My House Might Fall Down

1) As soon as I entered my house after returning from spring break, I was greeted by the oder of gas. My roommate Kathryn said she had smelled it since the night before when she had returned. We called the gas company and they sent someone out to investigate and recommended that we wait outside for them to arrive. It turned out that we had a major gas leak downstairs and that in order for us to smell it on the main level it had to first fill the entire basement. This meant that it had been happening for a while which is apparently really dangerous. Well, we lived.

2) After shopping for groceries I noticed a couple little black balls that resembled mouse turds in my cupboard. I decided that having mice would suck and so they could not possibly be poop or if they were it was from a long time ago. I ignored them and put away all my groceries. Well, today when I opened they cupboard, a shower of tortilla shells and plastic rained down and it was clear that mice had gnawed through and ruined my hopes of making burritos for lunch. They also left a bunch more little black feces everywhere. As I investigated further, the cupboard above was coated with poop and oatmeal which they had clearly been living off of for some time. I then entered panic mode where every sound was a mouse creeping up on me and every itch was one crawling on me. At this point, my worthless cat Pepper snuck up behind me and rubbed his tail on my leg. I just about died. I then yelled at him for not killing the mice. I fully expect to be killed by mice in my sleep tonight.

3) It is St. Patty's Day and I am part Irish. Yay.

Thankathon

So, I volunteered for a "thankathon" where you call up a bunch of scholarship donors and bother them during dinner and say thanks for donating to the U of I engineering program. It turns out I was the only one who volunteered, so the organizers of the event decided to have about 30 engineering student ambassadors (whatever that is...) pick up the slack.

Anyways, I got there late because of class and they had pizza there for us. After grabbing a couple slices I went to a seat and started cramming food in my mouth so I could finish before we had to start making calls. The woman in charge then announced that everyone there knew each other from the ambassador thing except for me so everyone should go around the room and introduce themselves... to me. I of coarse had a mouthful of pizza crust and could only say "hih djoopswenk, dnjaiwdpb." One by one, all thirty of the engineers turned towards me and introduced themselves. Awkward...

Also, I called about 20 people and mostly I just left messages on answering machines but the ones who I did get on the phone were far from thrilled to be bothered. Here is one of them:

EEEWWW!

Happy Valentines Day, But Infinitely More Important: Happy Lupercalia!

I like Valentines Day but only because it is usually associated with me eating chocolate and reading seductively corny one-liners. The real deal begins on February 15th with the Ancient Roman Celebration of the Lupercalia Festival!

Although I am sure that everyone else in the whole

world knows about Lupercalia and celebrates the fertility holiday with enthusiasm and vigor, I will list the steps involved in the very special day:

1) Gather outside the birth-cave of Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome, raised by wolves)

2) Get a priest to sacrifice a dog and a goat

3) If you are a guy: slice goat into strips, dip in blood, and run around slapping women with the pieces

4) If you are a girl: go to the nearest field of crops and wait to be slapped with bloody goat pieces. Don't worry, it isn't demoralizing because each time a dirty, blood drenched piece of meat touches your skin, you become more fertile for a year!!!

Thats pretty much the gist of it. So, have a fun Valentines Day but don't forget about Lupercalia on the 15th!

Arkansas

Right now I am in Arkansas. The high today is 68! Suck it everyone in colder areas. Only for today though. I will be back in Iowa and the coldness by around 2 or 3AM. At least its still gonna be warmer than MN!

Yesterday I got to run outside in shorts and a sports bra and then do strides on the 2009 NCAA National Championship Track. It is probably the coolest track ever.

Also, the meet is indoors on a banked track. The way the track is set up, lane 6 is at about face height and you can get all up close and personal with the person starting in blocks in that lane. Last night was the 200 and me and Brittany and Nicole stood by the start and put our faces right by the edge of the outer lane. If you wanted to, you could poke your head in there when they are in there starting pose and really freak 'em out. It was interesting watching how crazy intense their eyes were while waiting for the gun to go off. Well, thats all.

Basement Maze

For Lab today I had to find a mysterious room in the basement of the engineering building. I went down there and followed a guy who I thought was probably headed to the same place. Unfortunately all the hallways look the same and he was lost too. We wandered a little and then came across a professor and I asked him where to go. His directions were extremely confusing. He said to go all the way down the hall, around a corner, take the elevator, press the button with the W on it, go up half a floor, then go around another corner and the room was over there somewhere. Three of the elevator buttons had W's on them. We pressed one and thankfully guessed right and somehow got there only about 5 minutes late. I didn't think a map would be necessary to get there but apparently there are 2 basements and they aren't really connected. Maybe engineers should have designed it.

And So It Begins

Going to the first classes in a new semester is a game. Here is how you score each class:

Number of exams scheduled for the semester (Not including finals):

None = +3pts; One = 0pts; Two = -1pt; Three = -2pts; Four or more = -4pts

Time of Day:

Starts before 8AM = -5pts; Starts from 8-9AM = -3pts; Starts after 9AM and not a night class = +4pts (unless it interferes with practice); Night class = -2pts

How interesting is the teacher?

On a scale of excruciatingly boring (-3pts) to really interesting (+3pts)

Other:

If it interferes with other important activities (work/practice/etc.) = -5pts

If something makes your attendance required (pop quizzes, taking attendance, etc.) = -4pts

If the prof has an accent = -3pts (crazy accent) or +3pts (sexy accent)

The class doesn't get curved = -4pts

No partial credit = -4pts

Lots of required reading = -2pts

I was doing pretty good today until I got to my final class and the prof said "Zee three mid terms vill not be curved and no partial credit vill be geevin." ... accent (-3), no partial credit (-4), no curve (-4), during practice (-5), 3 exams (-2). Dang.