Change of Venue

Today I got on my blog to change some things up when I decided that there was so much I wanted to change that maybe I would just try switching blog providers entirely. I have a couple of friends who use Wordpress and they really like it, so I decided to make the switch. It also let me import all of my old blogs from here, so that was an added bonus. The only problem that I have found is that the posting times are not correct for these old posts. But I will work on fixing that.

Anyway, you can now find me here. I will go ahead and leave this blog up for awhile, but I won't be posting to it anymore. Thus, if you want to read what is happening, or change your RSS feed in bloglines or something, link to my new blog. Happy reading!

Nausea heartburn indigestion upset stomach diarrhea

Diaphoresis. Syncope. APAP. Ataxia. Bruxism. DIC. Coryza. Epistaxis. Alopecia. ARDS. Entropion. Extropion. Egophony. Tactile fremitus.

The list goes on and on. What does the list consist of? Words and conditions that I had NO idea existed before I started nursing school. Would you like a translation? Okay, in order...:

Sweating. Fainting. Acetaminophen (Advil). Uncoordinated gait. Grinding teeth. Dissemenated Intravascular Coagulation. A runny nose. A bloody nose. Balding. Acute Respiratory distress syndrome. The last four I won't bother to translate cause they can't really be done in only one or two words. You could look them up here if you really wanted to: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html. It has been my lifesaver this semester!

As I was driving home yesterday I was thinking about the sheer amount of knowledge that I have acquired in the last semester. Four months... that's it. But I learned soooooooooooooooo much. And the scariest thing -- yet terribly exciting at the same time -- is that I am 1/4 of the way to being a real life RN! At first that seemed daunting, but the fact that I have already learned so much makes me feel confident that I will be more than adequately prepared by the time I graduate. As evidenced by the above example and the fact that I have EASILY learned upwards of 250 new words this semester. On that note, it really is like learning a new language. We have lots of fun quizzing each other with the most random words we can think of. We also have lots of fun being hypochondriacal and diagnosing ourselves with every new disease, condition, or syndrome that we come across in class. And the most fun (for me) is when I use one of these words in normal conversation with normal people. So consider yourself warned!

And just as a side note, I went to the store the other night to buy a first aid/emergency kit for my car since I do a lot more driving than in the past and through more treacherous conditions. I knew instantly that I was going into the correct profession when I went into raptures at the sight of the first aid kits and the extensive selection of first aid related products. I'm an idiot, I know. But I'm happy, and that's all that matters, right?

Something to Remember

As I was driving through the mountains today on my way from Spokane to Seattle, this song came up on my iPod playlist:

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

And blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

CHORUS: Every blessing You pour out I'll
Turn back to praise
And when the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's "all as it should be"
Blessed be Your name

And blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name
I will bless Your name

Admittedly, I have been having a bit of a problem lately with blessing the Lord. He is being so faithful to show me that no matter what is going on in my life, I can rejoice in the fact of knowing Him. Still, it is hard. I was so convicted by the line that said, "Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise." Wow. Do I do that? Do I really remember to praise the Lord for everything good? Do I look for blessings in the hard times? Am I willing to stop my complaining and belly aching to see the many ways in which the Lord has blessed me? It gave me something to think about for a good long while.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Oh wait. I know. That is part of a Christmas song, but I really and truly feel that way about THIS time of the year. And as much as I love Christmas, once autumn comes, I know that Christmas will be waiting right around the corner. If I ever get married, it is definitely going to be in the fall. (I don't have too many things that I HAVE to have for my wedding, but that is one that I will be very insistent upon). Anyhow... the point of this post? I went and played in the park today, taking lots of pictures in the process. And I am posting those here for your enjoyment. The colors in Spokane this fall are exquisite and it makes me so happy! Everything is so bright and vibrant. I'm not sure if this is typical, seeing as how this is my first fall here... but I am rejoicing in the beauty of it all nevertheless!

One of the girls that I know through a Bible study at ICN is engaged. She was going to have her other friend do the engagement pictures, but they HAD to be done this weekend and the schedules were just not working. So somehow I got volunteered to do it. It was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. NOTHING like working at JC Penny Portrait Studio back in the day. I didn't have stupid company policy telling me what poses were and were not appropriate and docking me points on my photography because I didn't have the happy couple oohing and aahhing over a fake flower. Anyhow, enough of that. I'm glad to have moved on ;). I don't have any pictures of them to post, but maybe I can get some of them in the future. We went to the same park where I took these pictures, and I think that we got some really good ones. I'm excited. I have found my calling if I ever end up flunking out of nursing school...hehehe, just kidding!

As for my life... I'm hanging in there. I just finished my first round of nursing midterms and I am happy to be done with them. As one of my friends pointed out, we are now 1/8 of the way done with nursing school! I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing... =). I have met so many wonderful people and I am really grateful for the wonderful friendships that I already have. It's hard to believe that I have only been here 2 months when I stop and think about how well I know people already and how much they mean to me. I am attending two Bible studies, one through ICN and one done by my friend from ICN which have both been wonderful and challenging at the same time. I am attending a new church tomorrow with one of my friends, and that excites me! One of these days I imagine that I should post about my classes and my clinical experiences and what not, but not now. I really do apologize that I haven't blogged in 2 months. But I thought nobody read it but my mom, and I talk to her on the phone so she already knows all of this stuff! Needless to say, I finally did get internet in my apartment after driving to a sketchy looking part of town to track down the UPS warehouse and my modem. But it has been working like a charm ever since. Anyway, I should go be productive (which at this point in time may merely consist of reading The Golden Compass as I have been doing homework all day). I promise to not be so long in posting in the future!

I feel like such a loser...

So here I am in Spokane. I wish I had all the time in the world to do a post the right way, but I only have a couple of minutes so this will have to be quick. The reason I only have a couple of minutes is because I am not technically using my Internet. I went driving around downtown Spokane tonight in search of a wireless signal that I could, uhhhhh, "borrow". My modem was supposed to be delivered today, but I was at orientation the entire day and the stupid UPS guy didn't leave it with my apartment manager but instead just took it home with him and said that he would be back "sometime" tomorrow. Which means that I get to stay home ALL day tomorrow, until my modem comes, that is. So hopefully I can get wireless hooked up in my apartment tomorrow. But for now I am sitting in my car in downtown, and feeling like I am going to get in trouble at any minute.

I am having a blast here, though. Nursing school is going to be grand and I am SUPER excited. I have already met some really neat, really nice people. Actually, to be honest, EVERYONE I have met so far has been really neat and really nice. I'm beginning to think there aren't any mean people in nursing school. The weather in Spokane has been wonderful... around 95 degrees every day. I am beginning to re-appreciate the value of air conditioning. As it allows me to get cool at night and when I want to be, and that means that I enjoy the warm temperatures that much more. Tomorrow I don't have anything that I have to be doing, so I'm gonna unpack some more while I wait for the UPS guy, get my Internet hooked up, and go spend about $700 or so on books/scrubs/other random things for this semester. I will post again once I get my own Internet... and I will definitely post pics of my apartment. But that will have to wait for now. Hopefully I will be back soon!

No good, very bad day

That was my day yesterday. A LOT of things went wrong, including, but not limited to:

-Having to spend 45 minutes on the phone with various offices at both WSU and UW to try and figure out why there was a hold on my account which made it so that WSU couldn't process my financial aid. I know that school doesn't start for a month still, but it is really stressing me out to not have any idea of what my expected contribution is or whether or not I'll need loans. Goodness, I put down the deposit on an apartment that I *think* works with my budget, but I don't know for sure cause I haven't seen the actual budget.

-Realizing that the hold on my account was because I was *TOO* efficient and had UW send my official transcripts to WSU before my degree had posted. So basically, WSU had paperwork from me saying that I had a previous degree and therefore I should be coded as one kind of student, but the transcript from UW made it look like that wasn't the case.

-Being immensely angry that neither UW nor WSU let me know what was going on! If I hadn't caught this by simply being on top of things, I shudder to think how long this would have gone on.

-Worrying that there might still be problems even after resending the transcript with my degree on it (which ended up costing me $20, $10 the first time and $10 the second time).

-Intense levels of stress and angst surrounding my general home life as we are all in a state of upheaval due to my parents' impending move.

-Traffic coming home from work.

-Realizing that I may or may not have killed my sister's bird by not giving it water. I really don't remember whether or not he had water, but I guess it is my fault since I was the only one home for the last couple of weeks. This stupid bird lived to the ripe old age of 11 (as a zebra finch) and then I go and kill it by not giving it water. I feel great.

-Frustrations in general over the fact that while everyone tries to understand, not many people do completely understand what it is like to be a PK. No, it does not boil down simply to the fact that now my parents get to live in a big, beautiful house.

Like I said, there were a lot more stresses. But I'm actually having a pretty okay day today and I don't want to make it bad by reliving all of the badness of yesterday. In the good news department:

-I came home from work yesterday and bawled for like 15 minutes. Now I know this doesn't sound like a good thing, but sometimes just crying makes everything better. For me, it's almost as if I haven't actually processed the things that are making me upset until I get it all out by crying. Of course, I can't prompt the crying myself, it has to be something totally stupid to bring it on, but it is nice once you can get it out of your system.

-I got an email today from B&N telling me that they shipped my Harry Potter book! I am super excited and plan on scheduling as much time as possible to read it this weekend. I have read a number of articles that say that everything makes sense at the end. This makes me happy as I had horrible visions of Rowling just killing everybody off and leaving the story without any ending whatsoever.

-It may be hard for me to get much reading in this weekend, though, as I have a lot of cool things planned. Friday night and Saturday I am going with Warren to the boy scout camp that he used to work at out on the peninsula. This trip involves a drive by (if not over) the brand new Tacoma Narrows bridge, which looks incredibly cool. (I think that Warren's love of bridges may be starting to rub off on me, although in my defense, I have always found bridges to be pretty cool).

-Since we only have SS and AM service on Sunday, we are going to have a BBQ after church and then go canoeing on the lake! This has been in the works for seriously like a year, and it is finally happening. I am excited.

Spare Change

The change? My parents are moving to San Francisco sometime soon. Ambiguous, I know. But that is the best they can give me. Maybe the middle of September? Apparently when the pastor changes were announced in May or so, that wasn't the end of it. So Monday night (while I was still at home and not down at camp) I got a call from my mom saying that they were in Olympia and had decided to come home for the night. I should have been tipped off right there, but no. So they came waltzing in at 10 pm, made small talk for awhile, and then told me that they didn't just randomly decide to come home. They wanted to tell me in person that they were going to be moving down to Richmond.

AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry. I just needed to get that out. Now don't get me wrong, I am WAY less upset about this move than the last time we moved, mainly because I was already planning on moving away from my parents in August. But I wasn't planning on MOVING to Spokane, as in to live there solidly for the next 2 years. I was planning to live there for the school months and then come back home (home being Seattle) for the breaks. But now what do I do? Where is my home? Is my home where my parents are? I'm not so sure. And if my home isn't where my parents are, and home is truly Seattle, what will I do in terms of (a) Seeing my parents and (b) Living in Seattle over the breaks??? Like I said, it really is not THAT complicated but it is frustrating, especially since this came falling out of the clear blue sky. I really feel bad for my mom, though. I am moving to Spokane, and she will move away and leave Lindsey and Alex in Seattle to go to UW. Hopefully she can find some way to entertain herself. So yah, if you have a spare prayer, you can think of our family. Wanna know the rest?

Bro. Bob and Sis. Cheryl to Portland
Bro. Bill and Sis. Lori to Medford
My dad and mom to Richmond/San Fran
Bro. Larry and Sis. Rachel to Seattle

Yay! What fun.

Sicko...

...that's what I was for the past couple of days. How wonderful is it that we all go to camp meeting and share with each other? Stories, friendships, activities, joys, prayer meetings, kitchenette parties... and that horrible thing that seems to crop up every year, the infamous upset stomach.

Tuesday night, I was hanging out with Zach and Mandy and despite the fact that it was nearing 11:30, we decided that we needed to do a Taco Bell run. So I ended up eating Taco Bell at about midnight. The next morning when I woke up, I didn't feel the best, but I assumed it was cause I had eaten crap food so late at night. Sadly, things continued to get worse and worse. The worst part of this is that I HAD to drive home that afternoon (this was on the 4th of July) cause I was supposed to have a BBQ at Warren's and then go to work on Thursday and Friday. Well, the drive went alright, thankfully. When I got home I took a quick nap hoping to make myself feel better. No can do... when I woke up I promptly regurgitated and then felt okay for awhile. I decided to go to Warren's house cause I thought that was the end of it. Suffice it to say, I was only there about an hour and a half and that was with me barfing there once too. So I came home, laid on my bed in my hot hot HOT bedroom and proceeded to be miserable. To make matters worse, it was the 4th of July and Warren and I were gonna go see really cool fireworks, but for obvious reasons, I had to bail. And then I had to lay there being hot and feeling miserable and having my already sporadic sleep constantly interrupted by the loud pop of fireworks. To make matters worse, I had to take the day off yesterday cause I still wasn't feeling good, so the already very limited amount of time that I was going to be able to work was made that much smaller.

I don't even know where I caught it since when I left, I hadn't heard of any one else being sick. But when I got home and started checking bebo, it turns out that a couple of other people who were there were having similar symptoms. Such is life. I'm just glad that:

A: I am feeling IMMENSELY better today

B: I didn't have to do the drive home from Portland/puke every hour thing

C: I could be sick in the comfort of my own house, as opposed to my cabin

More happy news! Tonight is Warren's birthday party and we are going to see Transformers. I also bought tickets for the midnight showing of HP5 yesterday. I know, I am a HUGE dork, but what can I say. Also, I get to go back down to Portland tomorrow (even if it is only for the day) and I am bringing Warren with me. I probably won't post again until after camp, but we will see. And finally, my super cool shirt came in the mail while I was gone:

Major catch up time!

Does anyone know what time it is? That's right folks, I have once again hit critical mass in terms of the amount of things that I want to post. In order to save me from going batty by typing long posts about events that have already passed, I am going to make a list!

1. Memorial Day Weekend: So the best part of my Memorial Day Weekend was when Warren and I went to Roosevelt's band camp on Whidbey Island. We went across the Deception Pass Bridge (which I love) and then we drove down the island to Fort Casey and basically stopped and looked at whatever we thought was cool. At Fort Casey we walked around and stalked some little bunny rabbits. We also faced our fears and went into the bunkers for about, oh, 5 minutes before we ran away. And then we left. We visited them at Camp Casey for *maybe* 45 minutes because they were kinda late getting there. The next best part of my Memorial Day Weekend was when I went and saw Pirates 3. I LOVED it! Especially the part where they had to meet on the little sand bar in the middle of the ocean and the guitar was rocking out in the background. Yah, good times.

2. Graduations!: If you haven't figured it out by now, I graduated from college. I actually had two graduation ceremonies to go to, one for the Psychology Department and then the actual ceremony in Husky Stadium. The Psych one was on Monday night of finals week so I ended up "graduating" before I was actually done with all of my finals. Then Saturday was the big to do. Unfortunately, it rained the entire time and Husky Stadium isn't covered. Basically, it felt like I was sitting in the stadium for a football game in October instead of for a graduation in June. And then the commencement speaker (Rep. Norm Dicks) was the WORST commencement speaker ever. He started out innocently enough by belittling the Cougs a little bit, but then things went down hill from there. He started talking about how HE had worked with all of these ex-governors and senators and mayors and all of the commissions that HE had been on and all of the bills that HE had passed and all of the good that HE had done. It basically was a very conceited list of all the ways in which he thought he was cool. And he kept saying that we needed to stop global warming and clean up Puget Sound (complete with a very funny quote about seeing a video of a "majestic Lingcod gasping for breath on the bottom of Puget Sound"). This is all well and good, but the speech had nothing to do with the graduates. He didn't even go as far as to say that we should be inspired by his example, which I think was his overall point. But then things got even more interesting when the people in the stands (not the graduates) started clapping and stomping to try and say, "Hey, you're done. We got your point, now sit down." To make matters worse, the Seattle Times has referenced the speech and the ceremony a couple of times and they haven't done a good job of explaining how truly awful the speech was. To every single person who was there, there is no room for his speech to be construed as anything even half-way decent. But due to the Times' ineptness in reporting the event, we now have people writing letters to the editor saying how much better the WSU students were because they sat quietly in the hot sun through Gov. Gregoire's speech at their graduation. Give me a break! This is ridiculous and people need to know when to stop.

3. Which brings me to the best graduation gift EVER! After my graduation I was hanging out with Warren and his parents are like, "We have something for you!" They handed me a bottle opener with the WSU logo on it and I was like, "Uhh thanks guys." But then they made it play... and it played Tequila and then said "Go Huskies!" And I was like, "?!??!?!" cause Tequila was made into a popular football song by UW and this was just blasphemy. Come to find out, they actually bought two bottle openers (One UW and One WSU) and then switched the little chip inside. They said it's cause I might be a Cougar on the outside, but I'll always be a Husky on the inside. Awwwwww...! =)

4. Saturday Alex and I had our family graduation party and a bunch of family from out of town came to help us celebrate. This upcoming Tuesday is Alex's graduation from high school, so the grandparents (from both sides) are staying from last Saturday until this Tuesday. This means that they are at our house. And this means that I don't have a bedroom anymore. I'm dealing with it, but it is rather stressful. Especially since last week I decided to start going through all of the papers/notes/books from college that I had been too hesitant to throw away. Only once my room had turned into a disaster zone did I find out that my grandparents would need to stay with us after all, and that I had approximately 1.5 days to put it back together again... grrr!

5. And last but not least, I am going to Portland tonight to Justin and Erin's wedding! I am currently at work, but I finished all of my work and my boss doesn't have any work for me and the phone isn't even ringing. But not only am I excited for Portland, but I am going to go to Ikea on the way home to buy things for my apartment!

6. Okay, I guess THIS is the last thing. Last Monday and Tuesday my mom and dad and I went over to Spokane to do some apartment hunting. We found some likely looking prospects, but I can't sign a lease until mid-July and I am still waiting for my financial aid letter. So we will see. Watch this space.

The sounds of my childhood

So I have been temporarily relocated to my sister's bedroom in the basement because we have various sets of relatives here due to graduation festivities (both mine and my brother's). Anyhow, last night I feel asleep to the sound of two things that I haven't heard in at LEAST 5 years: the sound of the dryer and the sound of our cat purring next to me. I know this sounds odd, but I hadn't realized how often I feel asleep to those sounds as a kid until last night when I heard them again. Being upstairs in this house, I am far from the dryer and Goldie isn't allowed up there, so I never hear them anymore. It was just sort of an odd experience.

My secret weapon

I know that Linda has written about Bloglines before, but I just had to put in my two cents. I heard about this about a year ago, but I never went to the "effort" of setting up an account. After getting tired of repeatedly checking back on blogs that never seemed to be updated (yes, that would be YOU guys!), I decided that it was time to pull out the big guns. I got a Bloglines account, and although I have only had it for a couple days, it is amazing. I love that I know instantly when something new has been posted. Similarly, I don't have to waste time going to each blog that I read to see if anything has been updated. The only down side (as I see it) is that you aren't told when new comments have been posted, so I will have to check back on those occasionally. Also, it couldn't find the feed for Mindy or Bryan's blogs, so I apologize if I accidentally miss one of your posts since I am stuck checking yours manually. Anyhow... just thought I would share the good news with you all.

And as if you haven't noticed... my blogging rate has increased exponentially over the past couple of days. This is due mainly to the fact that I am done with classes for the summer, so I actually have time to get caught up with stuff. I don't promise to keep this rate up (as I AM going to do other things this summer than just sit in front of my computer!), but I will try my best to post things as they happen, instead of a month after the fact like with Lisa and Josh's wedding.

I can hardly wait!

Although I'm not sure what I will do with myself once the lovely and delightful Harry Potter world comes to an end. I just hope that J.K. Rowling isn't too mean in who she ends up killing off and is able to wrap up the books with a little bit of hope still intact. Cause after all, that is what I think the series is all about. All of these bad things happen, but there is still a bit of hope and because of that they are able to keep on going. Anyhow, I'm not here to argue or debate or speculate, I'm just here to say that I preordered this last night!!!

(It's the cover art from the front AND the back of the book, don't get all confused now)

So the question remains, anyone else as excited as I am for this book? Or for the 5th movie? Which apparently is now being released on July 11th instead of July 13th (which would have been Friday the 13th). Does this mean that it is opening ALL day on July 11th; so that a midnight showing would actually take place Tuesday night, July 10th? Or is it opening the evening of July 11th? I can't find this information anywhere and it is making me sad. Oh well, no matter when it officially opens, I am SOOO there for the 1st showing!

Picc Retreat 2007

In the middle of May the piccolo section went to Grayland, WA for a retreat of sorts. This was the 3rd year doing it, and it was great fun. These pictures pretty much speak for themselves, so I will give them some captions and let them do the rest. Oh yah, and the website of the place we stayed (like I promised): http://www.wildrosehideaway.webtrellis.net/

The house that we stayed in:

We got there way early and didn't have the food, so we ventured back to the mall at Aberdeen where I got this nifty bottle of Coke from Mexico! (Yes, the writing was in Spanish):

Apparently Tom Cruise came to this mall on May 9, 2006:

We went to the pet store before we went back. There was nothing to do at this mall, think the old Mall 205 in Portland, or even worse, Eastport Plaza (which no longer even exists):

I want to live on this street:

This piece of paper made our weekend more fun:

We watched a lot of TV, specifically, "What Not to Wear" (Now don't let the irony of this picture escape you!):
And we ate a lot of good food:

The messes were immense... this was only the beginning. It was almost more than I could deal with!:

Yes, we even went to the beach. The weather was not the best, but it wasn't horrible:

Some picturesque little birds:

I had to leave my mark, which was promptly washed away by the waves:

And being good marching band devotees, we had to watch Drumline:

The true highlight of the weekend was watching Change of Habit with Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore. It's basically about this nun who falls in love with Elvis who plays.... a doctor??!!?? It is a truly amazing film and something that you should watch when you are in a silly mood and feel like making fun of something! Having said that, I am all blogged out for tonight. I will post some more later. I do feel better, though, having posted the two important events that I had promised to write about.

It's your lucky day!

I finally have time to post all of the pictures that I have been hoarding! Bear with me, this could take awhile. First off: Lisa's wedding and Portland in general since Warren got home awhile back and was able to give me the pictures off of his computer. I'm sorry that some of these are a bit blurry, you know how it is trying to take pictures at a wedding, let alone inside the Portland sanctuary!

Of course you guys remember the picture at the Christmas tree farm from when we got lost going to the rehearsal dinner:

The church: Waiting:
The ceremony:
The newlyweds and me:
Old campmeeting roomies...too bad Lisa won't want to stay with us anymore ;):
Speeches and such, I think this is just too cute:
Let them eat cake! And drink chocolate milk and neon colored punch:
And then we had to go on a little Portland tour:

Herbert even made an appearance:

I stole Warren's camera for a while to take some pictures. Here are the park blocks in downtown Portland:

Warren, meanwhile, was busy taking pictures of angles and bridges and other architectural-type things:

And that's it folks. At least that's all the pictures that I am going to post from Josh and Lisa's wedding. Ya ready for more? Cause I got more pictures. Bring on the next post!

Revelations

This morning I had two revelations. Seeing as how they were slightly entertaining, I thought that I would share them with you.

Revelation #1: It is rather ironic how much pain we are willing to go through to make ourselves attractive

As I get ready to go away to school, I have been doing alot of "personal maintenance". I went to the doctor yesterday to get two immunizations that I need to be up to date on for nursing school (Hep A and Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis, in case you were wondering) and last week I had a Tb test done. All of these things involve needles and minor amounts of pain. Understandable. Today I went to the dentist to have a regular cleaning, which also involves minor amounts of pain. (Especially if you get the hygienist that I got who always sprays you in the face and splashes you and then picks at things that didn't hurt before he started poking them with a metal spike but then hurt afterwards.) Anyhow, I had time to ponder the idea of enduring pain for beauty and I started creating a list of things that we are willing to endure in the name of beauty. Just a few of the things that I came up with:

-Manicures & Pedicures (don't let anyone ever tell you that these are completely pain free!)
-Waxing of various and sundry forms
-Tanning (which always involves the possibility of sunburn and skin cancer)
-Wearing high heels (mmm yah, enough said)
-Braces for nice straight teeth
-Icky tooth whitening programs for nice white teeth

And then there is the basic up-keep such as:
-Going to the dentist so that your teeth don't rot out of your head (definitely NOT attractive)
-Going to the doctor so that you can get you immunizations so that you don't get Hepatitis B and turn yellow
-Tough workouts and diets to maintain the perfect body type

Believe me, I'm not saying that the costs outweigh the benefits for these things. I was just wondering when our society as a whole become so masochistic. Another thing to mention here, many of the things on my list apply only to the female gender... how in the world is this fair?!? Or maybe I'm just forgetting about the ones applicable to males cause I'm not one... any males (or females for that matter) have some input?

Revelation #2: Apparently it is perfectly normal to go in to Starbucks with a list of drink orders a mile long and expect them to fill all of them

So after said dentist appointment, I went to Starbucks. My classes are all over now (my last final was yesterday) and from here on out for the rest of the summer I have rejoined the ranks of the work-a-day world. I thought that I would start things out right by going to Starbucks before I headed to work. When I got there, there was not only one but TWO ladies who had a whole list of drink orders and each had like 20 drinks on them. One lady's total came to $93.70!!! I can't even fathom spending that much at Starbucks. I like coffee, but it would probably take me a good half a year to spend that much at Starbucks. But apparently it is a normal phenomenon to take a whole list of drink orders for the office and head down to Starbucks. I guess I have a lot to learn about the "real" world.

*sigh*

My life is complicated. I am frustrated, confused, and upset... but I know it will all get better if I get a good night's sleep. Hopefully we can return to our regularly broad-casted Melina tomorrow, complete with updates about what I have been keeping myself busy with lately. Watch this space!!

P.S. I picked up my graduation apparel today! And now 2 of my 4 classes are officially done for the quarter! And it's only 8 days until I graduate! I guess when I remember all this, I'm not quite as upset anymore.

Updates on my life!

The major and most exciting news of the week thus far is that I have caught my third cold in 3 weeks. This is getting a bit old. How in the world am I supposed to finish up all of my stuff and be able to graduate when I keep getting sick? Hopefully this will be the last one, otherwise I just may have to go crazy. Thankfully, today I can finally trick myself into feeling like I am somewhat normal by taking lots of cold medicine. The downside? Other than the obvious one of having been sick for three weeks straight... I also haven't been running in 3 weeks cause I just don't have the energy. This makes me sad.

The other recent development is that my car is in the shop, which is annoying, but I will spare you the details. So, I have been driving our old-school mini-van. Yah, I definitely feel like a cool kid pulling into the parking lot. Before this, I seriously don't think that I had driven the van once since I got my car. Oh well... Jason comes home to me tonight and he will be that much more prepared to drive me safely over Snoqualmie Pass multiple times next year on my way to and from Spokane.

As for picc retreat, I have pictures. But I am not writing this from my computer, so I can't post them now. Hopefully tonight?!?

Hey Ya'll!!

I'm outta here for the weekend. Off to the beach with some of my lovely fellow piccolos. Want to see where I will be? Too bad... I'll have to post the link once I am no longer there so that someone weird doesn't come stalk us! I just finished the term paper for my Social Problems class, which I am pretty proud of. Considering all of the other homework/quizzes/papers/presentations that I have had due in the last two weeks, along with being sick, I am ready for a break. I'll be back later! =)

Drumroll please... (Sorry, it's longish)

I heard back from WSU this week. The verdict is in... I am now officially a Husky-Cougar hybrid!

That's right folks, I was accepted to Washington State University's Intercollegiate College of Nursing as a Bachelor of Science in Nursing candidate. Whew... that's a mouthful. I am very happy and excited to have a plan for next year, but I don't think that it has fully hit me quite yet. Which may be a good thing, considering that I have SOOOOOOOOO many things to think about now. Not the least of which is a move to Spokane sometime in August and all of the things that that will involve. My parents and I are planning on taking a quick 2-day trip to Spokane sometime in early June to go apartment hunting. And while I am ecstatic about all of this, there is a little, tiny portion of myself wondering what in the world I have gotten myself into. I think that same part of myself is also asking how I'm gonna deal with the fact that I am now an official Cougar. They are supposed to be our arch-rivals, after all. My grandpa will be happy. He went to WSU back in the 40's(?) and although he never says it, I think that he was a little disappointed that I went to UW instead. I've pretty much decided that to fully enjoy my experience at WSU, I will embrace being a Cougar as long as it doesn't get in the way of my being a Husky. I will always be a Husky first and foremost. Thus, come Apple Cup, I will definitely be wearing purple and gold!

Anyway... on to the details. I will be leaving sometime in the middle of August for orientation and then classes start on August 20th. Now, although I am actually a WSU student, I will NOT be going to Pullman. **Repeat** I will NOT be going to Pullman. Some of you may not care. But for the people who are at all familiar with Pullman, this is something that is of utmost important for me to emphasize. The school is in Spokane, so that is where I will be. There are many unanswered questions about this still, the major one being where I will go to church. Honestly, I have no idea. I may just be listening to Portland's Sunday morning service online for a while. This is pretty much where I just have to stop thinking with my mind and using my human processing because I realized long ago that it is beyond my comprehension to fully understand what the Lord is ever really doing. I have seen His hand in every aspect of things leading up to this decision, and that gives me peace. I could write out the list, but maybe I'll just save that for a later date. Anyhow, I am excited.

Having a plan for next year also makes it way easier to be excited about my upcoming graduation from UW... in just 23 days! Lately I have been working on my homework (of which I still have quite a bit), planning things for graduation, and looking into things for next year, all while trying to enjoy my last quarter ever at UW. It's only once you no longer have something that you truly get sentimental, so I am trying to anticipate that and live my life accordingly so as to not miss anything or take anything for granted. Anyhow, I am afraid that I am going to start getting too introspective or something, which was not my goal at all, so I'll end this here. I just wanted to share the good news with all of the faithful readers of my blog.

How cool is YOUR school?

My school is way cool! Check this out. You should also look at the sneak preview video by clicking on the link in the box on the left hand side. I am sad to say, though, that I wasn't able to witness the battle last week since it was during a passing time when I had an 1.5 hour class and therefore was stuck in Kane hall. *Sigh* I still think it's a way cool idea, though...

Remember how busy my week was going to be?

Well, it just got a little worse. I was doing alright with keeping up with all of my homework, but I had felt pretty draggy the entire week. I just wrote it off as allergies. This morning, I determined that it was officially NOT just allergies... I have a pretty bad cold as well of all this other junk going on this week. My throat HURTS, but my mom doesn't think it looks like Strep, so that means that there is nothing they can do for it... I'm pretty much stuck popping ibuprofen. My head is fairly congested and I have the muscle/body aches. Great. How am I supposed to get my homework done now? Due to all of this (I hope!), I also have a swollen lymph node on the side of my neck that is bigger than I have ever had. So yah, if you can spare a prayer for me, I would really appreciate it!

Busy oh so busy!

So how many O.C. Supertones fans do we have out there who know that my title is actually a line from one of their songs?

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a little while. My life is crazy. As always. Why am I surprised by this?

This week I have a paper due, a 20 minute PowerPoint presentation to prepare and present, a discussion to lead (which requires me to read 3, 15 page packets of information that are all dryer than a bone!), my stats homework, a micro-bio quiz, a stats quiz, and last but not least, my sociology reading, which is probably an additional 100 pages. So yah, bare with me. I am also going to Yakima special meetings tomorrow, which is a full day endeavor because of where Yakima is located. I'm also in the process of getting my graduation announcements all figured out, printed, and mailed, which is slightly time consuming as well. There was a Husky baseball game last night that was played at Safeco field and it lasted 3.5 hours, so I didn't leave Safeco until 11.15 and then didn't get home until 12ish. And then this morning I got up and went to Windermere Cup and didn't get home from that until about 3.30. Now I am trying to not lose all momentum, but my brain seriously won't engage at all. Driving to the gas station and Target just about used up all of my focusing abilities, which is really bad. While all of these things have been fun, I am TIRED! I have been going full steam ahead for a little too long now. I need a break.

A little about the wedding last weekend... it was fabulous! I had a most excellent time the entire weekend. I would put up details complete with pictures, but most of the pictures I want to post were taken on Warren's camera and I didn't get a chance to get them before I came back to Seattle. So as soon as Warren gets back from China in 3 weeks, I will post some pictures and explain things then. But for now, I'll give you a brief overview. I went down Friday afternoon, got a Mani/Pedi with Lisa and Natalie and then did the rehearsal that night. The rehearsal dinner was held at this cute restaurant out in Oregon City by the Clackamas River, so it definitely felt like the country. Warren and I were already going to be late because I was waiting for him to get into town. But then we went WAY too far down this nice country road. It was such a nice, summer-esque night and it felt really good to just drive down the road with the windows rolled down, enjoying the smells of being in the country. Once we realized we had passed the road we wanted, we turned around at a Christmas tree farm, which just about made my day. I do have this picture, though (and yes, Warren is a little hunched, he doesn't always look quite like that!):

Saturday was the wedding and it was a full day. We did pictures before, which was nice, but by the time the wedding and reception were over, I was tired. An interesting story about pictures, Lisa and Josh wanted to do them at Reed College. Now Reed is a VERY liberal arts school, so yah, keep that in mind. We had just gotten there and realized we couldn't go to the place they had wanted to because there was a paint ball war going on. So while we were trying to figure out where to take pictures, I see this group of people come around the corner. The guy in front stopped and he shouted, "It's a wedding!" Okay? And then the people behind him start running and screaming and they are coming straight toward us. And they are all blue. And they are all naked. And there were like 50 of them, guys and girls. It was INSANE! I could have lived my entire life without ever having experienced that! While I was doing this, Warren and my grandpa started talking and somehow one thing led to another and my grandpa ended up giving Warren a full on tour of the Tabernacle. Like in the Attic. When Warren told me, I was like, "I have never even been in the attic!" Oh well, I was glad he found an interesting way to entertain himself while I was being subjected to the blue people. Anyway, after the wedding and reception were cleaned up, Warren wanted to go actually see some of Portland, so we went downtown and just walked around some. It was a BEAUTIFUL spring day with clear blue skies and sunshine, so that was good times. And then Sunday we got up early, had breakfast at Elmer's (!) and then went our separate ways. Like I said, it was a most excellent time and it gave me a little bit of a vacation, but it made it really hard to come back last week and get into the swing of things. Plus senioritis is majorly kicking in. A lot of my friends who attend schools that started in August are graduating this weekend and next weekend, but I'm still expected to be going strong. Oh well... 1 more month! I can do it.

Anyway, that is it for now. I really need to do some homework. If you guys don't hear from me for a week or so, now you know why. Oh yah, and as of today, I am instating a new policy. If you haven't posted to your blog in the last month, you are no longer on my "stalker" list. Consider yourselves warned!

I want you to know that I am neglecting studying for my soc midterm to write this blog!

You guys seem rather interested in how my weekend went which I really do appreciate, it is nice to know that someone cares. So without further ado, here are the details.

I left for Spokane at about 230 or so Friday afternoon. It just so happened that Warren's mom was going over there to visit him last weekend, so she offered me a ride. It was nice to not have to pay for gas, and the drive was not awkward at all. Warren's mom has been the band booster at Roosevelt ever since Warren was a freshman in high school, so she is very fun to talk to about marching band. And as you guys all know, I am willing to talk about marching band for extended periods of time. We got there about 730 or so and went to dinner at this little mom-and-pop type diner. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO good! I had a Philly cheese steak hamburger and some onion rings. Yah, terribly good for me, I know. Then Warren took us to Studio and showed us what he had been working on lately. The campus is close to the river, so we took a walk by the river and walked over this cable suspension bridge that goes right over Spokane Falls. (That may not be the correct name, but I don't live there so you can't blame me!) It was incredible! Apparently it is the second biggest waterfall in an urban environment in the world, or something like that. They were so powerful and being on the bridge, you are very close to them, which makes them even more awesome. I am aware that I keep using "they" and "them". But that's because it was more like a series of waterfalls, although I am not the expert on this. Anyhow, by this time it was like 10 so we went back to Warren's apartment and they watched The Muppet Show while I promptly fell asleep. Yes, I am a party pooper. And yes, The Muppet Show was a recurring theme throughout the weekend. Over the course of watching like 10 episodes, I came to the realization that the show wasn't made for kids. Hmmm... no wonder I never liked them when I was a kid!

Okay, so Saturday started bright and early with Warren knocking on my door at 8 so that we could go jogging. Jogging is always a nice start to the day, but 8 on a Saturday? Come on Warren! He doesn't like to waste any daylight, which is a commendable trait. Then we came back, showered, had some breakfast, did homework, watched TV, Warren packed up some of his stuff to send back with his mom, and just sorta chilled until my interview at 145. I got ready and we left around 1 cause I didn't want to be late. I didn't realize how "far" it would be from Warren's apartment, so it was probably good that we left at that time. I got there at 130 (when I was supposed to be there) and I just chilled for 15 minutes or so. They had a little group of chairs set up where they wanted all of the interviewees to sit and hang out together, which was a nice touch. They also had some nursing students there to answer our questions. Every time someone new would be added to the group, they asked them what school they were coming from (this is a normal question for this situation, but I won't get into the details now). Anyhow, I had to tell them that I was a Husky. That went over well... or not. They gave me a pretty good, albeit good natured, ribbing over that. Then it was time for my interview.

There was a panel of three people and me. They told me to pull out an envelope (which contained my questions for the interview), they opened it up, and we went from there. I think I was asked 6 questions total. They were along the lines of, "Why do you want to be a nurse?" "How would you deal with a situation where someone wasn't pulling their own weight?" "What do you do to relieve your stress?" (My answer? Go running! Which was part of the reason I had gone that morning) and so on. Then they asked me if there was anything else I wanted to mention, so decided to go ahead and tell them why I had decided to major in Psychology first, in case they were wondering about my not-so-direct path to nursing school. And then it was all over. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes.

*** Oh my goodness! I am going to interrupt myself here! I am listening to musicovery.com and Spice Girls' "Wannabe" just came on. Can we say 6th grade anyone?!?***

Okay, so I have to finish this up since I do still need to do some studying tonight. Warren and I went to Arctic Circle for lunch, which rocked my socks. It was good. We went shopping after that cause apparently that is what happens whenever Warren's mom comes to visit =). You know how it goes when those parents with all the money come to visit their poor college students. Warren really wanted to buy a new shirt and tie, so we went and did that and he was super excited about it. He actually bought two new ties. This makes me happy because I think that too many guys under appreciate how cool it is to be able to pick out awesome ties, so whenever a guy comes to this realization, it makes me happy. Hmmm... after that we went to the grocery store, which consisted of Warren and I tagging after his mom while she bought him groceries. Goodness, you'd think that he hadn't lived on his own for 4 years or something, he was so content to just let her do it all. And then cause my birthday is this Friday, they decided that I needed a birthday cake. So Warren and I went off on a search for Funfetti cake with the appropriate Funfetti frosting. Let's see, Saturday night I actually did some homework, which is good cause I'm not sure when I would have done it if I hadn't done it then. Then Warren and I went and rented/watched The Prestige. We both made it through the first 3/4 of the movie alright, but I'm not sure how much either of us remember about the last 1/4 seeing as how by then it was like 1 in the morning. I should probably watch it again sometime soon.

And then Sunday I came home. So that was my weekend. Overall, I would say that the interview went rather well. I was able to answer all of their questions promptly without hesitating, yet still come up with a solid answer/argument. Thinking back about it, there are probably a couple of things that I could have said a little better, but part of the interview process is showing that you are capable of thinking on your feet, which I feel that I did fairly well. So now I wait. Again. I know the Lord knows what I am supposed to be doing next year. But I will let you guys in on a little secret... I am excited about the possibility of moving to Spokane. I am ready for a new adventure just to see what I am made of and whether or not I could hack things on my own. But a small part of me doesn't want to admit this cause I feel like I will jinx it or something. Which is totally silly cause I know that things don't work that way. We will just have to see what the Lord has planned!

Anyhow, I have a midterm and a quiz tomorrow and will probably be at school from 8 to 8 and will be in classes for most of that time. Then I get to come home, do laundry, pack, and study for another midterm. Friday morning I have a stats midterm bright and early and then I leave for Portland and Lisa's wedding around 12 or so. From there it is just a giant blur of fitting in all of the wedding things that need to be done. And making sure that Warren is occupied, as he is coming to the wedding. As an after thought, my birthday is Friday. Woohoo. I think that my birthday is probably going to pretty much be a non-event this year, which is sad, but I guess I can deal with it. But I really do have to get to studying and this has gotten really long. If you have gotten this far, I commend your achievements!

It's happening again...

I think I may have found something else to be addicted to. This is the most awesome Internet radio streamer that I have EVER come across. You guys should check it out!

www.musicovery.com

And in case you want the directions, here ya go:

"It's an online radio that is amazing! You can click and unclick all the genres you are in the mood for, click on the tempo spectrum to get songs that are only a certain tempo, click on dance mode for only dance songs, decide whether you're in the mood for hits or non-hits or new discovery songs, click on the mood spectrum if you only want songs that are engeretic, clam, dark or positive and you can restrict your songs by year (so if you only want to hear songs from 1985-1999). As you restrict your songs, there's a roadmap that will show you what songs are up next and you can skip songs or move thru your roadmap until you see a song you want to hear.You can also stop any song to buy them on iTunes and the best part is that there are NO COMMERCIALS!"

A door? THE door?

Some of you know about the decisions that I am trying to make for next year. I've also posted enough here that if you are a smart, consistent reader of my blog, you have probably picked up on what is going on. But to get everyone on the same page, here is a quick recap:

Originally, I applied for a master's program which would have allowed me to get my MSN after getting my BA in psychology. (At UW, it's called the MEPN program. Other schools call it by different yet similar names.) Anyhow, I applied two places and didn't get accepted to either one. Okay, I dealt with that. Maybe I'm not meant to be in the MEPN program, but I still really want to do nursing. I then decided to apply to some BSN programs. Out of three, I was denied outright at one, put as #28 on a waiting list at the second, and now I have an interview at the third. On a side note here, all of this rejection is starting to get rather infuriating. I have good grades. I have good extracurriculars. I have good experience what with my volunteering and work experience. I am able to write a decent essay/statement of intent. What gives?

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand... the catch in all of this? The school I have the interview at just happens to be WSU, our very own cross-state rival. Not to mention the fact that it requires a move from Seattle, where I am very active in my church, to a city where there is not even a church of my particular denomination. This isn't to say that I am not willing to do all of this, I am just rather confused at how the Lord is going to work all of this out and what His plans are for me. Anyway, I have the interview in Spokane Saturday, so we will see how that goes. I'm not in for sure, but I am one step closer. I am trying to tell myself that being a Cougar would not be the end of the world, but I'm not sure if I am believing it yet. Apparently this UW/WSU switch happens more often than I thought, though, evidenced by this picture that Warren took for me in the school parking lot:

Whoa boy...

For my Psychology of Music class, I just made an online survey to use as a part of my research project (I would love to have you guys take it if you want to, but I'll need to get you the link). Anyway, UW has this very cool, super user-friendly online publication software that I used to make my survey. While I was signed into my account, though, I ran across this:

http://portfolio.washington.edu/melinw/my-university-community-portfolio-original/index.html

It is an online portfolio that I had to put together my first year of college in my Freshman Interest class. Whoa boy. I'm sorta scared by what I found in there. My writing has improved a LOT, I am over brooding about my move to Seattle, and I am no longer dating Matthew. Honestly, I'm not really sure why he made it in there in the first place. Oh well. I guess it just goes to show that once something is on the Internet, it is always on the Internet. It also makes me sorta fearful about what I will think when I read my old blog postings in say, 10 years.

Anyway, y'all are free to peruse it as you see fit. And if you do, have fun and bear in mind that that was SOOOOOOOO fours years ago! =)

A little too close to home

If you guys haven't heard the news about Virginia Tech yet, then I'm not quite sure where you have been all day. But here is a link in case you want more details: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-main17apr17,0,1599658,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines.

When I heard about this shooting, apparently the worst ever in the history of the US, it hit me really hard. I'm not sure why exactly, I think partly because of the shooting that happened two weeks ago at UW. When that one happened, it got me thinking about how devastating it would be if somebody had just opened fire on the campus, as opposed to the murder-suicide they later determined it to be. I thought about all the people I would worry about and how I wouldn't even feel safe enough to go back to school. And then here, 2 weeks to the day since the shooting at UW, this horrific shooting happens at Virginia Tech. What was even more scary to me was that when this guy first struck, only two people were killed so they assumed it was a domestic violence sort of thing. It wasn't until 2 hours later that he entered the other building and killed and injured so many people. What would have happened if the shooting at UW hadn't been the isolated domestic violence event and the guy had later opened fire in the middle of Red Square once everyone thought the coast was clear? I shutter to think any of these thoughts and, like I said, I think that is why this shooting unnerved me so.

My heart goes out to all of those involved and they are in my prayers.

Aren't we all in college now?

Thus far this quarter I have managed to refrain from saying too much about my classes because I fear that it starts to bore you all after awhile. Suffice it to say, I have been extremely busy with classes, even though it is only the third week of the quarter. For better or for worse, my professors seem to have front-loaded almost all of my classes. Which means that come May when I will REALLY not want to be in school anymore, I won't have as much work. But for right now, I have a lot of work.

For my Psychology of Music class, we have to peer review each other's papers. I was appalled, flabbergasted, and aghast at the quality of the two papers that I reviewed this week. So, for your enjoyment, I have included some of the more interesting (read: hard to understand because the sentences don't even make sense) parts of these two papers. Let me know what you guys think! I am amazed that these people made it to a 400 level college class with writing abilities like this.

Person 1:
Furthermore, if we find a difference between the population of British young adults and American ones, a follow up question will be, "Is the type of musical genre preference as coping strategies among adolescents then dictated by the geographical and cultural popularity of a genre?"

In addition to the fMRI method, an extended survey with the students' parents and guardians shall be conducted to get more information on the family background of the student and possibly other important factors contributing to the subject's musical preference and coping methods.

Person 2:
As a society music is heard from the time one rises with the soothing sounds of an alarm clock, to when one walks down the street with their i-pod, to the background music played in almost every store, cafe, and even office. This analogy of course only holds if we assume that music is that which is defined in a Western cultural sense, but for the purposes of this paper, this is how music will be defined.

There could be many interesting approaches to such a topic, one being that an original full length film be created and have music paired with the sympathetic scenes that would not be of the usual content.

Nevermind the poor sentence structure, what about the lack of basic grammar?!? I know that I have a very distinct writing style and an important part of being able to review is being able to offer advice without trying to completely convert the piece to your style, but Hello?!?! What happens if you can't even understand what has been written. *Frustrations!* I think they thought that if they just threw in a bunch of big words and made their sentences long and complicated, it would make them sound scholarly. Hmmm... I think not.

Look what I found!

Tonight I did a lot of research for my psychology of music class. Since I was sort of in the researching mood, I decided to Google my name... and look what I found!

Apparently there is a hotel with my name on the small Greek island of Santorini! Isn't it pretty?

And then there is the private beach resort in Malaysia that also shares my name! Again, isn't it pretty?

How cool is this room that you can stay in?

Long story short... I think I just determined the two places that I would go on my dream vacation. Yay for having a slightly exotic name!