sore and tired, but happy

it was a very tiring weekend. well, sort of. I decided that friday would be my weekend, so I slept in and then met up with some of the astronomy people at the vine for happy hour after I had slacked off at home for a while. then I went to the "open house" and looked at some stars for an hour or so.
saturday I went into the office and did homework for about six hours. I got so much done! go me! that night, adam and angel and I went to see garden state. it was sooo good. I am mad that I waited so long to see it. I'm dumb like that. I wanted to see it since it came out (well, actually since I saw the trailer many months ago), but like everything else, I procrastinated for a while. anyway, it was exactly what I needed: to get away from reality for a while and just not think about everything else that is going on. I am stressed out to the max with homework and projects and teaching and everything at school. I always have so much to do it is ridiculous. on an average day, I am at school for anywhere between 10 and 14 hours. that sucks. oh well. I guess it will all be worth it (plus, apparently next year will be a lot better).
sunday I slept in a bit longer than I wanted to and didn't really get much done before my soccer game. we had our first real game on sunday and even though it was at 4pm and therefore still really hot outside and none of the girls had any subs, we still won 3-1. brilliant! (our team's name is brilliant! - have you seen those new guinness commercials? yeah exactly). so that was cool. lots of fun, however I am crazy sore today and will probably be worse tomorrow.
today I got in early to turn in some homework and then did more work. ugh. the good news though: we had some homework that was going to be due on thursday, but it was moved to next tuesday. thank goodness; I will be able to sleep this week! when I got home, I made brownies. oh, they are soo yummy. they are the ones that have the dark chocolate syrup in them. oh, perfection.

right now, I'm listening to the garden state soundtrack. it is really good, just like the movie. there is this one song in particular that has been haunting me this weekend. every time I listen to it, it just breaks my heart. it is a beautiful song. (although you really need to hear to fully get it) here are the lyrics:

"I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" by Colin Hay
I drink good coffee every morning
Comes from a place that's far away
And when I'm done I feel like talking
Without you here there is less to say
I don't want you thinking I'm unhappy
What is closer to the truth
That if I lived till I was 102
I just don't think I'll ever get over you
I'm no longer moved to drink strong whisky
'Cause I shook the hand of time and I knew
That if I lived till I could no longer climb my stairs
I just don't think I'll ever get over you
Your face it dances and it haunts me
Your laughter's still ringing in my ears
I still find pieces of your presence here
Even after all these years
But I don't want you thinking I don't get asked to dinner
'Cause I'm here to say that I sometimes do
Even though I may soon feel the touch of love
I just don't think I'll ever get over you
If I lived till I was 102
I just don't think I'll ever get over you

tom visited!!

tom came and visited me today! his dad had a conference in phoenix, so tom and his mom tagged along. so, tom and I were able to hang out for most of the afternoon. they dropped him off after my first office hour and we got some lunch on campus. I showed him all around our student union (he didn't believe me at first that we had a bowling alley) and some of the finer points of campus. then we headed back to my office because I had to be there for office hours. of course no one showed up (how typical) so we just hung out and talked. then I had to teach a class and so tom showed himself around the rest of campus. after my class, we walked over to mill avenue and I showed him downtown tempe (just that one street). we spent some time at urban outfitters and then went over to gordon biersch for a couple beers and talked the rest of the time. it was so good to be able to catch up with him. I wish he didn't live so far away (come back to the west coast tom!). I miss you already!

and, to top it all off, he couldn't have picked a better day to come. it was only 90 degrees today, which is the coolest it has been since I moved here. it was actually nice outside for a change and not unbearably hot. what a nice day all around.

beach pictures

ok, so I finally decided to post the pictures from my romp at the beach two weeks ago. sorry it took so long. (although I doubt that anyone actually was waiting to see them - except maybe anthony. sorry bro.)


carpinteria is known as the "world's safest beach". I think it's because the waves are relatively small and you can't surf until the lifeguards leave for the day.


a view of the beach from our condo. those two blue tents is where we were hanging out. we had lots of fun swimming in the ocean too.


the best thing about carpinteria besides the beach is this place - the spot - which has great food. we always get the same thing: cheeseburger, fries, and a root beer freeze. ooohh soo good, I can just taste it right now.


some of my cute little cousins playing in the sand.


they have great sunsets there too.


I like this one too.

an interesting week

well, this week was much better than last week, to say the least. first of all, I didn't have any homework due (so, of course, I didn't do any - how dumb am I?). anyway, I had a pretty relaxed monday. tuesday was good (someone actually came to my office hours! yay!). I had lunch with one of the older grad students and we went music shopping (there is a music store in our student union - how perfect). I got the garden state soundtrack which is really good. there was also a little party hosted by the physics faculty members to welcome the new grad students in the evening. it was definitely interesting. they had really good hamburgers though. it was an amusing party to say the least. physics people are so funny. I think my favorite moment was when one of the professors (think typical old physics professor guy) talking about rappers. I wanted to laugh so bad. it was just so out of place. but very funny. wednesday was the long day it always is, but otherwise uneventful. thursday was a bit tiring, but I had enough energy to go to my first soccer practice that night. so I joined an actual soccer team (not intramurals like before). we have real uniforms, referees, and practice every week. it's very exciting. it's this new league called "soccer for adults" run through the ayso program (where I spent so many years in my youth). so far, it's been good. everyone seems nice. we have our first game next weekend. yesterday (friday) I actually went to school even though I didn't have any classes and worked a bit on my semester project for my education class, spending some quality time in the library with some physics journals. yesterday evening, me, katie, james, and mike decided to do some grading so we had a little grading party at katie's. along with doing lots and lots of grading, we ordered some pizza and watched a movie. it was actually fun even though it sounds kind of boring. I think we are going to make it a weekly ritual. see how much fun it is being a grad student?

p.s. day 5 is up. click on 'travelogue' on the left and then day 5.

two long nights in a row

oh man thursday was a long long day. wednesday night was bad, as I posted earlier. but I was not prepared for thursday night. I got about three and a half hours sleep on wednesday night, so when I showed up to school at 8am on thursday I was pretty tired. but sleep is for the weak! I had work to do. I turned in my e&m homework and started working on mechanics. had a bit of a break for lunch and then had another class. I was supposed to go to colloquim after that, but I was so tired that I went home for a nap (and so did almost all of the other first years too). I came back to campus around 6:30pm and got to work. within a few hours, almost everyone else had shown up to our office and we were all working on various problems and taking turns procrastinating. we went to get some ice cream at 9:30 and some other provisions for the long night ahead of us. my original plan was to be done by midnight so I could go home and sleep, but as it turned out, I was there until 6am. yes, I saw the sun coming up and everything. it was a pretty shitty night, but we made the most out of it and actually managed to have some fun (well, as much fun as you can have while you're doing homework).
I slept almost all day friday, except when the ups man came to drop off the package I ordered. I got the new polyphonic spree cd (really really good - especially "hold me now" - my favorite new song) and a book of comic strips about grad school (check it out at www.phdcomics.com) which is totally hilarious. great way to procrastinate.
saturday was pretty much a wash as well. I slept until 1pm and then kind of did nothing the rest of the day. adam and angel called a bit later though so we decided to go out to dinner (yay for sushi!) and then out to a bar afterwards. adam's friend collin joined us for dinner and then katie, mike and hwi joined us after dinner. adam was really drunk after the bit of sake we had with dinner and then after he had some more at the bamboo club, he was hilarious. wow, I had no idea (nor did anyone else) that he would be like that. sooo funny. so we all relaxed a bit and got ourselves ready for the new homework assignments we will be receiving on tuesday. ugh. it never ends.

in other news, I got another page of my travelogue up so now you can read all about my time in Paris. http://www.geocities.com/astrogirl720/day4.htm
I promise I will be working on this more. promise.

i hate jackson

so it's 1am and guess where I am. that's right, at school. I've been here for over 14 hours already today. and that doesn't count my 12 hour day yesterday. katie and I are thinking of putting up a hammock in our office. ah, isn't grad school wonderful. currently I am working on an electricity and magnetism homework assignment that is due at 9:15am. I have good answers for half of the six problems, which is more than a lot of the other people since they also have a quantum mechanics assignment due tomorrow morning (poor things). unfortunately, our e&m problems are ridiculously ridiculous. they are all from the jackson 'classical electrodynamics' textbook which is most decidedly the most evil book ever written. everyone hates it and yet it has been taught in grad school for the last fifty or so years. it has become a rite of passage for new students to see how much they can learn to hate something and want to give up. the only good thing is that because everyone universally hates it and the problems contained inside, many nice people have posted their solutions on the web. now, while I have looked at these solutions and therefore could turn in my homework right now, I have learned from past undergraduate mistakes and this time around, I am actually going to try to understand what these solutions mean. I would rather get a bad grade on my homework than not understand this stuff. I need to be able to pass my comprehensive test next year.

oh, and my friend katie says, "I (referring to herself) have smelled better." I feel the same way.

blogger is great for procrastinating! now back to work. I would like to sleep for at least a little while tonight (oh, because did I mention that I'll be doing this again tomorrow night for my mechanics homework assignment. oh yeah. right. aaaghhhhh!!).

I heart starbucks iced mint mochas.

how to be a beach bum

so I know I should be studying (which I am doing - I am just taking a short break), but I had a really exhausting day of sitting on the beach. ;-) yes, I am currently in santa barbara at my step sister's house, but I spent all day today (and will spend all day tomorrow) at carpinteria beach, just south of santa barbara in beautiful southern california (pictures will follow when I return to my home computer on monday). the weather here is absolutely amazing, especially coming from arizona, and I am enjoying every minute of it. the sun is out, but it's not ridiculously hot and the sun feels good.
the ocean was also wonderful. I didn't realize that I actually missed being near the beach until last weekend when I was slightly bored. normally, I would just go to the beach to chill or hang out, but unfortunately in tempe that is not even a remote option. the beach is an hour plane ride away. the closest thing was the swimming pool in my apartment complex, but that meant going outside in the 105 degree heat, and my air conditioned apartment kept sounding better and better. I guess I am just a socal girl at heart and it will take more than a few weeks to adapt to the arizona desert.

by the way, school is going alright. classes are hard. my only reprieve this weekend was that the mechanics assignment that was originally due on tuesday was pushed back to thursday or friday because we hadn't covered enough material in class. thank god! it saved my weekend. I had too much reading as it was! so now I can mostly enjoy my time at the beach instead of spending the entire time in the condo working on lagrange equations.