Boogie Woogie

There is a such a satisfied feeling after you are done with a test. I was up til 3 studying for both midterms but I think I did pretty well on both. I am glad Ashley is in my educ class because I wouldn't have studied as well without her.

I am at work right now but everyone is in a conference so here I am. I got their car washed and the oil changed. It is busy out. Cars everywhere. I witnessed 2 almost-crashes. This is why I miss the bus.

I am going to Lancaster this weekend with Cindy to visit my cousins. Yippee!

I wish I had something exciting to write about since I finally have time with absolutely nothing else to do. My eye keeps twitching.

Ack I Need to Study

I ate Baobab fruit today. It tasted like dried apples to me, but other people said it was like sour candy. Maybe because I taste with the front of my tongue instead of the back.

There were people flyfishing on a lawn on campus today.

Pineapples and Zuchinni (mmm my favorites)

College is weird. When else in my life am I going to get up at 9 on a Tuesday and go to school at 10? It seems unnatural. I have two midterms tomorrow that I am going to busy tonight studying for.

Interesting things I learned in biology yesterday:

• pineapples and bananas don't have seeds, so they can't reproduce on their own.
• a tomato is a fruit. Technically it is a berry. But legally it is a vegetable because the gov't taxes vegetables and not fruit.
• blackberries are not berries; they are aggregate fruits
  
• a zuchinni is a fruit. Fruits enclose seeds; vegetables are just random plant parts.
• speaking of pineapple and zuchinnis, I had a really good rice bowl that had pineapple and zuchinni and snap peas and chicken and teriyaki
  
• oops I am late for class. Bye!
  

Funny in Farsi

If you want to read a good book, I recommend Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas. I had to read it for my educ207 class and it is quite entertaining but also brings up a lot about cultural differences and immigrants and stuff like that. And it only took me a few days to read, which always makes a book good for me. Here is a quote from it, to give you a small taste:

“The Limoges set has brought us more joy in its absence that it ever did in our cupboards. Of course, we no longer own a set of china to pass down to our kids, but that’s okay. Francois and I plan on giving our children something more valuable, the simple truth that the best way to go through life is to be a major donator of kindness. We’ll tell them that it’s possible to own a whole bunch of beautiful, valuable things and still be miserable. But sometimes just having a recipe for chocolate Bundt cake can make a person far, far happier.”

Ready for Monday? I'm not! :) Have a good week!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Please don't read this unless you are really bored.

If Kim desires for pancakes in the morning, she will decide that it makes more sense to make the batter at 1:30pm instead of in the morning.

If she decides that it makes more sense to make the batter at 1:30pm instead of in the morning, she will not have sense to make sure there is enough milk.

If she does not have sense to make sure there is enough milk, her pancake batter will lack the crucial ingredient of milk.

If her pancake batter lacks the crucial ingredient of milk, she will use some of the condensed milk in the cupboard.

If she uses some of the condensed milk in the cupboard, she will have leftover condensed milk.

If she has leftover condensed milk, she will decide to make the corn chowder that she bought the condensed milk for.

If she decides to make the corn chowder that she bought the condensed milk for, she will need the bowl that has the tuna casserole in it.

If she needs the bowl that has the tuna casserole in it, she will transfer the tuna casserole to another bowl and wash that bowl.

If she transfers the tuna casserole to another bowl and washes that bowl, she will be up until 2:30 in the morning.

All I wanted was pancakes.

Public Nuisance

I thought of a couple things that I wanted to write on my blog. Why these things are more important to me than the rest of my thoughts is something that a pyschoanalyst might want to investigate.

Sara gave me one of those banana holders that sit on your counter. It has palm trees on it and I like it. Someone gave it to her and she gave it to me.

I was sitting in my liberal studies class, looking out the window at Bishop's Peak. I was thinking how pretty it was and then I realized how incredibly lucky I am to live here. I get to look out my window and see and absolutely gorgeous green mountain/hill with a bright blue sky. This is what people dream about. What they pay big bucks and go on vacation to see out their window. What people paint on pictures because they can't have the real thing out their window. Wow.

Oh and I didn't say anything about work. I like our new office -- it is quiet. But we don't have cabinets yet so I have to go from the break room (temp storage) back to the tables to get anything done. The most exciting part of this work week was going to the Pacific Home Do-It Center to get copies of keys made. I strolled through their beautiful garden section and longed for a garden of my own. The most boring part of my work week was helping Kristina write stuff that used the Stockton General Plan. I came across a page of ordinances all about the many nuisances of public telephones. Note this is an official public government document. Here is an example of one: Any pay telephone used as an instrumentality for, or contributing substantially by its presence to, lewd acts, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance.

I Finally Have Time to Write in My Blog

Fabulous! Today was sooo good but I didn't get any homework done -- oops! Today was a Sara day. First I went to the laundrymat with Sara and did a load of laundry (aren't you shocked?) While we were waiting for our laundry, we went across the street to a restaurant called the Tiki Hut and got really yummy rice bowls and ate them on in the bed of Sara's trunk under the nice hot sun. Then we went to get her hair cut and she got me a frappuchino and her hair looks super-cute now. I tried to get ink at Best Buy, but they were out. So I guess I will have to stop at Staples on my way home from work on Monday. Sara and I then spent way too much time and way too much money at Mervyns. It was fun. I needed some nicer clothes for observing in the classroom and also I just wanted some more clothes because I really don't have many that I like. I got a pair of gray pants, a new pair of nice black sandals, and four shirts. We then ate tortelinnis at her house. I will miss her if she goes to France.

Ashley and I looked at an apartment today that I think is just what we are looking for so hopefully Joanne and Michelle will like it too. It is right down the street from where we are now and has two big bedrooms and two bathrooms and two parking spaces and a kitchen and a living room and is furnished as has a 10 month lease. And I won't have to drive to school!

Last night Sara and Helena came over and we watched Spanglish and got take-out Mexican food and baked a cake. Busy school weeks help me enjoy the weekend more, I think.

This quarter has been crazy so far. Crazy but good. Here is an overview of my classes:
Biology 114: Plant Diversity
This is a fun class. Two days a week I learn about plants from a guy who is so excited about them and I like plants so I can be excited with him. Then two days a week we either do labs or field trips with a guy named "Joe Mello" and his name fits him perfectly. He is a really cool guy and the labs and the field trips are fun. Here is a picture from the Horse Canyon field trip (I wish I had brought my camera!)

Liberal Studies 230: Observation
I am observing a 2nd grade classroom at Bishop's elementary school in Ms. Schmidt's but have only been once so far. I am supposed to just be observing, but since I have funny hours that I am there, I have to help out grading papers since the kids are at lunch/home for part of the time (shhhh don't tell my instructor.) My first day was good. I have sooooo much to learn before I will be able to be a teacher. I wonder what grade I will want to teach. Ms. Schmidt suggested I get my single subject credential, but I think I would rather have my own class of kids than just teach boring math all day.
Liberal Studies x213
Don't ask me why there is an x as part of that class's title because I don't know. This class is a ton of reading, but luckily she just changed it so we won't have to take notes on the reading and so hopefully it will go much faster. So far I am learning all about ancient civilizations. I find the information fascinating, but I was spending at least 12 hours per week on the reading (ahhh!) so it wasn't my favorite class. My biggest struggle with this is how Christianity fits in with it. I don't understand how there can be so so so many people in the world before the Bible was even written. We play jeopardy ever week in this class and Ashley and I are good and get our team lots of points.
Education/Child Development 207
Ashley and Joanne are in this class with me. I have two instructors for this class. Wednesdays I have a good teacher who teaches on child development and cultural things and all this interesting information. Fridays I have a kind of funny teacher who treats us as 5th graders but also presents interesting information. We have book reports on elementary books. Last week I wrote a fake newspaper article. I think I'm going to decorate a trash can for my next one. We talked about racism on Friday. It shocks me how much racism is still around and how the Civil Rights Movement really wasn't that long ago. We watched a video on those nine black students who first went to a white school and they are still young! Crazy.
English 253
English teachers are strange. My last one was the sanest I have had. This one is fairly sane, but a bit egocentric, I think. He likes to hear himself talk, and luckily for me he talks about pretty interesting things. Last class we talked read The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy and talked about women and sex and society. He makes a lot of broad assumptions that maybe I will have the energy to talk about in another class (I was on minimal sleep last class.) Perhaps I am really in the few that aren't sexually active, but I think there are more. Or maybe I am deceived and live in such an isolated Christian culture that I don't realize that every single person in my class wants to have sex right now. Who am I to judge? Better yet, who is my teacher to judge? He also talks a lot about how important brand-name clothes are to everyone. They are not to me. So there. I think he tries to make a statement against this by wearing a black tshirt and black pants to every single class.

Oy this is a lot of writing! But I still need to talk about wonderful women's retreat last weekend. Here is a picture of some of my Bible study and then Ashley being oh-so-pretty:


We went to Mt. Hermon near Santa Cruz. We slept in cabins (I got a top bunk!) and met in a central meeting room and dining room. Carrie Walker, some hot-shot national Campus Crusade leader spoke for the retreat. Her talks were good and I got a lot to chew on. For free time we went down to Santa Cruz and walked around thrift shops. We ate at New Leaf market where they have yummy sandwiches and had the best ice cream every at Marianne's -- I had Kahlua Krunch and Cinnomon Caramel. Mmmmmm

Well I am supposed to be reading now so reading I will now be doing.

Cesar Chaves Day

I can't talk for long because I have to go read for my four classes, so I will make this short. Today was Cesar Chavez day (no school!) and I was going to do homework, but you simply cannot ask a girl to do homework on a day as gorgeous as this. I had four hours of sleep and so I went to Starbucks in the morning to wake me up! I worked from 8-noon unpacking boxes and putting together chairs. Oh funny story -- I went to work and no one was there and the building was empty! They moved without telling me! Our new office is very nice, though, so I forgive them. I went to Mo's for lunch with Stacey, Amanda, Erin, Laura, and Ashley and then to Bali's. Mmm. Then we went to Cuesta Park (a very nice park with a stream and everything that I had never heard of) and played soccer and then to Thomas' to play basketball. It was sooo nice. And I just finished my book report. Yay!

Since I have no one to complain to, I will complain to you. Actually I find this a bit amusing. Injuries I inflicted on myself in the past 24 hours:

1. I burnt my tongue because I am used to my old microwave and tried to make tea in Erin's new one.
2. Broke my toenail somehow when I was putting chairs together.
3. Made my fingers and thumbs ouchie from screwing in screws and pushing those black screw-covers onto chairs.
4. Scraped up my knees when I tripped over Ashley on the pokey grass. (She says she pushed me, so maybe this wasn't self-inflicted.)
5. Stapled my finger. I was always curious how people stapled their fingers. Now I know. It is an interesting pain because since the staple goes about halfway into your finger, it is more of an ache than a sharp pain. Don't try it, though.
   

Days Go By

Well the first two days of school have been interesting.

My first education class was a shock. The teacher talks to us like we are in elementary school. "And where would you find a book if you didn't want to buy it? Where is the year of the book found?" And I have a book report due Friday on a elementary school book. All throughout the class I wanted to laugh because it is all just so foreign to me. I am looking forward to it, though. And Ashley and Joanne are in it. Oh but I don't know if I am in it yet b/c I'm not enrolled yet and so I have been going to Linguistics too, which has actually been kind of interesting.

Bio lab today was pretty basic but interesting. The best was looking through a microscope at a plant. It was so awesome seeing the cell wall and the chloroplasts moving around to chase the light. I just stared at it for a long time and smiled. There are so many perspectives you can see things from. And things are so intriquite and interesting. My lab teacher's name is Joe Mello. Haha. His name fits.

English was traumatic. I went to room 311, and was on the late side, but another guy walked in the same time as me so I thought I was fine. The prof had already started talking and I looked around and people had about four lines of notes so I figured he had started a little early. This guy was a nut case. He rambled about how the romantics searched for ideals and something about neo-classicism, and something about the universe being inside us, and then got on a rant about how no one has positive thoughts and somehow it is connected to the fact that living is expensive. I endured a half an hour of that torture and was seriously thinking of dropping the class. Then I realized that the prof had gotten really good ratings on polyratings, so I got to wondering if I was in the right class. I asked the person behind me what section this was. It was 12. I was supposed to be in 13. Dang it. This class was from 5-7. Mine was from 6-8. Dang it again. So I left and was quite distressed and Ashley was at work so I called Thomas and asked him the room number of my classroom. It was 211, not 311. Oops. So I went down a floor, fearing that I was going to be dropped already. But he hadn't taken roll yet! And he had just gone over the syllabus and I was soooooo happy.

I have lots of reading now and here I am procrastinating!