78 degreeeees

So, today was definitely a scorcher! We topped out at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Man, I thought I was gonna die. NOT! Today was gorgeous! Breezes, and lovely temperatures. I've had the windows open all day, the a/c off...didn't use the a/c in the car - it was awesome.

Haha, so I was chatting with one of my neighbors a little while ago when I took Jake out for a quick stroll and he says to me, "Man, it was a long hot day today..." I just kind of looked at him for a sec and thought about what he said and replied, "It wasn't hot today..." "Yeah! We wuz ovah in Bloomington an' it wuz eighty-sixxx, mein!" "Haha! I just moved up from Texas...86 is not hot." "Ahhh, yeeeah, aight yeah, you used to dat, then..."

Aaaaand, Jake - the dog has successfully destroyed a tennis ball

R.I.P purple tennis ball...you served us well for all of...1 day

So today I went to the AT&T store to see what they had to say about my tele iss. And here is what I got: the guy {super nice, btw} did a full examination of my phone and said that I clearly hadn't dropped it or flushed it down the toilet or anything like that. So it's a matter of them sending me a new tele and me sending my old one back to them. It should be here Thurs/Fri!! So, I can answer calls and call the last person who has called me. So...if you need to talk to me call me or facebook me or email me or comment on the blog!

I'm still slightly in boxes, but it's getting there!

I've been spending a lot of time up at the lab already so that has stalled my unpacking and setting-up, but that's alright. Tomorrow, I get to start practicing dissections with my moths! I am way excited! I have a huge stack of literature to add to the books I showed you yesterday...I am slightly overwhelmed, to be honest. But it's all very exciting. I love learning about new organisms (generally), and since these critters will by my life for the next 3 years, I'm gonna have to get excited about them, and honestly, they have some of the neatest genitalia (don't freak out, genitalia is key in defining who these moths are) eeeeever!

Well kids, my brain isn't entirely functional at the moment, so I'm going to call it a night on the blogfront.

Shalom & Blessings!
~MW

Phone Sorrows

Hello, lovelies!

Well, first I must inform all of you that my cell phone has gone on the fritz. Therefore, if you have texted me at all today...I cannot open your messages. Lame, I know. I will be visiting AT&T tomorrow to see what they say. {**new phone?!** I can dream...}

Today was...an interesting day.

SW and I had scheduled a meeting for this morning at 9. I'm thinking, sweet, I can test the bus out and not have to worry about if I'll make it to class or something. Well, it's a good thing I did! The stop for the bus I catch to campus is about a 10min walk {and that's at a brisk pace} from my apartment. Not awful, just wish it was a touch closer {I'm thinking about the windy winters...}. So, I get to the corner where the transit site said my bus would pick up {and I'm even a minute or two early} to see my bus zooming past. I'm not entirely sure it even stopped at all. "Crap. Now what do I do??" There was another bus pulling up across the street, so I ran over and asked the driver if his bus could get me to campus, even with a connection or something. What did I get in response? A blank stare followed by, "Yeah, I don't know..." Neat. Next mode of action: call dad! "Dad, when is the next time that bus 61 comes through this area?" "Not for another 45min..." So, then, all I had left to do was to run back to the apartment {OK, so I walked even more briskly...it was already warming up for the day} grab the car, and pray that I can find some public/pay parking somewhere within a 10min walk or so.

Finally found a pay lot, conveniently right behind my building (!), and made it up the insect museum where I was to meet SW, and I was only 2-3min late. I was impressed, I'm not gonna lie. I was not, however, impressed $7 I had to pay to get out of the lot...weak sauce. SW ended up being about 30min late, so, as it turns out, I could have waited for the second bus and made it in time...cest la vie. She and I ended up having a nice visit, none-the-less. Got some specifics loosely laid out for what my course work will look like this fall and in the spring.

SW and I also got to chat about my actual research and some of the things it will entail. I'll be honest, I'm in a bit over my head right now...I know nothing about leps {Lepidopteran = moths & butterflies}...nothing. Give me my parasitoid wasps any day of the week and I can hold my own, but leps?! Now they are something I'm only familiar in hating {when they are dead, at least}. Every hymenopterist {Hymenoptera = wasps, ants, bees} hates dead leps...they get in our traps and their wing scales muck everything up so we can't see our wasps. Very frustrating. But now I get to look at them not in my etoh traps :) I am rather excited about learning all about a new organism, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified out of my mind to start something so new and foreign to me.

But! SW is awesome and lent me some of her "moth bibles" so I can start familiarizing myself with them - particularly the arctiids and even more particularly, Eucaetes. I'm way excited to start paging through these books

SW helped write both of these!!

So that was productive. I then made my way over to Rainbow Foods...which, may I just go on a little bunny trail with you for a moment? K, good. Rainbow Foods just might help to make the next three years survivable. I walked through those sparkling automatic doors Sunday afternoon into what I thought was Heaven. Beautiful produce, beautifully displayed. CLEAN floors...they were practically gleaming! CLEAN smell. Marvelously organized. I was home. There will, most likely, be no more Cub Foods runs...unless it's an emergency or something. But, I digress. Today, I made my way over to Rainbow {p.s. - I can't help but hear the, "double rainbow allll the way" guy in my head every time I go/think of Rainbow...makes me chuckle every time...I don't think it will ever get old} and picked up a little pre-paid bus pass to get my by over the next few days 'til my student ID gets issued. {However, I spoke to non-profit guy about the buses today and he had some less than comforting things to say and suggested that I stay away from the buses...sigh.}

I rearranged some of my living room furniture into a position I think I am pleased with for the moment...still have lots to do...sorry this whole setting my home thing is taking me so long...I've had to stop and do other things here and there, which makes for slow progress.

Oh! Big news, though: I got my interwebs today!!! Guy was super nice and we had a nice chat. He lives in Chicago, but is here for a few weeks helping out the Twin Cities crew with their increased work load. Cool.

Mmm, I made some of those frozen-allow to rise-then bake rolls with my dinner tonight...SO worth waiting for them to rise. They are delish. It's like I made them myself...only with 1/4 of the effort! WIN!

Well, I think that's all for now. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about my "things I love about my apartment" post. It's in the works :)

Shalom!
~MW

Birthdays to Boy Scouts

Hello my happy readers. I trust you are all fairing well on this {for me} gloriously rainy Monday. I do apologize for having not updated in a while...it's just been one of those weeks...you know, the kind of week where you just don't want to do anything and so you don't and thus have nothing to report and your brain is kind of void of any form of coherent thought...yeah, it was one of those.

So, Tuesday was my birthday, and I must take a moment now to thank each and every one of you who took the time to call/txt/email/facebook me to send me your thoughts, wishes, and love - definitely made my not so thrilling day a blessed one. This was a very strange birthday for me. For as long as I can remember I've had friends around either day of, or shortly there after, to celebrate with me...and, for the first time in my 23yrs I didn't have any of my beloved friends with me. Don't get me wrong, being with my family was definitely nice, but this birthday made me really realize how dearly I love my friends, and that they have truly become my family, and I miss them all dearly. So, I have been in a bit of a funk about that... This is no tantrum about not having a party or something ridiculous like that, this is simply my heart-breaking realization that I miss my friends much more than I thought I did. Thinking about all of this and reflecting then lead me to a terrible realization: next year is going to be even worse!!! I don't know anyone in MN...oi, if I thought this year was bad, I won't even have my family with me next year. I'd better toughen up and put on my big girl pants now, eh?? Ugh...can I just stick all of my friends in my pocket or a tupperware container and take them with me??

Well, that said, I must admit that I've been a little off this week, due to all the above..err...dwellings, I suppose we could call them. But, my family was so great. The Mamma made me dutch pancakes like she used to do when I was in high school...I did have to get up at 6:45 to partake with the fam, but it was totally worth it. The Mamma and I proceeded to munch on the leftovers throughout the rest of the day - heavenly! And then...I spent a rather hefty part of my afternoon {J-Hump, please overt your eyes...} window shopping online with Miss Ricci...it was awesome...we had so much fun! My evening consisted of a Valentine's Dinner Prep Meeting, followed by Bible study, and finally, my ultimate birthday present: the Season Premier of LOST!!! The only thing that could have made that better would have been being with all my peeps at the LOST party down in CS...I was definitely there in spirit.

Probably one of the best things I did last week was dig my rickety, I mean lovely old bike out of the garage give it some TLC and take it on a nice little 3mi ride. Nothing, huge, I know, but it was beyond great to take it out for a spin and do some work on it...I also discovered, that much as I had suspected, I am severely, severely, out of shape...working on remedying this situation :)

I did finally get my new phone on Friday! Oh, I am so in love with it...I have named him Reuel. Can anyone guess where that comes from?? You get a gold star if you can figure it out. :D

Saturday was quite a full day: took Faja to the airport, had a morning visit with Gela, Alyssa, and Samantha - that was simply delightful, had a mid-day coffee date with Lu - also wonderful. And then, my dear ones...I did it...I - CLEANED - my room!!! I still hadn't unpacked everything from moving up here in December...awful, I know. But it is now done, and it is awesome. Have some pictures us, and everyone seems to be happy. Mid cleaning though, I stopped to have a spot of tea and lost it...the missing all of my friends and not seeing my here-friends very often and not having a job/outlet finally got to me and I broke down. I simply felt lonely even though I had seen a ton of people that day, that might have been enough to put me over the edge. I felt better after allowing myself to put a label on what I was feeling instead of just pushing it under the rug and pretending like nothing was wrong. This is hard...that's about all there is to it.

Anyways, congrats to the Saints on their Superbowl win - props, kids. Although, I must confess that I boycotted the game with KT and went to Borders instead. It was nice to visit and sympathize with each other about feeling lonely.

But, now a new week has begun and it's off to a crazy start! Tonight I will be undertaking the task of teaching the local Boy Scouts of America troop about....you guessed it, BUGS!! I'm really excited about this, but pretty nervous, this will be my first outreach education endeavor all on my own. I brainstormed with KReddick last night and got some awesome ideas on organizing it all and cuing in to how the kids are responding to the subject matter. So, for the rest of today I will be polishing that up and getting ready for the kiddos! I had intended on taking another bike ride today, but the forecast is for rain...all...day...long, which I love just not when I had planned to be active. Ah well, such is life.

Best wishes for the new week to you all!

Shalom,
MW