Excercise - Day One

I had my first day with my trainer at our gym on campus today... and it went well.

I started out by eating some yogurt about an hour before hand (with some fruit and oatmeal in it) and drinking plenty of water. Then I got to the gym, changed and found my trainer. In all truth being at the gym made me feel sort of out of place, weak, ugly and well... unfit. I kept telling myself that I was there for a reason though and that it would be worth it. After a short warm up, my trainer took me through one set each of some basic excercises, to focus on technique. I learned that I have problems with my ankles, which makes my knees and hips unsteady - something I'm not all surprised at.

Today was an easy day - normally I'd do more weight lifting then I did, plus cardio at the end (I skipped cardio today because we have a snow storm and someone was waiting for me for a ride, so I just wanted to get home)... but I'm still tired and I can definitely feel that I worked out!

But the great thing is going to be when a more fit and stronger me goes to pick up my fiance at the airport in 2 months. It's not that I look bad or anything... for those of you who know me, don't worry I'm not planning on losing weight and I don't think I'm fat - but I do think that gainnig muscle and more general fitness will improve my self esteem and in general improve me. And it'll be nice to show it off when he comes. Even if it's only a little.

Ever had numb eyes?

Ever gone to the doctor and gotten something "numbed" ? Maybe you've had a tooth pulled or a wart removed or something... well today, I had my eyes numbed. And wow...what a feeling!

I went to an opthamologist today to have my eye looked at (found out I have two styes) and one of the first things they did was put these numbing eye drops into both of my eyes and then use air pressure to check them. I found out I was normal in that respect - but you know how your body part will feel fatter than it is when you have it numbed? My eyes felt fat. I never knew a person's eyes could feel fat. The cool thing was when I realized that the woman was blowing air pressure into my eye and I realized that I didn't feel a thing. I kept wanting to poke myself in the eye cause it wouldn't hurt. Of course I didn't, but I did touch my "good" eye a few times... and then grinned because I've never had numb eyes before.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a feeling I'd want often. It was weird and uncomfortable...but it was funny at the same time. :)

Stupid Shots

Today I had that dreaded exam - the yearly physical.. now if you're a girl, you know why it's so dreaded (PAP Smear anyone?) and if you're a guy... well, count your blessings and be sympathetic when your significant other/family member/friend complains about them. Be happy you're not her. Okay, so they're not that horrible..just uncomfortable.

While at this wonderful doctor's visit, I learned that it's been 10 years since my last tetanus. Only now the CDC is recommending people to get a booster of tetanus, diptheria and pertussis (also known as whooping cough), just once. I agreed and got the shot, which at the time was painless. Ah...but then the side effects started setting in... though these don't happen to all who get it, apparantly I'm one of the lucky few! Here are my fun side effects:

1. Fatigue - I was awake when I got to the doctor's office and afterwards until about an hour had gone by... I was sitting in class and I noticed, just how sleepy I was becoming. At first I thought it was just class - I tend to get tired in that class, but usually after class I wake up and am fine again. Today I'm still tired. I just want to lay down and sleep for like 2 hours. Or maybe 3 hours. Instead, I get to go to work! yay! (note sarcasm)

2. Slight fever - yep, this can produce a slight fever. Apparantly my body doesn't like being injected with dead viruses - imagine that? They told me this could happen and to take a tylenol if it does. So I took a tylenol a little while ago. It's not a high fever or anything bad, but just enough of one.

3. Pain - my. whole. arm. hurts. this is normal after a tetanus shot though.

Stupid shot... The slight fever and the pain isn't bad..but I'm really really tired, which sucks because I have to go to work today for 7 hours and do a job that is already boring.

I really need to wake up nowwwwwwzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I done good.

I must say that today, I am proud of myself. I was originally supposed to be working at the zoo today, however the threat of a lot of snow made the on call keeper for the weekend decide that I was best to stay put at college instead of traveling an hour one way to the zoo, only to have the weather possibly turn out pretty bad today. So stay here I did, determined to work hard on homework all day and make the most of my time. Sadly our "snow storm" hasn't turned out to be as exciting as I thought (a whole 2 inches or so is all we have so far), however my homework day has turned out quite successful.

It has taken me all day long, however I was able to write the first 6 pages of my senior project for International Studies today. This may seem not so good, but considering that I was forced to do research while writing, I am quite proud of my accomplishment. This means that the first two sections of my five section paper are complete! And I still have until the end of March to complete it! * does a little dance * I finally feel like I've gotten somewhere in it, and if I do just a few paragraphs a day, I shouldn't have any problems at all in meeting the deadline. The next sections will also be easier, due to the fact that I have more research already completed for them, and so will spend less time researching instead of writing.

Okay, so I shouldn't celebrate too early, since I have several hours left of homework that I want to accomplish tonight, but I feel energized and able to do it! :) And it feels nice to be "caught up" with things, especially considering the weather will be good enough for me to go the zoo tomorrow (I'm pretty sure).

In other news, my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the zoo keeper from the Denver zoo who was killed by a jaguar. I don't know any details, but it is a sad reminder of the dangers of the profession. To add to the tragity the jaguar needed to be killed as well.

Snow and Brokenness

According to our local weather man, we are in for about 6 inches of snow fall over the next 24 hour time period. This is really nothing compared to Minnesota, who is supposed to get a foot of snow or so in the next 24 hours, it is cause for celebration here. Or at least I'm celebrating. Why? Cause we've only gotten about 3 - 5 inches of snow this entire season! And I've been saying all week, "All that needs to happen is for the temperature to drop five or ten degrees (into the 20's) and there to be a snow storm!" And it looks like God is going to give me a snow storm.

With that said, I'm a bit unsure of my weekend plans. I'm supposed to go to the zoo on Saturday and Sunday, but Saturday is the day we're supposed to have the storm. Plus it's windy and there may be a lot of blowing snow. So we'll have to see what happens. I may not be going on Saturday. Or I may end up staying down there this weekend....

And the other news today is that my computer sucks and is relatively broken. It doesn't recognize that it's plugged in all the time, so I'm going to have to have it fixed. I'm going to call a place this morning after class and hopefully they can fix it for cheap. It did this in Germany too and I got it fixed for 20 euros, so hopefully it'll be a similar price here. And hopefully it'll last another six to eight months. Maybe sometime in 2008 I'll be able to buy a new one (yeah, right) but for now I just want this one to survive. If it's unfixable I don't know what I'll do - my fiance and I talk on my computer because we can't afford to talk on phones all the time. And we can't talk on the University's computers that way. At the same time I can't really afford a new computer. Though if I did have to get a new one, I would get a nice but cheaper desk top instead of a lap top. I love my lap top but they're more expensive. And my fiance has a lap top, so two aren't needed (when he eventually comes here to stay). We'll have to see what happens. Hopefully I can get it fixed for cheap.

I Can Die - err - Do My Homework - Happy

While surfing youtube.com last night, I finally found someone who posts the Gilmore Girls episodes online! :) This means that I can watch pretty much all of the episodes in season 7 that I otherwise miss because of my class.

I can die happy. Or at least do my homework happy.

Sleep Schmeep

Hello and good morning! Welcome to my humble blog world this morning, how are you? Did you get enough rest? Eat a good breakfast? Watch your favorite morning news? Check your daily internet stuff? Good good. Now sit back, cause you'll never guess what I did this morning.

Remember all the way back to this entry? Well, the Pracs fiasco didn't work out to well, and a few weeks ago I finally did go to our gym and schedule a fitness evaluation and personal training sessions. This is now my third week, and unfortunately they have yet to call me to set up my fitness evaluation. I called there at the end of last week and the woman said that the trainers are behind, what with all the special new year plans going on, but that they'd call me. So, I've been waiting.... but my body this week has been screaming at me, "Go to the gym! I need to workout!" and this morning I (drum roll please) finally went!

I set my alarm for 5:30 in the morning last night, not promising myself I'd go. I simply set my alarm and decided to decide in the morning. Well 5:30 rolled around and I was T.I.R.E.D. So tired that I reset my alarm for 7:30 - working out is unimportant. Then this tiny voice in my head started screaming "I want to workout! If you never go, you'll never know if you like going this early! You can at least try! Lazy! Get out of bed!" I tried telling it to shut up... but it wouldn't listen. It just kept telling me if you never try it out, you'll never know. Okay okay...I got out of bed.

I ate a nice breakfast of multigrain cheerios w/2% milk (cause 1% is blue and not normal), drank some water and threw on my workout clothes (which included those nice shoes, and track pants I got from wal-mart for 5 dollars) and headed to my car. The great thing about working out so early is that parking is free at our gym. After arriving, I checked in at the front desk and headed to an elliptical. Here's what I did:

30 minutes total cardio -
* 10 minute warm up @ 3.9 miles per hour
* Alternated 2 minute jog @ 5.0 miles per hour with 2 minute walk at 3.9 miles per hour
* 10 minute cool down @ 3.9 miles per hour (and slowly decreasing speed to 0)

Then I realized how much my body is screaming at me for good fruit and vegetables, and went to the grocery store. I bought bananas, lettuce, grapes, peanuts, yogurt, orange juice, and a green pepper. I went over my budget this month of $40.00 for groceries by about 5 dollars, but I need the healthy food. And besides, the month is nearly over and I'm still going to be under $50 for the month, so I'm happy. :)

The downside? I'm still tired and not as energized as I expected. But if I keep this up, I will be eventually. I hope. I'll start with strength training just as soon as they call me for that personal trainng time.

Wow

My fiance received a letter from my old health insurance in Germany recently, stating that they owed me money and asking for the information of a bank account, so that they could give it to me back. He told me to call a certain phone number during German business hours to get my money back, and to make it simple we decided to have them transfer the money to his bank account in Germany.

This morning at about 10 to 5 german time (9:50 am our time) I remembered that I need to call them, and grabbed my phone. I was a bit nervous, as I haven't spoken German out loud for quite a while and haven't conversed with any German in even longer but I sucked it up and listened to the phone ring. When the woman picked up I was able to talk to her and understand her just fine, though was a bit annoyed at how bad my accent has gotten.

Everything went great until the end. Which something like this:

Me: (reading off numbers 814) "Acht...eins...fünf- err vier" (8-1-5-err-4)
Her: (repeating the numbers back) "Acht...eins...fünf...vier" (8-1-5-4-)
Me: "Nein..es ist nul-nur vier" (null, the word i started to say means zero. i meant to say, no it is only four at the end)
Her: "8-1-4. Okay, wir werden Sie das Geld überweisen." (814, okay, we'll transfer your money)
Me: "Alright...errr..okay... vielen Dank."

So basically, I am so used to English that instead of saying Okay or something in german the first thing that came out was alright. I was super embarassed. You could tell during the conversation that she could understand me, but that she noticed how bad my German sucked. Okay, not that it sucked, just that she had to concentrate more than usual to understand me, compared to the people she normally deals with.

And do you want to know how much money they're sending me? 5 euros and 50 cents. Woo. Hoo. :>)

I Forgot

Whenever I don't work at the zoo there are two things I forget:

1. How much I love working at a zoo, with animals... it's such a fulfilling career!

2. How incredibly exhausting it is. My whole body hurts and I'm so tired I can't think anymore. Ahh...but I'm happy.

Speaking of not thinking...excuse me while I go catch some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's.

Honors

This just in - I can get a "B" in two classes this semester and still graduate with honors, so long as the rest of my classes have "A's"....

For those of you interested in finding out your possible cumulative GPA after this semester go here. It's a nifty little site - scroll down. Of course, this is only good for NDSU students, I think.

But it's good to know that I can get two B's...

And it's good to know that I can actually maybe graduate with honors. :D

What A Day

Today was quite a day. It started out great - we bought my fiance's plane ticket...he's officially going to be here on April 28, and will be staying nearly a month. He'll get to see my apartment, deal with me during my last finals week and see me graduate. I'm so excited! It'll have been about 9 months since we saw eachother last by then.... we've definitely earned it.

Then I studied. all. afternoon. That was exciting, let me tell you! But I did work really hard and took my (really hard) exam this evening. It was an essay test, seven questions and I wrote for 2 hours straight. When I left about half of the class was still writing. And no, I'm not exaggerating. I did study really hard all week though, and I did my best. Whatever I got, is whatever I got.

After the test I drove over to the library. I noticed a police car sitting there near the parking spaces, and made sure to park extra carefully and not break any laws. As soon as I left my car, the police car drove up behind it and I thought "no! There can't be a reason for a ticket!" I went into the library anyways and hurried to get my books. When I came back out, the police officer had gone and left me a gift. A nice little ticket...for parking in front of a hydrant. Now, you may call me dumb, but I was really careful. I didn't block the cross walks (just like a sign said not to), I made sure I was about 6 inches from the curb, I made sure the curb was yellow in color (which means I can park there) and I even looked and thought about the hydrant that was there. There were no signs that said "dont' block the hydrant" and the curb was yellow.. and right behind my car there was a huge open space where no parking was allowed, so I thought that it must be okay to park just slightly in front of it. Then the cop car pulled up behind me... and I guess I was wrong. See, the ticket is only 10.00 dollars, so it's really no big deal. But what really makes me mad, is that the police officer watched me park there, and painstakenly make sure that it was legal... he (or she) obviously saw me park in front of the hydrant and watched me get out of my car. He couldn't have told me that I was illegal - just said, "hey, do you realize it's illegal to park in front of the hydrant?" I would gladly have moved my car. It would have been one thing if he had just come across my car like that..but to watch me park and not be nice enough to warn me? Seriously - does he really have nothing better to do with his time?

Okay, I know it was illegal (now I know) but... isn't there a burglar to catch or something?

Happy V Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope your day is filled with happy thoughts, lots of chocolate and lots of love.....

Mine will be filled with lots of class, lots of studying, and lots of stressing out about my huge test on Thursday.... oh, and I work tomorrow night.

bah. humbug. i hate college.

T minus 84 days and counting until my fiance comes to visit.

T minus 97 days until I graduate college.

It Figures

I found out tonight that I would be able to retake one of my exams for last week (due to technological problems - it's an online course) and would get the chance to better my grade. The catch is that if you did worse, you'd keep the worse grade...

Now, although I got an 88 out of 100, I thought - "yes! Now's my chance to get that up to an A! surely I can do it... after all, I'm not so stressed this time and we get 10 more minutes on the test..."

Boy, was I wrong...

40 minutes later (that was the time limit) I had answered the questions as best as I could, and looked up the answers I was unsure on. I submitted it, crossed my fingers and hoped for an A...

Only to find out that I got an 88 out of 100 AGAIN! I bet you I got the same answers wrong as the first time. Unfortunately I'll never know because we don't get the exams back or even get to see which ones were wrong.

Apparantly I was never meant to get an A on that exam.

...

My first thought upon waking up after only 4.5 hours of sleep last night....

"You only need to survive until 11 am, then you can come home from work and go back to bed."

Ahh....too little sleep. What a blessing it is.

Why was I up? I watched a Bollywood movie (an Indian movie) with an international group I'm part of. There was a lot of singing with horrible choreography, and some of it was pretty fakey but it was a good movie. A love story..that was about love, not ripping off someone's close and lusting after them, like so many Hollywood movies are. It was sweet and romantic...and just good.

Now it's off to work I go....

Blue Man Group!!

Remember when I got all excited because I learned that Blue Man Group is coming to Fargo?

Well, I just got a promo code to buy my tickets early... and so now it's official! I will be seeing the Blue Man Group on April 6!!!

Then about 3 weeks later my fiance is coming to visit...and two weeks after that I graduate.

April is going to be a BEEEEEA-UUU-TIFUL month.

My First Round of Exams

I had three tests these week and I would love to be able to sit here and tell you that they went great... but they didn't.

Coinciding with these three rounds of tests was a phone call on Monday offering me an internship at a cat sactuary in Texas. To most people, this would be great news... but for me it brought about an issue that I had been putting off since last August.

You see, ever since I got back from Germany it was always a thought that after graduation I could possibly go back to live in Germany for some time. I had never decided if I would for sure, or for how long I'd go, but it was always a possibility. I would have times where I wanted nothing more than to go to Germany and other times when I felt sure it'd be better if I stayed in the States. And so I put off deciding on what I should do, and applied to some jobs and internships about five or six weeks ago to see if anyone might want to hire me.

Well, then Monday came and I learned that I could intern in Texas for the fall of 2007 if I wanted. Not exactly a paying job, but a great experience nontheless. And I realized that now I had to decide - Germany or States?

This was a tough decision for me, simply because a part of me wants to go back to Germany so badly. I miss my home there and I miss my fiance and I miss everything German. Let me tell you that trying to study for 3 exams is tough, when you have a huge life decision looming over your head.

Finally though, I've made a decision that I feel is for the best, even if it's not 110% what I want. And I've learned that sometimes life is about making decisions which would be best for the future as compared to what you would prefer to do right now.

Unless something comes up in the next week with one of my other applications I sent out (which is unlikely) I will be interning in Texas in the fall. In the summer I will most likely be working someplace... hopefully someplace where I can get good experience. When everything is completely set in stone, I will let you all know the details....

And as for my tests, well so far I got a B and a C...which easily could have been two A's had I studied more. But at least I know why I did poorer than I would have liked. Thankfully it's only the first round, so I can make up for it.

Nervous

After applying for about 8 - 10 different positions for after graduation, I got word that I am wanted for a phone interview for one of them. The other zoos have not yet started calling people for their interviews, though as they've all had my applications for several weeks now, I'm starting to get nervous. Why? Because soon they'll start calling people for interviews and whether they call me or not will obviously be a deciding factor in my future...

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that the place which wants an interview with me wants one, but I really hope that I get more phone calls.

* looks around nervously* Cause, someplace wants me...don't they?

RE: No more teachers, no more books...

Dear NDSU,

Hello, my name is Mindy - though you may better know me by my ID number - XXXXXX. How are you? How's that new wellness center going? And the Union? Good good...

The purpose of my letter is to inform you that I am tired of doing homework and taking tests and cramming knowledge into my head. So I've decided I'm just not going to do it anymore, okay? This is my last semester at college, and I really feel it should be spent pursuing better things than cramming knowledge into my head. For instance like surfing the internet all day long, and staying in my pajamas until 5 in the afternoon.

So here's the deal: I will stop doing all homework/tests/research papers/etc, and you will give me a 4.0 grade point average so I can graduate with honors in May and do my family proud. Okay? I promise I'll donate at least $5000 someday when I become rich.

I knew you'd see it my way.

Sincerely,
Mindy

Harry Potter 5 - Finished

WARNING: IF you haven't read or seen anything past book four of Harry Potter and you don't want to know what happens, then stop reading. This blog deals with the fifth book and will spoil it for you if you haven't read it. And if you have read past book 5, please don't leave a comment about any future happenings in book 6...I don't want to know until I read it in May (when my fiance brings it to me).

It took me one week and about 5 hours, but I finished the entire book of Harry Potter 5 and the Order of the Phoenix last night. And now I think I'm going through Harry Potter withdrawal...

I also can't get it out of my head. The prophesy took me by suprise - that wasn't what I was expecting at all. Sirius dying took me by surprise as well. Why did he have to die? What was the purpose? Poor Harry has already gone through so much, why make him go through this too? See, I can understand if there's a purpose. For instance I've heard tell that Dumbledore dies. That I can understand, because he is who Lord Voldemort fears and with Dumbledore dead, it opens the door for much darker (and therefore more exciting) and desperate times - the stuff a good book is made of. But why Sirius? I suppose it'll make things more difficult for Harry, and therefore more interesting...though it made me sad last night, and I admit that I cried.

And the end of the prophecy has me curious in German - "...denn keiner kann leben, während der Andere überlebt...A" or in English - "...neither can live while the other one lives..." What does that mean?

Hmmmm.... I was also surprised by the fact that it's the blood running in his aunt's vein that keeps him safe at the Dursley's. I had thought it was a spell that was put on the house or something.

These books remind me of Lord of the Rings. They're so good and they become such a part of you, that once you've finished reading one of the books or the series you feel a withdrawal and a little weird. I'm happy to have reached the end, and a little sad too. I get the sixth book in May, so I'll have to wait until then....