Friday, May 25, 2012

Boys of Summer

I'm finally feeling like my summer is starting. Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Maryland with some friends from college. I'm really looking forward to the thrip. The internet access might be a bit spotty while we're there, so I might not do so well at blogging!

Anyway, super quick post because my day's been really boring and I'm also really tired.

Pretty good looking for his age!!
Today's song is Boys of Summer by Don Henley. I love Don Henley (and the Eagles, which he's the main singer in) and the song also seems super summery to me! (The song also makes me think of summer because last time I went on vacation with friends was just after I graduate from high school. I spent the whole time reading a biography of the Eagles!)

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Busy Day

Today was the day I moved everything (well, almost everything) out of my room and I'm exhausted! I haven't been sleeping well, and it was hard work moving all those boxes around. Anyway, my pod is finally loaded and will get picked up early tomorrow. I took pictures during the loading, but unfortunately the fully loaded one was in the dark (we finished putting in the last things at midnight!).
Half loaded pod!
I also purchased three new pieces of furniture, which I'm very proud of:
Desk - $35. A little smaller than I'd ideally
like, but other than
that I'm quite fond of it!
Coffee Table - $20
Dresser - $30. This is the piece
I like the most - it's made of really
nice wood!















I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, as it's going to be my first "real" day off in a while. The boyfriend and I have a few errands to do in the morning, but in the afternoon we're planning a mall trip (I want to get a new swimsuit for our vacation with our friends which starts on Saturday). Hopefully we'll also have a relaxing rest of the day and get an early night!

I also got back my first grade today. It was for my crazy Chemistry class and I got a B, which is fine but I'm not that happy with it. I was really hoping for a B+, but I guess there's nothing to be done about it. It was a really tough class because the final was worth 100% of the grade.
They're not female and generally not naked!
Image from google

Today's song is Rule the World with Love by the Barenaked Ladies. It's just an awesome song, and they're an awesome band!


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Drive By

My room...argh!
Today has been a busy day with lots and lots of packing. The boyfriend and I both got moving "pods" to store us stuff in, but we're only allowed to have them on campus for 24 hours, and given that we just finished exams yesterday we've been scrambling to get them packed. His is getting picked up tomorrow, mine is getting dropped off tomorrow and picked up on Friday. I tried to get a decent chunk of packing done today to ease the stress tomorrow, but that didn't work out so well, and my room now looks like a bomb has gone off in it!

I did (finally) get to the public library today (my university library's cut me off because I'm graduating so soon!). Anyway, I picked up a bunch of the books that are on my short term goals list :). I'm really excited to get started on reading them!
My new books!

I also went out for a wonderful dinner with the boy - so much fun to just get to spend some time together without worrying about work etc.

Pretty toes!
My legs, which I've mentioned before, are still super itchy and they look like they're getting worse :( (they did get better, but now they seem to be regressing). I'm using amlactin cream twice a day and cortisone on the really bad bits a few times a day (although I hate using the steroids). I was trying to be nice to my legs and feet today though, so I painted my toe nails :).



Today's song (for no reason other than that it's a good packing song!) is Drive By by Train.

PS I should hopefully get back my exam for both my thesis and (horrific) comprehensive exams tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

And...I've made it!

I finished my last ever undergraduate exam today. Terrifying!
It went okay, not as well as I was hoping it would.

Anyway, today's song is Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrman. It's just a brilliant song/spoken song and very appropriate for me at the moment (it was originally a graduation speech or something like that).

We also had our "senior dinner" today at my college. I took lots of photos, so as soon as I find my camera cord I'll upload them!

Anyway, just a short post because I'm exhausted and I want to go chill! 

Monday, May 21, 2012

Running Up That Hill

I have my last exam tomorrow. I'm darn nervous about it. They expect you to know the littlest most insiginificant things and be able to write an essay on them. Fingers crossed that the little, insignificant things that come up are the ones I know (this time...the midterm wasn't great).
Image from the Kate Bush music video
I've spent all day studying for it, very boring. I can't wait till 4:30 pm tomorrow when I'll be free as a bird. My priorities for tomorrow evening are:
  • gym
  • spending time with the boyfriend
  • skype with my parents and doggy
  • watching a movie/TV show
  • getting to bed earrrrly!

Image from the Kate Bush music video
Today's song is Running Up that Hill by Kate Bush. Kate Bush's songs are (often) very wonderfully weird. She has a very expressive voice, and a lot of her music videos are interpretive dance which is interesting to say the least. Also an appropriate song, because this is the final push for me, and "Running up that Hill" seems like a good way to phrase how I'm feeling.

17ish hours till I'm done!  (It's actually making me feel pretty sad, but I'm just trying to focus on how  great it'll be to enjoy the next week or two with no work!

Sunday, May 20, 2012

PF Sloan

Today was a busy, busy day.

My poor post-surgery doggy.
He's recovering well though! :)
I woke up early(ish) and spent the morning studying/worrying about my inorganic exam. The exam was from 1-4pm, but that then changed to 4:15, 4:30! We got an hour into the exam and the prof realised that he'd made a fairly serious error in the first question (of three), so he made the change and then had to extend the finish time of the exam because of it.

The exam didn't go as well as I was hoping. I was a little put off by the issue with the first question and in general it was a bit different from previous practice exams. Given that my grade relies almost 100% on the final that's not really great. I guess we'll see what happens.

Anyway, after the exam I felt exhausted, both mentally and physically. I watched TV (The Simpsons...oh dear), took a nap, skyped with my dog and caught up on blogs. 
Dinner was lots of random grain-y things from the dining hall

I had a really small dinner. I've kind of lost of my appetite recently, I think because of the stress of graduating and things changing.

The rest of the evening was spent studying for my final final (which is on Tuesday)! It's for my civil engineering class that is really more of an architecture class. The material is fairly easy but there's a lot to memorize. I didn't leave myself much time to do it in, so fingers crossed that it goes ok.
She's also so pretty!

Today's song is PF Sloan by Rumer. I really love this song because her voice is so smooth and calming. Definitely a good post exam song to listen to!

2 more days!

PS Really really appreciating all the comments and support! You guys rock!


What are you most looking forward to over the next week?

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Out of Touch

This is going to be a quick post because of my exam tomorrow (and because I had sleep issues last night*). I'm really not looking forward to the exam, but I think I've done as much preparation as I can.
This album cover is so so hilariously 80s

Today's song is Out of Touch, by Hall & Oates. My favourite kind of music is 70s/80s music (awkward I know!) and this is one of the songs from that "genre". 

Michael McIntyre...go watch
his comedy stuff on youtube!
As I'm writing this, my boyfriend is watching Michael McIntyre on youtube. If you haven't seen any of his skits I completely recommend watching some. They're absolutely hilarious! His autobiography is also pretty darn amusing if you get a chance to read it!


Anyway, that's all from me. 3 days to go!

* The sleep issues: the boyfriend and I had an argument. A girl who I sort of know (but who I'm facebook friends with) got engaged to her boyfriend of a month and a half (she's 24ish). I think/rationally know that it's pretty darn speedy, but every time someone I know gets engaged I get pretty worked up about it. I think it's because getting married to the perfect man is my number one life goal. It's difficult to have the most important thing in my life relying on someone else, and it's also difficult to see people around me getting engaged (a few other friends are engaged or married) and having my boyfriend not wanting to get married. Rationally I don't want to get engaged/married now, but emotionally it's a bit tough to see people around me achieving my numero uno life goal when I haven't.
The boyfriend hates me talking about marriage...he's a tiny bit of a commitmentphobe, and thinks that 21 is too young (which I do sort of agree with). Anyway, he got all defensive about it and we both got rather upset (and then didn't get to bed till 4:30 am...fun fun!)

Friday, May 18, 2012

You're Gorgeous

Today's song is You're Gorgeous, by Babybird. The lyrics to this song are a lot "darker" than the title would suggest (its about a manipulative photographer), but I still love the title and melody. My own "relationship" to "gorgeous" isn't really what I'd like it to be. As with most things, I rely to much on external validation, which means that I like/need/crave others (my boyfriend) telling me that I'm attractive. That causes issues when he's busy/stressed (which he really is at the moment. I can't wait till he's done and he goes back to being "normal").
Such a weird CD cover....from google









Anyway, talking of validation, I'm taking part in Meg's High Five Friday, which celebrates achievements over the past week.


This week the theme is school/college/academic achievement. This week's been a busy (academic) week for me. I'm proud of myself for getting through my two comprehensive exams, especially the organic one, which was really really tough for me. I'm also proud of myself for how disciplined I've been with studying for my inorganic exam on Sunday. I think (hope!) I'm studying in an efficient and effective way. I'm going through all the notes and pulling out all the key themes, which I'm almost done with. I'm then going to go over all the practice problems and old problem sets and pull out key themes. Fingers crossed it'll be useful!

That's all from me! (These days my life is just study study study!)


4 days till I'm done!

Do you rely on external validation (other people to recognize your accomplishments)? Or internal validation (you can recognize your own accomplishments)?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Desert Rose

Today was a weird, long day.

I woke up super early (7:45am, that's early for me! I do want to start getting up early more often though) because I had the inorganic chemistry exam at 9. It went fine...I think. To be honest, I really can't tell. I'm just hoping it was good enough to "balance out" the disaster that was organic the day before. (I'll find out how I did next Thursday...nervous)!

In case you don't know what beans on toast looks like!
Picture from google images.
I had a nap after my exam. It should have been awesome, but the boy was watching American Dad or something else stupid while I was trying to nap, so I couldn't really sleep. :(

Lunch was good. The dining hall had baked beans (which they never have!), so I made beans on toast, which was awesome :D.

I then spent the whole afternoon and evening studying for my second inorganic chemistry exam (which is on Sunday). I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but I'm a) getting there and b) it's open notes, so I don't have to memorize everything (I really just have to make sure I *understand* everything). 

Tomorrow is going to be another fun day of studying inorganic!

My poor darling. I took a screenshot while we were
skyping. He has to wear that silly cone thing to make
sure that he doesn't bump or knock the wound :(
Hopefully this picture isn't too graphic...
A lot of my other friends have already finished all their exams/papers/problem sets/anything they need to do before graduation. It's a bit strange that so many of them have completely finished their undergrad degree. Even weirder that come Tuesday, I'll have finished. I'm looking forward to not having exams any more, but I really don't want to graduate! I love my college.

As I mentioned yesterday, my dog had his surgery today. Poor darling. They had to shave half his face (the surgery was to remove his blind eye which was getting swollen and infected). I got to skype with him (well, with the human members of my family while he was in the room). He's apparently recovering quite well, which is definitely a good thing. I'm just finding it really hard to be away from him at the moment...I want to be there to look after him. It's also tough for me that my sister is there caring for him instead of me, especially as she's never really loved the dogs the way I have, and he is my doggy.



Today's song is...Desert Rose, by Sting. Not generally one of my favourites, but it's sort of a strange song to suit the strange mood I'm in today! (at least strange compared to the songs I normally listen to. For me, song lyrics are really important - they're why I listen to music - so I don't tend to go for non-English songs/songs with lyrics that are hard to understand).

Anyway, I'm super tired now, so off to bed! I have an early morning (930) meeting tomorrow morning...urgh!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Another short post...

Inorganic Chemistry Things....aren't they pretty?
From myersconsultingservices.net
My exam today (organic) was...not great. I was actually pretty disappointed by how it went. My mind went black as soon as I sat down and I couldn't remember what a lot of the products of all the reactions were. Anyway, I guess we'll see. It was multiple choice, and I guessed on anything I didn't know, so maybe there were a few lucky guesses in there! The comprehensives are factored into our departmental GPAs (which I don't really care about. Mine is much worse than my overall GPA, so I never tell people unless they ask). It also goes on our transcript, in combination with the grade I get from the exam tomorrow (inorganic...the one with pretty coloured compounds!). Fingers crossed that one goes better to balance out the one today!
Highlights of organic chemistry...who wouldn't
prefer inorganic?? From google images

The boyfriend has been the absolute cutest all day - I woke up to a note from him under my door from him (I left for my exam before he got up, and we don't sleep together the night before one of us has an exam).
A very cute cheese string! From google images

Everyone else in blogland is doing WIAW today...I can't wait till I'm cooking my own food and get to participate. The food-highlight of my day was a cheese string! I hadn't had one in ages, but really needed a snack after all my studying.

From google
The song for today is New Age, by Marlon Roudette. I've really liked this song for a while, mostly because it has a really lovely melody.




6 days till I'm done with exams!

PS My puppy (well, 12 year old dog) is having his eye surgery today (Thursday). Keeping my fingers and toes and everything else I can cross crossed for him!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Super short post...

...because I have my organic chemistry comprehensive exam tomorrow at 9am. Urgh. I am so epically not looking forward to it.

I've basically spent all day writing my paper (which is submitted! Yay!) and studying for this exam. I still know such a small amount of the material though :(.

On a (somewhat) related note, my legs got insanely itchy yesterday, and looked like they had hives. When I was younger I used to occasionally get stressed induced hives, and I bet that's what it is :(. Anyway, they're a tiny bit better today.

Blurry picture of my leg :(

And another one...

The song for today is...Only the Horses by the Scissor Sisters (it has a really cool album cover!). I like that it's upbeat (that and green tea are the only reason I made it through the day with no naps!) and in portions its also a little frenetic (I like that word!), interspersed by slower, calmer bits. That pretty much mirrors my life at the moment!

One week till I'm done with exams! Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Like a Runaway


My song for today is Like a Runaway, by Jodie Marie from the album Mountain Echo. I hadn't heard any of her music before today, but I really like this song. I originally wanted to post a frantic/frenetic song, because that's how I've felt all day, but this song is really mellow and calming, which was very much appreciated!
This morning I woke up...stressed. There's so much that I need(ed) to do today and over the next few days, and I feel like I've been working all day with no breaks. On the plus side, I have a pretty decent draft of one of my papers (15 pages, due tomorrow at 5pm). I just need to cut out a page and a half tomorrow and read it over a few times tomorrow and then I'll be done. I also have these (super stressful) comprehensive exams coming up, so I'm going to spend any free time (ie post-paper) tomorrow working on organic chemistry, and any time the day after that working on inorganic. Then...study study study for my inorganic final (I have an inorganic comprehensive exam and a final for the inorganic class I'm in). I'm really worried about that final, because it's worth 100% of my grade (argh!).


The gross salad! Looks pretty though.
The sandwich in the making (plus a grapefruit!)
I used some of the stress management techniques (e.g. breathing, reminding myself that this stress won't be around for too much longer and trying to separate the "necessary" and "unnecessary" feelings). They worked really well!

I also tried to make healthy/good decisions today, which was going really well until something in my salad at lunch tasted off :(. (The sandwich that I made - roast beef, cheese, onions and spinach was still really good though!)





The finished product - delicious!


Anyway, fingers crossed for being productive tomorrow!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Don't dream it's over...

My life recently has been a bit boring (lots of work), but, some high and low lights....
  • I finished and handed in my thesis. It was amazing to have it finally be done, and I definitely feel proud of it.
  • I've picked up my cap and gown for graduation (eek!)
  • I've done everything I can to make the most of my last few weeks of college - gone to lots of lectures, taken a professor to lunch, made the most of various resources (I've borrowed a gazillion library books recently)
  • I finally found a roommate for law school (and she seems great. I've facebooked and skyped her, so hopefully there won't be any serious surprises, though I guess you never know)
  • I found housing for my summer internship 
  • I'm seeing a counsellor again (or at least was. She's at my university health services, so I won't be seeing her after I graduate). She's great (very into the whole idea of mindfulness, which seems like a good fit for me). Nothing serious happened, I just wanted to talk to someone about how to handle the huge changes that I'm on the verge of.
  • I graduate from college at the beginning of June. I'm just trying not to think about it.
  • I have to do comprehensive exams, which means that I need to re-learn all the Chemistry I've ever learned (urgh!)
  • My beloved dog lost his eyesight in one eye and is going to have to have it removed next week. We've thought about it a lot, and it's swollen and uncomfortable for him, so getting it removed seems like the best option.





My song for today is...Don't Dream It's Over, which has been covered by a bunch of different people but this versions by Sixpence None the Richer (a 90s band!).

For the first time in a week I did some proper exercise (urgh, I know. I'm not good at sticking to exercise regimes). I went running (with the boyfriend) along a towpath near our University. It was really really tough, in part because I'm out of shape and in part because he's (obviously!) so much faster than me. According to my HRM, my heart rate peaked at 201 bpm (argh! So high...I'm not sure if that's healthy). I did burn 650ish calories in 45 minutes though, which was pretty good. Anyway, that song played on my iPod while I was running and I thought it was pretty appropriate given all the changes in my life.

I like two lines in particular...
"Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup" - I've been told that this is about the fact that we can't control everything around us and that sometimes life throws random crazy stuff at us. 

"Hey now, hey now, don't dream its over" - This seems appropriate given that so much is changing, but some things, some of the most important things, aren't. In particular, my boyfriend. I know a lot of people are wondering if/when we're going to break up (and I'll admit that the idea has crossed my mind). Neither of us are long distance relationship types, and we'll be 2.5ish flying hours apart for three years. It's going to be tough, but we're going to make it work. I'm dreading it at the moment, but I know we'll be ok.

As I've mentioned before...I don't like change. But, one of the things I've realised during my counseling sessions is that I have a tendency to look at the past in a positive light and the future in a negative light. I've also realised that I'm much better at adapting to change than I think I'm going to be (though it's often tough at first). Even though not seeing the boy every day is going to be a change and I'm dreading it at the moment, I know it'll be ok when it happens and that we'll get through the next three years.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

I haven't posted for way way too long...

But I'd like to get back into the habit. Too many things are changing for me at the moment, and I'd like to blog to

a) keep myself sane

b) keep a record of what's going on!

I've finished my thesis and I have about a week and a half (full of exams and papers!) left until I finish University. Eek! I'm just trying not to think about it at the moment to be honest.

I'm starting law school in August. I'll still be in education I guess, but it's going to be quite a change. A few big things:

1. Not being with my boyfriend 24/7. We're at college together, he's going to be a 3ish hour plane flight from me next year. We're going to make it work.

2. Cooking for myself - I've had a meal plan for all 4 years of college.

3. A very different kind of work - I'm used to science, I'm going to have to get good at reading again.

4. Living in my own flat - not in dorms.

I've spent most of this evening working on my two new goals posts (one is short-ish term goals, the other is life goals...there's some overlap between them!).

Anyway, I'm really going to make an effort to keep up with the blog and will write a proper post updating on my life tomorrow.