Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tag - you're it!

Student government elections are so ridiculously intense!

I talked to Muhi who is running for Maize and Blue president (which is what I voted for), and some other random guy for Unity Slate sort of followed me after Muhi left to talk to me. The politics in this are unbelievable! I've heard some real crazy stories about what people on each side will do to win a vote or put the other party to shame. It's sad that politics are just this way but I'm pretty happy that there are such dedicated students out there vouching for things I didn't realize the student body had any power over.

On a separate note, the weather this week has been incredible so far (I'm sure I don't have to convince you - if you're in the area, you know what I mean).

Yesterday, carpooled with Steven and studied for Econ with him. It gave me an excuse to be late enough for work that I didn't have to go. I don't usually play hooky but I have to say, it was really nice to get out of class and have the rest of the day under my control instead of booking it to Ricardo. And Steven and I got to geek about our aquariums (his 60 gallon looks amazing and I am jealous!)

Speaking of which, I've decided that at the end of the semster, I'm going to do 1 of 2 things:
- Completely scrap my 25 gallon and start a saltwater tank since I don't have the money to buy a BioCube or
- Move my 25 gallon's gravel into a new 20 gallon, temporarily move what are left of my fish to my 5.5 gallon, and start over with the 25 gallon picking and choosing which of my plants and fish I want in that aquarium.

For sure, I need a centerpiece fish. Either a dwarf cichlid or an angel fish. I'd really like a discus fish but those might be too high maintenance for me to handle.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Undeveloped thoughts

Spent the weekend nights with D, Tom, and Alandra and got to see Ava yesterday!

And spent the majority of this past Saturday doing a real thorough cleanup of my room, the bathroom, and the laundry room. Unfortunately while my bed sheets were in the laundry, Romeo puked on my bed twice (bleh) so I have to figure out what else I can do to clean it off.

Worked on my tanks a little bit too. I'm thinking when the semester is over, I'm going to sell my unwanted fish and unwanted plants back to Choice, move my wanted fish and wanted plants to my other tank, scrap the entire tank's setup, and start a saltwater tank. It'd be prime to buy a BioCube because those are more for saltwater tanks, but unfortunately, I don't have that kind of money to burn :(

I recently started a new scrapbook for myself. It'll be a compilation of major events in my life of 2007. I've never completed a scrapbook for myself before, I don't think. But I've made many for other people. What I really need to do is get a big scrapbooking bag with tons of pockets so I can organize the ridiculously large amount of equipment I have, but again with the money! I can't believe how expensive those bags are!

Anyway, Catherine moved in with Gary because her apartment lease is up and they're getting married in August anyway. She gave me this awesome crockpot because Gary already has one. It has a deep lid that I suspect you can flip upside down to use as a tray or to heat something else, and the pot itself sits on this heating thingie that you can also use as a skillet! For the first time, I can say I successfully made chili for the first time this past week. The recipe called for garlic, which messed it up a little, but now I know not to use it. The best thing, too, is that I bought these new Reynold's slow cooker liners that came with a little booklet of recipes. When I was done with the chili, all I had to do was throw out the liner and wipe down the moisture that collected on the lid.

I have a couple other things but I'm getting kinda drowsy...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Makes for a funny story I guess

Last Friday, I was at the Michigan Collegiate Fair as one of Ricardo's representatives. What was ironic, though, was that I should have been on the other side of the table as one of the students visiting booths. Most candidates I even talked to were either graduating, graduated, or going back to school for another degree and I am barely and undergrad. One of the perks of going to these things: they had this amazing buffet for the employers and employer representatives. I walked off to eat lunch and take a look around and Lynda was like "Just don't get another job!" Ironically, little do they know, I have been applying to a ridiculous amount of other summer internships that are mostly out of state.

My mom's birthday was this past Friday and we ended up celebrating on Monday at Tuesday's (when she said she wanted to go to Tuesday's, I thought she meant she wanted to go on Tuesday). She likes it there because they have this great salad bar (all-you-can-eat of course).
Friday night, D was supposed to get home from Europe but instead, his flight from JFK to Detroit got canceled. From there, every possible thing that could have gone wrong, went wrong. All night, Maggie and I were trying to figure out what to do. If he took a bus home, he'd have to take 4 suitcases with him on a taxi for almost an hour to Port Authority before getting on a 15 hour bus ride and paying extra money for having so much luggage. There were no more cars to rent except round-trip cars, and even if he could get a car, he would have to pay extra for not being at least 25 and then drive through the bad weather. There were no more train tickets available for the time being, and the airline reps told him the earlier flight out to Detroit he could definitely reserve a ticket for was Monday afternoon. It was such a mess. Saturday, he was supposed to get put on 3 different flights - one was a standby flight that he waited in line 3 hours for, and the third flight was delayed 3 times before finally arriving in Detroit 10:15pm (over 24 hours since he was supposed to be home). His luggage was on the previous flight he was supposed to be on to top it off.

The first thing we did Saturday was rent The Terminal and laugh about it :)

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Love and hate

Easy
Too easy
To give into the words that you say
Stupid, stupid, I must admit

It's really weird because... doesn't it seem like the people you love the most also hurt you the most? I feel like people who want what's best for me end up upsetting me more than anything.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

For what it was while it lasted

I had a conversation last summer with an old friend about wishing to never see someone again. I'm not trying to sound like a suck-up or anything, but I don't think I would ever wish to never see someone again. I might not want to see someone for awhile because of a grudge, but in my head, it makes sense to eventually see that person again (even if not to reconcile).

Someone that has hurt me - I would like to see again and find out if he/she has changed. I think we talked about this the most, actually. Even someone such as my father, eventually I would want to find him, call him up, ask him out to lunch, and tell him after years how I feel about him and what he has done to me. It might be painful, but I would hope that somehow, I could either gain some kind of closure or even better, we'd have the opportunity to start over. At the very least, I might find out he has not changed a bit and then I could just disregard the whole thing. Not that I would ever want to be, but maybe a person has to be unforgivably hurt to wish never to see someone again.

Someone I really cared about but lost touch with - I would like to see that he/she has become successful and maybe have the chance to reconnect. I wouldn't want to grow old and realize that along the way, I never tried to express appreciation to people who have mattered and made a difference in my life. This is why I love reunions. I mean, in the first place, how does a relationship with important someone even fade away?

Someone I didn't really care for - well why not see them again? It is only another opportunity to give them or get another chance to be more than acquaintances. Or I guess it could just confirm what you already think about them. It's like kids that hate certain types of foods and then grow up to realize the really like it.

Someone I have a deep history with - I don't think (up until maybe recently) I have been in a situation where I have no communication at all with someone I had a deep or lengthy history with. Even Kyle and I are still great friends and keep in touch every week or so. I think maybe I would like to see him/her again to see where life has taken them from the person I once knew well.

Someone I never really knew but should have - I was thinking recently about relatives on my dad's side of the family and have been wondering what they're up to. I don't even know how I'd even begin the search to find my cousins on his side. The last I remember, a few of my favorite older cousins were in the army in Taiwan. Maybe about 7 years ago, I saw them in uniform for dinner for about half an hour before they had to return to their base... which means by now, they could be married and even have kids.

Am I just being naive? It's just that I always wonder if people I remember will remember me.

I usually don't do these quizzes

Top Twos

Two Names You Go By:
1. Tamster
2. Tams

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Plaid PJ pants
2. Old sweater

Two Things You Want in a Relationship:
1. Motivation to be something more (for self as well as each other)
2. To always make each other laugh

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:
1. This is dorky, but work on my aquariums
2. Get-togethers with good friends

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. To be done with the semester
2. To find out I got into a summer internship I applied for

Two pets you had/have:
1. Romeo my Havanese puppy
2. Hammy, a hamster I had when I was younger

Two top friends:
1. Ummmm
2. Too many I want to list!

Two things you did last night:
1. Had a really great drink
2. Worked on a 3000 piece puzzle, hehehe

Two things you ate today:
1. A creamy soup
2. Salmon for dinner

Two people you Last Talked To:
1. Dusan
2. Mom

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1. Picking up Steven to go to school
2. Going to Ricardo

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Christmas of course
2. 4th of July for fireworks and stuff :)

Two favorite beverages:
1. Apple juice
2. Pepsi

Two of your least favorite things to do:
1. Study for or attend math class
2. Wake up early

Two things you want to do before you die:
1. Live in NYC or Taipei for a year or even summer
2. Learn to drift properly :)

Two things you absolutley cannot live without:
1. My puppy!
2. My loaner laptop - haha

Two things you'd change about yourself:
1. Trying not to be cynical and stingy about things so much
2. I'd want to be able to laugh things off more easily too

Two things you would take back:
1. A lot of things I've said
2. A lot of moments I've wasted

Two foods you love:
1. Potatoes of any kind - mashed, sweet, baked, fries, hash browns, redskins...
2. Steamed veggies

Two foods you hate:
1. Tomatoes!!!
2. Hmmm... not a big fan of olives

Two favorite resturants:
1. Macaroni Grill
2. Brann's

Two favorite places:
1. Curled up under my covers
2. Driving in my car

Two fears:
1. Doing progressively worse in school
2. Not being financially independent

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Sluggishness mess

While catching myself in the middle of a sentence today, I realized there are some things I hate to admit about myself because I don't like the way they will sound out loud.

I don't want to make excuses for myself, but lately, I think I have become lazier than I was before because I'm a lot less motivated and interested. I'm starting to realize I don't really like working at Ricardo anymore. I'm starting to think kind of badly about a lot of people I work with, which annoys me. I feel like I can never catch up with the endless amounts of "intern" work (to put it nicely) everyone has for me. But simply, I'm starting to feel bored with nothing new lately or no one new, and I'm starting to daydream more than I actually pay attention to reality.

Itching to find out if I received any of the out-of-state summer internships I applied for, I'm also nervous to maybe have to find out I was not accepted and will have to spend another summer doing what I've been doing. In general, I think I'm ready to be somewhere new, do something new, see something new, and meet new people. Does this have something to do with the fact that I've been in Novi/Northville almost my entire life? I feel like I have never really established myself here the way I would like, and I still don't think I'm doing a good job of it during my first year at UMD. I guess I just want a new and different chance to try - or do I just want a different situation to confirm I really do have my priorities all wrong?

The other night, I took Gabe to Jay's new school to introduce the two of them since Gabe is becoming more interested in martial arts. Er I should say... UFC (which is not martial arts). Jay had me go out on the floor and train with everybody (me in my jeans and T-shirt too). Usually when I do this, I just need to refresh my memory before I'm caught up to where I left off. However, last night, I came to a complete brain freeze and still could not complete forms and routine training practices we used to do after working through the motions 3 or more times. I don't know why, but this bothers me a lot realizing that one of the things I've been most passionate about, I didn't even stick to.

Although I have always, always thought I should strive to grow up and be a completely independent and business-driven woman, I recently had a strange, opposite thought: I think I could easily be happy just tending to my various hobbies and taking care of a house/family. Not to offend anyone, but up until now, I would have never allowed myself to be this before being that independent and business-driven woman (especially after seeing what my mom went through in her marriage - I've seen the importance of establishing a "me" before anything else). In fact I could even say I sort of looked down on girls who don't have a personal ambition before wanting to be a wife and mother.

I had a conversation with Natalie at dinner earlier today about someone who purely wants to marry her boyfriend right out of college. She's somehow convinced she'll be making a ridiculously high salary being a family psychiatrist or at least be able to spend the money he'll have (I guess you have to know these two people to understand the irony of this). Needless to say, their relationship is an absolute mess too.

While questioning why long-term satisfaction doesn't motivate me as much as it should, I wonder why I talk gun-ho about becoming successful. But right now, I'm lazier than ever. Is it me who needs the reality check?

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Don't get arrested

The other day I was getting on the highway and in the little triangle of grass between 8 Mile, the 8 Mile ramp onto 275, and 275 there was a man on his knees with handcuffs on and he was surrounded by cops!

Went to GLR: 548 made it to the semi-finals, Novi was 1/3 of the alliance that won, and PCEP didn't do so well. And a funny story: one of those freshman girls on the PCEP team turned around and told the team "on the count of 3, everyone yell 'Lindsey shake your booty!' " so everyone stood up and someone was trying to get Marty to get Lindsey's attention (and that one song "Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture" was on too). It was sooo funny, she started cracking up and doing this weird dance-y thing and I was just cracking up.

Went to have dinner with Colleen afterwards and was thinking on the way home about how we because good friends. Her ex was best friends with an old crush I had and the four of us went to homecoming my high school freshman year. Now, we've dropped the boys and we're really close :)

Saturday, March 10, 2007

With a sense of poise and rationality

Went to the Pistons vs. Bulls game a few weeks ago (where everyone boo'ed every time Ben touched the ball) - hands down, the loudest game I've ever been to! We won by a 2 pointer Webber shot in the last 2.2 seconds:

When I really think about not going anywhere for spring break, it's okay because I tell myselfI'll just wait until I've graduated and have a job. Then I will have to money to really enjoy myself, take a good two weeks without having to worry about coming back to school, I'll be old enough to go to Vegas to gamble and drink if I want to, I'll be able to spend a little extra money to upgrade to a nicer hotel... you know. Stuff like that. I ended up working most of the week but I did get to do 3 really cool things together since I had more time:

1. Ricardo hosted the annual Casino Night last Saturday. Since our company is small enough to have these little outings, they invited all the employees plus one guest to this banquet hall where there was catered food, a chocolate fountain with fruits and pastries for dessert, casino dealers, and a deejay for music. And yes, all those chips sitting in front of me are mine! Of the 9 people at out table, I wiped out most of them :) Until the last hand where I matched the last person left all in because I realized my funny money was not enough to win the grand prize.And to keep it going, D had some buddies and me over for euchre and more poker:
2. D's Aunt Martha wanted to get rid of one of her aquariums. He and I spend literally a day and a half taking apart, taking down, cleaning, and re-setting up the 40 gallon aquarium at his apartment. I am jealous - it has such gorgeous fish! They are mostly cichlids - two orange, one dark yellow, and two blue striped - but he also has a plecost*mos catfish (D says it's bad luck to spell out the whole name), a clown loach, an upside down fish that actually swims upside down, and a fish called a Daffodil, like the flower. We bought this great looking castle with lots of places for the fish to hide in because they are very territorial. It was hard though because they swim fast. Oh and there are 4 giant zebra danios as mediators but really, they just steal all the food.
3. I got my hair highlighted. I haven't done that in a few years since it's pretty pricey! But I also needed a haircut bad so I got it all done at once.After a month and a half of this on going thing, things with my mom are finally getting better. We talked about random things for like an hour yesterday while playing with the puppy. She was asking "how are things at work" and "how are things at school". Turns out, she was talking to a friend at work and decided she might want to start a blog or something so I was showing her one of the blogs I made about the pup.

Back tracking a little bit, my female guppies have been having baby guppy fry (did I already mention that?) About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I actually sat down to watch my fish while I was on the phone with D and my 2 pregnant guppies looked really fat so I separated them into the floating trap tank. I called it - I told him on the phone "This one looks so pregnant, I bet you if I sit here for 5 minutes, it will burst" and sure enough, within half an hour, one of my pregnant guppies had 2 fry! Unfortunately, the other pregnant guppy ate the second guppy less than a minute after it was born, and I got to see that too (blehh).

Tonight, Justin came over and me, Tim, and Justin were watching my pregnant fish again. I moved them back to my floating trap tank since they are the largest I have seen since the last time I watched them have babies. It was pretty much a replay of the last time I saw the births. We watched for about half an hour and when I thought I saw two tiny eyes poking out, Tim whipped out the camcorder and we watched in awe. To make a long story short, we watched and taped for 8 minutes and in the end, we concluded that what came out of the pregnant guppy was either a deformed and dead baby or it was a really really large, strange looking piece of poo. I really do think it's a dead baby though, but we have it all on tape either way.