The Night of the Exes

Well even though I don't think this about any of my exes, I do want this knife set and it was appropriate about my last night home and well, it's a body so it's anatomical too (shut up, it is, just agree!)

Anyway, after sleeping for 12 and a half hours straight, because of my last situation (read the blog before this if you don't know what I'm talking about) and then going out to dinner with the family that night.... (yummy food from the Silvercryst), I got talked into going out again. Imagine that.... lol. Well, ended up going to the bar in Almond again, and though it wasn't as entertaining as the last time, it still was a good time. I was the only girl there, like usual, but then 2 of my exes from high school stroll in at two separate times. I wasn't pissed off or felt sick that they were there, but at first I thought it would be a little awkward. However, it wasn't. They are both doing well for themselves, but then the whole "How is your love life?" came up....my response "non-existent and I'm ok with that for now." They could probably tell I was a still a little bummed, but oh well, I really don't have time for one right now. My exes have gotten more attractive though.....dammnit. Oh well, they are exes for a reason, whether it was theirs or my fault.

I ended up drinking more than usual, and staying there until bar close (my Bacardi and Diets are only $2.50 at home and I don't know how many I was given for free....can't go wrong with that!) and then it was afterbars at our fave high school hangout... one of my guy friends house, well the exes followed, but it was all good. For the end of the deer-hunting season they were having a pig roast..... the best! They started cooking it that night so we just hung out all night.... literally.... again. I got home at 9:30 in the morning (I felt bad because I didn't think I would be out that late) and didn't have any blip of sleep until my parents were driving me back to Chicago. So yeah, still up but only had 3 hours of sleep. One guy kept me up from home saying that I have been on his mind for some time..... why does this happen to me every single time I go home? I like this guy as a friend, but he's there and I'm here and starting something like that just won't happen..... just a little too late. I feel bad though because he is one of my amazing friends from home, but now I think that's as far as it will be able to go......

Well off to bed because I need it and it will be a long day with anatomy and website tomorrow! Yay for having my power cord finally!

Happy Thanksgiving Vacation!

Well ladies and gentlemen..... I have done exactly what people (other than people in Grad school) on vacation should do.... veg. I have really done just about nothing during my Thanksgiving vacation and it feels good. For example, I went to bed last night around 11:30 and woke up at 12:30 the next day. It felt sooooo gooooooood. :D I guess it made sense though since the night before thanksgiving I went out with some buds from high school to a bar in my hometown and it was just about a high school reunion. It was nice to see everyone though, so I stayed until bar close. However, there were 2 guys that were definetely interested in me there that I did not go to high school with that would not leave me alone.

One was a cousin of a friend, but so no interested since he was so drunk that he started talking about Girl Scout Cookies and farting, after that I was even more disinterested than I was at the beginning of the night.... I later found out that he wanted me to drive him home (which didn't happen) and he puked when someone else was. I'm back at home....

The other guy was a creepster. I mean Total old man creepster. No one knew who he was, but he just kept starting at me the whole night... I mean I was there for 4 hours and I'm not exaggerating... the whole damn night. I wasn't even wearing anything spectacular, I was dressed down from when I ususally go out. My guy friends said to me "Yeah, that's dressed down in Chicago, remember you are back home in Almond." Yeah, I guess, I sometimes forget about that. Plus, when he would walk past me he would let out a "woo-hoo". Yeah, that would get my attention in a good way, buddy, good job. You can tell that he didn't learn anything about treating girls in his 50 years of experience....gross.

At bar close, one of my fave guy-friends finally got home and wanted to hang out. He ended up coming over to my place, and with a bottle of Kesslers and Mountain Dew we talked the night away, literally. He left at 6:30 AM. We could already see the trucks filled with deer hunters on their way out to start the day and we were just about ready to end ours. It was a great get-together and I miss hanging out with him, as well as some of the other guys from my hometown.

ps: can you tell I'm from the middle of nowhere, WI? Wouldn't have thought that I was from this did you? :D

Another reason I'm being a bum is that I forgot my charger for my laptop in the living room in our apartment in Chicago. I forgot to pack it. Therefore, I can't work on my website like I wanted to.....awesome job, Lindsey. So we will see how much I will actually get done in the day before it needs to have at least 50% of it done.... When my fam is home, my Mom pours me a glass of wine and it tastes so good that I have to have more.... My last name doesn't mean "drunken" in Polish for nothing!

Oh well, everything will be fine next week. I'm not worried, though I should be. Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what you have and what you have done, and I have many things to be thankful for. I could not have been where I am or the person I am today without the help of others. Thank you all and have a fabulous rest of the vacation!

I Can't Fall Asleep So Here's a Body...

Well, there you go people, there's the body for you. Our assignment was focused on anatomical landmarks for identifying deep structures, and yes men, your nipples are landmarks. (Especially on the guys on the link! :D ) I really liked this assignment. It was basic, but line work can be descriptive and you can incorporate your style into a line drawing, even if tone and value is your thing.

I wasn't going to put this on tonight, but when my crit actually is, but you know, since I can't sleep for some reason (it's almost 3:30 AM), I thought I would put it up. I am going to be dead tired tomorrow when I really need help. We have Computer Applications tomorrow and we have to create our own websites. I was working on mine all day long and Scott is probably going to be like: "Ok, so what did you actually do?" while I'm falling asleep when he's trying to answer my questions.... great. (Scott, if you are reading this, I'm sorry!) I guess I will have to make my coffee a wee bit stronger than usual. I will probably hear an explanation on why I'm not able to sleep, but I know damn well why...... IT'S THE CRAZY TIME OF THE SEMESTER!

Could You Please Stop Playing the Guitar........We Aren't...

I'm a little too tired to write tonight since, you know, it's 2:30 AM and there are drunk people having a party in the apartment underneath us and they had the music so loud that our upstairs neighbors could hear them loud and clear 3 floors up.... no biggie...

Heidi went upstairs to tell the boys upstairs to stop being so loud and it wasn't them.... it was really weird... I bet that can tell you how loud it was!

I bet I will be productive tomorrow...

Oh the Joys of Public Transportation

Both classes were canceled today, which was like a godsend....I caught up so much today on anatomy it was crazy....I do still have a bit to go though, but it will be fine. I did not leave the apartment once today. Yesterday was a different story.

Well one of my friends from undergad invited me over for a dinner party. Awesome! Well the thing is since she didn't want to go into the city during rush hour, she wanted me to take the Blue Line to the stop right before O'hare. You know, it should be no big deal I thought. Well just about everything that could go wrong did, of course. I usually take the UIC bus to the corner of my apartement from campus. Didn't see one so I just walked my 15 minutes back and didn't even see one bus go past me....very reliable, can you tell? So by the time I got back to the apartment I wanted a bite to eat and my new boots that I ordered online were on my doorstep when I came home.... of course I needed to try them on! So I'm still rushing. I have an hour to get to where my friend is. I must have just missed the bus that I have to take to the Blue Line because 3 Western Express buses went by by the time I could finally get on the regular Western bus... so there we go 20 min gone. I could have walked there in the time I was waiting, but I don't go walking around my place after dark, so I waited.

Got off at the bus at the El station, and I see the El going towards O'hare in the distance coming to my stop. SHIT! I need to cross 4 lanes of traffic, swipe my card through, and sprint down the ramp to get there... I go for it. Nope! Too slow, I missed the El. DAMNIT! So now waiting once again, I get a text from my friend saying that she is there already! SHIT! I look at how far I have to go and yeah, she's going to be waiting some time. The El comes and we are off. I should be smooth sailing from here and I have my anatomy book to keep me company. As soon as we get in the Loop, the El just stops. "Can I have your attention please: the train that you are on is experiencing technical difficulties, please wait for a few minutes until the driver ..... blah, blah blah.." Great, not only am I already late, but the El that I was on just HAD to break down. So we sit there for 15 minutes not moving. I text my friend: "me and public transportation are not getting along".

Finally we start going again, well about 45 minutes late, I finally hop into her car and we are off to the burbs, another 1/2 hour. Man, thank God we are good friends, I felt bad for her waiting so long.

Well we finally got there and had dinner and visited, it was such a good evening to be out and about for a bit. Too bad we don't live closer... things would be much easier..... but that's just how it goes with public transportation.....

Slowly Being Swallowed....

Well, I feel like I have been getting things accomplished. I mean, I do have my anatomical illustration done with its necessary references, my idea for Instructional Design, and the reading for our online class done. But the two very big things are looming over my tiny head: ANATOMY AND CREATING MY OWN WEBSITE. Those are my goals to tackle after class tomorrow. We will see.... I can always manage to find some sort of distraction for a good amount of time, plus it doesn't help that I am so far behind in anatomy that I could probably spend an entire weekend working on it and still be behind. Plus I need to get some food staples, and oh, my problem with loans are not completed yet.... UIC is taking their sweet time reimbursing my money.... damn state school.

My whole "living better" scheme is actually working out, literally. Heidi and I go and work out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after anatomy since we stink anyway. I have been without a cig for 3 weeks and only cheated when my friends were up for the weekend and I'm feeling better about it, even though I would still miss the excuse to relax for 10 minutes in my "Me" time. This too will soon pass though.

Now all I have to do is not eat as much.... I finished a whole thing of popcorn a couple of hours after a dinner and I want something else, but I'm going to bed. I may be small, but I can eat and I love my food. :D

Living my Lonely Little Life....

It snowed for the first time since I have been in Chicago and it made me realize that time has just been flying by. I am almost done with my first semester of Grad school. I will be done before I know it it seems. But as time has been flying by, everyone from my past has been changing. Everyone is growing up and doing the whole relationship thing and I feel like I'm kinda stuck. I don't go out often 'cause I can't afford it; I don't meet many new people out of our program because I feel like it's not worth putting so much time and effort into it and I can't afford it, I'm usually not interested, and I'm scared.... plain and simple, scared. As bad as it sounds, I don't know who to trust and I don't want to get my hopes up to have them shot down... just not my thing. So I'm here with my homework piled in front of me with a cup of Chai tea or coffee to keep me company. I guess that's alright for the most part; I have been getting out there more and I really am starting to fall in love with this city.....maybe that's the only relationship that matters right now, well that and Homework loves to butt in too :D

At least the Packers won against the Bears today..... lol.

What is going on????

Well, the whole reason I haven't been writing daily is for some reason, I have been having a great week. I really don't have any complaints at all. There is one thing though....... assistantships.

They are hard to find and even tougher to get, I swear! I have been emailing and calling and searching for anyone or any department to give me even an opportunity to obtain an assistantship. I knew I was maybe pushing my luck with trying to get one this semester, but people just make it sound SOOOO attainable.... NOTHING BUT LIARS! Ok, maybe not, they just got lucky, but I am taking so much time out of my studying just searching and coming up with nothing, so yeah, kinda a waste of time..... but I will prevail and keep moving forward.

Plus this whole semester is closing up already, it's coming way too fast! I guess I'm ready for a break though, but at the same time I am so in need of a job! I don't know how I'm going to pay for Christmas gifts....we will see. But I have been having a lot of fun.

Yesterday me and one of my guy friends from undergrad went downtown and well, I was craving Mexican cuisine (not out of the ordinary) and a margarita. We found this place called Su Casa and it was a really good price with really good food (I still miss my spinach and chicken quesedilla from Marg Dips!). And then we went to the fanciest bowling alley I have ever seen called Lucky Strike. It was just crazy. However, you paid for it! I mean, instead of sitting on plastic dirty chairs, you sat on couches when you were waiting to bowl.... pretty cool; and oh yeah, like everything downtown, we had to wait, so we were getting drunk in the process! Tonight, after doing a bit of homework, I went to see Quantum of Solace. It was good I have to say that, but not fantastic. It was fun to hang out with people though. Plus we took the El back at night..... it was an experience, nothing bad, just interesting.

Well the boys upstairs are back to their old ways right now with their partying. We'll see when I fall asleep tonight!

Oh, PS: the pic is from a few weeks ago, but I just thought it was funny. Just being silly on the El! Thanks for bringing out the best in me Heidi!

The Fun and Surprises That Chicago Holds

Well, I bet you can tell what I went to see this weekend! Yep, and it was worth the inflated, almost-double-the-original-value price that we payed for them. If you have not seen this musical yet, SEE IT! It is based off the the book, "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire. I read his book prior and you should see the musical as well as read it.... they are incredibly different.

I tend to get emotional (I guess that just what "Feelers" do) when I see a spectacular performance or piece of art. Yeah, I cried not once, but several times during the performance.... for people who can't read "girl", that means that it was just amazing. Here I am crying silently during the show.... thank God (or hopefully....) no one saw me. They would have probably thought "What the Hell is wrong with this girl?" Oh well, I didn't care and I couldn't have stopped it if I tried.

So yeah, that wasn't the only fun thing I did. Needless to say, I had friends down and I couldn't disappoint, so no homework was done. But a lot of fun happened. Other than the play, we went up 97 floors and had a drink.... at 10 in the morning. I ordered the Cabin Fever thinking that it was hot-chocolate based.... oh no, straight alcohol. No wonder it said it warmed you right up. Oops, I was drunk before 11.

There are so many things to do here, it's ridiculous.... we went to the Field Museum (where I actually got hit on, seriously, you can't take me anywhere I guess), Navy Pier and shopping on State Street. Navy Pier was fun with all kinds of little things to do. One thing that was really fun was the Amazing Maze. My friend also noticed that at the IMAX they were playing "The Dark Knight" @ 11 that night. Though I already saw it and thought it was amazing, we all went again...... IT WAS THE BEST MOVIE EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. I will never see that movie like that again. It felt like you were in the movie... amazing!

Well, now that weekend is over and done with but it was the best weekend I have had in Chicago to date. And so far, it's still going very well. Anatomy is in need of being studied (I just opened the book up tonight!), but as soon as I got back from lab, there was a letter from UIC to me. The first thing I thought was "Oh great, what did I forget to do now, or is there there STILL something else I have to fill out?" It was actually a congratulation letter for the Van Doren Scholarship that I applied for! Free money, that feels good.

See? Good things happen to those who are patient and can handle the lows in life. This weekend and monday proved that to me once again.

I Have a Little Black Rain Cloud Named Loans

Oh, what a day. Well from going to the financial aid office twice in one way to figure out everything with my debacle yesterday, I think I have it under control once and for all, but again, that's what I thought before. The private loan company from which I had the canceled loan took my money not once, but twice, in two different locations..... grrrrr. But on the lighter side, I FINALLY had a very nice and polite lady that didn't make me feel like I should not be in grad school and actually helped me, so that was nice. You don't get a lot of that here.

Today was all about fixing things from the numerous situations yesterday. Well, I succeeded all of that and accomplished more. Though I still have a lot to do, I feel relieved and accomplished at the moment. Also, I had a great dinner with one of my guy-friends that I went to undergrad with that lives in Chicago. It was a Chinese restaurant with massive portions, I mean MASSIVE. He let me take all the left overs home so I won't have to cook for like a week, and he wouldn't let me pay. :D I like people with jobs, but most of all I like guys just to hang out with and not expect anymore than that.... it was relieving.

So now that things are better for the moment, it's time for my website redesign to be shown off. Our project was to find a medical-based website that was poorly designed and give it a facelift. I chose the Michigan Avenue Immediate Care, an urgent care downtown that I actually went to. Their services and staff were great, but you can't tell that from the website. I didn't want to go there initially because of the poor design, but I didn't have much of a choice so I went and was pleasantly surprised. If only their website looked better, just think of how that would benefit their practice!

We had to design two mock-ups and here are mine:
Note: They are not the final redesigns!




I am definitely going into the Ad/Web design field. I always get so into the projects and I like to experiment with the different aspects of design and Photoshop and Illustrator make that so much easier to do! I just need to figure out now how to make something look something like above, but with HTML and CSS! That's my project for tomorrow before the fun of the weekend begins..... :D

My, What a Form You Have!

Here my friends, we have a messed-up heart with the left hepatic vein not draining into the inferior vena cava like it should be, but up into the right atrium that our class had to draw with the focus on form. I enjoyed this project since I tend to go into detail. Unlike the knee assignment prior to this, I received much better reviews, much better than I expected, actually. I will take it though, don't you worry! Too bad I was looking at the labels the day after I handed it in (and after it was critiqued for that matter) and I noticed something off.... HALF OF MY DAMN LABELS WERE FLIPPED FOR LEFT AND RIGHT!!!! Seriously, Lindsey?! Do you have to make yourself look more like an idiot?! The surprising thing is, NO ONE, not even our professor, made a comment. I'm assuming if they didn't make a comment because they didn't notice it because of my beautiful, magnificent, glorious rendition of light on form (jk, but not really ;) ), or maybe they just thought I really am an idiot and they decided to leave it alone.... I guess I won't know now, but I did change it before I put it here and I emailed the professor so he really didn't think I was a moron; I am so embarrassed. I'm really not an idiot; I just don't pay attention fully all the time because there is always so much going on in my mind.

Well today is when my lucky streak ended.... it all started when UIC sent me this email saying "Your e-bill is ready". WHAT?! I have loans to pay for this! Well I look and there is over $7000 in there with a late fee. If you don't know the whole situation, UIC financial aid and I have not seen eye-to-eye since I have been here. It all started when I never received anything about financial aid during the summer so I applied for a private loan. Well that private loan never showed because I put my mom's birthday as the wrong year so there was a massive amount of money in my account and no one would help me. Well, after the joys of FASFA and their loans, I no longer needed the private loan, so I sent that money back to the loan company so I wouldn't have to pay for it later..... Well now in my UIC account the same amount from the private loan plus a late fee are in my account right now..... WHAT THE HELL? So, guess who's going back there when she should really be taking the time to do homework and nobody else has this problem? ME!

There is the financial aid black cloud over me once again, the noticed flaw in my labeling, and then working on my online class I can't figure out this stupid concept map to do anything....and I haven't had time to study for anatomy yet... and I have friends coming up this weekend (NOT COMPLAINING) so I won't do anything then... so yeah, when it rains, it pours........

I love my life sometimes.....

A Day to Remember

Though I know everyone will be talking about it and blogging about it tonight, I just have to. Congratulations to the new president-elect, Barack Obama. Though every presidential election makes the history books, this one is a gem for America and for me personally.

Though I was not able to vote, I know, I know, I don't want to hear it, let me explain....

Being a resident of Wisconsin and living in Chicago because of school, I had to request an absentee ballot. I did all that and well, my ballot came in the mail yesterday, the day before the damn election.... it had to be postmarked by 5pm that day, and being in class all day (Mondays are the days of Hell) well, it didn't happen. I was incredibly disappointed since I did my research and watched all the debates and everything. But really? What did I expect? This kinds of stuff happens all the time in my life. I voted in my heart; and thankfully Obama became the 44th and the 1st African-American president of the United States of America.

The City of Chicago was madness today and I am so proud to be in the city where the Obama family resided. There is so much joy going around that I feel so proud to be an American; we have gone so far in equality of the human race as a whole. However (and unfortunately), we do have a long way to go. One thing that really disappointed me was the people that were booing Obama when McCain gave his speech of "defeat". He's your new president, no matter what you do, so you will have to deal with it at least and stand for USA as a whole. Even McCain was not happy of his followers at that point and gave a very tasteful and rewarding speech. I give him great respect for that.

This has been a great and memorable week. Not only do we have a new president that I hope the best for, but with school as well, things have been working out for me. Surprisingly, the anatomy results came back, and once again I succeeded! Though it must have been on a curve, I did receive an "A" once again which some people were not happy about. Only one more to go. I also had a critique today for Anatomical Visualization (I will show the stuff tomorrow) that went well. I am going to celebrate this feeling of success while it lasts.... you will know when it goes down. LOL

PS: Well, my sleeping on my books for a week before the exam worked again! It's worth a try people!

The Quest for the Freshwater Dolphin

Yes, you may have heard of them, the freshwater dolphins. I have to admit, there are such things as freshwater dolphins, just not in Lake Michigan! This whole blog is for one of my roommates who I swear is obsessed with the idea of these "fantasy" creatures leaping just right of the coast (if you can call it that) of downtown Chicago. Though I would love it (I don't have one tattooed on me for nothing), I'm sorry my dear. I just don't think bottle-nosed dolphins made it up the Mississippi River to some other tributary and ended up in Lake Michigan and on their travels mutated to adapt from salt to fresh waters. But go ahead and create substitute lyrics to Enya's (I'm sorry I shunned you, never should have) "Only Time" to a "Save the Dolphins in Lake Michigan". Go ahead and earn some money for the cause.

We do have dolphins in Chicago though!

;) I live an interesting life with interesting people all around me. LOVE IT! ;)

"Happy" Halloween

Going into my 2nd anatomy exam in grad school, I felt pretty confident. I was well-studied......well that was what I thought. Needless to say, the professor handed our butts to us and said "TREAT"! It was not the "big picture" like it was drilled in our heads. The 2 days that we spent on the nervous system was about 1/3 of the entire test and it was no "big picture", but more like detail city. I didn't feel like drinking and going out before the exam, but afterwards was a different story. Also, some of the costumes were amusing during the test. One individual dressed up as a uterus (ovaries and all), the "Pathetic Chain Gang" in homage to the sympathetic ganglionic chain, and one of our professors had on a black halo with a wand-like thing....I'm thinking the Angel of Darkness? How appropriate would that have been since our whole class felt like we were doomed of not even doing okay on this exam.

Halloween night was quite interesting as well. Now having the ambition of going out, we had plans to go to Boys Town. Wow, the costumes where amazing and showy to say the least! Not gonna lie, I loved it! The whole night was entertaining. For one, one of our fellow female classmates dresses up as a StudFinder and was harassing every gay man that passed. Some liked it and played along (look at her literally spanking Mickey Mouse above) and others would run away screaming "I'm Gay!" as she would be chasing them. So random, yet so fantastic!

For the record people, I am straight, but I have the most fun in gay bars, I don't know what it is. It must be the atmosphere and the open-minded people that just make me feel free and not have to act differently around. I had a blast which was awesome since I haven't had one of those days in some time. Plus, almost all of us in our group were feeling good, so that helps! However, this guy was bizarre. I don't think he was gay since he wanted me and another girl to kiss, but what I really don't understand it was in the fascination with guys dressing like girls all the time? I can understand Drag Queens, but seriously dude?



Another interesting thing.... I saw someone that I knew from Undergrad walking down the street as we were walking to a get a cab. I would have never thought so see someone I knew from going to school in WI. Also, one of my buds in the same program was friends with someone I went to Undergrad with as well! I guess I do have connections that can travel from state-to-state!