Happy Birthday Daddy!

Ahoy & Avast

Whew! Our Rush week lead right into a hornet's nest of tests, quizzes, flaming hoops, etc.
The Usual.
Overall I think Rush week went well. Our theme was pirates so we had fish, ships, skeletons, pirate hats, oranges to prevent scurvy, and tons of other things very piratey and creative. I think our hall decorations were gorgeous and struck just the right cord; Just enough without being too much. We had lots of free food, a speaker, and door prizes so Yay!
This week is PDX's week... Their theme is the movie "The Godfather", which you know is a great movie but for a theme... well... Anyway! Bid day is next week which will lead us into the next phase - Pledge time! I'll be joining them again, this time as pledgemaster! (Any official title with "master" in it immediately makes me feel like it belongs on Highlander or something equally cheesy)
Today while talking with one of the P1s in the hall it made me feel good to hear her mention how she had noticed that the upperclassmen that had helped her so far in pharm school, with tutoring, daily support, and just plain being friendly, were all in my fraternity. She said that she had been there when the others were hanging their decorations and that she'd never met any of them before since none of them had gone out of their way to help or get to know the P1s until their rush week. (Which isn't entirely true, they've been around but still...) It really made me feel like, gosh, finally someone noticed that we put a lot of ourselves into the school and into getting to know our classmates, both upper and underclassmen. It takes time and commitment, neither of which are easy to promise or give away in such a rigorous degree program. (So what if I'm not my class's valedictorian - When I get out I'll still have the friends I made along my B/C-student path plus the experiences we shared, which are worth more to me than perfect scores. Ya can't call 'perfect scores' at 3 in the morning to pick you up from a bar now can ya??)
Anyone who'd like to make winter break plans with me had better speak up now... I'll be having my tonsils out over break (effectively ruining Christmas for my family!) and thus not traveling much. I'm a little scared but I more than understand that the benefits outweigh the risks in this case. But still. Scared. Happy thoughts in my general direction, please, if you get the chance?
Black eyes all healed up. Yay!
Yesterday I went with a group from campus to visit a local homeless shelter, City Rescue Mission. We're planning a health and safety fair there at the end of October and we toured yesterday to get a sense of what is needed and how we can help. It was truly amazing and not at all what I had expected. It's a huge, well-kept building and the resources they provide are astounding; Daily living classes that teach cooking, cleaning, and anything else you would need to know to take care of yourself. Gym with regular basketball games scheduled, computer facility, children's library with a ton of books, open choir, GED classes, scripture study, job search help, etc, etc. All that they do for the children. Just astounding. I'm really looking forward to this now...
Time for bed... Hope ya'll are having a beautiful week and many happy experiences!

Everyone Loves a Fair!

It's almost a full week later and my bloody nose has progressed nicely to a beautiful double black eye combo. When I'm not well covered in a pound of makeup I really do look like I've been someone's punching bag. Barely tender and quite congested, my nose makes few complaints beyond the occasional snuffle. I don't think the congestion is related but who knows? I was thinking about it and don't believe I've ever had a bloody nose this bad before... Learning experience! Woohoo!!!
Lots of school. We had a "review" session after a test this last week (after they graded it so knew what they wanted to talk about) during which only one question was discussed! One! I got to school a full hour early for it - This was a T/F question that I and more than 70% of my classmates missed, the instructor who wrote the question agreed that it should be thrown out, but the course coordinator chose to leave in since "the class average was so good". You did well so I'll punish you! Yay! (Side note: the instructor who spoke to us that morning asked me if I was related to Bernadette Peters. He thinks I look VERY much like her. Funny, huh?)
Enjoyed the State Fair with Skronky on Saturday for a full 2 hours - at which point we were glad to leave. We've decided that the Fair is better when you're very young, it's dark outside and not packed with people, or you're a tad intoxicated. We were none of those so two hours was our limit. I'd still encourage anyone who asks how it was to go and try for themselves; You may just LOVE it! Eat lots of Fair food for those of us who abstained this year (the strudels were tantalizing but I stuck to my jug of root beer, a fair tradition that I could not forsake) and ride all the rides just for the heck of it. Avoid the "snake girl" & "world's smallest woman" since I'm almost certain they're a sham - Wouldn't they make more moola on a TV program than being tortured at a state fair??? If you know any of the fairway tricks go harass the carnies by winning; They really seem to hate it when anyone over the age of ten wins at their racket...
Decorated the hallway and lounge at school within an inch of it's dignity today. It's so pretty and piratey! Yay! I'm still excited for Rush, less so than I was last spring but more than I was mid-week last week. Woohoo! The video is all done, the decorating taken care of, food more than halfway planned for, speaker arranged, slide show missing only 4 pictures to be added tonight, goody bags stuffed and awaiting delivery. Yay!
This Wednesday is "National Talk Like A Pirate Day" so join in and enjoy!

Yippy dog, bloody nose

That Sooners football game on Saturday was lovely... Almost as good as the week before...
Flag football started Sunday - We only have one Pharm girls team this year so we're extra good. (No, really. We are THAT good. Half of our current team were on the upperclassmen team last year which won the girls division of intermural flag football and the rest of us are fast learners.) We won our game against the Nursing girls ("Bedside Belles" is their team name, so the rumormill quotes) with a score of 26-0. Guess how many of those points I scored?!?
If you guessed none, you win! I managed to get headbutted in the nose on the first play of the game, spent the first half of the game waiting on my nose to quit bleeding (and convincing my teammates that I wasn't dying, also threatening my coach with bodily harm if he kept saying how much hottness all that blood and tissue wads up the nose added to my ' tough girl look'), the third quarter cleaning up all the blood, and the fourth quarter shakily cheering for my teammates, who of course were kicking butt! Great way to spend a Sunday! [I'm fine now with a slightly tender nose... It's swollen just enough for me to feel it and just KNOW that everyone is staring at it but for no one to actually notice it without first knowing what happened]
Mum found a little dog running in the street (Sunday morning??) that then followed her and our dogs home. She brought it in the yard since the last dog we found running in the street ended up getting hit by a car with a very negative outcome when we did not bring it home with us. Well, since it was Sunday the vet's office wasn't open so the animal that I will thus forth refer to as "Muttface" stayed with us until today. (I honestly did call it Muttface during its stay at mi casa. The rest of my human family were not as kind, in my opinion, as they refered to it as "Boner". The more furry faction of my family were either not on speaking terms with him (The Cat) or barely tolerated his yips (The Dogs) so I'm guessing they would have called him worse could I have understood their dialogue) Muttface's owner had apparently called Animal Control, the number for which was wrong in our telephone book, so when Dad took him by the vet, the vet quickly sorted the situation with Animal Control to get Muttface home safe and sound. Or as well as is to be expected for any furry, dirty, yippy creature. Fare thee well Muttface! I will not miss cleaning up after you!
Filmed the Rush video today... Fun but also frustrating. Glad that part's done - on to editing! Next week is our week so don't expect an update too soon after this one... I still have a slideshow to finish arranging, food to order, decorations to procure and hang, as well as nervous faculty to reassure, brothers to keep in line/humor, and a million other things I can't even remember right now! Yay! (This sounds like complaining. It's not. Ask Skronky; he gets most of my complaining about anything so he would be an expert on that...)
My goddaughter Marie may have the chicken pox. Let's hope not! I endured them around 17 years ago and don't remember it being a fun time... Woohoo for modern vaccines!

School, apples, Rush

Busy, busy. School's going well, and fast, too! Lots of little assignments and projects for classes; Planning rush week activities; lunch/dinner meetings to attend - Fun all around!
Work has been nice - I finally feel like I'm at a point of understanding and competence that I can actually help people without feeling too anxious about it. I've figured out who to go to for what and when, especially why... Lovely!
More apple picking at Grandmum's this last weekend followed by a flurry of apple crisp baking with Mum. We turned out 12 pie-pan sized crisps in one afternoon!!! Don't we rock? Like rockstars? Woohoo! One bushel down, 5 to go...
Remember the MDA Golf Tournament my frat Kappa Psi did last spring (See post on 4/30/07)? Well, we finally got to present the MDA with the check from that Sunday night during their annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon live on tv. We, 3 brothers and I, were on with 2 local newscasters for about 2.5 seconds around 1am Monday morning. Such a glamourous life I lead... But it was fun and benefits a great cause so driving a golf cart all day last spring and staying up that late this last weekend were totally worth it.
Rush is fast approaching... just a little over a week and a half away! I'm still mostly excited; It's hard maintaining constant enthusiasm for such a trivial event in the grand scheme of things... But ours will be great and entirely enjoyable! [All without breaking the rules or covering our butts for stepping over the line once too often... Or being totally whiny about issues that noone at our school has any control over... Please don't think I'm talking about anyone in particular ...] We'll be filming our fun video soon so YAY! And ordering food, reserving rooms, decorating, etc, etc... Much more fun than studying...
The Great State Fair of Oklahoma is coming up soon - Sept 13-23 - Get Excited!!!