cait.

Bought plane tickets to go back to NH in mid-March.
I got non-stop flights both ways for the FIRST TIME EVER!! I'm wicked excited that the flights are 4 hours instead of the usual 8. Matt is picking me up, since I have to fly into Boston and my mom drives like a complete 'tard. I'm pretty excited, haven't been able to sleep! (and the couple of Redbulls earlier don't help, either...)

I just registered for a free Turkish class at UT. It's only two hours a week, non-credit, and works around my schedule, so I figured what the heck... why not!

I must admit, I feel pretty silly. Why do I want to learn Turkish? What can I do with it? I don't really know, but I do know that I love learning languages, and I don't think any time you spend learning something is ever 'wasted'. I desperately want to be more involved with the academic community at UT, and I think this is a good stepping stone. I'm also planning on frequenting the free lectures that are offered. On Wednesday I'm going to a lecture on violence, gender, and the decolonization of southern Africa, and next Thursday I want to go to a lecture on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and how to bring peace to Gaza. I figure if my dad is paying out mad bucks for me to be here, I might as well take advantage of it! I want to explore academia and see if it's something I'd like to continue to be around (i.e. postgraduate work)

I've been having the roughest time going to sleep lately. Last night I didn't go to sleep til 8am (woke up at noon), and it's 4am right now and I'm showing no signs of slowing down.
I've gotten myself in the bad habit of imagining what it would be like to lose the people/cat I love. I got myself so upset tonight being worried about my dad having a heart attack and dying. His father died from a heart attack in his early 40s, and my uncle had two strokes before he was 40, so according to family history, my dad is pass-due for his. It worries me so so much, because he has sleep apnea, too. When he would fall asleep while we were watching TV together, I could always hear him stop breathing for a bit, and I'd have a little panic thinking maybe he wouldn't ever start again. I get so paranoid of this. We're finally starting to become close, and I don't want anything to take him away before he's old and wrinkly.

I'm going to go on the couch and try to watch a movie to make me go to sleep. I'm so absent minded that I went to the store THREE times today to keep picking stuff up I forgot about, but I still forgot sleeping pills. Hopefully I will remember tomorrow, that way I don't have to deal with this stuff durring the week. Last night I watched 28 Days Later and had the sweetest zombie dream. I wish I could remember it. :( All I remember is that I had made a map, and it was VERY important that the map was in the shape of a flat square, that was spposed to represent something. I remember waking up and thinking the square idea was completely brilliant, but now I can't remember for the life of me what it was all about.

I got woken up by a nightmare where Artoo got run over by a car. It was terrible!! I was with my dad at an intersection, and I really didn't want to leave Artoo, but my dad was all like "it's ok, it's ok, he'll be fine", and as we pulled away I could see a car run over him. :-( I woke myself up right after that, but I keep on replaying seeing his little white belly as the car was about to go over him. What a way to start off the day!
Aside from the nightmare, I haven't been sleeping well. I still don't have a set schedule, but I'm confident it will get better.
I'm also pretty excited to drive back to Houston this weekend. I miss hanging out with my dad.

I'm like 80% sure I'm going to drop calculus tomorrow. It's just not worth it to me at this point. Everytime I look at my homework I want to have a nervous breakdown, and I beat myself up about not understanding it. I'm either going to step down to a lower level, or take something completely different and then do calculus at the community college over the summer.
Tonight I'm going to take a break from my self loathing over the fact that I can't handle calculus, and spend some much needed geek out time doing a Sega embroidery, watching Monty Python, and eating pizza.

Nobody told me what number my parking spot was when I moved in. I called the landlord to find out, and he wasn't sure either. I've tried a couple different spots, and I keep getting nasty notes on my car. I feel so bad about it, but it's not my fault! I wish they could just understand that :-(

I am such a completely obsessive planner. I don't like that I'm now confused about what I want to major in, as I feel a Biology major would not provide me with enough flexibility to take other classes I'm interested in. It's been eating away at me ALL DAY. I just finished doing a quick (ok, a two hour quicky) mock up on what my schedule would look like in order to get B.S in Psychology and a B.A in Linguistics with a minor in Chinese. If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 mph you're going to see some serious shit I can graduate in the winter of 2013. This schedule also includes all the pre-med prereqs, too, with enough time to apply to schools before I graduate so there won't be a year gap. I AM SO GOOD.
I feel like this plan would encompass the majority of my interests, so I am happy... for now. I think it would be good. I think it would be a very comprehensive tour of how people learn and comprehend language. Plus the B.S degree covers all the science-y classes I still want to take, 'cause I like them so much (Ooooh Chemistry hurts so good)

I'm hoping doing this can give me some peace of mind so I can finally go to sleep. My cousin Katie is here from New Hampshire (!!!) and I bought us tickets to go see Avatar in IMAX tomorrow! She's wicked excited about it, so I need to calm down about all this school stuff and be excited about it too.

oh, P.S.
My current schedule for the spring semester is as follows:
Chinese II (I'm retaking it for pass/fail because the director of Asian languages suggested it for transfers-blah!)
American Gov't (required for graduation)
Rise of Modern Science (required for graduation)
Intro to Psych... currently on the waitlist for Calculus to drop this class. I'm #2 on the list, so I will most likely be switching into that.

My schedule looks NOTHING like how I wanted!! All the classes I want are closed and/or restricted. :-(

Right now I'm planning to register for Brit. Lit., Physical Anthropology, the Rise of Modern Science, and U.S Gov't. D-:
I wanted to take calc and chem and chinese this semester, but I emailed the guy in charge of the Asian languages and he said that I should take a placement test and probably go into the second semester (not the third, like I wanted) of Chinese. I have to pick Katie up from the airport tomorrow (!!!!) but maybe, if it's not too boring for her, I can run down and take the placement test and hope a Chinese II class opens up. Then if I could take calc and chem II in the summer, along with gov't, I'd be all done with my core requirements for both liberal arts and natural science, so I could transfer over to a biology degree if I so chose. That would put me in a really good position, so hopefully it works out well for me.

Guess what? I'm way more ahead in math than I thought I was. Apparently, I have already done precalc, and can dive right into calculus this coming semester. Oh, and guess what? I only need ONE semester of it. I was thinking that I had to take precalc this semester, and then do calc 1 and 2 over the summer semesters. NOPE. That means I have my summers free to finish up my gov't core requirements and I'll be DONE.

Also, I've been thinking it might be easiest to get a liberal arts degree, but minor in biology (and do my pre-med/whatever requirements). I think that will work out best, since a biology degree does not offer any flexibility, and I really want to be able to take other classes. It is required that you take 4 semesters of a foreign language (which is what I want to do with Chinese...), and there are also various sciences classes (still for science majors) that I can still take. I was thinking about doing a duel degree so I could still get a B.S in Biology, but that might take an extra year.
Hm... Well, at this point I still have core requirements to fill up, and I guess I can hold off any major decisions until those are completed. So many options!

My STUPID P.O.S. alarm clock didn't go off this morning!!! I ended up waking up at 9:30, an hour and a half AFTER the orientation started! I ran around trying to get dressed in order to show up to the 10AM Liberal Arts orientation, which is really the only one that matters. I don't have a contact lens case, so I got two glasses and stuck my solution in them, plopped my contacts in them, and saran wrapped them. I tried to put one in today, and like a dummy I didn't realize that the contact lens solution I have only works with the specfic case, and it ended up burning my eye all to hell and my right eye was BRIGHT red. What a great way to start off the day!
I'm so incredibly lucky that my apartment is in a great location, because it didn't make me more than 20 minutes (and that includes the time spend getting lost) to get to the building I needed.
I'm meeting with an advisor in an hour to try to register for the classes I want. I'm HOPING to take Chinese III, Chem II, precalc (or the 1st in the calc sequence) and "The Rise of Modern Science", a science history course. It's just difficult because I'm in the Liberal Arts college, and calculus and Chemistry are reserved for those in the natural science college :-(

My crafting corner.

It's 5:30AM and I can't sleep! I started making a small lap quilt for the couch and it's SO FREAKIN' CUTE. I basically just cut up all of my favorite fabrics and slapped them together. I want to finish it so bad, but I need to sleep so I'm updating about it instead, hoping that will give me some sort of satisfaction. My life feels so cute right now. I feels nice. I'm excited for classes to start, but also very nervous. I think I'm starting to get a cold, though :(

p.s. I made another etsy sale today. Woohoo!

WHY DON'T I HAVE THE NICKNAME KITTY.

Why can't you start nicknames yourself? "Cait" is not a cool nickname.
IT'S SO NOT FAIR!

I have an incredibly unhealthy relationship with my cat. I love him so much. I was once out on a date with someone and told him that I wanted to get back to my cat because I missed him. I wasn't asked out by that guy ever again.

I spent the whole day away from Artoo and he was SO desperate to cuddle with me tonight that he climbed on top of me while I was in the bathtub. The bath tub was only half filled (cause today I discovered I only get like 5 mins MAX of hot water) so he was reasonably dry, except for his tail which was completely submerged. He laid down on my stomach and started purring, and sat there for a little bit as I read my book. I feel kind of weird letting my cat do that, but it was soo cuute.

As I was walking home from Chipotle (it's within walking distance of my apartment. I am going to get so fat) I passed an adorable little waffle stand. It was closed, and as I went to go check the hours (cause I love me some waffles) I saw a hiring sign!!! The email address was covered up by a window, and I was too short to see all of it, so here I was on the corner of a street hopping up and down trying to figure out the email address. There were a bunch of cars waiting for the light to turn green, so I probably looked insane. BUT I GOT IT!
I wrote it down and ran back home and I've already emailed her about the position. It would be SO great if I got the job, it's literally right down the street from me. I really really hope I hear back. I also applied for a cookie baker position at a cookie delivery place not too far from me, but haven't gotten a response yet and it's been over a week. American Apparel is also hiring, but UGGGHH. I hate that store! And I would look so weird working there. There would be all of these trendy hipsters in their oversized, ill fitting, overpriced AA wear with those stupid little head band things that go on your forehead, and then lil chubby me hanging around in a sweater.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me get the waffle job! My life would just be TOO perfect!

I'm in my apartment, you guys!!!
It was just my dad and I moving everything. I'm on the third floor. The realtor said that there was an elevator.


There is not.

We carried EVERYTHING up ourselves. It was terrible. The couch was the worst one. It suffered a few scraps and one rip, but I think it can be easily patched up. My kitchen table/chairs are all put together, as well as my bedframe. I put together a laptop table and ottoman all by myself :-D
My stupid gate key is NOT working, so I need to get that fixed ASAP so I can go out and get groceries and a shower curtain!
Artoo has adjusted pretty well, I think. He would not shut up for the first couple hours, but now he's back to being himself and licking his butt on my bed.
I'll get pictures sometime and upload them, but I really really really want to paint this place before I do, because it's so ugly.

I can't believe I'm actually here. I focused so much on just getting here/accepted to UT that I never even though about what it'd be like for it to actually happen! Everything feels perfect. I keep checking my UT admission status to double and triple check I'm actually admitted, I feel like it's just too good to be true!