Thirsty Thursday

Well, a week went by and I'm just now posting again. Needless to say I did not fulfill my promise to write my next post before Sunday. Somehow I think we will all live.

I guess I should start where I left off. Elianna Violet Gillespie was born January 30th and what would normally have been a joyous occasion was darkened when Meg's grandmother Virginia Rollick passed away the next morning. Meg wasn't particularly close to her grandmother, and Virginia was 96 years old at the time of her passing, but Meg was still pretty upset. There was a memorial service on Friday in Peachtree City, which was for me more an opportunity to spend time with my niece and nephews than mourn the loss of a loved one. I was there to support Meg as well, but she had already done most of her grieving before the service. The next day was the burial in Maryville, TN and the highlight for me was the trip through the mountains to get there. The burial service itself was miserable. It was around 40 degrees outside with sustained winds of at least 15mph and gusts up to 30. By the time we left my face was frozen.

I withdrew from my Spanish class this morning. It was hard to do because I almost feel like I failed for having done it but the class just wasn't working for me and I needed some relief from my schedule and it was the best option for what to drop. I ended up making a 94 on my English test so it didn't make much sense to drop a class I was doing so well in, plus it would really screw up my schedule. I'm gonna take the Spanish maymester instead, which crams the class into 3 weeks in May.  This option probably sounds much worse to most but I did several math classes that way and I actually prefer the breakneck pace, and it will be the only class I'm taking at that point so keeping up won't be a problem.

I've found through my continued studies of language that I greatly prefer French to Spanish. I can't honestly explain it beyond my familiarity with French but for some reason I find it easier to study and much easier to speak.

Unfortunately it's time for my biology lab so I will have to cut this post short. My television post is coming and I think I'll weigh in on some movies as well.

Random Thoughts: I have horrible heartburn right now, I wish UGA would hurry up and accept/deny my admission, I like lima beans...

Time Since Mid January

So it seems that I haven't posted anything since January 13th. I apologize for my extended absence and will do my best to fill you in on the important things that have happened since then without writing a post that will take several days to read.

I've been inspired by my brother's blog. Both because he called me out and told me to post more, but also how he started his last post talking about the narrative voice in his head. I could not agree more that extended reading will alter the voice with which I hear my thoughts. I think that is why my thoughts have been so all over the place lately. I've been reading a crapload of stuff, but none of it by one single writer. I also liked his take on current television and will do one of my own in my next post (before Sunday I promise). I will say this though, An Idiot Abroad is one of my favorite new shows. It chronicles the travels of Karl Pilkington around the world but is nothing even remotely like any travel show you've ever seen.

So now to the latest and greatest in my life. I survived the snowpocolypse only to be greeted by a chorus of "We have a lot of catching up to do!" from all of my professors. So we have been moving at a breakneck pace thus far. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't in collusion to make me have a nervous breakdown. I had 2 quizzes and 3 tests this past Tuesday. Yes, all of them were on Tuesday.  I had intended to write a post that night, but my brain was too far gone to put words together in any coherent manner. Aside from the large workload school has been going nicely. It's hard to tell you exactly which class is my favorite right now because I am enjoying so many of them. The biggest surprise of the bunch has to be Linguistics.  I had fully prepared myself to be completely bored by this class but so far it has been incredibly fascinating. I've never been so aware of both how I speak and the manner in which I produce sounds before and I love it. It's easy, however to list my worst class-American Lit II. The class is a wierd freeform, open discussion, broad topic format where there are no real conclusions reached about the works we are reading.  This would be fine if the teacher evaluated us in a similar manner, but instead we get tests with fill in the blank sections, quote identification, and definitions. I've been told by my education studying wife that they are two totally different teaching methods...I assume that's why I'm going crazy in there. My plan is to see what grade I got on the most recent test and go from there...although if the professor doesn't start doing some sort of critical analysis in class I might just drop it for fear of my sanity.

Things in my personal life have changed as well.  My sister had her baby, Chadwick Scott Brooks, Jr. on Monday, January 24th at 8:00 am. He was 8lbs 1oz and 19" at birth with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He is beautiful! My sister and I have an interesting relationship and for some reason my working in the medical field has opened the floodgates with regard to medical questions. I've never even thought about breastfeeding as much as I have in the last few weeks.

Shortly after that, on Sunday, January 30th at 7:32 pm my sister in law Michelle had her daughter Elianna Violet Gillespie.  She was 7lbs 6oz with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes (can't remember length). She is beautiful! I'm amazed that they both managed to have such beautiful babies and thrilled to have two new infants in my life. Michelle is understandably more reserved with me so I thankfully have been spared all the nipples and breastfeeding talk. I am extremely excited that Meg and I will be going down to Michelle's on Fridays to help her take care of Elianna and will be spending the occaisional Friday in Fayetteville taking care of CJ.

The day after Elianna was born Meg's grandmother died, but that'll have to be a story for next time, I gotta get to class.

Random Thoughts: My biology lab starts in 7 mins...we're looking at plant reproductive organs today (yay plant sperm!), I'm hungry, tonight is pizza night and that makes me happy, walmart has really good chocolate frozen yogurt, if my jeans get any tighter you'll be able to count my pubes, gotta lose some weight, I'm desparate to get back up to PA and see my brother and everyone else up there.

Thanks to anyone who bothered reading this. I love you all!

Back to School

The semester has now officially started, even though I've had a week off thanks to the snowpocolypse.  My schedule this semester is nothing less than brutal.  I know it's not the best idea to be taking 17 hours, but by doing it now I'm reducing the number of hours I have to take later when my classes will be much harder.  I somehow managed to get all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursday so I still have most of the week to work and Meg and I both have Fridays off to spend with the babies when they get here.  My classes start at 8:00 am and go to 6:45 pm both days.  I have Spanish 3, Chemistry 2, Biology 2, American Lit II, followed by either Chemistry or Biology lab (Chem on Tues and Bio on Thurs) and Linguistics rounds things out as the last class of the day.  It's going to be tough and I have to make an A in all 7 classes, but I welcome the challenge and am honestly excited about what I'll learn.

This snow is getting on my damn nerves.  I managed to leave the apartment complex yesterday but not without some trouble.  The roads outside are fine, but there's still ice an inch thick on a steep hill leading out of here and more on the turn into where our building is.  It took some tricky driving to get through it but I'll be much happier once it's all gone.  Meg has to go to school today because Athens decided to stay open.  I don't have school today so I'm gonna drive her out of the apartment and then meet her at the entrance to get her back in.  Not because she's not capable, but if anyone is going to wreck the Sonata I would much rather it be me.

I can't decide whether I want to start sharing my posts on Facebook...I don't feel like there's any information that is too private, I just can't decide if anyone else would actually be interested.

I made some awesome buscuits last week, I'll post a pic in a little bit.

It's amazing how little work I've done this week.  I just feel trapped, lazy, and ultimately frustrated.  I've been going stir crazy the last couple of days but that has only served to remind me of the fact that I've been going stir crazy for a while now.  I really hate my job and am ready to put that line of work behind me.  I know I shouldn't wish my life away but I'm also ready to be in medical school already.  I want a change and I want to move.  Emory has always been at the top of the list because it's in Atlanta but at times I find myself secretly hoping I get offered a scholarship to Yale or somewhere far away so I can get out of this god forsaken state for a little while.  I hate the people down here and I'm beyond tired of living in a place where people have no respect for ideas even slightly different from their own.  I desperately hope that the recent shooting in Arizona serves to change the tone a little bit, especially from people in the Tea Party.  I'm not saying they shouldn't be concerned for our country, but the hateful speech coming from the far right lately makes me sick (the far right, not republicans in general).  It's not just politics but social issues as well.  Are gay people really that insulting to southerners?  Why is it that non christians and athiests can get married but gays can't?  Are you really gonna tell me that the 12 million illegal aliens in the US should be removed?  Shouldn't we take some responsibility for creating the conditions that allowed them to come here and stay illegally?

That's my rant...I'm done. 

Random thoughts: my back hurts...a lot, why are my Christmas trees still up, I love my UGA snuggie, I have had excess gas the last few days...poor Megan, I hate snow, I smell really good right now, I hope I keep up with the blogging.

Thanks for letting me share.  I love all of you.

UGA Bound! (Hopefully)

I have officially sent in my UGA application! Now I just get to play the waiting game to see if they'll accept me. I'm honestly really nervous about this whole thing. If I don't get accepted it will put all of my plans on indefinite hold until I can get in. Honestly I'm probably setting myself up for it by trying to plan the next 3 years of my life (I already have my schedule tentatively planned for all my time at UGA). If I do get in, it will be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to go there.

On an untrelated note, I bought some lottery tickets today. I have a recurring dream where I win and I am able to dramatically alter the lives of my closest friends and family. Maybe it will come true one day, maybe not. I'm honestly not convinced it would actually enrich my life all that much.

Something happened the other day that signaled to me that someone I love is probably not very trustworthy. I'm not going to go into any more detail than that, but I was pretty upset to say the least. Oh well, such is life I guess.

Random thoughts: I still can't believe that I went to the Chick-Fil-a bowl for New Years, I'm nervous about school starting back Thursday, I'm excited about school starting back Thursday, Mark Richt better turn things around next year, chicken is gross but pork isn't much better, I really like my new haircut.

Much love to anyone who bothered reading this!

Christmas Eve

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve!  I have had some trouble getting into the spirit but I woke up this morning bright and merry.  I even enjoyed my trip to Walmart this morning to get everything I needed to cook today and tomorrow.  I will definitely blog some of my meals, unfortunately I haven't done a whole lot of cooking lately (I managed to satisfy that craving for Mexican food and was given sushi for Christmas by a friend).  I will be cooking some wonderful cookies today.  Cream cheese, butter and a chocolate cake mix rolled in sugar before baked.  They get a nice crust and stay soft and gooey on the inside.

Food is such a big part of any holiday and I will certainly be eating my share but after Christmas I really need to add some activity to my routine.  I eat a healthy pescatarian diet (meat is evil...mostly) but my lack of activity during school has caused me to pack on a few pounds and I am NOT happy about it.

Okay, wow, time to move on to something more Christmas.  I can't wait to give everyone their presents.  I think Meg and I did a pretty good job picking things out for people, so hopefully no one will be unhappy with what they get.  We'll be doing a lot of traveling the next few days.  Going to my moms today, then back home so we can have Christmas morning at our place followed by Christmas day at Meg's parents, I'm gonna run and see Cody and Quee and the grandparents and Meg and I are gonna stay at her parents' house so we can celebrate her birthday with her family the next day.  I don't mind the travelling but I know it's not Meg's favorite way to spend the holiday. 

Random thoughts:  It's cold, I actually kinda hope we don't get snow tomorrow...I don't like the stuff, I still can't believe that I will have a new niece and nephew in one month (my sister and Meg's sister Michelle are both pregnant and due within 3 days of each other), why do all of my cats sleep wherever I'm not during the day, we have no plans for new years and nothing in sight, cheese ravioli toady...yum.

It's Alive!!!

I'm back!  I keep convicing myself that I don't have time to blog regularly and then I realize that this is the best way to keep my loved ones informed of my daily life and a wonderful way to keep a record of this interesting time for me.  School + Work + Mairrage, medical school on the horizon and now talk of babies in my future...there is too much going on in my life right now for me not to make a better attempt at documenting it.  Moving on...

Fall semester is over, thank God.  I'm pretty thrilled with how everything went.  Just for the record my schedule was advanced Biology with lab, advance Chemistry with lab, Spanish 2 and Precalculus.  I made an A in 5 out of 6 classes.  My only B was in Precalculus and that's because I slacked off and skipped the last 2 weeks of class.  I will say, however, it was a vast improvement for me because the old me would have slacked and just made Bs in all of my classes.  I'm still having trouble motivating myself to do the work but I'm doing way better than I ever did in high school.  Next semester I have Biology and Chemistry part 2 with labs, advanced Spanish 1 and American Literature 2 (turns out I needed another English credit, can't say I'm sad about it though).

Surprise: I'm loving my science classes.  The things I learn on a regular basis absolutely blow my mind.  I have to say I'm both excited and terrified about the major I've chosen at UGA (where I should start in the summer, I'll be sending my application in early January).  It's gonna be Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, a mouthful for sure, but it should be pretty awesome.

Random Thoughts:
I want another tattoo,  I miss Ryan and Cody...a lot, I wish I didn't have to work while I'm in school, Christmas shopping sucks, I want mexican food, the Christmas tree in my bedroom looks awesome (I'll post a pic later)...

Question for everybody reading this: I have a choice to make, I can either cram all my remaining classes into the next 2 years at UGA and graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and an A.A. in Spanish, or I can add a year, stretch out my classes (while adding a few more) and graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistrey and Molecular Biology and a B.A. in Spanish (2 bachelor's degrees instead of 1).  Reasons to add the degree: classes are spaced out more so I take fewer hours each semester, I graduate with 2 bachelor's degrees which makes me more competitive, I have more time to bring my GPA up, I'll learn more Spanish which will aslo help me get into medical school and will help me get a job later down the road.  Reasons not to do it: it'll take an extra year, it's a lot of extra work to get a second bachelors degree, more classes means more chances I could end up lowering my GPA, unless I do actually get a job somewhere with a high spanish population the degree will be a waste, it's an extra year (I know I said that one already, but it's worth repeating).  Thoughts?