"Ma'am, we don't recommend dismounting."

Having my sister in Seattle was both helpful (on the moving front) and fun (on the everything-else front). It was also incredibly nice to have my parents there to help pack the ReloCube -- my dad is a pro at securing weird-shaped things into the smallest amount of space possible, and my stepmom derives a weird amount of joy from fitting things inside of other things (the thought of purchasing her a really elaborate set of matryoshka has crossed my mind).

I managed to graduate with Full College Honors and with my American Chemical Society certification intact; I even ended up with good marks for last quarter. Then I moved. Then I got a job (sort of -- I don't actually start until August). Then I applied for graduate school at Hopkins. Excitement!

The last person to live in my house here in Baltimore was apparently an indoor smoker, because there was kind of a grimy film over everything. A cleaning crew has allegedly been here, but you really wouldn't know it -- Matt and I put in 53 hours worth of cleaning (including the time I spent stripping and re-caulking the tub, which was desperately needed). I still have a couple of sets of blinds left to take down and scrub. Ick. I do not, have never, and now definitely won't ever smoke inside my house/apartment/abode. It's now much cleaner here and the extra space is nice; we're also negotiating some compensation for all the work. If our landlord wants to contract me to re-grout and/or remove the ridiculous popcorn ceiling in the kitchen, I am totally down for that also.

Today's task was fixing the garbage disposal. Gross. The drain's been slow all week, but it finally stopped earlier today after Matt dumped a pot of old coffee down. I was definitely not aware of the key socket in the base of those things until I called the In-sink-erator help line out of frustration. However, it is clear now and actually works when the switch is flipped (the wiring is another project altogether). I win.

Symposing

I'm presenting at the Undergraduate Research Symposium here today for the third and final time. Oh, the memories.

It's too nice outside for school.

My sister is coming to stay with me for a few weeks soon. I'm excited. I probably won't be very much fun with all of the lab writing/studying I need to do to graduate, but it'll be nice having her around. She gets me. I could also really use the help packing -- the boxes I ordered have arrived and I am again realizing that I have too much stuff, even after having dramatically thinned the herd since Christmas. Why is it so easy to accumulate things I don't need?

I had a TB test placed last week that came back inconclusive and was seriously scaring me. I had another one placed on Tuesday, and I just had it read -- negative. So, good. I am not in imminent danger of being carried off by the galloping consumption and can still do my student teaching in Philly this summer.

I broke an $85 quartz cuvette on Monday, which I will have to pay for out-of-pocket. That put me over the edge: physical chemistry laboratory is my absolute least favorite class of my entire college career. I had been waffling between this class and my debate course a couple of years ago, but there really is only one choice. The combination of thirty-to-sixty-page lab writeups of inane, irrelevant experiments and exorbitantly expensive, breakable equipment has reached Terminal Lameness.

My thesis was approved on Wednesday. Barring any major catastrophes, it looks like I will graduate with my honors degree. Now to finish my classwork. Ugh.

PS: I realize I am being a fussy baby about school. Wah.

Dear diary