Visitors, Lab, and Sub-Par Editing

This past weekend I got the opportunity of showing off Ithaca’s splendor. It is a rare and welcome occasion when I am visited up here, a place which my hairdresser once said sounded like “a magical land”, and which takes probably the same amount of trouble to get to (which explains the rarity of such an event). My grampa and his lovely bride the N-factor came up to the magical and mysterious land of community-owned bookstores, rednecks, and solar powered candle shops in order to see me and to drop off an automobile. (The N-factor’s real name is Nancy, but there was an abundance of Nancy’s in my life at the time I met her, so she was christened by none other than myself with a most distinguishing, and a trifle badass, nickname.)  [Also I have an automobile!]

While they were here, we had a plethora of nice meals and introducing friends to family. The Ithaca commons did not fail on at least two occasions to provide live music and eclectic folks. I remember one conversation, after walking by the hemp store, about how certain items displayed rather prominently in the window were illegal. I had to point out to my elders that glassware itself is not illegal.

The trip also included a visit to Niagara Falls. I naively thought that it would be somewhat less of a tourist attraction than it was, but the entire town is hotels, Casinos, and tour buses. That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time. We saw it from the top of the Skylon tower (the best view of it, at the price of an expensive lunch), went into the mist on a Maid of the Mist Tour, and saw it from behind the falls. I finally tried lobster, and have now been to two foreign countries on this passport. I have until 2021, so I hope I can get a few more.

Unfortunately much of my grampa’s visit was marred by me having to study/do homework. This week was the last week for two of my classes, so I was doing finals-prep (as well as midterm prep for orgo, due to Scott’s wish to have us take three midterms for a six week class) and trying to wrap up the last of the problem sets. Even more unfortunately, I have a peculiar talent of consistently beginning really excellent books right before I become too busy to give them the attention I would like. The day you posted on the blog it was to be 93 degrees, so I holed up in the nicely air-conditioned library and found a copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I finished it on Tuesday (two days before two finals). I have also done this with Atlas Shrugged, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Shining during the semester about which I say: “I didn’t know how bad I felt until I felt better.” At least I am consistent.

As previously mentioned, this week I took two finals: orgo and heat and mass transfer. I officially am not required to take any more chemistry courses, so naturally there is a little empty space in my heart. Fortunately I think I am going to take principles of biochemistry for my advanced science elective, so I can keep riding the “I love chemistry while normal people tolerate it for the minimum amount of time” train. My parents and brother are also on this train. It must be genetic.

Now that heat and mass is over and thermo is yet to begin (it will on Monday), orgo lab is the new most-work-required class. It’s also extremely stressful. Their motto might as well be: We are going to put you in a room full of noxious fumes (we actually had to evacuate the lab on the first day because we vaporized some benzoic acid. Nbd.), expensive equipment, things that might kill you, and breakable stuff, and ask you to do a bunch of things you’ve never done before with minimal guidance and require that you do it in a small amount of time. Also you must wear a silly apron whose strings keep breaking and lose a ridiculous amount of points on lab reports for not doing things you didn’t know you were supposed to do. You must also overhear your lab partner telling your TA she will be gone and in an attempt to idly make chit chat discover she will be attending her grandfather’s funeral. At such time you awkwardly decide to go dump something in the organic waste bottle on the other side of the room and regret bringing it up altogether. (Well, maybe without the last part.) The days when we only have one lab to do aren’t too bad actually, and it’s definitely a change of pace from your normal lecture/discussion/problem set type class, but I’m more of a survivor than a thriver in the lab.

There is certainly more I could talk about, but I feel like I have been scatterbrained enough writing what I have already written. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “I’m sorry this letter is so long, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.” (In hindsight I’m pretty sure I’ve written longer blogposts before, but usually I exhaust what I was intending to talk about in that time while this time I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. Perhaps I’ll write again relatively soon, depending on if things get busier again.) I really do hope we get a chance to Skype sometime… (Am I pathetic enough yet?) I don’t have much going on this weekend since thermo hasn’t started yet and we basically have the week off from lab because of the fourth of July. If you are around with even a little time I hope you will think of lil ol’ me! I hope your summer’s going well so far.

Much love,

Lola

Moving, Finals, and One Spoon

Yesterday was the first day in a long time where I had some free time. The only way I know, is I wound up reading in bed in the middle of the day. I guess you don't realize just how quickly life has been moving until it stops. For the last nine months I have been pretty much solely in school/TA mode. Maybe that time frame is biologically hardwired into me, but nine months is about all I can handle before I go insane. And yes, what they say about the third trimester being the worst was completely true for me. I somehow managed to cram a conglomerate of "have tos" and "shoulds" into one quarter, more than I have every crammed before. To express this, here is the timeline that has been going on for the last 3/2 to 2 Months.

The beginning of May: Still frantically searching for a house (5-6 bedrooms) to live in starting in June with a group of friends I have met over the past school year. We know we want to live in a nicer area but also not totally willing to pay for it. It would be better if we could be pretty close to UW, but we don't want to be in the sketchy area next to The Ave. I really only care about a nice kitchen and cheap heating, but the rest of my group also wants large open rooms and extra storage space. And we need to find this house soon; we have been on the market looking since early February. Thankfully, in the beginning of May we find such a house sans a few of the parameters we were looking for. A huge house in Wallingford, in a great location, lots of large spacious rooms, a cool back porch, June 1st move-in, but on the more expensive side. Oh, and the kitchen is completely out of date and to make it financially viable for me I'd have to share a room. However, we have been searching for so long and this house is the closest we have come to what we want so we are committed to working it out. A long winded, very difficult, negotiation with the land-lady-from-hell ensues and it turns out we don't get the house. This is after we've provided papers to go through extensive background checking (including our parents), and put down a deposit check. I seem to be the only one truly against the house by the time it falls through, besides a few of the other group members' parents, but regardless now we are in stress mode with potentially no place to live in less than a month.

Mid May: I see an ad pop up on Craigslist that does not sound very hopeful. The ad says 4-6 bedrooms, in "U-district/Wallingford", and there are no pictures posted. If the house is only 4 bedrooms, or not actually in Wallingford, or tiny and terrible, then it won't work for us. Seeing as we have already spent every weekend going to open houses for at least a month and a half, and much longer looking at places online, I don't have much hope for this house. I tell my group, this is the last summer start date house I will look at. If this isn't the one, I will be subletting from someone for the summer and I have to figure that out now. I call the landlord, Larry, and we show up on the stoop of where I am currently sitting to write this blogpost. Somehow, we managed to find the perfect house for us. It is 6 bedrooms, in Wallingford, tall ceilings, large open spaces, a garage for storage/art studio, a fire pit in the backyard, a breakfast nook, and an okay kitchen. And best of all, ridiculously cheap for the area. The average rent in this house is $400/month, and we have some variable pricing, so my room is even cheaper. It is an old house that is falling apart a little bit, I mean I have a hole in my wall, but even if the heating bill is $100/person/month, it is still cheaper than the earlier house we had found and I get to have my own room. We came on a Saturday at around 1:30, we grabbed some applications and filled them out, two hours later we were signing our lease with an awesome landlord, and two weeks later we were moving in.

June 1st (and the few days leading up to it): The quarter is almost over and final exams are on my doorstep. Johannah and I have subletters moving into our rooms on the same day that we are supposed to be moved out. She is coming to live with me at my new place for a week until school is over even though I have no guarantee that I'll have a bed or any house stuff like toilet paper, lightbulbs, or silverware. We still pack up all of my things into one load of her car and set her stuff up to be easily loaded up as well and are ready, May 31st, to move in the next day. However, my landlord has been out of town for the last two weeks and we have no idea when he will be able to let us into the house. As I am walking around my classes on the last day of Spring quarter, I am texting back and forth with Zorah and Johannah and it looks like today is not going to be the move in day after all. Thankfully, Johannah's subletter is not going to be moving in that day, so we can spend one more night in her bed, and with all of our things packed up we bunk down for one last evening at the first place I moved out of my parent's house into. The next morning we go do the security deposit walkthrough of my new home and in a couple of hours have all of my things moved in (including a bed!) and her stuff all packed into her car. Thus starts the week of camping out for finals in an empty house.

Finals Week: Johannah and I are staying in my still packed up room, full of my boxes, and sleeping together in my twin bed. This is surprisingly very comfortable and we spend our finals week hodge-podging meals together and questing for spotty internet stolen from our neighbors. We have all the essentials, there are two pianos, two record players, a bunch of board games and some circus equipment, and no couch. There is no shower curtain in the bathroom and when someone takes a shower we notice the wet floor causes the kitchen ceiling to leak. We have a few mugs, some chopsticks, two bowls, a plate, a few pots, and one spoon. Regardless, I have some basil plants in the window and a roof over my head. I ace my Bio final and we decide to take off Tuesday evening to gather our graduating friends to say goodbye in the only way we know how: Indian food and fondue. We send them each a printed invitation with a flower and Tuesday night finds us gathered at Cedar's restaurant, some of the best Indian food I have ever had. Somehow, all of the amazing people we invited managed to make it for a portion of the evening and it was wonderful to see everyone before we were all split up for a few weeks, the summer, years, or who knows how long. Back at my new place, Johannah and I throw together some fondue with some dumpstered Theo's chocolate and every dish I own. Being the responsible (most of us graduated) adults, we are, the evening turns into painting chocolate fondue mustaches on each other and playing with the various things in my house. Sadly, it is still finals week and the evening disbands into writing papers and studying for finals to come.

Saturday, June 9th: After frequenting Cedar's restaurant again the evening before with my family for my dad's birthday, I am home in Woodinville with a bag packed full of shorts and tank tops. I have just barely finished finals and grading exam and I am about to hop on a plane to LA with my three sisters to visit our family down in California. Even though I still have quite a few assignments to grade, and a heck of a lot more to backread, My sisters and I arrive in LAX to hug our cousin that we haven't seen in a few years. After doing many touristy things around LA, we drive down to San Diego and visit with family that it has been probably 10 years since we were last together. It was a good trip, but I don't think we stopped to breathe once. Every day, there was an activity planned. We did the Safari Park, the Del Mar Fair, Universal Studios, Kayaking in front of the house that used to belong to Dr. Suess, and altogether ate way too much food. Every night we collapsed into bed and I'm not sure how I managed, but I got all of my remaining TA duties done. A short week later, we were back at LAX hopping on a plane back to Seattle for our respective summers.

Now (ish): One short weekend at home later, I find myself back in Wallingford, only this time there is a full house awaiting me. I unpack a few more things, including my bookshelf and book collection. The house now has a shower curtain and actual silverware. Yesterday, we even acquired some couches. We still have bikes parked in our dinning room, but our floors have been scrubbed and ideas for painting have been thrown around. I have started TAing fulltime and am trying to put together an idea of how much free time I'll have to explore a summer in Seattle. I found out I can still check out books from the UW library, even though I'm not taking any classes this quarter, and I just bought a pass to the IMA so I can go rock climbing whenever I want. I am thinking about getting another parttime job to fill some of my evenings, but I have decided to keep my weekends relatively free for hiking explorations. Yesterday, I reread A Wrinkle In Time and The BFG, and today I am visiting Scotticus over at SPU. I can tell this summer will be whatever I make of it, potentially really full and potentially really awesome.

There is a character who has been intertwined throughout this story in real life, but I haven't mentioned him here at all. Yes, a him. You know about him sort of, but I feel like I should explicitly introduce him on the blog. About a month ago I started dating a really nice guy named Tristan. I met him this last quarter while TAing, he is a 14X TA as well, and we just hit it off. My mom asked him who he thought had initiated the relationship and he thought for sure that it was me. However, I am very sure that it was him that initiated everything, so apparently we just work together without trying. I could tell you all of the typical things about him, like he is tall, dark-haired, handsome and into Ultimate Frisbee. He worked in a bike shop for a while and is really into both riding and fixing bicycles. This summer he is an intern at The Climate Corporation in downtown Seattle which is an environmental computing company. We also really get along on a mental level and can be total computer science nerds together. However, the important thing to know about him is that I'll find myself smiling unexpectedly and realize that it was because of him. Even when he is not there.

I can't believe how long it has been since high school. And I can't believe how long it will be before I get to see you again. I miss you all of the time. I can't wait to hear about all the amazing things you are doing this summer and I hope you are able to also incorporate some amazing fun things in as well. I also hope your life stops for a bit and you can realize what a blessing (non-humid) sunny days are. And that sometimes one spoon is more than enough.

Much love, Riley

P.S. I would love to Skype soon, I am free mostly in the afternoons and evenings.