Today was a good day. Although, all we did were
four solutions, rest of the things in the day were good.  I finally got the
much awaited camera that was a royal pain in the ass
to order. Took a short break from work to fetch it from the mailroom after I saw
that it had arrived using the tracking number. Its a wonderful camera, half my
palm.. its a teeny tiny camera perfect for mom! I am going to try it out before
I take it home for sure, maybe take some pictures in Peterson.

Now, the part that brightened my day was that Bhav
finally sent me some of the pictures that I had been bugging her for the last
8 months!! Pictures from her childhood, ie baby size and then probably 5
year old pictures. And then there were some more recent photos, from school and
junior college.. some with friends and some without. The picture I liked the
best was the one with the lovely smile during her 17th
birthday, youthful exuberance in her grin... Where did those days go :-(?
days I would talk to her everyday, talk to someone I had met just once or twice
but yet best friends....

I talked to Kristin and chatted with Mary for quite sometime. It feels good to talk to good friends, it brightened the rest of my evening for sure. I introduced Kristin to the new messenger and we had loads of fun exploring the options. We went all out on emoticons, finding new and strange emoticons was awesome. She is being kept busy, but going a bit insane with 13-14 year old kids. She needs a few days off.

This week zipped by! I am at Peterson for 8 hours and sometime more..Work feels good but sometimes there is nothign for me to do, well, maybe there is but paper reading is boring.. Now that we are making hygroscopic glasses, this needs work in the nitrogen environment glove box. Its a pain to use and only one person can work on it at a time. I have been reading books there as well. I finished one complete book in 3 days, just imagine the time I don't do anything there. But there was a welcome distraction during this week. Kit's sister came to a cross country camp at Coe. It was fun having her around most of the time. And she cooks very well, before she left, she made a cake for me! Noone's ever done that. And this girl knows how to flirt, perpetual i'd say. Even Xae noticed it. The flirting was a load of fun, she flirting with me and me flirting back, whole lot of harmless fun. She was also my DD for most of the trips, like to the Driver's License office, shopping..It was a fun week even in the evenings. I have been invited to their house, I should be going there sometime.. Anyway, I also want to talk to sunshine sometime, it's been a while since we actually talked, IM sometimes doesnt feel complete. I wil be calling Kristin sometime today as well, and try to get hold of Lara for the umpteenth time. Maybe I should simply give up on her, its been 3 months since I've last talked to her. Part of the reason I dont want to give up because she is the only friend I have made outside Coe, my only other friend apart from the ones at Coe.

For the first time, online shopping was a pain in the ass. Shopping for the camera turned out to be a bigger challenge than what I thought would be. I hope I get it quick. Plus, i need to get a laptop for dad's office, i hope I can buy it before I leave, there is only one left at Bestbuy and I need to get to that before anyone else does. Plus, I hope I can travel back home because I was told I didnt need a French transit visa but now Im not that sure. KEeping my fingers crossed for all of this.

Its been a while since I've blogged, but then it probably is because nothing exciting has happened this past week. I have been in Peterson from 9 to 5 everyday. But that doesnt mean that I have been doing much because I have been reading up on this method more than actually doing something. I know there is no use being restless about this because Doc knows what he is doing, but I don't know how he woudl gauge if I am ready if I am not doing much. Until he thinks I am ready, I won't be paid! Its been 40 hours of free work already, and I would really like to start earning money that I can spend during the summer here. While doing research, I am getting to know a lot of people working there as well. Scott (Im his gopher) told me a bit about himself, he has a totally different life than me for sure, he has a daughter.. I am also getting to know Sara and Beth much better now. And the evenings after research have been passing really quickly. and days have been ending rather quickly around 11.30 because Kit needs absolute silence while sleeping, so no chatting once he gets into the bed. But it is fine I think, I get more rest this way. This weekend was fine. Kit left for home after research and I went to a party in the evening. It was a good release for the week. Six pack of Smirnoff was enough to get me a little buzz, and I talked to some people here (this was a sit-drink-talk-play party, not the dance involved ones I normally go to). During this, me and Sara went out for some fresh air, she told me a bit more about herself and I opened up more (probably due to the buzzing) talking about past experiences at Coe. She is a great girl, Marty's real lucky I'd say, intelligent, perky and ambitious..I also met Katie, one of the Upper Bound counselors from UNI, it nice to meet new people from outside Coe. I know just one person outside Coe and I have been trying to talk to her forever, I don't know what the deal is. And after the party when I got back to my room, I was real happy I could get on my loft to sleep, helluva lot better than sleeping on the floor..

Sunday, me and Ben went for a ride around the city first to search for a place to eat and then garage sale hopping, it was definitely fun. And then we ended up watching another movie in the night. The night before I watched 3 movies including one with Jenna. I wish we had more time to hang out but oh well.. So overall, a good weekend I'd say..

I also talked to Mary in the night. It been a week since I have seen her. The last 2 months were spent mostly with them. I got to know them well, and they didnt mind having me around. I spent some nights getting to know Mary better before she left because there was a distinct possibility that she wouldn't be coming back. She is truly one of a kind, I met her in the beginning of the year at a church and tried to get talking but she simply wouldn't. I guessed she was introverted and I guessed right. This guess was further consolidated when Kristin did talk to me and Becky when we were there and I tried my best trying to engage Mary in any sustained conversation. Thats the first and last time that I saw them together for about 6 months. I saw Mary again in another 2 months when she moved down to Calc 1 from 2. I thought she was familiar when I saw her in the class but couldn't place her. It took me a day to realize that she was the same girl I had met couple of months back at the makeshift church. I tried yet again to engage her in conversation but failed yet again. I didnt know if it was me or she just didnt want to talk, I simply couldnt figure it out. I didnt approach her anymore during the rest of the semester. The next time I saw her and Kristin was during 24/7 when I actually talked to her and got some laughs out of them. Slowly but surely she became more free around me, took about a month. And since then, she has been a wonderful friends, someone who I liked being around and she liked being around me. Henceforth my 2nd home in Murray. I spent most of my free time there. I think I was there later than I was at any one else's room ever, apart from the times that I had to take care of a puking buddy. And she is the only one I call sunshine, among all my friends. Also, she is probably the only person I know who is thinking of transfering because she is unhappy here. I really do wish she comes back here, life would certainly be different without her here. I also think she has a very refreshing style of dressing, something I haven't seen a long time. A great friend once she becomes comfortable around someone, a ray of sunshine.. I hope she is having fun dancing!!

I also talked to my parents, something that is going on everyday now. They are in sync with everythign that is going on here. I am so happy that there is nothing I hide from them, they know about my friends, my inclination towards wine and other expensive drinks which keeps me away from drinking, my plans for the summer, my grades, my plans for the winter.... We are buying a digital camera and they are deciding on one to buy and I am helping in the process in means of suggestion. We have been researching for a camera for mom that she can carry around and still be a good digital camera for home. We should be making the decision soon I think. I also have to send in the application for Nigerian Visa. I have to spend 200 freaking dollars on a stupid and digusting third world country's visa! Although the job dad has there is paying for my education. I don't even like to call it home there, all that I go for are my parents. I don't even have friends there. Many facilites but no one to share it with, play with, talk with...I wish some of my friends would come home with me one break, I'll show them the beauty of the campus and I'll realize the fun I can have if I have close friends around. My bro is always there.... Thats the only relief, Robi is someone I talk to sometimes, watch movies with, play with... I really do miss him, I think about things he is doing with his new friends in Woodstock, if he is happy there and playing everything safe. I will be seeing my parents and brother in a month if all goes well. My ticket is booked just my visa needs to be done. I have to get a passport size photo and a $200 DD to accompany the application.

The only things that were out of ordinary in the last two days were the chats (internet and phone) I had.

My day started out with Bhavya finally coming online after 3 painfully long weeks. I would wait every weekend in the morning to get her online but it never happened. Then I realized she must have been nursing her mom once she got out of the hospital. She is one of the most responsible people I know. There have been many friends I thought were responsible and "good". Well, I'll never see them in the same light anymore, I still like them exactly as before, maybe a bit more but I will see them as normal people with temptations and the inability to conquer it, no more super women. With every chat, I get to know her better. I just wish I could hear her voice with all the inflections and nuances in the tone to catch her train of thought. eChat simply is not enough, even though I have audio-video chat capabilites, she doesnt. Its just not the same.

*I still remember when I talked to her after almost a year when I was in Toronto, Canada during Spring Break. The 30 minutes of talk time was enough to quench my thirst that had been building up all this while. She has a lot on her mind, I want to be there for her all the time and I think she knows that she has one friend here who loves her the way she is. She changed my life since I've met her, I see things differently. I think one of the saddest days in my life was when we met for the last time before I left for Nigeria. The lunch at Pizza Hut (our first lunch date), the shopping at Lifestyle for my watch (I spent a major chunk of my pocket money on this, my parents were really pissed about it, oops), she then bought me a book (Abduction by Robin Cook) and I ended the shopping by buying a shirt for her. She didnt want me to, but I told her that I wanted to buy her something before I left, because I wouldn't see her for a long time. I took her home to meet my parents because they hadn't met her for the 3 years I'd known her. For that, I had seen her only thrice in all the time I knew her. For the first time with a bunch of my friends around. Adu got her, and we saw each other for the first time then. Adu was a sweetie and still is if I can get to talk to her. Bhavya and me were very shy around each other even though we had talked on the phone for the last year. I guess it was strange to meet your a voice you hear on the phone in real life, in person.*

Oh my! I went off on a tangent there. Coming back to the topic of me talking to her yesterday. She wasn't home for three weeks, she was at her grampa's. No wonder she couldn't come online. Even yesterday, she made a point to get out and get me online. Thats so sweet of her, that meant a lot to me even if she didn't notice. She did something like this last year as well. She woke up at 2 AM just to talk to me. My, this would something I would normally do. I wake up early for my parents all the time especially when they call me because thats one time they can actually get a hold of for sure. Anyway, she was telling me how she had to be with her mom most of the time to massage her to prevent DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) because the hip implant was replaced. She really needs to take some time off and relax for a few days, let her sis and dad handle it for a few hours so that she can go out for a breath. I am really worried about her health too. I also discovered one thing about her that she "forgot" to mention in all our chats before, she beat the shit out of a girl in her grade 11 residential hall. Oh my! She is a firecracker! I didn't think she had such a short fuse! The story was action packed! I wish I was there to see this catfight as she put it. But whats a cat fight with pulling each other's hair or scratching faces! We talked for a loooong time. It felt so good. Brought a smile to my rather damp week, a ray of sunshine, something that wasnt there for a long time. The only other people who bring sunshine to my life are Mary and Kristin....