Holiday week

Aloha! It's been a very full week... Christmas was lovely and very laid-back (as opposed to how it was when I was little, when we would rush around and visit a lot). "Santa" was good to me, with clothes, books, perfume, and, of course, candy. Oooo! And a game called Apples to Apples, which we haven't played yet but does sound fun and easy to learn.
Puttered around most of that day and the next. Worked on laundry, etc. Got to visit Dawn and Marie. Wednesday I went to Skronky's family Christmas. Good food and a fun time. Most of his family were very nice; his grandpa even gave me a hug. Of course, I got to play with Skronky's nephew which was the highlight of the evening since he's so adorable.
Puttered around on Thursday and Friday some more. Made some melt and pour soap for the first time; it's so easy I don't understand why I didn't try it sooner.
Right now I'm feeling rather icky, sore throat and achey all over, so I've slept most of today to try to give my immune system time to work (Who am I kidding, the sleeping wasn't a conscious choice, it rather just chose itself). Feeling like a zombie from the combo of too much sleep and lovely meds. Yay
Hope you all are enjoying this holiday week. Happy New Year's! Don't forget to eat your black-eyed peas on the first!

Happy Yay!

Merry Christmas! Joyful Hanukkah! Jolly Holidays! Happy New Year! Fun-filled Break!
As well as much love, prayers, smiles, blessings, and warmest wishes!

Svine Pins!!!

My bobby pins are frustrating me. They're fairly new and yet refuse to do their very simple job. They only have to stay put, stay hidden, and make me look fabulous. Is that too much to ask? I think not... Swine pins!
I forgot to say thank you to those who got me all those lovely Christmas gifts Saturday; Thank you very, very much! It all fits, smells, tastes, feels, looks, and is/are just right! (Ah there is my justification for not saying thank you more than once right away, I hadn't tried them all out yet!)
I need to start sewing again... So many cute patterns and tons of fabric in our "sewing closet" aka the HUGE bathroom cabinet. And a huge part of me wants to get back to being a crafty person. (haha oh the irony that I should feel thus after ranting about next year's dirty santa decree, huh?)
Did you know that there is absolutely nothing worth watching on TV during the day? I had forgotten... You get either little kid shows, soaps, or strange reruns of shows you never watched anyway because they sucked the first time (and why would they be any better now??)
Anyway, love to all and as much good will as you can handle! (I know without specifics it's hard, but if you would, please pray/think happy thoughts for a dear friend of mine that's going through a very tough time in life. Thank you so much!)

Yay for break!

Whew! It's been a busy weekend!
Spent Friday evening with the pharm kids, hanging out and enjoying the relaxed feeling that comes with the end of finals week. Saturday, which had unseasonably warm weather, I slept in for the first time in weeks, literally. Wrapped presents with Mum in a flurry of tissue, tape, and ribbon, finishing just in enough time to squeeze in a shower and makeup before it was time to head to the family party at my aunt and uncle's house. Skronky and Em (Dork's galpal) went with us so they got to see first-hand how crazy, wonderful, dysfunctional, and hilarious we really are as a group.
Lunch was great so we ate too much (since my aunt cooks like a pro) then we moved on to the opening of the dedicated gifts (ie for us cousins and grandma and grandpa since we get our own personal gifts, of course!) before doing the "dirty santa/white elephant" gift exchange for the adults (plus Skronky and me since we're technically adults according to someone). That's the real fun of our family Christmas. You never know what will turn up (the hideous green lamp of legend??) or who will steal it from you (in a nice way, since that's part of the game). I ended up with a drill press (??) or something like that, something very feminine, that I sent with Skronky down to Norman to live at his house for now. But don't think I will forget it's really mine, so when I get time to read about how to use it I will eventually drill press the socks off of something. And it will be neat!
The Aunts, collectively with consent from the grandmum, have decreed that next year us females will exchange gifts we made ourselves, while the menfolk will continue on with whatever they were already bringing. (I was the lone semi-dissenter since, even though it is a year away and I could, oh, plan ahead for once, being in pharmacy school with the end of the semester/finals that week before the party doesn't give me much time to plan and execute a handmade gift when even a bought one was hard to find time to procure this year. We all know I'll procrastinate and who seriously makes their Christmas shopping list in May?? But frankly, I knew I'd be overruled so thought, "why fight it?" and just barely complained - probably sounded like a whiny little kid, which couldn't help my plight. I'll just whip up something really lame and thus fill the position of "worst gift" so my elders won't have to endure the shame of earning said position.)
Enjoyed the evening with lots of family and Skronky over at our house, playing Xbox and card games. Went with Mum to take pictures of Em and Dork before they headed off to the HS's winter dance (Snow Blitz as it is affectionately refered to by pretty much everyone). And of course they were totally adorable, matching in black and shades of grey. Then back home for more fun. Stayed up very past my bedtime but don't regret it in the least.
Sunday slept in again and lounged around (watched a hilarious Japanese-made English-dubbed film) until it was time to go help Skronky's sister move (since I have a baby truck that holds more than Skronky's little volkswagon). She and her fiance have 2 houses (his and hers, haha) just a couple of blocks apart but it still takes time to move things over from one to the other. I mostly stayed out of the way, favoring watching after Skronky's nephew so he wouldn't cry (he's about 7 weeks old) to being in the way of the packing and hauling.
Worked around the house yesterday, organizing my room so that someday it will be in order once again (finals week is hectic and my room reflects that). Then met up with Julia to go shopping (started with the book she is reading somehow missing 33 pages! I'd read it from the library so I checked it out and took it with me for her) thus knocking out two Christmas gifts and earning me the reward of a really cute sweater and polo, both on sale! Yay for sales!!! Oh, and of course getting to see Miss Julia was great since we've both been swamped with school for the last, oh, several months! (Rumor has it that she got her hair cut today and the result is super-duper cute! Rumor also implies that she's seeing a cute boy and is happy about it... Yay!)
Haven't accomplished much today... Started a crockpot of beans and have been actively working on the laundry most of the day. Balanced the checkbook (eek!) and have been looking at my class booklist for next semester; Am thinking of trying this online textbook shopping thing that has become so popular since the campus bookstore is, nicely, not the best priced place to get books. I'll let you know how that goes if I do it that way...
Hope you are all surviving the renewed cold weather. Much love and happy thoughts are radiating from this post to you!

Long Hello Again

I am return'ed! Worry not and rejoice! I am weary much and yearn for slumber but fight on valiantly in order to keep thou abreast of the situation. Haha That was fun! Get ready for a REALLY long post!
Yes, finals are finally over! Started out early last week with the madness of getting all of the last minute assignments done & turned in before deadlines (figures that we would have about 4 mini papers/assignments all due by noon the Friday before finals, right?)
Managed to get my last two math tests out of the way on Thursday afternoon (of last week) so I could avoid having it during actual finals week (we had to pass all 8 math modules with passing as a 90% or better; could do them early or spread out as long as pass them all by the end of finals week). He kindly allowed us that extra time Thursday to attempt to pass one module at a time so I spent about two hours either waiting for a spot to open in the test room or for my brain to get with the program & quit making 80%, which weren't passing. Not five minutes after I finally finished my tests, returned downstairs at the college and logged online to do a DDS assignment the fire alarm started going off. We've never had a fire drill so I had no idea what was happening since it sounded like it was far down the hall. I assumed it was one of the security alarms in a lecture room so just stayed put. Ten seconds later one of the administrators flys in yelling at me and the other P1 in the room to "get out of course, there's a fire!!" We get outside as fast as we can to avoid more yelling. And wait. And wait. No firetrucks. Nothing. Just an alarm. Then a lone police car pulls silently up and calmly parks. He sits there for several minutes while another 2 or 3 of his comrades arrive just as silently and unrushed. They mosey inside about twenty minutes after the alarm started ringing (there is a police station about 2 blocks away and a firestation roughly 8 blocks away, just FYI). It keeps ringing another thirty minutes before we're allowed back inside to collect our things. Noone confirms that there was a fire anywhere in the building or if was merely a drill. I grab my stuff, say to heck with that assignment, and start to leave. I get just to the exit to the parking lot when it starts going off again... Yay for the unplanned! At least I now know what a fire alarm sounds like!!
Friday morning we enjoyed a physiology test over endocrine and reproductive systems, pharmacy practice lecture over resumes & professionalism (for the umteenth time), a Kappa Psi meeting, and biochem class over endocrine again. Then the finals studying began...
During our KY meeting we held elections. I'm sure the least I say about that, the best, but it was planned with much the same degree of organization that everything else here is done... so it was quite the fun exercise in democracy. After some controversy between the two campuses (Tulsa is our "away" site; together the two campuses are counted as one, according to the frat, for the purposes of pretty much everything including elections. Which often means a split vote, imagine that!) that could have been easily avoided, we filled all of the officer positions for the next term. I was nominated for Rush Chair (which is two positions thus requiring two people and done by each voting member casting two votes total) and received, from what I hear, a unanimous landslide, the other set of votes showing a 4 vote difference between the next two leading candidates of the four of us nominated. It's a tiny job, I know, but it really made me feel better about pharmacy school. I won't be setting the bar in class anytime soon (unless you mean the mediocrity bar or the kind with drinks... but that's another story) so it was comforting to know that even if I'm not a stellar student anymore I can still communicate and bond with people so that they respect me well enough to let me coordinate something, no matter how small. I'll take what I can get! Yay!
Between studying early this week I managed to spare a few minutes to run to the grocery store with Mum. We enjoyed the various cartoon characters present and especially the little well-dressed boy "helping" his mother shop who innocently asked, "Mom! Mom, when can we go dumpsterdiving????" We kept the giggles in until we were far enough away so as to not mortify his mother anymore than she already was (she turned bright crimson in seconds as it was).
Dork's birthday was this week; He's an old man now at eighteen years old. Lots of fun at his birthday party with all of our family here. Even though, or maybe because, we are all so different we tend to have a grand time at birthdays, holidays, and random get-togethers. Reminded me why and how much I love the holidays and my family. I'm very blessed. Also, Mum made a truly excellent cheesecake that was the envy of all other cheesecakes ever made. Yum!
I keep mentioning finals... Well, I passed everything so that in itself warrants a happy dance! Biochem was the hardest by far, but I pulled out a 70-something (post-curve) so my semester grade was carved in stone as a C. Oh yes, there was a curve! My class is so special that we set new low class averages on the final in both biochem and DDS (Drug Delivery Systems)! Isn't that something to brag about?? We elicited slight curves in both of those... Still no word back about pharm practice grades/test scores but I went into the final with a strong A so methinks I would have had to actively pursued a failing grade to get less than a B in the class. As I see it right now, I have 3 C's (biochem, physio, and math), a B (DDS), and likely an A (practice).
Those aren't official, of course, but I am happy with them. I'm in grad school. It isn't supposed to be easy and I should work even harder at studying, yes, but I made it through the first semester. I've made a lot of new friends, grew as a person, and learned quite a bit too. In my life, by my personal values-system, that means the world. (And while there are peaks and valleys, I'm happy the majority of the time. So I say it's worth it) I may never be the poster child for professionalism that some of my professors seem to expect from us but I'll be a real life, happy adult-child who knows my limits, seeks to do the right thing, and does the best job I know how to do. If you expect more of me than that then I hate to burst your bubble...
(I am sad to report that I've heard rumors that a small few of my classmates did not pass every class thus there is a slight chance they might have to repeat the year. I pray they do better this spring & summer and continue with us all the way. I don't wish to leave anyone behind.)
After the physio final this morning a bunch of us pharm-ersI lo helped Julie (not sure I've mentioned Julie before... she's one of my P1 pharm friends, probably my closest female one. She's a real person and if you know me you realize that's a definite compliment in my opinion) move from her house in Norman to her spiffy new apartment in downtown OKC. Much fun, much packing/loading/being macho, as well as much harassing her cats, etc. Then I went Christmas shopping since the powers that be decreed that tomorrow would be our extended family Christmas party. I loath shopping but at least it's for those I love...
Dad's been working hard on the house these past couple of weeks. New floor down in the "breakfast nook" room as well as pretty new pictureframe paneling. When it's finished that room is going to be beautiful. (I'll try to remember to post pics when we're done)
Well, I think that's enough of my ranting for now. Much love to everyone and Happy weekend!!!

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare! ~Homer (There's no hope for me??)

STUDY

Busy preparing for finals; Will write again when the madness is over. Love and warm wishes to all!

Snow Days

You would think that with an unexpected four-day weekend I'd remember to update sooner... But playing in the snow with the dogs is much more fun! Oh yeah, of course there was studying in there too with a little helping out around the house with Christmas stuff but mostly just snow playing. I even made a snow sheltie! Yay! (I know, big nerdiness points here but it was fun!!!)
I really should get out of the house soon... I honestly can't remember leaving the house (more than just outside in the yard) since I got home from campus late Wednesday evening. Yay Snow!!! Love you all and hope you keep warm! (If anyone else makes any snow creatures let me know or send me a photo link? Please? It'll be fun!)
~Oh and random shout out: Miss Doxie has posted her lovely little annual holiday gift guide and opened her own online shop!!! Muy exciting, right? Just had to throw that one out there...