First and foremost, my grandpa is still hanging in there and has made some improvements. It is nice to know that he is feeling a little bit better.
My first day of school was today. It was a lot of boring, get-to-know-you sort of things, but I did get my first pager! Yay! I'm sure after about a week I will want to throw the dang thing out the window and have it get run over, but for now I'm excited about it! I wanted a pager SO bad when they were cool back in like 6th grade, and now I finally have one. 12 years later and I'm finally a cool kid!...or probably not.
7.06.2009
6.30.2009
Vacation...?
It has been exactly 2 weeks since I took my test, and it has not exactly been the nice, relaxing 2 weeks I wanted. I start school on Monday, so I don't have much more time to get relaxation in and I'm busier than ever! It is NEVER going to end!
I tried to go to PA for a few days right after the test. About 30 hours after I got to the airport in Phoenix I made it to my destination. Not fun. One major migraine later and I only had a day and a half left there! My aunts made sure I had fun though, taking me and my grandma to the Peninsula to eat and on my last day going canoing in the lagoons! That was so fun. I braved my fish phobia to get in the boat, and as long as I didn't look too hard into the water (it was super murky) I had an AWESOME time and a great workout. If I lived there I seriously think I would go every day.
After I got back to Phoenix I immediately drove down to Tucson to see some friends from school and pack up the apartment. After talking to my friends, I am SO SO glad that I isolated myself for boards study. Apparently at least 10 people have postponed their test and are taking it this week...talk about last minute! These people had already been studying for at least 7 weeks when I took my test 2 weeks ago, and then they postponed it some more. Insane! It would have freaked me out had I known that, so I'm very glad I didn't. I really hope they end up doing ok!
Now I am officially moved into my apartment in Phoenix with D! I am THRILLED that we are living together again, it is like no time has passed since college. I have spent the past few days painting with my mom and sister and so far the place looks great. I am still unpacking (the moving truck dropped all my stuff off on Saturday), but to be fair I am just spending so much time painting there is very little time for boring boxes.
Lastly, please pray for my grandpa. He has had a fever for a few days (I guess it is a little better today though) and has stopped swallowing. He has also been talking to my grandma (who died about 8 months ago) almost every night. This might be the end of a very, very long period of poor health for him, so please keep him in your prayers.
I tried to go to PA for a few days right after the test. About 30 hours after I got to the airport in Phoenix I made it to my destination. Not fun. One major migraine later and I only had a day and a half left there! My aunts made sure I had fun though, taking me and my grandma to the Peninsula to eat and on my last day going canoing in the lagoons! That was so fun. I braved my fish phobia to get in the boat, and as long as I didn't look too hard into the water (it was super murky) I had an AWESOME time and a great workout. If I lived there I seriously think I would go every day.
After I got back to Phoenix I immediately drove down to Tucson to see some friends from school and pack up the apartment. After talking to my friends, I am SO SO glad that I isolated myself for boards study. Apparently at least 10 people have postponed their test and are taking it this week...talk about last minute! These people had already been studying for at least 7 weeks when I took my test 2 weeks ago, and then they postponed it some more. Insane! It would have freaked me out had I known that, so I'm very glad I didn't. I really hope they end up doing ok!
Now I am officially moved into my apartment in Phoenix with D! I am THRILLED that we are living together again, it is like no time has passed since college. I have spent the past few days painting with my mom and sister and so far the place looks great. I am still unpacking (the moving truck dropped all my stuff off on Saturday), but to be fair I am just spending so much time painting there is very little time for boring boxes.
Lastly, please pray for my grandpa. He has had a fever for a few days (I guess it is a little better today though) and has stopped swallowing. He has also been talking to my grandma (who died about 8 months ago) almost every night. This might be the end of a very, very long period of poor health for him, so please keep him in your prayers.
6.16.2009
Distracted
Tomorrow is the day. I am freaking out that I'm not really freaking out. I think I am just so ready to get it over with.
A kitten found its way into our garage and I found it on Saturday night (I heard it meowing for probably 10 minutes before I got up to go check it out...I thought it was the TV!). I have NEVER owned a cat before, and neither has anyone in our family, so we really had no idea what to do with it. I didn't know how long it had been in the garage, and didn't know if it was even old enough to have cat food, so I gave it a little bit of milk from a medicine dropper and called it a night. The little buddy stayed in a huge cardboard box with some rags. The next morning I got up SO early to check that it was still alive, and then decided to see if it wanted some tuna. It loved it. SUPER long, cute, detailed story short, we took him to the vet on Monday and he is about 6 weeks old, a boy (sadly, I honestly was not sure...his little balls have not dropped yetand he wouldn't let me get a really good look!), and healthy as can be. What a lucky guy! He is now living in our bathroom (the only room without a million nooks and crannies for him to hide in...we learned the hard way when he found his way UNDER our entertainment center and we had to move the whole thing to get him out) until we find him a new home. I would take Zyrtec every day if I could keep him, but it's just not too realistic.
Maybe this is why I'm not worried about the test...I'm too preoccupied with my cute kitty! Although when I think about it too hard I get kinda concerned that I have not studied even CLOSE to as much as I was supposed to these last 4 days. But, I keep taking practice questions online and I'm doing great, so I guess I'll just wing it?!? Man it will be SO SO nice to be done! Then I can play with the kitty all the time and not feel guilty :)
P.S. We named the cat Dr. David Suzuki (my sister is in biology right now and they have watched a TON of movies made by him...I actually remember watching the same movies!Anyways, she is obsessed with him.), but we call him Zuki or Zuk for short because Dr. David Suzuki is a mouthful for such a little guy.
A kitten found its way into our garage and I found it on Saturday night (I heard it meowing for probably 10 minutes before I got up to go check it out...I thought it was the TV!). I have NEVER owned a cat before, and neither has anyone in our family, so we really had no idea what to do with it. I didn't know how long it had been in the garage, and didn't know if it was even old enough to have cat food, so I gave it a little bit of milk from a medicine dropper and called it a night. The little buddy stayed in a huge cardboard box with some rags. The next morning I got up SO early to check that it was still alive, and then decided to see if it wanted some tuna. It loved it. SUPER long, cute, detailed story short, we took him to the vet on Monday and he is about 6 weeks old, a boy (sadly, I honestly was not sure...his little balls have not dropped yetand he wouldn't let me get a really good look!), and healthy as can be. What a lucky guy! He is now living in our bathroom (the only room without a million nooks and crannies for him to hide in...we learned the hard way when he found his way UNDER our entertainment center and we had to move the whole thing to get him out) until we find him a new home. I would take Zyrtec every day if I could keep him, but it's just not too realistic.
Maybe this is why I'm not worried about the test...I'm too preoccupied with my cute kitty! Although when I think about it too hard I get kinda concerned that I have not studied even CLOSE to as much as I was supposed to these last 4 days. But, I keep taking practice questions online and I'm doing great, so I guess I'll just wing it?!? Man it will be SO SO nice to be done! Then I can play with the kitty all the time and not feel guilty :)
P.S. We named the cat Dr. David Suzuki (my sister is in biology right now and they have watched a TON of movies made by him...I actually remember watching the same movies!Anyways, she is obsessed with him.), but we call him Zuki or Zuk for short because Dr. David Suzuki is a mouthful for such a little guy.
6.06.2009
Home stretch...
In exactly 11 days this whole thing will be over. I can't believe there actually IS an end...it feels like I've been doing this forever and will continue to do it forever. But no, in a week and a half, it will be over, for better or for worse, and then I get to wait 3-6 weeks to get my score.
It has been kind of up and down this week. Some days I felt like I had at least heard of the things I was studying and felt good about it and excited to learn, and sometimes I was so frustrated and confused and clueless that it sucked. On those days I usually took 2-3 20min naps right on my book in the library. I literally just passed out. I don't have many more days that that can happen though. I study new things Mon-Wed, have Thursday off, take a full length practice test on Friday, review EVERYTHING for 3 1/2 days straight, and take the test on Wednesday. I'm sure I'll be too keyed up and have too much to get through in those last few days to be able to sleep.
The problem with this test is that I have to study for so long before I take it. I do NOT remember things long term very well...3 days is fine, but weeks is a major problem. So at this point, I am forgetting a lot of the things that I already learned, and it is definately showing in my practice test scores. Hopefully I can get through everything in the 3 1/2 days I have to review, and hopefully I learned it well enough whenever I studied it this past month to have it come back pretty quick, but I'm concerned. Nothing I can really do but keep plugging along!
It has been kind of up and down this week. Some days I felt like I had at least heard of the things I was studying and felt good about it and excited to learn, and sometimes I was so frustrated and confused and clueless that it sucked. On those days I usually took 2-3 20min naps right on my book in the library. I literally just passed out. I don't have many more days that that can happen though. I study new things Mon-Wed, have Thursday off, take a full length practice test on Friday, review EVERYTHING for 3 1/2 days straight, and take the test on Wednesday. I'm sure I'll be too keyed up and have too much to get through in those last few days to be able to sleep.
The problem with this test is that I have to study for so long before I take it. I do NOT remember things long term very well...3 days is fine, but weeks is a major problem. So at this point, I am forgetting a lot of the things that I already learned, and it is definately showing in my practice test scores. Hopefully I can get through everything in the 3 1/2 days I have to review, and hopefully I learned it well enough whenever I studied it this past month to have it come back pretty quick, but I'm concerned. Nothing I can really do but keep plugging along!
5.31.2009
Walking Dead
I. Am. So. Over. It.
This past week was incredibly unproductive, and this next week does not look to be off to a good start. The fact that libraries are closed (or not open long enough) on Fridays and this last Monday (Memorial Day) really screws with me. Then tomorrow I need to pick up my mom from the airport, which cuts a good hour to hour and a half out of the day. Doesn't sound like much, but when you spend 12 hours a day studying, not to mention all those other things like eating and showering (and walking in the morning when I can get myself out of bed), a couple hours is HUGE. So my day will be shortened tomorrow, and I am already behind (for the first time) from last week. There is literally no time to catch up (again, see the length of my day).
To cap it all off, I did the worst that I have done so far on my practice tests this Saturday. I take 2 sets of questions that cover only the material I have done the past week, and then 1 set of questions that is cumulative over everything I have done. I did terrible on the 2 tests over the last week and pretty well on the cumulative. What does that mean? Basically, it means that I didn't study well at all this last week and that the weeks prior I learned it so well it's still with me (at least that's what I think it means). That is very frustrating. How much will one bad week affect my score? The education department at school says not to worry when you get behind (because you will) or when you progressively do worse on the practice exams (because you will), but I just can't help it. I had such good momentum and I've lost it and there's no time to get it back. I guess I'll just have to let it go. So frustrating. And I still have 2.5 weeks left. Ugh.
A positive note: my brother's baseball team blew EVERYONE out of the water by winning their conference (they were the bottom seed) and getting a bid to regionals (their first in 45 years and the only team this year to have a less than .500 record- they had lost more games during the season than they had won). They were the bottom seed in that regional as well. After an embarrassing loss the first night to the #1 seed (#2 in the country), they again defied the odds by beating the #2 and #3 seeds to earn a rematch with the #1 seed tonight. Currently they are getting embarrassed again, and they won't win, but they did SUCH a great job...so much better than anyone expected of them. My brother did amazing versus the #2 seed, and was doing great tonight against the #1 seed (until they left him in WAY longer than they normally do and it kind of went downhill...oops). I'm really proud of him and I hope this earns their team some respect.
That's all for tonight. Definately keep praying for me that I find my motivation again. These last two weeks are so crucial...ugh ugh ugh.
This past week was incredibly unproductive, and this next week does not look to be off to a good start. The fact that libraries are closed (or not open long enough) on Fridays and this last Monday (Memorial Day) really screws with me. Then tomorrow I need to pick up my mom from the airport, which cuts a good hour to hour and a half out of the day. Doesn't sound like much, but when you spend 12 hours a day studying, not to mention all those other things like eating and showering (and walking in the morning when I can get myself out of bed), a couple hours is HUGE. So my day will be shortened tomorrow, and I am already behind (for the first time) from last week. There is literally no time to catch up (again, see the length of my day).
To cap it all off, I did the worst that I have done so far on my practice tests this Saturday. I take 2 sets of questions that cover only the material I have done the past week, and then 1 set of questions that is cumulative over everything I have done. I did terrible on the 2 tests over the last week and pretty well on the cumulative. What does that mean? Basically, it means that I didn't study well at all this last week and that the weeks prior I learned it so well it's still with me (at least that's what I think it means). That is very frustrating. How much will one bad week affect my score? The education department at school says not to worry when you get behind (because you will) or when you progressively do worse on the practice exams (because you will), but I just can't help it. I had such good momentum and I've lost it and there's no time to get it back. I guess I'll just have to let it go. So frustrating. And I still have 2.5 weeks left. Ugh.
A positive note: my brother's baseball team blew EVERYONE out of the water by winning their conference (they were the bottom seed) and getting a bid to regionals (their first in 45 years and the only team this year to have a less than .500 record- they had lost more games during the season than they had won). They were the bottom seed in that regional as well. After an embarrassing loss the first night to the #1 seed (#2 in the country), they again defied the odds by beating the #2 and #3 seeds to earn a rematch with the #1 seed tonight. Currently they are getting embarrassed again, and they won't win, but they did SUCH a great job...so much better than anyone expected of them. My brother did amazing versus the #2 seed, and was doing great tonight against the #1 seed (until they left him in WAY longer than they normally do and it kind of went downhill...oops). I'm really proud of him and I hope this earns their team some respect.
That's all for tonight. Definately keep praying for me that I find my motivation again. These last two weeks are so crucial...ugh ugh ugh.
5.27.2009
Zoom!
This month has gone by SO quickly. 3 weeks from today I take the boards, and that is so soon. At the same time, I can't believe I've only been studying for 2 1/2 weeks, it feels like this is all I have ever done. I put in a lot of time to be SUPER organized before my studying started, and for me that has really paid off. It keeps me on track and actually makes the studying kind of enjoyable.
What I do NOT enjoy is people with poor library etiquette. Now, most of the time I study at a high school library that is also a branch of a public library. I understand that there will be high school kids in there a lot of the time, and that they can be very talkative and loud. I was willing to deal with that. What I wasn't prepared for was the teachers who don't realize that the library is not the cafeteria nor a classroom. Whisper! When did it become okay to have a full volume conversation in a library?? Maybe I have been in college campus libraries for too long, but if you uttered a peep on some floors of the Creighton or U of A library, you would get many stares of death. No such stares here (unless you count me staring at these noise-y's). I actually got up and left the library today because one teacher was being so loud. Unbelievable.
Anyways, I'm about half way through...pray that I can make it through!
What I do NOT enjoy is people with poor library etiquette. Now, most of the time I study at a high school library that is also a branch of a public library. I understand that there will be high school kids in there a lot of the time, and that they can be very talkative and loud. I was willing to deal with that. What I wasn't prepared for was the teachers who don't realize that the library is not the cafeteria nor a classroom. Whisper! When did it become okay to have a full volume conversation in a library?? Maybe I have been in college campus libraries for too long, but if you uttered a peep on some floors of the Creighton or U of A library, you would get many stares of death. No such stares here (unless you count me staring at these noise-y's). I actually got up and left the library today because one teacher was being so loud. Unbelievable.
Anyways, I'm about half way through...pray that I can make it through!
5.15.2009
Whoa.
Life is more than a little crazy right now. I have my days planned out by the hour (at times even by the minute) and it's exhausting but I feel oddly centered and calm about it. We'll see if that continues tomorrow after I take 1/2 of a mock test. It's the first one I'm scheduled to take, and it doesn't matter how well you think you know the stuff if you can't answer the questions they ask. Wish me luck!
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