Catching you all up now that free time is back

The worst is over. I have free time now. There's still homework, but there aren't any new assignments being given out now, so it's just a matter of finishing the leftovers and writing study cards for my finals.

This past weekend was spent working furiously on a lab report, for which my data sucked so badly you wouldn't even believe. It essentially showed the exact opposite trend of what it was supposed to, which gave me a problem since I was supposed to explain "the trend" with the molecular structure of the protein we were studying. Naturally, said structure didn't explain MY data at all! I ended up finding a journal article that described the assay, used it as a reference for what kind of results I should have gotten, explained that, and then did a big error analysis. We also just got back our lab reports from our first project, and my score was 156/210. (That's 74%.) The remarkable thing? That was the second-highest grade in the class. Considering that I wasn't even in the advanced lab last term, and therefore haven't had any practice with these reports, I'm surprised. Most of the points I lost were in formatting.

It's looking like there's a good chance I may not get straight A's this term. I will get A's in chem lecture and physics I'm sure (in physics I'm aiming for an A+ but it depends on if those exist according to my professor) and of the remaining three classes... I doubt I will get more than one non-A grade but it's hard to tell where it will fall if there is one. I should be able to get an A out of writing but the final paper is still out there. Math I'm somewhat worried about; I think I'm looking at an A- or B+. I've been getting low 90s on the quizzes and high 80s on the homework; I got a 96 on the first midterm and an 80 on the second, but I can still get points back by correcting it. So, hard to call. And lab is anyone's guess. I think I'm doing pretty well, but in a class where the highest grade is 79% you can't ascribe much to the numbers, and what else I know isn't concrete. I do know that the honors classes get a nice B+ or so average, so that will help.

My last final is next Thursday, so I'll be coming back sometime Friday, probably in the morning. This coming weekend, my dad is going to come have brunch with me. LS is leaving school and coming back to Portland tomorrow, so I may see him over Spring Break.

I'm really glad to finish this term and spend a week at home. Hit the 'reset' button. The last couple weeks, I know my overall health has deteriorated. Part of it is from stress and constantly rushing to get the thing that's due soonest, done. I've been staying up too late, sometimes to do homework and sometimes to unwind after I burn out on homework, and so I keep being tired in the morning, dragging myself to my morning class, and then napping until lunch. Recently I've actually been falling asleep during those naps. Never could do that before. Yesterday morning was the first time in a few weeks I got up at a reasonable time and it wasn't a struggle. And I will be so happy to go home and HUG people. I hardly ever make physical contact with anyone here.

My schedule for next term is looking alright. I'm taking chemistry, math, and lab as usual, and I got my math switched to 11am. I'm still in existentialism, which is not my first choice of classes to take, but if I don't get into anything else that's okay. What I'm hoping to switch into is philosophy of love and sex; that sounds much more interesting. I'm also signed up for "guided listening" which sounds cool yet kind of like quack, but if I can get another real credit I'll be happy with that. The real credit I'm chasing is a faculty seminar in physics called It's About Time. The department told me it's coreq'd with an astronomy class that I can't take because it conflicts with my lab lecture, but they're going to find out if I can enroll anyway. If I can't get into that, my options are to either grab a PE credit, just take 15, or drop the music class and try to get into a 3 credit freshman seminar. There is an interesting one (the description opens with "what's so political about food?") but it looks to be full at the moment. I could also take another 4 credit class, but I don't want to take 18 credits again and I had a hard enough time finding my first 4 credit class to fit my schedule.

I finally got down to the office of environmental health and safety to ask about fire extinguisher and lab safety training, but they haven't called me back yet.

I'm hoping to get my lip piercing before I come back for break, but I'm not sure if that will happen.