Blog?

...sitting in my office, bored at 11:15pm. I should be studying, or reading, or at least cleaning my kitchen but I am not.

I'm thinking maybe I'll resurrect this blog and see if anyone still checks it. We'll see.

Updates:

1. I'm now in grad school Down South, just started in August and it's going well so far.
2. Finally have my own place, and I'm loving it.
3. Downside: am now living 900 miles away from bf and most of my friends from college. So that sucks.
4. But am making many new and awesome friends out here (though they all talk funny, haha).

And that is really all for tonight. If I'm going to get back into this blogging thing I'm going to have to do it slowly. Baby steps, people.

love,
allie

Holy shit! I posted again!

Sitting in the apartment, listening to the This American Life podcast. Sigh... I love This American Life way more than I should. But hey, someone's gotta do it.

Ok, so... it's been a while since I last posted. Let's see, what have I been up to since then? Well, on Friday I visited Grad School of Choice. It was a good experience, I understand a whole lot more now than I did before about the program, but I still feel kind of lost. Here was the scenario: about half of the prospective students at this open house thing were already affiliated with lab groups, ready to get started on their thesis/dissertation. The other half was like me - wondering around with lost, blank looks on their faces. The thing is, I need to get a professor to agree to be my adviser and take me on into their lab in order for me to gain admission. I feel that I made some great connections, but there are still lots of ifs. I don't really know what those professors thought of me or whether they want to take me on or not. Uggg... applying for graduate school must be the most stressful thing I've ever done.

Oh well, at least classes are easy. Ridiculously easy, in fact. Hooray!

In better news, the lab I TA for went really well today. It's called Biodiversity, but I like to call it Baby Bio. Basically, it's a biology class for non-majors who have been made to sign up for a science class, against their will, in line with the whole liberal arts education. But I love it. It makes me feel like I know a whole lot about biology, even though I only have about 3 years under my belt. I know it's terrible, but I feel so much better about my scientific abilities after this lab than after I talk to my professors. Besides, these kids know they love biology, they just need someone to prod it out of them. You'll see - all these kiddies are going to be science majors soon enough. Anyway, today we were looking at protists under the microscope. They were finding live ones swimming around, and they got so excited! It was really cute.

Well, it seems that's all for today. This weekend should be fun, I'm excited.

love, allie

Back in the States, Part III

Here I am, sitting at Best Coffee Shop Ever (hence forth referred to as BCSE), where I should be working on lots of things.... graduate school shit, Environmental Chemistry homework... but instead I'm blogging. Just for you!

Before I finish my blogger trilogy of Panama, I'm going to discuss the awesomeness that occurred last night. As CL already documented, there was some drunkenness going on. The night started with me, CL, Charles Shaw, and Brokeback Mountain. CL and I decided to have our own personal tribute to the dearly departed Heath Ledger this weekend. We rented our high school favorite, 10 Things I Hate About You, (watched on Thursday!) and our new favorite, Brokeback Mountain. I hadn't seen it until last night, but wow. That was a beautiful movie. I think we're going to watch it again today. CL only stuck around for the first half of it anyway, then she and MW went over to Local Pub to watch and band and engage in various shenanigans... leaving me alone with a 1/2 bottle of 2-buck Chuck and Heath Ledger. Ooh la la.

After finishing the bottle, I went over to Local Pub to meet up with the crew. Fortunately, the band playing was really popular, meaning a big crowd at the pub and lots of friends and fun. Incriminating pictures posted on facebook: check!

But back to what you came for: more pictures of Panama!

So, here we go. We arrived at Bocas del Toro, and immediately fell in love with it. It's fucking beautiful!!! We stayed on Isla Colon, in the province (or state? I'm not really sure) of Bocas del Toro, which is on the Caribbean side of Panama. We stayed at the Smithsonian field station there, and they took good care of us. It's on the inland side of the island, so the water was clear and calm and all of the shorelines are covered in mangrove trees. You can kind of see that in this picture, it's taken of the dock at the Smithsonian station:


While at Bocas, we went batting with a professor from Florida. We went to La Gruta, a bat cave and also a grotto to Mary (interesting combination, I know). The story goes that a woman was washing her clothes in the stream that comes out of the cave and saw an image of Mary. I say that it is pretty nasty to be washing clothes in a stream full of bat shit, but whatever. Anyway, the area there is absolutely beautiful, too.


And while we were there we saw some really awesome bugs! Stink bugs? Maybe? If anyone knows, speak up!


On the grounds of the station there's this little pond. In the pond lives a few caymans. Here's one of them! They're so cute. Aww.


Back to Gamboa... here's a shot of the rain forest from the back of our truck. Riding in the trucks through the rain forest felt a little bit too much like Jurassic Park... but it was really cool.


Then we went over to Barro Colorado Island. It's a whole island owned by the Smithsonian and used for research. So... it's pretty cool. We went on a hike through the rain forest there, and it was amazing. Even the ferry ride over was cool. We had to get there at some ungodly hour of the morning, but (bonus!) we got to see the sunrise over the Panama Canal. And that, my friends, is fucking awesome.


I had about a million and a half pictures of things I saw on the hike through Barro Colorado. Here's my favorite. That's a big spider!


So, that's all the awesome biology-licious photos I'm going to post. Then we saw the locks at the Panama Canal. Sure, it was cool, but whatever. Not as cool as huge-ass spiders and monkeys. Seriously. But here she is, in all her glory:


And that wraps up my Panama story. If you want anymore info, go on and e-mail me. Bottom line: it was amazing. Yes, you should go. No, you should not wait. Go on, get up and go! Before even more of the rain forest is cut down (cattle-ranching bastards).

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

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

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

Good Day

Today was a good day.

To begin with, I dropped my most awful class: Physics. It's not really the physics that I had the problem with in this class... it was the professor. If he would just teach physics in the way physics was meant to be taught (with equations and numbers and whatnot) I would have no problem. However, he chose to teach it in the most convoluted way possible, all conceptual, no numbers, wtf. But it's ok now, I don't have to deal with that anymore. Unfortunately, my poor bf does. He was in that class with me... well, he is still in that class, I am not. Yay for me.

Then, to make my day even better, my dear daddy sent me flowers!


It was so funny, because he had them sent to my apartment, but of course I wasn't there. I never am during the day, so instead he had them sent to the coffee shop where I work... and where I am during every spare moment of my day. So of course I got them there. I walked in today and saw them on the back table, but I didn't even read the card because I had no idea they were for me. After I went back to my place, I got a call from LH, my friend who works there with me asking me why I didn't pick up my flowers when I came in. Cute.

Then, tomorrow there are no classes... so I'll have some time to get my life together a bit. I plan on working hard core on my grad school applications, something I've been slacking off on lately. In other good news, I got an email back from #1 choice school - that's encouraging!

Oh, and this weekend's shindig was a hit. Y tu mamá también was sexy, the sangria was strong, and life was good. Up for tonight: $2 pints at the pub! You should come!

love, allie

All I need in life

Well, I took the GRE yesterday*. The weird thing about the GRE is that, since it's entirely computer-based, you receive your scores instantly. I know, it's so convenient, and you don't have to worry that you won't get your scores in time, but for me that was the scariest part of the whole damn thing. Turns out I did... ok. Yep, just ok. To clarify - for me, "ok" means that I don't have to worry about not getting into grad school based on these scores... but they're not as high as I'd like. Maybe it has to do with my bringing up. I'm simply not satisfied with being merely average. Check that. I'm not satisfied with being merely above average. I need to work on this pesky perfectionist complex. Damn it.

Now I've just got the rest of the application process for grad schools ahead of me. And that's quite a task in itself. Any suggestions?

In other news, the bf was extremely nice to me all day yesterday even when I freaked out about my merely above-average score. What a nice guy. Plus, I figured out all it takes to make me happy! Here's the short list:

• pizza (preferably Papa Murphy's... mmm, home-baked)
• beer - andI got the good stuff, Hoegaarden (which, I learned recently is pronounced "who-garden" not "hoe-garden", FYI)
  
• chocolate truffles
  
• caramel apple

love, allie

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*"yesterday" in the section above actually refers to Wednesday, not actually yesterday yesterday. Finishing the post took longer than I thought. oops!

drinking games

tonight, instead of homework or other general productivity, caro, the bf and i played drinking games while watching tv shows. awesome sunday night! we started with the antiques roadshow drinking game (find it here), which is apparently inspired by frasier? let me know if you know anything about that one. then we changed the channel to abc (yes, no cable for us!) and started watching extreme makeover: home edition... probably the cheesiest television show ever made. That made us decided that it would make an excellent drinking game. bear with us, these rules may seem kind of mean, especially since most of the people on the show are terminally ill... but come on, if they didn't want people to make fun of it they shouldn't make it so damn cheesy!

here are the official rules for the extreme makeover: home edition drinking game:

• drink every time ty uses that annoying megaphone
• drink every time anyone says that something or someone is "special" or "inspirational"
• drink every time anyone hugs anyone else
• drink every time anyone cries - if they audibly squeak or make another weird noise, chug the rest of your beer

in an hour-long episode, you should make it through at least 2-3 beers. this game will get you significantly drunker than will the antiques roadshow drinking game, and is therefore much better.

in other news... the dreaded gre is coming up this week. i'm taking the test on wednesday and dreading it more than i have anything in a long time. i haven't really studied much, so i'll just have to hope for a good score. i figure, i didn't really study for the act and i did pretty good, so why should the gre be any different? i know, that's probably pretty awful reasoning, and my vocabulary is apparently shit, as far as my stupid gre study books have shown me. so for now, i'm just hoping that other people do worse than i do. also mean - i'm in a mean mood tonight, aren't i?

oh well, i should go soon. more stuff to do tonight that's not drinking or blogging (sad!). such is life.

love, allie

i love jim

so, this thursday. office party. my place. it's gonna fucking rock. but whatever, the office season premiere is on thursday, which is amazing. i'm way too in love with jim halpert for my (or my boyfriend's) own good. too bad i hope he gets with pam! awkward, but cool. it all works out in my head.

right now - should be studying. i got my paleo lab done, so that's a plus. what i really need to be working on, though is my application for the panama trip. see, the bio department is finally taking a field course in panama, but only 3 people get to go. who makes these rules? they are really mean. i need to write an essay saying why i should go instead of those other losers (like my boyfriend... oops). i feel like this is creating tension in the bio department right now among the seniors, though. i mean, of course we all want to go - it's panama (yeah, see that awesome pic... that's panama, and that's where i want to spend my january). but our direct competition isn't some nameless person - it's each other. so i can't help rob with his essay, he's my competition. but i don't want to be chosen over him. and i certainly don't want him to be chosen over me. in allie's perfect world, me and the bf and CW would be chosen and we would go have a wonderful time in panama. yay. let's shoot for that, ok? ok.


in other news... studying for the gre still sucks, i still don't know where i want to go to grad school (any suggestions?), and i still have too much homework but am motivated to do none of it. yay!

ok, must get back to work. i hate being back in school.

love, allie