Adventures

Today was full of adventure! Lucy, Robert and I packed a picnic lunch (baguette, artichoke dip, dried mango, and sparkling pomegranate juice served in champagne flutes) and walked over to Natural Bridges State Park. Instead of walking the usual way we shortcut through a school. It made me a little nervous. How did we know it would actually get us where we were going? We didn't. This is the kind of thing I need more of in my life. Trying new things, even if it's just a new route or sitting in a different part of the lecture hall. I tend to settle into my routines and habits and not change. I was thinking it would be neat to try to have a mini adventure every day for a year... but maybe when I'm done with school. School takes over my life and won't let go. As it should.

By the way, there were monarch butterflies in the park! Not as many as there will be come November, but a reasonable amount. They were fun to watch.

Then this evening we headed over to Fins Coffee House to try chai for the first time, (delicious!) and hear my friend Max on the saxophone! It was a lot of fun, and I was amused that my favorite piece of music was the one he said was the hardest. No accounting for taste I suppose.

School has Begun!

I went to all my classes and they are... ho hum. But let me take a moment to extol the virtues of the bike shuttle. I finally moved off campus this year, and decided that I wanted to bike. Biking has several advantages.

-It's better for the environment than driving
-It's better for me than driving
-I can take the short cuts across
-It's faster than walking

There is one big disadvantage though.

-There is a very large hill between me and campus.

A hill that by the end of the quarter I hope to be able to ride up, but at the moment I lack the strength and stamina. Thus the virtues of the bike shuttle. I ride two or three minutes to a side street near my apartment, and a friendly university employee drives up every fifteen minutes in a van pulling a trailer. I load my bike onto the trailer with little difficulty and hop into the van. Up the hill to campus we drive everyone chatting along the way. We stop at the very top of campus uphill of everything and unload. Then it's downhill to class and an exhilarating ride down the hill home in the afternoon. I don't have to wait for a bus to get home, I just hop on my bike and fly down a bike path that was recently paved through the middle of the on-campus farm. I fully intend on biking every day now that I know I can. Hopefully I'll be in good enough shape by the end of the year to go on a bike adventure! Now if only there were more bike lanes...

Audition

This morning I auditioned for orchestra. I think it went well. The director complimented me on my improvement, which I took as a good sign. I might even get to play the Eb clarinet! Wouldn't that be fun?

I also found this... http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/adca/?cpg=78H

I had seen the videos of fish doing these things... but I didn't know you could buy the kit. I think it would be hilarious to have guppies that could do tricks, but I don't think my tank is big enough to implement this system. Also, I'm out of spending money. Oh well.

A Rollercoaster of a Day

Today began very badly. How can a day start with a dentist appointment and go well? Turns out I have two cavities developing in the back of my mouth. I've never had a cavity before. It makes me sad. It also means that I have to come back home next Tuesday to get them filled, so I'm missing pizza night twice in a row. Ugh.

Things did get better. I found a free side table on the side of the road that will be very useful in my apartment. That was nice. I went for a bike ride around the neighborhood. I am woefully out of shape. I am going to have to work really hard to be able to ride around Santa Cruz.

I worked on the memory quilt a little. I didn't have enough fabric to cover the back, so I gave up. I'll find a better solution some other day when I'm feeling more inspired and not so trapped. I did finish my silk blouse, and it is fabulous! So pretty!

Tomorrow I take my last load to Santa Cruz and stay. Just 18 1/2 more hours!

Three More Days

Well, the Hadron Collider switched on this morning and did not create a black hole or destroy the Earth. Guess that means I have to go to work? Only for three more days!

I worked on my blouse last night. I got it all cut out, and almost finished sewing it together! The silk proved to be incredibly difficult to work with. No matter how many pins I put in it it wouldn't stay where I wanted it. I tried ironing, and pinning, and pinning AND ironing. It resulted in the least accurately cut project EVER. Fortunately I was able to adjust a few seams so it fits nicely. All that's left to do are the hems on the sleeves and the hem on the bottom. I tried last night with little success. Maybe I'll do better today with a full night of sleep and the sun shinning.

Today

I have this piece of silk that my mom brought me from China over a year ago that I've been meaning to use. I just haven't gotten around to it. Well, today is the day! I am going to cut out the pieces tonight and sew it together tomorrow morning. Just see if I don't.

Only four days of work left! I am enjoying playing with the babies, but I feel like I end up with the 2/3 s really often. Not my favorite age group. They hit and pinch each other and I don't like it. Sometimes I wonder if the other teachers are really lax about that kind of thing, or if I'm overly strict. I often feel like I would put a kid on time out when the regular teachers just let things slide with a verbal "that's not o.k." On the other hand, there are a lot of things that they don't let the kids do, that I would. Climbing on boxes or running around the playground for example. Am I just a weirdo? Do I have unrealistic expectations? All I know is if I'm overly strict, my parents were downright mean! Oh well. Four days to go.

Behold! My garden, my dinner, and my releif that finals are over!

Yesterday I finished all my finals, final projects, and other various loose ends. It was the weekend and Monday from hell... but now it's over. Instead of telling you about the atrociousness of having to throw out several hours of work 5 hours before a deadline, or about the panic of not understanding a statistics problem on the final, I'd like to share the good parts of today.
First, I was reading Heavy Petal today, and they were talking about young people not gardening, so I'd like to share the latest picture of my garden! Cute huh? It finally got too cold outside for the basil (isn't living in Santa Cruz nice?) so I moved the box to the windowsill where it doesn't get as much sun as I'd like, but won't freeze. That's cilantro on the left, chives in the middle, and my baby basil (delicious even at this stage, I couldn't wait) on the right.
Being done with finals means that tomorrow I get to go home! A real bed! Home cooked meals every night! My parents, brother and dog will be there! A Christmas tree and Christmas cookies! Not to mention the easy access to farmer's markets and a grocery store that carries more than frozen food and booze. Sometimes I don't enjoy living on campus. Can you tell? Today is one of those days. Anyhow, going home tomorrow means that I have to use up all the produce in my fridge. So today I threw together some tofu, broccoli, garlic, and sesame oil and ended up with a delicious dinner!Sorry about the flash... that's the best picture of about ten. *sigh* my photography skills need work, but that's lower on the list of things to accomplish in my lifetime. Doesn't it look delicious though? It was. I hope you're finals, or finals equivalents are going well and will be done soon.