Weekly statistics

322 Cambodia slides, done, in about 23 hours and our first produce box:

half a pound of red plums

one and a half pounds of valencia oranges

two pounds of gala apples

one pound of baby bok choy

one bunch of arugula

one pound of sweet peppers

one two-pound acorn squash

one head of romaine lettuce

one bunch of parsley

two pounds of yellow onions

two pounds of russet potatoes

Now, ending a long week with a stocked fridge, a fixed sink and socket and heater, scheming Halloween costumes, finally lying on the couch with a goodnight bowl of cereal and a Dexter season two marathon before drifting off to sleep.

Put the "cation" in "education"

I always feel like I have to add some sort of disclaimer when I start to go on and on about Chemistry, because I liked it (and Mr. VanMuyden) enough in high school to take on an unheard of sixth period my senior year to work in the little room just to the right of the classroom, in gloves and goggles, sifting shelves for solids and calculating molarities, putting "acid to water like you ought'er" and almost getting knocked out by some potent HCl once after pouring it out before remembering to turn on the fume hood. Yeah, I like it. I still like it. I'm just anticipating being done with it, maybe wishing I got a couple other assignments in my other class so I wasn't constantly immersed in Chemistry. I have very little homework for my two Biology classes--an open-book, online quiz here, a trip to the greenhouse there--but in my last quarter of Chemistry ever, professor Bogo is making quite sure that he squeezes the last bits of potential energy out of me before I can make it to the ornithology, paleontology, botany, and mycology classes of my dreams (once I tackle two more quarters of Biology, two quarters of Physics, and one of Biostatistics, of course). What I mean to say is that, as I sat in the Humanities lecture hall today being lectured on reaction rates and sitting pen to open planner making my weekly to-do list, the homework section read "chem lab report," "chem prelab," "chem homework," and the "chem practice test" for the "CHEM 1C MIDTERM" I have penned in big block letters on Friday, October 16.

So that to-do list is what I have to do today after I get out of work at four, where the smell of slide cleaner has become less pungent but where it seems like someone has left the heater on because it has been eighty degrees in this little room for the past two days and no amount of open windows, doors, or oscillating fans has brought the temperature down any. Upon entering today, I quickly stripped off cardigan, scarf, leggings, socks, and threw my hair up off my sweaty neck before doing anything else. And I'm still at it with the Cambodia slides, but I'll be thinking of Chemistry, and not that, soon enough.

Meanwhile, trying to figure out how to change the address that automatically pops up when I start typing "Google"--I'd prefer to leave google.ca in Canada along with the fact that I couldn't watch any shows online while I was up there which made the long days even longer. Not like the Netflix (and the second season of Dexter, which we started last night) that we have streaming from the Xbox Pup brought, and the whole other game world inside of it that Pup just texted me from to say that's he's currently doing very well at Halo, just thought I'd like to know.

Maniac chops rye

Although there was grocery shopping and cooking last night, this is what's been occupying our whole weekend. Season one in a little more than twenty-four hours, and we just can't stop.

Four days, fifteen hours, two hundred scans

Getting back into the routine of work, the routine of school, is headache-y sprayed with photo emulsion cleaner. Right now, I'm facing down a massive box of Cambodia slides and it's slow going--13.3333 images an hour. Glad for the weekend, and no work on Fridays. Dreaming about homemade chicken satay and peanut sauce, grocery shopping as an ends to that mean, hopefully a bike ride to the Natural History Museum and if I just happen to pack a blanket, a nap on the beach might be in order. Long day, could definitely use that sleep right now!

Get money money, take money money, get paid mommy, come on, come on

Went (right) to the mailroom after classes to pick up a package full of kitchen essentials--pumpkin carving kit!--and my new nose ring courtesy of my mom, then (left) to get back up in that scanning lab for my first day back to work where I hope to whaaat get money, get paid, haay.

Quick recap of today: Dandy Warhols singing about how we used to be friends while thinking about senior year and sighing, but good news is I made it through Dan Deacon if only by deleting a few of the more annoying albums, and found out that I'm gonna have a pretty breezy quarter for once in a Chemistry class with a high pass rate instead of a high fail rate, even if it is "cutthroat Chemistry" said the guy behind me in section today while Rosa Nguyen heartlessly and super-fashionably cut the class down to just those that can fit before the fire marshall has a fit, more sighing, but relief replaced nostalgia, because I didn't have to fight my way in and so lucky I got enrolled when all over I hear freshmen complaining about not being able to crash 1A and worrying for Pup while he tries desperately to crash 1A oh no!, but he's gotta get it Mr. Sophomore standing, and I stood in a cramped triple freshman dorm, so weird to see the way you've become, so happy that the way I've become feels better than it feels to hang out with you, even for half an hour, and so glad to have a single and no annoying roommates, just five sweet apartmentmates who were miraculously all in the same room last night, so how about those jack o 'lanterns?

Thinking about duets, now leaving to pick up Pup for our first dining hall meal of the year.

Also, I love this

Goodnight!

CASFS Harvest Festival

Today was corn, cows, secret passageways, and beautiful bunches of dried safflower, wheat, and millet hanging from the ceiling of the seed house--the Harvest Festival at the farm. Pup and I got there a little late, so we missed the apple pie bake-off and the tea garden tour, but we got to explore on our own anyway and end with a chocolate chip cookie each sitting on a hay bale listening to a mandolin rendition of "Red Clay Halo." Best of all was the discovery of a customizable, year-round, organic, farm fresh produce service that delivers once a week, once every two weeks, once every three weeks, once every four weeks to the farm for $31 a box that two roommates have already wanted to pitch in for, and veggie-hating Pup would even be willing to try out if we switched out a few leafy greens for corn, carrots, and asparagus. I'm very very excited!

Week one of classes, a total of two day's worth, were not quite as subversive as the anarchy-promoting sit-in students occupying the balcony above Joe's in the Quarry may have hoped, but just as fascinating as I had hoped. Between Bogo, Baldo, and Zavanelli, I'm looking forward to a quarter of geeky science and no laughing even when we're being lectured about the speed of ejaculate, and nice to know the sophomores around me are less sophomoric this year than when they were finally-free freshman who cared more about tequila than textbooks.

And apartment living is just as nice as I had hoped.