Today was the last day of class. Only, I didn't have class today! I stayed up until 3-something this morning, and woke up at exactly 9:16. I went to the gym at normal Stress Reduction time, to find out how I did on the final. I got a 94, the exact same grade I got on the midterm, so unless I got crazy participation points taken away, I have an A. Hehe. Then I went from place to place on campus, working on my French paper. I got most of the grammar and stuff corrected, but I still have no conclusion. I actually went by McCullough's office, and showed her my introduction and thesis. She said it was "very clear," and she couldn't think of anything else that I should add. Last grammar check and conclusion, as soon as 24 is over.

Mortar Board meeting was dumb. There were officer elections, and those were dumb. Then was Fellowship Chapter, which wasn't that dumb, even though I basically missed the whole thing. The only reason I went in the first place was to say goodbye to people. Did that.

Now, French. Then Analytical, for the rest of junior year.

Edited to add: They've put the little ropes up around the quad. Preparing for graduation. When I walked out of Callaway, the sight made me stop short and say "Holy shit!" It's intense. I'm not even graduating, and I was freaked out.

Today was quite the day. Very, very full of APhiO. It started with APO LAUNCH, this leadership workshop thing. Then I came back here to change and work on my French paper for a bit. Then, we had Initiation. My pledges are all brothers now! Yet they will always be my pledges. We all know that I'm a sap, and yes, I did get a little emotional. If I had tried to give a speech like LB did, I would've lost my shit. My letters seemed to be well-received.

After initiation was new officer installation. I am officially SVP now. Second in command of the chapter. Scary, no?

Then awards. My little got the Service award for pledges! Yay Carol! Clarinda was the "other pledge of note" I mentioned earlier, winning the Melissa B. Ross award. I got the Service award for the year. Kat's speech was very nice: "This brother is always the first one I call when I am in a bind - except when I need a car, that is." Bwaha.

The whole thing ended a little after 5, which was awesome. We had planned for a post-6pm ending. Right after I got back to my room, I went out to eat a free dinner, courtesy of the Emory Scholar's program. Imagine 5 college kids, each getting $20 worth of cheap Chinese food. It was incredible. There is a picture of the spread, which I will hopefully post soon. Everybody deserves to see that.

Now, I am going to go back to work on this French paper. My goal was to have the first version turned in by Monday, so I could start work on the final draft on Wednesday. 7 pages of rambling on philosophy, in French?? Yikes.

Mortar Board induction, initiation, or whatever they call it, tomorrow. Then maybe joint exec.

Today was quite the day. It started with my Stress Reduction final, which also marked my last class period of the semester. The final wasn't too bad, but it wouldn't have hurt if I'd done the readings more carefully.

After the final was the undergraduate poster session. Lots of free food, which was pretty yummy. Then I had to stand next to my poster and talk about it to a bajillion people. Actually, I only talked to a few people before I left, to go talk to McCullough about my final paper. That only took a few minutes, and then I went back to Emerson. My goodness. It was like a retrospective of people who've taught my chem classes. Talked to McCormick, Philen, Goldsmith, Hill, Kaufman, Soria...whew! And then other professors/people who wandered by. I got some incredibly hard questions, but overall it was pretty fun.

Went to the APhiO field day thing...hardly anybody showed up, whatever. Played catch, frisbee, etc. Then got a glimpse of the hassles of being SVP. Hours are due in 3 days, and there was a person who still has seven and a half hours left to do. She was super upset because two projects that she was counting on to get her hours done, ended up canceled. So now it looks like she'll be going inactive because of hours, which is the worst reason to go inactive. The discussion/argument went on and on for a while, in circles. I was like...why did I run for this office? Remind me? Anyone?

My stance was this: any time you sign up for a project, at any point during the semester, it's with the understanding that something could go wrong, causing a cancellation or rescheduling. You don't get to cry foul about how you signed up for projects and "planned accordingly." Planned accordingly implies NOT procrastinating and trying to squeeze in 7.5 hours of service, in 72 hours, the weekend of Initiation. Because things can go wrong, and then you're stuck. As SVP, it will not be my job to invent last-minute projects that don't actually do any service for anybody, just so procrastinators can fulfill their hours quotas.

It's kinda funny...I was talking to Kat a couple of weeks ago, and mentioned how it would suck if someone procrastinated on hours, and then ended up unable to go to any of the final projects. And then it happened. DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM!

News of the day: Alex got her car! YAAAAAAAAAAY! I was late for the Kindt group meeting because we rode by her house. Unfortunately, the meeting started late, so I missed maybe two minutes of the two-hour fun-fest. Yeah, statistical thermodynamics.

My poster presentation is coming along nicely. I have been semi-stressed about it...but then I realized that it's not like the whole project has to be done. I'm just showing what I've done so far. So out goes the ambitious final graph I was going to make, and in goes a paragraph of conclusion. Ta-da!! Plus, some of the people I survived pchem with will have posters there, too. Zan, Erika, Emily...this thing might actually be fun. Friday, 11:30-1:30, second floor of Emerson Hall. Stop by...there will be free BBQ. I'll be there for the first hour.

Two slides to finish, then I've got to write letters to the "pledges", that they'll get at Initiation. (I just realized that I'm going to be calling this pledge class "my pledges" until the end of time...oh well.) I am writing an individual letter to each pledge, for 19 total. Because it turns out that, over the course of the semester, I actually got to know the little buggers. And I am just that dorky. And I like to write.

Today was the last game day in Team Handball, and we all played super-hard. There was blood (hence the entry title). There were multiple bags of ice dispensed at the end of the period. I'm just happy that with the end of soccer and handball, my left knee should finally stop bothering me. In a couple of days. Whee!

Chapter today wasn't that bad. I mean, it was looong as hell, but it didn't feel uselessly long. Plus, it sure beat having The Headache™. The rest of exec was elected...the 8 officers will be Richard, me, Sally, Alex S., Kim H., Matt, Christine V., and Emily W.

But the thing that probably made the meeting seem so un-tedious? The Mike Francis pledge class, Delta Kappa Chapter, Alpha Phi Omega...are pledges no more. They are neophytes, which means voted in, not yet initiated, but most importantly, NOT MY RESPONSIBILITY.

Yep, there was pledge voting. I am proud to note that the only pledge to complete every requirement, was a SPamburger. (And another pledge of note was a SPamburger...more on that later, I guess.) However, one of my pledges didn't get voted in. I'm not that torn up over it; the person liked service...somewhat? But was not into the fraternity aspect of it at all. I mean, I bitch about the non-service stuff, but I put up with it. And on a deep, hidden level that I don't like to acknowledge, I think some of it's pretty neat. Anyway, if they'd done extra service, or even the minimum requirement, I'd feel worse about the fact that they weren't voted in.

At one point during the discussion, I also made the mistake of calling the pledge requirements superfluous? I didn't mean it. You all know that I think asking people if they would rather lose an arm or sweat mayonnaise is equally as important as building homes for low-income families. Thirty minutes of forced conversation ranks right up there with, if not over, participating in blood drives. Yup. But seriously, I don't think they're worthless. That was just the slip of the tongue that comes with already knowing I'm SVP, and seeing the pledge semester quickly coming to an end. I'm sorry, advisors. They are not superfluous. We're not all wasting our lives.

Yeah. So it's over, and I kinda feel like a part of my identity is gone. What am I, if I'm not someone who's taking the MCAT? Most importantly, I'm going to need a new excuse to use when I don't want to do something.

I felt pretty good yesterday. I read every passage of every section, and filled in every bubble with at least an educated guess. But the more I think about it, the worse I think I did. Or at least, the better I could have done. There were different forms, but the one I got? Was one big giant Chem test. The physical science section was mostly gen chem, and the biological science section had a ridiculous amount of organic. Four passages describing mechanisms. Four! If only I had studied more chem, and less bio and physics...sigh. Though I guess it could've been worse.

The essays were great fun. All the practice prompts I'd used were stupid philosophical quotes, about abstractions like freedom and power and hope and crap that nobody wants to write about. My biggest fear going into that section was that I wouldn't be able to come up with examples. Luckily, the actual prompts were about concrete things. It took about two seconds to come up with examples, so I could spend more time actually writing things of substance.

When the proctor finally told us we could leave...that was waaaay better than the last day of pchem. No comparison.

After it was over, I went back to Danielle and Kathryn's. A little bit of alcohol was consumed (see previous post). Then Casey came over to take us to get food. (We salute you, chauffeurs of drunken MCAT-takers!) Tried Maggiano's first, but it was prom night! Sucks. So, we went to an Olive Garden that was like, an hour away. There was eating, then there was more drinking back at the apartment. (No rainbow, unfortunately.)

The thing that sucks about post-MCATness, is that you really want to celebrate, but you've been up since the crack of dawn. And then you've spent the whole day taking this mentally-draining test. So celebrations end at like, 11:30. We were all asleep before midnight.

Thinking about my French paper doesn't bring me joy, but I've gotta do it. I definitely got an 88 on grammar, 85 on content. Or maybe the other way around. Either way, such grades are entirely unacceptable for a 300-level French class. It's French, for crying out loud.

I totally called this. Doesn't make me feel any better about my grade, but it's true. When people were wondering how easy a grader McCullough would be, I said, "She seems like the kind of teacher who's really laid back and easy going in class, and then randomly sticks it to you on papers." Doesn't really say much of substance during class, but expects us all to be on the same interpretive level as she is. Never mind that she's a grad student, and some of us are in our first French literature class, ever. We should be able to instantly make connections akin to the "snow = rhetorical structure of society" one. Boo.

Actually, getting this out did bring me joy. I'm gonna friends-lock it, because I just asked the woman for an extension. The last thing I need is her stumbling upon this entry.

Habitat today went off without a hitch. I'm really glad I decided to go. There were supposed to be 14 people, but 2 people had a little too much fun at Dooley's last night and were no-shows. That wasn't a problem, though. Miracle of miracles, all the drivers showed up on time. We all got to the build on time. It was wonderful, quite the load off my mind. Michelle asked if I wanted her to resume her role of PC next semester...I said "Yes!!" before she'd even finished the question. I love going to Habitat, but being in charge of it while dependent on the lazy-ass brothers with cars? Is a pain. At least when Michelle was in charge she could provide transportation for 4 other people.

Anyway. Today was a Week 4 build, and a Week 4 build means only one thing. Lots and lots of painting. Before lunch I did interior painting. I was useful for that because I didn't really need the stepladders to do the whole wall. After lunch, I did exterior painting. I'd never done it before, but I was useful for that because I actually knew how the extension ladders worked.

At one point during the day, Carol was explaining one of her absences from chapter...apparently, there was this outside service project that she's done since last semester. She said, "I thought, I can go do service, or I can go to a meeting where they talk about doing service." She was wrong...we actually talk about formals and trips, and a little bit about doing service...but for her, the choice was easy. I wanted to scream out to the world, That's my Little!!. Ohh, she's a keeper. The other pledges who were there today are also cool...they'll make great brothers. With their attitudes, we shall purge ourselves of the generation who only think about the Phi.

I talked to Wien for a while, about the MCAT. I'm feeling pretty good, but I still need to review more. Off I go!

I'm beginning to think that being a PTA during the MCAT semester? Not such a great idea. It hasn't been so bad before now. But it's getting close to crunch time, and the little pledges are starting to pay attention to stuff. Meanwhile, I'm getting closer to my own crunch time, and worrying less and less about any other things. So I'm not being the best PTA I could be. I tried to avoid it, literally living up to the SPamburger name and pelting them with reminder emails. But people procrastinate. Too bad for my group that now is the worst possible time for me, ever.

Ithink I pissed one of my pledges off. I was told, "You need to plan that group fellowship within the next two weeks, because then I'm going to disappear." I was like, "Sucks for you that I'm going to disappear until two weeks from now." And the response was "Well I guess I just won't get that fellowship." I guess not, then. Should I feel bad? Because I don't. I already planned a thing (going to the softball game on Wednesday), been told that people would attend it, and then had nobody show up. And I'm supposed to be all sad now? The only thing that makes me sad is the fact that I've studied the muscular system five times and still don't know the stuff. The fact that I have an Analytical exam on Thursday that I might do an hour of studying for. The fact that the next step of my life could be determined in less than two fucking weeks.

Deep breaths.

Whitewater rafting was a good time. A great time, actually. This was despite insanely cold weather (hence the title quote). For a while his morning, we had snow flurries. Snow flurries! Cuh-razy. The guides all said it was the windiest, coldest trip they'd ever done. And in fact, because of the insane cold and the high water, we didn't get to do the last rapid, which is usually a Class IV but today was a Class V. But I'm definitely glad I went. You haven't really lived until you've stood on a rock in the middle of a river, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you made without being able to feel your fingers.

I was in a raft with Lianna, Kevin, and Matt. We had the only female guide, Margaret. And we were THE BEST raft out there. We were really good paddlers, and got to go down some rapids that the other groups didn't. We dubbed ourselves 'Team Badass'. The only one of us to fall out of the raft? Was Margaret. I was actually the one to grab her and haul her back on. It must have been an adrenaline rush fueled by self-preservation. Because the scariest thing ever? Is seeing a good-sized drop in front of you, and turning around to see that your guide has disappeared.

I'm wiped, but I don't want to go to sleep because I'm going to be unbelievably sore tomorrow. However, my only other option is studying, so I guess I'll sleep.

Today was good, but tiring. Handball was fun. We had a substitute teacher, some guy who'd played with our normal teacher in the Olympics. As opposed to the more freestyle games we play with Coach D, we had an actual game with timed halves. My team, the Rainbow Coalition, tied the game with about ten seconds left, and then won the shootout. Plus, I somehow managed to get the ball more, with a couple of steals. It's like the guys on the other team forgot that I'm tall, and kept trying to pass it over my head. It was super-exciting.

I almost didn't go to Analytical, because I was worried about getting ready for my presentation. I'm glad I went, though. Majored to score some major brownie points with Dr. Philen. At the beginning of class, he kept asking, "What's new?" And people were saying random stuff, about their weekends or whatever. But he kept repeating himself. In a moment of supreme dorkiness, I decided to go with the answer to "What's nu?", and said "c over lambda!" And Philen was all, "YES!! THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT!" Turns out the lecture was on spectroscopy. Later, I gave the value of Planck's constant to 3 decimal places. I figured, since I was already at the pinnacle of my participation level in that class...anyway, now I don't ever have to speak again.

Group meeting presentation went very well. I was soooo incredibly nervous. But I was able to talk for 45 minutes, with a couple of pauses for questions. And Dr. Kindt's comments at the end were mostly nitpicky stuff like graph labels. So, YAY!

The final event of the day was an IM soccer game with "APhiO." It's an APhiO team, but we've really got anybody who was willing to play. Like Alex, and some friend of Roy who's a really good goalie. And we not only scored a goal, we won the game, 4-0! Our objective for the whole season was to score one goal! Tonight's game was far, far above any expectations I'd ever had for an APhiO team. But the best part of the night had to be when I tried to change directions on the wet field and completely wiped out. That moment lasted forever. I had a whole conversation with myself as I fell. "Oh no, losing traction...Can I recover? Not happening? Well I knew I'd eat it eventually....here I go...boom." Good times

Now...maybe I can do some schoolwork before the night is over?

Oh man, that practice MCAT was the time of my life. And by that I mean it felt like a lifetime. I felt pretty good about Physical Sciences and Verbal Reasoning, but the writing sample sucked. I really don't know how I'm going to prepare for that. Maybe I can just hope that my utter crap is as good as everybody else's sincere effort. Bio/Orgo was last, and it sucked, as expected. I just haven't studied as much for bio as I have for the other sciences. Maybe I should be studying a little now...

French paper? It's coming along okay. I've got a bunch of examples from two of the works we've read. I've just got to go through the third one. And then, hopefully, the writing of the paper part will come easily.

Presentation for Tuesday's group meeting?? Uhhh...it's not going to be anywhere near an hour long. But I have stuff. There's going to be an explanation of the simulation model, and the PDIRR algorithm (that's short for polydisperse insertion, removal, and resizing). I'm going to talk about this paper that shows experimental applications for the stuff I'm doing. And I have pretty, pretty pictures. Then, there has to be time for questions, right? I don't think Kindt'll count it against me if I still have a lot of info to present. I'm just concise. Plus, unlike every other graduate student in the group, I'm a native English speaker. So it shouldn't take me as long to express myself. I think I'll be fine. Putting together the powerpoint tomorrow...at some point.

M.S./B.S. program?? Alex, in her infinite wisdom, pointed out that if my honors thesis can't count as my Master's thesis, I should not do Honors and get the Masters anyway. Duh, me. Why didn't I think of that option? Yeah, I'm definitely capable of getting an advanced degree in chemistry. It's a wonder I remember how to feed myself! Oh wait...

The design-your-own ritual for Stress Reduction? It's not happening. It has to happen, since it's due Monday, but I'm just not feeling it. I am not in a ritual-making place right now. But I think I'm going to force myself to do it after I shower. Because, who cares how cheesy and stupid it is? It's a design-your-own ritual! The stupidity and cheesiness are inherent to the assignment.

So that's what I'm gonna do. Maybe I'll think about APhiO at some point. But probably not.

French today was interesting. "Could the white of the snow represent the rhetorical structure of society??" Um...what? That doesn't even make sense to me. I might complain about being a chem major, but I'm more suited for that than I am for something involving literature analysis. Rhetorical structure of society. Honestly.

I talked to the Director of Graduate Studies today. He's going to give me some more info about the whole MS/BS thing. Kaufman told me I'd be able to use my honors thesis as my Masters' thesis, but Dr. Conticello said nobody has ever done that before, and he'd have to see if it was okay. If it's not okay...I guess that's two letters I won't have after my name. And I'll be able to take more of the history, art history, and poli sci classes that have captured my fancy. First choice is doing the Masters, though.

Today was absolutely gorgeous. I spent some time in the lab because I absolutely had to get some stuff done. At the first possible moment, I packed my stuff up and went to do homework in Lullwater. Good decision. I didn't get an incredible amount of stuff done, but it was better doing it outside than being cooped up in my room. Plus, I got to watch a group of guys take themselves entirely too seriously while playing football. I wanted to yell out, "Stop acting like you play well!" Oh, boys.

Mock MCAT tomorrow...here goes nothing! I feel much more comfortable with physics. Orgo should be fine, and it's only a small part. I'm hoping I can wing it on Gen Chem. Inorganic and Analytical seem to have prepared me fairly well for MCAT chem questions. Bio...bio...bio. I hate charts. Verbal Reasoning should be okay. The essay will suck, this I know. I'll get my results in a week.

I'd say that my pledge only was a success. There were seven pledges and three pledge staffers. Not too shabby, considering this was the day most people were traveling back to school. I think everybody enjoyed themselves. I, personally, had a blast. It was a fun couple of hours, just letting my creative juices flow and all that jazz. It took me a while to decide what to paint, but I eventually settled on a chalice. Yes, a chalice. Whee!

So, I thought I was going to have a crazy week, with an insane amount of stuff today. But today's productivity pretty much got everything out of the way. At Lullwater, I managed to come up with a cohesive outline for my French paper. Most of the introduction, too. And it turns out, the presentation that I thought was on Wednesday isn't until Friday. Analytical...that homework is pass/fail, and he assigns the problems that are answered in the Appendix. So, why even try? The exam is on the 7th, so I can afford to not think about it again until Thursday.

Something I can't afford not to think about, is the MCAT. Which, I can't say often enough, sucks and should die. Let's see how much studying I can get done.

In Handball, we're going to be split up into completely arbitrary teams every two weeks, for four-game series. Today was the last day of the first series. My team, the Gray Team, managed to give the Red Team a sound thrashing today. So we finished the series at 1-3, instead of 0-4. Sweet, sweet victory. That said, I can't wait until we have new teams.

I definitely got a 102/100 on my Analytical exam. The sad thing is, I could've made a 107. I missed 5 points on three different problems because I put a decimal in the wrong place in each. Seriously. Decimals messed me up. I mean, as messed up as an A+ can be. This is NOT motivating me to pay attention in class. Or, you know, go at all. My current study method seems to be working just fine.

Speaking of studying, I need to step up the MCAT stuff even more. Meet my ultimate goal. I'm fairly certain that I want to do at least an MD/MPH, with the latter being in Health Policy:

The goal of the division of Health Policy and Administration is to address the critical issues in improving the nation's public health, especially the health of high risk and vulnerable populations.

Miracle of miracles. More than ever before, I feel like I know what I want to do with the rest of my life. Of course, realistically, I am more likely to end up getting my joint degree here than at freakin' Yale, but I'm keeping hope alive.

I'm off to bed, because this weekend I'm going to appreciate every moment of rest I'm able to get.

Yesterday, at that most splendid of times, half past noon, I saw Hanson perform at the DUC. It was, without a doubt, the most glorious moment of my life. They were really there to deliver some spiel about how hard it is for independent artists to get air time on the radio. I, however, wasn't really listening. I was completely distracted by the glory that is Hanson's presence. They sang a bit of "Mmmbop," and my life was made complete. I can now die a fulfilled woman. My life will forever be divided into two stages: Pre-Hanson and Post-Hanson.

Okay, that's enough of my James Lipton impression. Seriously, I was just shocked to see that it was actually Hanson. I was convinced that it was some stunt by WMRE, and some dude named Mike Hanson would walk out and tell us some stupid crap. But I was wrong, it was real Hanson. They sang a song I didn't know, and the chorus of Mmmbop, and then another song I didn't know. And Taylor said "shit" and "fuck" several times. It was a good time.

The snow flurries this morning? Awesome. Not realizing it was snow until I'd been walking in it for a while? Not awesome (I thought it was that white fuzzy stuff that falls from trees). Analytical exam? Fine. Running into the handball coach right before that class, which I was about to skip? Not fine.

I am right now, at this very moment, recording the season premiere of TAR 7. I'm super-excited.

Today was a good day. A great day, even. For some reason, they decided to make tonight "Rivals Night" for Emory basketball. So there were all kinds of promotional events, free food, etc. at the two games. The crowd was HUGE. Well, huge for Emory basketball. For one glorious night, I could pretend that I go to a school with actual spirit. It was...well, it was glorious.

During the girl's game, I sat with Alex's parents. But during the guy's game, Alex and I both went over to the students' section. The fact that there was a students' section, and that it was full, is beyond anything I ever hoped to experience here at Emory. We stood up the whole time. We heckled. They had a guy, #33, with looong hair, so I decided that whenever he had the ball, I'd chant "GET A HAIRCUT." And soon everybody was doing it. We actually got in the guy's head and he started to miss easy shots and free throws.

Alex had also read somewhere that one of the players is a fashion design major, and I wanted to start a "PROJECT RUNWAY" chant for him. We didn't, because she wasn't sure that was his major. That would've been pretty great, though. At least to me.

So yeah. Tonight made my week.

Tomorrow is Induction. The beginning of the end.

I always say that Atwood and Emerson Halls (collectively "the Chem building") are like my second home. I certainly spend more time there than the average student. So I obviously know my way around pretty well. Today, I was leaving the building after spending some time in the lab. I decided to take one of the second floor exits, the door in the glass walkway between Atwood and Emerson. So I went downstairs, to the walkway, and turned left to push the door open. Only I ended up smacking my body and face into solid glass. That's right, I'd gone down too few floors. I was on the third floor of the walkway, where there is no door. If anybody saw that, they're probably still laughing.

Giving up all things potato for Lent. No chips. No fries. No tater tots. No mash. No potato bagels!! This has already been tested, since I went to Waffle House tonight. I had a bacon egg and cheese sandwich, though I really REALLY wanted a double order of hash browns, scattered covered capped. I was strong. I resisted.

It's already Thursday! The weeks are flying by.

Today was a very full day. And I spent most of it with Joel and Shoshonah. Yeah, I dunno. First I had brunch with them at the Bagel Palace. And then...well, a couple of days ago Shoshonah had asked me if I wanted to go check out this bridal expo with her. She even said she'd pay for my ticket, just so she'd have someone to go with. And I thought, why the hell not? So I agreed to go. And, hand to God, it was one of the awesomest experiences of my life. It was so freaking great. First of all, when we got our tickets, I told them I was a bride. Everybody was all smiles and 'Congratulations!' and I got a big pink sticker! I registered for a bunch of prizes (in my sister's name, hehe). I proceeded to call my sister and tell her where I was and what I was doing. She told me that I should try to win her a honeymoon trip, since pretty much everything else is already planned and done with. I promised to do my best, and proceeded to enter the actual expo.

Words cannot express the chaos that is the bridal expo. It's great to be a bride-to-be. You get all sorts of samples (caaaaaake), and chances to win stuff. But, since I don't actually have a wedding to look forward too, that euphoria eventually wore off. There were so many vendors vying for my attention, and it was hard to keep the details of my wedding straight, in my head. (I didn't use my sister's date because it's awfully late to be going to a bridal expo for a wedding that's two week's away.) When's the wedding? (next April) Do you have a photographer? (no) Do you have tuxedos? (no) Would you like to register for a chance to win three free tuxedos? (sure!) How many tuxes will you need? (Five...six!) Do you have a location? (yes, we already have that set up.) What type of location are you looking for? (already have one!) What type of dress are you looking for? (one that is white?) Do you have a honeymoon planned? (I have my heart set on an Alaskan cruise) Do you have a DJ? (I want a live band)...Whew. When I got my fill of cake, and attention, I ripped off the big sticker and became a normal person again. It was still fun.

Except for one thing. The woman with the bridal gown restoration place. She nagged Shoshonah for quite a while, and then turned to me and asked, "Do you have a wedding dress to restore?" And I said, "I'm not getting married; I'm just here for moral support." The old hag snapped, "I know you're here for moral support." Then she turned to her co-worker and said right in front of me, "She has no sense of humor!" The hell? Where was the humor in that situation? I can take most things, but my sense of humor is the thing I like most about myself. And that stupidfaced old lady hurt my feelings. Stoooooopidface.

Moving on. We left the expo with no prizes, but I had an overwhelming urge to get married. Or at least start planning my fantasy wedding.

It should also be noted that there was another event at the place we were at. The IBS. Quick, think of something funny that 'IBS' could stand for. Industrial Breadmaker Symposium? Intergalactic Bead Show? International Badminton Seminar? If you guessed the middle one, you are CORRECT. The Intergalactic Bead Show. The hell? Intergalactic beads? We still don't know what that was about.

Hmm. Was there something else going on today? Oh yeah, some football game. Which was pretty boring. And some commercials, which were just as boring, if not boringer. I actually went to the Rush event party, though I hadn't planned to. I'm glad I did, though. It's fun to watch such things with a large group of people. Though some of them insisted on talking through the commercials. One person, especially surprised me with her loquaciousness. I mean, never shut up. Whoa. I didn't mind; if I expected silence I would've been by myself. But it was just a bit overwhelming. Maybe I'd just already had enough whelm in my day, with the expo.

Other than that, I had a lot of fun. I especially liked the moment during one commercial where I declared to everyone, "If that ends how I think it's going to, I'm going to cry." And then I did cry. Yay. And also, our heckling the halftime performer. "Wardrobe malfunction! Wardrobe malfunction!" "Drop your pants, McCartney!!" Heh. And finally, the epic game of Egyptian Rat Screw. Good times.

Long story short, this was a good day.

Habitat went really, really well. I don't think anybody truly understood how terrified I was of being in charge of this project for the first time. I barely slept, waking up a million times during the night. I finally got up for good around 5.

But anyway. We had enough drivers. We had rushees. We weren't late. There were no disasters. It was so great.

It was a week 1 build, so that meant building walls and raising the walls. Lots and lots of nailing. My forearms are going to thank me tomorrow.

I'm so sleepy, but I have to work on stuff.