So, Eric and I went out October 16th and bought rings kind of on a whim. We'd been looking for a while, but we just happened to be at the mall, went looking without really an intent to buy (at least I don't think there was an intent, lol) and found a ring that I really like, so we bought the engagement ring and both wedding bands for a very good deal. We had to get mine resized, and we were told it would take a week to get them back (which would have been October 23rd). So, a few days go by, and on Oct 21st, after I got home from school, I heard our home phone ring, which I never answer, and the message came on the answering machine... "This is Bernie from Littman Jewelers. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but we got a new manager in [at this point, I was starting to panic, thinking this new manager didn't like that we were given such a good deal... yes, I really do live in my own little world], and there was a mix-up with the jeweler. The rings will be delayed about 7-10 days..."
Grrr. You can imagine how disappointed I was--I was expecting to be proposed to that weekend, dammit (little bridezilla that I am, lol). So, in order to make me feel better, Eric suggested we just go out to dinner that weekend anyway, and even get dressed up. I liked the idea, and ran with it.
So, Saturday comes around, we get all dressed up, get in the car, and it starts raining. Well, whatever, we had an umbrella. We go to Wawa for gas, head to the restaurant, and it starts to POUR. The restaurant we were planning on going to required walking a block from the parking lot, so I suggested we just turn around and go to Bacco, the restaurant Eric had kept trying to gently talk me into, lol. At least at Bacco, we wouldn't have to walk in the rain.
We get to Bacco, and I was really quite impressed. It was such a cute little restaurant. We ordered our food, Eric talked me into ordering wine, and we sat back to listen to thunder and the rain pouring on the building. I kept catching Eric trying to hide little smiles, and he was talking about how it would have been the perfect night to propose (I was starting to suspect at this point, but I didn't think in a million years that he'd be able to talk Bernie into leaving that message), and then he suddenly got down on one knee, and pulled out a piece of tissue paper with a ring--I was seriously expecting him to have a sort of "temporary" ring, but nope, he had the real thing! I was shocked! I never thought he'd be able to talk Bernie into leaving that message!!
I immediately called my family (literally two minutes after he proposed), and we were served champagne while the other waitresses came up and congratulated us. :)
Yay, I'm engaged!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Woohoo
95.5% on the organic chemistry exam. Class average was 79.4%. I still didn't get the highest grade, dammit. Lol, that's okay though. I probably rushed through it a bit.
I'm also down almost 18 pounds. I'm at the weight I was when I was 20-21 or so. Yay. :)
I'm also down almost 18 pounds. I'm at the weight I was when I was 20-21 or so. Yay. :)
As it turns out...
... I have a propensity for organic chemistry. I just find it rather easy. We had an exam yesterday, and I was done in 45 minutes. When I stood up to hand in the test, I think I heard someone say, "Are you serious?" My lab partner called me at 9:30 (I was done with the exam at 6:45) to ask where I went. He thought I had just left without taking the exam! He had just finished taking the test, and almost half the class was still there. I don't know what I got on the test, but I'm pretty sure I got an A.
Precalculus is also going well. We had an exam last week, and I received a 96% on it. The professor was much more pleased about the grades on this one... guess a lot of people are improving.
Sigh, biology. It's a subject that really fascinates me, but the whole memorization thing is just beyond me. I'd really like to major in something biology-related, but if I'm going to continue to just pull a bunch of Cs, there's no point, is there? I found a program at a school close by called Villanova. It's a 5-year BS/MS biology program that concentrates quite a bit on research, which is what really appeals to me. I'd love to do something like that... however, Villanova (like 99% of the schools around here) is expensive--$38k/year.
I sometimes feel like I have no options around here. Penn State has a campus near here... but they only have biology programs; no chemistry (not that I've made my mind up about what to major in anyway...). Plus, what can I really do with a chemistry degree? Teaching is not my thing.
Precalculus is also going well. We had an exam last week, and I received a 96% on it. The professor was much more pleased about the grades on this one... guess a lot of people are improving.
Sigh, biology. It's a subject that really fascinates me, but the whole memorization thing is just beyond me. I'd really like to major in something biology-related, but if I'm going to continue to just pull a bunch of Cs, there's no point, is there? I found a program at a school close by called Villanova. It's a 5-year BS/MS biology program that concentrates quite a bit on research, which is what really appeals to me. I'd love to do something like that... however, Villanova (like 99% of the schools around here) is expensive--$38k/year.
I sometimes feel like I have no options around here. Penn State has a campus near here... but they only have biology programs; no chemistry (not that I've made my mind up about what to major in anyway...). Plus, what can I really do with a chemistry degree? Teaching is not my thing.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Oh, and the barracuda...
Is actually not a barracuda, hah. He's an arapaima (I know, doesn't look anything like a barracuda, but I've only seen him a couple times--I couldn't even find him in the exhibit on Saturday, which was a little odd). Here's a video of one being fed... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI9RGiibt7M
The sound doesn't do it justice. No, seriously.
Oh, and I've lost 15 pounds. :)
The sound doesn't do it justice. No, seriously.
Oh, and I've lost 15 pounds. :)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Aquarium Day 3
Before I get into the aquarium...
I'm doing poorly in biology. :( Precalc and organic chemistry are a walk in the park (so far!), but biology is just freaking hard. I don't know if it's the professor, the way he teaches, the fact that I haven't had a biology class in 12 years, or that I still haven't found a good way to study... but it just SUCKS. We had an exam on Wednesday, and I got a 78%. Unfortunately, I can't exactly blame the professor for my poor grade, because my grade ended up being the median. :( The good news is, if that's the lowest exam grade that I get, he'll drop that exam from the final grade. But I still have 10 weeks to go through with this crap, and so far, I'm only .1% away from having a C. GAH.
I'm finding organic chemistry a lot more intuitive for some reason (I have a 97% average in orgo, and a 95% in precalc). Maybe it's the professor, or maybe I just have a pretty good understanding of chemistry--for example, the professor showed us a reaction that I never realized could happen, but before she even explained it, I automatically understood how it happened AND why. Biology, on the other hand... I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on all of the concepts, but then he goes into the tiniest of details, which is where I tend to lose points. What really killed me on the exam was the stupid essay questions, which I've NEVER been good at--I got an 86% on the multiple choice questions, and 60% on the effing essay questions. ARRRRGH. It's really freaking discouraging.
Anyway.
Saturday was a mess. I arrived at the aquarium at 8:00, and searched all over for Tony. I was told he was in the Vern exhibit (where George the octopus resides), so I had to borrow someone's access key card to get in the building, but when I got inside, my own key for the exhibit didn't work. I knocked on the door, but nobody answered... I knew someone was in there, because I could see a pole in one of the exhibits being used to clean the glass, but he obviously didn't hear me.
I had someone else come over to try to open the door, but he couldn't find Tony, so I went back to the main building again. I had a guy named Dan page Tony, and Tony said he already had a volunteer helping him out, so I could find something else to do. Sigh. By this time, it was 8:30. So, I started off by cleaning out one of the exhibits that Tony used to work with (but now Dan is). A bunch of the starfish were getting pretty close to one of the drains in the exhibit, so I had to move them. I'm still getting accustomed to the various species, and having to touch them, etc., so when I tried to move one of the bigger starfish (maybe 5"-6" in diameter), I was surprised to see how strongly it clung to the rock. I called Dan over to help, as I didn't think I had the strength to pry it off, and I was also afraid of doing damage to it. Dan was surprised to see how hard it was to pull him off, and a bunch of the starfish's suckers were pulled off. He said that was normal though.
After that, I moved on to clean the sand of another small exhibit. I had to use a big siphon, and again, I couldn't get the stupid thing started. I must look REALLY helpless sometimes. A biologist (or volunteer, not quite sure) I'd never seen before saw me struggling, and came up to help me get the siphon started. Sigh. At least he didn't get a mouthful of water, though. HA!
For the next couple of hours, I was stuck doing food prep! I was lucky in the past in that I never really had to do much of it, but now I at least know how to do it. And I'm sort of getting accustomed to the grossness of the ordeal. I think cutting up the fish is the worst. The knives sometimes don't make a clean cut, and guts are always spilling out onto the cutting board. The large krill is a close second, mostly because they're thawed out before "serving" (:::shudder:::), so their bodies are all moist and jello-y. They're like the worms of the sea. In a bowl of pinkish krill bodies, the only other color is the black of their eyeballs, and it makes my skin crawl. Yech!
After lunch (well, not really lunch... I had half a protein bar, and couldn't finish the rest, what with krill bodies and fish guts swimming in my vision and ruining my sense of smell), I helped Dan feed a bunch of the fish in the various exhibits. We started with turtles. I think it's amusing--annoying, actually--how a horse could easily bite off my fingers, or turn around and kick me, and yet I'll hold out my hand to a horse without even thinking, but I flinch when a turtle reaches for a piece of fish between my fingers. Heck, even when I had a little feeding pole for these little 4" fish, I jumped a little when the first one took a bite of the food on the pole!
I guess Double Spot was moved out of quarantine and in with the main tank... so I didn't get to visit my favorite tiger shark, haha. I'll apparently be working with Dan from now on, which is fine with me... I like Tony, but he isn't as personable as Dan. All the guys I work with are total clowns, though! ;) As much as I want to leave Philly, I really will miss this aquarium when the time comes to leave.
More and more, I'm feeling really lucky that I was chosen to volunteer. Every other new volunteer that I've spoken to already has a biology degree, and has worked with fish to some extent (not including little 20-gallon tanks like I had, lol). I guess they kind of use this experience as a stepping stone to getting a job.
I'm doing poorly in biology. :( Precalc and organic chemistry are a walk in the park (so far!), but biology is just freaking hard. I don't know if it's the professor, the way he teaches, the fact that I haven't had a biology class in 12 years, or that I still haven't found a good way to study... but it just SUCKS. We had an exam on Wednesday, and I got a 78%. Unfortunately, I can't exactly blame the professor for my poor grade, because my grade ended up being the median. :( The good news is, if that's the lowest exam grade that I get, he'll drop that exam from the final grade. But I still have 10 weeks to go through with this crap, and so far, I'm only .1% away from having a C. GAH.
I'm finding organic chemistry a lot more intuitive for some reason (I have a 97% average in orgo, and a 95% in precalc). Maybe it's the professor, or maybe I just have a pretty good understanding of chemistry--for example, the professor showed us a reaction that I never realized could happen, but before she even explained it, I automatically understood how it happened AND why. Biology, on the other hand... I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on all of the concepts, but then he goes into the tiniest of details, which is where I tend to lose points. What really killed me on the exam was the stupid essay questions, which I've NEVER been good at--I got an 86% on the multiple choice questions, and 60% on the effing essay questions. ARRRRGH. It's really freaking discouraging.
Anyway.
Saturday was a mess. I arrived at the aquarium at 8:00, and searched all over for Tony. I was told he was in the Vern exhibit (where George the octopus resides), so I had to borrow someone's access key card to get in the building, but when I got inside, my own key for the exhibit didn't work. I knocked on the door, but nobody answered... I knew someone was in there, because I could see a pole in one of the exhibits being used to clean the glass, but he obviously didn't hear me.
I had someone else come over to try to open the door, but he couldn't find Tony, so I went back to the main building again. I had a guy named Dan page Tony, and Tony said he already had a volunteer helping him out, so I could find something else to do. Sigh. By this time, it was 8:30. So, I started off by cleaning out one of the exhibits that Tony used to work with (but now Dan is). A bunch of the starfish were getting pretty close to one of the drains in the exhibit, so I had to move them. I'm still getting accustomed to the various species, and having to touch them, etc., so when I tried to move one of the bigger starfish (maybe 5"-6" in diameter), I was surprised to see how strongly it clung to the rock. I called Dan over to help, as I didn't think I had the strength to pry it off, and I was also afraid of doing damage to it. Dan was surprised to see how hard it was to pull him off, and a bunch of the starfish's suckers were pulled off. He said that was normal though.
After that, I moved on to clean the sand of another small exhibit. I had to use a big siphon, and again, I couldn't get the stupid thing started. I must look REALLY helpless sometimes. A biologist (or volunteer, not quite sure) I'd never seen before saw me struggling, and came up to help me get the siphon started. Sigh. At least he didn't get a mouthful of water, though. HA!
For the next couple of hours, I was stuck doing food prep! I was lucky in the past in that I never really had to do much of it, but now I at least know how to do it. And I'm sort of getting accustomed to the grossness of the ordeal. I think cutting up the fish is the worst. The knives sometimes don't make a clean cut, and guts are always spilling out onto the cutting board. The large krill is a close second, mostly because they're thawed out before "serving" (:::shudder:::), so their bodies are all moist and jello-y. They're like the worms of the sea. In a bowl of pinkish krill bodies, the only other color is the black of their eyeballs, and it makes my skin crawl. Yech!
After lunch (well, not really lunch... I had half a protein bar, and couldn't finish the rest, what with krill bodies and fish guts swimming in my vision and ruining my sense of smell), I helped Dan feed a bunch of the fish in the various exhibits. We started with turtles. I think it's amusing--annoying, actually--how a horse could easily bite off my fingers, or turn around and kick me, and yet I'll hold out my hand to a horse without even thinking, but I flinch when a turtle reaches for a piece of fish between my fingers. Heck, even when I had a little feeding pole for these little 4" fish, I jumped a little when the first one took a bite of the food on the pole!
I guess Double Spot was moved out of quarantine and in with the main tank... so I didn't get to visit my favorite tiger shark, haha. I'll apparently be working with Dan from now on, which is fine with me... I like Tony, but he isn't as personable as Dan. All the guys I work with are total clowns, though! ;) As much as I want to leave Philly, I really will miss this aquarium when the time comes to leave.
More and more, I'm feeling really lucky that I was chosen to volunteer. Every other new volunteer that I've spoken to already has a biology degree, and has worked with fish to some extent (not including little 20-gallon tanks like I had, lol). I guess they kind of use this experience as a stepping stone to getting a job.
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