At school

Well today is my long day. I started at UNLV at 8:30am, then I had lunch with my mom, then I talked to Shahnon on the phone, then I played around on the freeway for an hour and now I'm at the CCSN Cheyenne Campus. It's about 5:36pm and I have my Physics 182 class at 6pm. Then I have my Physics 182 Lab from 7:30pm - 10:30pm. LONG FUCKING DAY.

I have three major exams next week, in all of my difficult classes. I will NEVER take 17 credits again EVER! Oh well, at least I'm not dead from a hurricane, right? Things could always be worse.

Vacations

When my mom and I were having lunch she suggested that we as a family (as in my mom, aunts kathy/die die, uncles danny/steve, cousins/lee/danielle and their respective families) should all go on a family cruise to Alaska. That would be so much fun! People could do whatever they wanted to. I would want to do the long cruise, not the round trip so that we could visit more than 3 ports in AK. Then I would want to stay in one of Princesses chalet's in the mountains outside of Anchorage. Mmmmm... Alaska. I'll have to keep it in the front of people's minds.

I talked to Tara the other night for a long time. She mentioned that she would want to do a group vacation as well, in a couple of years. Well, she's just like family, if she could survive my wedding then she can survive one of our family get togethers. That might be just the thing she is looking for.

Another interesing thing... Brandon, Me, Shahnon and Rick are meeting with Heather, James, Dielle, Jesse, Doug and some other people (of which I think one of their names is Skort - at least that's what his name is in the email Dielle just sent me) up in Seattle for New Years Weekend! We're renting this cute cabin CABIN
and we're going Skiing! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Can't wait. I'm going to need a MAJOR vacation after this insane school schedule!

K, gotta get to class.

Thinking can be bad for you....

I started thinking today about just what the hell I was doing. School is WAY harder than I thought it was going to be. That also might be because I've somehow been sucked into working 16 hours a week. Taking 17 credits at two different schools and three different campuses plus trying to get in time to work out, see my husband and get my house unpacked has made me a little edgy. I've been a huge bitch. But I just can't help it. I watched most of "Iron Jawed Angels" today in English class. It's an HBO movie that is based on the life of Alice Paul and the sufferage movement. Now THOSE women had a lot to deal with. Sometimes, all you need is a little perspective, right? I still feel overwhelmed, but all those feelings of dropping out and never going back have receded.

I figured out why I don't understand the current chapter that we're doing in math. It's based on a previous chapter that we didn't cover over at CCSN. I was so freaked out. Math doesn't usually freak me out like that. I actually cried about it, I was so frustrated and I was doubting myself so much that I almost talked myself out of staying in school. I then decided to review the chapter that I had missed in my previous math class. Duh. It's a little extra work, but that is expected when going from one school to another. They try to teach the same things, but they don't sit down in planning meetings with each other. CCSN omits stuff that they don't think most people will have to learn. I even remember my Calc II teacher telling me that they don't even teach that chapter in Calc III. Well, I'm taking Calc III at a university that DID teach that chapter. It's all screwed up. I'm going to study that damn chapter now.

...He look-a like-a man...

My physics lab instructor is Mrs. Swan. We were doing an experiment in electrostatics where we had to rub a rubber rod on some animal fur and then some plastic and determine the charge on this electroscope that we had. She had told us that "the animal fur gave a negative charge and the plastic gave a positive charge." Well, I started to do the experiment and realized that the lab book said the exact opposite. So I asked her which one was right and she said, "Just like I said, the animal fur gives a positive charge and the plastic gives a negative charge," and she might have well added, "Yeah, yeah, he look-a like-a man." Not only does she look exactly like her but she acts exactly like her as well. It's funny in a not so funny kind of way because she's going to be no help whatsoever in the lab itself.

I was going to enter this math competition and when I went to the practice I realized that it was not for me. Proofs are not my thing. No thank you. I do need to join something though. I was thinking of a women's group or a young democrats group or a choir or something. Anything.

Brandon and I got a new sofa from my parents for our wedding present. I didn't want a wedding present, they paid for the wedding and I thought that a wedding present would be sort of retarded seeing that we went over budget on the wedding. (Sorry mom and auntie, love you!) :l It's from Lazy-boy and it's a chaise love seat recliner in a custom fabric that feels like chanile and velvet. Very comfortable. We won't have it for another couple of weeks so maybe I'll post a picture when we get it. Yeah, that will happen. ;)

No really, one of my goals is to post here more often. It feels good. It feels really good when I had 2 cups of coffee 2 hours ago and it's 12:30am and I'm not tired at all. I was supposed to be doing homework (and I did finish one of my math problem sets) but I'm all jacked up from talking to Heather on the phone and then I got sucked into the computer and the rest is history.

I just talked to Heather on the phone for an hour and a half. It's so funny, when we were living together we did talk and there were certainly times where we talked more than others but we were always pretty good at keeping each other up to speed on our current events. It's weird to cram a couple of packed weeks into an hour and a half conversation. I mean, we hadn't even talked about Katrina. EVERYBODY HAS TALKED ABOUT KATRINA! It just reinforces that fact that she really was a huge part of my life and that truly, my life is really not the same without her around. It's not bad, just different. It's sad and it leans toward being more difficult because she's not there when I get home to chat with or vent frustrations with, but I've been through this before. When I moved to Las Vegas I felt the same thing with Christa, Tara, Andy and everyone else that I used to talk to/see on a regular basis. I still get nostalgic when I think of the close relationships I used to have with my Edmonton friends and how our relationships change over the course of time. My Edmonton friends, if you're reading this, I'm not saying that I'm not friends with you or anything (as you see my friend paranoia kick in) it's just that things change over time. It's hard to be super close with people who live thousands of miles away. Shit, just living more than 4 hours away is hard. It just makes you realize how important it is to be in the moment and never take for granted the time you have with people because life really does change, nothing ever stays the same.

For both Heather and I, we've chosen to have some pretty huge life changes all at the same time, without either of us having the advantage of having each other around to help us cope with it. She moved to a new city, new house, new job, her husband got a job in several other cities for 2 months so she is alone in this new house, new city and new job. We do have friends up there, thank god for Dielle, Jared, Lisa and Doug and all the other people that Heather knows. For me, I've quit working full-time (for the first time since I was 18), I got married, I'm dependent on my husband, I'm doing weird things like cooking dinner and doing laundry and doing 40 hours of homework each week, I'm living in a different place, my best friend is not here, my other best friend lives across the city and it's hard to get to see her, our house is not unpacked, I haven't sent out the thank-you's for the wedding (they're done, I just need to find where I packed them), my last job talked me into coming in to help them for 16 hours a week and I'm still part of that stamp club once a month. Man. Her changes are really huge, and the biggest change for me is not having her here. So there you have it. Not all that interesting, but if you've made it this far you really are a true friend. Pass this on to 10 people and a special friendship message will appear on your screen, trust me, it's worth it! ;)

New Beginnings

It seems that the world is now in total chaos, and in my little microcosm it seems that way as well.

The situation in New Orleans is really awful. I know you didn't need me to tell you that. It sort of puts everything into perspective.

My best friend moved to Seattle yesterday. Sad. But happy for her. She's going to establish residency and then she's going to become an acupuncture and I get free treatments for life! We decided to get together for what seems to be the last "mid-week weekend" yesterday. "Mid-week weekend" is Wednesday and we would get together somewhere, preferably with a pool and we'd grill stuff and swim and act like it was the weekend. Shahnon made Thai Burgers. Mmmmmmmmm. SOooooooo gooooooooooooood. :D It was still slightly sad because Heather and James weren't there. :( But we're planning a trip for New Years where we are going to rent a ski chalet on Mt. Baker and have a grand old time.

I just started school yesterday. UNLV's classes for me this semester are Math 283 (calculus III) and Women's studies 113. Then on Tuesday, I start at CCSN (for my final semester there) taking Physics 181 & 182 (plus a 3 hour lab for each) and an English Lit class (232). Parking at UNLV is retarded. They have a whole bunch of construction going on and it's screwing up the parking for now. It's so funny, it feels like January 1st at the gym. You go to the gym January 1st and it's totally packed! There is a wait at all the machines and you just want to scream, "OK! Everyone who is really going to work out for more than the week of January the 1st please stay, the rest of you LEAVE!" And half the gym would empty. It's the same with school. Everyone goes the first couple of weeks and then by the end of the semester there's 1/4 of the students left. It's sad, really.

Brandon and I are finally living together. After being married for 3 months, we've decided to take another big step in our relationship and move in together. I know, it's a big step, but sometimes you just have to trust in fate! ;)