The Lost Symbol and De-stressing

So last night I finished reading "The Lost Symbol" Dan Brown's new novel. This is the third book in the DaVinci Code Trilogy. Angels and Demons was first, then DaVinci Code, and lastly The Lost Symbol. The first two caused major controversies around very religious people. Many found the things discussed, absolutely appalling. Especially in the second book. This book, is less about religion and more about science. I love the science it discusses though. I'm not entirely sure how much of it has been proven, but the stuff "proven" in the book answers a lot of questions that man has about himself and the environment around him. I think a lot of the religious people who objected to the DaVinci code will enjoy many of the things discussed. I don't want to give too much away about the book because I know my mom reads my blog, and she is just now starting it. :) I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone!

On another note... I decided to take the LSAT again. I will take it on Saturday morning. Yay for 6 more hours of mental torture. :-D Last time I got a 158 (the score is between 120 and 180) which is in the 75%. That's really good, but the schools I really want to get into have really good scores... even the lowest scores at these schools are in the 160s. I have taken three practice tests this week, in preparation I got a 163 on the first one, 157 on the second one, and 153 on the third one... EEEEEKKK!!! So I spent this afternoon working at mom's vball games, and tomorrow I am substitute teaching. So hopefully between those I'll be able to chill, relax, and de-stress. After all it's not like I NEED to take the test again. I'm doing it more to see if I can score better. I don't need to score better. I'm a communications major... I can market myself amazingly! :) Nerves... please melt away now.

5:45????

So I decided that I really need to get in shape. I went jean shopping the other day and it was one of the most awful experience ever. Trying on pair after pair that don't fit! Ugh! I've already been trying to eat better, and I've done pretty good... except the occasion that I decide to eat at work (or snack as is usually what i do. What can I say... cheese and bacon roll sandwiches are amazing!)

Anyways... So I decided that in addition to walking and such... I would go to weights with mom in the morning. Although I didn't enjoy swimming too much, I do have to admit I have never been more in shape than when I was swimming 5 days a week and lifting twice a week. I'm helping mom with the swim team this winter, and right now I'm only going to practice once a week, until they start swimming full time. But the team has also started lifting, Tuesday and Thursday mornings form 6:15 - 7:15 am. This is easier for me to do, b/c my mom can come upstairs and bug me if I don't get up. :) I'm not very good at self-motivation.

So today was the first day I went. We had to leave at 6 am. Which means I got to get up at 5:45 am. And as my Facebook status says... "since when is there a 5:45 in the AM???" But I remember from when I swam, it got easier as the weeks went on, and I'm actually looking forward to it.

Complications

So my week has been full of complications, and it only started 3 days ago! Go figure! And here I thought exercise was supposed to be good for you. For those of you who don't know, I ran a 5k on Monday morning with no training what so ever. And I kept up with mom pretty well (who has been training for almost a year now I think) until about the last half mile when we had to run uphill... yeah that didn't agree with me. I was a tad sore on Tuesday when I woke up. Lol.

So Tuesday I worked Kids' Night. Now in general... I love kid's. I mean, I used to work at a day care while I was in college. You don't do that if you don't love kids. Kids' Night though, is a something totally separate. No server likes Kids' night, and if it were possible, everyone would ask off for Tuesdays. All kids eat free on Tuesday nights... great ploy to get repeat business. Unfortunately parents only get the minimal when their kids eat free. For example: 2 parent and 3 kids come to eat. The 3 kids get 3 kids drinks (free) and 3 kids meals (free). The parents get 2 waters (free) and 2 6oz sirloins, baked potatoes with butter and sour cream and two salads with ranch (about $20 after taxes). So we have a $20 meal for 5 people who sit their for an hour and a half because in order to get their meals free their kids have to do an arts and crafts project, and then the kids are getting their face painted, waiting for Andy the Armadillo to come around and see them, or waiting for the balloon man to come and make them something. After all is said and done, the parents leave you $3, maybe $4 if you're lucky. Now $4 is 20%, but if you only have 10 tables all night, and each one gives you $4... that's only $40, and then you have to pay tipshare and silver... and for that we're tlaking another $10 off your final walk out amount. $30 after 6 hours of work? That's not even minimum wage. Anyways... That's just a taste of Kids Night, you also have to imagine a Chucky Cheese type atmosphere with all the kids every where.

This particular night I went in and got my schedule, and my manager had put me working 6 days in a row (including that night) and he had me expoing on Sunday, when I had specifically told him,when he first asked if I would expo regularly, that I would expo any two days M-Th, but Fri, Sat, and Sun I wanted to serve, because that's when I made bank, and I was hired to Serve anyways, and he had agreed. This was the second time in a row. So after a night of fuming, and getting a $0.50 on a $50, I went to talk to him, and got it sorted out. So I felt better about that.

Yesterday, Wednesday, when I got up in the morning and checked my e-mail, I found that one of my letters of recommendation had been received as well as my Southwest Transcript. They had been received my the Law School Data Assembly Service, which is a service all law schools use. You send transcripts and recommendations to this service, they compile a report and send it to all the schools you're applying too. It's really quite nifty. Well somehow a transcript form the University of Tennessee - Knoxville had been received as well. So I called Knoxville to find out what happened. I talked to 4 different people, and they finally said, no, we have no record of you attending here, we don't know why this was sent here. So I called the LSDAS and they told me that Southwest had sent it, and I needed to call them to get it fixed. So, I called Southwest, and talked to 5 separate people up there before the situation resolved itself. It was obviously a mistake, but I was so confused as to how it happened.

So that's my complicated week... hopefully, the rest of the week is less complicated. Now... back to studying for the LSAT (which I'm taking again at the end of this month).

2 months of news

So I kind of suck at this whole posting thing. Maybe it is because not much is going on. July was spent finishing up the swim season (we did awesome btw) and finishing the whole relaxing summer. :) For my Birthday I went gambling, which I decided I wasn't very good at, but it was still fun. Then I went out to dinner with my parents to Olive Garden, we even got dessert. :) The next day my parents left for Maine, and since my sister was in Florida, I had a huge blow out party! :-D OK... maybe I didn't, but I sure did enjoy having the house to myself for 5 days.

August has been spent looking for jobs and getting ready for law school applications... researching schools, studying for the LSAT (I'm taking it again at the end of September). The more I look into law schools, the more it sounds interesting, and like something I could do, would enjoy doing, and would be good at. I've looked at a bunch of schools... my safety schools, so far, are around here, but my goal is to get into one of the top schools on the east coast... Cornell, Duke, Virginia, Boston University, George Washington, etc...

I'm leaving to head up to Evansville in a little while. I want to see some friends, and it gives me an opportunity to ask my professors for reccomendations in person, as well as get the registrar to send my transcript without too much hassle. I'll be back early Saturday afternoon, I am lifeguarding a pool party in a neighbor's back yard. As far as September goes... my plan is study for the LSAT and work on applications/personal statements for universities. That's all form Memphis for me. :)

Running the show

So this week my mom and sister are in Colorado backpacking around the mountains. I went on the same trip 4 years ago, and I am sure they are being challenged, but having a blast at the same time. So since they're gone, that leaves dad and me for the week. I actually don't remember a time when dad and I have been on our own for more than a weekend. There's not much difference. Only difference is I'm making dinner every night I'm home instead of just every other Tuesday.

Since mom is gone, that takes away one of the the four swim coaches for Rhodes, which doesn't seem bad except that another one of the coaches is busy with Rhodes orientation this week, so he hasn't been at practices either. That leaves Carla and I coaching around 90 kids a day. Also, Carla's youngest son Kyle has been sick all week and hasn't been getting better, so a visit to the hospital might be on the agenda tonight for her, which would leave me to run the show at practice tomorrow. That's kinda scary since usually we have two different practices going on at the same time. I really hope Kyle doesn't have to go to hospital... for more than one reason.

Last, but not least. Work. I work Wed, Fri, Sat, and Sun, usually. Last weekend, I got up the nerve to ask my boss if I could sit down with him sometime to discuss what I would need to do to be considered for a management position should one open up while I am working there (since there's a good chance I'll be there for a while). He suggested I come in early on Wed and we can sit down and talk. Hopefully good things will come. While at work on Sunday I had one of the assistant managers (who's also my friend) ask if I could help her enter guest information (also known as fishbowls). $7 an hour, I can do it from home. So yesterday I spent 6 hours watching TV and entering fishbowls. I'm hoping that'll win me brownie points, and the fact that the other assistant managers love me, can't hurt either. So we'll see what happens tomorrow. It'll be a long day.

Tonight... TRANSFORMERS 2!!!!!!! Midnight showing.

no power

So we, here in Memphis, are without power and have been without power for 23 hours. We had a huge storm go through last night. We had straight line winds and it was raining so hard at one time that we couldn't see the house across the street! It was nuts man. It started raining about 4:45 and the power went off around 5. We waited for about an hour, hoping the power would come back on, but no such luck. So mom, dad, me, chels, and chels's 2 friends danielle and kayla all went out for dinner. Turns out the power lines that go to our house had a tree fall on them. It's 3:45 and still no one is out there working on the power lines. Go figure! We came back and decided we would play board games. So that's what we did. We played Blurt twice and Uno 5 times. :) Dad and mom placed first and second at blurt (respectively) both times. And then Chelsea's friend Kayla won Uno (we were keeping score). After that I took Chels, kayla, and danielle over to danielle's house (who was also without power) so they could stay the night. This morning me, mom, dad cleaned up the front yard and some other various chores. We drove around the neighborhood a few times. There are a ton of trees down and branches. A couple houses down from where I'm house sitting a huge tree fell and landed right in front of the house, but still broke some of the windows. The house I'm at is fine. :) So tonight I work at 4:30 and I gave mom and dad the key to the house so they can chill here in the A/C with the tv and wireless. :) Hopefully they'll get power on soon to our house, if not, it's lucky we have a place to stay. Needless to say it's been an interesting weekend so far.

For those of you who don't know, I took the LSAT on Monday. It was mentally draining. I was there for 6 hours. I think I did ok though. We'll see. I take the GRE on Monday. I need to look over my math for that. I think I'll do that tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Answers and Softball

Yeah, so it took me a little longer to get these up. Hope no one was dying for the answers. :)
1) D
2) D
3) A
4) C
5) D

So the past week in my life has been devoted to watching the Women's College World Series. I watch it downstairs on the big tv so my parents get to watch too (and listen to me yell at the tv). Last night was the final game. Washington (3) beat Florida (1) 3 to 2 for their first championship in the WCWS. :) Both teams would have won for the first time, but Florida would have won one for the SEC for the first time in the conference history. :) It was a great game. The first two runs of each were off of missed balls and wild pitches. I was going for Arizona State because their pitcher is from Tulsa, but they lost. :( Oh well. That's my exciting moment. :)