happy halloween.

i wore my cat ears to school today. well... to proseminar and lab... i took them off for core humanities because i didn't want to walk around lower campus with them on. up in the med school where my lab is and where proseminar and met reg are, people are pretty festive. so it was fine to wear them around there. even dr. schooley, my met reg professor, dressed up like mr. brown, a character from a dr. seuss book. it was the cutest thing ever. he's like 70 years old or something... so it was just perfect. in my lab, andrew was a mad scientist, rubi was a ladybug, and sharon was a lepidoptera (aka a butterfly). other people in dr. schooley's lab dressed up as other dr. seuss characters, and dr. welch's lab dressed up as alice in wonderland characters. so yeah. i was surprised at how many people were in costume today. :]

my dad just called and said we had 98 trick-or-treaters in fallon. we haven't had nearly that many here. kind of funny.

my lab presentation went pretty smoothly. i didn't get any questions that i couldn't answer, so that was an amazing feeling. i'm so glad i don't have to do that again until next semeter. :]

so now... work on my thesis, do some laundry, print lots of photos, pack, and make a layout using only fiskars products because i just found out we are supposed to bring our favorite layout. well. that would be easy of course, but then i found out about the catch... favorite layout *using mostly fiskars products.* ack. i love heidi grace papers... but i rarely use them on layouts. and when i do... i mix them with other companies. ack. ah well. it will work out. it always does, right?

i can't believe october is already over! but i'm getting so excited for the holiday season. :]

overload.

overload seems like my theme right now.

today, i think i ran out of space on my flash drive. i've had so many presentations this semeter. and papers. and files to store.
it's crazy.

so. i called my dad, and he had my mom pick some up at costco. did you know you can get three 2 GB flash drives for only $50 now!? i remember when they used to cost like $100 just for one with about 1/4 the space. plus these little beauties are retractable, so no worries about losing the silly cap or breaking the connection part. lovely.

[yes. i am really am pretty excited about these flash drives. it's ridiculous... and i'm fully aware of that.]

so. my ethics presentation went really well on monday. i'm SO glad it's over. but now i have to get my notebook from the whole semester ready to turn in. that's going to be way more work then i want to do. i took notes on the presentations knowing that i would need to rewrite them in order to turn them in... but i just really don't want to do that part now. :[

tomorrow i have my lab meeting presentation. i've been stressing about it for so long. i've been working really hard on my powerpoint, and i just don't feel that it's ready yet. so i'm pretty much freaking out. yesterday, i stopped by the lab after my ethics presentation, and sharon said, "so i understand that you might be overly stressing about this lab presentation..." and i was like "well. yeah i'm super stressed about it." and she tried to reassure me, but i don't think that's really possible right now. it's in my nature to stress, and this is bigger then any other presentation that i've ever given. big deal = big anxiety. ack.

as soon as that's done, i have to get to work on my thesis rough draft. i'm probably not as worried about that right now as i should be, but i think all my worries are just focused on the presentation.

then i have to do some laundry, pack, and print my photos for san antonio. i have no idea what to pack. i wanted to plan cute outfits, but i just don't know if i'll have the time to get all the laundry done. and i don't have time to go shopping. i also have no idea what photos to bring. they gave some guidelines, but they are very rough guidelines.

plus. i have to read odd women by monday. i don't know how i'll accomplish that over the weekend. i'm really bad at reading during flights, but i guess i'll have to force myself. oh and last week, i ended up going to barnes and noble to get the book. they didn't have it, but said they would order it and call me when it was at the store. they still haven't called. :[

so i'm overloaded, anxious, tired, and a little frustrated. i think i'll have some tea and get back to work. :/

oh but i did talk to genea last night. that was really nice. it's funny how much we can still relate about things. we talked about how when we go back to fallon, we don't really like to go out in public, but just enjoy the comforts of home. :] anyway. she might be coming down in december to stay for a night or so. it would be really great to see here again. it's been quite a while now.

p.s. Alyssa... sorry for the late notice, but i just got the schedule of events tonight for my trip. it looks like the only free time i will have will be from when i arrive around 3:00 until 7:00pm on friday. i realize that with ted's work schedule, that probably won't work out for you guys. :/ so i'll have to try to make it down to fallon around thanksgiving before i leave for denver. maybe on wednesday i can come out after my class at 2:30...

here kitty kitty kitty.

tonight, i dressed up as a black cat for halloween.
i know... pretty original. ha. but it was a last minute decision to actually dress up and go out.
so my friend carol let me borrow her ears and tail from last year, and i just wore a black leotard [found in the children's section since all mine are in fallon.] and a pair of leggings.
i'm actually glad that i made the effort to dress up though. it was pretty fun to be festive.

i didn't stay out very long because i didn't know that many people at the party, so there wasn't much for me to do, and i felt bad making james stay with my the whole night. so it was a short little outing for me.

it was kind of funny because some of james' friends don't know that i don't really drink, so they kept offering me a beer and each time they did, it just made me crave a glass of milk. i told james about it, and he thought it was fitting since i was dressed as a cat. ha. :]

james and his friends made really some good costumes. i have to say... i was pretty impressed with their handmade spartan costumes. there were 4 of them tonight, but i only managed to get a photo of danny and james together.

& & a couple other cool costumes i saw tonight:
- the ghostbusters. there were a couple of boys who made their own costumes... one was a friend i haven't talked to since 4th grade. how funny. anyway. they customized the jumpsuits with some logos and made really good packs to wear on their backs with lots of wires and big nerf guns. :]
- ninja turtles. there were 4 girls who did this. some of my friends were going to do this as well, so i don't think i idea was all too original, but the girls i saw tonight had green chair cushions for their shells! it was so prefect.
- dog the bounty hunter. there were two boys who both dressed up as him. i thought it was a pretty funny idea.

yeah. so those were the most impressive ones that i can remember seeing.

anyway. i need to get to bed so i can wake up and work on my ethics presentation before work. yikes. tomorrow will be a busy day.

oh. i finally did some cleaning of my scrap area today. i had taken over the coffee table in the living room... [ok. and part of the couch too.] so it was time to straighten things up a bit. i still have some orgainizing to do, but i made some good progress today. it feels pretty good.

and yesterday, i finished up my tags. i started them thursday night and finished about 37 of them before i ran out of the proper cardstock. it turns out, the store didn't have any either. :[ so i had to substitute another shade of teal, but it worked out. i just need to add a little velvet ric rac to the last 23 tags and they will be all done. i was so worried that i might not get them finished, so i'm glad they are pretty much out of the way. it's going to be a crazy busy week ahead.. ethics presentation, lab meeting presentation, and the rough draft of my thesis all before i leave for san antonio friday morning. eek. when will i pack!?

ribbon.

finally found a new use for the laminator that we bought to laminate all the stuff for isef. :]
so here's the little vegas mini.

those were the days.

i miss the days when i could stay up all night talking on the phone.
sometimes to the point where one of us was falling asleep.
[usually not me though.]
and i have a tendency to make it hard for someone to get off the phone with me.
because you know... i just like talking and really don't want the conversation to end.

but. those days are gone.

for one thing... no one likes talking on the phone anymore.
it's all about texting now.

and for another thing... i can't survive without sleep anymore.
it's not even 11:00pm, and i think it's time for bed.

at least i have a nice big piece of pumpkin cream cheese pie from claim jumper in the fridge. :]

grrr.

i'm having a nice case of writer's block.
still trying to work on my paper for core humanities, but it's just not coming along.

i cannot wait until school is over.
but in the mean time...

i cannot wait for friday because it's nevada day! i really want to go to a pumpkin patch, but i don't really know of a good one around here. so i'm thinking about a little trip home. i kind of want to get out of reno anyway. and i've been getting this comforting image of being home of thanksgiving in my mind lately. then i realized i won't be home for thanksgiving. i'll be in colorado. as fabulous and fun as that will be, it will also be pretty stressful and crazy. for one thing... i won't just be able to relax around the house.

but no matter what i do on friday, it's definitely going to be a much needed day off. :]
sadly though, i've been focusing so much on how good it's going to feel to have that day off that i just don't want to do anything that has to be done before then. ack. i remember i used to think that i could never see the "light at the end of the tunnel." now it's about the only thing i can see!

ok. i guess i'll go back to struggling with this paper now.
[did i mention i cannot wait for school to be over!]

so cute.

this commercial makes me smile. :]

21/22 update.

i thought i would check in on this... just to see if i'm making any progress and hopefully motivate myself a little more.

for elsie's challenge... 21 things to do before i turn 22. :]

[in whatever order they come to my mind. ha.]

1. get a hair cut. [seriously. it's been like a year and a half.]
update: nope.

2. learn to cook. [i mean... really cook. so that people will *want* to eat the food.]
update: not really.

3. make a weekly workout schedule and stick to it.
update: ha. i made the schedule... but no so much on the sticking to it.

4. write my thesis.
update: not quite.

5. play with my lomo camera.
update: nope. :[

6. bake cookies from scratch. [never do this. how sad.]
update: done. finally... i did one! woo whoo.

7. plan a visit to korea.
update: well. a little talk about this... but no real planning.

8. take the GRE. [or decide that i don't want to go to grad school. so basically... make up my mind!]
update: ha. i made up my mind not to take it, then i took the practice one this morning.

9. clean out my closet. [and actually *get rid* of some clothes.]
update: cleaned a bit, but no getting rid of yet.

10. submit something to a scrapbook magazine.
update: nope. and actually, i'm not so sure i want to do this one anymore.

11. have tea with josh.
update: done. but it would be nice to do again.

12. visit my family. [both in vegas and denver.]
update: done. yay!

13. see some live music. [it's been too long.]
update: done. a couple times even. :]

14. finish a painting.
update: nope. i'm thinking winter break for this one.

15. have a candle making day with girl friends.
update: i need to plan this!

16. shoot with my D80.
update: nope. still scared of it. ha.

17. visit some place new. [or at least explore a new area in an already visited place.]
update: well... not so far, but my fiskars trip is coming up.

18. go to the ocean.
update: nope. :[

19. paint pottery. [i've been missing that.]
update: erin and i have talked about it. liz and i have talking about it. but it hasn't happened yet.

20. stay focused on school.
update: doing pretty well with this one. :]

21. learn more about who i am and who i can/cannot be.
update: ah. the open ended one. haha.

productive.

today, i made myself wake up early [for a saturday] to go take a practice GRE exam at my school.
i wanted to see how i could do on it without studying... and actually, it wasn't too bad. :]
i need to review some high school math and a little vocab, but the GRE doesn't seem so scary anymore. ha.

anyway... i told myself that if i just got out of bed to go take the test, i could take a nap when i got home.
well. i'm home now, and i don't feel like a nap. instead, i feel like getting things done.

i have a core humanities essay that is due wednesday. i can't help but think how awesome it would feel to not be up all night writing it. so i want to try to start on it.

i also have to build a webpage for my education class and do some reading for the quiz on tuesday.

i need to make an order at amazon for two more books for core humanities that the bookstore didn't have. or maybe i'll go to barnes and noble. :]

i also want to try to find the perfect brown glitter for the book i'm working on. i'm thinking maybe a trip to the craft store is needed.

i also think i should work on my presentation for my lab group. it's not until halloween, but i've been trying to work on it in little bits so that it won't be so overwhelming.

i also have a cool idea for another little mini. i'm thinking of making one with the photos from the trip to vegas. i have an idea to test out, but i'm not sure if it will work. so i might experiment today.

i also need to get my tags done for the fiskars tag swap. i'm sort of over the idea of making them though. ack. i can't decide on the design, so it's making me frustrated and just not wanting to start at all.

then, there's always laundry to be done.

and, i should work on writing my thesis, since it's due on nov. 2nd.

plus, i have a presentation in my ethics class that i need to start working on.

oh, and the class schedule for next semester is up... i've already looked at it, but i might spend a little time mapping things out to see what exactly will fit into my schedule.

i still need to watch heroes and pushing daisies from last week.

and tonight, i might see the darjeeling limited.

so lots of fun stuff to do, and some not so fun school stuff... but maybe if i mix them together, i will have a good, productive day. that would feel so nice. :]

fun.

tonight we had a BCB dinner. the biochem buddies. ha.
well. i've been wanting thai food for a while now, so i mentioned it after met reg this morning and other people seemed interested, so we decided to have a big group. as i expected, a lot of people didn't end up coming, but 8 of us went, and it was really fun. chicken soy sauce noodles are just amazing.

afterwards, my friend josh was playing a show, so james and i went. my friend liz also went and i ended up running into a bunch of people i know there. one of them happened to be mark hubbard. how funny. i talked to him for a bit about school and whatnot. he is going to graduate when i do then hang around here for a year working in this lab, then his professor is moving to davis, so he's going to go with him and finish up his masters. well that's my understanding anyway. :] lucky boy... i wish dr. tittiger was moving to another university so i could go with him. that would be amazing. ah well.

after the show, liz, her boyfriend, james, and i all went to the chocolate bar. we had the chocolate fondue. it was seriously so yummy. i really like going there... it feels like you are not in reno, but in new york or san francisco. ha. :]

ok. well. i haven't been getting enough sleep lately, and i have kind of a busy weekend, so i better get some rest. i hope everyone has a good weekend!

bored.

james is studying for an anatomy exam tonight. i have a paper due next week, but after the dreadful midterm today, i am just not in the mood to work on it. i scrapbooked a little bit, but everything is so messy right now with my stuff that it's hard. plus i don't have any brown glitter and i *need* some for this little album i'm working on. so. i've resorted to a survey.

job's i've had:
1. beattie lab doing lots and lots of pcr.
2. mentoring for the biochem freshmen.
3. tutoring for the deigns.
4. the scrapbook store.

movies you can watch over and over again:
1. breakfast at tiffany's.
2. sabrina.
3. benny and joon.
4. devil wears prada.

tv shows i watch currently:
1. heroes
2. pushing daisies.
3. the hills.
4. little people, big world.

places i've lived:
1. reno.
2. fallon.
3. reno apt.
4. current reno house.

favorite foods:
1. ribs.
2. pretzels.
3. chicken soy sauce noodles.
4. pumpkin cheesecake.

favorite colors:
1. teal.
2. pink.
3. black.
4. green.

places i'd love to be now:
1. san francisco.
2. colorado.
3. tahoe.
4. europe.

Names I like but would not use for my children:
1. frank.
2. bob.
3. betty.
4. sally.
mostly because they are just really common names.

ack. i'm done already... now what am i going to do!?

viva las vegas. [part 2]

ok. here are the photos:

1. right when we got to the room, i took this photo. i usually stay in the spa tower simply because walking to the room means walking by the gelato/crepe place. but this time my dad checked into the room for us and got us a lake view. [i think it's funny that they call it a lake... but whatevs.]

2. we had a little time to kill between shopping and dinner, so we had a little photo session. we even took some of our reflection in the elevator, but i can't decide if they are worth posting.

3. the cute little take out box from dinner that i mentioned below. :]

4. the grand ole party. i wish i could have gotten a better close-up shot, but she was moving to fast.

5. the bird and the bee. seriously... so cute.

6. the bubble machine. "we've got tricks!" she said.

7. rilo kiley. i like the lighting on this one. :]

8. amazing jenny. gotta love the high waisted shorts. erin and i were contemplating wearing them to the show, but we couldn't find a store selling them. i wonder where she finds them... hmm.

9. gelato. we took a couple other funny photos with our gelato. but they started melting too much.

10. pretty night view out the window. ack. i can't believe i actually like this place so much. the first few times we went, i really didn't like it at all. now i'm growing more and more fond of it.

11. my brother took this one of us after our trip across the street to urban. :]

yep. yep. yep.

so that's pretty much the summary in photos. i can't believe we were only gone for a little over 24 hours. it felt like a week. plus when we got back, i sooo didn't want to be home yet. i think that's a good sign for a vacation... if you're ready to come home it means you're really enjoying it.

viva las vegas.

i'm procrastinating. but just so i don't feel so bad, i'll try to save time by doing this in list form.

1. at the airport waiting in line to board the flight, this older man started talking to erin and me. his name was lee and erin had to pretend to be looking for something in her bag because she was laughing so hard. among other things... he told us to be careful in vegas since we weren't 21. we assured him that we are in fact 21, and he responded that our skin is so nice that we don't have to wear makup. ha.

2. we got picked up by a limo. our driver was actually kinda young and cool.

3. chocolate covered strawberries in the vip lounge. yummy. and our room looked out at the fountains. it was so pretty. :]

4. shopping at the fashion show. no luck though. fun to just look around a bit anyway. we met up with trisha hansen for a little bit there.

5. dinner at sensi with my brother to celebrate his birthday early. good salmon. and little tiny fortune cookie boxes filled with little cookies came with the bill. so cute.

6. the show in one word? amazing. [except that erin and i brought some chocolate covered strawberries and they made us eat them at the door. ha. we were still full from dinner, but didn't want to waste the goodness. it was so funny.]

7. grand ole party opened. the girl who sings also drums and it was so fun to watch her. she was very animated. i want to be her for halloween, but i don't think i want to cut my hair.

8. then was the bird and the bee. i'm pretty much in love with them. so cute to watch.

9. jenny was incredible. seriously, so good live. she was really into the crowd too, so that was awesome.

10. unfortunately. i started feeling super sick. and the people were just packed in. and it was hot. and the lights were flashing. i thought i was going to throw up for the last 30 min or so of the set. :[

11. the taxi line to get back to the hotel was a little intense. the guys behind us started yelling at some other guys because they thought they cut in front of us. ack. and it smelled really bad.

12. the cab on the way back smelled like skunk. eww. and the driver took a really long way back to the bellagio. i hate when they do that just to get more money. :/

13. we made it to the gelato place 10 minutes before they closed. maybe a little gelato was all i needed to feel better. ha.

14. we wanted to go on some adventure, but couldn't make up our minds on what to do. feeling inspired by jenny, we stayed in the room and made little videos to some of her songs. [yay for the iPod player in the room.] they are hilarious, but i'm way too embarrassed to share them.

15. fell asleep pretty easy that night.

16. woke up and met up with trisha again. then we went to breakfast with my parents and brother. i ate lots of bacon. good stuff.

17. then we went to the miracle mile shops.

18. the new urban outfitters is awesome. it's really big and just cool. i totally made a little calamity when this frame i was looking at bumped into a row of metal owls... it caused a domino effect with the owls and one of them loudly fell on the floor. so embarrassing. oh and they had a shirt that said "republicans have more money." ha. my brother was going to buy it, but they didn't have any sizes.

19. there is a new h&m there, but i didn't find anything really. it's not nearly as big as the one in san francisco, but still cool to have and h&m there.

20. then it was time to go back to the airport. but not before some more chocolate covered strawberries. :]

21. my brother took us back to the airport, and the security line was longer than i have seen it in a long time. then our flight was delayed. :/ there was some problem because they only had one runway and too many planes were in the air. so they had to send ours back where it was coming from! finally it was able to come and we took off about two hours late, so after we should have already been in reno!

22. we decided to get pretzels on the plane. bad idea. they were over a year expired. so even when you opened them, you could smell that they were rancid. we told the ladies and they said they took out all the expired ones. i still think i'll stick with the peanuts from now on.

ok. well i have a midterm tomorrow for ch. so it's time to start studying. grr. i'll post the photos tomorrow.

today's shopping.

i had to go back to the summit today because on monday night, the guy at j. crew rang my stuff up wrong. i've also been meaning to take my MacBook to the apple store so they could figure out why it randomly shuts off without warning.

so.

i went to apple... got a new battery for free.
i went to j. crew... got $20 back on my debit card.

so.

yay for shopping.
i wish it happened like that more often. :]

random.

um. yeah. that was made in about 30 min. yay for fast scrapage.


& & some more random things from today:

- i got back my met reg exam. 86.5%. is my score, and i'm happy with that. the high was a 93% if i'm remembering right. and considering how much i studied [or rather, didn't study] i think it's a good score. plus, now i know how to better prepare for the next exam. and i'm actually a tiny bit excited to study for that class now. *gasp*

- i was standing in line at the bank and the man in front of me asked me if i'm in college. i said yes. he said "yeah. you look intelligent."

- i had to pick helix up from the vet. he has to wear a cone for 10 days and he hates it. he was still pretty out of it when i picked him up. he couldn't really walk straight, but he would just take a few steps and then stop... and sort of fall asleep while standing. then his cone would hit the ground and he would wake up. poor little guy.

- i am so excited to go to vegas on saturday. i wish i was going for more than one night, but it will be fun. and so nice to see paul and amanda. :]

- i'm going to get a lasagna to bake for dinner now. :]

relax.

people keep randomly telling me to relax.
just out of the blue... "amy. relax. it's ok."

apparently i just look really stressed out?

and when i think about it, it's true.
i am increasingly anxious.
i worry more and more.
i stress out about everything.

so.
yeah.
time to learn how to relax.

because honestly... how cool would it be to finally be an easygoing person!?

*sigh*

post-traumatic test syndrome.

well. not quite actually. i guess my exam went pretty well. i didn't study quite as much as i intended because i was sick on saturday and not feeling too well on friday either. but all things considered, it was fine. and at least it's over.

[and now i can go shopping. ha.]

also, my thesis presentation went pretty well too. i sort of wish i could give another talk because i know i could deliver it so much better the second time around, but the feedback i got was really good. also, my professor was sick, so her husband who is also a biochem professor was filling in. she just teaches, while he runs a lab and teaches. [his lab is where james is doing his thesis.] so anyway, i was talked a little bit about q BASE, the program we use in our lab to analyze qRT-PCR data. sharon told me that after proseminar, dr. shintani came by the lab because he was interested in q BASE and maybe using it himself. ha.

ok. well. time to go go shopping. i don't really know where. i just know j. crew is on the list because i've been itching to go there lately. then perhaps i'll do a little scrapbooking. we just got the making memories noteworthy stuff at the store, and i had to get some yesterday. it's seriously so pretty!

p.s. i think the day after i posted the last post, my KC kit came. i haven't touched it yet, but i do love it. i'm excited to play with it, but i'm getting the same fear i have with hambly... it's just too perfect to mess up. ack.

anxiety.

well. tomorrow i'm giving my proseminar presentation on my thesis work. i am so nervous. i can't even put it into words. except that i want to throw up from the anxiety.

i'm having trouble organizing my presentation so that it flows the way i want it too. part of the problem is that i have 2 projects [well 3, but 2 main ones.] and i am trying to make them flow together somewhat. and we only have 10 minutes to present. i have way more than 10 minutes worth of material to talk about, so it's hard to cut things out and still have everything make sense. ack. i've been working on my powerpoint all day and i am so sick of it. but i just don't feel ready yet!

i'm really missing those high school powerpoints nowadays. ha. they seemed so hard at the time... if i'd only known. :]

well. back to work i guess.

p.s. i can't wait for my kc kit to come! but at the same time, i sort of hope it doesn't come before tuesday because i have my first met reg exam on monday... i really don't need the distraction. afterall, scrapbooking is supposed to be on hold right now!