I love Parker, and also Jack Sparrow.
so much to say and not enough time to type. last night was the annual winter party. the old crew showed up. baby makayla who is incredibly gorgeous. jabin and parker drove up from grants pass and spent the night. another night of relaxing in the hot tub after fire and chatting with lots of friends. a very nice evening.
now after brunch at Bread & Ink on Hawthorne we're downtown after a small stop at Powells, and then onto Oregon Mountain Community to [hopefully] find myself a nice jacket after a nice Oregon chai here at Heaven downtown.
can you believe that i have spent over $200 in the past three days? i used to think that i wasn't much of a shopper, but i have proven myself wrong. the three most enticing words of my week: waterproof/breathable/sale
Tomorrow is ten years with the Espedals.
i never want to leave portland. my love only grows.
come live here with me

BACK.
I read Pleast Don't Kill the Freshmen. It was ok, but definitely not the "great book" that I'd been hearing about. I was so irritated with her for the first 35 pages or so...but the middle was much better. Overall, I wouldn't read the book again, but it was a quick ok read and neat to hear a story about high school in Portland.
Picked up my Crocodile gaiters at Oregon Mountain Community today. Red. Ready to go snowshoeing on Mt. Hood Friday.
And Mt. Hood is stunning. the most beautiful she's ever looked. i can't wait to go back. breathe. sweat. hike.
the dinner was nice. and hanging out has been great. but i still wish i could have gone to DC (even though i still made the right decision not to go)

I'M DONE with finals!
This quarter was the most relaxed yet. And productive. And time managed. In other words: it was great. I felt like I learned a lot from all of my classes, was organized, and very motivated to learn.
The thing that I am the most proud of is that I read everything assigned (at least once). Today as I was sitting on the 4th floor of the Reg and I came to end the of my Mineralogy text I realized that I had read the whole book twice over the span of the quarter. That is completely unheard of for me, I don't think I've ever read a textbook all the way through...at least not at this school with the short quarters. What a feeling of satisfaction.
Additionally, I think that my Mineralogy final went well today. This might be the first time I'll be looking forward to getting my grades. ;o)

Hot-Tubbing Under the Stars
Right about now, as I'm cramming my brain with mineralogical knowledge I wish I was home in our newly installed hot tub! Only three more days until relaxation.

Does Sitting in an Aisle Seat Really Make a Difference with the Amount of Radiation you Encounter on a Plane?
It just doesn't seem like it would make that much of a difference from a window seat. My roommate tells me this is not the case, and she always takes the aisle. But I'm a definite window person. Am I really getting more radiation in me from this small choice? In the it's-finals-week-and-I-need-to-procrastinate fashion, I have tried to find the answer using google, but my conflict hasn't been solved. I have found some interesting information though. For instance, the Health Physics Society has a list of "Ask the Experts" FAQs on the subject of Aircraft Radiation Exposure, and this article on Aircrew Radiation Exposure-An Overview gives a nice detailed report of the problem and how much radiation common flights give you (New York NY - Chicago IL is 8.42 microseiverts, while New York NY - Tokyo JP is 67.1 microsieverts). At least it's not that big of a deal to worry about, as long as you're not in the air for tremendous amounts of time: The risk is more significant for airline personnel, who were actually reclassified by the FAA as radiation workers in 1996. For the average flyer, radiation exposure is both minimal and unpreventable, says CIO Magazine. The amount of radiation a person receives depends on the alititude during the flight. But does it depend on where a particilar individual may be seated? Anyone know?

100 Hours of Cuddling Babies between now and Graduation!
I just had my inteview with the Volunteerism director of the UofC Hospitals and it rocked! He was a lot of fun to talk to, and now I'm actually going to attend the 5:30-9:00 training this evening!
This means that I have have two and half hours between then and now to actually start studying today and grab some food. This also means that I will be missing 24 this evening, not going caroling, and will be stuck in the Reg concentrating on Mineralogy for a very long time. But oh well, soon next quarter I'll be cuddling babies in the prenatal unit!
Update: The 3.5 hour training wasn't so bad, although the videos we had to watch were dry and of low quality. But I guess that's what you have to suffer through for the safety test videos. It was fun to meet the 27 other new volunteers for that week. There were two things that surprised me: One was that one person has volunteered over 28,000 hours! Two was a little get-to-know-you excersize. I had done it many times before in Middle School. You put your name in the middle of the paper, then put four "ing" words surrounding your name that describe you (such as thinking, helping, etc) and then in the four corners of the paper you put your desired goal in life (Blues Musician, Teacher, Psycologist, Lawyer, etc), your favorite food, your favorite musical artist, and a sign that represents you. The desired person you want to be was the first category that we were given, and we only had a moment or two to write something down. A few things flashed through my head, but didn't really click: geophysicist, teacher, community leader. But in the end the two things stood out, one of which surprised me. Of all the things in the entire world that I want to be the one that is the greatest to be desired is: mother. The second I put down: mentor.
Now that the application, interview, and general orientation is out of the way all I have left is to get two TB tests, a drug test, a criminal background check, a blood test, my ID card, and then a prenatal unit orientation. Then I'm all set to cuddle away! Hopefully I'll be all done with this stuff by the end of January.

Leadership for a New Connecticut
Check it out. Mr. Michael Phillips II, President of the NYU College Demacrats, has founded/created a new political think tank. Awesome!

I was excited to try out a new place for studying today--the Lutheran Theological Seminary Library. But two hours there was the most I could stand. My fingers were cold, my nose was cold, and I was all bundled up in my scarf, hat and wool coat trying to concentrate on my reading, which was not very successful. I eventually gave up, and now I'm at the Reg: a place which seems to be on the opposite end of the spectrum of libraries: sprawling big, nosier, overly warm, social (I've already ran into 10 people I know, even though I've tried not to talk), and containing lots of sick, coughing, and sneezing people. Yuck. I need someplace in between these two extremes.

Where is the snow today?

I am not ready to take my BioDiversity final in an hour. Sad, because I love this class. I really do; it's one of the best classes I've taken at the UofC--it's one of those classes where you're happy getting up early for lectures and happy to read the lab manuel. I really should get a solic A, but I know I won't. This always happens. I wish I had more time to study!!!

and sleep. my eyes need rest

For my own benefit...a compilation of job searching links that I've found:
CascadeLink
EmploymentSpot
Oregon Live
Red Cross, from here