Laura’s blog

What fictional creature do you wish were real?

Fire lizards from Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series.  Little pet dragons always really appealed to me.  I'd love to have a few.

I haven't really been on Vox much lately.  I'll update.

I've started school.  I already had one test, and this week I have two more.  I'm not too worried, but I need to start studying hard.  I'm still adjusting to school since I've been out of school for three years.  First week I was excited and overwhelmed, and basically functioning on adrenaline and whatever other anxiety hormones there are.  The second or third week is when I started to come down from that, hard.  I was having trouble staying awake.  Haven't had to get up at 6 am in about three years also.  My usual time to roll out of bed is around 10:30.  So, 6-ish is a huge adjustment.  I usually go in with my mother, and I've started napping in the backseat of her car until I need to go to class.  With the cooler weather,  that works out well.  Anyway, my schedule is okay.  There's a huge gap in my Wednesdays between my two classes, but I will be starting work soon in one of the labs there.  I'll be doing more PCR.  Shouldn't be so bad.  Anyway, here's my schedule.

Monday
EPI610 lab, 1-2:50 pm

Tuesday/Thursday
EPI621, HIV/AIDS and STDs, 9:30-10:45 am
BST611, Intermediate Statistical Analysis I, 2-3:15 pm
EPI610, Principles of Epidemiologic Research, 3:30-4:45 pm

Wednesday
HCO600, Intro to Public Health Systems and Population, 8-10:40 am
ENH600, Fundamentals of Environmental Health Sciences, 5:30-8 pm

I can never find enough to do to take up that large gap on Wednesdays.  I like my environmental health class, I just hate how long I have to wait around for it.  That's what I'm hoping that job will help with.  Too much idle time makes me really lazy.  I remember from undergrad that when I had less time to sit around and waste, I kept up with my classes better because I had to or I'd fail by getting behind.  That's what I'm hoping for with this job: that I'll be so busy all the time that I'll have to study or risk failing.  I really want to do well, to make better grades that the B's I usually got.  So, I'll have to do more work and more studying and reading, which I'm not currently doing.

I haven't really made friends yet.  It seems a lot of other people have, but then I don't know if they already knew each other or what.  I basically just go to class and leave when it's over.  I walk over to the VA and hang out with my dad a little, he gives me money, heh.  Then I'll walk over to someplace for lunch.  That or I go to lunch with my mother.  She usually eats at Firehouse Subs or Qdoba.  I prefer McAlisters.  They have a new sandwich I like, chicken pesto.  It was delicious.  I'll have to get it again.  I feel bad having to rely on them to take me to school and pick me up.  I need to hurry up and take that road test for my license.  And buy a car.  I might should buy the car first.  I'll have to tell my dad, to take me somewhere to buy one.  I have no idea how to buy a car though.  Maybe he knows.  I haven't seen the psychologist in a month.  I need to make an appointment soon.  Anyway, there are some attractive guys there, I've seen around in my classes or in the halls.  I'll never talk to any of them of course.  That would be awkward and embarrassing.

Saturday I got my parents to go eat at the Indian restaurant I like.  They said they really liked it, and I think it was food my dad could actually eat.  I'm not sure if my mother liked her meal that much, it was rather spicy.  Molly went with us, she was sleepy and we woke her up from her nap in the car.  She was a little grumpy.  But the people there were really nice, several came over to talk to her.  Our waiter made a little mouse out of a napkin and tried to entertain her with it.  She was still grumpy though.  She liked the chip things we got.  They tasted like potato chips, but I'm pretty sure they weren't, not exactly anyway.  I haven't eaten there in a while, they changed the cracker thing they give you.  Before they had some sort of giant cracker/chip that was kind of spicy.  Aaron didn't like them, but I thought they were fine.  Anyway, I got the same thing I always like, mutter paneer.  It was so good.  I ordered chicken tikka masala for my dad.  He liked it.  I forget what my mother got, it was chickpeas in a gravy.  She said she thinks there was a lot of ginger in it, that made it so spicy.  I took what wasn't eaten home.  I ate the rest of the mutter paneer yesterday for lunch.  I'm going to eat my mother's meal for lunch today.  (No lab today because there's a test in the epi610 class this week; there's an optional study session this afternoon instead, which I plan to go to.  My dad is off today, he said he'd take me.)  I got a haircut a week or so ago before my grandmother's birthday party.  I like it, it's pretty short.  Looks better than it did anyway.  My mother got a new puppy, another miniature dachsund.  Her name is Lily, and she has sharp little teeth.  She also has an extra nipple.

Anyway, I'm enjoying my classes.  For the most part things are going well.

Audio: Share an album in your collection that's a classic from the first to the last cut (no need to use the skip button).  Submitted by Cortadito. 

Jimmy Eat World

Jimmy Eat World

Audio: Show us your favorite compilation album. 
Submitted by Mana'olana.  

No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion

Various Artists

Who is the very first friend you ever had?  Are you still in touch?

A girl I met in kindergarten who had the same first name as me, was blonde like me, and had the same My Little Pony lunchbox as me.  We lost touch when I changed schools after the 3rd grade, and I can't get in touch now because she died in 1998.

Stapelia_gigantea_flower02_resized.jpg

It smells like rotting mammalian flesh.

What do you absolutely refuse to eat?

I'm not a picky eater, but anything I refuse to eat is usually related to meat.  I won't eat it if it's undercooked.  Even though I like sushi.  Also, I don't think I'd ever eat haggis.  I might try it if it's offered, but at the moment I refuse.  It's a sheep's windpipe, heart, lungs and liver boiled inside it's stomach.  I also refuse to eat raw oysters.  It's hard enough to eat cooked ones.  Oh, and I refuse to eat chitlins.  However, like the haggis, I might try it at least once.  I also refuse to eat leftovers that are over a day or two old, depending on what it is.

Who's the most annoying person on TV?

Most people on tv are annoying.  But other than those that seem to get on the news all the damn time (Rosie, Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy drama) I have to go with Bill O'Reilly.  But Peter Petrelli is annoying, too, along with Daleks.

After all the recent season and series finales, what are you watching on TV these days?

I think One Tree Hill has a couple more episodes.  Not sure, haven't checked that.  Other than that, I've been downloading entire seasons of shows I like.  I downloaded all of the Law & Order: SVU seasons.  I'd seen a lot more of them than I thought I had.  Only didn't see most of season 7 and 8.  So, now I'm all caught up.  I've just downloaded season 1 of Dr. Who.  The new one, not the original one.  I've enjoyed it a lot so far.  I've started downloading season 2.  That's pretty much all of the tv I've been watching.  Not sure what I'll move on to after I'm done with Dr. Who.