create.

i just made these two layouts. there is this event on the fiskateers board. so there are a bunch of challenges. one was to create a layout/project using orange [you can guess why.] and the other was to create a layout in 20 minutes... 30 if you really needed the extra time.

i love doing monochromatic layouts, so i went with that for the orange layout. maybe it's a bit much, but i really like it. i actually just laid down some papers first and then looked through my photos and this one seemed perfect. i took it [yay for mulitself-portraits. ha.] with the "twilight portrait" mode in my camera. it makes the fun tint and doesn't create a "harsh" flash, so i use it often at night. plus it gives the artsy blurred look if you do it right. :] we are in san francisco [yeah. i know. always, right? it's just that we only seem to take pictures when we go away and that's been the only place we really go.] back to the layout... after i put down th photo i just went a little more crazy adding papers and any red/orange embellishment i could find. i needed something for the top corner, so i painted one of the clear heidi swapp flower with yellow and red. i don't have any orange paint. ha. go figure. oh and then i went a little crazy with the glitter too. this was just totally fun.

the 20 minute challenge turned out to be 28 minutes for me. but i am happy with my page... so i think it's ok. i am not a fast scrapper at all, so i decided to use totally coordinating products to speed things up. i got hung up on picking out the cardstock colors, especially that blue. i wanted something a bit lighter, but all i had was really dark or really bright... so i just went with the dark. i think it's ok. that piece of brown fiber was laying on my desk, so i added it too, but everything else [aside from cardstock and heidi swapp letters] is brand new heidi grace stuff. i am in love with everything she came out with this season. :] the photo is carol and i with our friend. we aren't really friends with him anymore... so i kind of journaled about how friendships can change [notice friendship is broken up to leave end as it's own word], but you can always think back and remember good things. :]

ok. i'm going to go get in the shower. ha. i went straight to scrapping, but i think i should get the dirt off me from earlier.

volunteer.

really. do it. it feels so good to volunteer. it makes me so happy.

waking up at 6:30 isn't really my cup of tea, but it was worth it. we actually moved the foundation of a house today. i couldn't and still can't believe it. [i also can't believe that i didn't bring my camera. ugh.]

afterward, nicole, katie and i went to olive garden to eat. we all agreed on how seriously good it feels to volunteer. so i think we are going to try to do this more often. nicole and i have talked about how we want to show people that we really can build a house. i'll admit that i had some doubts, but after this morning i really do think i can contribute. :]

find a project and volunteer. if you have habitat for humanity in your community, you should give it a try. it's not as intimidating as it might seem. it was actually pretty fun, and the builder was really nice and understanding that we didn't always know exactly what to do. so yeah. try it. or find something to volunteer for.

have a good weekend!

fun.

today i decided to have fun instead of study. i have a cell bio test coming up on tuesday, and i really need to study a lot for it, but today i just couldn't. so i finally got some scrapbooking done. i feel like it's been so long since i've finished a page. i've been trying, but i never finish completely to where i can share them. so here are the two that i made tonight. :]

this first one is for the fiskateers blog. saturday they are having a little "celebrate spring" thing, and it was encouraged to make a page about spring and post it on saturday. i was going to make a two-page layout because i have quite a few fun pictures from this little community service project that i did with my friends, but it was frustrating me to the point where it wasn't fun to work on. so i walked away for a bit and came back with a new idea for a one pager with a big cluster of some of the photos. i'm pretty happy with how it came out. it turns out that i ended up having a lot of fun with it.

this one is something i've had in my mind for so long. it didn't really come out the way i imagined it, but i was getting a little tired of looking at the pictures and not being able to do what i wanted to do with them. so again, i just had fun. this one is so simple, but it makes me happy. i'll probably end up adding some more to it at some point. maybe a little hambly transparency or something. what i would love to do it stitch around the edge of the page with some blue and green threads, but i still don't have a sewing machine. i guess this is like the 3rd or 4th time that i've used this picture. ha. funny thing... it might not be the last time either. :] i can't help it. i just really like this photo of me. makes me smile, which is always good.

one more thing i want to share with you that i can't believe i haven't shared yet... one of the ladies i know from my scrapbook store, angela [it feels weird to call her a friend since she's so much older than me, but she basically is a freind] is a designer for this online scrapbooking show called scrapbook lifestyle. it got picked up a little while back by scrapbooks etc. magazine and it's kind of fun to watch. so here is a link: http://my.bhgscrapbooksetc.com/premium/lifestyle/
you can buy a membership to view all the older ones, but i just watch the freebies... i don't know that it would be money well spent. [let me know if the link doesn't work.]

ok. i'm off to bed. james still has it in his mind that i am going snowboarding tomorrow with him. i'm still kind of trying to get out of it though because it takes so much energy and i have to wake up at 6:30 saturday morning. eeek.

print.

i spent two hours last night and three hours tonight in the darkroom. fun at times, but definitely frustrating at times too. i don't know how many prints i made all together, but i definitely have at least 5 good ones, so i am relieved a little bit.

tomorrow i still have to scramble to shoot and develop some more film. i have at least two rolls to shoot, but i should try to do three. my narrative sequence roll didn't turn out like i wanted it too, so if i have time, i'll need to re-shoot it. then i have to shoot a "set-up" roll where i pose everything and a "controlled lighting" roll where i use artificial lighting. blah. neither of those are very conducive to my final project or the shots i needed to have in order to make my 5 prints. so that is why they have been pushed aside.

otherwise. i've been feeling a little crappy all day. tired. not motivated. slightly grumpy. oh and i fell down the stairs at james' house yesterday, so i'm pretty sore today too. it's a funny story... sort of. i laughed at helix because he was trying to come up the stairs to meet me, but he slipped and fell down the stairs. yeah. a couple seconds later... i took my glorious tumble. james couldn't stop laughing at me. it hurt pretty bad though.

ok. well i'm off to bed. lots to do tomorrow. a good night's sleep will be helpful.

eek.

got a random message tonight from someone from the past.
it felt so good/weird/sad all at the same time to talk to him.

the morning is going to come way too soon.
oh and there is snow on the ground here again. :[
i was liking the warmth.

well. goodnight.

trip.

it was a good trip. :]
we met up with andrew on friday night for some thai food in north beach. it was really yummy actually. andrew and i had a good time catching up and whatnot. then we walked around the city and went to this place called vesuvio. it's a pretty famous old bar-hang out type place of beatnik poets. [that explains the funny sign.] jack kerouac and all the other famous beatniks used to go there. ha. james thought it was interesting too. it reminded him of a german style pub.

what else?
we ate at cheesecake factory of course. :] unfortunately, it was pretty foggy on saturday, which created this misty rain situation. so it was hard to take photos. my lens kept getting all spotted with water. so it was a bummer. we kind of gave up after a bit and just shopped around for a while. i only bought one shirt though. and one camera. ha. see the lomography link over on the side bar? yeah. i bought one of those fun cameras. i don't know when i'll have time to play with it, but i'm looking forward to the day.

that night, james really wanted to eat korean bbq. so we found a place and i think he liked it pretty well. i just got pot stickers because i wasn't feeling adventerous. i can't handle spicy food at all, and in my experience korean food is pretty spicy. even when i ask james if something is spicy and he says "not at all..." it's still spicy to me. so yeah. the pot stickers were good. :] we had taken a cab to get there, but i kind of wanted to walk back, so we did and we came across this beautiful cathedral. it was so pretty all lit up for the night.

today, we woke up a little earlier to start the day. we ate breakfast and then hung out in the room until checkout at noon. then we thought we would go to the park or something. well we ended up driving around in circles so that james could take photos for his final project from the car. it was kind of funny. then we found this free parking space... a total find in the city... right by all the main city buildings, like the library and the court house. so we parked and i took some photos for my final project. i didn't even think to take any with my digital camera. actually. i only took 54 photos on my digital the whole trip. that is like an all-time low for me. [i think i took around 1,000 in just one day in new york city. ha.] after that we headed to the haight. it was actually my first time really walking around that district. james and i both really liked it. [i usually intend to go there, but can never find a parking space, so i just give up.] well we ate lunch there at this amazing little place. askew i think it was called. they had all kinds of skewered meats and i got ribs. yum yum yum. i also had to get some ben and jerry's before we left.

finally, we stopped off at twin peaks. the view is amazing from up there, but it was really foggy and windy today. [note my out of control hair from the wind.] kind of sad. on a clear night though... it's amazing. so pretty. we'll have to go back up there again when the conditions are a bit better.

so yeah. it was a good little trip. i really need to spend a whole week there one of these times. i always leave thinking... too bad there wasn't enough time to do ______. so maybe in a week i could get more done.

i am not ready to go back to school in the morning. man. this break has been so nice. i didn't get to scrapbook nearly enough. i'm sad about that. but i did get to relax a fair amount, so i can't complain too much.

mod podge.

disregard the last post. :]

i've decided that mod podge is good for the soul. i started making this little chipboard mini book tonight. i got my hands so messy with paint and mod podge. i am a happy girl once again. it's not done because some parts have to dry before i can move on, but i am so happy with how it is coming along. super cute. it might not be finished for a while, but it's going to be fun to work on here and there.

anyway. i started packing a little bit and i can already tell that i am going to over pack. i always take this one big bag with me and cram all my stuff into it. i think i'll be doing a little extra cramming tomorrow morning. ha. i just don't know exactly what to bring because i did all my laundry today, so all my favorite outfits are clean. i can't narrow it down. :]

blah.

i'm feeling sick.

i'm feeling anxious.

i'm feeling frustrated.

and i don't know why.

i spent the day doing laundry and picking up some necessities at target. i took care of some things for my club and worked on my research grant/scholarship application. so i checked things off my to-do list. but i don't feel like i accomplished anything. i don't know why. and i am stressing out about going to the city tomorrow. why is it stressing me out!? it should be making me happy. i just feel like there are things i need to do at home before school, but i did all those things today. grr. and i have my midterm due for photography on wednesday so i need to shoot my film in the city.

i wish i could calm down. i wish i could handle pressure a little better. but i always just crack. and for no apparent reason.

james is out with his friends and i called him because he usually makes me feel better. it didn't work. his friends were shouting at him and whatnot. it just made me even more frustrated.

so maybe i'll go shower and see if i can get rid of this blah-ness. :-/

booked.

i finally just booked my room to go to the city again. i'm so excited. i'm going to bring lots of film and hopefully i'll get to shoot tons and tons of photos for my final.

this is a photo from a few trips back. taken through a window at the top of the union square hyatt. that's why it seems a little fuzzy or whatever. if you ever visit the city, take the elevator up there and look around. it's one of the best views i've found.

goodnight.
:] [:

tunes.

driving home tonight, this song came on my shuffle. when i got home, it was still in my head. i realized that i should link up some of my current favorites. so see the sidebar for some links. i just linked to the official pages of the bands. you can probably listen to music on those pages or else look them up on myspace music or whatever. i would embed music into my blog, but sometimes it messed with peoples' computers and whatnot. so it'll just have to be a music-less page.

i checked and there is only a sample of the song i was listening to on the way home in the "ponder to this" link. so i hunted down the full version, which you can listen to if you go here: http://www.aetninternational.com/content/music/mp3/Damien%20Rice/Cannonball%20%28Single%29/02%20Lonelily.mp3
the song is beautiful. so be sure to let me know if that link doesn't work out for you. i've checked it, but i'm on a mac so i never know if things work for other people.

and with this post, i just knocked off all my photos from the trip from the front page. sad.

more.

i guess i still want to write more. but that last post wants to be it's own post. :]

so spring break. interesting. i don't know what i'm doing with my time.

yesterday i had my advisement for honors school. they never tell me anything that i don't already know... "your g.p.a. went down after organic chem." hmm. well thanks for noticing. "you need 3 more honors credits to graduate with honors distinction." yep. i know that too. "you should take a course in your major as honors to get those credits." yeah. my only two courses left in my major besides my thesis and proseminar are metabolic regulation and macromolecular biophysics. they'll be bad enough as they are thanks. "you should study abroad for honors points." yeah. i wanted to. it's not working out because i need to do my thesis this summer. thanks for reminding me that i'm doing what i NEED to do instead of what i WANT to do. blah. so yeah. it never really makes me feel good to go to advisement.

i haven't been sleeping well either. i toss and turn. i can't get comfortable. i'm too hot or too cold. last night james and i watched james bond and i was getting so tired towards the end, but once i got in bed... wide awake. blah.

my scrapbooking efforts aren't going too well either. i really want a sewing maching. like bad. i have a page that is just itching for some stitching. a lot of stitching. too much to do by hand. other than that... i look at challenges, and i just don't feel inspired. i look at my pictures and i get an idea in my head, but i can't get it to translate onto paper. so yeah. it's frustrating. there is all this madness right now in the scrapbooking world because creating keepsakes magazine is announcing the winners for their hall of fame contest. i didn't enter. it seems like a lot of work and there comes a point where you start validating your pages based on whether or not they get published. i don't ever want to be in that place. i want to enjoy scrapbooking and create pages that i love and my friends and family love, and i want that to be enough validation. not that it wouldn't be amazing to win something like that. i just don't have the time to put into it right now either. there is another contest by the same magazine. people are starting to work on their entries for that as well. you have to submit 20 pages. for hall of fame, they give you guidelines, but for scrapbooker of the year, it's whatever you want but i think 8 or 12 pages have to be "never before seen" pages.

later today, i want to go look for some new shoes to replace the ones helix claimed. well i just want to go shopping for new stuff period. haha. but i'm working on some research grant/scholarship things that i need to finish up soon. i'm trying to write my personal statement today. it's supposed to be 2 pages and i'm struggling with it. i really don't like writing personal statements, but it's a good amount of money if i win, so i keep trying to tell myself it's worth it. :]

ok. that's enough complaining for today. i should go do something more productive.

songs.

so ever since i was little, i've had this tendency to make up little songs and occasionally sing them allowed. being a girl, it often occured to me that once i was married and living with my husband, i would no longer be able to wander around the house singing silly little made up songs out loud. [now that i write this, an episode of sex in the city comes to mind... where they discuss their "single behaviors"... things they only do when totally by themselves.]

well. it turns out [and don't get the wrong idea. we're not talking about getting married or anything!] that james totally makes up funny songs too. so sometimes we sing them together each adding on randomness to the other's words. yeah. totally random but so much fun. ha. i love it when you can be yourself... totally uncensored... around other people. i think finding those kind of people is so rare. i'm glad to have found one.

grrr.

james and i are sitting here watching friends. james looked down and saw the puppy chewing something. yeah. happened to be one of my favorite shoes. i'm so sad.

james goes "well it's not that bad. if you wear long enough pants... it might cover the chewed part." ha. no thanks. :[

fun.

i made this today for may's challenge on the fiskateer blog. the challenge is to use her sketch [i only used one of the pages because i made a single page layout.] and also to focus on journaling about yourself. not that hard for me, since i mainly scrapbook about myself anyway. [does that mean i am selfish? ha.] well i just picked some newer photos from my various trips to the city with different friends and journaled about how one of the roles i play in life is being a friend. :] i can't believe i was able to fit all those photos onto one 8.5x11 page. i normally just use one photo, so that was a fun to work on.

eta: i cut my own flowers from vellum and painted them with a little bit of green to put behind the white american crafts flowers. i didn't like the way the white ones looked on their own... i don't know i just wanted something a little more fun. so i would totally say that should try making your own embellishments next time you need something to spice up your page. :]

now i don't know if i should call james and go meet up with him to celebrate his birthday, or go continue scrapbooking. i have some more ideas i want to play with. but i suppose i should call him and check up on him... make sure he's not getting into too much trouble with his friends. :]

green.

don't forget to wear your green. ha. i actually don't know if i will. last year i kind of forgot and this year i haven't done laundry in a while, so it's going to depend on what i have in the closet. :] well i'm irish anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

james is out tonight because it's his friend's birthday. i just talked to him and he seems to be having fun. it was my own choice to stay home tonight. i just didn't feel like going out. i wanted to stay home and sit around with nothing in my way for once. but when i talked to him, it made me kind of wish i had gone out. blah. oh well.

i think i am going to put in a dvd... maybe a season of sex in the city... and try to fall asleep.

thirsty.

i am so thirsty that i don't know what to do with myself! james and i went to our favorite little breakfast place, Pegs Glorified Ham and Eggs after molecular bio got out today. we go there 2 or 3 times a week. it's ridiculous, i know. but maybe my breakfast was a little more salty than usual or something because i can't get enough to drink this afternoon.

i'm going to try to scrapbook today. it's always a little hard for me to get back into it when i have taken time away. i don't know... i just struggle to come up with ideas. i'll have to find a challenge or something. i want to make something for my mom as a belated birthday gift too. [she was in vegas with my dad and her parents for her birthday, so i didn't see her.] and i have another idea for a cute little mini album, but i don't know if i have what i need to make it. i really want these new fontwerks stamps, but i can't find them anywhere locally. i might have to order them online... i think they would help get my creativity flowing again. [yes. i have this terrible ability to justify spending more money on scrapbook things.]

well i feel so weird that it's spring break. partially because i don't know what to do with the feeling of not having to work on anything for school [with the exception of photograhpy.] and partially because this semester is flying by. i was surprised when i went to molecular today and he had our tests graded already. i love when teachers get things back to you quickly. it turns out that i did ok on it. i missed one question because i read it wrong, so i had no idea what he was asking. it was actually a very simple question if i just would have known. :[ then i mixed up where the hairpin turn with the indirect repeats would come with high and low concentrations of trp. so another stupid mistake. grr. i wish i wouldn't have freaked out so much while i was studying for it, but i guess it's just what i do. after i started crying while we were studying, james looked at me and said, "is this just something you need to do?" ha. i guess so. i get overwhelmed easily. i always have and i probably always will. test anxiety like no other. i'm just lucky that james can keep me in check. i've never had a boyfriend who understood me like james does. or who understood what it's like to be a biochem major. it's pretty cool that we can stress out together. ha.

anyway. i am going to head to my scrap desk now. :] i just want to give a little shout out to Alyssa... happy birthday! i hope you're enjoying it. :]

more.

here is another one from yesterday when i was hanging out with helix. he loves james so much, but sometimes i feel like he hates me... and i'll be honest, sometimes i get a little frustrated with him too. so we are working on our little bond. ha. i've never had a pet before, so it's all a bit new to me. yesterday was good though. we had fun hanging out together. he's getting bigger and figuring more and more out. it's pretty exciting to watch him grow, but a little sad too. i wanted him to stay tiny forever. ha.

photos.

yay! it's finally working. :]

this was the view out our hotel room window.















this is us outside the bright eyes show.









and this is a fun photo of the sign at the venue.








this is conor at the show.










and this is conor about a year ago in reno. i just posted this so you can see how he grew out his hair. [i'm not going to lie... i like the short hair better.]
this is a fun photo from inside the venue. random, but i like it.






and another random one from the ocean.









my sandy feet at the ocean.










and james and me at the ocean.










yep. so that was the trip. glad the photo upload feature is working again. :] hope you all had a good day.

gahhh.

well. i finally uploaded my photos to my computer, but now blogger won't let me upload them onto here. grrr. kind of frustrating.

well anyway, my test this morning was ok. i'm trying not to think about it too much. i didn't feel horrible when i left though, so hopefully it's not going to be too bad when i get it back.

james went snowboarding after the test and i hung out with the puppy and worked on my lab notebook. :]

not a whole lot else going on. i am just excited that spring break will be here in two days. maybe i'll go look into booking a room in the city. i have to go there to work on my final project for photography.

spring.

yeah. everyone's been talking about spring, and we finally have it around here. :]

today's high temperature was a history maker, i believe. i wore a new tank top that i got in the city and brought along a little hoodie, but never needed to wear it. i would even say i was hot at some points. [i have no doubt that we will get more snow sooner or later, though.]

when james and i were walking to photography tonight, it was still sunny outside. it dawned on me that daylight savings time makes it feel like summer to me. not even spring, just summer. those longer nights and all. i guess i actually like them. i never realized it until tonight on the way to photography. i kind of feel like daylight savings time is a little bit ridiculous, but tonight i was granted with a new appreciation for it. maybe it's just the fact that james loves summer so much that it's rubbing off on me. or maybe it's the fact that i'm excited for the classes i will take in summer school. or maybe i am actually excited to start my thesis. in any case, this summer is sure to be better than the last. [it's pretty easy to top last summer. ha.]

i caught up on some printing in photography tonight. i made all my contact sheets and got three prints done. i was pretty happy with how much i got done. james got a lot done too and he got some really nice prints made from his negatives from the trip.

oh and i just looked at my cell bio exam grade. grr. i'm glad i get to drop one test. :] i don't really care though, i was so busy stressing about my other classes, and i did pretty well for not really studying. [i mean, i didn't even read over my notes. i just realized that today. ha.] i'm just in a good mood right now. optimistic i would say. [and not really thinking about my other impending midterm.]

oh yeah. and i decided that over spring break, i am going to make a page or two with some older photos. older like from high school. so stay tuned girls. i don't have any real ideas yet, but i have a photo in mind and maybe one more. :]

sigh.

it's a sigh of relief, in part. :] i still have a lot to study for my other midterm though. :[

well i think my midterm today went really well. i am worried though because everyone else thought it was awful. no one had enough time to finish it, which is pretty standard in our classes now. but still... i didn't think it was that bad. there was a restriction map question on there that a lot of people had trouble working out, but i'm almost certain that i got it, so i am happy about that.

also, the fall schedule was posted today. i am such a nerd about that stuff. my friend nicole and i stalk the website when we feel it's time for it to be posted. ha. she told me that she is getting a minor... it's a big debate amongst the biochemers about whether or not to get a minor. slowly but surely it seems that all my friends are picking a minor though. so i might get one in photography. it's going to depend a lot on the course availability, but i might try. i find it ridiculous for biochemers to get a minor in biology or chemistry. it's really easy because you only need one or two more classes, but to me it just sounds retarded to say, "i have a biochem major with a chem minor." so yeah. i think you should pick something to show you are more well-rounded. james is doing business, which will come in handy if he decides to work in the pharmaceutical industry. nicole is doing psychology. deepa is thinking about doing criminal justice. everyone else is doing the bio or chem thing. i wish there was some way to get a minor in secondary education, but there isn't. i was thinking about taking another year and getting a double major in biochem and secondary ed, but i don't really know if i want to do that.

well james just got here from the gym. ha. he makes me feel so lazy sometimes. so i'm going to work on photography stuff with him.
have a good day everyone. :]

city.

well. i shouldn't even be writing, but i've been a bad blogger lately, so i thought i should post a little fill in.

what's coming:
-one midterm tomorrow. still need to study and work out a few plasmid/restriction enzyme maps.
-one paper due tomorrow. still need to figure out what i am going to say.
-one midterm wednesday. need to study so much for that.
-then comes spring break!
-plus no tutoring this week because the kids are on spring break. exciting.

what's happened:
last week:
-my cell bio test was pretty bad. we had 33 multiple choice questions and 3 essays. i had to completely make up stuff for the last essay. i'm just glad i didn't have to leave it blank like some people.
-my mid-term lab report took forever, but it was so nice when i finally turned it in. plus writing it helped my study for the test because i had to justify every single thing we did... like "temperature sensitive alkaline phosphatase (TSAP) was added to the pBluescript DNA vector previously digested with Xho I. TSAP was used to remove the 5’ phosphate from the vector. the TSAP prevented the vector from ligating with itself or another vector..." blah. blah. blah. it was annoying.

this weekend:
-james and i had such a good trip to the city.
-we had a good dinner in north beach.
-everything worked out with the tickets, so james, erin, joe and i all got to enjoy the show with josh and laura. fun. i got some good photos of conor that i will post, and a video that i probably won't post because i don't want to sign up for youtube. ha.
-we didn't get to sleep until 4am because after the show we went to eat at this funny little diner.
-oh our hotel room was really cool. we were on the 41st floor and we had a good view of the golden gate bridge and a really pretty view of the sunset. last time we were on the 43rd floor and on the opposite side, so we had more of a view of downtown. i think james liked that view better, but i liked this one better. haha.
-i did some shopping.
-we ate at the cheesecake factory.
-we both got to shoot some film. he shot way more than me, and actually got some exposures that he might use for his final.
-we played at the ocean.
-i didn't want to leave.
-we saw 300 today with a couple of the other biochemers. it was really good. :]

yeah. i think that's about it. i am so ready for spring break. i am just ready to be able to scrapbook and sleep in. plus we actually might try to do a little something. yenh and i have been cooking up this plan to go on a double-date type thing. so we're thinking maybe a little trip somewhere over break would be fun. but if not, i'll still be happy to just be worry free for a whole week.

thesis.

i am so indecisive. it took me way too long to figure out where i want to do my senior thesis, but i finally realized that all the good professors and labs are getting full, and i better just make the decision. so i decided to ask my molecular biology professor. he is the same professor who i mentored for last semester, and i know him pretty well. he is approachable and not too strict or intimidating. he really knows his stuff and will expect a lot from me, but that is kind of good because it will keep me on my toes, and i know that i will learn a lot.

this page [http://www.ag.unr.edu/biochemistry/Directory_Details.aspx?hIj7_GDp0x45=37] tells about the research in his lab. i'm not going to start until the summer, so he said that when summer is approaching he will give me a bunch of literature and i can read it and decide what i want to work on.

i'm just glad to finally have this settled. it was just another thing that was stressing me out.

otherwise. i'm still thinking about my trip to the city to get me through this week. [and i should admit that i am also in denial somewhat about how much i have to get done.] james and i decided that we want to eat dinner in north beach again, maybe at the same little spot we picked last time. mmm. i am already in the mood for some real italian food. not that i don't totally love olive garden, but there is just something about eating the real thing. other than that, both of us just want to take a ton of photos, and i want to visit the ocean of course. :]

break.

i just started crying while working on my paper.
so i decided it is time to take a break.
[this thing is a pain. my professor gave us a 4 page research article and we have to write a 4-7 page critique. basically these people tried to find the gene for the PPOX enzyme in arabidopsis thaliana and then cloned it into pGEM and transformed it into e. coli and then did a yeast complementation assay. grr. i'm just sick of writing about it. i'm out of words.]

so i did a little bit of wandering and i found this: http://caardvarks.blogspot.com/
it looks like a fun challenge. i don't make a whole lot of cards, but i do think they are an awesome way to use up scraps, and i wish i made more of them. so maybe i will try. [although i shouldn't even think about scrapbooking until my spring break comes in two weeks.] that mother's day card on there... oh. my. goodness. it's so cute.

anyway. san francisco this friday. i am so happy about that. i keep thinking about it to get me through the paper. i'll be needing it again tomorrow to get me through the next paper. then i'll be needing it after that to study for my cell bio exam. it's always good to have a "light at the end of the tunnel" right?

so.

i so need a sewing maching.

this month is national crafting month, and fiskars is making this calendar [http://fiskarscrafts.com/projects/] of daily craft projects. i looked at the idea for today, and i really want to make some of those. super easy, but so fun and cute. too bad i don't have a sewing maching. maybe over spring break i will go pick one out and spend some time with it. that would be fun, since it doesn't look like i'm going anywhere fun this year. my friend and his girlfriend are going to the bahamas. i can't believe that! they got this package deal to stay at the atlantis resort [which i hear is amazing] and it includes the flight for $900 a person. luckies.

i have a busy next two weeks ahead. i have a paper due monday, big lab report due tuesday, cell bio exam thursday, written lab exam on the following monday, and a molecular exam on wedneday. plus i am a head judge for the science fair on the 8th, which is also my mom's birthday. and on the 9th james and i are going to san francisco for the much awaited bright eyes concert. oh and there are a few more photography assignments i will have to work on in that time as well. spring break will be a much needed time of "nothingness".

ok. well i am off to get some things done. there is a new scrapjack up today. i might try to work on it, but i'm not sure yet. :]