Because work is awful boring and receipt tape was awful handy, and I hate the songs they play on the radio:

Jarad- Absolutely Cuckoo, The Magnetic Fields
Kate- Light My Fire, The Doors
John- Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
Belle- Santa Monica, Savage Garden
Lou- It's Tricky, Run DMC
MikeF- Come On, Tegan & Sara
MikeK- Yankee Bayonet, The Decemberists
Whitney- Black Velvet Band, The Jovial Crew
Graham- The Leaving of Liverpool, The Jovial Crew
Brooka- Dreams, Fleetwood Mac
Angela- The Two Trees, Loreena McKennitt
Paul- Acres Wild, Jethro Tull
Claire- This Time Around, Hanson
Scotch- Dragula, Rob Zombie
Mark- Through the Never, Metallica
Emily- The Devil's Dance Floor, Flogging Molly
Domenica- Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith
Stephanie- The Middle, Jimmy Eat World
Kim- Gypsy Rover, The Brobdingnagian Bards
Dave- The Rosabella, The Jovial Crew
Brian- The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure, The Magnetic Fields
Phil- Symphony in C, Cake

*To all of you who don't have songs, I apologize. Most of these are sentimental rather than anything about the song actually reminding me of attributes of the person and unfortunately my life doesn't have that complete of a soundtrack.

I forgot how good creativity feels.

I've realised something about the houses that I love. There's a quality they have in common that goes beyond their rural setting to how they open up to it. There's a certain continuity when you come in the door that doesn't shut you away from the outside. You can see the trees through the windows in every room, smell the rain outside as it sweeps in on the wind. The apartment in Hartford lets the outside in, all right, but the outside might as well be inside anyway, the rain smells like garbage and asphalt and the sunlight is always a shadow of the closest apartment building. It's amazing how a few days - or a single morning - of sweet rain and growing green can restore one's balance.

Final Grades, Spring 2008-

Computing and Culture: C-
Elementary Algebra: B-
Human Geography: A-
Soils and Vegetation: A

Because I thought it was funny (particularly with the background that ended up in the picture), I'll tell you a little story - I left my coffee mug at Sternbergia Tuesday morning. It was returned to me Wednesday night, thus:



The twigs are, I am 99% sure, from a swamp oak.

And, because I enjoy cute things almost as much as the next person: a little while ago I got to babysit a kitten so that Samwise the Mad didn't eat him. His name at the time was Jack, although everyone in the house called him something different. I called him Pepperjack, and he is a damn cute kitten:

It's crazy how much choice has an effect on the way that people feel and act. Even just the having of the choice. Even if you've already made it, the option to change it, the possibility for tradebacks, can make a huge difference.

So even though I never planned to go home, it makes a huge difference to know that I can't. It's hard to watch how hard it is for my mom to clean out everything, without a bit of my father's help, and how my sisters slowly pack up their rooms. They're both unhappy at college, and now they don't have those blissful weekends at home to look forward to because just walking in the door is a reminder of the years of memories they need to let go of. I've tried pretty hard to stay out of it, since I don't want to make things harder on my mom and I know that my sisters are a little resentful since I don't live there anymore - so why should I care? But I do. I'll miss my Tree, and I'll miss the swamp. The house will be on the market by the middle of May. I don't know how long it will take to sell, or how many times I have left to pull in that driveway. I'll miss having a place that I know I can just walk into when I need somewhere "else" to go. Although, thank all that is Holy, and Whitney and Graham, there is still Sternbergia.

Saturday afternoon I got called into the manager's office to be given the third degree about how I have to hand in schedules of all of my classes, with my name on them (which I had no idea how to get - signing into the school's website is the only way I even know how to get a schedule and since I have to sign in, there's no need for my name all over everything) and a note saying that the extra time I need off is for school. Good timing, Mr. Tollefson. I don't need a home, or a social life, or an education. That's cool.

Luckily the faculty of CCSU are somewhere on the level of amazing, and I have administrative printed schedules that say "RACHEL A. BREAKELL" at the top (thank all that's holy they don't say "Ann"...) and a note saying that I get every weekend I need at least until the end of the fall season off. Boyah.

A To Do List

This Week:
-Irish Organized Crime Presentation
-Tamlin's Bodice
-Pack for Weekend
-Shop for Weekend
-IG Letter
-Email to Math Prof.

Next Month:
-Mike's Doublet
-Study for Finals
-Soils & Vegetation Paper
-Emails to Grad. Schools

Over The Summer:
-Visit Grad. Schools
-Pack
-House Hunt
-Study for GREs
-Move
-Jamie's Gloves

Over The Next Year:
-Apply to Grad. Schools (and pick one)
-Take GREs
-Graduate CCSU
-Quit/Transfer S&S
-Buy Condo
-Dan's Scarf
-My hat

o Review faculty page (UCONN), email two (2) prospective advisers.
o Rinse, repeat (UNH/URI/UMASS)
o Draft two (2) page admissions essay (UCONN)
o Set up program visitations (UCONN/UNH)
o Find three (3) professors for Letters of Recommendation (Button/Spector/Carter?) (UCONN)
o Review admissions (UNH/URI/UMASS)

Dear WP,
Soul searching is exhausting, and kind of obnoxious. Cut it out.
Heart,
WP.

Edit:
Fall 2008 Prospective Schedule
Murder By 15 Credits of Pure Science!

Monday-
Climatology 10 - 10:50
Chemistry 11 - 11:50
Chem Lab 2 - 4:50
Meteorology 5:20 - 6:30
Meteorology Lab 6:45 - 8:35

Tuesday-
Astronomy 4 - 5:15

Wednesday-
Climatology 10 - 10:50
Chemistry 11 - 11:50
Meteorology 5:20 - 6:30

Thursday-
Astronomy 4 - 5:15
Astronomy Lab 5:35 - 7:25

Friday-
Climatology 10 - 10:50
Chemistry 11 - 11:50

I'm looking to drop Chemistry if I can, because that's an insane 15 credits with 3 lab classes, which will likely kill me along with not giving me any time to work. But I need another one credit class to keep myself full time. Or I need to drop Climatology instead of Chemistry, though that won't help me fit in any more work time and that's the one class on the list that I actually want to take.

Every Sunday...or whenever in the week I remember, I read the latest Post Secrets. And every week, I wish I could think of something so short, sweet, and touching, or funny, or witty, to send in as these folks do. But I don't have any secrets. Certainly none worth telling.

I am in problem-solving-mode.

Unfortunately, CCSU is not.

Master of Forestry, Yale University, New Haven
Master of Environmental Management, Yale University, New Haven
Doctoral Programs, Yale University

Master of Environmental Science, University of New Haven

Natural Resources Management and Engineering degrees, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Master of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs

Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences, University of Rhode Island
Master of Environmental Science and Management, university of Rhode Island

Master and Doctorate program in Forest Resources, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

I'd go back to sleep but I'm terrified that the idiot trying to get out of my driveway is going to hit my car. He's been spinning tires for half an hour now.

Bad:
I did not get the job at Hop Brook State Park.

This is at the end of the blurb on UCONN's website about the masters program I wanted to attend; "Financial support in the form of tuition waivers and graduate assistantships is NOT offered to students in this program."

It's 11:00 pm. The people upstairs have been playing obnoxiously loud music for a full six hours straight now.

Good:
Mike found my phone! It is dry and intact!

Leftover BBQ pulled pork made by one Mr J:tD is freakin' delicious.

It was a snow day today! I spent it sewing <3

I get to go home and see the lambs tomorrow!

Ugly:
I also have to go to memorial when I go home. There's been far too many in the past few years.

Just finished #15 for the year.
I need more books.

Everybody wish me luck.

Lots and lots and lots of it.

I have decided to try my best not to drop off the face of the earth this semester.





We shall see how I fare.

Inaugural Global Sustainability & Climate Change Symposium
"Raising Awareness and Promoting Change"
January 29th-31st, 2008
at Central Connecticut State University
This symposium is the largest national environmental congregation since Earth Day - and CCSU had the biggest event in the nation. If you have the time and ability to go - you should.

CCSU Global Sustainability & Climate Change Symposium

Also, I've seen these around recently and decided to try them out (this is what my boss gets for letting the hippie sign out cleaning products) and, well, they freaking work. Those of you who use normal Clorox products should look into 'em:

Green Works Cleaners, from Clorox