I miss my Lacydog. :(
She attacked everyone's shoelaces when she was a puppy (not the shoe, just the laces) hence the name Lacy.
She was a Cocker Spaniel/Sheltie mix, which I'm sure would have qualified her as a "designer dog" these days, but 15 years ago she was a mutt, and we got her - shots and all - from a Cocker Spaniel breeder for $20.
So she was our clearance puppy, and she hated everyone except my mom.
She wouldn't let you touch her, unless she felt the need to be scratched somewhere.
When my brother and I were younger, it was Lacy's job to wake us up in the morning. My mom would tell her "It's time to wake up the kids," and she would come hauling into our rooms and jump on the bed, lick our face a few times, and then start snuffling her nose under the pillow and blankets.
Lacy loved the snow when she was young. She's go outside and stick her nose in it, root around for a while, then come back inside with a white face and little snowballs stuck to the fur on her legs.

By the time we put her down, she was so sick it would have been cruel to keep her alive. She has stopped eating, so we tried giving her wet puppy food, hoping it was just her teeth that hurt from a bone she had gotten a few days before. That worked for about a day. Then she was back to not eating, stumbling around and into things, and tremoring when she laid still. So my mom decided we were not going to let our dog starve to death and took her to the vet.

I know Lacy didn't really like me. I didn't really like her either. But we got that dog a few weeks before I turned 5, and I don't have any memory of what it's like to not have a dog. It is so weird walking into my house and not having her be there.


(That's not her btw. But I don't have a picture of Lacy on my computer and that one is pretty darn close to how she looked.)

St. Bernard/Mastiff Mix

I love this guy.
I love his lips especially.
I love the white splotch on his nose and his eyebrows and floppy ears.
I love that he'll be almost 200 pounds and taller than my waist as an adult.
I love the idea of the giant yard I would need to have for him to run around in. The kind of yard that starts flat, slopes down, and is flat again so I could put a garden in and plant trees at the bottom.
I love the idea of getting him when my youngest child is 10 years old, and having him be fiercely
protective of my family, yet be a cuddly teddy bear that would sleep on the floor next to my kids' beds.

But mostly I just love his lips.

Look at this thing.
It's a mix between a Shar-Pei and a basset hound.
I think he's adorable.
It would seem that I am entering a OMG CUTE PUPPY! phase, which I cycle through every 6 months or so. I really shouldn't be allowed on the internet when I'm in this kind of mindset, because then I find a website that lists just about every mix of two purebreed dogs you could think of, and has pictures of the result; like this wrinkly basset hound puppy. It's not as cute when it grows up though.

Yesterday I looked out my window and saw someone had put an old bookcase by the dumpster. I was excited, cause 1) Finding and stealing furniture someone threw out is one of those College Things I need to do, and 2) I need a bookshelf regardless.
I was so disappointed when I went down there to find it was not a bookshelf, but a dresser with the drawers missing.

Every now and then there will be free samples of something at the Rec Center. Once it was shampoo/conditioner, once it was men's deodorant, razors, tampons. Today it was Wheaties.
Which I've never had before.
Which are delicious.

LOOK AT THE DESTINATION!
LOOK AT IT!!!

:D :D :D :D

Also, I'm home for Thanksgiving in 28 days!
I had like a half-hour conversation with my dad last night and was in a good mood afterwords. I've always been closer/able to relate more to my dad than my mom, but THIRTY MINUTES is a long time to be talking in my family.

After talking with my Therapeutic Exercises professor today after class, I've learned that the reason my hips, ankles, and now wrists occasionally ache deep in the joint is due either to a mild form of rheumatoid arthritis or a sesitivity to barometric change in my synovial fluid (stuff that lubricates joints). Both are highly probable, as my grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis so bad all the bones in her wrists had fused together, and when the cold and warm fronts collided over the great lakes on Monday night (the weather here is fine, slightly windy) I was in so much pain I couldn't sleep.
So. The next time it happens I get to have blood work done to look at my white blood cell count and hopefully rule out arthritis. If it's here, I go to Student Health and see if it's covered under my free stuff for students. If it's at home (which I'm hoping it is, triggered by altitude or something) I'll just have my mom draw my blood in the kitchen and take it to work. She'll be so excited. She's wanted to draw someone's blood at home ever since they let her take a travel-kit home; it's in the bottom drawer with the phone books. I certainly trust my mom with drawing my blood more than anyone else.

And boo on physics.

So I have this... squash. I baked it today between classes, and (as a surprise to me!) it turned into a spaghetti like substance. Not what I was expecting, however, I am an adult now, I can cook things, I can adapt when things go awry.
Plus, I vaguely remember eating this kind of squash one time years ago. My brother wouldn't eat it.

ALSO!
I totally forgot what I was going to say...
Hmmm...

Oh. Our last soccer game is this Saturday. Well, as far as the regular season goes, the NCAA tournament starts the beginning of November. I know that in the first round of the play-offs, the high seeded school gets to stay home, and the lower seed team has to travel. I know our boys did better this year than they have in the last like, 10 years. Usually they just lose, but this year we won some and tied a lot - I tend to count ties as wins, even though that's not how it works. But I don't know if they did well enough to grant them the home-field advantage for the first couple of games. If we don't play at home for the first round, Saturday will be my last game. I'll still go in and do rehab with them, but... I can't believe soccer is over already!!
I kind of wish I could have been at their game last Saturday. Not because it was a good game (we lost 6-2) but because they came back with lots of things for me to work with injury wise. It would have been nice to be there to see everything first hand and deal with it in the acute situation. Apparently, so many guys went down, we had to put our back-up Goalie in the mid-field somewhere.

It's a very rainy very blegh kind of day today.

The Health Sciences career fair is tonight. I'm still debating about going. Almost all the companies that will be there are based out of the greater-Chicago area, and I'm just not interested in working for any company based in the Mid-West. There are a few national companies there, but they are all general physical therapy, which translates into generally old people. I am even less interested in old people than I am with the mid-west.

Drew's on his way to the airport, should be getting there about now.

My room feels big and empty. It's quiet without the beep-blooping of Mario on his PSP while I sit on my computer and work. Without him sneak-attack hugging me from behind while I try to make dinner (He liked everything I made. The domesticated wench in me was proud. The feminist in me wanted to punch the domesticated wench.)

We had a fairly intense conversation last night. About last summer and how much we argued, where we both are adult/maturity wise (not the same place) and how that changes the dynamics of our relationship compared to other people's, about what the next four years will be like and how we're going to handle me being here for 11 months straight between my 4th and 5th year. We talked about Christmas and the weird dreams we both had over the last few days. We talked about the kind of house we want (not too big, but with a massive backyard I can plant fruit trees in and grow a garden) and all the kids and pets we're going to fill that house with.

I made twice-baked potatoes and Drew made steak.
So good.

Now there's something I never thought would be in my apartment. Ever.

We went grocery shopping together today, and talked about our dinner for the next three days. It's a small victory to most, but it's also a first for us, and it made me really, really happy.

Post # 275

So Drew's here. :D
He's got great legs don't you think?

I'll be honest though. I hate sharing the bed. I've got a nice dip going in the middle where my hips fit oh-so-nicely, and it's weird sleeping off to one side. I always sneak back to the middle while I sleep, then wake up and feel bad for hogging the bed.

Sweet potatoes (or yams, i guess, technically) are really good. I am far too impateint to cook them in the oven like you are supposed to, so I just stick them in the microwave for 7 minutes.

Drew will be here in less than 4 hours. I am so excited.

This is really a picture of Anthony Selvagi, who we all just call Sal, from the game against Santa Clara in early September.
However, you can see Lisa and I on the bench in the background looking really fucking cool.

Last night I got really bored, so I decided to straighten my hair. I've never really paid attention during the process before, so the difference in length was really quite surprising.


The finished product. Still shocked at how long my hair is. I never wear it down anymore, or even really look at it when I'm getting ready. Usually I get out of the shower, towel it off a bit, put it in a bun, and go to sleep. Most of the time the bun stays over night so I just leave it.

Mara came over for dinner tonight. I made a chicken and pasta dish and she brought a bottle of wine and it was a great time. We talked about school, our teams (soccer and men's basketball), and our boys... life in general. It was great catching up and being able to talk. Somehow, it seems we have everything in common, from what we want to do when we grow up, to the ups and downs in our relationships, to how we're feeling about Milwaukee, to how we currently feel about our classes.

Also, the guys ate all my cookies yesterday. So yay.

I went to make cookies last night, but then realized: I don't own a large mixing bowl yet!

So I was creative.

I don't need 40 cookies sitting in my apartment, so I'm going to bring them to the training room for the boy's after their game tonight against Syracuse. I kinda feel like I should bring Sunny-D as well.

It's 2:20am and I just got in.
Cause Nichole invited me over to watch a movie.
So I went over.
And her roommate made me a drink.
And I was tired of being responsible.
So I drank it.
While we watched Without A Paddle.
And my drink was pretty good.
And I don't have to be to soccer until 3:30pm.
I'm not worried about it.
Though I am getting up tomorrow to go grocery shopping.
I'm not worried about that either.
Cause one drink over the course of three hours,
is obviously not enough to have an effect on me.
I had a really good time tonight.
I went out on a Friday night.
I hung out with some friends.
I had a drink.
And it was a "typical college experience" of under-age drinking.
And I didn't die.
Or have a panic attack.
Or grow green horns.
I just enjoyed myself.
And swooned over Matthew Lillard.
Who is damn sexy in that movie,
and in SLC Punk.

I'm pretty proud of myself right now.
I should go to bed though.
It's late.


There's a time and place for everything, and it's called college.

This is what time I left my apartment this morning.

And this is what time I got back tonight.

I'm eating some sort of green squash-thing for dinner. I don't know what kind it is though, Nichole gave it to me and told me to cut it in half and bake it for 45 minutes, then put butter and cinnamon/brown sugar on it.
That will be my picture tomorrow. I know you are just quivering with anticipation.

I'm not sure where or how my friend Nichole found a tiny purple potato, but she did. At it is delicious. Well... it might just taste like a normal potato, but after the first bag I bought went bad on me (damn hidden rotten potato) I've been slightly adverse to buying them. I've been potato-less for about a month and a half, till now.
Either way, yum.

I feel like screaming "I told you so!" at one of my friends. I knew the problem, but she didn't, but that's what happens if you sit in the back and don't pay attention in class. It's a slightly smug feeling, but that's ok. I can feel smug about my knowledge everyone once and a while.
I got a 94% on my Nutrition exam! Go me!
I forget that things I know and consider common knowledge aren't actually common knowledge. On last night I was at tutoring for Human Physiology. There's another girl (Mandy) in my group who is studying Exercise Science, so our classes are very simmilar; and then there was a girl who was a Psychology major, who for some reason has to take the class go get into Grad School. Mandy and I were discussing the pathway of sugar in the blood, how it is used for energy, how the sugar actually gets into a cell, how it's broken down and built back up, Glycolysis, the Krebs Cycle, and Oxidative Phosphorilation via the Electron Transport Chain. All of those things have been in at least one of my classes every yearsince I was a FRESHMEN IN HIGH SCHOOL. But the Psych girl was just staring at us like we were speaking another language! It probably doesn't help that all my friends from high school were into biology as well, and those are the kinds of things we would talk about on the weekends. It was quite startling to realize that not everyone just KNOWS about that stuff.

Mara's coming over for dinner tonight after Nutrition. I'm making a sauted chicken and rice dish and she's bringing a bottle of white wine. We'll be fucking classy.
I'm very much looking forward to it though. We only have Nutrition together this year, and since I no longer have a meal plan we can't even get lunch or dinner together anymore. Plus, between Athletic Training and being an RA, she has ZERO free time. We haven't had a time to sit and talk all semester and I miss her.

My mom sent me a package last friday and it's still not here yet. Apparently, Monday was Columbus Day (no one tells me anything) so that gives some explanation for the long wait. But if it's not here by this afternoon, I'm going to start to expect foul play on behalf of my package. I really hope it comes today. There are cookies in it.
Speaking of cookies, I'm making some tomorrow for the guys on the soccer team for after their game on Saturday. I have a mix that will end up with THREE DOZEN COOKIES, which I definitely do not need sitting in my apartment, because I WILL eat them all at once. Who better to give cookies to than to a bunch of college soccer players who I already like anyway? I know they will be GONE in about 5 minutes if I set them out after the game.

I hate having to pay for laundry. I think over the last two years I've spent... let's see, $3.50 every two weeks for 32 weeks is $56, plus sheets and towels is $84 for two years is $168 plus this year which is $1.75 every week and a half for 8 weeks [I've been here for EIGHT WEEKS already!?] is $178. Round that up for anything I'm forgetting... Almost $200 on laundry.
That's half a month's rent and I still have 4 years to go.
But what's more ridiculous is that over the 6 years I'm spending here I'm going to end up paying about $35,000 in rent alone. And that's assuming I find a roommate next year and can cut my rent down. If I end up living in a studio by myself for the rest of the time that number jumps up to $41,000.
Fuck, that's a lot of money. And that's not even including tuition, which I don't want to think about but now my OCD brain is, ok here we go... $30,000 for four years of undergrad is $120,000 minus the scholarship I got is $80,000 plus $16,000 a semester for Graduate school at 5 semesters is another $80,000 so we're at $160,000 minus the $5,000 a year I get from my aunt so... $130,000 total.
I'm responsible for $35,000 of that, the rest my parents are paying out of pocket or we're getting student loans.
Wow.
Fucking college. Why is it so expensive?!
(I could have gone to the U for free you know)

Sigh. This is why Doctors of Physical Therapy from Marquette make (on average) $62,500 their first year out of school and why we have a 100% job placement rate.
Good numbers in my opinion.

I'll stop babbling now.

I don't know why I keep the weather widget on my computer. It can't be trusted. For one, it's certainly not 58* right now, for another, it's not going to rain today, nor is it even cloudy. it is lies.

Drew will be here in a week. That is exciting.
I'm interested to see what happens when he realizes that the only things to eat in my apartment are fruits, vegetables, and Cosmic Brownies aren't actually an American pantry staple. He'll probably just lose 10 pounds during the five days he's here.

Also, I signed up via Yahoo? MSN? I don't remember... anyway, I signed up at DailyRecipe.com to get an email every day with a few recipes in it. So far, I haven't MADE any of them, but I have bookmarked the pages, so that's something. Anyway. In every email there is a Daily Give-Away that you can enter for. Usually, it's something I don't know what I would do with, like a fire-pit, or fancy plate holders.
Except today it's a BLENDER.
And I realized I've been successfully domesticated by the female forces of the universe (something I vowed would never happen) because it's just a blender. AND I WANT IT. >.<
Actually, it's a $100 gift card, which is the approximate value of the blender. Which is really even better, cause $100 is awesome.
Do I think I would win if I entered? No.
BUT DAMN THE RULES FOR SAYING I HAVE TO BE TWENTY-ONE TO ENTER. I can't even try to win it if I wanted to. Laaammmmeeeeeee.

Also, Eminem's Without Me makes me want to dance around silly-like.


Let's go all the way tonight,
No regrets, just love,
We can dance until we die,
You and I,
Will be young forever!

You make me feel,
like I'm living a teenage dream,
the way you turn me on,
I can't sleep.
Let's runaway,
And don't ever look back, don't ever look back.

I might get your heart racing in my skin tight jeans,
be your teenage dream tonight.
Let you put your hands on me in my skin tight jeans,
be your teenage dream tonight.

I like free things.

There was a psudo- Farmer's Market (which they forgot the apostrophy on. HA! Way to be higher education!) today on campus. I walked over in between lunch, to check it out. The whole two vendors there didn't have what I was hoping for (eggplant or zuccini), they just had a bunch of different pumpkins and squash which I'm pretty sure were the decoration kind, not the eating kind.
Oh well, at least I got a free grocery bag out of it.

I'm exhausted today. I just want to crawl back into bed and sleep forever.
I'm sure it's cause I went and ran 6.75 miles like a moron yesterday. Now my knees are really quite mad at me.

Favorite Song Of the Week: Teenage Dream by Katy Perry.

pictures!!

This is my friend Lita, who I've told you about before. Yesterday I got all dressed up and we went to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's campus to take lots and lots of pictures. In the background, you can see a FOUNTAIN they have on campus.
This picture does her no justice by the way. I just randomly take awkward pictures while people are moving and talking.

UWM is slightly outside of Downtown Milwaukee. I think is Marquette's campus was in this kind of neighborhood I would like it here more. I hate being in the city, I miss grass and trees. Plus, all the houses here were built before the concept of subdivisions, they all look completely different and I love it!

Speaking of trees.
There's this little patch of trees called the Downer Woods (Forest?) that's on the edge of UWM by one of their dorm buildings and their Rec Center. It was so fun to walk though and pretend we were miles away from anything, when in fact, it's probably like a 1/4 loop through the trees.


And here are some of my favorites of the pictures Lita took. I think there were almost 300 of them!
Does anyone other then me think they look different then they actually do? Then get a surprise when they look in the mirror or see themselves in a picture? I always forget what I look like. I don't want to sound egotistical, but I think I look downright beautiful in these pictures - is that what I always look like? It can't be.



Cha! Playing on some weird sloppy part of a building. I felt really acrobatic and cool.
This one just makes my legs look really super fucking long.



And last, for everyone who says I look like Hermione. Fine. Ok. I do.

I need to go grocery shopping.
But first I'm going to Lita's apartment and she's going to take really artsy pictures of me because that is what she does. I'm kind of excited.

I have a bruise on my leg. Which is cool for me, cause I never bruise.
Granted, walking into a drawer in your bathroom isn't too suave, but whatever.

I know I'm peeing out the vast majority of my Daily Vitamin. I know this. The body can only obsorb, hold, and use so many vitamins and minerals at a time. But after doing tracking and analyzing my food intake for three days for a project in my Nutrition class, I've found my Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Iron, and Potassium are low. I know this is because I currently cannot afford to buy a variety of fruits and vegetables (bananas, apples, and green leaf lettuce are always the cheapest so that's all I get) and I can't afford to eat red meat for the iron.
I figured 6 deficiencies were enough warrant a daily vitamin, especially because I'm already eating healthy. If I ate like crap, I'd have no one to blame for lack of nutrients but myself, and would just change my diet. I think the most unhealthy thing I have in my apartment right now is a box of Macaroni and Cheese, and while that is pretty high in sodium and saturated fat, I only eat it about once a month. Currently, my fridge looks like this: Leftover taco meat, leftover pulled pork (yumyumyumyum), bread, eggs, margarine, carrots, salsa, milk, water, jam, lettuce, yogurt, random condiments. That is all very nutritious stuff.

So anyway...
what?
Oh.
Multi-Vitamin.
I don't know if it's a placebo effect, or if getting enough Vitamin A-C-D-E and iron is starting to build it up in my system, but I've been feeling a bit better this week compared to others. I can accept that is due to getting [more than] enough iron, instead of 1/3 of what I should have been getting - Iron carries oxygen in the blood, and the more oxygen in the blood, the more is getting to muscles, and the more sustainable energy I can make.

I'll have to ask my mom to put my fish oil capsules in my next care package. I am low on Omega-3 and -6 as well.

Now I just need to work on not being hungry all the damn time and I'll be set!

When I called my mom to ask about the inflatable Halloween cat that was stuffed into the care package I got last Saturday she reminded me that for as long as I can remember, I've said I would get a cat when I go away to college. My mom and brother were always allergic, so even though I really wanted a cat, we couldn't get one. Seeing as I'm now three years into college and still catless, my mom took it upon herself to fulfill my wish.

My mom and I have a much better relationship when I'm 1500 miles away.

Why, yes. I HAVE gone through half of my giant 4lb container of peanut butter in the 7 weeks that I have been here. You have a problem with that?

Remember when I said I hope my cousin Nate and his wife Jen have whatever gender baby Matt and Jill are not having? Well I got my wish. I will have a new baby boy cousin in March of 2011.
HOW FREAKING CUTE.
I'm excited. I love all my baby [second] cousins.



Also, I hardly ever drink a glass of milk anymore. I eat oatmeal with milk for breakfast and a cup of yogurt with lunch, so I'm not worried about calcium of Vitamin D; but it's nice to just drink some milk straight. I forgot how good it is.

Leaves

I'm making Pulled Pork. My apartment smells delicious!

BEHOLD!

Behold and be amazed by the wonder and majesty that is CHICKEN AND ARTICHOKE PASTA!
Sarah, it's the pasta my mom made that one time you, Aimee, Tessie, and Chole all came over to my house to work on that AP Calc packet thing. Remember?!?! I know you do.

I did cook the pasta a bit long, which resulted in it getting kinda mushy, but on a whole, I am very pleased with how this turned out. Plus, as you can see, there is A LOT of it. I'm not going to have to cook anything for a few days. Although, I am going to get ingredients for Pulled Pork (via Blue Crab Eats) tonight when I go to the grocery store. I have tomorrow totally off (no practice, no treatments, no soccer at all), so I have nothing better to do except put pork in my crock pot, run, do laundry, and then stare at the crock pot for 8 hours. When I bought it, I saw that it was dishwasher safe (the crock pot, not the pork - it probably is though). I got really excited about this, then remembered I don't have a dishwasher, and was disappointed.

I though I saw Brain the other day. Saw some kid with the same head shape, a very short buzz, and the same beard. Then I realized, "of course that is not Brian," and the confusion was replaced by slight disappointment.
There is also a girl here with the exact same body shape and haircut as Rachel.

Broke down today.
Bought a new Brew (Marquette's campus cafe) thermos. (the cup part came apart from the thermos part of my other one about three weeks ago. Plus the lid was warped from being put in the dishwasher at home, so it leaked).
Bought some coffee.
Put cream and sugar in it.
Took a sip and...

ohhhh gooooddddd. It's so good.
hmmmm.yum.yum.yum.yum.

Usually I wont drink coffee unless it's already there. Like at home, I'll pour myself a cup in the morning if someone else has already made a pot. Last year, I would get a cup at breakfast because it was always in the dining halls and therefore free with my meal plan. I kind of feel like a traitor to my trying-to-be-super-thrifty self by buying a cup, but I needed a new mug to bring tea to class in (my mom always sends me chai tea in my care packages!). And if you buy a Brew Mug, coffee is only $0.25. I can handle a quarter. I know I've found at least $2.00 by paying attention when I walk somewhere and picking up all the change I see. People laugh at me for getting excited over a penny, but I think I've probably found over $10 in the last three years here. The way I see it, if it's $10, $.010, or $100; that's money I DO NOT have to take out in a student loan, and money I'm NOT in dept when I graduate.

Stupid student loans. I wish I didn't have them. Although the other day David showed me an Excel spreadsheet he made to do all the calculations on how long/how much he'll have to pay to get ride of the mortgage on the condo he bought when he moved out here. I put in what I think my student loans will be up to when I graduate (going off the last two years, I'm looking at about $27,000 by the time I graduate), and in order to pay them off in the 6-month period I have until they start gaining interest, I'll be devoting 3 of my paychecks a month to them. This is assuming that I am making $45/hour working 40 hours a week, that Drew and I are living together, using his income to live off of, and using my income to pay bills and put into savings. But you know what? That's possible. Really, truly, actually possible. Assuming Drew works 40 hours a week also, and god knows what he'll be doing at that time, but I'm going to say he's making $15 an hour, we'll still have $3000 a month income. That's after food, after rent, after insurance, after whatever. It'll be even more if we live in my parent's basement for a year and they charge us super cheap rent. That's $36,000 saved up in a year! Plus whatever Drew comes in with, he says he's putting some % of his paycheck every month into a 401K for when I graduate.
Thinking about these things makes me excited for my real adult job. It helps remind me of why I'm in Milwaukee and makes the time more bearable.
I think I've given this more thought than he has. We still have four years to figure it out, so I'm sure he sees it as something to not worry about yet. I like to worry about everything.

Oh! I have to go to class.