Michigan Getaway

Ahhh… That is the sound of me relaxing 😀 For the past day and a half I have been able to get away from the city and work to escape to our cottage up in Michigan.

It’s been so nice to just kinda take a break from the hustle and bustle that has been my life for the past couple of weeks. Things have been kinda crazy while getting Kristin moved home from her summer school dorm and then now she is going to be moving back to our dorm for the full school year on Monday! It’s kinda stupid that she couldn’t just move into her other room and just put her stuff there, but if she did that, Housing wanted to charge her $35/night! What kind of craziness is that?! 😛

But up here, it has been nice to just relax and get up when I want to, not have to worry about work, and just enjoy my time. It’s been an awful long time since I have been really able to come up here and spend some real time (more than a day trip) here. I had forgotten about the peace and quiet it brings.

Things have been relatively relaxed, but Kristin and I (she’s up here with me too) have been able to go out and about and do some things. Yesterday morning, we went out for breakfast to an old pancake shop that we used to go to years ago to see if they still carried their tasty pancakes, and they did indeed! We both got a thin crepe-like pancake that filled our plate! and, boy, was it tasty!!

Yummy Blueberry pancakes that filled our breakfast plates!

After doing some sightseeing (some unintentional due to wrong turns), we had come back and relaxed by taking a nap. (Food coma happens to the best of us, haha.) Later, we fought the engine to get started, but once we got it going, we were able to go for a nice lap around the lake before it got too cold. After coming back from the boat ride, we made some yummy garlic mashed potatoes to help us warm up from the belly-out 🙂

As we were warming up, Kristin and I decided to play some card games (Phase 10 and Uno) for a couple of hours. The end of Phase 10 came and we didn’t really come up with a clear winner! How does that happen? We both finished the last Phase and had the exact same number of points! CRAZY! Then I proceeded to whoop Kristin’s butt at Uno 😉

This morning has just been get up when we feel like it -I slept in until 9:30! I was so excited- yes, I know, it’s sad that I get excited about sleeping in until 9:30. Kristin went for a run, and now we are just chillaxing until my aunt and uncle and the dogs come up to the house to join us!

Maybe I will get to posting some pictures of the cove when I get everything hooked up from the camera…

Lunch time! OM NOM NOM NOMS

Wow, I can’t be consistent…

So I have just started to get going on the whole blog thing again because, to be honest? I just keep forgetting about it. I know, I know, not exactly helpful for when I am trying to keep everyone updated with my adventures, but the problem is just that I have to remember to talk about my adventures here on my blog! No, I don’t really do much on Facebook anymore- I mostly have it as a convenience to talk to other people and set things up, etc. I am not one of those people who is going to “check in” every time I go somewhere or constantly update my status. I really can’t even remember the last time I updated my status 😛

Okay, sooo let’s get to thinking about what has been going on since my last post.

• I finished my fall and spring semesters of 2012, which brought me to the half-way done point of my undergrad career! SCARY STUFF RIGHT THERE!
• In April, I had the opportunity to present some of my Linguistic Research to the UIC Liberal Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors (a board comprised of a bunch of alumni and the deans of the college of Liberal Arts and Sciences) in the SEARS Tower (I refuse to call it the Willis Tower on principle). It was REALLY COOL! While it was cool, it was pretty nerve-racking to have all of the Deans of LAS and various important alumni sitting there around the conference table STARING at you! But it went really well for giving a Linguistics presentation to a group of people who are not linguistically inclined.
• Also in April, I presented my research poster at the Spring Research Forum at UIC on my Linguistic research (maybe I will post my actual poster if I can find the JPEG version of it somewhere here in my ‘puter).
• May brought the end of the school year, which was kinda sad because my group of friends is splitting up a little bit because most of them are either moving into different dorm buildings or becoming RA’s. It shouldn’t be too bad though because they are all still pretty close and it doesn’t mean that we can’t hang out!
• June/July- I have been working downtown- still doing my swim lessons, but I have also started working in the Aquatics Office as an Office Assistant (unofficial “manager” position when the head honcho isn’t there).

So that’s the brief overview recap, but I have fun to post about this past weekend!

This weekend, I went sailing with my buddy, Jared, and it was a blast! I don’t really get to see him too often nowadays since he is down at U of I and with his internship he only really is in the area weekends. BUT we were able to go up to their sailboat this weekend and what a beautiful weekend it was! It was hot and sunny with a nice cool breeze so we could easily head out on the lake and get going under sail 🙂

The downside to the weekend was that I had gotten my face a lovely sunburn that is now starting to peel 😛 YUCK. I hate peeling, especially when it is on my face because then everyone can just look and see the different colors of the extremely dark pre-peel tan and then the red-pink “freshly peeled” tan look going on there. Of course I have been trying to apply lotion like crazy to help prevent the peeling, but I have a feeling that it was just too much sun, too fast (even though I had a pretty good base tan going) and therefore, I’m peeling. Then again, it also doesn’t help that I spend hours on end in a chlorinated pool that dries my skin out like crazy even when it isn’t already gasping for moisture…

Weird funny side note- alright, so there are some times that I have absolute downtime because a lesson didn’t show up or canceled or whatever and I just have 30 minutes or so to kill. During this time, I often let my mind wander while I sit in the hot tub. We have already established that I’m peeling right now, so my mind wandered to “Alright so I’m peeling, but I wonder what it would be like to be a reptile that peels? Like snakes- do they like it when they peel? Or is it just one of those “necessary evils” that they deal with because they need the new “skin” to grow and renew themselves?” Now even as I’m typing this, I find myself laughing because I’m weird, but at the same time, I would think that it would be interesting to know how they feel about it! I mean because it’s one of those things where we aren’t yet able to figure out what animals are thinking, but inquiring minds want to know! LOL

Alright, so enough random ramblings from me right now, I guess I will go and do something productive- or maybe have another cup of coffee and browse more of the internet before work lol. If you’re bored or interested, check out my other blog at Bill’s Chicago Growing Guide – it’s currently a work in progress (as all blogs are) but it’s still relatively new, so there isn’t too much on there yet, but check it out and leave suggestions for any plants you would like to see featured!

Catcha later! 😀

12/2/12 (I know, not a very clever title :P )

It is now just over a week since Thanksgiving and there is much hustle and bustle!

The week following Thanksgiving, I had my Hispanic Linguistics paper due and then various homework assignments. Now things are getting ready to wrap uf for the semester and getting ready for finals. 😛

This week I have 2 exams- 1 genetics exam and then my Linguistics Final exam. It’s going to be so much fun (yuck!). Then the following week (finals week) I have an 8am genetics final exam on Monday, and then 8am Ecology/Evolution final and 1pm Organic Chem 1 final on Friday. It’s good stuff.

Today I went to the Bears game with Kristin and had a blast! It was her first time ever going to a BEARS GAME (I know, you are all shocked! She hasn’t LIIIIVED! lol). But we had a good time and I actually didn’t have to do too much explaining of the game itself and even though the Bears lost (because they couldn’t continuously execute their plays worth a crap), it was still a good game and fun way to spend the day 😀

Now it’s going to be time for hw and getting ready for the week- so much to do and so little time! I’m looking forward to Winter Break!!!

Thanksgiving Break

Ahhh, so yet again I have managed to forget about this thing and its contents. There have been a couple of fun things in my life since I have last updated.

One of the fun thins is that I went to our Residence Hall Association’s Fall Ball at the SEARS (for those who are butts- the WILLIS) TOWER SKYDECK!!! It was SOOOO MUCH FUN! That was the first time that I had ever been there, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get too many good pictures (one, because my camera is not too fancy, and two, it was dark haha). But I had a good time dancing the night away!

I am still doing the Research Assistant thing at the BRL- that’s going well!

Classes this semester/year are much more difficult than last year- which, I guess was to be expected, but sometimes I just hate how I have to lock myself in my room and force myself to do hw! 😛

Working at the pool is still going well- I currently have a few private lessons, am helping a triathlete train for his upcoming triathlon in June, and still teaching the cute little babies on my Saturday mornings 🙂 BABIES ARE SO ADORABLE!!!!

It has been nice to be home and get to see my family and the puppy dog 🙂 Although, I will admit it has been kinda odd with how quiet it is here in the ‘burbs than when downtown. It’s almost too quiet when I go to sleep lol. But the break away from school is nice, even though I still have hw to do 😛

Wellll I think that’s all I really have for now! Hopefully see you soon!

I had forgotten…

Well HI THERE!

I know that it has been a crazily long amount of time since I have posted on here, but I promise that it was for a good reason! (Drumroll please…) It was because I had forgotten about this! Haha. It’s a lame excuse, I will admit that, but never said that it was going to be some sort of amazing reason! lol

So let’s do the quickie update on what’s going on in my life right now-

• moved back into my dorm room
• started back up with school (and the obnoxious amounts of hw that goes with it)
• started working as a research assistant in the Bilingualism Research Laboratory (basically what it means is that I get to help do “grunt work” in terms coming up with various stimuli that can be used in our experiments and then running participants through our experiments- nothing too glamorous, but hey, it’s a start in research 🙂
• relationship status changed from “in a relationship” to “single”
• still working at the pool teaching swim lessons- started teaching Parent Tot classes again (babies aged, 6-19 mo or 19mo-3yrs)

Overall, things are going pretty smoothly- I am getting along with my suitemates much better than I was last year.

That is all that I have time for- got to get ready for class!

Come back soon!

 

Waiting

Here it is 3 days after my last post and I really don’t have anything new and exciting to tell anyone haha. It’s been pretty boring in my life- just pretty much been working, eat, work, eat, sleep –> rinse and repeat.

Although, I will say something that was interesting was that my sister got her driving permit- jeeessh. There’s a scary thought. It’s not really a scary thought because I think that she would be a bad driver- but more of weird thought that my little sister is going to start driving in a year AAAAHHHH! (although I’m sure that it won’t be that bad.) I think the biggest issue that we are going to have with that situation is the use of the car/having a car do drive to our own prospective functions during the summer and breaks, etc when we are both home.

Basically I’m just killing time before I get something to eat for lunch because I had a 5 hour break in my lessons schedule today. I have already facebook-ed and checked and set several emails and even checked the remaining balances on all of the miscellaneous gift cards I have been carrying around with me in my wallet lol.

That’s all for now! Time to decide where to go for lunch 😀

Summer 2012 update

Well hey there! I haven’t even THOUGHT about this thing since I last posted in March.

After getting bugged by Hannah to update my blog this morning, I decided that I would post something updating the world (aka whoever reads this lol) about my life.

Well it’s summer! YAY NO SCHOOLWORK! It’s been a pretty low-key summer= nothing too crazy going on right now. I’m working 3 days a week teaching swim lessons at school and on the other days, I get to do various yard work and maintaining our pool, chauffeuring my sister around, etc. It’s not been too bad- definitely nice not having to work just about every day. Although I will admit that sometimes I go a little stir-crazy in the house because I want something different to do. It is those times that I normally go out riding on my motorcycle- especially if it’s gorgeously sunny. 🙂

I’m hoping that with the breaks that I have from work, that I will be able to go and have a couple of relaxing mini-vacations up to our lake house or to my Uncle’s to enjoy my days off (or even taking a few more hehehe 😉 )

I don’t really know how the rest of this summer is going to turn out, but I guess I will have to just wait and see! 😀

See ya!

p.s. maybe I will update a little more regularly than once every 3 months haha

Feelings of procrastination

Ok, so I know that it has been quite a while since I have last posted anything, but it’s time to get a bit of an update on what is going on 🙂

First of all, the Honors College Ball was a blast. I had so much fun dancing and joking around with my friends (pictures in the gallery). It was much better than I expected it to be (even though it was really hot on that tiny little dance floor hahaha).

Since then, things have been kinda crazy around here. I don’t know if it is just because it is second semester, or just because now I have actually started to hit some of the more difficult classes, but the work load is definitely a lot bigger than what is was last semester.

I don’t know what has been going on with many of the professors, but they have been going at light speed through several topics and we are expected to keep up. It’s really kinda nuts. But enough complaining.

What else have I been up to you ask? Well… I really haven’t been up to all that much. Amongst all of the hw and just the mere act of sleeping, it doesn’t leave too much time for much shananigans. However, we have been able to go to Target on Friday nights (I know, we are insane college kids always out partying it up… at Target) lol. Before coming here, I haven’t really shopped too much at Target, but Hannah absolutely LOVES going there, so normally on Fridays, we will go and stroll through the store and see what is on sale and what is interesting and if anything is new. Now of course we will get the necessities, but the strolling about is the more important and fun part hahaha 🙂

Recently a new book store opened up right across the street, and Hannah told me that some of the books in there are really cheap. This being the case, I may just have to go in and waste some major time there to check it out and see if they have anything really good. And if they do, well… let’s just say that my wallet will more than likely get a little lighter hahaha.

Today has been such a nice sunny day (along with the rest of the week) and it really makes me want to just procrastinate on all of my work and studying. I really just want to spend all of this time outside walking around and exploring and having a good time. BUT, spring break is only a couple days away, so I think that I may be able to hold out haha.

That’s all for now! Bye!

Exciting news

So I’m going to start this post off with some really fun and exciting news! I am going to be a Research Assistant next year!

A couple of weeks ago I applied to UIC’s Bilingual Research Lab to be an undergraduate research assistant. I had an interview on this past Wednesday, and I got an email yesterday inviting me to become a part of the Lab! I am so excited!

Most of my day today has been spent working on applications for research grants, because honestly, who doesn’t love a little extra money? AS much as the applications are somewhat painful due to how tedious they are, it’s hopefully going to all pay off in the end by me getting some money! 😀

But in other events going on, tonight is the Honors College Ball! It’s going to be interesting! From what I understand, it’s basically like the college version of a prom haha. So in addition to working on things to help get some monies, I have also been making fun of the girls who have to take hours in showering, drying their hair, working on what they want to do with their hair, the actual act of styling their hair, applying ungodly amounts of hairspray, THEN makeup, and FINALLY getting dressed. SUCH ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING A GUY. WE NORMALLY TAKE 30 MINUTES MAX- INCLUDING SHOWER TIME. Oh well, we still have quite a while before we have to go= more time to laze about! yay! haha

So the plans for tonight are to be lazy until the time that I actually have to get ready, get ready, go to the Ball, have a good time, and then come home and pass out. Sounds like fun right? 🙂

Alright, time to continue being lazy. BYE! 😀

It’s raining

Well howdy!

It’s now Thursday, and it’s currently raining- not horribly bad, but just enough to be annoying and make it slightly colder than it was earlier Now I love the rain, don’t get me wrong, but I love the rain more when I don’t have to do anything and I can do any of the following things- 1) curl up in bed and sleep 2) read a book in bed 3) sit on a comfy chair with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea and gaze out the window to watch the rain 4) sleep more. Oh, and did I happen to mention SLEEP 😉

Overall, today has been a pretty decent day so far- 8am Physics lecture wasn’t too bad (except for the fact that it was Physics at 8am-not exactly my favorite…) and then there was History of Rome- always an interesting class, which was made even better because we were let out of class 2o minutes early 🙂

The plan for tonight is to study for my Chemistry quiz tomorrow and then prepare a bit more for my Spanish presentation tomorrow, after that, to study for the Roman History midterm on 3/1. After all of that gets done- I will probably relax and maybe watch some tv or do some reading or something before bed. At least tomorrow is my day to really sleep in. Yay not having class until 1pm! 😀 haha

So what have I been up to lately? Not much other than schoolwork. Most of the past week or so was spent doing homework and getting things done for school- yay midterm time 😛 But I am excited for the fact that I received an email from UIC’s Bilingual Research Lab inviting me to interview next Wednesday for an Undergraduate Research Assistant position 🙂 I think that even if it is not a paid position, it would be a great experience to have and put on my resumé to hopefully help me get other research positions later on.

So what am I going to do now? That’s a good question. I think that I may end up toodling around on the internet for a while and then maybe try to get some work done before I have to teach my evening swim lesson tonight.

That’s about all for now! BYE!