I'm still here!!! (physically)

Mentally... we'll just have to see. :) It's hard for me to describe my emotions... yesterday I felt: happy, frustrated, nervous, excited, angry, confused, and exhausted. PMSing probably doesn't help days like that. Let's see... I was trying to sort out when I would do everything the next 2 weeks.
I need to make plane reservations, make a hair appointment, make a doctor's appointment, make a dentist appointment, make hotel reservations....
I need to write 3 papers, study for 3 finals, do 2 homework assignments, study for 2 quizzes...
I need to find time to work while running my now approved thesis project this week...

You know, the everyday stuff like that! So as I'm planning, and my planner is overflowing, one of my teachers mentions that the newly posted HW5 (which is due the day of our final) has a rough draft due Monday. And if we don't turn in a rough draft we will get a 0 on the assignment. My mind started racing... draft?... Apparently for HW5 we must read one of the 4 articles posted, find a 'companion' article, and write a short paper summarized the two. The summary can't be longer than 3 pages, and he gave a page listing what needs to be discussed. Awesome. In addition, he posted a 14 page paper that we had to read for recitation today. So make the 4 papers to do...

In addition, yesterday I went to meet with my advisor to discuss getting started on my project today. He wasn't there when we had planned (1:30), so I met him after my class and his meeting was over (5:15)... I was there until 6:45. Not horrible. BUT, I was planning on doing laundry after that class.

Now I'm looking at my schedule again... when can I fit laundry in?? Uh oh... looks like I may have to go tomorrow (even though I still don't know when I'll make it home!) Am I crazy???

I'm sure you don't care about any of that. But it gives you a taste of how much is going through my head.

In other news, I've now scheduled 6 interviews! I will miss 6 full days of class next quarter. (and 8 if UC contacts me). I got my first rejection letter in the mail today. But I already knew Michigan hadn't accepted me. That's ok. I still have 6 great schools that I'm going to interview at. I am really excited to meet all these new people and hear about their programs.

It's been a while since I last updated. For Valentine's Day Dave and I opened up the Vidal Blanc Ice Wine (that I bought him 2 years ago). It was REALLY sweet! Then on Friday we went to Cameron's. The food was AMAZING again. But what really won me over this time was the wine and dessert. I think I liked Dave's glass of wine better. Both were medium-dry white's, but I liked the flavor of his slightly better. For dessert I got their house special... it's a cheesecake with a creme-brule topping, and surrounded by a light lemon sauce with raspberries and kiwi sauce. YUM! Dave's dessert was really good too, his was like a giant Reese's cup. Dark chocolate covered peanut butter moose, with whipped cream on top of course! The desserts were quite large for being fairly cheap! Makes me want to go back just for dessert.

Last weekend was a blast! I really wish I had taken some pictures, maybe some people at work have some that I can share. We had a work dinner party at one of the genetic counselor's gorgeous houses. They do this every year, and call it "Iron Chef". There were 13 plates of food. 3 appetizers, 6 entrees, and 4 desserts. Most people worked in pairs (with either a significant other or friend). Dave and I went last and made mini black bottom cupcakes with a homemade raspberry sauce and whipped cream with a mint leaf! Everyone had to use 1 of the 2 ingredients previously selected -squash and/or cream cheese. Oh, and we had to pair it with a drink! Dave and I made a "Smoothie" -we used vanilla frozen yogurt, 2% milk, and a little creme de cacao and a little raspberry vodka, they were mostly melted by the time we served... but DELICIOUS! Most of the food was cooked most of the way beforehand and either finished, heated, or just plated at the hostess' house. It was so much fun. Everyone was helping each other plate the food, and we had a blast! Have I ever said how much I love my co-workers? Oh!! And Rob and Chet made the first dish ever that I could eat multiple mushrooms in! -I made sure to thank them and let them know. :)

The Good DOES Outweigh the Bad

Quick entry for today... It rocked!! I got 2 interview offers! (IUPUI and Wisconsin!) YAY!!!

I'm so thrilled to have 4 interviews. But now I'm realizing a cost I had not planned for... traveling, and LOTS of it. SO... if you know ways to get REALLY cheap flights (Philadelphia and Wisconin-Madison) , please let me know. The best deals I've seen for flights to both are ~$120.) Hopefully I will find places to stay for a couple of them... So the cost is bad, but I couldn't be happier!

:)

Random thoughts/ events from the past week

Ok, so just a fair warning... I'm having a stream of consciousness type of day. A lot of random things happened this week, so this post will be about well... a lot of different things.

-Ok, so every year OSU does lots of "free" student events. They use our student activity fee and put on some pretty awesome shows. My favorite has been their comedy shows. I've seen Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Jon Stewart over the past few years. Well, Wednesday was another free show. They gave away tons of tickets, and Dave and I got to see part of the "Funny or Die" tour given by Will Ferrell. It was hilarious! For more information on the tour you should look at the website www.funnyordie.com. This had to be one of the best free performances I've had. There were 4 comedians we got to see... Will Ferrell, Nick Swardson, Demetri Martin, and Zach Galifianakis. They've all been on comedy central/ in movies. And they were definitely prepared to do a show at OSU. I love nothing more than them completely connecting with their audience. Will Ferrell came out wearing a Michigan sweater... which he proceeded to take off (and had an OSU shirt underneath) and stomped on the Michigan sweater. So great. And in addition, our new University President, Gordan Gee even got on stage with him for a section of the show. It was hilarious. President Gee is truely a great person for OSU, he really reaches out and connects with us students. And I really enjoy seeing how much of an effort he makes to let us know that he thinks we have a great university. Truly it was just a wonderful event. Apparently there were 15,000 people there. Being the 3rd stop on the tour, we were their biggest audience yet, and they seemed to really have fun doing comedy. Dave and I had a great night.

-Friday at work I was talking with the girls, and was happy to hear Thursday night that the other 2 got interview offers for grad school. Now all 4 of us have interview offers, and I'm really glad that it has worked out that way. We work very well together... I think we sometimes make each other more nervous than we need or should, but I truly feel we want the best for all of us and seem to help each other out. We are arranging a day for all of us to meet with the counselors to find out what we should do to prepare. We discuss our thoughts on what we've been doing. It's great, we're not trying to sabotage each other, or keeping to ourselves. And I'm so glad we can work well together as we go through this crazy process!!

-Saturday I got to see my parents. Unfortunately Colin got sick so I didn't get to go see him, Kate and Greg. But it was nice to talk to my parents. Then later that night a bunch of us went over to Amy's to play some games/ hang out/ eat good food. As always we had a blast!

-Today I need to do work... but I really don't want to... No tests this week! (yay!) I still have lots to do, it seems like the work never ends!!!

-That's all I can think of now... Hope you enjoyed my random post!

Worthwhile

Whew... look at the date... FEBRUARY. That means all my applications have been submitted! So I'm back to blogging. There is so much to say, I'm not quite sure where to begin.

Winter break....

This year winter break was different than the past few years. The first week after finals I worked "full time" for a week. Then on Friday night Dave and I babysat Colin so Kate and Greg could go out with another couple. He was so good for us, and as we were getting him ready for bed he went and cuddled with Dave (it was SO cute).

I spent a few days working on applications and then left with my parents to go visit my sister in Philadelphia for a week. I experienced some loving comments from my 4-year old nephew who told me "I don't like you because I don't remember who you are", and proceeded to call me Aunt Kate (my other sister). But who can blame him? I hadn't seen him since Father's Day, and I'm not exactly great at writing. I still enjoyed seeing him though. And then Lily just melted my heart. She always wanted me to 'read' books to her, would hold my fingers and walk, and just smiled all the time!

We were still in Philadelphia for Christmas, and it was the first Christmas in 2 years that I had spent with my parents, and also without Dave. It was so weird not having Dave there. Actually, it almost didn't feel like Christmas because he wasn't with me. Anyhow, it was fun watching Andrew open his presents. He was SO excited. I absolutely love being an aunt, but it struck me how little time I get to spend now just with my sister. Things are so different than when they were in college. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just an adjustment.

Right before we left Philly, I showed Andrew how to take pictures of himself with my camera. I think he really enjoyed it... and he wants me to send him some of the pictures (So I need to go buy some photo-paper!). Below are a couple of the resulting photos...

The day after Christmas we left to go to Columbus for Colin's 3rd birthday! Kate's in-laws were there and Colin was in Heaven. After a nice party, I went to my place to get some things done (paying rent and bills and checking on applications). Then I drove my car back to Cincinnati. Cincinnati was a lot of fun. I got to meet up with my high school friends quite a bit. We had fun talking about our experiences over the past year.

(the 5 of us that had our grad party together 4.5 years ago!)

Kate and Colin came down for a few days and that gave me the chance to get Colin his present: a Build-A-Bear. He had so much fun filling the bear, and pressing the buttons. I think that 4 might be the perfect age to do this though... because Andrew enjoyed picking out a football outfit for his bear last year and wasn't really enthusiastic about the rest, and Colin enjoyed everything except picking out an outfit. Hmmm... maybe one more year and he would have enjoyed both! I'll have to decide what to do for Lily... That same day my mom and I went shopping and I got my suit for interviewing! I LOVE it!


Oh, and when Colin was visiting they told me he said something about "Uncle Dave and that other girl". And Colin is the nephew that usually greats me by yelling "Auntie A!! Auntie A!!"

Anyhow... I came back to Columbus the day before New Years Eve and cleaned my apartment for a 'party' at my place! There ended up being 8 of us, and we had a great evening full of ordering pizza, snacking on Leah's amazing onion-dip, playing games, watching TV, and sipping on champaign. Such a great evening! So that was my Christmas break... Now for what I've been doing this quarter (I know, this is a VERY long entry).

(below) from Left to Right, Chris, Fred, Dave M., Leah, Amy

(Leah and I!)

This quarter is really weird. We started classes on a Thursday, and this 2-day week counted as week 1 out of 10 for the quarter. Now, autumn quarter we start on a wednesday, and that 3-day week does NOT count as week one. So basically... autumn quarter is near 11 weeks, and winter is near 9 weeks- both cover the same amount of material. I address this because of how much this quarter has caught me off-guard. This week was week #5. WHAT!?! The quarter is HALF over. Where did the time go? What about the papers that we have to do? And most importantly, why do teacher keep saying in lecture "And this will be an important theme for the class". So I'm not really sure what's happened in the past month, because I haven't even put up my new calendar in my room! But there have been a few things...

I drove to Pittsburgh for my long weekend in January. I visited Cecilia and got to meet a bunch of people from her program. I had a blast! I can truly see myself going there next year. The people were wonderful, and the program sounds great. What more can you ask for? Oh, and the drive wasn't bad at all.

Another happening in January- I scheduled for my spring quarter classes. My last time scheduling at OSU!! And my schedule looks amazing! I'm VERY excited.

And to catch you up completely... yesterday I submitted my final application. At work I was talking to Amanda, another girl that applied to the genetic counseling programs for next year. We were discussing when we might expect to hear about interview's and I mentioned that I think it might be really nerve racking when someone hears they get an interview and then rest of us sit around wondering if/when we'll get a call. About 3 minutes later... I got a phone call from Pittsburgh offering me an interview!! Of course, I was ecstatic!! (I still am!!) 3 hours after submitting my final application I get offered an interview from the place I submitted my first application! I debated for a moment saying anything to the girls... but I couldn't hold it in, and they said they couldn't blame me. The thing is, I know they will get calls too... and the whole process is just so exciting! YAY!!

So there it is... I'm back up to date... sorry about the long entry!!