Home

Half Way Home

This week marks the halfway point in the Fall semester and since I am not fortunate to attend a school that supports a "Fall Break" I have created my own. This past weekend was the annual Texas Party and the lovely ingrid michaelson concert - two of my favorite things to remind me of what I love about life: my family, my friends and good music. Seriously, I've been working like crazy and since the semester has started I've been balancing school, crutches, work, prescribed drugs, mission papers, doctors appointments, and a church calling. My one mega fun thing was this saturday and I think it was time very well spent :) Can I just say that when I saw Ingrid come on stage I was in shock and I had to tell myself, "this is not a youtube video!"

Anyway, in approximately two months from this week I anticipate taking my last final and being on the road to the lovely rolling hills of home. I can make it through the next 8 weeks with Ingrid in my iPod and Salt Lick BarBQ sauce with every meal. I'm half way home :)

God is Love

I love, because God loved me first.

There is a perfect explanation of God's love for us in 1 John 4:16-19. People always ask me why I'm so happy all the time and this scripture defines it. I am happy because God loves me and he loves all of us and his love for all of his children, all of us, is manifest everyday. For me his love is present in the beautiful fall foliage, in the smile of a friend, in the helpful hand of a passerby, in the scriptures, in my family, in music and in art. I think if you go around and look for ways God shows his love for you, you'll be amazed at how aware he is of your needs and how much he loves you. Try it :)

Word Play

This is what my little brother wrote on a piece of paper during devotional:

Satan is a nobody! Get it?

If you don't get it, think really really hard.

Quotable Teachers

I love when my teachers are quotable because it makes the topic more interesting to me and I pay attention better because I can relate to the teacher on something, even if it's not entirely related to the subject. This morning in my New Testament class my teacher said the following in a somewhat sarcastically distressed tone:

"Guys, I want you to know that as you get really old it gets rough."

Well, as long as that's established it looks like I no longer have to worry about things right now. :P

Physics-al Exhaustion

Physics makes my brain hurt! Seriously, all my mind power is focused on the problem that once I'm done with the homework I'm tired. Crazy.

What? There's a football game?

So I was trying to call someone from my church so that she could pick the song we were going to sing since she's already going to be the pianist and I called her and there was a bunch of noise in the background. I was like, "seriously? can't you find a quiet place you just answered the phone!?" To my surprise, she said she couldn't hear me because of the football game. "What?! There's a football game?" I took note this morning to wear my burnt orange longhorn shirt and my longhorn earrings in celebration of the UT game today, but I had no idea there was a BYU game today. Like I said in an earlier post, I have no school spirit. Bahaha! Confirmed today on the phone with the chick from my church.

honestly, I was trying really hard to figure out what the heck she was doing or where she was with all that background noise. it never occurred to me that it would be the BYU football game. HAHAHAH!

Blogging Buildup

It's kind of interesting that my amount of blogging increases whenever I am studying for an exam. I honestly just have to take a break from studying every 20 min or every hour because I have so many things going through my brain. It's my little outlet to let my brain drain and then I can think clearly again and proceed with my studies.

I'm currently sitting in the fishbowl of the Benson and I am taken back to memories of freshmen year and studying for Chem 101 and Chem 285. Oh the joys of being a pre-nursing major. *cough* Thank goodness I'm a PDBio major now. Go nursing, but PDBio rocks!

My break session right now currently consists of a does of "Daylight" by Matt and Kim and "Electric Feel" by MGMT.

Walking

I totally walked from my kitchen sink to my fridge on Thursday night without any crutches! I know, it's pretty amazing and my plan is to be without crutches next Thursday. Let's see if my body will cooperate :)

testing center rehab revisited

I went into the testing center for the second time this week and I left with a much more satisfied feeling. I think reading "Perfect Score" on the testing center tv is an exhilarating feeling and my friend thought so as well and so he bought me ice cream from Cold Stone. If good test scores are followed up with free ice cream and playtime with my friends, I think I'll do it more often :)

Although, I enjoyed the quality time I wasn't really a fan of the ice cream flavor. I really am just not a fan of Cold Stone because it is no Amy's Ice Cream and no Blue Bells. Well, I will just have to make due with the lack of good ice cream in Provo until I return to the wonderful ATX in December. Only a few months away :)

Needed: Pensieve for Science-related classes

1. after every brain exhausting financial management problem i need to take a break. geez louis i didn't realize how much energy i exert whenever i concentrate for this class.
2. calculating things is kind of exciting :) that's how im going to spend my friday night folks - calculating the liquidity of companies and calculating the forces acting upon an elephant on a ramp and then maybe after that I will play on mastering chemistry. joy.

Glee

new show is retarded. in the first 30 seconds i was already put to sleep.

Pretend Twitter Updates

My fingers feel like they're going to fall off from all the crutching. Im guessing arthritis will feel like this in my hands if I ever get it.

My left foot pulsates every now and again and it feels gross! Almost like my grafts are going to pop off from some kind of accumulated fluid down there.

It's been confirmed - My locker food storage is out. Lame.

I wonder what movies are playing in the dollar theater.

I think after I eat dinner I'm going to reserve myself a room and study with a humongous white board. happiness!

continued musings...

I just finished studying the material in chapter 2 for my financial management class and now my brain needs a break because it's overflowing again.

1. i want to eat something...but i don't know what and im not inclined to crutch around right about now
2. i've seen too many people on campus wearing orange - mostly boys wearing orange polos. eww.
3. the inscription of my name on the back of my graphing calculator reminds me of my old chemistry teacher from my sophomore year in high school. i can still hear ms. cohlmia's shrill voice yapping about stoichiometry.
4. i think i can wear my red pumas again on both feet
5. i want to watch an asian fighting movie
6. my outfit today is wonderfully atrocious
7. i think i forgot to replenish my snack stocks in my locker. boo.
8. i've consumed about 4 chicken sandwiches within this past week. mmmm
9. i need to repaint my nails. let's go black.

Pensieve of Library Musings

Dumbledore: "I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form."

Harry: "You mean... that stuff's your thoughts?"

Dumbledore: "Certainly."

1. wednesday i took a nap before my PDBio 120 class and the writing on my left hand ended up on my forehead
2. doctor rose said i can put wt on my foot because the skin graft is growing nicely. ^-^
3. my sleeping cycle gets all crazy when im on drugs or im in post op mode - usually i sleep in three hour increments or i don't go to bed until really late
4. frozen strawberries sound good right now - thank you chairlift
5. i want a pair of charoal pants - this guy walked past me in the benson and had some on
6. i need to thin my hair out - who cares about volume and thickness
7. i have to pay $5 to take my test - gay!
8. writing in purple makes studying exciting
9. i should probably pick up my guitar this weekend
10. my hair looks much better parted on the right side - im back to the beginning. momma knows best

Mourning My Former Life

Since my car accident I've had to work over time to keep a positive attitude and push through this seemingly endless trial from God. Well, yesterday I've decided that although positive attitudes are good I need more to keep going through this ..... hell fire.

I've thereby decided that from this day, Wednesday September 16th, forward I will wear at least one black article of clothing until my foot is recovered. As Blair Waldorf said after the Gossip Girl slam from Chuck Bass, "I don't want to go to school! I'm mourning my former life."

Testing Center Rehab

When you come out of the testing center and you're feeling like...well you fill in the blank, the following has proven to cure my ailments:

1. quick stop for fast food - chicken sandwich, fries and caffeine (preferably Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibbs)
2. spew your frustrations to your sister and vent (hand gestures may be involved)
3. sit on a very comfy couch
4. watch lots and lots of Gossip Girl

School Spirit?

Today in PDBio this girl asked me if I was going to the BYU football game this weekend. I laughed and said no and she followed up with "Oh, are you not into football?" I promptly responded with, "It's not that. I mean I'm into sports, but I just have no school spirit." Honestly, I'm not a fan of wearing BYU tees or anything with a Y unless I have no other clothing left in my closet and if it's spirit day at work and I get to wear a t-shirt. Nevertheless, I am a fan of UT's (University of Texas) colors. Burnt orange just looks good on me :) and as far as Texas football goes, I'm rather fond of it just don't expect me to know who we're playing this weekend or the stats of the players. I will give you commentary on the football equipment, player hairstyles or accents and fan attire. Go Team.

Let me just tell you, it was amazing when I found out that the line of scrimmage is not a yellow line on the actual football field.

Mantra

There is no try. There is only do or do not.

educational epiphany

HOW I KNEW EUROPEAN STUDIES WAS NOT THE MAJOR FOR ME
i'd like to thank the jamba juice discount and my fhe sisters for our jamba run.

shelley: corina, what's your major again?
me: european studies, business minor.
catherine: oh?! how do you feel about Germany?
me (thinking to myself): WTF?! I don't care about Germany!

yeah, i think that probably means something especially when i would rather talk about congenital heart failure or an aortic valve replacement.

dear science, oh how i've missed thee. i've been in denial for about a whole year. this random car accident and my many hours of greys anatomy has made me remember my love for microbiology, playing with microscopes, growing my own fungi, collecting and testing my own urine samples, counting my rbcs, and reading case studies. it's good to be back. ♥nina

change is inevitable

Lately my conversations sound like this: "Well, I got hit by a car last Monday..." It's funny to say that and have it be something that actually happened to me. Ok, that was insensitive of me to use the word funny...let me appease your uneasiness and substitute funny with "weird". It's still a little strange for me to hearken back to last week and my stroll to the Creamery on 9th with my roommate. Every time I recall the event for each curious friend my mind swirls through these surreal images of car lights in the night and throbbing pain amidst the cries of the distressed driver "I am so sorry, I am so sorry I am so sorry."

Despite his apologies there wasn't much either one of us could do about the situation. I remember absentmindedly telling him "It's ok" and he retorted with "No! It's not ok" which I responded "Well, there's not much we can do about it now." That's where the title for this post comes in. No matter what kind of plan you set up for yourself change is inevitable. It's not a bad thing and I'm not being emo about my accident, I'm just stating the fact that change is inevitable and I've accepted it. There has been a multilicity of changes in my life since that summer night:

1. My body clock is off and I wake up a 3am almost every morning if I'm not wiped out from the pain killers
2. My renal system is on overdrive and I'm told by the nurses that it's because of the fluid build up in my foot
3. I watch movies almost every day
4. I use crutches
5. I'm pretty sure my right calf will be huge by the time school starts from all the hopping I do
6. For the entire month of September I will have to jump on my left foot to make my legs match in their muscle distribution
7. I learned from my aunt that my pain killers are sold in the Utah-Poser-Kids-Drug-Market and that I can make money from selling them and that lots of athletes will sign fake doctor notes to get more drugs because they're addicted. Don't worry, I'm no addict.
8. Plastic surgery seems to make the guys pay more attention to me. hahaha. (mind you, I got a plastic surgeon to perform surgery on my left foot. take note ladies.)
9. I get piggy back rides up and down the three flights to my apartment
10. People say the same joke to me or call me the same names - gimpy, handi, cripple. I mean come on people, give me something original.
11. Grey's Anatomy has given me a different perspective about my injury and my pending recovery. I mean really, there's an episode with a pole going through two people. I'll take my "degloved" left foot any day.
12. I have a changed perspective on everything. If you want to be wise get hit by a car.

put your hawk in the sky

"i've been practicing that song for a week!" - Ange

I just want the blogging world to know that I have the best roommates in the world. I know it's a cliche thing to say, especially as a BYU student, but it applies here. So, long story short - I was hit by a car a 13 days ago and when I came home one day from a doctor's appointment, my roommate Angie surprised me with a lovely song. We are die hard Hannah Montana fans and so she spent the whole day memorizing the "Hoedown Throwdown" song and sang it to me. I personally think that everyone in the world should know the song and the dance that goes with it. I mean if you're 5 or 82 it is something you can do!

Farmer's Market and The Rock Church

Back home it was a tradition for my mother and I to spend our Saturday morning running errands and then stopping by the Farmer's Market on the way home to grab some Greek food from the Greek stand. Since I've come to college I've had to find a substitute for my weekly Greek crave and thankfully the Farmer's Market exists in Utah.

It's not as big as the market back home, but I did buy honey butter one time and I did consume a delicious amount of humus and pita bread and one more thing...it comes with live music! I know, I didn't think Utah would be capable of such a feat, but I stand corrected. There was this lovely little local band playin under a canopy at the market and it turns out they were from the Rock Church. My older sister and I were just chilin and listening to the tunes and this nice lady came over to us and started talking to us about their church. Turns out she was the mother of two members of the band and they played at the church. She invited us to come to church on Friday night and Saturday to listen to the bands, rock out to christian music and meet other young people. We have yet to actually go, but we haven't forgotten the invitation. It's always interesting to learn about other people's beliefs.

Good Friday

I looked up the words good and friday in the dictionary and this is what it said:

good - adj :

1. satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree

2. healthful; beneficial

3. cheerful; optimistic; amiable

4. free of distress or pain

friday -noun
1. the sixth day of the week, following Thursday
2. the day that concludes the strenuous work week and reels in "playtime" with friends

My recent discovery of Provo Trail and Utah Lake with my roommates has caused me to share the loveliness with my other friends. This Friday we had a mini Fugal Hall reunion and we took our bikes and went down to Utah Lake and then had a picnic. We also took the liberty to dub ourselves the groovy name "Sisterhood of the Traveling Bikes". Anyway, multiple trips on bikes shall commence as the year progresses. Bike rides = freedom and bike rides with friends = happiness. What a good friday :)

Gotta love that jazz

Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world.
~ Ahmad Alaadeen

bike gang

This spring semester has been spent increasing my utility :) The graph of a utility function in my economics book is usually depicting a sloping curve to signify diminishing marginal return with the increase in happiness. Such is not the case with my springtime here in Provo. I've recently converted to the bliss of hiking and have also formed my own bike gang called C.A.M. My utility has been off the charts! :)
Each time I go out on a hike there's a rush of adrenaline for being outdoors, climbing over rocks, and encountering snakes. A bike ride with the C.A.M. gang entails roaming all over Provo and visiting various places like the park, Juice N' Java, Velour, the French bakery and Josie's Casa. Being a gang member is conditional though. If you want to join our gang you must be able to ride a bike with no hands, you must own a shoulder bag, you must own a bandana (the color is up to you), and you must own a "wind blown" white shirt (although some time is given to acquire such a necessary item for your cycling look).

hiking

I went camping and hiking with my roommate and some geology students at the Canyonlands National Park after winter finals. It was a pretty sweet deal because we got the geology department to sponsor the trip and my roommate and I aren't geology majors, but we do have friends in the program so it counts. :) I'd say this is a bit of networking and hey the people at work would be proud that I'd applied skills they constantly teach undergrads about...or I just have cool friends. Anyway, the trip was absolutely delightful (hence the picture of happy jumping people) and the weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. We were actually expecting rain, but we were ever so politely informed by an elderly Visitor's Center worker that there was no need to worry because we were in, well, a desert. That never occurred to me while I was preparing for the trip, which is not surprising. All sorts of logic and common sense are out the door in my thought process; it just happens. I had called my dad to inquire of the necessary items I would need for a potentially rainy campout and proceeded to add the BYU poncho, the plastic bags, the extra socks, the extra shoes, the trusty tarp and an actual rain suit (pants and a jacket with an air hole near the neck for ventilation. Nice. They really thought that one through). Turns out it did rain, but it was the typical spit rain native to Utah skies and the poncho worked better against the high winds that plowed through the canyons. I just have to say it, rocks rock and really huge rocks are even better. The canyons were phenomenal and made me hold my breath in awe as we scaled them and looked out over the land, grasping our minuteness and marveling in the majesty of God.

Absorbing the beauty of the earth that weekend made me think of a scripture. Yes, I am going to be spiritual on a blog. Anyway, it just articulates the feelings I had when I stood on this large rock at the start of our hike to Chesler Park.

D&C 88:45-47
45 The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God.
46 Unto what shall I liken these, kingdoms, that ye may understand?
47 Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.


Absorbing mother earth with friends = happiness

Witnessing God's majesty and his love for all of us = happiness

where's my left shoe?

it is 1:30 in the morning and my roommate and i are still awake on a homework hyperdrive. i decided to take a break from the books and set out my clothes for school when i realized something was missing. i went to my shoe rack to pull out my all*stars when it hit me, i was missing a lot of shoes. in fact, i was missing every single left shoe that i possessed. i believe it was a sort of retaliation for something i might have done in the past few weeks to a number of different parties, which is understandable since april fools day was only last week. i did some detective work and have eliminated one of my possible antagonistic groups. albeit this said group could be alluding me to a new group to avoid any further suspicions about them, but you can't really tell much about tones or body language via text messages. alas, i am to wear my mocassins tomorrow in the potential rain, which works out only because it looks good with my outfit and is actually my preference of collegiate footwear, but also works against me because they're cloth and will soak up moisture real fast. oh well. this situation that i have found myself in causes me to throw my head back in laughter at the absurdity of it all. oh how i love collegiate life. come what may and l♥ve it.

so, if you happen to know where my left shoes are i would like them back, please...maybe with some cookies and milk too. oh and i also want to congratulate you on your prank. it was genius...maybe because i came up with it. blast kharma. :)

Beauty

self-destruct

My life is semi-over. I have a thousand things I need to get done and when I think it's going well another problem pops up and I want to just crumple to the ground and cry. I knew this monday was going to be awful with all the unfinished business of Friday evening after work and I was right. What I didn't anticipate were the prolonged computer problems - no access to the G drive to work on all things Teacher Fair and a malfunctioning outlook email account. Crap. Yeah, it was practically the last straw when I arrived at work at 8:30 am to get some stuff done, only to find out that everything related to technology is falling apart and I'm helpless. Well, I pulled myself out of my functional fixed-ness mode and attempted to deal with it and solve the problem. I went through my to-do list in my brain again and had probably 7 things open at once, some relating to school and other items relating to work and I was on hold with the Office of Information Technology.
Seriously, I still have my greek history exam to take by Wednesday and an accounting exam to take by tomorrow before 2pm and at work I've still got all this Teacher Fair stuff to oversee, delegate tasks, correspond with recruiters from a ba-gillion school districts, contact all education majors with email reminders, check on all they layouts, make sure the foods together, confirm the refunds, and a whole lot of stuff and my supervisor won't be here because she'll be away in Salt Lake City at the U of U teacher fair...which is not cool because I have to play detective and figure things out and a lot of things have to be run by her. KILL ME. Oh and to top everything off...people kept asking me how the teacher fair was going. I mean hello, it's going and i'm busy so don't ask me stupid questions because I don't even have time to talk. I've already expressed my feelings to some other co-workers and it was an entertaining conversation.
There you have it. I'm going to die by Wednesday and then life will go on and my grades will semi-plumet so i'll just have to live in the library for the rest of my life and say no to steamed milk, no to movies on the big screen, no to random card games, no to soccer at Kiwanis, no to ping pong on tuesdays and no to dance parties. :( sad day.

grey's anatomy

"Sister time" means it's time to go shopping, eat charly's subs and lounge around on the couch watching the tv series of our choice. Some of our top choices for viewing pleasures are #1 Grey's Anatomy, #2 Ugly Betty and #3 Gossip Girl. This weekend was help-nina-catch-up-on-grey's-and-completely-distract-her-from-the-greek-history-paper. It worked. I'm not sure who else finds grey's anatomy as interesting as my sisters and I...but that doesn't matter. The humor in grey's is hilarious and others may beg to differ, preferring humor like "the office" or "scrubs". I'll watch The Office because it is pretty funny, but I'm not a fan of Scrubs. Scrubs is the unfunny and stupid version of grey's anatomy. It's the pseudo-intense hospital show where all the unfortunate people hook up and the patients have boring diseases/accidents. Grey's is legit. I mean hello, it's so awesome it made me think I wanted to be in a science related major again...hah. I think I'll stick to my European Studies and observe art pieces and then watch Grey's but not have to deal with all the math or organic chemistry. :)

My Favorite Grey's Quote for the week:
Christina Yang to Meredith and George: Please tell me you've seen a right leg! A cleanly severed right leg!
Meredith Grey to George: How weird is this job.
Christina: How is one bloody hairy leg going to destroy my career?!

All time best movie in the world

I watched the best movie in the world...."Corrina, Corrina" with Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta and from the 90s. Ok, so I guess there is a bit of a bias because it bears my name with an extra 'r' but I've always loved this movie since I was a kid. After watching it today I also realized how much I love love love the soundtrack. The music was amazing and it almost made me think I was born in the wrong decade because I tried to listen to this random Jeff Buckley song and I just wasn't feeling it. I immediately redeemed myself and listened to Pennies from Heaven by Billie Holiday. Good stuff. It always makes me want to dance when I hear it :) Then again I take back the whole wrong decade thing because the tensions back then would have driven me insane! Anyway, this is the best movie ever and I could listen to the soundtrack over and over without ever getting tired. Time to press play again.

Preach My Gospel

Today I attended my cousin's farewell talk with my sister. It was interesting to see how moved she was by the Holy Ghost and her decision to serve the Lord. I've also recently made the decision to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will submit my papers during the first few weeks of June! My cousin will be reporting to the Missionary Training Center this Wednesday. I'm so excited for her and my chance is still months away, but it gets closer every day. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing and I can't wait to share this good news with the rest of Heavenly Father's children. Je suis tres heureuse et j'aime mon Savior.

Christmas Break!

I found out that my Winter break is the shortest out of all my friends and it bugged me at first, but now that school starts tomorrow I'm actually excited and the duration of my break no longer irks me. This is the last day of the break and so in these last few hours I thought I would post before the new semester. Winter breaks are always so nice because I don't have to work, I get to spend time with my family, I get to see all of my friends from home, and I get to do whatever I want. My two weeks of free time and bliss was spent hanging out with my friends and family and absorbing everything that I love about ATX. There was also a lot of time for reflection and there are a few things that I've learned:

1. The Office - Dolls are not playthings, they are commodities. Same as gold or silver.
2. From Mom - There's no need to stress because stress does not exist and what I'm actually experiencing is a shift of focus.
3. Ugly Betty - Don't let an ambitious attitude lead to hostile take over and kicking puppies.
4. I must pack my own set of chopsticks so I can eat at home
5. Making jewelry is a good opportunity for girl talk
6. My brother can't pull the "boys only" rule because he's the only boy
7. Barnes & noble is essential to my health

I think with these points in mind I am ready for the school year and the infinite list of new year's resolutions.