'A watched pot never boils...'

It seems that when you want time to speed up it crawls and when you want time to stand still it races right past you. So very much has happened since my last post last August that I hardly know where to begin.

I started the Fall semester in high hopes for the experiences of practicum and being in a high school setting once again. The first two days of classes were everything I hoped they would be, then my health reality struck again, by Sunday night of the first weekend of the semester I was admitted to the local hospital with an unusual bacteria, mildly antibiotic resistant pneumonia. I went onto stay in the hospital for an entire week (the longest stay since the early 90's when I was just post-transplant). I left the hospital on Monday morning of the third week of the semester and was determined that I could catch up with the rest of my classmates. I did my absolute best, however it was just not meant to be. I was still weak and recovering and pushed my fragile health a tad too far, realizing I would be unable to recover the semester in early October.

I shook it off and focused on what to do next. I moved off campus to my own apartment about one and a half miles north of campus. It is slightly cheaper than living on campus and definitely more freedom and less drama. This semester has gone a bit better, a bad cold and Strep Throat later I am still smiling and studying my brains out like many of my fellow beavers. As well as enjoying the 5 feet+ of snow outside (although it feels like 20 feet) and counting the days until Spring (8 days 12 hours 11 minutes 38 seconds). Just Kidding, I am only counting the days!

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and am excited about graduating in May of 2009 with a BA individualized degree consisting of primarily computational mathematics with a little human biology/community health classes for good measure. I am hoping to get a job in Bio-Statistics or epidemiology in Boston, MA. Possibly getting a support position at one of the graduate schools there so I can get my Masters degree at nearly zero cost to myself.

All in all I am pleased with the growth I have experienced through my continued trials and tribulations, although I hope they let up someday soon =-(

Mainer's And How The Outside World Sees Them (Since technically I am "A person from Away")

I thought everyone might enjoy this whether you have ever lived in Maine, Visited, or are a Mainiac or Mainer, you will enjoy this!

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If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by,
you might live in Maine...
If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Moosehead Lake is the coldest spot in the nation,
you might live in Maine...
If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May,
you might live in Maine...
If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year,
you might live in Maine...
If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there,
You might live in Maine...
If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of hisforehead,
you might live in Maine...
If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time,
you might live in Maine...
If your town has an equal number of bars and churches,
you might live in Maine...
If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed awrong number,
you might live in Maine...

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE MAINER WHEN:
**Mainiacs is a revered term, only given to those who are 5th generation (or more) born in Maine.
**If you were born in Maine but you are 1st - 4th generation, you're a Mainer.
1. "Vacation" means going South past Augusta for the weekend.

2. You measure distance in hours.

3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard,without flinching.

6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).

7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave bothunlocked.

8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend / wife knows howto use them.

9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled withsnow.

11. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and roadconstruction.

12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.

13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to yourblue spruce.

14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.

15. Down South to you means Augusta.

16. A brat is something you eat.

17. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.

18. You go out to fish fry every Friday.

19. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

21. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."

22. You actually understand these jokes, and you tell them to all yourMaine friends.

Courtesy of TexasTheresa's Blog at

<http://mainiactheresa.blogspot.com/ >

The Old and The Young

I have come to find that the life I live is unlike any one I know.  The various trials and tribulations I have been through have shaped me in such a way that I do not easily relate to others my age.  Even more so, at this school I find it very difficult to meet anyone even remotely my age period, they are almost all 10 years younger than I and do not understand certain fundamentals of the "real world" that are signs of maturity.  I only hope that this coming school year brings greater understanding of diversity.