Tests, Essays, and Soggy Government

good god the house is chock full of british boys

2007-01-24T19:33:02Z

a cambridge mit exchange student is having a birthday party. there are diffident fellows wandering around the house saying things like "capitol to see you my good man" actually that is a slight exageration. they're making mexican food. one of them is (for reasons unknown to most of the house) reading the koran. its a very multicultural experience.

swim meets and more swim meets

2007-01-15T16:13:14Z

friday passed fairly uneventfully, there's a clueless new guy at work who doesn't know where anything is, so i was fairly entertained at work watching him wander around the lab looking for things. this was only made more amusing by the fact that i not only have no idea where 95% of the things in the lab are, but also not even the foggiest notion of what they do.
there was a very nice prefrosh named jill and because its IAP and most people are doing fun things, be they classes or just random activities, she was jealously shunted around by everyone and their brother and got to see a fair amount of campus. two practices on friday :( i thought the morning one was really hard, but it probably shouldn't have been. we did this crazy ladder set which was hard for me because dawn tore apart my turns in puerto rico and i have to do them very slowly in order to get them right. friday night practice was good, matt c. (aka coach matt, aka air force matt, aka top gun) was back with his demonic little notebook where he writes down all of our splits. that made practice fun because we were asking him about his holiday the whole time and he's really bad at editing his stories to make them seem more wholesome (kate, a senior, once saw him at a bar making out with this blonde wearing a silver lame jumpsuit. the next day we asked him what he had done and he replied "hung out at a bar with "a friend") added to that, we have discovered through the magic of facebook that he is actually younger than many of the seniors in the distance group. as usual he attempted to add more yardage onto our practice that was already a couple thousand yards longer than anyone elses. because of the prefrosh we had a team dinner at bertucci's, which is a fairly upscale italian restaurant chain popular in the Boston area. dinner included such highlights as: matt s. retelling his terrible movie stories (he likes to watch terrible movies. ones he has experienced include "fog" of which he dramatic climax is a high speed chase between a car and some fog, which turns out to be possessed by the souls of evil ghost pirates and then the classic "leeches" in which a mens swim team is doping and the chemicals somehow make there way to a bog where instead of killing these leeches it turns them into huge angry leeches which make their way through the sewers back to the very same mens swim team and proceed to attack it. eventually the swimmers are trapped in the athletics center with only an axe to protect themselves. the highlight of this particular story is the part where he says "and as we got to the middle people began to remark on the extrodinarily high number of naked men in this film, so we looked it up online where it was billed as the "homoerotic horror flick of the year"." obviously these are much more funny when he tells them, he sounds kind of like eyore except a little bit faster and uses words that i use when i want to annoy lisa by being pompous. ) and me making coach matt squirt soda out of his nose. the latter was prompted by me explaining "jesus the ride" to the prefrosh. at the beginning of the year my dorm builds rides in our courtyard to attract unwitting freshman. one of these rides this year was meant to look somewhat like a giant catapault, with the rider strapped to the top. unfortunately it was found that the rider could not remain attached unless a crossbar was attached at the top where the arms could be secured, thus making the ride into a crucifix. certain members of the hall comfortable with committing minor blasphemy (ie everyone) began calling it "jesus the ride" to reflect this. after dinner nicole, clara and myself went to burton-connor (nicole's dorm, a building made of two towers one named burton and the other, you guessed it, connor) and finished watching the two towers.
saturday's meet was fairly uneventful. we won both mens and womens by a lot, calvin's romantic entanglement came up to him to apoligize for "taking advantage of him" in puerto rico (he thought she was alicia keys when they were making out.....) which was comical in a "you can't rape the willing" sort of way. i won the 500, my first college win. i'm pretty happy about it. if you look at the article about the meet on the mit swoimming website it mentions me and there's a little link under my name where it goes to this cheesy bio thing, cool but somewhat odd. clara taught me this cool cheer where you're like "form the banana, form form the banana" while bringing one arm up over your head, then repeat with the other arm, then you "peel the banana peel peel the banana" while bring first one arm and then the other down. finally you "go bananas go go bananas". then, with much the same actions you form the orange, peel the orange, squeeze the orange (hug the person next to you) form the corn, shuck the corn, pop the corn, form the mullet (pretend to be slicking hair back), grease the mullet, and rock the mullet. mit enjoys its odd cheers. the best example is the chair cheer which harrison ( a junior distance swimmer) always leads. first he throws a chair in the pool. then he screams "where is the chair?" to whicht the entire team replies "we don't know" this is repeated at increasing volume until final we reply "over there" and point to the pool. he then dives in and retrieves the chair. a very odd cheer, but fun.
because nicole was very worried about sunday's meet she made us watch the return of the king saturday night so she could see aragorn's speech before the gates of mordor which she thinks is very inspiring.
sunday's meet was exciting. we swam the coast guard academy and springfield college. the womens' side was really intense because springfield always wins conference by like 200 points, but we managed to win. the cga girls team isn't quite so good, so we won that as well. the mens meet was really intense because the springfield guys team is really good and the cga team always wins conference. miraculously, they managed to win both as well. star (a friend of mine from hawaii and an extreme sprinter) dyed her hair red on saturday night, so she kept dripping orange for the whole meet. she looked like she was in a gatorade commercial. after the meet i went to work and then came here (wilg) to watch the premier of 24, which was badass as usual.

Give me a roommate or give me death! (or possibly something a little less severe)

2006-08-03T02:56:43Z

I WANT TO KNOW WHO MY TEMP ROOMIE IS!!!!!!
It's beeen mas que una semana y dos dias. Y NO ME DIGAN QUIEN ES!!!!!!!!!!!!
(recovers from a fit of hispanic panic)98%
We added a fair amount to my college paraphenalia collection, plates, a couple of pans, my very own spatula, contact lenses, notebooks, and the like. I'm going to have to bust out my scientific calculator from back in the day for the chem placement test. (That's right a 5 on the AP and a 98% A in biochem aren't good enough to get me out of freshman level chem) It's out of batteries.
It turns out that a lot of the kids in my pre-orientation are swammers. I really hope that at least one will still be at it so we can practice.

dagnysnark @ 2006-08-03T14:45:00

2006-08-03T02:45:45Z

You Are a Pegasus

You are a perfectionist, with an eye for beauty.
You know how to live a good life - and you rarely deviate from your good taste.
While you aren't outgoing, you have excellent social skills.
People both admire you - and feel very comfortable around you.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

HOUSING IS HERE!!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEE!

2006-07-25T02:33:39Z

so i sped home from work and logged on (only because housing was posted at 5pm today, exactly when i started working, grrrr).
I'm in 1st east!!!!!!!! disco floor, cats aloud, and no smoking!!!!
http://web.mit.edu/first-east/www/ < check out the awesomeness for yourself!

Things Happier (and more annoying) than Facebook

2006-07-20T05:15:05Z

Squeeeeeee! I am now the proud owner of 1 comforter, two sets of sheets, a morror, a pair of tweezers, a thing that slides under your mattress so that you can stre your crap right by your bed, tylenol (my VERY OWN BOTTLE,a sweater drying rack, a hairbrush, a mirror, an alarm clock, a hot pot, and (drum roll) AN HP PAVILION LAPTOP COMPUTER*!!!!!!!
Horaaaayyyyy for a certain boy FINALLY GETTING THE INTERNET!!!! This means that we are currently facebook friends, *smiles uncontrollably*! Actually, I e-mailed him because my brother told me that professor kunicki's office had been cleaned out and the trademark nameplate (J. Kunicki Ph.D)was gone. The professor is professor no more! He's selling insurance, apparently he's carrying casualty! This of course led to a round of reading the facebook profile, where he is now listed as single. I think that will be good for him. He was flying out to california to see her and such, and I was a little worried that he might do something silly like, i don't know, get engaged. Not that I have anything against the ceremonial bonds of matrimony, but if he's going to make something of himself he has years of academic toil ahead of him before he can settle into wedded bliss. Plus it didn't seem like they were quite right, someone with as forceful of a personality as he has would be talking about a girl he was in love with every minute. Plus after all the crap he's been through he would need someone as interesting as he is. It will be interesting to see whether this makes our friendship more or less awkward. There will be less of the awkward no-talking-about-relationships thing, but no "you have a girlfriend so i don't have to worry about you taking any kind gestures i might make the wrong way" safety net. hmm we'l see. i think i'll be writing his grad school reccomendations (bwa-ha-ha), and that could be interesting. I did get to talk to him a little tonight, nothing much justa few pleasantries (actually i basically called him a cocky SOB, and he called himself intelligent gorgeous and hilarious.... our conversations as usual), and then he was going to some sort of bar (yep, back to normal)
new guy at work tonight (happy thing). actually pretty cute, dd I'd like to have you're opinion on the aesthetics. however, then he opened his mouth and started talking in terrible ghetto slang about how he was only working because he couldn't get a welfare check anymore (definately not attractive).
I actually made money at work tonight, which is odd for a wednesday. jeanne was in the office talking to louis forever, so i got all the tables in the restaurant for like an hour.
came home, found our extra ethernet cable, and here i sit talking to josh and facebooking to my heart's content, whilst sitting on the floor.
squee!

facebook makes my life happy

2006-07-18T18:41:36Z

is there anything more joyous than logging on to the computer and seeing "*insert name here* has listed you as a friend" ? i doubt it.

My First Actual Friend Gained From Facebook

2006-07-12T15:26:49Z

I thought it was a myth, but apparently not. People do actually meet and talk off of facebook.
Her name is Victoria and she is going to be a freshman as well. She is actually from yonkers, which should make you hello dolly people happy. She wants to do some sort of biological engineering, which from talking too her seems appropriate. We did all of the standard smalltalk. She wants to live in baker, mccormick or bc and wants a single. Also she swims, but doesn't know if she'll be swimming at school or not. Her bf is at harvard, so she's trying to decide which sort of pass she might need for the T. ( harvard is 2 subway stops from that side of campus, 1 from the side i want to stay on) All in all a very nice girl, although not quite as quirky as the types i'm liekly to fall in with. I haven't talked to anyone planning to live in random yet. only one kid, a rather odd looking male, has posted that he listed random 1st. On the flip side this may mean that my chance of living there is high....
champs week is progressing nicely. spagetti last night was enjoyable. The boys made their traditional vommiting alligator poster. ( it started when we were 9) I am now the only one with some semblance of artistic ability (note that i did not call it talent, even loosely applied that would be a lie) so i got to draw the severed cat's head (the napoleon mascot), the eviscerated teddy bear (the bryan mascot), and the impaled native american (waseon). Got in a paint fight with john B. (BG), so my arm is blue. its alright because his nose is now green. Tomorrow I'm getting braids and braiding hair, leading cheers, painting my face, and giving my senior farewell speech at psych night. wow, i don't even know what i'm going to say.

Financial Decision Really Suck and other such matters

2006-07-11T19:53:18Z

trying to figure out the best balance of loans for myself and my parents. yeah i have the dombros and marie berry, but that doesn't cover the housing/food/training trip type deals. parents have decided on their type, and perkins loans seem to be the best deal, but we're tying to figure out how much more I can get in perkins because the interest is better than what my parents can get. On the phone with this guy named, get ready for it, guillerrmo creamer finding out about my parents' loans and then with another lady about mine. long discussions, veryb
oh yeah. VOY A IR A PUERTO RICO!!!!!!! (i'm going to pr) its our training trip. I"M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!

god damn you jon F!

2006-07-09T19:12:50Z

Anybody remember at amy's movie party when jon asked if anyone had gotten any speeding tickets? Ever since then I've been driving really carefully because I had this weird feeling that I was going to get one.... and it happened. I was getting off the overpass at BG and we just got the van fixed last week, so its a lot more zippy than it used to be. Anyway, I didn't used to have to brake to be under the limit as i was going down the hill, but apparently I do now. cop was sitting right at the bottom of the hill. 50 in a 40! Thanks Jon, thanks.
anyway that same day I was driving home from practice and this huge dog ran out in the road. Swerving to avoid it, I went into the other lane, and then overcorrected in an effort to get out of the way of an approaching vehicle. my right sideview mirror hit a mailbox. the mailbox was fine, it was one of those indestructible deals, but the mirror cracked, so i think i have to get a new piece of glass put in.
that same day we were doing pre-champs cheers and (as a senior) I was standing on the bridge. at one point we say jump back, and i did, falling off of the bridge. what a day.

SHE LIVES!!!!

2006-06-26T19:53:11Z

HMmm, so reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. my disappearance however.....
not quite, i'm just working, and working and working.... swimming, working ....
I'm a bit dissapointed because i thought my temporary housing assignment was supposed to come out on saturday, but apparently its out on JULY 24. curse those 4-letter month names starting with J!
anyway, i was right about the day my pre-orientation assignment came out. I am in Ocean Engineering for that, which is pretty cool. We get to play in the pool, build a JASON type robot, sail around in the harbor, and other assorted aquatic activites. I had to make a pirate flag as part of the application (which also involved an essay about what i would do with my own personal submarine.... yes ashley my response involved painting it yellow, inviting everyone over, and having a big brass band play).
in other happy boston news, kittens from the MSPCA (hopefully these aren't leftist wacko kittens...) are available between the hours of 12 and 5, come spayed/neutered and have all of their shots, and cost $100. Who said furry adorable love was free? does anyone know how much the ones in hancock county are? mom says that if its enough cheaper we'll get my kitten here and drive it to massachusetts (fun fun fun)
Anyway, for pre-orientation i can move in on monday, august 21. When we leave and who goes with me when i leave depends on whether chris is doing the golf thing this fall or not. his tryouts (if he decides to try out) will be the week before that so i won't know for a while.
Plan A: Chris makes the golf team, mom and I are the only ones going. insert tearful goodbye here, drive on saturday the 19th (11 hours), do Boston on sunday, move in and get kitten on monday. bye-bye to Rachel, hello "real" world
Plan B. Chris doesn't make the team, all of us go (involves renting a van because 4 peopla, vacation clothes for 3 and then all of my crap will NOT fit in a Honda Civic and my van will NOT make it to boston), leave on friday, do boston for two days, move in and get kitten on monday, long tearful goodbye
mom wants to start THE LIST tomorrow (yay). i don't want much. i have to get my computer still, but i've procured an MP3 player (separating chris and I's CD collection would be extremely painful since we've built it together). i have sliverware, need plates, i don't know if i have to take my own pots but i don't think so (we cook at my school, the dining hall food is terrible and expensive and the meal plan only gives you half off the dinner price). other than that i want one of those drying racks so my tank-tops don't shrink, and a large heavy duty canvas bag in which to carry groceries. mom hasn't yet decided if such essentials as soap and microwave popcorn will be bought here or in boston.
wow, i have such a cute life pictured for next year: fairly cozy room with my wall of awesomness painted on it, my kitten, endless hours of studying, sci-fi movies and pranking (a major pastime at my school), swimming, working at a desk in the rec center or some sort of pointless research job, campus conservatives, the occasional party, and some sort of tremendously adorable geek of a boyfriend who will be adored by my cat. (it all comes back to the cat....)
contrast that with my present life:
5 AM wake up
515 leave for swimming
6-8 swimming
845 drop chris off at work
915 shower and breakfast
10-12 nap
1215 lunch
1245-2 or 2:30 accomplish something (application for advising, make sense of the payment options, clean room, write thank-yous, etc)
3-440 work out and shower at the y
5-10- work
1015-1230 watch alias (already through 2.5 seasons)
1231 run upstairs to beat my eyes shut

i keep going on these sleep marathons, i think i'm banking because i know that i'm not going to get to sleep during school, but it could be that i'm still tired from this year.
why am i not working out now you ask? i had some ankle trouble at practice this morning, so i'm not supposed to be on my feet very much today. with being a waitress, i'm trying to minimize the foot time in other areas. I did an ab workout.
practice has been unbelievably boring lately. Gary is off somewhere with the national junior team (pan-pacs maybe?) so we just have carolyn. true, we lived through just caroyln for 4th through 7th grade, but that was back when doing laps was somewhat entertaining. gary makes practice interesting by talking to people or about people. ie talking with wichman about the weather also he says funny things.
scene: 545 AM two swimmers stumble into practice
gary: GOOD AFTERNOON!!! IT'S A WONDERFUL DAY TO BE ALIVE!!!!

carolyn is like hitler only with less personality.
same scene
swimmer: carolyn, that clock is two minutes ahead it is every morning gary goes by the church bells
carolyn: I DON'T CARE! IF YOUR BUTT ISN'T IN THE POOL BY THE 1:00, EVERYONE HERE HAS AN EXTRA 1000 YARDS AFTER PRACTICE

also she likes to narrate the sets and call out the times every time we leave ( ie numbe 4 of 8 in 10 9 8 7 ... 2 GO) which is annoying. we can read the pace clock, especially since its digital and not analog. finally gary enjoys putting sets on odd times (hey guys now we're going to do 20 fifties 0n :47) and making pretty patterns (ok 800 free, two 400s back, 4 200s breast, and 8 100s fly) while carolyn prefers the repetative (16 200 IMs)
anthony s. is off to a marine prep camp for 6 weeks today. au revoir good buddy, and buena suerte. ojala que ganes muchas pesas!
with anthony gone my lane is wichman (confirmed manskank), james (again, manskank), jordan (8th grader) and myself. i was told to make sure that the former two don't corrupt the latter. yeah, right. oh well, at least lane 1 has two lane lines this year so we don't swim under the bridge.... wait that's right we don't so i managed to run into the wall about 4 times and almost go under the bridge 3 times. olympic caliber swimmer right here!

6/6/6ness, and guess who's back in town!

2006-06-06T20:00:01Z

Yeah, so for years (not really, just during my scary goth phase) i had planned demonic activities for today and instead we get: 6AM swimming, sleeping, lunch and Goodwill hunting (shopping not the movie)with Lisa, sleeping, and working. 'tis a very uninteresting life i lead.
ANTHONY WAS AT SWIMMING YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!! pretty much the highlight of the week, and yes that includes graduation. apparently he's decided to try to be a marine, which requires lots of push-ups and non-girly man workouts. maybe HE should try working out with Jon..... so we're swimming and he's push-uping and the whole thing was very very happy, except when megan thought that the naval academy was in maine. that was just a bit rough. apparently he leaves for some sort of practice training thing on the 23rd. I love it when really nice people come back from college, it reminds me of being 12 years old and worshipping the older kids.

cutting school, etc

2006-06-05T17:39:19Z

does it count as cutting if you weren't technically supposed to be there anyway? oh well, who cares. i was at least an accessory to cutting on this, my last day of highschool ever.
i left with lisa and we went to salvo, pretty hot. I got a wicked sweet skirt that came with this shirt that has the potential to be wicked sweet. apparently at some point i need to purchase lacy underthings to wear over clothing for partying purposes, or so lisa informs me.
yeah, the picnic, not so great. frisbee was fun, but that was only like 20 minutes, i really suck and that is why i swim. assembly, not so fun either. lisa and i did sudoku puzzles the whole time. she's a lot more haphazard with them than i am, but usually she guesses right so all things equal we would finish at about the same time.
i purchased a y membership for the summer, so anyone who has one should call or e-mail and we can get together to work out sometime. come to think of it i think i get a certain number of guests a month, so even if you don't have one and you want to come work out that would be really fun.
Also i got to meet the illustrious parker, so i can cross that off of my list of things to do before i go to college!
Connor for president!

end of schoolness

2006-06-05T04:12:19Z

OK, so i'm totally going to have to get more senior pics, apparently i'm way more loved than i thought i was at the beginning of the year, which is a good sign. since i haven't ordered them yet, i suggest that anyone who does not yet have one come to my grad party. speaking of which, that festival may be moved to our barn, where there are less mosquitoes. Also it's easier to find, because its not surrounded by trees. you drive right by it on the directions i gave, so i'm thinking that putting a sign in front of it may be sufficiente.
guess who finally has a facebook account? anthony s!!!!! i'm pretty excited. guess who finally have as lj? amy M. I'm very excited!
i can't believe i'm this old. tomorrow is that actual official last day. how wierd is this guys? i just don't think i'm mature enough to be graduating and moving out. for the love of pete, i just had a perfectly wonderful conversation with a freshman about what exactly une bonne putaine is (think buena puta).
went to katelyn p's grad party today. it was in toledo. I haven't seen her in ages, but she's exactly the same. still gorgeous kind and funny. i think she's even thinner, which may be the only thing that's changed. for those of you unfamiliar with my pre-highschool history (that would be all i believe) katelyn and i were basically the same person until highschool. homeschooled, blonde, glasses, christian, middle name elizabeth, swimmers, on the chubby side, etc. i went to my first concert when she won tickets to audio adrenaline on the radio. (its a christian band, but it still pretty much kicks ass, its still on my pace cds, i'll play it for anyone who thinks they could make fun of it, although the lyrics are a little bit cheesy christian the music itself is amazing lots of stones influence a little beatles and the toss in a tad of nirvana edge and you've got it). when highschool hit we kind of drifted a little bit. she's very into her boyfriend and church/ missionary activities (she's retained the fervor of her middle school faith). I'm very into swimming and government and science..... anyway i had a really nice reunion with her. she will be attending lee university majoring in pyschology. her boyfriend, gabe, goes there as well and a couple of his friends were there. it seems like she'll fit in well. i really want to keep in touch with her, we've known each other for so long. she's one of the three truly entirely good people i've ever met.
ahh, nessecito aller a mi lit! that's right i speak frespanenchish! (je hable lo franespancaisol)

a quick recap of two months

2006-05-26T00:00:49Z

WHEW, its been a while!
here's an update on everything:
WTP: very, very fun! playing drinking games with ben and jerry's ice cream, hearing about josh's spiritual revelation, watching Terminator, losing my family guy virginity, something called robochicken, watching gray's anatomy with kelly and mark (on the phone), listening to josh's ipod, seeing d-cal in his underwear, presenting to the only dissenting justice at the state level in Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, being accused of being a lesbian with Lisa, and of course sleeping with Kelly
life after WTP: studing for AP exams, didn't realize it hit
AP Bio exam: personally i thought it was very easy, but i was dissapointed that there wasn't an actual lab question.
AP Gov exam: multiple choice: easy but boring, i think they asked the same question about 3 times I'm glad there were only 60 essays: pure pwnage if i do say so myself. 1 essay People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, NRA, both candidates in the 2004 elections with respect to issues that have been placed on the national agenda, Ann Coulter attempting to run for office as a Libertarian. need I say more....
Prom: SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! Johnny R is a beastly good date, and a good dancer. It was nice to dance with someone close to my height because we could talk without yelling "WHAT?" every 5 seconds. We wore masks (John's idea) and looked sweet.
Life after Prom: I"M READING BOOKS!!!!!! I've finished the Devil Wears Prada, MY FIRST FRIVOLOUS BOOK ALL YEAR!!!
Senioritis: the infection is going strong. its terrible, you want to do stuff, but your better judgement has been replaced with this thing that won't let you do anything
Swimming: OUCH 'nuff said
funny thing that happened today: i wore matt nolton's shoes during french
new hobby? I LOOOOOOVE TENNIS!!!!! and actually I LOOOOOVE TAE-BO TOO! this has been a very enjoyable week of gym
Must Go, Shall Elaborate Later

Be Prepared? BAH!

2006-04-27T17:41:54Z

i feel like such a bad kid lately, because I'm careening on the edge of not having all of my crap done. history of math is pointless, i did our report of differential calc (liebnitz and weirstrass are my dads) but we didn't work hard. it didn't matter we pwned the rest of the class. linear i'm working hard, but i had a 20 problenm assignment assigned tuesday for thursday's class. this isn't a normal 20 math problems, this is 20 page or two long problems. spanish who cares, gym why care, bio i don't need to care because we took a practice AP and i got 4 points below what i need for a 5 withou adding in my essay scores, gov working hard but not for long, and french is french. i think i have true senioritis. i was having a really bad day tues., and i went to talk to noah because he had missed the class on ptolemy's theorem. i felt better after that, i think its because its an authentic college experience, and i'm like "OK, next year I only have one academic institution worth of crap to worry about, and the parental units won't be there to make me do things like eating and talking that take up WAYY to much time"
speaking of which, i got this e-mail from my college coach basically saying "you need to be in mile shape by august 15th" HOLY CRAP!!!! we've talked about this, and yes, rachel is a very robust person, but mile shape is a long way from where i am now. the last time i was in mile shape i was 14 years old. I'll be honest, i was pretty sweet, and by sweet i mean 2nd in my age group in Ohio. but, i hadn't grown in 3 years and i'd never had a period. plus there is no mile in highschool swimming. if i was going to be any good i was going to have to grow, and i wouldn't swim highschool events well on mile training anyway. so we decided to take a different approach fro a while. i did weight training instead of more running and swimming, and my yardage leveled off instead of getting longer every season. i've gotten way stronger, but i don't have anywhere near the endurance, or for that matter the body, that i had when i was mile training. so basically, i have to go from the nothing i'm doing right now to swimming 8 miles a day and running 5 by mid-august. I've been running at night and i'm up to two miles at a 7-8 minute pace and then a sprint mile, but i obviously need to keep getting longer. i've been going to all the morning practices i can, but with unit meetings and other assorted crap that hasn't been working out. than there's the just general fitness angle, i was doing really well eating salad and healthy food until i got really really busy again, and then it just went completely out the window. with adding in running, there pretty much isn't enough food in the world, which isn't helping. when i was in mile shape, i was 115 pounds and a size 2, now I'm 135 and a 6, so obviously that needs to change. sure, i'm about 2 inches taller and have a more womanly body, but improvements still need to be made. ah well, i think i'll keeep going with whatever i can until aps are over, then i can start swimming at night during open swim to start increasing my water yardage.
i totally just voted, which is sweet. i have pretty "i voted today" sticker on the right side of my chest now :) they didn't even ask why i needed an absentee ballot! why do people think they're hard to get?

The Rules Really Don't Apply to Me, Didn't You Hear?

2006-04-24T19:18:11Z

Okay. so school rules have never actually been an issue for me, because for some reason i've never actually had a teacher who tired to make them apply. Think about it, i've been p-sop for 3 years and the year before that i only took like four classes, so I came and left as I chose. Further, I think that an inordinate number of people know who i am, and by inordinate I mean way more people than I know.
freshman year I had never been to school before so I totally had this problemwith wearing shoes alll day, because if you've never worn shoes, it really bothes you for a while. So I would just take my shoes off during class, which was apparently against some sort of rule. nonetheless, my teachers pretended not to notice. i also didn't get that whole pass thing for a really long time. think about how wierd it would be to have to ask for someone to sign a piece of paper so you could go to the bathroom if you'd never had to before. I still hate doing that.
so the whole trying to get into the school to go talk to the minions, specifically johnny r (which totally didn't work out) thin and then actually having to get passes was really annoying. Mr. boblitt wasn't in his normal spot so my bro and i thought we'dgo the other way, which didn't work out because butters was down there.she made us get a pass in the office, so we got it from mr distal, but that was just in chris's blue book, so we had to go back and get another one. my god, there were 10 minutes left in school and its not like i look like a bad kid. people and there nitpicky power trips annoy me. 29 days until i never have to put up with that kind of crap again.
did my history of math presentation on differential calculus today. i talked for 20 minutes! (not planning on doing THAT at nationals lol) noah was in the front row which made me nervous because he's the only one that would be able to tell if i made an idiot out of myself anyway.
did every guy in the world get a haircut this weekend, mr. dickman, connor, noah, where will it end???!!!???????
returning to the theme of rules not applying, i'm sitting here writing in mr. kirian's room waiting for the qb scrimmage. haha, oh welll......

its __________ to be back

2006-04-10T16:17:42Z

FYI: MIT is absolutely amazing! as is flying!
so i flew out thursday morning, as most of you know, and got to Boston at about 3PM, i came back yesterday, my plane landed at about 3 PM. between those times, i got exactly 3 hours and 20 minutes of sleep. It was really sweet. more details later, but some of the highlights were: midnight tour of the roofs of the buildings, including getting to stand on top of a 10 foot high dome with no railing, an event called "math until we die" which lasted 6 hours and covered all of abstract algebra and a great deal of topology, calculus on manifolds, linear algebra as it relates to computer porgramming with fractal geometry, and this thing that the guy was working on this semester which involved taking a topological space (such as the cartesian plane) and folding it up so that it made a sphere and adding one point (which sounds really simple but it has a lot of really colle properties), a cookie bake-off, going to a store where they sell clothing for $1.50 per pound, and a sci-fi movie marathon. IHTFP!

agression hurts, and makes me ANGRY

2006-04-04T21:36:50Z

apparently flag football is not my game.
i was playing in gym and went to grab this kid's flag and totally jammed my finger right into his hip, the end result of this is that my ring finger on my right has is now roughly the size of a hotdog and i can't bend it. oddly enough pressure on the tip doesn't hurt a bit so typing is fine. himmelgarn is my gym teacher and she said it wasn't broken and i believe her, but my mom doesn't and wants to get it x-rayed. she's a little hyper about finger injuries because of the whole piano thing. i told her that because it doesn't hurt to type it prolly won't hurt to play the piano and tried it (it doesn't), but you know mom, she likes to be Concerned.
i just got this phone call from OSU, apparently there's scholarship money that the math department gives out and i won 2000-2500 for four years by some sort of unanimous vote. the lady said that the guy whose class i visited was in charge. hmmm, oh well my decision is made :)
i was looking forward to a nice relaxing night of homework with no working, but now i have to go into town to work on a math project for history (fun fun fun). ah well, it is one of the perks of not being grounded anymore, but sheesh

AND THE WINNER IS......

2006-04-04T04:07:55Z

ME!!!! or Boston, or THE SWEETEST SCHOOL EVER!
in case, you're wondering, I've decided, officially.
all my estimates came in, and MIT was only about $500 more expensive than the least expensive (hopkins, who would've guessed?).
I'm a beaver minus the unattractive overbite.
somehow the wafflehousing and late nights are now worth it (wow that sounds cheesy). i think i've been in kind of a funk lately because it seemed like i've been working so hard and that the benefits were all so far away, but knowing that i get to go to my #1, i dunno.
i need to try clam chowder, i've never had it. i wonder if i'll get an accent? (mr. chairman the founders believed in the right of all americans to eat chowdah)
i can't remember if i like baked beans or not, i know i like cream pie.
ahh, wow today was crazy. so many happenings.
well, i must be toddling....

hehehehe MY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION PACKETS ARE DONE DONE DONE!!!!

2006-03-26T03:48:28Z

ahhhhhh, the sweet bliss that is accomplishment! now i only have three more scholarships to fill out in my pile o' scholarships. youngins, you'll rue the day the burden of scholarship apping was put on your shoulders.
so someone quit at WH, which meant that I got moved into the door-core (ok everybody actually calls it the waffle house biatch or WHB position) that SEO was supposed to have, but then I got there and the new owner, who was attempting to be a cook, decided that I'd be better off training. so i got paid $7.00 an hour to finish my traiing hours instead of $5.15 (yay). but apparently i'm done, so tomorrow i get to be a real waitress. I'm actually kind of excited, i should make a fair amount of money, unless i totally f everything up.
if it seems like my posts are getting more boring because all i talk about is work, then you're prolly right, i am grounded after all, but i could talk about where i stand in school
french is probably just about my favorite class right now, i dunno why. c'est chouette! we're studying paris and its geography right now. Matt N is entertaining me greatly. The other day he busted out the phantom of the opera in his best soprano, in the middle of class. fue muy comico
government, is, government. it seems like the wilson tests are getting more and more remote from what the book actually talks about, I think that dickman has something to do with that. my essays are starting to come together. my "how effective do you think separation and blending of powers have been and what evidence can you site to support your opinion" essay went through a major overhaul last weekend, and of course this would be the week that dickman decided he couldn't grade essays, so i have no idea whether i made any progress or not.
bio is, heavy. we're covering in about two weeks a very light smattering of anatomy, which is review for me because I took a very intensive anatomy course freshman year. i miss dissections, real dissections, with the smell of formaldehyde. i didn;t realize it unitl a couple weeks ago when we did the lactase lab either, but i miss chemistry and mixing things up.
i hate gym. i think i have like 6 special ed kids in my class, and then there's like three that have odor issues, and then there's the f-baller that i knocked down, the kid that has to weigh like 50 pounds more than me that is afraid of me and a cheerleader. i have no hand eye coordination, i got beaned with a basketball the other day, and i keep getting put on teams with all special ed kids.
spanish, is pretty much the 40 minutes i use to question my entire existence. think about it, it represents all the disadvantages of my ambitions. i'm in this class that i'm not going to use, that i don't enjoy, that i only signed up for out of a weird masochistic sense of inflated pride (after all, i'm Rachel Price, AP Student...)
history of math, is really boring. noah wasn't there on friday and it was even worse than usual. normally there's at least entertainment in the form of things which can only be classified as Noah-related coincidences. whenever you have to pick a random number to check a theorem with we always end up picking the same one. we noticed it about a year ago and we keep trying to not pick the same number on purpose, but we always get the same one. there's no way he could be cheating because i stopped writing them down a long time ago. its not like there's a definite special property to like 573.... ah well
linear is everything history is not. i didn't used to like professor kunicki that much, but he's actually probably the smartest guy i know. the other day he stopped class to talk about cosmology for a half an hour, of course class went over and nobody understood what was going on except for noah and me (that is grammatically correct by the way... except for noah except for me put them together), but it was a fascinating discussion.
swimming is of course non-existent right now, i had been running every day, but then i worked wednesday, thursday, and friday night and this morning, so my legs were too tired and it was dark by the time i got home.
hehehehehehe i feel nerdy. no one else is on. i'm going to read a book.

waffle wenching and other such occupations

2006-03-23T16:48:02Z

so, the whole waffle house thing is actually going well. Sarah Olesky turned out to be my trainer, so i'm getting about 7 years of lost socialization over with as well. We used to play together at the Y when we were both in the after school program there and then we used to make and sell bookmarks and stuff. i think another girl did it with us too, but I can't quite remember her name. after I stopped going to the y we kind of lost touch although we did exchange a couple letters. i prolly still have them, i'll have to look. I have a junk drawer in my room where i have all of the letters from my correspondence phase. I actually had quite a chain going with katelyn P. (my friend that I had who was a home schooled swimmer like me, whose middle name was also elizabeth). there's lots of fish stationary.
i really like getting letters, there's something excellent about the whole opening the envelope and being able to touch it thing. yeah, e-mail is quicker and more eficient, but letters are somehow way more real. Its kind of the same thing with talking and IMing, at least for me. especially with boys, its sometimes like they're almost two different people online. fighting is way different online too. people say things that they would normally hold back.
which brings me back to sarah. apparently she was also romantically embroiled with an individual with whom i was. its kind of getting to the point where the whole thing is actually comical. i know he said he was having major girl issues, but good grief! the best part was that it was all his fault. i don't know if its just a boy thing, but it seems to me that if you're going to try to balance the demands of 6 girls you should expect a little stress, and not much sympathy about your dilemma from any of them. of course the obvious solution would be that, since most of them would have been fine just being friends until the couple thing was made an issue..... also, the secrecy thing had to be a killer. hahahaha, highschool boys trying to be PIMPs. i have an amusing life.
you know its spring when people's allergies start flaring up. I was serenaded all the way through french class by matt and his nasal difficulties. J'aime la francais. C'est jolie et amusant. right now we're studying paris (springtime in paris?). we got to listen to some of the phantom soundtrack in class today. beau wank (???? freshman, curly hair, silky voice) said that the phantom is going to be at the stranahan for 4 weeks next january. it figures, i move to a city where there are actual cultural events, and cultural events move into toledo.
some of you may be wondering why i'm here. today is math day at U of F, so I had to go to the speaker. I went through all of the difficulty of getting a pass out of school because I was worried that the speaker would go all the way through spanish. normally i would just eat lunch with noah and hang out, maybe talk about the speaker, because he would have loved the presentation (he wants to talk about it anyway) or play xbox. however, noah's at a track meet. he's taken up throwing javelin and they left a 6AM this morning. either way i have to pick up my litle bro for lunch and then we have to go to the next lecture. I <3 my brother, i hope he goes to the same school i do.

dagnysnark @ 2006-03-19T20:35:00

2006-03-20T02:22:44Z

100 Yes's or 100 No's

1. Taken a picture naked? no
2. Painted your room? does someone else's count?
3. Kissed a member of the same sex? On the cheek
4. Drove a car? during driver's ed, other than that just the van and dad's truck (haha i love being too literal)
5. Danced in front of your mirror? well yeah!
6. Have a crush? yeah, they're long too, i don't think i've ever liked someone for less than 3 months
7. Been dumped? ish, we weren't going out but he decided he'd rather go out with someone else that "not go out" with me
8. Stole money from a friend? heck no
9. Gotten in a car with people you just met? yeah, charlie rinker, we went to the carryout and bought mountain dew at a football game freshman year
10. Been in a fist fight? no, am i missing something?
11. Snuck out of your house? no, but my house isn't really that sneak outable
12. Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back? yep
13. Been arrested? nope
14. Made out with a stranger? no
15. Met up with a member of the opposite sex somewhere? yes,for a college interview with a 50 something man
16. Left your house without telling your parents? yah, but they knew i was going to go sometime
17. Had a crush on your neighbor? No, my neighor boy is the national tractor rebuilding champion
18. Ditched school to do something more fun? yeah, and i'm doing more of it later this year
19. Slept in a bed with a member of the same sex? yeah, hopkins
20. Seen someone die? yeah, don't want to talk about it
21. Been on a plane? no, but i will in 19 more days!!!!!
22. Kissed a picture? yeah, the guy that played Tom Paris on Star Treck Voyager, I was 8 and already a geek
23. Slept in until 3? nope, my latest is noon unfortunately
24. Love someone or miss someone right now? yeah, A.S. WHERE ARE YOU AND WHY AREN"T YOU ON FACEBOOK???!!!?
25. Laid on your back and watched cloud shapes go by? yeah, i do it all the time after i go running, and then my calves tie up and i have to streach for forever
26. Made a snow angel? of course!
27. Played dress up? who doesn't? I still have my stuff from when I was little. my mom made me a medieval dress and a pioneer dress
28. Cheated while playing a game? yeah, i was pretty fierce about uno when i was little
29. Been lonely? Yes
30. Fallen asleep at work/school? yeah, at college, during an exam (i still got a 100 on it though :))
31. Been to a club? yes ~grins~ it was worth it.
32. Felt an earthquake? hm, no, this is FINDLAY!
33. Touched a snake? yeah, thanx ben
34. Ran a red light? yeah, the one by lowe's at like midnight coming back from a swim meet. i didn't even think about it because i had steph simon and she was talking. she talks a lot, and very fast.
35. Been suspended from school? No, not plannning on it either.
36. Had detention? no, ut i have an unfair advantage because I was homeschooled during middle school
37. Been in a car accident? ~sighs~ yes, with a guy i met during my infectious disease mentorship lol
38. Hated the way you look? yes
39. Witnessed a crime? does sexual harrasment of a minor count? (eww senior swimming boys with 8th grade swimming girls)
40. Pole danced? um no, i don't think i'm really missing an essential aspect of life here, am i?
41. Been lost? yeah, mom and i got lost on ALL of my college visits, even case which we'd been to before
42. Been to the opposite side of the country? no, come to think of it i've never been west of chicago
43. Felt like dying? Yes
44. Cried yourself to sleep? Yes
46. Sang karaoke? no, the world is prolly thankful for this
47. Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
48. Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? no
49. Caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes
50. Kissed in the rain? a cold sort of slushish rain
51. Sang in the shower? Yes
52. Made out in a park? Yes
53. Had a dream that you married someone? yeah, i have a lot of these, some frightening some not
54. Glued your hand to something? i've superglued fingers together, but it was intentional. I wanted to see what would happen.
55. Got your tongue stuck to a flag pole? no, again i don't think i'll go to my grave sorry not to have done this
56. Ever gone to school partially naked? no, but i did wear a short skirt once
57. Been a cheerleader? heavens no
58. Sat on a roof top? yes ~grins~
59. Brush your teeth? i should hope so!
60. Ever too scared to watch scary movies alone? ever been to scared to watch scary movies with other people...?-- good point deedee
61. Played chicken? no
62. Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? i'm a swimmer, if it involves water i've done it
63. Been told you're hot by a complete stranger? one of my brother's friends, very awkward
64. Broken a bone? nope
65. Been easily amused? yeah, opening and closing the clasp on my watch keeps me busy for like the whole school day
66. Laugh so hard you cry? yes!
67. Mooned/flashed someone? accidentally, ah the glories of deck changing!
68. Cheated on a test? off of whom?
69. Forgotten someone's name? yeah, my interviewer at case, i didn't need to know it though
70. Slept naked? yep
71. Gone skinny dipping in a pool? see #62
73. Blacked out from drinking? nope
74. Played a prank on someone? yeah, good story, but not time now
75. Gone to a late night movie? how late?
76. Made love to anything not human? eww. i guess they had to come up with 100 questions...
77. Failed a class? no
78. Choked on something you're not supposed to eat? no...
79. Played an instrument for more than 10 hours? straight, no, but i have had piano practicing marathons but we stopped to eat, and fight
80. Cheated on a girl/boyfriend? no
81. Do you celebrate the fourth of July? yeah, with popcorn!
82. Thrown strange objects? yeah, food, clothing, person hygiene products. if it can be chucked, i've prolly thrown it.
83. Felt like killing someone? not seriously no
84. Felt like running away? yep
85. Ran away? yeah, but i got cold so i came back the same day
86. Did drugs? chlorine....
87. Had detention and not attend it? no
89. Made a parent cry? Yes
90. Cried over someone? yes, not over boys though. i prefer the stioc suffering on the iside for dealing with that. I cry for things like female friends moving away or turing into bee-atches.
91. Owned more than 5 sharpies? um yeah. I don't think i've ever not owned more that 5.
92. Dated someone more than once? well, if you weren't going out but then you got realy mad and decided you weren't going to hang out with this person any more, and then somhow got right back to whre you were before (which was still not quite dating) does it count? hahahahaha i love my messed up life
93. Had/Have a dog? not yet, my cat is the size of a small dog though
95. Own an instrument? me personally, no. as a family we have 4 pianos, a cello, a guitar, two violins, and multipl recorders though
96. Been in a band? yeah a rock band with abdallah, lee kindig, and mike crofts. I played keyboard, we never did find a bassist. I assume i got kicked out when abdallah stopped talking to me after homecoming, but i dunno.
97. Drank 25 sodas in a day? maybe in a week?
98. Broken a CD? not that mattered, just junky ones that come in the mail, although i did try to make something out of the vanderbilt informational dvd
100. Had feelings for one of your best/good friends? yeah, i don't recommend acting on them

AHHHHHHHHHH. I have filled out ALL of the community foundation packets today, and written my essays. Holy Hell. "Explain why you deserve this scholarship" WHAT? i don't really think that "because I'm the shizit" is the sort of answer they want, nor would they accept "because you are..... getting sleepy very sleepy. You have a sudden desire to give me $10,000 a year with which to attend MIT". i think the worst would be "I actually don't. the whole idea of asking you to give me money is actually contrary to my ideals, but i'm so desperate to get out of findlay that i chucked them out the window a long time ago"
i think this whole grounding thing is making me a little loopy. i kind of have this weird other worldly stare going on. its sad when getting out is going to kohls with my mom to buy golf clothes for chris, i did get a prett skirt though
busy week:
monday: unit 5 meeting, mentorship
Tuesday:unit 2/nhs meeting, swimming banquet
wednesday:quiz bowl, work
thursday:university math day (no school)
friday: family dinner, qb
argh, i remember when all i had to worry about was 20 hours of swimming a week
it seems the end result of the whole team getting busted for what went on at the senior meet is that one kid can't coach this summer. i don't know what's happening to the other guy. i really don't see how carolyn is ever going to enforse the rules again.
is OSU supposed to call tomorrow?
argh i also remember the days when my brother had no social life, oh wait, that's now. so i have to get off so he can play sim city and some sort of golf thing.

Waffle Wench on Pi Day!

2006-03-14T18:45:13Z

so i ended up taking the job at waffle house. supposedly i'll make like $50-$70 a shift in tips and that's good enough for mom and dad. i heard through the grapevine that j9 used to work there, so i asked her about it and she said ti was "fun but interesting" i thought that was good until amy made a comment about the clientel and said that j9 had said some things about that. hmm, well if I get raped/harrassed i'm blaming mom and dad. I'll sic Jon F on them.
It's Pi day! and in that spirit:

E to the u du dx,
E to the x, dx.
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
3 point 1 4 1 5 9.
Integral, radical, mu, dv
Slipstick, sliderule, MIT!

my bro was really upset because he messed up and wore his pi shirt yesterday. I don't have one because I chose to get my MIT shirt instead. I should have made one. ah well.
tonight i pretty much have to destroy my gov essays except for like two of them (i have six) because they're either crappy or they don't fit with what everyone else is doing. dickman actualy told unit 2 that we have enough examples on the 3rd question this morning. hhahahahaha, that's the one we were like two minutes over on, but i do really need my whole 1:20 on that. sarah is supposed to get down to 1:00. we'll see.

job -hunting and movie reviews

2006-03-13T18:55:02Z

So, I'm sitting here at U of F.... again! my class got out 1/2 an hour early (on the first day back from break! I ask you is this actually a real college?) and I can't go anywhere because I have a job interview at 2:30.
job hunting has been the order of the day for about the past week. it pretty much ate up al of my livejournal time :( my lunatic parents think i need to have a job NOW, so I've been working on it. actually with the qb tournament getting canceled, the whole going job searching part was a good way to break the monotony of the whole grounding thing. I put in apps at Bubby's ( in new regal, where sara works), olive garden, ruby tuesday's, cracker barrel, steak and shake, waffle house, friendly's, Bob Evens, Tony's, and Oler's. call me crazy but i think I either want to work at bubbe's or olers. bubbe's because sara is there( and she makes money like no tomorrow and if i'm going to go through the drudgery of working again I want it to be worth something) and olers because the bartender was really hot when i went to put in my application :) you don't have to wear a cheesy-looking uniform at either. My mom actually suggested that i try oler's. that was weird, basically "hey honey why don't you try oler's" me: "its a bar, you know" mom: "yeah, you'd make lots of money" ---- This from a woman who thinks that a month of grounding isn't enough for going to a bar to dance!
QB got canned on sat. because of the fog and it really really sucked. it was the NAQT state tournament, the one that we could have qualified for nationals from :( true, there is the state tournament for the other format later (next month i think) but we're a much stronger team in NAQT because of the whole conferring on the bonus questions type deal. I did get to hang out with josh and jon though, which was fun. we went to mickey d's at 6 o'clock in the morning
I finally saw the new pride and prejudice movie this weekend (a mother daughter bonding activity). The cinamatography is GORGEOUS! they had most of the characters right, except I don't think they conveyed how close Lizzy and her father are supposed to be, they barely spoke to each other, which made the part where he tells her that if she doesn't marry Mr. Collins her mother will never speak to her again but if she does he'll never speak to her again much less meaningful.
I also saw mr. and Mrs. Smith (a brother sister bonding movie) I was alright. I like the whole "even more suited to each other than they realized" thing, and they did have enough chemistry to pull of the love scenes, but other than that it was pretty boring. plot: hey you're a hitman too, I'll blow you up and then you'll try to blow me up and then we'll realize that we can't so we'll just blow some other people up. I get the feeling that (other than the cooking thing) that would be the type of marriage that jon or robby would really enjoy, except they would probably want to use nuclear weapons.