Happy Spring!

Yep, it's spring here in Seattle. Well, not officially according to the calendar, but considering it's been reaching 60 degrees these past few days, I say that it counts as spring. The greatest part is that I have been wearing my Chacos, thus lifting my spirits about the grey sky and also causing my feet to have a party!

I now have two TA jobs. I am still TA-ing for Priscilla, and now I am also doing some work for her husband, Jack. The majority of the stuff for Jack involves lots of research stuff in the library, not to mention making lots of copies of articles. I made 150 copies last night, all on the School of Theology account, thank goodness! I'm also doing some research stuff for Priscilla, along with grading quizzes, midterms, extra credit, and recording everything for her. It's fun and easy, and I get paid. Have I mentioned that I also babysit their kids on a regular basis?! Yeah, I'm getting to know the Pope-Levison family quite well these days :)

I got a package today! I haven't picked it up yet, but I sure hope that it's my pictures from Scotland that I ordered online. I need to get going on that scrapbook!

Nicole and Emily from Vancouver, B.C. are coming down this weekend. They've known Roomie since high school, and I'm now included in their group of friends (of course). We're planning on playing games at Zoka's and going out to dinner Friday night. I'm taking Sondra to Mass Saturday night. She's never been to a Catholic Mass before, so I said I'd take her, and that afterwards I'd explain everything to her. I haven't been to Mass in a few years, so I'm looking forward to it.

Back to the gobs and gobs of Geography homework. I swear, I spend about 7 hrs a week (not including weekends) doing homework for this class. We have a quiz every Wednesday, in which we need to know the names of countries along with their capitals, as well as physiographic stuff. We're studying Russia now, which is really cool. I've decided that I want to go there some day. I feel like all I do is geography homework!! Oh, and did I mention that it's a 1100 level class?! Yeah...

Three-Day Weekend

Praise God for three-day weekends! Woot! It's Saturday and I haven't done any homework at all, which isn't good. I also have gobs of TA stuff that I need to do before Tuesday. Ahh well, it's been a really good day, though! Rooms and I slept in. I headed out to the Paper Zone to get scrapbooking stuff so I can finally scrapbook my pictures from Iona. That was really fun, and I was spending Christmas money, so I was able to get things that I wouldn't normally buy. After that I drove home and then caught the bus downtown, where I saw "National Treasure." It's the first time I've ever been to a movie alone, and it was great! I love doing things by myself, and all the Val Time I had today was fantastic!

After the movie, I popped into the Bon to get my usual Clinique Happy. It turns out that the Bon was having this "One Day Only Sale," so I ended up looking at dresses while I was there. And I randomly bought one. Yeah, weird. I normally despise dress shopping with all of my being. I've learned, though, that I normally end up buying dresses when I am not looking for them and just happen to run across them. I've also learned that when I find a nice dress that fits great (needing hemming doesn't count!), that's comfortable, and that I can afford, I need to just go ahead a buy it, even if I don't have a specific occasion in mind yet, because finding all of the above in one dress is not typical! I'm incredibly picky when it comes to dresses, so I was pretty shocked/thrilled/bewildered this evening. Ok, on to what this amazing dress looks like: it's long, spaghetti straps, sheer fabric, goes straight down and flares a little at the bottom, and it has a straight neckline with a fold of fabric across the neckline that goes around and flows down the back of the dress. Color: "egg plant" is what it's called on the tag - in other, non-vegetable terms, it's a deep purple that changes to another shade of purple when the light hits it. I think that's the most surprising part about the dress. Normally I gravitate towards black, navy, or red, but I've been adding purple to my wardrobe more recently, and I look darn good in it! :) I need to find some low, strappy shoes to go with it and then get it hemmed. I might start looking for shoes this weekend, seeing as a bunch of us are talking about going to the symphony this month and a broadway play next month. I guess having formal dresses on hand when living in a big city is always a good thing :)

Being downtown this afternoon/evening was so great. At one point I just stopped on the sidewalk and took it all in. There were many live musicians performing today - percussion ensemble, sax soloists, and even a banjo/fiddle duet. The white lights are still one all the trees, which look really pretty in the rain. Being downtown was a good reminder of one of the many reasons I love Seattle so much.

This quarter has been going well. Two weeks down, nine to go until spring break! I'm enjoying my classes for the most part. I really like my Psych of Reading class, even though we meet at 8am. It's a small class, and we have FOUR - one, two, three, four - guys in it!! Guys in an ED class, what's that?! You mean I don't go to an all girl's school?! Haha, ok. And this one guy, Kyle, is so awesome! He knits in class!! Why didn't I think of that?!

Off to show Roomie my news dress!