* tiny but powerful *

Life is crazy right now, and only getting crazier. I have my first final tomorrow morning. Yes, seriously. But at least it's not cumulative (so more like a 3rd midterm. Boo again to my classmates). And...well, you don't want to get me started listing everything else.

I'm actually doing better than my recent posts have made it sound. I'm just tired and happen to blog when I'm cranky. There's a lot going on. Anyway, to balance things out a little bit, here's a list of recent Happy/Good/Yay:

1) I managed to get an A and an A- on my two Music 42 papers. Whoa.
2) Chi-En and I found a summer apartment in Atherton. Nice, clean, cute, and well-priced.
3) We had one last "for old times' sake" reunion-hangout with me/Eric/Bryan/Kari last Saturday. See here for a 2001/2004 picture comparison and the subsequent hilarity (be sure to click on the comments).
4) Three Tmony May birthdays --> three successful surprises. Fun!
5) I played frisbee for the first time in my life, at the RUF end-of-the-year picnic. Someone finally taught me how to throw, and then immediately pulled me into a game of ultimate. (It was fun until more boys joined and they got competitive.)
6) Castano will be Alto Central next year. I REALLY want get into somewhere on east campus, either through waiting list or walk-ons (I haven't been assigned yet). I know there's no realistic chance of getting into Castano, but I can pray!

Well, back to studying. Sigh. How am I going to get through two more whole weeks? Only by God's grace...

As hard as it is to adhere to my principles, it's even harder to violate them. Which is FRUSTRATING as heck.

I would say more but I shouldn't. Which is ALSO FRUSTRATING.

1) Tango sucks. I hate it. Boo to SD3.
2) I decided to take senior portraits for the yearbook after all. I'm much more a part of the Class of 2004 than 2005.
3) My action group had our goodbye dinner tonight. I guess this is really it, after two years with these girls. Wow.
4) Old dreams die hard. Most of the time I'm totally fine, but man, every once in awhile I'm really not.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB! (Big letters, not medium!)

If I end up being a teacher, I'm going to make sure that the kids who don't pick things up as quickly won't get left behind in the wake of those who understand everything with much less effort. I really promise myself that.

I am SUPER ANNOYED at my ChemE classmates. They all voted to have the 120B final midterm NEXT Thursday. What the heck??? I'm already stressed out about a big research paper draft due next Friday. And I don't care if I made all of them mad for being the one person preventing the 110 final from being scheduled for Dead Day (the following Thursday). BOO TO THEM. I have a presentation to give on the last day of classes, and two Music finals on Friday. Can we stop moving things EARLIER already?! Ugh.

In happier news, I managed not to bomb last week's 120B midterm. I was actually near the mean this time (and the standard deviation was huge, something like 16). Thanks, God. But now I just have another exam barreling toward me full speed.

Happy Birthday to David Scudder!

Does anyone remember the Monday morning that I freaked out because I completely forgot about a weekend-take-home midterm for Music122B which was due in class at 1:15 and I didn't remember about it until 11:30? (I still have no idea how I managed to do that. So completely ridiculous.) Well, I somehow got a 96 on that exam. What the heck...

I also managed to turn in a paper this morning. On time. In a class to which I did not arrive late. And the paper wasn't just barely the minimum length. Yay.

In other news, Big Dance came and went. I'm glad it's over. I think it went well, but I was mildly sick through the whole night, in addition to being exhausted from not getting enough sleep the entire preceding week, so I wasn't dancing very much and I had to take a couple short naps in the lounge (at 10:00pm and 3:30am). I did manage to make it alive through the end of cleanup the next morning. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the decorations into which we put so much hard work. (Side note: Many thanks go to the other Gang members who helped out me and Becky since half of Decorations minions completely flaked. Also many thanks to the three minions who WERE faithful and amazing, including Jenn!) By the time we were finished, I was too tired to care. If anyone happened to take pictures of anything, I'd appreciate if you'd send them my way. Also, if you haven't seen the three different Big Dance t-shirts (main design, Triple Crown design, and Gang-of-13 design), you should, because they are cool.

So in the wake of Spring Show and Big Dance, I am now sick. Half of Testimony is also sick, and so is my Decorations Co-Chair. I do not think this is a coincidence...

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

As part of my first-round interview for Foundations for Education this Sunday, I have to give a 5-minute lesson utilizing a whiteboard. What should I teach?

So I'm actually really annoyed by the new Blogger interface. I liked having everything in separate parts of the same window so I could refer to different things while still being on the Post page. But I know I'm just really strongly a creature of habit, so hopefully I'll manage to resign myself to the new design soon. In the meantime, though, I'm annoyed.

Wow. God is AWESOME. Spring Show was great last night (despite many technical difficulties) -- thank you to everyone who helped out and came to support us at the show! (Stories to follow later, I hope.) Then, tonight Testimony had a fun evening singing at Santana Row. We went out for a celebratory dinner afterward, and the group presented me with their thank-you gifts for the end of the year! It's all amazing! They gave me a special stuffed dog from one of those Build-A-Bear Workshops, and a HUGE card (more like a poster!) covered with a photo collage and messages from everyone in the group. Wowww. Thank you so much, Tmony! (They said it was especially fitting to give to me on Mother's Day, since I'm the Tmony Mom. Awwww.) And my room has pretty flowers that the group gave me last night at the show. They just keep giving me stuff! They're so sweet. I love you all. :)

That's almost it for Testimony for me. In the coming weeks we only have a couple dorm shows, finishing recording the track we started in March, and our End-of-the-Year Party. (Of course, there's still O-Show and auditions next year, but that'll be under next year's leadership. Which I think will be fun.) I don't think it's totally hit me that I won't be a part of Tmony next year, but that's okay because there isn't time to dwell on that just yet... Now that Spring Show is over, I can concentrate on my Decorations duties for Big Dance. It's going to be awesome -- SUPERDANCE!

Also: Happy Mother's Day! and Happy Birthday to my dad!

Happiest of Birthdays to Eric Lowe!!!