Were challenging you.
It's hard to make a donation to the University of Chicago when they can't even sent grammatically correct emails! I know I make grammar and spelling mistakes all the time (esp. on this blog because I've never spell-checked an entry), but on publications and official documents when there are mistakes it's a huge pet peeve of mine.

Workshop went well, and a spot opened up week 4, so i think that's when i'll be doing special needs at namanu. the new mc staff looks great, and the SLs on plants that i observed were also pretty special. it's gonna be a great session. even though i love ods, i am still glad that i'm not back on staff. as much as i enjoyed returning to help out, it was a good time to remember all the reasons why i'm not back for good....i hope that friday night was the last time that i'll ever have to sleep in opsund again.

book club is at my place next sunday. i'm half looking forward to it and half regretting it. in my opinion, all the books we've read so far (one a month for the past three months) have bombed. i thought that my suggestion of invisible man this month would be better than the previous two books, but it wasn't. i get excited discussing books that i love, but mediocre ones--not so much. also, i don't really enjoy leading discussions, but we'll see how it goes. it's nice that it's a pretty informal group.

I watched another amazing movie last night: Nobody Knows. Based on a true story, the movie details the lives of four young children left stranded by their mother on their own in a small Tokyo apartment for six months. The acting and editing is amazing, and it's desperately hard not to fall in love with the characters. I highly recommend watching this movie!

This weekend I'll be helping out at Milk Creek for the ODS Student Leader training. Most likely camping out in the field in my new down Marmot sleeping bag (with what little sleep we'll get).

Question: week 6 should i be a pl and get paid $ to work (and back on animals field study which would be fun!), or volunteer as a special needs 1-on-1 helper? i wish i could do both.

There's nothing like running home to your parents when you're sad and lonely and missing paul. plus i had to finish doing laundry. today (even though it was bright and sunny and wonderful) was three-movie day. two on my own in a lethargic and semi-deperessed state, and then one with my parents which we just got done with: junebug. i highly recommend it. slow, throughful, well acted, well scripted, truthful and amazing.

three phone calls really brightened my day. it's so plain to me how important relationships of all kinds are. i am so lucky to have suportive family and friends.

wow. video chatting is pretty neat. i just talked with ruthie for over an hour through instant messaging. now paul and i need to get one of those iSights so we can make funny faces back to people!

i did it. i had a slice cheesecake for dinner. and i watched tv all night (but did you see the game theory special on primetime? amazing. i thought it was great. put random people in nyc, tell them to find each other with no other info).

i'm all alone. my first night by myself. paul left for berekeley this morning and won't be back until saturday. it feels so sad to come home to an empty quiet apartment. i miss him already.

this morning i drove our car (a stick) for the first time by myself. now, this doesn't seem like a big deal to most, but I hate to drive in the first place, so it was a huge scary deal for me. i was all tense for hours afterwords. I dropped paul off at the airport and then drove back home through rush-hour traffic. i avoided the freeway and took 82nd/powell instead. i only peeled out once on accident, and stalled once, and had many studderings and lurchings in between. it was embarassing, but i made it. i even somehow managed to turn a corner at a busy intersection in 3rd gear (from a stop)....don't ask me how.

i sound so pathetic.

mexican train dominoes last night was great. so is cheesecake and 24! mmmm cheesecake....maybe that's what i'll have for dinner now that paul isn't here to cook for me. ;o)

second round of identity fraud with citibank.
dangit. why does this keep happening to me? this time it's not as bad as 2004 (when i found out that someone had stolen my information, put a card out in my name for over TWO YEARS and sprung up some charges--but was actually paying on them.......i was never informed of this other card in my name and i had to go through HOURS of phone calls with the bank, and talk with two different police departments which gave me contradictory directions...it was a huge pain, and really a big waste of time, because it's not like i get anything out of it besides shutting down the account and preventing futher charges. even though the crime is a FELONY it's not like the cpd really cares enough or has enough resources devoted to prosecuting these people...even though i fanagled the address of the person using my name out of one nice citibank rep and found out that the person was living only two blocks away....i let the police know but they didn't do anything....i walked down there and glared at their window...i wish i was tall and strong so i could just ring their doorbell and just punch them. they should be in jail for screwing people like they do with identity fraud). anyways, this time someone opened up TEN msn accounts in my name, charged them all in a span of two days, and also opened some premium account with my card. who knows how they did it, or where they got my info from. it's scary. i haven't even used my card in over 2 years (since i moved from chicago), and i have my physical card, so it's not like they stole it to get my info....i have no idea. i've even been shredding every possible piece of information/mail about me since 2002. so now i just spent 40+ minutes on the phone with both msn and citibank (and they hang up on me, and tried to get me to buy their promotional overdraft charges with each person i spoke to....annoying) trying to get this figured out. now i have two long letters to write explaining the bogus charges and trying to get a refund on my money which was stolen out of my account. etc etc etc. sucky. ok, end of rant (for now). just had to type my anger out.

hmm hmm hmm.

well, i've been sick this week. not that much to explain though, just a swollen annoying throat. i'm better after having gallons of tea.

i am not in the mood to compile a real paragraph:
--things at the job are going well. i am DONE with the 2005 data. hurray! and i might get to make a cool map for another state transit agency soon. the good news is that i have secured my position until we move (next fall), which means that this will be the first summer ever that i don't have to look for a job. it also means that i'll pass the one year mark at the same company/organization! i think i'll get a little bus pin or something silly. extra good news is that i the benefits (sick days, personal days, health insurance for the two of us, dental, etc.) will continue and my schedule is still very flexible. so summer plans are stil in the works for a possible extended camping trip or two.
--paul got accepted to the uofc phd program. with funding. good to know. now we're just waiting for a response from one more school. and in the next three weekends he'll be visiting madison, berkeley, and seattle to chat it up with the professors and check out the programs. i am a bit nervous about berkeley...mostly for selfish reasons (i think paul would fit in great there and they have a good program)....like will i be comfortable living there? could i find a job? will we have enough money? can i really live away from portland for another extended period of time? hopefully he finds the perfect phd fit we can fly back to the city and check things out together.
--i love the office. and now they have REAL myspace pages. next thursday is "bring your child to work day"....it should be awesome.
--paul starts ODS next thursday. and with his school visits i will only get to see him for a few hours each weekend. which means for the next month i'll be all by myself in the apartment. which means that i need to bring back the middle-school silliness of the slumber party. yep, that's right. and i'll be reading a ton and FINALLY FINISHING MY WEDDING THANK-YOU NOTES. yes people, i am a slacker! but they will get done, sooner or later (more sooner than later!)....they have to get done at least by june, because otherwise my sister may beat me with hers, and that would be embarassing.
--Outdoor School is celebrating it's 40th birthday party. My grampa is smiling down from heaven on the program he helped start...it makes me so proud that it's going so long and strong (but it might get cut this year due to funding!). this sunday is a PIRATE CONCERT! as a fundraiser. paul and i already have tickets. anyone want to join us?? we've seen them before, and the songs are hilarious. plus it should be a good crowd, and it's a great venue with a springy floor.
--this week: this this this this and this arrived in the mail. and our sleeping bags zip together. they are so comfy and warm (ps. we got them on sale, not from rei).
--i was defeated at boggle last night. i am usually pretty good at winning (basically the only game i ever win at--i am a sucker for putting down a million three letter words to get pionts), but i got creamed by paul.
--reading invisible man and liking it. book club at my apartment this month. gotta decide what to make.

an overall good day at work. started off with a two-hour meeting, then mid-afternoon I was treated with a double chocolate cupcake from starbucks compliments of my manager. seriously, one of the best of my life. soooooo good.

came home with energy. paul and i tried three new recipes. he made sweet potatoe recifie, brocolli casserole, and i made a key lime pie (easy but time consuming since I decided that the best way to extract and use ALL of the juice possible would be to first zest each key lime, then quarter them and put them into our garlic press to squeeze to the last drop...took forever and paul thought I was silly...but it produced a lot!).

ps. forgot to mention that on the way back from mt. hood on saturday when we came back through hood river there is a section where apple fields are all around, snow-covered mt st helens is in front, towering mt hood is behind all white, and plodding by our car was a horse-drawn buggy with an farmer and an Old old dog sitting on the buggy seat next to the man. I wished I could have joined them for a ride instead of speeding past in our car at 45mph. they looked so peaceful.

A beautiful clear day and Paul & I drove to Mt. Hood and went snowshoeing. Although Paul never technically put on his snowshoes, so he really went snow-hiking. We went to the Tilly Jane Sno*Park next to Cooper Spur, and unfortunately the trails and surrounding snow were a little icy due to the warming weather, so the trail was packed enough for Paul to hike the whole way.

This week felt like one of the longest ever for some reason, but it was good. Just a lot to do. Sonca & her boyfriend came and spent the night on Tuesday. I hadn't seen her in 5 years! I wish I wasn't working so we could have spent more time together than just one evening, but it was great.

I gave the bon jovi tickets to my parents, so they'll have lots of fun tomorrow night.