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.

"New Year's Eve I'm waiting for tomorrow, my heart is on my sleeve, and yes I still believe this New Year's Eve will turn out better than before. I'm holding on, still holding out until they close the door on me."

- "New Year's Eve" by Five Iron Frenzy

I think this will forever be my favorite New Year's Eve song. FIF wins again.

Here we are, 4 1/2 hours until 2011 and just like last year I'm wondering where in the heck the year went. So I took some time to reflect on what this year entailed. Let's see...

2010 has been a great year. I've been blessed beyond... anything. There have been ups and downs, of course, but overall the year's been amazing. 

I know 2011 will bring more of everything. More new, more old, more love, more everything. I don't make resolutions, mainly because I never remember what I resolved to do. But every year I hope to learn to be more patient, more loving, more understanding, more sure of myself, more sure of my faith, more sure of my Rock Band abilities... My current hope is getting an internship at a place that I enjoy being at. But even if I end up staying in Manhattan or Wichita for another summer, I hope I can make the most of it. And to survive the next two semesters of college so I can finally graduate in 2012. 

Basically... I hope I can be a better person. It's what I constantly strive to do. To make people happy, help them worry less, let them know they're loved. That's all I really want. I hope I can achieve that this year.

So (early) Happy New Year to everyone. I love all of you, and hope your year starts out right.

...and Taz ornament.

"Winter Song" by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson

(It's December... so winter-time music lyrics are good now.)

I'll go ahead and give warning that most of this post is me worrying, and having to talk out all the stuff in my head. There are some pretty pictures of an adorable baby at the end, though... so feel free to skip to those. :) I'll add some animations in here to break up my writing.

Oh, future. Your impending doom-ness freaks me out sometimes. The farther I get into the chemical engineering classes, the more I hear that to be able to get a job when I graduate, I need to have an internship for at least one summer, which would be this next summer. Okay. That should be doable. Except that I'm being ridiculously picky about what/where I'd like to work. Which is not good. I realize it's only 12 weeks this summer. That's doable wherever, but still. I'd like to stay relatively close to Manhattan.

Then there's the whole what I'd like to do. So many chem e's go into the oil refinery field. Which is pretty much the last thing I wanna do. With my other major being in biochem, I think the pharmaceutical industry is where I'd like to be. But then there's my ideal jobs... anything with biomedical engineering, or brewery engineering, or a coffee roasterie. As of right now, I'm looking for pretty much anything for next summer.

Failure is still one of my biggest fears. It happens... I know that. But applying for internships, facing the interviews... scares me. But, to get to where I want to be, I know it needs to be done. I am so ready to be out of school, with a real job, in a house, thinking about starting a family... Gotta be a big kid.

So many babies have been born recently. That never helps the me-wanting-to-have-a-baby thing. But every time I think about that, I just tell myself that I'm only 21, I want to be out of school, have a house and job so I can give the kid a good life. Not saying that the kid wouldn't have a good life if all of those wants weren't there, but that is where I want to be. As much as I'd like to jump to that time now, I know between now and then a lot of great memories will be made. Gotta enjoy this time.

Basically I'm scared of the next couple years. I'm afraid I won't get an internship, or I won't get a job, or I'll just be completely unhappy.

Meh. That's enough of the depressing talk. Just needed to get my thoughts down. Onto the more fun topics.

Finals next week!! I'm ready to get them done so I can have a month "off". (There'll be plenty of working in there.)

One of the many babies born recently was to a coworker of mine. She had a little boy named Calvin, and he's the smallest, sweetest little thing ever. I'm lucky enough that she let me come in and take a few pictures of him...

Isn't he precious?? Lauren and Cole are great parents, too. It'll be fun to watch him grow.

Okay. I'm off to read a book that hasn't been assigned to me for the first time in months. Yay!

LOVE.

"King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving here in the States! I definitely had an eventful week full of lots and lots of driving. 

Wednesday Michael, Sarah and I drove back to Wichita. Thursday, Michael and I had Thanksgiving lunch with his dad, and then had dinner with his mom, brothers and grandparents. All of it was mighty tasty, and it's always good seeing everyone! I had to split pretty quick though to drive back up here because I had to work bright and early for Black Friday. After that, it was back to Wichita. 

Saturday morning I went to visit a coworker who just had an adorable baby boy. I got to hold him for a few minutes and it was amazing. Babies are awesome. :) Then Saturday afternoon Mike and I drove to Dodge City for a wedding. It was beautiful! Sadly we had to drive right back to Wichita after it was over. 

Then, Sunday, my family celebrated Thanksgiving. Lots of tasty food and good times all around. Garrett and I spent some time outside and I got some pictures of him. He's growing into a handsome, and smart, little man.

We play a card game called Hand and Foot a lot in our family. I tried to get a picture of everybody smiling... my mom and sisters did a great job. Craig acted like Craig, and Michael said he was looking important, which means like a mob boss.

But yeah, my dad even made his amazing salsa for Thanksgiving and I got to bring some home...

...but nowI can't eat now because I picked up the flu that was going around the family. Definitely not a good way to start the last few weeks of school. Getting behind at this point would be pretty horrible, so I'm hoping it's just a 24 hour thing. 

How is everyone else doing? I really didn't mean to fall off of the blogging Earth. It's just been crazy.

-"Machine Gun" by Sara Bareilles

Say what? Alex is blogging?! Oh geez.

It's true. I'm alive and blogging. The past couple weeks have been pretty jam-packed of all sorts of stuff. Mainly school. Lots of school, and all school entails. Studying, test-taking, homework. Classes are going pretty well for the most part. Except the Harry Potter paper I haven't started. My engineering classes are still difficult, but I got an A on my last Transport test. Which means I'm not failing anymore! (I really haven't been failing for awhile. But now I'm really not failing).

Plus, I've been working a lot more since the holidays are coming up. It's a good thing I like my job. Except when people pay with money from their bra. (Loving the strikethroughs today). I'm not loving that I have to work Black Friday, which is usually my Christmas shopping day. That's probably okay since I have no idea what I want to get half of my family members.

This past week has been pretty insane. The last week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Last Sunday, Michael and I saw Sara Bareilles in concert, and she was even more amazing than I thought she'd be. Pictures?? Of course.

She was hilarious. Liberty Hall's pretty small, and so when people would scream random things at her, she'd talk back.Oh, and the title of my post is what she said right before she sang "Fairytale".

Her band, when they were doing a cover of Radiohead's "Nice Dream". Brilliant.

She sang a good mix of stuff off of her recent cd and her last cd. Love Song, King of Anything, Uncharted... This is when she sang "Gravity". Absolutely beautiful. (Notice the blue piano and pirate rubber ducky).

For the last part of her encore, she sang "Many the Miles". For the last part of it she climbed on her piano and sang the crap out of it. It was... guh.

I have about a billion more pictures from that night, but I won't bother you with them.

Mike and I got back late Sunday. Had class Monday and Tuesday, then on Wednesday I went to Wichita and saw Spring Awakening (again) with Debra. It's a new tour round, so it was a completely different cast than I'd seen before. It was definitely my favorite. Love, love, loved it. I would never get tired of seeing that musical.

I woke up bright and early on Thursday to get back in time for class. I started getting a chest cold on Tuesday, and by Thursday it was in full bloom. Still, I trucked on, and Thursday night we saw Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows. *insert squeeing* Midnight release. It was pretty epic. I won't spoil it for any one who hasn't seen it yet... but I had just read the book, and I thought they did a really goo job with it. Definitely my favorite so far. And now I love Emma Watson.

Friday was a long and sleep deprived day... and then Saturday I was supposed to run a 5k with Michael, Sarah, Sarah's boyfriend, and our friend, Andy. Well... My chest cold had completely taken over by Saturday morning, and after a phone call from my dad, I decided to sit it out. Everyone else ran and did an amazing job, and I loved cheering them on.

The rest of yesterday and today, Michael and I have been way taking advantage of having nothing to do. A lot of resting for me (I'm... almost starting to feel better) and playing of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for the both of us.

And because I want to.. I took this picture on my phone of me and Garrett a week and a half ago.

His faces are the best thing. Ever.

"Wanted" by Joshua Radin

I can only say, "Gaaah school has kept me from updating" so many times. But it's true. Life. Work. School. It's been hectic. All of my midterms happened in the last two weeks, so there's been a lot of studying and such.

Studying?? A college student?? What?!

But that's what's been going on. And when I haven't been doing the school/work/studying/sleeping/eating thing, I've started a new workout routine that involves running and doing the NYC Ballet Exercise DVDs. It's been something I've wanted to check out for awhile and I love it. It's a great workout to help posture, legs, back, abs... pretty much everything. 

It does make me realize how ungraceful I am, though. 

Can't win 'em all. Have to settle with my math/science brain.

And work on not needing to control every situation. (That...should probably be another blog post).

But I've convinced myself, Michael, Sarah and Shawn that we should run the 5k Turkey Trot next month. I've always wanted to do a 5k, but never got around to it. Now I'm forcing myself to when I can barely run a mile. Cause that sounds like a good idea. I keep hoping that my soccer-player-lungs will come back to me. They've gotta be around here somewhere, right?

Maybe??

Meh.

That is all for now... here's a few more pictures of this past week/weekend...

He never lets me take pictures of him...

Madi being a soccer master.

Mini-soccer player master.

Megan being an awesome tumbler.

Beth and I wearing shirts that our aunt and uncle made. Garrett looking unsure.