Updates, first week of March

A number of things to recap from the week so far, provided I remember them all:

- I found my gym headband! It was buried in my backpack, which I finally emptied out somewhat. One thing to cross of TLoP

- ...just in time, too. For those of you who know me well, you know I fall deeply in love with my watches and keep them for years and years, constantly replacing their batteries and straps. I've had one such watch since 4th grade, which suffered a mechanical failure two years ago, was luckily revived, and the guy who fixed it (and has been fixing it/replacing its various parts all along) told me if it happens again, it's time to let go. Um, battery died last semester. Much sadness =( My mom refuses to get it replaced again. Luckily, I have a couple other watches (not quite as favorite, but still good)!

Except yesterday, the battery started dying in my 2nd favorite of those. Now I'm on my 3rd favorite, and the back-ups after this are my mom's old watches that I'm not a huge fan of. I'm thinking it might be time to invest in a new watch. Thoughts? Suggestions? I have two essential requirements I can currently think of: 1) It must have a face with a small diameter, around 1" maybe and 2) it has to look clean and simple, nothing gaudy or fancy.

- I think my law exam went ok? He won't have them graded until sometime after spring break (meaning the earliest we can get them back is March 22nd or so, and that's not too likely either). I love that class, though. Yesterday, we watched clips from My Cousin Vinny -- hilarious movie, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet!

- Gym! Three times this week, my gym routine (focusing on strength/weight training rather than cardio) has been reaffirmed. (For the curious, that's also what those Tweets to Minh were about ;)). First one was a Women's Health Magazine fact vs fiction article Minh sent me a link to, saying cardio is better for long-term calorie burn and metabolism. Second one was a news segment on WTOP Radio about the values of strength training, sometime this week. Third one was an article I found on WTOP's website (not related to the radio news segment) regarding interval training -- essentially, the merits of high-intensity training in short bursts, where fewer exercise hours yield better results: http://wtopnews.com/?sid=1897241&nid=106

- Working on the Gemstone draft stuff last week sucked. Sadly, we are still in the works toward actually having a project, and have a shitload more work to do. AND I have two exams next week. Talk about bad timing.

In theory, having a destination for the fall should mean I'm less stressed out, have fewer things to worry about. Why is this not the case?! Gemstone is eating up my life. I still have to care about it. I enjoy the project, but I can't stand half my team, because we are carrying their weight, and that pisses me off. I feel bad for John, because he has to program the whole thing, but at the same time I get frustrated with him -- just because he doesn't have to go to class and is a really smart guy who can do well in all his classes while putting in minimal effort doesn't mean the rest of us can! Somehow that doesn't occur to him, and when you point it out, he gets disappointed. Gah. He's my friend, but sometimes he can be very infuriating.

- I realized this week that I had overdue books from McKeldin. That was stupid of me, and now I have fines to pay. Boo. (Completely my fault, though.)

- On a mostly unrelated note, my UMD interviewers replied to my update e-mail with very sweet comments =) And so did Ian! A story for later, maybe.

- White Collar last night was hilarious! And awesome! Always made better by watching "with" Linden =D Matt Bomer + tousled hair = ...I'll leave this blank for you to fill in, L ;)

- I helped out at Banneker/Key events this week! The Smith school informal q&a session was alright -- good kids, and I love the Smith Associate Dean, but the other guy I was doing the q&a with is really full of himself, which diminishes the fun. The second help-out session in Anne Arundel Hall (the Honors hall), manning the Gemstone info table while hanging out with Dean Hebert (Assistant Director of the Honors program; his first name is "Dean") was AWESOME! He's so much fun to hang out with -- witty, funny, self-deprecating. Also, he has a Masters in Creative Writing = interesting vocabulary. All these elements together lead to prolonged intelligent conversation that makes my stomach hurt because I'm laughing so much. If I ever run into a younger version of Dean Hebert, I will totally date him.

On that note, more later =P


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