Case in Point

The end of an era... sorta

It is official... today I signed the paper that says, "Yes!! Please get me out of here!" Although honestly, I'm not ready to be done with college, only because that means that I have real life to face. So I am doing the cowardly thing and running back to take two more years... =). Nah, that isn't REALLY why I am doing it, but I do still wonder if when it is time for me to start my real life whether or not I will be up for the challenge. I'm pretty sure that I will be able to hack it, but for me, there is some comfort in the idea of being in school for the rest of my life. In one of my classes we did a get-to-know-you sort of thing and we were asked what our dream job would be. I said that my dream job would be to be a professional student. There are SO many things that I wish that I could learn, classes that I would take, subject areas in which I have barely scratched the surface. Sure, it is great that I finally feel like I have an expertise of sorts, but I love learning and it saddens me that I will never get to take all of the cool classes out there.

On a similar note, two of my SON applications are done and I have two more left to do. I am REALLY trying to listen and follow the Lord on this, but it is still hard to know if I am doing the right thing and where I should be applying and all of that. My dad and I were talking and I was expressing frustration and uncertainty about all of this and he said something that really helped me. He said that sometimes the Lord does speak in lightening bolts and sudden visions and all that stuff, but mostly He wants us to listen to Him but then use our own intellect to figure out what is the best. And it scares me to think that really He may be leaving this decision up to me, but I figure He knows what He is doing and He did give me a brain capable of logical thought for a reason. So yah, never a dull moment. If I wasn't freaking out about this, I am sure that I would be worried about something else, because unfortunately, I don't think that it is in my nature to NOT worry. But I am learning to live with that =).

And last but not least... Lisa and Josh got engaged 2 weeks ago!! I am excited for them and these next couple of months will be busy because I am her maid of honor. I told her that I didn't know what a maid of honor was supposed to do, but that I would Google it... typical me. Anyhow, that is exciting. I actually have a lot of exciting things on the calendar for the next couple of months, but somehow I also have to finish out my last two quarters. Like I said, never a dull moment.

What you have all been waiting for... me!

www.blogger.com, MsPoppins20, password, new post... okay, I can do this. Just making sure that I remembered how to post to this thing!

I am really sorry guys. All you have had to look at for the past month was that lovely seagull picture. But in my defense, I stopped posting because nobody was posting and I had the feeling that I was just talking to myself. And why post about my life when I already know what is going on? Huh? But it appears that some of you are back, which means that I will gladly post and let you know what has been happening in my life. Although I may do this in a couple of posts, so as to alleviate as much confusion as possible.

So, uhh, last quarter was good. I got all A's, which made me happy. And then all of a sudden I was on winter break and using all my free time to do one of three things: 1. Work 2. Volunteer 3. Work on applications. Yes, that is right, even more applications. It seems that the Lord has different plans for me than I thought. I wasn't accepted to either of the graduate nursing programs I applied to, I think in major part that was because these particular programs value "life experience," of which I don't have much seeing as how I am just graduating from undergrad this spring. So after a couple of days of frustration and panic, I pulled myself together and decided that I would just apply to some regular nursing schools (to get a BSN instead of an MSN). I have been working on that stuff practically all break, and it feels like it will never end, but for better or for worse, the deadlines are coming and it will all soon be over. Hopefully I will get into one of those. I trust what the Lord is doing, but it is just hard to convince myself that the world hasn't ended just because my life isn't going according to the exact plans that I had formulated. On the plus side, the further I get from "the rejection" (as I fondly refer to it), the more I am beginning to think that this was a blessing in disguise and that maybe that program wouldn't have been right for me after all. Anyhow, we will see.

I enjoyed Christmas, New Years, blah blah blah... spent some time in Portland, got sick, hung out with some people I haven't seen in FOREVER. Basically just had a good time over break, but classes started Wednesday and I am already back to the grind stone. It seems that one of my classes is going to be more work than I had anticipated, but it shouldn't be too hard. The others will be okay, I think. Like I said, once these applications are done, that will help a lot. And just for fun, to prove to you how big of a geek I am... this was my favorite Christmas present this year:

And a close second would be:

I am tired...

... and apparently addicted to the internet. I also don't speak English or have a conscience. More to come on this later.

And here is pretty much the most random picture I could find on my computer:

Going on a treasure hunt

Seeing as how I am stuck at home due to everything around me being a sheet of ice, I decided to clean out my sock drawer. I totally forgot that I like to hide things in my sock drawer, here is what I found:

1. Bag of Chex Mix
2. Bag of Baby Goldfish (the crackers, not the actual fish)
3. Candy cane (from last Christmas?!?)
4. Half a thing of Starbursts
5. A bag of M&Ms
6. A Crunchie candy bar from London ("Milk Chocolate with Golden Honeycombed Centre")
7. Bag of strawberry cream Japanese hard candies
8. Box of strawberry creme Koala's March cookies
9. Bag of chocolate covered puff wheat from Japan
10. Fun dip candy thing
11. Chocolate Mousse Pocky

Yah, maybe I should actually remember that it is in there so I can eat it... I have to throw half of it away because it is stale!

And just for good measure, a picture of me with the "Whore Beast" we made Sunday night... aptly named by my brother:

Here's how it went down...

A triumphant story, presented as a series of pictures:

It felt so good to win the Apple Cup, words cannot even describe. UW hadn't won the past two years, meaning that if they had lost this year, it would have been the first time in the 106 year history of the Apple Cup that WSU had won three years in a row. Fortunately, the wrecking of the tradition was one thing that this year's UW team didn't have to answer for. UW played some great football, similar to the beginning of the season. Sorta makes you wonder WHAT in the world happened when we got beat by Stanford. But alas and alack, we won the Apple Cup and that makes me happy!

The fact that UO lost its last two games to Arizona and OSU makes me happy too!

What the...?

Methinks that the Pac-10 had an upset of sorts this weekend. Since when is Arizona supposed to beat Cal? And where was it written that Oregon should only score 10 points against USC? And how did ASU manage to score 47 points to beat WSU? And finally... how in the world did UW end up losing to Stanford, the bottom of not only the Pac-10, but all of NCAA football?!?! (Well, I know how, but this is supposed to be a rhetorical question.) The only somewhat non-surprising result was UCLA beating OSU, which in actuality IS a little surprising considering OSU's winning streak as of late. (Which we so nicely started for them when we let OSU beat us at home.)

Don't believe me? Check the results for yourself...http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/conference?confId=9

Hello out there

To be lazy and recap my life yet again (as if any one actually reads this still...)

1. Most importantly, I am sick. With a cold. I don't feel good at all. I knew this time was coming, because it always does during marching band. But the fact that it took me until November makes me happy with my immune system. Usually I get a cold within 2 weeks or so of the beginning of school and then never really get over it and continue to add on other random illnesses through the end of the season. We will see what happens this year.

2. Apparently, seeing as how yesterday was Halloween, it is now Christmas. I went to Target yesterday in search of some rally gear in their Halloween section, only to find that Halloween was COMPLETELY over except the "gross" candy aisle and Christmas was making a strong showing already.

3. It is November and the leaves are beautiful and mass amounts of hyped up festiveness are starting to set in. Yay! I love this time of year.

4. I went to Leavenworth 2 weekends ago to see the leaves and they were VERY pretty:

5. The day after that we took the ferry to Whidbey Island to play for a nice man who is leaving HMB lots of money, but is dying. It was a sad, yet good day at the same time. And beautiful yet again. I love the northwest, but more specifically Seattle:

6. For all of those not following Husky football (which is everyone but me), let me give you a little recap:

10/7: USC-UW, Lost 26-20
10/14: OSU-UW, Lost 27-17 (The curse of 17 returns yet again?)
10/21: Cal-UW, Lost in OT 31-24
10/28: Arizona-UW, Lost in OT 26-23

So basically, going to games stinks right now. And we get to continue the fun by going down to Eugene this weekend where the fans hate us so much that the UO marching band volunteered to escort us to our busses at the end of the game so that we wouldn't die.

7. I learned in nutrition the other day that apparently your body actually NEEDS trace amounts of arsenic to function properly. Who knew?

Poe-tay-toe

As I sit here eating mashed potatoes and gravy, I am reminded of a random question over which I have often pondered. Since I was a kid, I have always had to mix my gravy into my potatoes. It is not good enough for me to just put the gravy on top and eat it that way.

The question is, is this odd? Do most people eat their gravy on top or do they mix it in? I just don't know...

Who needs a title anyway?

I am not dead, just trying to stay afloat in my crazy and insane life. To recap since I last posted:

1. September 29-October 1 I went down to Arizona with band for the UA-UW game where I am happy to announce that we forced them into submission and won 21-10. It was an awesome trip and we even got to "sight-see". Brad thought it would be fun to take us to a desert botanical garden to see desert botanical things, and it was fun. It was warm too... like 99 degrees, but absolutely no humidity, so it was wonderful. I did NOT want to come home. Yay for swimming at 9 in the morning because it was already like 85 degrees. I think the only time I was cold was A. When I was inside where it was air conditioned or B. Saturday night at 4 in the morning when it finally got chilly out on the "vista".

2. My graduate school applications are completed and turned in. Hallelujah!!!

3. I have three (3), count 'em, 3 (three) midterms this week.

4. I am working.

5. I am doing my usual stuff at church.

6. I am taking 15 credits.

7. I am volunteering at UWMC.

8. I am doing upwards of 20 hours of HMB every week.

9. I am going to audition for basketball band so that the fun can continue into next year!

10. The Huskies are now 4-3. Still a winning record, but sad none the less.

11. The USC game sucked. I wonder what would have happened if the clock (i.e. the ref) wasn't stupid and we had been able to get that last play going. On the plus side, we lost to USC by only 6 points.

12. We lost to OSU on Saturday. At home. I have no idea what happened. We aren't even going to talk about this one.

13. Isaiah Stanback is out for the rest of the season due to a foot injury he sustained in the game Saturday. There is no shortage of tears over here.

14. Sulu from Star Trek was part of our field show on Saturday.

15. My knee is healed up nicely, although I think I will have a nifty scar for a while.

16. I have three midterms this week.

17. It has started to rain in Seattle. I am happy.

18. You wouldn't believe the number of times that I got on to post to my blog but got sidetracked by Facebook because it was more entertaining.

19. I get to go to Leavenworth this weekend!

20. It sucks to be a senior in a predominately freshman class, but it is awesome to already know all the answers! (If you want more details, you'll need to ask me)

21. I get to go to UO in 2 weekends and WSU in 4 weekends.

22. If we lose to Stanford, I think that I really will cry.

24. A good portion of my life does indeed revolve around football right now.

Okay, that is it. I'm sure there are more things to post, but I have procastinated long enough and should go be a good student or some such drivel.

Why oh why?

Someone wanna tell me why lately all the nice, gentlemanly guys I meet are not from church, or any church at all, and therefore completely off limits for the most part? And why the guys from church are mean jerk-faces who don't know how to treat a girl with decency or respect her? GAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Yes, bitter party of 1, right here.

How is it...

...that Washington is ranked higher than Cal in Pac-10 standings, yet Cal is ranked in national standings and Washington isn't. I am a bit confused.

Pac-10 standings:
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. Washington

This next month should prove to be rather interesting.

???

Does it make me pathetic that when I open up the homepage for Google to find that they have somehow changed the "Google" part into something cool, it makes me have a better day?

Last February during the Olympics... I had to to check Google everyday to see what sport they had somehow managed to change the letters into.

Whose house? Dawgs' house!

We beat UCLA on Saturday... 29-19. It was beautiful. Glorious. Wonderful. Amazing. Incredible. Joyful. Easily the most excited/happy I have been in a long time. We were 8 point underdogs (the last prediction I had seen was UCLA 31, UW 23) and it looked like that was going to come true based on the first half of the game. But then we scored a touchdown right before halftime, which helped ease the tension. In the second half (as well as the first) our defense kept UCLA from scoring touchdowns so they had to settle for field goals. Eventually, with like 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter, it was UCLA 19, UW 14, when we scored a touch down and then went in for a 2 point conversion... and made it. So that right there was totally awesome, if ever there was a time to try for the 2 points instead of the extra point, it was then. And then on practically the next play, we intercepted the Bruins' ball and ran it in for another touch down. Thus resulting in our wonderful score of 29-19.

3-1 baby!!! Undefeated at home thus far... and half way to a bowl game. Just you wait and see... Husky football is on the return, and they WILL be a force to contend with. I heart Willingham. Maybe some day I will do a post on how much I admire him, but for the time being, that is all I will say.

Hey look.... it's me!

Complete with four bandages AND a backwards baseball cap. The backwards baseball cap because we won on Saturday and the bandages because Seattle's streets have too many potholes.

UW beat Fresno State 21-20 due to a blocked extra point in the beginning of the 4th quarter. I was deliriously happy that we blocked an extra point, and it just got better when that became the game winning point. I had just gotten finished telling the team (much to the amusement of the people around me) that it was NOT okay to slack off and not play in the 3rd quarter and that it was NOT okay to let Fresno State score, when they blocked the extra point. And then we managed to keep their offense curtailed enough that even though there was 4:30 left in the quarter, we won. I can't even begin to explain to you how exciting this is. We are 2-1 heading into real Pac-10 play and we gave Oklahoma a good fight last week (at least for the first half of the game). I have been mocked for being a Husky fan, but I have to say that I see enough improvement in this team to be able to hope for good things. This may not be *the* turn around season, but it is already way better than the past two years and we are headed in the right direction. So when we are back on top and are a big football contender once again, none of you better say that I wasn't a fan when we weren't doing well.

On to the four bandaids. Every Friday night before a home game, UW has a tradition of holding an all campus rally, of which the marching band is an integral part. We basically run around campus and the surrounding streets (read: Greek Row) playing stands tunes and getting excited for the game the next day. Most of the time I am VERY careful where I am walking as we are walking around old Seattle streets where long ago the streets got into a war with the roots of the surrounding trees and lost, creating many tripping hazards. So I managed to navigate all of the tree roots and other random obstacles in my way. We were running across 45th back onto campus cause the police had stopped traffic (we have a parade permit to do this) and I was thinking, "Hey, it's the middle of the street, what is there to trip on out here?" Yah, well I found the only thing left to trip on in the middle of the street... a giant pothole. My foot got caught (I was wearing TENNIS shoes for crying out loud) and I went flying across the street, landing on my hands and knees, but mostly my knees, on the other side. And to make matters worse, I was wearing shorts because it wasn't that cold outside and I knew that I would get hot once we started running around.

So I have four impact points and some massive bruising going on. I feel slightly like a 5 year old because I have two skinned knees. In the picture is the get-up I sported so that I could make it through game day. My knees are feeling better with less stinging, but cold air makes my bruises hurt (lame, I know), my knees are rather stiff, and my high knee marching leaves something to be desired at the moment. I never knew just how hard I was working until I did the last two practices with minimal effort put forward, everything is so easy when you don't march the right way =).

Quick recap of my life...

-I have once again taken up the great past time of marching down the full length of a football field at the speed of 160 beats per minute

-I do this RIGHT after sprinting onto the field and then running in place, complete with high knees (i.e. upper thigh comes up so that it is in a perfect 90 degree angle with the rest of the body) for 3 or 4 minutes... 7 cadences of Scratch at least

-And did I mention that I am supposed to be playing my picc as I march down the field at turbo speed? (If you don't think 160 is fast, you get a metronome and try marching to it...WITH HIGH KNEES!)

-I just memorized or rememorized 11 songs:
Bow
VI and VII
The Alma Mater
FCS Fight Song
Take On Me
Mush Huskies
Grand Old Flag
Johnny's Mambo
Radar Love
Throne Room
Everybody's Everything

-I have been at practice from 8:30am to 8:30pm since Tuesday morning

-I have practice and a rally tomorrow, football game with band guide duties on Saturday, another practice on Sunday as well as practices next week on Monday, Wednesday and all day on Friday culminating in a Queen show at the UCLA game that Saturday

-I have four pages of magical Bohemian Rhapsody goodness to memorize

-I have recently lost all of my free time to watching seasons 3 and 4 of Gilmore girls

-I am trying to get my grad school applications under control and dealing with that in my spare time once I get home at 9pm

Oh yah... and I am loving every minute of it!

My guys came through!

Also considered as a title, but ultimately rejected: I heart Isaiah Stanback

I am exhausted, but basically I would be the worst fan ever if I didn't post about the first victory of the season today! I don't really feel like rehashing the game... I am sure you could find a sports column to read tomorrow if you really wanted to. I will just say that I am quite relieved that we won... San Jose State was the school we beat the season that we only won once. I shudder to think what it would have done to morale had we lost to them in the season opener. But oh wait, yah, thats right, we won!!

Just a little warning...

It is that time of year again! What time of year, you may ask... well, it is early fall, so that can only mean one thing. Football? Well, yah... but more importantly, MARCHING BAND! Yay! I am a gigantic band geek and I am aware of that, but I am so excited to have marching band start again.

This week we have practice W,Th,F from 6:30-9:30 for the San Jose game on Saturday. Since the season hasn't officially started, it is most of the varsity members and some alumni who felt like coming back. It is good times since, #1: Every one knows how to march and it is assumed that they are a fairly competent marcher and, #2: Only people who really want to do it are there, none of those people who thought it would be cool but then decided half way through the season that they hated it and walked around making every one else miserable. Plus the show is a 80s show, which makes me pretty happy. Here are the songs, just so you can feel special and included:

Theme from MTV

Video Killed the Radio Star

Take On Me

I'll Be There For You (The theme from Friends)

Tubthumping (Reminds me of middle school, I don't really know why)

Come On Eileen

Good times. I confess that I had to check some of them out cause I didn't know all of them. I can pretty much guarantee that Video will get stuck in your head if you just listen to like 15 seconds of it. Amazingly enough, I'm not too sore.... yet. I have three ideas about this, #1: I'm not working hard enough, which I know is not the case cause I'm exhausted right now. #2: I'm just really cool and in shape and everything, but some how I'm thinking that isn't totally the case either. #3: I was in good enough shape that one night of marching was okay, but tomorrow I will wake up after 2 solid nights of marching and I won't really be able to move, a delayed reaction sort of deal. We will see.

1 year together!

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear JSN,

Happy Birthday to you!!!

My car and I have officially been together for a whole year today. It has been a great car, which I grow to love more everyday. Times were a tad rocky at first since I didn't know how to drive stick. This meant that I had a new car that I couldn't drive. But I QUICKLY learned and it has been smooth sailing ever since. To commemorate the occasion, I will give you a selection of pictures showcasing our happy times together...

Getting to know each other:

Playing in the Snow:

The view as an insider:

Going for Chinese Takeout:

*sigh*

I miss this: What is "this"... a map of the London Underground, or the tube. Pretty sad when a map can make you nostalgic, isn't it?