paper shredder.

my professor wheeled in a paper shredder as he entered the classroom this morning.
yep.
that was a first.
and just for future reference...
in case a similar situation ever happens to you...
it's not a good thing.
nope.
not good.

he said he looked at the exams and decided not to grade them because they weren't as good as he hoped. [but he didn't exactly say this in such a nice manner.]
grr.
so he gave us the option of turning them back in to be graded, or shredding them and taking a new exam next week.
i knew i definitely had one of the problems correct, but i wasn't sure about the other one.
[yes. the exam was two problems to work out... they generally take me 2-3 hours each, and we have 50 minute exams.]
it sounded like since he was giving us this option, he wasn't going to give much partial credit for wrong answers... so...
i shredded it.

eek. it was pretty impulsive, but everyone else was doing it... so i would have felt kind of foolish being so confident.
part of me definitely wishes he would have just graded them and we could move on. but i just couldn't turn it back in to him. i don't know...

now i'm left with the stress of preparing for another exam next week.
but also the hope of doing really well. i understand the material and how to work the problems... i just have problems with structure elucidation. chemistry is not my strong point by any means, and i don't have a lot of experience with it... so it's just hard to know what structures are plausible.

ah well. head up and move along... that's all i can do for now.
one month until graduation! eeeeek!

p.s. my evolution test this morning was ehh. i'll have to wait and see how i did because i really have no idea what i was writing. i'm officially not a fan of essay exams.

one to go.

after i wrote the post below, i accidentally fell asleep.
i didn't wake up until 9pm.
it's now almost 11pm.
my exam is at 9:30am.
this is not good.

but this is:

three down.

my organic spectroscopy test was fine. i felt good when i left, but then as i spoke with other people in the class i started to question some of my answers... i hate how that happens! so i'll just have to wait and see.

my molecular biophys presentation this morning went really well. these presentations are part of the grad student work that i've been doing in order to get honors credit for the class. anyway, i felt so good afterwards, and i knew an answer to one of our professor's questions that none of the graduate students knew... that was an awesome feeling. it's just so cool to realize that i have learned *so* much over the past 4 years.

my evolution critique was ok. basically the 4 group members sit facing the 3 teaching assistants and the professor. we had 7 minutes to present the paper, and they had the rest of the 20 minutes to ask us questions. it seems short, but when you are sitting there... it feels like forever! the paper my group and i were discussing was really poor research. [to be honest, i'm not sure how it got published!] full of bad experimental design and way too much extrapolation of the results... so there was a lot to critique. i guess it just didn't go as smoothly as i wished. everyone else said it was fine, so maybe i was just over-thinking it. or maybe i just wanted it to go as well as my presentation this morning... ha.

ok. well i'm off to study. another lame post, but i just wanted to update. :]

p.s. my dad went to vegas on friday, and that night his heart went into atrial fibrillation. again. i believe this is 4 times in the past 3 months. the cardiologist in las vegas wouldn't convert him, so he is now taking blood thinners and waiting for a while. when i was younger, he was in atrial fibrillation for about 2 years because they couldn't get him back into sinus rhythm. so he seemed to be in ok with this... he said that if he could do it for 2 years, he could do it again. he joked that now he could actually drink a coke and not worry that it would put him into atrial fibrillation, since he's already there. his cardiologist here has been encouraging him to have the ablation procedure done, but for a long time the odds vs risks weren't good enough to make my dad comfortable with having it done. i'm not sure if he is considering it again... either way, it's scary. at the same time, all i can do is be thankful that i do have such an amazing family and that we all care about each other deeply.

p.s.s. yesterday my grandparents went to vegas. tonight my mom is going to vegas. tomorrow my sister is going to vegas. needless to say, i'm feeling left out.

busy. busy. busy.

tomorrow = organic spectroscopy exam
wednesday am = molecular biophys presentation
wednesday pm = evolution oral critique
thursday = evolution exam

so really, no time to blog + not much to blog about because all i've been doing is studying and preparing presentations.

but i have to say, james and i ate here on thursday and it is sooo good. james went with a friend the week before and kept saying he wanted to go back. now i've been looking forward to going back! it's pretty far away from where we live, but i think they might open one closer which would be awesome. :] so yeah. if you have one close... i totally recommend it.

my other new favorite is trader joe's mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups. keep them in the fridge and they are so so good.

do you have any new favorite foods?

ok. gotta run. i'll be back with a better post when things calm down. [which will hopefully happen before graduation, but there's just no telling.]

p.s. juno dvd comes out tomorrow. eek. so excited to watch it a million more times. :]

finally. a new scrap.

i know i made the page with the new heidi grace stuff a couple weeks ago, but i still feel like i haven't scrapped in forever. i guess by "scrapped" i mean made something where i actually felt creative. that page was super quick, and i didn't really play around with my stuff much in making it. tonight though... i was inspired, and i'm loving the results.

may posted a journaling challenge tonight [right up my alley, so i guess it was more of a "go make something!" with emphasis on the exclamation mark challenge.] along with a few posts about scrapping-mojo-restoration strategies... so i was feeling doubly inspired. plus i was just having a blah night... borderline bad mood in fact. so i decided that instead of crossing the line to bad mood and/or doing organic spec homework, i would test the waters and see if i could spark up some creativity. and. it worked!

this is probably one of my favorite pages. my mojo-restoration strategy of choice tonight was looking through old photos. these ones are seriously old. :] my mom brought me three boxes of older photos when i started scrapbooking, so i sometimes go through them and look for a good one. this one was in an envelope with some other photos of alex and me. i'm assuming his mom took them and gave copies to my mom. and yes, i used the original photo. an original with no negative in our possession. i don't feel bad about this or like there is anything at all wrong with it. and you know why? because at least now someone will see the photo. sitting in the box... not so much. no one except me ever looks in those boxes. but in my scrapbook... maybe. [people don't tend to look in those all that often either, but on occasion they do. plus now you get to see the photo too! ha.] so yeah.

i'm going to wait until the morning to get a better photo of it. i'll add it here when i do.

ok. i'm off to bed. & & it's only 12:30. woot. :]
tomorrow = class + bike ride or walk + homework + studying. eek.
goodnight.

eta: i finally got the photo uploader thingy to work, so here it is...
i used new + old scenic route papers, ki lace cardstock, ac vinyl thickers, heidi grace dimensional stickers, plus some buttons from my stash. :]

thief.

yes. i have stolen this from alyssa. :]
[i just got home from my dreadful molecular biophysics exam. i want to go to sleep, but i know that if i take a nap, it will throw my off schedule too badly. i can't really think right now... so this will make for a better post than what i would come up with otherwise.]

what were you doing 10 years ago?
like alyssa, i was 12 years old and in the 6th grade. i had moved to fallon almost 2 years earlier, so i was still in the process of making new friends. i know i was good friends with genea paras and jessa minyard this year. i remember that i was really good at math... i corrected mrs. smith almost everyday during our math lesson. [i wish this were still true.] i went to reno every weekend, and i think we still had our house in the old neighborhood... that means i probably hung out with ashlee ernst almost every weekend and spent a few weekends at lake tahoe with her. i'm pretty sure i played soccer in ayso too. yikes. my memory is getting pretty bad.

5 things on my to do list today:
-more cleaning/puring
-go to the bank
-go to world market to look for cute containers
-take helix with me on a bike ride
-post for evolution discussion

3 bad habits:
-procrastinating
-letting the laundry pile up
-eating junk

if i were suddenly a billionaire:
i honestly wouldn't go too crazy with the spending. i would buy a house in san francisco by the ocean as soon as i graduate. [yes. slightly ridiculous, but hey... it's an investment, right?] otherwise, i would live comfortably but in moderation. i would be able to pay for grad school and for james' pharmacy school plus save a bunch for the future.

places i have lived:
reno and fallon. woot.

jobs i have had:
-beattie lab
-mentor for biochem freshmen
-tittiger lab
-scrapbook store

5 things people don't know about me:
1. just hearing about blood and the circulatory system makes me uber squeamish.
2. i can't float or swim.
3. i wish i could read music and play the piano.
4. i often envision learning both of the above as my "pregnancy project" like annie camden on 7th heaven. ha. [and just to be clear... this vision is for like 10 years in the future... not anytime soon.]
5. i can sleep for 12 hours and still be ridiculously tired. i don't know what happened because i used to be fine with only 4 hours. grr.

ok. my last 5 things are not great... but i have a hard time pulling things like that out of my mind on the spot... they just kind of have to come to the surface on their own.

p.s. on friday, we got the new animal crackers line at the store... i think the giraffes are so adorable.

get lost. part II.

today, we took another outdoor adventure. this time on bicycles. :]
when we got home, i could barely walk.
helix was ridiculously exhausted as well. i so wish that my camera battery wasn't dead because helix sprawled out by his water bowl would have been a fabulous moment to capture. it's not often that he gets so worn out.
meanwhile, james was fine. in fact, he was so unaffected by the adventure that he had to go to the gym tonight to get a proper workout in. ha.
i guess i have quite a ways to go before i am back in shape.

i also made good progress in cleaning up the soon-to-be craft room. james put the desk together on tuesday and that night, he issued me a challenge: throw 5 things away every day.
i've tried this type of thing before, but generally i had issued the challenge to myself, so there was really no means to keep myself on track after lets say... oh... the very first day. ha. there was also the request of my dad to have a 50% crap reduction in this house by his last birthday. his next birthday is coming at the end of may. see... my parents always ask me to clean things up, but they never really get mad when i don't. so. i don't.
but now. james is keeping me on track. :]
last night, we were both super tired and i hadn't thrown my 5 items away yet, so he said that i could just do 10 today. well. tonight when he left for the gym he told me i'd better have a whole bag of trash by the time he got back. i said something along the lines of "you said only 10!!" and he said "it doesn't matter. i want at least 20 now." i guess i got penalized for being a day late. ha.
but.
i actually did have a bag of trash by the time he got back! i have a lot more sorting and purging to do, but it feels good to be making progress. i just want that room done and looking cute so bad.

ok. this weekend is going to be full of studying, but james and i decided we might try to catch another matinee tomorrow. i'm going to go check the movie listings and head to bed. happy friday!

get lost.

today, james and i took helix for a nice long walk. we were going along one of the trails by my house, and we weren't really sure where we ended up or how to get back without turning right around. neither of us are big fans of just turning back around, so james said "lets just get lost." i'm so glad we did. it was really fun finding new trails, and we ended up making it back into my neighborhood from the total opposite direction that we left.

helix loved the little adventure too. at one point, two dogs were barking at him from their yard and he crouched down in the grass like he usually does when he wants to kind of spy on a situation, then he just darted off and jumped into the lake! he got about a quarter of the way out and then turned around and came back. i was laughing so hard. james and i couldn't believe he just jumped into the water the way he did. he can swim, but i don't think he really enjoys it. he hates getting a bath or getting hosed off [like he did as soon as we got home] so it was just really funny that he thought getting to those two dogs was worth getting wet. & & even more funny that he changed his mind. :]

in other news, i really want to go to this class. maria grace is one of my favorite scrapbookers, and i just think it would be so fun to take a class from her. plus, i've never been to that store and have heard that it's pretty amazing. plus, i have two exams next week, so it would be a good way to recover. ha. we'll see if i can make it happen or not.

ok. better get to the homework that i've been putting off. ack. happy april!