Sunshine in these dark times

Ok, so the title's a little dramatic. I don't care. School and internship are still both major chunks of my life. I get up, go to one or the other of them, come home, do homework, and go to bed. Weekends aren't much different except that I start out at home doing homework and I never actually go to the internship or campus. However, this weekend I enjoyed Newport! I miss living down there. I'm sure you've all gotten that jist from reading this blog, but I really do miss it and this weekend was a prime example of why.

On Sunday I had to be down on campus for a VIA ceremony. The current VIA seniors (myself included) were receiving pins for their dedication to the program. Yay! I love VIA. Anyway, I had to stay down in Newport because Sunday night I was participating in...Mom, don't laugh...mass on campus. Apparently every department on campus has to take a turn sponsoring mass this year. Well, Sr. Johnelle (dept. chair) was smart enough to claim an early mass before life gets too hectic. So I got to read the intercessions. The whole "for so and so, we pray to the lord." What I'm getting at, though, is that I had a good 3 hours in between the end of the VIA ceremony and the start of mass.

Mike, David, and I did something that, surprisingly, none of us had done yet. We went to "The 17th Annual Taste of Rhode Island." A good old tastfest. We ate crab cakes, carne asada, lobster and cheddar and pumpkin stew, lobster and artichoke dip, lobster rolls, bbq ribs, coffee heath bar gelato, pumpkin pie, brazilian grilled chicken...mmm...just remembering it all makes me want it all over again. And there are things we didn't get around to trying because, unfortunately, we were just to darn full. Mike and Dave did a Sam Adams beer tasting. Yuck, I hate beer, but they enjoyed it. We won some Southwest Airlines post-it-notes and "kuzzi" (what any normal person would call a beverage cozy)...don't be jealous. We entered to win some Southwest travel and a $100 restaurant gift certificate...I think it was for 22 Bowen's? Anyway, my point is, it was fun to be a Newporter again. :)

Happy Trails...

I'm sick of thinking of titles

Hi all. Classes and internship have officially started. So far so good, but it's really too early to say that. I have the same people in nearly all of my classes. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Makes it comfortable, I suppose, but the same faces over and over gets a little boring. I'd like the opportunity to meet people still. No offense intended to any of my fellow classmates! I guess that's what religion will be for. I don't know people in that class, with the exception of...3? But somehow I don't quite see that as a class to make friends... Just a hunch.

Once again I find myself wishing I was closer to or actually on campus. I'm down in Newport Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays are as follows: Class 9:30-1:45, break for lunch? homework?, Class 3:30-4:45. Thursdays are the same except classes don't end until 7:30. Yeesh. So yeah, I'm in classes pretty much the whole day each day I'm down which doesn't allow for much visiting of friends. I swear I will not lose touch with friends. I want to make sure I still hang out with them from time to time.

Taunton is almost like living in isolation. If it weren't for Mike, I'd go crazy here. Oh wait, though, I don't have Mike. Well, not this week at least. :( Life is awfully lonely without him. He's living it up in Portland, Oregon until Friday night. That's right, baby, he's away on business. :P I hate his business trips. Poor guy, though. This past Sunday, the day before he left town, he got himself some first and second degree burns from some hot oil while cooking. Nothing like a trip to the emergency room with the world's worst support system (i.e. me). It's not that I'm not supportive really. Not that I don't want to be at least. I just suck at medical emergencies. Even something as simple as a burn. Ooh swelling! Ooh redness! Ooh blisters! Yeah, I can joke about it now, but when faced with it I turn into a mushy pile of uselessness. It's great. Really. You should try being like that sometime.

Jumping topics, I'll be down in Newport for Convocation tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm receiving the Regina Scholarship again. (Yes!) My presence was requested by Dr. Trainor, as the email said. Afterwards I'll probably be hanging around the library for a while working on my homework. Yippee. Really, though, I want to keep on top of that. This year there is no room for falling behind. No opportunity for catch-up.

Yesterday I was happy to find my prize waiting for me in my mailbox. I entered a contest on Craftster. This was my entry. I came in fourth, but that's fine with me. The top five all received the same prize. I'm pretty excited about it. As you all know from reading this blog, I love knitting and now this will help me learn how to design my own patterns. Yay! You guys might see an Amy Original posted on here sometime soon!

To resurrect my old sign off -- Happy Trails...

Random Ramblings

Hello, hello. Much to say, but I don't feel like writing it. However, the longer I wait, the more pointless it will be to post it. So quickly here, with a few pictures, I embark on my post of completely unconnected subjects.

1. Good bye Potatia. She left me on Friday, September 2. She'd been pretty much dead in the driveway since the middle of July, but she's finally been towed away for charity. Here's a few pics of her very last moments with me:

It was sad to hear that she'll "be going into the crusher." I knew she wouldn't be much good for anyone else after me, but I still didn't want to hear of her sad fate.

2. I've been experimenting some with new knit patterns. What do you think?


From left to right, the stitch patterns are: checkerboard, basketweave, bobbles, twisted drop stitch, drop stitch. The background of the bobbles is stockinette and there are a few rows of garter around the two drop stitch rows.

It was a lot of fun trying out new stitches. I'm going to have to find a way to add some of them into future garments.

3. I start my internship tomorrow and school on Thursday. I can't really post a whole lot about either until after they happen, but I just wanted to put it out there. I'm really not excited to be going in at 8:00am tomorrow, though. How un-fun is that? And I'm supposed to be functional? Hmm. Not sure how that will go. On top of it all, though, I have managed to get through the summer with very few nervous/anxiety/bad heart days. Now, with just these two new events looming over me, it's all returning. Yuck. With any luck, however, this internship will not cause my nerves to go crazy on me. Most of my duties with them (from what I understand so far) will be researching, writing proposals, and perhaps speaking at the statehouse. All of which I am capable of with no adverse side effects. I do get a touch of jitters with public speaking, but nothing to the extent that I actually have a bad heart day because of it. The fact that I will have very minimal interactions with people and no clients in the sense that you would think a social worker would have clients makes me quite happy and positive about this internship. Now if only I could get my nervous body to agree with my rational head, things will go just fine.