the wacky adventures of karen anne

spring plans

2009-01-27T19:41:00.002-06:00

So I've been absent from the internets for awhile, trapped in a pile of freshman angst and 6.270, but I have emerged from my cocoon for a few hours to share some exciting news!

It appears that my plans for next semester will be the following classes:

8.02 (Electricity and Magnetism)
18.03 (Differential Equations)
6.01 (Introduction to EECS I)
STS.003 (The Rise of Modern Science)

In addition, I am starting a UROP at the Graybiel Lab in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research studying the role of dopmaine in learning and learning more about the basal ganglia. I will also be tutoring high school students at the SAT through Splash, and getting paid for it! So this is some very exciting news :)

Now, back to working on our robot, which is getting impounded in 21 hours...

pets

2009-01-07T10:41:00.003-06:00

So Tiffany and I are considering getting pets, but we're not sure what to get.

Please select one of the following options and leave a comment to vote.

A. Hamster

Hamsters are adorable and nocturnal, which means it will be awake when I am awake. They are also relatively low maitenance and do just fine by themselves. However, hamsters are not all that affectionate and I am a needy, needy woman, and I'm concerned that my hamster won't be cuddly enough.

B. Rat(s)

Rats are super cute and won't keep me up all night with their annoying squeaky wheels. They are intelligent and affectionate, but they are also smelly and I would have to get two so that when I have to do work they can play with each other and won't be all miffed that I'm psetting instead of cuddling with them.

C. None of the above.

Choose this option if you think I'm too irresponsible for pet ownership.

D. Other

Please specify in the comments.

Also, suggestions for names would be helpful. Right now I'm torn between Master Chief and Tyranocore. Luckily whatever pet I pick won't be able to speak english.

welcome home

2009-01-05T08:42:00.002-06:00

9:20 am: After waking up 20 minutes earlier, putting on a pot of coffee, and returning Liz's ferret to her room about four times (Liz is the 17-year-old sophomore that lives across the hall from me. She took 8 classes this past semester.), I was unceremoniously roused out of checking my e-mail by a fire alarm that 2E had set off just minutes before.

I feel as though living at home had lulled me into a false sense of security, one where you don't have to go outside unless something is actually on fire, and one where ferrets aren't climbing on your feet as you're going about your morning routine. Thanks, East Campus. You sure know how to welcome a girl back :)

life lessons

2008-12-17T21:42:00.004-06:00

So I'm pretty sure I've passed all my classes. Here are the things I'd do differently, if I could do it all over again:

1. Take 5.111 instead of 3.091
Even though I'd already taken 2 years of chemistry in high school, I probably could've learned some new chem knowledge in 5.111, and it would've been more interesting than 3.091, which I completely blew off and never went to class. It also would've been kind of nice to have another pset to do, as I had a lot of free time.

2. Just take 8.01L straight out.
It caused a lot of angst in my life to have to switch into 8.01L late in the semester - I should've just manned up and admitted that I am terrible at physics and really did need to be in a slower class.

And that's pretty much it. Sure I did some silly things, but freshman year is time for mistakes. I've met some awesome people that I love quite dearly, and I really wouldn't change a thing. I'm just sad that all the pass/no record goodness is now gone forever :(

i'm back!

2008-12-14T11:58:00.005-06:00

So 99.9% of the time I don't do anything interesting with my life, hence the marked lack of blog posts in quite awhile. This actually happened last weekend, but I figured that it was worth a post so that my parents know that I'm alive and they actually do have to pay my tuition for the spring semester.

So, my little cousin Margret is doing a history project on Dorthea Dix for her 8th grade class, and she noticed in the course of her research that Ms. Dix is buried in a cemetary in Cambridge, MA. Having recently heard about her older cousin's wacky adventures in the same town, she asked me to go to this cemetary and take a picture for her.

Mount Auburn Cemetary may be reached from the Harvard T-stop by either the #71 or #73 bus. If you don't know which stop it is, you will miss it and then have to walk from the next stop, which is by a Shaw's, at which point you will realize that you haven't gone grocery shopping since you got back from Thanksgiving and want to buy groceries. Do not get distracted from the task at hand.

Anyway, Marc '12 and I bought a map and looked for the grave. We found it rather quickly, probably because he took the map away from me and insisted on navigating. It was super underwhelming.

After this, we journeyed to the top of a watchtower from which we had a nice view of the Boston skyline. Harvard is further from the river than MIT is, so we also had a nice view of the Green Building. East Campus is just next to it, but it's too short to see.

Being from MIT, there was one more grave that we had to see before we journeyed back.

Afterwards, we got Pourhouse, another delicious 5e tradition. And now, I am studying for my finals next week, after which I will return to Deerfield, and the wacky adventures will be postponed until IAP.

2008-09-17T16:31:00.001-05:00

Keira and I just made a pound of bacon and cooked three eggs in the rendered bacon fat. It was tasty as all hell.

In other news, my problem sets are harder this week. :(

the weather

2008-09-09T13:18:00.002-05:00

It's raining in Cambridge.

It also rained on Saturday, but there's a difference between it raining when you're happy walking outside with friends and it raining on you as you're trying to get to your classes, all of which are in main group buildings that seem to be freezing all the time.

Luckily I live in East Campus, so I get to enjoy the distinct privilige of being able to walk from lobby 7 to building 66, and the only rain that I am exposed to is the 25-foot sprint from the door of 66 to the door at Goodale.

EAST CAMPUS IS AWESOME OH YEAH

2008-09-05T09:30:00.002-05:00

I have to admit that I maybe learned something in my physics class last year.

Yeah, it was a huge waste of time, and it made me miserable, and my teacher was terrible, and I spent every Monday - Thursday hoping that a meteor would hit my school before 8:10 (7:39 on lab days) so that I wouldn't have to show up, but at least all of this mechanics stuff looks somewhat familiar.

Physics is not as terrifyingly difficult as I was expecting it to be; mostly it feels like I'm bashing my head against the table for two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, and one on Fridays. At least our first problem set uses words that I understand and I can actually answer the questions, unlike some of the 18.02 questions which I suspect I will need to actually build models for in order to properly visualize.

Also my physics classroom is basically right outside the New Media Centre, which is a really, REALLY nice Athena cluster. But it is currently out of printer paper :(

2008-08-30T18:21:00.001-05:00

Oh man I wish I could tell you all about how awesome college is but I totally can't.

2008-08-28T11:21:00.000-05:00

Karen is now a child of Florey!

...she feels bad about abandoning 5W though :(

2008-08-27T11:11:00.002-05:00

Not being selected as a blogger has actually taken a huge weight off my shoulders - now I can just use this blog as a way to tell my parents about my life! :)

So yesterday, I woke up at a fairly decent hour (*:30) to go get raped by the chem ASE (awwwwwwww yeeeeeeeeah) and realized around page 14 that I really had no hope in hell of passing it, so I cut my losses and left to go hang out with Donald on 5E. After he finally woke up around noon, we headed over to Senior Haus where I helped make breakfast and ate bacon and pancakes. Afterwards, we went to this totally ridiculous talk about rape in the Student Center, the only orientation event that I've attended because I am too awesome to go to Orientation / have lost my book of events / keep sleeping through them.

So, after being thoroughly confused about what was a sexual encounter and what wasn't, and making fun of it a lot, we headed over to Random for liquid nitrogen ice cream, which was okay but I only tried one kind of strange flavor because a hellton of people showed up. Then Donald and I went to the MIT museum (free admission for students!) but it was closing in half an hour so we really just got to look around for a bit. I plan to go back because a lot of the stuff that we were running past on the way to the holograms looked super cool.

After this, we decided to get hand soap at Star Market because neither of us has hand soap, and also neither of us wants to be constantly sick, so we meandered over there. And then Star Market was right across from Toscanini's, so we got ice cream (I got mango, it was super delicious), and then we realized that we had some time to kill until 9, so we decided to walk to Harvard.

Harvard is super pretty, actually - red brick and trees - but I found myself homesick for the wacky splendor of MIT instead. Also Donald was sick of walking, so we took the T back to Kendall. And then we went to the Coop. And then we finally went back to East Campus, where we watched a bit of Firefly and I helped make cookies for Diner, which is when 41W cooks greasy food and sells it at inexpensive prices and everyone sits around and talks and has fun.

So, today I don't really have anything major besides an advising meeting and HALL RUSH OMG IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME. I'm staying in East Campus, because it is hella baller, and apparently EC Hall Rush is THE BEST.

2008-08-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

Karen is not a blogger!

Oh well, this leaves more time for her to dress up in ridiculous clothing and to watch Firefly in the 41W lounge, and also to make cookies.

Although she is basically a total hobo now...

2008-08-24T09:20:00.002-05:00

I'm writing this entry while Donald is taking a nap on my bed - send me awesome ways to prank him!

Our DME competition was extremely fun - the whole week has been extremely fun - and my group got 4th place or so. We lost in one of the final rounds to the eventual winners, which was better than any of us were expecting, as our robots were mostly held together by solder and hot glue.

Rush has started and it's pretty crazy. I'm enjoying meeting new people and basically screwing around and being super irresponsible. College has basically been the most fun thing ever so far.

It occurred to me sometime last night / this morning (time gets a little subjective when you're not really sleeping) that it will always be a bit weird to be at MIT. I think it's always going to feel strange to walk past Killian and see the dome, or to head down the Infinite to the Student Center, or to wander around in the tunnels late at night. Things will just get more familiar - I'll know where I am, or where someone's taking me, and adventuring will lose some of its appeal - and MIT will become less exciting and new and more a familiar home. As much as I enjoyed being a starry-eyed prefrosh, I'm looking forward to feeling hella badass when I get to show visitors around and take them on wacky adventures around campus.

Emily is also liking college a whole lot, but I'd really like to believe that it's not the experience so much as it's that MIT is basically the most fucking amazing school in the history of ever.

day 2

2008-08-18T23:28:00.003-05:00

I'm mostly moved into my room - despite the numerous urgings not to, I decided that if I never unpacked, I could pretty much pretend that I was on vacation forever, and that is a bad decision. So two weeks' worth of clothes is in my dresser, and some things are hung up, and I took a shower, so I guess I officially live here now.

Today, I helped Donald move in (aka took his fan up the stairs and screwed it into the base), didn't take the swim test, saw Becca and Tim, which was pretty awesome, except they came during my nap and I was quite asleep. And then I went to the DME welcome, and got dinner, and saw Wall-E, and ate some fried rice that was A+ delicious. Tomorrow we're in the machine shop for pretty much the entire day, it should be awesome, especially since 41W is moving back in, so I'll get to meet some upperclassmen!

There are 19 frosh on my floor, apparently. I've met 6 or so of them - a lot of frosh don't get here until next Sunday for orientation, so this is pretty legit. I also didn't take the swim test, which is no big deal, honest, I just have to pass it before I graduate.

I am a huge nerd and am actually looking forward to classes starting, but not nearly as much as I'm looking forward to Rush! EC has started building things in the courtyard already and it should be hella awesome.

So, I go to MIT. Class of 2012. It's finally real.

moving in

2008-08-17T17:54:00.006-05:00

I'm writing this blog entry in my room on 4W. I just dropped my mom off at the T and she's on her way back to Chicago. It is strange to think that I won't see my family for four months (and possibly stranger that we won't start classes for two and a half weeks).

Anyway, moving in was fairly uneventful, although I'm pretty tired from carrying my stuff up three flights of stairs. We had to buy very few things, thanks to space bags!

Before:

After:

So I was able to pack my comforter, two sets of sheets, two pillows, clothes, a foam mattress pad, and a whole host of other things due to the magical space bags.

My mom thought that the campus was ugly after we drove in on the MIT Shuttle, so I showed her Killian Court:

She liked the mural in my room, but the rest of 4W kind of scared her:

We went up to 5W, and the diagram that we had drawn on the chalkboard over CPW was still there!

Also, my mom made my bed! This was a critical moving-in step.

Seeing my mom walk down the steps to the T and knowing that I wouldn't see her or the rest of my family until Thanksgiving was one of the strangest moments of my life. I hope that it's worth it.

1 day

2008-08-15T23:45:00.003-05:00

I never realized just how much stuff I owned until I had to fit it in four suitcases to take on a plane.

I never realized how much I was missing until I started purchasing things.

I never fully comprehended how long four months was until I was trying to pack enough things to last for that length of time.

I never understood how many people loved me until I had to tell them goodbye.

Tomorrow will be the last day that I can call my house home. I have lived in this house since I was two months old. It's probably time for a change, but I never realized just how scary change could be until I was finally facing it.

yay!

2008-08-12T12:05:00.001-05:00

Guess where I am right now?

...

IN MY LIVING ROOM!

And I can do this, because my laptop came! It is a black Dell Studio with a 15.4" screen and it sexy. It has a backlit keyboard and a fingerprint reader, which I've been playing with a lot. It also has Windows Vista, which means that it's kind of hard to download certificates, so I don't know which advising seminar I'm in.

My mom is washing my blue comforter and sheets today and then it's packing time, followed by dinner with my bakery coworkers. But, I'm all set now, because I have a laptop! :)

one week (djf;afdkal;)

2008-08-10T23:38:00.002-05:00

WHAT A DAY.

I'll start with the most relevant part: my laptop shipped! It's supposed to get here Tuesday! YAY! :) I am forced to conclude that hella yelling at Dell helps get things shipped faster, either that or they just overestimated how long it would take to build. Either way, whoo!

Today started out bright and early at 8:30, when I woke up to get ready for the Renaissance Faire. I make fun of my cousin for buying full elven regalia in order to LARP in forests, but this blog is a place of honesty and truth and I found it more reminscient of a living version of WoW than anything else.

Which I would totally play, by the way.

At the Ren Faire there's a village and everything, and there's something very special about being able to walk through a set of double doors and really feel like you're in a completely different place. Sure, a lot of the people were kind of strange and wore a lot of Iron Maiden shirts, but most of them were genuinely nice and eager to share their knowledge about crafts. We learned about swords and about leatherworking, and it was nice to be able to dress up and walk around on a very nice day and to pretend that I was somewhere else than Deerfield (well, I was - it was in Wisconsin). Overall an A+ experience.

In case you were curious, yes, I did dress up - Lizzee and I braided our hair and wore dresses. Zack took pictures of us but they're on film which is apparently from the 70s (?) so he has to find somewhere special to develop it. Anyway, it was a blast.

Then, I had my last day of work, which was strange but fun. We were getting fans installed for some reason, even though the wiring is apparently wrong and they won't turn on, so my section was closed for part of the night and I talked to the guys installing the fans. I was closing, so afterwards I entertained Sandro (one of my managers) while he was doing all of his closing stuff, until we had to run out because the security alarm only gives you 45 seconds or so to close the door before it starts freaking out.

As much as I didn't want to go to work many days, I am genuinely sorry to see many parts of Walker Bros go. Even though I worked there for far less time than I spent working at the bakery, something about the sexual harassment and lack of customer interaction (and the feeling of a wad of cash in my pocket) made this job a lot more fun. It will be strange to not see Jio and Jairo (who spent 10 minutes trying to get me to make an illicit deal for $50 today, not drugs just prostitution) every day pretty much, or to eat something other than pancakes, or to be able to bend over without having someone grab my butt. I guess work really is like a second family, but I probably saw Sandro more than I saw my own parents this summer. So it's weird.

Also, I am officially unemployed for the first time in basically 2 years (I started at the bakery in August 2006). A lot has changed since the summer before junior year (oh, what a summer that was) and I am going off to college soon a very different person than I entered high school as. Fundamentally, I'm still the same, but I definitely couldn't hold my own in a debate, or carry five plates in one hand, or write on a cake, or do calculus, or go all night without sleeping, when I started. It will be interesting to see where I end up when I'm officially a part of the workforce again - maybe in four years, or maybe next summer.

In any case, I should probably officially start packing.

screw that

2008-08-09T13:56:00.002-05:00

So my computer is delayed AGAIN, to be shipped on the 14th. This means that it's going to arrive on the 18th, which is after I've already left for Boston. Apparently the Dell people can't change the address that it's going to be shipped to (I guess this is understandable) but they also can't upgrade the shipping so that it gets here on time, which is ridiculous.

To everyone who has ever told me to buy American: besides the ridiculousness of your argument in the context of a global marketplace, AT LEAST THE CHINESE KNOW HOW TO SHIP A LAPTOP ON TIME >:(

haircut yay!

2008-08-07T22:48:00.004-05:00

I couldn't find the cord to my mom's camera, but she took some pictures on film and I scanned them in through our scanner and now I can post them on the internet!

The boy next to me is my little brother, Michael. We look nothing alike, I know. He is sixteen and learning how to drive and it is TERRIFYING.

So that is my haircut.

10 days and counting

2008-08-07T00:27:00.002-05:00

So I have an awesome haircut that I cannot show ANY of you because I can't find the cable for the digital camera. But I have bangs. And it is shorter now - like shoulder length. And my mom basically loves it.

Today I hung out with Emily and Kelli (Emily's 'little sister') and it was pretty awesome - we generally screwed around and I told hilarious tales of my disasterous love life. Also I basically have everything for college - all of my bath stuff is PINK because I LIKE PINK OKAY and all of my bedroom stuff is pretty much blue. I almost bought a comforter with hella colors but then I realized that it would get pretty obnoxious after like a month.

Ok, I know I was uber critical of Breaking Dawn in my last post, but I broke down and read it anyway. Yeah, it really sucked. But you know, with so much uncertainity in my life (my friends, college, BLOGGER APPS etc. etc.) the whole idea of fate is kind of appealing. That there's one right answer, one right guy, one right everything out there and that I can't really screw that up, because it's destined to happen. That everything I've done isn't really a mistake, it's just been another step on the way to my final destiny.

Sometimes the idea of not having free will seems stifling and terrifying and I yearn for the opportunity to make my own decisions, good or bad, but today is not one of those days.

breaking dawn

2008-08-04T17:49:00.004-05:00

Well, Stephenie Meyer's new book came out, and I believe I've alluded to my affection for her novels before, but holy crap. Please read the Wikipedia article on Breaking Dawn (spoiler alert) to see just how crappy this novel is. Seriously I have never been disuaded from reading a book by an author that I liked simply because the Wikipedia article was TOO RIDICULOUS but there is a first time for everything.

Aside from that, my room now has THREE suitcases in it, because I need to have a 'dry run' for packing (O.o apparently my plan to stuff everything in suitcases the night before and sit on them if I couldn't zip them was a bad one) and Emily and I are going to open mike night at Kafein today. She is reading a poem. I am hipster-watching (like people-watching, only with more Threadless t-shirts).

Zack (Lizzee's boyfriend) is in but this doesn't affect me, really, as she is hanging out with her multitudes of other friends. And also apparently I am insane re: the Ryan situation (his friends read my blog and apparently I come off as a crazy bitch. Go figure!). And that is all the news from this neck of the woods.

I totally was going to start running today and then I woke up and it was raining. So I went back to sleep. It was actually awesome.

argh

2008-08-01T14:29:00.001-05:00

My computer is now delayed for shipping until 8/8/08. Dell, you suck.

>:( <-- this is my angry face.

exciting things

2008-07-30T21:07:00.002-05:00

I has a cell phone! A REAL one! With actual service and everything, so now I can, like, call people and stuff!

It is shiny and black and made by Motorola and it is on the Verizon network, so I will even get service in East Campus. Although I feel very guilty that I have now signed my parents up for 2 years of $60/month bills just so I can call them / my friends to let them know what's going on.

Emily, Lizzee, and I went down to Loyola today to hunt for jobs for Emily. Loyola was pretty but definitely had nothing on MIT. Emily still isn't very happy that she's going there...she says that it feels like settling.

Also I got a Tim the Beaver stuffed animal for 43 cents, as it was $1 and then 60% off. WHOO!

my mother was wrong

2008-07-29T20:49:00.005-05:00

When I was almost sixteen, I started dating a boy named Mark. He was friends with Eytan, the son of my mom's best friend who lived across the street, and he generally seemed to be a nice guy, even though I really wasn't attracted to him in the slightest. He won over my parents and expressed a desire to marry me, which freaked me out at sixteen like nothing else could. Presumably due to his deep love and devotion for me, he began expressing a desire to engage in sexual intercourse with me, his underage girlfriend. I resisted, much to his chagrain, but this didn't stop him from telling the entire track team about it, much to my disappointment. Our breakup was unpleasant - he cried, then called me a whore and a slut and told my mother that I had given him an STD (he had mono, which I very may well have given him) and I got together with a recent friend a few days later.

In October, Ross Trace, a then-senior at DHS, died in a car crash fueled by drugs and alcohol, and Mark was upset and called me to console him. Seeing as I no longer had feelings for him, this was frustrating and annoying, and I surely wasn't as kind as I ought to have been. My mom encouraged me to be nice to him and chastized me for not wanting to ever see him again, and he later told me that I had turned him to drugs and alcohol.

My mom still maintains that I treated him badly, and that he was a nice boy whose heart I broke. This was in the police blotter last Thursday:

"Mark * *******, 20, [insert address here, go stalk him on your own time], was arrested at 1:17 a.m. on July 19 at his home after police investigated a complaint about fireworks. ******* was charged with unlawful possession of fireworks, unlawful possession of drug equipment (glass pipes used to smoke marijuana) and illegal consumption of alcohol."

As I am preparing to leave for MIT, I can't help but be slightly proud of the person that I've become, and that I now finally know who is and isn't worth my time.

a terrible thing

2008-07-27T22:48:00.004-05:00

Today, I told my parents about a rather interesting happening at work yesterday.

I was starving, as usual, and I asked Fernando to make me a sandwich...he responded that he only had bacon, and so he gave me a piece. I countered with "I have been a vegetarian for the past six years, I AM NOT EATING YOUR BACON."

And then Emily started eating it, and she was all 'nom nom bacon nom' and it looked really tasty, and it smelled really tasty, and I was *really* hungry. And then she was like 'do you want some bacon' and I was like 'no...WAIT YES' and then I ate some. And it was the most delicious thing that I have ever eaten.

And then I tackled her and stole the rest of the bacon, and she looked like she was going to stab me with a fork.

HOLY CRAP HOW DID I GO SIX YEARS WITHOUT EATING BACON x.x

When I told my parents this today, I think my dad was literally speechless for about five minutes. So I am officially a recovering vegetarian. Meat is really inappropriately tasty.

I also know this because I ate some in a sandwich at the totally awesome MIT Club of Chicago picnic today for incoming freshmen, which was in an amazing building on the top floor. Most excellent times.

Also I have not started the blogger app yet, and I do not plan to for at least 2 weeks, because I am working and EATING ANIMALS NOM NOM NOM

thinking thoughts

2008-07-26T01:07:00.003-05:00

I am in a rather pensive mood as of late.

It is becoming increasingly apparent to me the ways that progress is manifesting - progress towards that which I have always wanted, progress towards the huge white dome on Mass. Avenue.

I remember sitting in the back of my mom's car as she drove me to school, late again because I overslept as a freshman due to a mixture of irresponsibility and despair. I was miserable, as usual, and felt lonely and I thought to myself, 'four more years until I get out of this place, just four more years.' And I never thought I could stick it out.

Progress makes itself known in small ways - a to-do list in my mom's car, things that she and I are able to cross off more of every day. A pink bathrobe with white polka dots, purchased hastily before work because it was soft and I needed one anyway. My clothes, folded and waiting to be sorted into piles of 'take' and 'leave behind'. And the rest of my things - accumulated over eighteen years in the same room, the same house, the same town - and there they will stay, except for the lucky few that get to follow me on my journey.

Somehow, at Staples today, looking at the bright shiny new laptops, it hit me a bit harder than usual - this laptop will soon be on my doorstep, delivered by the friendly USPS guy like the one that dropped off the box of greeting cards at the bakery today. The friendly USPS guy that I won't see again until November, possibly even later. Because I will be in Massachusetts, farther away than I've really ever been, at the place that I've always wanted to end up, and it seems like now that I've gotten everything that I've ever wanted, I can only worry about whether or not I wanted the right things in the first place.

Progress feels like the fuzzy bathrobe I slipped on today at Bed, Bath and Beyond, it feels like a wad of cash from my apron pocket, handed to the bank teller who printed out my balance on the slip of paper and gave it to my mom, who commented, "you're well on your way to paying off your college debt." Progress smells like school supplies and sounds like laptop keys clicking as I test out the keyboard, it looks like a sticker that I pick up from the doctor's office after we drop off my forms to be signed, it tastes like the salad that Emily and I split as she stays late after work to entertain me, both of us knowing that our days are numbered.

Progress scares the crap out of me.

housing

2008-07-23T16:39:00.001-05:00

I'm temped in Munroe 410, aka 4W

I am also *really* late for work

My mom is going to freak out when she sees that my temp floor has a stripper pole...

YAY GO EC!

it's been...one week

2008-07-23T13:07:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in awhile, and part of the reason that I haven't posted is because I have been naively thinking that I could write a phenomenal update, one full of good cheer and clever puns and all of the fabulous things that have happened to me since last Thursday. That turns out to not be the case.

Sure, I will try my best for the puns, and I will try to keep up the good cheer, but Ryan hasn't called me, and I am forced to conclude that he never will. Which I was expecting, I guess, but it's still obnoxious.

Anyway, as Emily and I were cruising back from Steak and Shake 2 days ago at 3 in the morning (Steak and Shake was NOT open, and apparently closes at 1, by the way) she asked me if this was a good summer, and I was forced to say yes. A lot of the things that have happened have not been good - Lizzee is kind of upset with me, Ryan turned out to be a dick, and I have barely done *any* college shopping, but most of my days have been fun, and it hasn't dragged on as much as I had been expecting.

Also Zack is getting in soon, and next week, Lizzee doesn't have camp so maybe we can get some actual things done, or at the very least she can stay out really late with Emily and me, as our jobs start at 5 and only require the bare minimum of sobriety.

So yeah, 24 days! I am getting more and more excited :)

dark night

2008-07-18T03:26:00.002-05:00

I went to the movies today at midnight and saw Dark Knight - not my first midnight showing but I think that the crowd was more enthusiastic than the one at Harry Potter, and it was certainly populated with more kids from my high school.

While Lizzee, Matt, Nikola, and I were somewhat awkwardly waiting for the rest of our motley crew to arrive, we chatted and goofed around and I felt slightly guilty at saving half of a row of seats. My guilt was actually alleviated by the sheer number of people that asked me "are these seats taken" - if I'm splayed out along the row, they probably are. One guy actually asked "can I sit next to you," after I told him that the seats were taken, to which I replied "...no."

When Lizzee left to guard the seats of some friends of hers that were there also, the boy in front of me started flirting with me. I am apparently socially inept, because he asked me if I was here with anyone, and I responded, "yeah, that's why we're saving an entire row of seats!" He asked me again with a bit more of an inflection in his voice and I finally got the message, going "um, not really. Only with her" and pointing to Lizzee.

So, apparently I've still got it. Good to know, because Ryan was horribly awkward and weird through the entire movie, which was awesome, by the way. I really do enjoy blockbuster blowing things up with lots of guns and fast cars films, and the movie didn't disappoint in this department. I basically know nothing about Batman, but I still was greatly entertained by the plot, though I would've gained more from the little flashes of recognition that my friends seemed to be having (Derek was basically going nuts, it was kind of hilarious).

Also, Christian Bale is extremely, EXTREMELY attractive. Like, holy crap. There's a part where he's riding this red motorcycle and Lizzee and I nearly passed out from breathing so heavily.

So, the movie was fun, but Ryan was awkward and I called him afterwards and blurted out exactly what I was wondering -

"Do you want to be friends?"

He said that he did, but he still felt uncomfortable about the whole situation. I have managed to justify this ten times over in my mind, about how I guess I'm the first girl he's turned down (pretty sure this is true) and he cares about my feelings, so he feels bad for treating me like crap, kind of. But this might all just be a load of bull, and I told him to call me when he wants to be friends again. Either he'll miss me and he'll call, or he'll never call and I'll hang out with Lizzee, and Zack when he comes in, and Matt, who is very nice and apparently has my blog bookmarked now, and Emily and potentially Kelli and the rest of the menagerie. And I will not look back at that silly boy.

But, I hope that he calls, because if he doesn't, none of my other friends really like movies where everything gets blown up. There was a lot more to Dark Knight than that, but I am feeling rather dark myself and will save that for a later post, maybe.

jerk

2008-07-16T23:53:00.003-05:00

7/15/08
Dear Ryan,

Could you be more of a jerk?

Love,
-Karen

7/16/08

Dear Karen,

Yes. Yes I can.

-Ryan

Dear lord I am two steps away from punching that boy in the face. His mom said it'd be okay, too - I asked her permission. SCREW MY LIFE.

the war at home

2008-07-16T01:42:00.002-05:00

So, remember how I said that I managed to break up my friend and his ex-girlfriend?

HAHAHA THAT IS A LIE.

But I didn't know until today, in my defense. This whole experience has been somewhat frustrating, for the following reasons:

1. I really liked him, actually
2. I am not used to losing
3. She is CRAZY seriously guys
4. Now it is awkward
5. He totally said he liked me

So, that is where I've really been - going after a boy that I ended up not getting after all. And this is annoying and I am totally pissed, and I thought that I was completely fine until I started perusing Facebook and realized that she won, and sadly that annoyed me more than anything else - that she can be crazy and totally wrong for him, as shown by the fact that she HITS HIM dear god and yells and is generally INSANE, and he just doesn't care. His not caring hurts more than anything else.

Anyway, we are LANning this weekend and I am level 10, so maybe we will kill some dragons and it will be a-okay. But seriously. I am surprised at how upset I am because I am not the sort of girl that gets upset over boys...and yet, I so am.

Suddenly 33 days doesn't seem so damn close anymore.

testing, testing

2008-07-14T13:34:00.004-05:00

AP scores came today, I somehow managed to get a 5 in Macroecon even though I didn't understand financial systems, which I'd estimate to be 75% of the test, and a 3 in French, even though my teacher had high hopes for me. Oh well, I can't be good at everything, but at least I'm passable! :)

So, I have 5s in the following tests, which will get me credit:

Psych
Microecon
Macroecon
Calc BC

And I will be coming in with 39 units of credit. Not bad, but I'm kind of disappointed in my French score. I was really hoping for at least a 4.

Ok, enough about my grades... I slept SO WELL last night. Probably cuz I slept terribly on Saturday, but it was amazing, holy crap. And I made an alarmingly large pile of money yesterday, especially since I gave away four (!) tables to Jessica because I was too mentally drained to take any more. This just goes to show that my job requires little to no brainpower - woot woot :)

34 days (!)

2008-07-13T15:21:00.003-05:00

I haven't written anything in awhile, and this is not because I am horribly uninteresting (in fact, I seem to be completely hilarious on Vicodin) but it is because I have actually been doing things (!) with my life!

For example, last night there was a minor shindig at one of my friends' houses, and I stayed out all night and goofed around, and it was a lot of fun, and I always seem to have fun with these people, even if we're just sitting in the park plotting how to fortify the playground in case of zombie attack, and I am starting to become apprehensive about leaving for college so. far. away. from my family and friends, and especially since I will probably only rarely come back.

My mouth doesn't hurt anymore, and work is going well, and I have yet to really purchase anything for my dorm room still, and I am nervous about college, which I guess is typical.

Also I have fulfilled my life's purpose (for the time being) and have broken up my friend and his ex-girlfriend, hopefully, which contributes to the overall 'it turns out that I don't *really* want to leave this place behind as much as I thought I would' feeling.

So, we'll see.

Also, if anyone can confirm/deny that the indefinite integral for 4e^(x^3) doesn't exist, it would win me a bet, because I for sure cannot integrate that thing without an x^2 term as part of the function.

yum yum

2008-07-08T11:50:00.003-05:00

This post is brought to you by wisdom teeth and vicodin!

But yeah, I survived the surgery and am now eating an entire bag of gauze, it is pretty disgusting and you definitely don't need details. I went to a LAN party on Saturday night and it was easily the BEST THING EVER, omg so fun.

And yes, Snively wins - I cried for 20 mins after I woke up out of the anesthesia because I was so scared going in. But it is over now! And I have painkillers! WOOT!

So yeah, my weekend was awesome until they cut my mouth open...and I probably won't post for awhile once the opiates kick in.

UPDATE: I passed the FEE and actually got some nice comments on my essays, which seems to not be the norm. WOOT!

43 days, holy crap

2008-07-05T00:27:00.003-05:00

So, I am leaving for college pretty soon. These are the things that I have failed on so far:

Buying a laptop
Getting a cell phone
Buying much of anything for my dorm room
Finding a roommate

HOLY CRAP. How am I going to college? How did this happen? And also, how am I going to freaking MIT? Am I insane? I think so...

Also my job is incredibly boring. Suggestions for what I should do with my time?

The summer is oscilating between passing too quickly and not quickly enough...if this is the last summer of freedom that I will have, I don't want to spend it carrying pancakes and cakes all day.

ETA: Also I am 90% sure I lost my paycheck today at work...hahaha, oh jeez.

45 days (i think)

2008-07-03T15:18:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Donald was flying back through Chicago, but plans were derailed by a combination of Lizzee needing to be home at 5:30 for dinner and me being unrealistically paranoid about expressway driving, especially to the airport where I got lost before, and during rush hour at that. I felt really guilty when I heard that his flight was delayed until like 10 and I should've been providing entertainment, had I not been afraid of killing us all.

O'hare is notorious for delays, which makes me nervous about my mom only flying out for the day with me to Boston, but this one was pretty legit.

Me: Let's go to the park!
Lizzee: Okay!

*fun at the park*

Me: AH IT IS RAINING
Lizzee: AH I AM WET
Me: LET'S HIDE IN THESE PODS UNTIL THE RAIN STOPS

*rain rain rain*

*thunderstorm happens*

Me: We have been hiding in these pods for 45 minutes...let's make a run for it.
Lizzee: Ok...

*running*

Me: AH I AM WET
Lizzee: AH IT IS RAINING HARDER

So, I am sorry that I'm afraid to drive! But it seems that the weather got the last laugh in the end - we were completely soaked and, well, I wouldn't've wanted to drive in the rain anyway.

updates to my life

2008-06-28T23:05:00.003-05:00

I had my first douchebag customer today - he was complaining about his stupid eggs (like, seriously. they are eggs. get a grip) and refused to let it go, even when I suggested many a way to fix the problem. So I pawned them off on Jairo instead, and apparently they were like "you're new" and he was like "your other waitress transferred you to me". And they were still douches.

Anyway, I saw Wanted yesterday and it was pretty awesome, I like high-octane action movies with intense special effects so entertainment was at a maximum. Matt is being exceedingly sketchy towards me, so I took a page out of Emily's book and started sexually harassing him back, only weirdly, except then he CALLED ME and it was kind of strange, so Emily and I watched YouTube videos on the Walker Bros computer until she got a table and I went home.

I would rather hang out at work with Emily than go home, actually.

I am NOT WORKING at *all* tomorrow, which is the first time since a week ago Tuesday. Emily, Lizzee, and I were going to go to the Gay Pride Parade downtown, but apparently Emily's parents were all "rar, gay people suck and you can't go to their parade" so now we are just getting sushi for lunch.

Also I am getting my wisdom teeth out a week from Tuesday and could not be any less excited. As if doctors haven't poked around my mouth enough, what with the fillings last Tuesday. Tuesdays are generally a sucky day.

So, yeah. Tomorrow the plan is sleep in, paint my nails, get sushi, and watch some Firefly with Matt and Ryan and hopefully not get sexually harassed anymore! :)

52 days

2008-06-25T22:22:00.002-05:00

I spilled cream on someone on Sunday night, so now it is a joke that Karen creams all over the wives of Walker Bros customers.

Also all of my nights are spent watching Firefly and it is basically awesome, except we are running out of episodes.

P.S. Dells come with webcams too!

53 days

2008-06-24T21:18:00.003-05:00

In the past few days, I have...

Been out past midnight
Bought Firefly
Accidentally double-posted on MIT blogs
Worked a lot
Gotten 3 fillings
Consumed a lot of caffeine
Maybe picked out a laptop
Driven my little brother across town to pick up a microphone so he could talk on Skype with his friend (telephone? what telephone?)
Talked about my feelings with someone other than the usual buddy
Gone up in a rocket ship at 3 am

WHOO GO SUMMER :)

55 days

2008-06-22T14:47:00.002-05:00

I would very much like to take the screen out of my bedroom window and stick my head out and scream until my lungs give out, but this is impractical because:

1. I need my voice to ask people if they're ready to order at Walker Bros
2. We have a lot of old people on my street

So instead, I have opted for an elite form of masochism called "working until my feet want to die". Also, sleeping a lot and eating a lot of carbs. I think my plan to get trim and attractive for college has reached an impasse - on the one hand, my delts are getting a lot of work from carrying pancakes / heavy cakes around, but on the other hand, I eat a lot of pancakes.

Last night was an awesome Lizzee's parents aren't home get-together, during which I realized that dancing is only fun if no one is watching you and/or it is very dark and/or you are drunk. Unfortunately, none of the above were true, and now I have 'The Way I Are' stuck in my head, which I like despite the bad grammar. It is so catchy that this almost isn't embarassing.

Anyway, I have no clue as to why I am so crabby lately, but I also can't sleep and this may be somewhat related. Maybe I should start abusing over-the-counter sleep aids, although I rarely have a full 8 hours to devote to sleep.

I actually kind of miss high school, which is kind of embarassing. I'm currently torn on how I will feel watching my mom walk away to catch her plane back to Chicago when she drops me off at college - half of me feels like I will break apart from the feeling of sheer and utter abandonment, but the other half will probably dance and shout and cry tears of joy, even if my dorm is watching, and I'm not drunk, and it's light out. I guess we'll know soon enough.

introspective rant

2008-06-19T21:50:00.002-05:00

We got our grades back today. I got a C in gym, which is an epic disappointment to my parents, apparently.

"Fine, Karen," my dad told me, "it's okay to just half-ass it. If you don't want to try your best, that's fine."

I have never put too much stock in grades - honestly, they are just some arbitrary measurement of my progress set by people that see me for four hours a week at most. I wish that someone had told me that high school grades were just a means to an end - one way for colleges to measure your progress so that they could judge whether or not to admit you. Activities and extracurriculars, I've been told, are what gets you admitted in the end - a 4.0 really just says that you can do the work.

Gym, furthermore, doesn't even get factored into my GPA, and it wouldn't be on my transcript at all if Illinois didn't mandate that high school students are in a gym class every semester they're enrolled in school. So gym, I couldn't care less.

I wanted to shake my MIT acceptance letter in my dad's face and yell, "I'm into college! They're not going to kick me out for a stupid C! They saw so much more in me than a transcript, numbers on a page, and all they got was my application!"

Or to hold out that picture of me and Chris, and declare, "my progress can't be measured in stupid grades! Look at this - look at the electronics board, look at how I worked, how can you possibly say that I don't try my hardest? It took a damn lot of effort to read through all of the Chief Delphi posts, to figure out which tab to put in which slot, to make sure everything worked and to label everything. Do you honestly think that I was just idly sitting by in Harrison's basement, or in Mr. Regan's garage? Was I just wasting my time?"

Or even to brandish my savings account summary, and to say, "I've worked basically every single day since I was sixteen, so that I could have enough money to take the burden off of you for college. I am still working, two jobs even, so that I can make money to pay you back. Do you think I'm not trying, pulling the kind of grades that I pull and making money at the same time? Do you honestly think I'm not applying myself?"

"It's GYM CLASS," I wanted to shout, "it doesn't even matter! I missed a workout that was half my grade because I was taking the damn AP Calc BC test, the same stupid AP test that will get me college credit. I have a C because I am a good student and because I was taking AP tests to save me time in college. Would you rather I just repeat all those classes?"

Then, my mom pointed out my B- fourth quarter in Econ, asking, "what went wrong here?"

"Mom," I wanted to tell her, "I don't know, because I had an A-, and Mr. Huff must've just spaced out on replacing the grade that he said he was going to replace. I respect the man as a teacher, I really enjoyed his class, and I see no reason to harass him once grades are in, especially since I am already into college. They are not kicking me out for a B in Econ, and I'm done, and it's over, and I don't care."

But I said none of these things. I said that grades don't matter, and I'm going to college, and I don't care, because I could never tell my parents any of this to their faces.

I was wondering afterwards if my parents had any influence on my grades, and the truth is that I think their influence is minimal at best. I have never worked hard for them in high school, as much as I can remember; I do my homework mostly because I don't want to disappoint my teachers. They are like background noise, harassing me if I get bad grades and really doing little else, in my opinion (which is probably horribly biased).

Someday, I will have my college degree, and I will have a Brass Rat on one ring finger and a wedding ring on the other, and I will have a house in the countryside and someone to ride horses with at dusk, and I will have children and a past and a future. And then, maybe, I will be more than just grades on a page.

FPOPs

2008-06-18T14:09:00.001-05:00

DME FTW!!!

:) I am VERY VERY VERY VERY extremely excited about this, yay! :)

teh internets

2008-06-18T11:36:00.002-05:00

I just downloaded Opera 9.5 today, and I have to admit that it's not as visually attractive as Opera 9.27. I find this extremely disappointing.

In other news, I slept basically all day yesterday and am in search of new books to read, having read the books that I have multiple times each. Suggestions, anyone?

I am also not going to go back to Internet Explorer, don't worry :)

finally! an interesting post

2008-06-16T16:09:00.002-05:00

Today, the famous (or infamous) Donald Guy and I met up in Chicago!

Well, it was supposed to be yesterday, but the planes at O'hare kind of suck and his flight got *really* delayed, so we rescheduled for this morning. After my mom embarassingly chaperoned my drive to the airport (because airports are scary and I have a bad sense of direction, although it was entirely her fault that we got lost), we headed off for what promised to be a morning of adventure.

Soon we found ourselves lost in Elk Grove Village, which is about 20 minutes in the opposite direction of the way that we were intending to head. We stopped for Steak and Shake, which is actually kind of sketchy at 9:30 in the morning. It was pretty quiet and there were really only old people, but I suppose I should've seen this coming seeing as I've always been to Steak and Shake very late at night, and people probably don't want milkshakes that early in the morning. I quickly found that I didn't, either :)

This whole 'lost' thing was kind of premeditated - I was nervous about meeting someone that I had really only known on the internet, and I think it's a safe statement that most people are more guarded in real life than they are when it's just words in an AIM screen. So maybe all of the awesomeness was all imagined, but in any case, randomly driving around would give us something to do.

My real intention was to find River Road, which we never actually found because we made a wrong turn immediately out of the parking lot of my parents' work and ended up lost (note: DONALD KNEW THIS AND DIDN'T TELL ME), so there was a lot of driving going on.

Then we tried to find our way back, after calling my dad to ask where the hell we were (he told us to turn around), but I saw a forest preserve and stopped because I like trees. A lot, actually. Green things make me happy and I'm going to miss trees once I arrive at MIT. But anyway, we tromped around in the forest and had an epic adventure, and by now all of the awkwardness had basically worn off and we were having an awesome time.

And then we realized that we had to make it back to the airport in time for Donald's flight, so we were forced to use the GPS on his phone (which was AWESOME by the way) and eventually made our way back to my parents' work.

Luckily Donald's parents managed to magically check the luggage without him, and so we journeyed up the stairs to my mom's office to ask her what to do. They sent us to another park. I was down with this, because I like parks.

We actually managed to not get lost on the way to the park, which was really good because it really wasn't that far, but the magic phone GPS would've helped us if not. Except it wanted us to go to a different park, and we weren't having any of that.

After another adventure of climbing on rocks near posted "do not climb on rocks" signs, we headed back to the office, met some random MIT alumni connection people that were visiting (they were very quiet and probably thrown off by dealing with not old people), my mom (argh) drove Donald back to the airport and we dropped him off at the terminal.

About 30 seconds after we pulled away, I got a phone call, because O'hare is made of fail and Donald's flight got delayed AGAIN, until 6. It later got delayed until 8, but I seized the opportunity to do something other than read College Confidential posts and play video games and we hung out in the airport.

Airports are actually extremely boring, especially ones where everything potentially interesting is behind the security gates. We rode on the moving walkways and wandered around and eventually sat out by 'departures' for awhile before I took a taxi back to the building and the car so I could go to work.

This is when things started to go downhill: apparently I was supposed to work that morning, the taxi didn't know where the building was and got kind of lost, and I was late to work that afternoon, but it was totally worth it because it was, all in all, a pretty awesome time. Except for the whole getting extremely lost part, and the airport was kind of lame.

Sometimes I wonder that I dreamed the entire MIT experience, and that CPW didn't actually exist and I'm really not going to college. But considering that I have now met a classmate in real life besides the people that I already knew before visiting, I am forced to admit that, if all a hoax, MIT is a damn good one.

progress

2008-06-15T14:04:00.002-05:00

Plane tickets: Purchased (10:10 arrival in Boston on Sunday, August 17)

Orientation: Registered

Winter Coat: Purchased

Paperwork: Completed.

I am ready to go :)

2008-06-14T01:31:00.001-05:00

The Happening is the shittiest movie ever. Thought you all should know. I left feeling strangely violated, as though the scariest part was that I had just wasted $9.75 and two hours of my life on it...

In other news, Lizzee gets home Sunday! :)

wow.

2008-06-12T02:27:00.003-05:00

So guys, I have been more than a bit apprehensive about college in the upcoming months - whether I'll meet friends, whether I'll be able to handle my classes, whether I'm the biggest mistake MIT has made since its founding (ok, this is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but often I feel like the biggest mistake in the class of 2012).

Furthermore, REX looks hella scary (there's so much stuff to do!) and the campus is pretty urban, and I like trees a lot. And also I hate winter, and Boston is very cold, and maybe I would've been better off trying harder and getting accepted to Duke, where it's really nice out.

Also, MIT is extremely expensive, and I could be spending my parents' money for nothing, and that would be very bad indeed.

It's mostly the making friends thing, though - I'm needy. I like people. I require a lot of attention, and I *hate* being alone.

But, something has happened, and when I really think about it, I'm getting more and more excited to be running around campus - the urban, tree-less campus, yes - and doing random crap in the middle of the night. And having snowball fights. And doing homework (well, that's kind of a lie). This is really, really good, because seriously, U of I keeps sending me packages and it would be sooooo easy to call up their admissions office and beg my way in (or at least to try), but for the first day, I don't see that as an option anymore :)

Glad to be MIT's biggest mistake in the class of 2012, I am :)

lol, actually

2008-06-10T00:40:00.002-05:00

Ok, I went back to the housing site to change my preferences because I felt bad for playing the system, and discovered that I had actually entered the following:

1. EC
2. Burton-Conner
3. Random
4. Senior Haus
5. Baker

So I switched Senior Haus and Random. Fun fact.

eta: can't spell ^^;

hey

2008-06-09T01:28:00.001-05:00

Come on, guys, Baker wouldn't be *that* bad.

Besides, my mom doesn't want me to live in Senior Haus due to the smoking. Plus I don't really feel comfortable showing my parents that mural of the pokemon...

musings

2008-06-07T22:39:00.003-05:00

It is hot out - 88 degrees today when I woke up at 5:15 am after being unceremoniously roused from my sleep by my manager, who was worried that one of my coworkers was ditching and wanted me to come in early. I have recently gotten into playing this stupid MMORPG that my friends play and consequently only got 3 hours of sleep...I fell asleep babysitting today while we were watching Meet the Robinsons, which is amazing by the way.

So, I feel as though this deserves some introspection - something about not being able to move because it is so extremely hot puts me in the mood to think about things :) I actually really love hot weather - as someone who's cold all of the time, it's actually really nice to be extremely warm. Also I generally dislike clothes and therefore will make an excellent EC resident (hopefully).

My dorm choices were as follows, for those of you who are curious:

1. EC
2. BC
3. Baker
4. Random
5. SH
6. - 17. I can't even remember

Yes, I played the system a bit, although I think that I could have played it way more by ranking Chocolate City 2nd and Baker 3rd, then everything else :)

I was talking to my coworker Laura today (at the bakery) and apparently she was denied a raise, which I think is kind of ridiculous considering that she's been working her butt off, even as a stand-in manager, while only making a dollar more per hour than I am. Here is Tim's logic:

"Although we recently raised our prices on basically everything, this was to help combat inflation and isn't necessarily resulting in any additional revenue."

The phrasing on the memo made it sound like he thinks that raising prices will help combat inflation on a macro scale, which is ridiculous. But what it really sounds like is "we are cheap, Karen, get a new job so you can actually pay for college!!!"

So we went on lunch for about twice as long as we were supposed to today, and I took home three cakes with the intent of using one of them to bribe my Walker Bros coworkers to work for me next Sunday, if necessary.

Last night, I hung out with Ryan and company and we went bowling, and then we went to the park and hung out. It was totally fine until they started turning off the lights, because it was around midnight and curfew is 11 and the parks technically close at sundown, and I am kind of easily freaked out and also quite a bit afraid of the dark, because I'm totally lame. So I went down the slide and I was pretty sleep deprived and I started FREAKING OUT and basically faceplanted onto the woodchips and then ran to Ryan's car.

Also, I am extremely disappointed because my hips are too wide to fit comfortably in swings, and someone should remedy this immediately.

But seriously, Meet the Robinsons is hilarious and you should all see it.

summertime

2008-06-04T14:44:00.002-05:00

I seem to be opening pretty much every post with "I'm not dead, I'm just boring!" lately.

So, the big highlights of the summer. Summer turns out to not be nearly as awesome as I was expecting, especially since Lizzee is currently in North Carolina with Zack, and she was my main source of entertainment (mostly kidding). I've been working a decent amount, but I suspect that I'm going to need to find another job, because I'm really not getting enough hours at either one (i.e. I still have free time) so...perhaps look for upates on that maybe.

Aside from those exciting things, I finished the FEE, entered the housing lottery, and slept past noon for every single day except for Monday, when I had to wake up to edit my FEE essays. I've also been hanging out with Ryan and company, they are pretty awesome although I generally get lazy and don't call him back if I've been doing something beforehand.

Yesterday was my french teacher's barbecue - Madame Wolf is really, really nice and her husband is pretty much hilarious, although it's always a little bit strange to see where teachers live.

I am working on cleaning my room as well and spending more time on Instructables than is probably healthy. My mom managed to find all of the boxes / labels that I illegally ordered from the post office because I like mail and is now bugging me to do something with them. The weather is most excellent and it would be nice if I could think of something to do outside!

In conclusion: I desperately need a hobby / a third job.

summertime

2008-05-29T21:33:00.005-05:00

I'm not dead, I'm just not very interesting.

Tuesday was graduation, it was SUPER cold. Like 45 degrees cold. I have pictures of our car's outside thermometer to prove it.

I managed to graduate anyway:

Note the gloves. It was also extremely windy, hence the falling-off hat and the messy hair.

Afterwards, Lizzee, Emily, Trever, and I went out and celebrated in a fashion that I can't write about lest my parents read this. It was fun, albeit slightly scarring. And now I have all that summer has to offer to look forward to: a *lot* of working. And the FEE. There's a lot of reading assignments and so far, none of them have been particularly interesting.

Lizzee has departed for two weeks in North Carolina with Zack today, but I'm hanging out with Sarah tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to work on the FEE essays and come up with something interesting to write about :)

important things

2008-05-24T19:35:00.002-05:00

1. Iron Man was totally bad-ass. Go see it.

2. Boat party was also totally awesome, and I realized that I've managed to achieve at least one thing that I hoped to at the beginning of high school:
I don't care at all what other people think :)

Emily: Sorry you got stuck sitting at this table.
Me: Actually, I wanted to sit here.
Emily: ...
Me: They're pretty awesome. (in reference to the 'lame' boys I was sitting with)

So yeah, boat party was basically a blast, although it was REALLY cold on the lake.

3. I finally made my Athena account: kasittig@mit.edu. Yeah, boring, I know. I kept getting nervous when I thought about being stuck with something too creative, although apparently I didn't even need an Athena account to register for the FEE, so I totally could've procrastinated mre.

4. Speaking of MIT, my coworkers at the bakery printed this HUGE poster of my face superimposed on the face of a ClipArt-esque mechanic working on a robot and put it up. Where people can see it. And it says "Congratulations Karen! MIT Bound" and people recognize me and are like "you're going to MIT?!! Congrats!" and I am all embarssed. Although it was very sweet of them and the poster is very cute, and I'd totally take a picture except my digital camera is crap and broke again.

5. I am practicing for college. I accidentally reversed night and day and ended up staying up until 3 am or so, sleeping until 4, going to work, staying up, and then going back to sleep, so...getting up at 8 for work was a shock. And getting up at 5 for work tomorrow is going to be even worse. But I've actually made a decent dent in my college debt (relatively speaking, it's still HUGE) so it's totally worth it (plus I like having a wad of cash :) )

6. That's it. Back to normal :)

first day of the rest of my life

2008-05-21T20:39:00.002-05:00

No school today, slept until 1, took a shower, got my teeth cleaned, didn't drink any caffeine, may be getting back to normal.

Miss classes somewhat - there's very little to do around here. Lizzee, Matt, and I are seeing Iron Man tonight. It should hopefully be pretty good.

I am generally a pretty upbeat person but I have been feeling rather miserable and dark lately. I hope that sleeping more will help. Also I have three cavities from subsisting entirely on diet soda and snack foods, owing to my mom's general hatred of the grocery store. Oh, and also pancakes. I like pancakes.

last day

2008-05-20T22:22:00.002-05:00

When everyone else was crying and hugging and lamenting the last day of school during French today, I thought that it was a little obscene that I didn't want anything other than to get in my car and to not stop driving until I was very, very far away.

Given that I live about a mile and a half from school, things didn't work out as planned.

I'd write a long entry, but I'm extremely tired for no particular reason. I also didn't see what the inside of the electric cow was like - anyone from DHS reading this is probably scandalized. I kind of like that a part of high school is still magical and amazing - also, I forgot to go after school. Part of the whole 'running as far away as fast as possible' thing.

kallisti@mit.edu is taken. kasi@mit.edu or kasittig@mit.edu? Or other suggestions?

In short: I'm done.

ditch day

2008-05-19T15:41:00.003-05:00

Today was senior ditch day, and I went for physics because I don't think that I can actually afford to lose 3% off of my grade, but I ended up going home because my teachers kept asking me why I was there.

So, now my teachers AND my parents think that I'm lame.

I used to think that I didn't fit in at high school because I wasn't cut out to be friends with north shore kids, and that things would perk up in college. I'm starting to think that I'm some sort of weird freak, as I'm the kid that didn't go to her senior prom because she'd have to go not stag, but entirely on her own, and who goes to school on senior ditch day because honestly, she has nothing better to do.

I ended up reading books from the library. My mom questions my sanity. I really hope that college will be different. I also haven't been scheduled for work that much this week so I can't use that as an excuse for being extremely lame.

On the upside, one of the books was pretty good.

prom?

2008-05-18T13:22:00.002-05:00

Last night, Lizzee, Sarah, and I ended up driving down to Evanston to get coffee at Kafein (the coffee shop by Northwestern where all the hipsters go). It was okay, but I wish that I had gone to prom.

Afterwards, Lizzee fell asleep on my couch while we waited for Ryan and Matt to call us to meet up with their prom group. I drove her home at 1 am and went to sleep.

I suppose that, when viewed as the capstone of my high school experience, my prom night was rather fitting. At least I got ice cream.

...well, shit.

2008-05-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

HAHAHAHA

MY PROM DATE CAN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE BECAUSE HE HAS AN EYE INFECTION

HAHAHAHAHA MY LIFE IS A JOKE

...I wish I were kidding. It's 8 on prom night and I have zero plans.

friday

2008-05-17T14:50:00.003-05:00

I am sunburned.

Back in the day, there was a time when I went outside on a regular basis and didn't spend most of my life either sleeping, doing homework, or watching crappy reality TV, and back then, I would tan to a lovely shade of golden-brown by the end of the summer. But then, I entered high school, and yesterday when we went to Six Flags, I think that Deborah could best sum up the experience:

"They trap us in classrooms for AP tests for the past two weeks, and then they put us outside! No wonder we're squinting and we're all sleepy - all this natural light is a huge shock to our systems."

So yeah. I have an awkward t-shirt tan and my sunburn kind of hurts. But anyway.

Last night, after Six Flags, Lizzee and I went to the Scholastic Bowl end-of-the-year party. It was pretty weird, actually - an old Scholastic Bowler was there and we discussed how, three years ago when he was a senior, he was deciding between MIT and Yale. He's a math major, and he says that he still wonders what his life would be like if he had gone to MIT instead - apparently CPW was more awesome fun than anything he's done in his three years so far.

Then, Lizzee and I went to this random bar with some boys that we know (Matt, who is awkwardly in love with Lizzee, pretty much, Ryan, my physics study buddy, and Nikola, who used to be my best friend when we were about four, amongst others) and played pool for awhile. I basically fell asleep on my stool and knocked over some glasses of water, proving that I am indeed more clumsy when tired.

Then I found out this morning that Ben is leaving MIT. This is going to sound ridiculous, but Ben was a major reason why I decided to go to MIT - he made it feel like it wasn't such a huge and scary place, and I felt like if I didn't go to MIT, I would be hugely disappointing him. My first thought was, "is MIT still going to be awesome? Maybe I should've gone to U of I after all. Or Case Western, because then I could stalk him at Oberlin."

Kidding about the last part, I'm not that creepy. Then, I realized that this was ridiculous - most of my CPW fun wasn't had in the admissions office (I actually didn't go in there at all) but with random people that I met along the way. So MIT will still be awesome, dammit.

Tonight is prom. I haven't had particularly wonderful prom night experiences in the past, and my plans can be summed up by this XKCD cartoon. Except there will be no formal attire. And all of the LANing will be replaced by crappy sci-fi movies. It's still very possible that Lizzee and I will ditch my non-date and end up just screwing around instead.

So, I'm officially done with high school on Tuesday. It's pretty weird.

ap updates

2008-05-13T23:15:00.003-05:00

Chem was pretty dull, I can't spell my name with elements from the periodic table BUT both of my now-prospective usernames are spellable, so nothing really got narrowed down.

I read Stephenie Meyer's new novel, The Host, instead of studying for Econ today.

Anyway, I suspect it will be potassium, aluminum, lithium, sulfur, titanium ftw. Although I don't think that potassium, argon, iodine would be all that bad either. Did I mention that I really hate chemistry now?

2 more tests and I can be sane again!

hate physics.

2008-05-12T18:56:00.003-05:00

Discussing AP Physics, and the end of the year:

Karen: you can always hope that everyone got equally raped
Lawry: I can hope
Lawry: But hope is just that -> hope
Lawry: Which is made only better by the fact I am giong to have to spend all of my free time over hte next 2 days doing my english paper
Karen: then we GRADUATE!!!
Lawry: Then I hav ethe economics paper (laugh)
Karen: i have 2
Karen: and also an english paper
Karen: but
Karen: i'm willing to accept the fail i think
Lawry: I thought about turning in a half finished paper
Lawry: I figure hes got at least give me a 50%
Lawry: Which is a semester pass
Lawry: Care = .0000
Karen: no care
Lawry: Agreed.
Karen: P(care) = 0
Karen: care = fail
Lawry: I thought about buying one of those term essays
Lawry: But they all suck to much
Lawry: and none are long enough
Karen: ...fail.

This is what I do with my time.

2008-05-12T17:44:00.002-05:00

NBM CAME!!!!

LIZZEE IS HOME!!!!!

I CAN'T THINK OF AN E-MAIL ADDRESS!!!!!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE my brain is fried from AP tests and work :(

issues

2008-05-08T17:22:00.004-05:00

1. Ed refuses to go to post-prom, because going would violate his ideals of what prom should be.

2. There is obnoxious construction on my street.

3. I don't have time to sleep, work, and do my homework, and work can't really be cut out.

4. My NBM isn't here yet, and I don't know if MIT actually knows that I'm coming. This might be due to #2, though.

5. I don't know what my e-mail address should be - Donald suggested kallisti@mit.edu but it might be kind of egotistical, but ksittig@mit.edu is just kind of boring.

6. If the NBM comes tomorrow, I'm working from after school until 10 (both jobs) so I can't watch the i3 videos :(

However, Lizzee gets home Saturday! :)

so what.

2008-05-07T16:25:00.002-05:00

I was sitting in the WERCS today, talking to Ed about Post Prom (which he didn't want to go to, even though that was the plan) when Emily yells, "Karen, you're talking about post-prom AGAIN?"

Number one, I do NOT talk about post-prom that much, and number two, I think that talking about post-prom with my post-prom date is nothing to be ashamed of. Furthermore, why am I such a freak for wanting to go to prom? She's so badass, sure, with her little junior best friend, 'little sister,' but I want one epic night that I can look back on and say, "yeah, high school was kind of awesome." I'm sorry that I'm so disappointingly mainstream.

I want to be pretty and get my hair done and not have my boyfriend try to have sex with me, even though I don't want to and on top of that, I have mono and will be diagnosed two days later. I want to have painted nails, I don't want to babysit and watch Billy Elliot because my not-boyfriend is too much of a pussy to rent a tux and show me a good time. I want to put on makeup and have people take pictures of me and feel beautiful that night, and that is normal and acceptable. And the closest thing I can get is post prom, because no one asked me and Ed doesn't like dances, so screw you all.

Then, I was talking to my calc teacher about the BC test, and how I was horribly disappointed because it was easy, and Kristen goes, "well, Karen, maybe you're just the smartest person in the world, hm?"

I wanted to look at her and go, "Kristen, why the hell are you such a bitch." But, I couldn't, because my calc teacher is pretty traditional, and he wouldn't go for that sort of thing. So I just ignored her, and then she started on my clothes.

"Are those boys' shorts?"

Yeah, I own boy shorts, so what? They have nice big pockets and they're comfortable and I had to take a 3-hour calculus test today and it's very warm in Chicago right about now, so sorry that I don't want to put on jeans.

So, basically Ed and I sat in the WERCS for an hour and a half, and he finally agreed to go to post prom. And I will probably wear jeans and a t-shirt, but goddamn it, I'm going to be pretty.

Also, if I find Kristen, I'm going to pour punch all over her, because it's a lock-in and we'll need to be really belligerent in order to get kicked out so we can leave before 5 am. Post prom isn't chaperoned by any school officials, so I'd be totally fine. Oh yeah, plus she's a huge bitch and deserves it. Night to remember, people, night to remember...

2008-05-04T18:44:00.001-05:00

Ok, guys, you can relax. I downloaded Opera and I like it a lot :) Except for the part where Yahoo is its official search engine.

Can I have my street cred back now?

hi!

2008-05-04T00:04:00.002-05:00

So, guys, I'm not dead. I'm just kind of boring, between work and school and being mad at Blogger because they totally just put in the 'future dated posts' thing that I was looking for last Tuesday when I rejected U of I and took that screenshot.

By the way, I'll confess it: I really don't like Firefox. I actually *do* like Internet Explorer. I've tried Opera, but I just keep going back to IE...

Here is the most interesting part of my day (may or may not be paraphrased for entertainment):

Guy: You guys have terrible service. We've been sitting here for awhile and no one asked us if we needed anything.
Me: ...I'm sorry.
Guy: Well, we want some coffee.
Me: ...why don't you guys have any menus?
Guy: ?
Me: The hostess didn't give you any menus?
Guy: Hostess?
Me: ...so you just walked in and sat down at a table?
Guy: ...
Me: ...you know, you call it bad service, I call it a misunderstanding, but some would call it trespassing.

status update

2008-05-01T15:34:00.002-05:00

Hi guys, I'm totally fine. Security was nuts at school today and basically no kids were in my classes, so after my chem presentation (pointless) I got called out and went home.

My lil' bro just came home, and we got an automated phone call saying that everything was back to normal, so I'm 99% sure nothing went down.

All this means is that you guys are most def stuck with me next year for good :)

decision day

2008-05-01T08:42:00.000-05:00

hate school.

2008-04-30T15:35:00.003-05:00

Today was the most freaking useless day of school ever.

I got to school about 10 minutes before my lab started and had my bags searched at the entrance (I liked the look on the English department head's face when she felt the 10 bouncy balls from CPW at the bottom of my purse) and made my way through the hallways (deserted, awkward) to Physics, where the projector was broken and so we didn't learn anything, as my teacher is "psychologically incapable of writing on the board".

Those are his exact words.

Then, I went to Chemistry (after homeroom, where there were only about 10 out of the 25 kids there), where I listened to freaking boring review presentations where half the time my classmates were wrong and the other half of the time, my obnoxious chem teacher was goofing around with the kids in the back of the classroom.

I think that it's really rude when not even your teacher is listening to your presentation, and it makes me really want to ditch school tomorrow because honestly, what's the point in showing up to give a presentation when none of my classmates will be there and the teacher doesn't care anyway, and I might get shot. Although my parents think that this is 'all a hoax,' but they don't realize that there are about 30 things that I can think of that I could be doing instead of being in lock down at school.

Then Harrison and I went to the library to work on our presentation, where teachers hovered over us and Harrison ditched me to go god knows where, and then I had Econ, where my teacher sprung the Macro final on us and I finished in about 20 minutes, but I couldn't leave to do anything because we were in FREAKING LOCK DOWN, so I just took a nap.

Then we had lunch, and Chris who is a little bitch, by the way, wouldn't let me into the WERCS (the door was locked) so we had to keep banging on the window until someone else opened the door. I think that the epitome of douchebag is refusing to open a door for someone when you're in FREAKING LOCK DOWN because you don't like them. So Ed and I agreed that we're going to post-prom together, which I guess is the closest thing I'm getting to an actual prom date, so whoo?

Then I went to French and we had an in-class essay (goddamn it) and I went to English and we had a work day. So basically I was stuck in lock down all day and was forced to either sit through doing NOTHING or had to take tests. Worst day ever.

Things that are completely idiotic about my school:

1. No one is focused, and half of the kids are ditching school. It's pointless to hold classes when everyone's edgy and paranoid and unfocused. Just admit that the school needs to be closed instead of all of these press releases about how it's ok if you want to keep your kids home.
2. Closed halls? Bomb in the lunchroom = everyone dead. Great idea, trapping kids there for 2.5 hours straight.
3. Not searching girls' bags because the threat was written in the boys' bathroom. Way to actually *check* my lunch and my bag and my purse, guys. Just because I don't have testicles means it's ok if I bring weapons to school?
4. I HATE CHEMISTRY. I am not taking the AP test, no one pays attention to the presentations, and I don't want to risk getting freaking SHOT because I have to give a review presentation for my class, the vast majority of whom ARE NOT SHOWING UP. There is NO REASON for me to go to school tomorrow AND YET I HAVE TO BECAUSE OF THIS STUPID PRESENTATION.

Screw this, I'm ditching and going to the zoo tomorrow.

well, shit

2008-04-29T15:43:00.002-05:00

Today, graffiti was discovered in the detention hall bathroom that was basically a bomb threat on my high school. I guess the end of the year is starting to get to people, but I don't think that writing that "Thursday, May 1st, DHS will never be the same. There will be guns. There will be explosions. There will be chaos." in the boys' bathroom is really the way to go about things.

There were a crapload of cops outside the school when I left this afternoon, and there's a press release on my high school website from our principal.

That being said, if you write that you're going to kill people in a public place and give a date and time well in advance, you're kind of a moron. Harrison and I have our chem presentation Thursday, so I can't really stay home, but I'm still kind of nervous. I don't like violence, even though I did lay the smack down on Chander when he tried to steal my computer in Chem yesterday.

I've also found something that I'm *really* going to miss about high school: robotics. Activities night was last night for the 8th graders, and I had a blast, and we got a LOT of names (a whole notebook page! and 5 girls!), and I kind of wish I could be there next year to see how the team develops.

Our team mentor says that he gives it a year before I drop out of college and make millions in a wacky start-up company, and I'm welcome back then :)

2008-04-28T16:05:00.002-05:00

I have a bruise on my forehead because I opened my car door into my face when I was driving to work last night.

16 days...

all this work is getting to me

2008-04-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

"Why don't we have stickers on our cars?"
"Your dad and I think that stickers are tacky."
"If I went to U of I, would you put a sticker on the car?"
"...probably not, why?"
"If I went to MIT, would you put a sticker on the car?"
"Their stickers are probably expensive, just like their tuition."
"Why don't you want to put stickers on our car?"
"Bragging is rude."
"Why don't you want to brag about me?"
"I don't want to be rude."
"Lizzee's parents have a Carnegie Mellon sticker on their car, and they're not rude."
"...why do you want us to put a sticker on our car?"
"I want you to be proud of me."
"We are proud of you."
"But not proud enough to put a sticker on our car!"
"Do you want me to put a sticker on our car?"
"I want you to WANT TO put a sticker on our car."

I also told her that I wanted her to wear a college sweatshirt around the house. Maybe I should swap lives with Ben from 21. His dad wore sweatshirts around the house AND Ben joined the blackjack team and probably made enough money to pay his parents back for college.

So, poll: whose parents have stickers on their cars?

um...

2008-04-26T22:21:00.003-05:00

So guys.

I think I really should go to U of I.

I'd come in with 43 hours of credit, which would make me a 2nd-semester sophomore.

My parents would be thrilled.

I would graduate in 2 and a half years and could potentially attend MIT for grad school at the same time that my 2011 friends are entering.

I would graduate with no debt at all, and would even have about 50k in pocket for grad school.

It really doesn't make sense for me to go to MIT, sorry. Middle-class kids can't afford private school, financial aid has made sure of that.

time's running out, karen anne

2008-04-26T15:53:00.003-05:00

I still haven't turned down U of I.

I think I need some moral support. Who wants to hold my hand while I click the button?

Just kidding, sort of. I guess I'm kind of screwed if I can't get up the nerve by Wednesday...

UIUC visit

2008-04-24T10:35:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, I visited U of I - Urbana-Champaign with my parents. The weather was gorgeous - about 80 degrees and sunny (actually, as we were leaving, the car thermometer read 87), and we got pizza and generally engaged in some fun family bonding. This entry is very picture-heavy, so if I crash your computer, I'm sorry!

First, we checked in at the Alumni Center, which was recently renovated and was very nice. We sat through an *extremely* boring presentation, during which my dad and I exchanged such gems as:

Woman: The founders of YouTube are from U of I!
Dad: See? Go here and you can found YouTube!
Me: Yeah, but the guys that founded Google and bought YouTube for a crapload of money were Stanford dropouts (warning: questionable accuracy).

Woman: We're currently working on the Human Genome Project here!
Dad: See? You can do cutting-edge research here too!
Me: If I go to MIT, I can take Intro to Biology from the FOUNDER of the Human Genome Project, Dad.

After our presentation, my parents and I embarked on a campus tour. Along the way, we saw the dorm where my second mother, Tamara, lived when she was at U of I back in the day.

I don't know if MIT has magnolia trees, but they were very pretty.

We went into the athletic center, where we saw the following:

Dad: Does MIT have a water slide? I think not.
Me: I'll be sure to tell Ben that this is the deciding feature in whether or not I attend.

So, corn is pretty huge in Illinois. Like, REALLY huge. So huge that *this* is the most famous and valuable piece of land at the University:

What is it? It's the Morrow Plots!

That's right, the oldest experimental cornfield in America. Apparently the conclusion is that soil quality *does* matter when you're growing plants. Who knew?

Anyway, this is the library:

It's underground so it doesn't cast shadows on the corn. Seriously.

As the tour continued, we saw The Reason that my dad is nervous about me attending MIT.

Dad: Where will you play frisbee?
Me: I don't really like frisbee.
Dad: Where will you do homework?
Me: Outside. Or inside. It depends on the weather.
Dad: How can you get a good college experience without a good quad?
Me: MIT totally has quads. They just tend to have 1/8 of a sphere on them.

Afterwards, we saw the Alma Mater. Rumor has it that she sits down whenever a virgin passes.

She didn't sit down when I walked by, although I think that the fact that she's made out of metal prevents her from bending her knees.

At this point, my mom and I got really hungry and stopped for ice cream, losing the tour. We made our way back to the Alumni Center, where we met up with my dad and a childhood friend of mine who also happened to be visiting, and we made our way to Green Street for lunch.

We ate at Papa Del's, my parents' favorite pizza place. I actually happen to like Girodano's better, but I didn't say so for fear of being shot or disowned.

After lunch, we went on the Engineering tour. They have a clean room for making integrated circuits:

Don't feed the engineers.

They also have a crane bay for the Civil engineers to test their bridges etc. with the earthquake machine. I don't think that MIT has one of these, although this is probably due to lack of space. When you have enough space for an experimental cornfield, I guess that land isn't really an issue.

The engineers even have their own quad!

After the engineering tour, we went to a Dean's session for engineering students. The dean asked me what program I was admitted to, and I replied Bioengineering.

Dean: Wow, that's the hardest ticket on campus!
Me: Whoo?

After our completely thrilling session, my dad insisted that we go to the library to look for his thesis. This is what we found:

Yay! The thesis! Apparently last time my mom and dad looked for it, it took them about two hours to find. My mad book-finding skillz significantly cut down on time.

Apparently one person has checked it out in the past 25 or so years:

Yay thesis!

I was surprised to not hate U of I as much as I had been expecting to hate it. The quads were very nice, but I don't know if I could really be happy there. My parents had something to say about this, though:

Dad: WHAT?!! You got a $1000 scholarship and didn't tell us?
Me: I thought you saw the sheet; it was on the kitchen table.
Dad: Do you realize that you can graduate in probably less than 3 years from U of I, probably have an internship at that, go to graduate school, and have money in your pocket when you're done?
Me: Yeah...
Dad: And you're giving that all up?
Me: I guess so.

I can't help but feel that I wouldn't really be sufficiently challenged at U of I - how much challenge can really be gotten out of a curriculum that would allow me to graduate in 2.5 years? If I come in with calculus and biology and chemistry and really only need to take physics and upper-level courses, am I really getting a college education? I feel like U of I would be selling myself short.

Although not graduating $120,000 in debt certainly would be nice.

So, I've seen the campus, and it wasn't horrible. I could probably get on okay there, and it would only be two and a half years anyway (although I think I'd have to take physics at CLC to stay on track). I hope that MIT is worth the 120k that I'll have to pay my parents back...

crap.

2008-04-22T15:35:00.003-05:00

HI GUYS.

So, as you can maybe tell, I'm a bit stressed this week (although 90% of it is entirely my fault). Here's my to-do list:

English book journal
English book review
French book
French AP practice
3 French listening labs
Learn all of chapter 12 (sequences and series) in Calculus
Make a movie for my english project
Interview my person on Friday
Work a LOT
Visit U of I tomorrow

I probably will be holed up for a bit doing homework...and by doing homework I mean watching Degrassi online, because I am secretly a 12-year-old girl. Although I somehow managed to get As in everything except physics 3rd quarter, so don't fear - I'm not getting kicked out of MIT anytime soon :)

senior year

2008-04-20T20:03:00.002-05:00

I regret on a daily basis not graduating last year. Screw prom, screw boat party, screw everything - May 20, and I'm out of Deerfield for good.

I don't fit in here at all.

holy crap

2008-04-18T18:54:00.002-05:00

So, chemistry is, like, kind of extremely hard. Although I did manage not to spill any 3M HCl on my hand, which was a feat in itself.

Also, guest blog is now on the MIT admissions website :) Yay! Although I think that my personal CPW blog is more fun, but that's cuz I didn't have to make it PC for the parents, lol

Anyway, I met another '12 today who stayed in Skullhouse over CPW, and I got to shoot down some rumors about East Campus (no, they're not all weird. no, they don't eat babies. yes, they do sometimes blow things up). I also met another EA deferred kid who then got WAITLISTED (oh jeez) and is now attending Caltech unless MIT lets him in. So, MIT, let him in! He goes to Naperville North and sent you an e-mail last night updating you about their big win at WYSE.

Also I met a girl who's a Harvard '12 and another girl that MIGHT become one due to financial aid. The madness!

It's Passover in Deerfield, so tomorrow the north shore people will be out in full force wanting their flourless chocolate cakes and macaroons. My UIUC visit is on Wednesday, and I'm working Tuesday and Thursday, so next week should prove to be busy, but we have late starts on Wednesday and Thursday, woot! And then, of course, I should probably catch up on homework, because I'm irresponsible.

Happy Friday!

guest blog etc.

2008-04-17T20:00:00.002-05:00

I finished my CPW guest blog today, now here's to hoping that I don't totally clog up Snively's inbox with the 10 attached pictures...somewhere during the 5 minutes that the e-mail took to send, I considered that it might've been a bad call not to compress the files.

I was at U of I for WYSE today, the weather was gorgeous, I got 7th in Chemistry but only the top 6 get medals, I'm definitely not going to U of I, and I still have homework for tomorrow. Also some English stuff that I'm HUGELY procrastinating on. Also I have the Chem Olympiad tomorrow and then work, and then work Saturday, and then Passover, and then MUSEUM WITH LAWRY!!!!!!!!!!

Lawry refuses to let me take pictures of him, but I might be able to trick him for you guys.

Anyway, the point of this entry is so I can tell you the following story:

Tuesday in gym, we had the option of a fitness day, which basically means that instead of making a fool out of myself trying to play tennis, I went on the elliptical trainer for half an hour instead and listened to my mp3 player. However, being horribly disorganized, I couldn't find it in the bottom of my purse, so I did the usual and dumped the entire thing out on the floor.

...yeah, I still had about 10 bouncy balls from the bouncy ball drop in there, and they started bouncing all over the girls' locker room, and I guess it's kind of a good thing that Emily was off performing poetry for StageWrite because she totally would've laughed at me nonstop. So, the beginning of gym on Tuesday was spent chasing down bouncy balls amongst my changing classmates. My gym teacher actually accepted this as an appropriate reason for why I was late - she tends to just smile and nod when I start explaining things :)

Also, I have been discussing colleges with Zucker, who is probably going to Yale, and Sam, who is definitely going to Northwestern, and I have determined that MIT is the best college on the face of the earth, period. Also their pranks are way better. Although Sam feels the same about Northwestern, and Zucker about Yale, so I guess all of this horrible college drama was kind of worth it (except for the pranks part, they both agree that MIT pwns at pranks).

So, look for my guest blog coming to an mitadmissions.org near you!

meh.

2008-04-16T15:38:00.004-05:00

So, it's back to normal! Chicago is 68 degrees and sunny outside, although it is extremely windy. I have 2 papers to write for English that I've been procrastinating on for awhole now and I have WYSE state tomorrow and the national chemistry olympiad on Friday, so my school week is over! Consequently, productivity and motivation have both dropped to zero :)

Also, that physics test I took last week? I pwned its punk ass. 96% without taking any notes. This brings my grade to a solid B+ for third quarter - pretty good considering that I started at about a 70 :) This is really just further proof that I can only do physics when things aren't moving in circles.

English and econ on the other hand...haha. I hear that 2 Cs only get you a stern talking-to anyway, and at least I'm passing :)

On a fun side note, I can get to College Confidential at school through the filters but not to my blog.

100th post!

2008-04-15T17:29:00.004-05:00

Wow! This is my 100th post!

Today I officially start having 2 jobs - I'm working at Walker Bros Wednesday and the bakery Friday and Saturday.

It was really weird going back to school today - I definitely miss all the fun of CPW, although I was terrified for most of it. CPW was one of the scariest things that I've ever been to in my entire life - there was so much pressure, I was pretty close to tears for about half of it. And, when I'm nervous, I tend to get kind of sassy.

I almost cried on the plane ride back about four separate times - I can't believe that MIT was real, it seems like some incredible dream. I felt more free to be myself on campus than I've ever felt before. It's kind of rough being what feels like the only dork in a town full of pretty, model-like girls and rather jock-ish boys, and I feel like a nerd and a geek and a freak for most of the time in high school. I'm really not Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls - I don't really fit in much of anywhere. So, when I finally found somewhere that I thought I might be able to make it work, I was really, really scared that it was just an epic lie. And then I got kind of sassy.

Well, I've decided to swallow my fears and bite the bullet. If MIT is all just a big lie, it's the most beautiful lie that I've ever had the privilige of being a part of, and I will fully embrace it. So, I am pleased to announce that I have sucked it up and accepted. I am officially a part of the MIT class of 2012.

I'm horribly relieved that I loved MIT - I really don't know how I'd explain to Snively and Paul and Ben and the rest of the admissions office that stalks me that I didn't like CPW. It was amazing and wonderful and I can't wait for August. I know that I already wrote it on my CPW blog, but thanks again. For everything.

wtf?

2008-04-14T20:28:00.002-05:00

I FAILED MY WAITRESS TEST.

I had to repeat day 3 of training today. I was totally told that anyone that had to repeat a day of training was either 1. on drugs or 2. a complete moron. What the hell.

Anyway, this means that I have to wait until NEXT WEEK to start making money for MIT...crap. Although I can totally carry plates now. But I have a tendancy to sass the customers (haha, you can all totally see this I know).

ARRRRRRGH.

CPW blog

2008-04-14T16:31:00.002-05:00

Omg. CPW blog is TOTALLY NOT DONE. No spell-check or anything and none of the awesome Saturday night stuff is up! Also no formatting.

I have work tonight (like, in 15 minutes) so you will all have to wait impatiently until I finish blogging :) Also schoolwork might be kind of important, but I am passing all of my classes, so SCREW THAT! It's 4th quarter now.

In case any of you were wondering, it's MIT 2012. I got back to my high school today, and I never realized what a freak I was until I finally fit somewhere. I think I'm just a square peg in a round hole to use a bad analogy, and I wish I was back in my proper box :)

I'm visiting U of I next week, but it's not going to change anything, of this I'm fairly certain. Besides, I think that Ben will fly to Chicago and kidnap me if my parents don't let me go, and I will fully reimburse him for plane fare :)

p.s. i hate my job and would totally rather be blogging because i <3 you all!

CPW, the saga

2008-04-13T15:42:00.003-05:00

So, I know that you guys are all DYING for updates, but pretty much right now I am just dying :) One of the totally awesome people on my host's floor 5th west, Dave '11, decided that since I've never pulled an all-nighter before, today was the day to do it, so I've been up since yesterday at 9! YAY! Although I did cheat and sleep a bit on the plane.

CPW was freaking AMAZING and I know that all of you are going to love this freaking place. It was nothing that I had expected, but I can't imagine myself anywhere else.

Anyway, I am considering making another blog to simplify the organization of things, but don't get too excited - there will be many edits to this so it will take awhile to get up and I didn't take *that* many pictures owing to some technical difficulties. I need to shower and sleep before I can actually post anything of substance - otherwise all you're going to get is a bunch of !!!!111!!!s :)

CPW updates!

2008-04-09T22:19:00.003-05:00

I have some news.

Bad: my flight got cancelled
Good: I'm on a new one!
Bad: I have to leave my house at 7 am
Good: I get into Boston at about 1!
Bad: I might get bumped off of this one too
Good: Eventually, I will get to laugh at Snively wearing the Tim the Beaver costume :)

OMG. I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay posted for updates!

you all probably regret me finding my digital camera

2008-04-07T21:40:00.005-05:00

What do you get when you take one naive 18-year-old girl...

Add a pair of black pants...

Put on a white collared shirt, borrowed from her little brother...

And include one dorky apron and bow tie?

THAT'S RIGHT! You get the newest waitress at Walker Brother's!

*note* so far my breaking things count is equal to zero (that I know of). This is very promising, though I don't know how long this will last. Also that huge smile is entirely due to the fact that I got free chocolate chip pancakes.

EDIT!!! I found out my host and where I'm staying - her name is Kiersten, she's an '09 7/9 major, and she lives in EC 5 W. Soooo...basically I will probably fall asleep on the stairs on my way back to the room :)

CPW etc. etc.

2008-04-07T15:38:00.002-05:00

I taught today for Mr. Motzko - it was pretty fun but I am really freaking tired.

After Googling my host, I'm pretty sure that she lives in EC, although I asked her on Facebook so as to be less sketchy.

Now I am avoiding the pile of homework that I must do before CPW and before I go to work in half an hour. WHOOO!

I will be so happy when it's finally Thursday... ack. Pretty stressed. Pretty tired. Whoo CPW!

my new job

2008-04-06T22:36:00.003-05:00

I had my first day of work today, and...well...it was boring. Totally dull, except for the part where my new coworkers had me practice carrying plates around and I almost dropped everything. Although, I did read the handbook that they had given me, and it says that I only need to be able to carry two small plates and two big plates, NOT the four big plates that they were testing me with, so I suppose I'm ahead of the learning curve.

I showed this to the girl training me and she was like "haha, beat the system already, hm?"

In other news, CPW is in FOUR DAYS! Paul left me off of the e-mail list for guest bloggers, so either you'll be seeing me on the admissions homepage or you'll be seeing me RIGHT HERE, as usual :) Either way, you may have noticed that I finally fixed my digital camera (aka found the cord) and have uploaded pictures, so there will be some fun media. Hopefully.

And now I will leave you with a picture that adequately summarizes me, in all my nerd glory. Work tomorrow, 5-10. Stay tuned in to see how many plates I manage to break!

golddigger

2008-04-05T17:13:00.003-05:00

Last night, Sarah and I went to see 21. I actually happened to really like it - I thought it was cute and clever, and I enjoyed all of the flashing lights and bright colors. However, I, unlike Ben, actually didn't end up getting the scholarship in the end (although Takeda is a lot less money than the Robinson scholarship). Consequently, I accepted the offered position at Walker Brothers and am now the latest waitress, cranberry bow-tie and all. I should really post a picture of me in my uniform. It's kind of hilarious.

I'm totally sick of money and have decided that it will come down to a coin-flip on April 30 if necessary. Heads is MIT, because there I'll have to use mine. Tails is U of I because I hear I'll have to work mine off there anyway. That means that you all have until April 29 to Fed-Ex me a trick quarter :)

Anyway, I'm going to see our school's improv club's show tonight with Lawry, and then tomorrow we may go to the Museum of Science and Industry, depending on traffic, because I have my first day of job training tomorrow. I have to memorize three pages of abbreviations for different dishes. But I get free pancakes. I like pancakes. And then, on Monday, I'm teaching Mr. Motzko's classes (3 honors bio, 1 regular) and I have more job training, and then Tuesday, I will do a crapload of homework and take a Physics test, in preparation for Wednesday, where I have more job training but most importantly packing for CPW, leaving me thoroughly hosed for Thursday before I even set foot on campus! I suspect I will sleep quite well on the plane.

Oh, also, Jill Taylor was NOT that hot. I'm not that into blondes, though.

w00t

2008-04-04T19:07:00.002-05:00

Job interview 2:30 tomorrow at Walker Brothers! YAY! Hopefully I will be one job closer to paying for college :)

college

2008-04-04T16:15:00.004-05:00

COLLEGE!!!! WHOOOO!!!! Cornell can't send me my FinAid stuff yet because they're missing our 2006 tax returns!!! YAY!!!

On that note, direct your attention to this article, where a classmate of mine is quoted about the GIGANTIC number of colleges that he applied to.

If I had done the interview, the article probably would've read as follows:

"Karen Sittig, 18, a senior at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Ill., illustrates how the applicant pools at elite schools can overlap. Ms. Sittig, who ranks within the top fifteen students in her class, applied to MIT's early-action program. She also applied to 9 other schools with the goal of getting into one. "I had no clue what I was doing," she says. "So I applied everywhere."

The results turned out in her favor. Ms. Sittig was accepted at 9 schools, including MIT. She was wait-listed at Duke.

Ms. Sittig says she is likely to choose MIT but hasn't decided. The University of Pittsburgh has offered her a $160,000 scholarship. Students have to let colleges know yes or no by May 1."

I guess I know why they didn't interview me :) So apparently our college counselor is kind of a big deal - Wall Street Journal, woot woot! Although I guess now you can all stalk me because you know my last name and where I live. TAKE THAT, DAD!

On a side note, I am VERY excited to go to CPW, although I really am having difficulties justifying going $120,000 into debt over college, so if this isn't totally awesome, I will probably go to U of I.

I really hope that it's totally awesome. I don't like corn.

School is busy! AP tests are soon! AH! Senior year is work! What is this madness?!!

I'm going to see 21 tonight with my friend Sarah :) I'm going to wear my MIT shirt and see how many people ask me if I can play blackjack. Pretty much everyone that I tell that I need more financial aid and that I'm considering MIT says, "well, you could play blackjack, it worked in that book!"

I wonder how many of them actually finished the book. Other MIT kids, do you get this a lot? It's starting to get annoying.

SIX DAYS! :)

chemistry olympiad

2008-04-02T19:28:00.001-05:00

Well, I qualified for the next round of the Chemistry Olympiad test.

Check out these practice tests!

...shit. This stuff is REALLY HARD.

oh, right

2008-04-02T17:05:00.003-05:00

My dad needs to stop reading my blog.

Actually, perhaps this is the reason that they're so adimantly against MIT - they know from reading these entries that there isn't honestly any way I'd go *anywhere* else, and they are only doing their best to persuade me otherwise. So, MIT admissions staff, you can take that hit off me now :)

In other news, I am senior teaching on Monday for my freshman biology teacher, the person that originally got me interested in science. I went to observe his class today, and I am prepping a lesson plan about bacteria to teach. We're also doing a lab where the kids will take petri dishes and agar and sample different parts of the room with Q-tips and see which grows the most bacteria. Any suggestions on how to make this lab more awesome are greatly appreciated.

Today, though, we were discussing my future, as it seems to be the only thing that anyone is capable of discussing with me at this juncture (example: all of the freshmen in the class, who were like 'OMG MIT!!!'). Apparently, he had gone through the trouble of actually getting into med school before he dropped out and became a high-school biology teacher because he couldn't stand the pre-med kids. This seems to be a common senitment among non-pre-med science majors. I am beginning to think that it's just a function of the hyper-competitive environment that med schools foster in undergraduate students, kind of like the environment that Ivy League schools seem to foster in my high school. Perhaps all of the kids in my calc class that can't talk about anything besides who got into Harvard (no one, 2 waitlists, the rest rejections) or Princeton (2 acceptances, I think) just can't break free of THE MAN!!!!

I am kind of a rebel, as I discussed yesterday in my interview :)

Also, I can't find a job! I went to the park district today to apply for a job as a camp counselor, and all the positions are filled! I'm kind of in trouble. The bakery isn't giving me enough hours and I have a lot of time. So much, in fact, that I have recently grown addicted to The Bachelor, and I have even watched Dancing With The Stars lately. Although The Bachelor is quite hilarious, and I find ballroom dancing pretty cool, but I think that I need a hobby.

Yesterday, I wore a skirt and flip-flops to school because I had decided that it was high time for spring to come, considering that it's April, and it started snowing during 4th period. Chicago winter is really getting to me - I hear that it's 60 in Boston!

Anyway, I don't have anything very interesting to say, except that our WYSE team qualified for State (woot woot) and I will be driving down to U of I two weeks from Thursday instead of unpacking the robot in Atlanta, because we cancelled our trip to Nationals due to lack of interest :( And also that I am extremely ready to graduate. FIVE WEEKS! :)

all about the benjamins

2008-04-01T18:15:00.006-05:00

I had my scholarship interview at Takeda today, and it is kind of like a cult. The foyer was nice and shiny, but the security was outrageously high. Also the walls were glass so you only THOUGHT you could run from one side of the room to the other when, in fact, you could not.

I don't know this from experience, but I was late because they're doing construction by my house, so I considered trying. Anyway, the scholarship is for science majors, and I felt kind of weird talking about my love for biology which, although it is vast and passionate, has been mostly pushed to the side for the past few months.

Actually, honestly, I haven't really thought about being a BME since I went to engineering camp over the summer, or since I wrote my college essays. I got a few acceptances back where I thought, "what is this BME nonsense?" and then remembered that's what I put down for my major on all of them.

So, apparently it is basically impossibly at CMU to switch from biology to anything else, so CMU is no longer a viable option.

What do I want to do with my life? You're going to think this is kind of silly, considering that I don't really like physics, but I'm thinking of being an electrical engineer. Here's my rationale:

1. I like electronics
2. I like making things
3. I really like taking things apart
4. EEs make good money
5. There aren't many female EEs, so I'd be in high demand
6. I really, really like making things. A lot.

So I think that I will explore this option once I get to college. I have narrowed the list down a bit:

1. MIT
2. Case Western (put back on the list after some reflection)
3. UIUC
4. Cornell (maybe.)

I will attend one of the above schools. Or I will become a hobo. One of the two.

Also, I suspect that the MIT admissions staff has grown nervous about the amount of times that I mention other schools and has sent Snively to recruit me, hardcore, but fear not, admissions staff! I still love you best of all.

In case you were wondering, I haven't been able to land a job yet - I interviewed at the steakhouse in town (yes, I know, I'm a vegetarian and it's terribly ironic) and they are looking for someone who can work indefinitely, and considering that I plan to ship off to somewhere in August, this won't work out. My last hope is the pancake house, I think, and I need to check back with them. My job kind of sucks. I'm not getting any hours, but I do get free cake :) Maybe I'll bring some to CPW if you (and I) are lucky and I can work shortly before my flight.

hahahaha

2008-03-31T17:32:00.001-05:00

Apparently Blogger recognizes < /sarcasm > as a valid HTML tag.

I literally LOL'ed at that discovery :)

more decisions

2008-03-31T16:36:00.004-05:00

This entry brought to you by my entire high school, who couldn't talk about anything else today.

So, I got my last decision back today, and I have realized something oddly paradoxical - I read college books more and go on College Confidential (no link so you can't fall prey to it, haha) than I EVER did when I was applying to college. Go figure.

Anyway, for those of you who like numbers, here are some quick facts:

Boring stuff
Schools I applied to: 10
Schools I received decisions from: 11 (Johns Hopkins sent me a rejection letter, even though I never submitted the application fee or the supplement - DOESN'T COUNT)
Schools I was accepted to: 9
Schools I was rejected from: 0
Schools I was waitlisted at: 1
Private schools: 8
Public schools: 2
Average average ACT score of my colleges: 32 (ish)

Fun stuff!
Colleges I visited: 3, not counting CPW
Colleges I applied to because everyone else was doing it: 1
Colleges my parents made me apply to: 3
Colleges I applied to because my friends go there: 2
Colleges I applied to because they were free: 2
Colleges in the Ivy League I applied to: 1
Colleges I applied to because I wanted to go there: 1 :)

And here is the list:

MIT
Boston University
Purdue University
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Pittsburgh
Cornell University
Duke University
Carnegie Mellon University
Washington University in St. Louis
Case Western Reserve University

Average number of colleges I forget when listing where I applied: 3

Now I'm off to do some homework, I have forgotten all of calculus over spring break and now I look at trigonometric substitution for integration and my head hurts. WHOOOO COLLEGE!!!! SOME COLLEGE CLASS OF 2012!!!!!!! SEE YOU THERE!!!!

oh shit

2008-03-30T15:59:00.004-05:00

Dear MIT,

I have been playing around with loan calculators on the internet, and this is what I have discovered:

Your COA: $50,100/year
COA over 4 years, assuming inflation doesn't exist: $200,400
My parents' annual contribution: $20,000 (COA of U of I)
Amount of loans that I need: $120,400
Amount of FinAid I have received: $4,000/year
Gap: $104,400
Monthly payment: $1500 for 10 years at 8% interest, $500 for 50 years at 8% interest. That is a lot of money per month.

Amount I make per hour: $8
Hours I'd need to work to make $104,400: 13,850 (aka 1.5 years. Working 24 hours straight)
Chance my parents will give me more money: 0%

Well, shit. MIT, I cannot afford you.

I do, however, have some ideas:

1. Become a stripper
Unfortunately I have abandoned this idea after going to a strip club and seeing how degrading being a stripper actually is.
2. Become a meth dealer
Kristie and I were going to do this if we got rejected from college everywhere, but I am into college. So I don't think this will work.
3. Rack up massive debts and flee the country
...this might actually be my best option.

I AM SO SCREWED.

Love,
Karen

p.s. juan got into stanford and i am very happy for him
p.p.s. give me more money, k?

cleveland rocks?

2008-03-29T17:11:00.002-05:00

I just got home from Cleveland, and no, I didn't go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, therefore I am unsure whether or not Cleveland rocks. The weather really sucked, though - it rained on Thursday and snowed on Friday morning, and then it was kind of cold, but I hear that it snowed a few inches in Chicago, so I guess it was basically like home.

Anyway, Cleveland was pretty fun, here are my thoughts organized into a nice pro-con list for your perusing pleasure:

Pro:

Academics: Case Western has a very strong engineering program, and they also have a strong relationship with a lot of local companies and not-so-local companies (IBM, Google, Microsoft etc. etc.) and a well-established co-op office. The classes are difficult but doable, and the job placement rate is very good. The starting salaries of Case graduates are above the national average. The EECS professor that gave the presentation that I went to was eloquent and personable.

Campus: Even though the weather was really crappy, the campus seemed nice and the buildings were very interesting (not all boring brick / concrete). The campus was a decent size - it took us about 20 minutes to walk from the freshman dorms to the main quad, but it was an easy walk and not one that I'd be opposed to doing every day, unlike Wisconsin, which took about half an hour and was LONG.

People: Kristin, the girl that I stayed with overnight, was very nice and we had a lot in common. Her friends were outgoing and I had fun spending time with them. They all were very personable and seemed genuinely interested in their classes and my opinions on different topics, and Kristin was an excellent host and made me feel very welcome.

Con:

Academics: I hear that the workload is huge and that tests are impossible, which is different from a large amount of work and tests that are challenging but potentially managable. I would rather get raped by a test when I know that it's coming *cough*MIT*cough* than get raped by a test when I'm not expecting it, which seems to happen quite often in Chemistry, according to the students I was with. Also, the BME professor was possibly the most stuck-up and obnoxious person I've ever had to listen to in my entire life. He spent the entire presentation talking about how he was awesome and got all of his students into med school, and it really turned me off of the program (I was going to ask my mom to take me back to the registration desk and cancel my overnight so we could leave). When contrasted with the EECS professor, who we saw next, his behavior was pretty disgusting. The EECS professor was willing to discuss the benefits and faults of Case over some other schools, whereas the BME professor dismissed programs as "complete rubbish" and then went off on a long rant about how he was successful at getting 100% of his students into med/grad school or getting them good jobs. Also, all of the kids in the BME presentation except for me (literally, we took a poll) wanted to go to med school, and therefore it seemed as though the majority of the BME curriculum was pre-med and not necessarily for engineering. I don't really want to enroll in a program that's preparing me for something that, quite frankly, I'm not all that interested in.

Campus: It was really freaking cold. I know that it's really freaking cold a lot of places, but I think there's a difference between really freaking cold and really freaking cold with somewhere to hide. A lot of the buildings weren't connected, and it's a mandatory 20-minute walk from freshman dorms to the academic quad. I asked Kristin how they managed when it was snowy, and she shrugged and said, "we wear boots".

People: This will probably sound ridiculous, but I barely saw any students! It seemed like all of them were hiding in their rooms playing videogames or whatnot, and the campus didn't really feel like it had that much energy. Kristin and her friends were very nice and outgoing, but they were the 'party floor' apparently and therefore quiet and geeky seems to be the norm. People also didn't seem particularly happy - I asked if it was a hard week for them, but most of the boys told me that at one point or another they had wanted to transfer, and badly (three had printed applications and started filling them out). Kristin said that she really liked Case and that she had never even thought of transfering, but she seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.
I went to the fraternity later on Friday night where the majority of Kristin's friends had rushed, and we stayed there for a bit, but again, everyone seemed a little bit dull and not particularly happy. Several people actually told me not to go to Case because I'd hate it too. Overall, I was pretty turned off by the campus, although I did have fun with Kristin and her friends.

So, overall, it was a decent weekend but I don't think I'll be matriculating in the fall. Case Western didn't really get me excited about school - it could've just been the weather, but I got the most excited about the EECS 'project room' - their room full of stuff that you could take and then destroy to make new stuff. I feel as though if I wanted to get that sort of experience - 'traditionally nerdy,' I think they call it - there are places that I could go that would enable me to be more social when I decide to venture beyond my dorm room and the EECS lounge.

So, here is Karen's official college list (in order of preference):

0. MIT
1. Carnegie Mellon
2. U of I

Why is MIT 0, you ask? Well, I haven't visited. When I visited Carnegie Mellon, I really thought that it was the sort of place that I could spend the next four years of my life, and getting my acceptance letter today sealed the deal. I'm still waiting for the "oh my god, this is where I'm meant to be" moment, and I don't want to jump the gun and hand in my decision yet. BUT I hear that CPW is totally awesome, and that I will fall in love with the campus, and I've loved talking to basically every MIT student / prospective MIT student that I've met, and I do put the little '12 after my name on the blogs, so for all practical purposes, unless it's miserable, I'm going to be matriculating in the fall. I do feel better knowing that I have a backup plan, though, and I really did give Case Western a shot. It just didn't feel right.

Later, I'll post a list of all the colleges I applied to once I get my final decision back (Cornell, I find out on Monday I think) and why I systematically rejected each one :)

chicago admitted students meeting!

2008-03-26T22:50:00.003-05:00

At 5:15 PM, my good friend David '11 and I journeyed down into the depths of Chicago to attend the Chicago Admitted Students meet-up and to hopefully score some free food. Here is a picture of us on the train.

We walked to the resturant, where we awkwardly tried to mingle with the other '12s (I think that they knew that David was a current student and he blew our cover) before I escaped and started eating toast-y things. They had mushrooms on toast and cheese on toast and tomatoes on toast. They were very tasty. The MIT Chicago club knows how to throw a good party.

Afterwards, they brought out the pizza and we moved to the dining room, where I met another current student, Molly '10 and some prefrosh, Joan '12 and Kat '12 and one other girl whose name I don't remember (sorry!). I then revealed my true nature:

Me: So, Molly, what other schools did you apply to?
Molly: Oh, well, actually, I applied to MIT my junior year from Crystal Lake South, got accepted, and went.
Me: ...are you the Molly that Matt profiled a few years back?
Molly: ...jeez, does everyone know about that?

In my defense, my hometown is very boring and there isn't much to do besides stalk the blogs. Also I really like horses and CLS is close to my house so I remembered. And she must've not thought I was *too* sketchy because she still walked back with us to the train station with her dad.

Anyway, we chatted with the other prefrosh and I ate tasty spinach pizza and cookies (whooo food) and then, when it was time to leave, a mom of a prefrosh (Evan '12 I think) came up and decided that David and Evan were to be best friends. Evan looked appropriately mortified. Molly and I almost died laughing.

All in all, it was a very fun night, and I had a lot of fun meeting the other prefrosh that came and learning about MIT from current students. I highly suggest that you all go to one near you, or crash one if you are a current student. Also the food is good. Thanks, MIT!

the wacky adventures of karen anne

spring plans

pets

welcome home

life lessons

i'm back!

the weather

day 2

moving in

1 day

yay!

one week (djf;afdkal;)

screw that

haircut yay!

10 days and counting

breaking dawn

argh

exciting things

my mother was wrong

a terrible thing

thinking thoughts

housing

it's been...one week

dark night

jerk

the war at home

testing, testing

34 days (!)

yum yum

43 days, holy crap

45 days (i think)

updates to my life

52 days

53 days

55 days

introspective rant

FPOPs

teh internets

finally! an *interesting* post

progress

wow.

lol, actually

hey

musings

summertime

summertime

important things

first day of the rest of my life

last day

ditch day

prom?

...well, shit.

friday

ap updates

hate physics.

issues

so what.

hi!

status update

decision day

hate school.

well, shit

all this work is getting to me

um...

time's running out, karen anne

UIUC visit

crap.

senior year

holy crap

guest blog etc.

meh.

100th post!

wtf?

CPW blog

CPW, the saga

CPW updates!

you all probably regret me finding my digital camera

CPW etc. etc.

my new job

golddigger

finally! an interesting post