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| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 | | 7:13 pm |
Greg was here this weekend - now he's gone and I'm sad. I've realized I haven't updated much at all lately. Ever since we got back from Mexico I was just slammed with work. But it ended up going okay. I was able to pull a 100 on my last phsyics quiz and an okay grade on my last chem exam before the final. It seems like everyone I know who is still in undergrad is getting done with their finals and I still have one more day of class and then two study days before our finals period even starts. We had a really really great time in Cancun. We went to Chichen Itza and spent the rest of the time by the pool in the hotel. There is no beach left there. Like none at all. At high tide the waves were breaking up against the retaining wall of the pool area. When the tide went down Greg and I scurried under the barriers and walked along a bit but you had to be careful because the ocean is taking out the wall and there is rebar exposed everywhere and big hunks of concrete displaced. It is really sad actually. I have never seen beach erosion on that scale before. We went in the water a little ways but surf was really rough and since most of the sand is gone you get beat up by rocks and it really wasn't worth it. I do love th Carribean though, they have the best oceans from a color and warmth standpoint. I had just been home like a week before that and Greg and I had a picnic on Sanibel for by birthday and the Gulf water was too cold to go in. We had a taxi driver take us to Chichen Itza and we got pulled over by the cops because our driver was going like 10 km over the limit. Here they wouldn't really bother your for going 65mph in a 60 but there he got pulled over and had to pay the cops to not give him a ticket. It was a really long drive but worth it. Greg was my tranlater the whole time because the driver didn't speak english very well, so that gets kind of old. Everytime I wanted something I was like "Ask him, blah blah." And then he answers Greg. So I am like the invisible person. Actually, I can understand most of it but can't really speak it so I let Greg do all the talking. Also, once you leave the tourist zone somehting I did not know - no toliet seats! SO glad to be back to the hotel for that. There were some drug checkpints set up too and the cops had very scary weapons. It was interesting leaving the zona hotelera. Other than that, school is school I guess. Both of my finals arer next monday. Time to start the push, I guess. Besides Farmville my new favorite wasting time device is Autocomplete Me. There are very few things I laugh at like some of these. Especially the dinosaur trio lately: "I like to tape my thumbs to my hands to see what it would be like to be a dinosaur," "Dinosaurs were made up by the CIA to discourage time travel" and "I really hope you get sexually violated by a pterodactyl tonight" It just makes me smile. In fact I think it needs to be on my facebook immediately. | | Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 | | 11:17 pm |
Do I want to be a part of it?
Things I saw and heard today:
- Some girls not accepting winter by wearing flip-flops even though it was 44 degrees.
- My Chem professor telling us that he and his son like pink and purple but his wife and daughter do not.
- The guy who always hangs out by my grocery store asking for money instead asked me if I would have his baby.
- Another guy was walking down my street with a huge old school boombox on his shoulder blaring music that could have been straight out of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Also, I saw this last week but it is worth mentioning:
A mattress in front of the building two down from mine wrapped in plastic with the note:
Bed Bucks
Do Not Take
Super
If you think about with a spanish accent it kind of makes sense. His English spelling on all the things he puts up is really funny. Although, bed bugs are no laughing matter around here. Current Music: NY, NY | | Sunday, October 11th, 2009 | | 7:02 pm |
There's one in all of us.
So, Greg was here for a week and that was pretty nice. Well, I guess the last few days were nice but the whole beginning of the week kind of sucked - like just bad timing being here with my chem test and physics quiz, volunteering stuff, etc. And also he was overtired and snoring so loud it kept me up. So that was not so great but yesterday was nice - we went to the Morgan Library and Musuem, and while I remain in awe of the depth of their holdings (3! Guttenburg bibles) some of the exhibitions were a bit boring to me. Which is probably why I was a terrible English major. I mean I do I think it is impressive they have manuscripts, illustrations, letters, and all kinds of things from the likes of Wilde, Darwin, Eliot, Brunhoff, Dickens and Yeats. Apparently they have the only surviving complete manuscript of any of Jane Austen's novels too. They even have whole a whole room devoted to Blake, lots of drawings and maunscripts and such and almost all of the exhibitions are drawn exculsively from their own collections. Which to me says, if they are able to fill a whole room with Blake, or a whole room of Puccini operas (which was somewhat interesting) I can oinly immagine what they have in their fault. I used to think The Morgan family made it a musuem out of vanity mostly, I had no idea until coming there, only to see the Maurice Sendak exhibition, the overhwelming amount of stuff they have and the incredible taste and forsight Peirpont Morgan must have had back in the day to buy half the shit he did. Wouldn't it be nice to have so much money that you could have your ceiling made in Itlay and brought over to be put in your library and then start buying things like medieval chorus books and Gutenberg Bibles for your own private collection? And that was only the literary stuff- there was a substantial amount of music stuff and art stuff. And a pretty extensive collection of these tiny scarved stone cylinders that were used as seals like 3500-300 BC which were pretty neat. I would go blind carving bird wings onto a one-inch piece of stone, I'm pretty sure. So anyway that was pretty much my Saturday , the Morgan and then down in Soho for another Maurice Sendak thing, but this gallery was actually selling some of his orginal drawings. He said something about how he's getting older and he doesn't mind getting rid of them now, and I think that is true but it is also probably true that he needs cash now like everyone else. Then we had dinner at Otto, one of the cheaper (and I think best) Mario Batalli (or however you spell his name) restaurants in the city. We'd eaten there before and really liked it and it was a nice second trip. Today was just relaxing, I got Greg addicted to Flashforward and we wacthed the episodes he missed. Now he's gone and I have to do physics. Sad, but true. P.S. Did I mention it is really really cold in my apartment? 40-effing degrees outside and Columbia doesn't turn on the heat. I want to call 311 on the bastards, because it is against the law but I don't have the cuts. But seriously, my fingernails are like purple inside and I pay over 1000 dollars a months for this place. ugh. Current Mood:  complacent | | Monday, October 5th, 2009 | | 3:04 pm |
I wish I could just take my chem test and get it over with. Three more hours to obsess over what I do or do not know. I went to the library yesterday night and took the sample exam within the time limit and missed four out of twenty-five. About average, but not great. Hoping I will do better on the real thing. I am kind of obsessed with that farmville game on facebook. it is so addicting. St. Francis Day at church was fun/weird. It was more like broadway/pagan celebration than normal church but whatever. There was a llama, camel, eagle, swans, owl, tortoise, yak, rendeer, and a bunch of other animals. Plus, everyone had their pets in church so there was lots of barking and stuff. The lady next to me had a rabbit in her lap the whole time, letting it munch on her bulletin and stuff. I was worried it was going to pee on my but it didn't thank goodness. I guess that is it. I am supposed to be studying :-). Greg went to the gym to give me time to work, lol. | | Thursday, October 1st, 2009 | | 9:40 am |
I just saw Connie Talbot sing "Wonderful World" on Good Day New York and she is quite good but I really abhor make-up on 8 year-olds. I mean hers looked natural but she def had it on and I think that must warp little children into thinking they aren't pretty enough. We all start feeling like that soon enough why corrupt the elementary schoolers? Speaking of things I hate. Why do people, especially asian girls it seems, insist on wearing those stirrup leggings with high heels? So weird. I got a 100 on my second physics quiz, so yay! My second chem quiz not so well. We have our 1st chem exam Monday so it is study time. I feel pretty good about the material I knew before but the new stuff on bonding is kind of confusing. So, here's hoping. | | Monday, September 28th, 2009 | | 9:29 am |
So this is where my money goes....
http://www.examiner.com/x-16299-Denver-Business-Commentary-Examiner~y2009m9d22-BloodStained-Ahmadinejad-and-Gaddafi-should-roost-and-rot-at-Columbia-UniversityPlease read this it is really funny. He is being rude to Columbia's president but the man writing it is actually quite clever and I plan on using some of his best phrases like "verbal excrement" and "myopic leaders." The best part is - "Silly despots, don’t they know that they and their entire satanic entourage would be more than welcome to encamp at Columbia University, which welcomed A-Jad to speak to cheering students exactly two years ago tomorrow and certainly continues to believe that no human is so utterly depraved that Columbia won’t argue that academic rigor absolutely requires it to provide him or her a platform from which to spread the verbal plague?" It just really makes me laugh. I've never gone to a school that is in the paper so much. I mean this guy is in Denver and he has pretty strong feelings about us, enough to say we will have eternal shame at least. But more often we are in the paper becuase our professors have isolated some gene in monkeys or the government of an African country has asked a Columbia prof to help idenify a new lethal virus or somthing like that. Overall, it is just strange and different becuase Mercer kept such a low profile. Things that would have been scandalous there or in Macon don't make the radar here because there is always something huge going on. Mercer was quietly a good school with, frankly, better teachers than here but maybe they good use more publicity too. And even though the professor's were better from a teaching standpoint, like they actually taught, there was hardly any research or drive to publish there and if there were maybe that would be good. I guess you can't have it both ways. Either you have small classes with teachers who care about you or big classes with professors who make the paper with their discoveries and become Nobel prize winners but don't know your name and have their TAs running most of the show. I guess I am rambling. Just enjoying my morning off because my physics prof is Jewish and it's a holiday! Current Mood: good | | Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | | 11:50 pm |
9-9-09
It seems weird to me that I will never see another single digit date in my lifetime. Possibly it is weirder that I care so much, but it is on my mind. I will have to post this in the next five minutes to make sure it actually goes through before midnight. It is kind of a cool day, you have to admit. I even paid some of my bills today so I could write checks with the date on them. Maybe I'm losing my sanity now that I'm back in New York. Strange things make me sad. My brief update - flight back was fine - I watched TV the whole time. My classes seem poised to go well and both professors are very nice and approachable which is a huge change from last year. I also very much enjoyed the season premiere of Glee tonight. More about CA and class and stuff later. 9-9-2009 is almost over! | | Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 | | 9:53 am |
Maybe this won't make sense to everyone, but staying in resorts, not matter how fancy they are, just makes me appreciate being home more. Las Vegas has a captive audience thing going on - a hot chocolate and breakfast sandwich at the hotel was like $16. And dinners were so expensive too. I would rather just go to the grocery store and get a bag of salad and some turkey and cheese. It was frusterating, I really get sick of eating out and eating bad food. Overall it is just an exhausting place. There were some highlights - The Ka cirque du soleil show and Bette Midler's show. And the shark aquarium at Mandalay Bay. But, mostly it was hot and tiring. Today is my first whole day in CA, so hopefully the weather will cooperate for the pool/beach. I've been up since 5:30, which has been my normal routine since entering this time zone 4 days ago. It's like my body adjusted to going to bed on Pacific time but still wants to get up on eastern time. Which is leading to some sleep deprivation on my part. Also, I saw the pacific ocean for the first time. yay! | | Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | | 9:14 pm |
again and again
Greg and I had fun at Cedar Point this weekend, and then we drove to my Dad's house last night. I'm staying on till Sunday but Greg had to fly out today bc he has to work tomorrow. Seeing my Dad is nice, but he seems less animated, more quiet than usual and I've been pretty bored already. Basically my only amusement is going to be visiting relatives, which is only briefly amusing at that. I am happy to see my Grandpa though, and hoping to see my Godmother who lives in Erie. I did get some really good mexican food tonight for dinner. ironic that I have to go to PA to get good mexican considering live in South Florida. Greg and I have been having a lot of talks lately and I'm happy where are things are going, and obviously will be excited to see the ring when he actually proposes, but it seems like we've already decided for sure we are getting married so that makes it less romantic. I know it will be this summer, but at least it will still be a surprise exactly when and I have no idea what the ring looks like. I think PEI would have been perfect but he has passed up a lot of perfect places to do it so I'm worried it will be something horrible like a restraunt or in front of a bunch people. But, we'll see. Overall I'm happy even though I sometimes have misgivings about certain things. Other than that life ist the same, working a little bit and trying to keep everyone happy. Oh, and as usual always hurting somewhere. I had a back injection on Tuesday to get ready for cedar point and apart from the normal post-procedure pain (intenstified by the fact that he went deeper than normal) it seemed like it went swimmingly until Saturday when I started have some numbness in the lateral part of my foot and pain in my ankle, all coming from my bad nerve. So I'm hoping it is just a transient thing and my pain mgmt doc didn't eff me up. Of course our goat here in PA had to hurt my other ankle and foot today. Thanks, Jimmy. He went running around and his chain caught me really hard. ugh. I feel like I haven't updated much lately. Prince Edward Island was great, I'm going to to get my photos on Facebook eventually. | | Monday, July 13th, 2009 | | 9:34 pm |
:-)
I love Prince Edward Island! Everything day we see something different and more beautiful. The seashore is different every few kilometers, there really is a lake of shining waters and the countryside is serene and woodsy and wonderful.
Yesterday we just walked around Charlottetown and walked around up here along the bay and then went to a nice dinner. Today was busier - we did Green Gables, Cavendish Beach, and some other parts of the National Park. Our hotel here was nice enough to give us a National Park pass so we didn't have to pay to get in. Then we went to North Rustico for a lobster supper - Greg was in his glory with a 3.5 pound lobster plus mussels.
If the weather is nice tomorrow we are going to go on the seal watching cruise and possibly go to the beach again, today we didn't have our bathing suit or anything since the morning started out rainy.
Everything is really awesome.
More later when I get home. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 6:46 pm |
I kind of want to bitch slap her. More and more each day. Tomorrow is my last full day here and Jocelyn will be in my room starting Tuesday night. She is just always so rude to me I can't stand it - you're getting free rent - even if we aren't friends you should try being civil. And my other roommate has been letting her use her bed while she is gone so she hasn't even been on the couch or anything. What a witch. I have half a mind to put all her shit in the hallway and change the locks. Besides that, the fourth of july fireworks here were awesome - I saw them from the NJ side - Greg and I and Luke got a table at the Chart house out on their wrap-around dock right in the middle of the show. And then afterwards we saw more action - two of the barges caught on fire! | | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 9:30 am |
Three Airbus crashes in 6 months is just two much for me. Even though I don't like Airtran it is a good reason to fly with them - they only fly Boeings and I think those Europeans might be doing some funky stuff to those Aribus planes. Southwest only uses Boeings too, but they don't fly to NYC so that generally doesn't help me. I really just think there has been a ton more plane crashes lately and that freaks me out. | | Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | | 8:59 am |
Greg made it back okay this morning so I am a happy girl. Now I just have to relax and finish my test which is due tomorrow. 6-week classes suck for the test-every-week senario. | | Saturday, June 13th, 2009 | | 6:04 pm |
Okay, I have a situation that has gone from inconvient to bad to pretty much awful. This, believe it or not, will be the short version. I offered Jocelyn my room for the summer, because her lease expired May 31st and she was going to take Columbia dorm housing (a shared double for $2400). The only catch was that I was going to be here also until July 4th, but I figured we could share a room for a month and it wouldn't be so bad. Well, it is. I am getting totally screwed. She moved all her stuff in and the first few days were okay - we went to brunch together and she paid and was like " I owe you a lot of meals for letting you stay with me". Of course I wasn't like yeah you do, but I was okay with it too, since I mean I was giving her a free place to stay. Anyway, it is at the point now where we are hardly talking let alone having a meal together. Part of our problem was that I go to bed between 12-2 and she gets up at 8 and wakes me up. So, I haven't been getting enoguh sleep and my schedule has been all crazy. I do get up early sometimes, but I usually just let myself get up whenever because I know it will be before 9:30 and that is fine. And the weird thing is last semester I would call her at 11 some mornings and she would still be sleeping and her boyfriend always talked about how much she slept. Well to my dismay she decided that she needs to get up and run at 7:45 every morning. And while I admire the dedication, I don't like having to have my sleep schedule around hers. So after almost two weeks of this, last night she decided she was going to start sleeping on our couch (which is small, more loveseat size). I in no way shape or form asked her to or implied she should. Even though she was (is) making me miserable I would never ask her to do that. Well now she is the martyr and she and my roommate get to talk about how horrible I am for making her sleep on the couch. Which leads me to the second big problem - I already have a pretty fragile relationship with my roommates, but it is okay. Well ever since Jocelyn moved in she has become like best-friends with the nice one and buddies with the other one. Well, that's fine except now she's pretty much turning them against me and I have to live with them after she's gone. Just a few hours ago they were in the living room, whispering about me in my own house! And I think Jocelyn talking about me to Myriad is just not okay, especially since Myriad and I get along. I don't talk to my roommates about problems I'm having with Jocelyn, so I don't know why she would feel it is okay to come in my apartment where she is staying for free and talk about how I'm grumpy because I haven't had enough sleep or how all about the couch situation or whatever. I feel bad she is sleeping out there, I do, and I wish we could work something out that is better, but at this point she isn't even my friend anymore and I am paying over 1000 dollars a month to live here, so I really shouldn't be suffering. If we were splitting the rent or something it would be different. And everthime I try to talk to her she doesn't want to talk - she just acts pissed. And before everything came to a head I told her I didn't want us to lose our friendship over this thing - I was only trying to help her when I asked if she wanted to move in here - I clearly wasn't getting anything out of it. But she just said she didn't feel like talking to anyone, (which would be a good answer, i could believe she is stressed about school and not wanting to talk if she wasn't have 2 hour conversations with my roommate whom she has known for 2 weeks), is too busy to go out to eat, etc. And then by last night I was asking her direct questions and she was ignoring me. When I told her I didn't want us lose our friendship - she said "Don't worry I'll still help you next semester." And I wasn't sure whether I should be more insulted that she thinks I'm only friends with her because I want her help in school or that she thinks I need her help that badly. I think the former is more upsetting but it doesn't really matter. It is pretty clear to me that we are not going to get past this. I thought we would be able to live together since it was such a short time and we got a long so well before, but her stress and my lack of sleep and just evreything has kind of exploded. What sucks the most is that I was just trying to do her a favor. I emptying out drawers and closet space for her and really tried to make her feel comfortable. And she certainly made herself at home. I knew I wouldn't be getting anything from it - although for awhile I was hoping she would offer to help with the rent for the two months she is here alone. But I can't be mad that she didn't because we didn't make an official agreement. But she isn't paying anything, she's pushing me toward a nervous breakdown, and making me uncomfortable in the apartment that I pay a hell of a lot for. That doesn't seem right. She is saving like 3000 dollars, the least she could do is not talk about me behind my back. It just kills me to think if I would have kept my mouth shut and not tried to be nice and let her live in some tiny shared dorm room with no kitchen and community bathrooms for the summer, I would be happy right now and she would still be my friend.
Sorry this was a long one. But it has been brewing. Anyway, I'm going to a movie - the first movie I've ever been to alone, but I don't have a friend anymore and I need to get out of the house. p.s. her fac book status says "roughing it in the great indoors". ugh, if my couch in my big apartment is roughing it maybe you should try the real world. Current Mood:  aggravated | | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 5:30 pm |
I had a very nice weekend with Greg, but definitely too short. I didn't want him to go after having less than 48 hours together. We stayed at a nice hotel in Union Square, which gave us a chance to see a different part of the city. Saturday we also went to Coney Island and that was really fun. The rides are pretty expensive, but it was a good time and nice to see the ocean. And Greg won me a tiger stuffed animal at one of those carnival games, which I think is really cute despite the fact that I have always thought men winning stuffed animals for their girlfriends was corny. I guess now that it's me I think it is sweet. Also, other good news - I got a 100 on my Stats test. Yay! I miss Greggie already :-( | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 9:24 am |
The probability of me liking this class is 0
I am pretty sure this stupid R program is going to be the death of me. Our whole first test (take home) is done on R and it is due Tuesday. I need a computer tutor I guess because this program is a peice of shit. I can get the data in and that is about it. I can't get it to draw the stupid pie charts and bar graphs, or analyze things. WTF, this is not statistics this is computer language. sooo frusterating. | | Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | | 4:47 pm |
So I have been getting these yellow postcards about updating my alumni information for Mercer and when I got the final notice one felt bad about not doing it so I just called - and here I am thinking they want a directory but really they are trying to sell you an 89 dollar book. Um, seriously? After I just told you I was still a student. She was polite, but pushy too. I hate calling thinking I;m getting one thing and then having people try to sell me stuff, especially since I suck at saying no. In other news, Statistics sucks. If anyone knows how to use a program called R let me know. | | Monday, May 11th, 2009 | | 9:24 pm |
| | Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | | 12:56 pm |
I'm not sure what the point of giving a "Stop Columbia" speech/rally thing on Columbia's quad is. Did they think they were going to atract supporters in the middle of our campus? More importantly why are there so many insane people here? Why is there no common decency on the train? Ugh, I don't know why people choose to live here. The only thing I like are the peacocks. Speaking of which, I uploaded two of fave photos. Calc final is this wednesday and I wasn't too nervous till greg started freaking me out. Everytime we talk he gives me the "you only have x days why aren't you studying?" or "Oh shit your final is on Wednesday, I thought it was Thursday. You don't have much time at all." That kind of stuff I don't need, thanks. I really feel like I have plenty of time to study very well but he has made me freak a little, and now I'm having math dreams at night and the whoel nine yards. Plus, he's convinced that I can get an A in the class, which I think though possible is rather doubtful, and I feel like he is putting so much pressure on me. I don't want to tell him that I'm volunteering or going to my friend's house because he gives me a hard time about not studying. Why should I have to answer to someone like that? I'm not a child for goodness sakes, and this certainly isn' t my first time around the block in college. So it is putting a bit of a strain on us, at least for me. We're not fighting or anything, I just wish he could stay out of my business sometimes.  The blue guy  the white guy | | Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | | 11:18 am |
The Hamidemic is out to get us!
Swine Flu: Just Another Reason Not to Put your Child in Catholic SchoolIt is running rampant around here- all starting at a Prep school because some crazy parents apparently let their high-schoolers go to Cancun for Spring Break. Now it is in the public school next to that school and a bunch of other Catholic schools. It is mostly the boroughs, though we do have a few supposed cases here on the upper west side. A Catholic school a few blocks down from here and a student at Columbia Teacher College.
Stupid New York is a hotbed of virus spreading. I think the media is kind of blowing it out of proportion, hyping up the potential rather than the actual events. But, I really don't want to get it. I mean obviously the people getting sick aren't getting terribly sick, but I don't want any kind of illness right before finals, please. The idea of getitng some kind of pig virus is just more disgusting than a regular virus, no?
Columbia (or at least the Butler computer lab staff) has deployed the giant sanitary bottles!
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