The program I'm taking in school is focusing on invertebrates. It's pretty cool, actually. I expected to be disappointed -- but then again, I always do, which makes it all the more wonderful when I am pleasantly surprised instead. (And if I do end up being disappointed, hey, I was expecting it anyway, right?) Last friday we went out on a boat in Boston harbor to gather specimens. If it wasn't so exciting, I would have been pretty miserable, since it was rainy (and at times snowing) and I couldn't feel my arms, due to rooting around in the freezing water, grabbing mysterious squishy things. This past week we've been learning about worms, so on Tuesday we went out to the campus beach and dug some up. Yesterday we were focusing specifically on parasitic worms. My teacher had requested someone to bring in a dead raccoon, if they came across one, so we could cut up its intestines and see if there were parasites inside. I found one on the way to class. I had some strange looks from people, walking from my car to the building, and an awkward moment in an elevator with someone inquiring about my bloody trash bag. "It's for my teacher," I explained, although I'm sure that must have just raised more questions. There didn't end up being any worms in it anyway. What a waste.
I'm gradually realizing that I moved to a semi-hick neighborhood. In my excitement and stress of finding a place to move and moving into it, I initially didn't notice. But the other day one of my friends started giving me shit about "living under the power lines", as we were walking under them to exit my neighborhood. "I live a foresty area next to the power lines," I insisted, until he relented. But when my teacher asked "where did you find the raccoon" and I almost answered "right by my house, in front of Chips-a-flyin' Chainsaw Sculptures", I began to connect things together. It's not like I really mind. I just think it's funny. From now on, I'm going to emphasize certain landmarks when giving people directions to my house. "So driving up the hills you'll pass Chips-a-flyin' Chainsaw Sculptures on your left, then take a left at the llama/goat farm and drive under the power lines. You'll drive by a few houses that are constantly burning trash and debris in their yard. Just after the small trailer with the huge five-door garage on your left, you'll turn into a gravel driveway with about a dozen foot-deep potholes. I'm in the house that has obviously isolated itself from the rest of the neighborhood with a dense surrounding of trees."
Last week, on our anniversary, Nik ended up bussing out here to see me, which made me endlessly happy. I feel guilty that he had to spend $83 and a total of 8 hours on a bus (4 hours each way), but it's not like he's going to bus out here a lot (at least, I certainly don't expect him to). We didn't really do anything "special" for our anniversary, but I think being together was enough. It was a good weekend with him, although we rarely ever even left my bedroom.
Except for my roommate's birthday party! Since we live in a place the bus routes don't touch, we didn't really know how many people to expect. A couple hours into the party, there was only like a dozen people, although it was still pretty fun because of the DJ and the night's goal to smoke 22 blunts (my roommate was turning 22). After I finished a mixed drink (with everclear) and a pot brownie, which got me good and fucked out of my mind for the remainder of the night, it seemed about 50 more people showed up rather quickly, none of whom we actually knew (well, I invited 7 of them). It probably had to do with it being the eve of 4/20 and all. The night was rather intense, and filled with pot smoke, keg stands, and beer pong. I found out the next morning that only ("only") 14 blunts had been smoked.
At last, today is another day with nice weather! I had a bout of the sniffles this past week, but I think it has subsided enough for me to have a hookah session on the porch without setting it back. I can't wait for summer.
Phew. Time for an update on my life, I suppose.
A couple weeks ago I moved into a new house. It was a huge pain in the ass, but well worth it to get out of that shitty apartment and into a big house with a YARD. I have four other roommates, one of whom has a cat. The cat is still not very fond of Priya and Maverick, but in time I think she will be.
A new quarter started last week. I couldn't get into the program I wanted due to Registration being seemingly eager to fuck things up for me, but I ended up in another pretty good program which I'm enjoying.
The stress of settling and starting the quarter had diminished by last Wednesday, and I'm relieved to have basically everything done with. There was some drama, but it's not worth getting worked up about it again now. Unless my shitty ex-roommate decides not to pay what she owes. Then shit's goin' DOOOOWN.
Now, I have ended classes for the week. Tomorrow I'm driving down to Vancouver to see my aunt and attend an event for my sister, and driving back to Olympia that night so that I can go to volunteer training at the Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington at 10am on Saturday. Hopefully I can get an internship there, since it's exactly up my alley.
Next week should be fairly fun and fast-paced. This whole quarter will be fast-paced. I'm trying to earn all upper-division science credit, so there are a lot of time-consuming requirements to meet. I guess it's good I didn't try to get a job this quarter. I was worried about having no time for school, and no time to see Nik. Although if school were more relaxed this quarter, and I found a great job that would severely limit how often I could see Nik, I would do it anyway.
I used to have a hard time dealing with the distance and how infrequently we saw each other. But now that time has passed -- about a year, actually -- it bothers me less and less. Mostly because, since he has no car, it's 90% of the time me who makes the effort to go the long distance to see him, which is tiring. And when I'm there, I'm bored out of my skull. We have a rather dull relationship. Unfortunately, he seems 100% okay with that. I don't need or necessarily want an exciting relationship, but more and more often it's almost kind of depressing.
In recent months, when I've been with him, I have had instances where I've truly felt fulfilled, which is good progress compared to previously. I am falling hard for that boy. Yet still, when I actually put real thought into our relationship and its future, I never come to any optimistic conclusions. What about when we're done with college and can finally live in the same town and see each other on a regular basis? If I'm already bored with our relationship despite how infrequently I see him, how bored am I going to be when we can be together all the time? Sometimes I wonder if the long-distance aspect of the relationship is just dragging out the inevitable. I wonder if all the time, money, and effort I've put into this relationship is a waste, when perhaps I could be with someone who lives in the same town, who gives as much of a shit about the relationship as I do, who shares more things with me than the most basic of emotions and sexual desire, and who actually fucking loves me.
Next week is our one-year anniversary. I was going to visit him that weekend, but now I'm reconsidering, due to conflicts and the fact that I'm really tired of driving all the way out there to see him, only to be mostly bored. Even if he remembers it's our one-year, we'll end up not doing a damn thing. (Guess what we did on Valentine's Day? We took a nap.) It will be wonderful to see him anyway, of course, but I might as well just postpone my visit a week when nothing is conflicting, and when I'm feeling more up for a drive, and when it won't be so disappointing when nothing special happens for our anniversary.
I don't know. We'll see.
