So.... i've never been tanning before. Never really found the need or thought it was that good to do. But we are going to Florida in a month and are going to be out in the sun for basically the whole day for two weeks doing research, so i thought i'd get a little bit of a tan so that maybe i wouldn't burn out there...and everyone knows i don't want a repeat of my last Florida trip burning. blisters hurt!!!

Anyways, it was ok. I went with Katrina. A little scary to go in the coffin like thing, but the standing up ones looked so small. I didn't know how clean it was though laying on that thing so that kinda freaked me out a bit. I heard before someone got some sort of bugs from laying on them. yikes!

ok well at least i tried it. it seems so many people go regularly. like at work during people's lunch breaks i hear them saying they are going tanning. that seems so crazy. but maybe its not. it doesn't take long and i didn't burn, so who knows. we'll see if i make it back...

Ok so I think I'll write about Friday even though i know I'm a bit late and its Sunday already. Friday was a good day. First, Walaboo, or (e:mike), and I went to one of my favorite places for lunch. It was formerly called the Juicery, but i think now they switched the name to Sue's New York Deli. It's like inside Shea's and has tons of vegetarian sandwich options and is really good. everyone should check it out. I recommend the Super veggie with that oh so scrumcious miso dressing. Even Walaboo is hooked and he's not even a vegetarian :-) Although getting there on the subway is always an adventure...haha those crazy underground things. Just like in the matrix! who would of thought they really existed! Thanks to Walaboo i know now. haha. i'm sure that sounds crazy because im sure everyone reading this has taken them before. oh well.

So then we decided to go to bingo before going out at night. Now i've maybe been to bingo like at most 5 times in my whole life and have never found it that exciting....but every once and a while it is fun. Although, usually half way through I end up wishing i didn't buy so many boards It seems they always call the numbers too fast for me and it gets tiresome starring at all those numbers for like 3 hours. I know, i know i'm going to be a terrible old person. But maybe Ill take up shuffle board. who knows. there must be more than bingo!

Ok well walaboo in his expertise could handle playing six boards in bingo as well as checking my boards and finding called numbers that i had missed. Thanks walaboo!!! I don't think i ever have gone to bingo and expected to win. I almost am sure i couldn't yell out bingo even if i did. and i really never thought i would win on friday. But, to make a long story short, i won the big game of the night... $350!! Here is a picture of my winning board. It was cover all and that orange dot in the corner is from walaboo's bingo dabber finding numbers i missed. but yeah when i won he yelled bingo for me and got the people to come over. The whole process was very embarrassing. Not only was i nervous that i would win but then they were like verifying my numbers and kept making all these mistakes and it took a really long time before they said i had a good bingo. My other big fear is calling bingo and then being wrong. but it worked out and i made a ton of money!



It was also really strange because like everyone we went with seemed to win. We went with Katrina and her family too, and her mom won $40 and little brother won i think $15. And Walaboo won too! So like when we were walking out people were saying how crazy it was that one table had that much luck. So although I don't think i'm ready to become a regular friday night bingo junkie, it did turn out to be fun.

Then walaboo, me and Katrina went to TGI Fridays and to some bars. But don't worry, i didn't spend all my money. I have a Florida trip to pay for! ;-)

I love it (e:julie). A true sacrifice!

I have this thing with people giving up stuff for lent just because its something you're supposed to do. If its done for the right reasons, fine. go for it. But it seems pointless to go though the motions and totally detach your sacrifice from the whole religious meaning/purpose behind it. As you probably can tell, I am not giving up anything for lent, nor have I since I was a lot younger. I think I would just feel hypocritical. Maybe someday I will feel its necessary or something I should do with the right reasons in mind, but right now, I just don't think like that.

But good luck to everyone giving up stuff. And remember its pointless to start something if you can't finish it. You guys can do it!

And remember, ill always be here to test that conviction -whether it be with a funny away message or profile that you just have to read (e:julie) or a tasty fast food snack (e:mike)
;-)

Here is the pic I've been promising with each entry!
This is the awesome present (e:julie) sent me. Its my favorite animal, the elephant, as a puppet! who wouldn't be excited over that...especially since it came in the mail. There are few things that top an unexpected package! Ok well thanks again Julie for the great surprise. It did make my week much better!

Ok. So i know its been a while since I last posted... life has been pretty hectic. If any of you were wondering, Florence is getting better every day and it looks like she will make a full come back!

I usually don't like to post without adding in a picture to make this more interesting, but I am afraid this time i do not have one. I'm at school working on a progamming lab that of course is not working. oh well. maybe another 20 hours of working on it will be enough to finish. These stacks and strings are getting all jumbled in my code. If i could stop procrastinating and get back to programming, I'm sure i'd finish much faster. haha. but sometimes i just need a break for it for a bit.

But the good news is i finally took the GRE's!!! I feel so much better -not that I know what I want to do with my life or what programs I want to apply for, but just knowing I took them makes it so much better. I did ok too! I think I'm just going to apply to the UB bio program and the Roswell/'UB program this month and see if I can find anything else I want to do. who knows. I'm not sure if I want to even jump right into grad school as there are so many different programs that I really don't know which one i want.

ok well I should probably get going to my lecture on the civil rights movement. this class seriously takes up more time than anything else!


you never know how things could be so different in you life until you hear about someone elses... wow

This is a picture of my fish Florence. She is a pink kissing gourami. I got her December 4th, 1994. I have had her for about 10 years and got her when she was pretty big...so she could be close to 11 by now. She was a present when i was in 5th grade for my first report card graded with numbers. I never knew how much a fish really has a personality, but i guess if you haven't had one around for 10 years you might not realize that. For example, every time i walk in the room she zooms to the front of the glass and starts kissing it with her lips while wiggling back and forth. I equate this to my dog coming to greet me and wagging her tail. Florence also is very curious and always comes to the corner of the tank where she can see out my door whenever anyone is passing by. Also, she can play this game where if you stand up in front of her tank, she will swim vertically up to the top, and if you squat down in front of the tank, she will follow you and swim down to the bottom. My point: fish aren't just fish, and this one sure does mean a lot to me! She got sick a few days ago, and only time will tell if she can recover. I know she is old for a fish, but I need her so all i can do is believe in her and know she's gonna try and be with me a little longer.

So today once again I did not have to work. Well actually I was called into work but I was not home. oh well. I went to Canisius in the morning to write down the ISBN numbers for the books that I need for classes. Books at the Canisius bookstore are so expensive and over priced. The books for my marine biology class (if i were to buy them from the bookstore) total to be $250. To me that is a crazy amount just for one class. So, I'm going to buy the books online and save some money. I can't believe how long it took for us to figure out you can get the books much cheaper online...many times for less than half the price in the bookstore. Although I always do worry that the books will not come or that they will not be what I expected. However, nothing tops the excitement of getting packages in the mail...even if you know what they are and they are just textbooks. I love the mail!

So after Canisius I did some shopping and then went ice skating with Katrina. I have not been ice skating since last year...and even then it was only once. Needless to say I was almost as rusty as my skates were. We went to the Amherst pepsi center for the ice skating. I had to get a new town ID card because mine had expired. The ID cards are such a good deal if you go ice skating a minimum of two times. This is because it costs $4 to get the card and then $3 ever time to ice skate. So, today it was $7 for a fun filled hour and twenty minutes of skating. But, the next time it will only be the $3 to skate. This is so much better than the $6 that they charge if you are not an amherst resident of if you do not purchase the ID card. Here is a pic of what mine looks like. Can you tell i love to use my camera phone??



Well lets just say after not ice skating in a while and having rusty skates I did manage to take a pretty good spill out there on the ice. Last time we swore we wouldn't go again til we got our skates sharpened, as its almost impossible to even stand with no edges on the skates. However, the sharpening was $6 and I only had 5 because for some stupid reason I left my other money in the car. And, the effort it would have taken to unlace the skates and go to the car to get the money just seemed not worth it. Lacing skates up is not the most fun thing to do. So, we decided to make do with our dull skates. However, some people were like twirling around with figure skates and making all kinds of dents in the ice. Now i'm not making excuses for my skating ability, but i do believe that the uneven and pitted ice did contribute to my falling. I fell straight backwards and came down on my back and wrists. I feel like i just re aligned my back...and not for the better. hmm..hopefully it will be ok tomorrow. I still do loooove skating...only next time I will have that sharpening done.

After skating we went to applebees for dinner. I had a coupon for two free menu items up to $20. Consequently, we got the most expensive things we could find and ended up only paying a little over $2 for the meal. what a deal! I wish i had more of those coupons!

While ice skating, Walaboo (or mike) called and wanted to go for coffee. We havent done anything all vacation, so we were excited to finally get to hang out. So, seeing as we were right by starbucks, we convinced him to cross over to the world of chain coffee shops and meet us. Hey, at least its not wal-mart, right Walaboo? ;) Katrina, Walaboo and I all had the Chantico, which is their new drink that is like thick, liquid chocolate. It's good, but I don't think I could order it every time. Anyways it was fun!

Ok well thats about my day...except the phone call that I just got from Julie an hour ago. I still can't believe that happened...maybe if you're lucky she'll post it. haha but I can't, I just can't.

This past Friday I didn't have to work all day! So, Julie needed to find a wool coat and boots before she left for Miami on Sunday. Yeah, I know what you're thinking...who needs a wool coat when they live in Miami. I guess it will be good for next winter though. Anyways, we went looking for one in all kinds of stores. We stumbled across some pretty crazy coats, so I decided to try some on. Can you believe they are selling these things??

So lately i've had this feeling like i can't split up all of my time. i feel pulled in different directions. i don't know. maybe its just something i'm imagining... but i feel like i'll never have enough time to do everything and see everyone. And, when i do have time, i don't use it for myself. its not like i lead some crazy, busy important life or anything, so why do i always feel rushed and like im running from one thing to the next?? hm maybe it will straighten out, but i really need to start doing stuff for me...like taking those stupid GRE's i've been putting off and applying to some grad schools.

Ok, so for Christmas i got the OC first season box set from Katrina. So exciting! I absolutely love that show. Oh yeah and my favorite shirt...ya, i think Seth has the same one as me.... at least its the same color. here, have a look for yourself...