kidney?

Today was fabulous. It was the successful culminating product of several weeks worth of research, preparation, and writing. It was so gratifying. Finally this semester, I've put time and effort into something, and its paid off in a very good grade.

I finished a very big group paper/group project/group presentation for Clinical Nutrition on Chronic Kidney Disease.

It actually gave me the motivation, the drive, the I-can-finish-school feeling.

By the way, take care of your kidneys, cuz it totally screws up EVERYTHING in your body when they fail.

Teletransportion

I want to go somewhere tropical.
As in, I want to go somewhere tropical right now.

Sandy.
maybe not sandy.
but an ideal amount of good sandy would be ok.
beautiful.
beach.
sun.
warmth.
blue skies.
green.
relaxing.

Here's a sampling:


I don't know where these are, but any of these places would work. Or any similar looking place.

La vie quotidienne

I really like putting up pictures. I feel like, at times, they can describe my feelings or my life better than words.


Oh family. My mom. Me. My little cousins. I love little girls. I love little girls who adore me. I always wanted a little sister. I love my brothers... but, I have always wanted a little sister.

This is just a picture of me, nothing really extraordinary about it... except...
This is the picture that I attached to my resume and cover letter that I sent to France for my application to the French internship I really, really REALLY want to do this summer.

Ha. Christina: "you look like a crazy monster!"
I was wearing matthew's coat over my backpack, and my arms weren't actually in the armsleeves, so I realized that I could swing my sleeves and attack him. This is him being scared of me.

This is him being like "so you think that's actually gonna do something to me eh?"


Me in Pencourt. Technically its called the Pendulum Court. It's a class/lab thing for dietetics. It's 10 hours a week, and we don't even get paid! Well, ok it is a class for credits, but because it feels like a real job, well it is a real restaurant/cafe thing, and because it takes so much time for only 2 credits, I feel like I should get paid. Oh well. I guess the point is to learn about managerial stuff, which I have, so I guess its worth it.

I should be doing homework, but I don't feel like it, at all. And I have a headache. Uggggh.

I absolutely did not feel like going to school today. The way that I was able to make myself go was by not getting dressed - as in staying in my sweats all day, and wearing pink socks and shoes that would actually keep my feet dry. I have a lot of shoes that seem more sponge than shoe sometimes.

I want to watch Star Wars episode 3. All of this Epic Duels business is turning me into a nerd. Well... even more of a nerd.

John and Annie just came back with Sangria and french fries for me and Tina. Comfort foods. I am content.

Resistance is not futile

CS Lewis said "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist."

Some of the people I admire the most are those who have remained strong despite temptations to succumb. The longer we hold on, the less we give in, the more our capacity to withstand increases and is strengthened. And the greatest thing is that we're not alone. We have the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, angels seen and unseen who are there to help us be good, to help us be strong.

We can do it.

Beautiful Things

L’art, c’est le reflet que renvoie l’âme humaine éblouie de la splendeur du beau.
--Victor Hugo




They did not know it was impossible, so they did it. –Mark Twain




Le baiser est la plus sure façon de se taire en disant tout. –Guy de Maupassant




The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars ...
Jack Kerouac

Me

Stephanie - from Greek, means crown
Anne - from Hebrew, means gracious
Thibaudeau - French, means bold or brave

A glacier in liquid form

When I was little, a few times my family took a trip up to Duluth, and to Lake Superior. Even though it was during the middle of summer, the lake was always soooo cold. You'd try to go in the water, but because it was so freezing, you're legs would go numb after a few seconds. Last week I had a similar experience, yet waay more traumatizing. Thursday afternoon the hot water goes out in our apartment. Not so awesome. I didn't realize it until Friday morning (I think...) when I went to take a shower, and the water never warmed up for me. Needless to say, no shower for me. However, I did wash my hair under the spigot. Holy bigoly, I'm pretty sure all of the cold receptors and pain receptors on my head were screaming out in agony. It was absolutely FREEZING. This wasn't just the absence of hot water, this was the overwhelming surging influx of GLACIER water. Not an exaggeration. Next day, I decide to buck it up and take a shower. Like a real shower. In the glacier water. I figured I could handle it. Nope. The cold frigidness absolutely took my breath away, left me gasping for air, and... yeah. Needless to say, it was ridiculous. So by this time its the weekend, so we finally call emergency maintenance, and they come out and fix the heater. Christina takes a shower, but she says the water only started out warm, and after a few minutes had disintegrated down to freezing again. Monday morning we were still without hot water. I decided that enough is enough. I warmed up two large pots full of water, till they were very warm, brought them into the shower and washed with nice, comfortingly warm water. Success. It was fantastic. Oceane said she heard my singing victory music. Later that day we call again, maintenance comes out and fixes it for reals, and hot water and everyone's sanity was restored.

its the little things

These things make me smile.


This is Oceane's breakfast. She sets it out, pours the cereal in the bowl, sets out utensils... all the night before. Oh my goodness. I love everything about this situation.




This is our current soap bottle. It has a leaf, and pebbles. Seriously, who wouldn't want to wash their hands with THIS?!




Hmm... this makes me smile too.

Reflections on a fortune cookie

Today Matthew and I got Chinese. And it was delicious. And I only spilled on myself twice. I swear, today I've been having serious issues with spilling stuff on me. How old am I??

Here's what my fortune from this cookie said (sorry its kinda blurry):



Now, the question is... what have I always wanted?

blood, blood everywhere...

So I was just sitting on my couch, and I decided I should check my blood. So my roommate's boyfriend, John, watches me prick my finger, and is like oh my gosh you're pricking your finger. And then he asked me if the first time I checked my blood it totally freaked me out. And I told him that, probably yes, the first time I was probably freaked out, but that was a long time ago. So then we decided to figure out approximately how many times I've pricked my finger.

Keep in mind, this is an approximation.

I was diagnosed right after I turned 9. So I've had diabetes for about 11.5 years.
11.5 years x 365 days per year = 4197.5
I check my blood, on average, probably 5 times a day. Sometimes more times, sometimes less, but we'll say on average about 5 times a day.
4197.5 days x 5 times a day = 20,988
I have pricked my finger at least almost 21,000 times in my life.
If I live to be 80, I'll have pricked my finger almost 130,000 times.

Hm. Not bad.

4:30 pm = 16:30

So I'm pretty sure that some building on campus is gonna fall over soon, because it has been windy like no other here the past few days. It's rather refreshing, because its been warmer the past few days, and the wind makes a really cool sound through the trees, and it is kinda nice to have the wind blowing through your hair... although also really annoying when it blows your hair in your face... but this windy weather really makes me want to fly a kite. I saw some people doing that yesterday, and I really want to, too. Kite in french is un serf-volant. I just learned that yesterday.

I just looked at some of Abraham's pictures of Paris and France. I swear, sometimes it hurts how much I love/miss that beautiful place.

I love sitting at home when there's no one here and basking in the quiet-ness and peace. You don't get a lot of that in a college apartment.

Last night waas sooo good. I slept for 8-1/2 hours! oh baby it felt so nice. Lets see, I went to bed around 12:30, and actually slept through the whole night, until around 8am, when I woke up to the sound of my insulin pump beeping and buzzing at me because it had run out of insulin... the wise, health-conscious thing to do would have been to get up and put more insulin in... however, the my-bed-is-really-soft-and-i-am-still-tired part of me dominated and I slept for another hour. And then I got up and changed it. And my blood sugar was really high. But you know what, this time, a high blood sugar was so worth the extra hour of sleep I got.

Matthew said he just watched the third Lord of the Rings movie. I'm pretty sure I've seen most of the first movie. I don't think I've seen the second one, and if I have, its just been random segments. I know for sure I haven't seen the third one. I have read all the books though. But I feel like I should watch all the LOTR movies. I think its just one of those things you just have to do. That's all there is to it.

I really want to eat cookies right now. Actually, I mostly just want to eat cookie dough.