Word

elizabeth

Yesterday was my birthday. Now I am 25.

I am shifting into being called "elizabeth" rather than "liz," although I don't think that will ever be a complete change. It's okay to call me liz, but to the new people I meet, I will introduce myself as elizabeth.

We'll see how that works out. Luckily, I can change my mind if I want to!

I am staying up ALL NIGHT tonight because I have a bazillion things to do

None of which include posting in my weblet, but here I am anyway.

The worst part about it is that I could totally find things to fill my time with - real things, too, not simply fluff - like homework and back work and things like that. And I won't get everything done.

But it was either stay up all night tonight and get a little ahead so that I can sleep this week or stay up late every night this week.

Holy Goodness!

I went to the doctor and he asked me if I was stressed out and I said are you kidding me? This is college!

Alaska Pics

No moose, but apparantly they have them...

Nate climbing the snow piled in Denali

Mountains

Birch trees (I got snowed for this photo)

Some clever ways to stay awake

Tired? Falling asleep over your homework/work/knitting? Well, here are some clever ways to stay awake, as employed by yours truly (or maybe not):

1. Caffeine in one of its myriad of manifestations - coffee, tea, coke, and chocolates.

2. Running around your house and/or block a few times. With no pants on - that should get your adrenaline flowing.

3. Crank calls.

4. Distracting yourself from your primary task by convincing yourself that your CD collection really does need a new filing system (alphabetization is so last year).

5. Speed.

6. Propping your eyelids up with little stilts that you've cleverly fashioned out of toothpicks and cotton balls.

and finally, my favorite (this one really is a classic):

7. Going to bed and convincing yourself that you'll have enough time to finish it in the morning.

How about you? Any other ideas?

Pantera

Actually not Pantera. Pantene Pro-V, but I started to type "Pant" and figured that Pantera was a way cooler title.

Today I went to the Eastern Illinois Food bank with the National Interfaith Day of Youth Service. We sorted out shampoos and stuff that been donated, mostly by the companies themselves because the bottles were broken or whatnot.

Which meant that a perfectly good case of shampoos would be considered donateable because one bottle got out of hand and caked its fragrant contents all over the other bottles and the boxes. So we sorted them out and broke down the boxes.

Which meant we got a lot of shampoo and soaps on our hands. So there was a mixed feeling of "eww" and "mmm, this smells good" from the participants.

It's sort of a paradox - dirty soap?

Which reminds me...

My parents once bought me a bike that cost $7 from the local Goodwill. They drove it over to where I lived in Columbus so that I could use it to get to and from classes.

The bike was actually in pretty good condition for $7. The only thing that was amiss was that it was old - the rubber on the brakes, for instance, had hardened the way an old pencil eraser does. It will still erase, but you really have to chew at it to get a good grip.

I was riding my bike to class one day, and I entered campus. This was great, because although no vehicle traffic was allowed, the students pretty much stuck to the sidewalks still, and I could have free use of the street. I would plan ahead and scan the crowd to see if there was any interesting movement that signified a crossing pedestrian, and I was pretty good at it.

There was a little dip in the road right before a big hill, and I usually took that as fast as I could to pick up speed for the hill. I was heading down this dip and had found a spot in the crossing foot traffic to pass through, when a fellow suddenly decided he needed to be going the other way. I hit my hard eraser brakes with all my might, but it was too little too late. I ran right into the guy, and not only that, my front tire went right between his legs, hitting, what I presume, was a rather sensitive area.

We both stopped and I began to apologise profusely. I asked him if he was all right and he said he was, but I can't help thinking that he was only trying to save face in front of everyone. I felt awful.

Needless to say, I check my bike brakes every so often. It's not happened again, but my record with bikes isn't the greatest. I need to keep it careful.