Week(s) in Review

Hello to a new month!
Lots to report on since my last post so long ago... (I'm a bad blogger if you can't tell.)
I think I've pretty much finished that pinata game I've been addicted to this summer. I got all 50 achievements and added 1000 points to my brother's gamer score on the xbox so woohoo for geekdom! (I think there are nefarious plans in the works to start me over on the other box to up the score there too for my dad's... haha) I find it pretty funny how goal-oriented I can be on games like that but how many works-in-progress I'll start in real life without finishing in a timely manner. (Remember my 3 years of working sporadically on that t-shirt quilt??) I currently have several projects up in the air....
Including a t-shirt quilt for Skronky. Before you gasp and call me nuts to start another one right away... His only has shirt blocks on one side with flannel for the back and no middle pieces, since he wanted it to be light (Boy, it is light too... Rather worries me how light it is... not really a blanket so much as heavy sheet weight). Plus his blocks are larger than mine were so I didn't even have to tie it as much. (Did you notice that past tense??!? Yay!) I'm almost done with his, anyway, just have to bind it once I find a store that has another of the binding I did on mine; I have most of a pack of the binding I need but need another full one since mine took one and a bit so his should need one and a half or so. Then, though I have stuff already started, I want to do up a 4 piece set of appliqued dishtowels for that boyfriend of mine just to see if I can handle appliqueing. Guess we'll see... Not much time left before school starts back again.
Baked up at least another 5 or so apple crisps... We still have apples left! No one else at my house likes muffins or I'd try a recipe I found for apple raisin muffins that sounds delicious to me. I'm getting a bit sick of apple crisp so I'm going to have to find something else to make with these green, tarty apples. (I might just try the muffins anyway and eat them all myself. It's a thought anyway)
Enjoyed the Natural History Museum near campus with Skronky, his sis, her baby, and more of her crew last weekend. Skronky's nephew obviously didn't really understand what any of the exhibits were but he was his normal happy self so it was fun to see how he reacted to the new sights. They have a big statue, bronze maybe, of a wooly mammoth attacking/being hunted by a primitive man, a woman, baby, and wolf-dog next to him. Skronky's nephew loved the wolf-dog and when we sat him on it he laughed as his dad snapped a picture! Such a hoot.
The next day we, Skronky and I, joined a few of my classmates to celebrate a birthday at the Mont. Caught up some on summer gossip and news. Not ready to head back to class quite yet but seeing my friends was a nice way to ease back into the pharmacy college mindset. Speaking of which, I recently had a planning meeting for the P1's Orientation. Looks like it should be fun if we can figure out where to have the All-School Picnic, the finale of Orientation. We've already tried the Library where we were promptly turned away as they claim to already be booked for that Friday at noon (I have my doubts... They probably just heard how wild and crazy the pharm college faculty are and didn't want such hooligans around, right?) So if anyone has a suggestion for a site on campus, near the Pharm college, with lots of shade, that might be available, please, please let me know! (For those who know campus, we're currently looking into using the pavilion between Nursing and the Apartments. Fingers crossed that works out.)
Yesterday I joined 9 of my Kappa Psi brothers to work on a house with Habitat for Humanity at their newest build community Hope Crossing! The home we were working on is almost finished so we did touch-up painting, window sealing, and hardcore cleaning to get it ready to be carpeted this weekend, followed by sod/landscaping outside, for a family to move in as soon as next weekend! The really neat part of volunteering with Habitat is working with families who are putting in hours toward their own homes someday so they think about things like, "How would I want that in my house", so they do a great job because they're interjecting themselves into each project. ("Sweat equity" is a big part of the Habitat program. If you don't know much about the program I encourage you to check it out - What they're accomplishing even just in Oklahoma is great!) Of course, you get the occasional court-mandated community service people who just want to put in their time without really caring how it looks but hopefully those are few and far between (personally, I would much rather help H4H build a house than pick up trash at the side of the road. Maybe that's just me?)
Everyone have a great weekend!! Woohoo!!!

Pharmacy Week in Review

This past week saw lots of busy. So much busy, in fact, that it was frightening! Eeeek! (Okay so maybe it wasn't truly scary but I have to at least try to make my life sound thrilling once in a while.)
It was what my school calls "Pharmacy Week", which is a rather big thing for us considering we're *in* the college of pharmacy. (Note: the rest of the country celebrates pharmacy week in the fall... go figure that we'd be so much... ahead of everyone else...) The week had several big lunch events, including a 'Mexican food fiesta', another burger sale, and pizza with a pharmacy version of BINGO. Aren't we neat? Add that to a test in my "favorite" class, a long retail site visit, cold weather rolling back in, busy work assignments, and rain ruining a volleyball tourney [that I had been looking forward to for weeks] and you'll have a pretty good picture of fun, huh? (I even received a little award in recognition of my perceived leadership-ness. Yay for being involved!)
The festivities rounded out with the Big Event and a Pharmacy Celebration, both in Tulsa on Saturday. Rode up to T-town Friday with a few KY "brothers" - all female, of course - to spend the night so we wouldn't have to wake up really, really early and drive the two hours Saturday morning. [Our Tulsa native brother whose house we stayed at happens to have a dog of the same breed and coloring that the dog I grew up with had. He looked and acted so much like my dear departed doggie! --Also thank you for letting up stay in your room, Bandit. She shouldn't have kicked you out when all you wanted to do was snuggle with the pretty girls!] We worked at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, their resale warehouse that stores and sells their leftovers to help fund new projects and acts as a staging area for some of the prep work that goes into building the houses later. The other OKC KY gals worked with paint organizing while I helped with the lumber cutting, hauling, and hammering into shed platforms (yes, I hit my fingers purple, that's how great I am at DIY). Worked hard, got some lunch, and headed to the mall for shoes since one 'brother' forgot hers in OKC. After a whirl-wind of hairspray, shoes, dresses, and packing we left for the hotel where the Pharmacy Celebration was to be held. (I have to interject at this point to mention how truly beautiful we all turned out after such a dirty morning. We clean up good! --Thank you my pretty brothers for all the fun!)
The Celebration is really just a dressy awards ceremony for the upper classmen, like a combo of senior night and prom in HS. Dinner was sort of edible but the company really made the evening worthwhile. I sat with my fellow OKC P1s and we managed to laugh through most of the evening, perhaps even during a few parts for which we ought to have taken more seriously. ("I consume quickly!" and "So when are ya'll getting married? And ya'll? And you two?" as well as the waiter ninja who crept in to refill glasses or take empty plates with the stealth of night) Following the humdrum awards part, the after party included a DJ playing a mix of decent to horrible music, door prizes, and two of our professors dancing to a pop song in an unprofessional manner. Oh, and there was a chocolate fountain of which I a fan! Yum! Stuck around for a while then caught a ride south with Cory. Hardly any traffic since it was so late. Overall a very pleasant time in T-town.
Now I'm working on homework, club related issues, and reading. Such fun! Such glamour! Such hype!
Skronky's clematis plants are blooming! Yay!
The fish, shrimps, dogs, and cat are all doing well. The Family is enjoying a new game called Dance Dance Revolution... I can't say I'm good at it since I've only done one round but everyone else seems to be improving quickly so it should last a while here.
[Back to getting ready for the Celebration... I was reminded of parts of L.M.Montgomery's books about girls getting ready for dances and teas. Even though her girls are from the late 1800's-early 1900's and my lovely ladies are clearly modern gals there is still the hair-messing, dress-fixing, general worry and excitement. Made me smile to think that cliche about no matter how things change they still stay the same is so very true. We're still all girls at heart...]