Grad Schools

Okay. I've finalized the five schools I'm picking. I still have to check one or two more schools on the east coast, but I'm pretty sure this is what I'm applying to.

• University of Washington, Seattle - I'm applying for their Masters of Marine Affairs. You can see the webpage here. Application is due Jan 15th, I think. I find UofWa really hard to navigate around to figure out how to apply. This is a two-year program.
  
• University of Edinburgh - I'm applying for their Environment, Protection and Management Masters. You can see the webpage here. The EPM is a one-year program. I also looked at their Ecological Economics program too, but I don't think I want to ingrain myself that much into economics. That program is here. I can't figure out an application due date, but it always says to apply ASAP. I think one place I found was May!
  
• Columbia University - I'm applying for their Masters of Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy. Phew, what a mouth full! Their webpage is here. The MPA is a one-year program. This would be the most expensive program out of all the schools. Even with the exchange rate, Edinburgh ends up cheaper. I'm going to try and do their early application submission deadline on November 1st. That'll garauntee me a yes or no letter by December 1st. 
• University of Maine - I'm applying for their MS degree in Marine Policy. You can see the webpage on the programs here. In high school I talked with a UCSC graduate student and they said that Maine, UCSC, and Scripps (at that time) were the best marine biology schools in the nation. U of ME has the Marine Policy MS, but you can also do a duel MS in Marine Policy and Marine Science (I'd pick Marine Biology). It's a 3-year program for the dual degree program. Not sure how long for the normal MS. I'd assume 2-years since the 2nd semester the students figure out thesis papers. Applications are due Jan 15th.
  
• Univeresity of Delaware - I haven't figure out if I'm applying for their Masters in Marine Policy (MMP) or their MS in Marine Studies with a concentration in Marine Policy. Probably the latter. You can see their programs here.  The funny thing is the Interim Director of the Marine Policy program was a candidate for CSUMB for the Rote Professorship. So I saw him give a presentation. LoL Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with him, though he was doing some interesting work. For fall admission (they also accept for Spring, weird...), applications are due March 1st. 

Maine and Delaware I haven't looked at how much it'll cost to go. They're my recent decisions. LoL I also looked at University of Miami. They have a MS and MA in Marine Affairs. I requested information on both programs anyway. The MS deterred me because I'd have to take the General GRE AND the Subject GRE and I was just not going to do that. LoL The MA was interesting, but I think I've decided I'd rather try and stick with a MS than a MA. They did have an interesting looking program, though.

I'm still figuring out how I'm getting letters of rec to all these schools. Some want them via mail, some electronically, etc. It's all rather confusing. I think I'll probably do Columbia's application first and go from there. Columbia doesn't require the GRE either. I probably should take the test one more time since Maine and Washington seem to make a bigger deal about it than the other schools. I actually need to FIND my scores. I don't remember what I got...I basically need to get myself all aligned. LoL

Oh, October is when the NOAA Graduate Sciences Program "starts" too. The postings for positions and applications start. I'm pretty sure I'll need to go to one of the state schools to have a chance at the GSP since Columbia has a really strict program and I doubt the government would want to fly me back and forth over the Atlantic to do my job. :P

With that...I should head to bed.

I'm HOME! - Aquarium and Flights

I'm still in a mental fog as I just woke up from my passed out state for 15 hours. I don't even remember getting into bed...but my flights were almost a disaster, but I made it home at the time I was supposed to.

First off, my last day in Chicago. I had about 4 hours of sleep and Haley had stayed up all night and was tired. After we went to the Departure Breakfast where we ate and simply left, we packed up all our stuff (I was already packed from the night before) and brought our stuff to our friends' room. Haley passed out on their bed because she hadn't slept at all the night before and we were just all talking. I ended up going to the Shedd Aquarium on my own because Haley was just too tired to go. So she stayed in their room and slept about 3 hours more.

I like the Shedd, but I was VERY disappointed in their "World's Oceans" part. Their part with the dolphins, whales, etc and their Rainforest part were pretty cool, though. The Rainforest part because of how they did it and the look of the exhibits. The dolphins part not because it was dolphins and whales, but I liked the overall feel of the entire area. Funny enough, their dolphins are Pacific White Sided Dolphins, which I recognized as soon as I saw them. LoL They also have Alaskan Sea Otters, a California Sea Lion, and Beluga Whales (two with calves!). So that was kind of weird...I'm next to Lake Michigan and seeing animals from the West Coast!

On that note...I'd like to explain my feeling being near a lake. The Great Lakes are HUGE and vast enough that from a human's point of view, they're oceanlike. Except...they're not. Except for the fact you can't see land, it's a completely different feeling. You don't get the ocean spray, the smell of the saltwater, the water is incredibly calm all the time, the coloring is slightly different, there are yachts and HUGE boats everywhere, ducks swim in the water, etc. Going to the Navy Pier was nice and all, the water really is pretty, but it made me miss the ocean. I think that's one reason why going to the Aquarium was different. LoL They have to manufacture all their saltwater and most of the aquarium has saltwater! How weird is that?

Moving on, after the aquarium I made a quick stop at Panera since I was a little hungry and we don't have Panera near here! Once back at the hotel, I went up to the Leaky Suite to say bye to whomever was there. Haley's grandmother picked us up and we went out for REAL Chicago deepdish pizza (oh my gosh...It was SOOOOO good) and then we went to get gelato. After that we went back to their house to get Haley's car and we drove to her house. Once there Haley and I fell asleep for about 4 hours because we were both EXHAUSTED. I slept about 4 hours that night and Haley didn't sleep at all. So she had been napping al dayI woke up after 2 because I had passed out on my arm without realizing it and woke up again after another hour because the alarm went off, which we both wanted to sleep more so we fell back to sleep for another hour. We got up after that and watched some Olympics with her brother and dad and she was on her computer. We left at like 2:30 for the airport and got there around 3am. No one was at the desk, of course, and wouldn't be till 4:30 and my plane left at 6am. I was fine, though. I went and chilled on some chairs. I was so tired I think I could have sat there all day and it wouldn't have mattered! LoL

I was at a kiosk when they opened and I tried THREE different ways to get my flight information, but it couldn't find it. Eventually I talked to someone and they could find my flight information, but apparently it was all screwed up (thank you travelocity!) and they spent about 30 minutes figuring it out. Mind you, the 30 minutes was approaching 5:15am. Travelocity, if you remember (did I blog about it?), messed up my return flight home months ago and I had to call them about it. My flight from Chicago changed so they had me left in Denver on a multi-destination ticket instead of roundtrip. When I called them, they had to put me onto all new flights (ORD to Cincinnati to LAX to Monterey) to get me home. Apparently that messed up my ticket.

Anyway, I was panicking, but I got to my gate fine, but it left me so I couldn't grab a drink or food before the plane. I was okay at that time and I had two breakfast bars in my backpack anyway. The flight to Cincinnati from O'Hare is a little more than an hour and I slept on the entire thing, which was kind of a shame because I was ZONE 1 for loading! So I had two seats in a row and a LOT of leg room. LoL I wasn't first class (they were in front of us), but I must have been business class because of being zone 1. It was kind of funny, though, because that plane was a prop plane and I hadn't been in that big of a prop plane in a long time! Getting off the plane, I just quickly walked to my next gate (which was in another terminal...*sigh*) because I had like 30 minutes before it took off and I had seat requests for ALL three of my flights because of whatever got messed up. So I get there and they had a window seat at the emergency exit open. I took it so I had, once again, a LOT of leg room. I passed out for the majority of that flight too. I woke up for about a half hour because I was slightly cold and it was causing me to not get back to sleep. I got up to get my sweater and then fell back to sleep. I woke up when an announcement was made (they're hard to sleep through...) and a few other times, but no drinks or food for me!

My flight landed on time in LAX and I had about a 2 hour layover. So I went and got food and drink, called my mom and Chris (yes, in that order!), and walked around a bit. The problem was when I landed, my flight had no gate number so I was paranoid about that. I eventually, about 40 minutes before my flight took off, went and asked and it turns out I had to go to gate 42B to get the shuttle to go to the American Airlines terminal for the smaller planes. Ugh! I had forgotten! I've never flown Delta from LAX to Monterey. I've only flown AA to LAX to Monterey and it tells you ON the screens, but because AA does the flight, Delta doesn't seem fit to even tell you to go to 42B! So...I hurried over there and JUST missed a shuttle. I was getting nervous then I'd miss my flight and two other ladies showed up. We waited, not kidding you, 20 minutes for the shuttle to show. We get on and we get there and we RUN down the hallway (of course it'd be at the VERY end) and I say, "I have a seat request." The lady goes, "oh my gosh. I closed the flight! Where were you?!" So I did a quick one sentence explanation and she says, "are you sure you're on this flight?" and I'm all "Yes!" She was quick, though. In less than 2 minutes (the length of our conversation time) I had my boarding pass and onto the flight. I sat down in the seat behind where I was supposed to be (so I didn't have to move the guy in the aisle seat) with 2-3 minutes left to spare before the flight was supposed to take off. I actually boarded the plane with one of the ladies who was late too (not bad!). The ironic thing? We ended up having to wait almost 20 minutes because the didn't empty out the lavatory, which no one was happy about because the plane had been at the gate for almost 3 hours. LoL I actually stayed awake long enough on the flight to get a drink on the flight (the first time on a flight for this trip) and then I passed out after that. I was jolted awake with the announcement we were preparing to land.

Once landed, I realized my backpack felt a little wet in the corner my Snapple was in. I hugged my mom and we went to the baggage claim and I checked my backpack. Sure enough, my Snapple DID leak and I checked all my stuff. My newest Science magazine got most of the liquid. My computer case that's neoprene got some of it too, but it didn't soak through to my computer. I also had two of my signed books in there, but had placed them into a Borders plastic bag and the bag saved them! The bag was wet on the outside, but my books were fine (or as fine as they could be being in a backpack!). My luggage also arrived on this flight too! I was worried because LAX has this "bags must be checked in one hour prior to your departure or your luggage won't arrive with you." (It's true too...my luggage got scanned late once and it didn't arrive with me...) Apparently ORD doesn't have that rule. :P

Anyway, I'm all unpacked already. I came home after my mom and I ate out and immediately unpacked. I have a load of laundry to do now! The humidity definitely makes it so you can't wear clothes more than once. LoL After unpacking I basically passed out. I don't even remember getting into bed and I slept the ENTIRE night through. I think the only reason I even got up is because I had to use the bathroom. :P Maybe I can use this to get my sleeping schedule back on track! Ooh! I should try it!

Anyway, with that, I'm off to shower! I might upload some other photos from other people on Facebook, but that'll take a day or two. I need to get my life back on track with grad school applications and Contest work. I'm behind in responses to people in Contests from the Riddle Contest and need to compile the survey results. :P

Okay...Laters!

More Terminus Photos

I dragged myself out of bed at 7:40am after going to sleep around 3am. I conquered Megan's camera and downloaded her Terminus pictures and uploaded a highlight of the photos she took onto my Picasa site here. She took a lot of photos of staff before Reggies and at the Ball last night.

I'm just waiting for the girls to finish packing. I stayed up late and packed last night so I could get up this morning and burn CDs for Haley of her photos (she was having problems downloading them to her computer) and get Megan's photos.

I'm going to die (aka pass out) once I get home, I think. I am SO tired and I'm not feeling 100% either. The "Leaky Flu" was going around and I'm hoping I didn't get it, but I'm definitely not 100%.

With that...Time to pack up the computer.

Part 2 of Last full day at Terminus

What happened today?! LoL

I didn't go to ANY programming today as when we got back to the room everyone was napping or resting so then we all said we'd go at 3pm. Well...I slept for an hour (more like passed out...) and woke up at 2:30 and no one was there. Haley and Megan had gone out to do a few things and wouldn't be back in time for the 3pm program and then Shawna said she was going to another one, I think. Or maybe she wasn't going? I can't remember now. Anyway, Shawna came over for a bit and then I just sat in the room and rested some more. Around 5 Shawna and I went to Subway to grab a foot long since they're only $5. Then we got ready for the ball!

I just threw on my robes over my regular clothes and left my hair down, but I used the cord we had gotten and braided it into a headband of sorts. Everyone said it looked good. The majority of people wore dresses or dress clothes of some sort (the entire staff group wore dresses or some other formal type clothing). There were some elaborate costumes, though. Course, there have been elaborate costumes all week. My robes got too hot so I ended up taking them off at some point and putting them back on before I left early. Everyone seemed to like my robes, though. I definitely stood out. :P Some random guy took my picture as we were walking in too. Haley told him my mom made them and he went, "yay for mom." LoL There's this one girl who has a very elegant ball gown on. It's GORGEOUS. It must have cost a fortune.

I was kind of laughing because the feeling really felt like a prom except the girl to guy ratio was WAY off. They had dessert there, which was nice. The Grand Ballroom is, well, grand! Very ornate and gilded. It has a 2nd floor balcony that goes all the way around it too. It's REALLY pretty.

Anyway, I came back early to relax for an hour before we hit the Leaky Suite for the rest of the night and into the wee hours of the morning. I am going to be SO incredibly tired by the time I get home! I should sleep once I hit Haley's house tomorrow evening...We're going to the Shedd Aquarium tomorrow. We're dropping our stuff off in one of our friend's room and will then get picked up by Haley's grandma around 4:30pm. Once we get back to her grandparents' house, we're driving to Haley's house. Then we'll drive over to the airport sometime between midnight and 1am. My plane leaves at 6am and having Haley stay up all that time to drive me just doesn't seem right. So...She's going to drive me over WAY early. Let's hope my plane is NOT delayed even one minute because I may go nuts sitting in an airport any longer and then I'd miss my connecting flight in Cincinnati, which would not be fun.

With that...I'm off to chill till midnight to head to the Leaky Suite. I'll be home soon! 

Last full day at Terminus

I'm proud of Megan and I! We got up and down to the Keynote room with 10 minutes to spare! We rolled out of bed at like 8:30-8:45am to make it to the keynote. I don't think I'd have gotten out of bed except I paid $40 for the keynote (it was a breakfast keynote). LoL

I fell asleep at like 1:45am last night, but the girls came in at like 2:45am. When they opened the door it woke me up so I ended up being awake for like another hour. I think Sarah came in sometime close to 4am, but we were all in bed by then, I think. The alarm went off at like 7:45am and every time it did someone would roll out of bed and hit snooze. We'd all roll over once it was turned off. LoL I never got up, but Sarah, Megan, and Haley did. My alarm went off at 8 and I hit snooze twice and rolled out of bed and yelled at Megan. :P

The keynote I liked a lot. Tamora Pierce gave an interesting speech about how Harry Potter has changed Children's Literature and gave her own perspective and history with the books. She was funny, engaging, and showed she has some spunk, which is probably why all her female characters have spunk too. She's one of my favorite authors so I'm glad she was likable because it makes me like her as a writer even more.

There's a presentation I'd like to go to on Latin in Harry Potter II: Curses, but I'll probably skip it because it's in a half hour and I'm not sure I'm quite awake enough to make it. I WILL make the 3pm presentation on Harry Potter and fairytales (can't remember the exact title off the top of my head) and hit the other presentation I want to see later in the afternoon (something about the power of the press). We'll probably go out in town today at lunchtime. Megan hasn't seen the Bean yet and she needs to do some shopping. Can't forget the ball is tonight too!

Photos of Terminus Thus Far

I've uploaded most of the photos from Terminus here. I haven't mapped them yet on Google. I'll do that later since I have to look up addresses. LoL

Part 2 of Terminus Day Something

I am SO tired. I ended up napping for THREE hours. I thought the girls
were going to get me up so we could hit the grocery store and go shopping north of Michigan Ave, but no one
woke me up! I woke up at some point because someone woke me up moving
around in the room and we had a little more than 1 hour till the
podcast.

So I dragged myself out of bed and Haley and I had to
figure out where to eat because we hadn't really eaten that day. So we
were just going to do Kitty O'Sheas, but it was busy and I wasn't sure
if we'd finish in time. So we walked down Michigan and got food to go.
We ate it in the room where the podcast was going to be. As staff, we
got in early and staked out 4 rows of seats. Since Haley's with me (I
don't think anyone really questions here coming everywhere with
me...LoL), they let her in like she's staff. The podcast was fun. The
mudbloods played 3 songs and Alex from the Remus Lupins played the
intro and final song ("This Cauldron's got a hole in it. It's where the
news leaks out...").

I left as soon as the podcast was
finished so I could run across the hallway to see Tamora Pierce. Funny
enough, the doors were closed and they were still doing the
presentation and a presenter opened the door, but the door got stuck so
they couldn't close the door. I saw this and instantly jumped into
action of what was wrong because it was LOUD in the hallway since the
podcast got out. I turned around and someone who works there is all
"I'm giving you some house points for helping out! You closed the door
before I even had time to get here." So I got 5 points for Kohilo! LoL
I was also treated like I was staff for Terminus. I do have a small
"TLC Staff" pin on, but I don't think most people noticed that.
Presenters kept asking me questions...Anyway, I got my book signed by
Tamora Pierce! I just said thanks because I was going to the next "Meet
the Authors." Tamora wrote "Females Rule!" in my book. Actually, she drew the symbol for females and wrote "rule"

The
Meet the Authors was neat. There was three authors, but of course the
room filled out for Melissa. LoL The other two authors (Erin Pyne and
RM (the initials to her fandom name)) were interesting and both were
humorous. Erin is a dolphin trainer! How cool is that?! RM has a trivia
book and it looks pretty darn good. Erin has a fandom book out (and an
encyclopedia coming out next year), but it's more interviews with fans
rather than Melissa's first-person perspective of the fandom. Melissa
read the first chapter or introduction part to her book (about 6 pages
long). She spoke a little fast because she was nervous, but the book is
going to be AMAZING! Just in those 6 pages I was instantly hooked on
the book. She also read a little about how Jo got her contract for the
books too. That was really neat too. Overall, I'm really excited for
the book. It's going to be really good.

After the author thing
everyone is all "are you going to Reggies?" and no one knew and I ended
up deciding NOT to go even though I'd have liked to see the wrock
bands, but I'm tired. Haley is out in town walking around and Megan and Sarah are who
knows where. I have to be up tomorrow for Tamora Pierce's keynote
breakfast and I really want to do programming for tomorrow since I
haven't yet. I paid for the conference, I might as well!

With
that...I'm watching TV and looking over the program for tomorrow. I'm
beat. I'll upload pictures in a bit. Tomorrow is the Bon Voyage Ball
too.

Terminus Day Something

Well...After falling asleep sometime near 5 am because our room got invaded, I dragged myself out of bed at 9:40 to get ready to go see the Wizard Rockumentary.

We have another roomie. Sarah is staying with us tonight and she stayed with us last night. This all came about at around 3 am. LoL Then Shawna and Danae came down because their roomie was asleep and they were awake. We just watched some Olympics (Dressage!!!!) and just chit chatted. Once Megan came back we all got into bed and didn't fall asleep till sometime close to 5am. Megan set the alarm for some time I can't even remember because Haley had to report for her volunteer shift at 8am. Well, Haley didn't leave till like 8:20 (the panel was at 9am) and we all kept sleeping more. My alarm went off at 9am and then I got up around 9:40 and yelled at Megan that it was 9:40. She had to be at the vending table for Leaky at 10am.

The Wizard Rockumentary was REALLY good. I was thinking I'd see some amateur documentary, but this was QUALITY. I was really impressed and really enjoyed it which surprised me since I'm not all that into wrock. After this whole conference though, I may have to go look up wrock again. After seeing them live, there's just nothing like it. The documentary was really good too because it captured the heart of what wrock is and it told the history of some of the bands too. Seeing it with a room full of people who know wrock was fun too because people would sing along and cheer for various bands that came up. There were so many funny moments too.

To say the least, at the end of the documentary I decided to buy the DVD for $20. It was well done, helps the two sisters who put it together in their free time, and it captures a part of history since they also had footage from the Deathly Hallows book release in Seattle.

I haven't eaten yet and I will probably munch on some food we have in the room and just call it a day. I'm SO tired and our evening starts promptly at 7pm and goes till somewhere after 2am. So...I'm showering and napping. :P Hopefully tomorrow I feel more up to programming because, seriously, I haven't done a whole lot of anything related to Terminus. LoL Tomorrow IS the Tamora Pierce keynote breakfast which means I have to be up at 8:30 at the latest to get to the breakfast in time at 9am.

With that...I'm out.

What day is it at Terminus now?!

We all seem to either be a day behind or a day ahead with Terminus...

Anyway, today didn't start off as planned. LoL Haley and I didn't get out of bed till almost 12:30pm after staying up with Megan till almost 4 am just talking. Megan had set the alarm for 7am so she could straighten her hair and get ready for programming since it started at 9am. We had planned to see the first hour of the WB vs RDR panel and then at 10am go see the LeakyCon panel. Uh, yeah, we woke up at like 9am and Megan got ready and left at like 9:40 to go see the LeakyCon panel. Then she was going to Cheryl Klein's keynote presentation at noon.

Well...Haley and I totally didn't hit anything this morning. LoL We left around 1pm to go to the library to get our tickets for the John Green book signing. (He wrote Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines.) It started at 2pm and he did a book reading from his new book Paper Towns and then he answered some questions with his brother. At 3pm they started reading off numbers for people to get their book signed. By 4pm (my number was 209 while Haley's was 121...) I got my book! We also bought Hank's CD and had that signed too. Hank said he liked my name.

After that, Haley and I hunted down a CitiBank so Haley could get cash, went to the Navy Pier, and had dinner at the
Rainforest Cafe. I'll upload some pictures later. I've only been
uploading highlights anyway.

Now, for this evening, my ears are ringing...LoL

Why you ask? Because of wreggie's! Wrock at Reggie's was totally fun, but the music was LOUD and seemed to get louder every time someone came on stage so by the time they cut the music, everyone's ears feel like they're muffled when someone talks. I was fine until we got onto the bus and people kept singing really loudly and that's when I got grouchy. LoL I just wanted people to shut up to give my poor ears a rest. I think I'd have been fine if I wasn't so tired because I was ALL for it on the way there.

Anyway, wreggies was fun. I had fun and that's saying a lot since I'm not into wrock, clubs, alcohol, and dancing. LoL Some people were totally smashed. It's a good thing Reggie's was providing a bus to drive people to and from the hotel to Reggie's or there'd be a lot of cab rides for people. Plus, it was a good distance from the hotel too.

Tomorrow Haley is volunteering for a panel and she has to BE there at 8:45am. We got back to the hotel at 2:15am. :P So I'm going to TRY and get up and go to the panel she's volunteering on or going to another program and we're going to see the Wizard Rockumentary at 10am (goes till noon). Saturday evening is PotterCast, Melissa's first official book reading of her book, and some other things (it's author's and artist's night). We're going to both and I'm trying to figure out a way to sneak in a meeting of Tamora Pierce, which happens to be during PotterCast.

With that...I'm crawling into bed...We're going to Reggie's tomorrow night also so...it's another 4 hours of wrock and loud music and ringing ears, but lots of fun!

Terminus Day 3

So...today...

We went to Panera for breakfast and came back and went and got our stuff from registration. We have Terminus t-shirts now and the program and our name badges. Afterwards we went to the Vendor Room and looked around. It almost looks like Whimsic Alley brought half the store! LoL They take up the entire back end of the vendor room. There are a ton of wands, robes, band t-shirts, and so forth available. After that a ton of staff went to get lunch at Kitty O'Sheas. Haley bought some bumper stickers and was at the room for a little (she also had a volunteer meeting to attend, but the Leaky thing this afternoon was staff only). I met up with some of the staff at Kitty O'Sheas a bit later and went with a few of them for a grocery run before the Leaky party.

After getting the groceries we had gone back to the floor with the suite (25th floor) and people were hanging out in the floor lobby. MTV was still interviewing Melissa, John, Andrew, and whoever the 4th person was so we were just waiting till they were finished. Once they were finished it was a bunch of hanging out for about 3 or so hours. It was nice just being the Leaky crew. We all sang the TLC song twice (clean version for MTV and not clean version before they came back). Then it was just a bunch of mingling and munching while MTV went around to the different groups and talked to us. They actually interviewed me! Laurie (LJ), Megan, Melissa (mlwl), and I ended up answering 3 questions: how is Twilight different than HP fandom, where do we think DH should split for the two movies, and what's LeakyCon. I think they liked us a lot because we were in a closed room and it was just the 4 of us, whereas before they had a HUGE group and it was kind of nuts for them. We'll see if they use any of the footage.

We all went down for the Welcome Feast and found our houses to walk into the conference room with each other. It was kind of funny because the 4 houses were basically lined up on the first floor and on the 2nd floor (stairs leading up from the lobby to the 2nd floor) and so you could see all 4 houses. We started the whole "Kohilo, Kohilo" or "Brubu Rocks" or whatever house you were in. It was NUTS! The ENTIRE lobby was PACKED with Potter fans. There was almost no way for people get past. LoL That poor hotel must be regretting us being around. I also found out there's an AVID conference at the hotel too. So, basically, there's 3 conferences. The National Convention on Gospel and Choir Music have been pretty nice, though we seem to be competing with them for space the most.

Anyway, once at the dinner it was a buffet dinner of all sorts of food, but it took FOREVER to get your food because there's like 1500 people who signed up and all that. Then there was some speeches (each head of house, the head of Aeolian, and the conference coordinator). It was SO hard to hear anyone, though! It was really bad. Brian of Draco and the Malfoys got a TON of love when he got up to talk and he turned BRIGHT red when everyone started cheering for him while his bio was being red. We thought Sue got lots of love, but Brian's was MASSIVE! Anyway, we all said the sound system was horrible and then all the houses tried to do various things together and we got told to stop and to be quiet. *rolls eye* HELLO we're at a conference and we WERE being pretty darn quite, but they kept yelling at us to be quiet because the Gospel group was below us. We all laughed at that, though, because we could hear their music in our conference room!

After the dinner we all went back to the Leaky Suite to hang out some more. Actually, we went to the Leaky Suite and I ended up leaving to go on a liquor run and THEN I came back. LoL It was weird caring a case of beer through the hotel and on the streets of Chicago, especially since I don't drink. :P I left early from the suite, though, because it was getting really crowded in their with the wrockers and I'm just REALLY tired. With wreggies tomorrow and everything else...I'd rather sleep right now. We'll see if I can sleep, though. There's a party going on in the room across from ours and knocking and doors opening and closing keeps happening every 10 minutes. There's got to be like 20-30 people (easily) in a room the same size as ours. It's really nuts.

Oh...I almost forgot to say! When we were getting our registration stuff, I was standing outside the room waiting for Haley. A girl comes up to me and says, "oh my gosh! I love your shirt! Where'd you get it?" and kept going on and then she said, "can I take a picture of you?" If she took it with me, I could officially say I got fangirl'd. LoL Actually, I had a lot of people tell me they liked my shirt and a few people asked where I got it or that'd be a shirt they'd actually buy. Frak said he has the coaster of my shirt and his parents got it for him. I asked where they got it and he said Monterey. I told him I live there and we high fived. It was rather funny. LoL

Tomorrow is *thinks really hard* John Green's book signing and wreggies. I have NO clue what else we're doing since John Green takes up most of the afternoon (1:30-4:30pm). Wreggies starts at 10pm, I think. Not sure what else we're doing, though. I haven't even looked at the program yet.  :doh:

Terminus Day 2 and Beginning of Day 3

Where to start...

Yesterday we (Megan, Haley and I) tried to get me a wrock (wizard rock) daytime ticket, but they were sold out and wouldn't sell headliner tickets till 5pm. So we went to Starbucks a few blocks away so Megan could get her caffeine and we hung out there for a while and then walked back. Haley and Megan felt bad I didn't have a ticket for wrock, but I told them to go so I hung out in the room and did some Contest work. Melissa came back and informed me she's going to stay another night! So that was nice news. She was only going to stay the one night.

We were planning to go to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner yesterday, but after getting my headliner wrock wristband and all that, it was almost 6pm and the headliners started at 7pm. So...we ditched that idea and we all went up to the Leaky Suite where some other staff were hanging out. It was fun to meet some people I'd only seen on the forum before. Some of us decided to go to Panera Bread for dinner then so we all trucked over there. We were hoping Megan could get her 50% discount because she works at Panera in Georgia, but she only got her discount at her store. Boo, hiss! After getting our food we trucked back to the Leaky Suite and hung out till close to 8pm when we trucked down to a headliner we wanted to see.

I meandered back and forth into the wrock. It was DEFINITELY a rock concert. LoL The stupid thing the hotel did, though, was to put us on a 2nd floor conference room so with the bass, the concert like movements (bouncing, dancing, etc), the floor would bounce. Not kidding you. It bounced, not shaked, bounced. Anyway, the hotel told us we couldn't dance or bounce then because the National Convention of Gospel and Choir Music is also at the hotel and they were in the conference room below us and apparently the chandelier and ceiling were shaking really badly (something about a chandelier breaking?). A lot of people weren't too excited about that, but...whatever.

After the Harry and the Potters were up (they went till almost midnight) we all decided to skip the last headliner and headed back to the Leaky Suite to party. It was basically all Leaky Staff in the beginning and it was fun. After a little while, two Mugglenet boys showed up with their posse and that changed the tone of everything because it was REALLY crowded in the suite then, but they left eventually and then Melissa, Haley, and I left at around 2am, I think. Megan came in about a half hour later after some wrockers had shown up, but there was no more food (we ate the pizza that was bought) and everyone was just talking and most people had left.

We crawled into bed sometime around 3am last night and Megan set the alarm for 8am. Haley and I were going to get up at head to the Shedd Aquarium at 8:30 to get there when it opened at 9am, but that didn't happen. The alarm went off; Megan got up and hit snooze; the alarm went off; Megan got up and hit snooze; Melissa got up and jumped into the shower; I looked at the clock and it was almost 11am. I had woken up a few times (9am and sometime around 10am), but I was like "I'm SO tired, there's no way I'm getting out of this bed and Haley is still sleeping." So I just let it go. Sometime around 10am I checked to see if Megan had gotten up because she had a LeakyCon meeting at 11am, but didn't see her body past Haley. Turns out she was still there and jumped out of bed when Melissa got into the bathroom and scrambled to get ready.

To say the least, plans haven't gone the way they were supposed to. It's a little after 11:30am here and registration starts at noon and none of us have even eaten yet! There's a staff meet-and-greet at 3 till the welcome feast too.

With that...I'm off to get dressed and get ready for Megan to show up again so we can do a Panera run (at least, that's what I'm hungry for...). I leave you all with two photos: Melissa (mlwl) and I and The Four Roomies. Megan's the one who did the bunny ears behind Melissa and I; Haley took the picture.

Stephenie Meyer

So...I just got back from seeing Stephenie Meyer and Justin Furstenfeld (the lead singer from Blue October). The entire event lasted a little less than an hour and we had to wait like another 2 hours (maybe less?) before we got our book signed by her.

First off, I should start with how the day started off.

Haley and I THOUGHT we were going to pick up Megan today at ORD around 9am, but she missed her flight and ended up not making it to the hotel till almost 6pm. Her flight was delayed, she took the train here, had to take the bus, and walk to the hotel. So Haley and I ended up coming to the hotel early, but we stopped at the grocery store first. Her grandmother insisted on paying for our food as her contribution to the whole thing, which we tried to talk her out of, but she she insisted. Both of Haley's grandparents were really hospitable and so incredibly nice! We ended up getting to the registration desk around 12:15pm (check-in time is at 3 pm and check-out is at 11am). We get all checked-in and he hands me the keys to our room (room 924). I was a bit confused since we didn't pay for early check-in and all that, but I figured we'd go check it out anyway. Sure 'nough, our room was all ready! So we got to check in early and we just hung out at the hotel.

Melissa texts me asking if we were at the hotel yet and we were so I told her the room and let her in. We also called to have a mini-'frige brought to our room so we have that to use while we're here. The three of us just hung out, rested, talked about Breaking Dawn, I was on my computer, and whatever else. Around 5 pm we decided we should head out and look for food. Megan still hadn't arrive and was still iffy at that time. We stopped at Cosi's and got sort of like sandwich type things. We went to Millennium Park then and ate our food. It's not really hot in Chicago, but the humidity is horrible so my clothes were sticking to me by then (a half hourish walk) and it was disgusting! After eating, we walked around Millennium Park for a little and then walked to the theater.

We ended up waiting till the VERY last minute for Megan to arrive. I mean, LAST minute. We sat down in our seats at 7:02 and the event started at 7:10. LoL We had pretty cool seats. We were on the floor, but they elevated the floor so we were in the back row of the first sloped part, so we had a nice view. Justin Furstenfeld came out and had his acoustic guitar and sang three songs based off of the series. They were good, but I'm not jazzed about fan music...Then Stephenie Meyer came out and answered some questions. This was the first time she was able to answer questions about Breaking Dawn so the questions were interesting, but nothing was like really "deep" and sometimes I felt let down by the answers she supplied. Then Justin came out with Stephenie and Stephenie would listen to Blue October while she was writing and some of the band's songs are songs that relate to the series or a certain character. So Stephenie talked about who the song related to and Justin would play the song on his guitar or just sang it. It was kind of neat because Justin would then tell some of the history behind the song too. The band is a rock band so it was kind of interesting hearing the songs with an acoustic guitar. In some ways, I liked him better with the acoustic guitar than the the hard rock (I should relisten to some of their music, though). He really put the feeling into the song better, I think. Anyway, after that they started letting people out to get books signed.

One of the publisher representatives were letting people out and doing trivia and then people started showing off their t-shirts and there was some smack! LoL It was kind of funny, but some of the shirts had some very STRONG innuendo in them and we (Megan, Haley, Shawna, and I) were just appalled! Then we were lamenting the fact we wished these were all Harry Potter fans than Twilight fans. We might have been acting a wee bit snobby in the literary department.... *innocent look* We got upset though because someone's shirt said something like how Albus Severus wished he had a name like Renesme or how Albus Severus has nothing on Renesme for a name. We were ready for the Harry Potter vs Twilight smack down. LoL Luckily, they stopped doing that. It was getting to be a smack down between the different fractions. :P Anyway, once we were line, it was much better. She just signed her name in the book with a sharpie and out we were! She did talk to us, though. LoL I don't think she was as nice as Jo, but I might be a little biased. LoL

We're back in the hotel now. I'm about to take a "get the sweat off me" shower since the humidity is just horrible here! Megan is out getting food with Shawna (she's not staying with us, but she's a Leaky person). Melissa went down to the hotel's bar or something to meet up with some more Leaky people. Tomorrow is wrock (better known as wizard rock). I have to buy a $20 ticket, but it should be good. That's ALL day with a 2 hour dinner break. We might go to the Shedd tomorrow, we might not. We're thinking of hitting the Rainforest Cafe that's closest to us for dinner, though!

On a sad note, my camera won't work properly outdoors. *sigh* It turns
all red (like it's overexposed). It works fine in a room, though. It's
a complete mystery to me since it worked when Chris and I went
tidepooling and at the Aquarium gala. I haven't dropped it or anything
either. NO clue. I also realized today that my camera is only 2
megapixels! LoL That says something about how old my camera is. Anyway,
I've been using Haley's camera to take pictures since she feels weird
taking pictures of a city she visits a lot. :P We'll try uploading
pictures everyday, if we can or think about it. I bought a 7-day
wireless pass for $60 at the hotel so I can use it 24/7 basically.
Might as well utilize that!

With that...I'm out.

Have I mentioned I hate airports?

I wrote this somewhere else for other Terminus people arriving at Chicago tomorrow, but it basically sums up my day pretty well.

I'm hoping the weather remains nice for those flying in because it simply was NOT fun today for me. My flight was delayed by almost 4 hours because there was lightning, thunder, and heavy rain at ORD. Then, upon arrival, we found out that about 1.5 hours after we took off from LAX they closed down ORD because another weather cell went through. By the time we landed, the airport was a little backed up and we sat on the tarmac waiting for a gate to open. Once we got off the plane, our luggage was delayed because the weather picked back up again and it was deemed unsafe for the workers to get the luggage off the planes! I was supposed to arrive at ORD at 7:06pm. By the time I got my luggage, it was 12:15am.

I didn't tell the others this, but my flight from Monterey to LAX was also a little late (30 minutes). So, to say the least, my day was full of "delays." Let's hope that doesn't happen on my way home because I have TWO connecting flights and a short layover in Cincinnati when I leave ORD.

In about 7ish hours we pick Megan up from the airport (she's our roomie) and we're going grocery shopping then we'll get dropped off at the hotel around 3pm by Haley's grandmother. I'm SO excited!!

"Bethany - what a pretty name!"

I forgot to tell about my funny-weird story at the Aquarium from today.

I was at the touch pool, but we got a complaint from a visitor that people were touching the animals in the Aviary. I was the 3rd person at the touch pool so I went to go check. There was almost NO one in the aviary and I talked with the 3 volunteers in there already and they said they told these people to stop, but they kept touching and they kept saying to stop. Anyway, the problem wasn't there anymore so I ended up helping a few visitors in there. Well, this one guy was asking questions and I was helping him and Ross also came over to help. So Ross wanders away and I'm there and the guy looks at me and says, "you have a very pretty name." I must admit it's not uncommon that someone compliments me on my name, so I said, "thank you," thinking the convo was finished. Then he keeps standing there and says, "it's a very lovely name. I like it a lot." I'm starting to creep out a little now and, again, say, "thanks" and start to walk away. He didn't look like he was going to move anytime soon, it was weird. It was also weird because the guy was older (mid-40's?) and I'm pretty sure he had a daughter.

The funny thing is I think most times I get compliments about my name from males. Even on-line a lot of the guys would say, "I like your name. I'm putting it down on my list of potential daughter names." No joke. *shrugs*

With that, I'm off to sleep since my external HD FINALLY mounted and I've been backing up my files.

What a week(end)!

Thursday was Shae's bachelorette party. We went to Lallapalooza's and had some food and a drink. Then we went to the Mucky Duck and the girls basically just danced. It was nice and Shae had a good time, so that's what counts.

Friday night was the Breaking Dawn book release. We sold 200 books in 30 minutes - oh yeah! It was good. I was at the registration table a lot, which was perfectly fine with me, but that meant I didn't see any of the party. Like I said, it was fine with me! LoL I got home around 2 pm and started reading the book (even though I had the wedding that same day). I finally fell asleep around 6:20am and got about 460 pages read in that timespan. I've read a few more pages since then, but the book (I promise no spoilers!) has left me a bit disgruntled for various reasons so I'm not feeling the "need" and "rush" to finish the book like Deathly Hallows.

Shae and Adam had a LOVELY wedding. The ceremony was less than 30 minutes long,
which was nice. LoL Adam's father is a pastor, so he officiated the ceremony. We loved seeing the family resemblance of the
Mitchell men and the mothers! Wow! The bridesmaids had lovely black
dresses, which surprised me because her colors were a shade of pink.
The dresses were functional for other events, though, so that's gotta
be nice for them. Shae looked positively beautiful! I loved her dress.
It has a sweetheart neckline with a strap that attaches to make it a
halter (though it could have been done as a strapless). It's an A-line
dress with lace and sequins sewn onto the sides of the dress, bodice,
and the strap for the halter. She had a short train (not decorated at
all). The dress was perfect for her.

Adam started crying when
she walked down the aisle and Shae started to cry while saying her
vows. The funny part was right when the pastor (Adam's father) started
speaking, the ring bearer dropped one of the rings! So we hear this
"tink, tink, tink" and the boy scrambles to get the ring. We're all
muffling our laughter so eventually Adam's father makes a joke and we
just all start laughing. Adam had to be prompted a few times on what to
do too, it was cute. They both looked so happy and radiant!

For
their favors, they had a candy bar! They had little boxes with "Shae
and Adam Mitchell August 2, 2008" on them and they had 9 different
candies you could fill the box up with. It totally rocked my world. LoL

Today I had the aquarium (or I guess Sunday), which was the first time I've been there in a month! It went well, but it was SO crowded! This weekend we had a sailboat race in the Bay and Spirit West Coast also, so we had some crowds from that. It was nice to be back, though.

With that...I need to get this stupid external HD to mount on my laptop so I can back-up my laptop before I LEAVE! It mounted the first time, but got hung up on a file so it "froze." Now it won't mount...I have the most difficulties getting the stupid thing to mount, it's nuts. Anyway, my plane departs from Monterey a few minutes after 10am for LAX. I go from LAX to ORD. I should arrive at ORD around 7:10pm (local time). I think (and hope) I've packed everything! I will post about Terminus and post pictures over the week (if I get my act together - LoL).