Way back in Indiana
I moved back to Indiana and am in my house with my two roommates. On the way I got a flat tire in the middle of Ohio. The funny thing is I had packed my trunk full and had my bike rack on. The inside of my car was not very full. I thought about what a pain it would be if I got a flat tire since it would be under everything in my trunk and I'd have to take my bike off...well I found out what a pain it was. I was driving through a construction zone with no shoulder, just concrete barriers. This prevented me from being able to pull over when I realized there was something wrong with my car since there was no shoulder. Sure enough I passed by a sign so I could tell AAA where I was and then saw I had a rear flat tire. I called AAA but decided to move all my stuff ahead of time so I moved my bike and unpacked my trunk on the side of the highway. Luckily I could fit almost everything in the rest of my car. While I was getting my spare out a big company van (like electricians or heating/cooling people drive) pull over and this older guy got out to help me. I thought he was with AAA but he said he wasn't. He found out that I was lacking a lug wrench (to get the tire off) but he had one. He also had an air decompresser to fill my spare. By the time he was done AAA came. Luckily my spare was a full size tire and fairly new so I could drive on it all the way to Indiana. During the first couple days I got the tire debacle figured out, I ended up having to buy a new tire to match the spare, and then put the older one in the trunk.
Arriving in Indiana did not improve my luck since there were tornado warnings everywhere. I don't think there actually were any. I spent the next three days unpacking all of my junk, found out I neglected to bring any hangers, got groceries so I could eat, and had a ton of errands to do. I had to go get my loan deferred, turned in some forms, had a grad student lunch, bought new shoes including flats, went to the bank, worked the activity fair my club, and tons of other stuff. Our first week of classes was last week and I also had several meetings and taught my first labs, which I have three (and one that I sit in so I know what I'm doing, so four). I am taking two classes which look like a lot of work, wildlife bio and plant taxonomy. For wildlife we do a lot of field trips and stuff outside and for taxonomy we do a lot of plant collecting, it looks really hard. Plus I need to start analyzing data and writing my thesis. And I have more people than ever that I want to hang out with!
Last Sunday I drove to Bloomington to go out on the boat with Joel and his friends. I met his roommate for the first time and we had a great time chatting, I want to go back and visit them. It's a long drive though and a lot of my weekends have field trips or other things. Rob from verizon is no longer working here so he never comes up to Muncie so I haven't seen him in a long time, one of us would have to drive. I also have a friend that graduated and is living and working near indy that I'd like to see. He's married and has a house but we get along really well (surprise surprise). Plus I just met someone through my club that is working in Indy on energy legislation. He graduated this year and is getting support from around the state so we had a meeting about it. We got along really well too, he is from Michigan and said we could go on a road trip up there sometime. Besides that I went to a comedian with Courtney my roommate and we also bought shoes together, went to the gym with her and Victoria, friend from last year and we went to see Post Grad together too, went to a toning class with Victoria later in the week, and the three of us and my other roommate went to a bar downtown on Friday. It has three hundred beers or something like that, so I had to get beer (they have nothing else). It was ok but it was very hot and smokey. I had about one and a half and we got some pics and I even saw people I knew and listened to a good band. Saturday Stephanie, Victoria and I went to the farmer's market. I got a ton of peppers, some tomatoes, and zucchini. Saturday I had a long list of things I needed to do: shopping, laundry, cleaning the kitchen, I swept, fertilized my plants, and then I found another thing to add. When I went to put my bathroom rug in the washer the rug wouldn't come off the floor- it was glued to it. This happens when it gets wet and doesn't dry right away I guess. The rubber backing was all stuck. I looked up online how to get it off and started using an old credit card to scrape it. The rubber disintegrates into powder and its a big mess. I moved on to an ice scraper to work faster and eventually got it all off, but the floor is slightly tinged now. When I went shopping I bought a small towel instead.
Saturday afternoon Carissa came over and we had a good talk/caught up. She had been working at the bookstore a lot plus working Saturdays for our late night program. Her husband just got a job in Kansas City, he graduated already, so he is moving out there soon. This makes me sad because she is a very good friend of mine and will be moving there after this semester. After that the roomies and I went to get groceries and I even saw Carissa at the store so we shopped together. At 5 the roomies and I went to a house party, but not really a college party. Their dept is pretty close-knit and this was a beginning of the year party with all the grad students. Everyone brings something to eat/drink and we all sit around talking. I was invited (or asked to be) because I room with two grad students in their dept and I know a few of the other students as well- plus everyone heard that I got engaged and wanted to see my ring! There were quite a few people there, more than 20. I talked to the people I knew and heard some funny stories and ATE. I had a hot dog and a cheeseburger, some veggies and fruit, and then two huge cookies and a cookie cake square, yum. I also had these caramel bugles which were so good. Elizabeth from their dept had a Halloween party last year that I went to and we talked about a formal party I wanted to have at my house. We decided on a cocktail party where everyone dresses up and it's going to be a wine and cheese theme. I am really excited about it and we will have fun decorating. It should happen in the next month or so, we need to decide a date first. I am excited about dressing up!
So you can see that this semester is going to be very busy socially and academically. I need to make sure I have time for making dinners, this week it was hard. Luckily I have no night classes, but I do have meetings. I took Saturday to clean the kitchen because I know I will be pretty busy, I just need to vacuum my room. Movies I have seen- Post Grad, In Bruges, Bee Movie.
Arriving in Indiana did not improve my luck since there were tornado warnings everywhere. I don't think there actually were any. I spent the next three days unpacking all of my junk, found out I neglected to bring any hangers, got groceries so I could eat, and had a ton of errands to do. I had to go get my loan deferred, turned in some forms, had a grad student lunch, bought new shoes including flats, went to the bank, worked the activity fair my club, and tons of other stuff. Our first week of classes was last week and I also had several meetings and taught my first labs, which I have three (and one that I sit in so I know what I'm doing, so four). I am taking two classes which look like a lot of work, wildlife bio and plant taxonomy. For wildlife we do a lot of field trips and stuff outside and for taxonomy we do a lot of plant collecting, it looks really hard. Plus I need to start analyzing data and writing my thesis. And I have more people than ever that I want to hang out with!
Last Sunday I drove to Bloomington to go out on the boat with Joel and his friends. I met his roommate for the first time and we had a great time chatting, I want to go back and visit them. It's a long drive though and a lot of my weekends have field trips or other things. Rob from verizon is no longer working here so he never comes up to Muncie so I haven't seen him in a long time, one of us would have to drive. I also have a friend that graduated and is living and working near indy that I'd like to see. He's married and has a house but we get along really well (surprise surprise). Plus I just met someone through my club that is working in Indy on energy legislation. He graduated this year and is getting support from around the state so we had a meeting about it. We got along really well too, he is from Michigan and said we could go on a road trip up there sometime. Besides that I went to a comedian with Courtney my roommate and we also bought shoes together, went to the gym with her and Victoria, friend from last year and we went to see Post Grad together too, went to a toning class with Victoria later in the week, and the three of us and my other roommate went to a bar downtown on Friday. It has three hundred beers or something like that, so I had to get beer (they have nothing else). It was ok but it was very hot and smokey. I had about one and a half and we got some pics and I even saw people I knew and listened to a good band. Saturday Stephanie, Victoria and I went to the farmer's market. I got a ton of peppers, some tomatoes, and zucchini. Saturday I had a long list of things I needed to do: shopping, laundry, cleaning the kitchen, I swept, fertilized my plants, and then I found another thing to add. When I went to put my bathroom rug in the washer the rug wouldn't come off the floor- it was glued to it. This happens when it gets wet and doesn't dry right away I guess. The rubber backing was all stuck. I looked up online how to get it off and started using an old credit card to scrape it. The rubber disintegrates into powder and its a big mess. I moved on to an ice scraper to work faster and eventually got it all off, but the floor is slightly tinged now. When I went shopping I bought a small towel instead.
Saturday afternoon Carissa came over and we had a good talk/caught up. She had been working at the bookstore a lot plus working Saturdays for our late night program. Her husband just got a job in Kansas City, he graduated already, so he is moving out there soon. This makes me sad because she is a very good friend of mine and will be moving there after this semester. After that the roomies and I went to get groceries and I even saw Carissa at the store so we shopped together. At 5 the roomies and I went to a house party, but not really a college party. Their dept is pretty close-knit and this was a beginning of the year party with all the grad students. Everyone brings something to eat/drink and we all sit around talking. I was invited (or asked to be) because I room with two grad students in their dept and I know a few of the other students as well- plus everyone heard that I got engaged and wanted to see my ring! There were quite a few people there, more than 20. I talked to the people I knew and heard some funny stories and ATE. I had a hot dog and a cheeseburger, some veggies and fruit, and then two huge cookies and a cookie cake square, yum. I also had these caramel bugles which were so good. Elizabeth from their dept had a Halloween party last year that I went to and we talked about a formal party I wanted to have at my house. We decided on a cocktail party where everyone dresses up and it's going to be a wine and cheese theme. I am really excited about it and we will have fun decorating. It should happen in the next month or so, we need to decide a date first. I am excited about dressing up!
So you can see that this semester is going to be very busy socially and academically. I need to make sure I have time for making dinners, this week it was hard. Luckily I have no night classes, but I do have meetings. I took Saturday to clean the kitchen because I know I will be pretty busy, I just need to vacuum my room. Movies I have seen- Post Grad, In Bruges, Bee Movie.