Fark.

Today was decent until about 6pm. Went to bed at 1, woke up at 4 for no reason, went back to sleep. Woke up again at 6:15 by my alarm clock, went back to sleep and woke up (properly) at 6:45. Oops. I had to be at the gym at 7:30 today. That's...half an hour to do everything necessary, plus eat breakfast, with the end result that breakfast consisted of a container of coffee-flavored yogurt and a cup of hot chocolate. Yummy. Not to worry, since I can't eat anything before fencing. I have to snack.

I walked to the gym with one of the foil guys that lives in the building next to mine, and one of the sabre guys who lives at the bottom of the hill. Of course, no one else was there. Just a note: When you say "get there at 7:30," that means YOU need to be there at 7:30. And then we spent more time waiting around for the guy with the key to the equipment room to get there. (I love fencing. It's so disorganized sometimes.) And then more time waiting for the rest of the drivers to get there.
Unlike October's tournament, this one was three schools (us and two others) and local--20 minutes away from campus. We were still there from 9:30 to 3:30. We had some equipment issues (dead body cords, and for some reason all but one of our sabres is two-prong, and some flying masks) at the beginning when we tested our gear (hurrah for crappy club stuff!) but we got it ironed out in the end. We fenced the "easy" school first.Their women's sabre squad had two people on it; ours had three, so we only needed to win two bouts. (For every person missing from a squad, they forfeit the bouts the missing person would have fenced.) The sad thing is, they didn't really seem to know what they were doing, and I was the only reason we beat them, not trying to brag or anything. My teammates...one of them only started this year, and the other started last spring. We can chalk one up to inexperience, and the other...she has some good instincts, but she gets very nervous when fencing and it all goes out the window. So guess who won those two bouts? And unfortunately, they were the only ones I won all day.
The host school is a division II school with a varsity fencing team. We are...division III with a club team. The men had a much harder time than we did (the men's foil event was a bloodbath), but we still lost all our bouts (at least, sabre did). A lot of it was "where the *%&! was my brain in all this?!" Lots of touches that I missed, and lots that I should have known how to deal with. J was unusually sympathetic to me today--he usually isn't. He doesn't try to be nasty or uncaring, but he takes his fencing very seriously and so is usually too wrapped up in his game or what's going on on the strip at the moment (for some reason, only the men's events get his attention...) to be particularly sympathetic. He wasn't fencing today because he sprained his ankle the week before, so I guess he was more into providing coaching, equipment and support today. I was beating myself up about my performance on the strip, and he came over, patted my shoulder and said "Hey, don't worry about it. We're all in the same boat, and yeah, there are some things you've got to work on, but it's getting better. That was the most aggressive I've ever seen you. That's good. Keep it up and come to practice." Last bit is a tiny bit awkward since I've been missing practices due to...me not sleeping and exams. (Not that J can talk on the first front, because he doesn't sleep either.)
Anyhow, we got back to campus at 4:15ish, I had a sort of late lunch/snack thing. Tea-- only without the tea--is the best description of it. Then I hiked up the Stairs of Doom so I could take a nap...which was interrupted by the fire alarm going off. Again. Why are the people in my building idiots? At least this time they called security and told them to tell the fire department not to show up. And then I got dinner. Somewhere between my room and the dining hall, I lost my brand-new, just-bound-off Foliage. It had been in my pocket until I realized this, so I guess it's in the dining hall, from where I either fished my ID card or gloves out of my pocket. But it makes me sad, since I'd only worn it for a little while and I hadn't even gotten to take a picture of it. I'll be checking the dining hall tomorrow, as well as the route down there (for a third or fouth time). If it's not there, it may be in someone's car (I hope that's the case.) And if still nothing...I guess I'll be casting on...again.

Since someone asked...

Midterms went. How they went varies by subject. I got B's on my genetics and biology midterms, dunno on calc (she doesn't give them back and I have yet to look my grade up online) and chem...the less said about it the better.

And I have another set coming up. Why are they all at the same time? I have a calc exam on Tuesday, a chem exam on Thursday, and both bio subject exams are the following Monday. I don't think I can handle that. *Hides under her desk*

In Blogstalking...I'm sorry I didn't get the stuff up. I wound up having less time than I thought I would. I'll try to get you "A day in the life" either tomorrow or Thursday. (I'll have a reason to leave my room other than the grocery store tomorrow, and Thursday is my Day Off.) And I can almost certainly get you the statues tomorrow. I have the perfect one in mind. :D

In the meantime, look at some pictures of knitting!


The Gryffindor bookscarf. It should be a quick knit, but no. It's been languishing on my "bookshelf" for the last couple of months. And this is part of the reason why--My first actual sock-weight sock! Toe-up sock, knit in Tofutsies (the color name/number escapes me for the moment.) The top of the foot (and eventually, the leg!) is in Irish Moss stitch, with four-stitch cables at the edges.
This is also part of the reason why. The sleeve for Mariah. The same sleeve from the last picture. And yes, I know that there's that huge gap right there, where I think I knitted an extra row or two between the repeats of the cable charts. I'm not going to frog. I'll just knit the other sleeve the same way and call it a "design element." So there.

What's this? Something else new? Yep! Lace! Pattern is Foliage from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitty (sorry, to lazy to link at the moment), in Patons' SWS (color: Natural Plum). This is an enjoyable knit--quick, yet interesting enough to keep my attention. Knit, as are many things, on 5 of my trusty 20 (it must be somewhere around that...) size 6 DPNs. My alarm clock is graciously modeling this partly finished hat for me. I do wish I could have gotten a better picture of the stitch marker. It's one of my favorites. (It's one I made myself out of a couple of jump rings and a charm thing I found lying around my house.) Because it's hard to tell from the picture, it's a silver elephant on top of that purple glass ball.
Am I the only one who must coordinate their projects and stitch markers?

3 Things...

3 things I love:
(aside from the obvious--family, friends, chocolate...)
1. Science! (in case that wasn't obvious enough.)
2. Baking.
Mm....pumpkin muffins!
3. Weekends, which are far too short.

3 things I hate:
1. Math.
2. My far-too-messy room.
3.Never-ending road construction.

popping in briefly

If you Blogstalkers have been wondering where I've been for the past week or so...I've been hit by midterms this week. And for some reason, all but one have been this week. (WHY do the science and math departments do this? Are they trying to kill us?) I have an organic chem midterm tomorrow at 11:15...and I can't sleep because I'm a teensy bit freaked out about it. But I did get my lab report done (due tomorrow)!
I'm done with most things tomorrow after the lab, so I have some time to update/take pictures/catch up on blogstalker business. And then...fall break! (More time! I'm going home, but I'm probably going to do homework.)

These boots were made for walking...

This last week's Blogstalker theme was "How I get from here to there" or something very similar. I think this picture basically does the trick:
Believe it or not, that did not take too much effort on my part to compile. (And my feet aren't usually that unhappy with everything. I had just gotten back from class when I took that picture.) Being a college student with no car (and on a relatively small campus), I provide most of my own transport--I walk nearly everywhere. Class, activities, grocery store. Yes, there's theoretically a shuttle system...except that by the time it gets there, you could have been in class five minutes ago. It's a 10-15 (depending on how lucky I get with the traffic lights, of course) walk to most of my classes from my dorm. Unfortunately, my dorm is at the top of a hill, which is accessible by the a set of stairs. Whoever built these stairs was a freaking idiot. The treads are all different so that it's hard to get a rhythm going, and it takes me two steps to clear most of them. They're not terrible to walk up or down...until you try it with a backpack full of books or a computer and an organic chemistry textbook.
For anything further afield than class, activities and the grocery store (about a 10 minute walk from the dorm), I utilize my "free" (read: $25 but they include it in the housing charges so you don't see it) pass and take the city's public transport system. Hence that collection of papers--it's a bunch of bus schedules I grabbed on my last trip.
My hometown, however, is not nearly as enlightened as this one when it comes to sidewalks and public transportation. So I resort to the usual suburban mode of getting from point A to point B--The Car.
(which I don't have a picture of. But it's a silver Honda Accord.)

Look, knitting!

Because you know I'll be putting something up when I have something major due the next day. In this case, a biology lab report. (It's nearly done. Just need to add figure legends to the graphs and put my group members' names on the word document.)
So, almost fittingly--a modified DNA scarf. I'm using the DNA cable (I am too lazy to look up the link right now), but I must have had Mariah on the brain when I started this. Rope cables, ribbing...look familiar? The bottom 3 or 4 rows are 1x1 ribbing. This makes excellent lecture knitting.
Is ANYTHING I knit not nerdy in some way (apart from Mariah)? I have this scarf, the Periodic Table scarf, the Harry Potter scarf (back at home), the matching bookscarf...I have the penguin! (Know what's pathetic? Last Monday, I was sitting in a review session for biology...and was trying to figure out how I'd knit a benzene ring using cables.) I have some SWS for socks (courtesy of a shopping trip to Joann Fabrics 2 weeks ago), so I might cast on and hope I don't try to put an alkane-looking cable on there. I think a nice mistake rib or basketweave pattern.
Mariah...it's very much a matter of "one step forward, two steps back." (Reminds me of all the footwork drills we do in fencing.) Short attention span? What short attention spa--ooh! Sleeve! This thing has been frogged I don't know how many times. Numerous times at the beginning for messing up cables. The first major one was because I knit about 24 inches of sleeve and then realized I had forgotten to increase. Riiiip. Then, more ripping because of cables. And then....nearly a full cable repeat that was mis-crossed, probably the product of...knitting in lectures...or bio lab (what? it was a lot of waiting around while stuff was in the centrifuge! And then an hour sitting around doing nothing...)

See that mistake? I'm NOT fixing that...at least, not at the moment. And is it just me, or did my gauge change over the course of this sleeve? I wouldn't be to surprised.

Er, stuff.

The answer to this week's Knittyhead Blog Stalker 2 prompt ("what's in your purse?"). I don't carry a purse normally, so I shall show you the innards of my backpack...ooh, scary.

The Monster and the Generic Dorm Furniture:

I'll do this by pocket. What's in Pocket Number 1?


Well...that's nice. But what IS it?
Ah. Much better. That would be...my organic chem textbook, notebook for o-chem, notebook for o-chem homework, the Notebook That Gets Used For Random Things and a Catch-all for Miscellaneous Paper, my biology notebook, and what looks like random paper and some escaped biology notes. On the left is a chem textbook I borrowed from my professor from last semester (and I need to give it back...) and my planner. In case I have to be reminded how busy I am.
Onward to Pocket Number 2!
It would appear that it happens to contain the bag that would otherwise function as a purse. If I weren't lugging the Monster around, that is.
The contents of that bag:
My wallet, $1.50, a receipt, and a copy of the bus schedule.
And the rest of Pocket Number 2:
A WIP (the periodic table scarf), a dime, a wrapper to a cough drop, an eraser, and my flash drive (I was wondering where that went).

And now...the Pocket that Needs to be Emptied:Not too bad, right? Au contraire.
From left: chemistry flashcards (is there anything in this bag that is not somehow related to chem?), some random trash-type stuff, calculator, a pen cap, a bunch of abused post-it notes, pens on a keyring, index cards, a green pen, a mechanical pencil, 4 crochet hooks of varying sizes, another receipt, Vash keychain, owl keychain, scissors, a highlighter, clicker thingy for biology.
But wait! There's more!
From the left--the highlighter and clicker thing from the last picture, a huge number of writing implements of different colors, dock adapter for my iPod, jingle bells, 2 tubes of Burt's Bees lip balm, more writing implements, 2 AAA batteries, various pins that either fell off or never ended up on the outside of the Monster, and $0.67. I didn't include the "supplies" (do you really need a picture? Honestly.) or the two containers of bubble liquid, which I only just found. My backpack must be some kind of bottomless pit or something.
And I just discovered that I had actually folded the gold wrapper into an origami crane...