Emi's Journal

Matthew West is working on writing for a new album, and is basing all of his songs off of stories from his fans. So he has asked us to send him stories, 250 words or less. So I submitted one, of course. Here's what I came up with.

"My life is full of blessings and gifts. I have had a somewhat unconventional life… Low income growing up, my parents got divorced when I was 10, and I am a proud high school dropout. Not what one considers normal. But it all worked out. It reminds me of a slogan from a church I used to go to…. “GUTS: God is Up To Something”

Everything has worked out for the better. Like any kid, I took my parents’ divorce hard, but I soon realized what a good thing it was (as my childhood home situation wasn’t exactly a good one). My mom recently married an amazing guy.
I dropped out of high school, started college full time when I was 15, and am planning on graduating with a double major in 2011, from what has so far been a wonderfully amazing college experience.
Even last summer, when I got laid off for the second time in two months, it turned into a good thing. I landed a great fisheries job that I would not have gotten any other way, but was very much a dream come true. This year I had two fisheries job offers.

My friend once asked me if I believe in God. Then she asked why. My answer was that everything in my life works out for the better. Somebody is watching out for me, and in my times of worry, fear, or doubt, He is up to something, and He turns it into something great."

The final submission was slightly revised because the website decided I had 256 words (and Microsoft said it's 250). But that's the gist of it. I doubt it will make it into the final product, but I had fun thinking about it. And I still feel like I contributed.

So I've had a few big things happen since I last posted. I'll start with the one taste of badish news, then move up to my several bits of awesome news.

The bad is that I am barely barely barely clinging to a C- in biochem, so I need to get my act together and do better on the final. Though if all else fails I'll retake next year (I would really rather not….).
 

The good. Several bits of good here. Did I mention I managed a B in cell bio? Still not sure how that happened, but it did. No complaints from me for sure.

I got my application in to go to Antarctica. Should be hearing from them soon, but I should be in because I'm one of their early applicants, and they'll accept as they go…. They extended the deadline to March, but I'm glad I got it in already.

I got my braces off today!

And the best of all…. No more summer job hunting for me! I have accepted a fisheries internship at the Corvallis district office. I am getting quite excited about it. I have plans to get a hammock so that I don't boil in my apartment at night (again…). And make many weekend excursions to Newport with Ret.

I'm not sure what it says about yourself when you catch yourself quoting Finding Nemo in your head while excessively tired and think "Things are turning back to normal!".

Yeah, as expected, that midterm was bad. Really really really bad. I made up most of it, which means it should at least be entertaining to grade. There was a nice mix of things I made up and things that sounded familiar from reading or lectures. But mostly it got jumbled into a great deal of nonsense.

I shall await the curve to determine if dropping will be necessary, but that was REALLY REALLY bad.
 

But it's done, and boy am I glad it's done. Tonight I am going to hash out as many cover letters as I possibly can… Hopefully it'll be 11, since I have 11 internship applications for ODFW due tomorrow. It would be even better if I could do more, as there are several due on Monday, but we shall see.

Power-nap this evening helped, but I'm not sure how much more I'm going to be able to do for cell bio… I'm through less than half the reading, did manage to do the work for free points, but am quite glad it's not graded because I suspect I'm confused about 3 of the 5 questions. I'm getting quite close to the point of reading without comprehension… This does not bode well for the midterm tomorrow.

On a better note, I worked through the logistics and am comfortable saying dropping cell bio would not hinder me in any way. Annoy me, yes, but not hinder me. I am 19 classes away from completing my programs (20 if I finish my chem minor, but that will only happen if I can actually fit the last class in), with 5 terms including this term. So that's roughly 4 classes towards my programs per term. And I am scheduled to take 5 next term. So that would make up for only taking three this term.

So lately I've been studying for this cell bio midterm I have coming up. I'm going to fail it, but I've been studying anyway. I'm hopelessly behind, quite lost, and it's just not going to end well. But I'm giving it a shot, especially because he grades on a curve, and if all else fails I'll withdraw from the class. Not something I want to do, but will do if necessary. What with all the medical craziness, trips to Eugene, conferences, two pretty writing intensive courses (one of which is my actual WIC), and biochem in addition to cell bio, I can't honestly say I'd be too devastated about dropping a class.

But anyway, I've been studying for this test. Because I'm stubborn like that. And if you have to sit around reading a boring cell bio book for a test you're probably going to fail anyway, you should do so in the company of some cool critters. So Ret camps out at my feet (although at the moment he is beside the bed), and Indie has taken to hanging out in my hood.

Earlier I took a break to watch NCIS, because, well, it's NCIS. And Indie was comfortably curled up in my hood, so I decided to leave him there.

I was feeling unproductive, so I decided that during commercial breaks I would do some filing. I have a bag of papers that needs filing (I got through about half of it), and so I worked on that.

About the time NCIS: LA came on (which I did not watch tonight), I noticed my hood felt lighter, and indeed Indie had decided to take off. As corn snakes tend to do. And I'm probably not making things any better by naming him Indie.

So I freaked out, looking all over. I knew he couldn't have gotten far, so I wasn't completely panicked. But maybe I was close.

Finally I moved my big bookshelf, because I knew there was space under it. And there he was, curled up as far back as he could get.
 

Now we're back to studying… Or were before I took a break to post this. Indie has taken up residence in someplace a bit warmer than my hood, because it was cold under that bookshelf.