Money on my mind

About 5 years ago, I found myself standing in a boy's living room attempting to read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything while stoned out of my fucking mind. I can't even begin to explain just how infinitely blown my mind was while reading about the size of atoms.

Today I started that book again. Apparently Bill Bryson usually writes comically about his travels, so this is more of a travel through the history of the world told with an ironic and friendly sense of humor. Many times I've found myself thinking, "Oh, man, I need to remember that line!"

But I could not resist any longer when he mentioned this chemist's name: Lorenzo Romano Amadeo Carlo Avogadro, Count of Quarequa and Cerreto.

I want that name. Or something fabulously similar.

Also! Irene will be in town TONIGHT. Let the brazen disrespect for maturity begin!

Please don't ask me to get up

It's 6pm. I've been awake for 11 hours. I think I'm going to be sound asleep before the 12th.

Fuck me today was a long day. On the plus side, I finished my first book of Winter Break. Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Am now working on Salman Rushdie's Jaguar Smile, seeing as I can't get enough of these tales of Latin American revolutionaries.

Just a little update

Having officially moved into the pool, I'm finding that formerly irritating coworkers are the cat's pajamas! Perhaps it's the holiday season, perhaps it's the fact that most of the real bosses are out of town. Whatever the reason, everyone seems more chipper and friendly and amusing than ever before.

One lady especially is starting to pull at my heart strings. She's a hardcore music fan from the 70's era (and before), and she just adores sharing her life stories with anyone who will listen. Fortunately, I'm ready and eager to hear her stories, as well as to share a few of my own. We're also a couple of computer nerds. The other day I helped her make a list of every ctrl key shortcuts we know. We also traded my external hard drive for a pair of speakers for my laptop, and she compiled a set of 5 CD's entitled, "Judy's Classics: For all those kids born in the 80's who don't know what good music is".

I haven't had a chance to listen yet, though, since the pool doesn't have a cd player and I've got very little non-sleeping time at home. But Minus the Bear sounds amazing on the speakers.

Hey Smartass

So that final was a joke. I looked the whole thing over twice checking my answers, and still finished with 50 minutes to spare. Out of 80. I think I was #5? Anyway, I will now plagiarize a letter written from my professor to the ISEP program regarding my awesomeness.

"Dear ISEP,

My name is Robert ----- and I am adjunct faculty at Western Washington University where I have taught a business law program, Management 271, since January 1998. My class enriolls 80 students each quarter.

During this past quarter, Fall 2007, I have had the pleasure of instructing Chelsea ----- as one of my business law students. I have come to know Chelsea better than I would most of my students because of the time she took outside of class to visit me during office hours to discuss course materials. I also enjoyed hearing her plans for the future, which seem quite bright to me.

Chelsea is an intelligent, personable and articulate students who stood out from her peers as being a most capable public speaker, notably when called upon to participate as part of the "Socratic Method" employed in my class. She is obviously quite interested in studying abroad, and, given her language skills, I believe she would make a wonderful spokesperson for our university, your program, and our country.

I hope you give Chelsea serious consideration as an applicant for your program.

Very yours truly,

Robert ----- etc etc"

This glowing report, plus the fact that I so clearly just aced his final, has inflated my ego to about 10x its normal size. Think of the Grinch. I used to be a bit of a wimp, scared of speaking up and certainly unsure of my worth. Now? I am the shit. Don't worry about making conversation, I'll just talk about myself for the next hour. Thanks. Besides, what could you possibly have to say that would top the cleverness of me?

Note to Self:

When off campus, pirate LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver. Also, 45:33, a workout track.

Also watch this video porque el laboratorio de lengua no tiene un servicio para ver películas en la Internet.

Oh man. I'm blatantly stealing these links from BoingBoing.

Comments on Bic Pens.

Comments on Whole Milk.

Awake 5 Hours So Far

7:00 am. Jump start awake in panic mode because I cannot figure out why the hell my alarm is going off. It's too late for work, far too early for class! Oh, right, finals.
7:30 am. Roommate and I decide McDonald's is a good idea before our 8:00 am finals. We make it there and back, but barely. The grilled steak burrito thing was delicious, but probably a bad idea.
8:50 am. Have aced final, but it is really bitter cold out. Buy some coffee and wait for a bus home.
10:00 am. Decide to take a nap despite the caffeine coursing through my veins.
11:45 am. After having hallucinatory phone and text message conversations without ever falling asleep, decide to get up. Have also imagined the living room decked out in pine garlands and a scraggly Christmas tree. Might just try to cut one down from the arboretum over the weekend with the handsaw I found in the hall closet.
12:00 pm. Oh. Should probably head out to my next final. Wish me luck!

Low Income Housing

The rest of the set from last night's Meeting of Architectural Hobbyists.

The Viking Long House, complete with treasure chest, falls amidst a glory of flames...



While Santa stands atop it all and laughs.



Nick's version of Falling Water



Chris, naturally, had to make a house that actually stood.



My attempt at a house on stilts turned into.. well, a giant pile of candy reminiscent of last year's house.

New Favorite: Digital Love, Daft Punk

I need to read 100 pages from my law textbook, create study guides, then review all 12 before my final on Thursday. In the meantime, I also need to read about 100 pages of anthropology textbook (Friday), create and understand a cheat sheet for financial statistics (Tuesday), and review the uses of: por v. para, a, indirect and direct prepositions, ser v. estar, imperfect v. preterite, and all combinations in between (Tuesday).

So naturally I spent tonight making graham cracker houses and stringing up decorations around the apartment. Now, I'm listening to Daft Punk and burning Nick's cd collection onto my computer.

Snow Day = Barbecue!




Snow Day burgers make everyone happy. Sort of.



Snow Day doesn't encourage good driving habits. Even funnier? When the snow melts and you still look like an idiot.



I had to promise Sharron these wouldn't find their way onto Facebook. So here they are, in a little-viewed but still online location.






Melissa's architectural career started off strong, but quickly lost momentum.




And oh drat Blogger has just quit on me. More pictures of edible houses to follow at a later date.

Chili Night!

So. The deathly disease is still going strong. 3:30 am I found myself locked in the bathroom, again at 5, and again at 7. Each time I thought I was hallucinating - Kenny was always calmly making coffee or eating cereal in the kitchen. Mid-agony I realized that I daily get a solid break between bouts that last about 8 hours before it comes back - so I'm wondering if simply being awake sets my intestines grinding themselves apart.
I've plowed through about 3 Nalgenes of water, so today has been a little better than yesterday. Went out for a delicious breakfast at Arlis's, aced my stats quiz, and finished the last homework problem like this:

Me: I don't know. Let's make it up. Let's say wider!
Paul and I start to make up some bs reasonings and calculations.
Paul: Wait -- this is actually right. See? Smaller numbers make the results less accurate!
Both of us: Touchdown dance!

I then came home and lay down in bed listening to Regina Spektor. By 4:30 I was conked out. The boss at work called around 5:30, and after a 5 minute conversation about my schedule,

Boss: Sorry for waking you up.
Me: Don't worry, I'm still asleep.

And I was. I didn't open my eyes the entire time, and I'm pretty sure I lied to him about availability.
At 7 the call of "Chili's ready!" went ringing through the apartment. Made with Miller High Life leftover from yesterday, it was delicious.

Uncomfortable

Oh God. Are we back to September guys? Really? This is disgusting. This is a travesty. This kind of behavior wouldn't be tolerated for more than a few hours, if I only knew how to stop it. It started again Tuesday morning at 4 am, and has been going strong since. I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT. And then, of course, the "I'm fed up with this let's see a doctor" appointment I made(back before this relapse!) has been pushed back by another week. If this thing keeps going as strong as it's been in the last 48 hours, I'll probably be losing more than 10 lbs this time around.
El Padre has had surgery for cancerous polyps. He's called the Uncle about getting himself checked out, because guess what? It's genetic. What a bitch that would be if, at the ripe young age of 20, I have to go in and start a life-long process of scraping cancerous growths out of my body.
Fuck I keep thinking about it. I've got a lot of the symptoms webmd says to watch out for. At least last time I could blame it on parasites. Now there's a good chance it's really serious. This is like the cervical cancer scare of 2 years ago. I'm having trouble sleeping again, I'm walking around jittery and nervous, and all I want to do is start awkward conversations about it with people who really don't care/don't want to know. Add Finals Week Stress to all of this, and I'm basically a big ball of nerves ready to lash out at any moment. Will she cry? Will she start a fight? Who knows! Let's give her some alcohol and find out!
Tonight's Repeal Day Gathering is both a very welcome distraction, and a very bad idea.

Text Conversation:
Me: Us plus 3ish, a small gathering of drunks
Nick: fine by me... and no bonus runway viewers?
Me: those are the pr kids. minus sharron.
Nick: ok cool. and its understandable she doesn't want to hang out with team drunk.

We decided yesterday that we want to become alcoholics. You know, to fit in with the rest of our friends. So I guess step one is to start referring to ourselves with quirky dysfunctional names.


In other news,
• Men show a greater preference for tongue contact and open-mouth kisses.

• Men are more willing than women to have sex with someone without kissing, as well as to have sex with someone they are not attracted to or consider to be a bad kisser.

• Women place more importance on kissing throughout a relationship, whereas men place less importance on it as the relationship progresses.

Thanks CNN!

Comfort

Nothing warms up a dreary drizzly rainy day quite so well as a piping hot bagel slathered with cream cheese and a steaming cup of chamomile tea.

Dinosaurs Kick Ass

New Dino Discovery!

I'm envious of whoever gets to take Thor's dino class next quarter. The man is going to be a giant ball of child-like enthusiasm on a sugar high when he talks about this.

Photographic

I wanted to be asleep by midnight. Naturally, I decided it was about time to share the photo highlights from Fall Quarter 2007. There are more, but they're still on my camera.

The 40 Oz. Formal








Iron Chef: Booze








Toga

Baby, you got what I need (But you say he just a friend)

There are ups and downs to knowing how to use the internet for more than googling images of Britney Spears pre-breakdown. On the upside, I know where to find endless material for amusement. Blogs are fantastic. They're also the biggest downside. After all, if I, an easily amused college student who relies upon her parents to make rent, can manage to keep a blog, then obviously there are many other people with many other talents and far more interesting stories doing the very same. Nothing quite brings me out of my "yeah my life is awesome" mindset as well as an hour spent catching up on Internet idols.

Not to mention that I lose an hour reading about someone cooler than me, when I could have been studious or amusing or bonded with a roommate or cooked something amazing. That is an hour I will never get back. It's an hour that I chose to spend chuckling while simultaneously making myself feel bad about how that's not my amusing story.

That said, awkward moment of the day: Sharron, Andrea and I tried to pull off a group hug today, only to realize we didn't know what to do with our faces. We ended up staring creepily into each other's eyes (or chins, in my case.)

I am a Gemini

Via Wikipedia:

Characteristics (bold words apply)

Astrologers broadly agree that the following are the characteristics of Gemini:
The Gemini person is versatile, whimsical, nimble, articulate, active, adaptable, intellectual, witty, inquistive, intuitive, charming, brilliant, affectionate, courteous, theatrical, generous, thoughtful, straight-forward, social, talkative, mercurial, eloquent, brave, free-spirited, loves attention, playful, good-natured, good sense of humor, leader, broad-minded, diplomatic, and lively.
The Gemini is prone to be temperamental, fickle, demand attention and admiration, boastful, plays mind games, quarrelsome, prattlers, tricksters, narcisstic, devious, manipulative, superficial, argumentative, restless, childish, indecisive, nervous, duality, tense, cold, insensitive, inconsistent, and cunning.

Semi-Compatability: Pisces, Aries
Incompatability: Cancer, Scorpio (the favorite brother), Virgo, Taurus, Capricorn
Ideal Careers: Actor/actress (no thanks), comedian (no thanks), teacher (maybe), debator (no thanks), sales person (no thanks), diplomats (sure! except not rich enough), speaker (no thanks), authors (no talent), poets (no talent), journalists (no talent), lawyers (sure!), movie writer, or director.
Likes: Talking, the unusual, teaching, different things in life, Multiple projects all going at once (oh God ew stress)
Dislikes: Feeling tied down (definitely), learning (actually, I wish I could stay in college forever), being in bad situations, mental inaction, being alone (also not true)

Astrology.com says:

Gemini
May 21 - June 21

Gemini is the third Sign of the Zodiac, and those born under this Sign will be quick to tell you all about it. That's because they love to talk! It's not just idle chatter with these folks, either. The driving force behind a Gemini's conversation is their mind. The Gemini-born are intellectually inclined, forever probing people and places in search of information. The more information a Gemini collects, the better. Sharing that information later on with those they love is also a lot of fun, for Geminis are supremely interested in developing their relationships. Dalliances with these folks are always enjoyable, since Geminis are bright, quick-witted and the proverbial life of the party. Even though their intellectual minds can rationalize forever and a day, Geminis also have a surplus of imagination waiting to be tapped. Can a Gemini be boring? Never!

Since Geminis are a mix of the yin and the yang, they are represented perfectly by the Twins. The Gemini-born can easily see both sides of an issue, a wonderfully practical quality. Less practical is the fact that you're not sure which Twin will show up half the time. Geminis may not know who's showing up either, which can prompt others to consider them fickle and restless.

They can be wishy-washy, too, changing their mood on a simple whim. It's this characteristic which readily suggests the Mutable Quality assigned to this Sign. Mutable folks are flexible and go with the flow. Further, the Twins are adaptable and dexterous and can tackle many things at once. It's a good thing, too, when you consider their myriad interests. The downside of such a curious mind, however, can be a lack of follow-through. How much can any one person do, anyway?

comments: the whole gathering information and relaying it to people bit is oh-so-true. life of the party, though? not so much. sudden mood changes apply - my mother says i'm impulsive. lack of follow-through, definitely, though i don't usually try to multi-task like crazy. it's too stressful.

Today's Game Face: Irrational!

All morning, I've been surprising myself by how alert and chipper I've been. No breakfast, but I'm not hungry. No caffeine, but I'm not drowsy. 5 hours of sleep, and I'm not irritable.

But just now, all the warning bells and whistles went clanging crazily away. I most definitely am not well-rested and prepared to meet the day. How do I know? This entry made me teary-eyed. Although I think that's what Heather wanted.

"...but when her feet leave the ground there is a tiny, measurable block of air that separates her feet from the earth. The distance from here to the stars is a lot bigger than that, I know this, but if you take that enormous distance and convert it to centimeters, well then Leta just got a little closer."

Hands like ice

At first I thought it was a silly coincidence. But after listening all the way through, I am convinced that Putumayo Presents: Turkish Lounge accidentally filled the CD with Bollywood tracks translated to Turkish.

Also, I locked myself out of the apartment this afternoon. Instead of cooking my own lunch, I walked the mile to Fairhaven and enjoyed a warm cup of hot cocoa and a chicken pot pie. This conveniently took up enough time until one of my roommates came home from class.

I made a beeline for my bedroom, and settled in with the computer while I waited to warm up. Over an hour went by before I realized that I keep shifting my position to have one foot and one hand tucked under my body. Oops. Someone forgot to turn the heater on.

High Expectations

So I know that studying a language for three years naturally gives you a leg up over the non-bilingual population. But I refuse to believe that understanding Spanish is really that hard. Look! So many of the words are almost identical to English! It's the verbs and conjugation and structure that don't make sense at first. I feel like almost anyone with a clear head and ability to recognize word roots could figure out the gist of my essay.

¡Quiero comer pan, por favor!

En este día, hay muchas personas que no son saludables. Son cansados con mucha frecuencia, no pueden concentrar, y se enferman fácilmente. Necesitamos preguntarnos, ¿es una cuestión de una vida normal, o es algo que nosotros hacemos mal? Los defensores de la medicina alternativa creen que las cosas que comemos duelen nuestros cuerpos. Para dar el tiempo del cuerpo a curarse, es necesario que algunas veces todos los años eliminemos los alimentos perjudiciales en nuestra dieta. Esta vez de comiendo comida pura se llama una dieta de desintoxicación. Una dieta de la desintoxicación tiene críticos en la medicina profesional, pero si se lo hace correctamente, la dieta da más energía, ayuda a personas a adelgazar, y ayuda en descubrir comida más interesante y saludable. Yo traté de hacerlo.

En una dieta común hay muchísimos comidas que tiene componentes artificiales y peligrosas. Naturalmente, una dieta de la desintoxicación quiere quitar los dos. Las instrucciones de la dieta dicen: No comas trigo, gluten, azúcar, carne, productos lácteos, comidas con mucha aceite ni grasa, y no bebas alcohol ni cafeína. Es esencialmente una dieta vegetariana. Para mí, la parte más difícil no fue buscar comidas apropiadas. Fue no comer pan. El cuerpo tiene comidas favoritas y confortables, y quiere comerlas. Vegetales y frutas son excelentes, pero yo nunca me siento repleta sin algo más sólido. Sin pan y carne, especialmente porque mucho de mi dieta está hecho de esas cosas, sentía completamente vacío unos pocos días después de empezar. Afortunadamente, esto es uno de las metas de una dieta de la desintoxicación.

Algunos efectos de la dieta son extraños, pero otros son buenísimos. Yo necesité el baño frecuentemente en la primera semana. Desde que la dieta requiere comer muchos alimentos con mucha fibra, el colon limpia su contenido pronto. Algunas personas les duelen la cabeza a causa de retirada de cafeína. Después unos pocos días, yo tenía más energía y podía concentrar mejor. No he adelgazado todavía, pero no es la cosa más importante para mí. Pienso que el mejor aspecto de esta dieta es que yo aprendí cocinar comidas más interesantes.

Puedes ver que no tengo resultados significativos de hacer esta dieta. Para esta misma razón, muchos médicos no creen en la dieta de desintoxicación. Dicen que nuestros cuerpos adaptan a sustancias nuevas y no necesitan ayuda. Si este es verdad, no me importa. La dieta de desintoxicación es un descanso de comidas insalubres que normalmente una persona no toma.

Failing Again

I've successfully given up on nearly every endeavor I've tried. Rowing lasted a whole 2 seasons. The tennis club lasted a day. Running this summer? I did 4 miles a day for a week, then decided that working part-time was enough of a commitment. I dropped out of the Culinary Arts class in high school. I didn't apply to any other college except Western because their application requirements were too strict - application essay? Forget that! Even last quarter, I failed a finance class because I decided that riding my bike was more important.

The most recent drop-out I've accomplished was my attempt at a detox diet.

The idea was that I'd stop eating wheat, gluten, dairy, meat, caffeine, sugar and alcohol for two weeks. Sounds crazy, right? Well, I have a Spanish essay due Tuesday, and I thought it would be fun to write about my experiences. Also, ever since the Peruvian parasite poop-fest, my body still hasn't quite been up to shape. I started last Sunday, and I was doing well. Trader Joe's has an amazing assortment of indian curries, and one bag of frozen stir fry veggies from Costco + gluten free soy sauce + rice can keep a girl stuffed for weeks. But oh. The roommates just had to go and stock up on bagels this same week. I've been smelling toasted bagels every morning, watching Nick and Chris lather on the cream cheese while I drink my soy milk and fruit smoothie, knocking bags of the delicious circular bread out of the freezer every time I go for the vegetables. It's been sheer torture.

So this morning I gave in. I ate a bagel, and it was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I took another one with me to work. While there, a coworker and I unjammed the vending machine and looted over $2 in quarters. Naturally, I had to celebrate the windfall with some peanut M&M's. I knew I would regret it and here I am, 4 hours later, tallying up my history of wimping out.

I think I'm going to keep going with the diet, though. It's only another week. Today was a slump, but I'm more determined than ever to see it through.

Also, I made potato pancakes for dinner. They were heavenly.

Fortunately the roommates are in Canada tonight, because I also burned them and filled the entire apartment with a thick layer of smoke. Does anyone have tips on how to cook with oil without starting smoke signals?