FINAL FOUR!

Haha what a poser title. Anyways, I'm down to FOUR FINALS before the end of freshman year in college. Wow! Can I say it has definitely been a fantastic adventure filled with ups and downs (mostly ups!).

I find out if I get the job I really want by 6pm tomorrow. I don't think I got it, which I know will dissapoint me, but I've only known about it for 6 weeks and I've had my sights set on another job long before that. Either way, at 6pm tomorrow I will be more focused on finals than ever before, haha!

So heres my schedule!

Monday:
2-4pm: Hon Chem 2 final
4-5pm: run back to room, get physics materials, grab dinner somehow, sell chem book, run up to thaw
5-~7pm: Physics review session
7-12midnight: study DiffEq

Tuedsay:
10-12noon: Differential Equations final
12-1pm: sign a form for reimbursement, grab lunch, get diffeq books from room & sell them
1-12midnight: studying physics

Wednesday:
10-12noon: Hon Physics 2 final
12-1pm: get physics book, grab lunch, sell book
1-4:30pm: start packing & cleaning
4:30-5:30pm: meet with scene partner to go over final scene
5:30-7pm: eat dinner
7-whenever: pack, chill, relax

Thursday:
morning-11:30am: pack, call mom to check in with her, get everything ready for move out
12-2pm: performance final
2-3pm: get jeffs stuff and mine, put it in storage
3-4:30pm: move out
4:30pm: drive away from Pittsburgh never to return for FOUR months

whew! Add in hearing back from job applications and the stress level magnifies a LOT.
Anyway, just wanted to put that out there. I think this computer is getting turned off now until tomorrow morning because I have a hall meeting at 9 and then I want to study effectively until midnight, sleep, wake up early tomorrow, and study (and somehow eat lunch) tile 1:15 when I leave for my first exam! Yikes!

As of that point I will not update this for a while most likely, sooo

See you on the other side of the rainbow, where the grass is always greener!

--Rita

It's Raining Men...er...Hail...er...Rain...Hallelujah

So...let me quickly rave about the amazingness of today:

I. PLAYED. QUIDDITCH.

okay. seriously. This guy John has been trying to get University funding all year and a few weeks ago was like "forget it, we'll just do it on our own!" so last week they had the first meeting but only 4 people showed up (not me) so they ended up tossing around the quaffle.

This week, 12 of us showed up initially! (A 13th member came, luckily we were not sitting at a table, and luckily multiple people didn't get up first! haha...okay) So we went around saying who we were (most people were from 4th floor Forbes--represent!) and then we split off into teams.

Let me quickly say: the weather was cold, windy, a little rainy, and very very muddy grounds.

Okay, so we played and screamed, and yes, we were running around with brooms between my legs, 3 pvc goals on either end of the cathedral lawn, throwing playground balls as bludgers and a small pink soccer ball as the quaffle. We had bloody knees and muddy faces. Puddle splahes and mud rushes. But we had fun.

So much fun that eventually a Pitt News photographer came over, took loads of pictures of us, and talked to John (the unofficial president) and I think he's going to come back next week to (hopefully) write an article! I hope we get front page or close because that would be a lot of free advertising which would hopefully make us university sponsored by next year!

Okay, so that was fun. And I played for one hour, but boy is it a workout!

Back to the months of January, February, and March!!! Wow!

Well....uh..it's been half a semester, almost a whole one. I somehow slipped out of my anime phase after finishing Saiyuki (so good!) and attempting to watch InuYasha (I liked...InuYasha? dont get me wrong...but gosh it's SO LONG). I gave up at episode 11. I am not sitting through 167 episodes for a CLIFF HANGER ENDING. no way.

Anyways, classes have been decent. Chem has gone up (1st test was low B, second test- 98! A+!). Yeah. That's good. Physics went ok (I think I got an A- on the first test?) math...lets not talk about math (I tent to rant and rant about how unfair that class is...) Engineering is going. Our clients are nice, if kind of demanding and the project is fun, if kind of killing me slowly at the same time! Once the conference is over, I think I will feel a LOT better. And hey-- that's saturday! Then I just have to survive: a chem test, a physics test, a chem final, a math final, a physics final, a final scene performance. AND I'M NO LONGER A FRESHMAN! WHOA-OA!!!

Basically. And all that is going to happen in a very quick amount of time: 25 days! That includes weekends! Holy cow! And I still have $206 dining dollars to spend! umm. quick. that a little less than $10 a day. I can totally pull that off :) And I have 13 meal passes left. Excellent! Eat one meal every other day in market and I'm good to go.

The other exciting thing: my parents are looking into (as in actively trying to get) a townhouse in Ocean City!! HOLY COW!!! I just called them about it today, they're very active (for lack of a better verb) about trying to buy the town house, and are calling the bank tomorrow! yay! If everything goes through we will own this sweet 4 bedroom 3.5 bath townhouse right on the bay/beach! And the community is very nice: gated, private, with a restaurant, community center, and pool! And a private beach (v small though) but the normal beach is like 5 minute walk away or something. I dont know! My parents are taking me to see the community when I go home in 3.5(!!!!!) weeks.

anything else? Not really. I'm living in Forbes-Craig (the honors apartments) next year. It's across the street from an Art & Natural History Museum (!!!) and on the same block as a coffee shop, subway, quiznos, noodle place, indian restaurant and across the street is chinese, a grill, starbucks, an indian grocery store, pizza, and italian fine dining. The bus to go to the grocery store is across the street from the entrance to get to the building, the drop off is crossing the street to the next block! Basically it's very nice. I know a good 70% of the people staying in there next year (since the total capacity is 103 and a lot of them are from Forbes Hall). Jeff is even living on my floor! yay! I love honor's community so much. You just walk around, leave your door open, leave your game in the lounge, your books in the hallway, no one cares! It's like TJ all over again :)

Wow this ended up being a long post, but I guess I have a lot to talk about since January! Hah!

Let me quickly summarize the next 3.5 weeks incase I forget about xanga (oops) again until Summer (!?!? in April!?!?)

--Forbes Luau is this friday 9pm-1am
--then I wake up early the next day for freshman conference 8am-4pm (or so?)
--chem test the following monday, physics wednesday
--one last week of classes, plus a final presentation to my engineering client: that class is done on thursday the 16th
--sometime around here I have my bassoon solo! bassoon ends for the year (how does summer work?!)
--the weekend before finals I find out if I got my internship for the White House. Around this time I may or may not also hear from the US Patent & Trademark Office. Most likely not since the due date for applying is a few days earlier.
--a week (or half) of finals, monday is chem, tuesday is math, wednesday is physics, thursday is my performance
--thursday afternoon I move out and come home!!
--(the big one) May 21 I GET TO SEE COLDPLAY IN CONCERT WITH DOROTHY!!!!
--sometime around here I begin work for the summer!

ok! And thats the next 2 months for me! whoa! well atleast you get an idea of how the next 3 weeks are filllllled with activities and DOING STUFF. I don't know how I'm going to move out, I feel like I have so much more stuff that I started out with. heh.

anyways. I'll be (as they say in good ole canadia) oot and aboot until next time we meet!

--Rita

Let it snow!

Seems like something I should be saying from...ohhhh...last month? But this weekend saw quite a bit of snow which was fun, if sometimes incredibly cold! I also finished watching Escaflowne this weekend, and I realized I've seen the entire series already. Now I'm watching Saiyuki, which is a super long anime (170 episodes) about 4 guys (okay a priest and 2 demons and a half demon) that have to go to India to defeat these people that are trying to revive this crazy demon. Um, sounds weird, is actually really good.

Uh. Yeah. In other news-- Inauguration day is tomorrow! Crazy to think that most of my life (almost half!) has been spent with George W. Bush in office as president! Tomorrow is going to be crazy awesome, and I hope I get to watch some of the inauguration on TV, I might skip physics to see it, probably not though because I'm a good kid (haha!)

Hm, not much else going on. I'm starting the 3rd week of the semester tomorrow. Doesn't seem like a lot until I think that next Wednesday marks the first quarter of the semester-- whoaaaaa!

(random tangent) Mostly I miss hanging out with friends from home. Even more, lately I've found myself missing my friends from middle school-- I recently went back and scanned through my old entries- 8th grade seemed like such a blast (okay and I was an emotional wreck a lot of the time, buuuut lets ignore that!). Sometimes I feel like I don't fit in anywhere-- my theater friends are really into each other (in a good way!) and I know I distanced from them around junior year-- My band friends I really really enjoy, and I consider them to be my major group of friends from home now, but even so I feel out of the loop for only knowing them for about 2 years. My best friends from high school (the lunch group)-- we're all split up so I feel like they see each other and other people more. And m friends at college-- I like them, but sometimes I feel like I'm a bit too anti-social (like right now, Im watching anime, avoiding homework, and updating this weblog!). Oh well. Sometimes its fun to just sit back and observe.

or not. haha. When have I ever been passive? Anyway. That last paragraph was waaaay too touchyfeely. I need to end with something cool.

uhhh.

right okay. So not so cool. Bu-ut I really need to get a job this summer! Man I really hope I get to work at an awesome law firm this summer, whee-eeee! That would be awesome. Also I would really appreciate it if I could get into Yale 3 years from now! K thanks big-man-in-the-sky! hahahaha...

uh. yeah. Maybe I should sleep now...uh..yeah.

--Ritz Crackers!

I forgot this existed.

So I'm wasting time until I go to my client meeting at 4:00pm to meet with QoLT Center people about my engineering project. Uh my last update was summer? Oops. I should strive to write in here daily. I think my attempt was to make this a cool everyone-wants-to-read-my-thoughts type of blog, but really.

I discovered I'm a much, much more interesting person when I rant and ramble, although more than occasionally my emotional highs/lows made me cringe (especially during 8th grade--whoa was I crazy!).

Not much is going on here-- Hey I survived my first semester of college-- whoa-oa! I guess I'll do a grades breakdown:

Honors Chem 1: B (sucks, but whatever, I would have most likely gotten an A if my actual teacher had taught, but I'm not gonna bother complaining much :)...)
Into to Shakespeare Lit: A- (fighting with teacher to get it changed to an A, since an A- is a 3.75 and an A is a 4.0 (gpa wise) which will help my QPA)
Hon Physics 1: A- (woohoo! Online it was a B+ but thats wrong! awesome!)
Calc 3: A (easy class, very very nice teacher)
Hon Engineering Analysis 1: A (easy class, awesomely funny teacher)
QPA: 3.66 (I think? or is it 3.70? I don't remember.., either way its way above B+ (3.25) but lower than A- (3.75) sooo yes).

Buuuut thats my breakdown!

This semester I'm taking: Intro to Performance (basically a Theater 1 class), Hon Chem 2, Hon Physics 2, Hon Engineering 2 (more like community service!), Diff Eq

oh--and I'm learning the bassoon! CRAZY! I might do band next year-- we shall see.

Ummm not much else. It's normally sucky trying to write good/interesting stuff on here because most of my insanely awesome thoughts come as I'm walking to/from class or outside somewhere, basically away from any way of putting down my thoughts on paper/computer. But the one revelation I did come upon recently is that I notice that me (and I'm sure other people) we tend to always look towards the next thing: in elementary school we cant wait for middle school, in middle school its high school, in high school we want to go to college (or atleast be an upperclassmen, senior)), in college it's getting out. But I realized that I really should stop doing that. Just looking back over all these old entries-- especially the ones from 9th grade and (more importantly) 8th grade-- I remember so much and how much fun I had (or insanity in the case of 8th grade--haha!) and I think, I really should just slow down and enjoy things as they happen. If I keep setting these goals for myself (I can't wait for this break, or summer, or next year, or senior year, etc.) I dont take the time to realize that "half the fun is getting there". In the case of life so far (because most of my life so far has revolved around school), its much much more than half. Come on..I think of summers that get boring mid way because friends are gone, there's nothing to do, and life is generally too dull.

And on the verge of becomming much too philosophical I think I'll stop for now, also because I need to straighten my hair, and find a site that plays Escaflowne because I'm addicted to watching anime that I liked from 8th grade now (for instance yesterday I finished watching all 95 english dubbed episodes of Rurouni Kenshin! And I felt really sad to finish).

Annnd now I think I will attempt to find Escaflowne, dubbed in English! woohoo...(chem lab? what chem lab? haha).

over n out!
--Rita "Greek Salad" (can you believe that's from 8th grade!?) Pita

Why I like Xanga...

...I like it because it bothers Mike hahahha. Hi Mike.

Anyways, July has been totally uneventful. July 4 was a bbq and then getting soaked while parked on the side of Lee Highway watching ridic fireworks. That were actually pretty good. Work is boring as usual, but I use a good book and the internet and "The Impossible Quiz" that Janae and I are working on to get it through the day...or atleast to make it to lunch...

Everyone is coming starting tomorrow -cowers in corner- I really don't like my dads side of the family, they're either retarded or shallow...or both.

Like my cousin who is like 8 or something, yeah. His mom was like, "He got the best math student award when he was in 3rd grade!" and i was like, oh cool, how "he got a 38" "oh out of 40?" "no out of 100".

Dead serious. At that school "math genius" was a freaking Negative PHAIL.

Welcome to my idiotic family. Oh well ):

In good news I went to burlington coat factory today and picked up a nice dress :D yay. and I got my college bed set (comforter, sheets, etc.) today! Yay for twin extra long (seriously, extra long? noone is THAT big, and if they are they should request the extra long). Oh well, atleast im on forbes!

I'm really glad about Pitt so far, I was apprehensive at first, but my schedule is (somewhat) nice (except for the 4-6pm honors engineering analysis) and I like all the people I've met so far (EXCEPT MIKE HAHAHAH--jk Mike).

hopefully everything goes okay. also this was awesome but i was at costco and talking to my mom about how a nice TV would be..well nice. and she was like "oh like this one?" and starts dragging the box over and i was like ?! woman!? I dont need another grad gift! (I got a 32GB iPod touch, and (although I doubt it will ever show up) really nice Bose Headphones). But that's my mom for you.

La la la. In the meantime I am going to the Coldplay Concert!! Well, as soon as I buy the tickets, right now they dont really tell you what reserved 1, 2, 3 means, other than show price difference ($50, $75, $100). Soooo Yeah, waiting for more info on that, and then my sister and I can goooo yay!

Well this was sporadic. Oh well :D

Until I'm writing from the Underworld because my family killed me,

Rita