Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

When it Rains, It Pours

Trafton B.

February 4, 2010 - 11:55 PM

I'll apologize right now, because the title is slightly misleading. The weather has been moderate lately, nothing out of the ordinary for Eugene that is. The light winter rains and gray skies and have hampered my desire to run in the afternoons and head back to the library to study at night sometimes, but that's about all. Instead, I'm talking the other parts of my life that seem to be piling up right now, as well as a side dish of temporary and inopportune personal health struggles.

It's the middle of the term, at the moment, so as you can imagine midterm exams and projects are coming into play. I talking with my parents about two weeks ago complaining about upcoming assignments due, but little did I know it was only the tip of the iceberg.

I just finished up a midterm for Planning & Policy Analysis, which given the large amount of study time I put into it, I don't feel all too great about. The test itself was very term-heavy - something that has never been my strong suit.
This weekend, I'll be attending a conservation education workshop put on by Project Learning Tree (PLT) with my ELP class, which should take up the better portion of my day on Saturday. It's going to be a long day but when all is said and done I'll be certified under PLT, so I'll have a thick book of fun environmental education lessons and something to stick on my resume.
Then, Sunday morning my ELP team is meeting over brunch to revise and update our lesson plans. We finally got into contact with our community partner from Partnership for Sustainable Schools after a multi-week long game of phone and email tag. So we now know exactly how many schools we'll be working with and in what capacity. Unfortunately, we also discovered that we'll have a whole lot less face time with these schools than we had originally planned. I mean we're probably going to need to cut our lesson plans in half. Some of my teammates were relieved to know, while others were disappointed. I'm just glad that we know what we're up against while there's still time.

The kicker in all of this is that Tuesday night, I woke up around 4AM to the sound of monsters growling inside my stomach. You see, the Super Bowl is coming up (thankfully) and my roommates and I need to have something special to eat. Last year, we made a plate of atomic nachos and this year we decided on making some homemade chicken wings. So, I snagged the recipe from my family cook book and decided it would be beneficial to have a dry run beforehand.

These pilot chicken wings turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. My roommates and I quickly discovered that we didn't exactly have the proper baking equipment, and subsequently found out that our smoke alarm works much better. (Well, to be fair it worked the second time our kitchen filled with smoke but not the first or third time.) The wings turned our great when we ate them two hours after first embarking on this cooking adventure and we should have all the kinks worked out by Super Bowl Sunday. But now, back to my stomach.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning may have been the longest night I've spent in recent memory. I won't go into details, but I felt like I was on a merry-go-round that circulated between a staring contest with the toilet, chugging water in the kitchen and curled up in the fetal position under my covers. I was sidelined all day Wednesday and thankfully I have an understanding boss and my morning class was already cancelled. I mustered up enough strength for my Natural Resource Policy at noon and the following ELP team meeting, but I made it home in just enough time for my afternoon nap.

Next week I'll find some way to tackle a midterm, two memos and GIS lab, and I'll probably limit my intake of chicken wings on Sunday.

I'll leave you with the following - and all too appropriate - quotation that popped up on my iGoogle homepage. I think it's something everyone should have in the back of their mind. Cheers.