Gasp! An Update!

Well, I've just finished my first week as a Professional Student. It was a bit tedious at times, but mostly enjoyable. Orientation was overly long and could have been converted into a few hours, rather than two days. The highlights?

1. Study all the time and don't fall behind.
2. It's going to be harder than anything you've done before.
3. I am now part of a huge family--OSU's College of Optometry faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

They told us the above about eighty billion times. I feel like most of us get it--no slacking off like we may have done in undergrad.

We also had a day of "diversity training", which while mildly interesting, also seemed to be a bit wasted. Such is life!

All negatives aside, I'm really excited to finally be HERE in my life. I haven't quite grasped the fact that I'm going to be a DOCTOR, but I'm getting there. I think it will really sink in during the spring of my second year, when I start having patients. (Come one, come all, I'll accept volunteers!) By the time I get my degree and license, I will have seen anywhere between 1800-2000 patients. That boggles my mind!

So that's my life now--studying! Currently my classes are Human Histology, Pathophysiology, Optics, Genetics, Optometry Career Options and Financing, and a survey class of the profession. It seems like a lot, but the last three courses are "baby" classes. It's the first three that will occupy all of my time!

Off to study. Whee!

Plants

When I started my mini-garden this summer, I bought basil, dill, parsley, and cilantro plants. I stuck them in claypots on my windowsill (outside). I watered them daily and all that. They grew, certainly, but not enough to really harvest more than once. And the basil. What trouble it gave me. The leaves started out the beautiful bright green of basil leaves, but slowly slid into a sickly yellow green. Two plants, same thing. I suppose I'll have to do some windowsill herb gardening research.

It surprises me that my plants that did the best were the tiny pots of lavender and chives that I bought from the Target "see Spot save spot". $1 for two little pots that have a weird expanding soil pellet. Both have been transplanted now, and are thriving!

And just as I thought my African violets were goners, all three pots bloomed! Yay.

Hopefully I'll remember to water everybody when I go back to school--exactly ONE MONTH from now! I am so excited! Eeeee! Look for updates then as I will update to avoid real homework.

Mini-Update

Went on a great "double date" road trip with my brother, his girlfriend, and my fiance. We started out at Greenfield Village on day one and the Henry Ford Museum on day two. Fun!

I only have a handful of serving shifts left. Once school starts, I'm only working my Friday night bar shift. I'm pretty happy about it. I most likely will not be serving next summer, unless business at my restaurant drastically turns around.

I really look forward to school starting for a variety of reasons. One of the less obvious reasons is a regular eating schedule. No getting home at 11pm and eating dinner. Hopefully when combined with riding my bike to school I can stay in shape.

The most exciting part of the next several weeks is our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto. Our first real vacation together! We are going to have so much fun. Can't Wait!

Twitter

In an effort to be more...in touch? Writing more? I've added Twitter to my sidebar.

Expect more updates when school starts!

Quickie Points

My good friend (and fellow Friday night bartender) and his girlfriend had a baby today. I'm very excited to meet (and snuggle) him. This is my first fairly close friend to have a baby. It's another step toward being an adult--friends with kids. Eek.

Another friend and I planted a very ambitious garden last weekend. Four types of tomatoes (Cherokee, Big Beef, Roma, and Yellow Jubilee), four types of peppers (Chocolate Beauty, Anaheim, Jalapenos, and Blushing Beauty), watermelon, eggplant, cucumber and zucchini. We are very excited! Hopefully we'll have a good bounty of produce.

My little sister is graduating tomorrow. I'm in disbelief that she's possibly old enough to graduate high school. Isn't she still 12?

I have a birthday this week. I'm excited because my fiance (!) and I are having a date night at the Melting Pot and then seeing Up. Yay! Other than that, I don't really care too much about it. I'll be 24. Uhm, what? Crazy.

While I was bartending last night, a gentleman invited me to freelance serve or bartend with his event catering company. He even gave me his business card. To be honest, it creeped me out just a little. I'm sure the bartending gig would be pretty good money. I don't think I'll give it much more thought.

I'm getting sick of work. Not the actual work, but the work atmosphere. It's been pretty tension filled since the whole management upheaval. Meh. I'm looking forward to the schedule change so that I won't be working Saturday nights anymore. I haven't had Saturdays to do whatever I want in a very long time. It will be awesome. I'm also looking forward to cabrewing trips with several of my friends. (As a side note, bartend and its derivations come up as misspelled, but cabrewing is apparently a word. Weird.)

Enjoy the weekend!

Home Phone

We've had a landline since Monday. Can you guess how long it took to start getting telemarketers calling?

Just about 48 hours.

Ugh. Hellooooo Do Not Call list.

Another update?!

It's getting crazy here--3 posts in less than a week :-)

My herbs are doing fine, considering they're still alive after a fierce beating by the wind last week. They're inside for now recovering from windlash. My tiny pot of chives has sprouted quite nicely. My lavender is looking a little more perky--but still growing sideways instead of UP. Looks like I'll have to try staking them. I also restarted my AeroGarden. The remaining basil had died because of being bound up with the roots of other dead plants, the parsley looked said after its fellow plant died of rot, and the other two I planted weren't growing. I cleaned everything out, changed the lightbulb, and now Red Heirloom and Golden Harvest cherry tomatoes are taking their turn at growing. Fingers crossed that they grow!

We've been on a sort of manager rollercoaster at work lately. We got a 4th manager, then shortly afterwards the "staff favorite" manager was transferred to another store. Then an "assistant general manager" was assigned to our store, giving us 4 managers again. Now he's left and we are back to three. This is EXCELLENT news for me because it means I get to supervise more frequently. Right now I'm doing it Monday and Tuesday nights, which is fine because they are the typically slow nights. Monday was particularly bad so I was glad to be in charge rather than serving. Now I'm down to serving only twice a week--Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. Quite a change from serving 5 days a week earlier this year. I still work 5 days a week, but one shift is bartending and the other two are the super shifts. I'm really looking forward to fall not only to start school, but also to not work as much (hopefully I'll be able to keep bartending Friday nights).

Well, I'm off to shower and pack. The FIANCE and I are headed down to see his family for a couple of days. I'm excited because I haven't seen them since Christmas!

Big News!

My lovely boyfriend proposed to me last night! I got home from work at 11:30pm and as I approached our apartment door, I realized I smelled candle wax. I knew the proposal was coming, so immediately I wondered what was happening. I expected one or two candles but instead was greeted by this


all over every flat surface in our apartment. All those little candles sure gave off a lot of heat! He simply asked me to marry him, I said yes, slipped the ring on, and quickly got to work blowing out the candles. We then went to Steak n Shake to allow the apartment time to air out and cool off!

It was certainly memorable, but also simple which I appreciated. There are no wedding plans whatsoever yet.

I had taken the night off work to hang out with friends, but that fell through. Instead we spent the day at a local outdoor supermall and then walked up to a local ice cream parlor. It was a lovely way to spend the day :-)

I love my neighborhood.

I love where I'm living in Columbus this year. Within walking distance, there is virtually everything I could possibly need. If only my restaurant were a lot closer, I might never have to drive this summer!

Today I walked to the post office and library, with a stop at Panera for a patio lunch and at the garden center to check out the veggie plants. My friend and I have discussed planting a garden in her backyard, and I'm really hoping we follow through with it! She also lives within walking distance. I planted my herb garden this week. I opted for starter plants rather than seeds so that I don't have to wait as long for results. Basil, cilantro, dill, and parsley are hanging out on my windowsill (on the outside).

I also just learned that my FAVORITE ice cream flavor at a local "gourmet" ice cream place has made its return. I learned of it a little too late today or else I could have had some for lunch since the ice cream shop is along the way to the library.

I hope to make walking virtually everywhere a habit this summer. If I can condition myself over the summer, I hope I can continue when I start back to school. It's only a 1.7 mile walk according to Google so really, it shouldn't be too difficult until the weather gets nasty. Even then, I could probably walk all but the worst of days, and on those days I could take a bus part of the way. I just don't want to buy a parking pass for a tiny drive!

So that's what's up with my world right now. I'm adoring this taste of summer, and I can't wait for it the weather to actually stick around!

Still Around...

Just don't have much to write about! My days are pretty mundane right now--working or hanging out at home. I'll be bartending in the near future, so perhaps I will have some interesting stories then.

With spring and summer around the corner, I might try to chronicle my attempts at gardening. With pictures!

I just can't think of anything to write about!