This biochem exam isn't going to study for itself!! Come on, LaKedra, get your act together! But first...a quick rundown of the day.

I skipped my first class of med school today, because I did not feel good AT ALL. I made it through Biochem, which was important. And then Mind and Medicine, which was also worthwhile. The instructor actually addressed the question I just wrote about last night, so that was cool. And on top of that, Evan's roleplay of an angry patient ("She said she was CLEAN!!!!!!") made the entire two hours worthwhile. After that was lunch with our Emphasis advisors, and at that point I figured I'd be better off going home and getting some sleep. Because, I absolutely cannot feel miserable in Anatomy.

After doping myself up and napping, I felt good enough to go to ShadeTree training. On the way there, I totally passed the Nashville hotel where the President is staying. A lane of West End was closed, and there were police cars everywhere, and quite a few protestors holding "IMPEACH THE LIAR" signs. I'm so out of touch with the news, I didn't even know he was coming to town.

Oh, and after wavering for a while, I decided to run for class VP. Duties? Representing the class in general, and organizing service projects.

If I stop typing now, I can get in 2.5 good hours of studying. So that's what I'm going to do.

I woke up this morning, after having a really weird, but really vivid dream. I dreamt I moved to a new place, and started a new school...in the third grade. It was crazy. CUHRAZY. I was trying very hard to convince these people that I am indeed 21 and about to graduate from college, and did not need to start over at third grade. They just kept telling me to practice my cursive. Quite frustrating. I think it represents my anxiety about going to a new school in the fall. And also the recent discussion I had with my roommates about my awful handwriting.

So pretty much right after I woke up, I had Human Phys, and I was prepared for lecture this time. Starnes impressed the hell out of me by having memorized all our names (over a hundred). She pronounced my name with a short 'e' instead of long, but still. Good job, Starnes. I'm always impressed by a good ability to memorize stuff. I can do it, but it takes a lot of effort and I don't often feel like it.

Then I sat at a table for half an hour, attempting to sell luminaries for Relay for Life. I did it for another hour after Global Health (which was a mostly freestyle discussion class). And I'm planning to do another 5 or so hours by the end of the week. Since being a PTA, I've found it's a good idea to get as much as possible done before Induction. After that, there's a whole new group of people to worry about. Besides, the number of assignments and other class-related things increases exponentially by then, and that's no fun.

Also not fun was the weather today. It poured ALL DAY. There were little rivers and waterfalls everywhere.

And finally, I picked up a degree application today. Whoa. That's all I have to say about that.

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.

As soon as I woke up today, I had to finish an art history paper, and write a response for today's French reading. I finished both of them, yay! French class was long, but the discussion was good. And it should help with the paper I have to write sometime between now and Monday. Crikey. Art history was just turning in the paper. I used the extra time to eat a decent lunch, and work on my word count.

Then I had to load the last of the food drive donations into my car- several boxes of food from Trimble/Means. And then I drove it over to Families First, waaaay over in Midtown, with all the one-way streets named Peachtree. They were super-happy to get the carload of food. That particular agency serves about 120,000 people in the metro Atlanta area. That's a huge need to be met, so every bit helps. If I'm SVP next semester (nominations and elections are happening without me), I'm definitely going to try and organize another drive. It was a pain in the behumpas while it was going on, but today it was all worth it. I was on cloud nine all the way back here.

Then I got back, saw all my stuff, and realized that I'm going home tomorrow. I've pretty much spent the whole semester experiencing these intense bursts of missing Baton Rouge. But now that I'll be there soon, it's like...oh dear. Normally Thanksgiving would mean lots of family time, but there would also be alone time. This time isn't normal of course. There are four extra people at my house, alone time will be very hard to get. I'm worried for my sanity, and I'm worried for my word count.

Then on Sunday I fly from home to JFK, catch a bus from JFK to New Haven, and interview at Yale the next day. I decided that it was time to act like I'm taking the trip, so I got a hotel and a reservation on a bus to JFK for my return flight. The bus from the airport, they said I wouldn't need a reservation for. Of course, they also said that the Courtyard by Marriott was within walking distance of the med school campus. I google mapped it (to quote YY, I google map like it's my job), and there's no way I'm walking that distance in interview clothes. I'll get a cab. It doesn't matter. I'm sparing no expenses, because this will probably be my last interview. So much for creating a huge tshirt collection.

I know, I know, wah wah, my uncertainty about my future has been drastically reduced, it's so unfair, wah wah! I certainly don't expect anyone to feel sorry for me. It's just that I prepped myself for this long process, and now it doesn't look like it'll be that long. It's like right after the MCAT, when I didn't know what to do with myself because my whole focus had been preparing for that. This feeling will pass and I'll get something else to panic about! Honors thesis, maybe?

Oh..oh..oh! For dinner I went to this place called The Cafe at East Andrews, or something like that. With Alex and Chrissy. I'm of the opinion that any establishment that calls itself "The Thing at Place," instead of just "Place Thing," is trying a little too hard. (The Mall at Cortana, anyone?) But the place won me over, when we were presented with our appetizer: crab cakes. Two cylindrical crab cakes, arranged at right angles to each other. I LOVE places that present the food all fancy-like. I hardly ever go to those places, but I love them all the same. And so The Cafe at East Andrews won my heart. (My salmon was presented awesomely too.)

Now I'm going to go make myself write about a thousand more words.

As I predicted, biochem devastated me. It was a giant orgo test, and I haven't been in the giant orgo test mindset since I was 17 years old. It was too long in the first place, and on top of that we started late, and on top of that the TAs kept insisting that we use pen. Chemistry tests are in pencil, that's a rule. You can't do huge mechanisms in pen. You can't do huge mechanisms in pencil and then do them over in pen..at least, not if you want to finish. I scrawled a note to the professor across the front page of the test, about the ridiculousness of having to do mechanisms in pen. The more I think about that, the more I cringe, because I did awfully on that test, pen or no pen. So that note will make me look very petulant. Not that I have to make a good impression on Emory people anymore.

I'll admit, I should have studied more. But none of that other stuff helped. Ah well. I luckily was able to pull the cyanogen bromide mechanism out of my ass at the last moment. But the peptide coupling just didn't happen for me. Leaving 25-point questions blank does not bode well for a test score. It was funny, to see a person leave the exam on the verge of tears, and then later hear that same person bragging about how easy they thought the test was. Those weren't happy tears I saw, so I call bullshit on that one. As I call bullshit on most things that person says.

On to things that are more worth my time to ponder, I need to know if Vandy might rescind their offer based on grades. Because I'm not covering myself in glory. I need to shape up no matter what, it's just a matter of how much I need to stress about it.

In other news, the food drive APhiO did? Hugely successful. I'm very happy with how it turned out. There's so much food in my car right now, it's crazy. I deliver it to the place tomorrow afternoon.

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.

Went to stat mech. Understood almost nothing. Got an assignment that involves writing a computer program. Boo.

Went to biochem. Understood everything. I am so glad we've gotten to the chemistry part!

Right after biochem, Michelle and I went to Trick or Treat at Traer, a project being run by Oglethorpe University's chapter of APhiO. I am very very glad that we went. I like the idea of us having better ties with other Atlanta chapters. We haven't had much luck with Tech, but Oglethorpe's good people. (Apparently, Tech said they would be sending some people to help at Oglethorpe too, and didn't.) They really appreciated our being there, even if it was just the two of us.

The event itself was very fun, and very well-done. There were maybe, 70 kids from various after school programs in the area. Traer Hall is a dorm, that's organized as four wings around a quad. The kids could run around, knocking on pretty much every door to collect candy. Then, the first floor lounge was set up as a haunted house, the second floor was the game room, and the third floor was arts and crafts. I didn't go through the haunted house, but judging from the hyperventilating kids, it was pretty scary. I was in the game room, supervising a game where the kids threw fuzzy balls at a velcro target. I certainly didn't expect it to be a big hit, but I was swarmed, like, the entire time. It was very tiring for me, since I had to be "on" the whole time, but still fun. There was also a ring toss, a bean bag throw, a bowling game, hopscotch, a lollipop tree, and a fishing game (that involved someone crouching behind a wall and attaching prizes to the kids' hooks). And the arts room had facepainting and bookmark making. At the end, everybody gathered in the quad thing and we took a picture. So..yeah, glad I went to that.

Came back here, had enough time to make food, check email, and prepare to go to the Clue Week kickoff. There was a pretty nice turnout, and it was low-key...mostly doing sigs. That ended at 10, and somebody suggested that we go check out the weekly Fri@10 event. Tonight, it was a DDR tournament. I definitely decided to sign up and participate. And then I won. #1 in the Beginner's category, bayBEE! My prize? A fifty dollar Target gift card. That's an awesomely good prize. Tomorrow, I shop. I study, but I also shop.

So, the Habitat people couldn't do Habitat today, they got turned away. I'm not sure if it's my fault, because I left a message for the coordinator too late in the week. Or if it's because the group that went ended up being bigger than the group I told them was coming. That's my fault too, so either way, I'll need to do better with that. From now on, when the signups are closed on Wednesdays at noon, they're CLOSED. As much as I hate to say "no, you can't do volunteer work," I've got to respect the organization and not overwhelm them by sending groups they can't handle. Ah well, lesson learned.

Me: I love Habitat! Look, I can walk through walls! Half of me is in this room, half of me is in another room!
Alex S.: You could accomplish that in any house with an open doorway, you know.
Me: Oh. Right.

Oh, Habitat. Such a good time. Since I took over the duties of coordinator, it seems that I've always spent the days leading up to the build, fretting about what might go wrong. And then the build days end up being quite fun. We had a few no-shows this morning, but still had a group of 8. Not too bad. The new volunteer coordinator seems really nice and was happy to find us a build. We ended up at a build being co-sponsored by Emory's Habitat club. The place was swarming with Emory people, mostly from social sororities and fraternities.

At first I thought there might be too many people, which can make for a bad build experience. But we had a very good House Leader who was awesome at assigning tasks. Everybody was busy, the whole time. I ended up on the insulation team, and we did the entire interior. Quite a lot of work. Quite a lot of fiberglass. Lots of wearing protective gear in hot weather. But still fun. We accomplished a lot.

Something interesting about this build was that the future homeowners are a married couple with kids, instead of the usual single mom. The dad was at the build today. He's from Ethiopia, so his English was not quite fluent, but he was really friendly.

I've been studying biochem off and on for the past three hours, so this was a bit of a break. I'm going to go back to my study spot, crank out another hour or so, and then go to bed.

There were a LOT of volunteers at the Salvation Army warehouse this morning, but there was a LOT of stuff to do, so it was all good. I couldn't help but smirk at the people who were all shocked when the lady in charge pumped us up with a rousing "Who's ready to do GOD'S WORK??" I mean, come on. Salvation. Army. Think about it.

I was on the clothing team. Imagine the largest amount of clothing you've ever seen in one place, in your entire life. Now quadruple it. That might give a picture of how many clothing donations there were to sort. The sight of it managed to warm my heart and fill it with dread at the same time. The three hours went quickly though, and we got a lot done. I must give props to the people who donated neatly folded clothes that were already sorted and labelled (boys clothes 3mos-12mos, women's pants, etc.). To the people who dump off whatever dirty, ratty, unusable crap they wanted a chance to get rid of: that shit is worse than just not bothering to donate at all. It's just like, "Here, you throw this away." Just because people don't have anything, doesn't mean they deserve to get your unusable trash, assholes.

Well, I feel better now. Other than that, it was a good time. Plus we had all the bubblegum we could chew. Bubblegum makes it all worthwhile.

In academic news, I don't know what hubris made me think I could survive statistical mechanics. I'm already in survival mode. That means, I just write down everything the prof puts on the board, in the desperate hope that I'll understand it when I go over it later. The last time I had to do that was in quantum, and then I had the book to help me. Now, our "book" for the semester is a 20-page handout that basically just shows figures and equations. I am in such deep doo-doo.

The bright side is, stat mech will help put Biochem in perspective. It's supposed to be this really tough class, but so far Yevbodnik(sp?) hasn't actually taught much of anything. He spent the first 2 lectures and most of the third, telling us what he's going to teach us. He'd throw in a few random examples, so I'd write that stuff down. But honestly, that man needs to make me feel like I need to show up, or he'll lose me forever. Especially when I'm coming right from a class that's an actual challenge.

Time to be productive.

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!

Yesterday morning, I got up around 6:45...without the aid of my alarm. General preparation for the day followed. At 7:45 I went down to the lobby, where Lianna and I waited for Matt to come pick us up. He was late, pulling up just as I was about to call him. Turns out he slept through his alarm, which is kinda strange since he usually gets up by 7 every day. We got to the Habitat Warehouse without incident, and with some commentary on the scariness of reversible lanes. Because the sign could break, and both directions could have the green arrow, and that would just be disastrous. Matt and Lianna also commented on the awesome fact that Michelle is PCing Habitat from England. Um, yeah. I don't begrudge her the credit, because she is quite awesome. I just thought it worth noting that not many people realize I'm planning Habitat this semester.

We got to the Warehouse, and were put right to work at the ReStore. See, they get donations of all kinds of stuff...basically, anything you can get from Home Depot. They can only use a few of the donated items in the houses they build, because the construction plans usually call for very specific items. So anything else goes to the ReStore and is sold to the general public at an insane discount. Any money earned? Is put right back into construction of houses. The whole thing is just teh awesome. We cleaned stuff, arranged some displays, priced stuff, moved stuff, etc. And then we left.

Induction was yesterday afternoon. I wore a skirt, people. A skirt. We had 13 people induct, and about 12 people have asked for a make-up. If they all induct, that makes a pledge class of 25. Pretty good size. I'm projecting that 19 will initiate in April.

I had mad nasal congestion for the rest of the afternoon, so I took NyQuil. I proceeded to sleep for 12 hours, missing the Maryland-Duke game and the replay on ESPN2. I woke up at 9 this morning, utterly convinced that it was Monday. So I did the getting ready thing, got dressed, packed my bag for the day, and went to my first class. It wasn't until I was in the WoodPEC that I realized I was exactly 24 hours early. Go me! Since I was already there, I hit the track for like half an hour, then I went to brunch. And now I'm at the Emerson center, in the midst of doing lab-like things and MCAT-studying things. Wheee.

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.

Today was the first service project at Sheltering Arms daycare. My very first experience at project-coordinating. I have to say, I spent most of the day in a state of stark terror. I just knew that something would go wrong, and I would go down in history as the worst PC of the worst project EVER. But, aside from getting lost on the way there, everything went fine. I was with a group of four and five year olds, and they were the cutest things. Sooooo cute. We drew pictures and played doctor and played firefighters and built things with blocks, and then played outside. Yay! And I think all the other people who went had fun, too. Double yay!

Then dinner, random hanging out...and the pledge retreat. It wasn't too bad. There were cheeseballs.

Then more random hanging out...then Aladdin! I hadn't seen it in a looooong time. You miss a lot of stuff when you're 9. Baklava??!!!

And so another Friday ends. I'm kinda tired, so I might actually go to sleep before 2.

Habitat was much fun today. Four of us went: me, Michelle, Josué, and Rachel, a pledge. Our first detail was landscaping, which didn't involve an actual house. Instead, we tended the flowerbeds around the actual headquarters. Necessary work, I guess, but not as fun as actual house-building. Plus, the Master Gardener, Dick, was an older veteran with bad memories from the Korean War. We were having some random conversation about fireworks, or something, when he interjected, "Ever since the Chinese fired on me in Korea, I haven't liked fireworks." This was followed by a hard stare at Michelle, who just happens to be half Chinese. Hello, awkward moment.

After we were done with Dick and his tirades against the Chinamen, we got to go to an actual build. This build was cool for two reasons. First, it was the only build I've been to where the House Leader and all the Important Professionals were women. Secondly, it was a Week 1 build. The build with the most visible progress. From a foundation with crossbeams, to a foundation with plywood decking, to a frame, with all the walls, and a front porch. And the moment you go from "standing on the decking" to "standing in the back bedroom"...if builds weren't so tiring, that's the kind of thing that would make me teary-eyed. (I overcompensate for my sappiness with a wicked sarcastic streak.)

Tired=me.

It's a great day to be alive!!! The weather is absolutely gorgeous; it's hard to believe we had a hurricane/tropical storm on Thursday. Habitat was great; it was just me and Michelle. Since there were only 2 of us, we got to pick which build we went to...Michelle wanted to go back to the one she worked at last week. This was the second weekend of construction; hopefully we'll get to work with that house from start to finish (7 weeks).

Normally, week 1 and 2 builds aren't my favorite. That's when the framing work is done, so it's a lot of heavy nailing. And I'm usually not too great with the hammer. For some reason, I had no trouble today. We helped get the trusses (gable, three fink, all the scissors, special fink, gable) up on the roof, and then started the siding: corner board, skirt board, drip cap, starter strip!!

The order was very important, so Tom, the head guy, kept making us recite the stuff. Because I remembered everything after one repetition, I became the Memory of the operation. Any time Tom needed to remember a measurement or something, he'd shout, "Pam!! Eleven feet, seven inches on the fly rafters!!" or "Pam!! Forty-three and three quarters of the B sheet!" Then, like 20 minutes later, "What was my length for the fly rafters?" Hehe...when we had to go, Tom was like, "You better come back next week, all the numbers are in your head!"

It's funny that the bug on my ceiling severely traumatized me, but today I was kneeling and working in tall grass, paying no heed to the mega spiders and other bugs. I guess I can handle bugs, when they are where they're supposed to be (outside, in grass).

Anyway. Now I need to shower and get ready for induction. Which is actually my first real induction. Whoo!

I didn't plan on sleeping late today, but I did anyway. I went to brunch (which is fast becoming the highlight of my weekends), and ate with Lianna who just happened to be there. We discussed the fact that the DUC was serving scones. Scones!! They weren't bad either. If they'd had chocolate chip instead of blueberry, my life would have been complete.

After brunch I had time to kill before Wesley Woods. But not enough time to go back to my room. So I walked around and tried to figure out how to get to that door, at the top of those stairs, in the middle of the Coke Commons. I think that's my new obsession. Unless the Emory Card Office has a staircase, it's gotta be through the theater. Of course, I could always walk up the steps and try the door...

Anyway. My attempted exploration was not successful. So I went and met my APhiO peeps and we carpooled over to Wesley Woods, this nursing home. I should mention that Wesley Woods is on Clifton. The huge, main road that all Emory students are familiar with. The road I cross every day, thinking about the fact that an inattentive driver could end my days quite easily. ANYWAY, the trip involved ONE turn, and these people managed to make the wrong one. Which resulted in a trip so roundabout, I could've walked from my dorm and gotten there faster.

When we actually got to the nursing home, it was such a...nursing home. The wave of nursing-home scent hit us as soon as we opened the front door, literally making me take a step backwards. I hate nursing homes. I have no good memories of nursing homes. And every bad memory flashed through my head when those doors were opened, reminding me why I had never volunteered at Wesley Woods before. (And probably won't ever again.) But I was there, so I dealt.

We had our little activities set up for the residents. I was supposed to do origami, but I was not a great success. I made a balloon for this one lady; she could not possibly have been less impressed. Well boo to you. All the ladies wanted to get their nails done, so I had to help with that. If you've seen the stubby, gnawed-on ruins that are my fingernails, you'll know that I wasn't a great success at that, either.

I was rather good at talking, though. So as I did a horrible job at manicuring, I could at least keep a nice conversation going. This one lady was chewing on God-knows-what...maybe some leftover fragment of lunch that she'd found between her teeth. She started talking all animatedly and a chunk of it flew out to land on my hand. In LaKedra-land, spittle is worse than feet. And that's all I have to say about that. Actually, it's not...

Eventually, I went back to origami. One lady, Phyllis, saw the tulip Danielle made, and demanded one in every color we had. Mine weren't as good as Danielle's but oh well. Another interesting moment was when Phyllis attempted a tulip herself. She did pretty well, actually. However, as one of the last steps you have to blow into the shape to fill it out. Phyllis tried this and didn't really have the lungpower. So she gave me the paper she'd had her mouth all over and told me to finish. That tulip was not completed.

All in all, it was a pretty fun time. Not the best time of my life, but not the worst. And I got to enjoy th company of the people doing the service project with me (APhiO! Make friends by doing service, not instead of doing service! That should be the next Rush motto.) It was not a bad project, and I'm sure the origami and the conversation and all that really made their day. It's just not a project I was meant to do. At least I tried it.

I convinced myself that I should go to Habitat for Humanity today, so I was up at 6:30! Whooo!

There were seven people signed up to go, but it ended up being just me, Amanda, and Kedar. We get to the headquarters place, and the two options were a day 1 build with our usual site leader, or a day 7 build with a different site leader. (It takes 8 Saturdays of volunteer work to complete a house, from foundation and framework to final decorating.) The lady said the day 7 was short on people, so we went there.

Short on people??!?!?! No. Spelman and Morehouse each sent about...25 people. Then there were all the people from the two churches sponsoring the build. Then there were the people being sent over because they were short on people!! In all, there had to be about 80 people, working on that one house. This might not have been terrible, if the site leader had been competent. But he wasn't! He showed up late, and was not organized at ALL, and it was horrible! Maybe he would've done better without a group that was way too large. But I don't think so.

After about an hour of waiting for an assignment, we were told to put up the mailbox. That was a smashing success. But eventually...we finished. And the site leader was nowhere to be found! There was much loitering. It was just very, very bad. Very bad. So we took our leave.

PLUS, there was this crazy guy who came to "help." He like, lived nearby, and had been there every week. He carried a broom around and talked to himself and occasionally asked us weird questions. He asked me if I go to Spelman, and when I said no, he got OFFENDED. And was like, "WHY NOT?!!!!!" Then he tried to give me a broom so that I could learn how to "dot com." I took it, only because I didn't want him holding anything he could beat me with.

Actually, crazy guy wasn't the only guy who asked if I go to Spelman. The SPELMAN people were asking if I go to Spelman. Um...wouldn't you know if I were in your group? But. I'm black, I'm a girl, where else in Atlanta could I POSSIBLY go to school? Right.

I will sign up for the last two Habitat builds, and hopefully end the semester on a better note.

Composed by me and Christy

Wetzel Wetzel Pretzels
They're made fresh out of dough
And if you buy a Wetzel,
You'll eat it up we know!

Wetzel Wetzel Pretzels
In cinnamon or plain
They both are very yummy
So don't you dare complain!

Wetzel Wetzel Pretzels
Ingrid makes them fresh
So you should buy a Wetzel
And be cool like John Tesh.

Wetzel Wetzel Pretzels,
"Please don't buy beer," we said
'Cuz none of us are drinkers
We'll give you too much head!

Wetzel Wetzel Pretzels,
Come by and watch the Cubs
And if you need some butter,
We have two giant tubs!