Time for a new post

Not much has been going on in my life in the past 2 weeks since I last blogged. (Really, could someone please tell me when I last did something exciting?--No that really doesn't need to be answered)... But things are going well and I'm into cruise/study-for-finals mode now. I'm out of the fog that has plagued me for the better part of the past month and I'm committed to being less stressed and more focused... so we'll see how that goes. Plans are coming together for a trip to Florida for the week immediately following finals (April 21-26)... so hopefully that's a go.

Back in Town

I arrived back in Pittsburgh on Sunday shortly after 4:15. This was a full hour earlier than our arrival back in January after winter break. I'll chalk the difference up to faster driving, no bathroom break for the other driver, and no rest stop. Thanks, Dexter!

Quite easily the highlight of the day was seeing Kristen walking along the side of the road near Carlisle. I thought it was her, I KNEW it was her, but I just couldn't believe it until I talked to her later in the day. Wow!

Later I worked on my ChE homework and ate pizza. That's always awesome.
Then I went with Alex and Brendin to pick up Mohammad at the bus station.

Today was laundry day and they have new machines! Finally! They did a nice job.

Outta here!

Spring Break

I'm in Macungie now, and I'll be here until 10:40 AM on Sunday. I arrived home shortly after 8:00 on Friday the 7th with a surprise for my mom. The busride was uneventful despite the bipolar driver who decided to follow another bus at a slow rate of speed for nearly three hours, and then he blasted past the other bus at 5:01 PM, just east of the Blue Mountain tunnel. After this, the driver asked everyone to be back on the bus in 20 minutes at the rest stop... and he nearly left the without two people who didn't get back to the bus within 17 minutes. He was angry about the delay, but this leads me to wonder why the driver waited so long to pass the slow moving bus if he was in such a hurry.
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And for that ochem thing, you'll need sodium borohydride.

The Department has a new address

Today we selected housing for next year using the wonderful online system that Pitt has provided for us. We are living in the Bouquet Gardens apartments, APT 401E next year.

mmmm

I awoke this morning to a familiar smell. It took me a while to figure out what it was, but then I realized that it was fresh air--the window was open a crack. Not that the Department doesn't have a fresh smell about it, but this was a smell I hadn't smelled in months. Thinking that it was actually warm outside, I checked ac-cu-we-a-ther (my outdoor temperature sensor has been broken for months) and found that it was only 28 degrees outside. But this smell reminded me of other awesome smells from my life, such as the boxwood plants outside my grandparents' old house. I wonder if one can grow boxwood indoors...If so, we should get a plant next year for the Department.

I'm really not liking Ochem right now... Wilcox's practice test includes this ridiculous question about synthesizing a lactone from methyl vinyl ketone... and no other organic reagents. Some parts are obvious: The thing somehow needs to be turned into a grignard reagent, but I'm not exactly sure how to monobrominate the double bond...We learned some reactions in ochem 1 (HBr/H2O2) that might work, but we never dealt with a C=O or OH group... and don't get me started on those biosynthesis reactions. Ugh...and I have to take a whole class on them next year.

I've come to the conclusion that some things are good (Pitt, Forbes Hall, incandescent light bulbs), some things are OK (Thermo, Beth Bateman Newborg, Qdoba Burritos), some things are OK some of the time (Ochem, snow, the rice at 360°), some things aren't that great at all (Peanut butter, Ochem tests, unsafe bridges), and other stuff flat out sucks (Adam Eaton).

This is my blog

G'afternuun...or perhaps, good morning my dear friends.

Since you're reading this, you now know that I have this blog that I can use to write things. Neat.

I really don't know what I'll write here--probably not much since nothing much really happens in my life, but it's here anyway.

Back to thermo and ochem!