It's too slippery!

The sidewalks, that is, not Victor (click movies). Most of our sidewalk areas and many of the roads on campus are brick. Its very pretty, which I enjoy during the warm months of the year. When it is about 10º and randomly snows 1-2" on a whim every day or so, BRICKS ARE DEADLY! And as you can imagine, my wonderfully graceful manner allows me to walk across the icy brick paths of death oh-so-easily. -tear-

This has created quite the problem. I've had a sore knee for quite a while but I ignored it since ignoring pains and things of the sort is much easier than getting them checked. Who has time for the doctor's office?! Not me. Well due to the gimp-ness of my knee, I've been walking a little funny and walking/stepping a little funny on ice leads to lots of slipping, falling, general flailing like an idiot. I'm sure you'd never have guessed. So I finally got fed up... and found myself in too much painkiller-proof pain...and went to Health Services to get it looked at this morning. Not once, but twice. First the nurse looked and said she didn't know what to tell me so I should come back when the Nurse Practitioner was there. She looked and said its probably some sort of tendonitis and I should be careful not to fall again. Also, come back Friday so she can poke at me some more. Hurrah, I love getting my leg jerked in 100 different directions!

Hopefully it doesn't start to swell, hurt worse, and/or I don't fall down anymore... damn bricks... because then she's going to give me crutches. Just take a minute and think about that. Ever-so-graceful Kailey, hobbling along campus... and ICY, hilly campus... on crutches. Yep.

Good grief!

Barbaro was put to sleep today. Oh noes! Every time I turned on the TV this afternoon, there was nothing but coverage of this. Now, don't get me wrong. I love animals and I'll be very, very sad when Brownie dies. I do not, however, think she--or any animal for that matter--deserves breaking news coverage and then a day's worth of tribute stories. Its a racehorse. Sometimes they break their legs and die. It happens, life goes on.

What really irked me about the whole thing though was one specific CNN story. The reporter was noticeably weeping while interviewing Barbaro's owner and saying "how I simply cannot imagine what a horribly tragic time this must be for you." I don't think they were that sympathetic talking to Pres. Ford's family members last month. Now let's think about that for a moment, shall we? Horse... Former US President...

Also, I'm sure 9850934853453 more important things blew up/were discovered/ or otherwise occurred someplace in the world.

I do exist.

I came back into existance this morning. Hurrah! I woke up nice and late (10:00, w00t!) and got ready to hike to the Social Security office downtown. And since it was about -500º out there this morning, it took awhile since I had to do some intense bundling, but eventually I was off. Let the fun begin...

First of all, I wasn't entire sure of where I was going, so it felt like I had walked for eternity by the time I actually found it. Then I learned if you want to knife/shoot someone, the Pittsburgh Social Security office is the place to do it. You walk in and a security officer asks: "Do you have any knives or weapons?" Now, I have three things to say about this: 1) Who says yes to that?! "Why yes, sir, I have a machine gun right here and a knife strapped to my calf!"; 2) Why are they including knives as a separate category? Last time I checked, knives were weapons; and 3) It doesn't really matter if you lied about said weapons since there are no metal detecting devices and/or body checks. Next comes the cell phone ban. Mr. not-so-secure security guard asks if its been turned off, and again, the answer is always yes. And there are CLEARLY signs all over the place with big red X's through cell phones.

So this brings me to my actual Social Security experience. First, there was cell phone man. He had it out, taking pictures, chatting with his daughter, letting his grandson pound random buttons. Clearly against the rules... in a federal building. Now I don't know about you, but personally, if I had to pick a building to very closely follow the rules, it'd be a federal one. But I guess that's just me. Whatever. And as for any weaponry present, the SSA office is not exactly frequented by the most reputible people. I'm sure plenty were packing but again, the not-so-secure security guard wasn't really gonna do anything about that.

So basically, its the place to go and shoot/knife people while chatting about it/taking picures of your spree on your cell phone.


And, oh, in case anyone is interested, I haven't blown blue boogers since Monday morning.

I do not exist.

I got a new purse and wallet for Christmas, so naturallly, I transferred everything from the old to the new and threw the old wallet away. Or so I thought. What I just recently realized is that, while I transfered a variety of retarded things (like, say, my 2 year old "Daisy Dollars" card from Delias that only has 2 punches on it), I failed to empty the secret pocket. And, oh isn't it just my luck that said secret pocket contained both my voter registration card and my SOCIAL SECURITY CARD. So basically, I threw my identity away. I do not currently exist.

Of course, upon realizing this, I went into crazy panic mode. I mean, really, wouldn't you? You just threw away the little number that runs the world; things are not looking very good right now. However, a replacement Social Security card is surprisingly easy to obtain. I think it's about the only example of good government. All you have to do is fill out a form, take it to the office and show them "proof of identity," aka. my license. Voila, new card mailed to you in 7-10 days. You need more identity/citizen proof crap to take your driver's test. I was amazed. So since I have no class on Thursday and have the day off of lab because of an Ochem quiz that evening, it looks as though I will be venturing across town to the Social Security office and putting myself back into existance. Oh happy day.

I've got the blues...

Snot, that is. Yep, I'm blowing blue boogers now. Freaky, huh?

Actually, there's quite a reasonable explanation. I had to make some loading dye in my lab on Thursday afternoon and as you might guess, this is blue dye. Well the dye itself comes in powder form and apparently I was breathing a little too deeply. I only needed 0.005g of the damn stuff! You'd think such a small amount wouldn't make me blow blue boogers. Teehee, gotta love that alliteration.

Unfortunately, I have no idea just how hazardous (or not) this dye is since its bromo "something" blue. Well, doesn't it just figure that there are about 100 bromo -insert functional group name here- blue dyes out there. I'll have to remember to look at the bottle again on Tuesday for the full name so I can accurately determine if my nose will fall off or not.


And now for something completely different... Kristin died yesterday... probably around the time I was in Seminar listening to a talk about pancreatic cancer, which is what Aaron had. And I know Tony and I aren't exactly close... or speak at all, lol... I still feel so bad for him. Two friends in less than two years. Cancer sucks.

What a difference a day (or two) makes.

I feel about 4000x better now than I did on Tuesday when I last posted. If fact, I'm a little surprised that I'm not more stressed now. I think, however, that I've basically made peace with the face that my Honors Seminar professor is a bit of a jackass: Read The Killing Fields for next week. Well, my friends, it is NOT in the bookstore yet because he ordered it at the very last minute (Yet he's still clueless as to why they don't have it yet... hmm?) and while it is available used from Amazon and the like, there is no guarentee it will ship quickly. But why not buy it new and get the uber-fast shipping, you ask? -ahem-
THE BOOK IS OUT OF PRINT.
This makes purchasing it, finding it at a library, etc. rather difficult. Also, the movie, is older than I am (which is officially old now, of course), so it isn't nearly so handy either. RAWR.

Anywho, while I still have rage about that. Whatever, I read the next book that I have available on the reading list. It was quite good actually. And I've read the excerpts from the text book-ish type book so I'm not totally screwed. Also, there is YouTube, which is hating me a little right now, but hopefully I can get that resolved. And finally, I had an Ochem epiphany earlier and actually have a sense of what is going on in there now. Hurrah.

Hopefully, the whole Killing Fields crap gets sorted out soon enough.. like, say, before next Tuesday night, lol... and I continue to feel better all weekend. No more hating life for me.

Frustrated with life/A little bit of therapy.

I'm sure a cake bowl... or 20... would help right now, but I think getting all will help a bit more. That, and my pants will still fit. Basically, I've been in a bit of a funk and been a little mopey lately. It's certainly not all the time. When I'm doing something--in class, actively watching tv, talking to/spending time with Duane, etc--I'm perfectly fine, but when I'm bored and not doing all that much, I feel like complete crap. At first, I thought perhaps it was just new semester stress, especially considering the extreme dread I have about my Honors Seminar. However, I really don't think that's it.

I think its actually some anger/frustration at life. Not my life. Pretty much everything in my life is going extremely well and I'm very happy and at peace and all that psychobabble crap. Haha. As most people know, I'm all about the childhood cancer stuff, and well, a lot of kids that I either know or whose webpages I've randomly come across aren't doing so hot lately. Carter escpecially depresses me. I've talked to his mom a few times and I feel so bad for his family. To state it plainly, barring some great miracle cure in the next few weeks, he's done. :( And I usually check his journal everynight before bed for an update, which leads to, I think, the main cause of my recent funk. I keep having dreams that Ty has relapsed, which are kind of like those nightmares kids have when they're little that freak them out for the rest of the day, causing them to have trouble sleeping the following night. Also, Tony and some of his friends have asked me about Kristin since they're like "Hey, Kailey knows about cancer!" And while I don't know specifics, so I can only guess, I'm quite sure months without chemo + AML = not such a good thing, although since she's not to transplant yet, it's probably not as big of a deal if she were to relapse while off treatment for the infection. Of course, all they can think of is that Aaron had cancer and he died so what about Kristin?

Finally, I think another minor part of my funk is work-related. At first, I liked my job but I'm now fairly certain that it was because of almost 2 months of sitting with Susie, the greatest patient ever. Now I pretty much dread going to work or even thinking about scheduling. I just wish I had more time to sit around and do nothing rather than try to cram a few hours of work in, which is perhaps (I just had this epiphany as I typed that, btw) why I'm in my funk and so stressed. I feel like I don't have time to relax so that when I actually do relax, I'm under the impression that I should be doing something so as not to be short on time later. And what is the cause of that time deficiency, you ask. Work. Damn crazy people.

And on that note, I officially quit all useful activity until about 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. Goodnight.

Le sigh.

The first week of the new semester is now over. That basically translates to: I will be having a nervous breakdown any minute now. Ugh.

The week didn't start out nearly so bad. In fact, until about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening, I was thinking this semester was going to be grand. And then I pretty much got shot in the face by my Honors Seminar. A reading list 10 miles long, the words "learning team," and "hour-long integrated final presentation" have destroyed my semester before it began. So, in a panic, I decided perhaps I will drop this seminar and take another or find another class I need that will work into my schedule. But alas, all other seminars are full and the History of Science didn't look so exciting... and I already bought all the stupid seminar books. Ugh. UGH! However, it figures that the book he wanted us to start reading (which, I already ordered, btw) hadn't (and still hasn't) come yet, so I made an emergency, panicked call home. Luckily, they had the book at the Mary H. Weir Library at home and my mom was able to run it up to me on Thursday afternoon. She came just as I was finishing up in my lab, so we went and ate lunch. And then I read for the rest of the night. A lot.

Otherwise, I think this semester should be pretty good. Topics In Math is a complete waste of my life. We spent then entire--THE ENTIRE--50 minute class going over what the derivative means... not how to find it, computers can do that for us if we're rusty...just WHAT IT MEANS. The only down side to that class, however, is that the final is a little group project and we get to choose our groups. I do not know, nor have I ever seen, a single soul in that class before. They're all upperclassmen. Ugh. Then there are Ochem II and Genetics, neither one of which should be too bad. I looove all things Genetics and as long as I keep up in Ochem--soooooo much to remember--that should be alright, as well. And finally, we have my retarded Career Development and Biology Seminars. They are both Pass/Fail and involve mostly just showing up each week. The career one is going to feel like about 7th grade and be lots of retarded busy work, but whatever, I pass and its over with. The biology seminar requires slightly more work: two one-page summaries of any two lectures all semester. I'm obviously doing the first two so then I can just sit and pretend to be interested. Although, I gotta say, the rat/rhesus monkey testicle talk this afternoon wasn't so bad.. sorta interesting, actually. Also, we get to enjoy refreshments with the speaker before his talk. Show up, enjoy refreshments. Good class, good class.

But for now I am off to Duane's for the night. Sadly, I think I will be trying to finish a few more chapters of my honors book while he showers after work. Le sigh.

2007

Well, I suppose since its a new year and all, I should have some sort of reflection about 2006/thoughts on an upcoming year.

I'll start with 2006:
It was a pretty good year with a couple of "firsts" and a few milestones. I got my first job...which also includes my first wedding proposal, I guess.. (Yay crazy people!) I finished my first year of college--only a bajillion more to go! I turned 20 and officially became old according to all my small children friends (Thanks, Nate). And Duane and I had our two-year anniversary, w00! The best part, however, was definitely going to Camp Quality. It was most certainly one of the best weeks of my life and well, Tyler is obviously the cutest, bestest kid EVER!

And now for some thoughts on 2007:
I'll be 21 this year. Oh boy! And as previously mentioned, I am completely serious about my plan to enjoy liquid refreshment with Mr. Carey and Caritis at the Marl Inn. Hmm, what else? I'm going to have an awesome summer researching with Dr. Rita, perhaps attending a conference and being all "scientifically famous," lol. And if the lottery gods love us, I'll have an apartment. Yay, independence! Also, there's Camp Quality again... I can't wait to spend a whole week with my Ty-guy again! And finally, there is, of course, April 25, 2007, which is precisely 1 year before the mysterious April 25, 2008 happenings that Duane is planning, and by which time I should have been made aware. Only 3 months and some odd days to go!

I'm a boy.

So it's 2007 now. That means in 10 months and 10 days, I will be 21... and enjoying some liquid refreshment at the Marl Inn with Carey and Caritis. teehee.

I rang in the new year at Duane's aunt's house. Always a good time. And I pretty much confirmed Duane's belief that I'm really secretly a little boy. His cousin Jarrett got ESPN Scene It for Christmas and wanted someone to play with him and a friend, so naturally, they wanted Duane to play. He's a boy, he should do it, right? Well, Duane out-right refused and after determining that hey! I do have some sports knowledge ("I hit for the cycle!"... "Whoa!"), I was playing Scene It. The boys, being the obnoxious 12/13 year olds that they are, were having fun gloating about how they're obviously going to kick my butt, yadda yadda yadda. Ha! I kicked their little butts, which was just hilarious. First, they were shocked I answered a question about an olympic swimmer. Thank you, Summer Sanders for hosting Figure It Out and doing a shampoo commerical to inform me that you were an olympic swimmer. They were impressed. But then I just started freaking them out, such as when I knew that the guy golfing in the old clip was Jack Nichlaus or that the crazy good gymnast was Nadia Com-a-neech (yeah, I can't spell that) and that she won the gold at 14.

However, my last few questions were where the real good stuff came. What basketball player led Indiana State to a NCAA title game, won NBA MVP 3 consecutive years and has won an olympic gold medal? Larry Bird, of course. I think Jarrett actually peed his pants after I got that one. And then it was time to clean up and answer the "All Play to Win" question. What year did -insert 5 sporting events- happen? Event #1: Tiger Woods wins first PGA event. I immediately yell 1997. The room full of middle school kids look at me like "Wtf, hooooooooow?!" And after viewing the rest of the events, I was pretty confident with 1997, which ended up being correct, and the boys were a little mad at me.

Then we played some "knee football," which I think is code for "Let's grope the girls and destroy the house at the same time." But I threw a spiral, and they were sad again... and then I quit because of the aforementioned groping.