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I’ve been going nonstop since school started. Taking these two intense science classes together and doing them in a summer session is sort of kicking my butt. I’m maintaining good grades so far, but I’m worried I’ll burnout. For example, in a single lecture this week we covered all of glycolysis, the krebs cycle, and the electron transport chain. So I’m taking some time this morning to catch up on the other bits of my life, like weeding the garden, laundry, and blogging.

But I’m not going all out. Here’s what is basically a picture dump with short notes.

Jem has adopted that goofy dog tongue look. Here she even left it out after she closed her mouth.

Study break for banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Can anyone tell me what this weed is called?

Wow, this was a long time ago. Lemon cheesecake squares and berries with vanilla sugar, while playing Settlers of Catan

Lainey came from Australia and spent the first few days staying with us. She brought vegemite and prepared a proper breakfast for me: toast with butter and vegemite. It wasn’t . . . too bad. Very very salty. Tastes like scunge that you should be washing off rather than eating. But kind of good in a ramen noodles kind of way.

Grilled balasmic chicken. Wow, also a long time ago.

You may have noticed that I updated the link bar on the right side of this page. Rainy Morning II is still defunct, but the others have been updated to reflect new friends and new blogs.

It took me a while, but I finally put together highlights of my part in the recital. I added basic plot headers, so you have some idea of what’s going on. Lizette is the main character, an orphan. I play the ballet mistress.

This was our dress rehearsal, so there were some minor changes and fewer mistakes in the actual performance. For example, in my duet we realized you can’t see my hands because the black gloves are invisible against the black curtain, so I didn’t wear them for the shows.

Ben was sweet to come and film the show. My tripod doesn’t have a good swivel head, so you’ll have to forgive the shaky camera work.

This was the first week of classes. Thus, we are now 1/8 done with the semester, being only 8 weeks long. This is going to be an intense two months. My days go like this:

8-12:30 work
1-5:30 Micobiology
5:30-9:00 Anatomy and Physiology
9:30-11:00 study

That’s for M/W. Thursday is the same except for no labs, so I have a break between 3:30 and 5:30, and I’m done a little after 7. Good studying time. Tuesdays and Fridays I don’t have class. I work a full day Tuesday, and I’m using Fridays to study and clean my house.

Community College is very different than CU. the whole campus is about as big as the Geology building at CU. The classes are much smaller, one has 12 students and the other has 23. Teachers don’t have office hours because they are just generally available. There’s no tense competition at the beginning of the semester to login at the precise moment to get into a popular course. Everything is very relaxed.

Both of my professors talked extensively on the first day about how hard their class should be, and strongly warned us that we really should only be taking their course this semester. Well, too bad. This is the way it’s gotta be for me to apply this fall. I’m pretty sure I can handle both classes. As long as I stay on top of my studies, I’ll be fine. At CU, I tended to do well in summer because the learning was more concentrated. Topics flowed together and made more sense that way, instead of spread out over a long period of time. And so far my two courses are flowing together nicely. Yesterday we reviewed o chem basics in both: basic molecular reactions, the ssaccharides and nucleic acid structures, etc. Of course they will depart topics, but for now it’s been a good way to ease into learning by repeating lectures.

Also this week we had Lainey from Australia staying with us. She’s a student from Campus Crusade for Christ, which Ben’s aunt works for in Australia. She’s spending a few days with us before heading up to CSU for a conference so she can explore the city and get used to the altitude. She’s been very independent and has a rented car, but we had a good time last night going to dinner and watching SYTYCD at Miranda’s house.

Jem got spayed 10 days ago. We’re supposed to keep her from jumping, running, or playing and it’s been nearly IMPOSSIBLE. The morning after surgery she was perfectly normal. Since we couldn’t exercise her as much, she’s been an explosive ball of energy. So annoying. I can’t wait for the vet to ok her for rigorous play.

Despite these complications, it’s been a very good week of school. It feels really good to be learning again. I forgot how much I enjoyed classes. I was so excited to see my first paramecium in the microscope on Wednesday. Those little buggers can move! Unfortunately, all this class and study time has limited me to one dance class a week. My muscles are so stiff and sore! Not only am I missing a dance session, but Ben and I used to take long walks or hikes and play tennis on the other days. Now I sit for 12 hours a day. Oh well, it’s only 2 months.

I better get off the computer and shower so I can do 3 postlabs, 3 prelabs, learn all the regions of the body, ready 2 chapters or micro, 2 chapters or anatomy, and study for quizzes in both on Monday. Then I get to do ballet at 5:30. Yea!!

A few weeks ago we had a game day. Literally, a whole day. We met at noon and didn’t stop until 10 pm. My friends and I have an extraordinary capacity to play games. It helped that we had barbecue too. The Walkers let us have the affair at their house, with the nice big back yard. Attending were Nate, Miranda, Brian, Trevor, Neil, April, Reed, Ben, and Me. And Jem and Izzy. We played Carcasson, Puerto Rico, Reel Clues, Killer Bunnies, Rummikub, Cribbage, Keythedral, Gheos (sort of), Thryme, and on a little field trip tennis and bocce.

I’m not sure if I mentioned yet that we formed a movie club. Once a month we gather friends and watch a movie and eat snacks. We rotate turns picking movies, and encourage each other to pick films that most of the group hasn’t seen and come from a variety of genres. So far we have watched
Sleuth (Brian)
xXx (Ben)
Igby Goes Down (Trevor)

It’s my turn next month and I already have my pick. This week we also had a field trip, so to speak. The Esquire was showing The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D at midnight Friday.

Blue and red 3D movies never work that great for me, but it was fun anyway. I haven’t seen an old fashioned monster movie with Brian in a long time. Everyone but too-drunk Neil enjoyed it.

I got a new fish! He’s a pretty sapphire color. He seems comfortable in the warmer weather. I hope he lasts until October.

Jem noticed him right away. Look how grown up our little puppy has become!

We made major upgrades to the house this week by installing new windows! I love them so so much. The house definitely feels cooler, and the air is fresher.

Before

Installation

After

Lovely! We got a great deal with PW Exteriors, about $600 less than other places were quoting me. I’m very pleased with how they turned out.

The recital is over, yea! This studio has a great staff, volunteer group, and really cute, fun dancers. I often feel like an oddball there, but even so it’s fun to be a part of a group. As promised, here’s a tutu-full of pictures.

First, my costumes. The Mary Poppins-style dress is for the rehearsal scene, so I’m dressed athletically, for an 1880s working girl. The ruffled shirt is from the dance department closet. I sewed the black gored skirt without a pattern, with extra sections in the back to give me more leg extension space. The shoes are teacher’s dancing slippers, in black instead of the typical pink, and without the usual elastic over the arch.

The formal dress is for the audition scene. As I’m sure I mentioned before, the Arvada Center theater department let me use this costume, all sewn from original patterns. The full get-up entails: tights, dress slip, corset, brassiere, bustle, underskirt, overskirt, jacket, and gloves. There are 7 support straps around my waist when all is done.

There isn’t a good picture of my hair or make-up, hopefully in the video I’ll post later you can see what I did with it. (these photos were taken after a run through, so I’m a bit sloppy)

Some performance shots: fairy elves, orphans, and sheep (the cutest)

Jonathan’s a huge flirt, but I appreciated the fanning he gave me between my last scene and bows. That outfit is HOT!

Some of my favorite orphans I “audition.” Claire on the left is hilarious, she almost cracked me up during the first night with her ad-libbing. Also, they’re wearing the costumes I sewed. On the right are the butterflies, waiting for their turn.

More of Jonathan (he’s omnipresent, and when I tried to take a casual photo, he made me wait until he tied his tie and put on the vest so he could pose). On the right are me and Jen, another older student, who played the nun running the orphanage. We’re in the “big girl” dressing room.

Lining up for bows. I’m just showing off the cute costumes our company creates. Christina’s anti-catalog costume because they’re so cheaply made. The handmade costumes for their shows are all so personalized and detailed, I love them! Some of the high school girls I take class with are in the back of the 2nd and 3rd picture.

And that’s it! Ben and his parents came to the Sunday matinee. They seemed to enjoy it, and I was happy to have someone in the audience. They gave me lovely flowers after the show (in addition to the two dozen roses Ben got me earlier, “just because”) and then took us to dinner. It was a smooth performance run, and surprisingly I had less jitters than I used to.

Here’s a message from my friends in New York. Please donate if you can help!

The Break Free Project is a musical tour hitting the road in a vehicle
fueled by waste vegetable oil on July 1st 2007.

We will bring:

• musical performances
• community service projects
• a documentary film

to each of our nine tour stops around the United States!

Or if you’re old school, make your checks out to The Break Free Project and send them to:
The Break Free Project c/o Mavi Graves
33 Bushwick Ave. #1
Brooklyn, NY 11211