The Myth & The Majesty

I will back up yesterday's statement by adding that the week did not start well. However, today it has improved greatly, and I hope that trend continues. Missy and I are going to room together at Storm this summer; much excitement there! Yay for basically having an entire cabin to ourselves! And a closet! Woot! The big BioChE plant trip is on Thursday and Friday; we're leaving at 4:30AM on Thursday and returning at about 2AM on Saturday. It's one heck of a whirlwind trip, but it should be fun. Interesting, at the very least. It's a little disconcerting that we'll be touring the ethanol plant that's only a few minutes away from my high school; one of my old high school friends even works there. Could be interesting ...

This is not a good week.

Note to self: Learn to finish things at night so you can stop with this early morning computer lab craziness. The Week is over. After the awesomeness of a snow day, everything seemed to go downhill. Part of this was because of the accidental delay of, well, everything. Part of this is the fact that it's March. Tests are starting to pile up again, and end-of-semester projects are kicking in. Only 50 days till graduation, and that's really not much time at all. 19 days till my senior design presentation. I'm a little scared, but we're getting so close to being done ... That's a good feeling. In the meantime, there's a weekend to look forward to! A weekend of homework and Storm, of relaxing and accomplishing things, of ... Actually, I don't know what else. It's a weekend. Anything can happen. With a promise like that, what more do you need?

Despite my best efforts, I can't seem to concentrate on the homework in front of me. I find myself typing in here yet again in avoidance of said work. I've been reading Pride and Prejudice for a class focusing on Jane Austen's work, and while reading for tomorrow's assignment, I got carried away and managed to finish the book. It's something completely different than what I used to read; until recently, I was drawn almost entirely to crime novels (Patricia Cornwell, John Case, and the like). While I still enjoy those, I've been working through a few more serious books as well -- Fahrenheit 451 and The Inferno being amongst the most recent. This shift carries over to other media as well -- I find myself watching more and more dramas instead of action-adventure movies, and more TV shows along the lines of "CSI" than sitcoms. Those who know me just said, "Ashley, you've been addicted to 'CSI' since it first started six years ago."

So I'm hanging out at the guys' house with Ashli's laptop, and somehow I feel the need to say something. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to say. Chris and a couple of guys are jamming in the basement, and I have to say, it sounds pretty cool. Good background music for the homework I'm supposed to be doing. (If you want to increase your popularity somewhere, just bake something.) I love snow days, but I'm lacking in ability to finish anything. No motivation. No desire to go to class tomorrow. (That's bad.) No particular reason to do much, since I really don't have much due tomorrow. Instead, I've been looking at people's pictures on Facebook. Feels kind of like a miniature high school reunion ... It's a little depressing sometimes, in different ways. Enough small paragraphs for me. Have a good one, y'all.

Wheeeeee! That most joyous occasion has occurred! It's talked about in myth and legend, in old stories from middle school and high school; it taunts us on cold winter days as we trudge to class. But today, the myth has come true. "Classes have been cancelled for Monday, March 21, 2006." (Funny ... Pretty sure it's the 20th ...) Snow day! (Insert happy dance here.) None of us thought it was possible, but it turns out we underestimated the school administration. Stands to reason; most of the schools in the area are cancelled, and the interstate is closed from here to Chamberlain (a 200-mile spread for those non-SoDak-ers out there). I ... need to get out of the house for a bit. Could be an interesting trek. First, however, I need to find some non-pajamas. I love snow days.

Spent a large (quite large) chunk of today baking. It's fairly easy to judge how my week went according to how much I bake on the weekends; this week, it was three batches of cookies and two loaves of bread. 8 out of 10 on the long weeks. Thankfully, that baking was followed by a game night, including a pie-eating contest and two awesome games of Balderdash. I was talked into taking part in the pie-eating contest, which wasn't a terribly good idea (oof), but Balderdash made up for it. Much creativity and lots of laughs with that crowd. (You guys are awesome!) (Matt, Justin -- y'all missed out!) A bunch of us watched "Walk the Line" at the guys' house last night. This was my first time seeing the movie, and I think I understand my housemate's obsession with it. Not a bad movie; overall, I was impressed with the acting (and the singing -- especially the singing). It was a little surprising to see Joaquin Phoenix in a role that ... that ... I don't quite

I am a creature of habit. I walked into the library this morning shortly after 7AM and, despite having the choice of any desk in the building, I headed straight for my usual spot on the third floor. I've found that the key to drinking more water seems to be using a smaller, easily refilled bottle. I love my Nalgene, but it's not that portable for day-to-day life. It's a little depressing to people-watch on campus. It quickly becomes obvious that engineers are trained to look at the ground ... So few even see the people in front of them. Besides, have you ever tried to walke with energy (the phrase "a spring in your step" comes to mind) while staring at the ground? Practically impossible. Staring at the ground makes you look deep in thought, mildly unhappy, and slightly clumsier. Odd. After almost four years here, I've found that I don't always know what to do with myself when I have large blocks of free time. It's not that there's not plent

Advantages to being at school at 6:45AM: - It's quiet. - You have your choice of computers. (Any of them. Anywhere on campus. As long as the building's open.) - No wheelie backpacks for at least an hour. - No one asks you for directions. - You are definitely not late for class. Disadvantages: - Um, hello? It's 6:45 IN THE MORNING! Advantages to snow: - Everything gets quieter and brighter. - Increases the chances of cancelled classes. - It begins to look a lot like Christmas. - Sledding. Disadvantages: - People who think they can drive the same speed on two inches of snow pack are usually wrong. - Scraping windows in the morning. - That moment when you realize classes haven't been cancelled. Advantages to living in South Dakota: - You get a lot of bright, sunny days. - You get some fun snow. - There are fewer people to get on your nerves. - Less air pollution. Disadvantages: - Sometimes the bright, sunny days and the snowy days are the same day. Clothes make the man. Na

Happy Pi Day! The in-class amusement continues. Good ol' S.A. is starting to lose people again (one of my classmates made a comment about how engineers become artists in his class), and people are getting more vocal about it. Unfortunately, all of the vocal ... ness (vocality?) happens outside of class. So really it's just people complaining. I started my personalized bean plant. I may have to post pictures of it, if I can get them to work ... It's this "Magic Egg" containing a bean plant with a message on the bean. It may be interesting to see if I can get it to work (and not kill it) ... I practically had to beat it senseless to break the porcelain egg in the first place (which looked pretty goofy, by the way). Let's see here ... I was surprised to see that "Brokeback Mountain" is still in theaters. Long-lasting, that one, which is only surprising because it took its own sweet time getting to RC in the first place. (PS -- Has anyone been to

I had an odd dream last night. I reconciled with someone that I haven't spoken to in a long time, someone from my past life. The best part was waking up and feeling good about that person, for the first time in a very long time. Hmm. Anyway, that's not the point today. Today, I'd like to ask you to leave a comment if you read this. Nothing much. A simple "I was here" with your name would suffice. I'm curious as to who actually reads this thing (not so much numbers, which I know are low, but who). That's all. Thanks!

Whew. Spring break is almost over, and I survived. Granted, I still have a lot of homework to do (that mysteriously didn't get done during the week), but that's okay. I made it back to RC, and that was enough of a trial. It's snowing again. I love how it waits to go nuts until there are a bunch of us headed back to school. It took six hours this time (remember, it usually only takes about 4:45 to make the drive). Grr. At least I'm not stranded in Murdo ... (*shudder*) My parents crack me up. In addition to buying a huge TV, they have started to eat out more often. Some of you know that I was raised on homecooked meals, something I miss on a daily basis. We were lucky to go to a restaurant twice a month, unless we were on vacation (and even then many a meal was made in a hotel room). However, in what seems to be preparation for empty nesting (oddly only a few years away), they've started eating out more. Things at home just keep getting weirder. Oh, and som

I have made many trips to Minneapolis in my life. This one, however, taints them. We were in a car accident last night. We got lost on our way to supper, and during our backtrack, we tried to make an exit that was a little too sharp and instead we crashed into the guard rail (and scared a yield sign into the ditch). We're all okay. (Maybe I should have said that right away?) The worst injury was a minor airbag burn on Jessie's nose. The car -- well, we don't know just yet. It's currently being looked at by a mechanic, so we'll see. All things considered, it didn't look too bad, although the windshield will need replacing. But there's more to the story than that. After the airbags went off, we propelled ourselves out of the car. Good thing, too, as airbag smoke filled it pretty quickly, and we didn't want to be breathing that. My sister's friend was on her phone with her mother when it happened (my sister was driving); her mom was likely a l

Technically, I was trying to sleep. Technically, I should have given it more than ten minutes. But technically, my brain is racing, which makes things difficult. Spring break (that was very nearly typed as "sproing") is coming, and as such, I am going home again. Home ... well, to my parents' house. I usually claim Rapid City now, as strange as that feels some days (like when I'm at church with my parents and fill in the hospitality folder with my address here). In any case, I will be headed back to Sioux Falls and all the people there, if only for a few days. Hold on, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Or where to get where I want to be ... Okay. So I'll be in Sioux Falls shortly. This past weekend, I was there as well; I even drove past my old high school town. It's been awhile, a very long while, since I really paid much attention to Lennox. High school wasn't really an experience I enjoy reliving. You might even say I hated it, as strong a

Every once in awhile, blog surfing can bring a person face-to-face with her own iniquity. Here I am, ruminating on the state of my own life, when plenty of people have much more important and useful things to say. Makes me feel a little more ... insignificant. Selfish. Mostly, it just makes my blog seem meaningless, and that's not any better. Where should it go from here?