There was everything to say...

Dear body,

There are many times you can feel sick. I don't generally care which of these you choose. HOWEVER.

After having been sick with a horrible cold, from APRIL 15 to MAY 3 (let's count that, shall we?? NINETEEN DAYS SO FAR), it is NOT OKAY to suddenly have weird, headache-plus-nausea dizzy spells. OKAY? It is ESPECIALLY not okay to have these vertigo spells the NIGHT BEFORE the Japanese senior capstone project is due at 10 AM. I do not have time nor patience for this, body. You need to feel well. I am giving you water and food. I am lying down and trying to do this project. I have been sleeping nearly enough. YOU NEED TO STOP FEELING POORLY, BODY. YOU NEED TO. THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL.

Grrrrrrr.

Please someone make the misery go away.

Dear Money-grubbing, Mother-fucking, IGNORANT Assholes:

You are motherfucking tearing up the trees on MY and MY NEIGHBOR'S street. You do not indiscriminately WHACK BRANCHES OFF TREES. This HURTS THE FUCKING TREES. I do not care that you have recently bought the Chinese house from Macalester. I do not care that your house is motherfucking enormous. You sent a shitty letter out to all of the neighbors about how you were going to move the house some time. You did not care to tell us "Oh, but I will also be MASSACRING the TREES." Oh no, you didn't want to tell us that. We might have, oh, I don't know, OBJECTED?!

Well, I may not have a lot invested in this street, but FUCK YOU. That pisses me the FUCK off. And all my neighbors, standing out in our pajamas, glaring in outrage. And when we found you, you fucking stupid piece of pony-tailed, trucker-capped, hick-voiced, smoke-reeking "house recycling" money-loving, dollar-signs-for-eyes, SHIT--you better fucking believe we gave you an earful. I'm proud of my neighbor Peggy. She yelled at this mother fucking asshole who tried to SNEAK IN at THREE in the fucking MORNING to rip the shit out of our trees to move his ENORMOUS FUCKING HOUSE through.

And my other neighbors are going to call the city and alert the media and get this fucker taken DOWN.

Because if you're going to fuck with us, we're going to fuck with you--you haven't seen the last of the residents!

I HATE PEOPLE LIKE THIS. "THIS BRANCH/TREE/WETLAND/ECOSYSTEM/ENVIRONMENT IS IN MY MONEY-HUNGRY WAY, SO I WILL REMOVE IT. "

I hope you rot in hell and the house is infested with bugs. Or burns. BEFORE you can make a red cent on it.

Tee hee.

One more thing off the list of dooooom before graduation!

I presented my capstone today and it went better than I was fearing. My advisor sat in the back with her baby, who stayed remarkably quiet for the fifteen minutes of my presentation. I sounded less nervous than I did in practice alone.

Also, my scenes are going well, and we practiced The Kiss today. The Kiss was not practiced at all until today. I'm glad we did; now we're not standing awkwardly at the end of the scene, waiting to hear if our director wants us to practice it or not. I think it went well; I was able to not feel awkward about being kissed in front of someone else by a guy I don't know very well. PS he is not slobbery either. Not that I expected him to be.

So onward, with the writing of the thesis, the translating of the Japanese, the presenting of the translation of the Japanese, the writing of the RNAi paper, the writing of the grant proposal, and the editing of the screenplay.

I'm feeling better today.

Hey guys,

So it's that time of year. When all us senior kids have presentations or art shows or recitals or various and sundry Things That Show We Learned Shit the Last Four Years.

My senior presentation, about squids, is on Tuesday, April 24 (that's tomorrow), at 3:45 PM, in Olin-Rice 250, if you'd like to come. I won't be crushed if you can't or don't--it's not that big a deal to me or anything. If you do come I'll smile and give you a hug, if you don't I'll smile and give you a hug.

But it is a good chance to hear what I've been doing in the lab the last few months.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Fuck being a senior, fuck my capstone, fuck other people, fuck fuck fuck.

And fuck CENSORED!

Yesterday I was doing a phenol extraction, taking DNA out of a low melting point gel, and I somehow got some phenol inside my glove, just a little. Says wikipedia:

"Exposure of the skin to concentrated phenol solutions causes chemical burns which may be severe; in laboratories where it is used, it is usually recommended that polyethylene glycol solution is kept available for washing off splashes. Washing with large amounts of plain water (most labs have a safety shower or eye-wash) and removal of contaminated clothing are required, and immediate ER treatment for large splashes; particularly if the phenol is mixed with chloroform (a commonly used mixture in molecular biology for DNA purification)." In fact, I WAS using phenol mixed with chloroform. That was a delightful smell.

Anyway, I'm fine, but I have these two little whitish places on my hands, one on my pink and one on the ball of my thumb. It stung when I got them, but they don't really hurt now. When I realized that my pinky was STINGING, I snatched off my glove and saw a weird white patch on my hand, so I rinsed with water for about five minutes. Now all is well.

After doing experiments, I went home and changed for circus class. Circus is awesome. Yesterday we were on a swing type thing called the Russian swing. It is a suspended platform about four feet long, and it swings (probably all the way around, although we didn't do this) from a bar above it. One person stands on one end and provides momentum, and another person stands with their back to the first person. At the height of the swing you can jump off and go flying in the air. Many people in the class did not go flying as they didn't understand how momentum works, or were afraid.

I'm not sure why, although it certainly has to do with playing on the playground and with Hannah and jumping on trampolines and stuff, but I got it right away. You step on when your end of the swing is lowest to the ground, and push off so that you keep the momentum going. Then you pump a little and turn around, and jump into the air when the momentum can push you up high. I love it. I think my body understands being in synch with something or someone else's movement.

They told me I was really good at flying.

Then we went to the trampoline and I learned how to flip and land on my feet, which I've never been able to do. However, at one point, I jumped and decided to do a flip, but failed to complete the flip. I then landed on my face.

Ow.

Fortunately nothing bad happened, as my arms were up, but my nose did hurt for a while. Also fortunately, nothing happened to my nose piercing, so it's all good.

Anyway, that was my evening. I also saw a transgender spoken word performer and he was awesome.

Meme from Carly:

Think of 10 things that you like that start with the letter 'T'. Comment if you want a letter.

1. Trees
2. Tea
3. Teratoma (just the word)
4. Thrift stores
5. Talents
6. Tents
7. Tightrope walking
8. Trapeze
9. Text
10. Turquoise

Happy Birthday to me!

Okay. Before anyone else asks:

I cannot get my tonsils out until I have had AT LEAST three instances of tonsillitis in the space of a year. This is now my third time, so I will talk to someone about getting them out. However, it will be difficult to plan--I've got a busy semester coming up and I don't want to be flat out on my back for 10-20 days (according to wikipedia). And honestly I don't want to be out that long anyway. That's a significant portion of your life. I mean, I guess all the time I've spent with tonsillitis has been about the same, but...

Anyway. I'm on antibiotics and I'm able to eat again, so I'm happy. I still feel tired and it's still hard to talk, but I hope to be better by Sunday, or at the latest Thursday, as that's when we leave for Chicago for choir tour.

Otherwise I am doing well. Thank you.