I forgot that I made plans with Patrick for Saturday-we were planning to go to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH (about a 2 hour drive from Ann Arbor). Cedar Point is a huge amusement park that has been rated the "best" seven years in a row. Patrick has been dying to go for the last two years, but never had the chance. So we made plans to go for the Halloweekend theme. Of course, I don't put this in my Palm Pilot (yes, I finally succumbed to technology) and so I forget that we made these plans. Bad Becca. Because I forgot about this, when Nate and Adam invite Patrick and I to the Michigan vs. MSU tailgate (extremely big rivalry game) they are throwing, I say sure. Keep in mind that neither Patrick or I had tickets to the game. I see Patrick and tell him about the tailgate I have committed us to and the look on his face reminds me of a little kid who had his favorite toy taken away and then had to watch as it was crushed into tiny bits. He reminds me that I promised him we would go to Cedar Point. I feel like an ass for breaking my promise, and promptly back out of the tailgate.
So, we go to Cedar Point yesterday. And it was a lot of fun. We got there at about 1 pm and left at about 11 pm. It was REALLY windy, and so a few of the rides were closed down for a time, but we rode the majority of what we wanted to. It is large enough that you really need more than a day to ride all the rides and see everything. We were so exhausted when we got back at 2 am that we went right to bed and didn't wake up until 10 am (keep in mind that this is also the morning after the time change, so really it was 11 am when we got up this morning).
Today, I went in search of formal attire. Unfortunately, I got a little desperate when I couldn't find anything that would not look awful on me and I bought a pink fuzzy sweater. At the time it made sense that it would work well with a black formal skirt. Granted, I looked like I was wrapped in cotton candy when I had it on, but at the time, I had just spent 4 hours looking for something decent (something that didn't look like it belonged on a beach, in the bedroom, or on a Las Vegas showgirl). Well, I brought this pink fuzzy concoction home and tried it on for Patrick who was not too impressed. I should have dragged him out with me in the first place. So tomorrow the pink cotton candy sweater goes back to the store. Did I mention I hate trying to find formal wear?
26.10.04
Realizing your big booty-ness
After realizing that I hate going to the Pilates class here at UM, I decided to take (yet another) tip from Gemma and try a place called Curves. I went there tonight for a free trial week. The price for Curves is actually a lot better than what they charge at the rec building here on campus.
Curves is a 30 minutes work out in which you move around a circuit of alternating resistence machines and recovery stations-optimally you go three times a week, but more if you feel the need. They help you monitor your progress and are very encouraging of your successes (there is a wall of "big losers").
The music was...interesting (at times hip hop polka and at others Spanish dance music) and there were "normal" women working on each machine. A pre programmed voice tells you when to move to the next station and every 8 minutes you check your heart rate.
So, in order to begin this program they weigh you (they don't care what weight you tell them you are), take all your measurments, check your body fat percentage and actually talk with you about your goals and health concerns. I have come to grips with the fact that I am not a small person...tonight I realized just how not small I am. It was a very humbling experience. I think when you are faced with the numbers I saw tonight you come to understand why they do this. It is one thing to know internally how much you weigh, how big your booty is. It is another to have it written down on a piece of paper, broken down by body part. It is scary. You don't realize how out of control it is until you look at a list of numbers that total more than your age.
So...I am going back tomorrow. I am taking the time out of my day to make time for my life. My needs. My health.
Besides it gives me an excuse to get off campus and drive Zoom Zoom.
Curves is a 30 minutes work out in which you move around a circuit of alternating resistence machines and recovery stations-optimally you go three times a week, but more if you feel the need. They help you monitor your progress and are very encouraging of your successes (there is a wall of "big losers").
The music was...interesting (at times hip hop polka and at others Spanish dance music) and there were "normal" women working on each machine. A pre programmed voice tells you when to move to the next station and every 8 minutes you check your heart rate.
So, in order to begin this program they weigh you (they don't care what weight you tell them you are), take all your measurments, check your body fat percentage and actually talk with you about your goals and health concerns. I have come to grips with the fact that I am not a small person...tonight I realized just how not small I am. It was a very humbling experience. I think when you are faced with the numbers I saw tonight you come to understand why they do this. It is one thing to know internally how much you weigh, how big your booty is. It is another to have it written down on a piece of paper, broken down by body part. It is scary. You don't realize how out of control it is until you look at a list of numbers that total more than your age.
So...I am going back tomorrow. I am taking the time out of my day to make time for my life. My needs. My health.
Besides it gives me an excuse to get off campus and drive Zoom Zoom.
22.10.04
Zoom Zoom
A few weeks ago Patrick's mom, Lois, drove up from NM to visit. She brought us chile, carne adovada and a new car. Yes...a new car.
It was a surprise for me, as she was originally going to bring up the "little truck" that I had been zipping around NM in for the last two years. She decided that the little truck had become too attached to it's life in NM and wouldn't do so well here in MI. She also thought that because it was an older truck (10 years), it might not handle the winters here in MI as well. So she asked Patrick if I still liked Toyota Rav4s, and when she found out I did, searched for the one she wanted. She found it in El Paso, TX. She flew down there and drove back to Santa Fe with it all in a day.
When she got here, she and Patrick came and got me and we went to her hotel to pick up "my truck" - I still thought that the little truck was what she drove out here in. We get to the hotel and I don't see the little truck, but figure it is probably parked around back. We all get out of Patrick's truck and Lois and Patrick are smiling - which makes me a little suspicious. Lois tells me (still smiling) that she isn't going to give me the little truck to drive - which makes me wonder why the hell she drove it all the way out here if she was flying back. She pulls out some keys and as she hands them to me says that instead she has brought me my new car. I look at her and can't really process what she is saying. So I ask her if this is a joke, because if it is, it isn't funny. She says no and points to a little tan Rav4 (that had been backed into the parking spot so that I wouldn't see the NM license plate). I look at Patrick, who is grinning from ear to ear, and I know that he has known about this all along. I go over to it and click the keyless entry and it unlocks. I couldn't believe it. Now, for the funny part. I have little to no voice - I had been squeaking all week. And so, now I am jumping up and down and I'm so excited and squeaking a whole lot. I sounded like a large rodent on speed. It was pretty funny.
The Rav4 is exactly what I would have picked for myself. I will try to post some pictures of it on here as soon as I can.
I call it "zoom zoom" because it isn't a truck or a car, and I am not one for saying "go get in the SUV". So Zoom Zoom it is.
It was a surprise for me, as she was originally going to bring up the "little truck" that I had been zipping around NM in for the last two years. She decided that the little truck had become too attached to it's life in NM and wouldn't do so well here in MI. She also thought that because it was an older truck (10 years), it might not handle the winters here in MI as well. So she asked Patrick if I still liked Toyota Rav4s, and when she found out I did, searched for the one she wanted. She found it in El Paso, TX. She flew down there and drove back to Santa Fe with it all in a day.
When she got here, she and Patrick came and got me and we went to her hotel to pick up "my truck" - I still thought that the little truck was what she drove out here in. We get to the hotel and I don't see the little truck, but figure it is probably parked around back. We all get out of Patrick's truck and Lois and Patrick are smiling - which makes me a little suspicious. Lois tells me (still smiling) that she isn't going to give me the little truck to drive - which makes me wonder why the hell she drove it all the way out here if she was flying back. She pulls out some keys and as she hands them to me says that instead she has brought me my new car. I look at her and can't really process what she is saying. So I ask her if this is a joke, because if it is, it isn't funny. She says no and points to a little tan Rav4 (that had been backed into the parking spot so that I wouldn't see the NM license plate). I look at Patrick, who is grinning from ear to ear, and I know that he has known about this all along. I go over to it and click the keyless entry and it unlocks. I couldn't believe it. Now, for the funny part. I have little to no voice - I had been squeaking all week. And so, now I am jumping up and down and I'm so excited and squeaking a whole lot. I sounded like a large rodent on speed. It was pretty funny.
The Rav4 is exactly what I would have picked for myself. I will try to post some pictures of it on here as soon as I can.
I call it "zoom zoom" because it isn't a truck or a car, and I am not one for saying "go get in the SUV". So Zoom Zoom it is.
20.10.04
Michigan voting
I can't vote in Michigan. On September 13th, Patrick and I went to the Secretary of State Office (kind of like a DMV) to register to vote. After waiting in line for 30 minutes we are seen by a woman who, I think, wants to deal with us as much as she wants an enema. We hand her our NEW MEXICO driver licenses and explain why we are there. She takes the licenses asks what our Ann Arbor addresses are (and continuously tells me that I don't have a "real" address because it is a residence hall), hands them back to us and says we should receive our voter registration cards in the mail within three weeks.
Three weeks pass. Neither Patrick or I receive our voter registration cards.
I go to the Secretary of State website to find out where I am supposed to go to vote and (wonder of wonders) neither Patrick or I are registered voters in the state of Michigan. We are nowhere in their data base. I check the web site more thoroughly to find that my address on my driver license, by state law, has to match the address on my voter registration card. Keep in mind that the reasons that I didn't get a Michigan license were because: 1) my NM license is good for another 4 years, and 2) I can't establish in state residency in Michigan because I don't live in a "permanent" residence - which means that I cannot get in state tuition.
So, I try to call the office and of course, can't find a number that connects to anyone. So I email their "help line", explaining my situation. In the mean time I figure I HAVE to vote somewhere and I am still a registered voter in NM, so I send in for an absentee ballot for NM (which, as we all know, only has 5 electoral college votes as opposed to Michigan's 17). I get a response from the Secretary of State's office today telling me that it was a "clerical error" and I would have to come into their office to fix it. The same was true for Patrick.
I suppose that I could just go in and "fix" whatever clerical error they made and set up to vote here in Michigan. But, I am going to just file my absentee ballot with NM. It may be only 5 votes compared with Michigan's 17, but at least I will have voted.
Three weeks pass. Neither Patrick or I receive our voter registration cards.
I go to the Secretary of State website to find out where I am supposed to go to vote and (wonder of wonders) neither Patrick or I are registered voters in the state of Michigan. We are nowhere in their data base. I check the web site more thoroughly to find that my address on my driver license, by state law, has to match the address on my voter registration card. Keep in mind that the reasons that I didn't get a Michigan license were because: 1) my NM license is good for another 4 years, and 2) I can't establish in state residency in Michigan because I don't live in a "permanent" residence - which means that I cannot get in state tuition.
So, I try to call the office and of course, can't find a number that connects to anyone. So I email their "help line", explaining my situation. In the mean time I figure I HAVE to vote somewhere and I am still a registered voter in NM, so I send in for an absentee ballot for NM (which, as we all know, only has 5 electoral college votes as opposed to Michigan's 17). I get a response from the Secretary of State's office today telling me that it was a "clerical error" and I would have to come into their office to fix it. The same was true for Patrick.
I suppose that I could just go in and "fix" whatever clerical error they made and set up to vote here in Michigan. But, I am going to just file my absentee ballot with NM. It may be only 5 votes compared with Michigan's 17, but at least I will have voted.
19.10.04
Getting Started...
It is currently fall break here at UMich. No one is around. Yay!
Yesterday Adam, Nate and I went to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard about 20 miles from here. As Nate said, "you haven't lived until you have gone pumpkin hunting with Adam...". It is like taking a 25 year old kid to a pumpkin patch and setting them loose. In a word...entertaining. The pumpkin patch looked like it had been through a war and lost-there were pumpkin corpses everywhere. Adam kept looking for the perfect one to bring home, love, and eventually butcher. He finally found one after much searching and it is now sitting between our offices surrounded by gourdes that he got from another apple orchard we went to today.
Adam's and my decision to seperate and work out of different offices is working out very well. We have our privacy and don't have to worry about how to schedule discipline or RA meetings so that they don't interfere with each other.
Patrick had his advanced nursing school interview on Friday and it went very well. He was charming and engaging and, he feels, he will really stand out when it comes to the selection process. Unfortunately, there are 125 candidates for 36 slots, but we think his chances are good.
Our seven year anniversary is November 5th. We haven't been able to spend our anniversary together for the last two years because of his position as a Field Secretary with FIJI. It will be nice to be with him for this year. The FIJI colony here in Michigan is being chartered that Saturday (the 6th) and it is a formal affair that I have to find a dress for. I am not good with "formal" attire. I hate looking for it, trying it on, and of course wearing it. Unfortunately for me, I have to find something that doesn't make me look like the hippo from Fantasia (the one in the pink tutu). There will be a lot of important people at this event and I have to look half way decent.
Joanie is pregnant again and is doing well. There was an initial scare this past week because an ultrasound turned up something that looked like a molar pregnancy. This is not a good thing.
If you go to the link it will tell you more about what a molar pregnancy is. http://my.webmd.com/hw/being_pregnant/hw165879.asp
Fortunately, it was a misdiagnosis and both mother and baby to be are fine.
Yesterday Adam, Nate and I went to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard about 20 miles from here. As Nate said, "you haven't lived until you have gone pumpkin hunting with Adam...". It is like taking a 25 year old kid to a pumpkin patch and setting them loose. In a word...entertaining. The pumpkin patch looked like it had been through a war and lost-there were pumpkin corpses everywhere. Adam kept looking for the perfect one to bring home, love, and eventually butcher. He finally found one after much searching and it is now sitting between our offices surrounded by gourdes that he got from another apple orchard we went to today.
Adam's and my decision to seperate and work out of different offices is working out very well. We have our privacy and don't have to worry about how to schedule discipline or RA meetings so that they don't interfere with each other.
Patrick had his advanced nursing school interview on Friday and it went very well. He was charming and engaging and, he feels, he will really stand out when it comes to the selection process. Unfortunately, there are 125 candidates for 36 slots, but we think his chances are good.
Our seven year anniversary is November 5th. We haven't been able to spend our anniversary together for the last two years because of his position as a Field Secretary with FIJI. It will be nice to be with him for this year. The FIJI colony here in Michigan is being chartered that Saturday (the 6th) and it is a formal affair that I have to find a dress for. I am not good with "formal" attire. I hate looking for it, trying it on, and of course wearing it. Unfortunately for me, I have to find something that doesn't make me look like the hippo from Fantasia (the one in the pink tutu). There will be a lot of important people at this event and I have to look half way decent.
Joanie is pregnant again and is doing well. There was an initial scare this past week because an ultrasound turned up something that looked like a molar pregnancy. This is not a good thing.
If you go to the link it will tell you more about what a molar pregnancy is. http://my.webmd.com/hw/being_pregnant/hw165879.asp
Fortunately, it was a misdiagnosis and both mother and baby to be are fine.
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