Emi's Journal

Today was a sandwich kind of day. I came home craving PB&J, so I made PB&J. Then I wanted grilled cheese for dinner, so I made grilled cheese. Tuna sandwich sure sounded good, but I do have some self control… So I limited myself to two kinds of sandwiches (especially since I probably used 2/3 of a loaf of bread already).

I think I may have some OCD tendencies or something. Or maybe I just cling to my past sometimes. But there’s something about sandwiches…. Let me explain.

Grilled cheese sandwiches need to be eaten in strips. Four strips. And you eat the outside (crust) ones first. Then you eat the crust off the inside ones. Then you can eat the excessively cheesy inside strips; the good stuff.
I don’t know why that is. It just is. That’s how it’s been for, well, ever. Four strips, eaten in that order. Grilled cheese is just weird not in strips.

PB&J on the other hand… PB&J requires one slice of bread. It is meant to be a folded over sandwich. Half jam, half peanut butter. Fold it over. Eat the crust, then the gooey inside.
There have been times I’ve eaten a grilled cheese not in strips, but I honestly can’t remember a time my PB&J wasn’t a fold-over sandwich. I can’t explain why, but that just sounds… Well, kind of gross to be honest. I know it’s absolutely no different, but PB&J must be a fold-over sandwich! There is no logical reason to this. It just is.
I did have to step out of my comfort zone with PB&J today, but not to the point of it being a non-fold-over. I just didn’t use raspberry jam, which is all I’ve ever used before on my PB&J.

Other than that… Well, tuna seems like it should be either whole or in triangles, but I’m not really strict about that one.

So I guess I’m OCD… About sandwiches. There is no logical explanation here. It just is. I’m weird about my grilled cheese, and my PB&J. Especially my PB&J. It really does sound gross to me to eat it as a whole sandwich. It’s stupid, I recognize that, but it really does.

History 101 Tour!
Matt is an amazing artist, but he’s also awesome in person! He’s a great guy, he loves talking with us crazy Westies, and he’s so much fun in concert!

I miss Matt… I want to see him in concert again! :p

Tonight was awesome. Several of us on leadership went out to dinner, and I for one had a great time! We need to hang out more. It was for my birthday, and it was so cool that they went out to dinner with me…. That meant a lot, and they may not even know it.

Another thing that was kind of cool…. Delayed midterm! BIO midterm is next week now. And not only that…. Labs this week are canceled! Woohoo!
I still have to go in tomorrow morning to turn in my take-home test, but after that I’m going to head over to Nash and just hang out for a while. I get three hours where I can just chill out. Do you know how great that sounds??? I work in the afternoon, but before that I don’t have to do anything!
I’m getting caught up on things, and it feels so good…. I’m all caught up in English 104 (and we have no class for the rest of the week! Yes!), I’m almost all caught up in BIO… Now I just need to do the reading for GEO, and I’m set!
And once I’m caught up I can start getting into more of a rhythm. I can stop rushing around, doing my best to catch up. I can be caught up, and keep caught up, and… Man, that’s exciting! I still have a lot going on this term, but it’s OK. I feel good about it now. I’m at a pace that I feel like I can keep up with, and that’s a good thing!

It snowed, maybe about an inch, last night.
I didn’t get the full package: snowing and closing campus. That’s what I really asked for.
But it snowed, so I’m happy.

Campus is on “yellow alert”. That’s their “it’s not really a good idea for you to travel, but we want you to anyway because we aren’t liable for that decision” stage.
I might skip my morning classes. I resent the yellow alert (I almost fell down 4-5 times when we were in “yellow alert” last week).

You should have seen it. It was GORGEOUS! Snow, as far as the eye could see. Not as much as I saw this weekend, sure, but it was right here! Right at home!
It’s snowing!

Ret and I went to the park and had a ball. It was dark, and dang cold! But we had a great time.
I had a blast in the snow this weekend, but the stress won out a few times. I’m getting my second chance. Sort of. And Ret gets to play in it too!

I was just told that the road is all packed snow, and people can’t get up the hill.
Sounds like the potential for a good time to me…

La la la la, LIVE OUT LOUD! :p

Oh man, Live Out Loud by SCC, aka “The Regus Song”. Good times.

I started taking the GED yesterday, since some scholarships want a high school equivalent of some sort.
So three of my tests are scored now. I have two 100%s, and one 92.5%.

My essay kind of sucked, so I don’t know how well I did on writing. But since I only need 51.25% on it……

I got my new snake on Sunday. Got her from the store in Eugene. I don’t know for sure it’s a her, of course, but that’s my guess.
Her coloring isn’t as vivid as Maizey’s were. I named her Tessa, because her markings reminded me of a tessellation. So now I have Retnuh Hunter Pythagorus, and Tessa… And I’m not even a math major!

Anyway, she’s hanging out in her tank now. I just fed her for the first time. I got mice from the place in Eugene, too. I don’t trust Petco. Not since their freezer went out. And also the mice I got there felt like they had been refrozen.

Yesterday I did a lot of waiting… And I mean A LOT.

We arrived at the LAX around noon. The check-in process was a bit chaotic, with computers not printing out baggage tags and all that kind of stuff. It took at least a half hour to get to a check-in machine, get my tickets, and check my baggage.
After that it was time to go through security. That, surprisingly, didn’t take too long. But once I was through… Let the waiting begin!

I arrived at my gate, and took a seat. At check-in it had said my flight might be delayed by Air Traffic Control, but I couldn’t find anything that said what time we were delayed to, or even anything that really said the word “delay”. But I overheard someone saying the flight was delayed until 3:30.
Great, just great. We were supposed to depart at 2:00.
I called United, and checked the status of the flight. Sure enough, 3:30. Well, maybe I could catch my connection anyway. I checked the status of that flight. CANCELED!

I called my dad, and he told me to go to customer service and find out if they can make arrangements for me. So that’s what I did. Me and 50 other people. After an hour and a half, and moving about 3 feet in line, I realized my plane would leave before I got anywhere near the front.
Lucky for me, a rep was at the gate. I asked him if he could help me, and he did. I was put on standby for an earlier flight to San Fransisco. The earlier I get there, the more chance I have to catch a flight home. I was also placed standby on a flight to Eugene.
I had never been standby before, but I went with it. What choice did I have? Classes start on Monday.

I got on the flight to San Fransisco. We waited a half hour after boarding before we could even leave the gate. We were told that San Fransisco was a mess. Most of us already had that figured out.
By now I’m stressed out, tired, and had a massive headache. The flight was good, though, and cleared my head a bit. We landed at 5:15, five minutes before the Eugene flight I was placd standby for was scheduled to board.
Once off the plane, it was time to sprint to the other gate. Quick stop at a departure screen to check the gate number and…. DELAYED! Departure time: 8:40 PM.
Fabulous. Three hours at the airport, stressed out, tired, and with the return of that weird headache I get that also makes me sick to my stomach, and also a possible fever.
I ended up buying some advil (really expensive at airports…), and laying down on the chairs at the gate. That’s how I spent most of the wait… About 2 hours in the headache was subsiding (yay, advil!), so I did some reading, played some DS, and even got some dinner.
The main problem was that the plane was full, and I was one of many on standby. Such things happen with canceled flights… I was not feeling good about getting on that flight, but there was another leaving at 8:55 (on time), so I was fairly confident that my priority standby status would get me on one of them.
The “departure time” arrived, and the plane was yet to land. It was circling San Fransisco Bay, we were told, awaiting permission to land.
At the same time, the other flight was delayed about 10 minutes. It became a real gamble on which would take off first. I was unsure of which gate to wait at.
The 8:40 plane still hadn’t arrived when they started boarding the 8:55. I ran to the other gate, and asked if being standby on the other flight meant I was standby on that one too. I was told standbys will roll over to later flights, but whether “later flights” that ended up being earlier had me as standby. Apparently not, but I was added when I mentioned that I was priority standby.
That flight was full as well, but luck on my side had someone not show up. I think they said 5 people, but it seemed like there was only one spot open when I got on… But it was mine! I was at the top of the standby list, and I was going home.

We arrived in Eugene around 11:00. Five hours later than I was supposed to be, I was back. And lucky me, my backpack was even placed on the right flight! My suitcase also made it to Eugene, whether by an earlier flight or on the other flight from San Fran that landed about 20 minutes after us, I’m still not sure.

Today I’m back in Corvallis. I’ll probably head to bed early. I’m still a bit tired from yesterday.

Boy, it’s windy, The wind is whistling, maybe even howling. It’s pouring. And guess who’s flying home later.
You got it.
I’ve never flown in stormy weather before. But then, a canceled flight would probably be even worse… I don’t know. But the wind is making me nervous.

Here’s to getting home safely… I’ll let you know.