Let the good times roll…
I was on the phone with my mom the other night. We were talking casually about something or other (this usually consists of me talking about school and then her quickly switching the subject back to her housework and what she fixed my Dad for dinner last night). There was a little pause in the conversation when she decided to speak up again, saying, “Wellll…I wasn’t going to say anything…But your father and I are coming to see you at school next weekend! Surprise!”
^^^ “You’re WHAT?!”
I’m not going to lie to you readers; at first, I was like, “Oh no.” This is going to sound horrible, but understand that to a college junior in the throws of Biochemistry, Physics, Invertebrate Zoology, and Plant Taxonomy, every minute not spent doing homework or reading is a minute wasted…and that includes peeing! I don’t have much time to go shopping with Mom and Dad on their weekend getaway, as much as I love them.
But then I decided I should “carpe diem” and enjoy their two-day visit. We’ll eat out, see each other’s faces (I haven’t seen them since the middle of January), and I will let THEM go shopping while I hang back to get some work done.
^^^ Let the happy couple shop-shop-shop away.
And about classes, things are going very well! I am not making straight A’s, though I hope to get there (I think I have all A’s and one B right now…darned spineless creatures!). But the gauntlet has just begun and there is much to be seen and learned before the semester is over.
The most important matter of it all is that I am REALLY enjoying my classes and professors this semester! I feel like every class I am taking has a purpose and each little bit of info that I soak up is going to help me in my career as a scientist. I know this is like, “Duh,” but really, I go into class with true purpose. It’s nice having that feeling.
^^^ Haha!
On a side note, Lafonda made dinner tonight. We have roommate dinner nights every Thursday night and the three of us rotate who selects the main course and prepares all the food! Occasionally we will ditch the aprons and go out to dinner but tonight was “Hungry Man’s Dinner,” and it was SOOO good. Baked beans with ground beef baked in a casserole dish with homemade biscuits on top! YUMMY! We had some fruit and a side salad with it as well and as always, shared a bottle of wine.
^^^ It looked like that! She had the biscuits on top of the bean and beef casserole and then baked it all together! Delicious!
This whole “Roommate Dinner Night” has really taken hold in our apartment and I encourage any other roommates who read these to try it out. Or even in your families! Just pick a night that is reserved for you and your family…and you guys ONLY! None of us miss this night for anything- it’s a rule. We take our time, play some jazzy music, and toast before we dig in. I love my girls. : )
^^^ Ok…we don’t wear high-heels all that much BUT when I typed “Girlfriends” into Google and saw this image, my jaw dropped. Cher has very short brown hair, Lafonda has vibrant red hair to her shoulders, and I have kinda choppy, straight dirty-blond hair. Ha!
Finally, one last tid-bit. Relay for Life fundraising in going incredibly well! The Chemistry Club is the #2 contributor on the entire CAMPUS right now and we’re holding strong! We have a huge fund raising event coming up at a local sushi place– the restaurant agreed to give us 10% of one evening’s profit to us for the American Cancer Society! Heck yeah! Fight cancer!
^^^ Fight cancer with Sushi!!!
So right now, the good times are rolling and I felt like talking about it. Have a nice weekend everyone!
^^^ YAY!
Dodgeball: Round 1
So last Thursday night at the ripe hour of 8:00 p.m., the Chemistry Club played their first Dodgeball game for the University Intramural Sports program. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I am the Secretary for our Chemistry Club and we officers take a lot of pride in our organization. Our president whom I shall call “Curie” after Marie Curie (a great chemist) started this team to bring our members closer in the fun event of sportsmanship. And she was right! We had TONS of fun. Admittedly, I wasn’t looking forward to this game since I haven’t played a team sport since, oh, seven years ago at best. I tend to enjoy individual physical exertion like hiking and kayaking…MAYBE tennis. But team sports have never been my forte.
^^^Individual sports are fun for me.
What I haven’t mentioned is how badly we got beaten. Each round is supposed to last 5 minutes–there are 9 rounds. I was a little frightened when I saw the other team. It was all male (not that gender REALLY matters) and our team has a healthy male-to-female ratio. They weren’t 5-star athletes but they had STRATEGY and they communicated really well. It was easy to see that they were more experienced than we were. Our first round lasted about twenty seconds. Luckily, Curie has a great arm and can throw the heck out of that ball. I turned out to be a relatively good dodger. Our two team captains who participate in the club as members did a great job too. Considering the fact that we had no practice and little to no experience, I’d say we did pretty well considering what we were up against…even though we lost by a long shot.
^^^That about sums it up. It really helps that there was a whole movie named after this sport when I am searching for images on Google.
The big beefy man-team turned out to be very nice and gave us some pointers. We scrimmaged after our very short game and one of their team members actually came to our side of the court and played with us for a bit! With a good first experience under my belt, I am much looking forward to the upcoming dodgeball games.
Other than dodgeball, things have been going well. Classes are moving right along and I am realizing how quickly time moves when one doesn’t pay attention. Spring break will be here in two weeks and after that, I only have about six weeks left until summer break!
^^^I hike to this waterfall at least once every summer. I am very much looking forward to getting back there.
And in lue of that, I must be going. It’s a Sunday night and I think that I will retreat to my bed for relaxing evening with Jane Austin. I will leave you with some handy rules for the game of dodgeball that I found at http://www.dodgeballusa.com/rules.html, just in case you ever find yourself in a situation where you might need them. Play ball!
The following is an abbreviated version of the rules printed in the Official NADA Rule Book.
Teams will be made up of 6-10 players. Six(6) players will compete on a side; others will be available as substitutes. Substitutes may enter the game only during timeouts or in the case of injury.
The game may be played indoors or outdoors. The playing field shall be a rectangle at least 50 ft long and at least 30 ft wide, divided into two (2) equal sections by a center-line and attack-lines 3m from, and parallel to the centerline.
IDEAL MEASUREMENTS: 60’ x 30’ – Identical to a volleyball court. 
The official ball used in tournament and league play will be an 8.25″ rubber-coated foam ball.
The object of the game is to eliminate all opposing players by getting them “OUT”. This may be done by:
1. Hitting an opposing player with a LIVE thrown ball below the shoulders.
2. Catching a LIVE ball thrown by your opponent before it touches the ground.
Definition: LIVE: A ball that has been thrown and has not touched anything, including the floor/ground, another ball, another player, official or other item outside of the playing field (wall, ceiling, etc)
During play, all players must remain within the boundary lines. Players may leave the boundaries through their end-line only to retrieve stray balls. They must also return through their end-line.
Game begins by placing the dodgeballs along the center line – three (3) on one side of the center hash and three (3) on the other. Players then take a position behind their end line. Following a signal by the official, teams may approach the centerline to retrieve the balls. This signal officially starts the contest. Teams may only retrieve the three (3) balls to their right of the center hash. Once a ball is retrieved it must be taken behind the attack-line before it can be legally thrown.
The first team to legally eliminate all opposing players will be declared the winner. A 3-minute time limit has been established for each contest. If neither team has been eliminated at the end of the 3 minutes, the team with the greater number of players remaining will be declared the winner. Details on overtime can be found in the NADA Rule Book.
Each team will be allowed one (1) 30 second timeout per game. At this time a team may substitute players into the game.
In order to reduce stalling, a violation will be called if a team in the lead controls all six (6) balls on their side of the court for more than 5 seconds. This also applies to tied teams. More details can be found in the NADA Rule Book
During pool play or regular-season matches, rules will be enforced primarily by the “honor system”*. Players will be expected to rule whether or not a hit was legal or whether they were legally eliminated. All contests will be supervised by a court monitor*. The court monitor’s responsibility will be to rule on any situation in which teams cannot agree. THE COURT MONITOR’S DECISION IS FINAL – NO EXCEPTIONS.
*NOTE: During tournament play, All Semi-Final and Final Round matches will be officiated by no less than three (3) N.A.D.A. Officials. These officials will rule on all legal hits, out-of-bounds and 5-second violations.
Top 5 apartment essentials.
Readers! I have not forsaken you! This past week has just been really busy. It seems like I have an exam in EVERY class all of a sudden. Yesterday (Thursday), I had a quiz, a lab practical, a presentation, and a lecture exam ALL IN ONE DAY. And the latter three were all in Invertebrate Zoology. If I see another Paramecium, I’ll need Valium. Then I had a Physics exam this morening that I only had one night to prepare for since I was too busy worrying about all that other stuff earlier in the week. But all in all, it hasn’t been so bad. : ) I am still enjoying this semester much more than the last.
In light of this, you all can imagine that my roommates and I are quite settled into our apartment. And I am beginning to realize that there are certain things I am used to having at home that I would never have thought about needing at school that I now need…if that makes sense. In other words, little non-descrpt items that we keep in our homes that a college student doesn’t ever think about purchasing. Of course, I created a list.
1. Goo-Gone (Do you know how much sticker residue has accumulated in all our lives? From recently purchased binders/notebooks to picture frames and reusable water bottles, you need this stuff to get off all that GOO that remains on your stuff! Not to mention if you have a gooey spill.)
^^^ Amazing stuff! Use it on anything gooey!
2. WD-40 (When we first moved into our aparement, we noticed quickly that the door to my and Cher’s room squeaked very loudly. So loud it squeaked that even Lafonda could hear it in her own separate room!)
^^^ No sqeak, no more!
3. Resolve or another carpet cleaner. (For all the spills that occur in your dining room…which happens to be over a carpeted area next to our “living room”/ “study room”)
^^^ Resolve to get your carpet stains up!
4. Vaccuum cleaner bags! (You may remember to bring a vaccuum cleaner, but do you have the bags to go with it?)
^^^ VROOOOOOM!
5. And finally, a plunger! (Need I say more? Haha!)
^^^ Hilarious!
So if you are moving into a new apartment or home, remember these things! Have a GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!
Just need to write…
I don’t know exactly why, but I feel the need to write tonight. I don’t have a topic picked out; I figured I would just ramble.
My experiment on the possibility of my being sensitive to gluten is going quite well and I think I might be on to something! It would be a little far-fetched to say that I have a huge case of Celiac’s disease. But it would be realistic to hypothesize that I have a sensitivity to whole grains. For the past few days, I have been limiting myself to only one small serving of refined flour per day (ex: my favorite peanut butter Kashi bars have oats in them; once I eat one, my gluten quota has been exceeded for one day).
^^^ It’s my little sin.
I am presently trying to collect money for Relay For Life (official fundraiser for the American Cancer Society). This is my second year as the team captain for the Chemistry Club, and as the secretary of the club, I feel that I must jump on this money usurpation as soon as possible. So for any friends or family who might be reading this, if you have any spare change or you want to donate, let me know! : )
^^^ I don’t go to this college but I thought this was a pretty picture of the luminarias. : )
My back kinda hurts…I think I have been slouching at my desk(s).
I put brackets around the “s” because I have many work spaces during the day. I work at several desks in several different classrooms located in several different buildings. Then I work in the library, at Mogli’s apartment, or in MY apartment (at my real desk).
My classes are scaring me. Last semester was busy. This semester is learning on steroids.
But I’m OK with that! And I remain excited about all the knowledge I will gain! Seriously.
Chemistry Club formed an intramural dodgeball team. I have never been very team-sports oriented and typically enjoy the one-man activities like kayaking or hiking. But I signed up anyway because I think it will be a lot of fun! And it gives me an excuse to closely study the film “Dodgeball.”
^^^ If you can dodge a rench, you can doge a ball.
I wish life were a little more like a Marc Chagall painting. My 2009 calendar is all paintings by Chagall. I look to my left and there is this beautiful rooster, looking at me with his left eye, feathers fluffed up, and rising above a small town shaded in hues of violet. A bride dressed in red stands before him with her eyes diverted in the same direction. I wander what it is that they see? Is it something mysterious? Or is it simply the viewer? That’s what I will believe.
^^^ I couldn’t find the exact painting but this is “typical” Chagall. Just beautiful.
Ugh…c’mon spring. Get here already.
Mogli is taking me out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate our half-year anniversary! I love eating alone with him.
And now abruptly, I say goodnight. I have more studying to do.
