From Oxbow to Hell

It has been one interesting weekend. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I started the day off early at Old Navy for $1 flip-flops. Then after eating breakfast and getting ready for the [rest of the] day, I heading to Oxbow Park for their annual spring festival. It was so much fun to see all the animals, and it was free! There were wolves, coyotes, raptors, a cougar, a bobcat, turkeys, goats, river otters, and more. I even timed it out to see the female black bear get fed aka rummage around her enclosure searching for fruits and veggies. It was a great way to spend the day.

Today, on the other hand, has been the exact opposite. I'm used to Sundays not being the best day of the week, but today was extremely bad. Most of you know that my mom has mood issues. I don't know what was going on today, but it was one of the worst mental breakdowns in awhile. She seemed to be fine this morning, but early afternoon all hell broke lose when she was mowing the enclosed backyard. On Sundays, I pick up all the dog poop and bring the push mower down. My mom mows the lawn, and I haul the mower back up to the shed. Today, she wasn't even half-way done and the mower ran out of gas. According to my mom, my dad started laughing at her cuz she ran out of gas, so my mom threw a fit and was pissed off for the rest of the day. When in reality, he offered to go get gas, but she told him not to cuz she was done. So he didn't get gas, and I put the mower away. Since then, my mom has been yelling at everyone and complaining about no one ever helping her and just laughing at her and blah blah blah. I just want to scream at her to shut up, but it never does any good. She doesn't listen. She claims that she isn't complaining and that she is happy. If her yelling is her being happy, I don't have a clue what she is like when she's actually mad. Oh wait, she's never mad; she's always happy (according to her). I hate it so much! I went to college in the cities to get away from this, and I purposely worked over-time at the clinic to get away from this. Now that I have no school and no job, I am stuck in hell. Today was like high school all over again, except that I don't have a friend's house to run away to. And it was too dang hot and humid outside to take a walk or bike ride. I would have passed out 5 minutes into it. So hopefully today was a one-time thing. Maybe it will be all out of her system come tomorrow. Otherwise I am going to go crazy.

Stand Still Parade

Every year for awhile now, my sister and brother-in-law have gone to the stand still parade with his parents. This year, my mom and I decided to join them. It sounds kinda confusing, a stand still parade. Basically, it's a parade that stands still in the road while the people walk by instead of the usual concept of a parade. Like all parades, it started with flags and ended with a police car. There were old cars, the parade grand marshal, people singing, people dancing, etc. There were even people handing out candy, pencils and sidewalk chalk! However, instead of them throwing it to you, you had to walk up to them and get it. Again, kinda weird. The best part of the parade was seeing Chester Cheetos and getting a free bag of cheetos. In addition to the parade, there was a craft show, an entertainment stage, and food. The lefse was amazing and made right in front of you. There were also hot dogs and brats. If you ever get a chance to experience a stand still parade, it's worth checking out.

Bo

Today was a great way to start summer vacation. It all started by me bringing Taffy to the doggie spa. She was much overdue for a haircut. I just didn't have time to do it on my own or the money to bring her in until now, when school got out. So she now has her summer cut again. They even put little yellow and purple bows in the hair above her ears! She looks adorable! And she's very happy to have less fur. She prolly lost a couple pounds too. I'll have to weigh her tomorrow and see. While Taffy was at the spa, I met a friend at the movie theatres to see Date Night. It was hilarious! Then we went out for ice cream at DQ, and before I knew it, it was time to pick up Taffy from the spa. After bringing her home, I went to visit my isu buddy who is FINALLY home from school! And not just for summer, but for good! It was so great to see her today. And she got a little puppy, Bo. She is a teddy bear aka bichon/shih tzu cross. She is soo cute and playful. It was so much fun to play with a puppy, and of course see my friend too. It was a great start to summer :)

Summer Time!

After a busy week of finals, I am now officially on summer vacation! :D Surprisingly, it's been a pretty unstressful week. I had my last regular bio test on Tuesday, and I only got 4 wrong! It was my lowest test grade so far, so no matter what the final went today, I will still have an A in the class. Afterwards, I had my last speech class. As you read before, I finished all my speeches last Thursday, other than my acceptance speech. so on Tuesday, I was given my award. I received the Star Student Award from Stanford University. For those of you that don't know, the award are made up but based on real information. Anyways, I got a pretty certificate. It was a lot of fun.

On Wednesday, I had my usual 8am class and my bio lab. I could have skipped my 8am class if I wanted to because it didn't even last for 30 mins! The other half of the class was supposed to be giving their presentations about their projects over the summer. 3 or 4 people never showed up, so we got done early. Sucks to be them! My bio lab was spent outside touring the gardens at our historical society. I've been to the historical society plenty of times before, but it was still exciting to see the gardens and everything. The best part of the day was that night. It was my uncle's birthday on Monday, but we celebrated last night at Bakers Square for Pie Rush Wednesday. I love free pie! The flavor of the month is hawaiian strawberry, and it was amazing! Strawberries, pineapple, coconut, and walnuts. It was really really yummy, and it was free! Can't get much better than that.

And that leads us to today, my last day of school for the semester. Even though our lowest test grade gets dropped and I have an A in the class, I decided to still go to my bio class and take the final. I feel pretty good about it. There's only a couple questions that I was unsure about, but I'm sure that I did well on it. We shall see tomorrow when grades get posted. After bio, I went to speech just to say goodbye to everyone. Again, I didn't have to go to class if I didn't want to. There were a couple make-up speeches, and we had to fill out class evaluations. Otherwise, it was just a last chance to see everyone and say goodbye. It was a great class, and definitely my favorite this semester. The teacher was awesome, as were my classmates. It was a great group of people. I'm going to miss everyone. It's a good thing I found a lot of them on facebook so we can keep in touch. After class, I went to get my haircut. So my hair shrunk, and its perfect for summer. Then, like every other Thursday, I got to hang out with the little people this afternoon. Since it was raining outside, we had to keep them inside today. We went over map reading today. We came up with a list of places to find on the maps. The kids had fun with it, especially when trying to find their houses and the school. Now it's time to relax after a busy week and a long semester. Happy summer! :)

Mexican Walking Sticks and Poker

It has been a pretty interesting week starting with Cinco de Mayo on Wednesday. I might not be Mexican, but I still like to celebrate the holiday. This year, I went to a celebration downtown with Mexican food, music, and drinks. It was a lot of fun! For only $5, I got 2 soft shell tacos, refried beans, rice, and chips/salsa. Margaritas were only $4, and you can't pass that up on Cinco de Mayo. The music was fun to listen too, and the town's salsa dancing group put on a show as well. It was a little windy, but still lots of fun. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday!

Yesterday (Thursday) was a pretty exciting day as well. First of all, I did my last speeches for the semester! The last unit we did (and are still doing) was celebration speeches. I wrote a tribute, a toast, and gave an award to people in my class. It went very well, and now I'm free! After school, I went to hang out with the little kids, just like every other Thursday since mid-March. This week, we had the kids make their own walking sticks. After finding big sticks for everyone, each kid used a pair of surgical scissors or a sharp rock to scrape off all the bark. We then handed out sand paper to smooth down any rough spots or knots in the sticks. Next week we are going to stain them so each kid will have his/her own walking stick. It got tiring after awhile, but they all had a lot of fun it.

Today I ended up back at school. Normally I am not there on Fridays since I don't have class. However, today there was a poker walk. There were 5 stations set up around campus. At each station, you pick up a card. At the last station, you turn in your 5 cards. The best poker hand wins. The first station was on 4th floor, the last station was on 1st floor, and the others were in between. It involved lots of stairs, so it was good exercise. Which is exactly what I needed because there were ice cream cones available at the last station. I think I worked off the ice cream. Also, you got a free thing at each station. There were sunflower seeds, a can coolie, a squishy stress ball, and a keychain in addition to the ice cream. I didn't win, but I took second place with 2 pair (queens and nines). The winner had a 3 pair of queens. You might be wondering, how is that possible? There aren't 5 queens in one deck. But there were 10 different decks being used, so it technically would have been possible for someone to have a 5 pair. Anyways, it was great exercise and a fun activity to take part in. Now it's time to rest after all those stairs!

Interview!

After applying to about 10 different internships over the past 6 weeks, I finally got an interview! Well, sure I had an interview at Quarry Hill over Spring Break, but they didn't want me. And I haven't had any other options since! Finally, today that all changed. The most recent ap I turned in was to the National Trout Learning Center. And a guy from there called me yesterday to set up an interview for today! And I think it went well. They are hoping to make a decision on Friday, if not for sure by Monday. So, if they want me, I'll get paid to go fishing and teach other people how to fish all summer. Keep your finger's crossed for me!

Walking for the Cure

It has been one busy weekend! Yesterday was the kick-off for garage sale season. Every year, we have gone to the city-wide garage sales in Chatfield. This year wasn't as successful as previous years, but it was still a great one. My prize possession for the day was the most expensive thing I bought, but at an AMAZING deal! It is a German nativity of 3-tiers and candles around the edge that when lit cause the tiers and wings on top to turn. When I traveled to Germany in Mar 2007, I wanted to bring one of these home with me soooo badly! But they were insanely expensive, as in about $150 or more. I bought this one for $7.50! And I probably could have bargained it down to $5 but I was too excited to think about anything other than buying it. So there may have been less sales, but my German nativity was enough to make me happy :)

Today I took part in an MS Walk. A really close family friend, that is like my second mom, has MS, so I joined her team for the walk. I walked 5 miles for the walk and raised over $200 for research. I was surprised by how many people there were to walk. It was a great turn out! And there was free food! During registration, there were free bagels from Panera and orange juice from Kwik Trip. Half-way through the walk, there was a drink station with water and snacks (oranges, bananas, pretzels, peanuts, etc). And at the end of the walk, there were sandwiches, cookies, and more water for everyone. It was fun, a great cause, and good exercise. I'll definitely be helping out again next year. I'm even thinking about making t-shirts for the team next year too. Now it's time to relax after the long weekend.