On and On

Wow, Thursday came awfully fast this week. I ran around this morning collecting advice for NSERC applications, checking that my profs were well on their way to having my letters written on time (Monday deadline). I grabbed a coffee and went to Nicoles lab again. She needs me less and less as the weeks pass so I should soon be able to break this habit. But then my lab time came.

I think I give the people in my lab a good idea of what they need to get everything done in a no-problem way but then as soon as I finish explaining everything, there is always that one person who needs extra attention. Well, lets just say I have about 15 of these people in each of my labs, and it makes it hard on me. I try to shout out common problems to avoid having 100 people ask me the same question, but sometimes it just doesn't help. In fact, I go into so much detail, and give so many tips like "let everyone save this now, and rename this as week 3 part 1 so that we can keep it straight" that the one person who seems on top of it all kinda grins at me and rolls his eyes. That one guy is the only reason I know that I went into sufficient detail, and now I'm just being silly. I don't want to make people feel dumb, or offended but seriously, these people need it.

I have approached my prof about the fact that many of my students are asking for time with me outside of class. He is setting up a chat-room session once a week for these people, in which all the TA's will "be there" helping to answer questions. I mentioned this to some people in the class, but some have said they are soo lost they wouldn't know what questions to ask. Bah!

So I'm asking for office hours on Monday so that I can at least get credited (ie paid) for the hours I am spending more-or-less tutoring these people. Hopefully, my prof will stop giving me so much extra work for "hours I owe him"

Anyways, I got a book for the GRE studying. I might buy one just so that I have a copy (not the same one, but another practice book). I'm not looking at it until the weekend so I don't spend all night worrying about that when I have so much other stuff to do.

Anyone watch the TLC special on "the girl with two heads" ?? Well I did. I was totally guilty about it too until my prof showed a picture of the girl in my developmental bio lecture, regarding parasitic twins. I knew it was relevant somehow...hehe. Anyways, for those of you that didn't see it, I'm sure it will be on again and it's totally cool, so watch it. Except if you're having a baby (Congrats Marty and Nicole!!) and you're scared.

Speaking of babies, I am learning the entire process from pre-conception to birth, so if anyone has any questions...I'm the one you talk to!! If you don't want details, ask someone else. I tend to go on and on, as I'm doing right now, because I am lonely and sometimes it feels good to rant.

Anyways, enough for now.

So it's Thursday Again

Remember last thursday when I said I would forever hate thursdays...well I haven't really changed my mind much. BUT thursday means 3 things;

1. I run two labs which I love, but I find myself doing a crap-load of extra work because I want to be as helpful as possible, but I think people might be refering their friends to my lab, because I seem to have more and more new people. I also think, people are unwilling to switch from my lab because I try to push them into other lab sections and they just don't wanna go. Also, I have more than my fair share of students who just started at Laurier, and therefore have no clue how to use anything. I mean, can't even log into a computer...it's not good. So, I have meetings scheduled outside of lab time to meet these people and catch them up a bit on what's going on. BUT it means I get to meet people who in some cases are helpful. Like today, this one girl who is a lot of work, happens to be in my thesis class too, and she's written the GRE's twice! So, she offered up some of her materials for me to photocopy. Of course, she is also writing them a third time, and suggested we study together...did I mention I was tutoring for free? I didn't think so...but yeah, I guess for the use of her materials their might be some form of payment there.

2. Survivor is on tonight!! Yay. I freakin love this show, and will stand by it even if I have too much to handle in the way of school.

3. Thesis class was today. For some people I'm sure this just means another 3 hours of class, but for me it means anxiety galore. I am forced to fess up to the fact that I am not prepared for grad school admissions. This sucks, but I met with the prof after class and she said "go for it". She seems to think that if I can keep myself organized (which I think I can...like that little train...) then I can pull it off.

So, here goes nothing people. If I don't call or stop to talk, don't hate me. I'll try to get a good job, and pay for friends later (hehe). For now, I have an agenda full of things to do tonight, and I still need time for #2 (see above). I still love you all, and hope you keep visiting. I'll try to write about something other then school once in a while, but no guarentees...

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Another Birthday, how exciting.
This calls for a song

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!!
Happy Birthday dear Grandma!!!
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

And many more!

I must get to work now, unfortunatly I can't be home to celebrate but school doesn't stop for birthdays. That would be awsome though wouldn't it. I bet there would only be school a couple of days a year. Man, everything would be due on that day. Nevermind, that was a crappy idea.

Happy Birthday Brianne!!

This is Brianne
It is Her Birthday
This calls for a song

Happy Birthday to you!!
Happy Birthday to You!!
Happy birthday dear Brianne!!
Happy Birthday to you!

And many more!!!

So, now that that's taken care of, I just want to mention my grocery bill. The grand total $8.41
I got the necessities you see.
1. Milk
2. Broccoli (for 49 cents, woo whoo)
3. Frozen dinners

I could get used to living alone...

Dreaded Life Decisions

So, I TA'd my first labs today. It went well, better then I expected actually. I went early to get my bearings and figure out a course of action for the first lab (She TA's the lab before mine) . Her lab went relatively smoothly with a few minor glitches. Yay for learning from other people (sorry Nicole). But yeah, I had about 8 extra students in each of my lab sections, so they had to share computers. But, besides that I think I got a pretty good response and I wasn't too shy about talking to the class or anything.

I had another meeting with my thesis supervisor. Everything was going well, but then he noticed some wording in my ethics application which I guess insulted him a little bit. Oops. The question was "who will be running the research". I answered this question with what I thought was appropriate "Aimee C will be running the research with some assistance from W Hockley". He took offense to the "some" part. I will be changing this answer to "Aimee C under the supervision of W Hockley" which hopefully, he will find less insulting. He gave me "Sign Here" flags, which was his way of saying "If you don't want my help, fine! I will do as little as possible to help you"
So, I learnt from my mistake. Give people the credit they deserve and then some...

Anyways, I had my first official thesis class today. I wasn't sure what to expect when I walked in, but now I know it will be that dreaded class that you attend which is a constant reminder that you suck, and have no idea what you are doing with your future. The prof started out by introducing herself and allowing us to introduce ourselves and our thesis supervisors, and what research interest we had. This was fine. In the timeline of thesis I am ahead of the game. In fact, I have completed what is supposed to be done by about late October. This was good.

She went on to talk about the Graduate Record Exam (GRE), and applying to Grad school. This was the crappy part. Basically, the deadline to apply for funding for grad school is less than 2 weeks away. I need at least 3 letters of recommendation from profs that know me well. This might not be a problem. I sent a few emails and awaiting response. BUT the deadline for admission applications is December. This might not seem so bad except that by that time I would have had to have written and got results back from the GRE's.

For those of you that don't know (which I didn't) what the GRE is, it is basically the equivalent of writing the LSAT's if I wanted to be a lawyer or the MCAT's if I wanted to be a doctor. So, it takes a lot of studying and money to write them, and if you suck then you don't get considered. So, apparently I still have time if I Get On IT. I despise this kind of commitment because it means picking a program, and a supervisor, and a thesis topic, and a career.

Survivor is on tongiht. I will watch it by myself, because everyone else thinks it's dumb. I might follow up Survivor with a bit of self-imposed torture and pick a post-grad school. This is too much for week 1.

I Had A Dream

I had a few goals today. First I planned to go to the OSAP office to get the money that I would use to pay my tuition and finish buying textbooks and eat etc. While I was there, I would pick up my books etc. for my distance education course. I planned to put money on my OneCard to buy coffee and treats. I needed to go to the finance office to sign some papers to get paid for my jobs. I also planned to opt out of my health and dental plans through the school to save myself $200. Then I need lunch and a smoothie. All this before going to my develpmental biology lab at 1:30.

So, I went to the OSAP office this morning at 8am. It didn't open until 9, but this resulted in me only waiting about an hour and a half to get to the front window. I changed my summer earnings from zero (when I applied I had no job) which resulted in them dropping my claim about $2000 so I couldn't get it today. I have to go back in 2 weeks.

I proceeded angry to the science building where I printed the form for the health plan thing, and realised I forgot to pick up my books while on Regina street. So I went back, got the books, paid the extra movie fee, the book fee, and the "I'm ripping you off because I can" fee, and went back to the science building to use the photocopier. I then went across campus to the student union office and found out I couldn't opt out of the dental plan without a letter or something. Grrr

I went to the OneCard office and found out that they changed the thing over the summer so that any money left over from previous years was automatically moved to the good account. Yay Timmies. So, I got a coffee and went back to the science building to check my email, and go to the finance office. My email consisted of a pleading from my prof to TA a second lab. This means 5 more hours a week (Totalling 20hrs work) and some more responsibility (and $$, so I agreed). The finance office didn't have the papers ready for me to sign.

I went and got lunch. I skipped the smoothie since OSAP wasn't in...

I went to my develpmental lab. It was boring. We made "tools" like a plastic spoon with 20 holes in it for picking up embryos (Picture a slotted spoon for olives at the grocery store, only smaller scale). Then we swabbed our cheeks and made slides to stain and look at under a microscope. Boring...eww and next week we have to prepare slides of Drosophila Melanogaster larva. In other words the common fruit fly larvae. Maggots people!!...sick. We have to pull them apart while they are still alive and squirming, and disect out their testes and salivary glands. Apparently, they have sperm that are 100 times the length of their bodies. Wierd...

Anyways, I must retire to my textbook to study Teratomas (mom, look it up...so sick. It's like the TLC special. I have to study all those things in this class. Even the no face disease cool eh?)
House is on tongiht, don't forget.

What does Meme mean anyways?

Ok Ok, here goes my first meme.

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I die:

1. Get married
2. Find my perfect Career
3. Travel the world, or as much of it as possible
4. Play with my neices and nephews
5. Help people
6. Make a difference
7. Learn to play the guitar, for real

7 Things I Can't Do:

1. Lose on purpose
2. Give half-assed effort
3. Make friends easily
4. Make a good first impression
5. Accept loss of family
6. Live lavishly, and feel ok about it
7. Live far away from my family

7 Things I Can Do:

1. Study
2. Work hard
3. Love people unconditionally
4. Write essays
5. Think
6. Understand people
7. Accept myself

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex:

1. Outgoingness
2. Trustworthyness
3. Abs
4. Humor
5. Gentleness
6. Mystery
7. Ambition

7 Things You Say The Most

1. Donk (y)
2. Yeah Right
3. I don't care
4. Love you
5. What's wrong?
6. Don't be grumpy
7. Crib?

7 Celebrity Crushes:

1. Josh Hartnett
2. Bruce Willis
3. Adam Brody
4. Brad Pitt
5-7. I don't know any more...

7 People I Want To Take This Quiz:

Anyone who reads this blog and hasn't already done it :)

Wow, that was long. I feel exposed.

And classes haven't even begun....

I moved in yesterday to my place in Waterloo. It went relatively smoothly, except that I didn't have a bed in my room, and I found out Scotty isn't living downstairs. This means I got a new roomy living across the hall in Jens old room. His name is Paul, and so far he has been a pleasure to live with. He offered to help me unpack, he offered up pleantly of info on himself, he didn't mind me changing the bathroom / kitchen around a little to accomidate for my germiphobia, and he even asked about weekly chores. So, I think I might have gotten lucky.

So last night I unpacked and cleaned for a few hours so I could sleep, and then I got Scotty to come down and fix my printer for me. I couldn't decide what to cook, so my first meal was Michalinas fettuchini (frozen dinner) and a peice of bread. See where this is going...? I opened my books at 10pm to prep for my thesis meeting this afternoon. Scotty invited me to watch a movie, and rolled his eyes when I said "I better not" before classes have even started. So, I closed my books and watched some movie with Will Smith about robots. It was kind of good actually, and I was tired enough to sleep when it was over.

I got a new toothbrush that I was pretty excited about. Sonic something-or-other. So, I brushed my teeth and my brains shook outta my head. Then I rinsed with Listerine with my cool light-up cup timer. It was good. I tossed and turned a little while in the bed my landlord eventually provided until morning.

I awoke at 6:45am to Paul going to pee. I hate being a light sleeper. Oh well...so I got up and showered, had a bowl of cereal (simple enough). I did some real prep work this time for my thesis meeting at 1. At noon I decided to make lunch. So I peered into the food shelf and found nothing I felt like eating, I looked in the cupbored and found nothing, and upon opening the fridge, I decided I hate living alone. This would be when Jen would whip up some french onion soup and garlic bread to feed me. I decided on an egg, and some toast.

I whipped out the "non-stick" pans I bought 3 for $10 and the necessry ingredients. I proceeded to burn my toast and my egg got stuck to the "non-stick" pan and broke, and burt. I ate it anyways...can't afford to be picky on my budget.

I went to school cranky, got a paper and a coffee, and felt a little better. I went to my meeting which went great (thank goodness) and decided to go to the bookstore to get some of my required texts. This was a bad idea.

Campus is full of people that look like care bears hopped up on amphetimines, and everywhere you move you get yelled at about some new on-campus club or promotion. I hate orientation week. My text books for two classes (out of 5) cost me $471. But I got both those jobs I wanted.

Can I come home yet?

PS. Miss you mama dukes *kiss*

Sea of 1000 Thoughts

So, I have found myself having random moments of reflection when I take a moment and realize that:

a) I have to go back to school in a couple of days to face my last year of hard work and dedication at Laurier. I am scared shitless because I have never lived alone, and I really dont have a lot of hobbies to keep me busy. This can only mean one thing. An awful lot of studying, with breaks taken staring at the ceiling, instead of popping into the room next door to bug my big sis. Man my roomies are gunna think I'm annoying.

b) Another summer is past. Another bout of hot weather gone, and another cold winter coming. A cold winter with snow, slush, and every day a grey sky. If anything is consistant in Waterloo, it's the grey sky. Once I'm finished this year, I will avoid Waterloo with all I have in me. I will drive around it, or just never go that direction.

c) My sister is going to be a teacher. Now, don't get me wrong, I am happy for her and everything, but she's on track to her career and I'm jelous OK? I decided I want to be a balarina when I grow up, but I was told I should have decided that a long time ago, to start stunting my growth. So again, I'm screwed....figures.

But there is some good news in all of this. I get to go to school, I've lived through another summer, and my sister is going to be a teacher.


PS. My prof from my fourth year cognitive psych class emailed me (not my thesis prof), and said she got grants from the government to run the experiment I proposed to her last year. So, apparently I'm not a lost cause, and she wants to keep me involved. So...more work to do. Haha, school life is grand. But it doesn't look like I got those jobs, so I'll have 20 extra hours on my hands. Might as well make good use of myself.