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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

Weekend and Thesis Progress

My weekend was blah. I didn't feel like I got very much done which is never a good thing and Sunday was just a bad day. You know how some days are just urgh? It's not like anything particularly bad happened it's just that it wasn't a particularly good day. On the plus side, we finally had our secret santa gift exchange! I gave someone a shaker (which he said he wanted) and I got a small, pink, fluffy cute thing (I'm not really sure how to describe it).

Image from google images

Its going to be the thesisaurus! And hopefully make me feel less bad about my thesis because its so cute.

Anyway, on the thesis front things are ok.

I achieved most of my goals from last week:

Talk to my advisor about my thesis (I haven't actually talked to him about the actual written thing I need to hand in yet) - DONE

Come up with an overview plan (chapter titles) with my advisor/get them approved by him - not really done, but I think I know what I'm doing here

Run through my first draft of my first chapter and at least get something fully written (at the moment there are some blank spots that I need to fill in) - didn't really get this done

Write one more (compound) chapter - DONE

My goals for next week:

Review two chapters I've written (intro and first compound chapter -CoTa. Get at least one of them to the point where I can send them to my advisor)

Write two more compound chapters (NiTa and NiNb)

I really need to get going on things. I have:

63 days

1534 hours

92042 minutes

5522500 seconds

I also have a friend from high school visiting next week (yay!) and my aunt, cousin and grandmother visiting at the end of next week. That means I'm not going to have too much time next week to work on it, so I really need to be productive this week!

Boring Friday

My Friday was incredibly boring. I had one class this morning (Chemistry) and unintentionally spent the rest of the day in lab. I had a meeting to test the electronic properties of one of my compounds from 1-3, and I was planning to take the rest of the afternoon off, get to the gym and relax a little. Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon (till 6) in lab... fun fun! On the plus side I was pretty productive, which was a good thing. I'm also going into lab tomorrow to take things out of the furnace :(.

Tomorrow also needs to be a super duper productive for thesis writing. Fingers crossed for that too (I want to get a chapter written tomorrow :S).

[I think this might have been the most boring blog post in the world. Sorry about that!]

Classes and Vagina Monologues

Rivers belong where they can ramble,

Eagles belong where they can fly,

I've got to be where my spirit can run free,

Gotta find my corner of the sky

Every man has his daydream

Every man has his goal

People like the way dreams have of sticking to the soul

~Corner of the Sky lyrics from the musical Pippin

I still haven't chosen my classes for this semester, which is a source of some stress at the moment. I'm torn between wanting to take a great class that I'm going to love every minute of (I haven't found one that I feel this way about though) and one that's going to be easy enough that I have time to spend on my thesis (which I have a very very love-hate relationship with at the moment). I'm currently considering

• Music vs. Words (English/Music): I was beyond excited about this class, but the first two lectures have been okay and then terrible (the terrible one was poetry analysis. So epically not my kind of thing).)
• History of Science (History): I'm majoring in science, and so far this class has been okay. The professor is good but not outstanding and there are weekly reading responses and responses to other people's responses, which will make the class a little more difficult/time consuming.
• Art of Structure (Civil Engineering): seems like an interesting class and has great reviews. It's basically about form and function of buildings (which I am sort of interested in).

I'm leaning towards the civil engineering course, but I'm going to go to one or two more lectures for each one.

I went to BodyPump today, which was awesome. I love it! I went with one of my friends though, and she really didn't love it. We're not super close (I know it sounds mean but she's a huge social climber and cares about the quantity rather than quality of friendships, which I can't stand). She's also a little (probably 20lbs) overweight and never goes to the gym. I don't know why she disliked the class so much (other than that it was hard...she's normally a 2mph biker at the gym?! I don't get that, I love hard gym classes!). I suspect that her reaction might have had something to do with her realization that I am much, much stronger than her/that she's in incredibly bad shape. (Which, to me, is obvious. It was super tough for me at first to start going to the gym regularly, and even now if I'm lazy and miss a week it's a little tough to get back into the habit.)

I achieved one of my thesis goals today: I talked to my advisor! And it was way less terrible than expected. I wasn't able to show him a plan with chapter titles, but I know what he's expecting now and I also have someone else's old thesis which I'm meant to be (stylistically) following. He's also happy to read chapter drafts (up until 2 weeks before its due), which is a good thing. I'm not going to bother him with chapter titles, but I still want to have a proper list of it all by the end of this week.

The one bad thing was that apparently I have to stick to the 5 page max rule for the intro, so I'm going to have to scrap almost all of my existing work :(. (But, I am much more comfortable with the material now, which is obviously a good thing!).

[This is bit is a bit TMI. And I'm also a straight, non-feminist female, which colours my view here a bit]

I went to see The Vagina Monologues this evening. I thought I was going to really enjoy it and....I didn't. I know I'm a bit of a prude, but some parts of it were a bit uncomfortable (which is of course the exact opposite of the goal of it). I disliked being encourage to shout "c*nt" in one of the skits (I get what they're trying to do, but still...) and I also didn't like the portrayal of men so much. I felt that in a lot of it men were portrayed as "bad" and for many women they're an integral part of the sex/learning about their bodies.

Another thing that was probably a bit more in keeping with the goal was the whole orgasm thing. For whatever reason I haven't yet, and I felt like a lot of the skits were a bit focussed on it. Obviously it's an important part of everything (and I'm working on getting there), but I think it's also important to remember that that's not the only good thing about sex (that said I would really like to be able to).

Anyway, that all got a bit heavy at the end! Overall my day was good! (And I remembered how much I loved Pippin today :D)

Lab

So, I realised that I talk about lab on my blog a lot and I've never put up any pictures of it. So, I thought I'd put up a few pictures so you guys know where I spend half my life! I was there this afternoon and super late tonight (till past midnight :( ). I have a super annoying 10 hour reaction that I have to run, so I end up going in late and night and then early again the next morning.

Anyway, onto pictures!

X Ray machine with my compound x-raying. We use x ray diffraction to work out what we've just made!

Furnace room. (We make all our samples by cooking them...shake and bake chemistry!)

The furnace I'm using! (We do have some fun in lab with naming the furnaces!)

Photograph of lab as a whole

My super messy lab bench (complete with the huge white column down the middle and cupboard below that won't close)

Lab coats. So attractive! Blue/grey is such an unattractive colour on me.

My "fake" notebook. I have a proper (red) lab book, but I also have this one for some unknown reason.

The desk I work at (complete with computer, phone, tea!)

The BANE of my life. I don't use this blowtorch any more, but it was the thing that made me dread going into lab last year.

In other news I got my economics grade - A-. I'm pleased with it (I would have loved an A), but I'm pleased that I got an A range grade (instead of the B+ I was worried about).

PS I have my meeting my my lab professor tomorrow (at 3). I'm super nervous about it, so wish me luck!

Internet-less Adventures

I know the title to this post sounds strange but...the internet at my college stopped working from 11am - ~8pm tonight. At first I was a little freaked out...how am I meant to survive without twitter/facebook/wikipedia/email/Friends episodes??, but after a few hours I realised that it was actually wonderful!

It's so rare that I get to be "disconnected" from the world. It happens a little at home (mostly because my UK phone doesn't receive emails), but now that I have internet in my room there it's so easy to just go on my computer.

It was relaxing not constantly getting bombarded with emails and feeling like I needed to be online working on things (but actually most likely procrastinating). And, one of the best parts of it was that no-one else had internet, so the rest of the world wasn't expecting me to be emailing them back etc. I certainly wouldn't like to never have internet/email, but it was sort of nice to be free from it for a few hours today.

In other news:

My first day of classes was fine (although there was a bit of upset when I realised that I'd started my last ever Chemistry class. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but the entire focus of my academic life for the last 12ish years has been science/Chemistry and it's sad and a bit scary to be coming to the end of that). I still haven't decided what my second class is going to be (I have to take a Chemistry class and my thesis counts as two classes, so I just need one more). I went to one today on Words and Song Lyrics that seems interesting but I'm worried that it might end up being a lot of poetry/lyrical analysis, which isn't really my thing.

I emailed my thesis advisor and set up a meeting for Thursday. I also started going through my introduction and added a new section to it (which is important, it's about how and why magnetism even exists).

My thesis is due in:

71 days (giving myself 5 days for binding at the end)

=~10 weeks = 1704 hours = 102,240 minutes = 6,134,400 seconds

I drunk a lot a lot of tea today. Which is a good thing. But also possibly a bad thing. I felt exhausted after my two hours of class today so took a looong nap (not good...I think I might be anaemic. I barely eat red meat at school and my multivitamin doesn't contain iron. Anyway, I've changed (temporarily) to one that does and I'm making a conscious effort to eat iron-rich foods - eggs, chickpeas, spinach etc). When I woke up from that I had a killer headache, which the boyfriend suggested might be from an electrolyte imbalance from drinking so much tea. Anyway, I put salt on my dinner (which I rarely do) and I'm going to stay aware of that and try to increase my salt intake, which should hopefully help.

I have a clear day tomorrow, which really means a whole day to work on my thesis. My plan is to spend the morning in my room, plowing on with the introduction (I also need to read the full thesis guide and come up with an outline/list of compounds before my Thursday meeting, so if I finish the first run through with the intro I'll move onto that). I'm planning to spend the afternoon in lab doing whatever I need to do there (and if there's not much to do there I'll go back to what I was doing in the morning! Or start writing my chapter for this week...)

How would you spend a few hours if your internet temporarily stopped working?

Thesis Progress and Mung Bean Hummus

Good news: I finished the first draft of my first chapter of my thesis, which was my goal for this week! I may try to take a quick look through it before bed, but at least I've achieved my goal for this week! My goals for next week are:

Talk to my advisor about my thesis (I haven't actually talked to him about the actual written thing I need to hand in yet)

Come up with an overview plan (chapter titles) with my advisor/get them approved by him

Run through my first draft of my first chapter and at least get something fully written (at the moment there are some blank spots that I need to fill in)

Write one more (compound) chapter

My day has been verrrrry boring - really just writing my thesis. The major highlight was: Mung Bean Hummus!

I have loads of mung beans (and I'm trying to use things up/clear up my room) and I wanted to see if I could make a healthier version of hummus.

I used:

Mung Beans

From http://www.alibaba.com/product-tp/116513357/Green_Mung_Bean_yellow_mung_bean/showimage.html

Lemon juice

Garlic

http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-plant-garlic.html

Canola oil (we didn't have any olive oil)

From http://beforesixdiet.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

I mixed everything up with our blender. It turned out like:

(My old camera is terrible! Everything keeps coming out blurry :( )

It was pretty good. A little "thick", I think next time I'm going to put in more lemon juice (and more garlic - I love garlic in my food!)

In other big news...next semester starts tomorrow!! I'm excited, sad (my last semester) and also nervous. I'll let you know how it goes!

I'm sure I'm miles behind everyone else...

But I just found a new (photo) website that I really like: Piccsy. It has loads of cool, artsy photos (that I could never in a million years take). Some of my favourites:

(So true for me! I love naps)

PS As I said, none of these are mine. All credit to the photographers - they're amazing!

A new challenge...

Well, I got back to school fine and all but forgot one very important thing: my camera! I must have left it at my grandmother's house and I'm so bummed that I won't be able to share the gazillion pictures I took over the last few days. Luckily I have my old one at school, so once that's charged up I'll use that until I next go to my grandmothers.

(I did see an ad I really liked on the train back to school though, and snapped a picture on my phone:

It's really hard to read it (I was at the other end of the carriage and my phone has terrible photo resolution anyway), but it says:

"The loudmouth next to you would sound better with a British accent")

When I was with my grandmother we went to Whole Foods and I bought a bunch of snack-y stuff for school with the intention of a) making trail mix and b) having some dessert-like-things-that-aren't-dessert for lent (ie dried fruit). I'm glad I got all the food, but I realised when I got back to school that I have so much...stuff. Everywhere. I'm on a meal plan at school but I still have a box practically big enough for me to fit in full of food (under my bed). I have enough tea to last for about 3 years (I have 3 boxes with 60 tea bags each plus about 16 boxes (I'm not kidding) each with 20 tea bags plus a bunch of loose tea). I have enough protein powder for 6ish months (I'll be back to see my grandmother in 6 weeks). I have about 12 pairs of trousers (okay, 14, I just counted). I must have at least 15 pairs of shoes. Urgh. SO MUCH STUFF!

Anyway, I've always been a bit of a hoarder and there's no where near my college where I can buy "proper" food (it's all fast food places) (and I'm paranoid about running out of snacks)...but I barely eat the snacks I have (I snack...a lot, but mostly on the junk food/sweets I end up buying). I found a bag of pecans that went off in 2009 (luckily they were still fine) and I have things I'm sure I've had since freshman/first year. I'm graduating at the end of this year and I'd really like to not have to cart all this food etc to law school (I'm also really really bad at throwing stuff that's still "good" away).

So...for this month I'm challenging myself not to buy anything/spend money (other than essentials...things I need for school (notebooks and textbooks), "medicine" (the NuvaRing and the things my dermatologist has prescribed) and social events that I really can't get out of (I already promised to go to a Superbowl party this weekend at someone's house and we're getting those parents a small gift which I obviously need to contribute to). Anyway, in a weird way I'm looking forward to it! (And I'm also looking forward to working my way through all the food and tea I have here, in healthy moderation of course!) I'll let you all know how I get on!

February Goals

Thesis - I stopped tracking how many pages I've read, but I must be at around 30. I'm still working on the background section, but should have it done by the end of tomorrow.

Food - I got what I needed to make up the trail mix and made it up. Hopefully I'll have some pictures tomorrow, but it contains: cereal, granola, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, yoghurt covered cranberries, crystalized ginger. I might also add some goldenberries or chocolate covered goji berries when the arrive!

Exercise - I didn't get a chance to hit the gym today, but I did go on my first run since my ankle injury yesterday, which was great! I'm a bit sore from it now though (which I can't believe).

Sleep - I slept through almost the whole of last night which is good for me! And no naps today so hopefully I'll sleep tonight.

Skin - yada yada, following her recommendations and not changing what I'm doing.

Resolutions - I wore my back support for the first time this month today! Yay!

Life Goals

So, the topic for my blog today is kind of a big idea.

Remember my boyfriend got that A- that he was so happy about? Well, he got an email today telling him that there'd been a mathematical error and he'd actually only gotten a B+. (Needless to say he was really upset yada yada, but in the end it was all resolved and they ended up changing it back to an A-, yay!). During my attempts to cheer him up we started talking about our goals for our lives over the next ten years, and we each choose three important things. Mine were...

1. To be graduate from law school successfully and get a good job in a related field.

2. To remain healthy, slim and strong.

3. To be in a happy, successful relationship (hopefully married and hopefully to my incredible boyfriend).

I also read a slightly morbid article called "How the Top Five Regrets of the Dying Can Aid the Living":

1.“I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

2. “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”

3. “I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.”

4. “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

5. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

My thoughts:

1. I try to do this and one of my goals of this blog is to use it to reflect on what is important to me.

2. Haha, if only. That said, over the last year and a half I have tried to redress my work-life balance. I've tried to exercise more, I've made more time for my friends and the boyfriend and I are trying to make time for regular date-nights.

3. I try to do this. In some ways, I'm great at doing this. I'm good at telling my boyfriend and some other people how I feel. But, I do want to try to speak up a bit more about certain things (little things, like changing meeting times and locations). Often if you ask for things, you get them and generally there isn't much of a downside.

4. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I do still stay in touch with one of my closest friends from high school (Kirst), but I'm not too close with most of the rest of them though. In part it's because I'm doing such different things from most of them (most of them are working now because their degrees were only three years. Mine's 4 and then I'm doing another 3 of law school).

5. I'm not sure I get this one? I don't try to restrict myself from being happy at all and I'm always on the lookout for more ways of making myself happy.

Well, that's all from me! Tomorrow you'll get lots of photos from my Connecticut trip!