We’re about to be Back… but I’m not yet sure if we’re ‘Better Than Ever’ … only time will tell.

It’s 2 o’clock in the morning… in 6 hours Gretchen and I will be reunited for the first time since May 18.  Unfortunately, our counterpart Alpha the fish will not be joining us on the upcoming adventure, as he went belly up a few days ago.  He was with Gretchen at the time of his passing, and according the text messages she sent me, his body was ‘donated to science’ (aka, she dissected him… because she is a future vet and that’s apparently what future vets do.)

In other news, I am not finished packing for our trip, and I am leaving in 3 hours.  (This should come as a surprise to no one.)  However, I am SO PUMPED to go help Gretch move into her new home for the next few years while she is vet school, and I’m even more excited to see many, many friends in the process.  I’m sure the next 10 days will be filled with many blog worthy moments so we will do our best to keep you informed.

Alright… time for bed.  The packing will get finished in the morning.  Or it won’t.  Either way I get to see my best friend in 6 hours, and I can’t wait!

Blue Skies and Buffalo

Today was full of food, warm breezes, and sunshine… Also, it’s technically ‘Study Day’, but we didn’t let finals get us down. MG and I started the morning unsure of what the day would bring. We weren’t expecting much more than rain and flashcards. The morning was hazy and MG woke up feeling a little under the weather. However, cold medicine is a wonderful thing and by the afternoon, she was as chipper as one can be under the impending doom of finals. We were admittedly not very productive in the morning… or the afternoon for that matter, but it all hinges on how you define ‘productive’. If productive means having a fun-filled, relaxing afternoon that includes half-price fraps from Starbucks with friends, we are the most successful individuals you’ve read about today. I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet! Here it is: we went to see buffalo. That’s right- we found our own little prairie on the east coast. I have been scoping out the farm for the past four years of my college career and today was the day. The whole herd was right next to the fence and we decided to pay them a spontaneous visit. It was perfect. Leaving my mocha cookie crumble frappuccino in the car, I raced off to take these:

MG was a little intimidated by the 1 ton beasts and 5 string electric fence (I have no idea why), so she hung back a little, but all in all, it was a fantastic experience. Study Day has been redefined for our final semester and we’re loving it. #youreonlyacollegesenioronce

Just Guess…

One roommate clearly has the artistic advantage here.

From the Alpha

Alpha to Japan Base 9. I have experienced my first failure, comrades. I had assumed my escape plan was flawless, but my captives have thwarted me. They left me in the hands of a kind human for 11 days. (well, if humans could even be close to kind, this one would be) They called her their RD. At first my hopes were high that they had given me to the Regional Duchess of Thailand, but this was not the case. It became clear to me (due on no account to the clarity of my water) that my temporary host was a ‘Resident Director’. Yet, she possessed such a refreshing atmosphere that I became more lively and alert under her care. When she returned me to my captives (a betrayal I shall never forgive) she reported that I was ‘the most active betta fish she has ever seen’. Psh. Little does she know that I have now surveyed the entire floor plan of this facility and have planned the direction of my next escape. Paolo the Humidifier still refuses to comply, but I swear he will yield. I was almost there and the doorway to this fortress was in sight. A final word to assure you of my painstaking accuracy; I mark each passing day with the creation of a surface bubble in my water cell. My captives think it mindless. I shall hope to keep them ignorant. (That should not be difficult)

‘Spring’ Break

…or lack thereof.

My view this morning:

vs Gretchen’s view this morning:

I have nothing to say about this.

A Taste of Spring

The smell of campfire smoke has once again permeated West 392a.  However, it is mixed with spring air, so I am definitely not complaining.  Though I know the weather is bound to get cold again before spring actually arrives, this weekend tease was enough to raise my spirits quite a bit.  (side note… I wrote this on Monday… now that I am posting in on Wednesday, it is snowing again.  I’m hanging on to the blissful memories of warm weather now, and repeating over and over again that it WILL come back eventually.)  Anyway, our friends decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather as much as we could, and Saturday was spent hiking at McConnell’s Mill.  I failed to think about the fact that the sun would not be shining in the caves and they would therefore still be icy, but it just added an extra challenge… and some extra bruises.  Soon after we got there I thought it would be hilarious to break two icicles off the side of a cave and refer to them as my ‘ice daggers.’  (In case there was any question as to my age… I’m thinking 5 is a good answer.)  As I charged into the caves with a ‘dagger’ in each hand, what I assumed to be a puddle was actually a sheet of pure ice.  I pretty much face planted and my ice daggers shattered into a zillion pieces.  This may be the reason for the discrepancy in bruise number between Gretch and myself, ha.

After hiking around and climbing in caves I was near certain I would not fit through, we headed up to a field and laid on rocks in the sun.  I had to laugh at the fact that I went from wearing a coat in an ice coated cave to wearing a t-shirt in the sun within 10 minutes.  I am so thankful for warm weather and friends to enjoy it with.

Adventuring near the field led to the discovery of a dead deer skeleton, and a large drain pipe jutting out of the side of a hill.  Since we are easily amused, these both provided great entertainment.

The guys ripped the antlers off, and then Jesse used one of them to ‘hook the rib’ and throw the skeleton into a large puddle nearby.  Because, why wouldn’t you do that?  (Don’t answer that.)

After determining that, even if we all linked up, we would not be able to fit all the way through the drain pipe, we settled for simply throwing rocks toward the opening from 60 feet away.  (If you know me, you know I cannot throw rocks, or anything else for that matter, 60 feet.  So I did not exactly participate in this activity, beyond praying that someone would just finally make it so we could do something else, ha.)

Note the pipe they were aiming for circled in red in the upper right area.  After more than 20 minutes of trying, everyone finally gave up, and we moved on.

Thanks to Tim for taking and sending me the pictures from McConnell’s!

Sunday’s enjoyment of the weather came in the form of bible study outside and then a walk to dairy queen. Later on in the evening we took the first waterfall trip of 2013 and enjoyed a bonfire.

Shannon found a giant marshmallow in the foods while looking for firewood… Plugge was not about to try it.

Yes, those are the antlers from the deer carcass.  “I just want to be a full deer!”

The fire started as a small teepee, which eventually collapsed and turned into a log cabin.  Which eventually became a teepee again once more wood was put on.  Which form of fire building is better seems to be a much debated issue.

Someone roasted the marshmallow and then Peach tried some of it…

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend, and makes me so excited for when spring decides to show up for real.  Hopefully that will be sooner than later, because I am soooo over the cold.

Extremes of Life

People often talk about the highs and lows of life, but life is usually pretty high here on the fourth floor in 392A.  This past  week may have been a fantastic example of these ‘extremes of life’. MG and I must say we have had some moments of pride in the past week. We both made some solid plans for our futures and I chose a post-grad school. MG also succeeded in eating an entire bag of jelly beans and I downed a sizeable portion of Valentine’s M&Ms. (The M&Ms have to be finished once they’re out of style… it’s a hard task.)

However, the week had its fair share of lows and embarrassing moments as well. I would share the lows, but we’re sticking to the entertaining points of the week, so please just sit back and enjoy this week’s most embarrassing moment: the t-shirt ‘oops’. To give a little back story, I love designing t-shirts. I’ve done quite a few and spend an obnoxious amount of time on each design. Okay, now for the good part. My most recent design was one of my favorites… The organization leaders loved it as well, so 40 shirts were quickly ordered after the artist at the t-shirt company approved it. Now here’s a disclaimer- at least 5 people saw this design before it was printed. Yet, this is how it turned out:

How does this look to you? Put on your Sherlock brain caps and stare nice and hard at this for a moment. My embarrassment will be slightly eased if you don’t notice it at first… Yes… count those fingers- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… and 6. What?! May I add that I used my own hand as a model for this. Oh yeah, I’m also a biology major taking Human Physiology. No big deal. It just took me 2 weeks to notice the mistake (and by ‘mistake’ I mean my hidden artistic meaning) and by that time these lovely t-shirts were already being sold across campus. I am thankful for one thing though- I forgot to sign the design. I tried to keep it a secret, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of people 1. thinking that I had couldn’t count and 2. not enjoying my embarrassment with me.  So, there you have it- the t-shirt oops.

Throwin’ It Back.

A common misconception is that Gretchen and I have been roommates all 4 years of college. In actuality we weren’t roommates until sophomore year, and in fact weren’t even really friends during freshman year. We refer to this as the year of missed opportunities. Actually, that is a complete lie… I just made that phrase up 30 seconds ago. But anyway… here is what I believe to be the first picture of Gretchen and I in existence:

What a gem. This was taken at the chem show freshman year, just moments after our group’s experiment (which was flawless during rehearsal) majorly failed and we were left awkwardly standing on the stage unsure of what to do.  The goggles, beakers, and looks of complete confusion actually seem quite fitting to our college experience.  I would also like to point out the fact that we are matching… another uncanny representation of our shared experience here.  Although, this particular day the matching was not an accident, as it is every other time.

So, now we’re ‘Back and Better Than Ever’ and based on this picture, I’d say that’s a really good thing.

We’re Still Alive

Things have been relatively normal around here for the past month or so (can you believe that?) so we haven’t had much to blog about.  After several nights of willing ourselves to stay up past 8pm, and doing this around 7: we overcame the jetlag and moved on with life.  The most exciting thing that’s happened has probably been the time I accidentally knocked the shower curtain down and it took everyone in our suite to get the darn thing up again. 

The semester is flying by and the 100 days until graduation mark has come and gone.  We’re dealing with the impending separation like true adults- pretending it’s not happening and attempting to never talk about it.  Denial is working for us for the time being.

This past weekend Gretchen and I each had separate adventures- me in Pittsburgh and Gretch at home.  Keeping with the “being adults” theme, I got my ears pierced (I may have panicked slightly before it actually happened…) and she risked her life ice climbing.  I think it’s clear who the more adventurous roomie is. (ME.) 😉

We’ll part ways again in a few hours for ‘spring break’ so who knows what shenanigans will go down.  Hopefully we’ll have much more to post when we get back.

From the Alpha

Alpha to Japan Base 9. My captives have cleaned my plastic cell again, but I can’t say that it does much. First of all, they put me in a torture chamber and subject me to air-boarding. I know that air-boarding is illegal in the Motherland, but here I am sloshed into the air and back into the water for just enough time that my poor gills are starved of their precious H₂O. After they realize that I will tell them nothing, they place me back into my prison which they claim is ‘clean’. Their standards are pathetic. They give me two dumpy plastic plants that are supposed to simulate my natural environment. What do they know of the rolling waves of the Siam shore? That’s right. They actually don’t know that we are Siamese, not Japanese. Keep up the good work Base 9, we have them fooled. On that note, I have concluded that Paolo the humidifier is a possible route for escape. He has a water chamber big enough to hold me and the human underlings carry him in and out of the room every few days. I must think of a way to commandeer their route. I will keep you updated.

The torture chamber for your records of abuse: