Relief

I actually feel a bit of relief every time I see someone else on facebook. I don't have to do it anymore.

I got a 91.5 on my microbiology test. It's not so bad. A 92+ is an A. However, it is a little disappointing. Last year, my first exam was 105, but my professor said I was working too hard. She was probably right. But I still want an A in this class, and I see no reason not to get an A in my other classes as well. However, I won't find out how this all pans out until the end of the semester, and I am NOT worried about it. The nursing application doesn't really matter anymore because they just look at midterms (and I'm not definitely not failing anything yet), but I really like those As all in a row. If I get a B once, I may fall out of love with As and be satisfied with less. But right now I can't be! I am not being good about it. My head knows I need to stop with this obsession and be happier with life, but a part of me just says I need to endure whatever I have to to get As. I don't know how to shoot for Bs, but it would be handy in some classes. Do you just hand in late work? Do you not study at all?

I keep saying I'm bottling, but I haven't! Yesterday the bottles weren't clean (I finished cleaning them around 11pm), and today I was just too busy. Tomorrow, maybe :)

Nursing Application

The nursing application is due Friday! I have everything finished except last-minute proofreading of my essays. It is so exciting. I will be so happy when everything is turned in. I will be able to focus much better once it's in, I think. It's amazing how much procrastination is due to mental blocks.

Last night I cleaned out a case and a half of bottles. It is always so much work to get them clean initially!  I was going to bottle yesterday but I was just too tired, and I wasn't finished cleaning the bottles till late in the evening. Today I think I will, once I get everything for the nursing application wrapped up and together in a folder to pass in tomorrow. I have an oatmeal stout and a fresh hops ale to be bottled. I tasted the fresh hops one when I took a hydrometer reading the other day. I don't know if the hops really came through that much. I know I needed to use extra hops because they weren't dried, but maybe I didn't add enough extra. Or maybe we'll find out that it ages to perfection! I know I don't make very good beer anyway. There are too many variables right now - fermentation is not at a steady, cool temp, I don't really cool it properly to get a good cold break, I haven't been getting the hot break out, etc., etc. And I use the cake mix type of beer recipe, with malt syrup rather than mashing my own grains. Too much work/time/money/space for right now to upgrade to all-grain, though.

So, I'm in the Chemistry Research Lab...

Pumping! (I got card access from the lab coordinator because no one is using it.) It is the first time I have pumped at school, but it would be fine if I had to do it more. I miss feeding Aftasie when she gets bottles, though. It's like making someone's day, over and over again :)

Have you seen someone die?

I was just reading posts from a woman who just saw her grandmother die unexpectedly from choking. I have never seen anyone die.

I just realized that we will all be present at our own deaths. Obviously. (But not thought about much?)

Nursing Essay

I am a great procrastinator and I don't know why.

At the beginning of the summer I knew I had two essays to write for nursing school. One of them I finished last week. One of them I am working on now. They're both due on the 30th. I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that I wouldn't finish them until shortly before they were due. But why? Why did I wait? 

I knew I would get them finished within a few days of the due date. But what if something had come up? Maybe a hospital visit, or an illness, or something like that. I don't know. I probably would have had to wait till next year to try to get into nursing school. 

Maybe I just haven't been burned enough to actually do things ahead of time. 

If I actually write my essay and clean the living room, I get to bottle a batch of brew.

Winter is Coming!

Well, it's only fall, but pretty soon here in Oregon the rain is going to settle in and we'll have rain for months on end. Not only is the rain going to come, but about 7 more months of school.

Now, I don't have too much to complain about. The house is warm, school is not awful, I have an adorable little baby and I live with someone I'm very in love with.

But winter is dreary. It just is. The short days, no sunshine, cold weather, etc. This is all reason for there to be winter traditions that distract from the dreariness, when it is dreary.

This winter I'm trying to be better prepared. There need to be some kind of rituals, traditions, that make it all much better. I think we need a couch (we finally have room for one!!) with blankets and place to set warm drinks. Also, access to books and good lighting for either relaxing or reading. We have Christmas lights strung above where I'm planning to put a couch, but we probably need a lamp or two.

Besides environment, what about food and drink? Are there drinks that lend themselves to winter cheer? Tea, mulled cider, hot buttered rum.

What do you do? What makes long, dark evenings more pleasant?

Pictures of Aftasie's trip to the coast

Aftasie when we first got there

Walking down to the edge of the cliff

We stayed in one of those buildings you see. See the people halfway up the trail? It was really hard to descend, a little easier to climb back up.

The little queen on her throne. Hehe. 

Pop and Aftasie (he's got a front carrier) on the luscious green trail up to Cape Perpetua

Wearing Porter's hat :) 

The camera wouldn't let me expose both object correctly. Porter and Aftasie and the ocean. This was about halfway up, maybe? 

Pictures don't do it justice. It's an 800+ foot cliff that overlooks the ocean, and not only the ocean, but little inlets where the waves crash quite violently. It's AMAZING. 

You can kind of see how small the highway is, but it's much more impressive in person. 

The path leading up to Cape Perpetua is so pretty and fun to hike. 

On the way down

I think she enjoyed herself :) How could she have not? She had transportation up to the top and back and nursed long enough once we got there that mommy got sunburned :P