Today was an odd day. I woke up kinda late, but I still had plenty of time to be productive. I went to a Starbucks and studied for over three hours. It was mostly Human Phys, but I did a little bit of Global Health, too. Then I went shopping for graduation weekend clothes. This was no fun. First of all, I hate shopping in general. Secondly, while I knew I've been putting on weight this semester, today just confirmed it and that made me unhappy. At the beginning of Spring Break I was doing 12 miles a day, in some combination of cardio machinery. Then came the deadly combination of March Madness, and realizing just how much work I needed to do to make my thesis presentable. Two med school visits and the associated make-up work. Plus, when I did have free time, I was just lazy. So...yeah, I suck. Whatever.

I realized that I have to wear the cap and gown both Sunday and Monday, so I found two dresses to go under it. One is pink. The other isn't. I don't really care about clothes, ever. Salespeople are very nice to you when you tell them you're graduating from college. As I left the last store and was getting into Fiona, one of the lenses popped out of my glasses. I spent like, ten minutes looking for that sucker. On my hands and knees in a parking lot, even. Never found it. I think that was God's way of telling me, "Hey, maybe you should start using those contacts you have." And THEN, one of the seams split on the jeans I was wearing, my FAVORITE ONES! Partly because I'm a fatass, I'm sure, but also because they were super old and I'd worn them every day of my life. I think that was God's way of telling me, "What's with the real clothes? You were doing so well with the pajamas."

Sucky turn of events, eh? Then this evening was joint exec, the old officers with the new. Monday was the last chapter, this was my last official meeting. My triumphal exit from Delta Kappa. Alli brought a cake for the seniors, which was incredibly sweet (the gesture, not the cake). Brought a little tear to my eye. As many things will in the coming days.

Alrighty. Global Health was actually my last class at Emory. We did evaluations, and I basically ripped the class apart. Constructively, of course. There's really no point to just being scathing without saying anything. So I talked about how the class has a lot of potential, and will draw in lots of students, because I feel Global Health is a pretty popular subject among Emory students. But the utter lack of organization on the part of the professor made the whole thing feel like a waste of time. (We finally got the assignment for the take-home essay part of our final. Of course he had to push the due date back, since it was almost a week late.) I did compliment the choices for guest speakers and the documentaries we saw, so I wasn't completely negative.

After class ended forever, Kathryn and I were picked up by Kathryn's old roommate, and we went out for coffee. It was pretty fun, but for some reason my eyes were killing me the whole time. It probably didn't help that we first went to a Kirkland's-like store. Any store that sells decorative balls for $13 also has tons of scented candles and bath stuff and usually makes my allergies flare up. I felt okay after we got to Starbucks and I had my first caramel chai in a long, long time.

After that, I had enough time to check my email before fellowship chapter. My last chapter as an active in Delta Kappa. You know, as many times as it caused annoyance or frustration, APhiO has defined seven of my eight semesters here, and... I'm obviously not ready to write about that in any depth, so I'm going to move on as soon as I can see the monitor again.

Fellowship chapter was fun.

Afterwards, some of us went to the No Strings Attached spring concert. It was very good. Of course, White Hall was packed. Major fire hazard. I was so excited to actually be sitting in a chair at a No Strings concert, I could barely contain myself. (Quote of the night: "What would you do for a good seat? Who would you do for a good seat?") Anyway, one of the departing seniors was in my freshman orgo class, and it was neat to see him being sent off. The other departing senior, I swear I've never seen at a No Strings performance in my life. He forgot the words to two of the songs he soloed. Maybe he was just emotional, or something. But the concert was really good, and the best part was when they performed the alma mater. As usual, the president of the university went up to sing with them. But this time, he actually had a little solo (the "crowned with love and cheer," for those who know the song). Any tears that may have been threatening to fall were chased away by that little moment. Thanks, President Wagner.

The next two weeks are going to be crazy.

Last night was a lot of fun. Kathryn, Casey, and I went out for Mexican to celebrate Kathryn's survival of the MCAT. Then Casey had to go back to her room to do RA-type stuff, so Kathryn and I watched "Jurassic Park 3" and "What a Girl Wants." We're equal opportunity mockers. And then when Casey was done being an RA, she came over and we watched 3 eps of first-season Grey's Anatomy.

When I got up this morning, I knew I had a long day of thesis-related stuff ahead of me. So I put on my gray Vanderbilt med school shirt, just as a reminder of what's really ahead of me. It's quickly becoming my favorite shirt.

After DUCbrunch (I won't be saying that many more times) I came here to my lab, looked at basically everything I have, and put together my defense. I'm satisfied with it now, but I'm sure JK will find some things to change.

I went to the last pledge meeting, which wasn't nearly as sad as I thought it would be. Maybe because I'm just not as close to this semester's pledges. No way they get individual letters this year.

I have so much stuff to do, I don't even want to think about it. Aren't finals soon?

In middle school, I wasn't allowed to watch a whole lot of MTV or VH1, and BET was completely off limits. So, I got a lot of my music fix from the Christian music channel. One of my favorite videos was for this song called "Chem 6A." The simple guitar licks, the catchy lyrics, the fun video...it would get stuck in my head for days. DAYS. I was kind of obsessed with the song, but not long enough to buy the album or anything. Over the past ten years, it had faded away in my memory. But I was listening to Pandora just a few minutes ago, and all of a sudden those oh-so-familiar guitar chords started up. Of course I had to stop working to see who sings the song. It turns out that, way back in like 1997, I was a Switchfoot fan. Who knew? Now I can look with disdain at the POSERS who jumped on the bandwagon with "Meant to Live" (that's a Switchfoot song, right?).

In other news, Matt, Michelle, and I are officially lame ducks now. Although according to Minoo, I was always lame, it's just that I'm a duck now. Elections for the top three exec positions were tonight. President is Alex, SVP is Alli and MVP is Jess. I think they'll all do good jobs. And if they don't, Matt and Michelle will still be in Atlanta hovering over them! I'll be hovering as best I can from Nashville, I guess.

Darnit, I forgot to go shopping for cheap Easter candy today. Hmm...Kroger is still open...

I was pretty happy today, which apparently puts me in the minority. Everybody's sick, or angry, or sad, or frustrated, or just generally snappish. However, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm sure that will change soon.

I didn't actually do much work today. I went to Human Phys, where Starnes lectured in her usual style, with lots of questions to the class. It was sad, because I remembered knowing all the stuff this time last year, right before the MCAT. I guess I had a brain dump or something. It wasn't a big deal, because there are plenty people in the class who are taking the MCAT in a week and a half. They know all that stuff.

I was really sleepy during class, so I came back here to nap. However, the second I got back, I became really energized. Well, energized enough to goof off until it was time to go to Global Health. Where I did fall asleep. Sigh. We got our midterms back today, and that pissed me off a bit. I'll just say that 'Food (adequate nutrition)' and 'food supplementation' are the same thing. If not exactly the same, they're the same enough to both get full points on an exam in a joke class.

Speaking of which, on Monday the professor was trying to illustrate some point. I couldn't tell you exactly what. To set up his analogy, he asked, "What's an example of a joke class?" Moments like that, the ol' internal dialogue comes in really handy. It's all that stopped Kathryn and me from saying the same thing ('This one?'), at the same time, in the same tone of voice, as we are wont to do. There were a few seconds of awkward silence, and eventually the prof settled on 'Underwater basketweaving'.

After class, I came back here and still failed to either sleep or do work. And then it was time for exec. We had to have a closed (just exec members) meeting after the regular one, for like, the seventh straight exec meeting. This is my fifth semester of going to APhiO exec meetings, and we've had more closed execs this semester than in the other four put together. I think our president might honestly be going 'round the bend, so to speak. Is a long debate really necessary for...oh, never mind. We're all almost done.

Best moment of the day...

Me: Okay, what am I thinking right now?
Minoo: I don't read minds, I see the future.
Me: Okay, then what will I be thinking later?

And finally, only I could spend an hour and a half adding information to a paper and have it come out 89 words shorter.

Goodnight!

I cannot believe it's already Monday. I feel like time flies not only when I'm having fun, but also when I'm ridiculously, exhaustingly busy. The eight hours of sleep I got last night get a definite thumbs up. I realized that I never actually talked about the weekend, so...

Friday night was the last push on my thesis, so I didn't go to APhiO's formal. I finished about 11:15 or 11:30. Just in time for Minoo to call me at 11:45 to tell me that people were heading from formal to Waffle House. So I went out there, because who can say no to WaHo? I arrived after everybody else, and walked in to a general round of applause. Then Jess announced, "LAKEDRA FINISHED HER THESIS!" to the restaurant at large. So then when the waitress came up to me, she was all, "Hey there, LaKedra, what can I get you?" It was kinda surreal.

I didn't get nearly enough sleep on Friday night, but giving myself time for breakfast was worth it. Sectionals was at Oglethorpe, and it was long, but really fun. I left at 8am and got back after 10pm. I did have to wonder about the logic of sending a graduating senior (me) as a voting delegate. I mean, I get that I was representing the whole chapter, but I think somebody who'll actually be around next year would have been more invested in the whole thing.

It was suggested that, since I'm almost an alumni brother, I might be interested in a vacant spot on Region staff. (A Section is all the chapters in a state/part of a state. A Region is multiple sections, so multiple states.) Running the APhiO service program of several states. While in med school. Yeah, that'd go well. I'm actually planning on doing service projects with Theta Mu, Vandy's chapter, if I have the time. And I think we all know I'll make time, or die trying. But Region staff? I respectfully say 'Hell to the no'.

So I got back from Sectionals at like 10pm. Slept from 1 until after 9. It was glorious. The weather today was really nice, so I walked over to the DUC for brunch. I brought all these handbooks that Vandy has given me, and read about classes and electives and housing and stuff. I spent the rest of the day alternating between lazing about and making lists of apartment complexes. Fun times.

Hmm, it turns out 24 can still surprise me every once in a while. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Today was pretty rough. I think I fell asleep in Human Phys. I feel bad about that, but having to concentrate on cell-mediated immunity was asking an awful lot. I have to give Starnes credit for letting us go when she finished her lecture 10 minutes early. She's normally the type of professor who'd just think of something else to say, or some more details to give.

I tried to nap between classes, but that didn't work out. So I ran some errands, APhiO-related stuff of course. And I did a little bit of lab work. I have a lot of stuff, but now I have to make it actually sound like a paper and not just a string of graphs and tables. That'll probably be the hardest part.

Global Health was okay. We finally got our study guide for the midterm, which I do believe was supposed to be on March 8. Now it's scheduled for Friday, which is smack in the middle of Emory's second visit weekend. So I'll have to make that up, unless I decide not to go. That option is looking better by the second, actually.

Finally, chapter tonight was...epic. We did this planning conference thing, which I didn't think was going to be worth the time. I was pleasantly surprised, however. A LOT more people than I expected to stay were there the whole time! So that was nice. And I don't know abou the other areas, but I got some really good input and ideas regarding the service program. Well, I guess the stuff isn't so much for me, as for the next SVP, whoever that may be.

My weekend was a combination of APhiO stuff, school work, and laziness. On Saturday I had to drive people to and from the Habitat ReStore. Saturday evening, I stopped by Matt's surprise birthday party for a while. The rest of the day was spent either watching TV or working on my Global Health paper. Then today, I went to the Clue Week event, which was brunch at IHOP. The waitress made a huge whipped cream smiley face on my chocolate chip pancakes, which MADE my day. And this evening I had to pick up the people who went to Shakespeare Tavern, which ended up being a fifty-five minute round trip. Luckily, I remembered to tape Grey's Anatomy. I was pleased with the George voiceover tonight, but I kept forgetting about it and thinking the character was saying all that stuff out loud to people.

On the way back from Shak. Tav, "Tear You Apart" came on the radio and one of my passengers asked, "Is this The Killers?" So I'm not the only person who had that first impression!

Dr. Kindt returned the draft of the thesis section that I sent him. He said it looked good overall. I was shocked, because those 9.5 pages were freshly pulled from my...I'll just say that I didn't dedicate the time and effort that a thesis draft probably deserves. Now that I can put a little work into it, I can make it a lot better. But we all know I won't.

I need to buy clues. And start my history paper. And start thinking about maybe studying for human phys, I guess. And do all sorts of other things. 76 days...

I was about to open this post by explaining why I'd disappeared. Turns out I haven't been posting nearly as irregularly as I thought I was. I feel like I haven't written anything relatively fun in forever. That could just be because recently, so much of my time has been devoted to equilibrium polymers. That's just about the funnest topic anyone could ever hope to write about. I had a deadline at noon today, which means that I had to stop thinking about how I needed to write, and actually write. Participating in NaNoWriMo really did change my life, because I've gotten a lot better at producing output. It's easier for me to tell myself "Just put words on the paper, and worry about fixing it later."

Despite my lack of perfectionism, I stayed up until 3 for the past two nights working on the stuff. It's a lot harder to stay up because of work, than it is to stay up just because I want to. I'm pretty wrecked right now. In fifteen minutes I leave for Global Health, then I'm going to come back here, decorate my Little's sig book, try to do some cleaning, clean out my learnlink (APhiO conference is back, FINALLY!!), drop off the sig book, go to the Clue Week kickoff for a while, and then maybe hang out with Mattie, who is interviewing at Emory today.

And THEN, joy of joys, I get to wake up early and take people to the Habitat ReStore tomorrow. Because there were a limited number of spots, and none of the people who took the spots have a car. Back when I was carless, I don't remember that happening. We'd have problems with not enough drivers signing up for the stuff with unlimited spots, sure. But I don't remember problems with drivers not being able to sign up because all the spots got taken. Then again, none of the projects I was in charge of had limited spots. The problem could have been rampant back then too, for all I know.

I think while they're volunteering, I'll find myself a Starbucks and work on my Global Health paper that's due Monday. Saints be praised, I don't have to go to my history class at all next week. That gives me more time to work on the paper due Thursday. I have a human phys test at some point. I don't understand...I'm not supposed to have work, or be busy at any point this semester.

Tonight was the pledge retreat...my last one. NO, I did not cry. I guess it's kind of a geeky thing to do on a Friday night, but if I hadn't gone, I'd have watched ice dancing or surfed the net all evening. Surely that would have been even geekier. Besides, I do care about APhiO and the people who are going to be in it after I'm gone. And I'm going to be nagging those kids about service hours for the next couple of months. I figure I should at least get to know them first. So I sat around and ate free junk food and did sigs. It's always cute when the pledges try to ask some deep questions, like, "Why are we on this planet?" And then I break out "Would you rather lose an arm or sweat mayonnaise?" Gets them every time.

Then the brothers were kicked out so the pledges could bond. After some brief regrouping, we broke in again. That actually went pretty well. And not long after that was cleanup. Jason, Emily, Christopher and I ended up spending an hour untangling the yarn we'd used for the string game. That was quite the ordeal. At some points we had yarn laid out along the entire perimeter of Harris parlor. It led to this exchange between me and Emily:

"I feel such a sense of accomplishment right now, guys. I feel like this is more meaningful than getting my diploma will be."
"Really? They're going to call out your name..."
"And I'm just going to take the diploma, look out at the audience and shake my head. I'll look right at you."
"Wait...oh, no, I won't be in line behind you."
"No, Witham is way after Pam, you'll still be in your seat."
"I'll be standing up to see the look on your face."
"I'll have a piece of yarn in my pocket, maybe hidden in my tassel, so I can pull it out as a visual reminder."
"Haha...Forget the diploma, I untied a bigass knot."


Hmm...that was a lot funnier while it was going on. Maybe you just had to be there.

I need to sleep now. Thesis stuff all weekend! F'real!

So...let's say that a service project is off-campus, and has a limit on how many people can go. All spots but the last one have been taken by people who don't have cars. What prompts another person without a car to take that last spot? If I could figure out the answer to that question, that one question, I feel like all the secrets of the universe would be within my reach.

Then again, having to drive people around does give me a reason to not sleep my weekends away, so I really should be grateful.

Getting out of bed this morning was very difficult (because I went to the 100 days thing when I should've just gone to sleep). But I did it! I drove Mansi, Neha and Carol out to the pet adoption service project. They only have 3 volunteer spots per shift, and while I could have stayed anyway, I decided not to. I went to the mall right across the street...walked around there for a while. Then I went to Starbucks and studied human phys. That's right, I studied. And when I got back to campus, I met up with this girl in the class and studied more. What's wrong with me??!!!

After all that studying, I only had a little time to kill before tonight's Rush event: cosmic bowling!! Whooooo! There was a good turnout, of both brothers and rushees. When it came to the actual bowling, that didn't go so well. I did horribly, which makes sense considering the last time I went bowling? I was a rushee.

I am not going to finish this stupid honors thesis. I don't know why I keep fooling myself. IT DOESN'T MATTER. I could turn in my degree application and then stay in bed until May 15, and IT WOULDN'T MATTER.

It is officially Christmas time, because I have been to Nine Lessons and Carols, and I have sung "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Now, and only now, can we commence with the hauling out of holly and putting up of trees. As always, the University Chorus was really good, and I just loved the whole atmosphere. I didn't sing much during the congregational carols, except during "Hark..." because it is my favorite. I sang heartily, despite the fact that my voice wanted to give out on me. It was okay, because they give out the best cough drops ever at these things. I'm sure Anna (who was sitting next to me) appreciated my squawking, cracking effort.

Initiation was good. During the ceremony, my feet started to hurt a bit, and it hit me that I'll never get to sit down for another APhiO ritual, ever again. Not that I'm used to sitting down during those things. I've either done the Parliamentarian bit, or one of the random Brother readings...I think last Initiation, when I was a PTA, might've been the only time I was ever in the audience for one of those things. ANYWAY. The pledges are brothers now. I am SVP again (so I passed the naked barbie dolls down to myself). And I got the semester Phi award. I got the fellowship award. I'd like to thank senioritis, for making me quite willing to blow off any class-related things in favor of hanging out with people.

I was in such a nice, drowsy mood all day today. Maybe it was the Sudafed, I dunno. There were more presentations in French class (did I mention that Cassie and I got an A? 'Cuz we did). And then one last lecture in Art History. I'm starting to think that I like Amiens a little more than Bourges. It's a tossup.

After class I came back here and proceeded to bum around. Played some Duck Pond, looked at the Grammy nominations (yeah The Arcade Fire!). Then I decided to get started on my pledge letters. Oh, the fun of writing pledge letters. It's the same basic form, but I'm trying to add a personal touch to each one, like an inside joke, or mentioning an area where the pledge really stood out. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I know this semester's pledges nearly as well. I guess not being on pledge staff will do that. My letter is super cheesy, but it's really hard to be anything else.

Brothers' service hours are due tomorrow, by 11:59pm. Looks like everybody who tried is going to finish, even the procrastinators who had me worried for a while. Overall, I'd say that it's been a good semester for service. There are some things I'll definitely do differently next semester, but I don't really have any regrets about this one. Now, the question is how everybody's going to react when I send out the email explaining the new requirements for next semester. Because even with our nice categories and stuff, it's twenty hours. I have to say, I never thought I'd see the chapter requirement go that high while I was a member. The pledges should be fine...the people who cared enough to show up for the vote should be fine...I expect quite a few of the other people to shit a brick. Should be a fun time.

Chapter tonight. The Gerald Schroeder pledge class are no longer pledges, they're neophytes. But I have to say, that statement just doesn't pack as much punch if you're not on pledge staff. Exec for next semester: Matt, me, Michelle, Alex, Minoo, Carol, Christopher, Alli, and Claire. Check out LB's little pledges making up almost half of exec. There was a shuffling of positions to make things work a little more intuitively. For example, making PT (that's Carol), which is a huge job, a voting exec position, while splitting up the smaller duties of the two secretaries among other positions. So we'll have to work that out, but it should be fine. Back when I was a pledge, any change of such magnitude would've been received with horror and violent objections, because things just Were Not Changed. We also passed a bylaw thing that...I'm not sure of all the details (missing a month of chapter will do that), but the hours requirement has been raised, so I'm happy.

I got lots of sleep last night (which isn't going to happen tonight). It was good, but maybe a bit too much. I got really sleepy in biochem, even though I hadn't even been up that long. But the caramel chai latte I had at Dooley's must have revived me, because I went to lab afterwards and had three very productive hours. Then chapter, then putting together my French presentation for tomorrow, then watching some West Wing. Good times.

Now, for bed.

I ran into Dr. Soller, my FAME advisor, today! I didn't really go to her for much advising once FAME ended, and she left Emory after my first semester, or maybe my second. I never thought I'd see her again, but there she was at the DUC today. She kinda remembered my name ("Is it..Keisha?"). I can't blame her. I only recognized her because I was a very young, very impressionable freshman when I had her as an "advisor". She was a professor, she taught classes, it was all a very big deal. Now I realize she was just a postdoc and I am, retroactively, a lot less impressed. Anyway, we caught up for a bit and then I had to go back to "tabling."

So APhiO is doing this food drive for Thanksgiving. "Tabling" means sitting outside the DUC at a table, bothering passerby and asking them to donate to the cause. Alli's project coordinator for the whole drive, and she was great about coming up with the ideas and stuff. Lacking a bit on the execution, though. It's not totally her fault, it was kinda thrown together hurriedly. And considering there's like a hundred cans of food already in my apartment, and we've gotten almost $100 in donations to buy more food, I declare the food drive a success. I'm satisfied with it. It's just so tiring. When I said it would be good for us to table, I thought the response from the chapter would be a lot more enthusiastic. It's in the most conveniently located place on campus, and you get service hours for sitting there. I know people are busy, but I find it hard to believe that over the course of two weeks, the majority of people don't have even thirty free minutes between 11am and 5pm. Actually...I just went back and looked at some of my entries from the 20-credit hour semester I had sophomore year. So I take back my previous statement. Carry on, ridiculously busy APhiOers. More power to you.

ANYWAY. I was all about doing this food drive because it would be a very worthwhile project, that could give people plenty of opportunity to get some hours. And it's done that...some people have gotten 2 hours here and there from tabling. One pledge went from 0 service hours to 13.5, from the food drive alone. That makes me happy. I am working so hard to try and give all these people as many service opportunities as possible.

Watching Grey's Anatomy right now. Dr. Bailey owns my soul. I aspire to be like her. "Pissing off the nurses? .... Stoopid." And it doesn't matter that I missed the first part of the ep, because TWoP recaps the show now. How great is that? They're also doing both season 1 and 2 of Project Runway. Life really doesn't get better than that.

Today was pretty busy. Since I didn't write a single word of my novel yesterday, I practically woke up with a pen in my hand. I feel like falling behind the pace would be just too discouraging and could spell the end of this whole project. So first thing this morning, I caught myself up. Then I went to Starbucks to meet up with my partner for this French presentation. We got our entire outline together. Quite a productive meeting. I then tried to work on my art history paper in the library. But after checking out the books that were on reserve, I realized that I had no idea which pages I needed to read in those books. That was okay, because I also realized that I needed to book it to some store and buy a final clue for my little. After doing that, I had just enough time to change clothes for exec/pledge meeting/revelation/after-revelation dinner.

So then, there was exec. There were three members of section staff there. (A 'section' is like, all the chapters of APhiO within a metro area.) Section staff is made up of fraternity alumni who still want to be active in the organization. That's just background information. All I really have to say about their visit is that I work too fucking hard for this organization to sit there and be scolded by people I've never even met before. Too fucking hard. The scolding was because there was a section picnic at Lullwater today, and apparently only Kim H. attended. Please refer to my previous paragraph, and tell me where 'attend a picnic' could have fit in. Now consider the fact that I have a lot more free time than most other brothers. Then consider the fact that I'm one of the brothers in the chapter who makes the most effort to do APhiO stuff when I'm short on free time. Consider the fact that the past week was clue week, and that last night was our major fall fellowship. Consider the fact that Delta Kappa probably has more 20+ credit-hour-per-semester, thesis-writing pre-law pre-business pre-med pre-vet pre-dental members than Tech, Oglethorpe and UGA put together. Does it make sense that our attendance was low? I'm not too pissed at the scolding, since I know it was more of a general expression of disappointment than specific pointing of fingers. It's stil annoying though. Whatever. Exec's got a meeting with all these alums on Thursday, and maybe we can come up with...something. Or I could quit the chapter and have a lot less hassle in my life!

Nah, I won't quit. After the pledge meeting (which I missed because people I've never met before had to laugh at our service hour requirements, which we KNOW are low, thank you very much, person I've never seen before.)...after the pledge meeting, was revelation. That's always fun. Like, a lot of fun. I'm a dork. Katie's reaction when she turned around to see that I'm her big was great.

After-revelation dinner was supposed to be at the Cheesecake factory. One day, we'll learn that it's impossible to ever go to the Cheesecake Factory if it's a weekend, and if you're in a group larger than four. So we ended up at Outback Steakhouse, which was tasty. And I decided that if I ever get an acceptance to a medical school, I'll eat at the Cheesecake Factory every day for a month. Because I'll have to go there with all my friends to celebrate, but we can only go in groups of four.

I didn't do a damn lab-related thing all weekend. All week. I'll have to go in at like 9 tomorrow. Le crap!

The membership of APhiO has been changing since I pledged, back in the distant past that was spring 2003. The percentage of people who are in APhiO, and only APhiO, has dropped dramatically. Back in the day, I thought this would be a good thing, and only a good thing. I'm realizing now that it's more of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you've got a higher percentage of people who are in the organization to do service. More than ever, members are expecting the service fraternity to provide service opportunities, and that's that. They're not looking for the chapter to provide their entire social life; they've got other activities for that. Regular Greek life, cultural clubs, sports, performing arts, and so on.

On the other hand, the dramatic drop in people who only do APhiO stuff has made things more difficult. They're expecting the chapter to provide service opportunities, but there's only so much time in all these busy schedules to squeeze in the service. I've got people who literally only have one free evening or afternoon a week. And if I can put something together on a certain day, who's to say they won't be swamped with homework or have a major exam to study for? So it's hard. Which is worse? People who want to do service, but are incredibly busy? Or people who have lots of time, but care more about movie nights and trips to Chilis than they care about actual service projects...that is, until the due dates are looming? Actually, that's a silly question. The first group is better to have, just so much harder to accomodate. But, as always, I'm doin' my best.

In other news, tomorrow morning I get to schedule my interviews at Chapel Hill and Yale. And then I get to talk to Dr. Kindt about putting together a presentation for the American Chemical Society National Meeting. I am just as busy as a little bee.

And I wrote just over 2400 words today.

At one point tonight, the music was Freak Nasty's "Da Dip"...you all know it. "I put my hand upon your hip,/ when I dip you dip we dip." Emily, Cliff and I were singing along a bit, and it struck us as very amusing that Mr. Nasty says "upon your hip" instead of just "on your hip." Way to be fancy there, Freak. Somebody commented that it gave the song a Shakespearean air, which led to our own rendition of the song: "Wherefore dost thou dip?/Forsooth, thine hand, upon my hip!" So now that song will never be the same for any of us. Not that it gets massive play, anyway. ANYWAY. It was really, really, really funny if you were there. And we weren't even drunk!