i'm almost there. . .

as i'm staring down the end of march and half-dreading the beginning of april, i'm starting to panic. maybe just a little. but i'm also hopeful that i'll be able to get everything done. this morning when i woke up, i had a brilliant idea pop into my head for my 20-page literature review for my foreign policy class. i'm pretty sure it'll work out great. i have to do a review of all of the stuff we've read for class during the semester. good times. the idea was so great that after taking what turned into a 90-minute spanish test, i still had enough brain power left to write down an entire paragraph outlining the structure of the paper. this is good. i can start on it now. or maybe later after i finish my spanish presentation for next monday and my lecture on russian youth movements on the 14th.

tomorrow i'll be finishing the writing on my master's essay/chapter. this is good. i found the exact references/citiations i was needing (thanks to the quick turnaround time on that book from the interlibrary loan. thank you rice university) so now i only have to write a summary of the model's predictions and how my case study fits the model. not so hard, i don't think. only time will tell.

see what i mean? i'm almost there.

in other unrelated news, i had a really great conversation with tucker about velcro. absolutely fascinating. but we're only just barely friends. our conflicting political views seem to cancel out all other aspects of the friendship and have turned him red in the face more than once. he almost physically removed me from his living room on my last visit. so yeah. velcro. that's safe.

i'm hoping

i just applied for another job. this makes #2 in the great job hunt of 2009. only i think that i actually have a chance with this one (as opposed to the last one where i don't stand a chance). i applied for a job as a seasonal teller at the vanderbilt-roosevelt national historical sites in hyde park, new york! i've decided that i really want this job for a number of reasons.

1. i've been wanting to go work in yellowstone again, but it's not really feasible. this is almost as good.
2. i've decided that getting a job that is definitely just for the summer is a good way to delay the inevitable, ie. deciding on/starting a career.
3. it is a job with the national park service under the department of the interior (government job!), and that could quite easily equate to a foot in the door.
4. aside from the fact that i have no education in fields related to the department of the interior, i think i could really really love working in that field. i love national parks!!
5. the thought of picking up and starting from scratch doesn't sound as daunting in a place like hyde park, ny as in the other places i've been thinking about.
6. the pay is pretty good, even though it's just seasonal.

the way i look at it, they'd be crazy not to pick me. i'm so incredibly qualified for this position. i'm really hoping to hear back soon on this one. fingers crossed!

i'm back!

here's the fun times i had in moab this year

attempting to unbalance the balanced rock

my view every morning while i cooked my oatmeal (that's the colorado river)

our little tent city. yes, those all belong to the group that i camped with.

a pic from canyonlands which would have been much better if it hadn't been overcast yesterday afternoon.

my best self-portrait in a while. this is at the island in the sky end of canyonlands.

it was a little chilly at nights, but when you've got a bit of a sunburn, you become your own radiant heat source. just had to throw that in.

i'm an aunt

and these are my adventures in niece-and-nephew-land.

this is makayla carrying ellie around the livingroom. they did this like 5 times in a row.

ellie trying to learn how to blow bubbles

a super cute pic of laura with kimberly

here we have marlee. she was totally diggin the swing.

i thought for sure one of these boys would end up with a broken head or worse. emery has his arms spread wide to catch evan as he jumped from the arm of the couch. they took turns doing this for 10 minutes or more. and luckily, there were no broken heads (or anything else) at the end of it.

i'm lazy

i just resorted to wikipedia (shudder!!) to find the answers for the exams that i'm grading. shhhh, don't tell anyone. and it's all because the prof for the course couldn't be bothered to give me an answer key. but don't you worry, she gave me all of her lecture notes, so i get to read those, in addition to the 64 exams sitting on my table right now. hurray! (blech)

i'm awesome

yes, i said it. i'm awesome. today, i changed my own flat tire in under 13 minutes. not that i was timing myself. i was on the way to ogden to babysit when i ran over (not on purpose) an unidentified road hazard. my brand new tire with less than 500 miles on it is now flat. i'll get it fixed tomorrow. so i called sarah at 330 to let them know i might be late, and i called again at 343 to see if eric had left to come rescue me yet because i was done already. that's 13 minutes.

also, my new mental floss t-shirt from my last post only cost $7. i preordered their new book (which sounds hilarious) and they sent me a coupon for a $5 shirt (+ $2 s&h). as much as i like their shirts, i'd never pay full price for them.

in other news, i've had a very successful sewing week.

• new fleece jacket (lime green with dark grey contrast)
• matching fleece hat
• new pillowcase for my new camping pillow. i even put some ties on it so that i can roll the pillow up to make it nice and compact for my backpacking trip on tuesday.
• i also converted a cardigan into a wrap shirt for a friend.

so yeah, i'm awesome.

i'm flattered, among other things. . .

and here's why. tonight after fhe, julia and i went over to alex and bob and jake and tucker's house (i need a shorter way to say that. any suggestions??) with our friend sarah. and a good time was had by all. but that's beside the point. we were all chatting and having a good time. somehow, this conversation took place.

Julia: Yeah, lizzie's totally hot.
Bob: I know.
J: did you just say "i know"?
B: yep.

aww, that's just nice. and flattering. i'm so sad that i missed it. so now i'm trying hard to not do the super girly thing and overanalyze those small 4 lines of communication. Here's why:
1. bob oftentimes says things to be funny. this is probably one of those times.
2. bob and i are going backpacking next tuesday with his sister (plans were made tonight) and i'd hate for me to be weird about it.
3. bob is less than a month older than my baby brother. i really try not to think about that. it's just too much for me.

on sunday, julia asked me why we are not dating alex and bob. you may ask yourself the same question after reading the past several posts. and the answer is "because it would be weird." not that i'm opposed to giving it a shot, because let's face it, who am i to be turning down dates. that's irrelevant, though. like it would ever come to that.

and one last thing i'm looking forward to. i have this shirt coming in the mail soon. i'm more excited about this shirt than i am about any other shirt that i've recently purchased. and that's no hyperbole.

i'm going

to moab for spring break. again. it's alex's fault. he whined and begged until i gave in. so there's this guy that organizes a giganto moab trip for spring break. we're talking 100 people or more show up to this thing. so the other night when my roommate was throwing her friend at alex, he and i were talking about this trip. he got really excited and really wanted to go because he loves biking and wants to do the slickrock trail, but not if he didn't know anyone else who was going. thus the begging began. my friend sheri was doing her fair share of begging too. i told alex this and he replied "i don't know this friend sheri, but your friend alex is also begging you." so i gave in. and now that i've made the decision, i'm quite excited about the prospect.

i'm also going backpacking with alex's roommate bob. i love bob. just like i love alex, but maybe more. bob is a cali boy who loves surfing and all things california. and he's hilarious. i went to his place of work yesterday to buy some fuel for my campstove and we got to talking about backpacking and how i never go because i don't have anyone to go with. at which point he gave me the incredulous, are-you-kidding-me look and gestured to himself. so we're going backpacking. who knows when, but he's also going to teach me his self-taught fly fishing skills, which i'm also very excited about.

i'm a night owl

i'm posting on my blog at 3 am, for heaven's sake! i just tried to go to bed, but i am wide awake. i'm sure that coke slurpee that i consumed after midnight isn't helping matters. my mind is just racing with ideas of what i want to say in my spanish presentation on april 6th and how i can rework the editorial that i'm writing for my foreign policy class. that's due on thursday, so i really need to think about that and get it done tomorrow. only 200 words left on that one, so that's no problem. i hate it when this happens. i'm ready for bed because the clock says i should be, but my brain is having nothing to do with it! it's unfortunate, really, that i don't have class at this hour because it would be ideal. i'm so on top of my game right this very second that it almost makes me sad that logic and prudence demand that i crawl into my slightly-less-than-warm bed post haste.

i'm annoyed, jealous, and possessive

so i have this friend named alex. and trust me when i say he's a friend and nothing more. he's julia's home teacher, and was my stand-in home teacher for a while. i don't know what it is about him, but it's like i only want him to be my friend and no one else's (except for julia). as such, i'm really choosy about who i would be okay with him dating. so with that in mind, i'm going to say this: i'm getting really sick of my roommate throwing all of these inappropriate (according to me) girls at him! julia feels the same way. me and julia, and only me and julia, should be allowed to decide which girls get thrown at alex. because he's our friend. and no one else's. or at least that's the way it should be.

i'm mad

better said, i'm angry. and no, i don't want to talk about it. GRRRRR!!!!! i'm trying to talk myself out of it, but it's not going well so far. i thought a good night's sleep would help, but i was mostly wrong. i'm still mad. talking about it makes it worse because i just get all fired up again. i only thought being nicole's TA would be okay. but i was wrong. i'll get over it. hopefully sooner rather than later. i have things to do.