and Breathe

I've been going nonstop since school started. Taking these two intense science classes together and doing them in a summer session is sort of kicking my butt. I'm maintaining good grades so far, but I'm worried I'll burnout. For example, in a single lecture this week we covered all of glycolysis, the krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. So I'm taking some time this morning to catch up on the other bits of my life, like weeding the garden, laundry, and blogging.

But I'm not going all out. Here's what is basically a picture dump with short notes.

Jem has adopted that goofy dog tongue look. Here she even left it out after she closed her mouth.

Study break for banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Can anyone tell me what this weed is called?

Zoe!

Wow, this was a long time ago. Lemon cheesecake squares and berries with vanilla sugar, while playing Settlers of Catan

Lainey came from Australia and spent the first few days staying with us. She brought vegemite and prepared a proper breakfast for me: toast with butter and vegemite. It wasn't . . . too bad. Very very salty. Tastes like scunge that you should be washing off rather than eating. But kind of good in a ramen noodles kind of way.

Grilled balasmic chicken. Wow, also a long time ago.

Linkses

You may have noticed that I updated the link bar on the right side of this page. Rainy Morning II is still defunct, but the others have been updated to reflect new friends and new blogs.

Recital Video

It took me a while, but I finally put together highlights of my part in the recital. I added basic plot headers, so you have some idea of what's going on. Lizette is the main character, an orphan. I play the ballet mistress.

This was our dress rehearsal, so there were some minor changes and fewer mistakes in the actual performance. For example, in my duet we realized you can't see my hands because the black gloves are invisible against the black curtain, so I didn't wear them for the shows.

Ben was sweet to come and film the show. My tripod doesn't have a good swivel head, so you'll have to forgive the shaky camera work.

Back to School

This was the first week of classes. Thus, we are now 1/8 done with the semester, being only 8 weeks long. This is going to be an intense two months. My days go like this:

8-12:30 work
1-5:30 Micobiology
5:30-9:00 Anatomy and Physiology
9:30-11:00 study

That's for M/W. Thursday is the same except for no labs, so I have a break between 3:30 and 5:30, and I'm done a little after 7. Good studying time. Tuesdays and Fridays I don't have class. I work a full day Tuesday, and I'm using Fridays to study and clean my house.

Community College is very different than CU. the whole campus is about as big as the Geology building at CU. The classes are much smaller, one has 12 students and the other has 23. Teachers don't have office hours because they are just generally available. There's no tense competition at the beginning of the semester to login at the precise moment to get into a popular course. Everything is very relaxed.

Both of my professors talked extensively on the first day about how hard their class should be, and strongly warned us that we really should only be taking their course this semester. Well, too bad. This is the way it's gotta be for me to apply this fall. I'm pretty sure I can handle both classes. As long as I stay on top of my studies, I'll be fine. At CU, I tended to do well in summer because the learning was more concentrated. Topics flowed together and made more sense that way, instead of spread out over a long period of time. And so far my two courses are flowing together nicely. Yesterday we reviewed o chem basics in both: basic molecular reactions, the ssaccharides and nucleic acid structures, etc. Of course they will depart topics, but for now it's been a good way to ease into learning by repeating lectures.

Also this week we had Lainey from Australia staying with us. She's a student from Campus Crusade for Christ, which Ben's aunt works for in Australia. She's spending a few days with us before heading up to CSU for a conference so she can explore the city and get used to the altitude. She's been very independent and has a rented car, but we had a good time last night going to dinner and watching SYTYCD at Miranda's house.

Jem got spayed 10 days ago. We're supposed to keep her from jumping, running, or playing and it's been nearly IMPOSSIBLE. The morning after surgery she was perfectly normal. Since we couldn't exercise her as much, she's been an explosive ball of energy. So annoying. I can't wait for the vet to ok her for rigorous play.

Despite these complications, it's been a very good week of school. It feels really good to be learning again. I forgot how much I enjoyed classes. I was so excited to see my first paramecium in the microscope on Wednesday. Those little buggers can move! Unfortunately, all this class and study time has limited me to one dance class a week. My muscles are so stiff and sore! Not only am I missing a dance session, but Ben and I used to take long walks or hikes and play tennis on the other days. Now I sit for 12 hours a day. Oh well, it's only 2 months.

I better get off the computer and shower so I can do 3 postlabs, 3 prelabs, learn all the regions of the body, ready 2 chapters or micro, 2 chapters or anatomy, and study for quizzes in both on Monday. Then I get to do ballet at 5:30. Yea!!

Game Day

A few weeks ago we had a game day. Literally, a whole day. We met at noon and didn't stop until 10 pm. My friends and I have an extraordinary capacity to play games. It helped that we had barbecue too. The Walkers let us have the affair at their house, with the nice big back yard. Attending were Nate, Miranda, Brian, Trevor, Neil, April, Reed, Ben, and Me. And Jem and Izzy. We played Carcasson, Puerto Rico, Reel Clues, Killer Bunnies, Rummikub, Cribbage, Keythedral, Gheos (sort of), Thryme, and on a little field trip tennis and bocce.