So, how're things?

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to go to a Spinning class. I've never been to one before. Can I just say? Let me die. 48 minutes of heart attack is not my favorite thing to wake to. I'd prefer a cup of coffee and some donuts quite honestly. Or perhaps a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Oh my GOD that is the most insanely exhausting thing ever. But, it's supposed to work wonders for your bod and your ability to climb stairs...so maybe I'll stick with it for a while.

Went and saw "Just Like Heaven" last night. It was really really cute...anyone that wants a good date movie, that's it. Also, there's a Halloween party that I'm hoping to attend next month. I've been told several times that I look a little like Reese Witherspoon. So I'm contemplating finding a totall pink outfit, dying my hair blonde, and going as her character in "Legally Blonde." There's a $5 cover to get into the party, even though it's at some dude's house, but the person with the best costume wins all the money at the end of the night. That would rock. So, thoughts? Suggestions? Need some help here people. Leave it in the comments...laters! :)

Double-Take

Um. Why is Raine Maida...

Becoming K-Fed?

I mean, I knew he had that whole hanging-out-with-Avril-too-much thing, but I had fooled myself into thinking it was a passing fancy. Apparently not. I think I may have to stage an intervention at the concert next month. When Raine walks out into the audience, I run up to him, snatch that hideous hat from his head, and torch it right in front of him. Either that or show him side-by-side comparison pictures of him and K-Fed. Surely that would be enough to scare anyone into a good shower and shave. Right?

(Big ups to Carolyn for pointing this similarity out to me, and consequently ruining my life. Thanks girl. :-p)

Exam Week

Sorry I've been MIA for a while people. I just haven't been much in the mood for writing. This week's exam week, with molecular genetics test today, biochem Thursday, and immunology Friday. WOO!

So, yesterday afternoon I thought "Man, I really need to study molecular genetics. But I'm so tired! And my head hurts! waah. So, I'm going to take a 1-hour nap." So, 4.5 hours later I wake up. In time for the season premiere of Medium. Which I love, because her husband is a hot rocket scientist. Although this whole marital tension subplot is really not cool with me. Cause I don't like him being moody. Leave that to the ladies buddy. Anyways. So, I watch that, and I hold my books while watching Jay Leno, and Conan O'Brian. Finally I decide to just pack it in and wake up at 6 AM to study for my exam at 11. I need to be at the exam by 10:15 because the class is wayyy overfilled and there aren't enough seats when everyone actually shows up. So, alarm probably went off at 6 AM. I wouldn't know. Because I SLEPT THROUGH IT. Rolled over leisurely at 9:30 AM wondering what day it was. Oh yeah. It's not Sunday. It's exam day. I wake up, throw the cell phone across the room while cussing it. And yelled at myself for the whole 15 minutes it took me to throw on clothes and book it on out the door. Bad morning. Luckily it turned out that studying more for the test probably would have been futile anyway, so I'm not that upset about it anymore. Some days I swear I've been bitten by a tsetse fly. Perhaps several of them. Laters.

La Clase de Espanol

Okay. So my Spanish class? Totally sucks. This class eats up more of my time than biochemistry, immunology, and molecular genetics combined. The other night I had to go to a "designated event", do online homework, do homework from the book, and do a take-home quiz. For one class!! AUGH!! Stupid freshman level class. Then, for last night's homework I was required to write a letter to an alien. In Spanish. (And before you ask, no. Not an illegal alien. Because that would actually make sense. I had to correspond with an extraterrestrial.)

Which leads us to tonight's exercise in stupidity. I am required to decorate a "caja" or box. (I think that's how you spell it.) On this box, I must use more than 2 media and la professora must be able to find out things about me just by looking at it. The box can not have more than 3 words on it. UAB counts as a word. This is the most ridiculous thing ever. I asked what size box we should use. The reply?

Teacher: Over the course of the semester you will put 30 things in the box, so whatever size you would need to accomodate 30 things.

Me: Um, what 30 things?

Teacher: It's up to you.

Me: *in my head* What are you talking about?!?!?!??!?!

Teacher: Look on your syllabus.

Me: My syllabus says it's due Wednesday. It doesn't say anything about what goes in the box.

Teacher: It's up to you! You're being graded on your creativity!!

Me: *again, to myself* OH MY GOD THIS IS WHY I LOVE SCIENCE!!

So, I've decided my 3o things will be itty-bitty post-it notes so that they will fit in my highly decorated matchbox. Haha. I wish. No, I'm decorating the shoebox that my soccer cleats came in. I took my cleats out of the box, those bad boys are CAKED with mud. I can't believe I didn't wash them last time I used them. I'm so frikkin' lazy. I didn't even wash them today. I just set them on a paper towel in my closet. (okay, that was a random tangent that gives you way too much information about the depth of my sloth.)

Unfortunately/Fortunately I called my friend who is an art major and he has decided that he's really excited about this whole project. He's going to help me do the whole thing tomorrow night.

Pro: He will make it look totally awesome and my caja will rock the casbah.

Con: He will make me expend 40,000 times the effort I would have otherwise put into this project.

I guess I should just focus on the pros. Okay, I guess that's it for now. Laters!

Shelter from the Storm

Regardless of what you think of the Red Cross, you have to admit that this is a pretty amazing program. Thank God for the Red Cross, because if the emergency management had been left to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), life would have been even harder for the victims of Katrina. If you haven't done so already, donate now. And if you have donated already, donate again because the need is not going away anytime soon.

Who's In?

On October 13, OLP will be playing at the Roxy Theatre in Atlanta, GA.

Um. I think we all know one person who will be there. Me. With a sign that says "Raine, you better damn well play One Man Army or we are totally having a comin' to Jesus meeting."

Also, as a special treat for my readers, I will post my picture of me looking like a COMPLETE idiot at the last OLP concert in Atlanta. :) More to come folks. Laters!

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Matthias Rath Foundation

Help end suffering in Africa. Visit AIDS Combat Zone

Only thing I can say...it was a good day

Today has been a really good day, and I don't really know why. It's not as though anything extraordinary happened. I credit it to walking to school. I live about 2 miles from school, but after paying $3/gallon for gas last night (which is a whole lot in Alabama), my desire to drive anywhere was pretty low. So I decided to walk. I didn't think too much about the heat...just packed my backpack, strapped on the iPod and kicked it out the door. Walking to school isn't that much fun because it's really hot and Birmingham is really hilly and my backpack gets pretty heavy. But it just makes you feel good. I felt so great about the fact that everyone else was driving around wasting gas and here I was, bebopping down the street while my car sat parked back at the apartment. Perhaps it was because I felt as though I was doing something to free myself from the oil companies. I'm going to see how long I can go without driving. Today was Day 1 of the endeavor. I should be able to make it. There's school, grocery store, and numerous pubs within walking distance. :)

After class, I had some time to burn and was stahving (since it was almost 2 PM and I'd walked miles and had no food.) So, I went to the school cafeteria. Usually this is a big mistake because there's nothing to eat there (we have a Chik-fil-A, soul food, and a sandwich place that isn't as good as Subway) and it's more expensive than going to any of those respective places off campus. So you pay more to eat on campus and until recently you couldn't even use a debit card. But since they just made the switch to debit-card friendliness and because of their proximity to my next destination, I decided to go. It was fate. For some strange reason, my lunch check-out lady was giving everyone free stuff. So yay her. I got a tuna salad sandwich (which I paid for) and then a soda and a bottle of water for free. Woo! Then when I was leaving, I saw one of my friends and told him to get in her line and he got free stuff too...so then I felt even better because I got to share the magic with someone else. :)

Then, I went to our brand new campus rec center. And man. It is NICE. I mean, N-I-C-E. Well, except that at one point there was this insanely loud crash and you looked out over the pool area and one of the rather large light fixtures hanging probably 40 feet in the air had fallen down and shattered all over the lanai. But, I wasn't out in the pool area at the time. So the place is NICE. Tons of equipment, a lot less crowded than I thought it would be, really nice locker rooms. I really like it. So I worked out for a little while (read: ran on one of those elliptical machines for a mile, remembered I had to walk home, and then dinked around on a variety of weight machines downstairs cause there weren't any girls down there. ) Then, my friend met me and we played racquetball! I haven't played racquetball in over a year...probably much closer to 2 years or more. So I suck. But I'd forgotten how much fun it is. I need to work on 1. keeping my eye on the ball and 2. not screaming and laughing so much because it makes it really hard to focus on 1.

Then I walked back home. And it was SWELTERING. But it was still okay because it felt really good to be out walking instead of driving in 5 PM traffic. Also, I had OLP's new album on my iPod so the walking- really not so big of a deal. So, that was my day. How was yours?! :)