AMAZING

My weekend in Chicago was amazing!! I haven't had so much fun packed into a small time period in a LONG time. I could write about everything... but unfortunately school is not over yet. I had a paper due today, and a presentation that I think went well today. I have a paper due Friday, and a paper and two finals on Monday... But I'm going to write a little about my amazing trip!!

I got to know some of the seniors that I never really knew the past 4 years, and boy do I wish I knew them better now! We had so much fun together. The first two nights almost all of the seniors on the trip went out together. My friend's sister has been living in Chicago for a little over a year now and she showed us some fun places to hang out. My favorite would have to be the last night we went out. We went to a blues club called Kingston Mines and had a great time! I met up with Andrew and Zach from high school along with two of Zach's college friends. Andrew actually got to play on stage with one of the singers! It was awesome. We had so much fun chatting and dancing. I usually don't like to dance, but this place was so much fun I loved dancing! I'm ready to go back. We stayed out WAY too late, but it was worth it.

The previous nights were fun as well. We went to a bowling alley called Lucky Strike, and to an OSU bar in Wrigleyville. My days were jam packed with fun things to do. We went to The Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium, and the Field Museum. We also managed to eat at some great places: The Grand Lux, Giordano's Pizza, and a couple other really good places. I also managed to get some card playing in... my favorite! Just an all around great trip! And what great people on the trip. I certainly hope to get together with them again this summer! (only a few days away...)

On a separate note... I may have another good job for the summer coming my way, my evolutionary psychology teacher is friends with someone at Children's and may be able to get me something for the summer! We'll have to see. Now to add some pictures and go study!-- ok so no pictures because there's an "error"

Ask and you shall recieve

Thank goodness! Bad news comes in 3's, but fortunately the third piece wasn't what I thought it would be... I had a 'fake' proposal due for my evolutionary psychology class that was supposed to be due Tuesday morning. I have to be at the airport tomorrow at 5am and won't get back until 9:30pm Monday! Yesterday I realized how grave the situation was and I e-mailed my teacher asking for an extension. I didn't think she would give it to me, but I figured it was worth a shot to sent the e-mail. This morning I got an e-mail saying it was fine, and she extended the deadline until noon next Friday for the entire class! YAY!! I have a power point and short paper both due next Wednesday so now I won't be as crunched for time.

Unfortunately I got two bad pieces of news yesterday regarding my trip this weekend. Apparently my friend Melissa got hurt and is on crutches, so she won't be able to meet up with me. I was also hoping to catch up with my aunt and uncle, and my parents said they were going to Chicago this weekend too. Unfortunately they decided to go on a trip out of the state and none of them will be there the entire four days I am there!! So that made me sad. I was hoping they could meet a couple of my friends, and I really wanted to see Chuck and Betty. I know I'll still have a great trip, it's just crazy that I won't see the people I planned on visiting!

Hopefully I'll take some pictures while I'm there, and maybe I'll post a couple. Now I should get some work done!

Pinch

Back to reality... it's NOT that easy. Oh don't worry, the experience is still there... and it's still paid. But it's not quite as simple as working there full time, or even part-time for that matter. Are you confused yet? Here's what happened TODAY.

I got the response back from the genetic counselor. She said she talked to the person incharge of funding for her project and told me they only have enough money to pay me to work 16 hours a week... for 8 weeks. She didn't say how much I was paid per hour, and I told her we could discuss pay when I meet with her Friday. I figure I'm probably going to take this opportunity regardless and maybe have to look for another part time job.

So I don't know what to do. Depending on another job I can find maybe I'll end up working 3 part time jobs or something... How do you find temp agencies? Can you work there part-time? I just don't know!! Man I wish this was easier.

Huh? Something must be wrong...

Ok, pinch me. It can't possibly be THIS easy to find paid GREAT experience. Someone needs to wake me up. So I asked Katye (the head of the test counselors) for ideas of jobs that would give me some type of paid experience that might possibly be related to genetics. She was wonderful and compiled a few resources. The second one I looked at was perfect, genetic counselors doing a study. I e-mailed the two genetic counselors in charge of the study I was interested in and they e-mailed me back today. One said that another counselor was in charge of the study and forwarded my e-mail to her.

She too e-mailed me today and let me know there was a job open to help with her study and that it was paid. She said it might be the standard university pay (which I think is around $7/ hour), but she would check to see if it's negotiable. The job would require a lot of data entry, which is not a problem for me. It's in adult cancer genetics, and they have 230 people in the study who they have collected medical information and family histories from. She said I would learn a lot from the data entry, and she would also arrange for me to have some patient observation and I would get to attend their weekly clinical meetings. How awesome is that?!

I e-mailed her back tonight letting her know I was VERY interested and that I was waiting to here back about if I can do this internship I was offered part-time. I also let her know that if she needs me full time I will take the job full time. But how great is that? I may get to have the internship part-time along with an awesome experience in genetic counseling. If she needs me full time I think my best move is to turn down the internship. I will make more money working for her full time (yes, anything more than $2/hr is better) and I think the experience will be better for me!

So how lucky am I? How does this happen? Less than a week ago I was turned down by 4 scholarships and crying about not having a good job for the summer. And now I get two good experiences in a row put in front of me! YAY!!! I am SO happy.

Mother's Day

First, I must say there is little coincidence between the fact that I was offered the honors summer internship on Mother's Day... and that my mother commented before to keep working hard. Yes, that's right... I was offered the honors summer internship. They claim to only take 10 people a summer... but the letter I received basically said there were so many equally qualified people they decided to take more this year, so they can only offer me $1,000. (instead of 2,500). Hmm.... but it's still exciting to be picked! Now back to my Mother's Day post...

It amazes me that my sisters are both mothers now. Not to mention that one has two children! I am in awe at how far they are in their lives, and how they handle having their own family. If there is anything stranger than knowing your siblings now have a family separate from your own, I don't know what it is! But they are wonderful. Growing up with sisters that were so much older I always claimed that they were like having extra mothers growing up. But I think I've always known we had a sister bond. Especially as I got older, they certainly were my siblings... after all mother's don't tease their children THAT much!!

I started thinking about what makes my mom stick out aside from her not teasing me like my sisters do... Growing up I was always her baby (and I know I always will be). It makes me glad to know I hold a special place in her heart. My mom repeatedly told me how much she loved me, and how beautiful I was. It amazes me that she said these things even as I was a teenager. And it makes me so happy that we have a great relationship now that I've grown up. (adolescence + menopause was an interesting time, but we pulled through) She has always encouraged me to keep giving my all, even when I have a set back. My mom always wants to help me out in every way she can. And even though she would give me hugs and kisses when I didn't want them growing up... I am so grateful that she did because it's part of my understanding that she will always love me no matter what! There are tons of other ways my mom has been wonderful... I can't possibly list them all. So thanks mom, for all you have done and all you continue to do. I am proud of who I have become, and I know I wouldn't be the same without you!

Rejection

Nothing stings quite like rejection... except 4 in less than a week. Nothing worse than KNOWING they just discarded the application that you put effort into. Nothing like knowing your heart is in it, but people not being able to see it. And there's nothing like hearing it repeatedly in a week. Ouch. I'm not keeping my hopes up for the Honors one this summer... I suppose I'll be looking for a job.

So I'm bummed, understandably. I really want a summer job with experience, but they don't pay and I need money. The one thing I refuse to do is what I did last summer. I really want my nights and weekends to be available! So I don't know what to do. Ask a couple of my "connections" people and then try and get creative. What am I supposed to do?

Moving Fast

Now the quarter has reached it's rush. 4 weeks of class and a day of finals left. SO much to do. It'll all get done... right?

Friday was midterm #2 for mol gen. I found out that the other professor for mol gen this quarter is giving his class 3 midterms!! But they get to drop their lowest test... that would be nice. I won't know for a week what my grade was on this second test, but I'm certainly glad I did so well on the first one. I can say good by the the A, I won't get a 95% in this class after that test! It was so LONG! 20 multiple choice and 20 short answer. The class only got 1hr18 minutes to take the test!! Yikes! There was a lot covered on this midterm too! I can't believe the final in this class in cumulative. I think I'll have about 200 flashcards or more to study for the final. I'm definitely not happy that I have two tests and my final proposal all due that Monday of finals week. But anyhow.. we'll have to see.

In other news, I didn't get the 2 Psychology scholarships... but that's ok. They each only took one, and it was pretty much based on how well it tied into either clinical or mental health psychology. Apparently 2 people had more related projects, which is great for them! It was worth the shot though.

Yesterday Dave and I went up to the Delaware State park and went fishing. We made a day of it. It was nice to get away and relax. Unfortunately it rained most of the early afternoon, but it cleared up by 3 and we ended up catching quite a bit. Apparently croppies are good to catch up there, we had a lot of luck at the final spot we went. I caught 6 croppie and Dave caught 4 croppie and a sunfish. Out of our 10 croppie all but 2 looked like keeps (9+ inches), and 2-3 of them were over 10 inches!! (note: the state record croppie is 13 inches). At the first place we stopped I had some luck, I caught 2 really small large mouth, and 1 small smallmouth bass. I also caught a sunfish there. We didn't keep any of what we caught, but it was a lot of fun!

Oh, tuesday I went home to have my tooth worked on. They did a build-up on the tooth that day. The tooth had previously had a filling and the doctor said that there wasn't much new decay, but my tooth is getting weak and this summer I'll need a crown. Now, before you think I don't take care of my teeth, I do. I go to the dentist every 6 months. I brush my teeth 2 times a day and floss fairly regularly. The enamel on my teeth just isn't very good, so I get lots of decay. BOOO. He showed me pictures of the tooth with the filling removed and explained the damage. I won't bore you with details, but apparerently there's a chance I'll have to have a root canal before the crown is put on. (you can guess how happy that makes me).

Now today I have to get most of my first draft to my proposal written. (oh boy...) It's hard to do when my advisor and I planned to create my situations for the survey this summer.... Oh well. I guess I just need to start finding and reading some more articles!