It was mostly sleet.

After 2.5 snow days, I have to say I'm surprised at how NOT well-rested I am. Obviously my own fault, but not much I can do about it now. I didn't get any homework done on my days off and instead put it off 'til Wednesday night. And then I only did what I absolutely had to, knowing I only have one class on Thursdays and could do it afterwards. So, after my Thursday class, I slept until 2. And then I got up and probably did absolutely nothing for a few hours.

Last night I sat in on Alice's office hours. I actually got some homework done, too. Still, only what I absolutely had to. And then I stayed down there and did some more homework after the hours ended. I finally went up to my room around 2 or so, took a shower, and crawled into bed to read my meteorology textbook. I was supposed to have Chapter 1 read by last Thursday and still haven't finished it. Once again, entirely my own fault.

Lots of emotional highs and lows lately, for no apparent reason. May be dorm life. Same thing happened a bit at the beginning of the year; suddenly being surrounded by the estrogen and other hormones of hundreds of teenage sorority girls (they act girlier than everyone else, so I assume their estrogen levels would be higher... or something... yeah, I'm making this all up) messes with my system.

Weird things have been going on at work. Katy is my super-amazing work friend. We chat, we make the harder "Daily Beautification" jobs more bearable for each other. But the other day, when I was checking to see if they even wanted me to come in--I had guessed we would have fewer customers due to the snow on the ground--I was told that our General Manager had resigned. Katy and I suspect he was being blamed for things that weren't entirely his fault. Wednesday Katy and I both worked 11-2. Around noon the regional director came in. Uh-oh. I'm pretty sure Alex's only real job is to make the rest of us miserable. You have to understand: these DBs wouldn't get done at all if people didn't amuse themselves while doing it. I know that if I had to scrub the walls of the entire store with windex and paper towels, I would take hours to do it--I wouldn't get anything else done and I probably wouldn't finish the job before the end of my shift. Katy and I worked togetnher, the job got done, no problems. But Alex made a big deal of splitting us up. Apparently there's some sort of inverse relationship between employee morale and productivity. I could have sworn that was supposed to be the other way around. In any case, the confusing part comes from the fact that our General Manager, Chris, now seems to be back. We have no idea what happened or what is happening. Just that it's confusing.

You can tell I'm from Minnesota because...

All I ever seem to talk about it the weather.

I woke up around 11:30 this morning, thankful for the chance to sleep in an having had no classes. It's fun. No less exciting than when you're a little kid and get a snow day. Except the little kids here in Oklahoma probably didn't get many snow days. Then again, neither did Minnesotan schools. So... yeah, they probably had more snow days than me in their lifetimes. ANYWAY, woke up at 11:30, messed around on the internet for 10 minutes or so, and then decided to look outside and see if the "icy conditions" that had canceled classes were worth all the hype.

I climbed past my stuff on the floor, over to the window, opened the blinds and... "HOLY SHIT." I'm the only one in the room, and actually said that out loud. Instead of tree limbs covered in ice, bending down in a curtsy, the ground, the cars, the parking lot were white! Covered in snow! Actual snow! And a reasonably significant amount, too (remember, it's all relative). There's enough snow on the ground that even though many people seem to have driven through the little parking lot outside my window, the whole thing is still covered in snow (to me anyway, that implies some depth). There's enough snow that people made snow angels out on a lawn across the parking lot. And it's really adorable, watching the officials try to react. I shouldn't laugh; they're trying to keep us safe. But when I see a pickup truck with a trailer carrying one of those little sidewalk plows... that's cute. And when I see another pickup with a plow on the front drive through twice and have apparently no effect (yes, the plow was down), that's cute, too.

Something is still falling from the sky, though I'm not sure what it is. Could be freezing rain, giving us a nice layer of ice on top of the snow, or more snow. Either way, this is exciting. And cute.

Classes canceled

Written before math class today, in a location where the internet didn't work:

When they talk about Spring Semester here, they really mean spring. During the first week of being back, we had a day where the high hit 80 degrees. Meanwhile at home I think it hit 34. I guess the heat wave hit the whole nation. 80, though… It was really beautiful out. I spent my evening lazing around, making any excuse to go outside, into the sun. Of course, when I went out onto the swings with Kate, I brought my textbook to read. Of course, I never cracked it open. So this whole issue raises an important question: How am I going to survive the actual springtime weather, when it’s like this all the time? Impossible.

Today is different, though. High of 28. At home, that sounds like nothing at all, but here that’s really cold. Freezing, technically. And to top it all off, we get freezing drizzle—an “ice storm” as they like to call it in these parts. From my point of view, that’s not so terrible, until I remember that my job includes riding my bike, sometimes miles, to deliver sandwiches.

As a continuation on that...

I didn't have to do any deliveries today. I actually warned my boss before signing up for the schedule that I wouldn't do deliveries if there was ice. So I didn't have to. That made things very easy, and work was good. The best part, though, was finding out that classes were canceled for the rest of the day. I had two classes before work and was supposed to have two after, but all classes after 1:30 were canceled, so instead I'm just sitting around my dorm.

The unfortunate result of this is that the post office is also closed, so I can't pick up the package that my parents sent me late last week. Well, there's no real rush, I guess.

I was hoping to take some pictures of the ice, particularly the way it piled up on my bike seat. A sheet of ice. I'm sure there will be more later (the storm is supposed to continue through tomorrow), so I'll post pictures as soon as possible.

Home, home in my igloo!

I'm finally back in Oklahoma. It's great, almost everything I imagined. But first I should finish telling about things back in MN.

I managed to survive driving with my dad. I think I lasted pretty well before my first on-the-road breakdown. Anyway, survival was about all that mattered. I didn't even care that much if I passed the driver's test--either way, my dad would get off my back, I think. Doesn't matter now, though, because I did pass. Yay! Licensed driver! And then I didn't drive until my very last day in town, because it was freaking cold out and I didn't want to step outside of the house even far enough to get in the car. Saturday, though, I went to Target with April, bought shoes, came back to the house, and then dropped her off at her own home. I daresay I didn't do badly. Of course, it helps that I'm a lot less nervous without my dad. Cute shoes, too, perfect for dancing--silvery and black flats.

We drove all day Sunday, starting around 7 in the morning. Kelly and I were both worried because we each had so much stuff, but it all fit, and the drive was pretty smooth. I drove for about an hour on the Kansas Turnpike, a slightly challenging feat, since her car has a stick shift, which I have never used before. She shifted it for me and just told me when to push the clutch. The highlight from each state:

• Minnesota: Umm... We left. That was nice.
• Iowa: We saw 87 or 88 cars in ditches in the first half of Iowa. The second half didn't have any snow or ice, so there weren't any at all. But right up until our stop in Ankeny, we were averaging one car every 2 miles or so, about 35/hour. And not just cars. Rolled-over trucks, jack-knifed semis, all that fun stuff. We made it safely, though.
• Missouri: a major radio station (can't remember which one) played Mm-Bop (Hansen) and two songs later Disturbia (Rihanna). This isn't odd because of the specific songs, but simply because Mm-Bop is so old, while Disturbia provides evidence that the station intends to play popular music.
• Kansas: Probably the part where I drove. Didn't really do much there.
• Oklahoma: Arrival. Shannon, Richard, Jay, and Hannah all helped me unpack, and I felt very loved. I dumped my stuff and we all hung out for the night.

And now for the bits about actually being back... Classes started this Tuesday, the 20th, same day as President Obama's inauguration. I'm sure I've mentioned it about thirty times already, but I have classes every day at 8:30am. Yeah, it sucks, but it's not quite as bad as I expected. My first class Tuesday was Introduction to Meteorology I. It should be a fun class; I like the professor a lot. Next was my physics discussion. Just took a survey there, so it's hard to say what that will be like. Mostly graded on participation, though, I'm guessing. Then I had a lengthy break in the day and Freshman Engineering Orientation II. That's complicated. As you may have noticed, I never took Engineering Orientation I. Well, I is basically the same format as Orientation to Professional Meteorology--guest lecturers come in every week and tell you about a type of career you can have with a degree in engineering. II is different. Most of them, it seems, are centered around different types of projects. As for the one that fit my schedule... well, I'm not excited. Basically I go to the actual class once per month and then twice per month I'm supposed to go to elementary schools and teach little kids about science. Ew, little kids. Ew, teaching. Ew, finding a way to get to various elementary schools in the Norman area. Richard offered to let me use his car if I need to. Still, ew.

Here's what I'm hoping to do:
I've signed up on an "interest list" for Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, the next class that will hopefully be part of my econ minor. There are no spots available, except in the honors section of the class, which I am not eligible for. There are two full sections which would fit into my schedule so far if I drop the engineering class. I'm 1/1 on the list for one of them, 7/7 on the other. So all I need is for one person to drop the class and I'll have a spot and drop engineering, take Orientation I next semester/year. Certainly it's not optimal: putting off a freshman class until sophomore year is... not standard, anyway. But I'm hoping I'll e alright, since I'm ahead in physics and math.

As for today's schedule: I had Calc right away at 8:30. It wasn't too bad. I actually have a friend in the class, and the professor seems better than last semester's. I had 10 minutes then to cross campus from the far West end to the far East to get to Programming. It's not ideal, but it's the only time the class is offered, so I'll deal. The teacher is pretty strict. I'm sure he's a fine teacher, and I'm still looking forward to the class. His grading standard seems quite reasonable. My one problem with him is his attitude. Basically, it seems like since he knows he's better than us in this one subject, he assumes and acts like he is better than us and knows more than us about all aspects of life. Yes, he has more life experience, but it's important not to be condescending. After that I had work--lots of fun with buddy Katy, who I know work with twice a week, 3 hours per shift, as opposed to one hour a week in fall. After work, Physics. The professor seems cool. He's fun, he has stories to tell, and he has a lot to say, but not so much that it'll be hard to keep up. I hope.

I got my mail today and found out that someone in the universe loves me and someone else in the universe hates me. The "love" part, believe it or not, comes from my bursar bill. Lower than I expected, should be manageable, as long as I don't spend my next two paychecks. The "hate" is from the post office. My last textbook that I ordered finally arrived, which is excellent because I have a reading assignment from that book due tomorrow morning at 8:30. Oh, but the slip was put in my box about 5 minutes before the post office closed and I didn't actually get my mail until 10 minutes later. Post office was closed, doesn't open again 'til 8:30. Hopefully won't be a big deal. I'll probably read the equivalent chapter from the other textbook for that class. Hopefully it will be close enough.

Home again

I realize I haven't posted in a really long time. This is partially related to the fact that I've been with most of the people who read this blog. That defense provided, there's really no excuse for this kind of laziness and it is my intention to immediately fix this issue.

Home has been stressful. That's no shocker. I try not to whine about it to my friends too much. I mean, I really have nothing to complain about. But just being here kind of brings me down. Part of it is my dad. He doesn't try, I swear, but sometimes he's just too much to handle. And, no, I don't want to go driving with him, but I apparently have no other choice.

I haven't seen my friends from these parts as much as I would like to, but I'm hoping to visit a bit more. I still have Nyssa and Briana's Christmas presents to deliver. I still owe Libby and David presents, too, but I actually haven't bought them yet (sorry, guys, if you're reading this). I've only seen Akshatha once, and from what I can tell she'll probably be out of town rather early, too.

Personally, I'd be all for hitting the road as soon as possible. We can move back in at OU January 13, but classes don't start until January 20, so I'm guessing the rest of the Minnesota folks will probably wait a few days. If they're leaving on the 17th or later, I'm may put in the extra $35 to take the Greyhound bus instead of driving. It would be worth it.

Even more generally, though, than being around my dad and not seeing my friends a whole lot, I'm just not really feeling myself the last two days. I suppose I can blame the drugs. My wisdom teeth are out and one of the drugs they gave me was a steroid which may cause moodiness. Still, I think it will help to be back on campus, back with my friends. I want to fix my sleep schedule. I want to sell my old books and buy my new ones. I want to return to work; I have friends there and I need the money. I'm surviving on minimal spending so far over break, but I still have the aforementioned Christmas presents to buy, and a few others for people I know at school.

Hm... it being New Year's Day, I'm sure I'm supposed to mention that. Perhaps I should be marking how far I've come in a year or mention what it is I want to accomplish before next year... Maybe later tonight (goal number one: procrastinate less? ha, like that'll happen.)