Well the whirlpool has kind of died and the water is a little cool, so I'm gonna try a new tactic.
Check out my lj.

Here I am at my first day of grad school. I have nothing to do and no classes to attend, so one of the other new grads and I have been familiarizing ourselves with things around campus. My office could use a little decorating, but right now I don't have supplies with me.

This weekend I went to Penn State to see Joe and really got the Penn State treatment -- Monday pretty much entirely consisted of hangover recovery before I could drive back to my exciting little Rochester. I had a great time and definitely approve of Joe's friends. The drive was also fairly nice and just exciting enough to keep you from wanting to fall asleep.

Last night I came home to a completely rearranged living room and thoroughly enjoyed the new setup while watching Donnie Brasco with my newest housemate, Austin. Tonight I get to go watch the House season premiere!! I'm very excited and I wish there were more things to be excited about today.

New Beginnings

At home Andrew is now going to PT outpatient sessions and working toward being able to join normal teenagers again. Meanwhile, I am getting adjusted to my new life in Rochester, NY. I moved in at the end of July with the help of Vik (my new housemate), Dad, and Joe. Dad and Joe spent Saturday putting together my Ikea furniture and they were such a big help! Joe also got to be dragged through the shopping necessary to complete my room. The results of all this hard work can be seen here in the Rochester Lair album.

The last two weeks have been continually hopping between exciting and fun and very boring. I have nothing to do since the department has not set up my new email or decided where my office will be and I don't have a student ID. It hadn't dawned on me before, but I also live in Yankees country (Lynn, I hope you end up moving to Boston, so we can share the pain =P). Of course I don't currently have cable, so I can avoid alot of it. Joe has been finishing up his internship at Xerox, so we've gotten to spend the evenings together and I'll definitely miss that. He's getting ready to start his own beginning at Penn State and I'm sure he'll have a great time.

We're still settling on a 3rd housemate, but now we have multiple options, so we will definitely have one. I'm going home for an extended weekend and will return to a Joe-less Rochester next week. Hopefully I will start actually living like a grad student soon, although having all this time to read and play with my new DSlite has been appreciated.

Some Great News
First off, yes, I graduated =^) and here's some proof (if I can actually post a pic):

But much more exciting is the fact that my brother graduated high school! Not only that, but he walked at graduation to receive his diploma. He was the last one to receive one and he got a standing ovation as he used his walker to walk and receive it. Then dad wheeled him around and we said hi to some people. And the next night he even managed to have some friends over for a graduation party/sleep over.

The End of an Era?

I have FINISHED my undergraduate career at Carnegie Mellon. This semester has been insane, a semester of complete opposites. I had the worst class and the best class I have ever taken here. I was part of the best Carnival show in a long time... and parts of it were utterly miserable (but some parts were A-MAZING). I also present my thesis in a poster session, so now I have a big pretty poster and an interesting scientific find!

Right now is a bitter sweet time. I'm free to hang out with people (except that I have a lot of packing to do), but all the underclassmen are leaving. I'm only vaguely cogniscent that I am really the one leaving, so it hasn't been all sappy, just a little surreal. Its just that graduation doesn't seem like a very big deal, which is mostly due to my current family situation. (btw, Andrew is doing much better and will be able to walk soon)

I think what's really going on is that I started to mentally move away from CMU much earlier this semester, but now I have to physically move on, too, and that is a very confusing mental experience.

The Greatest Birthday Present

So this is a little late, but that's ok. This birthday, while not the worst I've ever had, thanks mostly to Joe, was really rough. The Thursday before Andrew attempted suicide by jumping off a parking garage at the mall. This was induced because he was taking Paxil for anxiety/panic attacks and no one warned my parents of the worst possible side effect for teenagers: suicidal tendencies, even in none depressed teenagers. Thank God I can say it was only an attempt -- he's still in Temple hospital ICU, but doing well. And that was the greatest birthday present. By my birthday we knew he would pull through and one day at least be physically healed. He broke both of his legs, his left wrist, his right elbow, and one of his vertebrae (but not near the spinal column). Overall, he was extremely fortunate at the time and is healing remarkably well.

I want to ask all of you to pray for his continued recovery, because he has a very long way to go and the prayers seem to really be helping. I'm always hesitant to say such things since I tend to be a little bit more on the "rational" side of belief, but even the doctors have been very surprised at his speedy recovery and relatively minor initial injuries compared to what they would normally see in this situation. (and if you don't actually pray and can't bring yourself to, then please think good thoughts/well wishes for him)

I'm doing alright with the help of many of my friends who have all been so wonderful. I visited Vanderbilt and am in the middle of many such grad visits, which seem to be going well. I am going home next weekend, so I will finally get to see my parents and Andrew and hopefully be of some help. (On a side note, Joe also got me wonderful presents, but its hard to beat out a gift from God of your younger brother being alive)

City of Angels is also plowing ahead, so this will be a very busy, but very fun, semester.

Well I'm home for the holidays. It hasn't been as bad as usual, I've had a good bit of fun and have enough other work to keep me busy (hooray grad school apps =P). Christmas went well, quietly. I've been drinking a good bit of wine at home and its been kind of weird. All of a sudden I'm nearly an adult. Nearly. I might have to be 40 before I actually achieve that status though.

Its been surprisingly lonely here though. I really miss Joe and he's been so busy I can't even call and talk to him. I still call, but he's busy so we usually don't talk for long. The longest conversation we had was today and all about City of Angels. (Oh, for those who don't know, our Carnival show this year is City of Angels (it has NOTHING to do with the movie!!!) and Joe is directing and I'm the stage manager) He's been wonderful, I just want to see him ALL THE TIME. Is that so much to ask?

We got some great news though! Andrew got into Catholic University, and they gave him money!! He is not the expensive child. So things are cheery here. Just thought I'd give an update since I gave a stupid quiz.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

I win.