Horrible Blogger :(

Ok, I REALLY am going to make some effort to get back to blogging each day. Things have started to get crazy here, and the last thing I want at the end of the day is something else that I should do. I've been avoiding anything in the 'should' category for awhile at home. But I have plans to work more on that! I did laundry yesterday, even put most of it away.

I spent the weekend visiting my family. I think I'll avoid visiting them again until after David gets here. My dad is obviously unstable. And my mom is back to treating me like a child again. I was telling my mom about something one of my professors mentioned in class, more as a joke than anything, 'did you know peanuts cause cancer?' and my dad who is walking out of the room, charges back in and says, "WHERE'D YOUR PROFESSOR PULL THAT FROM, HIS ASSHOLE?" I'm not sure what's gotten into him. It was just so out of nowhere for him to go off the hook like that. This type of behavior is what made him so difficult to live with when I was a teenager.

My mom hasn't been much better. She would order me around like I was 12. She'd nag and nag at me to go pack up my stuff hours early, so that I could have time with my relatives when they visit. I would think that when it comes to something like packing, /I/ would know when I need to pack things up. So I ended up sitting on the couch for 2 hours with nothing to do while my mom quilted.

My family is filled with freaks.

Maybe I'll go up to Lake Davis next weekend and earn some money or something instead.

Been a bit busy.

Not JUST playing puzzle pirates, thank you very much. I spent 10 hours at work today. We had a rush project that took up most of the day. Ick! I got home at 6 and made myself some tacos for dinner. You still can't see the floor of my room though. I've been promising myself, over and over, that I'll get my room picked up, but it hasn't happened. Each day I try to pick something up, but I think I'm trashing it faster than I can clean it. Maybe tomorrow morning I can clean it while talking to someone on skype. I told my boss that I would probably be in late tomorrow since I worked an extra 3 hours today. Even though I worked overtime, I don't get paid overtime. I'll just shift the hours around so that they aren't all on the same day. I really would like to get my apartment cleaned tomorrow. I'm going away this weekend and I hate coming home to a trashed apartment.

Maybe tonight I'll find time to pick up the floor a bit, we'll see. I haven't even played my Nintendo DS in a couple of days. I've been too tired to do anything besides sleep by the time I'm in bed in the evenings!

I hope this works as an excuse for why I haven't been updating my blog as often as I should be. I'm also in a somewhat BLAH stage. I don't quite know what I'm supposed to do with my time besides work (and clean). The most interesting thing going on in my life is the task of making lunch each day. I try to add as many side dishes as possible. Chips in a container, carrots, some dip for the carrots, bread, meat... You get the picture. Ok. Shower then bed. How is it almost 9 already?

Yohoho, Puzzle Pirates!

Avast! Pirates have stolen my time! Ok, so I stole my own time. I spent 7 and a half hours playing that Puzzle Pirates game yesterday WHILE talking to Peter. That doesn't include the time while talking to David or by myself. I guess it's only my own fault that my thank you cards aren't all written. I've hit a small roadblock though. I don't have all the addresses I need to send them. I'll try to send the ones I can as soon as I get stamps.

It's STILL raining! I'm thinking I might be lazy and drive to work today. It'll mean spending money at the parking meters for awhile, but I think I should. I have some boxes that I want to pick up and I wanted to take a small batch of flowers in to share. I don't need THIS many flowers here!

I'm feeling very tired this morning. I'm thinking about not going in to work early, waiting until 9am, and going to bed. *yawn*

TIRED

Wow... been a crazy day. But I went through the graduation ceremony. There were 23 people crammed into my little apartment. I'm going to spend tomorrow writing thank you notes. I really did quite well in terms of cash. Going to have to go deposit the checks too. My bank account is quite happy. And I don't think I got all of the mailed cards yet. I need to send out thank you cards. I'm going to have to write some out on unofficial cards cause I'm running out.

Oh, I got more flowers delivered today too.

Hmmm. A bit of sad news I forgot to tell you people about yesterday. My mom told me that they had to put Zia, our dog, to sleep. They think one of her tumors burst. She was 95 in dog years. I grew up with her. We got her when I was in 3rd grade I think. Perhaps second grade. It was sad, but at the same time, I've known it would happen for awhile.

In happier news, I'm eating leftover shrimp! weee!

30 hours a week

The boss has decided that we are only allowed to work 30 hours a week this summer. I should be annoyed at having less hours a week to work for the next couple of weeks... but at the same time... I'm glad to have SOME free time! They are going to bring in 3 or 4 interns in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I will work, then meet a friend for dinner, then get drunk. I have a plan!

DONE!

I just finished my last final! Tomorrow morning I will return my textbooks and pick up my graduation gown and cap before work. I went to the evaluations office today and they said that as long as I pass all of my classes, I'm clear for graduation. Weee!

I will celebrate tomorrow by working a full day. Not so weee, but still required if I want cash.

Manual Transmissions

Did you know that it is almost impossible to find a manual car to learn to drive a stick shift on? I can't find any nearby car rental companies that have them. None of my friends have a manual. The only family that have manuals own sports cars. They aren't letting me learn to drive a stick on those! I was thinking to kill some time this summer with a learning attempt. But looks like it won't be happening. Maybe I'll just give up and get lessons when I get the money in Sweden.

My child development final today was relatively easy. I have faith that my score on that should be quite good. I'm more worried about my International Trade Economics final tomorrow. I've been studying a bit today.

Oh, and it's hot here. With the amount that my roommate is running the AC... I fear what our energy bill will be for this month.

EDIT: I will now inflict upon you the stuff I'm studying. Mwahahahaha.

When dealing with the demand for British pounds in the United States the curve is a normal, downward sloping demand curve. This is because as the pound depreciates relative to the dollar, the quantity of pounds demanded by Americans increases. Keep in mind we are measuring the price of the pound - the exchange rate - on the vertical axis. Since it is dollars per pound, it is the price of a pound in terms of dollars and an increase in the exchange rate (R), is a decline in the value of the dollar.

For Americans, British goods are less expensive when the pound is cheaper and the dollar is stronger. That means that at depreciated values for the pound, Americans will buy more British stuff. If they want to do that, they have to exchange dollars for pounds. This means that an increase in the demand for British goods leads to an increase in the quantity of pounds demanded.

On the supply side of the graph, the supply line slopes up because British firms and consumers want to buy a greater quantity of American goods as the dollar becomes cheaper. The brits have to buy dollars if they wish to buy American goods. So an increase in American goods demanded causes an increase in the quantity of foreign currency supplied to the states.

This is almost starting to make sense. Which is good cause the test on it is tomorrow afternoon!

I should probably be studying

... Instead I'm writing yet another blog entry!

I can't figure out what I wanted to write about, but I definitely felt the urge to blog.

I've been studying a lot today. I also went and got a free lunch. There were leftovers and I just happened to have a plastic container in my backpack. (I know, what luck... They often have leftovers and I knew it.) So now I have lunch for tomorrow too! Yeah!

Ok, I will now go back to studying. Although I won't study too much more tonight. My exam isn't until 10am tomorrow morning. I should have quite a bit of time to study before then. Especially with my usual early morning wakeup time. After the exam it will be off to work! Officially I start work at noon, but if I'm done with class before then, I'll go earlier. I need the cash with this exchange rate!

Scary

It's scary in a way how quickly this last year of university has gone by. I've spent all day so far (like 2 or 3 hours) studying. In two days I will have finished my last exam. I will not likely sit in a class at this university again. It is the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another. Some things will change, others will not. The amount of support I'm getting from my parents will go down, but it will not be eliminated completely.

Since I got into the masters program and will be attending school, I'll still be on my parents insurance. My mom will help me with rent. I've figured out that I probably live completely on savings in Sweden without draining my bank account before I'm done with school. If I can get my mom to give me 300 USD a month that will almost cover rent. That's like a quarter of what she gives my little brother each month. 300 USD will get me like 2,100 SEK a month.

I also need to decide what to do about setting up a Swedish bank account. Do I transfer a large chunk of money over at once. Or just a smaller bit and hope the exchange rate improves? Life is so confusing sometimes!

Classes Over!

Well, I survived my last week of classes. I have two tests to go and a 15 minute meeting with a professor.

I went to the health center today and picked up a few medicines for my Swedish medicine kit.

I'm going to buy my mom a nice little suprise too. A friend of mine in Texas has a bunch of quilting things she wants to sell. 100 fat quarters for 50 USD plus shipping. That's quite a good deal.

3 days and 3 tests left!

I'm down to 3 days of school and 3 more tests. Two in Child Development and one in International Economics. Tomorrow I think I'm going to get a treat for myself and get Chinese food for lunch before going in to work early.

I had a fun quest today. I called up the Health Center to pick up more prescriptions and they say that my birth control isn't available there anymore. Apparently it went generic and the generic costs 30 dollars a month. The brand name one cost 5 dollars a month. I've now switched to the same brand new, but a different product name. It's almost the same, but has .01 mg more of whatever the hormone is a day. That's quite a lot when you consider that my current one only has .02 mg. It looks like the one I'm switching to is available in Sweden, so at least I shouldn't have to switch again anytime soon. I'm going to save the package insert so if this new one gives me problems, I can maybe see if I can switch back once in Sweden. I don't think there's a real reason to add MORE hormones to my body. That can't be a good thing to do under most situations.

Tonight! Study more because I'm going to have to run to the ATM machine (south campus) before 8am tomorrow morning, then back to the health center (north campus) then back to the other side of campus (east) for class, north campus again for the next class, then south campus for lunch, then far east campus for work. I'll be getting my exercise tomorrow! If I'm really lucky I'll get out of work before 5 so that I can pick up my paycheck before they close for the weekend. (That's south campus again).

Busy Day

8:00-10:30 Study for exam with classmate
10:30-11:00 Talk to professor about exam
11:00-11:30 Grab a bag of chips and call it lunch
11:30-12:15 Talk to a professor about Friday's test
12:30-1:45 Sit through class
2:00-3:15 Take exam
3:30+ maybe go shopping, buy food, clean my room, eat food, study for Friday's test.

4 days of school left, 1 test a day. Weeee! Ok. Back to studying, maybe I can get a bit done before the group meeting this morning.

Closer to being done

Well, today I turned in a paper and took a quiz. This leaves me with one more paper to write (by Friday... I should start), a quiz on Friday, a final on Thursday, and two finals next week. I have a nice neat little list where I cross things off as I complete them. I bet everyone is surprised that I have a list, right? I never make lists you know.

This time next week, I'll be done with my last test. A week to go, surviving that shouldn't be too difficult I hope.

Sunday is mother's day here. My mom will be coming on Saturday. I need to get her something nice. Maybe some material, or a card, or some flowers. Or perhaps all three and spoil her. It'll be the last Mother's Day present she's likely to get from me for awhile. I'm not going to mail her anything except a card from Sweden.

Ok, hopefully I'll get this paper done tonight. Wish my luck!

Exciting News!

Taranika is going to be moving to Sweden too! Weee! We are so going to do the Urban Cruise again. She's going to be an AuPair for a family there. She will be in Stockholm so I'll be able to visit. I'm so excited. I had to stop in the middle of this to call my mom and tell her. I was thinking about calling David, but I don't think he would appreciate it. It's a bit after 6am there.

Other exciting news? I'm done with two classes now. Nothing more to turn in, no tests. This leaves me with 4 classes to go. Maybe after that I'll find time to actually update my Swedish blog?

Photos!

My roommate helped me get a photo album set up. Weee! Right now I'm just uploading things. I've got pictures for like the last 6 years, so it is taking a bit. I'm almost done with the year 2000. Pretty soon I'll hit the hard years where I took lots of photos. Like my years in Sweden... that thought is scary.

I had a nice lunch with my grandfather today. It was relaxing and the food was yummy.

Those of you whose photos I have stolen, let me know if I should make them not visible to everyone or if you want them removed completely. I don't want pictures up there that make anyone unhappy. Oh, I should give you guys a url I suppose.

Yummy dessert and food

I bought myself a chocolate frozen yogurt with chocolate chips. I'm eating it between sentences. I know I shouldn't spend money on silly things, especially not on junk food. It's a waste of money AND it isn't healthy. But I really do love an occasional treat. I've decided I need to start a list of places to take David to eat when he's here. I should probably drag Peter to a few of these places too.

Italian food
Pizza
Smoothies
Frozen Yogurt
Mexican food (Both american version and the real thing)
Steak
Chinese food
Hula's Mongolian BBQ
Some sort of American place like Applebees
Baskin Robins
Milkshakes from Jack in the Box

This doesn't include the many grocery stores and just 'normal' American food I will be stuffing down their throats. Perhaps they deserve some pity? I will do my best to also feed them lots of salads and fresh fruits and veggies so that I don't send them back weighing twice what they originally weighed!

Ballroom Dance Night

I went to ballroom dance night tonight. It was ok. Not as much fun as class because I had to wear heels and a skirt. The room was way too warm too. I only stayed an hour, but that was long enough. Patrick was nice enough to drop me off and pick me up again so I wouldn't have to ride a bike or walk in heels. See, he isn't a complete loser, just mostly. He really is a nice guy, just a moron at times.

I finished a paper this morning, I'm going to talk it over with a classmate tomorrow before class and the professor after class. If I have time before class tomorrow, I'd like to get another paper finished up. That way maybe I can turn in two papers and have a bit less to do this weekend.

Hmmm. I was thinking about taking my shower tomorrow morning instead of tonight, but I just feel so ICK. I don't think I could sleep without a shower. Once my feet stop hurting for a minute, I'll go take a shower. Maybe I should get rid of shoes that hurt my feet so much, but they do look cute. Perhaps if I buy some sort of stick on sole to put on them or if I toughen my feet up and stop whining. The world should be designed in such a way that I can wear my running shoes all the time.

And today reminded me, yet again, that I really should get new makeup before going to Sweden. That mascara tube is on it's last legs. Not that I wear mascara very often anyways, but would be nice to have some that worked.

Organic Carrots

I'm eating organic baby carrots. They were half the price of regular ones. They don't have as good of a slicer/peeler as the normal ones do, but the price was right.

I also bought some juice, milk, frozen pizzas, freezer waffles, tortillas, a box of cereal, some ground beef, some sliced beef, and a few other things I can't think of right now.

I made up a list in class today of things I'm supposed to get done before the end of the school year. It's a somewhat long list, but not as bad as I expected. I really would like to get one or two things from the list done tonight, but we'll see. I'm feeling a bit tired.

I'm two-thirds of the way through my pound of carrots. Yum yum, dinner! (This has got to be healthier than eating icecream for dinner... but I think the salad dressing I'm dipping them in is ruining it a bit.)

Sleep

Well, what I really want to do is sleep, but today's class was really enlightening. I've realized that about a quarter of the KIDS in my class are married. One girl was talking to me before class. She's been married for a year and a half now. Someone asked her if they ever lived together before getting married, her answer... in a way. She and her 'eventual husband' bought a house together. He was supposed to live with his parents until they graduated. But the house got robbed once and she was scared. So he lived in another bedroom. They pushed the wedding forward because even that much was evil.

We discussed sex in class today, and we had a wide variety of views. One girl earns money for school by selling vibrators. Several others are still virgins. There were 19 girls and one guy in the class today. The guy is married.

Ok, now sleep.

New Webpage!

I have my very own new domain and hosting service now. www.jaenelle.net It just doesn't do much yet cause I haven't had any free time. I dumped a website from back in 2003 onto parts of it. Eventually I actually will have a cool webpage there. With photo albums and stuff. If I ever get REALLY bored, I'll put a different blog up there that'll let me do more with it. For now, this will work. I should probably go make dinner or find more homework to do soon. ICK. It seems to work pretty well so far. I've posted too many blog entries today and not done enough productive stuff.

Paper Done!

Well, my paper is finally done. It was ridiculously difficult to write for a 1250 word thing. I hit 1220 words if you include my footnotes, works cited, and title page. Good enough. I'll write reviews on three other people's papers later today.

By the way, all of you celebrating Valborg's in Uppsala.... I want lots and lots of pictures!

Speaking of pictures, does anyone know where I can buy/rent some server space somewhere? I'm thinking of getting my own little domain thing and setting up a picture page. Would be cool to have my albums online. Especially when I'm in Europe and my parents might want to see what I'm up to.

I need a bored, really nice, computer geek obviously. ;) Either that or time to learn how to make anything besides the most simple webpages. Last time I made a webpage I couldn't figure out how to put images into the actual page with text. Hehe.

San Jose

Today I drove to San Jose to tell the new students who will be going to Sweden what to expect. 4 hours drive there, 4 hours drive back, only 3 hours there. It was pretty fun. There were lots of scared parents. I don't get it, these are university aged students, why worry? Eventually they'll be out on their own in the real world anyways. Sweden is at least a pretty safe real world.

I realized that two years ago that was me there asking lots of questions and being confused and worried. I'll be going back to Sweden again this fall, but as more of an adult. I'll be living in a real apartment, with my boyfriend, cooking my own meals, taking classes, and paying more of my own bills. I think it's cool how far I've come. I was actually able to give advice and help out. I went from student to teacher when it comes to studying in Sweden. Isn't it interesting how we mature as we move through life?

Oh, and I seem to have quite a few people who check my blog from Sweden. UU is probably my friends. I wonder who swipnet and comhem represent.

Vicious Sparkle Bunnies!

May I recommend the following two links:
608 & 634

Aren't they EVIL? They make me giggle again and again.

Anyways, back to reality. I got an extension on the paper. It was only about halfway done. I had warned the professor earlier this week that I might have problems getting it done. I really did want to get the paper done on time, but with an exam, a quiz, and two other papers that were due this past week... it was a bit crazy.

Tomorrow I will wake up by 6am in order to drive to San Jose. Hopefully I'll make friends with the 15 or so students who will be going to Uppsala next year from the California State University system. I don't want to be out of touch with the exchange students.

David and Peter must be happy. Exchange rate sucks right now (for me that is, good for Swedes). 7.35 SEK per USD. Last time it was that low was almost a year ago. I've decided the exchange rate is allowed to suck until the end of July. Then it is required to suddenly be great for me. 8 SEK per USD would be nice. Be even better if it soared to like 10 or something like it did in the end of 2001-start of 2002.

Ever have a day when everyone compliments you for looking good? (I wore a skirt and heels today.) I wonder how I look every other day if I look 'nice' today. Makes me smile a bit.

Lazy

I had pizza for dinner tonight and garlic bread! On another note: I have a paper due tomorrow morning that I haven't started on. It's now quarter til 8. I decided not to go to the show tonight because I had a headache. I'm also lazy. I think I'll write a blog entry instead of starting my paper. Sleep will be a bit scarce tonight.

Oh, and I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked my roommate what the key in the fridge goes to. His response, the mailbox. I think the key is still in the fridge.

And David and Peter are coming this summer! I have no idea how to fit in everything I want to do or that I think they might want to do. David will be here for a month. 2 weeks after he arrives, Peter arrives. Peter stays for 3 weeks. I'll have some 'alone' time with each of them to torture.

San Francisco - 3 days (Fisherman's wharf area, downtown, and shopping)
Bars in town here.
Go visit my parents (probably David only)
Train museum in Sacramento, and oldtown
Visit Brooke
Vegas
Sit on a beach somewhere
See the redwoods
Lake Tahoe
Drive to Lake Davis
Drive along the coast
Disneyland
Universal Studios
Hollywood (go look at the sign or something)

Some of these things are NOT great things to do in summer. But, paper writing time. Weee?

Tired!

Why is it that so many of my blog titles say, 'Tired!'

I was so tired last night that I put off my shower until this morning. I'm not sure it made me feel any more awake in the shower though!

The gameplan for today:
10:00-10:30 - School, print papers
10:30-11:00 - watch little kids
11:00-11:30 - Go over study guide with group
11:30-12:30 - check study guide with professor, go over 2nd exam
12:30-3:30 - class (should have studied for a quiz and gotten a problem set done)
3:30-4:00 - Meeting with mostly insane professor
4:00-onwards - get food, write paper due Friday

I think I might go get pizza tonight. I'm supposed to be a the theatre at 7:00 tonight to watch this show for extra credit. I might not be able to. I'll try to catch it when it comes out on film. Or maybe I'll watch it on Friday. I hope everyone else has a more relaxing Thursday than I do!

Toy I want!

I want this toy! Along with all the expansion packs. I want, I want! Unfortunately I'm not 6 anymore. And I have this odd feeling that when I'm old enough to have my own kids, I won't have the money to spend on odd toys like that. Good thing for grandparents I guess. Still, I want!

I know, with everything else I should be doing... I suspect drooling over toys designed for small children probably isn't the best use of time. But fun anyways.

(Note that this is the THIRD blog entry I've posted today... I'm avoiding school work.)

Time goes SO slowly!

I have no idea how time can move so slowly when I'm doing so much with every moment. Perhaps because I'm accounting for each and every minute that it seems much longer. I keep having panic moments when I think that it's Thursday and I should be elsewhere or getting a different assignment done.

I spent a mere 2.5 hours at the library today. I had planned to spend longer, but the paper I worked on took less time than imagined. I also got a one page paper written up too. Perhaps tonight I'll start on Friday's paper. I'll go to school an hour early tomorrow morning to work on my study guide for child development and to do some more work on Friday's paper.

But for now... shower then icecream! Somehow studying makes me feel so dirty!

Oops!

I was too tired last night to post you a blog entry. I've now forgotten some of what I was going to write.

I watched a movie in Child development yesterday, it was about the power of suggestion. Given the same task (moving a metal ring around some wire where it would BEEP if you touched it to the wire) half the kids were told it was a knitting task and half were told it was a mechanical task. Equal number of girls and boys in each group. The boys did MUCH worse when told the task was to see if they would be good at knitting. The girls only did a little worse (but still worse) when told it was to see if they were good at mechanical stuff. It was the exact same task, but wow. I found the power of saying what a task is amazing, also the effect it had on girls and boys. No boy really wants to be told he's good at sewing and knitting. He also fully expects that he won't be. A few girls would like to be seen as being good at mechanics, but most expect that they won't be. The kids were about 10-12 years old.

At work I've been given orders to finish up this project I'm working on even faster because they're expecting more work to be coming in. The new projects don't look as difficult though. I've mostly got it down to a format for those. This current project I've been working on for weeks and it still isn't done. I'm trying to create a format for it.

I think I'll live at the library today. Go to class a bit early, study there. After class come home, grab some food and my laptop and go to the library. I'll hang out there for at least 4 hours, maybe more. I'll bring my bike light and a sweater, then I can stay quite late. On the bright side, my professor has moved back the date that my paper for Iran is due. I just have a 5 minute presentation on Monday. But I am scared to even look at my planner, I've got so much going on!

The Mind Melt

Well, I spent more than 7 hours in the library working on the paper that is due tomorrow. I know it's only a rough draft that is due, but I'm still not happy with the paper. On the other hand, I am now really depressed after reading about women in Iran. The paper is about 2 or 3 pages short, but I guess I'll just turn it in anyways.

I rewarded myself by making Chinese food for dinner. Yum! I still have that weird cheese and hamburger dish left over, but I didn't feel like eating that. It's now 9:30 and I'm debating between brushing my teeth and eating some icecream. I probably should go brush my teeth and just go to bed. It's 9:30pm and I have a LONG day tomorrow. This week is going to be a long week too.

A paper due on Monday, another draft due on Thursday, a paper due on Friday, a quiz on Thursday, a test on Friday, and all the typical readings and assignments in between. Next weekend I have to go to SanJose. Besides next week I have another 5 papers due and 4 or 5 tests. I also have a required outside dance activity for ballroom dance. Oh, and I have a major project at work due on Friday. I'll probably be putting in some overtime to get that done. So I might just do a really short lunch tomorrow. Anyone want to take over half of my work right now? Being a full time student and working at this time of year is going to be the end of me!

American Spirit?

Sometimes I read a newsarticle that gives me renewed faith in Americans. This is one of them. People are traveling from all over just to have a vote. I know that most will not be doing this, didn't register absentee, and really couldn't care less, but those who do care, are working on it. THAT is the American spirit. Sometimes I need a reminder that it still exists these days.

On another note... this Three Cheese Hamburger Helper is YUCK. Oh, and the library was only open for 5 hours today, so I stayed at home to study rather than going there. I'll go there tomorrow, come rain or tornados! My paper is due Monday afterall. I think a day in the library with my laptop and lots of books might help me bash out a rough draft. I actually have half of the paper due Monday, more due Thursday, then the final copy due the following Monday. I'm going to try and have it as done as possible by Monday. That way I can work on my Friday paper and on studying for next week's tests.

Good Mood!

I've been in a good mood all day. I think it shows too. After I got home from work I changed out of bike clothes (jeans) and into a nice skirt and top and put on heels. I went and did my grocery shopping and got lots of nice comments. I've worn this same outfit before and been completely ignored. There were also lots of other pretty girls around, but I got the comments. I think my good mood and smile really make a difference. Even my neighbor in the apartment below me who doesn't even say hi to me said that I looked good today. I'm trying to decide if I usually don't look good? ;) I could look nice all the time if I wanted to put the time and energy into it and stopped riding my bike. Too much effort though!

Anyways, class was easy today. We didn't do anything that required too much thinking. I went straight to work after class. So I ended up working 11 until 7. I bought food at the store today then went and got myself a frozen yogurt. Chocolate with chocolate chips! I also got a second plain chocolate one and put it into the freezer. It was buy one get one free. So I'll eat the other one later. Problem with eating icecream before dinner though, is that I won't eat dinner! It ends up being icecream for dinner. I also bought a six pack of smironoffs. They were 7 dollars, but I really wanted them. I've had one open for the last hour and a half and I still haven't even gotten halfway through it. It's nice to be in the US where it's perfectly ok to sit at home and drink one drink by myself without being called an alcoholic. I can drink the things for the taste and it's a treat to myself for being a Friday night. You Swedes can just take your stereotypes and keep them! I'm going to have a nice relaxing night. I deserve it.

The birds are chirping

I had a pretty productive day. I took the morning easy. Talked to the boyfriend for a couple of hours, took a nap, did a load of laundry, changed the sheets on my bed, and generally just relaxed. Left for school around noon, sat through 3 hours of class, then spied on small children for an hour for research purposes. After that I walked to the library and spent 3 hours there doing research for another paper. So I spent about 7 hours at school today. Not a bad day. I'm hoping to do dishes and some more homework before bed tonight.

I'm hoping that my roommate goes away for the weekend. I'd love a chance to just get homework done without hearing loud music all the time. Be nice to be able to relax and just talk it a bit easy. I have two papers and two tests next week. Probably some more stuff too, but finishing my todo list is on my todo list and I haven't gotten that far yet. Isn't life fun sometimes?

I read a book in the library today about women in Iran. It's a pretty recent book too, published in 2002. It looked at the women of Iran from a different perspective, offering both sides of a story. Women have some built in protections, but they are few and if they don't use them, they're in trouble. Like women get to put this thing into their wedding contracts that says at any point in time they may demand a certain (agreed upon amount) of whatever from their husband and he has to pay up. Modern women who think they're being 'bought' and don't put in a large enough amount lose the ability to control their husbands. In exchange for giving up that award they can win the right to keep their kids after a divorce or any number of other things. More girls than boys attend university in Iran too. I learned a LOT of facts that I'll probably be using in my paper that's due on Monday. Weee... I can look forward to a weekend of paper writing... joy?

A kid to an adult

It isn't that one stops wanting to do fun things like cartwheels in deserted hallways or playing on playgrounds, it is that one stops oneself from doing that. Lazy? Lack of energy? Fear of what others will think? I wonder if being an adult really means controlling yourself more.

One of these days, when no one is looking, I'm going to do that cartwheel I've been wanting to do at work. I did one in the hallway during break last Monday. It was fun. I haven't played on a playground in a long time though. Not since I last played with Solveig.

Inside me there still lives a child. I think I let her out to play more often than a lot of people do. Have you let your inner child out recently?

People to pester for jobs

Well, my Aunt has given me a few ideas of large international firms that do consulting work. She says I should look them up when I want to find a job. Apparently they do something similar to what I do currently.

Deloitte - they have offices in lots of places in Sweden

Accenture - Stockholm, Malmo, Gothenburg

I'm hoping that if I get bored next year I can search one of these type of places out, show up at their door and try to get an unpaid internship. Hi, I'll work for free if you train me! Please? I wonder if things like that are done in Sweden. It'll probably hurt me that I'm not a brat with a business degree, but hey! Sometimes you have to have different view points. Someone trained in International Theory has got to be good for something, right?

Stress?

It's always interesting to discover what things stress various people out. Some people are stressed when they're taking tests, others when they study. Some people get stressed by deadlines at work and others get stressed by the thought of meeting someone.

I get stressed by living in a very messy environment. I can handle some mess, but I hate coming home day after day to an apartment that looks worse than my brother's room! I also get stressed at the thought of how much stuff I still need to accomplish before the end of the school year. My last final is exactly a month from today!

My solution to the stress? Sleep and make to do lists. I don't actually clean or study extra to make up for the extra work... instead I get tired and sleep.

I'm weird.

Oh, and my second class for today was cancelled so I spent an hour at the child development lab relaxing in the dark and taking notes. Progress? No idea.

Not really my day

I'm tired. Have tons of school work to do too. What really annoys me though is that I left my Easter ham leftovers out at lunch. They didn't get put back into the fridge until I got home from class. So about 8 hours out of the fridge. Which means they're probably bad. *sigh* I can tell I'm tired because something as silly as this has me near tears. Somehow I think my hormones are all screwed up right now too. And I'm hungry, but too tired/depressed to even go make dinner. I'm thinking about just going to bed and eating some cereal while studying. An early night wouldn't be bad right now.

My roommate mostly cleaned up the apartment... He picked up the beer bottles and took the trash out. I'll have to find time sometime this week to do a proper cleaning job again. I don't think I EVER want a large house. I'd spend all my time cleaning it. My uncle is building a house with 5 bathrooms... All I can think of is all those toilets to scrub each week!

My apartment... not that I recognize it.

Wow, I walk in the door and there are beer bottles and beer cans everywhere. Pizza boxes in the living room and just a general mess. There are people everywhere too. Someone is asleep on the couch, I'm not sure who. There might be one or two others under the blankets on the living room floor. There also seems to be someone asleep in the third room. I can't find my roommate, but he might be one of those under the blankets. I had this place clean last week! ARGH! There's a note on the door asking that the place be cleaned up by 8pm (that gives him 11 hours). We'll see if it happens. I want it spotless. I want things vacuumed again, cleaned, etc. I don't want to deal with mess, I have enough things to worry about.

I had a wonderful Easter though. There were 16 people running around my mom's place. The food was wonderful and I got to bring lots home. If my roommate or any of his hung over friends touch the stuff they're so dead. I even dyed Easter eggs. I'll take pictures of them later. I had to get up early this morning to drive back here.

Life is always so exciting...

Monday Morning?

Well, with the festivities and such not starting until 2 or 3 tomorrow, I've decided to spend Sunday night at my parents' place. I'll head back to Chico on Monday Morning. I made my mom buy eggs so that I could dye them. My mom thinks I'm being silly, but I really wanted to! Maybe I'll take pictures tomorrow of all the cool things going on here. The house is still a disaster from being half painted and the carpets are a mess since we told everyone not to worry since they were supposed to have been replaced weeks ago! The store hasn't even gotten the carpet delivered yet. We're trying to make the house look presentable... it isn't working.

Home sweet home

Made it home, and no internet in my bedroom. This means I'll not likely be posting more entries before Sunday afternoon! Hope everyone has a nice Easter. And yep, I made it home just fine. Nice sunny weather the whole time. It was warm enough I even considered turning on my AC for the drive, but I decided to just tough it out instead.

Ever find life so boring that you can't come up with new titles?

Nothing new is happening here. Life is an endless cycle of school, work, homework, sleeping, eatting, and whining about how much I have to do. I think I'll go to bed soon. *yawn*

I got a bit done today. Wrote reviews for two more of my classmate's papers then uploaded them. I went and spoke to a professor about my exam tomorrow morning. I studied for that exam a bit. I turned in the rough draft of my ECON 355 paper. I picked up my graduation announcements and started addressing the envelopes while VERY bored in class. I also spent half an hour watching kids through the one-way mirror. It's now 10:30 at night and it's been warm enough this afternoon that I still have the windows open.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to give up my lunch hours. If I go straight to work at 11 then I can get my 4.5 hours done by 3:30. Then I'll be able to get home by 5:30 tomorrow night. That would be nice. Otherwise I won't be able to get home until 7:30. My boss won't be working tomorrow, so I figure I can just work whatever hours I want rather than trying to match my schedule to his.

I'm really looking forward to Easter this weekend. I wish I got Monday or Friday off though! I like long weekends. I probably won't have much internet this weekend, but we'll see. If I get to sleep in my old room, I'll have internet. If my mom makes that a guest room then I'll sleep downstairs and let my grandfather have that room. The upstairs room has internet, the downstairs room does not. This weekend is going to put me way behind on schoolwork!

Spellcheck doesn't seem to be working and blogger is slow. If there are any really horrible misspelled words, sorry!

Amazing the things university students think...

"So if a girl is pregnant with one guy and sleeps with another guy, will the baby look like the second guy cause his sperm got on the baby before it was born?"

I kid you not, a girl asked that in class today.

Besides the disbelief that anyone in university could believe that... my next thought was 'what the heck is a pregnant girl doing sleeping around? Shouldn't she be like sticking with one guy or something? I guess I'm old fashioned, but why the heck would you want to bring up a kid into a world where you can't even decide which guy you want the kid to look like?

Oh, another comment from that same class. "You can end up gay if you play on certain sports teams, cause like all the girls who played softball in highschool ended up liking girls after they joined." I think we have some issues with basic thinking in this class.

Spam Messages?

Does anyone know how to either block certain posters from being able to comment on a blog or to make a list of who can comment? I don't want to have to sit here and moderate comments all the time. I like to wake up and see people arguing about something in comments. I'm thinking I might need to make this a 'team blog' and only let those who are members of the 'team' comment on the blog. I'd add pretty much anyone, and just give them no admin privileges. What do you people think? Any ideas besides checking each and every comment before it's posted? I might do that anyways though... would take time for comments to show up, but that way I wouldn't miss any if people comment on previous posts.

EDIT: I added the word verification bit onto it. We'll let this go for a few weeks and see how things play out. Sorry for making you guys type in words.

Why do my professors hate me?

If my professors didn't hate me I wouldn't end up writing reports on the economics of airline deregulation and price discrimination. I wanted to get this paper done today so I could turn it in and get some professor feedback on it, but not going to happen today. Maybe Thursday.

Btw, I recommend the Material World: A global family portrait by Peter Menzel. Cool to see how many items different families own.

WOOHOO!

Dear S.,

You have applied for the Master´s Programme in International Studies at Uppsala University in Sweden which begins in the autumn 2006.

The selection among students is now completed. I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the programme under the condition that you can provide a degree in June or no later than August 15. Please, inform me when I can expect a copy of your diploma and transcript.

I would like you to confirm the place offered in this programme be sending a return e-mail to this e-mail address as soon as possible but no later than April 20.

An Official Letter of Admission will then be sent by ordinary mail. Please include in you message to me a confirmation of your regular postal address. Included with the letter of admission will be more useful information.

Yours sincerely,
Gunnel Wikman

Woohoo! Out of the hundreds of applicants, I was one of the 25 chosen! It's got to be one of the worst written admission letters I've ever heard, but I'm definitely not going to complain as long as it is true. I found out a month in advance too! Weeee! I'm so happy. :)

Back to your regularly scheduled program

Ok, I'll try to post a more normal blog entry today. I managed to get a lot more done today than I did yesterday. I went shopping, took notes on two articles for a paper, read the articles I'm supposed to for tomorrow, wrote a one page paper to turn in, and read half of a book. I'm hoping to finish that book tonight and maybe read some articles for class. I also made a yummy dinner and a box lunch for tomorrow.

It's interesting how your work and school plans can change which days of the week you like. Last semester I loved Mondays, I had the afternoons off and could try and get some homework done. This semester I hate Mondays because I have work for 4 hours and school for 5 hours. Makes for a long day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are nice because I only have 3 hours of class each day and the rest of the time I can spend trying to keep up with my school work.

This Tuesday I'm hoping I can get a rough draft of this economics paper done. I counted and I think I have only 6 more research papers to write this semester. That doesn't count little one or two page assignments that I don't know about yet and it doesn't include papers that I have to correct before the portfolios are due at the end of the semester. I have one paper for each of my economics classes, two papers for my political science class, one paper for my child development class, and one paper for my gender studies class.

On top of the usual papers, I also have finals week coming up in like 5 weeks as well as many quizzes and exams before then. Life will be interesting for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll be too busy to worry too much about graduate school (yes, I know it isn't graduate school in Sweden, but it's still grad school for me) and my upcoming move. But not too busy that my grades suffer or I get stressed out with work. It's a delicate balance!

Obviously I'm bored today

Well, I was looking at the school medication website and I'm making up a shopping list for next month. They have so many cheap over the counter medicines that I'm thinking about stocking up before going to Sweden.

ACIDOPHILUS CAPS 100 $3.60
BENADRYL CAPS (generic) 24 $1.40
SUDAFED TABS (generic 100 $2.80
SUDAFED 12 HR CAPS(gen) 10 $4.10
NASAL SPRAY (saline) 15ml $1.40
DAYQUIL CAPS 12 $4.10
NYQUIL CAPS 12 $4.10
ZINC GLUCONATE lozenges 100 $4.50 (2 packages, I think Peter wanted some)
ARTIFICIAL TEARS 15ml $1.80
CALAMINE LOTION (generic) 4oz $1.40
IMODIUM A-D 12 $1.70 (2 packages)
ROBITUSSIN(Productive cof) 4 oz $1.40 (2 bottles)
ROBITUSSIN-DM (Dry cof) 4 oz $1.70 (2 bottles)
MENTHOL COUGH DROPS 30 $1.40
ACETAMINOPHEN 325mg(Tylenol) $1.70 (your guess is as good as mine with how many there are)
ASPIRIN 325mg 100 $1.40
IBUPROFEN 200mg(Advil) 100 $3.00
ALEVE 220mg (generic) 24 $3.00 (2 packages)
THERMOMETER (digital) 1 $4.00
TOTAL: 51.20 USD before tax.

But these are the types of things that cost MUCH more if I buy them at the grocery store or the local drug store. Sometimes as much as 4 or 5 times as much. I have a bottle of advil that is the same number and volume as the ones listed. They would have cost me 11.29 USD if I hadn't bought them on sale... rather than the 3 USD the student store will sell them to me as. I just wonder how strangely the student store will look at me if I go in there and drop 50 or 60 dollars on over the counter medicines. I guess if I explain that I'm studying abroad and Sweden has crappy expensive medicines available for over the counter they'll understand.

Swedes have this odd idea that when you're sick you should suffer, Americans try to make you able to work still. Swedes get a cold and they whine for 3 weeks, Americans get a cold and whine for 3 weeks, but still go to work and are mostly functional. I tried getting cough medicine there... all it did was make me cough more. At a certain point staying awake coughing 24/7 for weeks on end is not healthy, I don't care if it's a productive cough. Not to mention the fact that the drug stores are NEVER open when you need medicine. They seem to keep bank hours! The one nearest where I will live is open 9 to 5 on weekdays, closing for an hour during lunch. That's just perfect as long as you need medicine during those select hours. I wonder what you do if you need a perscription filled when they aren't open? Suffer? Drag yourself to the other side of town, coughing and sneezing on as many people as possible? Sometimes I wonder about those odd Swedes!

Information Overload!

I've been trying to figure out more about the visa requirements for Sweden. Someone REALLY should teach migrationverk how to make a website that doesn't make me feel the urge to bang my head into the wall. I really wish they would break up the website in a way that would make more sense. Create a front page called 'Who are you? What do you want?' and work from there. As an EU citizen hoping to set up household with a Swedish citizen I have different requirements than lots of others. This confuses the heck out of me. I think I've figured out the main process though.

1. Show up in Sweden.
2. Sometime during the first 3 months show up at a migrationverk office.
Location: Bolandsgatan 10, 753 23 Uppsala
Hours: Mon-Wed 13:00-16:00, Thursday 13:00-16:30.
Better hope you're not working, no hope of ever seeing them without taking a day off of work if you are. They need some evening hours.
3. To the office I should bring:
500 SEK application fee
2 passport sized photos
proof of my relationship (photo album, emails, boyfriend himself)
2 forms, filled out. If they're wrong, they can give me new ones.
http://www.migrationsverket.se/blanketter/bob/eu/blees_bila_222011_en.pdf http://www.migrationsverket.se/blanketter/bob/eu/blees_110031_en.pdf
4. Pray for good luck that I understood everything correctly and that they won't laugh at me and deport me then and there.

I'm also supposed to do things like go to the tax office as soon as possible. I'm not sure where in this process I can sign up for SFI, but I figure the term will probably start in September so sooner is better.

The bits I found as useful information from the odd FAQ part from the migrationverk website:
Can I get the decision in English?
No, we never translate decisions. People who want the decision in a language other than Swedish have to arrange for a translation themselves. God forbid that anyone who gets a response actually know what it means. Poor refugee people getting a letter and having to find someone who knows Swedish to translate it for them so they will know if they can stay!
My girlfriend has been granted a residence permit and will be arriving here soon. Where can we find information about things like authorities to register with, Swedish tuition, rights and obligations, etc?
Your girlfriend should begin by contacting the local tax authority so that she can register with them and obtain the last four figures of her civic registration number (personnummer). She should then contact the social insurance office so that she can become a party to the social security system. She is entitled to study Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) – the municipality can provide details. A few weeks after being entered in the civic register, she will receive a book from the National Integration Office (Sverigeinformation) describing how Swedish society works (in the language she specifies). In principle, Swedes and non-Swedes have the same rights and obligations in Sweden.
Do you receive pay or funding of any kind when studying Swedish for Immigrants (SFI)?
No, you are not eligible for any funding – but the tuition is free! They sound so excited about the free tuition.
Is my future partner entitled to medical care when she moves here to live with me?
As soon as she has been entered in the civic register, she is in principle entitled to the same social security and health care facilities as everyone else living in Sweden. This is reassuring. I just hope that I don't fall and break anything before I'm entered into the civic register.
When can my foreign boyfriend start studying Swedish?
As soon as he has been entered in the civic register, he can enrol for a Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) course. Contact the municipality! Well, that answers the question about when I can start SFI classes.
My boyfriend is Dutch and I am Swedish, and we are planning to set up home together here in Sweden. Does he need special permission of any kind to join me here?
Yes, he must apply for a residence permit. The application must be made at a Migration Board office within three months of his arrival here. I pray I can quote this FAQ if they give me any problems about showing up in Sweden without a permit!

I WILL have a productive weekend!

I've started on it already. One load of laundry is washed and folded, another is in the dryer. I washed all the dishes and gave my roommate orders to wash his. I picked up the living room and vacuumed it. But then the vacuum cleaner overheated again. I was hoping it wouldn't do that since I spent 20 minutes trying to detangle the thing that turns from all the carpet fuzz and hair and stuff. I might try to finish vacuuming the hall and my room tonight before bed. I picked up my room too. I might try to read some of the stuff that I'm supposed to write my next paper on tonight before bed. :) Either that or I'll be lazy and play my DS, we'll see. I want to take the sheets off of my bed and wash them tomorrow and put new sheets on. :) I'm tired of lilac! I want to have lilac gingham instead!

I've given my roommate two tasks to do before bed tonight. (this entry has taken me about 3 hours to write, I keep getting distracted). Clean the mirror in the bathroom and put his dishes into the dishwasher and run it. Odds are that he manages to screw up at least one of them if he even remembers and attempts to do them. Not THAT hard. I asked him hours ago to put dishes into the dishwasher, he took one glass from his room and put it in there. When I reminded him about it again he said 'oh, I already did it.' I reminded him that putting his dishes into the dishwasher meant ALL his dishes, not just one glass. He said oops. *rolls her eyes* Anyone want my roommate? I'll pay you to take him! *laugh*

Hope everyone had a nice Friday.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger this week. Been so busy with this paper that's due this morning. It's done and I'll upload it to the school server after I'm done with this entry. I also had a test on Monday and on Thursday.

The other new thing that's going on is my attempts to make my stomach stop hurting so often. Doctor recommends.... fiber! ICK! I'm an old lady! The powder that he wants me to take with fiber requires being mixed with a large glass of water 3 times a day. After one attempt of that I said screw it. So now I'm working on eating more fiber normally. Thankfully this is the US and I can buy almost anything with added fiber at the grocery store. I switched to tortillas that have 20% of my daily fiber intake per tortilla. I moved to a cereal called 'Fiber One with Honey.' I also bought some snacks with fiber in them and a box of pasta with added fiber. The tortillas tasted pretty good last night. Granted I was dipping them into taco sauce after filling them with cheese and chicken, but still not bad. This cereal though... leaves a bit to be desired. I'm hoping I get used to it. If not, I have another cereal since I bought 2.

This weekend I'm going to attempt to get some of the big projects started that I have coming up due next month. I also need to do some cleaning. My house is starting to look like a disaster area and I'm almost out of socks. My roommate's pizza box collection in the living room needs to go away soon too. The problem with cleaning is that it just makes me annoyed at my roommate for being such a pig. I don't like cleaning in the first place and cleaning up after him while he sleeps or plays computer games is not my idea of fun!

Busy busy busy!

I've been so busy lately, that I haven't even had time to sit down and write much here. I have an extremely difficult paper due Friday. I got about half of it written yesterday, the easy half of course. It's only 10 pages, but requires 11 sources during its quest to analyze the decision making processes used during the second world war. I've had weeks and weeks to work on this paper and the due date has been extended at least twice, and yet I hadn't even started writing it until yesterday. The professor expected us to start earlier, but doesn't give us the last of the information we need to write it until the week it is due. I also have an Economics exam on Thursday, with a study group before then. That will take quite a bit of time out of my writing time.

I have a week in May where I have three large papers due all in the same week. I miss the Swedish system where I was only working on one class at a time. Each and every one of my professors assigns homework as though theirs was the only class I am taking for the entire semester! The good thing about the US university system is that I can take almost any class. I'm not restricted to political classes and economic classes. I'm forced actually, to take classes that are outside of my field of study. I find that a lot of them, despite my complaints, actually help me understand my field of study better. Then we have classes like child development and ballroom dancing which cover things that everyone really should know. I wish I had been able to take a nutrition class. There are a lot more topics that I'd like to cover, but won't have the time to do so.

At the same time I'm TIRED of this school and of people who have the intelligence of squirrels! I'm tired of the insane professors and the homework and the lack of free time. I'm tired of going to school, working, then coming home to start on my homework. Ok, whine done. But yea, I'm pretty busy this week. Next week should be a bit more calm unless a lot of things get assigned. Maybe I can use the week to get caught up or to start working on some of those May papers so that they're done BEFORE they're done. I don't have that many weeks left of school and quite a bit left to get done.

And David is going to buy his tickets to come visit me today! He'll be here in mid-June and will stay until mid-July!

Letter from Ma

Dearest Bubba,

I'm writting this slow because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left home. Your dad read in the newspaper that most accidents happen within 20 miles from your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address because the last Arkansas family that lived here took the house numbers when they moved so that they wouldn't have to
change their address.

This place is really nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure it works so well though. Last week I put a load of clothes in and pulled the chain...we haven't seen them since.

The weather isn't bad here. It only rained twice last week; the first time for three days and the second time for four days.

About that coat you wanted me to send you, your Uncle Stanley said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.

John locked his keys in the car yesterday. We were really worried because it took him two hours to get me and your father out.

Your sister had a baby this morning, but I haven't found out what it is yet so I don't know if you're an aunt or an uncle. The baby looks just like your brother.

Uncle Ted fell in a whisky vat last week. Some men tried to pull him out, but he fought them off playfully and drowned. We had him cremated and he burned for three days.

Three of your friends went off a bridge in a pickup truck. Ralph was driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. Your other two friends were in back. They drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down.

There isn't much more news at this time. Nothing much out of the normal has happened.

Love, Ma

Insurance in Sweden, Scary

Check this out I always figured in Sweden you don't need insurance. Interesting that others say you do. Too tired to post a longer entry, and you did get one this morning.

Late April Fools

Just imagine if some of the stories reported yesterday were true, the world would look a lot different:

- Microsoft would have acquired openoffice.org
- China would have acquired Google
- Slashdot would have gone pink
- Google would have opened a dating site
- George Lucas would have approved an 'adult' series of star wars books.
- Scientists in California would have figured out to genetically engineer a dragon and a uniform.
- People would be rushing out to buy their 'wireless extension cords'

Oh, and it's a bit more than a month until I'll find out if I was accepted into the Masters Program at Uppsala. About now I wish I had some friend who was friend with whoever is sorting applications. I'd like some sort of clue like 90% are from China and don't qualify. Information, I need information! Ok, so I'm nervous. Hopefully I won't remain so for the next 48 days or whatever it is until I graduate.

Color!

I got my hair recolored today. It's just the same highlights I've been getting done for the last 5 years, but it always looks nice afterwards. Costs a fortune to get my hair done though. 85 dollars before the tip. But that covers 2.5 hours of labor, the dyes, getting my hair washed and dried, and everything else associated with a nice trip to the salon.

I also bought some Easter Egg kits today. Two of them! A sparkle kit and a normal kit. I'm going to stash them until the Easter after this one. That way I'll have a nice bit of fun in Sweden. If the kits go on sale the day after Easter, I'll buy a few more. Not that they're expensive even now. Two dollars a kit. If the picture here shows up... it's David having fun for Easter 2005.

My poor teeth!

I got two cavities filled today. They used white filling so they're not as noticeable as my old fillings. One of them doesn't feel quite right though, like they didn't drill it down enough afterwards. We'll see how it is once I get used to it.

I've also, somehow managed to trick David into putting up with my Mom's family for a weekend this summer. Ok, I didn't have to trick him because he doesn't actually know what he's getting into. My mom's family is nice, but I don't spend a lot of time with them. They're really quite different. They drink a lot, a few of them smoke, they have family problems galore. My mom tries to avoid spending more time than she has to with them. And they're her family. But it will give David a nice chance to see Yosemite National Park and meet part of my family. My dad's trying to figure out how to get David to meet his family too. Right now he's hoping to find a weekend this summer and have his brother invite everyone out for some water skiing.

In a way I'm worried that David won't like me anymore after meeting my family! We'll see how things go though. I have faith in David and hopefully my slightly insane family.

Oh, and I watched Good Eats tonight, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about beans with the help of an odd looking 'bean gameboard' and lots of comments. The things I learned today include the fact that one should always use imported bay leaves from Turkey or Greece. Those make food have a nice taste. The California ones apparently make food taste and smell like Vik's Vapor Rub. I also learned that beans seem to have the lasting power of Carbon 14 when in the back of the pantry. Fun fun fun!

Home home on the range!

Well, I'm home for the weekend. I found out from my mom that my Grandpa Bourke is going to remarry this summer. Apparently this has been planned for awhile and the only reason I now know is because I answered the phone when her brother called to discuss hotel rooms. It'll be in Yosemite. He's been living with the lady for the last 20 years or something. No one knows why he now decided to marry her, but it doesn't really matter.

My parents' house is a disaster right now. They're preparing to get the carpets redone. The floor in the laundry room and computer room has sunk 3 inches or so since it was put in. My dad has to level that sucker out. We really don't need 3 inch holes around the walls of the room that connect it to the outside! We've been doing rough patch jobs for awhile, but it's time to do it properly. They're afraid that it might settle more, but that this needs to be done eventually anyways. They might as well do it now and redo it more later if needed.

I managed to leave my DS back in Chico. So not really sure what I'll do to keep myself busy. Maybe study. Or try to anyways. I hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Blocked

I've started getting spam again. So turning off the thing that lets you post without putting your name. Sorry to those few of you who occasionally comment but don't have blogger accounts!

Today's Adventure

So I get to work and my boss tells me 'Come see this cool set of data!' I go over there and he has an old gateway computer on his desk. There's some sort of confidential information on it that we've been given access to, but cannot remove from the computer. Catch, battery is completely dead and they didn't leave a cord. We have 2 hours until they come pick up the laptop and we can't even turn it on. Did I mention that the laptop is an old gateway? We call RadioShack, they don't have any adapters that are 19 Volts. My boss keeps calling different electronic stores, my idea is to call User Services on campus. I call them, they don't find my request at all strange. They call back in 10 minutes and say they found one. I went and picked it up, and weee! The laptop worked! Then I spent the next 2.5 hours making sure numbers matched. I am SO tired of watching numbers. But I'm proud of my way of figuring out the solution to a problem.

Oh, and the toilet is broken. It just keeps running. Thankfully the drain is working fine, but the thing that tells it to stop dumping water in is even more broken. And I've TOLD my roommate to call. He swears he has... and that was a month ago. It's getting worse. Thankfully we don't pay for water. I'm not sure if my roommate has called or not, but I might end up calling tomorrow if I can get the number from him. This is getting silly. They are bad at fixing broken things, but this is getting stupid.

Oh, and the sun came out after work today. Now there aren't any clouds. Where did they go?

Monday Night's Group Presentation Results

Here is how the content was uneven: M's work was the most general and also it was drawn from one website. L's had a similar problem, although the pictures and examples were fine. T's and Jaenelle's, on the other hand, used multiple sources and graphics. I'm glad we all saw the deep wierdness of tourism in Dubai, but I felt that I had to point out that it was a reversal of our theme--nothing wrong with that, but it needed to be said, and perhaps discussed. Jaenelle's was the most put together and coherent, since the title Motivations to Leave reflected only a little of what R presented.

So mine was the best! Wooo! I changed the names of course. Put my name to Jaenelle and just used the first letter of everyone else's. I left the professor's typos in though (who the heck doesn't spell check their emails before sending them?). I told them that they weren't doing what they should have been and that they needed more real research. I said that they needed to make the US look bad and not stray off topic and say anything good about tourism. M was the bossy one that upset me so much. Of course they're probably all grumbling that it was someone else's fault that they were assigned material to research and couldn't find much about it. They just didn't look well enough! I told them that the professor was looking for proof of real research and they didn't listen. Granted I only told them once. It is their choice to listen or not and evaluate what I said as logical or not. But this makes me happy.

I'm going to spend the rest of today reading and maybe start on my paper for my political science class. On Thursday I have a study meeting at 9am. I might just hang out in the library most of the day studying for my two quizzes that day. Just grab something little for lunch and leave it at that. I should be done early on Thursday due to exams. Hopefully I can get out of Chico by 3:30pm.

No work today!

Well, after today the week will be half over. I'm glad I don't have to work today. This morning I'm going to work on typing up this study guide that we're going to go over in class and read more of this book. But I'm talking to David instead of being productive. ;) Life is nice!

My presentation yesterday went relatively well. My group just sat there and read off of the screen for their parts, which will probably get me a lower grade. I don't like group projects because no matter how many times you tell someone what the requirements are, they'll do what they want and then it hurts you. Their laziness or ineptness affects me. That just isn't cool.

Evil Time Gnomes

Well, I got a lot done this weekend. I'm past page 750 in the book that I wanted to finish. I guess it's something. I got my presentation for class tomorrow night mostly put together. I'm almost done with laundry. I made taco pie for lunch.

I wanted to write something interesting and cool, rather than just how my day went. But I can't think of anything. I'll leave you with this thought to ponder though...

How the HECK does my room manage to trash itself in less than 24 hours? I swear little gnomes must do it while I sleep. The same ones that steal socks. I think they also steal time. I never have enough time to get anything done. I sit down to study and before I know it, several hours have passed and I haven't gotten much more done. Bleh!

Nothing Much Happening.

I had a nice day. I was tired and a bit grumpy, but I took a nap after work and everything was magically better. Oh, and my roommate's WoW game crashed, so we had pizza for dinner. It was quite yummy. An extra large pizza, garlic bread, a salad, and two 2 liter bottles of soda for 20 dollars (10 each). It was quite good.

This weekend I will study lots. I will. No, I mean it this time! REALLY!

Why I hate group work

I'm working on a group project for my gender class (which doesn't actually have much to do with gender). My group is a bunch of dorks. I managed to piss off one of the girls enough that she shut up and let us get some work done. Anytime anyone had any ideas she'd say they weren't good and try to get us back to her dumb ideas. She was ordering everyone around and telling everyone what they were going to do. I offered to just let her do the whole project if she really knew best how to do it. I also started answering 'yes mam' every time she told me to do something. No one nominated her leader.

I've also had my main areas for my report taken away and given to someone else. This makes the second time. I don't feel like having all my research tossed out, so I'll probably just take credit for the information that I collected because it's stupid to make me do everyone else's research because they're too lazy to do it themselves. Not that I have much say in anything. I hate group projects. I always end up with someone who isn't even old enough to drink thinking that they're boss of the world. It's annoying. AND I have to meet with them one more time before we do our presentation.

I guess that's life.

Oh, and my mom came by for less than an hour today. She drove an hour and a half here and an hour and a half home to spend less than an hour here. She of course turned down my invite to lunch despite the fact that I had everything ready for it. She was in such a hurry to get home and help my dad put things into boxes that she couldn't possibly stay another 5 minutes. Sometimes my mom's ideas of rational are a bit confusing. I wish my mom wanted to spend as much time with me as I do with her. And I didn't even ask her to come down, she came down because of GradFest which I could have handled just as well on my own. I am thankful that she wrote the check for my cap and gown rental and my graduation announcements/invitations. The cap and gown rental were expensive.

Good Mood :)

I'm in a good mood today. Not really sure why I'm in such a good mood, but I am. I stayed a bit late at work, the internet went down WHILE I was talking to David during my lunch break, and I got yelled at by some sorority girls in a red sports car. Despite all of that I'm in an excellent mood. I will probably be in a good mood at the end of class today too. Ballroom dancing is always fun. The hours are horrible, but the class is fun.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to clean up my apartment and study before my mom gets here. Then we're going to go to GradFest where she'll hopefully help me pay for graduation supplies. Then my mom will go home and I'll go to class. After class I'll frantically do research until 6:30 when I have a group meeting. After that I'll come home, shower, then sleep. What a fun day I have planned for tomorrow?

Lunchtime Report

I got a nice compliment from my insane professor today. After a full length lecture of him calling on the international students and making them explain their religious and cultural views and how different they are from the Judeo-Christian views we got back our journals. We turned our journals in before break. I had spent forever retyping my notes to be sure that it was as accurate as possible and as nice as possible. He held my journal up in front of the whole class and said that I was one of the view who understood the assignment. He went on and on about how great I was. I hated it really. It's nice to know that my journal was the best in the class, but I know that the only reason my journal looks so good is because I basically wrote my papers at school. Normally there is no record of my thought process for papers because I write them at a computer. If I want to rearrange things or plan things out, I drag sentences around. I wrote my papers during class so I had to do a bit more planning if I didn't want to spend forever writing and rewriting things out. I had mind-maps and other sketches and outlines for where I wanted the paper to go. And I put those things into the journal. That is why mine was the best.

He also said I was definitely ready for graduate school. Now I wish the people in Uppsala would magically hear him and agree with him! All I can do is that the people at Uppsala University think I'm a genius too! Hopefully for more real reasons than my insane professor though.

I might put another entry in after work today, we'll see.

I QUIT! (for Tuesday mornings)

Well, I've decided that working 14 hours a week is a bit too much when also going to school 17 hours a week. I was also spending almost 4 hours a week just traveling back and forth between school and work and home. I made the trip either to school or to work 11 times. I always leave home about 20 minutes before school or work starts. That doesn't include time to get home again, but I don't have to plan for as much time there since if I'm a bit late getting home it doesn't matter and classes often get out a few minutes early. I also spend at least 20 minutes a day getting ready to go to school/work. So that's another almost 2 hours. All of that and it doesn't even include the time I need to do homework! I also have cooking, shopping, cleaning, eating and all of the normal things people have to do. I admit to being curious how normal people manage to work 40 hours a week without going insane. It must be the lack of homework. I've got to admit though, working 8-5 really KILLS your day.

Anyways, the whole point of this is that I no longer plan to work on Tuesday mornings. It'll give me 2 less hours of pay, but close to 3 more hours of free time when you take out the trip to work and home again and the extra preparation time and time to get back into doing schoolwork. And since if I work 9-11 I don't get any homework done between 11:15 when I get home and 12:10 when I leave for class... I probably acquire an extra half hour or something in there too. Maybe this will make me less stressed?

I really need to learn to get used to stress though since I'm sure I'll have more in the fall if I get into the masters program. I'll then be doing Swedish classes in the evening if I can and working whenever else I have free time. I'm sure I can get my nice 20 sek an hour job back if I really want to abuse myself in that way. Sometimes I could make close to 30 sek/hour if I worked Friday nights and got lots of tips (10 hour shift). Only real benefit to that type of job is that I can get the hours I want (as long as they are open) and they feed me. A 5 hour lunch shift usually results in 100 SEK and 40 SEK of lunch and all the chips/fruit/sodas I can consume while working. Just requires me to not want to do anything from 11-4 or whatever the hours were. Job also doesn't require that I speak Swedish very well. ;) En lunch was about all that was required.

Identity

There are two things in my memory that stand out today. One of them is from my political science class. The professor asked the class who had ever earned their money by physical labor. A large number of the hands in the room went up. Mine didn't. I hate physical labor. The closest thing to physical labor I've ever done has been baby sitting or dusting my parents' house for change as a child. He called on a few people to talk about what they had done. The first guy he called on worked as a farm laborer in the Salinas area. His parents still do it. Things like this always make me feel good that America does provide a lot of chances to be upwardly mobile in class. You can be born a simple immigrant farm laborer and still end up in a nice university. I guess in a way I hadn't ever thought that there were people like that in my classes. They would be in some of my easier classes, but by the time they're in upper division courses you don't notice them. I'm sure they've always been there, I just haven't noticed. I feel like a snob. I feel like a privledged elite, and I've never considered my family to be that well off.

The second event that stands out came about when I was complaining to one of my classmates about my roommate never helping me clean. I explained how we had thought about hiring cleaners, but it was too expensive. One of the girls in the class asked me how much they wanted, I told her 90 dollars for my small little apartment. She said that she was sure her boyfriends' mother could do it much cheaper and she would ask. She said that she used to clean houses for money, but that it was really too much work. I agreed with her. But two events in one day made me realize that I'm a spoiled little girl.

I sit here in an apartment that my mom pays the rent for, eating food that my parents give me money to buy, drive a car that my parents own and pay the insurance on, and going to school that my parents pay for. I think I would feel weird hiring a classmate to do cleaning for me, but as long as it's her boyfriend's mom who does it... it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I need a reality check? Then again, I consider cleaning in the same category as plumbing. I might be able to do it, but it takes me a long time and I'm not good at it. It's a skilled job in a sense to be able to do it quickly and well.

Am I a bad person?

Food is expensive!

3 packages of Rotini Pasta (1 pound each) - 1 dollar each
1 package of garlic mashed potatoes - 1 dollar
2 package of salloped potatoes - 1 dollar each
1 package of buttery herb mashed potatoes - a dollar
2 packages of potatoes au gratin - a dollar each
3 light bulbs - 6 dollars total
Monterey jack cheese -8 dollars
taco cheese - 8 dollars
toilet paper - 6 dollars
ground beef
stir fry beef
heavy whipping cream - 4 dollars
chips - 3.50
tater tots - 2.50
brussel sprouts
hotdogs - 4 dollars
Eggs - 1 dollar
Asparagus
broccoli
pain killers - 7 dollars
sour cream - 2.50
onion
baby carrots - 2 dollars
English cucumber - 2 dollars
sliced mushrooms - 2.50
red bell pepper

All of that added up to more than 75 dollars! And I bought almost everything that was on sale. No one item is really that expensive... but it adds up. But notice! Lots of veggies there! It's a healthy list. The only thing I've opened so far is the bag of chips though!

New Bar Regulations

Right now this town has the oddest bar regulations. During certain drinking holidays the newer bars have to close at a certain hour and during other holidays they can't open sooner than another hour. The ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control or something) is really strict on the bars and places that sell alcohol too. I have a solution that should please almost everyone!

Part 1: Put all the bars/restaurants/clubs that have strong party scenes on the same street. A one way street would be nice, with no cars on it. Any bars/clubs/etc that aren't located on this street, they can put whatever regulations on that they feel like.

Part 2: Make it so that there is no parking anywhere near the street at nights. This should encourage people to have a friend or a taxi drop them off rather than driving. Taxis are so cheap in this town that to have a taxi pick us up downtown, drive us to my friend's place, drop her off, then drive to my place and drop me off... came to less than 8 dollars total. We split it and gave him a tip, so it is very reasonably priced even for students.

Part 3: Put the bouncer/ID checker at the start of the street. The only way to get onto the street at nights is to be over 21. Now the bars can put money into bouncers inside the bar rather than sitting outside checking lots of ID's. One ID checker for 10 bars rather than 10 ID checkers.

Part 4: No allowing anyone to leave the street unless a taxi or a friend is there to pick them up if they can't pass a breath test. Since it's illegal to walk around town drunk, they can catch the people right away. This should also cut down on crime against drunks and cut down on some of the rapes against drunk girls. If they need to pay for someone to take a taxi home, take their ID or something else of value so that they'll have to come back and pay like a 20 dollar fee plus whatever their taxi ride was. Perhaps more to discourage that type of behavior and encourage their friends to cover for them.

That's the main bit of my plan. Other bits include perhaps keeping a medical personal on the scene for any problems and maybe a police officer on Friday/Saturday nights. All the bars on the street can have the fees for those guys included in their rent. That way the costs on our behavior is passed off to the customers like it should be. Perhaps even include rentable party rooms where you can bring your own alcohol and have kegs and whatever. Everyone who would walk in would be over 21 so there would be less problems. Let people drink on that street and bring their own booze onto the street (but not into the bars). Let them drink in 'public' there and whatever else. This should keep the drunks contained while still allowed businesses to make money and people to drink themselves silly. If bars want to locate elsewhere for cheaper rent/drinks then the city can put whatever restrictions on them that they want.

I just think that this town's idea of closing bars at 10pm on major holidays is stupid. Let people do what they want, just watch over them while they do and try to keep them safe and keep them from hurting others.

Clothing Sizes

Whoever decided that all women fit into set sizes such as 0, 1, 3, 5 must have been dilusional. Not to mention the fact that the sizes from one brand to another have nothing in common. The only similarity is that lower numbers mean a smaller size. A 1 in one brand can be 8 inches too long, another brand too short, and in another brand I can't get it past my knees. I wish they'd sell women's jeans by length and waist like they do guys. And let's not even get into styles. Jeans come in either 'Street-walker' or 'Mom' style. I want jeans that have a slight flare to them, are form-fitting (go stretch!), that have a waistline that isn't at my belly button nor below my butt crack, and with a length that I'm not tripping over and doesn't show my socks when I sit down.

I guess I'm picky. Although some poor dad was there with a 14 year old trying to find jeans. He reached the same conclusions I did. I wonder if jeans are made better in Sweden. After discovering that /I/ couldn't get jeans of the proper length up over my hips, I'm reminded yet again why so many girls have eating disorders. If, at 105 pounds (48 kilos) I can't fit into clothes... I wonder how girls with more normal body shapes do.

I came home with two pairs of pants though. I nice pair of slacks that is too long (I'm hoping my mom can hem them) and a pair of jeans I got in a trade-in. I also bought 3 new t-shirts that don't show my stomach and 5 cute new pairs of undies. Maybe I can go longer between laundry loads now.

Tomorrow I want to work 8-2:30 so that I'll have time to take a nap. Then maybe I'll have the energy to go to the bars tomorrow. It'll be one of the biggest drinking nights, St. Patty's day, on a Friday night! Weee! Which means I'm pretty much required to go out. Not allowed to hide in my room.

The world is a strange place sometimes.

While doing my semi-daily search of news sites I came across THIS article. Both the woman and the boy need some serious counseling. I find it funny that she's not allowed to contact her husband (yes, they're married!) until he turns 17. Imagine being told you can't contact your husband. Freaky.

In more normal news. I had a nice day today. The boss took us out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. It was weird. I had almost the same thing as everyone else, but I was the only one still hungry after eating. My co-workers laughed at me. Hmph. I stayed at work like 20 minutes extra today, so I'll take that off of tomorrow's time. I'm thinking about going in at 8:30 or so. That way I can be done with work a bit before 2. I /really/ need to go to the mall and return some jeans and maybe buy some new clothes. I'm having to do laundry WAY too often.

I FINALLY found time to do laundry today. The last load is in the dryer now. The first load is already folded.

I also have a headache. I'd like it to go away so I can get some homework done. Maybe I'll eat dinner tonight if I start feeling better. I have leftovers in the fridge that need eating. I've expanded. I have leftovers in the fridge at work too.

My Spring Break Slowly Drifts Away

Well, Tuesday is pretty much over. I worked 7 hours today. 4 days of my break have passed me by. I wish I could say I had accomplished a ton during these days, but I can't. I have another 5 days to go though! During the second half of my break hopefully I'll get a whole bunch done.

Tonight I have simple goals. Take a shower, do laundry, run the dishwasher. And sit here and whimper because there is thunder. Looks like I made it home from work just in time. Oh, and maybe get some school work done. It'd be really nice to read another 100 or 200 pages of my big book. Realistically I might take it a bit easy though. My mind is a bit melted after doing 7 hours of work.

I think I could get to like the adult world of real work... as long as I didn't have to come home and do schoolwork afterwards! The big problem of working all day... I'm completely exhausted. I feel like taking a nap but if I do, then I'll not sleep tonight.

Nice weekend

I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend filled with yummy food. I'm back at my own apartment now, it's very empty. There was only one car in the parking lot when I pulled in. Usually I have to fight for a spot and today it was empty. I guess it's because everyone who didn't go home for the week is at work. Tomorrow I'll be at work too, but I'll leave my car here still. I'm not quite lazy enough to take the car rather than a 10-15 minute bike ride.

I stole a half of a bag of chips from my mom's cupboard. *crunch* They're quite yummy.

My goals for this week involve working 25 hours over the next 4 days and getting lots of homework done. Maybe I'll take a nice nap today or something else equally nice. It's my one day off this week.

Conversation with my Dad

I had a long talk with my dad today. I feel like I made some progress into what I want to do with myself and what I don't want to do. I was telling my dad what I figured I'd end up doing in the future and my dad gave me a lot of suggestions. In the process of describing to my dad what I do and don't want to do, I've figured it out myself a bit. That's just cool!

I don't want to be a manager. I don't want to have to order people around or try to get them to do what I want them to do. I don't want to be stuck in a corporate ladder trying to claw my way to the top. At the same time I don't want to be in that corporate system really. I want to be an expert at what I do and be able to work independently. I want to be someone that people come to and say 'hey, we need this done, how long will it take you?' And when they need things done they go 'Do you have time to do this?' instead of 'Do this now.' That type of job where I'm working on my own just getting stuff done would be the type of job I could telecommute with too. Then it wouldn't matter where in the world I was working or what language I spoke. That would be nice.

My dad told me he'd never be surprised if I ended up being the one to earn most of the money in a family. I could see myself doing that in a way. I just need to find someone who wants to pay me lots to sit at a computer and get stuff done. Any offers? I'm quite good at research in goggle! Really!

Anyways, it's nice being home.

And my parents are going to get all new carpet and vinyl throughout the house. It'll actually look presentable when David comes this summer! Weee!

Tired

Well... it looks like we won't be able to get a cleaning service. :( They want 90 dollars a month just to do the most basic cleaning job. I could get someone cheaper, but they wouldn't be worker friendly. This place is licensed, insured, bonded, and provides workmen's comp. But it's still too expensive for me. So I settled for yelling at my roommate for 15 minutes. He was really too silly to even understand why I was mad. It took awhile for it to sink in. I think I was quite rational and he seemed really embarrassed and promises to work harder. We'll see if this sticks.

Besides that, I'm tired. I did a normal Thursday. Studied, cleaned, went to class, made dinner, etc.

If you want a real blog entry, you're out of luck. I'm going to bed and it's only 8:30.

Health center

I decided that this situation was not good and dragged myself to the heath center instead of class this morning. It was a good thing I did. Turns out that I'm so dehydrated that they actually considered sticking an IV drip into me. I was there about 10-15 minutes before they opened. That got me a good spot in the queue. I was the only one in line who refused to stand once inside. I sat on the floor and slid myself along as the line moved. Within 30 minutes of their front doors opening, I was seeing a doctor. A nurse saw me within 10-15 minutes. I listed off my problems, she added a few more that I had forgotten, she told me I was a very sick little girl. *laugh* I could have told her that. They took my blood pressure three times when I told them I was a bit dizzy. They were going to do it another time, they decided they had already proved what they needed to and weren't going to make me do it standing up too. Just sitting up did what they wanted.

The doctor was so nice, she told me what was going on and just let me lie down for a bit. She wanted to give me some stronger medicine, but they didn't have it. So she gave me the next step down. If I have a problem, she gave me her phone number so she could call the prescription into a real pharmacy if I still had problems. I seem to be doing ok though, I think. She also gave me some medicine that makes me REALLY sleepy but makes me stop feeling sick all the time. I can't drive. Roomie is going to have orders to fetch food. Oh, and since I wasn't feeling great and couldn't go to the store and buy some Gatorade... she gave me two bottles free from what they have on hand.

I've been sleeping for the last 3.5 hours now. Besides feeling sleepy I'm feeling a lot better. I still think I'll have to skip ballroom dancing tonight. I do have a doctor's note though. If I'm not feeling much much better by tomorrow, I'm supposed to call and she'll have me come in and sit there with an IV. I really hope I don't need that.

See, proof that I wasn't just whining about being sick. Oh, and she said to give up on drinking water for a bit if it isn't staying inside my tummy.

Weee! My roommate is awake, on his way to the grocery store. He'll buy me food (chicken broth, more gatorade, ginger ale, and saltine crackers)!

I think I'll start my own religion....

My religion will involve the belief that everyone else's god(s) are yours, just with different faces. Therefore you should be nice to everyone, even those who don't believe in a god, because (s)he loves them anyways. You can have your choice of the name for the god(s). Choose one already in use somewhere or make up your own name. I'm going to encourage the use of Jaenelle.

The belief system involves being happy and not hurting others. No one should ever be killed, abused, bombed, blown up, not-aborted in the name of this religion. This religion believes you should sit in a nice green garden somewhere, with flowers. Unless you happen to have allergies, then sitting inside, in a wood-floored room with wooden furniture and perhaps some statues made out of stuff that you aren't allergic to. The requirement is that you're happy and peaceful.

You will always treat others like they are better than you. You should take a few moments out of each day to smile at people, compliment them with something they did well (Is that a new dress? I love it!), and help them with anything they might need help with. You won't try to convert people to your religion by standing anywhere and handing them things or by telling them that your religion is better. Their religion is just a different, more violent form of your religion. If they ask, happily tell them, but no pushing. There are enough pushy religions. (Ok, I got ambushed by some bible giving out guy on school campus again.)

This religion WILL preach happiness and nonviolence for hours and hours and hours at anyone who even thinks about doing something violent or hating towards another person in the name of the religion. I mean, if they're doing bad something in the religion's name, they're obviously a confused member and need to be set straight. Heck, I think I'll decide not to name the religion so that it can never be used for any evil purposes. It's hard to do something in the name of a religion which doesn't have a name. Although if it is ever named, I'm leaning towards Jaenelleism.

Edit: Something in here should be written about being divinely rewarded for taking long naps.

Btw, just because I write two posts in a day doesn't get anyone out of commenting on the post below this one. I expect two comments from each and every one of you. I went through the effort of writing two blog posts. I also just created my own religion! I deserve comments!

Btw, bring me food. I'm too dizzy to stand and I have this odd feeling that maybe I should eat.

Happy News

Well, I'm still sick, but feeling a lot better. I stayed home from work today. It wasn't worth the extra 2 hours of work. Turns out it was good that I didn't go. Just walking up the stairs (1 floor!) at the library made me feel very ill.

The good news though is that both of my exams/quizzes for Thursday were moved until after spring break. One of them is two weeks after and the other is the first day back. Still better to not have them this week. This leaves me with only one class to focus on for the rest of the week. My political science class. I've gotten the majority of the work I need to turn in printed. I really need to hole punch the thing and put it into a note book of some sort. Took forever to type up all the notes for the past few weeks. The thing I still want to get done is to get a finished copy of my 2nd paper done. I've gotten a rough draft turned in, but I wasn't happy with it. So I'd like to get it updated before I start on my next paper this coming week. Perhaps I'll work on it some tonight if I'm feeling better.

And on Thursday after school (4:30) the cleaners are going to come and give us an estimate for the costs of cleaning the apartment. If the price is affordable, they should come by in two weeks. Oh, and the toilet is starting to not work. Takes two flushes to accomplish anything. I guess that last bit isn't happy. But most of the rest of this is!

Happiness is a Cleaning Service

After spending all weekend alternating between cleaning and nagging my roommate to clean I've decided a cleaning service might be nice. My roommate agrees with me. So I called a place to come and do an estimate. I think I'd rather just pay someone 25 dollars a month to come in and clean (with my roommate paying the other half).

In other news, I'm sick. :( I emailed in sick to my night class tonight, but the professor is being really difficult and giving me a massive assignment as punishment for not showing up. Writing two papers and some other stuff. I might see if I can drag myself there anyways. In an hour after I've slept for a bit I might be feeling a bit better. I hope so. I'll go sit in class, look miserable, and generally be annoying. Make her rethink that punishment policy. I hope she catches the flu from me.

In interesting news, my dad sent me a message with the excitement that's going on at his office. It was the cat's response to another cat. Chased it up a tree and sat at the bottom under a bush in the rain for a long time. This set of messages was like 15 messages followed by 3 photos. My dad's office life.