Temporary Abandonment

This blog has been temporarily abandoned for the summer. 

http://greenthumbedpaw.blogspot.com/

You can see what I'm doing at the Lewis Family Farm at this blog instead! :) 

Unplugged?

I've been thinking about the crazy attachment that I have to my computer ever since mine died on Tuesday. I had about 6 panic attacks that day when I wanted to go look at things, or send and e-mail or whatever and it wasn't convenient for me to do so.

Well, I have to say that I kind of like this being "unplugged" thing. I'm not truly unplugged. My phone has just about anything that I could want or need on it, but the screen is itty bitty and it's a pain to type on, and the internet is way slower than on my computer so it doesn't quite compare.

My goal for this summer is to minimize the amount of time that I spend playing around on the computer. My phone will stay in my room during the work day. This way I won't be facebooking/twittering when I should be learning - and I'll avoid it getting run over by a tractor or ATV (4 wheeler for those southerners who fuss at me...) I'm also going to check my e-mail once an evening and try to do a blog post every other day or so. But other than that I am trying to stay off. I'm going to be out in nature. I figured that I should enjoy it and if I need something to stimulate my brain I'll read.

I have no clue if I'll be able to stick to this, but we'll see. :)

I'm still having problems fathoming the fact that all my new friends are leaving. I would give just about anything to have another year with the senior hort students. I'm kicking myself for not trying harder/being more obnoxious in the beginning of the semester where I was too afraid of rejection to stick my neck out there and try to make new friends. That's what I get for assuming that people don't want to get to know other people late in their college career. I'm dumb.

For now, I'm packing and heading up to Charlotte for the weekend to spend some time with Scott before I vanish for 3 months.

Staple It Together

The last week has been a hectic frenzy. Absolute insanity. Here's the Highlights.

Friday Night a bunch of people from Hort/Planet came over for dinner. I made spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and brownies and it was all pretty good. We hung out for a little, but then half the people went home to go downtown. Myles, Brad, and Kirk stayed over and we had some fun. It was nice to just be around them and talk and not stress about things. We played Wii bowling and Drenga for a good amount of time. Kirk stayed on the couch, and we all got our butts up in the morning to sell plants at the SCBG plant sale.

The plant sale was rainy, nasty, and gross. However, we did sell a lot. As much as I love selling plants and talking to plant people, though, it was just not my cup of tea that morning. I was tired. I was cold. I was hungover. Not the most winningest of combinations. Then I had to crawl in the car and drive to Charlotte so that me and Scott could go see Meghan ride the next day. I almost fell asleep on the way up there and I had to drive through some really scary storms. I crashed really hard when I got to Scott's. I feel really bad because I was not a fun person to deal with. Really all I wanted was to hunker down in his arms and snooze, but it turned into me whining and bitching about anything and everything because it wasn't happening. I am an awesome girlfriend...

Sunday was pretty good. We drove to Laurinburg, NC to watch IDA Nationals. Meghan did awesome! It was great to see her even if it was only for an hour. That's true friendship right there. I'm not too sure I would drive 6 hours in one day just to see anyone else for about an hour. On the way home my GPS (Bessie as she's so affectionately called) got us lost so we ended up taking the longer way home. Ate Chinese on the way back and may have gotten a touch of food poisoning and came back the next morning to take my English final.

All my finals went okay. It's still up in the air if I'm going to get closer to a 4.0 or a 3.0 but we'll see when the grades start to roll in. My computer died on Tuesday. The motherboard completely fried so I've been runing around like a chicken with my head cut off because now in order to use a computer I have to pretty much be at school! Tuesday night after my spanish final I went over to Brad's with some more hort kids. I watched the Golden Girls for the first time ever and got some studying done.

Wednesday I didn't have a final until 7. I got a lot of things done in the morning and then I went hiking to study for Math a little. It was nice to go up to King's Creek. It may be my favorite place in upstate SC. I wish that I could have sat there all day. After a grueling exam, Heather and I picked up Brad and 2 other friends and went to blindhorse. It was a pretty good night. The dancing wasn't as good as it has been, but the boys were there and it gave us someone to talk to. I learned how to shag, and we tried to teach the boys how to dance a little. Some picked it up faster than others, but all we wanted was someone to come with us and try. Blindhorse was followed by a WaHo trip and a very late evening.

This morning it was really hard to get up. I had to go to Anderson to drop off my computer at FedEx and now I have to go home and pack up.

It's off to Scott's tomorrow night to spend the weekend with him. Up to CT on Monday and then NY the Monday afterwards. Craziness. Hopefully my computer will make a speedy return to me! I miss it already.

Blogging out of Boredom

Happy last day of classes. :) 

Right now I am absolutely blogging out of boredom. My classes are done, finals are coming up on Monday, and I am waiting for people to come over. 

Today I've been really productive thus far. I got up at 6:45 to go to school and move plants for PLANET's plant sale that's going on this weekend. Me, Erik, and Puckett got just about all of it done, so that means that we might not have to move things tomorrow morning. I did, however, get guilted into working the plant sale tomorrow morning. I was going to leave SC early to go surprise Scott, but that's not going to happen anymore. I don't mind - I just wasn't ready for it. 

I went to spanish class (which SUCKED) to hand in a paper and get a little bit of review. Depending on my final, I should be able to do a little extra credit to get my grade up to an A since I was crazy sick for the first test and got a 75 on it. That grade is kind of crashing my average. (with the C an 87) 

Afterwards I came home and began to work on my take home final for Hort 310. It's not incredibly complicated, just lengthy. Then it was some tidying, Walmart, and brownie making. I'm having people over tonight to work on the final, eat dinner, and maybe hang out/get a little rowdy afterwards. I hope that people don't bail because there aren't going to be a ton of people here. I think I have a pathological fear of not being good enough - or people using me - or people being nice to me out of sympathy. Bah. I just need to keep thinking that it's going to be fun. 

I also need to try to keep myself from being so anal retentive about this take home final that I e-mail my professor for the 4th time today asking him to check over all of the work I've done. Really? I would be so annoyed if I were a professor and I had students do that... 

PLANET SCD

I'm not sure where to even begin about this last weekend. Chronologically could work - maybe? The important point to bring out of this is that it was probably the best weekend of my life. It's not often that you are in a situation where you get to socialize and work with 800 other students who are all interested in the same things as you. 

Thursday morning we woke up around 4:30 to get to school at 5:30. Being the good teammate that I am, I made 2 batches of brownies for everyone for the trip up. We get there and chill waiting for Jeanne and Bob with the SUV's. Didn't get to sit in the cool car, but I can't really blame them. These guys are mostly seniors. We got to Atlanta, threw our stuff in the hotel rooms, and then headed to the workshops on the North Metro Tech campus. The sales workshop was REALLY boring. They just kind of talked at us and then let us go an hour and a half early. When I got out of that I snuck into the leadership workshop for the rest of the time with Amanda and Brad. That was a lot more interesting. At least there we got free t-shirts (Amanda and I got stuck with 2xl's because we're slow) and some people got hats. Lunch was very reminiscent of Tiger Band on-the-road lunch. Yay Chick-a-fila bags. I contemplated skipping the cost estimating workshop in favor of something more fun, but I was forced to go. Apparently it's our teams version of "paying your dues." 

Thursday night they had a reception for us. Then everyone but me got drunk. Let me just recap some events of the evening:

-Eat

-Inteview with "Snookie" leads to teammate #1 awkward "jersey shore" moment

-"I may be the oldest, but dammit I'm the most precious!" -Puckett

-Round 1 of balloons is stolen

-A trike race, old lady flirting, and round 2 of stolen balloons

-Helium sucking

-Smoke break where male teammates #2 and #3 meet "Snookie"

-Teamate #3 gets a "girlfriend"

... All of this = deleted camera footage...

Friday was an early morning for opening ceremonies, career day, and the cost estimation exam. The career day was eventful. We all accumulated far to much SWAG and then I had an interview with Villa&Sons in FL and PIKE Nurseries in the Atlanta/Charlotte area. They both went really well, my resume was strong, and I feel like I could potentially get a job at either company if I tried hard for it. I also talked to a nice man from Longwood Gardens about their graduate program. I'm potentially interested, but for the moment still leaning towards getting my MLA. Maybe I'm just trying to avoid living in the real world? 

That night was the Maintenance Cost Estimating exams. I took it (failed) but came out fast. Brad took it and did okay. I went to bed not long afterwards. 

Saturday was the full, intense day of competition. I didn't sleep Friday night at all because I had the jitters. I distinctly remember Amanda's alarm going off so she could go in the first car for the 8am events and laughing because I was still awake from the night before. We got to North Metro Tech and I went to the sales prep room. The girl before me didn't show, so even though I was there 45 minutes early to prep I had to jump in and give my presentation almost as soon as I got there. It was frustrating, and I didn't get my check or contract signed but I still did well considering. A 63.9/68 potential points is not too shabby especially since 32 points of the competition is getting your paperwork signed. Oh well, I'll get 'em next year! Then I watched the end of irrigation assembly, tree climbing, and paver installation. Then it was lunch (BBQ this time) and a quick re-organization before everyone scattered again. The interior plant ID event did not go well for me, but I didn't really expect it to. The whole afternoon ended with plant installation. 

After a long day of PLANET-ing we got to go back to the hotel and grab showers. Then we went to this wicked fancy, wicked awesome, seafood restaurant where we just enjoyed eating and talking with each other. 

Upon arrival at the hotel the fun began, and then people began to turn in soon after. We socialized with the UMass kids outside in the hall until we got fussed at, and then "Snookie" made an appearance and scared off a couple of people. Other's got tired. At some point I ended up making some not so perfect choices beverage wise. We met some kids from Minnesota, eh? I also had the pleasure of being hit on by a Mexican with corn rows and a pedophile mustache. Did Brad help me out? Of course not! I think it all evened out by the end of the night, though. I probably annoyed that poor boy the whole night. Whoops. I finally went to bed around 3:30am. 

Sunday was closing ceremonies. It wasn't really anything to write home about. There were a lot of scholarship recipients, and maybe I'll be one of them next year. I realized that I just want to be more involved with this event, and the workings of it next year. I've already started talking it up to kids (especially turf majors) to hopefully gather an awesome team for next year. 

After closing ceremonies we packed up the cars and went to lunch and then the botanical gardens in Atlanta. As we were walking around we realized how much this botanical garden was the equivalent of a zoo for us. The group I was with heard rumors of a variegated ginkgo, but never found it unfortunately. We played in the children's garden. We also got to go to the conservatory! There were little tropical birds, frogs, and more cool plants than you could look at at once. More than one of us complained about being dizzy by the time we got out of there. 

It wasp probably one of the best weekends of my life. I feel more assured now, that this is the industry for me. Industry employers don't totally hate me, I'm building a good resume, and I met some awesome people that I wish weren't graduating. I'm glad that I didn't chose SED over this, because then I would have just stayed in my box. Instead, I branched out and am definitely better for it. 

AHHHH!

House went up for sale today. 

Scared shitless to leave for PLANET tomorrow. 

Please save me. I need some sanity... 

"The House that Built Me"

The song below has been hitting country radio hard. It makes me kind of sniffle and tear up every time because for the first time in my life I'm having to leave the house that I love and know for the house my parents are building a couple of hundred miles away. To people that moved around a lot or are the products of divorced parents it doesn't seem to be a big thing, but I moved from Chicago to Connecticut when I was 2 and I've been a Long Island Sound girl ever since. What happens when I go home? I have 0 friends in MA. I guess I'll just have to kajole Scott into coming with me for major holidays? I can't bear the thought of 1 month during Christmas break with no friends. Ugh. 

On a happier/stressful note, the horticulture olympics are this weekend! We leave for Atlanta at 5:30 on Thursday morning. Thursday is workshop day. I'll be learning how to cost estimate and sell a landscape plan. I kind of sort of already learned how to do it over the semester? It'll be okay. Friday is opening ceremonies, the job fair, my cost estimation test, and if I'm lucky my sales presentation. I really hope that I get an early presentation time. That leaves interior plant ID test for Saturday afternoon. 

After all of this, we come back Sunday night and I have to get with my spanish partner for our oral interview Monday, go to chapter, yadda yadda...

Monday is an oral interview, Tuesday is a hort 310 exam, Wednesday night is a math test and then I can breathe. A field trip to metrolina in Charlotte, NC will wind down my week next week. I'm just waiting until then. 

I'm sorry for my fail at blogging lately. So much has happened that I haven't written about!

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My TSH levels are no longer sky rocketing, but my dosage got upped on Monday because I'll be gone for the summer and the levels that show my Thyroid function (low is good) are through the roof so it's probably going to die soon. Yet, everyone I know apparently has this issue, so it's really not a big deal. What sucked was being misdiagnosed with mono and suffering the exhaustion for 4 months. 

Also, my lovely roommate ran a half marathon and I couldn't be more proud. Scott came down for the weekend and it was nice to see him. He makes my life so much more stable. Maybe that's just because I don't do work when he's around? Poor life choice right there. We went to Easter dinner with some of his friends and they were really nice. I love meeting KKPsi alumni, and I generally enjoy meeting Scott's friends. It was a good weekend. As usual, it was a bummer to see him leave. 

I can't believe how little time there is left in the semester... For the first time in college I'm not really stressed about my grades. I know that I pretty much have A's and B's across the board, so I can't do too much to mess them up at this point, right? 

The internship is rapidly approaching, and it's scary... 

That's all for now. I'll update after PLANET with pictures. 

Once we were young...

I had to drink the koolaid...

Oh wait... That's not my blog! Whoops. 

Amy I'm going to oblige you in my 10 things writing, but I'm not going to tag people since I don't know who does or doesn't read this blog. 

10 things that make me happy:

1. The smell of a horse barn. There's something about the warmth and sweetness of hay during the summer to just make everything in the outside world melt away. 

2. The smell of tomato plants. Not everyone understands that some plants just have their own unique smell. Tomatoes are one of them and they make me feel like summer. 

3. Being told that I'm worth something. Even after years of rebuilding myself I still haven't gotten to a place where I don't need reassurance anymore. 

4. Giggling with girls. There is something sacred about the shared secrets and silliness that a girly night or moment can bring. 

5. Laying out in the sun. 

6. Spending time with brothers I don't often spend time with. As I get older in the fraternity I start to realize what makes it so special. It allows us to gradual become closer and closer and keep that "new friend" feeling alive. I call each member brother, and yet I learn something new about each of them every day. I love it. 

7. Waking up in the morning and realizing that you don't need to get out of bed if you don't want to. 

8. Loafing around in my PJ's at Scott's. No one's around to judge me. It's almost like a mini-vacation from my hectic school and organization oriented life in Clemson. I don't need that break all the time, but sometimes it's just nice to have someone who will let you lay around and cat nap for half a day. 

9. Adventures. Hiking, aquarium, horseback riding, cooler finding, whatever the little outing or adventure it'll probably be fun. 

10. My pillow.

Flogging Molly

The concert last night was awesome! I had so much fun.

Let's see... First off, we walked through a sketchy part of town to go to the shittiest Subway ever. What kind of a Subway runs out of tomatoes at 5pm? This one apparently. 

Then we got in line to wait for the doors to open. This week was a lot more pleasant than last. 

We managed to stand a few rows back from the barricade around some pretty cool people. There were two engaged couples in front of us that we kind of made friends with, and I had no choice but to make friends with the guy I was smooshed against when Flogging Molly came on. 

The lead singer for The Architects was totally high on something. Especially since he tried to clap his hands above his head and kind-of-sort-of epic failed. 

Frank Turner is probably the new love of my life. He was charming and hunky and... yeah. His bassist looked like one of my old friends. I was a little mesmerized. 

Flogging Molly was fantastic. We lost Paul almost as soon as they went on. Scott and I stuck through being squished for about seven songs but then we moved towards the back. If I felt like I was getting killed I don't know what the hell he felt like because I'm pretty sure he was trying his hardest to keep me from getting plastered to the guy in front of me. 

After that we watched the rest of the show from the side of the venue and bet an older biker dude who hit it off with Scott right away as they showed off tattoos. People just seem to be drawn to Scott. I never go anywhere and make as many friends as I do when we go places. It just kind of makes me chuckle. 

After a long, fun night I got home (Clemson home) around 3am. 

I feel like death. 

All M's end in P's

Stopped up and a little hopped up on cold medicine, I'm not sure how fabulous this blog post will be. I had some sort of witty, cunning curiosity to ponder over tonight. However, now I can't remember what it is. So I'm just going to chit chat about the wonders of Redfern. 

For the first time since attending Clemson, I actually had a decent experience at Redfern! I made and appointment yesterday afternoon for this horrible viral thing that I more than likely contracted standing out in the snow waiting for NFG. Well I got right on in. First I got shuffled into a nurses office where she took my vitals and shooed me to the lab for a throat culture. Then I got to talk to a very nice Dr. who then shuffled me back down to the lab to get a few vials of blood to test for bacterial infection, metabolic stuff, and thyroid hormone something or other. Seems that my thyroid may have quit on me, after-all. Oh well. Maybe after all this I'll go in on Thursday and I'll be all clear. My lovely albino chic spots on my arms will just be a mystery for the dermatologist to figure out. I don't particularly care. I'm just tired of being  sick. 

I'm excited for Sean to come into town this weekend. I'm skipping out early on my weekend at Scott's so that I can spend some time with our friend that we never get to see anymore! It'll nice to have a good portion of the weekend in Clemson. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on Saturday night during the basketball game, but at the very least I can do some work or something. 

I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do for my internship presentation. Scary, isn't it? Thank you notes for everyone who wrote me references and potential internship employers will be going out soon. I figured that keeping lines of communication open is the best way to insure a favorable outcome for any future job huntings. Hell, it's how I got this internship, right?

That's all for now!

Valentines Weekend

This weekend was interesting. Some very good, some not so good. 

Friday night was the NFG concert that I'd been waiting for forever. First chapter was conveniently postponed due to snow so that was fantastic as well. The concert was awesome. Scott and I stood in the snow for 2 hours waiting for the doors to open. My toes froze. I whined a lot, but it was SO worth it for where we were standing. Hellogoodbye was funny as hell and NFG was amazing! I even got a guitar pick because we made friends with one of the samoan bouncers. It pays to be a cute little girl, huh? Then we got to battle the shitty weather to get home.

Saturday was a pretty lazy day. Watched some movies, attempted to study, went to IHOP. The snow had pretty much melted by then but we took my car anyway just in case. Later in the evening we ventured out for slushies and on the way home I almost ran over a deer or two in Scott's driveway of all places. Silly rats with long legs... what are were you doing in the driveway? 

Now the bad part. Last night I went to bed not feeling so hot. I tossed and turned all last night with these crazy stress dreams that basically made me feel like I got now sleep at all. Woke up this morning with a crazy fever. Scott's hands felt like ice even when they weren't that cold. So I took medicine and dozed in and out all day. He sweetly offered to drive me back to school tonight so that I didn't die, but me being stubborn couldn't let that happen. I'm not exactly sure how I'd function without my car for a full week. 

Now I'm just waiting for my sheets to finish drying so I can make my bed and take some nyquill. Hopefully when I get up in the morning everything will be better. I'm wearing my pj's inside out and backwards tonight in hopes that it'll bring a snow day!

You would think...

You would think as a Horticulture major I would have figured some shit out by now, right? Apparently not. I woke up this morning to find my perfect bunch of bananas (some just right, some a little green, and some completely green to give me the optimal amount of time they would still be ripe) starting to ripen already! Stupid me. I put them next to Melissa's already over-ripening bananas.

If you don't know this little tidbit, the whole "banana in a bag" trick is all made possible by the hormone Ethylene. Ripening fruit produces the hormone and grocery stores either add, or block it to keep their fruit at the best ripeness to sell. Tricky, right? Well fruit doesn't need to be in a paper bag for this little hijinx to happen. Not thinking about the fact that the older bananas would be practically breathing Ethylene down my bananas' stems I condemned my bananas to an early end, and me to have to eat them all ASAP!

Sad day!

Jitters

I am all kinds of hopped up on coffee right now because of the long drive from NC to school at 7am. Probably should have left last night, but it's okay.

I'm already getting excited for this weekend. What once was a weekend centered around the New Found Glory concert has now continued to fill until almost completely packed. Friday is obviously the concert, but then I get to go to IHOP (see below), gut 6,000,000 cherry peppers again, study for spanish, and then go to a valentines day dinner shin-dig that didn't come up until last night.

Unfortunately this means I will be skipping chapter. Having not planned on this turn of events, maybe I should have moved to have this Sunday off. I just hope that quorum is made so I don't feel overwhelmingly guilty afterwards. I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I am extra excited for IHOP on Saturday! This may seem silly, but when I was five the IHOP near me shut down and then I didn't get to have it again until I was a Junior in high school touring Emory. Then i didn't get to have it again until last year when we were coming back from meeting with the place in Greer we had formal. No one ever seems to think that it's special, or particularly wants to go there, but let me tell you - if you don't get to go often it's amaaaaaaazing. Silly, I know. But I can't help but get excited over it!

Haze

I feel sleepy and hazy today.

I'm trying to be at least semi-productive. Homework, my Lewis Family Farm application, some reading. You would think that because Scott's studying I would be too, right? Yeah OK! This morning I've watched an episode of Degrassi, and 3 episodes of Taboo. Talk about productive!

I'm 95% sure that I'm going to Essex, NY to do my internship at Lewis Family Farm. I need to figure out how to renew my passport so I can go to Canada while I'm there! Scott thinks that it's just my urge to become more redneck. I'm kind of excited to meet a group of totally new people and learn some new skill-sets that I can add to my growing list. I just want to succeed and do something different. Especially with the world of organics and raw foods growing through the roof, it's a great opportunity to break into that field.



I almost can't believe it's already February. Friday will be fantastic. My twelve year old self is bouncing off the walls. I've been waiting to see New Found Glory for forever. Flogging Molly is the week after that, followed by retreat. I feel like I'm going to really be missing my bed by the time that we reunite for a weekend. I miss my pillows and my comforter when I'm gone. Also, I never sleep as well without the white noise of my fan. It makes me feel a little infantile that I still depend on such little comforts.

This week looks like it's going to be a little bit hectic. Hopefully everything will just settle out the way it needs to. As for now, I'm just going to study and attempt to work through my sleepiness.

Keep On Lovin' You

There's a full agenda for today.

School until noon
CVS
Haircut
Symphonic Set up/Take Down
Committee meeting
Blind-horse

Maybe this will keep me from having a shit-tastic day like yesterday. Ugh. However, I should be getting my new gardenia bonsai in today! I'm really excited about it. :)

Homesick

Tonight, just now actually, I got hit by a huge bout of homesickness.

Earlier this weekend my cousin Jen called me. I can't believe how much I miss my cousins, and my aunts, and my uncles, and my parents. I guess I don't really miss HOME. Just the people that I call home.

Most specifically, I miss Meghan and MK. I miss my best friend. She doesn't judge me, and she just let's me be me. She tells me how it is, and she lets me know who should be in my life and who shouldn't be. I trust her judgments more than anyone else's. I could even say that she is, and will probably always be my only true best friend. It makes me really sad to not be with her. And I hate feeling like we don't talk because she's gotten me through the hardest times in my life. I'm not sure if she'll ever really know how much she's changed my life for the better. Both of them have, really.

Wintery Mix

This weekend was almost a total bust.

Friday didn't happen. Ashley and Bryn still went down to Iota because they were spending the night to do battle of the bands the following day and didn't have to drive up through the (lack of) snow that was due to fall. The rest of us ended up not going which was a huge disappointment. If I had known that was going to happen I probably would have tried to go to Scotts. Is that sad that I really have no reason to be in Clemson on the weekends if it's not for band or KKPsi? I hope that means that I don't love this place, because I know that I do... Anywho, I ended up being uber dissapointed. Thomas helped, though. We watched a mini House marathon and a bunch of Dirty Jobs. I'm not sure what I would do without him around.

Saturday was just icky. I did some homework, took a nap, watched a LOT of TV. Blindhorse plans got cancelled due to weather. I took some nyquil and went to sleep at 8:30. Wooooohoooooooo.

Today was just as uneventful. I got up with Melissa and went to church. I liked it. It was different. It's still very strange to go to church as a full blown atheist. The ideals and messages and music is all well and cool, but is it right to sing along to something you don't believe in? Is it horrible to see the bible as a historical book, in it's significance? I feel like it might be, but I don't think that it should make me any less of a person. I've surprised people with my lack of beliefs. It's unfathomable by a lot of people, apparently, how I can be such a good and well rounded person without God in my life. I don't disrespect those who do believe because I can see the merit in it, I am just not a believer myself... I just hope that people don't judge me because of it. Maybe I should just tell people that I'm Jewish. It's not too far from the truth.

Lots to do this week. Catch up from a not-so productive weekend.

Good Day

So here's what all I did today:

Woke up
Complained about ridiculous downstairs neighbors and their crazy music
Grudgingly went to Hort 310 and learned about bugs
Ate lunch with Devin
Attempted to convince Allie to move to The Summit
Spent English class trying to focus but failing
Planted things and goofed off in lab
Shot the shit with Chris
Went to an epic fail of a lease renewal party
Went swimming
Drove to Greenville
Became "those girls" at the blindhorse (:D)
Met a dude named Moped... yeah... Moped
Went to Waho
Came back


Sorry for the laundry list. It really doesn't seem like much when put like that, but let me tell you I'm pooped! I can't wait to go to blindhorse again on Saturday. I'm getting braver and trying new things. I'm still slow to pick things up but I'm pretty sure I'll get there. The dancers tonight weren't as easy to follow as the ones hired on busier nights. I'm going to have to resume my lesson going.

Iota tomorrow!

Classes... Yuck

Yesterday in Hort 310 I learned about plant "herpes" as Scott would call it. Pretty much, I was right in my gardenia's diagnosis with a fungal infection. Maybe I just wasn't diligent enough with my fungicide treatments. Either way, 1800flowers gave me a gift certificate to comp the poor thing. I've found that I really like taking care of our greenhouse plants. I'm not sure that I'll know what to do with myself the weeks that I'm not checking on them at least once a day. Our group seems to be doing pretty okay. We each take different weeks to check on our seedlings and cuttings and Jonathan usually follows up and fixes any screw ups that we may have done. Maybe I am in the right major after all. :)

Plans for this weekend seem to be falling into place nicely. I'll leave Scott alone for a weekend since he's about to be stuck with me for the month of February. Tomorrow night Heather, Tess, and I are going to blindhorse to do some line dancing. Friday night I'm going to go down and visit Iota brothers. Then Saturday is homework and internship applications. Then that night I'm going to blindhorse with at least Heather and hopefully Lindsey as well!

I got invited to do a forestry competition in the end of March. I'm thinking about declining the offer, though. I have enough going on with PLANET and KKPsi.

Aquariums and Rain

This weekend was kind of hectic, crazy, fun, busy, etc!

Friday there was a fraternity function. Scott came down for the weekend and joined in. I look forward to getting to know the Sigma class and the energy that a group of candidates seems to renew in our chapter.

Saturday we woke up super early (I complained a lot) to go to the aquarium. Sadly, my car didn't even make it out of Central without a major mishap. I kind of, sort of, may have run it into a gas station barrier? It crunched in the lower part of my rear passenger door. I cried about it almost the whole way to Atlanta. NOT a good start to the day. However the aquarium was really cool. No Belugas this trip, but I got to pet a whole bunch of things and see whale sharks. The whale sharks were my favorite part. It makes me want to get my diver's license and go on the dive in the shark tank that they offer! We blew through the place in like two hours. After we left, I realized that getting up at the crack of dawn was worth it to avoid the crowds of screaming children that 

were starting to take over the place w

hen we left. Later that afternoon we attempted to take a walk down to the dam in Clemson, but got a little turned around and after I insisted five or six times that it would be "just around that next bend" we gave up and went back to the car. 

Yesterday was nothing to write home about. Just a tornado warning and a trip to the Brooks Center basement. :) 

      

Hoping for a Better Day

Yesterday just wasn't my day. I guess only two bad things really happened to me, but it really made my day feel shitty. 

The first thing  I did when I got to school yesterday was fall into a mud puddle and skin my knee pretty bad. I laughed it off, but it really hurt! 

The kicker was the whole deal about my research (or lack of). After the end of last semester and winter break I did a lot of thinking about whether or not I wanted to continue the research project. I'm really awful at working in a sterile environment. I only really understood half the things my professor told me. Overall, the whole thing just made me feel really jittery, tired, and stressed out. Also, while I've been obsessing over the internship thing I've been thinking about what I want to do. Working inside in a lab for the rest of my life on microscopic tissue cultures that I'll only see in the greenhouse after 3 years doesn't really sound like me. So I e-mailed my professor, apologized, and left the project. He seemed okay with it. 

Then, Hort 102 came yesterday. It's a freshman class that I shouldn't even be in (but neglected to take until now because it interferes with concert band) and a different professor teaches it every week. Who walks in? The professor who's research project I just quit. He walks in, looks at me and exclaims, "What are you doing here Jaime?" I just kind of chuckle and tell him that I put it off and now I feel like an old lady in a room full of Freshman and I thought things were going to be okay. No. They were not going to be okay. The whole lecture was a little bit of basics on his lab, and then a very detailed look into the project that I started but failed to stay on and how eventually he's going to need someone on board because I (yes, he pointed me out) decided I didn't want to do it. Granted when he was going over everything he did mention, almost word for word from my e-mail,  all of the reasons why people wouldn't want to do tissue culture. However, it still gave me this overwhelming sense of guilt and failure. 

The problem is that I don't know what I want to do in Horticulture and I'm very afraid of proving my mother right and never amounting to anything more than the clerk at the Walmart garden center. 

After a rough night's sleep, I'm hoping that after classes and a nap today I'll feel less like a truck run over me and more like myself. 

On a better note, school things are still good, friend things are still good, and boyfriend things are still good as well. 

More Internships

I know that the whole internship thing must be getting old to everyone around me, now. I've been obsessing for about a week and as soon as I feel like I have a grip on the situation I'll stop. Promise.

However, I narrowed my applications down to 6.

-Green Chimneys Therapy Program
-Lewis Family Farm
-Carolina Florist Supply
-Highlands
-Raker's Acres
-Head-Lee nursery

I think that's actually my order of preference right now. The only thing that really makes me nervouse about Green Chimneys is that on their website they say that they give their farm internships a stipend (in some cases). What does that mean? I don't want to come out of my summer with less money than I had going in. That just wouldn't be fun.

Other than that school's good. Hopefully this weekend will bring around a trip to the GA aquarium with Scott which would be lots of fun. :)

Bobcats, and Eagles, and Bears! Oh my!

This weekend has turned out pretty good. :)

Yesterday we went for a walk around this little park in Salisbury and it was pretty, but not a lot of things were in bloom. Then we went on a "mystery ride" (remember those KT?) and we went to Nichols park which is a really cool little place. It's kind of park/biological center/camp grounds hybrid. They had a little reptile and aquarium center where we saw GINORMOUS cat fish and alligators and poisonous snakes! Then we went to the petting barn and I got to see a cute miniature donkey named Sam and a very angry turkey. Finally we got to see the wildlife exibit that they had. There were bald eagles, bobcats, an adorable bear, a fox, some owls, deer, and a racoon who couldn't figure out how to leave a little room he had probably walked into a few minutes earlier. It was a great little surprise for the weekend.

Now, if you know me you know that put me anywhere near animals and I become a little kid in a candy shop. All the excitement kind of wore me out and I didn't get much internship work done yesterday. I guess I'll have to do some more this afternoon.

Estimated time of departure: 3 PM

Hopefully that will give me enough time to get back down to Clemson, grab some food, and go to chapter. Tomorrow will be work work and more work. I'm just not looking forward to being back in the grind. Boo.

WooooHoooooo!

Check out the e-mail I got this morning. 

Dear Jaime,

Good morning!

Hello again.

Yes, as I mentioned last year, your 'spot' here is secured. We are looking forward to having you here this coming Summer.

One of the farm's owners, just yesterday updated the websites -- you may wish to look at them, to see what we have been up to, and to catch-up on this coming Summer season's internship.

We look forward to your arrival here Jaime.

Sincerely

________

This is particularly exciting since I haven't sent in my application yet. I definitely danced around like a 15 year old who just landed their first date. It feels almost like college acceptance season all over again! This doesn't mean I have any less work to do this weekend. Between school and internship things Scott's going to get very bored with me this weekend. 

Same Old Same Old

I always seem to write in my blog after I go line dancing. Go figure.

Well, I went line dancing last night! Haha. Heather and I trucked out to Greenville after symphonic band rehearsal was over for Blindhorse's weekly lessons. It was actually a lot more fun that I thought it would be. It's kind of this huge challenge to be new to a group of about 70 individuals from beginner beginner to paid to dance caliber. When we got there we still had a bit of time to wait before the lesson started and some of the more experienced folks were doing some VERY hard dances. However, we found 2 (count 'em 2!!!) that we had actually learned from previous attempts. The lesson warm up was a dance that we had already learned (yup we're at 3) and we learned 2 or 3 MORE dances during the lesson! It felt really good to actually grasp the basic steps and to finally not be the worst dancer in the building!

On another note, internship applications are taking over my life. I'm applying to 9 internships. 1 is in Anderson at a wholesale cut flower warehouse. 1 is in Seneca at a family owned nursery. This isn't like the little place I worked at over the summer. Their greenhouse is HUGE and I have an interview-ish type thing tomorrow afternoon. 1 is in Highlands, NC at the biological station. 1 is at the Sarah P. Duke Botanical Garden in NC. 2 of them are in upstate NY. One is an internship on a large scale organic farming operation. The other is a theraputic Horticulture internship that I'm actually very excited about. I would be in charge of helping mentally handicapped children learn how to garden and better their motor skills by interacting with plants. This is a lot like what I did at Camp Harkness, except that was with horses. The cool thing is, Green Chimneys (the place the internship is at) is also an equestrian therapy center so I might get to do some riding over the summer, too! Another internship is Raker's Acres in Michigan. It's one of the largest plug producing companies in the US with some of the best technology out there. Yet another internship is in GA, Chatham Landscape Design, and it's a landscape design internship in the Atlanta area. The last one is an arboretum at Harvard. And then there's always the backup of going back to Green Survival. I love Green Survival but in order to step into the Horticulture industry I really should get a bigger, more prominent internship over the summer.

So all in all that's 7 applications, 27 letters of reference, 9 resumes, 2 transcripts, 7 cover letters, 2 statements of interest, a shitton of postage... and a partridge in a pear tree?

If I seem extra moody or irritable over the next few months it's just the stress of getting everything out on time and waiting for responses.

Much love.

Love, Line Dancing, and Learnin'

School's started up again as has the hectic scheduling. Don't get me wrong, I love my class schedule for the semester, but it's just a lot of work. I tried SO hard to squeeze a band into my schedule but that didn't work out. Hort 310 lab is going to take over my life since not only will we probably go over our lab time every week but I need to go into the greenhouses every day and on weekends! Planet is taking over my life with a 2 hour meeting per week as well as student study time. I got into the math class that I needed and I'm pretty sure that this is the math class for me. By that I mean in the last 2 classes we've learned how to take equations and explain them in sentances. WOOOOOOOWEEEEE. Tough stuff. If I settle into a rhythm maybe the semester won't seem so overwhelming and scary. 

Wednesday night Heather and I managed to squeeze in some line dancing. It was awesome. :) I suck so bad, but even through all that embarrassing suckage we danced until we had blisters. We were going to try to go last night, as well, but people were driving like idiots so it wasn't going to happen. We decided to go for lessons on Wednesday after I get out of my PLANET meeting and Heather gets out of symphonic band. I'm super excited. I get to learn the funky cowboy. lol 

Scott's coming down here this weekend. I don't know how I managed to get out of driving up there but I'm kind of looking forward to it. We have plans for tonight and tomorrow Melissa and I are going to make the boys lasagna. It'll just be a nice break from traveling. I'm so tired of getting in the car and driving and I'm excited to show off how pretty our apartment is now! Besides, after break I realized how much I missed my bed and I'm just not sure I'm ready to give it up yet. :) 

New Years

For the first time in a long time I haven't made a New Years resolution. I have things that I'd like to accomplish, but every time I resolve to do anything  it never really happens. 

-I'd like to get in shape. Not lose weight, specifically, but be able to be athletic again. Since my leg was broken I don't really do much of anything. I wish I could, but hopefully I'll get there. I have friends to help me out.

-I'd like to do better in school. This semester wasn't a total flop, but it wasn't the best I could do, either. I'd really like to not give up half way through a semester since that tends to be what happens. 

-I'd like to be a better friend. I leave too many phone calls, text messages, and e-mails unreturned and too many plans broken. I want to branch out and spend time with people that I don't normally spend time with, and spend more time with the people I already love. 

-I'd like to make some headway on my research. I'm not sick anymore. I should be able to squeeze it in somewhere right? 

-I'd like to make this relationship work. It's been awhile, now. We've met the parents, met friends, made some plans. I'm happy. I just need to focus on not letting comfortable turn into a downward spiral. I just don't want to mess this one up. He's sweet and patient, and I just can't bare to lose him. Hopefully a year from now things will be just as peachy. 

 -I'd like to dwell less on the past and focus more on the present. 

I just hope that this next year brings about good things and happy people in my life. So far it's been pretty good. Let's hope it keeps progressing that way.