Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories?

My big sister Lyndsay came to town for Christmas this year-- best present ever! She lives in LA and the last time we were able to see her was August 2008, so it's always a special treat when we get quality time with her. My sisters, mom and I went through the bins of keepsakes our mom kept all these years-- art projects, report cards, stories we authored, certificates and awards, and even memorabilia from when we were wee little things. Some highlights include: my adorable little red mary janes from when I was less than 1 year old, a note authored by Lyndsay dubbing her as my "bigger, famous sister," and a "Women in Politics" word search that I completed at the age of 4 (!!!!). Go on, Matt Smola, say it-- "that's my majorrr!!" The world shoulda seen it coming....

I want to share two things with you from my 3rd grade year. The first is a note to me from my Dad on the first day of school. My elementary school had closed down so I was going to a new school for the first time ever; he must have written it to make me feel better. It's funny how I don't remember this letter but so many of these pieces of wisdom have stuck with me throughout my life (or at least I like to think so).

Dear Molly Mo:
Good, good morning to you, Peanut! I just wanted to tell you to have a GREAT first day of school as a (can it be true?) THIRD GRADER! Listen carefully to your teachers every day and learn as much as you can every day...you have many special things about you that not everyone has, so be the very best worker that you can be. Be kind to all your classmates and teachers...there is no substitute for kindness and understanding toward others, no matter who they are. Treat others like you want to be treated. Your mother and I are VERY PROUD of you and all that you have learned so far-- keep working hard. Mommy and I love you more than you'll ever know, and we'll always help you when you need it! Have a great day, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your day.
Love,
Daddy

Shared item #2: "Happiness is...": 3rd grade edition. I feel like we did more than just 2 of these, but only 2 were salvaged in my bin, so enjoy them and use your imagination to think of what awesome responses I had to finish the statement for the remainder of my 3rd grade year.

8/30/96 Happiness is... Something inside your heart that puts a smile on your face and a song in your heart, friends, reading, playing with my dog and piano.

9/10/96 Happiness is...Staying in shape, playing in water, being in shows and plays, playing with friends during summer rain showers, and reading a good book at school or home.

It was a riot looking through the traces of my life with the people who watched me grow up. It was also full of positive, uplifting notes about how blessed my life has been....though seeing all the things I accomplished up to the age of 18 makes me feel a little bit like I've already peaked. Ha, ha. Anyway, I recommend it if you're bored during any of the remaining time in your break. :)

Just Give Love to All

It's weird/funny/expected that I'm coordinating my most recent facebook status with this blog...Right now, love languages are on my mind. Never heard of the 5 love languages, you say? Well, the idea is that we all speak one love language more "fluently" than the others; in other words, we are able to most effectively give-- and RECEIVE-- compassion, affection and interaction in one specific way. This is interesting because we assume that we are giving everything we've got to certain people and relationships, but in reality, the kind gestures aren't always having the effect we want them to have because the other person has another love language. Similarly, we don't think the other party (or parties) are as "into" creating solid friendships or relationships because we aren't making ourselves aware of/open to the love they are offering to us in their OWN love language. Get it?

The five love languages are (drumroll, please): touch, acts of service, quality time, giving/receiving gifts, and words of affirmation.

i'm interested to see what you loyal readers (are there any of those left these days?) think mine is. I can reveal it in my next post (oooooh). And I'd love for you to figure out what yours is, too!

I'm not really sure why I'm sharing this right now. I just felt compelled to. I think that any obligatory gift-giving season makes me think about how we uphold (or lose sight of) certain people and relationships in our lives year round. Why do we need a holiday like Christmas or a birthday to feel comfortable expressing love toward one another?

I feel like I end up sharing this every year, but one of my favorite holiday tunes is called "The Secret of Christmas." I only know the Shedaisy version (I'm not sure if they're the original performers or if they're just spreading the good word) but I think it serves as a great reminder that Christmas is only special if the months surrounding it contain the same joy and generosity to all.

Yeah the little gift you send on Christmas day
Will not bring back the friend you turned away
So may I suggest the secret of Christmas--
It's not the things you do at Christmas time,
But the Christmas things you all year through.

Hope everyone's day was full of gratitude and simple joys.

you CAN get left for christmas eve service, folks

well, the title sort of gives it away. nanny and lepa left me because i was taking too long to get ready for the christmas eve church service (that doesn't start until 6:30). nanny informed me that she is one of FOUR soprano's that can actually hit the proper note for ave maria and that she would see me there. so now i'm looking up different renditions of ave maria on youtube.com for fun. my aunt and uncle live next door so i'm assuming i'm going with them...but i can't believe someone would leave their granddaughter just because she's a little slower than most.

oh well! happy christmas!

my nanny & lepa keep the thermostat at 76 degrees

snowboarding was a blast! my legs are really sore, exercising before might have been helpful.

now i'm back in ohio. my brother and i are staying in columbus until christmas day around 1 p.m. or so... we are arguing so it's nanny and i all the way. i'm reaching my family-critical-point in which case there is no where to go, but i cannot stay here much longer. bless their hearts.

we got sandwiches from this place called PJ's or JP's or something and they all have inappropriate names for the sandwiches. i got a "phat phuk" which was really just a spicy chicken sandwich (i'm eating meat again, sort of). the sandwiches were huge though, and fries came ON the sandwich.

well everyone, goodbye from columbus... O-H-----

Tour de Ohio

busy couple of days!! phew!! to recap: i worked friday morning and we had a line out of the door by 7: 30 a.m. (and TWO people called off!) so my cheeks got really warm and i powerwalked around our little store in my nonskid shoes. i had a few visitors! shawn brought a can in and got his 5th free latte, latoya came in to say goodbye, kirsten was meeting with ESL students so she got her usual. it's good to catch up with people, even if i am working for "The Man" while it's happening.

so i took a medium-long nap after work, packed/cleaned the college house, and caravan-ed home. welllllll just beyond home, i went through elyria to akron! erika's 24th birthday celebration! what a trendy night!! (i did not see lebron) i think i walked around with a surprised look on my face the whole time--everything was so fancy: the dim lighting, 20-somethings with dark eye make-up, men in sweater vests. i sort of felt like a 12 year-old wearing erika's soft makeup. it wasn't that i didn't fit in, but no one else was honestly realizing how beautiful everyone was that was there. it was a night i will remember most definately. erika did break my heel when i tried to get her up the stairs, but i will spare her the embarassment of what happened after that. ha!

so drove from akron to elyria, did laundry, played with the dog. my brother was rather frustrated that he put all the ornaments on the tree by himself, but it really really looks great (holler at the little sibling!!!) and then i threw all the clean clothes in the car and john and i drove to columbus. (i did not fold, who's got the time) and now i'm in columbus as i blog!!!! we're watching the news, nanny is not happy with little kids at a columbus middle school sending "sexts"--she keeps talking about it and it's making me uncomfortable.

tomorrow we'll be driving to new york to go skiing/snowboarding at holiday valley! we will be there for a few days, i think i'm going to get a lift ticket for half the amount of days (a full day and the evening of another) and then read in the lodge and drink spicy bloody marys slowly. i'll be in columbus through christmas day, then be back in elyria on christmas day (nighttime). kind of re-arranging the traditions, but getting amped about the big birthday! (Jesus!)

i miss my friends from home. i miss the ones i see a lot and the ones i get to see a little less. i miss the ones i haven't talked to in 1 year and 3.5 years (to be specific). not only am i going to finish my application for graduate school, but i'm going to read LOTS, drink less coffee, sleep more, kiss (hopefully more, if i'm lucky), and overall be more like sarah jessica parker. just going with the flow, just doing that thing...

(nanny is now talking about how her and lepa are better dancers than most people will ever be, everyone stopped at a wedding to form a circle around them while they jitterbugged)

this post was long. hope you stayed with it.

FML.

i started this blog on my ipod (which turns out to be very difficult when your fingers are fat and you're trying to use some sort of puncuation) when i was TRADING AND GRADING my final exam in genetics. the list as to why i think this should be illegal at the university level could go on and on forever. (if we ever run out of things to talk about, ask me what i think about trade and grade and then let's go!)

BUT! DRUMROLL, PLEASE! I GOT AN "A" IN GENETICS!

My semester is finally over. I'm now going to the bar! It's 11:46 a.m.! Yeah, braahhh!!! (but on the real i really am going to bw3's and i really am getting a beer before i make peppermint mochas which i will not hate as much as my previous post)

If you're still in the school mode: God speed!
If you are finished: I understand why you're smiling about because some things really are funny.

i like that train song, too

things finals week has made me realize:

1. i do not smile when i only have 2 hours of sleep. even if something's funny i'm laughing through a straight face.

2. i hate brewing coffee....more specifically, i hate making peppermint mocha's with no sleep. The peppermint syrup was actually making me nautious (sp? wanting to throw up?) and freshmen kept coming in wanting to spend the rest of their meal plans...in turn making me nautious they had that much m$$ney.

3. i have really bad posture while i study, or take tests, or sit in uncomfortable chairs.

4. population genetics is actually worse than genetics alone, because they had to go get all specific with it.

that is all! i miss molly dull! that sort of rhymes! oh boy, i wish i had more tiiimmmeee!

Prime-Time TV

So my skimming of YES! Magazine today informed me that the average American watches 4.5 hrs of TV each day. I am almost POSITIVE that my semester total was under 10 hours, but today I decided to be as close to average as possible.

Thus, I just watched 2 hours of "Sing-Off" and .5 hours of "Scrubs" and these are the best lines of the night from US Prime Time:

Some girl from SoCals: "And so when we go out there, we wanna just...rock everybody's faces off."
(I only like this one because I said in my last post that I was going to be "journaling my face off." I think this means that random chica reads DGCW regularly...)

JDurk (the sum of JD + Turk): "Ka-BAM-- we just dropped a KNOWLEDGE BOMB on your asses!"
You can count on me employing that phrase sooner rather than later.

That's all. Only 100 pgs left in book #1 of break, so I'm hoping to cruise through it tonight! ;)

So Gangster, I'm So Thug; You're the Only One I'm Dreamin' Of

Welcome back, Cotter!!!!! (I'm going to go watch that Scrubs episode as SOON as I finish this post....)

So it's been a while. I quit when the going got tough, and then once again, the men of apt212 inspired me to get back on my horse. (katelyn's desperate cry for help on my facebook wall also worked in this way)

It's WINTER BREAK!!!!!!!!! It feels soooo good. Only 1 semester left. Looking forward to that. So in the spirit of list-making (Santa, Kate, and apt212 are all doing it), I have a list of things I am planning on doing over the next 4 weeks of down time:
-Reading 5+ books
-DM QT, including lunch with Shep
-NYE in Chicago
-Looking at summer internships
-Looking at full-time jobs
-Prowling for a 3rd roomie
-OASC coffee talks with old friends
-Luchita's margarita's with M. Smola
-Journaling my face off
-SEEING MY OLDEST SISTER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 1.5 YEARS!!!!!!!!
-Missing Loyolacappella like mad (youtube channel-- check it out)
-Writing all my overdue penpal replies (thanks for your patience, yall!)
-Re-learning French by conversing with Ed, reading books en francais, & buffing up on my vocab

Pretty ambitious break when it comes to tackling leisurely activities. I am so up for the challenge.

Quick thought of the day:
There is no wilderness so terrible,
so beautiful, so arid and so fruitful
as the wilderness of compassion.
It is the only desert that shall
truly flourish like the lily. --Thomas Merton

It feels so good to be back, friends.
Peace and love!

To wear leggins' as pants: appropriate or not?

so today i changed my facebook default to be a picture of Firefly luciferase because it looks cool. and because it's what makes them light up, which not only makes the structure cool but the function cooler. i'm not sure if this is a side effect of finals week or i'm losing friends...or both.

so is it appropriate to walk around with what essentially is just a pair of tight long johns? i once thought: "do not do this, you are obnoxious, you are either too skinny or have much too much to love to be wearing that" but then i bought a pair of leggins' for halloween (to be the bottoms of my tetris block) and i put them on this morning. shawn was not impressed, but he was also in a terrible mood so i wrote that one off. two girls looked at me sort of weird, but one of them couldn't get her car door unlocked so who's the real idiot? basically, i think i'm making a poor ensamble decision, but they are bright purple and they are on and they aren't coming off until to(night)/(morrow). i just didn't know if other people had opinions about this topic. am i the only one that is reading this anyway? is anyone out there???

i know you were totally wondering about my saturday night...i crumbled under peer pressure and went out to a christmas party (and then to kami's). and i only ordered water at the bar (added to my coolness, see "firefly luciferase" at the top) so i woke up feeling great! glad i did that, little stressed now, but at least i can remember latoya spilling chocolate syrup down her face trying to take one of those ridiculous peppermint-mouth-shots instead of my desk chair and butt together.

g'bye!

reasons why I have no business going out the saturday before finals:

1. the girl that was going to "keep me in check"'s self control just kicked in and she is no longer going out.

2. i have $5 to last me for 6 days, and i have no: milk, bread, peanut butter, crackers, little coffee, and i know this isn't a food product but i only have 1 pair of clean socks left.

3. i have not showered nor do i have a weather-appropriate outfit (even by sorority girl's standards it is too cold to wear simply a black-north-face-fleece to power walk uptown)

4. i had a dream i was on the disney channel's original t.v. show "bug juice" last night so i woke up exhausted from being a camper. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug_juice)

5. i will be the last person to shower tonight, therefore i will have no warm water.

6. see #5

7. see #2, section 6: "little coffee" (this will soon prove to be a problem)

the fun has arrrriiivvveeedddd (thank you, thank you very much)

well, after spending the evening shopping at the toledo mall i have come to a couple of realizations! there is a lot of blogging material wandering around a shopping mall at this time of the year. and ironically enough, they don't even know how blog-worthy they are. the little kids on leashes that don't know they are tagging along getting presents bought right under their very eyes, the mom jeans, the tweens, the little boys that be thinkin' they thugs. it was a very fun night though! my roommates (andrea, katie, latoya, + a friend molly) piled into the jetta and we spent a few hours buying presents and eating!! finally starting to feel a little more like christmas time and a little less like 40 mph winds with no snow to show for itself.

finals week is here! i'm not sure why bowling green is so behind everywhere else, but i'll be done thursday and then i have to brew coffee (no one is getting starbucks on friday morning at 7 am when i have to get there...) and then i'm going back to the e! everyone is going to a party tonight (it's saturday). do they know that it's finals week? who am i kidding, i'll probably go and regret it while i'm there and regret it more tomorrow. pray for my self-control to kick in at any time here.

genetics is the worst class i have ever taken in my life. so i fill out my evaluation and i actually give the teacher bad scores (which i never do) and then she announces "well, some people read these but i've been on tenure for the past 15 years so what's it really matter." i hate her!!!! whyyyy are you wasting my time? you can't tell me about hardy weinberg or post-translational modifications a eukaryotic cell makes, AANNNDD you aren't even going to read my evaluation!?!? that was a lot of complaining, SIGH! maybe she's a good person. i better get an A.

g'bye for now! i did not proofread!

Where I'm From

The class I T.A. in for my Social Justice Living Learning Community had a really cool assignment the 2nd week of class called the "Where I'm From" poem; all of us wrote poems that involved smells, memories, loved ones, descriptions, phrases, etc. from our childhoods that we felt described where we come from and what we've experienced. I've been sitting on mine for a while, waiting to put it on here, and I finally decided (at 1:30am) that I should put it on for everyone to enjoy.

I'm also planning on sending this out via email with "instructions" to everyone about the process of writing them, so if you want to get those directions so you can write one and send it back to me, I'd be happy to add you to my list! :)


Where I'm From

I'm from hose water.
I'm from family bike rides, an old-fashioned popcorn-popper, and hand-me-down Barbies,
from Christmas Eve sleepovers with my big sisters on bunk beds with bunny sheets.

See, I'm from the North side-- no, no, NOT the West side-- the land of minivans and postcards, where winning games of T.V. tag was so important that the tips of our tongues would poke from our mouths as we tried to graze anyone with our fingertips.

I'm from frozen grapes and cinnamon toast,
the anticipation of snow day announcements from that little black portable radio,
from the salty taste of homemade green Playdough and a sanctuary lined with stained glass and welcoming handshakes.

I hail from a decade-sized performance stage with fluffy, stuffed audience members always begging me for an encore.
(Jelly bracelets, anyone?)
I'm from buckets at a summer camp that forever altered the isolating, self-interested woman I could have become...

I'm from educators with high expectations who owe the respect I gave them to my parents-- my first teachers.

"Please always remember and never forget..." [ILOVEYOU]

I'm from sisters...genetic or not. From two undiscussed divorces. From abandoned piano lessons and gymnastics.
Check the bottom right cupboard near the stove, right next to the raw spaghetti noodles that make great snacks.

I'm from a house-- no, a home-- full of staircase belly sliding or firefly catching and tears that come from laughing.
Or maybe from white Easter gloves and videotaped swim lessons (who rewatches those, anyway?!).

I come from red and yellow tulips, and fragrant grasshopper-green bars of soap in Grandma's downstairs bathroom,
from a momma who still cries when I give her a Mother's Day card, a daddy who sees his "peanut" as the building, wrestling tomboy-of-a-son he never had.

I'm from limitless encouragement splashed with a lack of understanding.
From an unquenchable thirst for something bigger than THIS-- than just a complacent, quiet cul-de-sac, complete with annual block parties.

I come from a twin bed in which I said a prayer each and every night:
Make those who are sad feel happy,
Make those who are sick feel better,
Help those who are homeless find a home.

The prayer of where I'm from seems naive, yes, and dismisses the complexity of this world.
I eternally blame it for my unshakeable, unconditional, unfailing optimism that makes me feel like we CAN do that-- all in time to get a good night's sleep for our next battle.

The Lone Poster.

(That's me!)

I've given up hope that anyone else will carry this, but as long as I have access to internet and a long list of things to do that I am putting off, I will not lower my standards to meet those drooping (dead?) blog standards of the other DMs here at DGCW.

Reading: Riding the Bus with my Sister, The Most Beautiful Book in the World, & ALL-- yes, that's right-- of my homework. (?!)
Listening: to loyolacauditions. (budump CHING!)
Watching: gleeeeee! I actually like Fox for that hour of every week. Oh, and giraffes.
Wearing: my heart on my sleeve. and lots of baby fluids on my clothes because of little michael.
Wanting: contemplation time?

Remember me bragging about my summer reading list? Ironically enough, I stopped reading mid-July. Regardless, my book total reached a whopping 13 by the end of the summer, not counting the several books I began but haven't yet gotten through. Here's my list:
1. This I Believe-- an AWESOME, AWESOME compilation of very short (talking 350 words) essays written by extraordinary "ordinary," as well as famous, people; the topic of every essay was the central belief in that person's life. It's based on an NPR program that started in the 50s. Check out the website: http://www.thisibelieve.org.
2. Einstein's Dreams-- this is a VERY quick read that imagines what kind of dreams and scenarios were running through Einstein's head just before his theory of relativity came out. Mind-boggling yet colored with emotion and personal stories!
3. Code Orange-- Caroline B. Cooney was one of my favorite authors back when I was a teeny-bopper (ha), so I thought I'd check out one of her newer books that my mom brought home from work (she works in a library, fyi). It's about some kid getting smallpox. I wanted to burn the book for, like, the first half, but the end is excellently cool.
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns-- I couldn't find enough words for this one if I tried. AWESOME. INCREDIBLE. PHENOMENAL. HEART-WRENCHING. yes, yes, yes. I am always blown away when a male author can so eloquently and accurately write about challenges of women in the world.
5. The Alchemist-- Oh, come on-- you all know how I feel about this. It's also an easy read (read it in a few hours, so seriously, it is) and it's loaded with wisdom for people attempting to make important life (and perhaps lifeSTYLE) choices. I eat this shit up.
6. The Laramie Project-- This one is my all-time favorite play, so I figured reading the book would vividly bring it back for me. It features real interviews from townspeople of Laramie, Wyoming right after Matthew Shepard (a gay college student) was murdered in a hate crime. (Is all murder hate crime, to some extent?)
7. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim-- David Sedaris. Need I say more?
8. How to Be a Pirate-- This little ditty was a beginner's chapter book that my mom nabbed for me a few years ago to humor my obsession with pirates. It was ok. The best part of the story is the main character discovered he was left-handed, and we ALL know (or should know after this sentence!) how I feel about left-handed people...if you are left-handed, I like you more than I liked the presumed-right-handed you.
9. The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived-- I recommend this book to anyone and everyone, ever, in the history of the world. I learned so much, I chuckled frequently, and each name is fairly short so you can read them with 5-10 extra minutes here and there. What a lovely presence in my life.
10. My Only Story-- I didn't have high expectations for this book because I paid for it entirely in coins from LUC's bookstore's bargain books section. It was SO touching, SO sad, but was all about personal growth and knowing oneself...It was the perfect time for me to read it. :)
11. The Glass Castle-- Oh my GOSH I loved this book. It is beautifully written, has a lot of very interesting undercurrents about education, healthcare and poverty, and it also stands as a counterexample to the horrible stereotypes that plague people living in poverty. I saw so much strength in this author and her family...And I still wonder about the glass castle, too. :)
12. Running With Scissors-- Augusten Burroughs, ladies and gentlemen! I hold him in an even higher esteem than I do David Sedaris, so that says a lot. This book was great, but I must confess I see short stories as his forte after reading this one. Enjoyable, regardless.
13. The Midwife's Apprentice-- The final book completed this summer was also a short one. It was a cute little tale, though, and of COURSE it was about following one's heart to do what makes one happy, and facing challenges that try to keep us from those passions we chase. Like I said, I'm such a sucker.

Anyone even get to the bottom of this?!

More bulletpoints because this blog is lonely and pathetic.

I am so jealous of the residence formerly known as apt212's ability to continue blogging diligently for audiences despite the distance put between them. This is obviously not the case for this blog team. :(

Before bullet point updates, I'd just like to selfishly share/reflect on how GOOD I feel about life and all that this year is bringing. Sure, lots of it is shadowed with uncertainty, but that uncertainty can also be translated into an openness to be carried wherever I am able to best serve and learn. To me, there seems to be a very powerful, positive energy flowing through campus, Chicago, the world, and my relationships with others. I hope I don't come down from this perfect high anytime soon....

-I have a cat. Her name is Dorian and, yes, she knows how to F-E-T-C-H. And she does not make me sneeze. It's ok to be jealous for good reason.

-I am currently working on my "I swear I'm actually going to keep up with my reading for classes" goal...And by working on it, I mean I've got it pulled up in my other tab while I blog. It's 10:15pm and I have a poo-ton to read before classes tomorrow. Such is life.

-I love my neighborhood. Come visit, or at least ask for my address and we can be penpals (though realize that this offer means that you will directly serve as a roadblock to my aforementioned personal school goal)!

-I am only spending 8.5 hours every week in classrooms=SPECTACULARLY freeing to my mind. Where, do you ask, is all my time going then? I am not going to bore you with the list of meetings and people who absorb most of my time, but I WILL tell you that Loyolacappella is already the shizzy and we haven't even had auditions yet (Sept 9-11, holla!), the Social Justice LLC is rockin' and my students are grabbing Rambler life by the horns, and Companions are out and about attacking ResHalls like it's our unpaid job (because it is). I also have to pick a site to do my SOWK 200 service learning at; I'm currently crossing my fingers to get my foot in the door for a treatment center for survivors of torture so that's new and challenging. Wish me luck in that endeavor. :)

-The lovely and handsome Patrick came to visit all last week! We didn't do hardly anything I had originally planned to show him, but we had a lot of porch talk and I consumed an ungodly amount of hot tea from my collection, so I would definitely consider it a successful week and wonderful bonding time (nevermind the fact that our sleep schedules were so out of whack and not really in synch-- I slept from 7:30pm to 1:30am on Saturday but I was fully energized to go wherever is OPEN at 1:30am!).

I miss my best friends and I wish they would come back to me in blog form.

Procrastination Fascination

Thought I'd keep Kate's rhyming title trend going.

So I move tomorrow. And based on my moving experience from less than a month ago, I bet you can predict juuuust how far along my packing is going. Bright side: I was up LAST night 'til 3:30 am packing until my mom came and told me I was keeping her awake because she could hear me in the basement. So I went to bed.

I'll attempt to keep this brief (first time ever? perhaps), but here are some highlights of my recent life:
- I saw shooting stars last night because of the meteor shower!
-Put In Bay was great fun!
-I had a surprise breakfast date with Patrick today at First Watch!
-I am moving in tomorrow!
-I get paid next week!
-I roadtripped yesterday and saw LOTS of really awesome people! I also went on a picnic on Tuesday and saw LOTS of really awesome people then, too. :)
-I get to have catch-up playtime with Austin sometime (more than once, even?) this weekend!
-I have talked to Salsa, Shawn, Jes, Chris, Katelyn, Dong, and Jacqui in less than a week's time-- it's a rare occasion that so many of my best friends and I are all communicating at once!
-I am getting SO EXCITED for this year's activities-- Loyolacappella, Social Justice Learning Community kids, Companions...We have such great energy and we aren't even all together yet!

And some lowlights, too, just so you aren't consumed with jealousy or anything:
-My TKD key got temorarily (?) revoked by Matt Forrest (Austin, back me up!).
-My boss left Loyola this week and the only reason I know is because she sent me a mass email at 2pm on the afternoon that WAS her last day. Mind you, this is the second boss from the second department I work in at LUC that has had a boss leave this summer...I am sad.
-My mother keeps getting mad at me for reasons unbeknownst to me.
-One of my scholarships is currently messed up and has potentially altered the state of my financial standing for this year. Whaa whaaa.
-Did I mention my inability/lack of desire to pack my life away?

Bye babies. :) Next post I write, I'll be settled happily in my new plizzace!

rachel anne in the frying pan

i'm waiting for rachel to get here! we are going for $1 beers. today has not been a good day. it's looking up. i think most people realize that rachel a. csonka and i have been friends since 1990. that's the longest friend i had, because that's pretty much the first year that i think i was allowed out of my parent's view for a few hours to go to preschool. (jacqui was also there, for the record. lots of my friends actually went to preschool with me which is sort of weird when i realize i'm 21 still hanging out with people that saw me in time out)

but rachel! she just got here. it's weird blogging about someone when they are sitting next to you. so off we go!

I always get talked into going to PIB.

For the record, Pia told me his cliffhanger debut was coming. I'm still losing sleep over what's to come...really.

So I went to Columbus for the last 2 days. Why, you ask? Well, the answer is quite simple: I needed a haircut, and my favorite stylist (you Cbus people should give her some business at Archie B's-- 1104 High St) recently moved from up here to down there. While I don't actually care that much about hair, I do care about having quality conversation if I'm paying $35+tip for someone to shear off my dead ends, so she always wins out and I refuse to commission anyone else for the job. (She also gives awesome cuts with little-to-no instruction.)

Anyway, I decided to make it an endeavor, so I went for 2 days instead of a 45-minute hair appointment. I didn't tell fellow DGCW teammate/blogger DanDan that I was there, and he'll never know because he doesn't even remember that this blog exists (remember my list of predictions from post #1? CHECK IT OFF.). Turns out he was probably macking on his visiting girlfriend, so he probs would have ignored my call anyways. The first night, we called random friends to go to dinner (we were already in the parking lot of the restaurant when we invited them...oops) and then we went to Ugly Tuna. Of course. Where else would we go? I GOT TO SEE TIM NUNN-- for all you OASC followers, his hair is short, he is doing awesomely, he has a job for the fall and he rides his bike everywhere while sporting a yellow helmet. :)

On Wednesday, Patrick took me to Northstar for lunch, where I ate the most excellent foods I've ever had (complete with a bombtastical strawberry smoothie!) and we took a stroll in the rose garden, where we saw a newly engaged couple looking so in love but then saw them fighting in the parking lot 15 minutes later. Ahhh, that's amore. We ventured south and visited 7 baby kitty cats who need to be adopted and my heart was stolen by them; I'm seriously considering taking one in, even though I've never had a cat and, as I told my sister, I am "mildly" allergic. Minor. When we went out that night, we ended up at Tuna yet again, and let's just say the end of the night was not pretty. Leslie got an unforgettable voicemail from Couch and me, though, so the night was not a complete wash. ;)

Jacqui and Shabizzy tag-teamed me and convinced me to go to Put-In-Bay tomorrow night...Again.
After I had originally told them absolutely not and been certain I wasn't going...Again.
I am already really broke...Again.

The memories will definitely be worth it, as it is the Bally Brothers Birthday Bar Bash (Shawn, were have you BEEN on this blog?!). I'm not wearing white shorts this time, and I am NOT allowing cameras around me after the pictures that surfaced last time I went. DOUBLE YIKES on my part.

Other highlights of my life:
Rascal Flatts tonight!
Moving into 5307 a week from this moment! YIPPEE!!

PAT!

pat! i am in total suspense!

but to the real point: i am very stressed out because i have my final poster presentation (the 3 foot x 4 foot SCIENTIFIC POSTER ON GLOSSY PAPER) due in which i thought was a week, but is really one day. TOMORROW it is due. and materials/methods is tricky because how specific is too much? and my professor is missing in action. like i'm going to CALL HER if she doesn't email me back in 2 hours. she has until 7 p.m. EST. so i keep typing and erasing, overthinking because i was underthinking, citing everything...

if this is what the professional world of science is like, i don't want to publish again. wow i'm really aiming high.

...

Are you ready? Because it's coming...

In need of some late-night entertainment?

Well first of all, you've come to the right place, and dontgochasingwaterfalls.blogspot.com is more than happy to have you at all hours. We're even open on holidays!

Second of all, if you are facebook friends with me (and if you aren't, don't request me unless i know you because that's really creepy, cyberworld), you should look at my wall. I've been peeing my pants/crying from laughing because my "kids" from camp last year are writing poems about me on my wall. They literally took over the ENTIRE thing.

WARNING: They are somewhat raunchy. Parental discretion is advised.

There's a back-story to the "poems"; they're called "Introduce Yourselves" and we do them at the middle school camps every year to describe/tease all of the staff-os about traits, inside jokes, or slip-ups that may have been a trademark of that person for the week. Obv, they're much more mild and light-hearted to suit the minds of the audience. The 2 people writing them on my wall are not only my former campers, but they're also counselors for those middle schoolers. And tonight, they are choosing to use their power for evil rather than good. MUAHAHAHA.

Here is a snippet to grab your attention:

My name is Molly
I love, "That's what she said,"
but in reality,
I have no experience in bed.
HEYYYYY WORKSHOP! :)

Untitled.

Molly! You have been so productive on the blog! Pat-on-the-back-from-afar!

So this weekend consisted of a whole lot of nothing. Saturday I sunn-ed with the roommates for approximately five hours and my skin is ivory, so now it is red. A couple good sun burns a year (please muffle your ears, surgeon general) actually feel o.k. to me, let's me know that i'm still alive, eh? But we ate popsicles, snuck into the pool that i was once kicked out of, and successfully went swimming.

Today I babysat two little boys (like age 2 and the other 10 months? 8 months? I'm bad at guessing ages, but the older boy can count and loves to say "mine, no, stop that, etc." and the littlest one says nothing but stands for about 10 seconds before falling) It was pretty easy, but my navy shirt still has gunk on it from unspecified amounts of slobber. It's nice getting out of the Bowling Green bubble though, even if i get pinched for a few hours.

Kevin Doan is bringing a Bulgarian friend (spelling?) from Put-In-Bay to Bowling Green tonight. They have called a couple of times already. I think they let you drink on the ferry on a Sunday night, so it's difficult to say if Kevin and his island friend have started yet or they are just really happy to make outgoing calls. So i need to make myself look presentable sometime soon, I just really dont have the desire to get off my Nanny's couch and reach for the clinique. Only 2 more weeks of work!! I have a really big poster presentation on Aug. 14 (i have to wear a suit!) and then I have a week off before school starts--I think I'm going to go home for a couple of days and kick it with la familia.

p.s.
my dad accidently texted me something meant for his lady friend today. nothing too creepy to read, but it did say "glad you finally got some rest WINK FACE " and that made my food come up a little bit in the throat.

My back hurts.

...from all of the hardcore carrying I'm doing on this blog. Teammates? Hellooooo?

Quick snapshot of my current interests, a format stolen from nogoodforme.com:

Listening: Pandora, Colin Hay station. It's mostly bringing up Mat Kearney, Dave, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne, and the man himself-- Colin Hay. I'm absolutely adoring it, nevermind the fact that it sometimes reads my mind and freaks me out.

Watching: How many times a day I eat because I despise having to rinse my wisdom holes with saline solution. And when I do eat, it's pretty much a certified binge because I have to make the 20 minutes of rinsing worth it.

Reading: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and passages in letters from my best friend Katelyn Marie Bonko.

Wearing: My signature teal gauchos!

Wanting: Furniture for my new apartment's living room, endless amounts of postage credit, Wednesday.

Keep your eyes peeled for the sporadic reappearance of this format! ;)

this one is pretty pointless.

how the heck are my cheeks still this big if i've been eating solid foods for 2 days and haven't felt pain since 2pm on tuesday-- no pain killers?! someone research if this is normal. wait, i'm the unemployed and bored-out-of-my-mind one, so i guess i can just do it instead.

i've decided to avoid blanche, rose, sophia and dorothy at all costs today. they wipe away any hope of me being mildly productive because they're on tv for a total of 6 hours every weekday. they also make me laugh, which hurts my cheeks. darn you, genius writers behind golden girls!

i'm having a slumber party with really cool people tomorrow night. counting down the hours...and crossing my fingers that i can actually sleep on one of my cheeks because i'm getting really tired of not being able to move much in my sleep.

pointless? a little. don't say i didn't warn you. :)
quick shoutout to my girl KATHLEEN GLACKIN for cowgirling up yesterday! I have no idea what she did to earn my shoutout, but i'm anticipating a great story and i'm so glad my phrase is spreading to memphis, TN. 8-)

g'bye! :) happy FRIDAY! and for all my former sh2ers, a little peace and love sent your way. ;)

Wise Update.

Heyooo!

I got the partially-impacted quartet removed yesterday around 9:45am, leaving my awesome supernumerary at peace in the top-left corner of my jaw. While I made a little joke about the anesthetic in my last post, it was seriously the only thing about the procedure that freaked me out because I've never been put under before. I considered requesting just a local instead, and decided to look up a few testimonials. The funniest one I found involved someone who requested local from a surgeon who was not used to operating on people who were awake, and thus was also not used to paying any attention to the gag reflex of a patient. Long story short, the patient "ended up barfing blood on [the surgeon], which was a joy for all involved." I seriously almost died of laughter and secretly hoped that I would be able to walk away from my procedure with a hilarious story like that. Alas, I didn't go with the local and everything turned out fine.

I am also not loopy in the least from any of the drugs. I woke up around 1 yesterday and was BORED out of my mind because I felt too weak to get out of bed but too awake to just lay around and act sick. My sis was cool enough to come up and play cards with me, but we laugh too much when we're together so that obviously brought about a little pain for my stitched gums.

I woke up today looking like a blowfish, which was surprising because yesterday I was barely even swollen. Contrary to what a really special person told me, I am not the cutest chipmunk you've ever seen. And I will not send any of you pictures of my hibernation sacks. No exceptions.

Today has been full of 3 things I love: back-to-back Golden Girls episodes, the Scrubs "roof toilet" episode, and pudding (sadly, sans Bailey's). Hopefully the healing process is already on its way out.

Bye, blog friends. And welcome back into the country, Sir Austin Fast! :)

Slacker McGees & My Lack of Blogtime.

The first half of the title is dedicated to everyone else who is part of this blog, which has unofficially (in an unintended way) become my own personal blog.

The second half of the title is the starting point of my blog. Now, we all know I suck at using fewer rather than more words on this thing, as I'm a little keyboard happy, but also keep in mind that I've had no TRUE internet access in almost 2 weeks. Does that count for nothing?!

1) Oxford. Many of our followers follow apt212, which has fully documented pretty much every moment of our night, either through the blogtastic description of events or through picture/vid posting on facebook. For those of you who don't follow (you definitely SHOULD), the night pretty much involved intense games that resulted in me being called a whore by my childhood soccer buddy because he was losing. Another highlight of the trip was me beating Nathan in a game of beer pong that was TOTALLY not captivating to me; I somehow pulled off a lucky/aimless shot that went into the cup Nathan was drinking out of, thus resulting in his immediate defeat. ::Virtual high five:: goes out to my teammate and good friend, MU Student Body Vice President, Adam Harris!

2) OASC Senior High Summer Workshop 2. UGHHHH! It was such an incredible week. We had 28 absolutely beautiful delegates who were way too clever and were able to discuss what they learned from every activity without us having to guide them very far. They grew so, so much as a group and learned so much about themselves and each other. I ended up saying at the end of the week that it is people/groups like that who make me feel so proud and blessed to have my "job" as a camp counselor. My "day" that I am in charge of is Tuesday (for reasons I will not speak in the off-chance that future potential delegates tune into this), and it was literally a flawless day in so many ways...This year proved more than EVER that I am a Tuesday person, through and through. Anyone with me on that? I was so sad to leave my wittle babies, but so thrilled with the way every single delegate walked out of that week as a more open, compassionate, thoughtful and constructive individual than s/he had walked in as. I also got to a) wear my butterfly pumps (any day involving those babies is a phenom day in my book) and b) have an indoor water fight during Thursday morning energizers with my "boss": him & a bottle of water vs. me & the tsunami x-blaster. It was invigorating, to say the least.

3)Columbus. I stopped on my way home from Dayton for an OASC reunion which was absolutely incredible. I love seeing old friends! :) Unfortunately for me, everyone I was with wanted to have breakfast together the next morning, so I ate at Bob Evans for the THIRD time in SIX days just before departure. I don't even like that place. Only during summer workshop season do I even consider dining there...We decided we're converting to First Watch next year, in case anyone cares. Anyway, I got to see the OSU Oval for the first time, and I also got a new pet alligator (Bianca) out of the deal, so I'd say it was well worth it!

4) Today. We (as in the el senors & senoritas) had a wine party at Shepka's (for those of you who don't know him, he's our former band director/stuco advisor/mentor in life). It was good company, as always, but I am an absolute and utter oenophile, so the wine was absolutely GLORIOUS. 2 bottles from Italy, 2 from Oregon, 1 from Napa Valley...As said a trillion times in my previous posts, red is by far my fave, but we had a delectable proseco (look it up) that made me more open to what white has to offer. Regardless, it was deLISH and we ended up chatting for more than 6 hours. I love my best friends so very much.

Tomorrow is the last day I can eat. Big decisions have to be made on what food items I should choose. I am having my wisdom teeth (not the supernumerary one, don't worry) out Tuesday, so there are a few scenarios that could result from the surgery: a) I will be out of commission on this blog for a short while, b) I will be bored out of my mind and will do nothing but blog while slightly hopped up on some sort of painkiller, or c) I will die from the anesthesia they give me because I don't know how I'll react to it until I'm exposed to it, and this will be my last blog entry EVER. ::nervous laughter:: Don't you think you should go tell the people you care about how much you love them right about now?

Oh, a direct result of me spending a week at an OASC event is an uncontrollable use of overly affectionate and endearing terms when referring to everyone/thing I encounter. Therefore, GOODBYE FOR NOW, MY LOVELY CUTIE BABY DARLING SWEET BEAUTIES!

Why lab work really knocks my flip flops off... WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING FOR A LIVING!

  I do not care what this page looks like, because I really think the educational value will be far beyond belief when you have the pictures to follow along with.  I think you'll find this blog interesting enough-- I mean it's a story much bigger than ourselves, which was the initial appeal to myself.  

Lake Victoria (pictured above) is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world, bordering Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.  The lake is relatively young; around 14,500 years ago there actually was no lake but just a big ditch.  The diversification of the species is really interesting to think about when you have such a short amount of time and over 400+ species to date.   Anyways, to boost fisheries, the NILE PERCH was introduced to the lake in the 1950s.  The population stayed at a low rate until a boom in mid 1980s.  NILE PERCH, pictured below.  Also, look at man in middle, yes it's okay to laugh.  Okay, so this fish is huge.

  When initially introduced, this fish was smaller--but it started eating everything.  So a group of scientists in 1984 teamed with the Kenyan government and built sampling stations in different types of waters, tracking native cichlid species.  Of the 123+ species originally caught at sampling stations, 80 had disappeared from the catches after 1986.  And to make matters more murky, 75% of the Nile Perch caught are exported to different parts of Europe, North/South America, and parts of East Asia.  And the perch are eating everything the fishermen used to catch for themselves to eat, so this situation didn't go as well as planned.

Typically three factors reduce populations to sizes where they are susceptible to stochastic (random) events: 1) genetic diversity 2) species diversity and 3) ecosystem diversity.  In my lab we are considering all three, but genetic diversity is easy to evaluate when you have samples that are worth considering.  

So the Toledo Zoo contacted my professor to look at the genetic diversity of a species of cichlid that is extinct in the wild, but they have 9 generations in the zoo.  COOL!  I'd love to help!  If the younger generations continue to mate with themselves, this obviously is bad for many self explanatory reasons.  There are four other zoos/aquariums that have this fish--3 are sending us samples to check out.

Using a PCR machine (polymerase chain reaction) [BELOW, but mine are way more trendy] you can amplify microsatellite loci.  Meaning you can tag certain alleles that label the animals as homozygotes, heterzygotes, but wait more specifically: you can actually put florescent markers on these alleles so when analyzed in a really trendy machine.... you can specifically identify what allele you are looking at.  This is extremely helpful in estimating relatedness of individuals.  To amplify the specific region on the DNA however, you need to know the sequence of the DNA pretty close to exact.  So for the first few months I worked here, I was running primers against the DNA to check and see if they even amplified anything at all.  (We are using 14, which is quite a few.  This is good)

So after a cycle is run in a PCR machine, I use my imagination and look at the clear liquid in the tubes.  To see if something actually happened, we are able to use GEL ELECTROPHORESIS.  When learning what I was doing in lab, I thought this part was the coolest but really I have to do a whole lot of waiting after I load the gel.  And one more side note: if you're looking for a profession, harvest seaweed.  When purified properly and used in agar, this shit goes for $400 bucks a pound.  I'm clearly going into the wrong field.  But after you have amplified a certain region of DNA, you can run the sample in what looks like a pretty clear-light-purplish color of jello (which you would NEVER eat, because I have to wear gloves when handling), and with a positive current, the negatively charged DNA will travel down the gel and you can take a picture using UV light! I run like 80 samples at a time.  That person clearly has a lot of waiting to do if they are only loading 3 samples at a time.

Then I take pictures!  We are just getting to the part where we can look at the alleles, and see which samples I need to re-run because the PCR didn't work for that individual, for whatever reason.  i.e., I hate fish #7 from the 7th generation, because I have to re-do that one for EIGHT primers.  That's a lot of re-doing.

I hope this has shed light on what the Toledo zoo saw fit to apply for a grant and hire me to see if we can reintroduce fish that helped the quality of Lake Victoria remain diverse and beautiful!  I want to go there some day!

Mad love, and more to come about our amazing wine party!!!

I was on the road for 3x as long as I slept...

This is my epic moving story from floor 3 1062 W. Columbia and into my mother's champagne-colored minivan.

This year, I formed a new life philosophy about putting my energy into people above all else, and this week was me living that out. Instead of packing, I opted to do awesome things like spend 6 hours at Brookfield Zoo with an LUC chaplain and his little girls, or have a delicious dinner party with friends, or go to Big Chicks and stay out until close. Such episodes are why my summer has been absolutely outrageous, but it also sets the stage for the most ridiculous moving scenario EVER.

After having ONLY fun on Monday and Tuesday, I get a call from my roommate Andi, whose boyfriend was supposed to help move the heavy things (my desk, pseudo-closet and unnecessarily dense kitchen table); Nima is no longer coming. Time: 9:30pm. At that point, I figure what's another half-hour, so I stay at the dinner party to help a friend finish her crossword until 10. Returning home, I have no idea how little me is going to get big furniture into the back of the van. I text my friend Aaron, asking how much free beer it would take for he and his roommates to help. No response. Time: 10:45pm.

We put it off for as long as we can, but come 11:15, we realize we just need to cowgirl up and move things ourselves down the treacherous spiral wooden stairs from our 3rd floor unit. The armoire is twice as wide as me and probably 50% taller than me, but we make it happen. It is definitely amusing for neighbors, if any of them are still awake. But we do it. In order to fit the desk, my stuff needs to go inside the armoire that's already in the van, so we stock it full.

Aaron calls.
He's at my front door.

We are ecstatic! He is with Spence, one of his roomies that I love, and they make moving the desk look so graceful that Kristi Yamaguchi resembles a child learning to walk. They go to slide the desk in and IT DOES NOT FIT. (Matt Forrest, I was screaming FML at 30 second intervals.) I had measured to make sure both would fit, but I measured INSIDE the van, not the doorway of the trunk, which is only slightly smaller. We have to remove the armoire and ALL of its contents in order to tilt the desk and put it in first.

Time: 1:35am. The van is loaded. All big things are in, including my mattresses/bedframe, which the boys went to work on without even being instructed to do so. All that's left are odds and ends, so I leave it for the morning and hand Aaron $14 to run to Isam's and grab some Goose Island. They return at 2am, and we proceed to relax on my roof until 4am, sipping, chatting about Loyola, and watching an almost-gang war happen across the street (3 cop cars!). I'm still scheduled to depart at 7:30am.

After the boys leave, Andi and I do the obvious thing that buzzed people do after 3 hours of moving-- we Sporcle. Once she retires, I gather items until 4:45am. I wake up at 8am, leave at 10:30, and stop in BG for a brownie. I also stop in Elyria to go SCOOTIN' on Rhonda the Honda scooter with my best friend Chrissa (who is supposed to be blogging on here...) and FALL IN LOVE WITH SCOOTER RIDING. I thank them in bottles of Goose Island not consumed the night before and finally make it home after 9 hours of being located SOMEWHERE between Chicago and Grafton.

Now time for unpacking/repacking for camp...Oxford tomorrow. You probably won't be hearing from me until next weekend because WORKSHOP IS ALMOST ALMOST HERE!!!!!!!!

Brownies!!!

I have this totally newfound obsession with baking.  Ever since I learned that things taste better when they are not burnt (I'm not sure why I used to burn things and then think I was totally original for eating it "crispy") I have really opened up the genre of people willing to eat my food.  Take for example Shawn.  He would eat anything, crispy or undercooked, and probably comment the same amount about the disaster.  Take for example, my roommate Andrea.  She would equally eat anything, but when she is actually enjoying it she would affirm you beyond belief and make you feel excellent about your creation.  So I'm going to make brownies tonight to sneak into HARRY POTTER so I can be the happiest person there.  

Yesterday was a rather uneventful day, but the sun was beautiful.  So I finished all my lab work early, called my good friend Rachel Csonka up, and suggested that was go to "The Enclave" (a mid-level apartment complex) to go swimming and lay out poolside.  Rachel agrees and we head over to meet Shawn, Netti, Emily Jones, and her friend (I think) Melissa.  This is a private pool, but we have walked through the gate a couple of times before without question.  Well, this unfortunate Enclave-employee (I would also hate my life if I worked there) came around and was asking people there apartment numbers, names, etc. and kicked out about half of the people at the pool.  No one was causing any trouble!  There is no certified life guard on duty, swim at your own risk!!  So Shawn coaxes me into saying my name is "Rosie" (Who happens to be Netti's girlfriend) and I live in apt. 523.  Rachel says she won't do it, and I do have blonde hair like Rosie, so here I go on the road to becoming a liar:

ME: "Hi, I'm Rosie.  I live in apartment 523."

SNOTTY EMPLOYEE: "What is your last name?"

ME: "umm...my last name is-- D'Riussario" (That is spelled phonetically correct, she is 100% Italian)

RUDE, SNOTTY EMPLOYEE: "Spell. That."

ME: "D U-R-I-S-A-R-I-O"

BITCH: "Again."

ME: "D'R-A-S-I-R-I-O. Do you see my name?"

BITCH: "Hmm. We have a Roseitta living in apartment 523 that actually spells her last name as D-I-R-U-G-G-I-E-R-O"

ME: "Hmm. Well perhaps your office can check that out."

Needless to say, Rachel and I drove off before she came back from checking things out.  And now because I'm a liar that is not very tan, I have to find a new option to become a bronze goddess, because I am no longer welcome at The Enclave.  No matter.  HARRY POTTER IS TONIGHT, and I have 100 more pages left in re-reading the book!  So this evening Andrea and I are going to bicycle to the Dollar Store, get some candy, bake some brownies, and have the best evening of cinema to date in the HARRY POTTER SAGA!!!!  The book is so so so good though.  Good luck, Rupert Grint.  I hope you're feeling better after your quick battle with The Swine.

Ride Slow... 

Do 1 Thing Every Day that Scares You

5 points (which can be redeemed in drink-of-choice form at a local Chicago establishment) go to the first person who can name what that line is from. Cheaters suck, so no Googling that. It's an easy one...

So have I mentioned in my previous posts how thankful I am for the incredible life I am living and for the best summer I've ever experienced? If I haven't, I would like this to be noted as a consistent feeling during the last 2 months.

This week only added to the fun. I was babysitting my best friend/boyfriend, a 7-month old toothless little creature named Michael, who happens to live in the neighborhood of Mike "Chitown" Johnson. So Thursday, I ventured out for dinner and drinks with Chitown and crew. (Side note: suburb mosquitos are much more persistent than city 'skeeters.) While out, I met someone who went to college with someone I went to camp with after freshman year of high school. Small world, big OASC network-- what's new. ;)

Friday was low-key. I spent my evening in Joann Fabric buying workshop supplies and a used bookstore browsing to my heart's content. I think used books are so powerfully cool-- they have a story beyond the words on the page, because they used to sit on the shelves of someone else's house, and they probably traveled places where they would be read. Have you been to more countries than I have, used book? C'est possible. Anyway, I had really great conversation with former campers of mine, which put me in the perfect mood to start gearing up for workshop (countdown: 6 days!). I miss so many of those "kids," but one of my very favorite parts of being a camp counselor is seeing what all of them have evolved into after all these years I haven't been able to see them. It is humbling and really speaks to the passion I have for youth development.

Saturday, ohhh Saturday. MEAG CAME BACK! Meag, one of my roomies, was in Mallorca (Spain) for the first half of summer. But this Saturday, she came into the city to hang out with me. We went to lunch at Heartland, popped a squat on the new quad in front of the IC and did wonders for the image of Loyola's student life as hoardes of prospectives shuffled by on giant weekend tours, and then we went to the beach, which has really turned into my second home since the weather took a turn for the better. If I was tan before, I am now sepia, or at least copper. Thing #1 that I did that day that I was afraid of? Swam in the depths of Lake Michigan. I'm not afraid of water, and I'm not really THAT afraid of water I can't see the bottom of, but I am terrified of the undertoe stories we heard during our "lake safety" lectures when I was a child. BOOYA, undertoe...you do not rule my life.

Cue arrival of big sister Kelly. First, let me preclude this entry by saying that my sister and I have been introduced by Shawn as being "exactly alike." Our friend James also told us earlier this summer that we were "the white version of Sister, Sister, only not twins." We laugh the same, say the same comments and usually think what the other one is thinking at any given moment. AWESOME.

We headed to the Ben concert, which was actually a 21+ church fundraiser in the West Loop. On the way, the only exciting thing that happened was a sighting of a little boy (seriously, age 5 probably) who had the most killer calves I have ever seen. They were like Dong Song's, only on a pre-kindergardener. At the event, all of the volunteers who were "working" were also boozing as hard (nope, definitely harder) than all of the non-volunteers. We found out shortly after seeing Mike-the-worker so drunk that he was doing MJ's "anti-gravity" move (kudos to my sister for that colorful imagery) that volunteers drink for free. Sounds like they got the winning deal out of that one! We also won in that department, because our first drink was poured by volunteer Phil, who had also clearly been drinking, and he told us his beer line was "the line to be in all night," which we wholeheartedly agreed to when we walked away with all of our beverage tickets still in hand.

Our second drink costs were footed by my newfound fleeting boyfriend, Lance, or as I like to call him, Lancepants. Let me clarify that we did not flirt for or ask for drinks from them, but they offered to refill ours and wouldn't take reimbursement afterwards. Fear #2 that was faced? I drank out of a cup that potentially not just my lips had been on. The cups got may or may not have gotten mixed up in the refill process, and me being the germophobe that I am, I would not usually tolerate such potentially careless switching of mouth juices. However, they were being nice and I was watching a badass concert in sweltering heat, so I cleared those thoughts from my head and enjoyed a delicious (free) brewski. Ben played an excellent set list of new songs and classic sing-alongs from his previous albums. He played "Army," which allowed for a sisterly-twin moment because the line, "My redneck past is nipping at my heels" made both of us shout out, "ELYRIA!"

On our way to meet up with our friend Mike (not to be confused with drunk-worker-Mike) and his hat Aristotle (see image at paragraph break), we saw the King of Mullets ride by on a bike, and I am a hardcore mullet lover so that was a for sure highlight. We encountered drunken Ben fans who were singing on the street, so naturally we indulged their behavior and sang in harmony with them. We also rode the train home with Walker, Texas Ranger, which was cool because I've never met a celebrity in Chicago before.

Sporcle was my main finals week pastime, but it is also a tradition to play every mildly interesting game with my sister when she's here, and today's Sporcling led us to realize that Michael Richards is being featured on one of the the newly-released 2009 US pennies. Check that shit out-- Seinfeld really IS a cultural icon!

Zucchini Muffins and Marley

Good morning y'all! I am currently enjoying a cup of coffee and zucchini muffins (arguably my favorite part of every day). Who'd a thought zucchini and muffins could bring their powers together to form a wonderful breakfast delight, right? Add a Bob Marley play list to that mix and you've recreated my current state!

Well it is Thursday and I am yet to blog about the Chi-city. While I realize I may be overdue, I couldn't let such a poetic weekend (reference to the artistic works of Becky Hammer) pass by with no explanation. I would like to first pay some homage to the Song Family (no this is not a collection of musical pieces). Not only did Mrs. Song's presence and generous nature make Friday night everything that it was, but I watched her share a 30 oz beer with her son! I would also like to throw some love to Mr. Song who, despite our 30 sec. attempt at a conversation via cellular phone with the absence of a translator, told Mrs. Song to be sure to show Dong and his friends (and family) a good time in the Chi. However nothing was more priceless in that night than watching Dong pull his tiny little mother through a Chicago crowd of thousands, especially when he took off running with her after he mistakenly heard a 2 guys taunting each other into fighting (which actually turned out to be an officer yelling at some hoodlums). Oh yea, and then there was a young man by the name of Michael Johnson who after cursing at a Taxi driver for his incompetence (most likely this was not the case but rather Johnson's inability to communicate when intoxicated) was dropped off no where near what he had been told over 20 times. No worries, we found him...well kind of.

As Saturday approached, I anticipated the feeling of being dumped Into the Wild, surviving on only Dasani water bottles and 5 dollar foot-longs. I did much research on what to wear to void off predators (Hulk Rules bandanna) and how to entertain oneself to fight off insanity (songs that take 1,482 seconds to sing. Refer to calculations at bottom of page). The hiking excursion turned out to be a 5 mile nature walk with the discovery of 3 things: rain, baby frogs, and 99 bottles of beer (or one water bottle). For the confused mind, these are all items for which we could have located in Ohio. However, beyond the frequent silent whining of my fellow hikers (body language speaks louder than words), I enjoyed the hiking experience simply because I got to use my boyscout hiking pack (that's right, Smola) and I truly survived the Wilderness...of a paved State Trail.

All in all, the Bear-Grylls-of-a-weekend taught me to never trust Ohio's Thursday's perception of Chicago's Saturday's weather, I may postpone my Alaskan adventure until a later date (never), if camping is your sole priority for a weekend, find someone you know that lives close, and I would like to make a move for Subway to advertise "5 dollar, 5 dollar, 5 dollar waterproof foot-looongs."

How long does 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall take to sing?:

-Verse 1 is 4 measures long (4 beats a measure) comprising a verse of 16 beats or counts.
-Given that there are 99 verses in the song (assuming each bottle is a verse), it takes 396 measures to complete the song (or 1,584 beats/counts). Let's call this number "1584".
-How long will it take to complete the song while hiking 2.5 miles? Let's call the equation "1,584X."
-The average singer of this tune may allocate 1 second for every count (X=1 second). One with a simple mind would then say that it takes 1,584 seconds to complete the song.
-However with frequent on/off jogging and the additional factor of tossing a water bottle, this number does not accredit the exhaustion that sets in.
-A fluctuation of +/- 2 seconds for every measure must be added depending on the pace and condition of the singers.
-Since the singers in this case began with a normal pace, but became tired near 49 bottles remaining (or 16 measures x 49 seconds = 784 seconds), we may subtract 2 seconds for every measure after and including the 49th bottle verse. [784 seconds - (2 seconds x 49 verses)] = 686 seconds for 49th and under.
-We may then add this to the time of the first 50 bottles (800 seconds + 686 seconds = 1,486 seconds).
-But Wait!! At some point in the last 30 verses, due to slippery conditions, Miss Molly Dull dropped the participating water bottle, causing her to back track on the trail and delaying the entire operation by 4 seconds (1,486-4 = 1,482 seconds).
-1,584 - X = 1,482 seconds, where X = -102 seconds
- We may conclude then, that it takes approximately 1,482 seconds to complete the singing of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall on a 2.5 mile hike in the raining conditions of Waterfall Glen trail!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

As of 7:11pm CST on Wednesday, July 8, 2009, book #11 of my summer has been overtaken. Somebody stop me!

And for the record, I'm really disheartened that my two efforts to get people to interact with my DGCW posts have been absolute flops. Whaaa whaaa

Enlightenment.

I have been preoccupied with very important beach time, as the past 3 days in Chicago have been GLORIOUS weather-- quite different from the last 2 months. I'm back to my brown bear self after some much-needed alone time with me, the waves and loads of reading material. Fun fact #1: I'm currently on books #11, 12 and 13 of the summer. (!!!!!!) What have y'all been reading?

I've also been busy packing. Tomorrow starts the 1-week countdown of my move from 1062 (the lovely apartment Miss Katelyn mentioned). As for my next humble abode, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a real closet, but I won't go too crazy with my dreaming! Fun Fact #2: If you keep your food in a refrigerator and your clothes in a closet, if you have a roof over your head and have a bed to sleep in, you are richer than 75% of the entire world population. ;)

This weekend was superb. Shabizz really needs to tell the good stories, but I had an excellent time with the BG crew here. I tend to believe that getting rained on is cathartic, so I have no need to complain about our hike. I loved singing (screaming?) "99 bottles of beer on the wall,"(Fun Fact #3: This song is derived from the British song, "Ten Green Bottles.") re-visiting the Terrace 2 days in a row (though they probably think I'm a lush), Mrs. Song treating us to $5 margaritas, and getting my hands on a delish jar of lingonberry preserves from IKEA (mmmm!). Fun Fact #4: Lingonberries are rich in many nutrients, including vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and those highly valued Omega-3s that are all the rage these days. I temporary lost my voice (again) because of the amount of jamming we did-- totally worth it. The el (there's your answer, Kate. Fun Fact #5: "El" actually stands for "ELevated train.") was NOT our friend on the 3rd; it stopped at every stop north of downtown with its doors open for 3-10 minutes (I resorted to timing it on my phone) while Johnson and I both suffered from extremely full bladders (Fun Fact #6: That's 10 stops before Loyola's on the Red Line.). I cite Matt Forrest as I say, "FML." All in all, it was a truly refreshing outdoor camping excursion, though it ended up being neither of those things. Becky's fam was awesome to us! :)

This weekend, my beautiful big sis is driving in so we can see Ben Folds for the 3rd time together. Fun Fact #7: Those 3 shows have all been in different cities that start with "c." Until I move, I'm enjoying a dinner date each night with different really cool people who are willing to oblige me with their company before I desert them for the Buckeye state. ;) Fun Fact #8: The buckeye is a poisonous nut, which also translates into being a really non-intimidating school mascot.

Speaking of which, OASC SENIOR HIGH II SUMMER WORKSHOP IS IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!!!!!! Tuesday is the day I lead, so exactly 2 weeks from now I'll be making magic with 20-something lovely darlings from all over Ohio. My Oxford trip is the night before, and I'm wreaking havoc in Dayton and Columbus for 2 consecutive nights after camp. My body/mind will be exhausted, but I figure I'll have plenty of time to sleep after my wisdom teeth removal, scheduled to go down on 28 July. (Fun Fact #9: I have an EXTRA wisdom tooth-- yes, like 5-- and the fifth one is called a "supernumerary tooth.")

To wrap up this incredibly informative post (you know you liked the colors AND the wisdom), I shall enlighten you a bit on my favorite animal, the butterfly, for Fun Fact #10: Butterflies can see ultraviolet light. Radical! 8-)

Tall House Blend

Judging by the title of this article, yes I'm becoming a little homesick. I think it's mostly because I keep getting teased when I see all of my excellent friends from home and then I mosey on back to my college house where the only thing to eat is noodles and some sort of deli-sandwich and I instantly feel nostalgic.

But to recap the very exciting weekend in chi-city! Molly's apartment/flat/top-floor-of-a-huge-house was AMAZING! Looked a lot like her: long white walls, bedrooms were all painted a different color, wooden flooring, bright flowers, I don't know if "Molly" is an adjective but I'm going to end with "Molly." [And just so I feel better about my house, my bedroom is NOT plain for the record.] But we went to a very trendy restaurant Friday evening after an obnoxious ride on the "L" or "EL" or whatever the written abbrev. is for "Elevated Train." The restaurant was called "Feast" (http://www.feastrestaurant.com/)---I do not know how to post links like you guys do---and our waiter was an asshole because we didn't want to order a $17 glass of wine. I like wine, but I usually buy a box and end up slapping the bag by the end of the night. Food was premium, however. We went to The Terrace that Molly recently blogged about; to her dismay the exact same host was working as the night before that she took her friends there--kind of funny.

I will let Shawn post about Johnson or our hiking excursion, it may be funnier coming from him because all of have to say about hiking in the rain is: Wait for the rain to stop before you start a nine mile hike.

On Saturday after hiking we went (sopping wet) to an IKEA!!! This is one of my favorite stores EVER!!! You can eat, furnish an entire house, and get lost in a warehouse all in one trip!!! Becky was less excited about this stop (but still she did not complain once) because she lives a mere ten minutes away from the heaven we visited. The closest Ikea we have in Cleveland (or the one my Dad seems to jump to is in Pittsburgh and that's a long drive in my little brother's truck). I got the coolest wall sticker to spruce up my plain room, a knife (because we do not have one knife in my whole house), and a toilet brush scrubber for 99 cents. I also got cake. See what I mean?!? Cake AND decorative items. You can't beat that shit.

Quite a bit more happened over the weekend, but it's time for me to go check out my drying gel. I will blog soon about what I actually do in lab, because I sound like all I do is wait for things to dry at work. Much love from afar...

Gossip.

So I know I just posted but there have been so many "rumors" and "words on the street" flying about this that I feel it deserves a post of it's own.

I'M COMING TO OXFORD IN TWO WEEKS.

Just for the night. I have to be in Dayton by 11am the next morning, so there will be no breakfast scramble like last time Adam Harris, but I will be there and I will be ready for Oxfun. And I owe Matt Forrest a Chicago-brewed beer whilst I am there.

And also, Nathan and I are going to dominate all of you. "In what," you say. Well, that's irrelevant. We will dominate in everything, so just don't get your hopes up is what I'm trying to say.

So it's confirmed. Now please stop putting my name and the word rumor in the same sentence. :-P

I'm Caught in Suspension.

Eli just left an hour ago and I am waiting for a carful of falcons to arrive in 2.5 hours-- I'm literally suspended in a fairly useless amount of time waiting for the best summer of my life to continue (shoutout to Loyolacappella for the title of this post, yeah?). Lucky for me (and all of you-- our THIRTEEN followers!!), blogging is a great filler for that "fairly useless" amount of time. ;)

I babysat Tuesday, and the 2 siblings (in 7th and 5th grade) filmed an entire commercial for a cleaning company called the DustBusters, inspired by them having to vacuum the cookie crumbs they decorated my backseat of my car with on our way home from the library. After watching it, I wondered why kids don't actually control the world-- they are still in touch with their imaginations so they are SO creative, they aren't afraid of looking silly and they are all interested in learning. I say we nominate an adolescent as president in the next election.

Eli's visit was absolutely awesome. Not only was it great spending time with him, but it was motivation for me to pay $2.25 to take the CTA places, which is something I don't usually feel like splurging on when I'm flying solo. I showed him RoPo, Andersonville, Wrigleyville, Lakeview, Lincoln Park and literally the entirety of downtown, from Pearson Ave all the way to the S. Loop. We talked politics (can you imagine-- people are able to do this in a civil manner!), our childhoods, our futures, and things that set us on fire (in a good way). All of this conversation happened over great food and drink: my homemade black bean burgers, the wine from Italy (which was deLISH!), buffalo tofu, yummy beers from Hopleaf and Uncommon...the list goes on forever, since this is the best food city in the country.

I think my favorite meal of the visit, though, was last night's dinner. A fellow OASCer, Chris, who is one of my close friends despite the fact that we don't ever see each other, is actually in Chi city for the summer, so he met us for a late dinner. I found an outdoor terrace in the heart of the city with great food, a spectacular view and lots of open air. We sat for 2+ hours and enjoyed the reunion (and some bomb-awesome falafel)...I loved the catch-up time! Special guest appearance of the week goes to Steve Zeisler from NC. He put up with our obnoxious late-night phone call.

Anyway, I was able to be confirmed in a lot of the things I've been thinking and feeling about myself/my life path lately, which is one of the reasons I enjoy getting back to my roots and reconnecting with people who have watched me grow and understand what is important to me. Thanks for the clarity, E! :)

So now, Katelyn, Becky and Shawn are en route for another excellent couple of days. Of course we're headed downtown to check out Taste of Chicago, but I am not a fan of dawdling crowds who stand where you're supposed to walk and don't realize that there are 100,000 other people around them, so I am much more anticipatory of our camping expedition. Apparently, our back-up plan if we don't get a campsite is a camping trip in Becky's backyard in the 'burbs. I won't complain-- how many times have we camped in backyards?! As long as I get to put my awesome tent to use, you can count me in!

Until they arrive, I'll be calling all of the lovely first-years I get to hang out with in the Social Justice Learning Community next year and polishing Rhianna's "Take a Bow," which I just taught myself to play on the guitar. I know you're jealous.

Question of the day: Is chivalry dead, is chivalry sexist or has chivalry evolved into a way of treating people that ANY gender can act out toward ANY OTHER gender? I'm interested in everyone's thoughts. Play nice, though, friends! :)