one more miracle

Today has been far less productive than I would have wanted it to be. Dammit. I'd hoped to finish the draft of my independent research final paper as well as getting through all the sources and extracting quotes for my Rwanda paper. I sort of partially accomplished both of those goals - I've got the research paper cobbled together, but it needs some technical adjustments and a big read-through to make sure it's logical because it's now 30 pages of stuff cobbled together over the course of three years. And I read *more* of my sources for the Rwanda paper, but didn't finish. GOOD JOB SELF.

Whatever, it'll get done. I'm so mellow about it, because comparing this to last semester? AHAHAHA. I had two twenty page papers, two huge presentations, a lab report, two huge final exams, and one short paper to do in my last week. So this is like LA LA LA WHATEVER!

And in line with that spirit, I AM GOING TO SEE THE USED TOMORROW OMGYAY!!!!!!! I am going to have a wasoncedelight (FINALLY!!) and a tuesdaysgone and we're going to go out for crepes at Rachel's and then we're going to be first in line and we're gonna get barrier and get showered in Bert's sweat for a while. YESSS. To be honest I'm a little nervous, like squirmy tummy nervous, because I have never been in a pit before and we're aiming for barrier and this venue doesn't HAVE a barrier, you're essentially squashed against the stage for however many hours, sooo. I question my ability to survive intact? BUT WE SHALL SEE. Maybe Bert will save me if I am being crushed? :D? (Ahahaha that's funny.) But I will have a Mel and a Lars and hopefully they will deal with my spazzy innocence and get me through in one piece. And OMG THE USED! I am so so so pumped. *beams*

Okay I am going to go back to working on this paper of mine! Catch you on the flipside!

*pokes at the internet* *poke poke*

So I guess none of y'all are too interested in miss Minka Kelly. That's alright, I just think your lives are thus a little less sparkly.

I have been powering my way through my FNL S1 rewatch. It's just so damn GOOD. Even upon rewatching I've got tear tracks on my cheeks at the end of every episode. The characters capturing me the most are Lyla and Timmy and Smash. And Coach. And Matt. And Julie. And Tyra. And Tami. And Jason. And oh wait everyone! It's so interesting to press rewind on these kids' lives. Lyla and Tyra in particular change so fundamentally between the beginning to the end of S3, and to see the start of their journeys is just fascinating. I appreciate Tyra's depth more this time through, even though it's subtle, because I know what it burgeons into. And Lyla - well. &Lyla;!

Today my mommy arrived for a weekend visit! She's here for the awards ceremony which is happening tomorrow. Today got up to 90 degrees, it was kind of insane. There's a Spring Arts thing that was happening on campus, which basically meant live music and free (shitty) food, so we wandered through that. But it was so damn hot that we actually just wanted to get inside so we went to the mall, haha. My mom is pretty loose with the credit card when it comes to her daughters and the mall, so I had a lot of fun! :P I got a new gorgeous summery dress, an awesome denim patchwork shoulder bag, a pair of jean capris, and some fancy black dress sandals for graduation. It was a most successful trip! Then we went to dinner at the local creperie, om nom nom nommmmmm, where I had "The Capri" which consisted of melted fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. YUM YUM. I followed it up with a brown sugar and butter crepe. TRIPLE YUM. Hee.

Then we went to see the student choreographed dance show because my friend was in one of the dances. I'll be blunt - I do not get modern dance. A bunch of people mucking about on a stage, doing random things that only sometimes seem related to each other, with odd music or sound effects or even NO music. I just do not understand it in any way, and it doesn't usually even trigger my aesthetic beauty buttons. I just watch with my head tilted in confusion. A couple of the pieces were neat though, and I particularly loved a big African piece with a whole bunch of girls and two drummers, and the piece my friend was in, which was a gorgeous fusion of traditional Chinese dance and Western dance. Those were lovely.

Aaaand then we wandered over to Battle of the Bands which was going on in the center of campus, and saw a couple songs by this incredible duo - a dude on guitar and a girl on drums and vocals, and that's it. They were damn talented and could certainly jam, but their songs very much subscribed to the very long and unstructured tradition. They were entertaining though.

Then we came home and I watched more Friday Night Lights. You're shocked, I know!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 80s again. I'm going to wear my pretty new dress, (which you can see HERE, I got the blue one!) go to brunch at a friend's apartment, be given three awards, and go out to dinner at a fancy local brewery. It's gonna be a good day! I hope you're all enjoying your weekends too. ♥

Tell me your top five favorite movies! I'm trying to find things to put on my Netflix list. I know there's a lot I need to see, I'm just drawing a bit of a blank, so help me out!

I just finished my last class-related-lab ever here at F&M. :O Kind of mind boggling. How is it almost May?! It was short and kind of silly, and now I'm home early and planning on going to the grocery store. Sweet.

I also just got my tax rebate check from the IRS - $450! Hell yes! I'm pondering how to celebrate - Threadless tshirt? BSG season 2.5? New shoes? The possibilities are endless! :D

Anyway, movies! Go!

Hi flist! Hi!

I am so ridiculously behind on LJ, because it has been one nonstop weekend! My dad and my sis were here the whole time so I've been doing this and that with them, and basically had no time to keep up with the internets. In the short bits I've caught, I've seen 1) SPN fangirls being crazy, 2) Misha being a darling dork who slashes J2 FOR us, and 3) Gerard being really beautiful in a totally random JPop video. What else have I missed?

Quick recap! On Saturday morning we had the Intercollegiate Student Chemists Conference here at my college, and I gave a presentation in the biochemistry division. It was actually sort of a competition, and I ended up winning first place in my division! Against only 6 other people, but still, that was pretty awesome. :) Then I had a looong dress rehearsal for choir. After that, it was in the 70s and sunny (!) so me and my dad and sis wanted to enjoy the sun. We spotted a baseball game going on near my school, and found that it was my college's baseball and softball teams playing games right next to each other! So we hung out for a few hours in the sun and it was really lovely. The girls were losing 2-0, but then they had an amazing inning in which they scored 6 runs and my friend Jess hit a home run! It was so great and a lovely way to spend the afternoon. Then we went to dinner at a local creperie and UNF UNF it was soooooo delicious. Peach mango strawberry smoothie and chicken caesar crepe and brown sugar/butter crepe, om nom nommm.

Then today, I sang in my choir's big semester performance, and it was kind of a big deal: ( The choir invasion! )

It was a really amazing experience, and a great note to finish my time with the choir. We have *the* most incredible director - he seems to live and breathe music, and the way he coaxes it out of us is so beautiful. And he's just a really sweet, caring guy. It's been a blast singing with him for the past four years. It's definitely something I'm going to miss about college!

While I'm sharing photos, I thought I'd post some really gorgeous ones I've had sitting about for a while. These are mostly from my flight back from San Francisco. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day, so I had the most beautiful views of the Rockies and a lot of lush grassland. There are also a few pictures from around campus on the beautiful days we've had recently. I hope you like them!

( The beauty of spring )

Well that's it for now! I should do some laundry and try to get caught up on LJ. Mostly I want to read SPN fic (I know right?!) and/or watch old SPN eps and/or old FNL. I'm on a nostalgia kick.

Which! Speaking of! Me and my sister watched Hunted, Playthings, and Nightshifter this weekend. ♥____♥ Season two, you are forever first in my heart!! "We're not workin for the mandroid!!" <333333

Ack, this test is ENORMOUS. It's past midnight and I haven't even finished reading through (and summarizing) my notes for the FIRST time. *facepalm* We're covering a huge swath of time and places - going straight from precolonial through colonialism and all the way into decolonization in East and South Africa. Big focus on Kenya, Congo, and South Africa, but other places poke their heads in too - Tanganyika, Uganda, Ethiopia. So many places and names and themes and ack, I am so overwhelmed! It doesn't help that my teacher talks so bloody much and I am a very thorough note taker, so one day I had 9 single-sided pages of notes for 90 minutes of class. O__O You better believe my hand was killing me afterward! Meep.

I haven't even gotten to his list of short answer questions that we should be able to answer to be prepared for the essays. I'm not optimistic about this test being a 99 like last time! >.<

It also doesn't help that I'm bloody exhausted. I just fell asleep over my notes for the second time. Sigh.

Er, on the bright side, this is my last non-final-exam test in my entire college career? \o/?

Oh, on an actual bright side, I got another email about another award! This one's called the Rawnsley Science Prize, and "is presented to a senior(s) who, by her or his actions and attitude while a student, will use the scientific knowledge he or she has gained to best advantage." I think I'm most touched by this one, because that's something I really pride myself on, the desire to do something meaningful with my skills. So the fact that they're giving me an award for it is really wonderful and validating. Also, "prize" to me implies money, which is always yay. ;)

Back to the books....