Sam’s Blog

Spending my office hours rearranging the new furniture with Seth felt much more productive than just sitting there reading manga scanlations for 2.5 hours.  (The Cate office got some nice hand-me-down furniture discarded by a wealthier department that is getting new shiny furniture. It’s better quality than the old desk we had, but our office is small and the new desk is HUGE, so fitting everything took some ingenuity on our part.  And muscles.  Did I mention that the new desk is HUGE?)  I wouldn’t call moving heavy objects fun exactly, but there’s a sense of accomplishment for a job well done.  Local readers should come by and investigate sometime.  :)

My time in the Cate Main Office is usually eventful enough during the school year, but this summer it’s been understandably slow and boring.  When you have about 1/15th the number of residents, you’re not needed nearly as often… Buuuut you still have to sit there for hours so that when someone does need an RA someone’s available. Thus the reading of much manga and staring off into space.  At least office time will be more comfortable now with the new setup.

In other news, I think I’m getting a little bit homesick or something.  I’m not sad by any means, but I am somewhat twitchy and restless.  Perhaps I’ll pop back home next weekend after everyone’s back from 4th of July celebrations…?  I honestly don’t remember the last time I was home long enough to actually sleep in my old bed.  The last few times I’ve just driven there in the morning, stayed a few hours, and come back to Norman that night.  We’ll see what happens.

Yum

I have a betta fish!  His name is Pez, which is Spanish for fish, but I know people are going to say “Pehz” and not “Paess” so I decided to just call him “Pehz.”  (Not like Pez cares how silly humans say his name, anyway.)

He has a pinkish purple body with maroon, purple, white and light blue streaked fins.  He is currently swimming around his big glass bowl like a crazed underwater butterfly.

Today my ID card fell off the treadmill while I was working out.  I only had 5 more minutes left in my workout, so I just watched the ID fall (rather than trying to catch it and launching myself off the machine), made note of where it fell, and continued exercising.  Then the boy on the treadmill next to mine hopped off and, much to my surprise, retrieved my ID for me.  I thanked him happily and we both went back to calorie burning.

I am a strong, independent woman and am fully capable of taking care of myself.  I can open my own doors, carry my own groceries, and lift my own heavy things.  Still, it’s a pleasant and welcome surprise to be treated like a lady on occasion.*

_{*Seth is quite the gentleman and the exception to the rule of surprise at unusually chivalrous male behavior}

Good in Fruit Salad:

• Fuji Apples
• Cantaloupe
• Strawberries
• Banana

Better Eaten Immediately After Slicing:

• Plums
• Pluots
• Peaches

Plums, peaches and pluots are delicious fresh and the juice adds a nice flavor to the mixture, but the fruit slices themselves get squishy and less delicious after 24 hours in the fridge.  Stuff in the first list is fine for a couple days, provided you intend to eat it very soon.  If not, then just get the questionable stuff in the cans instead of making your own.  :P

I think next time I’ll add some red seedless grapes and see what happens…  Cherries are in season right now, but they’re too expensive and high-effort (and mouth-watering on their own) to chop up and put in a bowl.

I think the last month would be best conveyed in list form:

• CHEMISTRY IS OVER.  I am pleased.  I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with the chemistry minor I just finished, but mostly I’m just happy that I’m done.  Quant’s dying gasp produced a B, which is satisfactory to me at this time, considering.  This is my second B.
• I’m staying in Cate to work as an RA next year.  This also pleases me, since I really like the Cate staff and my center bosses.  I hope to be back in Honors (which is a part of Cate), but I’m resolved to be happy in whatever situation in which I am placed.  We should find out exact floor / house assignments this summer.
• Speaking of this summer, I’ll be staying in Norman to work as a summer RA.  I’m going to take a May intersession class that I can’t fit into my fall ‘08 class schedule due to conflicts.  I’ll also be working on a research project called a review article.  Undergraduates normally don’t get the chance to do these (it’s a pretty daunting task) so I need to take the opportunity that I have.  It’ll be a LOT of work, but should be worth it.  Maybe I’ll get published, maybe not… but either way it’ll be great experience.
• I didn’t draw for 3 months in an attempt to make myself focus.  I let myself pick up my tablet pen this Thursday afternoon and have been drawing like a woman obsessed since then.  Here’s a 40% zoom of the painting I’ve been working on for a while. Maybe someday I’ll have a poster of this, if it turns out well.  The original file is big enough for a decent sized print.
• Did I mention I’ll be staying in Norman this summer?  Yay human contact!  (Relatives aside… Though I love my family I do not have conversations with anyone in Muldrow that interest me for more than a couple of minutes)

So, yes.

Perhaps I should rethink my general policy of not buying new shoes until the soles of my previous pair start to fall off. My current pair (which I’ve worn almost every single day since I bought them around 2 years ago) is still in good shape as far as stitching goes, but the soles are missing about a centimeter in thickness from the heel and they’ve acquired an …interesting odor from me wearing them to the gym and spilling fishtank water on my feet at least once a week.

I’ve learned over my years that it’s rather silly for me to own more than one pair of sneakers at a time. I wear one pair of shoes almost exclusively, even though I own others (except for occasional forays into the world of flip flops* and [very] occasionally dress shoes). It’s not really a conscious decision; I just always reach for the same pair of favorite shoes. Knowing this, it’d simply be more efficient (and cheaper) to only buy one pair of shoes at a time.

Maybe I’ll go to a shoe store soon and look for the next One True Pair.

_{*I’ve had the same pair of black Reef flip flops for 4 years. Those things are really durable and comfy.}

I am now the very pleased owner of this ring from James Avery in OKC.  Yay.  :)

Thank God that period of frantic activity is over.  More will come, but perhaps I can rest between now and the next.

1 more week until Spring Break, then the GRE March 22nd.

Making a list out of the next 10 days so I don’t forget anything:

In no particular order:
• Make sign for FIR event Friday
• Prep for Physiology lab Thursday
• Hang 14 or so fliers for FIR event Friday (remember to print them somewhere)
• Chalk for Bowling event before it gets dark and cold(er) today. 3pm?
• Office hours 4-7pm. Work on homework or else
• Mandatory not-fun today 7-8pm
• Condense several hundred / thousand or so data points into 6 graphs and interpret
• Do calculations for Wednesday’s lab
• Go over all lab sheets from Physiology to turn one in on Thursday
• Half page descriptive paragraph about a relative in Spanish
• Read journal article for Dr. Schlupp
• Remember food logs
• Start on Quant homeworks and study frantically for test March 6th (may be rescheduled, don’t know yet)
• Don’t forget to finish Stats homework for next Tuesday — Test 2 March 11th
• Make menu sign for Bowling event - Due by Friday
• FEED THE FISH  <– Daily event
• Water changes for fish…Sometime. Friday?
• Top rounds Saturday night
• Refill prescription
• Birthday Thursday. Do Spanish before Thursday night so you can relax after lab gets out at 9:30pm
• Meet with Maryann about March bulletin board decorations (today 3:30pm)
• Decorate 4 bulletin boards with Making Choices theme before March 5th at 4:30pm
• Turn in report on antacid titration Monday March 3rd

Will update with more as it comes up and cross out things that are done.

It’s taken a while to get a schedule for this semester properly cemented. But here you go