first day of school

I think O wanted to follow me to school like Mary's lamb even though I keep trying to tell him that he's got the awesome end of this particular stick.

OH. MY. WORD.

Guys, I got a 4.0 this semester, which means that I GOT AN A IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY! If you can't believe it, don't feel bad, I couldn't either. All that studying, and studying, and studying that you constantly had to hear about paid off and is finally over for a small amount of time!! I just needed to share because I am extremely, extraordinarily, proud of myself. Thats all.

Happy Easter!

Oliver and I are going on a little road trip for Easter weekend to Iowa for some family time! I am super excited to let him loose on the farm, introduce him to cows and horses, and to see family that I haven't seen in ages. I will, of course, document every waking moment for you. It looks like 2011 is shaping up to be a great year for seeing people that I love. I just booked my ticket to Minneapolis for the last weekend in May to throw a bachelorette party for my best friend and will be back in July as well for the actual wedding! As the semester winds down a little, well up for exams and finals and then finally, finally down, it's really nice to have some things to look forward to during my three week break from classes! So for now I am incessantly studying (always) and trying to keep the energy up for the last few weeks. I always want to throw in the towel at the very end when it's most important to work extremely hard, so I am doing my best to counteract that urge and just push it on out. I am also starting a new job at the University of Colorado Hospital in the pulmonary department the first week in May and am extremely excited about that. It will be really nice to work just a few miles from home and the new setting is in a beautiful hospital on the 8th floor with gorgeous views of the mountains. In any case, I hope you have a most excellent Easter weekend and enjoy all the things you've been abstaining from for so long! Chocolate, here I come!

DONE!

Oh I am done, done, done with this semester! What started out as a fairly manageable schedule somehow turned into a crumbling, falling apart semester in the last few weeks of the term. BUT none of that matters now because I can't change any outcomes and for better or worse (oh chemistry final that I probably bombed with flying colors) it is FINISHED. I am so excited to finally take a breath without feeling like I should be studying or making note cards. I have today and tomorrow off from work and I am going to fill the days with making decorations, finishing shopping, sewing, crafting, cleaning and hanging out. I have been so close to the end for a while now, and now I am just going to enjoy the season. Incidentally we aren't even having many of the symptoms of the season, and although Minnesota got a dumping blizzard of a weekend, we are basking in a high of 62 today. I've been a little happy that the cold weather has been holding off because it makes my commute to school that much better, but now that the 16 mile round trip by bike or scoot has been eliminated I am hoping for some snow before I leave for home!

Our first and only "snow" of the season...

In other news, I feel like I am finally settling into a routine at work. I am confident now, and am making friends with my co workers! It's a really hard job, but I do feel like I am making a difference in these people's lives, and that makes me feel good. One of my favorite patients is such a delightful hilarious old man who makes me laugh all the time. He reminds me so much of what I imagine my dad would be like if he were in that situation, commenting on everything, making jokes, getting dressed up in ironic t-shirts (my favorite says "cow pi" with a picture of the pi symbol in cow print) truly enjoying every one's presence and making the best of the situation. But, I could ramble on about work for a while and I won't bore you with that any more than I already have. Outside of work I am very much looking forward to celebrating my birthday (how on earth am I already 26?!), going home for christmas on the 25th with JP in tow and going to NYC in January for a bike & build reunion! I am just feeling very content and blessed at this moment for a lot of reasons. Things seem to be going well for many people that I love, and I am so excited for them too! I am happy to bid good riddance to the fall semester of 2010 and am looking forward to being almost, ALMOST done with undergrad requirements altogether!

my wednesdays start on tuesday

I was trying to think how best to describe how busy things are in my life, and how ridiculously much I am looking forward to being DONE with this semester, when I thought of my horrible Wednesdays and this post was born. Wednesday is my craziest day of the week, and these are the many reasons why:

On Tuesday, I try to sleep until about 2:30 in the afternoon. I get up and study a bit and try to eat a bunch of food before leaving for work at 6:00. (Insert props to my boyfriend ((yes I just said that, and used a double parenthesis in the middle of a sentence that is already in a parenthesis to confirm that for you)) for making me amazing breakfast sandwiches for my breakfast at 5:30pm that help fuel me!) I work at the hospital from 6:30pm until 7:00am. After my shift, I rush home to get in the shower at 7:30 and let all the infectious everything wash down the drain and off of my skin. I make a sandwich, snacks and a big ol' cup of coffee to bring with me to school. I scoot over to school for my biology class from 9:00-1:00, after which I try to grab a few hours of sleep in the library until my night class starts at 5:00. Chemistry goes from 5:00-7:00 and then I am free, free, free to get home and eat everything in sight as fast as possible before crashing into bed. The only redeeming part of the whole day is that afterward I get to sleep from whenever my little head hits the pillow until 3:00 the following day. Every step listed above includes a lot of caffeine consumption and as little conversation as possible, both because I get weirdly emotional between work and being so tired, and because I get seriously dumb when I haven't slept.

So, that's how I spend the middle of my week. The good news is that I only have two more weeks of school left...wait, I just finished one of the weeks tonight with a big chemistry exam, so I suppose the REALLY good news is that I only have ONE WEEK left until this semester is kaput and I can go back to a normal person's schedule of working 40 hours a week between the hours of 6:30pm and 7:00am. And in answer to your unasked questions, yes I am still awake and writing this post at 9:27pm, and no I have no idea where my energy is coming from, at this point, I think I'm just running on fumes..

busy busy busy

This whole working thing is quite tiring! Yet another feeling that this summer got me good at functioning with? exhaustion. I sort of feel like my head is a giant balloon lately, and the words that come out of my mouth would do better to just stay in there for all the sense that they do not make. Outside of the tired adjusting period, work is actually going pretty well! It is A LOT of work, a lot to do and a lot of running around with eleven to twelve patients all needing different things, but I seem to be handling it relatively well I think. Now to just find a routine for the days in my life. I keep telling myself that I am young and it's only for a while and that it will all be worth it when I get accepted to a school and yadda yadda, but in truth working nights is quite a huge adjustment. I was recently trying to write a letter to Robby and it would only come out in list form, so in the interest of actually updating the world of how I am adjusting to my new life I am going to make a list for you too:

1. School is going really well! During this holiday break I am busy trying out figure out what classes will be the most beneficial for my applications next fall, and busy trying not to panic when the important ones are starting to look like microbiology, organic chemistry and genetics all at 5 credits a piece. Yikes! At least I will be settled into my job by then so that should help a bit. That and the fact that it will (hopefully) be my last semester of prereqs! That's been a long time in coming and I am more than ready.

2. I recently found out that part of my job includes cleaning and preparing recently deceased bodies if a patient dies during my shift. I was caught a bit off guard when they gave me the sheet of paper at 1:00am and told me that the guy from the morgue would be there within the hour.... talk about learning on the job! It was kind of crazy, absolutely strange but also weirdly commonplace. Or I guess I mean it was kind of just one thing on the long list of tasks that I had to do that night and it ended up just being something that I did in between turning people and answering call lights. At least I'll know for sure whether health care is the field for me!

3. My little brother is coming to visit!! First sibling to come to Colorado, and I am very, very excited! He will only be here for a few days while on his way to California, but I am planning some tasty meals and some photo documentation at the skatepark...that's for you mom!

4. As chaotic as my life may seem, it is going along pretty well. It's nice to be busy at work again, and I do feel like I am learning a lot. If you can't seem to get ahold of me just know that it is probably because I am working while you are sleeping and sleeping while you are working. I try to squeeze in phone calls when I am on my way to work or (if I am not 100% brain dead) when I am driving home from work in the morning. If you are a Minnesotan though, I finally have my dates for Christmas!! I am hoping to zip to Minneapolis for a quick visit, but I am flying in to Duluth on the evening of the 25th and leaving in the evening of the 30th. I hope I can see you all!! In the mean time, here is the nerdiest picture of me from the past few weeks just to make you laugh:

In chem lab we made some small explosives!

home again, home again

I am back in Denver, back to the ol' real life again! It's been chaotic learning how to transition out of b&b mode and back into other things, odd to be able to get so much sleep and pick out what clothes I am going to wear that aren't the same clothes I wore the day before! Everything kind of happened at once when I got back. I missed the first week of school while I was in San Francisco, so I jumped into that pretty behind and confused. I forgot how much ground can be covered in a few lectures! I took some time this weekend to slowly catch back up and am starting to feel confident that I won't entirely bomb my exam tomorrow. I'm working on finding work again, trying to get my foot in the door at one of the hospitals in the area. In the meantime I've been babysitting for a few of the families I used to help out, and it's been nice to be back in the baby section of life again. All the kids grew so much while I was gone!

School stresses aside, things have been really busy but great! JP and I moved in together, which is a big step for both of us, and it's been fun! Well, the packing/moving/cleaning/scouring/driving all over portion wasn't fun, but that is all over and we now have so much space we can barely fill it up! I don't have many belongings with me in Colorado, as you might remember I moved here with just a car load of things last fall, and both JP and I were living in studios that didn't exactly leave much room for extraneous possessions. We are now in a 2 bedroom house and are gradually finding chairs to sit on (previous count = 1 computer chair from JP's desk), a table to eat at, and other necessities at the many thrift stores in the metro area. We've even got a yard now, which Yin is beyond excited about. She spends most of the day moving from sun patch to sun patch, just lounging about taking in the scenery. It's a pretty hard life.

One of the first things to unpack was my Grandma's owl that always hung in her kitchen and now hangs in mine.

My bike arrived shortly after I did, a little worse for the wear, but mostly fine.

Transition-wise, I think I am doing alright. I miss everyone, and am constantly reminded of the trip everyday, but I think it was the exact right amount of time and I was ready for the end when it came. We e-mail each other multiple times a day, are busy uploading pictures to facebook and are planning the reunions to come. It should be good.

some snow comes to denver

Perhaps slacking on homework can have it's rewards too! I got up early today to polish off my medical terminology homework and woke up to a beautiful snowy morning! The only real sitting place in my apartment is the bar type counter in my kitchen, which just so pleasantly happens to be situated next to a big window.


I've been struggling with liking Denver lately, with the huge lack of my closest friends being the biggest downfall of the city, but I have to say when it snows here my mood is lifted. The nice thing about Denver is that in between snowfalls the weather is pretty temperate, and for the most part the snow melts. Every time we have a new snowfall it's like the first snow of the season, pretty white flakes that cover everything and aren't hiding gray, sloppy, muck underneath it all like in a certain state in which I used to reside. It always feels like the beginning of winter, and since it doesn't drag on (unless you count two days as dragging) it's like the best of both worlds! I didn't expect this kind of winter here. I suppose I didn't really expect much of anything in the three days between deciding to move here and then actually moving here, but I sure do like it. Most times it feels like spring, with a couple of windy fall-like days sprinkled in between days like these.

I've been putting in my time studying medical terminology this semester, and I find it really interesting! It's funny to come across conditions and diseases that people I know have had, and be able to break them down into word parts that mean so much to me now! I keep wanting to pick up the phone and pepper my dad with questions that don't even really mean anything but are illuminating when I put all the pieces together. Mostly I'm writing a little list (my specialty, especially when put on a notecard!) of things like what kind of break Micah's arm was during his skateboarding accident and what kind of plates they put in because I just read about them both, or what kind of treatment my mom had and what type of choices were out there. In my head I liken it to my french studies in which I would sometimes have a realization about a common french phrase that I used everyday and how the actually words broke down in meaning. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but one phrase is "je ne sais pas" meaning "I don't know". I obviously learned that one right away and put it to good use, but one day I realized it wasn't just a mash up phrase, it was in fact just the negative of je sais. Writing that down sounds silly, but I guess I just mean that words, especially medical words, that are just tossed around take on new meaning to me when they are broken down or actually applied to something tangible even if it's just in my little student brain.

a productive weekend

This blog is increasingly becoming a document-my-bike-life blog, but for now (and now and now and now until JUNE) that's what has become of my brain space other than chemistry and medical terminology which I think, and know from my textbooks, would be much more boring to read about so biking is what you get! This weekend I brought the bike in to get some clipless pedals and to have my bike fitted for me. I am realizing more and more that I am crossing over into an entirely new arena of bike life. I know bikes reasonably well I think. I can fix my bike when something goes wrong and can tinker around a bit to troubleshoot. I now know that I don't know anything about the kind of biking I am about to embrace. There are so many WORDS I don't know, and things about training and specialized gear and clothing and, and I can't even think of everything I don't know! It's a wonder I can even still pedal! I guess I'll just learn it bit by bit, just like everything else. The bit I learned yesterday, while I was skipping chemistry lecture shhhh it was sunny, was about clipping in and out. I figured I would probably tank onto my face once before the reality of clipping my feet onto my bike actually hit me. punny. BUT it wasn't so bad! I felt a lot stronger, like I was making the most of my energy, and, although it was weird to try to pull away and not have my foot follow suit, I think I am really going to like it! It also probably doesn't hurt that my bike shoes are super sweet and red. It should come as no surprise that I will once again be a flag.

In other exciting news I took my first two tests of the semester, and didn't choke! It's nice to get those first few out of the way, and even nicer to feel confident about them. I've got my first chemistry exam next Tuesday, so wish me luck!

school: round 5

I've been making plans and making plans lately. Perhaps there is more to this 25 year old business than I previously thought! I've decided to go back to school. Not like "oh I should go back to school someday. someday.", like classes start in less then a week. I know I just reached the fully lit tunnel end only a few short months ago, but it's just two classes and it really feels right. I was thinking forward to the fall semester when I realized that spring semester hasn't even begun yet! What am I waiting for?! Graduate programs and such all require hoop jumping in that I don't have all the necessary prerequisites for what I want to do. Thus the entrance of My Fifth College in my collegiate career. Hopefully they don't penalize for school hopping and state hopping because my transcript reads like a fugitive who zigs and zags instead of running straight on. I'm going to tackle chemistry again. Last time I tried to plow through this class I was drowning in too many credits, too much relationship drama and too little sleep. This time I can eliminate all of those obstacles and just let myself focus. I wonder if school will feel different now that I'm "going back", and I wonder if I can even say "going back" when in reality I only missed one semester's worth of classes..either way I'm excited and nervous. My classes are in the evening for the most part, something that was never my strong suit as an undergrad, but it's all that will fit into my wonky schedule right now and it's only four months right? Phew. In biking related news I've had so many people donate to support me and have surpassed the halfway point already! It's really quite heart warming to sign in and see all these names lined up with such generous donations. What great people are in my life! I found a bike shop here that deals mostly with Giants and got fitted for my new road bike. Yesterday UPS sent a shipping notification putting my receiving date at the 15th! Now that it is 2010 I can already feel the time between now and June starting to fly by. My life is going to change a lot this year, but with so many people supporting me I'm sure it will be great!

Here are the (birthday) shoes that will carry me over 4,000 miles!