la la la... no more school, but other stuff. A.K.A longest title to a blog entry ever

Sitting in the public library at home.

Working, or not, on my essays.

Chatting with grace.

I can't wait for Christmas! Arrgg... being home is not as fun as I would have liked. None of my high school friends have called, but then again I haven't called any of them either. Christmas shopping, Christmas baking, Christmas cleaning! It all needs to be done... but then again all of that is way more fun than school for me right now.

I guess it's up to me to bake for Christmas this year. My mom is an excellent cook - but she doesn't bake. We're having the whole big family over and I've been put in charge of all desserts, cookies, and candy. Eeee!

More updates later! Well, we'll see. My parents still live in the stone age and only have dial-up. Doing anything on the internet can be very frustrating.

Must go! Christmas beckons!

love, allie

I'm done!

Done with finals!

Done with this stressful semester!

Now I have time to really crack down on those grad school applications... and maybe do a bit of Christmas shopping. Also - get ready for my trip to Panama!

Spending New Year's Eve in Panama is going to be the highlight of my year. It sucks that I'll be out of town, sounds like there's going to be some good parties here, but still... It's New Year's, it's Panama, it doesn't get any better than that.

Everyone's going home for the break, it's a bit bittersweet. Some of my friends are graduating at semester, like Blondie who stayed here the past few days. It's sad because I know it'll never be the same for us. We used to live together, you know? And now it's coming to the end. Yes, this seems a bit like the beginning of the end. I'm scared to graduate, but excited at the same time. It kind of feels like I've finally gotten comfortable here and now it's time to move on again. But at the same time there's a lot of things I wish I'd done differently here, and I'm ready to start a new phase of my life. For instance, I wish I'd made more friends, I wish I'd been more outgoing, I wish I'd taken more pictures, I wish I'd kissed a few more boys (but I do love my bf), I wish I'd spent a little more time hanging out with the girls, I wish I'd gone to Europe, I actually do with I'd spent a little more time studying... the list goes on.

Rrr... no more sentimentality. Must go. Must pack. Must clean. Must go to a movie with CL (yay!).

I'm going home tomorrow, so blog posts will be less frequent. I've got shit to do, people!

love, allie

Pedestrians = friends (not roadkill)

Holy shit, people of Wisconsin.

There's this law. It says that, while driving, you need to YIELD to PEDESTRIANS in the CROSSWALK. I, as a frequent pedestrian, would greatly appreciate you doing so. The rest of the pedestrians would appreciate that as well. The city realized this, and decided to put a big, fancy, bright yellow sign in the middle of the crosswalk reading "STATE LAW: YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS WITHIN CROSSWALK," in the hopes that the people of this city would obey that sign.

They did not obey the sign.

In fact, they RAN OVER IT.



Yep, that's the sign on my street. Poor sign, all tattered up from being RUN OVER by a careless Wisconsinite driver. I especially like the nice chunk taken out of the picture of the pedestrian by the "incident." Is this what Wisconsin thinks of its pedestrians?

I ask: if a fluorescent yellow sign can sit in the middle of the crosswalk each day, in the same spot, and it gets run over... what will be the fate of me, crossing at that same crosswalk everyday on my way to school?

More than being LAW, isn't it just polite to yield to pedestrians, especially if it is snowing or windy or cold or raining, or otherwise uncomfortable to be outside? Especially since they are not releasing excess amounts of carbon into the atmosphere by walking, but your car does by driving it?

This is my rant for the day. Yield to pedestrians!

love, allie

New haircut, procrastination part II, and an early morning freakout

My new haircut was... less exciting than expected. I only got a trim, and then a few more layers (for "movement" as my stylist said). But come to think of it, I kind of liked my longer, all-one-length hair better. Oh well, it will grow out soon. I don't hate it, just kind of regretting my decision to get it cut. My stylist styled it funny, too. You know how when you go to the salon and you get your haircut, and the lady blow dries it for you... it just never looks the same as when you do it yourself? I mean, not that I'm the pro here or anything. Just the way she styled it was very... not me. All straight and curled under. I'm more of a wild and wavy type myself.

Yesterday... did not get done what I needed to get done, which equals more stress for today. I was laying in bed at around 1:15 or so this morning, not really sleeping, just running things through my head... when I suddenly freaked out. Let me recap for you:

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I was somehow totally convinced that Dr. H, my most important reference for grad school, had finished all of his work at school and was leaving early on his way out of the country to visit somewhere tropical (which he has a tendency to do every break - I want this man's lifestyle!). That would mean that I wouldn't be able to use him as a reference and, in my crazy half-sleep, decided that I would never get into grad school and would have to work at McDonald's for the rest of my life.

I jumped straight up in bed, called the bf, made him come over and tell me that it was going to be ok, then yelled at him for just telling me that to calm me down, and that he didn't really know if Dr. H was gone by now or not. Made the bf leave my apartment, still mad at him.

Texted CW, a friend in the environmental science department and cohort on Panama trip, asking him if he knew where Dr. H was and if he was still in town. Finally received text message back from CW at around 1:45 saying that he was "over 90% sure that Dr. H is still around" and something to the fact that Dr. H loves me anyways and would run home from said tropical destination to fill out reference letter for me.

Still not satisfied, I went to my computer, checked the finals schedule, saw that Dr. H still had to administer a final exam this week. Decided life would go on. Went back to sleep.

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Then today I went over to Dr. H's office, found him there and gave him the materials for references. He was very nice, "Of course I'll fill these out for you - I'm so glad you want to go to grad school! Have a merry Christmas!"

Life is ok now. Must not freak out anymore.

love, allie

Today: like yesterday only newer!

Today, this is what I will do. Please feel free to check up on me to see if I, in fact, did this things. My procrastination and preoccupation with new networking site is getting the best of me. H'ok, so... list:

• get dressed
• work on paper for paleobiology
• work on personal statement for grad schools
• meet with professors so that they can give me references to said grad schools
• study for paleobiology exam
• study for org. chemistry exam
• haircut: 3pm

Please don't be nice to me until these things are done. If I don't get these things done today, I will have been v. naughty girl (te he, naughty is a funny word).

That is all.

love, allie

The day after the day after

After an awesome party and a day spent recuperating from said awesome party, today was my first real day back at life. But (bonus), no classes or finals or work today... just the whole day to myself to do what I need to do a bunch of stupid crap all day.

My day:

• 10am - wake up
• 10:30am - sit on internet, talk to CR (although it was a v. good conversation - ps CR: I need to update you), do some internet shopping
  
• 11:30am - make kick-ass breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee
• 12:00pm - drive to Wal-greens with CL, pick up anti-preggers meds and check out awesome deals on cosmetics (conditioner for $2! lip balm for $2! yes!)
  
• 2:00pm - the bf calls. I think "holy shit! I've been doing nothing all day!" And then the bf comes over for a bit before his exam
• 2:15pm - back on the computer - I can't even remember what I was doing at this point
• 3:00pm - "holy shit! it's 3pm!" do first productive thing of day: shower
• not sure what happened between 3 and 5.
• 5:00pm - bf comes over, we make dinner... get distracted...
• 7:00pm - "oh crap! I told CL I'd be at library at 6!" go to library, but first go pick up lovely package from m&d. oooh! cookies!
  
• 9:00pm - get bored at library, but have computer, begin looking around at blogs and such

Holy shit! It's almost 9:30! Must run, lots to do still. Must make up for unproductive day!

love, allie

Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll

In response to CL's comment that my blog is too innocent (read: boring!), I have decided to make today's post about sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, as she requested.

So when I Googled "sex + drugs + rock n roll"... I found the tattoo that I'm totally going to get:

I especially like how the "drugs" girl is invisible, and neither one has a face. Nice. You know, those things aren't important. I hope it's just half finished.

You should get one, too. We can all have matching tattoos of naked chicks on our arms. It will be sweeet.

But you know, if we're all going to get matching tattoos, we should get really pretty ones, with pink sparkles on them. And we should get them where real friends symbolize their love for one another: on our asses. That's exactly what I want on my ass when I'm 70 years old. Then when we're all 70, we can still know that we're pink-sparkley-butt-tattoo best friends. Not just boring regular best friends. Well, that's what these girls wanted I guess. I would suppose that the conversation that preceded this decision went something like this:

"Come on guys, let's all get, like, matching tattoos because we're totally BFFs!!!!!!!"

"Ok, cool... what should we get, LOL?"

"We should get something that's totally, like, going to be soooooo meaningful. Like, forever! Because we're, like, best friends forever!!!!!!!"

"Yeah! OMG! You know what would be, like, sooooooooo cute? Pink sparkely hearts!!! On our butts!!!!!"

"OMG yeah, like totally!!!!! I will sooooooo want that on my ass forever!!!!!"

"And then we can, like, show people!!!!!!!! Oooh! And we could all, like, get matching pink sparkley thongs too! And then people will know that we will be BFFS.... forever!!!!!!!!! OMG we are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



So, you up for it?
Good. We'll go tomorrow.

love, allie

Weekend plans and a sigh of relief

CL and I are having a party this weekend. It's going to be great. Ugly Sweater Christmas Party... you get the picture. So far, we've got a good number of people coming - and apparently a box of Franzia! Life is good.

Today was a crazy day. But now my presentation is done and so is my lab practical, and my lab report is handed in. Still tired - I didn't get to sleep until 1am, then got up at 6:30 to keep working. The bf came over, though - he made it all more tolerable. We both had things to do and had to stay up late... so why not do it together? It feels nice to have all of those things off my shoulders and just done. DONE! Now all I have to worry about it finals and grad school applications. ...yeah. Here's the plan for now:

• Next week: FINALS
• Grad School apps - need to be mailed by Christmas
• Christmas shopping... yeah, probably should do that by Christmas, too
• PANAMA! ...but I need to get ready for it, buy stuff, pack stuff, etc.
• relax? at some point? maybe? nah.

I'm really ready for break. Ready to go home... weird.

love, allie

So f-ing classy

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= Best snack ever... thanks CL!

love, allie
(even though I'm so gauche)

Camel toe?

Is it just me, or do these sandals look really wrong? Ok, it's great that they're eco-friendly... but seriously? I don't think the camel-toe design is a requisite for eco-friendly accessories. Still, if you're really interested, they're available here, although it is a London-based website. God, I hope these things don't catch on here in the States. Could they possibly be the next Crocs? I think I'll have nightmares tonight.

love, allie

Library = quiet, no?

Should not be blogging now.

Should be finishing class assignment.

However, all of the people in the library should not be running around chasing each other, screaming like little girls, telling each other how drunk they were this weekend, or who they or their roommates had sex with. Indoor voices people!

Sorry for the rant, that is all.

love, allie