Victory

I have been attending UVU for almost seven years now. Much of my time is spent in the business building.

For the past seven years, I have been unable to locate the women's restroom in that building. Men would tell me where they thought it would be, but I always explained that that was a men's room with no apparent corresponding women's facility.

During this time, I have been using the staff/faculty women's restroom on the second floor. It has only one stall, and a sign that says that it is not for student use. This fact has not stopped me. I figure that I pay enough to use whatever restroom I please, and have more than once been tempted to even use a men's room when on campus at night.

Tonight, during a break in my Contract Law class, I decided to follow some of the other girls to see if I could find a different restroom. The women I was following/stalking turned out to be headed to some vending machines, and just as I was about to turn around, I saw the lone men's room with no partner. Around the corner from said restroom is the small ROTC hall, usually filled with signs and banners, sometimes actually obstructing the entrance to the hall itself. Tonight, the hallway was clear, and I decided to see if the elusive restroom was located down the hall.

To my great surprise, it's just right there! Not far around the corner at all, in all its glory, I found the mystery room.

However, the facility itself is certainly not the greatest on campus. It was fairly dirty, looking a bit neglected, perhaps from being located so out of the way.

I will probably continue to use the faculty facility, as it is much more conveniently located and well-maintained.

Nevertheless, I found it.

Seven years of college well spent.

Quick Facts

Having no time for a nice, organized post, but possessing the desire to update the universe, I give you some thoughts on the first 4 weeks of school.

As they'd say on Marketplace, let's do the numbers:

Times I went to the incorrect class: 0

Times I started to go to the incorrect class: 0

Times I have ditched class: 0

Times I have wanted to ditch class: Innumerable

Fellow students in more than one of my classes: 1 (Tattooed Man)

Classes with team projects: 2

Classes in which team projects have been clearly explained and are able to be begun: 0

Nightmares about a class which became partially true: 1

Days until graduation: 189

Weeks until I finish my last class of my undergraduate career: 27

Current predictions/awards:

Class in which I feel the dumbest: Contract Law

Class with the most irritating fellow students: Leadership Process

Class in which I will likely receive the best grade: Executive Lecture Series

Class in which I will likely receive the worst grade: Too close to call - Leadership Process or Contract Law

Class which I dread attending the most: Fundamentals of Mediation and Negotiation (good class--too long)

Class which I dread attending the least: Organizational Behavior

Class in which the teacher is most likely to make me cry: Contract Law

Class with the professor with the most soothing voice: Organizational Behavior

Class in which I am most likely to get a headache: Contract Law

Class with the worst smokers: Contract Law

Class in which I am the most bored: Leadership Process (those irritating students are also boring--neat combination)

Class in which I am the most hungry: Fundamentals of Mediation and Negotiation

Class most likely to give me nightmares: Contract Law

Class in the scariest part of campus: Fundamentals of Mediation and Negotiation

Class most likely to give me an ulcer: Contract Law

Class in which the teacher has unrealistic expectations of me: (tie) Contract Law, Leadership Process

Congratulations to the winners. We'll check back on the stats in another few weeks to see how all of the classes are doing.

*Internship is ineligible for any awards related to a specific grade or fellow students, as they are inapplicable to the course.

Checking In

Things are busy.

I am busy.

Leisure time is scarce.

Brain power is minimal.

Humor is non-existent.

Irony is lost on me.

Nap time is elusive.

Give me seven months.

I'll be back.

Semester Predictions

I have been quite busy lately between work, school, and a quick trip to California with my sweet nephews. In all of the hustle, I neglected to compile some semester predictions.

As I embark on my penultimate semester, I have mixed feelings. Many students have mixed feelings as they near graduation. They are nervous for the future, sad to be leaving friends, excited for what is to come, worried about getting a job, etc.

My mixed feelings are very different. My feelings are a mixture of being happy about school being over and frustration that it's not over yet. That's all. I will not miss school. There are people who say that I just don't understand, that once I'm out in the professional world, I'll look back on my days in college and miss them.

Those people are incorrect. I am already in the professional world, having worked at my job for just over six years now. I'm ready for work to be the only thing I have to worry about for a while. Those people, incidentally, are the same who told me that I'd look back on high school and wish I could do it again. They were very wrong about that as well.

Over the last couple of weeks, I took a poll about what you all thought would happen this semester.  The results:

Number of times Liz will walk to/into the wrong class:

Zero: 3 blog readers

1-3: 3 blog readers

7: 2 blog readers (who are you people? Do you think I'm that spatially/chronologically inept?)

Class that will be Liz's favorite:

Organizational Behavior: 1 blog reader

Fundamentals of Mediation and Negotiation: 2 blog readers

Contract Law: 2 blog readers

Leadership Process: 0 blog readers (do you people think that I have no leadership potential? Because I definitely do. There is always a BIG line of followers behind me at Coldstone.)

Executive Lecture Series: 0 blog readers (you are correct--this is not my favorite class)

Internship: 3 blog readers (These readers must know the secret--this class is me getting credit for work, which I would already be going to anyway)

I will probably fill in the details on what is happening in all of my classes, but here are the early results, in case any of you had money riding on it.

After two and a half weeks of classes, I am really enjoying my Organizational Behavior class. I really like the teacher, find the subject matter to be interesting, and that class ends at 8:00 pm, so I get home at a decent time. The internship has actually been a bit of a pain so far, in that there is a lot of paperwork and such required up front, but hopefully that will settle down and become simple and wonderful. The Executive Lecture Series is a giant logistical pain, but other than that will be fine.

I'll try to fill in the details on all of the classes over the next few weeks, but I make no guarantees. I'm busy.

And for anyone who is counting, I have gone to the wrong class (or started to go to the wrong class) exactly zero times so far. I use iCal to tell me when and where my classes are, so a little alert pops up on my iPhone with the name and location of the class. Without my iPhone, it would be more complicated...just another way that the iPhone has changed my life. Judge me all you want--I end up in the right places at the right times, and that's a beautiful thing.

In that same nerdy vein, I moved the "Graduation Countdown" to the top center of the blog so that everyone can see it every day and start getting excited.

That's your job, people. Start getting excited. You don't have a lot of jobs here, but that will be your job for the next 201 days. Don't let me down.

Into the Ocean

Tonight, we had dinner at a seafood restaurant right by the ocean. As we waited for our check to come (not a speedy process at that place), I took my younger nephew, J, to look at the boats parked at the dock while we waited.

When we got there, a small portion of the water was illuminated at the rear of a boat. At first, I thought that the ocean was full of trash, but as we looked closer, J and I decided that it was actually a flock of jellyfish. (Flock? Gaggle? Herd? I don't know. I could Google it, but then how would you learn how to find answers for yourselves?)

The pictures are just from my phone, so they're a bit blurry, but it was amazing! I've never seen jellyfish not in a movie, and certainly not in the ocean.



(The jellyfish are in the top-left corner of the water).



There were some jellyfish closer to us, but that was where the lighting was the best to capture them. We hurried to tell the others to come and look, and then we watched the jellyfish swoosh around the water until they moved, as a group, into the darker waters.

I told J that it was the first time I had seen jellyfish. He told me it was his first time, too. I told him I was glad that we were seeing them for the first time together. He then proceeded to explain that the more opaque part of each jellyfish was where it had a baby jellyfish inside of it. I told him that I wasn't sure that that was how it worked, and he assured me that it was. As he recently studied the ocean in preschool and made a paper jellyfish, I suppose he is the expert.

So, if you're wondering what jellyfish look like, they look like trash.

Many things that look like trash are actually pretty amazing, if you take a closer look.

Clarity

Last night, my brother and I stood in front of this sign, completely baffled as to where my hotel room was.

My room number: 3430.

Which way is my room?

And, frankly, which way are any of the rooms?

The more you look at the sign, the less clarity you'll find, unless you are the maker of the sign and can explain it...

Fortunately, we were with children, and sent them racing down the hall to find the room, which they were able to do very quickly.

I guess that the answer to a problem like this is to ignore the signs and just start running.

More Fun Kids

J: My nightmares are about gorillas.
T: And tacos.

(Not sure if the gorillas and tacos are the same dream or not, but
either way, a nightmare about tacos has got to be pretty scary.)

Me: (dancing around to the music on the car) When we get to
Disneyland, should I dance?
J: No. Let's ride the rides.

Ive been laughing so hard ever since we started our vacation. How
lucky am I?? Headed to the happiest place on earth with two of the
greatest boys on earth. I've got it made.

Kids

I'm currently on vacation with my nephews J (age 5) and T (age 8) and
their parents. They just had a cute conversation.

T: How old is Steven?
Me: He's 20.
J: If you were 145, you would die.
Me: Um, yep, you're probably right.
J: But if you were 0, you'd be okay.
T: 95 is probably pretty good.

Too cute.

The Eyes Have It

My eyes have been bugging me for a few days. This irritation is occurring shortly after my switch to new, expensive contacts that are supposed to be more comfortable for your eyes. I determined that I should take a couple of days off from wearing my contacts to give my eyes a break. Since I am very nearsighted (something like 20/400 vision, if anyone is counting), I have to wear my glasses.

This is okay, because my prescription hasn't changed lately so I have a few pairs.

More than once over the past two days of wearing the glasses, people have asked me if I got new glasses.

This seems weird to me, seeing as most of these people have never seen me wear glasses. Shouldn't the question be, "Did you get glasses?" instead of "Did you get NEW glasses?"

Only one person made the observation that I don't usually wear glasses. That person? My fabulous hair stylist, whom I only see three to four times per year. Every time I have her cut my hair, I decide that she is even more fabulous than I thought before.

But I digress--back to the eyes. I should probably see a doctor, but being very busy with work and school (go with it...there is a school posting in my head somewhere that you may get someday...don't be greedy...), I have no time to go to the doctor.

Instead, I turned to the next best option: the internet.

The website I used came up with twenty conditions that matched my symptoms (although I think that their code is imperfect, as it came up with a few diagnoses that were in conflict with some specific symptoms, but...).

Some of the options?

• Eye injury (not probable--it is both eyes)
• Corneal flash burns
• Acute angle-closure glaucoma
• Blepharitis
• Iritis
• Acute sinusitis
• Allergic reaction
• Diabetic eye disease
• Corneal ulcer
• Eye allergies
• Broken eye socket (ew...)
• Dry eyes (it's winter in Utah--everything is dry!)
• Sleep deprivation. (I definitely have that...)

But my favorite diagnosis? Nearsightedness.

Nearsightedness. Huh.

Five Days

Including today, which is already in progress, I have five days until the new semester begins.

I feel the need to schedule much partying and happiness for these five days.

So far, I have lunch on Saturday with an old friend. I have church on Sunday, and Somebody's Mother invited me over for waffles for dinner (YAY!) that night. I think I'd like to see a movie, catch up with family, perhaps spend some quality time with the XBox...Of course, I have to work as well, but there's ample time for other things.

Suggestions?

Trouble

This semester, I'll be taking more classes at once than ever before. Each night after work, I'll head straight to school. Some days, I'll leave work 30 minutes early. Other days, I'll have to just leave right on time. And on Thursdays, I have to remember to take a lunch break to go to a lecture series. The tricky part here will be remembering that it is, in fact, Thursday. The days of the week tend to be a blur for me...

Not only do I have to remember when I have to leave work, but when I get to school, I have to head to the right classroom. This should be okay because most of my classes are in the same building. One of them, however, is in a different building on the other side of campus. For this class, I'll need to park in a different parking lot entirely. Again, it wouldn't be a huge deal, except for the fact that I won't leave work until the very last minute. Scariest part of that? Right now, I couldn't tell you which class that is, or which day it is on. What will be my first class on Wednesday? No idea. Is that the class in the other building? I don't think so, but it could be.

Sigh.

Four nights of classes per week. Fifteen weeks of classes. What are the odds that I'm going to head to the wrong class one of these days? I'm taking a poll...see the bar on the right...if we were a gambling people, I'd take bets.

Even more likely to occur than going to the wrong class is me leaving work too late and ending up walking in late to class, which is something I don't love to do. It makes me feel like just not going to class. That is not a strategy I want to employ this semester, and certainly one that my parents would not endorse.

Not So Hot

One of the perks of my new TV* is the BEAUTIFUL picture I get from pretty much everything. My TV has the best colors in the universe.

One nice thing I've been enjoying over the break is watching Netflix shows streaming through my XBox. Things that are available in HD stream that way, and they look so, so pretty.

This clarity of TV has also been really good for my self image. How, you ask? It's quite simple. It turns out that the people on TV are not as beautiful and perfect as they seem. With a bit of high definition, you can see all of their freckles, blemishes, wrinkles, etc.

Turns out that the people on TV are just like me. They just were blurry before.

This is helping me to feel better about the wrinkles I've decided that I have. It's all part of getting older, I suppose...it's just nice to know that even rich, famous people have to do it, too.

*(New TV? That's right. I got a new TV. Wondering where the posting is about that? I told you they'd be out of order. Just go with it.)

Struggling

I have the day off of work today. It's one of the perks of working for a financial institution--FABULOUS holidays! Last week, I took Friday off of work as a vacation day, but this week, I need to be back in the office for Friday.

Friday is tomorrow. All day today, I've been crazy confused about what day it is. It is Thursday, but it feels like Saturday. I was thinking about church tomorrow, but NO! No church tomorrow--WORK tomorrow. To make things even worse, Somebody's Mother couldn't remember what today was either, and kept making references to things that would happen tomorrow, but they were Sunday's activities.

My apologies in advance if I show up at the wrong place tomorrow or at the wrong time. I'm struggling.

Sicky Sickerson

For the 4,206,488th time this year, I am sick. It's just a cold, I'm sure, but it's accompanied by an awesome fever.

I had the day scheduled off of work today anyway, which was convenient as I was sick all day. I managed to attend my nephew's birthday party, do some quick shopping, and ended up stopping in the office for about an hour to put out a little fire. (Not a real fire...nothing was actually aflame...) I did get to talk to my sister on the phone for a while, which was nice, but other than that, I've mostly been lying around feeling crummy.

Somebody's Mother says that I probably won't feel better tomorrow, but should feel better by Sunday. Just in time to go to work on Monday... 

Awesome. Just awesome.

Affirmation

I had a bit of extra money in my flex spend account to use up before the end of the year, so I have been making some purchases (contacts, refilling prescriptions, etc.).

Today, I still had a bit left, so I went to pick out some glasses. I took someone, who will remain unnamed, with me so that I could have an opinion. 

Me: Do these glasses make me look intelligent?

Opinion Giver: (instantly) No.

Suffice it to say, those were not the glasses I purchased...

Word to the Wise

My next several blog postings may be completely out of chronological order. I will be working through the past few months to fill in some gaps, while most likely continuing to post on current happenings. Try not to be alarmed.

If it helps, you can pretend you're watching one of those artsy films that most people never see, where the events are presented in random order and at the end you're sort of not sure what happened.

That'll probably only help Brooke, but hey, it'll help someone.  :)

Hello, World!

Long time, no see. I have many things to say, all jumbled up in my head, so we'll see if any make their way to a blog posting in the near future.

In one of my favorite Christmas movies, Muppet Christmas Carol, the narrators have to leave the story for a while during the visit of the Ghost of Christmas Future because it is too scary.

That, friends, is why I had to leave the blog for a while. Life was chaotic, and not suitable for the general reading public.

Now, however, I am in a much better mood and ready to share with the world again.

Whether the world is ready to hear what I have to say, well, only time will tell...

But I'm back.

Travel

I recently flew lots and lots of miles to see some special members of my family.

But this smile? I'd walk the whole way for this...

Stay Cool

My tight connection in Cincinnati is looking even tighter. Big deep
breaths...

I was supposed to have like 35 minutes to change planes, but now it's
looking like I'll have far fewer, if not a negative number.

Wouldn't be so serious if the flight I needed to catch in Cincinnati
wasn't the last of the day.

Traffic

--blogging from iPhone. My apologies for any typos--

Tidbit I learned today: traffic in downtown Milwaukee will always be
bad, no matter what time you arrive or what the weather is like.
Stupid tiny freeway...

I realize that I haven't kept up with the blog while I was
vacationing, but I'll fill in the middle later. Suffice it to say,
this trip was bookended by sitting in traffic in Milwaukee. Maybe
they're all headed out for some beer and cheese curd.