SIGH! A BIT OF A BREAK

I went to my aunt's house this weekend and it was wonderful! Friday night I watched movies and ate pizza with my cousin Caitlin. We watched highly intellectual films, as I'm sure you all expect of me. Shark Tales is pretty good, but nothing compares to Finding Nemo! We also watched The Wild, which is pretty cute.


Saturday I did a tiny bit of homework, then we went for lunch and watched my cousin practice her archery. Then I made a baby quilt to send to Honduras with a missionary couple my aunt knows. Saturday night was yet another night of deep, thought provoking films, Over the Hedge and Charlie and the Chocolate factory. My aunt made steak and ceasar salad, mmm... my favourite. I think the steak was a bit much for my system, being a student my diet consists of mainly non-meat substances, so to shock it with a big beefy steak proved a bit of a challenge for my intestines. But it was worth it.

Sunday my aunt taught me to knit. I started making a scarf and I am just about half done. Just what I needed, something else that is more fun to do than studying! Oh well, I just have to be more disciplined. Maybe I'll do like some of the old ladies do and knit on the bus! I watched yet another movie sunday afternoon, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I absolutely love that movie, it never gets old. I highly recommend it.

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE YOUTH OF THE EARLY 90'S

How were these guys ever considered cool? Did people ever consider this dancing? Check out the rat tail on the one who seems to be having muscle spasms in his legs. I was to young to really care but I know a lot of people who were in love with these guys. Why?

I found my self in another undesireable situation in the bathroom at school today. After I flushed the water didn't stop whirling around. I jiggled the knob but it didn't stop. It was whirling around at an incredible velocity and splashing a bit too. It was also really super loud, like Niagra falls or choking lion loud. So I was starting to panick a bit. I didn't want to just leave it, plus I was embarassed. I didn't want to go back into the hallway because I'm positive people out there could hear the monster raging inside. I didn't know who to tell either. I didn't know where to find maintenance and it was lunch time so all the lab techs and administrators were out. I threw more toilet paper in thinking that might do the trick, but no such luck. Then I thought maybe if I flush all the other toilets it would stop. So I did, and I could hear it start to slow down and stop. Thank goodness! After drying my pants a bit with the hand dryer I was able to go on with my day.

NEVER HAVE I HATED CHEMISTRY SO MUCH

Today was by far the worst chemistry lab I have had in my whole life. We were doing titrations, which I hate,I just never knew they hated me to. Last week when I did them, they went perfectly, I was top in the class. This week was the complete opposite. I was the last one to leave today. I had to repeat the process 7 extra times. All because the volumes differed by about 0.003%. I had to fight back the tears. Now that I have decided to go into nursing and apply for medicine via that route, all this tiddly nit-picky stuff is hard to put up with. It's gonna be a long semester.

ALMOST DIED TODAY, REALLY

I was walking home from the bus stop after school today, which requires me crossing a pretty busy street. I waited until the walk light came on then I proceeded to cross. I usually check before I cross the street but I had my hood up and my hair was blowing in my face so I couldn't see to the side. The other girl at the cross walk walked so I followed. Next thing I know I hear a car skidding, and it swerves around us. Literally inches away from us. The guy walking on the other side of the street came to see if we were okay, which was nice. It scared me so bad I nearly soiled myself.

I thought Grande Prairie was the only place where stop lights were considered optional.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

I haven't really had much time to blog, or anything really to blog about because I've been so busy with homework. Who knew the anti-viral immune response would be so hard to understand. On the good side, my lab partner this semester already did more in the first lab than my last partner did all first semester, so that's looking promising. My chemistry lab is gonna give me an anxiety atack I think, we do this thing called titration, which is just adding one chemical to another until the colour changes. It doesn't sound so bad at first, but it requires being accurate to 0.01ml. That's like taking 1/4 tsp and dividing it by 100. A little nerve racking, it is very difficult to transfer an amount of liquid that is far less than one drop. If you add just a touch too much the whole thing is ruined.
And when we weigh stuff, we have to weigh it to 0.0001g, that's like a grain of salt. If you accidently pour too much into the beaker you can't just take it out, you have to start again. So I think I will be crying myself to sleep every Wednesday night for the next 3 months.

I went to an intercessory prayer meeting last night, which was super amazing. It was only supposed to be an hour and a half but it was twice as long. Good for the spirit, not so good for todays assignments. Saturday night Brad Jersak is going to be speaking at the church about prayer. I don't know who he is but he's written a couple of books, "The River Within", "Recovery of Love" and some others, never read them but he is supposed to be a super awesome speaker. He is also doing a seminar Monday and Tuesday night that I hope to go to.
Sorry I have nothing embarrassing to report on.

CITY WIDE SNOW DAY!

We got a crazy storm today. Everything was fine when I went to school this morning at 9am then by 1pm the classes and labs were being cancelled. Hundreds of students were crowded around waiting for the bus. Whenever a bus came people just jumped on and worried about where it was going after they got on. Buses weren't even following their routes because there were street closures all over town. The bus I was on couldn't get into the mall parking lot. We got dropped off in the middle of the street. The stop was about 2 blocks from where I lived. I was not dressed for the weather because it wasn't that cold when I left this morning, but now there was wind gusts up to 80km/h and it was nearly -40C. You couldn't see anything partly because off the white out conditions, but mostly because of the snow blowing in your eyes. I had to trump through snow drifts over my knees. The frustrating thing was that I was planning on going shopping for winter boots today but couldn't because of the storm. There was a point where I wasn't sure if I would get home, I actually thought I might die walking home from the bus stop. Here's is a picture of me after I got home and had a couple of minutes to melt.

The city has pretty much shut down. They even set up a sort of "campout" at the university for people who could not get home, with food and a place to sleep. Bridges and roads have closed, malls and grocery stores closed. Public transit has stopped. Before I totally thawed out I went and took a couple of pictures. This one is of a snow drift in the parking lot, it is higher then the roof of most of the cars, nearly as tall as I am.

I went to the street corner, there is actually a large mall across the street, but you can't see it, you can barely even see the street lights.

So I got locked in a bathroom stall today.

AND SO IT CONTINUES

I was working on my physics, but I couldn't do it, so as a wise man once said, "If at first you don't succeed, just quit trying." So I did.

I had a rather unusual encounter the other day. As I was walking to my locker I passed by this guy, who I assumed to be blind because he had one of those sticks, waiting for the elevator. I thought nothing of it and kept going. I got to my locker and opened it then I turned and looked to the side. The blind guy was there, I think he followed me. It was a little ways from the elevator(down the hall and around the corner) and the only thing there is lockers, so I don't know why he would come down that way. He wasn't at a locker he was just standing there, about 4m away, "looking" at me. I just went about my business, got my books ate a couple of cookies, etc. He was still there. I didn't know if I should say something, I don't think he needed help because he had been with people at the elevator, he could have asked them. I was really at a loss. I put on my jacket and closed my locker, then he turned around and left. It was so strange. (Maybe it was that new Coconut Lime spray I got because of you K)

Now for a less awkward, more embarassing event. I think I had my most public wipe out of the school year today. Probably in front of at least a hundred people, likely more. It was at the bus stop at school. All the buses stop here so there was a ton of students outside waiting,on both sides of the street, down nearly a whole block. My foot slipped as I was stepping up onto the sidewalk. I probably could have recovered if it wasn't for the bag full of books I was carrying. It makes you pretty top heavy, and over emphasizes any disturbance in your balance. I fell crunching my knee right into the edge of the side walk. Ouch! Some guy behind measked if I was okay and offered to help me up. The poor kid was trying so hard not to laugh at me. I just got up and acted like it happens all the time, because really, it does happen all the time to me. The silver lining of the story is that my bus was right there so I could get on and not have to stand there by myself all embarassed.
However, walking from the bus stop home I slipped again, while crossing the street. Another relatively public event, since there was cars lined up at the light. Through a serious convlusive like motions, I was able to recover and not fall. Somehow, though, I think falling would have been less embarassing then the dramatic display put on.

I think it might be time for new shoes, perhaps even winter boots!

P.S. Vanilla I don't think you're crazy!

ONE WEEK DOWN, 12 MORE TO GO

The first week of the semester is over, thankfully. I am relatively excited for my classes, but I think they will be pretty hard. Classes started Wednesday and I've already spent 2 nights in the library. Yuck! I hate that place.
The week was pretty normal, well normal by my standards. I was doing laundry yesterday and found that my jeans had a big hole in them. I was really disappointed because they were my most comfortable pair, and now I only have one pair. My disappointment turned to horror when I realized that I had worn these on wednesday, and I don't know how long the hole has been there. And this was no small hole, and of course it was in the most modest of places :P, see...

(actual size of hole: about 7cm x 2cm)

I also managed to make a complete dork of myself on thursday. I was waiting outside of my classroom, thinking to doors were locked because there was a bunch of other people in the hallway. After about 10 minutes I saw a few people go in, so I thought I would do the same. I went to the door, and just to make sure I asked the guy waiting right buy the door if it was locked, he said no. So I proceeded to open the door. I tried the first door, it wouldn't open. The second one wouldn't either. Third time's a charm right? No lucky charms at the end of my rainbow, it wouldn't open. Feeling a little stupid, I tried to act like I decided not to go in, and walked around as if I was looking for someone. Then somebody else went to open the door and got in no problem. Now I feel like a real dufus. Fortunately I did run into someone I knew and didn't have to feel embarrassed all by myself. We walked torwards the door, but I still couldn't open it. I have no idea what is wrong with me, surely I can't be that weak or stupid.

Today as I was walking upstairs to I tripped. My shoes are those slip on kind and they are really stretched out, so sometimes they slip off a bit and I trip. It just happened to be in front of a lot of people today. I didn't feel so bad because just as I was falling up the stairs some guy fell down a couple. We both tripped on the same step, and fell pretty much in unison. It was really funny. Maybe they should make up some sort of synchronised falling sport? Nobody was seriously hurt in the making of this embarassing moment.

Home Sweet Home

I got back home last night at around 8PM. I took the greyhound to Edmonton, and it was pretty uneventful. Minus being kicked in the head while sleeping, it was almost enjoyable.
I had a pretty good break, got some new stuff for my apartment, including a new phone and answering machine. Hopefully I will get messages the same day they are recorded now. I also got some amazing micro-fleece sheets. Mmmm, so soft. I even shaved my legs to get the most out of the fleecy softness experience. The only problem is I hate getting out of bed in the morning.
I go back to school on Wednesday, which I am actually pretty excited about. I have some really good classes. What I am most excited about is... drum roll please... NEW LAB PARTNERS! Yup, new semester, new lab partners. I'm really hoping that I will be with someone who is slightly smarter than a fruitfly this time around. I also wouldn't mind if they had more personality than a dirty dish rag, but I don't want to be to picky.
I came home monday night mainly so that I could be back in time for 10% tuesday at the grocery store. When I arrived at the store I discovered much to my dismay and frustration that they are postponing it until next tuesday. Grrrrr. I was really counting on getting 10% off because I have a ton of groceries to buy. I seriously considered waiting and living off the remaining Easy Mac and Mr. Noodle in my cupboard but a week is a long time to go without vitamins or protein. And I really didn't want to eat noodles for breakfast. In protest I left the store and went to Superstore instead.