Tired, Hot Reflections

Sometimes a song can really get you through a tough spot. And it's funny how taste in songs can change so suddenly. So I am listening to David Gray (what I consider old people music) and writing an outline for my English 95 paper. Then, I am done. It took about 30 minutes and I am pleased that I have at least one assignment finished for tomorrow. Immediately the music switches...I Believe in a Thing Called Love. Oh yeah! And now it's E.L.O.'s Mr. Blue Sky. All of the sudden, life is good.

Of course, not for long. There is still paper #2, which has to be written by tomorrow. Can't get away with just an outline. I will probably be mean and make myself go to the lounge or something to read. I wish I had the power to take naps.

Anything interesting from my day? I met Jason Wallace, the new Youth Services Manager for the East Bay. He seems really nice. He invited me to the LDC meeting on Thursday which I might attend.

It was a pretty tired day because I worked until 3 AM. I managed to have three ice cream cones (one at Dreyer's, the other two for free at Ben & Jerry's). I am even too tired to give updates.

I feel as though I am on the brink of hell. I am looking down at all the papers and due dates (see below) and I know it's going to get very crazy very soon.

May 5: English 95 paper due
May 10: Psych 132AC research symposium, Psych 140 final
May 14: Psych 132AC research paper due, Psych 140 paper due
May 17: Sociology 127 take home final due

And that's just the academic stuff. Oh, the humanity.

Totally Distracted

It's just one of those nights. Actually, it's just one of those weekends.

So as I sat down to my computer this evening and check the various web sites and blogs that have become my routine, I silently commented to myself about how annoying it is when people don't post regularly. And then I thought of my journal. Irony.

Anyway, back to what distracted me from my journal in the first place. GMail! Apparently, as a blogger.com user, I get to try GMail before everyone else! Yay for me! Unfortunately, my sign in name has to be at least 6 letters. So, sandy@gmail.com (the coolest possible e-mail address is out). However, stesch (at) gmail.com is in. So that's me--my 6th and most recent e-mail address.

Sidenote: do I really have 6 e-mail addresses? Let's count: (1) Hotmail account, (2) Red Cross account #1, (3) Red Cross account #2, (4) Yahoo account, (5) Berkeley account...and now (6) GMail account. Wow, I was right. Not sure if that's good or bad.

Now time for the weekend update. Not with Tina Fey, though. With Sandy Tesch. I went home on Friday, somewhat against my better judgment because of the abundance of TV at my house. Oh, TV. My weakness. And it wasn't even Law & Order. I did, however, catch up on The Real World and The Osbournes--a form of homework in itself, really.

Anyway, my weekend was fairly uneventful. On Saturday Ryan and I ran errands (Guad, Target, Ben Franklin) and then we played whiffle ball and Foxtail (is that the proper name of the game?) in the park until dusk. 'Twas fun. Then I attempted to do homework. I ended up completing about a third of a study guide for Chapter 14 for Developmental Psych and very little of either of my papers.

This morning I got up at 8:00 AM to have breakfast with my mom. It was kind of disjointed from there. We went to the dollar store (a form of heaven on Earth--I got 12 Pocket PC sheet protectors for $1!) and then to Walgreens and then to the liquor store and then to Longs. And somehow through all of that I forgot to look for a hair clippy at Walgreens and pick up the weekly ads at Longs. Oops.

Then I wrapped Lani's shower gifts and tried to get a haircut at Great Clips but was foiled by the 30 minute wait. Then we were off to Dixon to pick up a giant cake and meet Paula for Lani's bridal shower. All in all, it was a nice event. Lots of nice, practical gifts.

It was fun seeing Paula. She and I are going to be traveling the East Coast from June 1-13 hopefully, if the finances work out. I have to get down to it and book my flight. I've been meaning to do that for a while.

We had dinner at the Cattlemen's...a steak house dinner is always nice because I would never go to steak houses ever if it wasn't for TT. No funds, baby.

Then it was back home to talk baseball and life with my grandpa and then back here to Berkeley. Where I realized I still had to put up the "no parking" signs for Unit 3. It was a nice jaunt down there, though, so no harm done.

Another week...another week closer to the end of school! Good because it's going to be summer soon. Bad because there are many hurdles in the forms of papers and exams to get over. Oh boy! Let the stress that is late April and May begin. Maybe next week.

Blah, again.

I am so boring! I have nothing new to post. Not really.

Day recap: woke up late, showered, researched grad schools, ate breakfast, researched more grad schools, skimmed The Heart is Unknown Country, went to class, went to work, had lunch at Zachary's, stopped by Unit 3, went to class, went to the Red Cross meeting, had dinner with Shonte. It's all been good and fairly stress-free.

Tomorrow I am hosting a high school student who will sleep on my floor (female, I assume). I just realized that in the last e-mail I sent the program coordinator I implied that the student might be male. They probably think I am crazy.

At the Red Cross meeting we decided to do a measles day on Wednesday, April 28. We will all be wearing white t-shirts with red spots--each spot can be purchased for $1, symbolizing the vaccination of 1 child in Africa. It should be a nice final measles touch for the end of the semester.

And with that, I conclude. I must study. I must.

Blah.

I don't have any cute anecdotes for today. It was all pretty blah. Woke up, showered, had breakfast, met Kathy to give her her letter of recommendation, signed up for classes, went to class, visited the blood drive, went to class late, hung out at the blood drive, went to yoga, had dinner. Same ol', same ol'. Only two more weeks of yoga and 3 or 4 weeks of class. Is that good or bad? I haven't decided.

My schedule for next semester may take two forms: (1) Psych 150, Psych 192 (seminar on psychology in the real world), IDS 130, English R1B [all hinges on whether or not I get into the seminar]; (2) Psych 150, Psych 119, IDS 130, Comp Lit R1B. I also signed up for intermediate yoga which should be interesting. I hope attendance isn't too strict because at 9 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays it will be my earliest class.

To steal an anecdote from yesterday, I now have three Mother's Day cards to send out. I went into Long's to get a wedding card and I came out with three Mother's Day cards. That's how they getcha. The wedding cards are pretty slim pickins, if you're not a flowers and lace sort of card shopper. Which I'm not.

I am currently wondering if I should do an honors thesis next year. I will have to do a lot of talking to professors and GSIs to see if it's right for me. What do I want to do with the rest of my life, anyway? Please tell me.

P.S. Want to play a scary game? Of course you do.

P.P.S. Proof that I am not alone in my crossword puzzle addiction. Thanks, Mom!

Elmo got new shoes!

Done. Done. Done.

The day is finally over. In review: I woke up at 7:30 this morning, an hour later than planned. Showered, checked e-mail, ate breakfast, the usual. Could not concentrate on Developmental Psychology for the life of me, resulting in getting a 0 out of 2 on my 11 AM quiz. Yuck. Plus, my GSI let us out 3 minutes late, making me 5 minutes late to English. Double yuck. I've decided that anyone who teaches in Tolman should be required to let students out 3-5 minutes early so they have adequate time to hike back to central campus for their next class.

Speaking of classes, my TeleBears is on Monday. So far I think I am taking Psych 150 (Personality Psych with Prof. Oliver John), Psych 119 (Drugs and the Brain with Prof. David Presti), English or Comparative Literature R1B (finally), and Interdepartmental Studies 130. I am also considering African American Studies 112 and Psychology 192 if they fit. We'll see. I keep going through this debate about whether or not to take Psych 101 this summer. My brain says yes because I hate math and I need to dedicate my time to just math, once class at a time, since I hate it so much.

So, back to my day. We had a very personable director named Greg Pak speak to my English class. I feel like he's going to be big one day because he just had that director kind of a voice. I could totally imagine his voice on a director commentary version of a film. Anyway, he showed clips from his films and talked about how he uses mostly minority and mixed race actors. His new film, Robot Stories, comes out this weekend. I don't think I would have any desire to see it had he not spoken to my class because it's science fiction. However, I am considering seeing it just because he seems like such a nice guy. And the clip he showed was pretty good.

Then I checked in with the blood drive. Luckily, Ariel is back in action so he was handling the recruitment and making sure the staff kept going in order to help us make goal. There have been too many blood drives in the past few days so I am pretty burned out. He said I was a "sight for sore eyes" so I'm glad I could be of some use.

Developmental Psychology lecture was interesting enough--attachment blah blah blah. My favorite time for crossword puzzles.

Then I had two and a half hours to kill. This was entirely new to me. I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I bought some Pop Tarts (my new favorite food) and then went to Gypsy's and had chicken and broccoli (my usual). I read SF Weekly and the Daily Cal and then went to pick up my paycheck from Residential and Family Living. Oh, how I love depositing paychecks in the ATM. There is a certain happiness you get when the screen comes up and you choose "Deposit" on the left rather than "Withdrawal" on the right. O happy day.

Next, on to West Berkeley! I spent a chilly hour or so outside of Peet's Coffee & Tea on Fourth Street doing a crossword puzzle, drinking a swirl Freddo, and giving my input to the Santa Clara measles youth group via conference call. My fingers were frozen by the time I started walking to the Public Health Clinic.

HIV testing tonight was very relaxed. I had low risk people and I met the most health conscious gay man ever. It was quite the change from last week. I left at 7:30 and now I'm here. Avoiding tomorrow.

Another long day tomorrow...starting with the Alameda County Leadership Council meeting in the morning, then meeting with Dr. Lee Goldstein, a Board of Governors member, then off to class, and then to work. And then to Consultation Hours and then to the Panhellenic meeting to talk about the blood drive. And then I think we're watching Kill Bill, if I'm still awake.

Back to Lee Goldstein...I am nervous! I want to make sure I have relevant, interesting questions to ask him about the Red Cross. I think open-ended questions will work well. I am particularly interested in what's going on Biomedical Headquarters and also what projects he's worked on as a governor. I hope he has some good advice for how I can best advocate for youth involvement and the Measles Initiative on a national level. He seems like a nice guy.

Now, totally random: let's sort out my plans for the weekend. There are so many things going on now that it's April. I would like to (1) Go to "The Sex Files: Reloaded," the play being put on by the multicultural AIDS program, (2) Have a successful Red Cross table at Cal Day, (3) Attend the Berkeley Bay Festival and possibly ride in a sailboat, and (4) See Robot Stories and possibly see Greg Pak speak again. I think we're also supposed to see Kill Bill part 2. You can tell that's really high on my list. Homework and studying didn't exactly make it on there either.

P.S. Happy Anniversary to me and Ryan--three and a half years! Imagine that.

Where did the Night Go?

I have no idea what happened between 10:00 last night and 6:30 this morning. No idea. It's like sleep causes an overwhelming drunkenness in me and I must deal with the consequences the next morning. Oy.

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Spring Break was really hard. In some ways harder than school, just different responsibilities. I was extremely sick for the first several days--I had the cold from hell--and I basically worked and went to a training for the entire thing. I was supposed to do something fun on the last Saturday and Sunday of break but I ended up sitting around. Law & Order is the downfall of me. Law & Order and sleep.

The week back at school after Spring Break was really hard. And last week, although 1 week removed from Spring Break, was still hard. The responsibilities just pile up all the way until Friday when I freak out and then do no form of work for the entire weekend. Last week I had an excuse, though. The blood drive.

So we go into this blood drive (with a goal of 80 units, mind you) with 63 appointments. For a goal of 80. Most of those appointments came from my annoying e-mails. I went home thinking we had gotten maybe, maybe 50 units. Luckily I got a call from Ariel in a few hours (as we were on our way to Red Bluff) saying we had actually done 75! I guess wearing a pathetic, furry blood drop costume for 2 hours really works.

Sidenote: Red Bluff was pretty fun. The town itself leaves something to be desired but it was nice to see my mom/aunt/sister and get away from Berkeley. We went out to eat a lot, we swam, we dyed Easter eggs, and Easter brunch was tasty. We also did my taxes! It was great!

So yesterday was a similar continuation of that but I wasn't present for most of it. Mondays are my hardest class days so I could only be there from 9:45-10:00 AM and 1:00-2:00 PM. But I was in full recruiter mode when I was there and the latest estimate is 72 units for a goal of 80.

There were some definite moments of hilarity and strangeness yesterday. Most of them involved a furry blood drop costume. The first was when the fraternity member, Brian, was thrilled to be able to dress up as a blood drop. He shimmied right into that costume and started yelling out all sorts of things: "If you mention you heard it here, they'll give you a free syringe!" and "I bet you're my type...my blood type!" were just two of his witty gems. I could not watch him without breaking into laughter. The fact that his shorts were slightly shorter than the costume also added fun to the picture--a furry blood drop with hairy, naked legs sticking out of it.

The second moment came when I had to transport the costume home and getting off the bus I whacked a tiny little blonde girl in the head. Whoops. It's hard to get around with that thing.

So that is pretty much the extent of the entertaining part of my day. It was crazy and I'm glad it's over. Today should be slightly better...and I mean slightly better because I was woken up at 6:30 AM by Ariel who reminded me I had to put up the no parking signs in front of Soda Hall. With a 7 AM trip to Soda (which requires a 20 minute hike), could the day get any worse? Let's just see about that.