Portland, Valentines, Beagles

Hello!! I know my updates are far and few between lately, but life in the North West has been busy!

Last weekend I went to Portland with Mike and his sisters and all their boyfriends and friends for Mikes 21st birthday celebration. It was a really fun weekend- our hotel had a 24 hour indoor heated pool which we definitely took advantage of! Portland was really cool, lots of old architecture and beautiful buildings. We hit up the city every night and we all had lots of fun. It was a great break away from work and school here in Seattle.

School is going well, except I really do not like my Biology teacher. Oh well though, so far grades are good and it's half way through the quarter now- so I only have 1 more month until Spring Break and then it's off to good ol' PA!

I've been working a lot of closing shifts at work lately, but I just got another raise so at least the money should start rolling in!

Saturday is Valentines Day- not sure yet what Mike and I plan on doing, something simple probably. Mom just informed me that it is also "Beagle My Valentine" day, so yet another chance for all the Beagles in the Seattle area to get together and mingle, maybe meet themselves a Valentine... although I'm pretty sure Trixie has dibs on Zac already and won't hesitate in letting any other sniffing Beagles know what's up.

Until next time. Over and out.

Busy Busy Busy

I haven't written in awhile, I've been so busy with the holidays and school starting!
I'm taking Spanish 2, Math 107 (Statistics), and Biology 160. Spanish is my easiest class so far. I hate my Biology teacher and I'm not good at Bio at all, we had a quiz today that I studied really hard for, I got a 4/5 which I will gladly take!

New Years was so much fun, I went to Mikes (yeah, he's new...) and we had a party there with a Twister Tournament which I took 2nd place in. I've been working a lot lately and my homework load is unbelieveable for the 2nd week so I have definitely been busy!

I'll check in again when I have some new things going on!

The results are in!

Grades for this quarter:
Lit of American Culture- 3.5
Interculture Communications- 3.5
Spanish 1- 3.6
Quarterly GPA- 3.53

Which puts me on the Deans List! :o)

I'm sick, again. I can't get away from these head colds!
Steve and I didn't work out, oh well, it's alright.
Christmas break until Jan 5 (I think), Kelsey and I plan on spending it watching Season 3 of Veronica Mars on DVD.
I'm ready for Christmas, all my shopping is done. Only one more week!
Yay for Bob winning Survivor Gabon! Well, I'm off- I have some DVR shows to catch up on!

Almost Over!

Only 3 more days before this quarter is over!! Woo hoo!! Looking back on it, it seems like it ended really quick.. but boy am I ready for month off of school! I've been working really hard this quarter so I am definitely anticipating my break. Next quarter should be pretty difficult with the classes I'm taking... Bio Lab... I haven't taken biology since the 9th grade. Good thing I have a mom who just took lots of biology classes and a sister that speaks Spanish so I have 2 built in tutors at home!

I don't have any finals this quarter (I am exempt from the final in Spanish since I got good grades on my first 2 tests) so all I have to do is finish my English essay which is pretty close to being done, but definitely taking me longer than the other essays I had.

Thanksgiving was good, very fun. I ate waaaay too much, I was up till 3:30 in the morning sick to my stomach! That didn't stop me from eating a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday though! I think Steve enjoyed himself, he played Rock Band for a little while with us.

I plan on spending my Christmas break in my PJ's and at work. I'm taking it easy and catching up on a lot of TV, haha.

Mom bought Kelsey and me our plane tickets to go back to PA over Spring Break! Yay! So excited to visit home. Lauren said she would pick us up from the airport in case anyone was wondering if they were going to have to get us, although we are flying into HBG so it's better than Baltimore or Philly.

New poll. Gotta go to sleep, school early in the AM!

So I guess the first and most important update is this past election we just had. I still can't believe Obama is our president. I'm so excited (for the first time ever) to see what he does first and how our country is going to change while he's in office!

So when it rains here, it's like walking on ice at my school. I was walking down the stairs on Friday after class, getting ready to head to the doctor to be checked for bronchitus (sp?). Well, I slipped.. and I didn't fall down the stairs, I kinda just went up and then right back down again onto my back in the middle of the stairwell. Thank god there weren't a lot of people around- just one guy who asked "OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OKAY?! THAT LOOKED LIKE IT HURT!" I said, "Yeah, it's really slippy there!" and took myself towards the bathroom right away. I got really dizzy and nauseaus (sp?) and my ears started ringing really loud. I thought I broke my back! Good thing I was headed to the doctor. (By the way, I have the greatest doctor ever). After some x-rays he said he couldn't tell if there was a small crack or a weird shadow so I might have a small fracture and to keep it wrapped in a soft cast for about a week and it should be okay. My back hurts worse though, it's really bruised and cut up and hurts really bad when I bend over at all. I didn't have to go to work on Friday, because my doctor wrote me a note, and Saturday I wasn't very helpful so they let me go after 2 hours. We'll see how tonight goes!

I have a new boyfriend. His name is Steve and he will be 25 on November 17 (also Isaac Hansons birthday, hahaha). He has an AA degree from my school and will be starting UW Bothell in the next quarter or 2 to work on becoming a History teacher. He's a really nice, responsible, mature guy. Big step up. Oh, and he has the cutest pit bull ever named Chica. Steve is going to come to Thanksgiving here at our house this year... we just had a Halloween party last month as you probably read in Beaglehaus.

School is going really well, but I'm ready for this quarter to be over... only about 3-4 more weeks. I got a 94% on my first English essay! It was a personal narrative so it was pretty easy. I have another one due on Friday, it's an analysis of "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston. Spanish test on Friday as well... if I get above a 75% (which I'm sure I will) I get to skip the final, which is super cool. I have an appointment with my advisor for this Thursday to figure out my classes for next quarter... I was thinking of adding another one and taking 4 classes instead of 3... we'll have to see how it goes.

Love and miss everyone! New poll!

Just a couple things...

Only 10 people showed up to my walk. Pathetic. Not even my mom came.

I got an A on my first Spanish test.

Me and Kelsey are both sick with head colds and fevers.

I finally started my supervisor training.

I bought a Little Red Riding Hood costume for Halloween.

Class, Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

So my English class, the coordinated studies one, is all about class, race, gender, and sexual orientation, so we've been reading a lot of books on that topic and having to go to lectures and all that. Now, we have to write a personal narrative essay on any experience that we have had with dealing with any of those things.
This class is really wearing me out. I'm really tired of the material, even though the bulk of it is very interesting and leads to great class discussions, but it is pretty much the same thing over and over told in different ways by different people. I really did not enjoy the lecture we went to the other day by a black professor from Baltimore who, during the speech, I thought was a great speaker and had great things to say and it was interesting to listen to, but after I got home and started talking to Mom and some of my friends about the stuff he said, I really didn't agree with almost anything he talked about. I brought it up in our seminar the next day, and only 1 or 2 other students agreed with me.. and they are both from the East Coast.
This professor said to us that "all white people think that the black folk are gonna rise up one day and take over the country and kill all the white folk" and that we have "nothing to worry about, they aren't scheming to kill us all". I have NEVER in my life thought that or felt that way. Then he said "they tell us to 'remember the Alamo', and we have Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but when slavery is brought up we are all told to 'get over it' and 'forget about it'"...... We have Black History Month and MLK Jr Day, which he didn't mention. He made me feel very guilty as a white American that I personally should feel responsible for the mistakes that my ancestors made. He said it doesn't even matter if your family didn't arrive in America until they came to Ellis Island, we are American citizens now and because of that, we should take responsibilites for the history of our country.

So, with that, there's a new poll.

I'm off to finish reading "White Like Me" by Tim Wise.