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 . . .

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

Kitty Hat!

Actually Annie, now that you mention it . . . ;) KITTY HAT!!!!!!!!!

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.

Banana pod! :D 

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