Home Again

I love summer. Already hit the beach - I'm getting darker...aiming for black! That's my secret for my ups in volleyball. ;) Dang, I gave it away.

I start work tomorrow. Yikes! That makes me nervous. Jordan said that I will have a lot to do, which is GREAT. I would rather be busy then bored. Still, I have a feeling I won't be eating much until I get used to this work thing. Again.

I am LOVING this no school thing. Thank goodness I am halfway done. In two more years, no more Rose! But for now, I'll take this two-month break. Mmm. Free time. A foreign concept at the ole universidad. Look...it's me and my roomie! I'll miss her over the summer.

Wouldn't You Know?

The night before the ADES final, a storm knocks the power out at Rose. AGAIN. Last time, it took over eight hours to fix. Good thing I'm kinda prepared for this exam already...but a bunch of us headed out to Java Haute to study anyways (that's where I'm writing this post). My roomie is already done :( but she's sticking around till Friday anyways. Yay, I like her.

So, the one thing I'm worried about...ok, two things: not waking up in time for the exam because I don't have an alarm clock (curse all eight AM exams) and the final taking me a bloody four hours to finish. They said it should take us about three...and "they" being the professors means I'll probably be in there all four hours. Shoot.

Home in two days and a few hours. :D

Hailed Upon

That was a new feeling in May after weeks of hot temperatures. Those little hailstones hurt when they hit your nose. But it was fun!

We got our chem tests back today. The highest grade was an 88, the lowest was 21, and the average was 71. That scared me right off the bat. Then I got my test back...and I got an 87!!! I don't know who beat me, but I'm gonna find him and beat him up. I was SOOO excited! That made my day. Now I don't have to worry so much about the final.

One stats assignment, one non-fiction paper, three finals, and I am done! We are taking down our deck soon...our room is currently in a state of wreck and our couch is out in the hall. Getting into our bathroom is kinda tricky. It's so exciting! I am gonna miss this room though. It was pretty sweet. But the apartments will be pretty durn cool as well.

Speaking of which, we ARE going to be able to live there (phew). Since we had a freshman (going to be a sophomore) in our foursome, Hayes told us that we wouldn't make it into the apartments since everything on campus is overrequested and seniors and juniors get priority in the apartments. Thus followed a rigamarole as we proceeded to get rid of one of our roommates and start courting a super senior who will only be here for one more quarter. Well, it finally got worked out. Brandi will be living with CeCe for a quarter until Kim moves out of our apartment, then Brandi is back with us so that CeCe can have the single that she wants. Apparently, living with Ashly this year was enough to traumatize her against roommates for life. It's all rather ridiculous, I think. But now I officially have a place to live, so I am happy. Later, y'all! (one more class tomorrow and I am done with classes for the quarter!!)

Purrrty-ful

This is a random picture of a lab for ADES. Riveting.


















Um, a table of non-data that I don't know what to do with. So you get to look at it.







LOOK! Our goslings! They are getting SO big now.












Lookee here: my campus is purty in the winter. This is the one piece of art that is worth something on campus...it's called the "Something" Flame. I like it.

So I found this story on another blog:

3 Engineers and the Stalled Car


Three engineers are riding in a car: an electrical engineer,

a chemical engineer, and a Microsoft engineer. Suddenly

the car stalls and stops by the side of the road. The

three engineers look at each other with bewilderment,

wondering what could be wrong.



The electrical engineer, not knowing much about mechanics,

suggests, "Let's strip down the electronics of the car

and try to trace where a fault might have occurred."



The chemical engineer, not knowing much about electronics,

suggests, "May be the fuel has become emulsified and

is causing a blockage somewhere in the system."



The Microsoft engineer suggests, "Why don't we close

all the windows, get out, get back in, open the windows

again, and maybe it will work."


HAHA! But I'll have you know, this all would have been solved if they had just had a mechanical engineer on board. Hehehe.

Mud Volleyball and A Few Good Men Squared

Rose put on its production of A Few Good Men on Friday. Well, this is the third performance, including last weekend's performances. I went with Adam, Steve, and Brian. We found Amanda and Chris there and sat with them. It was an entertaining night. The acting wasn't superb; the main characters did pretty well, but some of the others were monotone and wooden. There were several mistakes, and parts where what the character said didn't make much sense because I think they skipped chunks of dialogue, but overall it went pretty well. The only part where I started laughing uncontrollably was the suicide scene. Yes, you may think such a scene would be sad...and it was, right up to the part where he put the gun in his mouth and the lights all went dark. I was rigid in my chair, just waiting to be scared silly when the gun went off. Then there was a flash of blue-white light as the guy's face lit up (Nick Slabaugh played the part, by the way, which made it that much harder to take seriously), then a pause, and then a muted bang followed by a digitized splash of blood that was projected onto a backdrop. I have not seen anything so funny in a LONG time. It took a while for my row to calm ourselves.

So, why does God play with us mere mortals?? Only a week or two ago, it was mid-70's and sunny outside. But this weekend, it's rainy and we're lucky if we hit 50 degrees. So, naturally, it's the same weekend that we signed up for mud volleyball. At 10 AM. On a rainy Saturday.

MY GOODNESS, that was a cold game. When we lost, we were actually happy. That meant we could go warm up! I was sooo muddy, and it was a lot of fun, despite the frigid cold. We got T-shirts out of the deal, and decided not to stay for the pyramid or belly-flop contest since we had already been outside for 2 hours. The cheeseburgers and cheetos were fabulous, though!

Tonight, we are watching A Few Good Men because the play whetted our appetites. Now we get to see how it is supPOSEd to be. Also, I saw To End All Wars this weekend. GOOD movie.

Lots of homework this weekend, but in two weeks it's ALL OVER. WAHOO!!!! Lata gatas.

What About Now? How 'Bout Tonight?

OH MY GOSH I AM ALMOST THERE! Not sure if you all understand how excited I am to be done! Currently, my younger sister is in the same class as me...because my school doesn't get out until the lil high schoolers do! Yeesh! But not for much longer. Soon enough, my friends, I will be an upperclassman. Woman. Person. :D

Tonight, I plan to finish my ADES formal write-up, do some Echem homework, and get started on ADES homework. This week, I have the 2 ADES reports, ADES homework, Echem homework, stats homework, a stats test, and a Non-Fic paper to write. Maybe a chem lab write-up???? Hopefully not. Ugh.

Just so you all know, I have a conflict of interest not next Monday night, but the one after. Yep, they put the 2-hour 24 season finale right smack-dab in the middle of my finals. Priorities...be strong. Nope, I know exactly where I will be from 8-10 (or is it 9-11??) on Monday night. It's the easy final on Tuesday anyways. So no biggie. Hehe. I'll have you all know this is completely FOX's fault.

Later y'all! Gotta buckle down now. Adios.

Grajeeits

NOTE: I only fell down the stairs once this past weekend.

Congrats, Em and Dan! Good job. You two are amazing!

The highlight of the graduation ceremony, besides seeing my family graduate, was the following quote: "UP'ers have feelings too. Except in their fingers and toes."

My niece and nephew are the coolest h'infants around! SO much fun to play with; try having an eighteen-month-old drink out of a water bottle someday. Hours of fun.

Winding up the sophomore year; after I pass chemistry, all will be well. The rest I am not so worried about. Three weeks and it will all be over, for better or worse. Woot!

Going to hit the ole town today. I am ready to be off campus, so I will utilize the lovely car that I too often take for granted. Wheels are a good thing. Later, y'all.

HIP DEEP, BETSEY, HIP DEEP

ADES test went alright. I was really happy when I turned it in (and am still pretty satisfied) but my bubble was deflated slightly (yes, my bubbles can deflate; I was never very good at analogies) when I realized that for the design-space problem he gave us in the problem statement that a<1...and I solved for a<0.8something. Urrg. Plus the fact that there were supposed to be three lines on the graph and I only had two...something's not right. Ooooh well.

THE CHEM QUIZ WAS CANCELED!!!! Hallelujah. My life was saved right then and there. Oh, do y'all know anything about silver nitrate?? Well, let me just tell you what our prof told us at the beginning of lab. "It makes a really dark stain and the only thing that gets it off is wear." Well, that's something of a paraphrase, but close enough. He was right. And apparently I don't pour chemicals into test tubes so much as I splash them onto my fingers and up my arms. I look like a leper. Actually, I look more like a little kid given markers for the first time, or that poor individual who's pen explodes and they don't notice until it's too late.

Incidentally, silver nitrate turns your hands a dark gray-blue and your arms a deep brown.

Didn't get elected for choir. Oh well. I wouldn't have been able to make it during the fall anyways, most likely. Jess quit vball!! :( I was not happy. We'll miss her.

Alright, off I go to not even pretend to be productive. Later, y'all. I shall leave you with a picture that brought me no end of joy.

Customer Greatly Appreciated It

We had our (first, from what I can recall) Customer Appreciation Dinner at the ARA tonight. All I can say is WOW. Well, I can say more. Or else this would be a very boring and brief blog. Alliteration! Alriiight. There it is again. I just can't help it.

Ok, so for the dinner, we had...oh man. There was so much. There was ranch-baked parmesan chicken with fresh parmesan to go on top; prime rib; a potato dish of some sort (rrrreally good); veggies; peel and eat shrimp; pierogis; lil sausages; fresh pineapple, grapes, honeydew, etc. with fruit dip; rolls; and a gourmet dessert table that was OUT OF THIS WORLD. They had at least three kinds of cheesecake (I had two of them; one was plain...AMAZING...and one was raspberry crumble or something...good), a ginormous mini-bunt chocolate cake with chocolate glaze (I took that one back to the room for my sick roomie), and lots more.

I STUFFED myself. I had six plates of food by the time I was done. Mmmm. Sadly, the sick roomie promptly upchucked the luscious bunt cake. Can't say I didn't think of her, though.

Also at the dinner was a DJ, who played loud but FUN music for us all and we could request what we liked. There were door prizes given away as well. Everyone stayed until the Xbox was given away; then all 300 or so of us left at once. Hehe, Rose nerds. Gotta love 'em. But they did keep that one for last, so we didn't just walk out on the poor DJ. Jared, KT's bf, won a horseshoe set. Woohoo. Hours of fun right there. My RA from last year won a cooler on wheels. Some guy won a pack of Monster energy drinks and someone else won a tub of sunflower seeds. It was a random and fun night. I wish they did it all the time, but then again I guess I don't cause I would be paying for it. But I do think every dinner should be set to music. Puts everyone in a good mood. Though I must say it was hard to hear. Ya win some, ya lose some.

ADES exam tomorrow and an Echem quiz; after that, I might be able to breathe again. We had our last spring vball season practice today as well, so tomorrow we will have a pizza party in the SRC. I have choir elections as well (apparently I was nominated for SECRETARY, not treasurer...just as well, since I don't think we really have money to spend and I wouldn't know how to take care of it if we did), so I will skedaddle from the par-tay a little early to see if I am elected. And to vote, of course.

I need to do some last-minute studying and try to decide if I should skip stats tomorrow so I can study for my quiz in between ADES and Echem. Hmm. We'll see. Later, y'all.

Caution

CS professors on the loose! I was run over by a CS prof today. I decided to cut through CS territory in order to get back to work after meeting with my ADES professor. Number one mistake. Number two came when I assumed that I could turn corners willy-nilly with no thought to my own safety. Apparently, those astute Computer Science educators walk at the posted 45 mph with heads pivoted a full ninety degrees in the opposite direction then they are headed. It's an aerodynamic thing, I think. Anyways, I could only got out a noise of some sort (probably equivalent to the ululating cry I gave when riding one fateful day with Mrs. Christman) before he plowed into me. I managed to spin enough to the side to just get a shoulder and one foot trampled, but I believe I bounced off the wall behind me. He said something, laughed, apologized, and announced to the classroom we had collided in front of that he had just run over someone. Blush.

Funny times.

Had my Humanities and Social Sciences Student Advisory Board meeting today; it overlapped with choir nominations, so I missed that, but I was nominated for treasurer, YAY! Voting is on Thursday, which I also can't make because of volleyball. Hmm. My track record is not so good for this position so far. But we'll see how it works out.

Got to study for a huge ADES test, take said ADES test, do chem homework, rewrite a formal report for ADES, write another formal report for ADES, do stats homework, take a stats quiz, read for Non-Fiction, and research for the AIAA project before Friday. Summer! I PINE for you!