Good News

It's been awhile, and that time was spent in a mixture of success and depressed sulking in front of the television.  So, to focus on the positive...


Two weekends ago, my team won first place in the Clarion competition.  Outstanding.  After a two hour flight delay, and an unscheduled stop to refuel, we finally made it to Minneapolis.  We gave a solid presentation, and felt that if anyone beat us they seriously deserved it.  Apparently we were correct, because we won!


Yesterday, my MCAT scores were released.  I managed to raise my score 5 points, which I am really excited about.  A few friends from work took me out to Flat Branch to celebrate.  The four of us ended up with five plates of appetizers, and it was delicious.  I also tried a new beer.  It came out much darker than I was expecting,  but it turned out pretty good.


If only school and work had been going as well.  However, it's only two weeks until semester's end, and I get to move back to KC and see my friends from highschool.  I'll also be living in my childhood bedroom, right next door to my parents.  That should be interesting.  Hopefully they'll realize that I haven't lived with them in six year, and that if I was making a paycheck this summer I wouldn't be living with them now.....

We have bad neighbors

I've lived in my duplex for eight months, and I've never seen my crazy neighbor lady.  Since boyfriend lived here for three years before I did he's seen her several times, but I've only heard stories... until yesterday. 

I walked out the door on my way to class, and there she was.  Sitting on her front steps with a cardboard box that was about three feet tall.  It appeared that she was pulling leaves out from under the bushes.  A little strange, gardening with a cardboard box.  I also didn't realize she cared that much about the appearance of the yard since I've never seen her outside and they let their dog roam around all over (including our yard) without cleaning up after it.  However, the way she stopped working to watch me as I walked across my front lawn to my car was a little unsettling.  


My second encounter with crazy neighbor lady occurred later that night.  Boyfriend got the brunt of the exposure, I merely heard snippets of the conversation from inside.  Apparently she has been experiencing paranormal activity since moving in, and wanted to compare notes with someone. My favorite was when she said she hears noises late at night like a mother going to comfort a crying baby, or like children playing outside.  "Kids shouldn't be outside at night like that."  While that may be true, boyfriend and I definitely do not have children, so I don't know why she thinks we care about children being outside.


I just hope this paranormal activity convinces her, her creepy shirtless husband, and their annoying dog to move somewhere else.

Locked Out

Last night I kept having variations of the same dream over and over.  I kept getting locked out.  Sometimes I had my keys, and sometimes I didn't.  I would get halfway down the street, turn around and go back to the door, and not be able to get in.  If I had keys with me I would try all of them on the ring and nothing would fit the lock.  Then it would start pouring rain.


It wasn't my real life street or my apartment.  In the dream it wasn't really my apartment either.  I think I was visiting friends.  However, it was exactly the same over and over.  There was even a cafe under the apartment, and each time I was locked out I would look through the window to see if there was anyone I knew inside.  I never saw anyone I knew in the cafe, but somehow I kept getting back into the apartment.

Procrastination is Seductive

As usual, I've dug myself into a hole.  I have three papers due at the beginning of next week.  Despite the cold, snowy weather we had last week over spring break I did not use that time to do any homework.  I was scheduled to have this upcoming weekend off, and I thought I would have plenty of time to do everything.  Yesterday, however, a boy at work asked if I could work for him this weekend.  So now, the weather is beautiful and I want to be doing anything but homework, and I'm stuck inside.  Somehow I always manage to do this to myself.  Even now, when I should be writing my papers I'm here, writing in this blog.  If they gave grades for procrastination I would have a 4.0 and be outside enjoying the sunshine right now.  I keep telling myself it's only four more weeks until the end of the semester, but that thought isn't very bracing when I have an internship this summer.  The other day I heard someone mention "volunteering at an internship."  I thought it was a much more graceful way of saying 40 hours a week of unpaid labor.  Still, it's better than writing a thesis.  Clearly if I had to do that I would never graduate because I would procrastinate until being forced to finish in my eighth year.  

Somehow, I just can't get interested in writing an needs assessment for the LGBT community in Missouri.  Not that I don't think it's an important topic.  Not that I don't think actually doing that needs assessment would be interesting, because it would be.  I just am not excited about designing how to do such an assessment, particularly because it's all fictional.  "Who would be measuring this data?"  I have no idea, because I don't even know what organization is doing this fictional assessment.  I think it's a little unrealistic to give us an assignment that is so dependent on who is requesting the assessment without telling us who is requesting it.  Not that I would expect anything different from my classes at this point.  That's how I ended up designing a sex ed program that would cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars last semester.  And I got an A.  Unfortunately, with the way this professor grades I am not expecting the same outcome for this paper.

And It's April...

Spring break was a successful week of doing nothing productive.  Unfortunately, now the real world is back and I have two huge papers due in a week that I have yet to begin working on.  Oh dear.  Also, we get a new employee tomorrow.  That means that in addition to the normal Monday fun of going in at 7:30 am after closing at 11:30 the night before I get to train someone tomorrow morning.  That should be fun.  Clearly being tired from a lack of sleep and cranky about my vacation from school ending will make me excellent at training.  I should just call in sick for the rest of the week.  The afternoon boy can train her.  And by train I mean take his usual three hour lunch break.

This upcoming week is National Public Health Week.  This week was supposed to be exciting, but it isn't.  I was sick on the day of our planning meeting, and the other execs in our PH organization have neglected to fill me in on the activities.  If they aren't able to answer an email I don't feel the need to help them man tables and pass out free stuff to a bunch of indifferent undergrads all day on the mall.  It's frustrating because this is the second group I've been on the executive board for where all the other execs were friends and they just stopped including me in things.  I don't understand why people are so ridiculous. 

Basically I'm just counting down the days until I can move out of this stupid town.  I'm extra frustrated this year because I won't be around during the summer, and summer is the only time I like this place.  There aren't any students around, and there are plenty of fun things to do and restaurant patios to eat on.  Instead I get to eat with my parents every night and hang out in my old bedroom until I go to sleep.  Awesome.