Employment?!

Just realized there are a bunch of employment opportunities for research assistants/technicians and I have all the experience and prerequisites they want. Even in midtown Manhattan. What what! Skipping grad school for the moment and getting tuition reimbursed anyway? I'm going to apply to just see what's up. No harm in that.

University of Delaware: Hmm?

I didn't get into the program I applied to, the Biological Sciences M.S., but the department chair wrote to me and offered to transfer my application to the Plant and Soil Sciences Program, which is more of what I wanted anyway... waiving all the fees and such. So, this is kind of a good thing anyway. :)

Suddenly I see, this is what I wanna be...

Break was stupendously relaxing. I mostly read pleasure books and visited Adam, while helping my dad with things around the house and doing grocery shopping for my mom.

Books I read:
The Golden Compass Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife Philip Pullman
1/2 of The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman
Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic: Tris's Book Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic: Daja's Book Tamora Pierce
(have, but haven't started, Briar's Book)
Alanna: The First Adventure Tamora Pierce
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling

Oh, it was glorious!

School started Wednesday, two days ago. I'm taking Undergraduate Research in Biology (continuing to follow up my research started 2 years ago), Directed Study in German (really cool actually; I'm researching crazy theories from German scientists and psychologists in the 17th and 18th centuries and how they, in fact, have some shreds of accuracy and are now practiced in modern neurological medicine with different procedures and under different names), 19th Century German Culture (urgh... lots and lots of reading), and American Sign Language aka ASL (which I'm SUPER excited about!!).
The ASL class is pretty crazy; the professor has been deaf his entire life, can't lip-read or talk at all, and interpreters will only be present in the class for the first two weeks. After that, the students have to fend for themselves. Talk about immersion! We also cannot talk at all inside the classroom, even to ask questions or say hi to other students. "Even though I am completely deaf, have been so my entire life, and cannot hear a thing, I can tell when you are talking! I can even see you whispering! Don't do it!" We have to do a 5-10 minute skit in ASL and attend at least two deaf events to sign to real people. Intimidating, but so awesome.

I also decided that it was time to start contributing to my own income during the school year instead of totally relying on the summer. Plus the fact that I only have 6 hours of classtime per week, I have plenty of time to work. So, I got a job in the Science and Engineering Library, doing random librarian things like checking out/in books, shelving and collecting fines. The library is pretty small, small enough that the stacks are on little wheels that move them around on the floor so you can get into an aisle. Two of my roommates already work there, so whenever I have hours with them I can make the long walk to the library with them and chill. My boss is really nice, and I'm kind of excited to be making some pocket money. Also, thank the lord for the raised minimum wage in Massachusetts recently - it is now $8! That's what I started with for Kohl's! Sweetness!

I got a new camera for Christmas, the black Canon Elph SD750. Looks like this:

Pictures from it can be found here: Public Facebook Album: Senior Year

I also got a Coach wristlet... Adam picked it out all by himself, I'm so proud of him! (lol... boys showing good taste is a definite character aspect to hang onto, as per the graduate students in my lab... even steve said he'd hang onto him.) Looks like this:


I'm going to Marco Island in Florida for spring break with Jen and Danielle - finally going somewhere for one of these breaks instead of going home! We're all on an exercise regimen called Operation: Bikini.

Graduate school applications are all in, I just have to send out three more transcript/recommendation combinations and I'll be set. My two top choices are UCONN and NYU, although I don't know which to choose if I get into both (gack!).
UCONN
pros: cheaper (5K for residents), bigger school, better program
cons: in the middle of nowhere, will have to have a car (which incurs costs) and pay full rent/housing, far away from Adam for another 2 years at least, during which I will have zero time for visits - grad students have a nonexistant social life

NYU
pros: more diversity, in New York City, won't need a car, will probably live with Adam (eee!), which = cheaper rent, goodness, etc.
cons: more expensive (27K for nonresidents), less prestigous Biology program

Hmm... just comparing the length of those two lists kinda points to NYU. We'll see if my parents flip a complete shiznit if I pick NYU. Oh, this will be fun...

It's Been A While...

Mmm yes. Break. I had my doubts at me actually surviving the end of the semester to actually reach this point in time. Break consists of:
Food
Reading
Family
Adam

and that's juuuuust about it. Yay!

What is with these nightmares?

Dream.

I was in a big group of people rounded up... it essentially was like the Nazis/Jews, except I don't know what reason they were giving. It's kind of blurry until we were all in this big auditorium (with seats for the audience and a stage, etc). They were putting names and the person's status up on a projector, and I saw my name with "D/co" next to it. Apparently that means I was going to be suffocated in a coffin. We left the auditorium in a bus after all the people who were going to be executed in that place were, and we drove to the "coffin suffocating" place. I was looking for a way to escape, naturally, and when the driver pulled too far over to the right next to a steep embankment that led down to a swamp, I yelled "Everyone lean to the right! To the right!" and everyone jumped over to the right-hand side of the bus. The driver lost control, and we all fell inside the bus down about 40ft to the swamp. Crawling out a window, I could see everyone running into the swamp/woods, as did I. At the other end of it, I found this city (seemed Mexican??) and waited to meet up with other people. I met up with one person, and we wandered around because we didn't know where we were. Some officers who were looking for the escapees found us but we killed them and took their suitcase full of money with plans to get passports and run away somewhere. I called my dad (because apparently my cell phone was still in my pocket) and then my alarm woke me up.

One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night -Christopher Brookmyre

One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other.

One was blind and the other couldn't see
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play
A dumb man went to shout "hurray!"

A paralyzed donkey passing by
Kicked the blind man in the eye.
Knocked him through a nine-inch wall
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.

A deaf policeman heard the noise
And came to arrest the two dead boys.
If you don't believe this story's true
Ask the blind man, he saw it, too!

Nightmares

I've been having nightmares the past two nights about people eating me. The first one was Anthony Hopkins as that freaky guy from Silence of the Lambs. Last night's was about this monster/creepy thing in person form, and it needed to eat someone every week or so or else it would go insane and kill everyone... so it was it's feeding time and it was creeping around looking for someone to catch. I hid in this one place but it found me and it started eating the toes of my left foot. I could feel it biting and when I looked at them, the toes were half gone and bleeding really bad.
So. Scary.

Toes

To dream that you lose or gain a toe(s), suggests that you lack determination and energy needed to move forward in some situation.

To dream that you hurt your toe or that there is a corn or abrasion on it, signifies that you are feeling anxiety about moving forward with something.

Graduate School

So I'm just doing this to get my own thoughts in order, no need to actually read if you don't want to!

My List:

University of Maryland $13,815
Program: Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics with a Specialization in Plant Biology

New York University $27,336
Program: Plant Biology

Smith $33,940 (eek!)
Program: Biological Sciences

University of Rhode Island $19,044
Program: Biological Sciences/Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology

University of Connecticut $5,026 (!!)
Program: Plant Science

Pennsylvania State University $13,948
Program: Plant Biology

And "plant biology" is not horticulture or botany or environmental science... it's plant biotechnology and genetics, as in engineering new species and such.

The Shitshow

Soooo... Friday night was fun. We got all dressed up and went to a Halloween party!
And then one of the girls got upset for absolutely zero reason and went to go cry in the foyer. I went out to see if she was okay and ended up spending the entire time sitting with her. And to make it better, everyone who was coming by who knew her kept giving her nasty looks... why? Because she's been doing this for about 5 months. Every party. Ruining it. I've only been to one or two, thank god, because I really do not want to do that again. Her roommate was super pissed, because she is trying to get over her lameass boyfriend and wants to have a good time and has been taking care of her for those entire 5 months. All this started when the crying girl's long time boyfriend broke up with her really badly, but COME ON WOMAN. It obviously is not about that anymore, or else you would be able to control yourself!! At least sometimes! Straight up... it's pathetic.
So, she wants to leave so I go with her because we are really far away, I was getting kind of tired anyway and of course my mood of partying is completely ruined.
We walk the wrong way for about 10 minutes.
Turn around, follow some other people to the T.
Realize we are going the wrong way on the T for about 3 stops.
Get out, get a cab, drive home... at which time I realize I do not have my wallet. The girl gets into a fight with the cabbie because she's drunk and he won't drive me another 3 blocks to my house without restarting the meter. I push her out of the cab so he doesn't go apeshit. We go into her place, I call the people back at the party to ask them to look for my wallet for me. I'm starting to freak out.
Feel sick, use the toilet.
They call back, say they can't find it. Ok, so I probably dropped it on the T, that is most likely what happened, since it was super crowded and I mostly wasn't in my right mind.
I want to go home, so I make sure the girl is calmed down and wait for her roommate to get back so I can get in the car with friends and one of my suitemates to drive back. We get back, I have to convince the security guard that I do actually live there while feeling like shit. He lets me in, thank god, and I still have my keys so I can get into my room.
I get back, and reach for my phone to call Adam so I can tell him what happened and say goodnight.
My phone is not there.

What the fuck.

I call my phone with my suitemate's, some girl picks up and says she found it in the hallway outside of my friend's place. I tell her to bring it across the hall and thank you so much for finding it. She gives it to my friend, who promises to get it back to me the next morning.
I say goodnight to my suitemate and we both head to our rooms.
At this point I am beyond destroyed and cry myself to sleep, because not only have I lost my wallet and everything ($50 cash, BU I.D., driver's license, new metrocard, T pass with $20 on it, credit card...) in it, but now I cannot even call Adam like I promised him I would.
Wake up at 9:50 the next day, feel a little crappy but due to the late night toilet hug not too bad. My friend comes over to return my phone, I call and wake up Adam to let him know what happened. He is astounded. As am I.
I then am on hold with Bank of America for a grand total of 32 minutes before I snag a phone rep to cancel my card. No one has used it since I did last, thank god, so I'm hoping it is not stolen and just merely picked up and given to the T conductor.
The MBTA has a Lost and Found phone number to call, but oh great! it's only open Monday through Friday, so I can't do shit until tomorrow. And none of my friends found my wallet at the party, so I can only assume it was on the T. Full of strangers. And people ready to make off with my info and cash. Blugh.
So I talk to the crying friend at lunch and she tells me that it's because she's jealous of her roommate and how she's always the center of attention and I say she should tell her to try and smooth things over, because she's obviously angry and frustrated. She agrees to do so.
I see the roommate (the friend who gave me my phone back) for dinner and she vents about the crying girl, which I completely do not blame her for. It gets awkward when the crying girl IMs me right in the middle of it and calls the angry girl to find out that we are hanging out... and sounds pissed/annoyed because she wanted to talk to her but she's not there. So, great, now I'm in the middle of a showdown.

And I still don't have my wallet!!

German Teachers Are Crazy

Schwartz is talking about the whole mother/daughter/stepmother aspect in fairy tales and how usually there is tension between the aforementioned people. He then tells us how they read Snow White in past years and he was saying how mother-daughter tension plays an important role... but how he could not get any of the females in his class to admit that they had tension with their mother.

"I said that there is always mother-daughter tension and they all stared at me like I was from the moon. And I stared at all of them like they were from the moon. And I said..." [jumps on top of table and points fingers wildly like a crazed politician, screaming] "... YOU'RE REPRESSING IT! YOU'RE REPRESSING IT!" [gets down off table] "... of course, they didn't like that much either."