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Wednesday, January 30, 2002
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I have become the worst updater ever! =)
So, what have I done in the last week? It feels like I haven't had time to breathe. But then again, who needs breathing? At least it's been fun - I've spent a lot of time chillin' with the frat brothers (that makes me sound so.....not female, I think). I skied for the first time on Saturday, and I'm finally beginning to feel not sore. It was a lot of fun, though. I need to go again. I'm supposed to go to Tahoe for Spring Break, so that will give me plenty of opportunities to get much better. Yay for skiing!
But other than lots of quality PSP time, there has been lots of quality time with PSP finances. I had no idea that it would be this much work! Yikes! Don't get me wrong - I'm so glad to be treasurer and to be on exec board, but I'm so, so busy. Helen and I have decided that it's a love-hate relationship - it frustrates us to no end, there's a lot of work, but when given the choice between PSP and schoolwork, well, you know what wins (and it's not physics or chemistry, that's for sure). Hopefully things will slow down just a tad once I get the funding application in. We'll see.
In the meantime, I don't know who else's computer does this, but my computer makes a different sound for the first IM from someone and the rest of the IMs they send. It's a deeper sound. I've come to hate that sound in the last few days (I am Pavlov's dog, apparently). It's so ironic - I spent 4 1/2 months in Connecticut, slightly annoyed because people hardly ever IMed me - now they can't get enough of me. I'm everyone's best friend. I don't have time for everyone. I put up away messages saying I'm busy, doing work, leave me alone....but does anyone listen? NO! Not that I mind too much, because if I did, I'd just turn IM off or go and study in the library right? (Speaking of which - I've never really understood why people go to the library to study until recently....) But sometimes....ahh, it's got to get easier. My classes aren't even that hard, when I have a few moments to actually look at the coursework.
Speaking of which....I decided to skip section for OR310 today. Why, you ask? Because it's pointless. I have section on Wednesday, homework is due on Tuesday. I finished the homework for next Tuesday before section was scheduled to start today. So why go? The extra time enabled me to get some chem done AND take a nap. It was a great afternoon (no one IMed me - can you tell?)! I actually felt productive, yippee!
Ahh, so I have work tonight and then some quality time cleaning out the PSP "Closet of Doom," as we've dubbed it. But I'm feeling refreshed and high-spirited, so things are good. Yay!
- Lizzardie, at 6:00 PM
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Wednesday, January 23, 2002
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Okay, I know I only have like 2 readers, but I want to apologize and say that I'm way busy with very little time to write! Yikes! I have so much PSP finance stuff to go through, it's crazy. The next week and a half is going to be way hectic, and I don't even know how my classes are yet, because I haven't cracked a book! I thought I'd give a little blurb now, just to say hello. And oh yeah, my faith in humans today increased, though I won't elaborate. I just realized that there's a lot more good out there than is sometimes visible. =)
- Lizzardie, at 11:43 PM
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Sunday, January 20, 2002
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Jaclyn's right - I'm so not the princess anymore. It's kind of this funny feeling. I've been hanging out with people pretty much everyday, whether it's Amy or Jaclyn or Betsy or Crystal (or some combination, and there have been other people who've made appearances) and I'm having a blast. But it feels so weird and lonely to go back to my apartment and be by myself - I'm so used to the "sleepover party" thing - staying up late to talk and then having a friend there first thing in the morning when I get up. My roommates are cool and all, but it's really not the same thing. It's funny - last semester whenever I visited I felt on top of the world - everyone wanted to know how I was doing and what I was up to and I wanted to know the same thing about everyone, too. Now, well, seeing everyone on a more daily basis - having the time and not being forced to cram a million things in less than 48 hours - it feels almost lonely and depressing. It's 1:00am, and a voice inside my head wants to know why I'm not with friends right now. I suppose I could go do the frat party thing, but I feel a bit too old for that. *sigh* I hope once classes start I'll be too busy to be thinking these kind of thoughts, because I have no reason to. I spent the last 3 hours hanging out with Jaclyn and Crystal and I hung out with them last night, too. And the previous couple of nights, I was hanging out with Amy. What's my problem??? Wanting to be the center of attention all the time is not healthy for me at all, nor do I want to be the person who always has to be in the limelight.
On a lighter note, my computer decided to get all possessed today. It randomly shut down while I was typing something and then an away message that I did not put up was on when I woke up again. THEN, my keyboard just wouldn't work - I was cutting and pasting words when people would IM me - it was unreal! I went and bought a new keyboard, deciding that if I was going to spend money, I might as well spend money on something nice, so I got a cordless keyboard/mouse combo. They both still feel weird - hopefully it will get better soon....
- Lizzardie, at 1:10 AM
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Friday, January 18, 2002
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Amy and I are a bit insane, so what did we do last night? Went for a walk. Yes, we realize that it was about 30 degrees outside, but we did it anyways. The plan was to walk inside Barton, but the building was closed so we walked to North Campus and back. My legs and cheeks were like icicles by the time we got back to my apartment. And what did we talk about? The things that we tend to talk about. In fact, we made a very detailed list. Yes, we're nuts. Check it out here, it's pretty hilarious. And feel free to comment, we'd like to know if this list applies to just us or women in general. I'm trying to decide if I should put the link on my IM profile. Ahh, we have too much time on our hands right now. That will change, though, I'm sure. Just give things a couple days....
- Lizzardie, at 1:20 PM
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Thursday, January 17, 2002
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So, my room actually looks like I live here, which is really, really good. I still want to put up some pictures and there's a bit of disorganization left, but I'm going to slow things down a bit, I think. I spent a large quantity of money today on groceries, but a girl's gotta eat, right? It's kind of nice to have a variety of food instead of being like, pasta or rice?
I'm a little concerned because no one is calling and pounding on my door or leaving IMs saying, come and hang out with me! Aren't you all glad that I'm back??? I suppose it's possible that people don't know that I'm back in town, I'll have to take care of that. I could also call and IM people and pound on their doors, but I was hoping for a grand welcome back. I've hung out lots with Amy, so I don't include her in this, and I know that Jaclyn, Betsy and Crystal are all rushed out right now, so they are also forgiven. The rest of you, though.....
I should clean. Perhaps I'll sleep. I also have to call my mom today - it's her birthday (and the end of the January birthdays is coming up very soon, thankfully - I'm having trouble remembering so many, no other month is like this!). I guess I should get going on the things I need to do....
- Lizzardie, at 2:54 PM
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Wednesday, January 16, 2002
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I know you're all gunning for an update, so here we go!
I'm back from Connecticut, AGAIN, but for the last time! Yay! Things are going to feel so weird on Monday, when I'm still here (and in class!). Today seriously feels like a Saturday or something. I took care of all sorts of errand things today, though I still have a million and one things to buy - so much money gone! At least my loans disbursed and mad amounts of money will be deposited into my checking account tomorrow. I need to keep it around for car payments, though, alas.
My roommates are AWESOME. Especially Dahlia - she's so friendly and nice and talkative and we get along great! Stacy isn't back yet (she's the one I knew coming into the apartment) but I've met everyone else and they all seem really really cool. It's going to be a great semester! My room's starting to look all put together and everything - there are posters and pictures and quotes and banners all up on my walls now. I need my bulletin board, but I suppose it can wait. I also rearranged the furniture in my room, so it looks way better now. It's still a bit stuffy, but what can you do, right?
NYC was fun - we went ice-skating at Rockefeller Plaza, which was really cool until I fell on my kneecaps. Ouch. Then we went to this Japanese restaurant called Ruby Foos and ordered a ton of appetizers and drinks, of course. I spilled my first drink, so our waiter probably thinks I'm a lush (though he did replace it for free!) and Amy doesn't remember half of the afternoon (even though she only had one drink)! Afterwards, we went to see Chicago on Broadway (hehehehe - only I would make Chicago my first Broadway show!). It was really really good and I was totally appreciative of all of the Chicago references! All in all, though, the best part is that I don't have to go back to Connecticut (well, there's the summer, but that's far away)! YAY FOR ITHACA!!!!!!
- Lizzardie, at 5:40 PM
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Sunday, January 13, 2002
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All right, so I've been back in Ithaca for about 62 hours, so I thought maybe an update was in order before I go back to Connecticut with Amy to get the rest of my stuff. It has been so, so, SO good to be back! =) I have had a perpetual smile on my face ever since I returned, it's awesome. My apartment is pretty cool - I have a GORGEOUS view - I can see pretty much the whole town, including Wegman's and Cayuga Lake. My room is a bit stuffy, but that's okay. I'm a little concerned about my parking space - it's about a block away from my apartment (because closer would have necessitated paying much more money) which didn't seem like a problem until I got back from Alpha Phi at 3:00am Friday night....Ahh, well, I'll just have to be very careful, I suppose.
I've gotten to see quite a few people....okay, not really, but some of my closer friends....Amy, Betsy, Crystal and Jaclyn (in order of who I saw first). I also saw Ruth and met Amy's new boy, Paul. It's been good times. I went to the hockey game on Friday night and watched The Big Red kick Vermont's ass 7-2, yay!! It will probably be the only time I'll be able to walk into a hockey game and buy a ticket 15 minutes before the game starts, then sneak my way into where season ticketholders are. =) Ohh, and Betsy has me hooked on this new computer game of hers - it's all medieval like and the people talk funny but it's WAY addicting. I'm in trouble this semester, I can tell. =)
Other than that, like I said, it's so good to be back! I've been spending way too much time on IM, though, that may become a problem.....until about 5:00am this morning and then back on again at 9:30am (different people, so that looks a little better)....it's quite sad, though, I may have to limit the amount of time I spend talking to people, though the conversations were good. Roadrunner will be the death of me, though it's nice to be able to send email again!
All right, I should go and finish getting ready for the trip back to Connecticut (blah!). At least I'll have company and there will be some galavanting around NYC tomorrow, so all should be good!
- Lizzardie, at 2:29 PM
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Thursday, January 10, 2002
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Countdown: 4 days in CT, 0 days at PB (and no more Thursdays....and no more any days)!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't have too much to say. I'm really really REALLY REALLY excited about going back to Ithaca, though. Ohh, and I've decided that I need to schedule a trip down to Florida - it turns out that Crystal lives about 15 minutes from Tarpon Springs, where Janet (my dad's sister), John, Amelia and Max (her family) live. It' been too long since I've been to Florida.
- Lizzardie, at 9:48 AM
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Wednesday, January 09, 2002
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I am not happy. I ended up having to share my job summary with my supervisor and now I feel absolutely terrible. Argh. Why can't I be mean in peace??? I am such a coward.
- Lizzardie, at 2:51 PM
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Countdown: 5 days in CT, 1 day at PB (and no more Wednesdays!).
I wrote my stupid job summary today. I'm going to try and avoid showing it to my supervisor during my evaluation, though. I feel bad about saying I hated working here, especially because he'll probably tell me that I did a good job. Argh. I was going to lie on it, but I have trouble lying when I'm typing. My fingers just won't let me. I think it's partly because I like my writing to sound good and eloquent and I want it to flow nicely, and I just can't make it happening when what I'm saying isn't true. Writing is such an emotional thing, no matter what you're writing about - it's like immortalizing a part of yourself at a particular instance of time. You can't help but put something of yourself in what you write - and yes, the same is true of what you say, but when you say something, no one ever remembers exactly what words you said in what order - when you write something, it's there to be looked at again and again and again....see what I mean? I'm trying to write about why I don't want to show my job summary to my supervisor and I go off on this introspective tangent about writing. Argh.
I'm going to attempt to write about something, but we'll see how it goes. So...for the past year and a half, Jaclyn, Betsy and I have been trying to start this organization to increase voter awareness on campus - completely non-partisan, blah, blah, blah. It's more Jaclyn and Betsy's project not mine - I was sort of roped in but now am kind of excited about it as well. The thing is Betsy and Jaclyn are driving me up a wall and they don't realize it (this is why I'm not sure if this is a good idea to write about - my track record on writing about other people here is not so good, but I know that neither Jaclyn nor Betsy ever read this thing...at least I think I know that....). I'm caught in the middle of a dispute of theirs and I'm not sure what to do. I always end up being the middleman (I've decided that I'm either really good at being the middleman or I really suck at it because that ends up being my role ALL THE TIME - it's vicious cycle that I can't seem to free myself from). I don't mind being the middleman, but I kind of don't understand why it has to be this way. Neither of them has any problem saying how they're feeling to me, so why can't they tell each other? It's like it's my job to lessen the blow. They don't to jeopardize their friendship, so they have me relay information to the other and vent at the same time. Neither can see why the other is upset - maybe they use me because I'm a neutral party but really I'm not. I don't know. So now I have to sort out information and basically play counselor so they don't kill each other. Argh. What a day this is going to be....
- Lizzardie, at 10:48 AM
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Tuesday, January 08, 2002
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Countdown: 6 days in CT, 2 days at PB (and no more Tuesdays!).
My supervisor got me a cake today....it said, "Bon Voyage Liz" on it. Actually, half of said cake is now out in my car - I'm not sure what to do with it. It's the richest chocolate cake I've ever had (and I've had cakes before that have been titled, "Death By Chocolate"). This cake was layer of chocolate cake, twice as thick layer of chocolate mousse, layer of chocolate cake, another thick layer of chocolate mousse, layer of chocolate cake, and then a top that was more pure dark chocolate than frosting. I couldn't finish the piece I did eat.
I've been "training" Ying. I'm a horrible teacher, I swear. I learn mostly by actually doing things. All the things I've been teaching Ying....really just explaining what I've done and showing her around the building...were things that I learned just by jumping in and doing them. So I'm inclined to think that's how she should learn, too. I know people learn different ways...it's just frustrating for me. I feel horrible, but she asks me a thousand questions and I start to get annoyed because I think, it's obvious once you actually do these things. *sigh* I guess I should try to be more patient - patience is not a quality I possess much of, though.
I talked to both Laura and Rachel online last night....they both started classes yesterday...I'm kinda jealous....ah well, just a little longer for me....
- Lizzardie, at 3:15 PM
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Monday, January 07, 2002
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Countdown: 7 days in CT, 3 days at PB (and no more Mondays!).
Ahh, my last week. Seriously, I'm looking forward to Friday more than I looked forward to Christmas, it's crazy. The anticipation is building. I am such a nut - everyone else is out there, wishing their breaks were longer, whereas I'm like, please, let classes start!!! Please!!! As Jaclyn so eloquently phrased it, bring on the pain! (She doesn't seem to think my semester is going to be as great as I'm predicting.) Just a little longer....
I spent all day Saturday packing, so now my room is just a bunch of boxes. It's amazing - my stuff doesn't look like it's a lot, but I know that I'm going to struggle to fit it all into two carloads. Yikes!!! It took less time than I thought to pack, though - I figured I would be spending all weekend on the project, but it only took up part of Saturday. Nice.
I forgot to put my watch back on this morning. =( This means I will now spend all day basically feeling naked and freaking out because it's not there. Not good, not good at all. I'll be very relieved when I get back to it this evening.
The new co-op student, Ying, starts today. I'm supposed to kind of orientate her and train her on the projects we've been working on. I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to conceal my apathy for this place. Probably not, and maybe I shouldn't. I don't know - I don't want her to look forward at the next 7 months with dread, but I also don't want to give her a false impression of this place. *sigh* Such a predicament....
- Lizzardie, at 8:26 AM
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Friday, January 04, 2002
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Countdown: 10 days in CT, 4 days at PB (and no more Fridays!).
Packing. That's what's on my plate for this weekend. I'd like to have most of it done this weekend, because I don't want to be stuck doing it after work any day next week. That's really about it. I have to do some sort of job summary and evaluation form for my co-op soon. My supervisor wants me to have it done to go over with him, but this idea is not pleasing to me. I want to complain in my evaluation, but I plan on tempering the complaining when I talk to my supervisor about it. It's one thing for him to know that I'm unhappy here, it's quite another for him to know that I'm absolutely miserable. I have to come back here, dammit! Besides, it's good to have contacts in the industry (oh geez, listen to me!). And besides, he's like, if you don't do it before you leave, it won't get done because you'll get wrapped up in moving and registration and classes, blah, blah, blah....who's he to tell me how to manage my time? I don't like that, I don't like it one bit. Perhaps I'll just put it off, say, a week longer? I'm being mean, but what the hell, I'm so glad to be leaving here.
- Lizzardie, at 10:39 AM
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Thursday, January 03, 2002
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Countdown: 11 days in CT, 5 days at PB.
In bringing my lunch up to my office, I spilled my soda on said lunch not once, but twice. Apparently I was destined to have coke-flavored beef stirfry for lunch. How appetizing.
I talked to Amy yesterday. It's amazing how much shorter the drive home seems when I'm on the phone the whole time. =) Don't worry, I was using the hands free device, even though cell phones while driving are still legal in Connecticut. So yeah...Amy and I planned our roadtrip. She decided that DC was not a reasonable destination this time of year, due to possible snowstorms, so we're going to chill in NYC, as originally planned. Something about skating at Rockefeller Center, visiting Groud Zero and maybe a Broadway show. After that, I think I'm all NYC-ed out - I've done quite a bit of the touristy things - haven't been to the Statue of Liberty, but only Ellis Island is open right now, not the statue, so maybe another time.
Amy wants to throw me a "Welcome Back" party, or, as she aptly put it, an "I Survived My Co-op Without Losing My Mind" party. Any excuse for a party, I suppose. And now for my favorite quote from my almost 90 minute convo with her: "Here's your new plan....you don't get a say in the plan....you need to find a senior boy to take you to the senior formal so that we can wear our red dresses together." Ahh, do I have good friends or what?
- Lizzardie, at 1:18 PM
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Wednesday, January 02, 2002
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Countdown: 12 days in CT, 6 days at PB.
Hmm, it's been awhile. I'm trying to decide if I should recount my vacation or not. It was fun, but may be a little boring if I regurgitate it to you all. I guess I'll just give a general breakdown and maybe elaborate on it. So...right before I left there was a day spent in Manhattan where my sister left me to wander around for 3 hours by myself. How kind of her. On to the trip to Illinois: I arrived (with little trouble getting to the airport or through the airport) then there was the Christmas Eve thing, then the Christmas thing, then a day at Uncle Nick's (complete with shopping with my mom and aunt), not much then shopping then dinner with Jaime on Thursday, trip to my mom's work then the law firm I worked at then my uncle's on Friday, dinner with the fam on Saturday (with my German Chocolate cake from Patisserie!!!), Red Lobster and shopping then dinner with Laura in Evanston on Sunday, shopping then coffee with Rachel then party with Shelly on Monday (New Year's Eve), back to CT on Tuesday (with little trouble once again). That was the vacation.
Now for at least a few details. I got to sleep in my old room while I was there - my mom finally fixed the water bed heater, which made me not want to leave said room, even though none of my things are in there anymore. Why couldn't the heater have been fixed during the 2+ years the bed was mine??? Jeez. Christmas with the fam wasn't so bad - the Candlelight Service at church finally, FINALLY put me in the holiday spirit. Took long enough, I swear. It was kind of cool, because Suzanne managed to bring Cornell into her sermon (only I knew it though) - she mentioned seeing a friend of hers - Kirsten Merrick - and Kirsten was the woman who interviewed me when I was applying to Cornell - I remembered being so shocked that someone who went to Cornell lived in my town, and as it turns out, my neighbor and pastor know the woman. Such a small world. So yeah, once the holiday spirit hit me, I started IMing everyone on my buddy list with holiday greetings - such fun! Yippee! Christmas presents included rent money (as I refer to cash as), a scanner and some PSP merchandise (key chain, mug, license plate thingy) - there goes my theory that my mom doesn't know the name of my fraternity!
I enjoyed seeing my friends. I got to see Jaime's engagement ring - makes me wish I had a diamond (or 3) on my finger, though I'm in no hurry to get married and don't even have a prospect of a groom. She confirmed that I'm going to be a bridesmaid, along with her twin sisters, and that the dresses will be "Thunderbird Blue" as her fiance Jeremy dubbed the color. Other than talking about the wedding (Jan. 4, 2003, as of now) we talked about people from high school (memorable line from the night: "Who did we go to high school with?") and what news we had on people - same thing that Laura and I talked about (though we talked about different people). It's funny how hardly anyone keeps in touch with anyone else. I saw 4 people while I was home and that's like a record among the people I did see (though Eileen is dating someone from high school so she sees more people). Seeing Rachel was good, since I hadn't seen her in quite a long time - it's funny how we can sit there and talk for hours, even though we weren't talking at all for so long.
My family did eventually drive me up a wall. My mom manages to get into these moods and then doesn't snap out of them for days. In the meantime, everyone acts like they're walking on eggshells around her. ARGH!!! She yelled at me for installing my new scanner on her computer because it somehow screwed up her printer. I go in there, not 15 minutes later, and lo and behold, there's nothing wrong with her printer - someone was just trying to print to the wrong printer (why does the computer say that there's more than one printer installed anyways?). She rents a car for a week, so that Kim and I will have something to drive around (almost out of necessity, considering we only have her car and my dad's truck right now, and there were 9 of us in the house) and then expects something in return. Whatever happened to people doing things for other people and not expecting anything? Jeez. And of course the sisters annoyed the hell out me - Kim told my dad on Monday that she doesn't like the way I treat people - anyone else want to complain about that? I tend to think that in general, I treat the vast majority of people fairly well. Perhaps I'm wrong.
New Year's Eve was pretty awesome. I went out with Shelly to a party that one of her friends threw. The best part of the evening: hot tub!!! So...this hot tub was outside (and I bought a new swimsuit for the occasion: a green tankini) and yes, it was about 10 degrees outside. The worst part was going the 10 feet from the house to the hot tub to get in - otherwise, it was bliss! It was so warm, and taking my arm out of tub didn't even feel cold. It was like, is it really cold outside? And then I would touch my hair and feel the ice in it and realize, oh yeah, it is! But it was great, being outside, nice and warm, looking at the stars and the trees and the snow. I thought getting out would be really bad - it was so cold and I was wet - but since the warm water must have raised my body temperature a couple of degrees, it wasn't at all - and there was a roaring fire going on inside for me to dry off by! So, even though I got 3 hours of sleep that night (had to get up for my flight) I had a great time! Props to Shelly for taking me! Of course, I didn't like being hit on by drunk, stoned guys, but I think I'll just forget that ever happened....
So in conclusion, while I love the Chicagoland area, I do not love staying in my house (especially when my mom threatens to charge me rent for the one week I'm home) and I do not love the weather there - it was no more than about 20 degrees all week! That's way too bitter! It caused me to conclude that Chicago has worse weather than Ithaca (it only took 2 1/2 years to come to that conclusion....). And as much I dislike Connecticut, I do have to admit that the peace and quiet when I got back was very very nice. Now I just have to get through the next week and a half and it's back to Ithaca with my friends!!! Yay!!!
- Lizzardie, at 2:35 PM
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