Sweet Dreams are Made of This

Google News Badges are Ridiculous!

2012-02-05T20:43:00.001-06:00

I've stopped updating you all on my new discovery of Google News Badges because they have gotten out of hand. Really. Here's a current shot of my badges:

I know, right?! I used to put stock in these things as identifiers of my interests, but clearly things have gotten out of control. Google seems to just dole out random badges for articles that make no sense. I have a Britney Spears badge that I earned yesterday....yet I don't recall ever reading an article about her (or one mentioning her, for that matter). An Airlines badge? Huh? That's how I'd describe a lot of these badges: ridiculous.

Hopefully, this will be my last update about them. Maybe a year from now I'll have 100 of them for all sorts of random things I don't read about! :P

Pinterest and Styleboards

2012-02-05T15:29:00.001-06:00

So you may have noticed that I've taken a break from blogging. That's what happens when your life is consumed by work, school, teaching, and going to the Club (Princeton Club is a local gym where I scored a 2 month membership for only $50!). This weekend has been busy, in a good way, and today I thought I'd browse Pinterest. I've been on there for a while and within the last two weeks, I swear that every girl I know on facebook has started following me and my boards (along with, of course, every other girl on Pinterest). Where I once thought I was in a utopia of breathtaking images, inspiring attire, and beautiful baubles there is now an abundance of self-promotion ("Check out my jewelry on Etsy!") and feverish pinning (sort of a "Look what I found! I saw it first!" attitude with seemingly haphazard pinning) that have come to clutter the field. That isn't to say that these types of pins are caused by my facebook friends, but since the bandwagon is overflowing, everyone seems to want to hitch up another wagon and hop on before it's too late. On the other hand, when you refresh the page you will see a barrage of unique images every time that you might not have otherwise seen or considered pinning in the first place!

Anyway, I digress. My point was, that rather than repin a cute sweater for the 10,000th time, I decided to explore something relatively unknown to me: Styleboards. While I may have been in the know about Pinterest when it was just beginning to catch on, I am only recently exploring styleboards and creating them on Kaboodle. Just for fun, I created this one (see below) which I call "Daytime Romantic". Fun, flirty, and casual elegance define this look.

Daytime... by mlmillard

I should probably note that posting this board is not for shameless self-promotion, but rather, I can't find a way to pin it onto one of my Pinterest boards without hosting the image elsewhere (which will inevitably cause unintended self-promotion) :). Maybe the self-promoters and "I pinned it first" pinners aren't so bad after all; I mean, the point of Pinterest is to collect images of the things you love and cause inspiration (and maybe some people's inspiration comes from pinning like mad!).

I'm sure there are more styleboards in my future!

New Year's To-Do's

2012-01-03T18:32:00.002-06:00

I've been in a "bettering yourself everyday" type of mood lately, so I don't have an end goal to complete any particular resolutions per se this year. Rather, 2012 is going to be all about being a better me in general. That said, I've come up with a list of things I'd like to accomplish this year (and beyond). Here it is:

Adventure

1. Visit Aztalan (see wikipedia photo --->)

2. Take a road trip
3. Visit Katie in Spokane
4. Visit Elizabeth in Arkansas
5. Go to a state I haven't been to before
6. Go to Canada, eh

Fitness
1. Do a bike race
2. Do a sprint triathlon (Danskin, probably)

Outdoors
1. Go camping
2. Buy a State Park pass
3. Go hiking often
4. Go cross-country skiing

Self
1. Whiten my teeth (or stop drinking soda!)
2. Wear more sunscreen (though I do look awfully nice when tanned) ;)
3. Join the Optimists

More to come!

G-dub badge

2011-12-18T13:44:00.000-06:00

I just read an article about a new prep school being proposed in my area and how UW-Madison should have been backing it all along...yada yada yada. Anyway, I read the article after taking the screen shot in the post below, and as I scrolled down the page, I noticed a new little gem there (see right). Interesting! Apparently it took 8 articles to earn! What?!

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I don't lean democratic...I'll add this one to my Tea Party and Mitt Romney badges.

I also wonder what the delay must be for posting newly-earned badges..

Badges and Badgers

2011-12-18T13:29:00.001-06:00

Tip of the day: I just learned how to print screen on my Mac: Hold down Command, Shift, and 4. Drag the cursor to capture the desired area, and it will save to the clipboard. Pretty fancy not having to open Paint or anything :)

Let me get the Google Badge Updates out of the way so I can actually write about something else (shocking, I know!).

Here's what's up:

Check it out! An Ultimate badge! That's right. Reading 54 articles about Space will earn ya that one! I did earn a Tea Party badge at some point. not sure when that happened! You might also notice that I've got an Archaeology badge....it took 15 articles to earn it. That seems like quite a bit, considering my Biebs badge required a mere 8 articles read before that baby was on there (pardon the pun).

I should probably fess up about why I've been so lazy about updating the badges I've discovered: I stumbled across this link one day: http://goo.gl/4ipaA and it is an ongoing list of badges that is editable by anyone (think: wikipedia). I'm proud to say I've added a few on there myself :D but really, this guy is good! I would go there for more up-to-date info (but there aren't any pics, sorry!).

So...on to Badgers!

I got together with Katie E, Cait, Amy, Liz, and Ashley H. this weekend and it was SO wonderful! I won a free night's stay at the Marriott Residence Inn from a Relay for Life raffle and it had to be used by the end of the year, so there was no better time than now to try and get all the girls together. Steph, April, and Beth couldn't make it, but otherwise it would have been all of us Badgers! It was really, really, hard saying good-bye to everyone this morning as they went on their own way. I guess that up til now I hadn't given much thought to the fact that because we do all live all over the state and country, we don't get to see each other day-to-day and just catch up. Granted, I do see Steph the most and it's soooo great, but I forgot how much I really love the rest of our group and miss getting together with them as often as I do Steph. It was especially hard saying bye to Katie who lives in Spokane and is engaged. For the first time, I almost resented her getting married one day because we'd never have fun times like we did back in Old Ogg, 111, and 44#2. Those times just can't be beat and it's sad to think we'll never really have time together like that again. Just a part of growing up, I guess.

I should mention, too, that during that hotel stay my friend Lisa watched my little Popcorn and that was great too. I feel so very fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life, whether I see them regularly or otherwise. I guess it just means there are a lot of roadtrips in my future! :)

Sports Badges

2011-11-23T10:10:00.000-06:00

I've got a friend, Stephen, who was kind enough to let me take a peak at his badges. Here are two he's got that I haven't seen before:

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Day, New Badges

2011-11-22T15:14:00.005-06:00

It's been a while since I updated my Google News Badges, so I'd say it's time to show off my shiny new ones. Here's the whole collection:

You'll see that there a few new ones mixed in there, and that some have (surprisingly) moved up the ranks while others leave me wondering how they got there in the first place.

Let me break it down for ya:
Platinum Badge: Space (46 articles)
Gold Badge: Mobile Industry (42), Google (36), and Apple (36)
Silver: Android (28), Steve Jobs (16), Kristen Stewart (10)
Bronze: Politics (20), Music (14), iPhone (13), Nutrition (10), Netflix (9), Mitt Romney (8), Justin Bieber (8), Kindle (8), Kim Kardashian (7)

Whew! Just today I noticed a new Mitt Romney badge and a Nutrition badge. As of late I've been reading a lot of articles about the President and health, but I never imagined getting those two badges as a result. Weird....

So here is the full list of known badges:
Android
Apple
Barack Obama
Blackberry
Business
Chicago White Soxs
Dell
Democrats

Dominican Republic

Finance

Germany

Google
Groupon**
Harry Potter
Harry Reid
Hulu

India

**
iPhone

Iran

Justin Bieber
Kim Kardashian
Kindle
Kristen Stewart
Lady Gaga*

Lebanon

Libya

Microsoft

Mitt Romney
Mobile Industry
Motorola
Music
NATO
Netflix
Nokia
Nutrition
Politics
Rand Paul
Republicans

Russia

Samsung
Skype**
Sports**

Somalia

Space
Steve Jobs
Stock Market
Sun

Syria

Tea Party
The Phillippines

Ukraine

US Elections
Warren Buffett
*See citation here
** See citation here

If you think these blog posts about the badges are egotistical, that's ok. I think it's fun to see which new ones come out and how they are earned and what divides badge levels from one another. I know, I need a better hobby. But between teaching, work, and school, this is all I have time for!

Extreme Couponing...here I come!

2011-11-20T17:20:00.000-06:00

Today I went to Old Navy and shocked both myself and the cashier when I rang up. I had some coupons with me and there was a 75% off sweater sale, so I knew I'd be getting a good deal, but never did I think it'd be THAT good!

I bought $209.52 worth of sweaters, fleece, and going-out shirts, and spent $19.19 total! I had two $30 Supercash certificates which meant that for every $60 I spent, I would save $30, so between two transactions I expected to pay about $60 total. For some reason, the Supercash rang up before any discounts were applied but then went into effect AFTER the 75% discount was applied to the sweaters, so for my first transaction of $66.82 I paid NOTHING! The second transaction of $123.51 cost me the whopping $19.19. I am SO excited to be saving money - and today alone I saved almost 91%!

I told Ronnie that I know I've been shopping more than I have in the past, but it's hard to pass up stocking your wardrobe for under $20, which is cheaper than shopping at the Goodwill!!

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday

2011-11-11T17:06:00.000-06:00

It's hard not to think of Rebecca Black on Fridays. Her song about Friday is horrrendous!

Anyway, I've landed myself three new Badges. They are:

Apparently I've read enough stories about Netflix (7 of them, actually), Kindle (8 of them), and Kristen Stewart (7 of them) to earn a Bronze Badge for each. Nice. That brings my personal Badge count to 14 very diverse Badges.

Next week Popcorn gets groomed for the first time. The big question: To cut his hair like Boo, or like a regular pom. Decisions, decisions!

Newest Badges

2011-11-04T11:47:00.001-05:00

Someday I am going to look back and wonder what the heck I was thinking writing so much about these Badges, but it's sort of a fun obesession for now.

I am surprised to say that I've earned another three this week. THREE! What might they be, you ask? Only the finest Badges, of course. By the way, do you know how hard it is to not write "Badgers" out of habit?

They are:

Yep. You read it right. For reading 11 articles about Music, I earned a Badge. For reading 7 articles about Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber, I earned those Badges too. Not my proudest moment, but it is hilarious. Given the baby mama drama of Bieber as of late and the divorce drama with Kim, it was hard to not want to know the details!!

Wondering what my whole collection looks like now? Here it is, regardless!

10,000 Views!

2011-11-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

WOW! Today marked the 10,000th view of my blog! Thank you for reading!

Want to know the stats Google tells me about you readers?

Views by country:

United States

5,166

India

811

Canada

551

United Kingdom

426

Philippines

182

Indonesia

128

Pakistan

119

Australia

Netherlands

Germany

'11 Christmas List

2011-10-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

I know it's a little early to be planning for Christmas, but Ronnie got me thinking about how much I love slippers, and I realized that I needed a new pair. That got me started thinking about starting this year's list of desirables and actually taking the time to write them down. I doubt anyone giving me a gift will actually read this, but hey, it's good to have a few ideas in mind for friends who outright ask what to give you. I love basically any gift I'm given, so don't take this list to be something it is not - it's just a list of stuff I want and don't necessarily need.

In no particular order:

Slippers
Bike Trainer
Books
Age of Empires 2 for Mac
Dog Stroller
$20 iTunes gift card (that should cover the gangsta rap songs I've always wanted and haven't yet downloaded)
Old Navy gift card (my favorite store as of late)
Express gift card (jeans!!)
Just Dance 3 for Wii
Car rack for my new bike :)
Cute scarfs (the non-winter kind)

That should do it for now! I'll let you know if I get any of this stuff :) Am I missing something I should have on here? Let me know!!

More Badges..

2011-10-31T14:41:00.003-05:00

So I've done some more sleuthing and it seems that there is also a Barack Obama Badge available (which is not all that surprising).

This poster tells us the Badges he's earned, which include one for Harry Reid, Democrats, Tea Party, Somalia, Rand Paul, and Germany. Interesting.
There is another blog, Macrotots, which has a posting about a bunch of badges earned while experimenting with reading only certain types of articles. From his work, we know there following badges exist:

Motorola, Kindle, Netflix, Dell, Hulu, Microsoft, Samsung, Republicans, Nokia, Finance, Harry Reid, and Blackberry are all badges earned that I've not yet seen before.

A Google image search for "My Google News Badges" turns up images including badges for: The Phillippines, Warren Buffett, Lebanon, Sun, Libya, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, NATO, Iran, and Mitt Romney (did I say that one already)?

So now we know of at least 38 badges. Pretty exciting! Earned any lately you'd like to share? I am only 462+ away from knowing what 500+ Google News Badges exist. I guess it's more fun trying to figure them out than waiting for a list to be published. Or maybe this will be the only place a cumulative list will published. Guess we'll have to wait to find out!

I did earn two more, however, since last I posted :) Here they are:

Gotta represent my new Politics and iPhone Badges! I was surprised to earn the Politics Badge after reading an article about Greece. I see the politics in the protests there, but where's my Greece Badge??

Google News Badges

2011-10-22T12:26:00.001-05:00

Since the Google News Badges were unveiled in Summer 2011, I've found myself guilty of checking in to see which badges I've earned thus far, and wondering why aftering reading a litany of articles about a particular topic I've not yet receievd a badge for it. I keep up with the local news in my hometown and about 1 out of every 5 articles I read is about that little town. Clearly, there's no badge for that. We've read that there are 500+ badges, but no one seems to know what badges are out there to be had.

I thought it would be fun to start figuring them out, in hopes that oneday Google will publish an exhaustive list to satisfy my curiosity. Here's what I've got so far, in case you're curious:

So far I've managed to earn:

Gold "Space" Badge for reading 32 articles
Silver "Mobile Industry" Badge - 25 articles
Silver "Apple" Badge - 22 articles
Bronze "Google" Badge - 19 articles
Bronze "Android" Badge - 15 articles
Bronze "Steve Jobs" Badge - 14 articles

Since the passing of Steve Jobs, it was impossible not to graze a handful of articles about him (and incidentally, Apple). It seems apparent that multiple badges can be earned at once by way of reading articles about key topics (like the Steve Jobs/Apple example, just mentioned).

You can see in the examples (linked above) that there are badges for Politics, Business, Harry Potter, Chicago White Soxs, US Elections, Stock Market, Dominican Republic. On the forums I've seem complaints from Ron Paul fans having a Mitt Romney badge. I imagine that some articles do double-duty, earning you points toward multiple badges at once (as in the case of my Mobile Industry, Apple, and Android badges).

As interested in Space as I am, I am not all that interested in the Mobile Industry. I like reading about Apple, since I now own a Mac, but I still have a stone-age phone, leaving me all but interested in Android technology (though I do love technology, in general). Steve Jobs sort of comes along with the Apple territory, though I certainly read many articles about him after his death. The Google badge, well, it just showed up one day. I can't recall reading more than an article or two strictly about Google.

Any badges you'd like to share? Do you think your badges *really* say much about you?

New Chapter

2011-10-20T17:48:00.000-05:00

Anyone who is anyone will know that I've recently gone back to school for teaching. As always, I was incredibly ambitious and excited to return to the world of academia, but alas, I am quickly growing tired of waking up at 5:30am to teach, then going to work until 4:00pm, then going to class until 8:30pm without a break between each activity. I absolutely love the time I spend teaching in the morning at Emerson Elementary here in Madison, but it would be preferable for my next placement to be on the West Side, nearer to work (we spend 35 hours observing each semester).

I am liking Cardinal Stritch so far. I think the only drawback right now is how uninteresting my literacy class is. I love literacy and learning about language acquisition, but gosh, this class is downright boring! Unfortunately we must spend 15 hours total each semester (in addition to the above-mentioned 35 hours) observing literacy in a Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 3rd grade classroom. Please make it stop! I will be grateful when I move on to the literacy portion for older students, I think. I guess we'll find out.

Fun fact: Apparently 10 people per day read this blog. Looks like you're one of them! The U.S. has the most readership followed by Canada and India. धन्यवाद!

POPCORN!!

2011-03-17T08:42:00.000-05:00

I have finally done it! I adopted a doggie! His name is Popcorn and he is a Pomeranian. But, before you start picturing a small little pup, STOP! He is bigger than a standard pom (enough that he won't fit in the Pomeranian-sized crate I bought for him) and he probably weighs about 12 lbs (instead of about 5-7 lbs). He is a blond color with an adorable face and he his top five favorite things are: snuggling, car rides, peeing, playing by swatting back and forth, and peeing some more. He has horrible breath, but how could you not love his sweet face? Poppycorny is about 8 years old the shelter believes, so he is able to make it through the night without any accidents and he is content being locked in his crate while I'm at work - accident-free as well. He is just such a sweet boy!

Pictures to follow once I am in town!

His birthday will be June 9th (my half birthday) so I will plan him a big to-do. By that time I'll be living in my new apartment and I can have all of my friends stay over :)

Speaking of friends, I feel like now more than ever I value my good friends. I know that sounds bad, but I guess I mean that I have always appreciated my friends, but only recently I have started to realize how MUCH I really rely on them and how much better my life is because of them. I started reconnecting with the friends from high school with whom I've lost touch, and started spending more time with my closer friends here in town. I've really gotten close to Steph again, and I'm grateful to have such a great friend! Lisa is another good friend of mine, and it's crazy to think that we met only a year ago! Lisa and her daughter, Lauren, will be accompanying my mom and I to Costa Rica - we leave tomorrow!!!!

Costa Rica will be its own post, I'm sure :)

First Riders List

2011-03-06T20:52:00.001-06:00

For those who have had the privilege of riding in my *new* car (and by new, of course, I mean new to me), I write this list for posterity. If you've been reading this, you know by now that I love lists and you're probably laughing at my lame excuse for creating yet another.

Enjoy!

First people to ride in my car (as of 3/6/11) - you'll see that a lot of the Mirabel staff were among the lucky list-makers:

1. Lisa (my great friend and the Mirabel operations manager)
2. Tim Anderson (our lawn guy)
3. Steph
4. Bob (the maintenance guy)
5. Katie E.
6. Stephen H. (maintenance guy)
7. Lauren
8. Mom
9. Ronnie
10. Dad
11-14. Erica, Erika, Dianah, and Sarah

Prior to gas prices rising to $3.50/gallon this past week, I was all about driving people around in my new car. However, chances are, if you're not on this list yet you'll have to hold out for a ride since I'm becoming less inclined to burn up gas driving around without purpose! :)

New Car & Goin' Home

2011-03-06T20:25:00.003-06:00

I'd like to pretend like I'm not being lazy, however, it is Sunday night and as all of my friends know, that is one of my two TV nights. I'm relaxing after being at home in Oak Creek, so the portion about my new car is from an email I wrote to some of my girlfriends:

As some of you may already know, I just bought a new car!! About two weeks ago my car, as the Oregon Trail might say, "took a turn for the worse." I sat there analyzing the pros and cons of my Malibu and in the end, there were only two pros: daytime running lights and power mirrors. Nothing else really worked anymore and the breaks sounded awful - even when I wasn't breaking; so I decided it was time to trade 'er in. I did some research and found that a dealer in Janesville had a great selection of used Toyotas at really good prices so I drove down a week ago last Friday and bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla LE! It is a beautiful blue and I got a sweet deal on it! I am a little shark and got them to bring it down from $16,999 to $12,900, and of course, they did give me a whopping $500 for that piece of junk Malibu, so I guess it was actually $12400 (after taxes, fees, etc.). I've been trying to get a nice picture of her, but it's been really yucky out. I finally took a picture for you to enjoy!

As I mentioned earlier, I just got back from a weekend home in Oak Creek. It was one of the best I've had yet since I got to see Ronnie, get together with family, and meet up with friends who I haven't seen in a (long) while. Friday was a quiet day after work, but I did drive to Chick-Fil-A with my mom and we enjoyed some waffle fries. I should mention that the only Chick-Fil-A I know of in the state of Wisconsin is in Racine, so you could say that I drove two hours for their food. It was worth it and I'd do it again! :)

Left to Right: Maryellen, Emma, Auntie Virginia, Holly, and Me

Now, on Saturday I drove my parents in my new whip (that's the gangsta term for a nice car, I've heard) to my cousin's house. It was her husband's birthday and we were there from 1pm until about 5pm! I got to see relatives who I have not had a chance to see for a while and it was great catching up. Afterward, I met up with Dianah, Erica, Erika, and Sarah at Erica's place. It was wonderful! I showed up to a delicious meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, salad, and cupcakes - it was like they knew my list of top ten favorite foods!! We ate and went to City Lounge in Cudahy, where my aforementioned cousin Holly and her husband, Brian, met us. I had a blast even though I was exhausted from enjoying all of the good food, family, and friends all day. This was the first time I'd seen these girls since last year, so it was soooo nice seeing them. I'm hoping that we stay close and do a better job of keeping in touch. Dianah mentioned potentially moving to Madison once her beau returns from serving overseas - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited!!

Lil Jon on The Apprentice is hilarious, by the way. Sunday night television has gotten really good and tonight I had to forgo watching The Amazing Race so I could watch some new show about the next fast food restaurant. It is a difficult life I lead.... :)

I know, I know, it's been a while

2011-02-18T13:14:00.000-06:00

Last night I went to bed at 9:00pm (who knows why) and of course my body, used to it's seven solid hours of sleep, thought it was time to get up at 4:30am. I managed to trick myself into sleeping until 8:30am, but now I am anxious to begin my day!

Image from DuneCraft website

I am starting to plan what I will be growing in my garden this year at Mirabel (and possibly Midtown, too). I bought a starter kit for peanuts at JoAnn's for $10, and I'm very excited to start planting a whole bunch of peanuts. Last year I had a fairly successful crop of Japanese hull-less popcorn and I'm considering growing more of it. My apprehension at growing popcorn again is the disease a bunch of my plants experienced last year which looked disgusting (corn smut). It got into many of the plants and I lost about half of the 16 stalks I planted as a result. But the popcorn was so delicious, it's hard to go back to popping regular kernels because they don't seem as fluffy or flavorful.

Well, Ronnie is about to leave to move back to Milwaukee, so I'm going to enjoy our remaining time together before he takes off.

Oh, the end of it all

2010-05-09T16:50:00.000-05:00

I am officially 15 sentences away from being completely and utterly finished with my undergraduate education. How ironic is it that the last paper I will ever write is about NAGPRA and Native American's rights? I successfully avoided courses on the topic since I know a lot about NAs already....but sure enough, I got tricked into this paper because of the curation course of which I am a part. So it goes.

I've given it some thought and made a list of things I would like to accomplish this summer. Being that I begin my full-time job Monday (!) I guess there is not definite beginning or end to summer for me. So I will now set an arbitrary date by which to accomplish the goals mentioned below: August 31st.

*Read at least the first three chapters in the Bible
*Finish The Count of Monte Cristo
*Curl 50 lbs

The end of college

2010-04-28T22:54:00.000-05:00

Today I enjoyed a free tasting at Noodles & Company, which I won for myself and up to six others. In the interest of enjoying free food, I opted to use it with for the sales meeting which we have weekly, and once a month at a restaurant. I had one dish of everything from each "region" - Asian, Mediterranean, and America. Like John said, we began our journey in America and also ended our journey there. I have nine boxes of Noodles in the fridge and some very grateful roommates :)

I also received my hard-earned leadership certificate today! It is really nice and in a red leather folder, like the one I will receive at graduation, or so I have been told. I also got a gold and red cord to wear during the graduation ceremony! I'll post pictures when I get a chance - I used an old school disposable camera. It is kind of a big deal and took a lot of work to complete, so I feel very proud of this accomplishment.

It's hard to believe that after four years of being a college student, that time in my life is coming to an end. It has been a crazy four years that will take more than just one blog post to summarize, so I'll do a little bit here and there when I get a chance.

Also, I am in the market for a westie, and am fairly confident that I will name him Charlie. I can't wait to get him :) I've contacted a few breeders in the Midwest about their pups and litters expected for August - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Things to do - Summer 2010

2010-04-18T23:14:00.000-05:00

Always adventurous, I love planning out exciting things to do that I have not yet done! Below find a list of just a few things I'd love to do this summer:

-Go to a Brewers' Game
-Visit the Jelly Belly Factory
-Go to Mt. Olympus theme park (WI Dells)
-Bike 20 miles at once
-Win a prize
-Create a piece of art
-Go on a hike through the arboretum

More will be added later, as I find time to update this list.

This is going to be the busiest week of my life, so forgive me for being hasty.

...A little more than a month later

2010-03-22T22:54:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think about writing in my blog and then I realize that I should be working on 32341208 other things. Well, I've neglected it for more than a month, but here's what's goin' on.

I have almost officially lost 10 lbs! I have been working really hard and eating really well - so pretty soon I will be able to reward myself with the tanning I have been on my way toward earning for myself. In other news, I just found out that I won a $50 bank card! I also won a free 3 month furniture rental from CORT (they rent furniture out). I'll use it for a mini-model at Mirabel - which will be wonderful!
I will be leaving for San Francisco on Saturday at 6am - only 5 days! I am PUMPED!!
Ronnie's phone was chomped by Thor, so we can now only text each other or I can try and call him before 10ish on his house phone. :( At least I will see him for a bit on Friday!!
As soon as I get back from SF, I will be trying on bridesmaid dresses for Kate's wedding in August. I feel really honored to be a part of it! Plus, we're all going to a girly lunch afterward!

Also, here is a plug for Kabir's video for a 5 Hour Energy video contest: Vote!

Finally, here are some items I would like to add to my bucket list:
-Be in the audience for a taping of Judge Judy
-Go on a cruise
-Go to a drive-in movie
-Subscribe to the Gameshow Network
-Subscribe to Nat Geo and at least three other worthy magazines (suggestions welcome)

That's it for now!

Woof! Woof!

2010-02-15T17:41:00.000-06:00

I've decided that next year I would like to have a dog. Being that Liz and Katie will be at school and have homework, etc, in the afternoons and at night, I would like to have something that will want to snuggle me after a long day at work. Thus, a little baby dog is just what I need!

These are the desirable qualities in a potential puppy:

Baby-sized (or small to medium-sized)
Doesn't shed much
Gets along meow-cats
Light enough to be put in the bathtub
Will get along with Thor (Ronnie's boxer puppy) and children
Isn't on aggressive breeds lists

Here are some of the breeds I am considering:

American Eskimo Dog - Ranges from 9" to 19" tall. Great with other dogs and kids. Sheds more than I would like, but is a cutie dog anyway.

West Highland Terrier - This is the Caesar dogfood dog! He is about 10 to 11" tall and weighs 14 to 22 lbs. Sheds a bit. May not get along with cats.

Samoyed - Another beautiful dog! About 21 to 23" and weighs the most yet at 45-65 lbs. This dog sheds a lot. Likes pulling things because it used to be a sled dog :)

A Ronnieless Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T22:43:00.000-06:00

Today ended up being a pretty good day, even though for another year in a row Ronnie and I were separated by 90 miles. Katie and I spent our second annual February 14th together and we began the day by volunteering for a local senior citizens' dinner (at 12:30pm!) from 11-2 and then going to a showing of "Valentine's Day" sponsored by Mirabel from 3-5:30. We then went to Old Chicago for drinks and a delicious dessert (the cheesecake lollipop thing). It was a lot of fun and I always love being able to hang out with Katie.

Speaking of spending time with "my closest roommate", we spent nearly the entirety of yesterday together as well. We went to Kohl's, Dick's, and Flattop Grill where I made a delicious combination of noodles, peas, potatoes, celery, and spinach. Then, Lauren (Katie's 9 year-old sister) and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. Word to the wise: rip your tickets in half the long way and the machine will count each half as one ticket! I freakin' love Chuck's because it's an arcade with easy-to-win games. The things I did not like about this particular visit: It was crowded (well, it was a Saturday...) and we didn't get seated for 10 minutes so we had to stand there holding our tokens and cups until we were finally given a table. Then, the table behind us was piled high with food and plates to be bussed, and during the time we were there - 7:30pm to 9:30pm, it was never touched. Disgusting. Also, four of these little kids kept asking me and Lauren for our coins to use! I don't think so!! Finally, I hadn't realized that it was a hangout for pre-pubescent teens looking to drop the f-bomb every five seconds. I'm not sure that I would go back to the Chuck E. Cheese's on Grand Canyon Dr. Not that it's much better than the one in the ghetto near Milwaukee....

I should not have allowed my tv to be put in the living room. The Winter Olympics (of which I am no fan) beat out my wanting to watch either the Amazing Race or Undercover Boss. I'm sorry, but I look forward to watching certain programs and it's annoying that since my tv was moved I can't watch them now. Poor choice on my part!

My Bucket List

2010-02-07T14:34:00.003-06:00

Pet a buffalo
Go to all 50 states

Eat a hamburger
Marry the love of my life
Have two or three beautiful children
Write a book
~~Have a 4.0 semester~~ Fall 2009
Be on a gameshow
Go on a girls' weekend to New York
Own a home
Swim with dolphins
Participate in Habitat for Humanity
~~Go to Disneyworld~~ Spring 2005
Go to Disneyland
Meet a US President (current or former)
~~Go on a vacation to somewhere foreign and warm (Cancun, Bahamas, etc)~~ March 2011 - Costa Rica!
Learn German
Learn to play the trumpet
Learn to play the harp
Learn to play violin or cello
Own a cactus
Run a mile in under 8 minutes
~~Beat Super Mario 64 (Get ALL the stars!)~~ November 2010
~~See Muse in concert~~ March 2010, October 2010 :)
Catch a walleye
~~Try Asian food~~ I'm going to say that rice and stir-fry count! Summer 2010
Read the Bible
Go on a trek through the Amazon
Go on a road trip with my friends and boyfriend
Find treasure
Run Crazylegs New!
Do another triathlon New!
Curl 50 lbs New!
~~See Mamma Mia! live~~ January 2011 with mom :)

More to come

Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again when months of extravagant planning come together to create the best Super Bowl Parties around. For me, this means I can go to the library and there will be plenty of places to sit and check out the textbook I decided not to buy (it was $225...nuff said). I also need to review my resume so that I can turn it in for class tomorrow.

I have created a twitter account. I have never really had an interest in one, but it was a requirement for Marketing 635. Apparently if you are good at sales, you will end up with over 150 followers. I have 4 so far :) My name is AnArchaeologist (which I discovered looks like anarchy(ae)ologist. No, I do not support anarchy. I haven't since I was a confused 8th grade punk rock girl. Interestingly, some of the worst names ever were already taken: Stinkybutt and A**hole were among the names that when entered into the blank, showed up as taken.

I wish I could go with Amy to Europe this summer. If only I had the time (the money is not an issue as Amy has explained that the cost includes hotel stays for every city, certain admissions, and round-trip airfare. She was told to estimate between $4000 and $5000 for the whole 30 day city-hopping adventure). Un dia voy a regresar a Grecia. Un dia con Ronnie :)

I hope that Steph is enjoying her time in Chile. I really hope she gets to visit some of the ancient sites I learned about in my Power & Religion of the Pre-Columbian Andes course. I did not realize until after the course had finished exactly how much I have been able to take away.

Well, I have decided to start a bucketlist for fun, so I will post it separately.

I made Spring Break plans, Ronnie is on his way to visit, Katie asked me to be a bridesmaid....I couldn't be happier!

2010-01-19T11:21:00.001-06:00

The past few days have seemed incredibly busy at work with tons of showings and trying to catch up on the zillions of Craigslist ads I previously posted and change them to reflect the changes in our rent specials!

Yesterday marked the first time Liz, Cait, Katie, and I were all here! We went over to Steph's place and watched the Bachelor (big surprise, lol) with Ashley H, Amy, April, and Mitch. It was a lot of fun and we ordered pizza for cheap! For those who don't know, you can sign up to receive online coupons from Toppers and immediately you'll get a $5 coupon, applicable to other discounts. So Katie, Cait, and I ordered a large cheese pizza and triple order of Toppers' Sticks on sale for $15, and with the $5 coupon, we only paid $10! Love it!

Thursday is our Board Game Night at Mirabel...I think it will be a huge hit since we are also buying pizza and refreshments for everyone! Ronnie will be able to come, which will be fun since I now know that he loves playing games (even though I'm not sure he's a huge fan of Clue or Monopoly like I am).

On to the more exciting news...

I am officially going to San Francisco for Spring Break! Of course, Mark lives out there and Beth will be visiting him and then leaving only days before I arrive! So it goes. I will be visiting Lauren, who I met while in Pylos, Greece. Hopefully her, Kelli, Amira, and I will be able to get together - but at this point it's just me heading out. I already bought my plane ticket, and was shocked that it was almost $100 cheaper to fly out of Milwaukee than Chicago. It set me back only $219, but it would have been $368 out of O'Hare! No thank you. She promised that we could do all of the touristy things as well as go out and have fun. She already warned me that the beaches would be a little cold, but they really couldn't be any colder than the beaches here! I am SUPER excited to go - this is the first time I have ever made Spring Break plans...ever!

Ronnie is coming out sometime today! He will be spending a majority of his time studying for the CPA Exam during the day while I'm working, but gosh, it will be so nice to see him!! He is such a wonderful person and I miss his company. There may even be a possibility of a double- or triple-date with Cait and Alex or Liz and Josh. Fun! I am sooo very excited to see him!

Also, I am very honored to be a part of Katie K's wedding! Her and Chris will be married August 14th at the Botanical Gardens - it will be be beautiful, but also very hot! As far as I know, Heather, Erica, and Chris's cousin will also be bridesmaids. Not having been in a wedding before, I am grateful to have Emily Post's Etiquette which Ronnie bought me for my birthday! I will have to work the next morning because August 14th and 15th, as an Madison student will tell you, are extremely busy days due to turnover. On the 15th I will need to be checking-in new residents and handling situations that arise. It will be nice to see the whole JSM staff in one place, but again, it will be extremely busy and EARLY!

I love my job!

2010-01-14T09:06:00.001-06:00

I have never regretted taking this position at JSM (rather than applying for a job elsewhere once I graduate). Yesterday was the best day I've had yet!

We have been really pushing one of our properties because it had more vacants than we were comfortable with, and after many ads on craigslist and 4 unsuccessful applications, we finally got three that were accepted! I am so happy! These folks will love living with us :) Steve told Lisa and I to go have lunch on the company! So we went to Panera and enjoyed a nice break from the office. What a great day!

Liz and I then met at Dave and Bridgette's house where Katie was taking care of Wyatt and Finn. It was so good to see her and the boys. I wish that there was a way for her to live with Liz and I next year since she is such a great friend. I think I will ask at work whether or not this is an option. At the least, she is moving in this weekend before school starts :)

How busy life seems!

2010-01-03T21:02:00.000-06:00

I can't help but feel a bit more busy now that I am beginning my real-life job tomorrow! I just finished bringing all of my things from home inside, and have spent the last half hour or so reorganizing my food in the pantry. Ha this is proving to be a very exciting night! Here are the things I hope to get done this week:

Take out garbage
Throw out things I don't use
Take keyboard tray off of desk
Vacuum room
Send books out to Kelli
Bring binder back to downtown office
Bring books back to professor
Return library books
Buy black shoes for work
Send card to Beth
Buy address book
Put holiday decorations away
Pick up prescription

I cannot wait until tomorrow! I have my outfit picked out already. I feel very lucky to work with Lisa - she is amazing! I have to admit though, sitting here by myself, I really miss Katie E. and Cait a lot! We were fortunate enough to have Katie stop by for a bit, but I haven't seen Keke since August. Beth is gone too, having graduated last month, but I know for sure that I will be seeing her in March (when I go to the MUSE concert!). I thought Liz would be home tonight, but I guess I'll have to see her and Allison sometime tomorrow.

Last night I was invited to Erica's 22nd birthday party, and I am really glad I went! It was nice to see her, Erika, Dianah, and Jenny in a non-awkward situation. I say that because the last few times we have gotten together, I haven't been able to feel comfortable. It is too bad that Katie doesn't get along with Jenny, because last night was a ton of fun and relaxed - I didn't feel like an outsider and spent the whole time dancing, laughing, and having a few drinks with some old friends. I had to bring an old school camera last night so the pictures will have to be taken in and put on a CD before I can upload them. :) Ronnie was a sweetheart and picked me up so that I wouldn't have to drive home. Whenever I return to Madison, I realize how much I miss having him around. He is so wonderful - I love him and always look forward to the next time we can see each other.

An achievement that was a long time coming

2009-12-29T07:49:00.003-06:00

I can't help but announce it....for the first time EVER, I got all A's! Not a single A-, AB, B, or other wacky grade getting between me and a perfect 4.0. I am extremely excited, especially since my courses were difficult and I worked really hard at a university known for being difficult to achieve this!

Yes!!

On Love

2009-12-27T00:07:00.000-06:00

Whenever I watch a romantic movie, I can't help but reflect on how wonderfully lucky I am to have met Ronnie. In this case, I just finished watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (a Christmas gift from Mom and Dad!).

It is sometimes hard to take a step back and really appreciate everything that we have, especially when we are fortunate enough to see each other for several days at a time, such as it is now. He is an incredible man and even though we have been together for more than 6 1/2 years, there are always things he says and does that surprise me. I sincerely hope that in the near future we will see each other more often than once or twice a month, since Ronnie works only weekends and I work during the week. It is worth the wait to see him every time I come back home. I wouldn't trade what we have for anything, and I can only hope that we will be able to spend even more of our lives together. I think that few people are lucky enough to find themselves so much in love.

My Silly Family

2009-12-24T00:07:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure if elsewhere in this blog I have taken the time to mention how hilarious my family can be. If I haven't yet, surely my family's idea of how the holidays should be celebrated will.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is typically filled with tradition: wake up early and open one present each, stay in for most of the day and be lazy, and have a nice dinner at home. This year, however, my parents have decided that we should go out for a nice dinner. Plus, I don't think my mom wants to cook since everyone here is picky. Knowing that my dad is a "meat n' potatoes" kind of guy, and that my mom secretly always wants the family to go out for Mexican food, I had a good feeling that like always, despite individual tastes, we would head over to our normal fish fry Friday place in Racine, Chart Room Charlie's, or that we would order in pizza, etc. from DeRango's. However, I was mistaken. I could just about imagine the chicken tenders and the large serving of fries which accompany them at Charlie's when my dad said, "Why don't we go to the Golden Corral?" I looked at my mom, sure that she would laugh with me, since the "Corral" is not formal at all, and seems ridiculous replacement for an at-home meal with its buffet-style dining. Instead, she agreed wholeheartedly that it would be perfect. In no way do I mean to make fun of my family, but seriously, it is outright silly to think that the Golden Corral beat out The Olive Garden, DeRango's, DiCarlo's, Outback, and every other restaurant that Milwaukee County has to offer. Gosh I love my parents for being okay with dining at 1pm because, due to the holiday, the Corral closes at 4pm and we need to make sure we are all packed full of various types of meat and potato products before we even think about leaving.

Additionally, less weird, but still funny is the Christmas tradition of going to see a movie as a family (probably the one event everyone is here for each year). This year, though, instead of doing a fancy dinner as usual, we will be full from popcorn and other snacks at the theater, and will come home to consume an ice cream cake. Haha I fit in well with this family: popcorn = delicious, ice cream cake = omg super delicious.

Additionally, let it be known that I got an "A" in Latin! Only three more grades to receive...and my professor for my Peru Class told me that my paper was well-written (this was the 20-pager from hell...). Woo-Hoo!!

My Christmas List

2009-12-17T19:29:00.001-06:00

This is a copy of the list I'm sending to my mom to help with ideas :)

Curious Case of Benjamin Button DVD
The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD
Elf DVD
#1s - Destiny's Child CD
humidifier
Harrius Potter
Emily Post's Etiquette book
Warm slippers

The end of fall semester

2009-12-17T18:55:00.000-06:00

Wow. I cannot believe that I am only a five page paper and a Latin final away from being done with my final fall semester here at UW. In a little less than two weeks, Beth will be moving away to Chicago and Katie E might be moving in sooner than the date we had initially planned (January 15th). Caitlyn is also back from studying abroad and will be moving back in soon, which also means that Allison, perhaps the best subletter ever, will be leaving us. It is crazy to think that Beth is moving on to the real world in less than a month - I am really happy for her since it sounds like she got a job she wanted and will have her housing situation worked out soon!

As for me, I'm going home for break on Saturday and will return on January 3rd so that I can begin work as Sales and Marketing Manager for Mirabel and Muir Heights Apartments! I will have two full weeks of work before school starts, which will definitely help pay the bills :)

Only one semester left!

My last day being 21 years old

2009-12-08T22:46:00.000-06:00

Today has been filled with ups and downs. Most of the downs are related to the awful weather which is set to outdo even last year's blizzard on my birthday.

9:30: Got ready and left for class. Of course, I made it to Latin only to find out that I couldn't find the translation I had written out for homework :(
11:30: Began work. There were a ton of postings, so it went by quickly. Rather than eating a junk food snack, I made a point to bring a healthy snack which is good!
2:00: Caught the 85 to class. It wasn't my favorite driver, but he was nice nonetheless. Also, overheard a girl complaining that her professor was making her exam a take-home essay due Dec 21st. She was saying that she was going to refuse to take it because it wasn't multiple choice. Ridiculous!
2:30: Went to Sami class. We finally did course evaluations, and the professor asked all of the seniors graduating in December to stand up and be recognized. What a nice guy; I'm going to miss this class! We watched a movie that we will finish Thursday. Yes!!!
3:40: Got our papers back...I got an AB! Not bad for a paper I hated writing.
4:45: Met up with Trent and saw 2012. We were about the only people crazy enough to be on the road. Apparently at Star Cinema you get free refills on any-sized popcorn! What a deal! lol I love things like this!
8:00: Went to Macy's and bought new snow boots and a cute sweater dress to wear out for my birthday. Unsurprisingly, I was the only person shopping at Macy's. Apparently they don't close until midnight, which is unfortunate for all of the employees since the weather is so awful.
9:00: Made it home, realized that the woman gave me the wrong pair of boots. Guess I have to go back tomorrow :(
10:00: Ticketed cars in the underground garage. Came back to find people throwing snowballs in the courtyard - most of which have been hitting the windows since. Kind of annoying :/

Let me say it now...If this year's birthday is a repeat of last year's....I will be really hurt. I only asked some of my closest friends to come to dinner (not even drinks), but it looks like since school was canceled tomorrow (for the first time that I can remember), this birthday may have similar results. I pray that at least my roommates can come. What a yucky day for a birthday...again.

Causes for Smiling

2009-12-06T22:47:00.001-06:00

The sound of rain
Freshly-baked bread - both the smell and the taste!
The scratchy feeling when a cat licks your hand
Naughty Latin poems
The sound of a chapstick cap being removed
Christmas music
Faux fur blankets
Cream puffs
Candles that smell like ginger, apples, and cinnamon
The smell of old books
Nighttime in the city - all of the lights!
Apple cider
Puppies and when they cuddle
Towns that have little shops on streets with old fashioned street lamps
Reflecting on childhood things once loved
Sitting by a fire
Feeling grown up

Most especially:

Having someone in my life that truly understands me and my quirkiness, and loves me no matter how silly I am
My friends - they are amazing and I will be sad when everyone moves away
My parents - no matter how goofy they are, I know they love me and will always be there for me

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2009-12-05T23:22:00.000-06:00

The new photo atop my blog and the yellow background make me happy. :) Te gustan?

Overwhelmed and preoccupied

2009-11-30T23:32:00.005-06:00

I am in the midst of researching human sacrifice in the Andes for my religion and power class and could not be more unenthusiastic. There is a plethora of information, but so much so that I hardly knew where to begin a few hours ago. I now find myself periodically checking my email and more often my facebook account to see if anything exciting has changed since my last check. I am fortunate enough to now find myself sitting in the Greek and Latin Reading Room (my secret study paradise on the 4th floor of Memorial Library) enjoying the room to myself, finally. I have been through all the stacks, searched endlessly for books regarding my topic, and come up short. Most are in Spanish, which though I fancy myself conversational, is no good for a well-written research paper. I have gone so far as to do my Ovid homework (Latin translations) rather than continue researching this horrendously broad topic. I cannot help but feel like even after a semester of learning about pre-Columbian societies, I am starting from scratch. Whereas my knowledge of ancient Greece is admirable, what I have taken away from this course has been unfortunately little.

I have been thinking about Greece a lot lately. I recently finished a book, borrowed from Kelli (of Iklaina - the excavation I participated in this summer): And Only to Deceive (Tasha Alexander). It was a short read (necessary for me to have begun it, given the burden of this term paper!) and mentioned Greece several times. It barely delved into ancient Greek history and myth, but it was enough to make me smile in recognition of the facts that were mentioned in passing. For the past few nights I have enjoyed dreams of Athens where I remember every street and dog, and also of Pylos, where I spent so much time with Lauren and Kelli (my closest friends during the dig). For the readers' enjoyment, here is a selection of some pictures from my travels this summer (more will follow soon, once school has ended, I hope!):

Temple of Apollo at Corinth

Mask of Agamemnon from National Archaeological Museum, Athens

A small dog waits on a rooftop for the sun to set in Oia, Santorini

Looking out toward an island from the edge of the Temple of Poseidon, Sounio

Lexie, Ethan, and I being statuesque at the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, Delphi

Giving a column some love at Olympia

Ilyssa, Kate, Lauren, and I digging away at some Cyclopian architecture at Iklaina (IKAP)

Honey - fresh from the comb! It was brought to the site by local farmers!

If you are anxious to see more pictures, hold your horses! I have nearly twelve hundred. Ideally, I will post them when I find the time :)

My thoughts on work

2009-11-13T20:17:00.000-06:00

I truly do love my job. Of course, being well past the initial fear of showing apartments to total strangers when I may or may not have even been in a certain model or unit, certainly helps. I guess that I was kind of surprised to find out that one of our leasing consultants is no longer with the company as of today. This is the third person to quit in two weeks. I completely understand if one doesn't like the job - I mean, you really do need to be outgoing and enjoy sales. But, on the other hand, when you decide to take a job here when you have another job in the works...why bother taking this job? I am not going to discuss the merits of working at JSM versus other institutions, but it seems like a huge waste of time to train someone who may be intending to take another job offer.

Also, something was said at work that I disagree with completely. It was, "Yeah, well, it's each family's choice to decide [if it wants to pay for college or make their kids pay for it themselves]." I could not disagree more! Trust me, if it were my family's choice, I know my mom and dad would want to help out. But, because there really isn't a choice, finance school myself, with (a ton of) help from my scholarship. I guess that I thought it was a ridiculous thing to say, since not everyone comes from a wealthy background, and also not something to say in front of a group whose backgrounds are diverse.

One step closer to graduation!

2009-11-10T20:47:00.000-06:00

Today I signed up for classes for my final semester an undergrad! I only have two required Anthropology courses left to take and then a three credit Anthropology course of my choice. I am still waiting on my credit for my field school and elective credit to come through from this summer, which makes me nervous. I'm still counting on those six credits so that I don't have to take any more Anthro than I have to! I secretly dislike the major because it is so hard to find courses that actually interest me here at UW. Many of them are about American Indians and South American archaeology, which is really not my thing. Anyway, here is what I'm taking:

*Anthro 322 - Required - Origins of Civilization: Global archaeological survey of the origins of pristine civilizations beginning with the development of food production and ending with the emergence of the world's first civilizations. Focus of attention: Near East, Egypt, the Indus Valley, North China, Mesoamerica, and Peru.

*Anthro 490 - Required - Seminar: Archaeology and Cultural Heritage: No official course description, but I am very sure that it will be about Indians. :(

*Anthro 696 - Archaeological Methods of Curation: Practicum in the curation of prehistoric stone, bone, and ceramics. Involves handling materials, identification of artifacts, conservation techinques, preparation of materials for storage or display.

*Latin 204 - Introduction to Latin Literature: Translation of easy prose; analysis of English derivatives.

*Physical Education 132 - Weight Training: Basic knowledge and principles relevant to physiology of strength, power, and muscle endurance considered to achieve specific goals. Specialization permitted after eight weeks of program.

No use crying over burned lasagna

2009-11-03T19:55:00.001-06:00

So I thought that I would be adventurous and make lasagna that would be ready to eat before the new show "V" was over. I did everything right: I went to the store on Sunday to get everything, I layered the sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and lasagna noodles as the directions explained. I had the oven preheated to 375 degree, double-checked that the noodles didn't need to be boiled, and set the timer for 90 minutes. Allison opened the oven with 40 minutes left and told me to check it because it looked burned. I did, and lo and behold, it was burned to a crisp. I tried to take a bite, and was extremely disappointed to find that my labor had been in vain: it was inedible. The sauce was likely was moistened the noodles since there was no sauce in any of it, except for the top, where it was burned along with the uppermost layer of cheese. It is hard not to feel stupid when you work hard to make something delicious and you fail. :(

In better news, the pilot of V has been good so far.

Gettin hot in Helen C.

2009-11-02T23:07:00.000-06:00

Today was a very long day! After work I came home and ate dinner before heading to APO. I may not have mentioned it here, but I have an online chat session every Monday from 7-8pm, which is incredibly inconvenient given that APO runs from 7:30-8:30pm. I simply bring my lappy to the meeting, which may seem rude, but it's the best compromise I could come up with. Anyway, after APO I went to the Big-Little Party where we had to essentially play The Newlywed Game with our littles. Oops. Maybe I should have met with them prior to this. Needless to say, it did not go very well and I ended up looking silly. I probably should not have allowed myself to be given two littles whose schedules are completely opposite mine. At least they understand. To return to the point, I have been at good ol' Helen C. since the rootbeer float social that was our Big-Little Party.

I am very frustrated. I was "elected" to drive to Duluth for APO. I found out tonight who would be in my car, and what do you know, it was all people I have said no more than a few words to since their joining APO. Awesome. I managed to convince Hilary to change it around a little so that the 6 1/3 hour car drive would not be completely silent, but I don't think she was happy about it. I was already unhappy about being volunteered to drive and being assigned people to be in my car, and so when I was told that we would not be assigning rooms prior to leaving, that was it. As thrilled as I am to drive immediately after working 9-5 and arriving around midnight, I will get last choice of rooms. All I want is to get as much homework done as I possibly can before Monday. As fun as it will be to meet all of the people from the other chapters, I need to keep on top of my homework and readings and not fall behind. So when the list of people going was snatched from my hand when I admitted that I was looking for those who might also want to enjoy a quiet room free of partying, I was upset. I understand that we should bond and perhaps room with members who we might not know that well. I believe, however, that if I want to get homework done (since I obviously can't while driving), then it seems logical to find people who have a similar goal and share a room with them, rather than showing up and filling in the spaces of empty beds/the floor. APO has been more than frustrating this semester, and I think that I will go associate next semester simply because I will be even busier than I am now (if that is even possible).

I need to get just a little more homework done to call this library trip a success... :)

Not Forgotten

2009-10-09T15:03:00.000-05:00

Thought it has been a long while since anything has been written here, I must admit that I have not forgotten or purposely neglected it. Rather, I have been holding my cards tight to my chest. As graduation nears, I wonder if it is a good idea to continue to allow my blog to be public, or if I should make it private. Should you one day log on to see that you must ask permission to read it, I appologize now. There are simply too many people nowadays who abuse information (like that contained in my blog) for personal gain.

That being said, I am excited to go to the pumpkin patch this weekend with the roomies! Yesterday Allison and I went and saw a late-night showing of The Hangover. It was nice to get out and doing something. Plus, I'm always up for movie theater popcorn. :) We are going to the same farm that Katie and I have gone to for the past two years. It's too bad that she's in Costa Rica, but Liz and I are working on a little package to send her way. I'm also sending Cait (who is currently in Peru) a "pumpkinito." I have no idea what the Spanish word for pumpkin is, other than remembering that it sounded something like "cabeza." Oh well - I like pumpkinito (little pumpkin) better.

Now that the semester is in full swing, I am desperately trying to keep caught up in all of my classes. I have done well so far, but since all of my classes are essay rather than exam-based, it means I have a LOT of reading. We were already warned that although we do not have Pompeii class on Wednesday, we have to essentially read the rest of one of our two text books. Gulp.

I received a book in the mail from Lauren, who I met on the dig in Pylos, Greece. She got it from Kelli, who was also on the dig. We set up a sort of book exchange, and once I finish this book, I get to send it back to Kelli along with a book of my choosing. I love it. Now let's just see if I have the time for it!

Tonight we are having a few people over before we go out and celebrate the end of the week. I have decided to make delicious jell-o shots. Orange jell-o? Check. Malibu? Check!

Quiet Time Fun

2009-09-04T15:46:00.004-05:00

Today I am out at Muir Heights for an open house. I worked here Monday and Tuesday before classes began on Wednesday, and I am closing out the week in this sweet mini-office. For the sake of having unlimited time on my hands, I feel the urge to describe how my classes went.

Wednesday, 9:55am, Latin
-Being excited for a new round of Latin learnin' I showed up and sat down next to Ashley M, friend and apartment neighbor, and now table neighbor. I looked around and realized that I probably should have signed up for the other section since Blaise and the nice girl whose name I can't recall ended up TA Matt's section. Unlike their meager 15 person class this semester, mine is full and comprised of random people who I do not yet know, which is frustrating when it comes time for partner work since each of them already knows each other. Latin, overall, was brief and not too painful.

Wednesday, 4pm, Pompeii (Art History 505)
-Walked in to find that this class was held in a conference room. Interesting. A lot of art history majors (go figure) who probably expected to learn art were there. As Cahill announced after one girl introduced herself and her enthusiasm for learning about the art history of Pompeii and Herculaneum, "There won't be much of that here." This class is primarily about archaeology, which is why I took it. Not to mention that there are no exams :) This is a two hour course with more people than chairs. Oh boy.

Thursday, 9:55am, Latin
-Much of the same. I met with Professor Beneker at the Union prior to class which, paired with the construction behind the Education building, caused my tardiness. I ended up grabbing the last chair. I noticed that everyone sat in completely different seats than those they had sat in on Wednesday. It irked me.

Thursday, 2:30pm, Sami Class (Scandinavian Studies 443)
-This class was packed when I arrived at 2:20pm. So the first day always is, and as the semester progresses I need not worry about having to make five people stand up so I can get to the middle seat of a row, which is the only variety of seat remaining. Natalie M is in this class. She brought her laptop and made me long for mine - my ten cent Target notebook looked so....old-fashioned compared to her laptop with keyboard silencer. I'll get over it. I wonder if reindeer tastes like venison.

Thursday, 5pm, Peru Class (Anthro 310: Power and Religion in Pre-Colombian Andes)
-I had the unfortunate luck of having this class in the same room as my Sami Class. Let's just say that after an hour and fifteen minutes of sitting alone in the classroom I was chilly and anticipating the start of this class. At five minutes to five, I noticed that there were only four other students sitting in the room. Finally, by 5pm the entire class was there - all thirteen of us. The two hour lecture dragged on, and by the end only five of us remained. Again, no exams, which is excellent. I have no intention to drop this class.

Well, there it is. My first week in a nutshell. I have no class on Friday which is why I'm out here at Muir Heights replacing air fresheners, playing on facebook, bloggin', showing apartments, and cleaning toilets. Good times. Now I'll do what I have been planning to do since noon: study for the GRE! Only 16 hours away!

Terrace before Turnover

2009-08-13T22:48:00.003-05:00

Tonight Beth and Liz and I went to the Terrace after curb shopping for furniture. It was one of the first times since the three of us have been here that we all went out. Curb shopping meant driving around near Breese, Mifflin, Doty, and Gorham looking for furniture which would not be gross or potentially bed bug infested. Needless to say, we found none which suited our high standards.

We ended our journey by driving down Langdon figuring that coasties would have good stuff to put on the curb, but were disappointed and ended up at the Terrace. A pint of Strongbow and a smal bag of popcorn later, and we met up with Megan and some of her friends. One of them is about to go to Costa Rica, on the same trip Katie E. is taking. I'm really going to miss her (Katie E).

We decided after slightly more than an hour and a half that having been poorly nourished by the small bag of popcorn I consumed and Liz and Beth having had nothing to eat, that McDonalds would be a delicious decision. Nugs it was! It was very nice of the tallest man working there to offer Liz and I a free vanilla shake and a carmel sundae. We were grateful, and Beth was not disappointed, having herself ordered a sundae. Overall, the night was wonderful, but would have been made better by Ronnie having graced us with his presence (though driving from Milwaukee to come out for only but a short while is much more than I would expect, especially having given no previous notice).

Finals Week: not as bad as I make it out to be

2009-05-09T01:40:00.003-05:00

I only have two finals so I shouldn't complain about being stressed. But I am. Right now. I've had so much due this week that I am almost numb. I wrote two huge papers and gave a presentation on X-Ray Fluorescence and how I used it at the Chazen to analyze the composition of Roman coins. If I were a Roman history expert, this paper would have been a breeze. Alas, I am not, and I spent the last few days this week learning about Constantine I, Gratian, Constantius II, Arcadius, Honorius, Valentinian, etc. Also, because it seems to happen to me whenever I go to Memorial Library and visit the secret 4th floor study area that requires a key, it rained.

Ronnie made me feel really good today and yesterday. It was nice to have him offer to help me any way that he could with my huge paper on coins, and also have him appologize for not putting my checks in the bank and offer to do it tomorrow. Warmness and fuzziness burgeon within me when he is so sweet.

I am getting extremely excited to go to Greece. In about two weeks I'll be in Athens! Woot!!

We had our Classics Reception on Thursday where I was formally awarded my scholarship (the Gertrude E. Slaughter Fellowship for Study Abroad). There will be pictures to follow!

This is also breaking news: I got an iPod Touch! I've been saving up all of the Target gift cards I've gotten all year at work and used them to buy the 16g model. How much did it cost me out of pocket? $1.49. Amazing.

I cleaned my room, finished A Thousand Splendid Suns (which I found less interesting than the Kite Runner though I like the character development), and am planning to leave the living room in general disarray by means of library books everywhere. It's been a pretty good day. Cait's dad stopped by. It was nice seeing him again - he is hilarious and reminds me a lot of my own dad.

MYOD

2009-04-29T10:22:00.007-05:00

American Apparel is now offering a dress that you can customize to look six different ways, using different colored straps (sold separately).

I thought that sounded interesting since since of the pictures of the dress looked like pieces of fabric were missing, but the dress was able to be switched into different "looks." I guess this is how is works:

1) Pay $38 for the "Le Sac" Dress - the name gives it away
2) Like the photos on the left and right, take a marker and decide where you want it to end. Then, using a scissors cut the dress.
3) After you've done that, wear it and hope that it doesn't look like you bought the fabric at JoAnn's and spent five minutes cutting and sewing it at will.
4) Buy it in different colors, at $38 each. And then buy a three pack of straps for $24.

Here is the website:
h ttp://store.americanapparel.net/rsa0300.html

Happy 1st Anniversary, Blog!

2009-04-27T18:27:00.003-05:00

Sometime around now marks the one year anniversary of my blog. Yay! To celebrate, here is a random grouping of stories:

*Today I was awarded an $800 scholarship by the UW Classics Department! It is the Gertrude E. Slaughter Scholarship, and it will be formally awarded on May 7th at the End of Year Reception held at the University Club. I'm extremely excited!

*I ate a Milky Way for the first time ever today and hated it.

*I often think about the awful headlines given to stories in the Badger Herald and feel superior
(examples today: "Over 18,000 brave storms for Crazylegs" which lacks a subject, and "OK Go rock in finale of All -Campus Party" which makes the band seem plural).

*I had an amazing weekend, which I will elaborate on later this week when I do not feel rushed

*I really want Hilary to win president of APO tonight. She deserves it!!

*Tonight is Caroline's birthday so I'm meeting her at the Nitty! :)

I did it

2009-04-19T13:34:00.002-05:00

I talked to Ronnie about "us."

I voiced all of my concerns about being in a relationship that, if we stay together, might leave me feeling lonely. He stressed to me that he had known this was coming for a long time, and that he is okay with it, though surprised that it took me so long to figure out that things just weren't the way they used to be. My problem is that I am an eternal optimist and never thought realistically about the potentially married "us." I plan on traveling, going on family road trips, and going to new places. He seems to be more of a homebody and is perfectly content staying in, and would prefer it over "wasting" money on a trip. It seemed like even if our relationship reached fruition, we would still be different people wanting different things.

So here I am now, officially not in a relationship, not seeing anyone, and trying hard not to look back and regret telling him that I'm just not in it anymore. I know it is for the best, for both of us. I want to be in a whole relationship. Not somewhere between "it's complicated" and "we're kind of together, but not dating." I want the romance, the love, and the companionship. I want someone who will kiss me all the time and miss me when I'm gone. In no way do I mean any slight against Ronnie. I think that what we had was incredible, but it petered out, and we have been left trying to balance long-distance with all of the changes that come with growing older.

He asked if we should consider dating other people and I said yes. The prospect of dating other people is daunting, but I think that good will come of it.

Caitlyn and I are headed to a movie to help me get my mind off of it.

April seems to have flown by

2009-04-18T04:13:00.002-05:00

What a crazy, busy month this has been! I have been working my normal schedule at JSM, plus I decided to play bass guitar again for Humorology. We began practicing a bit later than we did last year, which means that the barrage of lengthy Humo practices seemed to blindside me. For the past few days I have been trying my best to do my homework during practices, since I have been waking up for class, then going to work, coming home to change, and then going to Humo until 11 or midnight. I am definitely looking forward to just hanging out tomorrow and doing nothing. I plan to sit down by the lakeshore path and get a nice tan, watch the boats, and maybe even go on a little canoe trip. We'll see. It's nearly 4:30am and I have Humo in about 25 hours. It will be the final show, so I might even go buy a new shirt to wear. We'll see.

I also had Relay for Life tonight, which made the night seem extremely long. I stayed until about 3am or so, because by then everyone else from APO had been gone for almost forty-five minutes or more.

I've been really thinking about Ronnie and I lately and what we "are." Techincally we're not dating, but we're not-not dating, so I guess you could say we're on a break. But what's a break? I'm not sure that I could define a break, since neither Ronnie nor I seem to be able to define it well. I've been trying to picture myself doing the things I like to do and aspire to do, and lately I'm having a hard time picturing him even wanting to do any of those things. Like going to the beach, hanging out at a bookstore or library, dancing, going out on the town, going on vacation, taking a road trip, and going to concerts/movies/performaces. It's not to say that we haven't done some of these things before, but we don't do them together nearly as often as I'd like. I guess that I'm just trying to be realistic. It's just taking a lot of time to sort everything out for myself, and I don't want to do anything rash just because I'm feeling lonely. Gosh I wish he'd come up!

Why I get up each morning

2009-04-08T16:51:00.003-05:00

I thought I would share with you all the things I look forward to each day (literally). Here goes:

Monday

Nothing in particular as Monday is a crumby day
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler (a new game I've decided I like)

Tuesday

Latin lecture with the unforgettable Professor McKeown
Watching "The Biggest Loser" and rooting for whoever seems to be the nicest and most sincere
Classics Society meetings (bi-weekly) which are always interesting...!
Knowing that I can stay up late (past 11pm, if I'm feeling particularly reckless)
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler (see a recurring theme?)

Wednesday

The one hour break I get between two of my classes
Being able to sleep in
The potential to get out of class before 5pm
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler

Thursday

Having the weekend in sight!
One word: Survivor
Going out/catching up with friends
Work
Not having Latin homework due
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler

Friday

Friday ipse!
Not having Italian
Again, not having Italian. It's a lot of work and meets four times a week.
Work
Being able to relax
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler

Saturday

Sleeping in
Perhaps going to a movie and eating delicious movie theater popcorn
Catching up on readings
Reading for pleasure
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler

Sunday

Doing nothing, usually
Being able to go on an extended bike ride
Facebook, playing Food Friendzy and Fish Wrangler

It doesn't take a lot to get me excited about the day, as you can see!

Top 25 Gaming Hunks

2009-04-05T11:06:00.004-05:00

I thought I would share this with you all since it is perhaps the worst list I've ever seen. Some of the more ridiculous characters include:

#13 - Kratos from God of War

Sexy? Probably not.

#11 - Brett Favre
Um...isn't he IRL?

#2 - Zac Efron??
He's not even in a game!

So who was lucky number one? Captain Jack Sparrow, which is apparently in a Pirates of the Carribean game. Quite a disappointing list. I mean, if we're going to pull from images of characters that aren't in games, where was Yami Yugi? I was glad to see that Squall made the list. That was about the only thing I was happy to see when reviewing this list. They even put Link on there, comparing him to Legolas since "women love elves." And the Master Chief...I've never seen him out of his armor - how can he even be on the list?!

I would say that you shouldn't spend your time reading this list, but it is so ridiculous that you have to! Now!

Stuff I just couldn't leave out

2009-04-04T14:24:00.002-05:00

I just realized that the every-handsome Justin Berfield is younger than Frankie Muniz. For those who were not obsessed like I was, the former played Reese on Malcolm in the Middle, and the latter played Malcolm. There's a two year age difference between them. Crazy!

I want to meet The Ataris some day. When I was in high school, I went to Down on Haley, which used to be their official store. I bought some guitar picks while there, but even cooler than that was getting one of their actual drumsticks for myself and for Katie K. According to IMDB, "The Ataris used to run a record store in Santa Barbara called 'Down on Haley'." Notice the past tense? I'm guessing it doesn't exist anymore.

Finally, I just have to point out how ugly leggings paired with a short shirt can be. I thought it was a faux pas last year, but apparently it's ok now. I'm tired of seeing the outline of vags all day. This article explains it all perfectly. I'll put up some pictures if I can find any, though I personally wouldn't want to be caught wearing leggings as pants...

April - here comes the rain?

2009-04-04T13:29:00.009-05:00

I cannot believe that it is about to snow again. I thought that we were always told to expect showers, which would eventually bring flowers. I guess not.

On April 1st I managed to find a houseplant that suitably replaces my long-dead banana plant. I don't actually mean to say that my plant produced bananas, but rather, its leaves were long and spotted with yellow. It was a Croton, and on my most recent trip to Sentry I managed to find a similar Croton. So I bought it and repotted it yesterday with glee.

The first picture on the left is a perfect example of my "banana plant" which I had to finally get the strength to throw away (it died sometime during Thanksgiving Break because I didn't water it before I left). The second on the left is a decent example of my new plant, but the rich, colorful lines in the picture are unlike the bright, unmistakable mottled leaves on mine. Like I told Beth, it was an April Fool's Day miracle that I found a plant that was similar to my banana plant. I also found out that these are some of the most difficult houseplants to maintain....we'll see how long this one lasts!

Yesterday I took myself to a movie at Market Square. Katie and Trent went there earlier this week and mentioned that it was cheap - and it was! It was only $3 to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I wish I would have read the book since the story was captivating. I loved it. I can't help but find myself looking for stories that will have such a profound effect on me as this movie did. Here is what is in my Amazon.com shopping cart: A Separate Peace (John Knowles), The Wedding (Nicholas Sparks), and A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini).

I am behind on keeping up with John Grisham, since I have spent the last few years catching up on books I have always meant to read. In case you were previously unaware, I have been trying my best to keep an updated list of every book I have ever read. To date, I have 208 books on the list. I have tried to think back and remember the books I read when I was younger, an some of them are on this list too. One day, I hope to read The Count of Monte Cristo, which is still one of the best movies I have ever seen.

A while back, my mom's coworker mentioned the website ColorQuiz.com. I kind of forgot about it, but took the quiz today. I never do these things or take them seriously, but this one was freakishly accurate. Oh how I love to procrastinate! It is so much better than writing an Italian paper! Here were the results:

Your Existing Situation

"Creative and emotional, looking for ways to further expand those qualities. Looking for a partner who enjoys the same activities. Seeking adventure and new and unusual activities."

Your Stress Sources

"Feels empty and isolated from others and wishes to overcome this feeling. Believes life has more to offer her than what she was experienced thus far, and doesn't want to miss out on anything. she purses all her goals and dreams, fearful that any missed opportunity will cause her to miss out on even more. Quickly becomes an expert in any field she pursues and can sometimes come off as overbearing and nosy."

Your Restrained Characteristics

Current events leave her feeling forced into compromise in order to avoid being cut off from affection or future cooperation.

"Current situation makes her feel unable to prove herself, but tries to make the best of things."

"Insists her hopes and ideas are realistic and achievable, but needs encouragement and support. Her self-centeredness can cause her to take things too personally."

Your Desired Objective

"Highly optimistic and outgoing personality. Loves to learn new and exciting things, and craves new interests. Looking for a well-rounded life full of success and new experiences. Does not allow herself to be overcome with negative thoughts or self-doubt. Takes life head on, with enthusiasm. "

Your Actual Problem

Is afraid she will be held back from obtaining the things she wants leading her to act out with a hectic intensity.

Your Actual Problem #2

"Fights resistance or limitations, and insists she is free to develop in her own way. Rewarded by accomplishing things on her own, with little to no help from others."

Woot defines me

2009-03-26T17:15:00.004-05:00

So today marks the start of my second-ever Woot-off. I have to admit that with all of the work I have to do, I am slightly less enthusiastic about impulsively spending my money on things I "need." Regardless, the HP touchscreen portable desktop (no, it's not a laptop) which is best described as "the giant mutant freak of iPhones" had a description that I feel fits me well:

"Are you like me? My home office isn’t an office at all. It’s just my favorite end of the couch in the common room, where the light’s good and the cushion’s broken in to fit my sittin’ parts."

Yeah. I like working in the living room. Is it because my room is messy? Probably. Is it because I never grew up with a desk in my room, have not once done homework in my room (with the exception of the dorms), and am really not used to it? Most likely. Thought I would share that.

I am in the midst of reading "High Noon" by Nora Roberts. An enthralling story, it has begun to wear on me. It is written in tiny font and has over 450 pages. If it were a movie, it would have to be divided into parts to get everything in. But, I guess, if it were a movie, most of the details would be left out anyway.

Today I posted showing notices with Cait (who came with to better learn the Mansion Hill area, despite not having to work today), and we stopped at Pinkus McBride Deli to get sodas. We were both excited to see that they offered a soda fountain, and I proceeded to fill my 32 oz. cup with Pepsi. Cait, however, went to get Mountain Dew and the fountain went crazy! None of the sodas worked! We thought that they might need to restock their carbonated water, and were surprised to learn that as a result of the city shutting of the water on that block, their machine would not function properly. I took this to mean that it must use tap water to mix with the soda syrup and create delicious fountain beverages. Trust me, Madison tap water will leave a film on anything, and I like to think that my stomach is ulcer-proof as a result of the protective coating of calcium it has established.

I think that when I graduate I would like to move somewhere warm. I love the southwest, and would love to live there (assuming I could find employment in such a location), but I still want to be near water. I love being able to ride my bike and go to the pretty, albeit stinky, lake. I guess what I'm saying is that I am tired of the cold.

Mashed Potatoes Fail

2009-03-24T20:29:00.003-05:00

I guess I just stink at making mashed potatoes, and must come to accept it. Rather than using heavy whipping cream like several recipes online suggested, I went with milk, like my mom insisted I use the last time I made them. Again, they tasted weird. They still tasted like cream, rather than potatoes. Since milk makes me feel icky, I know that I didn't use too much. This time around, I think I let them get too soggy. They even smell funny. I just let Cait have a taste and she loves them.

Not "Boogerface"? Yeah, ok...

2009-03-23T21:27:00.003-05:00

For the longest time I thought that Lady Gaga was singing about a booger face. Apparently all this time she has been singing about a poker face. Here are the lyrics below, which are easy to mishear.

P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)

I'm not a fan, so I have found every radio-aired song of hers annoying thus far. For a while though, I did find myself turning up the volume to make sure I was hearing correctly. Apparently I wasn't!

I'm really excited about having orientation for my Athens program on Friday! I already know a bunch of people going, so it will be nice to see everyone else who I've not yet met!

Bike, Hike, and The Game

2009-03-22T19:04:00.004-05:00

Right now, President Obama is on 60 minutes talking about the economy. Like I've told Ronnie time and time again, most of economic policy is so far above my head that I find little of it interesting. I made sure to clean the apartment, pick up my stuff in the bathroom before Cait gets back, and start hanging my clothes up so that I could watch the Amazing Race. I'm addicted to game shows, and in a way it is like a game show. How? I don't know, but it is. Maybe this makes me a bad American, but I'd really like it if Obama could stop talking about the financial crisis so that I could enjoy tv. I know, I'm terrible. But I cleaned to watch it! Someone call him and tell him the Amzing Race is on! EDIT: It turns out that I'm lame and did not realize that the entire CBS schedule got pushed back on account of the NCAA games. I'm out of it, apparently.

Today I woke up at 10am, read one of my books for Anthro 300, and decided to check my email/facebook/cnn.com/fmylife.com/failblog. About an hour later (I always get sucked in when I go online) I found myself putting on my new old navy shorts and shirt and tieing my brown shoes before getting on my bike. I packed a backpack with a jacket and my phone, keys, and ID in it, just in case. I even wore a helmet since I knew I would be crossing Regent St and possibly other busy thuroughfares.

I began my journey by heading south down the bike path. I was surprised to find that no one else was wearing shorts. What can I say? I'm simply excited about spring. I passed an old man with two beagles that barked at everyone who passed them, including a little boy who subsequently fell off his bike. The man walked with his back bent, offered to help him up, and seemed truly sorry that the boy fell. After slight hesitation and brushing off his pants, the boy was back on his bike and pedaling quickly down the path. I continued on without interruption until I decided to veer off the trail and head down to Lake Wingra, like Steph and I did freshman year. I managed to find my favorite little "village" off of Monroe, just the other side of Edgewood, and delighted in all of the families and people that were milling about. It is fun to see kids having fun and watching them revel in the new opportunities Spring ushers in. I rode down to the same pier that Steph and I stopped to take pictures near, and discovered a hidden foottrail. I took off my helmet, locked up my bike, and started down the path.

I cannot begin to describe how beautiful the path was. I walked with my helmet clipped onto the right strap of my corduroy backpack, with it grazing the taller plants that stuck out onto the somewhat muddy path. I should have worn my old tennis shoes instead of my nice suede pair since the mud was black, and a lot like a black hole. Every few feet I would find myself looking for a safe place to step as my previous step slowly caved in. My favorite part of the entire path was when I encountered a small brook with stepping stones connecting the path. From then on, the majority of the path was planks slightly above the ground. I managed to only see one person on the path, which made me consider that walking by myself in the woods was probably not a brilliant idea, even during the day. I turned around after I stumbled across a seemingly dead end and started looking forward to the delicious custard that would be awaiting me back near Wingra Park. I did fear that my bike would not be there when I returned, though it was there, of course. Sometimes I'm a worrywart. I passed many of the same kite-flying kids and the couple sitting on the dock, oblivious to the wind that often comes along with being near a lake, and made my way to the stand. By then, my legs were starting to get chilly, so I opted to eat my Bavarian thin mint ice cream inside, secretly envying the families who thought to wear jeans.

On the ride back, I decided that it might be to my advantage to get my bike inspected before the triathlon in April. Upon doing so, the staff pointed out that the sidewalls on both tires were nearly done for. They were less than 10 miles away from having the tubes burst out. I ended up having both replaced, for $56. I had the bigger tires switched out for smaller ones, which made a huge difference even on the one block ride back to my apartment.

Beth and Caitlyn have not gotten back to me so I have no idea when either one will be here. Oh well. I kind of want to see The Game at the Majestic but I have a feeling that I would end up feeling out of place, and I don't really have $30 to drop on a concert ticket. :(

Saturday Night and Trees

2009-03-22T12:31:00.004-05:00

Since I have had ample free time, I decided to explore my culinary expertise and make things from scratch. So what did I end up making? Homemade mashed potatoes and an alcoholic beverage, an "orangesicle." Neither one turned out, but that's ok. Here is the drink recipe - I think it needs to be tweaked a little to taste delicious:

1 1/2 oz Bacardi® orange rum
1 1/2 oz cream
1/2 oz orange juice

The mashed potatoes probably would have tasted better had I used milk instead of heavy cream, which the recipe suggested I use. The texture was perfect, but they tasted like cream. It was not so delicious, so I ended up throwing out an entire pot full of potatoes. So it goes.

I think that trees are really pretty and can add a lot to a home. That's why I think that everyone who owns a home should pay $10 and become a member of the Arbor Day Foundation. When you become a member, you get 10 free trees (or you can elect to have them donated to a park), as well as a discount on their other products. All of their trees ship for $5 flat, and few trees are more than $15 (even without a membership)! They are all generally 2'-4' high when shipped. You can even give trees as wedding favors! I got a tiny pine tree back in 4th grade and now it's 5' tall!

My 100th post

2009-03-21T13:17:00.002-05:00

So I've been in Madison since late Wednesday night in order to work Thursday and Friday. It was actually a lot of fun filling in for Jenny, who had a class all week. It seems that I'm the only person in Madison, so I decided that Thursday night I would take myself to a movie. I've done it before, so it wasn't weird or anything. I went and saw Coraline and bought a popcorn and Coke. I had a lot of fun! Weird movie though...

Yesterday, Friday, I decided that I would take myself to dinner. I went to the ever-classy Pizza Hut bistro. I got breadsticks and cheese pan pizza. The servers gave out free samples of chocolate dippers, which is essentially chocolate spread onto pizza crust, which sounds not so delicious. It was amazing. I don't think I'll ever buy it, but it made for a nice appetizer before my food came! The only thing that made me pause was the first few seconds upon entering the restaurant - the hostess said, "Table for one?" and I kind of felt bad for myself, being alone. I realized though, that I am, and always have been, able to have fun by myself, and do not necessarily need someone with me to go out and do something (though it is nice to have company!!).

Here are the classes I'm thinking about taking next semester: third semester Latin, Anthro 490 (artifact recording and analysis), Anthro 321 (Emergence of Human Cuture), Art History 505 (Cities of Vesuvius: Ancient Pompeii & Herculaneum). It's only 13 credits, but I only need 12 to graduate. Since I'm on scholarship and applying to grad school, it is to my advantage to take the spring semester to get ahead in my studies before grad school. Hopefully that will be somewhere warm!

Here's what I really wanted to get to: There's something going on with my friends from high school, and I don't know what's happened. Here's the background: Jenny got engaged and now lives back in Oak Creek. Dianah lives near enough to Oak Creek that she often hangs out with Jen. Erica goes to Parkside and I assume lives at home. I understand that the three of them are close, but I have been trying to get a hold of Dianah for a while now, without success. I guess I just wonder what happened, and why my texts, phone calls, and fb messages haven't been returned. Living out in Madison makes me kind of distant, which is why I assume Dianah and I lost touch over the past year. It would just be nice to know what happened between us since I miss her.

I actually called Jenny's house today. Why? I don't have her cell number, and I'm worried that having not spoken to her, Erica, or Dianah for a while that it will look like I'm trying to "get in" on her wedding. I know that that's an awful thought, but it seems legitimate. I mean, think about it: talking to someone you haven't spoken to since high school, trying to hang out with you or one of your close friends (Dianah) after you've announced your engagement. Looking back it seems really dumb to worry about. If I don't hear back from either one, I'm going to stop worrying about trying to reconnect with D. :/

I really miss Liz!

Briefly...I should be writing a paper....

2009-03-12T19:56:00.003-05:00

So I decided to take a break from researching so that I can write my paper for anthro 311 (archaeological chemistry). I will try to write fewer than ten words about each point of interest. Why? Because it sounds like a fun challenge, and if I'm taking a break, I should make it interesting.

I began reading The Kite Runner last night - wow.
I am slightly addicted to Survivor.
I am slightly disappointed by this season's Apprentice - booorrring.
My lab report is incomplete because I took poor notes.
My paper is not finished because I am still conducting research.
I am anxious to come home, but I love Madison.
I do not like all of the changes Facebook makes.
My shorter hair is hard to get used to.
The Palermo's pizza I ate for dinner was not delicious.

Unrealistic expectations

2009-03-10T23:26:00.003-05:00

I'm beginning to wonder whether or not I have unrealistic expectations about what love is and how romance should be. The book I'm reading now has really changed how I perceive what is right and acceptable by the standards of a culture versus how one feels and behaves. Maybe I need to lighten up and be more casual when it comes to being with Ronnie. I've been so concerned that "other people" might look down on me, that I've completely overlooked the fact that no matter what happens outside our relationship, I really want to be with him right now. It's been difficult lately because I often become obsessed with titles and what our status on facebook appears to be, which I know is petty.

I look back and remember coming home for winter break and how wonderful it was. It was more carefree because neither of us had the time to invest and we both admitted it. I feel like we were constantly holding hands and sneaking kisses behind every corner. We felt much closer then and nothing has really changed since then, other than my worry over titles. It was a lot of fun and I was much happier then than I am now. I guess that I will try my best to stop worrying about how other people see us and concentrate more on us. I want to be with him. No one else.

Exams, impending Spring Break, and a romance novel

2009-03-10T21:58:00.007-05:00

That is what my life this week consists of. I am trying very hard to stop compulsively check my email and facebook in hopes that something new has changed, though the thought of this looming research paper is weighing down on me. I secretly enjoy writing papers, and always have, which is why I think I ended up on the humanities rather than the science side of college. I have a hard time beginning a lengthy paper because once it is started, I know that it won't be long (relatively) until it is over and I am without another paper ahead of me. On the other hand, for my cultural anthropology class I am required to study a cultural scene and write a huge paper for it, and I'm really excited to write that one. I chose to go to a Games Workshop type of place, but the one here in Madison has a variety of hobbies to pick up - I will primarily be studying those who play Dungeons and Dragons in the store. I will have to go back a couple of times, which is fine since I do have a car here. It's also nice not having to go to a random person's home to observe (some people in the course are studying people in situations that are just as intimate). My professor told me that I should consider picking up the hobby or at least learning the rules so that I can better observe. I told him that I would, tongue in cheek.

Here's the answer to the question most often heard on campus this week: Nothing. I am doing nothing for spring break. I am actually coming back to Madison early in order that I may work Thursday and possibly Friday for Jenny, who is the assistant property manager. At the least I will work one eight hour day, which will be nice. Though actually doing something for break, for once, would be nicer.

Sometimes I feel like the Latin I have learned has caused me to be even more critical of my own grammar, and sometimes leads to uncommon, though grammatically correct, sentences. I appologize if at any point my blog becomes unitelligable and causes major headaches. I cannot recall the last time I said "I forgot" as a response. Rather, I catch myself explaining that "it escaped me." O tempus fugit!

I have been reading before bed nearly every night, which is a nice return to the days when I was not so overwhelmed with schoolwork. I finished The Ghost (Danielle Steel) a while back and was hoping to pick up another historical fiction. I browsed and browsed and picked up and put down dozens of books until I finally found The Mistress Diaries (Julianne MacLean). I have read a fair amount of Danielle Steel - Wings, Lone Eagle, The House and most recently, The Ghost, but was very disappointed that the last two listed were very alike (same main character name, age, and appeal). I've read everything of John Grisham's work but for The Street Lawyer, The Appeal, and The Associate, though I tire of his works too. That's why I picked out a book and judged it by its cover, and picked an author with whom I am unfamiliar. So far this book is amazing, and I may consider reading more of her books.

ScribeFire

2009-03-09T18:45:00.002-05:00

Okay so I'm a little nervous, but I'm finally using ScribeFire, which I downloaded quite a while ago so that my blog would be amazing. I guess I'll just continue as normal...

I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed this week. I really shouldn't have gone home, but I did. I feel like Ronnie and I really needed to see each other, plus my mom was anxious to see me. This weekend is the start of Spring Break, so I guess I could have, and should have waited to go home. So it goes. Anyway, I have a huge research paper due (previously mentioned in an earlier post) and apparently the exam I thought was on Thursday got moved to tomorrow! Ah!

I also started receiving more information about the Athens trip! Katie and I will be roommates, which will be a relief. I don't mind rooming with someone random, but it's like a bonus getting to room with someone you know, and having shared a room with them before.

I'm still waiting for the official confirmation on Pylos. I don't know why I'm nervous about getting in, despite it being a first-come first-served program, but I am. I'm also nervous about coming up with the money for these trips. Without airfare I'm looking at about $8,000. Not to mention, I'll be paying rent in hopes that I'm able to come back in July and work for JSM (if there's work to be done). Fingers crossed!

Next year's housing situation is getting complicated [next year we are staying in the same apartment but two girls will be abroad in the fall and one might be gone in the spring]. For a brief time I considered moving in with Ashley, who lives next door and needs two more roommates, but I really can't afford $520/mo with just water included. With the plan I came up with for next year, I'll be paying $294/mo which is just fine with me, since I have to share a room. Trust me, next year might not be everything we hope it is since there were four of us last semester, three of us this semester, three and a sublettor next fall, and potentially five of us next spring, in a three bedroom apartment. We'll see...

JSM gets its 15 minutes!

2009-03-09T18:19:00.001-05:00

The other day while distributing delicious candy-filled bags to potential residents on the corner of Charter and University for JSM, we were greeted by a company that sells shoes. Random, you say? Not exactly. Apparently the people that we met are traveling all over the world to get the word out about Tom's Shoes. They look to meet interesting people and take photos with them holding the Tom's Shoes shoebag and mini statuette (which they explained, but I cannot remember the significance of), and what could be more interesting than a giant red bird (Kelly), a duck (Jill), Kermit (Caitlyn), and his froggy lover (me)? Not much, I would argue. Here is the link to where we are featured on their blog. Below is the picture they took:

Snow - again??

2009-03-08T18:03:00.005-05:00

I was just getting used to this lovely springtime weather when Mother Nature decided that she was just going to tease us all and bring back the snow. I am growing tired of the dreary mornings filled with snow on the ground, meaning that riding my bike is next to impossible. Even a few days ago when it was muddy I was happier. I guess I'm back to wearing my yucky winter shoes.

This weekend I went home. It was nice to be back - and I definitely surprised my parents when I was sitting at home reading when they got back from Sam's Club. My baby dog must have peed in the house about six times while I was home, which was naughty, but cute, since he only does that when he's really excited. My family and I went to Golden Corral on Saturday for lunch which was nice since I know my dad hasn't had much work lately. I swear we were served by Diego Luna. He had braces, but the Dirty Dancing charm was still there. Anyway, my dad was hilarious because he was the epitome of the "meat and potatoes" guy. He had chicken, catfish, steak, and cod, with a side of mashed potatoes and peach cobbler for dessert. Needless to say, I had a baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, a small salad (lettuce, lol) with Mandarin oranges, a small scoop of chocolate ice cream, four gummy bears, a packet of saltine crackers, spaghetti and sauce, pineapple tidbits, more Mandarin oranges, three onion rings, a tiny slice of apple pie, and a few tortilla chips. The mashed potatoes were amazing. They were probably my favorite part, unsurprisingly. Well, I guess that if you did not know that I began liking mashed potatoes this year, that would be surprising.

While home, I noticed that Mark Verhalen lost the primary for Oak Creek mayor, and Tommy didn't receive enough votes to move on to the election for alderman. I'm bummed about Tommy not making it, but it looks like he's going on a European tour, which will probably be more fun anyway! As far as the election for mayor goes, I really hope that Dick Bolender wins again. I can't stand what I've read of Dimity Grabowski through the common council minutes, and I think that Dick really has brought a lot of business into Oak Creek. (Not to mention a Sonic that has just been approved on Howell!). I just hope he wins the actual election!

I have a ton of stuff to do this week, including taking an exam for anthropology, writing a research paper on X-Ray fluorescence for my archaeological chemistry class, studying for a quiz on interesting case uses for Latin which is on Monday, and doing homework for Italian. I may not have mentioned it here, but I am taking Italian pass/fail so that I can better concentrate on my other three classes. I'm still getting an A in it (maybe I shouldn't have taken it pass/fail!) because it's not that bad after having ancient Greek, Spanish, and now Latin. But I think that if I stressed about making sure I did well in Italian, I would not be doing so well...really, I think so.

I'm really excited to watch the Amazing Race and the Apprentice tonight. I just hope that by 8pm tonight channel 15 (NBC) comes in. Gotta love digital....not.

P.S. My mom now has facebook. Updates will follow... ;)

Missouri - MI? MS? MO?

2009-03-04T20:54:00.005-06:00

I know, I know, having been born in Missouri I should probably know the abbreviation for my own birth state. I just realized today that it is "MO," and thus I have now decided to finally commit it to memory. Today I turned in my application and $500 deposit for my Pylos program, which is run through the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL). When it came to addressing the envelope I had to ask the mailperson what the appropriate abbreviation was, and that is why I now know it.

Along the same lines, Beth knew that she had once visited St. Louis, but did not realize that she had been to Missouri...:0

I forgot my love of Jessica McClintock dresses until Cait complemented me on my profile picture, which features me (when I was still a size zero!) in a beautiful JMC dress. Lovely!

I Can't Have it All...

2009-03-03T00:57:00.002-06:00

I've noticed that in the last week or so, I've really become a slob. My stuff seems to be everywhere, which is ironic because that is one of my biggest pet peeves: clutter. I've done my best to pick up what I can, though that means throwing it in my room and letting it accumulate. I've never really kept a spotless room, but if anyone other than my roommates were to see my room in its current state, I would be highly embarrassed. Usually I clean on the weekends, but this past weekend was so weird that I never got around to it. A likely excuse, I know, but I just never came around to doing it. So it goes. I will clean it, however, next weekend...

I recently signed up for the President's Challenge, a fitness program where you log hours and eventually complete the program, where you can order a certificate in the mail. I doubt that I'll actually go and buy the certificate, but the program is good incentive to train for the triathlon in April. I'm pretty excited. I even bought a new swimsuit! It's a black, full-piece, sexy little thing (right...) that will serve its purpose well, I hope.

I think I am too bossy sometimes. I can't help it and I'm really working on it.

I cannot fall asleep just yet. Ronnie and I have spent a good chunk of the past few days talking on the phone about "us." I think my earlier post upset him and so we again spoke this evening about where we are and what we are and why we should and should not be together. This is heavy stuff and it has been a long few days, though our conversations are full of wonderful things that remind me of how things used to be. Perhaps there is still hope...

What a week!

2009-02-28T18:49:00.006-06:00

So I just spent about five minutes trying to name and then rename this post and it looks like it probably won't be titled. This post will be utterly random, and likely filled with tidbits of information from the past week. By the by, I am using a Mac, so I'd prefer to hurry and get this over with. ;)

I went and saw Slumdog Millionaire today. I was going to go by myself, but I was feeling lonely so I called a bunch of friends, and ultimately ended up going with Ashley M, one of my classics friends. It was probably one of the best movies I've ever seen. I'll leave the critique to the critics, but I know I'll be buying it on DVD (not blu-ray!).

After seeing the movie and eating delicious movie theater popcorn, I decided that I would continue copying files onto my external hard drive. I had to buy that last week because my computer has been lagging since November and I've tried everything I know to fix it. I still need to copy all of my game data and track down my Windows disc so that I don't lose all of the sweet terrains I made for AOE and AOM, or have to buy another copy of Windows. In no way should the poor performance of my computer reflect on PCs as a whole. I love my computer, and though (according to DoIT) the processor is running at half of it's normal speed, I am still more satisfied with it than I would be a Mac (sorry Ryan and Laura). Cait, who owns a PC, was reppin' Macs until she rented one from the library...lol I just truly prefer PCs and the ability to right-click normally.

On another note, I will be turning in an application on Monday to attend a field school in Pylos once the study abroad program in Athens (through the UW) has ended. I emailed the professor in charge, and once I turn in my application, I am good to go! I mean this literally, I am accepted once I turn in the paperwork. This means that I'll be in Greece from May 25th until about July 8th. I am extremely excited! Here's the link to the Pylos program: Iklaina Project

On Thursday night I went out for ice cream with the classics society and then we all went skating at the Shell. I forgot how awful I am when it comes to skating, and spent a majority of the time fixing my skates on the sidelines (which is better than on my butt on the ice!). I invited Antonia, who I met through Beth on Tuesday, and she really enjoyed getting ice cream with us. She is on exchange here from France, though she is orginally from Germany. She is extremely nice and easy to get along with, and reminds me a lot of my cousin, Liz. In fact, tonight Beth and I are meeting Antonia at the Saxony for a traditional German dinner. I'm not sure what I'll eat yet...but that's okay - I'm desperately in need of company :/

So on Tuesday (Mardi Gras) I decided that I wanted to go out, and convinced Beth to come out too. Blaise was supposed to come but was probably watching the X-Files, and didn't. Anyway, Beth invited Antonia, whom she has her Energy Economics class with, to come out too, and that is how we met. Dani came too which was wonderful since she is hilarious and I had not gotten to see her in a long time. I really enjoyed explaining American Mardi Gras to Antonia and seeing her face when I explained how beads were "earned."

Today has been kind of a weird day. I have been really bummed for a few days now. I feel like I've been mean to everyone, especially Cait. I'm not sure why, but I feel kind of lonely. I'm generally optimistic and happy, but I think that the situation with Ronnie is finally bearing down upon me. I realized today that he has not been treating me like the way I think he should be. This is not intended to be mean, so I appologize if it comes off that way. When he didn't get me anything for my birthday, I pretended not to care. When it came to Christmas and he again got me nothing, I acted like it was okay, and that I had expected nothing. I spent $40 making a sweet Valentine's Day gift that was orginal and heartfelt and walked away emptied-handed and broken-hearted once again. It's not material things that I care about, that's not the point. I guess that I wish to be appreciated and cared about and loved, and if I'm putting in but getting nothing out, then I'm done. I'm sick of hearing the excuse that he doesn't know what he wants in life, but still feels the need to string me along. I promised him several years ago that no matter what happened to us romantically, we would always remain friends. But even now, I call him looking for comfort and solace, and don't even get that. My friends here offer more support than he has lately. I am tired of being on the bottom of his priorities, and tired of him not wanting to come visit. I realize that the bus costs $44 round-trip, but when you truly want to see someone, you make the monetary sacrifice. It's clear to me that he has lost interest, and I think that I finally have too. He highly values material things as opposed to experiences, which has me confounded. I am completely the opposite and would much rather have a week long trip somewhere than a new gadget. I love doing things and going out, and he seems to be fine staying in more often than I like. I don't think he has put any effort into being together again, and I don't think he will.

I just want to be loved unconditionally, and I just don't think that's going to happen if we stay together. I have lost faith in love.

Shout-Out to being Shouted-Out

2009-02-22T22:44:00.002-06:00

374. Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 @ 2:09pm:

SO to the bunnies, reindeer and now elephants from JSM that have Bren giving out free food for the past few months. You have officially saved me from starvation. I hope your apartments stay empty so that you continue to feed me.

409. Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 @ 5:44pm:

SO to upon seeing pink elephants on multiple street corners contemplating the probability of having accidentally dropped acid...

482. Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 @ 4:21pm:

SO to the person giant bunny on the corner of university and charter. how could i refuse you when you forced your bag of goodies into my hands?

And finally, this one might be about me and my unhealthy love of popcorn...

453. Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 @ 9:51am:

ASO to my roommate who uses a popcorn maker that is louder than the tv and vacuum cleaner combined! SO to her for being able to eat more popcorn than they produce at the movie theater.

Badger Herald - Madison, WI

APO Sectionals in Eau Claire

2009-02-22T21:53:00.004-06:00

I feel like I've finally recovered from the drive back from Eau Claire! Not that it was especially long, but I'm tired from driving in general.

I kind of stayed low-key this time around with Sectionals simply because I had so much work to do (and I still have a lot to do!). I ended up driving A TON and I'm exhausted. Our chapter ended up winning a bunch of awards.

I'll add more to this post once I finish studying :)

My First Woot-Off

2009-02-18T17:59:00.006-06:00

Well, today is the day I have been eagerly waiting for: my very first Woot-Off. I wanted very much to buy the Phillips Ipod Dock Speakers, alas my state was entered as "Alabama" rather than Wisconsin, so I missed out on that one. On the way to class I happened to miss out on headphones and a $5 HP webcam. Inevitably whenever I leave, an amazing new product that I could actually use goes up. Cait debated getting the $80 8gb IPod but missed out on it by the time she made up her mind. I really wanted the Digital Photo Frame for $50 but decided that I would do my best to hold out for a Bag of Crap. I have been patiently waiting for it. I can't really start my paper until another lame item shows up. So I will wait, hiding in the shadows until BOOM! I get what I want.

UPDATE: I managed to get a pair of Bluetooth headsets and an HP webcam. I got something else, too, but I can't say what it was since part of it is going to Liz when she gets back!

I am slightly depressed that Liz is not here to share this exciting event with me. On another note, Cait and I went out to Lake Mendota and took a picture with the giant Statue of Liberty.

$500 Facebook Gift

2009-02-16T17:28:00.005-06:00

Just wondering if anyone else happened to espy the gifts facebook has decided to offer as of recent. Here is a screenshot of the elusive "Rare Rose" gift, available in a "limited" quantity (15,000) until Friday, and an explanation of the gift system by Facebook. I also highlighted the gift before it, a $50 "Gold Rose" gift.

For $500, or even $50, I'd better have some tangible gift or else something I will be able to appreciate. $500 would buy a nice necklace, a ton of chocolates. Nobody wants a crumby facebook gift that might even go unnoticed (recently I turned off my email notification for gifts).

R.I.P. Fish

2009-02-11T10:19:00.006-06:00

My fish died yesterday. I'm not really upset at all. I mean, the fish were from Wal-Mart. However, Cait's fish died today. I feel worse for her fish dying because I think she loved hers more. So it goes.

I went to the Shell bright and early at 7 am and was turned away because I forgot my student ID. I was frustrated, so I went back home, grabbed my helmet and rode my bike to the Arboretum. I was gone for nearly 45 minutes and managed to see two deer! It began to rain, however, so I biked back as fast as I could.

I updated the Classics Society's blog. I need to give it a new logo (perhaps one without an empty banner? lol) and an exciting new name. Any ideas?

I miss Liz already! I already plugged her blog, but you can visit it using the blog links at the right. Apparently her flight was delayed for four hours yesterday so she was stranded in Dallas. Poor girl!

P.S. I am making the best Valentine's Day gift ever. Ever!

Change in punctuation marks new era in Britain

2009-02-09T23:20:00.003-06:00

This article is ridiculous. My favorite quote:

"Apostrophes denote possessions that are no longer accurate, and are not needed," he said. "More importantly, they confuse people. If I want to go to a restaurant, I don't want to have an A-level (high school diploma) in English to find it."

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky...

2009-02-09T20:45:00.005-06:00

I don't often admit it, but I'm not "color-blind." I'm not trying to say that I'm racist because I'm not at all. But I do see everything and everyone's name as a particular color. Here are some examples, and the alphabet in its "true" colors:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

"I" and "O" are clear, not white, and often influenced by the colors of the letters directly proceeding and following them. "Z" is black, and thus probably won't show up on the black background. The "rules" which govern how a particular letter and word will look have only recently come to light for me. I love to read and it is through reading and spelling out nearly every word I see and hear on a daily basis that I have begun to understand why some words might look the way the do. Some words completely defy what I would expect them to look like. Certain words lack color completely, and I'm not sure why. Extremely long words have no color. Some letters are "stronger" than others and play a large part in determining what colors the other letters appear to have. Because reading is seeing familiar words, those words often appear as one color rather than individual letters. Numbers also have colors too (but not all numbers):

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (10 is a dark gray because 1 seems to be black when next to 0, which in this case is white. In all other cases, ex: 12, 13, and 14. the reason why numbers are the colors they are seems to make little sense)

Below are some examples of words and the overall color they create. I've tried to make the individual colors above as accurate as possible (according to what I see) but regardless, they are subject to change when placed next to each other by lightening or darkening the letters near them. The first letter often defines what the overall color of the word will be. Some of the examples below will highlight this.

BETH (dark blue)

CAITLYN (yellow and pink)

LIZ (the "Z" is black) (purple)

RONNIE (purple)

ELIZABETH (playful green)

ALEX (medium red)

PUPPY (pink)

ICE (tealish blue)

CAMEL (yellow-orange)

COASTIE (light yellow)

MOM (soft yellow)

DAD (whatever color this is)

JUPITER (periwinkle)

NEPTUNE (greenish-blue)

Sorry if this makes me look crazy :P

A bittersweet cacophony

2009-02-09T18:18:00.006-06:00

I have to vent. There are some songs on the radio that are just awful. I drive around the city for work and have a hard time not just giving up and switching to my Meteora CD. I really can't stand some of them, and here in Madison we have only a small variety of radio stations to choose from. In fact, to put it in perspective, here is a link just to prove how pitiful the stations offered here are. All I want is something comparable to FM 102.1 (which we have in Oak Creek). Yet there's nothing here that even comes close (don't let the website linked above fool you - the "alternative" stations are a mix of classic rock and metal and perhaps even classic metal).

Anyway, here are some songs that should be permanently removed from the radio, and why:

Single Ladies - Beyonce. Just a really annoying song that I've never enjoyed. If I were a boy (get it? lol) I would definitely not put a ring on it, nor would I allow a song this annoying to make it onto a CD.
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz. Overplayed - remember "Hey There Delilah?" yeah...exactly.
Just Dance - Lady GaGa. Kind of a trashy song. I've also never like this one.
If I were a Boy - Beyonce. Really? I can hardly imagine Sasha Fierce as a boy, and this song just seems fake and emotionless. Not to mention it's simply boring.
Womanizer - Britney Spears. I have to admit that this song used to be catchy, but then I realized how often she said "womanizer" and got tired of it. Quickly.
Gives You Hell - The All -American Rejects. I've been an AAR fan since before high school, but the poor grammar in this song and the fact that it's played ad nauseum puts this song on the list.

I don't mean to be picky, but I don't like country or gangsta rap and prefer alternative, pop, and embarrasingly, motown and disco. I really want to host a disco party. Or a Michael Jackson party. I wonder if anyone would come?

On another note: Jessica Simpson is not fat!

For fun, I signed up for a triathlon today! It's at UW-Whitewater, so if you go there let me know and I'll visit you! I'm going out there on Saturday, April 26th so that I don't have to drive out the morning of the event. So far it's April and Ben (perhaps a couple? who knows?), Kara, and probably Cait, Beth and Elyse Wojo. Here's the link: http://www.j-hawks.org/Tri/Tri.aspx. Let me know if you want to do it too!

If you don't have it, you're on the other side

2009-02-08T16:21:00.007-06:00

Not ready for the "Digital Transition" from analog tv to digital? Neither am I. Or, I should say that Madison stations must not be. We, not having cable, went ahead and used our coupons to purchase our converter boxes and I went out and bought a digital/analog antenna so that our tv can better receive the digital signal. Several stations have decided that despite the June 12th movement of the required date to switch to digital, they will still be converting on February 17th. Honestly, the signal is so bad here, at night I hardly get any channels at all. This morning only three channels came in. I'm really hoping that when it comes time to switch, that we will eventually get all of the regular channels that we used to get (before we got converter boxes, et al).

Today after Ronnie left I decided that I would make the most out of this quiet afternoon alone. Cait is at Point, Beth work, and Liz home. I can hear that the guys upstairs are playing Halo again. I put "50 First Dates" in the PS2 and unfortunately, the movie froze halfway through. I tried to clean it off and replay it, but it looks like it's irreparable. So that means that sometime this week I need to go back to the $5.99 DVD store and return this movie. I hope that they have another copy, but who knows? Since I wanted to watch something light-hearted, I'm now enjoying Brother Bear.

I'm really happy for Liz that she's going to Costa Rica and is going to have a ton of fun! She left the apartment today for the last time before she leaves, and I completely forgot that we were going to go to Wendy's to celebrate a premature Valentine's Day. I hope that we do get to see each other when she gets back since I'll be leaving right around the same time she returns! Here's a link to her Costa Rica blog: http://costaricaliz.blogspot.com/

Well, I've spent enough time trying to get songs added to itunes and writing - time for homework!

You didn't want anyone to know? Really?

2009-02-05T18:10:00.006-06:00

I came across this article and thought it seemed odd that the woman in it was trying to keep their names private, despite having CNN publish a story about her situation. It seems reminiscent of the woman who recently had octuplets and didn't want her name released. Kind of impossible if you have 14 kids from two pregnancies....

Things I Like

2009-02-02T22:10:00.006-06:00

This is a brief list of things I like in no particular order, because I am unwilling to post a note about 25 things about myself on facebook. Also, I am procrastinating and waiting for Ronnie to call.

Blueberries
Playing video games
Eating popcorn at the Rathskellar after APO with friends
Lists
Knowing that no matter where my life takes me, I will be able to find happiness; I am optimist.
Writing, keeping a blog
Asti
Riding my bike - but not biking, because that implies vigorous exercise and sometimes I enjoy a leisurely ride.
Snuggling, and being close to Ronnie
Doing nerdy things
Wearing high heels and looking sexy
Yoga, as of recent
Chicken nuggets, though I am trying to not eat so many at once :/
Going to the Shell in the morning. It is a challenge going so often. I really hope that I can lose some of the weight I've put on since college since I don't feel like myself with this extra "love."
Reading just about anything - magazines (so long as they are not about celebrities), newspapers, online news, readings for class, and of course fiction. I have read non-fiction and enjoyed it, though my preference is historical fiction.
Laying outside in the sun
Working at JSM. The people there are amazing and I love what I do!
Swimming. Recreationally only, though.
Shopping for gifts for other people
Making things - I love building things, creating things, and designing things. I think that had a been better at calculus, engineering may have been the way to go.
Learning about anything and everything
Good surprises
Getting texts and being surprised by Ronnie - I love when he does unexpected things for me, and when he's spontaneous
Grammar, and those who can understand its quirks.

I can haz woot?

2009-02-01T18:21:00.009-06:00

Liz has gotten me addicted to Woot! It's amazing. I am compulsively checking every day to see what their new product is. I even entered a woot contest to win $100/$50/$20. All you have to do to enter one of their contests is photoshop pictures according to their guidelines. The one I entered involved photoshopping a past or the current U.S. President with a product he would enjoy that was offered on Woot. Below is my entry, though the hand on the steering wheel is somewhat messed up. I chose Eisenhower since almost all of the other posts featured Barack, Bush, or Clinton.

Eisenhower questioned continuing to create the interstate system when his wife volunteered to be the voice of the Garmin StreetPilot c510.

Here are the source images: Eisenhower, car, gps

I'm a creep

2009-02-01T17:27:00.007-06:00

Today, rather than beginning my reading for cultural anthro (Anthro 300) I ended up spending about an hour creeping on facebook. Why? I'm really not sure. All I know is that the semester is just beginning and I already feel busy. Last week I worked 26 hours. I also worked out for at least 7 hours last week. I've been really good about going to the shell every morning, except for one time last week. But, to make up for it, I ended up going to the SERF later and working out an hour before I went to Late Night Yoga with Cait. It's also nice knowing that I've inspired Cait and Beth to come work out! I even bought cute stretchy pants at Old Navy.

Because I like lists, and I just bought four new movies, here is a list of all the movies I own, color-coded by how I acquired each:

Amazon.com Gift 5.99 DVD Store on State
Target Blockbuster Wal-mart

1408
50 First Dates
Alexander
Along Came Polly
Amityville Horror
Anchorman
Big Daddy
Brother Bear
Count of Monte Cristo
The Day After Tomorrow
Dirty Dancing Havana Nights
Finding Nemo
The Green Mile
Gladiator
Kingdom of Heaven
Knocked Up
Lord of the Rings (1-3)
Mamma Mia!
Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest
Planet of the Apes
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
There's Something About Mary
Troy

That was exciting. Anyway, for anyone who caught my name on the news or through online articles, yes, I was at the Monster Truck show here in Madison and yes, I did see that man get run over. It was awful to see and I'm going to leave it at that. I don't think I'll ever forget what I saw, or the reaction of the crowd and driver.

On a happier note, I've now visited Sonic three times successfully. I say successfully because of almost all of the times I've attempted to go there, there has been such a long line that it's almost not even worth it. Yeah, I said it. Though delicious, it is not worth it to be in line for more than 20 minutes for Sonic.

We hosted a fondue party last night for Liz's going away to Costa Rica complete with a homemade fondue recipe invented by Liz! She made a chocolaty peanut butter fondue in which we dipped angel food cake, pretzels, strawberries, oranges, apples, and marshmallows. Yummy! It was the four of us roommates plus Katie, Amy, April, Steph, Mitchy, Josh, Alex, Trent, Ashley, Dani, and Bri. I'm really going to miss her - she is amazing. Who else is going to enjoy FailBlog with me? Honestly though, we've gotten a lot closer this year and it's too bad that we might not see each other until August. Why August? I finally got my acceptance letter to Greece! That means I'll be in Athens, and possibly at a field school afterward, from late May until July or August. We'd end up missing each other by only a day or two.

My room is an absolute mess. If I had to pick an adjective to describe it, I would say that it's awful. The excuse I make is that the time I spend cleaning my room could be better spent working out. Though often I find that I work out best in the morning and end up not cleaning my room anyway.

I think that's it for now. I really should get around to studying since I have an Italian exam this week (thank goodness I'm taking it pass/fail) and I have a bunch of anthro reading to catch up on.

Back from break!

2009-01-21T10:06:00.006-06:00

Well, it looks like it's been a month since my last post. That means that this post should be incredibly long, but I'm going to skip a lot of things.

I finally hooked up my antenna and digital converter box. Thus, I am ready for the DTV Transition on Feb. 17th. Exciting. It's only taken me an entire semester.

I went to a Group X class yesterday: Power Flow. It was a combination of Yoga and Pilates, but it was just okay. I really love Core Crunch but I can't go to it because of my schedule. So I decided that I will probably go to the classes I can fit into my schedule on the weekends and at night, but I will spend my mornings at the Shell. They have open ice skating on Mondays and Wednesday nights, but with APO I'll probably make it a once a week thing on Wednesdays.

Wyatt asked an interesting question the other day. He picked up a ridgy yellow gourd and wanted to know if it is still alive. It wasn't moldy, but I didn't know what to say so I looked to Liz and Beth to help me out. We got into technicalities and even Cait offered up an opinion. I guess the big question is at what point is something considered dead? Just something to think about, since it can have implications for people who are in the hospital and can't take care of themselves and are completely on life support. When those people are unhooked from the machines which keep them alive, when are their lives officially over, assuming they can't breathe on their own? Interesting.

I have to go to class! (Click below for my fantastic school schedule)

My life as a 21 year old (thus far)

2008-12-16T08:32:00.005-06:00

Well, not much has actually changed, so I apologize for giving this post a title that is misleading. I've managed to go to only a handful of the bars in Madison thus far, though when I went out it was with great people who I haven't seen in a good while.

For my birthday about nine of us met at Porta Bella for dinner. I felt awful that Liz couldn't come because she had an exam (not even a final, a third exam). Either way, it ended up being Beth, Cait, Ace, Paul, Blaise, Ashley, Eric, and Drew and we enjoyed a fun, if not slightly awkward, meal together in celebration of my birth. When it came time to go out, everyone was either underage or unable to go out, so Beth came out with me, despite having come out that morning to celebrate my 21st at Lucky's. I don't know if she actually wanted to come out since she had so much to do, but it was extremely nice and she even bought me a drink! What a lady. We hit up Wando's and got free shots, the Nitty and got free beer, and then Brats where I kissed the nasty bull and got a free shot. Yay for free.

I forgot to mention that Beth and Mark, as well as (as best I can remember) Sam, Katie, some guy named Eric who is also from Franklin, perhaps Ryan, and probably a bunch of other people who I am forgetting, went out to Lucky's the morning of my birthday. The bartender was awful but I had a lot of fun. Beth and I even played shuffledboard! It was definitely a fun night despite being a Monday night/Tuesday morning.

Finally, I went out with Kimi last Friday. We have been talking about going out with Kel since the beginning of the semester when I was still underage, and we finally did it, except that Kelly couldn't come. So it goes. We had "pre-drink" at Kimi's which included watching the Bourne Ultimatum and drinking Bailey's. We then took the 82 to State from Kimi's (we only had to walk one house down to catch it and it dropped us off at the bar) to Brats where we met up with Kevin, Mark, Ryan, Katie, and um...other KHK people? It ended up being a New Year's Eve celebration so we got free champagne at midnight, 12:45 am, and around 1:15 am. It was my lucky day since I love champagne and free things. Delicious. We got wristbands for a free limo ride home but ultimately Bethy picked us up from Wando's (I was only there a few minutes since I got stuck back at Brats with Kevin saying goodbye to his fans). While we were at Brats Kimi and I left so she could show me the "naked lady game" at City Bar. I have to admit that it was quite fun and I would like to play it again, though she is leaving for Florida soon and it won't be the same without her! Anyway, Beth picked us up and took us through the drive-thru at McDonalds which was nice of her. And that was that. I went home and went to sleep.

I think that my alcholic beverage of choice is Bailey's. It is actually yummy and I actually desire to drink it sometimes. Crazy.

Things I've Neglected to Add

2008-12-07T23:30:00.006-06:00

I went to Five Guys for lunch and I saw that all of the good seats near the window were taken. Who took them? Firefighters. No big deal, right? Wrong - look what they drove to get there. Ridic!

I took a picture of the gas station sign because I was so happy about the gas prices, but now I am sad because they are much lower ($1.69 today). womp womp.

This is why pedestrians in Madison have a bad reputation....you should have seen the two people who climbed under this train before I got my camera out.

2008-12-03T12:18:00.002-06:00

I am on a Mac....right now :(

Random tidbits

2008-12-02T12:20:00.004-06:00

Today I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Five Guys which featured potatoes from Sugar City, Idaho. These potatoes yielded perhaps the most delicious batch of fries yet. Anyway, I noticed that all of the "window seats" were taken by firefighters. Guess what they drove to get to lunch? The fire truck! It was parked outside as these men consumed oversized portions of heaven proceeded by gulps of delicious Pepsi, or "nectar," as my dad calls it. I'll add the picture I took later this week. Yeah, I know, I'm a creeper.

Whilst at Memorial Library I decided to rent a laptop so that I could go up to my tower and work without the sound of keys clicking around me and phones vibrating against the desks. They only had one available, a *gasp* Mac. I'll give it a try. I'm still using a desktop since the laptop was just returned. But in 11 minutes, it will be mine. All mine...for three days.

I ran across an update to Professor Hawk's blog that I like. Classicists will enjoy this more than everyone else, but have at it: Cicero.

The Wii interface reminds me of Macs. I do so enjoy the Wii, however, I don't think I'm ready to switch from a PC to a Mac, and I don't think I want to. I want to be able to play Age of Empires and Age of Mythology and avoid Safari. I am not a Mac person, which is why renting this laptop will be somewhat of an experiment. I'll let you know how it goes.

grammar

2008-12-02T00:59:00.002-06:00

I was browsing a Facebook group that advertised use of good grammar. Of course, I checked it out and was saddened to find the following posts (click for a better image):

Wii FTW? Yes, FTW.

2008-11-28T18:12:00.003-06:00

So, today I acquired a Wii. I know, I know, I said before that it was the one platform I was completely uninterested in. Well, I made a mistake. I love N64, and for me, the Wii is simply a newer version of my once-beloved N64. Mikel was amazing and sold me his Wii with two remotes and a nunchuck for $240, along with Wii Sports and Wii Play. Needless to say, I played it for several hours until my mom wanted to watch Judge Judy. In case you don't know, we only have one television at home with video game capabilities. Mikel even gave me two Gamecube games (yet another system I told myself I would never buy) but I lack a Gamecube memory card or controller to play them. I'll ask him about getting those later. For now, I'm plenty happy playing the same 14 mingames over and over. Though I do long for Super Mario Galaxy.....it reminds me of hooking up our N64 for the first time, and dreading how complicated the entire installation and interface would be since Sega was no walk in the park to hook up. Of course, N64 didn't require unhooking our TV antenna and there is no "lobby" area (Sega also lacked one, but we thought N64 might have one that would leave us confused for some reason). Funny story, when XBOX was the gift a few years ago, my dad, brother, and I saw my mom on TV buying the system at Wal-Mart. Fox 6 was showing how crazy stores were on Black Friday that year, and there was my mom, fighting off other moms, to buy us an XBOX. Of course, when she got home we made her give it to us right away so that we could play it. She was reluctant and denied even buying it, but they ran the story again that night and sure enough, there she was!

I went and saw Quantum of Solace with Yvonne yesterday, and have to admit that Daniel Craig is somewhat attractive for an old guy. I was disappointed that there was a general lack of cool objects used by 007, though I was impressed with the movie theater's popcorn. Delicious, as always.

I want to mention that while driving back home for Thanksgiving I saw a falling star. Not just a shooting star, but a falling star. It was definitely headed toward Earth. I love the annual meteor showers, but am not into them enough to bother becoming interested in astronomy; all I know is that the bigger ones are in December/January and August. This random little star was both cute and lovely.

If you love me, you will consider buying me one of these things for my 21st birthday, which is December 9th:

- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
- Champagne (any variety)
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
- An iPod charger so I can charge it without my computer
- A real popcorn popper
- Books
- Anything romantic
- Cute earrings

This list (which may be added to as I think of new things) will also serve as my Christmas list, which will be reposted for Christmas once I can think of all the things I might desire for Jesus' birthday!

"Brain so good swore you went to college..."

2008-11-25T00:03:00.002-06:00

I'm not going to lie, although terrible grammar irks me, I like T.I's newest single. yeah yeah.

My favorite song right now: Jackson 5

It seems that our Coastie party was a success! Last night we threw an impromptu party at our place because I felt like dancing and dressing like a coastie. So it happened. We dressed up like Coasties and had pomegranate martinis and invited the neighbors upstairs to this VIP event. It was excellent.

nom nom nom nom

The Boys Next Door - "Yeah Yeah!"

2008-11-23T20:42:00.010-06:00

Well, it looks like I've neglected my blog for the past week. My bad. Below you will find the makings for a hilarious comedy that would receive two thumbs up.

Cait, Sam, Ed, and I ended up going to a Catholic mass that was completely in Spanish at Holy Redeemer on Johnson this morning. Needless to say, I'd never been to a Spanish church service, or a Catholic service for that matter. Haha I'm not going to pick on Catholics too much but that was a whole lot of kneeling, praying, standing, and sitting. I also didn't know that one shouldn't take communion unless they've confessed that week. Oops. But here's the best part of the whole thing: So, Caitlyn and I had an excellent time at the party upstairs writing "boobs" on Tony, Drew, and Cait's own chest. Since neither of us had time to shower in the morning before mass, she wore a cute scoop neck shirt (as did I) and we realized afterward that she received communion with "BOOBS" written across her chest and an arrow pointing to where they are located. HAHAHAHAHA Definitely the most hilarious thing ever this week. Ever. Even more hilarious is the story below.

Please tell me you noticed that the above two sentences were contradictory. If not, that means you aren't reading carefully enough. You know what really grinds my gears? I hate when people use "yeh" and "ya" instead of "yeah."

Moving on...so Friday night was Beth's 21st birthday party and fortunately there was a minimal number of random people. I had a lot of fun until Ronnie was brought up. I seriously do NOT want to talk about it. I have no idea what is going on between us. If I did, I would not be so frazzled. In the interest of having a good time, I proceeded to play beer pong and found that Eric and I make a wonderful team - especially since he drank all the cups once I ran out of delicious Asti to fill them with.

For fun, we're having another party tonight. Luckily we met our neighbors in #1 and they're chill. I'd like to give a shout-out to myself:

SO for going three for three this weekend - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.

Liz walked in a few minutes ago while Cait was giving me a massage and we were sitting practically on top of each other on the couch. We definitely thought she was one of the guys upstairs coming down to rain on our gossip parade so we both had a super guilty look on our faces. Needless to say, Liz thought she walked in on a lesbian moment. For the record, Caitlyn and I are not lesbians. I guess you had to be there.

I'm really sick of either the Badger Herald or the Daily Cardinal screwing up the crytoquip quotes. Seriously, they're annoying to begin with since they're so ridiculously easy, but when you start to write it out correctly and discover that a letter in the code was incorrect, it becomes irritating. It makes me irate and really grinds my gears.

How did I miss this??

2008-11-19T00:31:00.001-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU

Madison is my hot hot sex

2008-11-18T11:01:00.002-06:00

Recently, things have been amazing! Since I'm helping out a MHR class at 11:30, I'm going to summarize why I've been so pleased:

I feel like everyone at work is really starting to get how we do things. Leases seem to be running smoothly now, and my team is on top for the second week in a row!
I am making bank with all of the leases I've gotten, despite showing a ton of properties on the east side :)
Liz and I cleaned the common spaces (living room, kitchen, dining area) and it is a much more pleasant place to be.
Someone put new batteries in the remote. Yay!
I went to Wal-Mart with Liz and bought two movies for $5 each - Big Daddy and Along Came Polly, as well as a new package of socks, brake fluid, and plastic for the windows. mmmm....new socks....
I nearly completed a crossword during class yesterday. The Herald features stumpers sometimes, and I rocked this one in the face.
I put the plastic on my windows - energy savings here I come!
I am making mashed potatoes for lunch
I added brake fluid to my car all by myself in the dark!
Beth's birthday is coming up
I have no more exams until finals! And one of my finals is a take-home final!

And best of all....

When I decided to watch Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, I noticed that this DVD, which I purchased at the DVD/Media Exchange store on State Street, had two discs: presumably a movie disc and a special features disc. I proceeded to place the disc which looked more like the actual movie into my PS2, though both had "Disc 1" printed on them. What happened? Well, it seems that my movie came with both the first AND second Pirates of the Carribean movies! Someone probably exchanged it and forgot to put the special features disc back in! Two movies in one case for $5 - amazing.

A wonderfully unexpected change of plans

2008-11-13T20:51:00.005-06:00

So it turns out that next year Katie E is going to be living with us! I really miss seeing her and since she is going to be rooming with Liz next year, I'll get to see her every day of the week! Plus, that means we'll also get to see more of Wyatt and Finny.

I think I've decided to try my best to pursue a career in underwater archaeology. Hopefully I will get into a field school - I was really excited about the one in the Agora (in Athens) but it sounds really hard to get into. Now that I'm thinking about doing underwater archaeology, it would be nice to find an opportunity that would involve diving. Here are two other fieldschools I am looking at:

Greece - University of Montreal
Pylos -University of Missouri - St. Louis

I am really frustrated with Ronnie right now. If he doesn't want to call me back or talk to me that's fine: I can take a hint.

Oh, school newspapers...

2008-11-12T20:56:00.002-06:00

The other day the Daily Cardinal ran an article about the play that I recently saw, "The Greeks." It was okay, and since it was only $14 I didn't feel so bad about spending the money to go out with various classics professors and other classics enthusiasts. Basically, it was a set of three different plays that were all related. I'll let you read the article: Madison going "Greek". I hate to be a Classics snob, but come on. Last I checked, Helen of Troy was not the mother of Achilles. Also, the play I saw was not as "riveting" as the one that Ms. Casarez saw since the acting was just okay and there is little action (I really mean it, a brief dance is all I recall).

Skipping class to blog

2008-11-11T13:29:00.002-06:00

Well, it seems that I've missed Troy class today. Oops. To be honest, we took an exam last Thursday and I am not particularly tempted to go find out what my grade is. Considering that the final is not cumulative, resolving my errors will be of little help for the final in December. Thus, I have resolved to update my blog, which I have neglected.

On a happier note, Sneak-A-Peek is tonight! I'm really excited about it since it's a good trial run for all of the new people, who seem to be nervous. I hope my team wins tonight because then we each get $25. That would be nice since rent is due on Thursday!

I'm really excited to sign up for classes since my schedule is going to be awesome! I made a critical mistake and misread my registration time; it is a full day earlier than I had originally believed. If everything goes according to plan, I will have one to two classes a day that would end at noon, and on Wednesdays I would have three classes, with two being longer powerlectures (1.5 hours each).

SO to finding a class schedule that rocks
ASO to having to take an ethnic studies class that focuses on Native Americans...

Well, it's about time that I go to Sneak-A-Peek!

Halloween!

2008-10-31T17:47:00.002-05:00

It's finally Halloween! My costume is ready, I've got shoes picked out, and I've found a purse to carry my things in. I'm really excited to go out tonight. I'm kind of bummed that Ronnie didn't want to come, but whatev. Steven and three of his Navy friends will be up, so that will be interesting.

I have a lot of homework to do, but Ronnie did direct me to Bob and Tyler's blog, which is hilarious: Bob and Tyler's Family Feed Bag. You should check it out.

Top Ten Favorite Foods

2008-10-26T18:21:00.004-05:00

I recently found out that cheeseburgers make the list of Ronnie's top ten favorite foods. I truly believed them to fall lower on his list, below pancakes, steak, and all of the other things I know he loves to eat. Inspired by this ranking of foods, I decided to list my favorite. Here they are, in order, my favorites:

Steam N Mash mashed potatoes
Tyson Chicken Breast Tenders
Baked Mostaccioli
French Fries
Popcorn
Gumby's Pizza
Berries: Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries
Velveeta Mac N Cheese
Honey Crisp Apples
Cousins' Subs brand chips

What a lazy weekend

2008-10-26T13:30:00.003-05:00

Although I did drink an entire bottle of delicious Korbel champagne on Friday resulting in hilarity, the rest of my weekend was much more low-key. April's party was fun, despite Liz's having to nurse Steph back to health. It was nice getting to catch up with Brad, Jon (my Muse friend), Dani, all the girls that live there, as well as Mitch and Dan. I don't think I want a huge extravaganza like that for my birthday. I think I'll probably have just a few close friends over, perhaps even dinner out, and then I'll hit the bars with Beth and whoever else is free Tuesday, December 9th. I'm just not into large parties, though it is nice to catch up with people you don't regularly see.

I'm really glad we're not moving. Have I mentioned that previously? I know I have, but I can't stress it enough. This week I am completely in charge of getting people to sign leases and direct them to sign up for us to set up an appointment (following the 15th, of course). I'm excited and feel priviledged having this much responsibility.

Scuba class is going well. I kind of skimmed chapter four, but I did just fine on the quiz for chapter three. Next time we meet, November 6th, we will finish our chapter four quiz and begin preparing for the final exam! Our closed water dives will be at McFarland High School in, obviously enough, McFarland, on Dec 6th. Our open water dive will be in May at Devil's Lake in Baraboo. I'm really excited, but sadden that scuba gear is so expensive. The masks at Fontana were over $70 each, and those were not so nice ones. Oh well. I plan on selling my snowboard this winter, so that will help offset that cost. I'm really lucky that Casi mentioned this to us leasing consultants because you only need to be certified once, and that certification is good for life! Her and her husband own Breezeway Bubbles.

I also went to the mall with Kimi yesterday. I ended up buying a shirt, a wallet, earrings, and a bracelet. Good stuff. Kimi ended up buying a lot. She definitly walked away successful.