Well, I finished my accelerated Organic Chemistry course at UCR a few days ago. It was tough, and even brutal at some points, but I'm finally done. No more Organic Chemistry labs or classes for me, ever again. I'm still waiting for the last grade to come in (my professor is taking his sweet f*in time), but, other then that, I'm just preparing for the DAT and MCAT exams now.

I signed up for the Kaplan MCAT course, and I start in a month and a half. That's a month and a half of self-studying... *sigh* 

President Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence a few days ago. I guess it's OK to break the law and expose CIA agents, as long as you're one of the Bush administration's cronies. Just another in the long line of outrages from President Bush.

Oh, how different the world would have been, if Al Gore had won...  

I'm in Chemistry hell... 

Song of the day: "Help Yourself" by Amy Winehouse

I took some time to reflect on my life currently, and I realized just how devoid of human contact it is. When I was growing up, I remember my friends being everything to me. I used to hang out with them every chance I got, sort of like a "band of brothers" deal. It was often rare to see me at home, because I was always jumping to the "next thing": going to parties, eating at diners with friends, catching the latest movie... you know the whole deal.

Now, the majority of my day to day conversations seem to happen over the phone or through e-mails. It's strange, because I interact with a good number of people... I just don't see any of them.They're not just a bunch of online relationships either (people I solely met online). In fact, all of them are people I used to hang out with quite frequently before in college. It's just, after we all graduated, we've all been busy with our own lives... and just don't really have time to "hang out." One of my other friends felt the same way: she only sees her "close friends," people she used to hang out with several times a week, just a few times a year. Does anyone else find this to be the case?

Today, for instance, I got e-mails from two college friends, and a random phone call from someone who wanted my opinion on what model car she should get. I probably converse with all three friends, in some way, several times a week, but I haven't seen two of them in months.

I think it's strange that I can be talking with people all the time, but still be completely alone. The only people I see regularly are my parents.... and probably the workers at the local Borders that I study at (don't talk to them, though, since I'm there to study). I think technology plays a part in that; the internet and cell phone have just made it too easy to get lazy about maintaining contact. It's not the only reason though: everyone I know just lives too far away to visit regularly, and we're all too busy trying to build a career to afford going out and goofing off everyday.

The odd thing is, I don't feel lonely. If I was living like this as a teenager, I think I would have felt devastated, but it doesn't bother me these days. I guess I'm too busy with all my schoolwork to really stop and think about it... well, until now that is.

I don't want to make it sound like I'm a complete hermit. I do go out every couple weeks with a friend or two... I just don't see any particular group of people regularly; I don't have that solid group of friends anymore. I feel like the dynamics of friendship have changed in my life. It's completely different than what it was just a few years ago. I guess I'm just not as reliant on friends as I used to be. I'm more concerned, right now, with making a life for myself. I'm worried about getting financially secure.

Maybe it's only a temporary thing, though. Now that my parents are slowing down with work, they've started "hanging out" with friends a lot these days. Who knows, maybe I'm just in a point in my life where I have more important things to think about than eating at the local Denny's with a few friends.

Bleh, pointless drivel.

P.S. Transformers is coming out this Wednesday. Are you ready?

Today, we had to bring out molecular model kits to class. I ended up making little stick animals during lecture. Don't worry, it's not because I was being a bad student. Our professor was still going over a lot of material I'm already familiar with, so I just started getting really bored. My friend Allison (whom I met yesterday) kept glancing over at me while I was messing around with my kit like a 2 year old. I probably looked incredibly smooth. Actually, I know I looked incredibly smooth. After class was over, it was time to go off to our 3 hour lab. w00t!

I like our lab TA. He's this tall, white dude with a goatee and tattoos all over his arms. He looks really laid back. I asked him about his tattoos today, just before class started. It turns out his arms alone have about $3000 worth of ink on them! I don't know if that's expensive, but it sure sounds like a lot of money just for a few pictures. Anyways, he's a pretty chill guy, and I look forward to having lab with him. In my experience, though, most chemistry and physics TA's are usually cool. I guess they know how much crap we have to go through, and are sympathetic to our cause. 

There's this black girl who sits across from me at my lab table. She has a cute face, but the thing that really caught my attention was her old-school Nintendo sweatshirt. At first, I thought it was a little odd that someone would go through the trouble of bringing along a sweatshirt when it was a hundred degrees outside, but then I realized that it was a NINTENDO shirt... and that she was pimp for wearing it. Any girl who wears an article of clothing related to retro gaming automatically gets one point for "coolness" in my book. It'd be so disappointing to find out she doesn't actually play any games... (>_<)

Elvenbead commented that maybe I should stop checking out girls, and just focus on school; very sound advice. *sigh* I'm going to try, but it's going to be hard....

Oop! Time to go to sleep! I have to wake up early tomorrow. Until next time...

P.S. I hate lab write-ups.