Songs about Jaim: January 2005

Echo

Yet another eventful weekend in the exciting life of Jaime Rogers. Dinner with McPhee, what the hell?! Enough said. Vallartas with Heatherbug for her 21st birthday!! She looked gorgeous and happier than i've seen her in a really long time, it made my heart warm and fuzzy. Party with the neighbors...finally. Mark Jones the pizza boy...cutest thing EVER. RachO the jager thief, thanks babe, that's some tasty shit! Onto Mothers....and helloo trashed Heather (and her boobs) :) and hellooooo Curtis, and hellooooooooooooooooo Brian Cox. Good god.

OKAY, on to saturday. Phew!

Shell Beach with my sexy surfer... :) Too bad everyone looked like black pieces of pepper, so I just read and enjoyed the beautiful day on the beach! YAY! Then it was time for chocolate chip banana pancakes woot woot!! SOO GOOD I can't even describe it. Orchesis was later that night, and I must say, I am very very impressed. My friend Sara Galon did an incredible job in all of her dances, especially in Beautiful Breakdown which she choregraphed. What a great show! Afterwards Jo and I made the rounds visiting with friends and being DD's. OH yeah, Taco Bell twice in one night too, lucky me!

Today was quite relaxing with eggs in bed cuz im spoiled rotten (but the eggs weren't), and lots of sleepy time. Jo and I went to starbucks to study and enjoy a sunny day (i almost said summer day). Mmmm...studying. (thats for you Jon). Wow lots of parenthesis in this paragraph which means its time to get back to the books.

Vallartas for Heather's 21st Birthday Dinner!

Mas Fireworks!

"Pyrotechnic" (as skoony would say) experiments are still going strong, and today was pretty successful. I added some sublimed sulfur, and some strontium nitrate sugar to the mixture, and skoony came up with the idea to put a plastic bottle cap with a hole in the middle on top of the base tube. The reaction was magnificent! This week, the flame was a little brighter and higher and sparked some from the sulfur. There wasnt much smoke and residue due to the plastic cap, but it melted almost completely by the end of the "show". The second time around, we didn't use a cap, and we added some more sugar. There was a ton more smoke, and the reaction lasted over a minute!!! I have it on film thanks to the coolest chem guy around, Jon. Let me know if you'd like to check it out! Next week, we're going to use a metal cap that won't melt with the intense heat of the reaction. Should be fun!

Why Chemistry?

"Confusion never stops, closing walls, and ticking clocks..."

Today after our Instrumental Analysis lecture, Helya and I felt very overwhelmed. In the middle of class, Helya looked at me and said "why are we chemistry majors?" Good question! It seems as time goes by, we understand less and less about what we are learning, and chemistry has become a foreign language. We manage to survive with lots of studying, but do we really KNOW what we are being tested on? In less than a year I will be getting a BS in Chemistry. Do i really deserve this degree? When I think of graduates who earn their degree in a specific subject, I think of experts, and of people who know what they are doing, and can explain their topic with confidence and elegance. I am afraid of the outside world, and afraid the jumbled information inside of my head won't get me anywhere.

People tell me that I shouldn't worry or put myself down this way, but it's hard when you hear other people around you sounding so sure about what they know. I'm hoping grad school will prepare me for what I need to know in particular, so that I can actually be an "expert" about something special and interesting. It's not even really about being an expert, as much as it is feeling confident about what I am doing with my life. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to be able to explain some difficult chemisty problem to someone who knows less than me. So why do i want to do physical chemistry at grad school? Another good question..I am good at it. I can't explain IT without a heavy review session, but I guess we have to start somewhere.

Bud Light Weekend

Mmmm..Bud Light. I'm a happy camper. This weekend was a mixture of relaxation, chores, good friends, and lots of drinking. Friday night Clay, Eric and I went to the Cliffs for some free tacos. It was so crowded, we didn't stay very long, but we got to see a beautiful sunset. Then we went and played a little beer pong (second time in my life, and i made it in twice, go me), and headed to some other parties. Saturday Clay made me my very first omelet, and we watched tv in bed for hours. YAY.

Katie arrived from UCSB around 6 so we went to eat at Firestones and froze our buns off because we had to eat outside. We went to Clays to start drinking and went from party to party until we made it back to Clay's for some cards, and then of course Taco Bell (compliments of Amador-Thanks for being so patient!). Phrases of the night: "This is how we do", and "When I grow up I want to be a waterbed" --yay taco bell. I missed my katie and it was fabulous having her here to keep me company while the roomies were out of town. Come back and visit anytime!

Currently, I'm at work..going on my 8th hour. Loong day, but getting a lot of homework done and use of the ipod. :) YAY for 9 more hours of $$$. Back to reality in T-11 hours.

My little sis Katie and me after lots of Bud Light

Fireworks!!

Today in my chem 400 lab, i made a real firework, and it worked!! I combined some fancy chemicals and put them into a pvc apperature and put glycerine and potassium permanganate on top, and BAM! There was a steady yellow flame for about 30 seconds..it was beautiful! The goal is to get some sort of tube that will make it whistle! YAY!

A lucky year?

This is my first "blog", and I am not sure how I feel about this online journal concept. I do however like the idea of jotting down the fun events and memories that will happen during the year. I recently turned 22, and being that 22 is my lucky number, I hope 2005 is going to be a much better year than the last. So, here we are in January, third week into winter quarter, and things are looking up.

I spent new years in tahoe with my favorite girlies in 30 inches of snow. It was insane but one of the best adventures i've ever had. We went dancing at a nightclub in Harrah's and got a little crazy on the dance floor! Joanna's car got stuck in the snow 50 yards from my aunts driveway, and we had to dig her out and shovel with snowboards and eventually made it back to the parking lot at Harrah's. We finally made it home at 7am! New Years Eve was crowd of crazy college kids overtaking stateline! We kissed lots of boys and celebrated with champagne!

School started and so far my classes are way better than Fall quarter. I have lots of labs, and less work, but i've started my senior project making fireworks so that will be interesting. I'll keep you all updated on how that project goes.

As for the fun stuff....Martin Luther King Jr. weekend holiday was fantastic!! Friday night the girls went downtown for a night of "indulgence", dancing, and trouble-making. (oops!) Saturday I had a wonderful date with a very handsome boy. We went to Santa Barbara and watched the sunset on the pier, and went to dinner at CPK after stopping to say hi to my little sister Katie in the dorms. Then, we camped out at Oceano dunes area and built a cute little fire and roasted marshmallows! How romantic :) Sunday we woke up to the sunrise and beautiful blue ocean waves. I'm a very lucky girl! The rest of the long weekend was relaxing yet productive.