This is what I did in school today:

Squirm, squirm! I'm a sperm!

That gorgeous piece of artwork is a sperm cell, and my group made it in Biology class. It’s a piece of foam with clay and really fuzzy pipe cleaners, oh and some paint and pushpins too. It’s not completely anatomically accurate, but considering we carved the dang thing with a plastic butter knife it was the best we could do!

Oh, and I got my progress report today (art class *and* a progress report – it’s like fifth grade all over again!) I got A’s in everything but lab, where I got a B. I was surprised since I’ve probably tried the hardest in lab, but I’m not going to complain too loudly over a B, heh. Of course, that’s not taking into account my lack of an English grade, but we just won’t go there… =S Anyway, I have two tests tomorrow and I should probably study for them. (One is a spelling test! See; fifth grade!)

Things that have been stressing me out lately:

• Money woes! Need I say more?
• I lost my wallet on Thursday and ended up missing class as a result. My BART card still isn’t working (that’s another stress-bullet-point in itself) and without my wallet, I couldn’t buy another ticket and decided not to drive to San Leandro without a driver’s license because we *so* cannot afford a ticket right now. I’m sure this won’t completely destroy me as a student but I feel disgusted and frustrated with myself.
• I got the bill for some verrrry overdue library books/DVDs from Vallejo… and it’s a crazy amount! Luckily I found all the overdue items and can bring them back, and hopefully that will bring the fee down. Like, a lot down, because otherwise we may have to declare bankruptcy over library books! (Not really, but isn’t that a silly thought?)
• Messy house! Why won’t it just clean itself??
• I found out this weekend that my transfer credits didn’t go through in time and I’m going to have to take an English class. Problem is, this class has already been going on for four weeks and I don’t know how I’m going to catch up! =S I’m beyond the frustration point that I have to take English 101 when I have a whole fricking English major under my belt; now I’m just worried that I’m going to drown in backwork.
• I know this isn’t immediate, but the upcoming holidays are NOT something I’m looking forward to. Which is sad, because usually I love holidays and will take any chance to celebrate, but there are so many Family Issues that I kind of just want to stay home and shut the world out. I’m just going to have to get through it somehow I guess, and I’ll try to put it out of my head until I absolutely can’t anymore! =P

But, it’s a new week and I’m going to try to tackle things as best I can. I’ve figured out how to login to my online class, now I just need to start the actual work part. I can try to fix my BART card today and return those library books this week (I have to drive to Vallejo, meh) and… I don’t know. I’ll get it done somehow.

On a completely note, Dan and I can NOT STOP singing this. It is probably the best thing that happened to me all week.

(Oh, except that Kaeli stayed with us last night after dropping her friend off at the Oakland airport, and we had a mini Target shopping spree! It resulted in penguin socks and the cutest peacoat ever! Also groceries, but that wasn’t quite as exciting.)

I was having an “eff the world” day but rather than ranting all over the internet, I decided to make pages about two things that make me very happy: music and my pets.

I may rant later, but right now I’m cuddling the bunlet!

I sat across from a couple on BART who were talking about music they liked.

Boy: Don’t you like rap?
Girl: Yeah but I’m also into really hard stuff. Like Evanescence and Nirvana.
Me: …
Boy: You’re so hardcore!!
Me: !!!
Boy: What’s your favorite song by them?
Girl: Tears Don’t Fall (starts to sing it)
Me: ???

… : I like Nirvana and have as much of a crush on Amy Lee as the next guy, but “really hard” they are not.
!!! : He wasn’t sarcastic either.
??? : And, that’s a Bullet For My Valentine song. And no, you’re not “hardcore” for listening to them either.

Well, it’s only 8:46 on Halloween night, but I’m at home with my laptop, meaning that I’m obviously not going to have a wild night. =) But, it’s still been fun.

Comcast has a bunch of Halloween films on demand and some of them are free, so we’ve been watching a bunch of bad movies, lol! In the past two days we’ve watched The Burning (which I actually thought was scarier than Friday the 13th, even though they’re very similar), Catacombs (Shannyn Sossamon and Pink playing sisters, interestingly enough), Unrest (a bad story with surprisingly good acting, but FYI, chanting does not a scary movie make!), and Night of the Demons (so horribly bad, it was awesome! Best line: “go eat a bowl of fuck!” It was all in the delivery; you’d have to see it to get the full impact. There was also tons of gratiutious nudity and really bad 80’s hair, if you’re into that kind of thing.) We also had one free rental so we got The Exorcist (had to sneak a classic in there), which neither of us had seen before. And, we just started Fear No Evil (the devil goes to high school?)h, so I’m hoping for more 80’s horror goodness! =)

Even though we didn’t go anywhere special, I still dressed up in my kitty costume:

I'm Molly the kitty! (Wearing the dog's old tag, lol)

Now with kitty paw action!

Ratties and kitties can be friends! =)

I had a tail too (which I made from a sock + wire + shopping bags), but I didn’t wear it because it just got in the way when I sat down… plus, I couldn’t find a practical way to wear it with the sweater dress I wanted to wear. So I was a tailless cat I guess! =P

Other than watching bad horror movies and eating sugary things, we saw Dan’s cousin who was visiting a friend in the area, went to Barnes and Noble (where I managed to spill not only my water cup, but my iced mocha all over the floor – what can I say, I’m talented), and got dinner at Macaroni Grill (where the following works of art were created!)

First Nyx...

then Gaia...

...and finally Hina and Pele!

Dan drew the goldfish too, but I didn’t get a picture of them.

As long as I’m overloading this page with photos, here are more Halloween things inside our house…

Decorations (that smell yummy!)

More decorations - love the tiny white pumpkins!

…And, outside:

The front door

Dan's Dracula pumpkin (he made the pattern himself; he's crazy like that)

My spider-and-web pumpkin, next to the stereotypical candy-collecting pumpkin

Now I am drinking decaf coffee with cinnamon vanilla creamer, and it is ever so festive and delicious!

Oh, I almost forgot to post this:

The vacuum dressed up as a witch this year - and yes, it has a broom lol!

Happy Halloween!

Dan: What did you do in class today?

Me: We watched a Powerpoint of animal breeds.

Dan: So basically, you looked at pictures of cute animals all night?

Me: Yes…

Dan: Duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh-duh duh….

He also told me that if I’m doing homework, and the homework is cute, it doesn’t count.

In other news, here is me in my Halloween Scrubs:

I wore the scrubs more than once but only went all-out on Thursday, the last day of class before Halloween

You can’t really see them, but I even had Halloween socks:

They have ghots saying 'Boo!'

I don’t what we’re doing on All Hallow’s Eve itself, but I think it would be fun to go to Boo at the Zoo (because I’m a dork like that, not to mention it’s free!) But, we shall see. As for now, Dan is at school, I’m at home doing homework, and discovering that it’s definitely time for coffee!

That's +5 per bow!

I did a halfhearted search for something to add to my Halloween scrubs to make ‘em more festive, but with the BART as crowded as it is, the parking lots at El Cerrito Plaza are PACKED. So, I’ll either just wear my long sleeve black shirt as usual, or maybe a fishnet shirt underneath – and, of course, my Bows of Awesome (compliments the Dollar Spot at Target! I’m all about looking like I’m 5!)

After Dog Lab I decided I needed a dog, and guess what? After Cat Lab, I’m fully convinced I’m in need of a kitty.

I was a little nervous for our cat restraint lab, because cats are less patient than dogs and also have quite a few more weapons. But actually, both kitties that we had were sweet and floppy and brave and altogether well-behaved.

Our first kitty was a boy kitten named Belle with long black fur. We all restrained him by the scruff of his neck, then our teacher put him in a cat bag (which was pretty much the cutest/most pathetic thing ever!) and we practiced putting a muzzle on him (Hannibal Lecter Kitty, according to my teacher – just in time for Halloween!) We also gave him a “pill” (kitty kibble!) (with a Pill Popper) and a squirt of water from a syringe to wash it down. (It was a LOT easier than giving a pill to a dog!)

Our next patient was another black fluffy cat, this one a girl, who had a name (that I forgot) but went by the nickname Kitty. Kitty was older but just as sweet; we each wrapped her up in a Kitty Burrito (I *love* that this is a technical term!). If she was swaddled right you could hold her like a baby, which was sooo adorable! We also practiced putting her in lateral recumbency (lying on her side) with her femoral vein ready for venipuncture. (I feel like I’m quoting a textbook now, lol.)

Extra Fun: this website has pictures of a cat restrained in a cat bag, in a towel and with a muzzle… so pretty much, how my evening went.
Even More Fun: in the world of vet, an angry and/or violent cat is referred to as fractious. It’s funny; 90% of Bay Area drivers are also fractious! Unfortunately, they won’t fit in a cat bag.

Speaking of Halloween (well, I was earlier), we were told we could dress up for class on Thursday (aka tomorrow, which is actually today) as long as our costumes are not overly slutty, gorey, or impede our class activities (this really only applies to the people in Thursday lab; it’s really not that hard to sit and take notes in class.) I was planning to wear my Halloween scrubs with my black & orange hairbows from Target, but that’s not exactly a costume… problem is, I don’t have a costume. Well, that’s not exactly true – I have a witch hat (too cumbersome), vampire teeth (do things in your mouth count as a costume?), and kitty ears (hello! stereotype!) I could wear all of the above *with* my Halloween scrubs, but that would involve many a thing on my head. I don’t know!

And now speaking of my faux fangs, I found them yesterday when I was straightening my bedroom. They had been sitting in my sock drawer for who knows how long – several Halloweens, at least, since I haven’t been anything vaguely vampirish for awhile – but I never got around to using them. The directions disappeared somewhere around the way, so I Googled it and figured out how to mix the dental algaenate, and voila! Insta-fangs! (Although, they do make me drool, which is VERY vampire-sexy.) I don’t know how well they’ll stay in, but I saved the other half of the algaenate so I can fix it later if I need it. My fangs are fun! I already have abnormally long canines anyway, so why not make it official?

Why do I feel the need to put everything in quotations lately?? Is this my punishment for betraying my English major roots? I’m slowly losing my ability to write correctly; next I will be unable to form sentences and my grammar will die a painful death. In other words, I’ll be a Texting Teen! (Like, LOL! OMG!)

This summer my parents digitized a bunch of old slides that had sat in their garage for many a year, and going through my photo folder I just found some fun ones. I’d say it’s a trip down memory lane, but I was too little to actually start forming long-term memory – so instead, it’s just cute. =)

My big bunny! I had that thing until college...

Daddy and Laeci - makes me go aww <3

Big eyes! (They don't look green yet...)

Grama and Laeci - we look so happy!

Mommy and sleepy baby

I love this picture, especially my dad's fro, my red hair and my yummy fingers!

Yesterday Kaeli, Dan and I went to Fright Fest at Six Flags; it was super fun, and we didn’t even go on any rides! Because of my stupid ear I can’t even bend down too fast because of the change in pressure – imagine what going upside down would do! That said, all the lines were SUPER LONG anyway because the place was PACKED, so we probably saved ourselves some stress.

Six Flags’ favorite decoration was spiderwebs; it was everywhere! I didn’t see any spiders big enough to spin that web, lol, but it was cute anyway. There were also lots of pumpkins (real and plastic, by the path and in animal cages; I especially liked a plastic pumpkin in the bottom of a huge fishtank!) and dry ice. At the entrance there was a pseudo “graveyard” and Dan found his grave:

He's eating a lolly, not smoking - that's dry ice =P

Usually there’s a big dolphin fountain in the middle of the park (that I have taken dozens of pictures by over the years), but at Halloween it was replaced with impaled skeletons and ‘blood’. Family friendly!

Cute Halloween shirts!

You can see the fountain better here...

When we got there it was still day, meaning that the spooky stuff was hiding – the day is kid-friendly while the night is scarier. We looked at all the animals that weren’t already in bed, drank lots of Diet Coke (we have a season-long souvenir cup that makes refills super cheap) and ate yummy burritos, went to the Shouka show, and were informed by a budding zoologist that all animals have eyelashes, not just the girls. (lol, I couldn’t get too annoyed at the kid because I know I was just as know-it-all-y when I was little!) (For the record, Dan and I have a running joke that you tell boy animals/objects from girl animals/objects by their hairbow or eyelashes or lack thereof. Yes, we’re dumb…)

We also ate Pop Rocks. Halloween is for candy, right?

It was getting dark, so we decided to get some SUPER NYUMMY (and expensive!) funnel cake and head to the sea lion show. Dan kept asking if we’d see animals in costume (“will the orca wear a costume?” “do the butterflies dress up in TINY TINY costumes?”) and at the sea lion show we actually did! One of the sea lions had a skeleton ‘painted’ on its fur, which was super adorable. =) The sea lion trainers were dressed up in various costumes too (Rainbow Brite, zombie cheerleader, Austin Powers?) and though it didn’t really have anything to do with the show it was still cute.

We also went to the dolphin show, which I think was the highlight of the evening for everyone – it was a Disco Dolphin show! They had a disco ball and everything, not to mention the trainers were dressed ridiculously 70’s. =) One trainer was thrown into the air by dolphins several times and it was pretty amazing; the trainers don’t seem to get in the water with the animals very much at 6 Flags so it was especially exciting.

After the dolphins we went to get in a huge line to buy tickets for the ‘mazes’ (which for the record weren’t mazes at all; more like haunted houses), but luckily an employee came to us to sell wristbands so we got out of line… and then back IN line for the attractions themselves. Gotta love theme parks. The first haunted house was Bayou Hazard; according to the 6 Flags website “a local is running an illegal packing plant as you take a tour of this cannibalistic facility”… but you’d never know that from the (non)maze itself, because it was so full of dry ice ’smoke’ and strobe lights you couldn’t see anything. I guess it was scary in a jumpy way because you couldn’t see the scary actors coming through the fog, but you couldn’t see ANYTHING, so it could have just been an empty building and it would have been just as scary. (Actually, there was one room – supposedly the meat-packing room I guess? – where you had to go through ‘blood-stained’ plastic to get inside and that was kinda creepy, but that was it.)

The other (non)maze, Holiday House of Horrors, was a lot better on the scary front. Each room represented a different holiday portrayed in a totally screwed up way, and you could actually see the decorations so that was fun. You also knew there was going to be someone jumping out and scaring you in every room, but you didn’t know what they’d be dressed as (except that it would be holiday-themed; I think the demented Easter bunny was the freakiest, but the leprechaun was scary too) or where they’d be. Most of the decorations had a fence around them and the scary character would be in there, but in the very last room – the birthday room – the clown was standing in the middle of the path! We all just stopped and were like “nope, not going through” lol. (We did make it through eventually. But seriously, you let the clown out unleashed? That’s just mean!) So that haunted house was a lot better than the first, both because you could see enough to be scared and because having your childhood effed with is always a bit frightening.

Kaeli spent the night at our apartment but had to go back to PUC this afternoon for a study session. But, before she left we made delicious (and adorable) Halloween cupcakes! Today I have a ton of stuff I need to do after my Week of Sick: clean house, do homework… but I also want to get pumpkins to carve (later) or maybe even paint or decorate. We have tiny pumpkins decorating our house but no big ones outside, and I desperately need to remedy that – there’s less than a week until Halloween, and I must milk every holiday for all it’s worth! =)