Happy Holidays!

So Christmas is over, but that doesn't mean the fun has to end! I've got tons of presents to play with, and a few parties to attend!



A few of the more notable gifts I received include:

• A brand new digital camera (red)!


• Some long johns. Those are fun!


• Mamma Mia Soundtrack- which I immediately put on my zune and can't stop listening to!


• Raspberry Hot Chocolate!! I flipping love hot chocolate. I should register that phrase as a trademark. Hahaha. I say it often enough. But it's true!
• A lava lamp (from a white elephant christmas party, so it's still technically "something I got" for christmas)

So anyway. I have a party to get ready for. I've been cleaning all day. Some high school friends and I are going to get together. I'm not going to tell you which nerdy club we were all in, but I'll tell ya - it's sure as heck not Physics Club ;) hee hee!

So I've been putting up old articles and flyers from "back in the day" (this phrase here means 2006) . And I kept some of the props/costumes from then, so I've been putting them up on diplay for the partay. (Note: "partay" was spelled as such in order for it to match the word "display". Don't think for one second I can't spell "party". I won the spelling bee in 4th and 5th grade, yaknow. Got the ribbons to prove it. And besides. When you p-a-r-t-y as much as I do, it's hard not to spell it right!)

I'll be at a different party tommorrow night. At Jenna's house as per the usual. That's where all the hip-hop-happenin' people go for things like chrismas parties or new year's eve! That was where the aforementioned white elephant christmas party was held as well. I can't count the number of times I've gone to their house. It's just so much fun! (But don't worry, Mom- I have much much more fun staying at home and watching movies with you than I ever will at anyone else's house ever!)

So those are my end of year plans! See y'all later!

Finals Week

Finals are this week.

I mean, it's not that big of a deal. I'm doing pretty good in all my classes (exept philosophy! So difficult!) and I've learnt alot.

My spanish class has been tons of fun, my music class has been really enjoyable, and my computer class has been. . . well. . . easy at least. Philosophy class was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever done. My teacher chose to use a novel as the text for the course, his lectures were dull, uninteresting, and uninformed. And even though I didn't understand everything, I could tell I wasn't alone. The teacher was right there with me. Always frantically searching through his notes trying to answer whatever questions we had. I don't understand why he never liked my questions.

For instance-

1. The teacher explains a theory where- because man is IN the world, man cannot fully comprehend the world.

My Question- What about astronauts?

2. The teacher tells of an analogy where there are people chained up in a dark cave. When someone leaves to go into the light and comes back to tell everyone what they are missing, they kill him.

My Question- If it's dark, and everyone's chained up, how can they kill him?

There were alot more, but honestly? Every single one of those questions was shot down as being a ridiculous question not worthy to answer. So I forgot alot of them.

But even though I'm going to certainly fail philosophy this semester, I don't care. I'll try harder and get a different professor next time. It's not my fault, and I can't do anything about it, so I'm not going to waste my time complaining. I just need to learn from my mistake and try harder next time.

Music appreciation class will be a difficult one to try to remember everything we studied. I know alot of the composers and alot of the compositions, but not when everything happened. I'll have to look over that the next couple days.

Spanish will be easy. I've spent so much time on it already, I feel as if I should be proficient, but I'm not. I wish I knew more, and I wish I was better at speaking it, but I guess I'll just have to keep trying!

Computer class will be a piece of cake as long as I can keep my teacher from driving me insane with all of her nagging.

So exams will be over by 12:00 thursday afternoon. Well, at least mine will be. I have two tuesday and two thursday. And I'm going to take a big nap afterward. I still have a little christmas shopping to do, but I have a few weeks still. And also- Saturday, there will be a huge phase ten championship game. Hahaha! So funny. I'm going to enjoy it! And it'll be the perfect end to what's looking like it's going to be a scary week.

Just a little update. Thanks for reading Mom! (And anyone else who managed to get this far without clicking away to something more interesting- kudos!) :)

Fun times! Fuuuuun times.

As you all may or may not know- I have a life.

I do. Really. I promise.

And as proof of this, I've decided to share with you all the gratuitous amounts of fun I've had this past week.

This past halloween weekend was our annual Young Single Adult Conference. Two dances, three seminars, a hundred or so Young (18-30) Single (not married) Adults (kinda grownups), and TONS of fun!

It started Halloween night with a costume dance. I went as a doctor because I already had the costume from last year, and I really couldn't find anything else. But one of the ideas floating around was that people had to dress up as half of a famous couple so that you could then find your "other half" to dance with them! And while it was a cute idea, it didn't work as well as some had hoped.

The next morning, we got there in time for breakfast. After breakfast, we split into three groups and started rotating through the seminars. All of them were wonderful, and I had a truely wonderful time learning more about life, and hanging out with my friends!

After the seminars, we had lunch (pizza, yum!) and got started on the service project. We made christmas cards to send out to soldiers who would be away from home during the holidays, and that was fun!

After we were done making cards, we changed into more comfortable attire and went on with our activity!! Our wicked awesome fun times activity was making videos! Each team was given a bag of props and assigned a channel to film for. Ours was the weather channel. My favorite videos were the ESPN video, and the CNN video. The rest weren't as hilarious, but still quite creative! (if you can't see the videos in the links, let me know. You might need to sign into facebook to see them.) And yeah, that's my big brother refereeing in the ESPN vid, and my friend Lisa as "svetlanka" the anchor. Hahahaha, fun times!!

We had a few hours free between the activity and dinner that night, so I sat down with my friend (also in the ESPN vid, he was the one in the blue shirt. Cute, no?) And we played all ten phases of Phase 10. Read up on phase ten, because I'll mention it again.

During dinner, we watched the videos and had a fun time chatting about the fun times we had so far.

After dinner was a dance, and I met a lot of new people! One of my favorite new friends was "fred fredburger" (my name for him, I forgot his real name), but maybe that's just because he looks like this guy.

The next morning, we had our church meeting and everyone shared their wonderful experiences. It was a lovely end to a lovely conference. After the church meeting was over, we had lunch and headed home.

Tuesday night, I went over to a friend's apartment and we stayed up late to watch the election! Several people were there including my brother, my friend Lisa, my friend Crystal, the guy I had played all ten phases of phase ten with on saturday, and a few others. We had pizza, microwaved M&Ms (they're gooood!) and soda as we watched, and we also played through phase ten while we were watching the election results.

Tursday night, the same group got together for dinner downtown to celebrate a birthday. It was great fun trying to fit a group of 8 into the small entrance area of Sticky Fingers while people were trying to get in behind us. They sat us, and funnily enough, we ended up with a boy table and a girl table. We didn't even try to sit like that, but that's how it ended up. The four guys at one table and the four girls at the other one. Although the tables were pushed together, so I guess it didn't really matter. After dinner, we went over to the birthday girl's apartment for ice cream and a game of. . you guessed it- phase ten! I did really well, and if we had gone by points, I would've won, but by the fifth hand, we decided it was late and that whoever went out first in that round would win, so Lisa walked away with another victory under her belt.

So that was my exciting week, and with a whole weekend of Dr. A shows going on, I'm exstatic! Will the fun ever end?!? I hope not! Stop by blogtalkradio all weekend for non-stop fun!

Talk about a social step backwards.

This was on MSN News this morning. I think it's a huge step backwards socially. I mean, sure, there are times where it would be handy to call straight to someone's voicemail. But in the way that they suggest in this article? Very tacky if you ask me. Like a vocal text message. <Rant Coming> Which are also slowly killing our social communication skills, by the way. I mean, sure, sometimes, you just can't be on the phone, and text messages are handy for subtle communication, but what's wrong with calling a friend up on the phone?? Nothing that I can see. But of course no one does that anymore because of "texting". <End of Rant>

Dump Your Lover Directly on Voicemail

"Everybody has gone through the scenario where they've called somebody and just
hoped they got voice mail so they didn't have to have a conversation,"

Certain things should be dealt with face to face. Not on the phone, and definetly not through such cowardly means.

Finally

. . . My dad has a job.

In Macon, GA. Of course, I'll be staying here in Greenville for awhile, but I hope that I can eventually move down there with him.

This is making me look at different medical schools down there, of course. GA has a very nice selection of medical schools.

First of all, Mercer University School of Medicine, which is in Macon, and therefore would be the closest one to home. Also, Daddy went to Mercer University to get his degree in whatever he has a degree in. (sorry dad, I don't really pay attention to those sorts of things.) I'd finally be able to wear that old shirt of his and be showing my school spirit at the same time!

Second- Emory University School of Medicine. I've heard good things about this one. Very good things. It looks like it is the largest one with 11,098 students (fte '02).

Third- Medical College of Georgia. I must admit, I haven't ever heard of this one. Doesn't look like it's as big as Emory or as picky as Morehouse.

Fourth- Morehouse School of Medicine. They love accepting minorities and women. I have at least one of those attributes, right? This is the smallest one with only 219 students (fte '02).

I don't really know, without doing more research which one I'd choose. I might not even go to medical school in GA. It's just a thought.

posi+ives to Med School in GA:

• In-State tuition
• I used to live in GA, and I would love to live there again!
• I know have a nurse friend who works at one of the hospitals in Atl.
• I wouldn't be in an unfamiliar environment.
• The Atlanta Temple is so beautiful and being closer would give me more of an opportunity to stop by.

Negatives?

• It's fricking hot down there!
• The family would only be a short drive away.
• My Crazy, blogslacking speed-demon cousin would be down there making the roads more dangerous.
• They're horrible drivers anyway down there.
• The Jeff Foxworthy radio show might accidentally find it's way to my ears.

So anyway, that's what's going on lately. What I'm thinking about and what's happening around here. Still haven't gotten my acceptance/rejection letter from BYU-Idaho. I just today mailed in that application for the made-for-me job up at the hospital. (With my credentials, I'm a shoe-in. Let's just hope they see it that way as well.)

On a side note- my hair looks very nice today. I wish you all could see it.

Yet another day at the Beach

So I spent the day yesterday in Charleston, SC. I was at the beach for about 8 hours. It was nice. I got totally burnt, though. Lots and lots of sunscreen went nowhere. So I'm hurtin' bad. Thanks for Ramona's advice, though! I'm going go around tommorrow and try to find the . . aquaphor? that she suggested for the sunscreen.

I had a pretty fun trip there with the group I went with. It was about 5 hours to get there. So it had the potential to be very boring. But we passed the time joking around, playing high stakes Farkle, and playing some weird but hilarious game where we passed around a paper alternating drawing a picture or describing in one sentance a picture that has been drawn.

This game is hilarious, and I would like to share it with you! I loved playing it and would've played it over and over agian. I think I was the only one who saved my bit of paper that we played it on, though.

So here is to. . . Paper Telephone

(I totally just made that name up)

Step One: Write a Sentance. Any sentance you want, as long as there's a verb and a noun, it doesn't matter what it says.

Step Two: Pass the paper to the person on your left, and receive a paper from the person on your right.

Step Three: On the sheet of paper you've been passed (by the person on your right, of course!) there will be a sentance. Draw a picture to match the sentance that has been written.

Step Four: Fold over the original sentance to hide it from the next person.

Repeat step two: Pass and Receive again.

Step Five: On the paper you have received, there will be a picture! Describe it in one sentance!

Step Six: Fold over the picture so that the next person will only see the sentance you have written.

Repeat Steps 2-6 again until you get back the paper with your original sentance on it.

Step Seven: Read them out loud and enjoy!!

Here is the paper that I started. My sentance was: "Stabbing a tennis player so your favorite player wins." This was inspired by listening to This Awkward Ballad by Hugh Laurie on my Zune. Don't worry, I'm not crazy.

As you can see, there were six people who played. The first three were: Me, Big Brother, and Best Buddy. Best buddy drew a beautiful picture to match my sentance, and Big Brother wrote a very creative explanation for her drawing.

And one last thing: Thanks to those of you who have been stopping by! I really appreciate all of your comments! I'm especially glad my favorite uncle ever has found my blog.

(for those of you who don't know- I'm not just saying that he's my favorite uncle because he reads this. He really is the one I like best. He visits most often, he's more fun, and he's the only one that I actually know and feel comfortable around. He's the reason I'm looking at medical schools in California, too! It'd be so much fun to be that close to him!)

Thanks Uncle Pete! I love you!

Another Great Show!

Although I was a tad bit late to this one, tonight's show was a very fine one! Doctor Anonymous was interviewing Dr. Bruce Campbell, and I enjoyed that very much!

I laughed when, near the middle of the show, Dr. Val called in and kind of took over the interrogation for awhile. Dr. A and Dr. Val make a very nice tag-team.

I called into the show near the end using the convenient "click to talk" button that Vijay had tried and pronounced as deficient. I was very nervous, but it was fun, and talking to Doc. A. was pretty exciting! I was glad that I did it, and maybe next time I try, I won't feel so awkward doing it.

So all in all, it was a pretty fun show, and there were more people than I've seen in the chatroom! I'm pretty sure those of you who know me in real life (mom) might be interested to hear what happened when I called in. Just click play on the player to the right of this post if you wanna check it out. I don't call in for awhile, but the rest of the show is amazing!

I thought it was funny when the chatroom started saying how I sounded like I was from California. I don't think I've ever even been to California! But (and no offense to you hillbillies and hicks out there) I have to say THANK GOODNESS I don't sound like I'm from the south. I'm glad I've been able to avoid sounding like a Jeff Foxworthy redneck.

My very eventful day.

I had a very full day today. I slept in until about 10:45. Which was fun. I wish I could do it more often. Anyway, we went to pick up a friend who lived 15 minutes away because she had directions to the park and we didn't. She apparently made arrangements with someone else to pick them up as well, so we drove another 15 minutes to go meet up with him. It took us a half hour to get to the park, and we kept getting lost, but we made it.

But we got there, and there were four people there already. So we doubled the numbers just by arriving! And by the time we finished off our turkey burgers and cheesy chips, we had gone from eight to thirteen, and were ready for some games. So we walk over to the adjacent field, and get out some water balloons and towels for a round of "no one knows what this game is called". So we play that and then empty the rest of the balloons by having a water balloon fight, and then get together to decide what to do next.

We decided on Ultimate Frisbee, and my team totally won. We took break for awhile and sat around just hanging out talking. Once we were fully energized, we ran headfirst into a very active game of volleyball. My team lost, but not horribly. Just by a bit.

So after all that, we headed back home and dropped one guy off at his car, and then went to go pick ours up at our friend's apartment. But the battery was dead. There wasn't even any "chugga chugga" when we turned the key! How ridiculous was that? So we sit there and wait for our dad to come and give us a jump start.

On the way back home our dad, who was driving behind us, noticed that our break lights were on. We tried everything we could to turn them off, but there they were, sucking the life out of our battery, even when the car was off.

So I let my brother and dad deal with it while I went to a neighborhood get-together with my Mom. It was pretty fun, and there were lots of people there who were happy to see me, so that was nice. I played with some of the kiddies and pushed them on the swings, and I let my little brother's buddy chill with my zune for a while. Surprisingly, he seemed to enjoy the music!

So all in all, it was a very eventful day, and I had fun making new friends and joking around with some of the old ones. I really do wish the car would stop messing up, but I guess that's life.

I should've listened.

Momma always said to never eat too much candy. I bought a whole lot last night, and the Reese's Pieces were the first target. I'm halfway through the bag as I speak, and I can't stop. I have had them for breakfast, and after lunch and been snacking on them all day. They make me not want to eat normal food. I honesly need to stop eating them like, right now.

I went to a last minute banquet thing at my old high school. It was exciting at first because all of these different people were so excited about seeing me, but I wasn't really excited about any of it. I guess I have moved on. High school nostalgia isn't a problem for me. Which is a good thing. I can't wait to transfer though. I need to hurry the paperwork so that I can send it in and see if I'll be able to get out there by January. I'm hoping to get into a college in Idaho. The opposite corner of the country. But at least I know some people in Washington State, so I won't be to far from a "vacation family" where I can hang out when on break. If mom's fine with it of course.

Another blogtalk radio show tonight with Dr. A and everybody. Let's hope I can have my audio cooperate this time. But if not, I'm sure I'll have a blast in the chatroom anyway like last time. Gosh, everybody in there is just so down to earth! It was amazing! I can't wait for tonight.

Could have danced all night.

So. . .

You know that scene in "My Fair Lady" when Eliza is, according to Higgins, pronounced officially ready for the ball, and she dances with him out of excitement?

And then it's time for bed, but Eliza still can't stop thinking about what an exciting night she's had, and sings her little heart out that she "could've danced all night"?

That's kind of how I felt last night. Last night, of course, being the 34th show of the Doctor Anonymous Podcast. I came early so that I wouldn't miss it, and was early enough that I was the first one in the chatroom! The first thing I did, of course, was announce that I had won the "first one there" contest (I do this whenever I am the first to anything).

Dr. Anonymous was there, so I got to say hi to him and we talked for a bit. It was pretty exciting! Dr. A, talking to me! Wow.

After awhile, other people started filtering through the virtual-yet-figurative doors of the chatroom. First one in after me was Ramona from her blog Suture for a Living. I said hi, but was really to nervous about the whole thing to start up a convo further. I tried saying "How are you?" But there was a long, kind of awkward pause as she didn't respond. Luckily, Dr. A saw it and, after he realized what was going on, responded with "I'm wonderful!" or something like that. Hahahaha. That was awefully nice of him.

Next up to enter the chat was Scan Man from the blog Scan Man's Notes. Everyone confused me by saying "Hi Vijay!" when his name was Scan Man. But apparently, everyone's on a first name basis. Soon after he arrived, so did Dr. Val! It was exciting to me to say the least.

She apparently remembered me as "the one who wrote that pee post, right?" for those of you who want to know, the "pee post" can be found here. We chatted for awhile, (Oh, and Head Mirror was there as well) and then I noticed that Dr. A was moving his mouth. I couldn't hear anything, so it was kinda weird. I found out that he had started the podcast already. I spent the next few minutes trying to get some audio to match the video that I was seeing through the Dr. A Cam. When I finally got some audio, we laughed about Dr. A's trip to Vegas. There were a few good jokes, and alot of witty conversation. Dr. A laughed at my "fashion police" comment, which I thought was awesome.

Someone asked where my blog was, and if I had one, or if they had seen me before. I think it was Vijay. I pointed the way to my blog, and once they found it I got a "I found your pee post! It was so funny!"

Now, I was pretty excited that these people were actually going to my blog and reading a post. But "the pee post?" talk about slightly embarrassing. But, I did have plenty of fun, and halfway through, Dr. A went to a musical break and didn't come back. The chatroom exploded with stories and laughs and all sorts of fun. Poor Dr. A was frustrated that he couldn't finish it, and decided to just call it a night. But unbeknownst to him, we chatters weren't. We kept talking probably for as long as the show would've taken anyway. It was fun, and I was able to talk to these amazing people. It was wonderful! Thanks Dr. A, Dr. Val, Scan Man, Head Mirror, and Ramona for being so much fun! I had an awesome time!

Poppins anyone?

I love the movie Mary Poppins. It's terrific fun! I watched my favorite song from that movie today. I know why it's my favorite one. Do you know why?





I like it because I love hearing people singing about me. That's why. My mom sings this sometimes and I love it! Also, Dick Van Dyke is awefully goofy in this movie. Always good for a laugh.

On a different note:

Yesterday after Math class, a friend invited me (more like told me I was going to go) to a "dance party" downtown. Apparently, there are parties on saturday nights. I had no idea. I don't know if I want to go. It's not really my scene. If you know what I mean. (rhyming mostly un-intentional).

I mean, a party? Downtown? Where there could be things that I don't want to see/hear/ingest? Where it goes from 7:00 to who knows when? I don't think so. I'll have to ask about it. It'd be nice to go out and do something for once, but not at the expense of my integrity and values. I might just invite him to the church dance that is the friday before and ask him to compare.

Also, someone made the comment that it sounded an aweful lot like it was a date. It's not. It doesn't matter if I go or not, it's not a date. He invited me and our other friend in math class to go. So I don't think it's like that. Although he did get my number. But only so he could call me and give me the details about the party.

But he is cute.

But I don't date non members.

But I don't date.

But I shouldn't care.

I guess I'm just going to have to talk it over with my mom. She always has good advice.

On yet another, more different note:

I was whistled at twice yesterday. Wolf whistle. Once it was a guy I had no idea who he was, and another time was a guy I did know who was just playing around (I hope). I ignored both of them. Hahaha.

I guess being attractive has it's disadvantages.

February's Money Matchup

For the month of February, (and probably for the month of March) The family (the out of shape ones) is holding a contest to see who can lose the most weight. I've lost five pounds without really meaning too since last week. I don't know how, but if I find out, I'm doing it again. Everyone can have their own method, and choose how they want to go about losing the weight. There really aren't any rules. We're going to have weekly weigh-ins, and we're all going to get into shape! There's really no downside. Well, there is one. The winner gets $20 from everyone who participated. There are 5 people who are participating. That's $100! Big brother can't stand to lose any weight, so he isn't included in this. But, I think I've gotten this thing in the bag. When I'm home, I can choose to exersize however much I want. I'm home more than anyone, so really, I am at an advantage. And when I'm at school, all my classes are on the third floors, so I climb up four flights every day a couple of times a day. Yeah, its a pain, but it'll help me to get in shape. If I keep eating healthy and excersizing, then I'll have this thing in the bag.

Hello $100! I'm drinking alot of water too. I'm limiting my drink selection to water, water, water, so I'm cleaning out my system also. I'm also trying to get alot of fiber in what I eat. It helps to get fiber regularly.

So, cutting back on the bad stuff and moderating the good stuff will win me the prize anytime! This is going to be good.

Holiday visitors

My sister is visiting for christmas. We don't know how long she'll be here. My Cousin is also visiting. Cousin is the only cousin of mine that I actually talk to ever. I don't know why. I don't even talk to her that much. Just.. whenever she drops by, which isn't really that often. I hate having company. I give up my room and comfortable bed to accomodate others that I don't even like having over. Can't I love my family from a distance? But no. I have to be sociable. Oh well, at least it's only for the holidays.

But the bad thing about it is that I have to make apple pie for christmas. I like making apple pie. So what's so "bad" about it? Well, mostly it's that I have to share. I don't want to share my apple pie with people who are visiting. And I know my sister and cousin... they can eat alot! I mean, one of them doesn't look like she can, but she can. I know they'll eat all my pie up. I know it. So I'll have to make two to make it last longer. Will it work? No. There will be ELEVEN people in our house for christmas. 11. That's alot. So if I cut each pie into six pieces, everyone can have one at least. But it'll probably be cut by Dad. If there is one super power my dad has, it's cutting huge slices of anything for himself.

I'm starting to not like christmas as much either. I wonder what holiday I do like...

Blogging Friends?

I was at the Friends' home last night, and I showed them GruntDoc's Post with a terrific accapella group singing, when to my surprise, Wife Friend grabbed the link, and posted it on her own blog! Right here on blogger.com! I'd post a link to it, but it's really supposed to be a secret blog or something, just for family. It has pictures up there of Navy Nurse and Best Buddy, and of course the Friends. So I'll keep it under the radar.

And here I was thinking that they weren't computer people.

I'm not going to let her see this blog either for the sake of keeping it on the d-l from r-l.

Anyway, I had to crank out a research paper for english class yesterday so that I'd be able to pass the class. My teacher e-mailed me asking for it and telling me that without it, my grade would be a dissappointing 66. Which is not only failing, it's untransferrable. So I hope I did a good enough job with it, and I really hope that the fact that it was over two weeks late won't have that big of an effect.

I already registered for classes next semester, and I'm taking Medical Terminology, Anatomy and Physiology, College Math, and Biology 102. I had already sat down with my mom to set up the schedule, so I hope it'll work out. But if I get a job between now and then, I'll have to re-work everything. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I hope it doesn't come to that. On the bright side, if I pass all of my classes this semester, I'll be able to get half price off of my classes next semester. I need to pass all of them, because the more the classes cost, the more I need to pay back to my parents. If I got good enough grades, I'd be able to get a scholarship. I just don't know how to manage my time right.