Same same same. Kind of.

Today I went to the Academy of Sciences with Mama, Andrew, Heather, and my boyfriend, Drew. Despite my ongoing fear and resentment of crowds I had a good time wandering and watching the exhibits and animals, even though Drew and I got separated from Heather and Mama pretty early on (which I still feel awful about). They had started venturing into the rain forest area, a terrifying and seemingly dreadful sauna room to me, with all those nasty butterflies in there. I lagged, they went onwards, the gap widened. Butterflies are really the only bugs that continue to scare me. Cockroaches scuttle around, I kill them. Spiders creep overhead, I ignore them. Worms writhe in the dirt, I envy them. But those winged devils fly at me and I lose all grasp and range of functioning motor skills except those controlling my legs and run away. Anyway. I went in eventually and made it through without making a scene. Hold the applause, please.

The most interesting things to me were of course the tid-bits on evolution and osteologically-inclined subjects, such as the comparison between a human incisor and a narwhal's incisor, the extent of variation between one species, whether it be spots on a lady bug or morphology of skulls between the canine species, and the little wall devoted to lemurs. They are amazing.



So we had a good time. After, Mama was nice enough to drop me off in front of the school so I could make my 3:30 class, which was awful. Most of my classes seem like such fluff now that I know what I like and what I want to pursue.
Next semester should be very fun though. They are offering Paleopathology, something they haven't offered in years! It's the study of ancient diseases using the most recent fossil and skeletal records as a basis for understanding. It should be awesome. Also, there is a graduate student-only seminar on Physical Anthropology, which really just spans the entirety of all the concepts of the discipline within a semester while students write a thesis and submit it for possible publishing. Being a Physical Anthropology student, I was given an opportunity from a professor to sit in this class for credit and thus begin my masters thesis earlier with less pressure but the same amount of guidance. This is super exciting and I'm really hoping I can hack it because it would a) give me a good look into the world of master's educations' workloads and b) give me a great head start into that world, should I choose to do so.

So anyway, hopefully it will all work out.
I've been trying to go running every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday before school at 11am, just down to Ghirardelli square and back to my house, but it's TOUGH! Hmm, sleeping in warm and cozy or waking up early, jiggling quickly down the sidewalk, inviting criticism, and losing sleep for something I probably won't stick with for very long anyway?
Uggghhh I guess I'll stick with it for now.

Drew and I are good--we've been dating for about 8 months now (not that length of relationships really matters, it's the substance which is good in this case). I don't know where we're heading, mostly because we both don't know where we are going as individuals to begin with. I have graduating and possibly starting grad school to think about, finding a "real" job and beginning to support myself, he has his sanity to consider. He already graduated a while ago and has a pretty good job, but it's not what he likes to do at all. So he either has to go back for more school or get a foot in some door somewhere so he can wedge himself in for a good long time.
I don't know. No one ever knows. I want cookies.