Back into it

My brain is unhappy. I really should have reconfigured my spring break to allow a little down time. Instead of refreshed, I feel more stressed than I did before.

I have this massive experiment coming up. It's presence wraps itself around my heart and snakes through every part of my being. My stomach feels the affects of this quite acutely. Knots of anxiety and dread. I was so excited before. Now I know what I am getting myself into. It will be hard and I am dismally unprepared. Will I be prepared in two weeks? Not nearly as much as I should be. If this were my only class, sure. More than enough time. But I also have a paper and a test this Friday, a presentation next Monday, I will spend all day out on the Brundage property tomorrow, and work.

Sorry for the stressed rant. For those of you I have no told, here is a brief summary of Spring Break for me and Kirsti. I am sure she will have a similar post. Probably with more detail.


MONDAY: Drove and drove and drove. I think about 4 hours. Lamberts in Sikeston. The food was massive and delicious. I was too scared to ask for a roll if the servers were more than 4 feet from me. Apparently the food didn't sit well with me...the drive to Memphis was uncomfortable. We got there and were too tired to do anything fun. We stayed in the hotel (which was VERY nice by the way). I slept well.

TUESDAY: Continental breakfast=yum. The day was blustery, but lovely. We went to the Memphis zoo and saw all kinds of cool things. It was much like the St. Louis zoo with a few differences. It was a lot of fun. We then had frustrations parking so that we could go to Beal street. I lost $5 because the automated parking lot thingy that took the money was not clear on it's not giving change. At least is wasn't until I looked properly. I was angry and felt very foolish. Once we got to the Hard Rock cafe, I got over it. Our server was adorable, we had delicious food and a fantastic desert. The music and atmosphere was also great as is typical of any Hard Rock cafe. we drove to the Simons which took us about two hours. Got confused because they live in this huge house. It looked like a bed and breakfast. We had no idea that they ran such a large horse ranch. We got to meet the horses including a week old foal. Dinner occured late after me and Kirsten had napped. We watched some TV with them and then hit the hay.

WEDNESDAY: Oh, what a day. We left the Simons not too early. 9:30ish? I actually don't remember. We drove to Nashville which took us about two ours. That got us there too early for out hotel check in. It was raining. That eliminated and and all tours that involved the out of doors. Rain+Kirsti=not happy and Rain+Sarah=a little less than content. So we went to the Parthenon. Yes. We drove through Tennessee and ended up in Greece. Actually it was the worlds "only" to scale replica of the Parthenon. It had a giant Athena in it and some other Grecian replicas. It was neat, brief, and dry. We left just as a very large elementary school group was coming in. Then we went to the Opry Mills mall. It was a mall. Nothing much else to say about it. It killed some time. Hotel. Check in. Not as nice as the La Quinta in Memphis. oh well. TV (should have napped). Dinner at Sole Mio. A relatively newly established Itallian reataurant. It was nice (meals were $10-20 with most in the $13-18 range). The atmosphere was elegant but not so that you felt underdressed. Out waiter was great. They grated fresh cheese on your food. Lemon cream sauce with capers...mmm. Desert was McFluries at from McDonalds. I napped and missed lost. Was tired and grumpy when I had to get up so we could go to the Rocco DeLuca concert. Long story short we didn't go. If you really want to know the details of THAT fiasco, call me. Sleep was bitter sweet.

THURSDAY: Continental breakfast again. Yum. Rain on the way, to follow us to the Smoky mountains. We left and drove. Through Pigeon Forge which was an abomination. Seizure educing signs. Gawdy attractions. Being that close to Dollywood I am not that surprised. Then through Gatlinburg. Less Gawdy, but still touristy. After some confusion and frustration we found a campsite. Nice little spot right next to a rushing rippling river (large creek?). Fire, food, too late for horseback riding. The rain waited and we were dry. Kirsti had to have a sandwich because her fish was soggy. Laughs and fun in the tent before sleep. A good end to an okay day. OH! We started on a trail as it was getting dark and saw a coyote! At Kirsti's request, we turned around. Sleep was okay. Lulled by the river.

FRIDAY: Rain. But not until after we trekked up one of the mountains to Laural falls. A pretty little waterfall lookout. Let me tell you. I thought I would never love tree covered mountains more that the snow capped Rockies, but I have been converted. I would much rather live near the Great Smoky Mountains. Beautiful. Despite the beauty we argued much of the journey. You don't need to know what about. We're sisters 4 years apart. We are aloud to argue. We stopped at the visitor center to get souvenirs. We then went to the Sugarland stables to do our horseback riding. Just as we pulled in, it starts to rain. The whole day it is drizzly. Our stuff at the camp site got damp, despite our waterproofing efforts. We napped in the dampness because there was nothing better to do. Woke up, went to the stables again but decided it was still too wet. Sat in the car and thought about what we should do. We decided to spend the money on Gatlinburg instead. Lots of fun little shops. Lots of things to do. We at at a Pizza hut because it was cheap. Yum. We got Ben and Jerrys. Double yum. WE went to a couple candy places and bought yummy sweets...or rather, thats what I did with Kirsti consenting to go along. It was pretty fun, even if it wasn't horseback riding. The rain subsided then. We got a fire going for the rest of the night. I got angry at a tarp and some rope. Our sleep wasn't very comfortable. It was wet.

SATURDAY: The morning produced a difficult fire and burnt on the outside blueberry muffins...more like blueberry muffin flavored, made in tinfoil, blobs. We were going to try the stables again before leaving, but they weren't open yet. So we drove. And drove. And drove. In the rain at first. Then the patchy sun. Then the RAIN, RAIN, RAIN! Ug! No shower since Thursday morning + RAIN + little headache + hungry = one grumpy Sarah. No fun. We stopped at Em and Joes for some chicken dinner and drop cake. Some fun time with Noah and looking at Em's amazing pictures. Then to home. Weary and worn.

The trip, all in all, had its ups, and its very low downs. I REALLY should have allowed for more down time at home. Shaved off a few days. Skipped Memphis or something. You know what they say about hind sight. I wish I could say that I'm glad to be home. I was last night. But classes make me wish I were still in the Smokies.

Happy Monday everyone.

Steady as she goes. (please answer the question at the bottom of this entry)

Just moving right along with the week.

I just took my next to last midterm. In Folklore. I'm pretty sure I nearly aced it. I missed memorate. She asked what kind of folklore a ghost story is. I couldn't for the life of me remember. I sat thinking about it for 10 minutes and never got further than "m".

Last night was an interesting night at work. It started out alright. It seemed to be regulars night. Lots of familiar faces. Then the power went out. No reason. Just darkness and you hear all the customers gasp. Luckily it was still daylight. It's amazing how dependent everything is on electricity. The electric companies have all the power...(I'm so punny. I blame it on dad and more recently my ichthyology professor.) We were unable to do much, but we tried. It came back on a long 5 minutes later. It went out and came back on three more times in the next hour. Crazy. I think all of us were hoping to get off work early. I knew I wouldn't have minded.

In that time of on again, off again, I managed to spill a tray of salads all over myself and the counter. The customers had already been waiting a good long while for their food. I wanted to yell. I didn't. I had a guy who looked really depressed and got extremely grumpy when I told him that we were out of pot pies. It says right on the menu that they go fast and we have to stop making them at some point. June and Anne stayed a long time as usual. Levi didn't do his outs. I made $75 (awesome for a Tuesday night). The money was worth the frustrations. One of my last tables was a 3 top and they left me $10. I was pleased.

I still have to do a homework assignment and study for my PopDy final. I'm not sure what to think about it. I generally understand everything. I just can't answer things if you word them weird. This test has weird wording potential. That's all I'm worried about.

I hate Wednesdays. Bring on Thursday and it's uncertain midterm. Then I am mostly free. One of my classes has already canceled class on Friday. I don't think the others will. But I am really looking forward to relaxing after tomorrow at 10:00.

I am really excited for spring break. Read Kirsti's blog to see what we are doing.

If you were going on a road trip and found out that a band you like is playing in a a city on your way, would you go?

-The band won't be touring near your hometown anytime soon.
-You have already booked your hotel and if you stayed in the town an extra night to see the band you would have to change your reservation and pay $70 more.
-You could go to the campsite in an area 3.5-4 hours away and then drive back that night. But that's more driving and another tank of gas.
-The concert is only $17

What do you all think? I really want to know. The frugal part of me says forget it. The adventurous part of me says forget time and money. It would add so much more to your spring break. Fling restrictions aside and go for it. Since you are all mostly frugal people, I would expect a lot of "don't do it"'s. But let me know what you really think.

Time to be productive.

cough, cough...

Making it through the week

Just one more week and then I will spend blissful hours thinking of nothing but the road ahead and what music to listen to next.

I can't wait for spring break.

I have also decided that I could get used to a Mac as long as I can figure out all the different things. I hate using the mouse.

I'm giving a shout out to all of you who sent me info concerning recipes and such. Especially Melanie. I contacted your boss and wrote my paper based on her recipes.

Right now I am supposed to be editing the operational portion of the E.C.G. management plan for the Brundage property. For practicum. But I have been doing that for the past 4 hours. So I am taking a well deserved break.

Here is an update.

-I failed my first fish identification exam. FAILED IT. I think I got a 38% or something horrible like that. I will not fail again. Now that I know exactly how to study, I intend to pass the next one with flying colors.

-I am still getting over my second cold of the year. I had just barely gotten over my first one. Maybe it's really the same cold coming back in full force.

-I have looked at the time line of fathead minnow embryo development and come to realize that this is going to be really hard. It takes a total of 5 days for them to fully develop. The first 24 hours are crucial with only 1 hour between each developmental stage. basically that means that I will have to confine myself in the tiny experiment room for the whole 24 hours with no real sleep and maybe a quick food break here and there. Then for the rest of the 5 days, I will be sleeping irregularly because fathead minnows don't develop on a schedule befitting normal human activities. I am planning on conducting the experiment in its entirety the second week of April. During that week I will not contact anyone. Any of my free time will be spent sleeping or doing other school work. I will pretty much be useless to the world.

-I saw "He's just not that into you" with Erin on Thursday. It is exactly what you would expect. Nothing close to amazing, but cute and mindless. The best part was that those who were practicing infidelity got what they deserved. If you really have ANY desire to see this movie, wait until it comes out to rent.

-I still don't know where I am going over the summer for my internship. I am a little worried. I knew my March 9th of last year that I would be going to Rhode Island. It is not March the 15th.

-I really have to pee and still have to make a copy before I go home for dinner which is in 45 minutes.

- I better go.

Let's just hope that I make it through this week alive.

Congrats to Kirsti for deciding on a college!

P.S.-apparently I was in the running for being employee of the month for the whole district. No one told me this. One of the grill cooks had to show it to me on the small piece of paper that reported it. I did not win but I was mentioned as one of the other people in the running. Huh.

Bye.

NOW HEAR THIS! NOW HEAR THIS!

I hope that everyone reads this post and tries to respond to it. My e-mail is on the fritz for some reason and I really need to get some input from the family.

I have to write a paper by 4:00pm Friday on Foodways (a form of folklore). I am having problems finding a topic. Some of the easiest and more basic topics for foodways are recipes that have been passed down or are representative of a culture of which you are a part.

I have asked mom and dad if we have any recipes that have been passed down for more than one generation. The answer is no. So I am looking to you guys for help.

If any of you have friends or co-workers or acquaintances that might have a traditional recipe for ANYTHING could you send me their e-mail? I know that I only have a few days left. I had a great idea for this paper and my professor shot it down. So now I am scrambling to find a new idea. Just e-mail me if you think you might know someone, or you can comment on this post. Thanks so much!!!!

In other random news, I want to rip my hair out. I have two midterms today that I am not altogether ready for. I have to work out a time to actually run my fathead minnow experiment. This will probably involve missing work which means missing out on money. I still have to make the final plans for this road trip of mine and Kirsti's. I have a long homework assignment due tomorrow, an edited rough draft of another paper due Monday, two midterms next week as well as another paper for PopDy which I have not been working on. Then I need to be thinking about ticket sales for the MOTAB concert as well as enrichment activities. I am a little swamped.

Boy do I need to stop laying it all out like that. It makes me a little depressed.

Thanks for listening!

I keep doing this to myself

I thought that I had given myself enough time to study for my fish exam.

I guess I was wrong. There WERE 75 species. I had to know their family name, as well as genus and species. I also had to be able to visually identify them. Here are a few things in my defense.

1. The specimens have been sitting in jars of alcohol for years. They are bland, colorless and barely have a trait that makes them different from all the other species in their family also sitting in jars.

2. This lab class is 3 hours long. They gave us 2 minutes per specimen (there were 29). Hardly enough time to look at the indistinguishable specimens and distinguish them. Then only five minutes after that time to finish up. I didn't even get to finish. All other lab tests I have taken gave us the whole time.

3. We only have two lab tests. Two tests to know 150 species. Not common names. Not just orders, but the scientific name. This is a real challenge. I think we should have had at least one or two more tests spaced throughout the semester.

4. The smell of alcohol sweetened by the slow decay of fish in not a wonderful thing when you are trying to take a test.

I still should have studied more, obviously. I will not make the same mistake again. I am determined to pass this class.

I'm starting to fall behind in classes. I was keeping up. Not so much now.

I am really ready for spring break.

On another note, I LOVE PSYCH! This season is amazing.

Gotta go to class.

Just gotta make it through.