The banana tree is going to produce bananas. :) I'm going to have to take pictures.
I'm also having fun with Moog and Andy and Steve on an online game called ogame. It's a game where you start out with a planet and get to build more and more stuff and raid other planets for their resources, etc. etc. :) Quite addicting, but fortunately, not excessively time-consuming. Not for me anyway.
Okay, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be riding my bike soon since things are starting to warm up around here.
The Gaming (to a point) Girl ;)
The rest of my Christmas present from Andy finally arrived. It's a fleecy orange hat with, best of all . . . kitty ears! XD XD XD It's sooooo awesome! I wore it on Sunday when I visited Andy and I wore it yesterday to class too! Sooooo cute! It certainly got some looks, but most people seemed to like it. My UCOR professor was opening class and stopped right in the middle of a sentence and looked at me and said, "Nice hat. Are you cold?" She was slightly surprised. And it fits really well which most hats don't. :) I had a really nice time with Andy even though I sucked it up at Guitar Hero. I'll just never have enough coordination for that kind of thing. It's like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head while winking and hopping on one foot. Well, that's what it's like for me anyway. For Andy I'm sure it's more like . . . breathing.
Speaking of my UCOR teacher, I swear that woman has an ongoing battle with spell check. Last week when we were learning about China during the Middle Ages, we were learning about Confucius. However, several times throughout her powerpoint, "Confucian values" was replaced with "Confusion values" which made me smile to myself. And yesterday on her powerpoint, she had written that someone had written a book "anomalously" insted of "anonymously." Apparently this book was quite an aberration from the norm. ;)
The greenhouse has been hard to keep up with. Lots of stuff going on and sadly, lots of procrastination on homework too. :\ But I'm doing my best to mend my ways. The banana tree had a pod on it that I discovered a couple weeks ago and wasn't sure of what it was. Turns out, it's a flower! The banana tree is going to produce bananas. :) I'm going to have to take pictures.
I'm also having fun with Moog and Andy and Steve on an online game called ogame. It's a game where you start out with a planet and get to build more and more stuff and raid other planets for their resources, etc. etc. :) Quite addicting, but fortunately, not excessively time-consuming. Not for me anyway.
Okay, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be riding my bike soon since things are starting to warm up around here.
The Gaming (to a point) Girl ;)
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Artifice and Edifice (Pride and Prejudice Quote)
Sheesh! Things have been moving so quickly around here! It's been hard to find a moment to spare. As I'm writing this, I should be preparing to leave to go and sequester myself in the library so I can finish my homework before Andy visits tomorrow. I'm even the caffeine-jolted state of alertness that will allow me to get as much done before dinner time as possible.
I now have no idea what is actually news and what isn't because it's been so long since I blogged last that I'll pretty much just have to tell everything and assume that some of you have heard it already. I'm working in the greenhouse again. This time for pay instead of credit. (I got an A last quarter. Yay! :D) This is great news for me as I'm excited that I'll get to stay on and watch the plants grow and change. The sad news is, however, that Dr. Nelson, through a slight bit of negligence over the break, killed one of my favorite plants, the maidenhair. ~Sniff, sniff~ :'( I even made it a headstone that I am tempted to put in it's planter. ;) Heh. Well, maidenhair ferns are tough old weeds and I still have hopes that this one will resprout. Everything else seems to be going fine. Although I do wonder what happened to my small clippers . . . it's hard to prune back a sensitive plant using loppers. ;)
Yesterday was an oil-painting day put on by Siri. It was sooo fun. :) I still haven't quite finished my painting because I had to go to work at the library after only about an hour-and-a-half, but it looks pretty good so far. It's a lake with some pine trees, and I've been utilizing the power of Bob Ross to create it. ;) The guy actually has some pretty solid, easy-to-use techniques if you watched enough of his show. Even though it was a little hard to paint on the canvases we had since they bumpy, not flat. Some things don't work quite so well. But I am looking forward to my next opportunity to paint. Siri was so nice to put it on for us . . . I also saw Save the Last Dance and X-Men 1 for the first time ever this weekend. What cinematic progress I'm making! ;)
I'm kind of broke right now or I would be taking more random pictures. I got a check from Energizer a while back for my freakish broken batteries and charger. They sent me $25 and I'm pretty sure the charger cost less than that, so I'm okay with how things turned out. But until I can get a hold of some more batteries, and quite possibly a new charger. I'm saving my camera for the major things instead of doing silly things like taking pictures of my plants in the greenhouse, or that sign up in Queen Anne with the pedestrian flying that says, "Think of the impact you could make", or taking a picture of my painting, or of my latest artworks. I drew a picture of several of my friends as a superhero team. It's awesome! Laura is my favorite . . . :) . . . . Man, I wish I had a battery charger . . . :\ Darn electronics and their expenses.
Other than that schoolwork rules my life. Dr. Bartlett, my organic chemistry teacher, assigns a lot more homework than Dr. Mouser did last quarter. I am endeavoring to use my Palm Pilot this quarter in order to keep track of things since I will have a lot of simultaneous assignments from different classes (all three are heavy on the homework). We'll see how that goes. So far I've just gotten myself readdicted to all its games and forgotten where I've written my math assignment twice . . .
In other news, I have a semi-resolution this year that some of you may not have heard about. It is to try new things. So far, I have tried a Royal Red Robin burger (WAY too greasy with its combination of hamburger patty, bacon, egg, AND mayonnaise) and the biscotti in Gwinn. (The other resolution was to actually get some real exercise time in this quarter but THAT has yet to happen.)
Well, that's all that's going on for me right now. Dan, my brother, and my sister and her new husband all cross my mind often. I wonder how Dan is doing at bootcamp and what my brother is planning in order to finish his education before he ships out and how Bethany and Shay are doing in their apartment. ~Sigh~ . . . Everyone is moving on into their new lives. Separation is a part of life, I suppose. I'm looking forward to being reunited with my family during spring break and summer so that I can see my brother before he ships out. :( Well, I better take off to finish my paper. I'll blog when next I can take a breath. ;)
The Active Artist
I now have no idea what is actually news and what isn't because it's been so long since I blogged last that I'll pretty much just have to tell everything and assume that some of you have heard it already. I'm working in the greenhouse again. This time for pay instead of credit. (I got an A last quarter. Yay! :D) This is great news for me as I'm excited that I'll get to stay on and watch the plants grow and change. The sad news is, however, that Dr. Nelson, through a slight bit of negligence over the break, killed one of my favorite plants, the maidenhair. ~Sniff, sniff~ :'( I even made it a headstone that I am tempted to put in it's planter. ;) Heh. Well, maidenhair ferns are tough old weeds and I still have hopes that this one will resprout. Everything else seems to be going fine. Although I do wonder what happened to my small clippers . . . it's hard to prune back a sensitive plant using loppers. ;)
Yesterday was an oil-painting day put on by Siri. It was sooo fun. :) I still haven't quite finished my painting because I had to go to work at the library after only about an hour-and-a-half, but it looks pretty good so far. It's a lake with some pine trees, and I've been utilizing the power of Bob Ross to create it. ;) The guy actually has some pretty solid, easy-to-use techniques if you watched enough of his show. Even though it was a little hard to paint on the canvases we had since they bumpy, not flat. Some things don't work quite so well. But I am looking forward to my next opportunity to paint. Siri was so nice to put it on for us . . . I also saw Save the Last Dance and X-Men 1 for the first time ever this weekend. What cinematic progress I'm making! ;)
I'm kind of broke right now or I would be taking more random pictures. I got a check from Energizer a while back for my freakish broken batteries and charger. They sent me $25 and I'm pretty sure the charger cost less than that, so I'm okay with how things turned out. But until I can get a hold of some more batteries, and quite possibly a new charger. I'm saving my camera for the major things instead of doing silly things like taking pictures of my plants in the greenhouse, or that sign up in Queen Anne with the pedestrian flying that says, "Think of the impact you could make", or taking a picture of my painting, or of my latest artworks. I drew a picture of several of my friends as a superhero team. It's awesome! Laura is my favorite . . . :) . . . . Man, I wish I had a battery charger . . . :\ Darn electronics and their expenses.
Other than that schoolwork rules my life. Dr. Bartlett, my organic chemistry teacher, assigns a lot more homework than Dr. Mouser did last quarter. I am endeavoring to use my Palm Pilot this quarter in order to keep track of things since I will have a lot of simultaneous assignments from different classes (all three are heavy on the homework). We'll see how that goes. So far I've just gotten myself readdicted to all its games and forgotten where I've written my math assignment twice . . .
In other news, I have a semi-resolution this year that some of you may not have heard about. It is to try new things. So far, I have tried a Royal Red Robin burger (WAY too greasy with its combination of hamburger patty, bacon, egg, AND mayonnaise) and the biscotti in Gwinn. (The other resolution was to actually get some real exercise time in this quarter but THAT has yet to happen.)
Well, that's all that's going on for me right now. Dan, my brother, and my sister and her new husband all cross my mind often. I wonder how Dan is doing at bootcamp and what my brother is planning in order to finish his education before he ships out and how Bethany and Shay are doing in their apartment. ~Sigh~ . . . Everyone is moving on into their new lives. Separation is a part of life, I suppose. I'm looking forward to being reunited with my family during spring break and summer so that I can see my brother before he ships out. :( Well, I better take off to finish my paper. I'll blog when next I can take a breath. ;)
The Active Artist
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
