Hope Still Flies

"Pretty the World" by Matt Nathanson

I couldn't come up with a title for this post... so that's a quote from the episode of How I Met Your Mother I'm watching. 10 points to anyone who can name which episode/who said the quote.

I survived my first week of classes, if only just barely. Really, my schedule is not that bad, it just seemed that way last week. And it'll get worse as the semester goes on... My schedule looks like...

Monday & Wednesday - ChE Thermo II ... break ... Transport II ... break ... Transport Phenomena Lab. 

Thermo & Transport II are just continuations of last semester, including the same professors. So more of the same. 

Transport Lab, on the other hand, is going to be my most time consuming class. It's 5 hours, and it's not like all of the other labs I've taken. Between 6 and 15 page lab write-ups, plus prelabs, plus there aren't any step-by-step instructions on what to do. That is the worst part of it. This has me freaked out the most, but I'll manage. Maybe.

Tuesday & Thursday - Intro. to Human Development and then Recombinant DNA lab

My Intro to Human Development class is going to be the best class ever. I have Dr. Kelly Welch as my professor, who is absolutely hilarious. Teaching is her passion, and it comes through so much every class period. I laughed so hard that I cried today. Just saying.

Recombinant DNA lab is more along the lines of a normal lab. Instructions. I love instructions. Plus playing with actual DNA. The only thing is we're measuring things on the micro- scale. I'm still not the best at using micro-pipettes. I did, however, load a sample into an agarose gel today, and didn't destroy it. Minor miracle.

Especially when I write it out like that, it really doesn't look like much. Just very time consuming. Lab write-ups aren't the quickest things to do. Thermo & Transport homework due at least once or twice a week, and that takes several hours. Through working in there and all of a sudden the weeks are flying by again.

Phew. That was long and drawn-out. Good for my family that I haven't talked to in awhile to know I'm alive. 

Speaking of family, my niece, Madison, turned 8 yesterday. Seriously!? Come on now. This was yesterday. (Gage & baby Madi)

Oy. It's pretty ridiculous that that was 8 years ago. 

Uh oh, One Tree Hill's on, and it's new. Excuse me while I multi-task... watch and do thermo homework.

Ahem.

- "Light" from Next to Normal

Next to Normal is closing on Broadway tonight, so I thought that these lyrics would be appropriate.

So I'm laying here in bed, not sick, but being lazy.

I love being lazy.

I'm in complete denial that school starts in two days. I'm getting emails from my professors, KSOL is all set up, but still. Meh. 

Life here is good. The end of break has been uneventful. Working, relaxing, trying to soak up the last of the time I'll have with Michael before he disappears into work and school again. There's still snow on the ground everywhere, and I'm sure it'll be on the ground until March. The cold's set in, too. We'd been spoiled here in Kansas with a warm winter, no snow. And, of course, now it's biting us. 

And I'm blanking on what to write. I blame Grey's Anatomy. Or the fact that I really have nothing to talk about. Things are good. There's always stuff to complain about, but in the grand scheme of things, I have no room to complain. Apartment, job, amazing husband, family, friends, opportunities, warm bed, microfleece sheets, awesome tv shows. 

I've been reading a lot still, too. I bought Incarceron by Catherine Fisher, and that's next on my list after Hidden Empire (The sequel after to Empire by Orson Scott Card). Unless homework gets ridiculous. 

And I'm rambling. Rambling. Rambling. I'll spare everyone and stop now.

Expect a rant-ish update on classes by the end of the week.

Yippee.

"Superboy and the invisible girl, son of steel and daughter of air. He's a hero, a lover, a prince, she's not there."

-"Superboy and the Invisible Girl" from Next to Normal

So there's less than two weeks of winter break left. I'm not sure I okayed that.

The beginning of this new year has been... a lot like last year so far. Work, thinking about school, loving stuff.

But I did decide to do Project 365, and I started another blog for it. There's a link up there at the top, but if you're crazy lazy like me, it's...

http://ohproject365.blogspot.com/

So go over and check it out. Follow it if you feel so inclined. I can't promise it'll be interesting. Heck, today's picture just involved oil and vinegar. Buuut that's okay. I'll get it done.

I also joined the ...cool kids... and got a smart phone. There's a picture of it over at the 365 blog, too. I'm really bad at typing on it still, and tend to get frustrated and not correct my misspelling errors. So there's that. If you get a text that only mostly makes sense, that's what happened.

But I did download ringtones from a bunch of kids movies. Despicable Me, Up!, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles.... I promise I'm 21. But I have the "IT'S SO FLUFFY!" line as my text ringtone right now. It makes me happy.

I've been reading a lot over break, and it's been glorious. I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and thought it was really interesting. I'm not normally a nonfiction reader, but this was a good one. It's a science book (kinda-ish), but if you're not a science person, don't let that stop you from reading it. It's more about the life of the people. Very interesting, and kind of sad. But very good. 

At the complete other end of the spectrum, I also read John Dies at the End by David Wong. It's under horror, but really it's hilarious. It's got some scary parts, and some realllly messed up parts, but it's funny. Some strong language, in case you don't like that. I'd definitely recommend it, though.

No, I won't tell you if John dies at the end.

So now I'm reading Empire by Orson Scott Card. I'm kinda "Meh" about it so far, which is sad, because I love OSC. I'm also rereading the Hunger Games series, and Blue Like Jazz. But I'm also looking for more books to read. Gotta fit some more in before schoolwork takes over again. 

Anyone have any book suggestions? I'm up for pretty much anything. 

For now I'm off to read. Maybe work out. Probably watch Season 6 of Grey's Anatomy that just came in the mail. Ya know.

The usual.