The other dancing guy

I haven't posted in a long time... I'm sorry... yada yada yada. But, I found this for all ya'll's enjoyment -- how was that for correct grammar?!?! You should check it, he sounds like my kinda guy!! (I apologize in advance for the bad word in the title, sorry... consider yourself warned.)

And just in case you miss it, I thought I should copy and paste this from the website:

Less Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the world so screwed up? Men.
How do we fix it? Women.

Yup... that is all I have to say about that. Enjoy!

That deaf, dumb and blind boy sure plays a mean pinball!

I am noticing a rather disturbing pattern around my house. I turn on music, my dad sticks his head into my room, and he tells me to turn it off. Why? Well it isn't because he disapproves... that is for sure. It is because it is "his" music and I am not allowed to listen to it! I have a list of about 5 or 6 groups that I am no longer "allowed" to listen to because it is the music of his youth, not mine. I think secretly he is flattered that I would like the music that he liked when he was growing up, so he makes fun of me for it. So yes, I will admit that I stole his Chicago CD, but he freaked out when I asked (and got) an Earth, Wind & Fire CD for Christmas. And a couple of months ago, I went to a rock opera/musical thing at UW that my friend was stage managing. I was trying to explain it to my parents, thinking that they would never know what it was. I said that it was written by The Who, as well as something about it being about this boy that grows up in WWII London and the musical follows him throughout his life. That is seriously all it took for my dad to be like, "You went and saw Tommy?!?" and break out into a chorus of "Pinball Wizard". Yah, so basically, I am doomed to share my love of music with my father if it is older than about 1980, and even then, he is familiar with some of that stuff too. I have just resolved myself to the fact that any cool group from the 1960s/1970s, my dad will be right there telling me that I can't listen to it. And don't even get me started on the songs that we play in marching band... he can sing along with most of those too! (Not so cool to have your parents start singing "You Can Call Me Al" at the top of their lungs along with your marching band CD!) But I don't really mind, I think it is sort of fun... he just doesn't like it when I try to sing with his Chicago CD!

P.S. Tommy is AWESOME! You should see it if you ever get the chance. A rock band on stage playing all of the music for a musical, you can't get much better than that! It combines two of my great loves... =)

Peggy Sue...

is systematically carrying all of her food from the little food cup on the second floor of her cage down to the bottom of her cage and hiding it in her little house. I am not sure why, since the only one with access to the food is her, but I guess she wants it to be safe. It is cracking me up... there are about 20 food pellets buried in the sawdust now and this has been going on for like 3 days. Silly Peggy Sue.

Introductions

Note how Tucker appears to have only a head! He isn't very tall, so that is all that he could get on the table to look at Peggy Sue.

The end is near!

For me, this definitely is NOT a bad thing! Tomorrow is my last day of classes, finals next week... and then I am free for the whole summer! *And there was great rejoicing because I have no more homework to do and I can do other fun things, like posting to my blog whenever I feel like it!*

In other exciting news, Peggy Sue comes home tomorrow. Don't know who Peggy Sue is? Maybe you should read my blog more often =)

And I learned my life lesson #68 today: Don't wear flip-flops if they are forecasting rain and you know that you have to walk across red square. Red square = big square/plaza thing on campus made of, what else, red brick. But they designed it special so that it would be slick when wet so that they could knock down all of the protestors if they got out of hand (No kidding... it was designed in the 60s with all of that college demonstrating going down everywhere). Anyway, I learned the hard way that flip-flops and wet, slippery red brick do not mix very well. It is bad enough walking across it when you have tennis shoes with traction, shoes with no traction are next to impossible. *Sigh* If the stupid muggy weather would go away, then I wouldn't have to worry about wanting to wear flip-flops even though it is raining. Muggy weather is the bane of my existence.

X3

My sibs, my almost sib, and I went to see X3 tonight. I'm just gonna say this... I really liked it. A lot. I kept reading reviews that said it was just a bunch of mumbo jumbo thrown together and it wasn't that deep and the characters weren't that good and blah blah blah. Well, maybe I am just the naive public, but I really enjoyed it. And in my book... by the time you get around to the third movie in a series, you should know the characters well enough that character development is not high on your priority list. It should be sort of like putting on an old sweat shirt... you know what to expect and you are pleased to find out that it still meets your expectations. Jean Grey sort of looked like one of those girls that could be in a horror movie, though.... which was a little frightening, but I managed somehow. And Angel, yah, he should have had a bigger part cause he was incredibly nice to look at. Even better, I am sure that he has a great personality... rescuing his dad like that and all!! =)

Of GREAT annoyance, some idiot brought their kid to the movie. And when I say kid, I mean infant, as in 3 or 4 months old. They seemed to cry the entire movie. And the stupid parent wouldn't even take them out for awhile there. It sucked. Apparently the term "babysitter" is not in their vocabulary...

And did any of you guys who have seen it stay through the credits? Can we say "fourth movie"?? Hehehe... =)

The Science Guy

As I was sitting in O. Chem today and feeling very grateful that it seems that I finally have a grasp on the class... I was wondering. Wondering whatever happened to Bill Nye the Science Guy. Suspecting that if HE had taught me O. Chem, I would have learned it much faster. He was so cool, and he was from Seattle too which makes him doubly awesome. So where did he go? I miss Bill Nye...

Where is the ice cream truck when you need it?

Tonight I was craving one of those strawberry shortcake popsicle things. You know the kind with the strawberry ice cream on the inside and the little crumbly things on the outside? My mom calls them captain crunch bars, but I am not sure if that is the real official name. It was arranged with my brother that when it was quitting time down at yonder Safeway, he would buy some and bring them home. And guess what... NO STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE BARS!!! So I didn't get my ice cream. The end.

But I did get an 83% on my O. Chem test!!!!! Great jumping up and down and much rejoicing occurred. I wanted to do a cartwheel, jump into drumheller, scream and run around... but I didn't, I went to anatomy instead. I am very excited, especially since the class average was 67%.

And just for the record... if somebody were to find me strawberry shortcake bars and bring them to me, I would probably love them forever.

Life lesson 67 (Don't have a 68, though, sorry!)

If you are going to try and be healthy and eat fruit in your lunch, make sure you eat it. And if for some reason you don't eat this fruit at school and the aforementioned fruit is a banana... under NO circumstances should you put it in the outside pocket of your bag, forget it is there, and then let your bag lose balance, thereby squishing the banana underneath your gigantic microbiology book. Makes for fun times... but it will make your room smell good like bananas!

Where IS he?!?!

So I know that I am going to get a lot of flack for this post, but I just have to ask the audience at large, why are all the cute/nice ones already taken? Does that mean I am going to get left with a ugly/mean one? Where is my perfect dimple guy that I posted about earlier? Huh??

On the plus side, I got checked out by a cute paramedic the other day. That doesn't happen too often. Okay, girly ranting done now, I promise! Scout's honor!

Same ol' same ol'

School... life... work... church... blah blah blah.

Yes, I am still alive. I even have things that I want to post, but I was an idiot and took too many classes this quarter. *Sigh* Next spring will be really easy though, what goes around comes around I guess. Catch ya in a month!

Here is a picture of Peggy Sue for you guys to enjoy while I am busy surviving this quarter!

I want you all to take careful note of just how CUTE she is!!

Makes ya think

Why is it that "those people" are more concerned with the rights of laboratory animals than those of unborn fetuses? Today in the UW newspaper, they had an article highlighting the groups that protest animal cruelty in labs right along with an article saying how we should work to uphold Roe vs. Wade. Now I'm down with humane treatment of animals, but ... What kind of junk is this?!!?!??!?! Where people are more concerned about whether a lab animal is going to die than that we are actively killing humans? Fetuses grow up to be humans, but monkeys just grow up to be monkeys... I've never seen a monkey grow up to be a human... oh wait, so THAT is what they were trying to teach me in school. Hmmmm....

My face...

... is really quite red. I fear that I may look sort of like a lobster, but I have seen worse cases (not on me, mind you... ;) It doesn't hurt too bad, but you ask me in the morning whether or not I still feel that way. I wanted sun, I guess I found it.

It was sunny and warm today, not for the first time, but it was the first time that it was sunny and warm that I could actually take advantage of it. And take advantage of it I did. I went to the spring game (yes, more Husky football and guess what, more HMB... but I will spare you the details, except to say that I really do love Isaiah Stanback). And then I came home and washed my car and cleaned my car and vacuumed my car... she is looking absolutely beautiful now! (Anybody want to go for a ride?) And it was sunny and warm and the sky was that beautiful shade of blue with a few white puffy clouds and the grass was green and lush and soft underneath my bare feet. *ahem* Got a little carried away there, for a moment I thought I was writing a descriptive essay or something. And then we had BBQ for dinner. And now my window is open, letting in the slight breeze and the night sounds. Ah, days like this bring back so many good memories. I love night time, but there is nothing I love more than a good summer's night. Its getting there, but no, April is not quite summer, I know.

When will enough be enough?!?!

Why can my professor write a midterm that turns out a class average of ..... wait.....get this.....

42%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know of no other job where an overall success rate of less than half would be acceptable. And, no, this is not due to some major failing on our part's as students, I mean, it CAN'T be when the average is 42! I just don't get where the professors come off thinking that they can not teach us anything and get away with it. Fortunately for me, I was above the average, but I didn't do so hot either. I've been to every class, I read all the chapters, I did the homework and practice problems, I took diligent notes, I studied hard and reread all of my notes multiple times. And all to no avail, apparently. That, to me, is the grind, if you work, you should be able to have something to show for that work.

And why can't they make shortsleeve shirts with sleeves in them? You ever try shopping for a shortsleeve sweater that is appropriate to wear to church during the summer?? Yah, it's not fun. And why does it matter anyways? Does anybody REALLY find my armpits that enticing? I don't think so....

Oh, go palpate yourself!

I imagine that it must be time for a new post. I have been stressed out beyond belief, and unfortunately, I will probably continue to be so until this quarter is over. You already know why, but I am giving fair warning that I may not post as often as I did during the last two quarters.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!

For tonight, I do have something to post. I have an anatomy test tomorrow, so I am dutifully studying away. We have covered 350 pages in three weeks. Talk about a marathon race through almost all of the skeletal and muscular systems, not to mention a couple of joints thrown in there for good measure. Anyways, so I am reading along in my book and it will say something to the affect of, "If you touch just in front of your ear, you are touching your temporal bone." Except they don't say "touch", they say "palpate". And they don't say "in front of", they say "ventral to the ear." This is all well and good, as long as it is on my head or my arm or something, but then they say "The tuberosity can be palpated by sitting on your fingers." And I go "Whoa!!" (There are much worse examples of where they tell you to palpate, but I will spare you). Not to mention the fact that to me "palpate" already sounds a little bit odd... maybe an insult? How would you like it if someone said, "Oh, go palpate yourself!" Yah, sounds sorta mean to me. Anyways, that is all that is new and exciting in my life. Palpation. Yay.

On a side note, I really like my professor. First off, her name is Cat and anybody named Cat is cool. Secondly, she says things that everybody else is too worried about to say. Example: In our last powerpoint when we were discussing the muscles of the abdomen, she stole a picture of an Abercrombie&Fitch model and pointed out his muscles on her slide. But she was telling us where she got the picture and she said that these nearly naked models led to confusing advertising. And she said, I walk past the store and see these pictures and I am like, "What am I supposed to buy?!?!?" It was the best quote ever cause it is so true. Not to mention that it raises the question of wether or not you can go to Abercrombie&Fitch and come out with a nearly naked model as your purchase. Maybe I should go check it out...JUST KIDDING!!!!!

Is this really what it comes down to?

I have yet to post anything about school this quarter, even though I'm in the third week already. Suffice it to say, I have gone completely insane and am taking 4 classes and 17 credits. Doesn't sound too bad, until you stop to think that those classes consist of microbiology, anatomy, organic chemistry (with a lab) and a psychology lab (complete with rats!). Unfortunately, everybody that I speak with is quickly able to grasp that it is insane to be taking all of these biological sciences... why I couldn't figure that out when I was registering is beyond me. Never even crossed my mind.

But, I really did have a point to posting. I just wanted to share with you the warning that is in my organic chemistry lab manual for my lab today:

Safety Note: Alkyl halides are toxic. Some alkyl bromides are suspected carcinogens. Wear gloves and avoid skin contact. Add alkyl halides to the test tubes in a fume hood and do not breathe alkyl halide vapors.

So for all of my hard efforts... I am rewarded with the possibility of getting cancer from my chemistry class. Great.

Why oh why?

Why is it that only little old ladies ever comment on my dimples and tell me that they are cute? Why can't some amazingly hot, wonderfully funny and incredibly intelligent guy come up and say, "You have really nice dimples. They make you look like a hobbit and I think that is terribly cute." If he did, I would know that I had found the right guy =)

London

Warning: This is long. I am sorry, that is the only way I could not leave anything out. I have inserted pretty pictures to make the reading less tedious, but do not say that you were not fairly warned!

We left for London Thursday morning, the 16th. (In case you didn't know, "we" was Jessi, Shauna, Joe and I... all piccs, going to visit Lynn, who was a picc but graduated and is avoiding real life by moving to London for 6 months). Our first bit of excitement came when we realized that our flight leaving Seattle had been delayed so that we had 11 minutes to transfer in Detroit. Not good. We got to the airport and they said that they couldn't do anything about it, we just had to take the flight and hope for the best. But as we were standing at the counter, they said that they just got word that we were going to be put on a different flight that flew from Seattle to Amsterdam, and then to London. The cool part about all of this is that we had a long enough layover in Amsterdam that we actually left the airport for 2 hours or so and got to see some of the city. And what a city it is. *cough cough* Sodom and Gomorrah *cough cough* Actually, it is very beautiful and picturesque, but I am afraid that it does seem to live up to its reputation. And that was at 10am on a Friday morning, no less. (They have "coffee shops" where there are no minors allowed because they are actually pot smoking coffee shops or some such nonsense... I can't say that I ever got it actually figured out). In the airport I ran across something interesting too in that they had all of these little magnets of cute little Dutch shops that said things like "wooden shoes" or "cheese"... but I also found one that said "sex shop." I shudder to think what the guy next to me on the plane did once he got to Amsterdam... he was part of a group of 20 guys going to Amsterdam for the weekend for a bachelor's party. (Can you imagine that?!?! Flying clear to Amsterdam just for a bachelor's party?) He was an odd one... kept popping valium on the plane to stay asleep, among other interesting things.

Anyways, we managed to get to Gatwick airport without much problem and then we rode the Thameslink into London, which was about 45 minutes away. Once in London, we took the tube (otherwise known as the London Underground, but never the subway!) to the station near Lynn's flat. Then we walked the 10 minutes or so that it took to get to her place. All of this with luggage in tow... for future reference, I would try to avoid this sort of situation. The British have never heard of the American's with Disabilities Act (rightly so, seeing as how they are not Americans) and inevitably, the tube station you need will not have an elevator or even an escalator, just a never ending stair case leading up into the abyss.

Seeing as how Lynn does have a real "fake" job in London, she had to get all of her good touristing in with us over the weekend. We went on what we came to lovingly call "forced tourism marches"... she walks rather fast and is like 6'1" or something, so it takes two of my steps to keep up with one of hers. We went to a cool food market Saturday morning, Borough Market... of sort of Harry Potter fame. Apparently the street outside the Leaky Cauldron in the 3rd movie is filmed in the market somewhere, although we never actually figured out where. And then we went to Greenwich that afternoon, where they "make time." It was lovely and although it is only like a 20 minute DLR ride from Lynn's flat, you feel like you are in the country. Sunday we went to Hampton Court, which is a palacy thing with beautiful gardens and is about 45 minutes out of London. When we got back to the city, we went on the Jack the Ripper walking tour, which basically consisted of taking us to street corners and houses where the victims' bodies were found. It was really interesting, actually, cause it was set up like a history lecture and you learned a lot... it just happened to be about some awful murders.

Monday Lynn went back to work and we had already decided that we were going to go to Bath for the day. Bath is where the ancient Romans built spas or "baths" using the hot spring found there, and it is about 90 minutes from London. Sunday we got our whole itinerary figured out and we purchased our tickets online, leave at 10:00 am, return at 5:42 pm. Monday morning we left the flat on time, and we caught the tube early, but something went terribly wrong. The line that we got on went incredibly slow (the Circle line, incase you ever have need to avoid it while in a rush). We are pretty sure that at one point the driver stopped the train in the middle of the tunnel and got out, although what he was doing, I am not sure exactly. The minutes ticked by as we got more and more worried that we weren't going to get to the station on time, because once we got there, we still had to print our tickets. We finally got there and I think it was like 9:52 or something. We ran to the ticket place and Jessi got her tickets, cause she had put hers on her credit card, and Joe started to print the rest of ours, cause they were on his credit card. Joe handed us what we thought were our tickets, and we ran for the train... Seriously, the porter had only one door open still. We barely managed to get on the train (my ticket says it was printed at 9:58 am) and we realized that Joe wasn't on the train. Come to find out, a ticket, when purchased online, consists of 5 pieces of paper. So Joe had to wait while 15 pieces of paper printed, therefore making him miss the train. As we were sitting on the train, I started looking at my ticket, which actually was a ticket, and I realized that it said we were coming back on March 21 at 0542. And then it hit me... Lynn, the expert on travel and everything European... had made the STUPIDEST mistake possible and forgot about military time, thus booking us a ticket for 542, unfortunately that meant 5:42 am the next morning. So 18 pounds later (which, as you all remember from our previous discussions equals roughly 36 dollars) we had changed our tickets to come back at 1742 on March 20. Joe did catch up with us in Bath, but he had to change his ticket to even get there, cause we were booked for the 10:00 train, so he ended up spending 36 pounds on the whole ordeal. Bath was worth it, but it was sort of grey and cloudy and cold... we definitely could have had a better day.

Tuesday was our first real day in London to be tourists and we spent it going to the British Museum, walking down White Hall and seeing Parliament/Big Ben/10 Downing Street, and capping it all off with Westminster Abbey. The British Museum was interesting, but after a while you began wondering why it was so cool to be looking at all of these things that Britain had stolen from other countries and brought here for their own evil purposes. At least it was free =). Parliament/Big Ben were magnificent, as was to be expected. And Wesminster Abbey was pretty awesome, although I wasn't allowed to take any pictures inside... boo =(. I saw Chaucer's grave and Handel's grave and Rudyard Kipling's grave and Dicken's grave and a bunch of old king's graves. You can tell that I am being very irreverent here, but after awhile, it was just a bunch of graves. Although the architecture was amazing, and the history is pretty daunting too... its just that after you have been in London for awhile, you become a little acclimated to it. Unfortunately, this day was rather grey and cloudy again, so my pictures aren't as cool as I would like them to be. Tuesday night we met Lynn and went to a show. We were going to go to The Producers, or something cool like that, but we ended up going to this spoofy, all male ballet where they do their best impression of female ballet dancers. It was mildly entertaining and even funny at times, not really my thing... but hey, compromise is good, right? (P.S. If anyone ever wants to go to The Producers, I will gladly go with you).

Wednesday we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and then did some shopping in Soho. St. Paul's was amazing, especially in contrast with Westminster. Westminster is definitely Gothic, whereas St. Paul's has an enlightened feel to it, with soaring roofs and lighter marble. Something interesting, there is an entire chapel devoted to America in honor of our involvement during WWII, I never saw that one coming. We climbed to the top of the dome, doesn't seem like much, I know, but if you look at a picture, you can tell that it is a feat. I think it is like 550 steps or something. I really enjoyed St. Paul's Cathedral... maybe it is just hearkening back to my obsession with Mary Poppins. After St. Paul's, we ate lunch at a pub called "Ye Old Cock." I'm sorry, but I have to say that I love pubs. They are really cool with great character and are usually very unique. They all have funny names, I could list but I am not going to, and they are usually decorated very nicely with homey sorts of things. They also have a lot of history and many of them are OLD... one we went to was rebuilt in 1667, after the great fire of 1666. The shopping was not my idea of the best use of our time, but hey, sometimes you have to just go with the flow. On the plus side, I got a really cool jacket at H&M for only 20 pounds. I don't remember what we did Wednesday night, but I'm thinking that it probably doesn't matter to you anyway at this point.

Thursday, we went to some more markets in the morning that were rather boring to me... but again, compromise, right? (It seems to me that I did a lot of compromising on this trip...) We walked along the Thames in the afternoon because it had turned into a lovely day. We went on the London Eye, which is a big Ferris wheel which offers great views of the city. We went to Tate Modern, which is a modern art museum. I have to say that I was rather unimpressed, except that I got to see a Monet in real life... and that was pretty awesome. By this point in time, I had caught my cold, but I was telling myself that I wasn't really sick. I mean, I was in London, after all, who wants to be sick? That night, I managed to convince people to go see the Tower of London, although the best I could do was take pictures of the outside of it. I also got some really cool pictures of Tower Bridge (which many people think is actually London Bridge) while the majority of my party went and entertained themselves by stuffing their own fists in their mouths at Dickens' Inn, yet another pub (and no, I am not kidding). And Friday I came home. We left Lynn's flat about 930 and I got to my house about 2300, although I had been up for about 23 hours by this point in time.

If you have made it this far, I am impressed. I really am. My trip was awesome and it was a once in a lifetime experience that I would love to repeat again if I ever had the opportunity. I am sad in that I have really just given you a blow by blow of what we did, and not what I *thought* about what we did or the funny things that happened. If I think of something pertinent, I may post it up here. But for now, this has already taken way too long... goodnight!

Greetings Earthlings

I have returned from the other side of the sea and I am letting you know that I am alive. I would have liked to type "alive and well," but alas, I am not well. I caught a nasty cold my last day in London, and now I am feeling rather miserable and I have a horrible cough. Let's just say that traveling for 24 hours with a cold is about number 3 on my list of things that I would like to never have to do again. I got home about 11pm last night and went to bed, where I promptly slept for 11 hours or so. It was wonderful. And today I am sort of living in that limbo land of post-vacation disorientation. Fortunately school doesn't start until Monday, and I can take it easy this weekend.

What about my trip, you say? It was absolutely wonderful. London was awesome (and is still awesome, I am assuming. Although, maybe my leaving makes it less awesome?!?) I saw and did a lot of cool stuff. I am debating how to actually write about this, though. I mean, 8 days with lots of miniscule little details, do you guys really want that much info? I will leave it up to you for tonight, as I need to go to bed so I can beat this cold. Let me know what you want... either way, I will post tomorrow! In the mean time, here is a cool picture. I uploaded some others to bebo if you want to check out more. Final count for the trip? 477... yah, that's right. I am the master!

P.S. Extra bonus points if you can identify the things in the picture =)

Greetings from the other side of the pond!!

So I am not really a big fan of traveling to far off places and yet still maintaining my non-exotic life back at home, but here I am, blogging again... all because of you guys. Feel happy!

Anyways, I made it to London safely and it is now 10:54am, Saturday morning. I am not sure exactly what time that means for you guys, but I am pretty sure it is sometime around 3am or so. I was up for a total of 32+ hours straight, and then slept for 10 hours, so the jetlag is pretty much defeated. Our trip was interesting in that we made it to Amsterdam.... totally not in our plans, but I will talk more about this later. Suffice it to say that I have now spent one whole hour in Amsterdam city itself. The guy next to me on the plane was interesting, he kept popping valium so that he could pass out and sleep. We are going to the market now... if I don't post again, you all behave until I get home. (I know that I am, Chris!!!)