14 posts tagged “three things”
1. I think I found a new favorite show.
I don't know why it's taken me so long to start watching this show. I watched maybe one episode years ago and thought it was alright. Then I saw the movie last summer and thought it was hilarious, but I still didn't get into it. My dad and brother watch it a lot so they are the ones who have gotten me into it. It's the spit-your-food-out-while-laughing sort of funny. But if you are ~easily offended~ then this is not the show for you.
2. I hate my hair right now. The "cool rocker chick" layers I got a couple of months ago are taking awhile to grow out. Right now it's just in the "blah" phase. I miss my long hair and I'm going to grow it back. You hear that, universe? YOU WIN!
3. So summertime is one of my favorite seasons, partly because it's BABY BIRD SEASON. I am such a sucker for baby birds. They just make me melt every time I see them. So you can imagine how excited I was to find out that there's a bird's nest right outside of my apartment. YES! This completely makes up for the fact that my fridge was out for two weeks (it's working now, but I'm not holding my breath).
Here they are two weeks ago:
They were pretty tiny, so you can barely see their little beaks rising above the nest. Here are the pictures I took tonight. I think the pair may be their parents...I'm unsure of whether the birds would grow that quickly.
I can't wait until they reach the stage where they're learning how to fly, which means they get to hop around and flop their wings and just be utterly adorable.
1. Eldest children really do have it harder. Please pity me :) Birth-order studies always interest me, because I find they are fairly accurate when it comes to Patrick and me.
2. I'm going to enter a writing contest. Yeah! I entered about a year and a half ago but I felt the story I submitted was a dud. (I didn't win, obviously). I think I will enter two stories this year. I wrote one of them during my creative writing class last semester. My teacher gave it a good review; I don't think it's great, but it's not as bad as the one I submitted last time. I'm writing another story to enter. I think it has a good premise, I just have to do a lot of cleaning up. I've written maybe 25-50% of it. Writing short fiction is hard! You have to condense so much into a certain word count, make the plot interesting and engaging, and really make those characters jump off the page. I just have to make my character believable, since we don't have similar backgrounds and life experiences. I hope I succeed; there's nothing worse than reading stilted writing.
3. So today someone complimented by driving. I know, right? I was about ready to start laughing too. She's a coworker and it turns out she lives in the same apartment complex that I do, so she was following me in the parking lot. "Wow, I'm really impressed by how you actually use your signals," she said. "I don't see a lot of people here who do that, good job!" I'm surprised she was complimentary, because as I was driving, I was so sure that she would be cussing me out. In parking lots, I drive like an 80-year-old grandmother on Quaaludes (parking lots + parking garages = Jenny's worst enemies). But hey, I'll take any compliments I get :)
1. So I'm back in town, ready for work tomorrow morning. I had a really great weekend. :) But now it's cold here again! Hey, weather, it's almost April-in my book, that's your cue to stay nice and warm.
2. I realized today that, in the month and a half I've had Pearl Jr., I've logged roughly 2,000 miles. Holy crap.
3. Today I was buying Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 at GameStop, and as the clerk was ringing up my purchase, he said, "Ah, is this someone's Easter present?" I replied, "No, it's for me!" He looked all surprised and then started talking to me about games. Silly boys, girls can be gamers too.
1. Today at work, someone gave me a compliment. "I've been hearing nice things about you," she said. "People are saying that you are always upbeat and happy." That was nice. See, even if I make depressing blog entries, I'm still upbeat in person. Hey people at work, keep saying nice things about me. Especially since my first performance review should be coming up later this month (gulp).
2. Have you ever gotten those moments where you feel ridiculously happy for no reason? I welcome those moments. It happened to me at HEB tonight. There was nothing especially exciting going on-I had finished a workout, and decided not to procrastinate on my errands by putting gas in my truck before Friday. (At $3.09 too! What's up with that?) I looked like a gawky giraffe in my workout gear with my bruised legs (my legs are so unlady-like, they always have some sort of bruise on them because I'm so clumsy). But a good song was playing in the store, I had a bag of Starbust Jelly Beans in my basket (I've branched out to Tropical), it was almost night outside, everything was going to be okay, and a hot basket of chicken had just been placed out. I picked up the chicken and walked towards the register with a silly smile on my face, grateful for all the little things right now in my life.
3. My mother called me tonight, excited. Patrick had recently introduced her to the wonder that is Youtube, and she's as adept with it now as a bored college student. She had found all her favorite Italian artists on there and wanted to share them with me. I love it when she shares Italian music with me, because usually it's something I will remember from when I was little. And now I shall share some with you- Io in Una Storia, by Pooh, Non Si Può Morire Dentro, by Gianni Bella, and Jenny by Alunni Del Sole. "Jenny" is one of my mother's favorite songs and it came out one summer when she was a teenager. "Who knew that one day, I would have a daughter named Jenny?" my mother told me. She is cute.
1. My family visited yesterday. I had so much fun with them. My dog, after arriving, sniffed around for all of three seconds and then proceeded to take a poo on my carpet. My mom started freaking but I knew he would do that, so I just started laughing. My mom made hot chicken wings and we watched the playoff games. My dad made sure to bring the dog up on the couch to pay me back for all those times I let Harry up on the couch and shed his dog hair everywhere :)
2. I started work today! After 5 and a half years of engineering school, the dreadful FE exam, and an 8-hour interview, I am now an environmental engineer! Well,mostly- it was my first day, after all. I'm not actually remediating the environment just yet, but give me time.
3. I don't think there's any way for a girl to feel more kickass than hitting a punching bag as a workout. Try it, gals. You will feel awesome.
1. Today I went to Half Price Books with my dad, who had a day off. I went into the antique books section (I love old books) and found a fifth year primer from 1902. I'm assuming that the "fifth year" is equivalent to our fifth grade. Those kids had it tough back then-the primer is full of passages from Poe, Shakespeare, Thoreau, and the like. The best part? The book, inscribed with a childish scrawl, lists the child's name and date the book was received: February 14, 1904. To hold that book and think that someone wrote that inscription over a hundred years ago is amazing to me. The best part-the book was only two dollars!
2. I'm trying to get back into prime running shape so that I can run a marathon sometime in the future, but tonight I enjoyed a lemon meringue pie. WITH TRANS FAT. Eff the healthy eating-I enjoyed every bite of my pie and trans fat that may or may not clog my arteries later. But don't let me fool you with my talk of healthy eating. Let's just say that if I wasn't a runner, I'd be in big trouble. Current obsession: Sweethearts candies! They are always a seasonal favorite, and it seems like they're sold earlier every year. Damn you, rampant commercialism/delicious, nutritionally void candies that I cannot resist!
3. American Idol returns next Tuesday, and this is muy exciting. I've already defended my American Idol audition love and explained why I would make an ideal contestant here. I think the following clip summarizes why I love the auditions so much:
1. There was an article in my local paper on how schools don't celebrate Halloween anymore, and instead call it the "Fall Festival." I can understand, I suppose. I know there are many branches of Christianity that consider it a pagan holiday. Many schools aren't even allowing students to dress-up anymore. In the article, local teachers said that students make their costumes so gory and realistic that they end up being distracting. Treating Halloween as a normal day does make the situation easier for everyone; teachers and administrators can keep students from going rowdy, and those who don't celebrate Halloween don't have to worry about feeling excluded.
At the same time, I wonder if sometimes we try too hard to be politically correct. I remember when I was in kindergarten, back in 1989. Our class was allowed to dress-up because we were going to have a Halloween parade. In true form, I didn't tell my parents about it until the night before. My dad, who used to volunteer as an EMT at night, scrambled to find me a costume at the last minute. All the girls dressed up as Barbie or witches, and I was Super Mario. It was so awesome. I remember that day being so much fun. I wonder if kids today miss out on that kind of fun because everyone is so afraid of offending someone else.
2. I'm kicking everything into gear. I think everyone has guessed by now that I'm just burned out from school altogether and am managing to do well by doing the bare minimum. Tomorrow is November, i.e. one more full month of school left, i.e. holy crap, I need to finish a lot of things. I'm working on my professional report right now. I wish I could progressive and creative about my report like Meg is and write it about some interesting systems problem. However, that requires too much work. So I'm writing it on using wetlands as water treatment systems. I'm sure it's been done before. Guess what! I have ten pages, single spaced! I have like four pictures though. I also have to finish Dr. H's paper for directed studies (I can probably knock that out in a weekend), and write up the seminar notes that I have been neglecting for the past 6 weeks. The course is pass/fail; I'm sure as long as I do the write-ups, I'll be fine.
Next Wednesday is going to be kind of scary. Not scary in the traditional sense; I'm not going to be sky-diving or bungee-jumping or anything like that. I don't want to say anything about it now. I don't want to jinx myself. I am just going to prepare. It's like all my experiences have primed me for this moment. Ha! We'll see how it goes. I'm also very lucky to have my awesome friend there to support me :) It sucks that I happen to meet one of my closest friends my very last year of school.
3. I was at HEB and I heard this song. It's so pretty, and I hadn't heard it in years and years; I'm sure my father had a record or cassette tape of it. I absolutely love hearing old songs you've forgotten about.
1. I heard the worst country song in existence. Well, maybe not the worst, but the dumbest, and that is saying a lot. Just the way he pronounces "por favor" makes me cringe. I do not think that this vato would woo any of the senoritas from my hometown.
2. A little girl, maybe three, was eating something, her face scrunched up in disgust. Her mother noticed immediately.
Mom: What are you eating?
Girl: I dunno. It was green and...(points to a jelly bean flavor)
Mom: (looking) That's jalapeno! Lord!
3. This song came on the store radio. A little boy, about five or six, turned to his mother.
Boy: Mom. I think this song was from Christmas Vacation.
Mom: ...no, baby, I don't think so.
1. I am now known as "Can Shot," which Terry dubbed me this weekend. I was shooting his semi-auto and instead of hitting the paper targets, I shot at a coffee can above it. Thankfully, my aim vastly improved throughout the session.
2. THIRTEEN MORE DAYS UNTIL HARRY POTTER. I am both saddened and excited about this day. I've been waiting for it since I was fifteen, and I can't believe that my joking predictions I made back then ("I bet I'll be in my twenties when the last book is released!") actually came true. I think my family is making arrangements to visit family that Saturday. I don't care what we do, as long as I have that book with me. Must. Have.
3. Today we visited the Aquarium. It was a blast. My favorite part was the bird show, in which trainers demonstrated different birds from around the world and their habits. There is nothing like animals to make a science geek like me feel ten-years-old again. Of course, I bought a stuffed macaw, much like the one below; there's no age limit on appreciating adorable souvenirs :)
1. My summer plans are 100% clear. I've gotten an internship back home, which is really great.
2. I've decided to get my Master's of Engineering rather than M.S. There are several factors involved, the main one being timing. I only have one semester after this if I get my M.E., whereas the M.S. is indefinite. There are other factors involved that I won't put up in public. All I will say is that I don't want a career in academia. Ever.
3. I found out that my ridiculously slow internet is NOT because the campus computing services found my router; rather, everyone is having trouble. Yippee.
Now off I go to fail my test.
