Life is not about finding yourself, but about creating yourself.

So that other joy I forgot in the middle of blogging? I don't have cervical cancer. I mean, I still have the not-good goings on and I get to be a member of the coloscopy every 6 months until it's clean club, but apparently I have nothing to be worried about. Phew. Insert HPV PSA here.

I really do think about things that would possibly make funny and or interesting blogging. I haven't taken to writing them down or anything, but if I did this list would be longer, I am sure. So here are the things I thought about sharing this week.

The Jane Fonda workout VHS tape I got at the incredible used media store here. Goodbye mediocre novels, hello feel the burn. When I was a...chubby? husky?...not-so-little girl some times me and Mom would do this together. Not exactly good nostalgia, but I thought it might be fun/funny. It's hard, BTW.

I could have gushed over Studio 60 and Grey's Anatomy, with a side tangent on how I'm really irriated about Meredith Grey getting the Ally McBeal treatment and she's a bad feminist blah blah because she drinks a little too much and keeps accidentally sleeping with inappropriate men. Honestly, that describes several of my good friends (but not me, NO, I've never done that) and they're all kick-ass feminists. Oh, and that maybe, if we're going to have a discussion on feminism, maybe we talk about actual feminist issues. Like that there's still unequal pay for equal jobs. I am woman, hear me roar.

I could (ok, can still) admit to my full-blown case of the messies. If my maintenance crew came into my apartment, I think they would wonder why I have a empty laundry basket, one full of clean clothes and yet, a pile of seemingly dirty clothes on the floor. If my car was picked up by CSI they could have asked me, did you drink all this seltzer TODAY? Or do you never throw things out in your car?

I might have chosen to talk about how very very different my work is here, but I think I'll save that for later, as the more I learn, the more characters there are.

I could have bragged a bit about my A in chemistry. Of course I'm waiting to do this when I brag about my bio grade, but I STILL don't have that test back.

I might have blogged about these or other odd observations on my life/the world, but I was actually kind of busy being social this weekend! An old friend from work (like 4 jobs ago) shared his friends with me this weekend when he was in town and it was just really nice to be out, to be putting myself out there. Not sure anything will come of it, but even if it didn't, it's encouraging that all these great people I met are out there. And how I have signed up to volunteer at a race that's too long for me to run and at a park clean up... I'll find my people soon enough.

Not that I ever wish for a blah week, but this past week had it's share of joys and sorrows and it wouldn't have killed me to have a little blah to dull things.

The week did start with 9/11, so some sorrows were a given. Including the sorrow that Bush is in fact, still supposedly in charge of my country. But as Jon Stewart said, his address to the nation on Monday night just got us 15 minutes closer to the end of his presidency. Later in the day, I completely unexpectedly came into some extra positive cash flow (my grandparents estate has finally been settled, I had NO NO NO idea this was coming my way until my dad handed me a check) and while it doesn't mean I don't have to unpack boxes of olive oil anymore, it does mean I can get back on stronger financial footing and I can spring for a new pair of shoes and organic produce and name brand cereals on a more regular basis without freaking out. This was before I knew organic spinach could kill me, btw.

My first attempts at some social activities didn't work out as planned, my weigh-in was in the wrong direction, my exams were pretty hard and Kayne got kicked off Project Runway...none of which brought me joy. And now I pause. Because I've forgotten what I was originally thinking about blogging about that was joyful, minus the unexpected money, as that has sad roots. There was something, I know. Well, nevermind, because now the point is, it's a whole new week, a whole new set of chapters to study, etc.

Speaking of, I've got chemistry homework to finish. So I'll go do that.

Okay, so living in the nutritional wasteland at Dad and Donna's and lack of movement and appreciation for local foods along my travels this summer has made me a girl who doesn't have pants that fit. Unfortunately, I have skirts that fit, but I can't really wear skirts to work since I spend a lot of time on ladders and crawling around and I don't need to flash these people just yet.

So I decided to do something about it. I've gone back to Weight Watchers for the 12857th time in the last 6 years. This has GOT to be the last time. I'm nowhere near my heaviest (thank god I gave away all my fat pants) but I'm pretty depressed about all this, I have to say. But that's just wasted energy, so once I was firmly back on The Wagon, I drove that wagon right over to a new grocery store and found a fabulous produce section, came home, made some cabbage soup, set up the rice cooker with brown rice and threw out the only sweets I had in the house.

Just like that, I'm off. Let's hope the pounds come off too. And I'm being so public about this in hopes that that will also help me.

In other news, I stumbled across this fine image about crayons while doing research for my biology lab report, if you can believe it. My class has to design our own experiments and my group did a comparison of different cleaners with different pH values on a "stain" of crayon on tile. We're sure to go to the regional science fair with this one, I know. But we didn't have much to work with and we had to do something about pH values.

Okay, back to memorizing alllllll sorts of chemical formulas for both exams I have this week. How does biology have so much damn chemistry? Polyatomic ions, amino acids, ugh. If I mess up at this stage, I'm screwed for the next 5 years. But no pressure.

So I figured out which apartment plays the loud music I can almost feel. Next door neighbor. Noticed his balcony door open when I came back from the pool. I noticed because he's also hootin' and hollerin' at some...is that baseball?...definitely a Yankees cap on...

When it happens next week while I'm studying for my first biology exam, I'll go say something. But tonight, when I'm in my pjs and have no interest in changing and/or meeting my neighbor this way, I'll bite my tongue and just turn Project Runway up. I've never had loud neighbors before, just my last roommate and the pre-dawn bonus cardio activities to complain about, how does one go about not being a total bitch but still accomplishing what I want? Hmm.

**Wait, did you catch that part about how I was walking back from the pool? That's right, after Labor Day, swimming outside, at night. Love it!

Ok, I know in this week between Katrina and 9/11 specials, my use of the word "evil" might be a tad dramatic, but those of you who have ever been victims will understand. Today I lost the majority of my day to two evil forces...

The Law & Order SVU marathon, then the CSI marathon.

The Law & Order marathon is a staple of holidays, I feel, but yet I managed to fall prey to it anyhow. And SVU, dear god, what is holiday about those crimes? Yikes.

I did manage to make flash cards and file some papers and pay some bills and things like that, but come on, at least a quarter of my attention at any time was on the people being represented by two equally important sides. Grr. Evil.

This week was exhausting. If it wasn't Labor Day weekend, summer as I knew it would be over anyhow with all this working and all this schooling I've been doing. Hence, the new tagline and look for the blog.

Tomorrow I hope to be blogging from the bachelorette pad's very own cable internet connection. Not that I am not fully appreciating Coffee X-Change for their hotspot tonight, I am just looking forward to living in the 21st century and being able to, you know, blog and what not without pants on. (Because we know how I feel about pants.)