Friday, December 23, 2005

Some pictures since I've been slack









Collegiate Nats. Look at that snow!

































My parents. This is how they normally dress.... afterall my mom is Lebanese and makes KILLER baklava. J/k... halloween






















Awwww, my grand-parents are so cute!





















What a hunk!












Adam and I

Pimpin Ain't Easy

I am home now...it's been so great to not be studying 15 hours a day. I managed to get through finals without jumping off the first FlatIron. I got home about a week ago and started training again... I'm putting in 17 hours this week. Last week was 14. It's been awesome being able to ride my bike again and even Adam rode with me a couple times. For him, riding with me is like taking a little kid for a walk! My heart rate at any given time on the bike(up to a point) is 40 beats faster than him. Honestly I think he just goes so can ride behind me. ;) I need to get base miles in before my living hell begins Jan 17. Yes, 3 classes, training, and research. I can hardly wait. I wish I could just be a bum for a few months...hell, forever! It's been 60 degrees here and I've been getting spoiled by my parents, and getting to see Adam. My mom made some baklava. mmm. It's a good thing I'm riding so much or I'd be a blimp. I have to start thinking of studying again soon...yes, I have to take the PhD Prelim although I could give a crap about it. Good times. I am moving when I get back to Boulder. It will be awesome to not live in little Mexico although I was starting to learn the words to all the spanish songs! This new place is under the control of the university called, "family housing." Only grad students and older people can live in them and there is a 1 year wait list! The rent is about $60 more a month, but the apartment is bigger, has a huge balcony, a real kitchen(opposed to my matchbox I'm supposed to call a kitchen), cable TV, internet, and a local phone line. Sweet. I'm thinking of buying a digital camera...I can keep you more updated when that happens.

I'm going to Texas next week to party with my awesome cousin. We always have so much fun together... hell yeah! She and some of her friends rented a cabin for new years. Actually it's a gang bang with just the two of us and 100 football players. just kidding

my bro, my cousin, and I


Story of the day......One night I went with my parents to see this thing called "the river of lights." My mom was in a hurry to get there due to the rumored heavy traffic. We stopped by my grandparents house first (they generously lent me their car for the time I'm here. What would I do without them??) and my dad had a drink. My mom was distressed because she was already in a hurry to get there. We drove down Central to the Botanical Gardens and what do we see? A parking lot... everyone was trying to go see the lights and the traffic was herendous. There were also idiots trying to cut through parking lots to get in front of us. My mom was having a fit, especially when we saw they were turning people away. It's amazing to me how freaked out people get about lights! Lights! Electricity! WOW! We had to go park somewhere else and the guy had told us to take this little train. There was a big crowd of people waiting, and we see this small train-like thing moving down the track at about 3 miles an hour. The attendant kept yelling at us to get back. This train moves slower than a senior citizen with a walker and a hip problem... I think I would be able to get out of the way if it looked like it would hit me. They let about 5 people on and the train slugged away, going in the wrong direction... if we actually took the train, it would have taken like 30 minutes. People started to get angry...including my mom. Everyone was chanting, "Let's just walk." The walk took all of 5 minutes. It's amazing how lazy people are that they would wait 10 minutes for a train that moves the same speed they walk, and goes the wrong direction first so you end up waiting like 30-40 min! My dad paid 6 bucks for each of us to get in. It was nice, but not as spectacular as the Querque builds it up to be. There were people milling around, screaming children, the works. The end.

Monday, December 05, 2005

I'm not a racist, I hate everyone. Oh, I'm bitter too.

Hello, hello! Well, if you haven't heard from me, I have been in the land of engineering. Yes, yes... for the past 6 days, I have been studying or doing homework for 10 hours a day and I'm not exaggerating. I just finished the longest homework assignment of my life. FORTY pages. Scary, isn't it? Words of advice, I don't recommend engineering grad school. Get out while you can! So I have finals next week. I have a take home that I get on Wed. The homework that was 40 pages was the practice take home, which took over 30 hours. So Wed. I get a take home that will take 30 hours due Tues(11/12). Also on Tues(11/12), I have a final at 7:30 AM for 3 hours followed by another 3 hour final and then have to turn in my take home exam right after. In 5 days, I have a take home exam and two finals to study for. If you hear about a suicide in the news, it could be me. Meanwhile, I am living in little Mexico. I don't know if I've mentioned my apartment, but I feel right at home being from New Mexico and all. Boulder is known for not being very diverse. However, I get the culture baby. The mexicans in the apartments behind my parking lot blast their mexican music, jamming out to the tuba and shit while the apartment below me has like 5 people living in a one bedroom. I live in the boulder ghetto paying 550/mo. I'm starting to learn the words to all the songs so if I go to Mexico and sing karoake, I'll be all set. The tuba lovers have no job because they are probably illegal immigrants, and all sit outside in a row and watch me. I didn't realize they watched me until Adam pointed them out one day. I was working on my bike outside in shorts and sure enough, they were all enjoying the show. I make sure to keep my blinds slightly closed. So I go from little mexico to little china... my lab at school. Well, little china with a few people from india. I am in the minority and these bastards will not stop studying. They are hard core. There are sleeping bags and pillows under some peoples' desks and that is no joke. These enginerds are there at all hours of the night. It's quite impressive and highly alarming. No wonder these brainiacs are killing the curve. It's their fault I am going to fail out of grad school. I need some fat, no neck fratties in my classes to fail tests so I look better. Anyway, enough of that.

I haven't been riding much. Lotsa running to relieve the stress. I had a panic attack this weekend and couldn't breathe. It was fantastic. I'll start training next week when I go home to da Querque. I can't wait. I can actually SEE my boyfriend instead of talk to him on my new shitty cell phone. This phone is super static-y. It doesn't work worth a damn so I'll return it when I get home. Bastards. I can't wait to get to da ghetto. It'll be nice to see the fam too. I'm working on pictures. The internet I'm stealing in my apt. is superslow so I can't download pics very well. Until next time, ta ta! Wish me luck... hopefully I won't be too below average on my finals so I can pass and not be put on probation.

Quote of the day: "I can see Blue! He looks glorious!"