Mood: Giggly
Happy thought: Clean laundry
Wow, I've noticed a lot of class-choosing Facebook statuses the past week. Guess the new classes have been posted...
Shame I don't have to worry about that ;)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
71 days and counting
Through my involvement with Alpha Phi Omega, the campus service fraternity, I sometimes help out with events for Boy Scouts. This weekend I'm volunteering at Merit Badge University where boy scouts come from all over the state (in this case to University of Iowa in Iowa City) and complete a variety of badges.
Drake hosted one a couple of years ago, but it wasn't nearly as big as this one. Here we have more than 1,500 scouts and 100 APO volunteers. It's insane.
Anyway, I was assigned to teach the Chemistry badge with a girl from the University of Iowa. Now, I'm a journalism and English major. So... the last time I had anything to do with Chemistry was probably six or so years ago.
Naturally, I simply assumed the U of I gal I was with had a science background and I could just be her little helper for the day.
Not so.
As it turns out, she's an English major, too. So there we were, two English majors, attempting to muddle through middle school-level chemistry, being shown up left and right by some high school boys who were actually IN chemistry.
Sadly, I had actually helped with the Chemistry badge at Drake two years ago. But my friend Ryan, a pharmacy student who had been around the chemistry block a time or two, did the teaching part. I got to be the clean-up helper/Vanna White assistant. And I am by no means complaining. Because while he explained the transfer of electrons in a chemical reaction, I wiped down desks.
Unfortunately, I had to actually teach stuff this time and had little to no idea what I was talking about. I tried and tried and tried to remember anything of what Ryan said, but couldn't. Heck, I tried to remember anything of what ANYBODY had ever once told me about chemistry.
I gave up. After we fumbled our way through the badge requirements and several failed experiments, we watched Bill Nye The Science Guy instead.
Drake hosted one a couple of years ago, but it wasn't nearly as big as this one. Here we have more than 1,500 scouts and 100 APO volunteers. It's insane.
Anyway, I was assigned to teach the Chemistry badge with a girl from the University of Iowa. Now, I'm a journalism and English major. So... the last time I had anything to do with Chemistry was probably six or so years ago.
Naturally, I simply assumed the U of I gal I was with had a science background and I could just be her little helper for the day.
Not so.
As it turns out, she's an English major, too. So there we were, two English majors, attempting to muddle through middle school-level chemistry, being shown up left and right by some high school boys who were actually IN chemistry.
Sadly, I had actually helped with the Chemistry badge at Drake two years ago. But my friend Ryan, a pharmacy student who had been around the chemistry block a time or two, did the teaching part. I got to be the clean-up helper/Vanna White assistant. And I am by no means complaining. Because while he explained the transfer of electrons in a chemical reaction, I wiped down desks.
Unfortunately, I had to actually teach stuff this time and had little to no idea what I was talking about. I tried and tried and tried to remember anything of what Ryan said, but couldn't. Heck, I tried to remember anything of what ANYBODY had ever once told me about chemistry.
I gave up. After we fumbled our way through the badge requirements and several failed experiments, we watched Bill Nye The Science Guy instead.
Friday, March 5, 2010
72 days and counting
Mood: giddy
Happy thought: SUNSHINE!!!
I like to dance. A lot. Like a crazy person. Usually in my kitchen, barefoot, with my iPod in my ears.
My roommate works nights now and after spending an hour or so of veg time on the sofa, I spend the next couple busting a move to some pretty bad music.
Well, to be fair, I don't think it's bad music, but I'm sure I'd be made fun of for it. Not that I care, of course.
Anyway, I found out yesterday that intense physical exertion such as dancing is key to reducing stress and is 100% doctor-recommended.
So HA!
Happy thought: SUNSHINE!!!
I like to dance. A lot. Like a crazy person. Usually in my kitchen, barefoot, with my iPod in my ears.
My roommate works nights now and after spending an hour or so of veg time on the sofa, I spend the next couple busting a move to some pretty bad music.
Well, to be fair, I don't think it's bad music, but I'm sure I'd be made fun of for it. Not that I care, of course.
Anyway, I found out yesterday that intense physical exertion such as dancing is key to reducing stress and is 100% doctor-recommended.
So HA!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
73 days and counting
Mood: annoyed.
Happy thought: finding money in old coats
A friend of mine asked me to go to a concert with her in Chicago on May 25th. The Glee cast is going on a baby tour and the closest they get to DSM is Chicago.
I couldn't commit to going. I think it annoyed her, and I felt badly about it.
It's not that I don't want to go, but my life is totally wide open after May 17th. It's one giant question mark. And, yeah, that kinda sucks, but I can't exactly help that right now.
I just don't think many people understand that I have literally NO idea what's happening after graduation.
Happy thought: finding money in old coats
A friend of mine asked me to go to a concert with her in Chicago on May 25th. The Glee cast is going on a baby tour and the closest they get to DSM is Chicago.
I couldn't commit to going. I think it annoyed her, and I felt badly about it.
It's not that I don't want to go, but my life is totally wide open after May 17th. It's one giant question mark. And, yeah, that kinda sucks, but I can't exactly help that right now.
I just don't think many people understand that I have literally NO idea what's happening after graduation.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
74 days and counting
Mood: accomplished
Happy thought: Sudoku puzzles!!!
HAHA! Super challenging sudoku puzzle completed. Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes. Suck it, Will Shortz!
Happy thought: Sudoku puzzles!!!
HAHA! Super challenging sudoku puzzle completed. Time: 2 hours, 21 minutes. Suck it, Will Shortz!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
75 days and counting
Mood: Relieved that my internet connection seems stable enough to catch up on my blog...
So, along with my blog every day I think I'm going to start posting happy thoughts. I've been posting a "happy thought of the day" every day (sometimes more than once) via Facebook statuses for a while and people have been responding really positively to those. They will literally come up to me on campus and tell me that my happy thought from whatever day really made them smile. So that's cool.
Without further ado, today's happy thought: Adorable pictures of animals on the internet. I could waste hours online looking at those pictures.
Anyway, now let's get down to today's story.
A few years ago I was grocery shopping with my parents. We were in the produce section and they both became frighteningly excited over a particularly perfect white onion they found. They were positively delighted to have found such an exemplary vegetable. Then they found out that toilet bowl cleaner was on sale that week. Whoa, buddy.
I remember wondering to myself if that's what being an adult boiled down to - amazing finds in a bin of onions and 50 cents off toilet duck.
This memory came to mind as I was looking in my refrigerator today. For the past couple of days, my roommate and I have noticed a particularly heinous smell coming barreling out every time we open the door. It was near vomit-inducing as I actually gagged a couple of times.
I looked and looked and looked for the source, but couldn't find it at all. I took everything out of the fridge and sniffed each thing individually, but didn't find anything the least bit rank.
Today I decided that perhaps the refrigerator just needed a good washing down. Perhaps some yogurt spilled on the bottom and we couldn't see it anymore but it was going sour. Something like that.
So I emptied the fridge again (and smelled everything a second time - just to be sure) and washed the shelves and the sides and the bottom. Then my eyes fell on the vegetable drawer.
My roommate and I don't use the vegetable drawer. Partly because I don't remember the last time we had a vegetable in the place and partly because it blends really well with the rest of the fridge so most of the time we just don't notice it.
Well, I noticed it today.
I opened it, knowing without a doubt the hair-curling stink would be in there. To my surprise there were no forgotten vegetables in there at all. Rather 1/4 inch of water. Sludgy, grey water full of unimaginable, miscellaneous flakes of fridge funk.
I wanted to die when I pulled it out. My roommate was sitting at the kitchen table (eating, of all things... how she could eat with something so revolting in the room, I have no idea) just watching me do this, too, which I was really appreciative of.
I quickly poured the questionable gunk down the sink and washed and dried the drawer. I then reassembled the refrigerator (and freezer) and put everything back inside. My roommate, meanwhile, still didn't offer any help. Maybe I should get my own refrigerator and let her refrigerator rot in its own stink.
Anyway, the point is that finding and eliminating that smell was seriously the best part of my week. I am so thrilled to be rid of it. I would literally not eat sometimes because I knew I'd have to open the door. But that problem is gone now and I'm freakishly excited about it.
And thus I have concluded, I am an adult. In retrospect, I would most certainly have preferred the prize onion, but locating and eradicating sources of malodorous-ness seems to be a crucial adult skill, so maybe I'll just chalk this up to a learning experience .
So, along with my blog every day I think I'm going to start posting happy thoughts. I've been posting a "happy thought of the day" every day (sometimes more than once) via Facebook statuses for a while and people have been responding really positively to those. They will literally come up to me on campus and tell me that my happy thought from whatever day really made them smile. So that's cool.
Without further ado, today's happy thought: Adorable pictures of animals on the internet. I could waste hours online looking at those pictures.
Anyway, now let's get down to today's story.
A few years ago I was grocery shopping with my parents. We were in the produce section and they both became frighteningly excited over a particularly perfect white onion they found. They were positively delighted to have found such an exemplary vegetable. Then they found out that toilet bowl cleaner was on sale that week. Whoa, buddy.
I remember wondering to myself if that's what being an adult boiled down to - amazing finds in a bin of onions and 50 cents off toilet duck.
This memory came to mind as I was looking in my refrigerator today. For the past couple of days, my roommate and I have noticed a particularly heinous smell coming barreling out every time we open the door. It was near vomit-inducing as I actually gagged a couple of times.
I looked and looked and looked for the source, but couldn't find it at all. I took everything out of the fridge and sniffed each thing individually, but didn't find anything the least bit rank.
Today I decided that perhaps the refrigerator just needed a good washing down. Perhaps some yogurt spilled on the bottom and we couldn't see it anymore but it was going sour. Something like that.
So I emptied the fridge again (and smelled everything a second time - just to be sure) and washed the shelves and the sides and the bottom. Then my eyes fell on the vegetable drawer.
My roommate and I don't use the vegetable drawer. Partly because I don't remember the last time we had a vegetable in the place and partly because it blends really well with the rest of the fridge so most of the time we just don't notice it.
Well, I noticed it today.
I opened it, knowing without a doubt the hair-curling stink would be in there. To my surprise there were no forgotten vegetables in there at all. Rather 1/4 inch of water. Sludgy, grey water full of unimaginable, miscellaneous flakes of fridge funk.
I wanted to die when I pulled it out. My roommate was sitting at the kitchen table (eating, of all things... how she could eat with something so revolting in the room, I have no idea) just watching me do this, too, which I was really appreciative of.
I quickly poured the questionable gunk down the sink and washed and dried the drawer. I then reassembled the refrigerator (and freezer) and put everything back inside. My roommate, meanwhile, still didn't offer any help. Maybe I should get my own refrigerator and let her refrigerator rot in its own stink.
Anyway, the point is that finding and eliminating that smell was seriously the best part of my week. I am so thrilled to be rid of it. I would literally not eat sometimes because I knew I'd have to open the door. But that problem is gone now and I'm freakishly excited about it.
And thus I have concluded, I am an adult. In retrospect, I would most certainly have preferred the prize onion, but locating and eradicating sources of malodorous-ness seems to be a crucial adult skill, so maybe I'll just chalk this up to a learning experience .
Monday, March 1, 2010
76 days and couting
I have been able to go for a walk two days in a row now. TWO DAYS IN A ROW! Could it be? Could spring be sneaking in? I refuse to believe it. We're going to do that horrible yo-yo thing for a while where it'll be gorgeous and then crappy and then gorgeous again. But better than crappy 100% of the time so I'll take it!
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