what is left?

it has been a long couple of days.

we left friday afternoon for topeka after a grueling last day of classes. on a side note...i stayed awake for my last physics lecture of the year, but i was not very conscious for latin afterwards (luckily all we did was get our take home final...i think). we did some review in theology, but i still have the better half of the seven page review to finish before the exam on friday morning. biology was crazy because it was glow's birthday so we had made her cookies to celebrate that as well as the last day of biology. on top of that, burk was attempting to get through as much as he possibly could, so becky and i were furiously trying to get down all the information, while eating those amazing cookies. i went straight to work since we were leaving at 4:15 and i still hadn't packed a thing because we had been making cupcakes and cookies for glow on thursday night. i left work at about 3:20 after helping lily with a special pcr clean. i packed quickily and headed over to the old gym to get my spot on the bus. we then drove out to the lake to load the boats onto the trailer. and the we were off to topeka. we got to our hotel around 8:20 or so, dropped our stuff off in our room (me, scooter, and anna), and the walked over to long john silver's (blegh!) to get some food and sort of to celebrate the birthdays (dan and glow). mostly, we went over there to get dan out of his room so they could decorate it. after some nasty fries and cheesesticks, we had our varsity meeting in the lobby, which included an exorbitant amount of singing and eating of cheesecake and a big cakeie (aka cookie cake for those of you who didn't have a friend who worked at a place that sold them). and then it was bedtime after talking to brian who was at the avalanche game with jill (lucky!)

yesterday, we were up at 5 and out of the hotel at 5:30 to get over to the course to rig our boats and set up the tents, which were useful since it drizzled pretty much all day long. the coaches/cox'n meeting was entirely useless and ended up causing the regatta to start at least half an hour behind schedule. the first races were the two heats of the women's varsity eight. we won our heat over the drake B boat and a few others, and ended up with the second best time of both heats coming behind the drake A boat by 8 seconds (a lot closer than we were last weekend at the midwest championships). we didn't have much time before we had to head back out again for the final. we ended up sitting around at the start for over half an hour because of the way they were running the starting line. it was absolutely ridiculous and ruined our focus entirely. everyone was in a pretty bad mood by the time we started getting lined up, especially when we had to back it out multiple times because of the wind and seemingly incompetent officials. (it was a horrible idea for them to pull stakeboats before the regatta even started.) the official on our left was still aligning boats when the starter behind us called "attention...go" so no one was really prepared for it. the drake b boat on our right started early, so for a second we all thought they were going to restart the race, especially since the starter held up his flag again after he called it. luckily, i realized they were going to restart and kept calling out our start. it was horrible. kathleen's oar was stuck in the water for the first six strokes and then took her a few more to get on with the rest of the boat. we got through the start and were behind four of the boats. we were able to settle in and started making our move. we walked down the first one easily, and worked through the second (missouri, i believe) before we got to the thousand. we started moving past the drake B boat at the thousand and had them by a seat or two by the 1500. we walked away from them, but couldn't get the A boat. despite the ridiculous start and all of that, we raced our race and that's all we could have asked for. i had about five hours before my four went out, so kelley and i helped out with launching and docking boats, and cheering everyone on. after we launched and warmed up, we again sat around at the start, this time for around 45 minutes before we started lining up. we were prepared for the start this time, so it didn't come as a surprise when they dropped the flag. we got out in front from the start with missouri and drake. we walked missouri pretty easily by the thousand, so it was just us and drake for the second half of the race. we stayed within a boat length for the whole race, but we could never get much closer than that. it was still a good race though. that race was our team's last of the day, so we packed everything up, skipped awards, grabbed our medals, and headed back home. we got back to omaha around 9 or so and went out to the lake to unload and rig the eights for tomorrow's practice. it was a long day and the great plains rowing championships are now my least favorite of the season.

i got up this morning, took a shower, ate some breakfast, and started my laundry. while my laundry was going, i started working on my take-home latin final. i watched the avs game starting at 1, but had to run to my floor meeting between the 3rd period and overtime. luckily, meg told me what i needed to know for checking out and i was able to make it back before the overtime started. it was a pretty good game. the avs didn't play great, but still came out on top with a goal late in OT. goodbye stars. after the game, i called to talk to brian for a little bit since i didn't get to talk to him for very long on friday night since he was at the game and couldn't hear me. then i headed upstairs to eric's room to work on latin. we were completely done by 6, so i walked down to java jay to grab my usual grilled cheese. i ate while i watched a bit of last of the mohicans that i started last night before i went to bed after unpacking.

and now it is time to start working on something before i fall asleep pretty soon.

the schedule for this week of finals

monday:
practice 5:30-7:30
turn in latin final by noon
walk downtown to fill out application for benson

tuesday:
practice 5:30-7:30
physics with dr. duda 10am
physics review with dr. duda 3:30-5pm
biology review 5:30-7pm

wednesday:
practice 5:30-7:30
biology final 10-11:40
physics review with dr. seger 4-5:40pm (possibly)

thursday
practice 5:30-7:30
english lit presentations 10-11:40
physics final 3-6pm

friday
practice 5:30-7:30
theology final 8-9:40

my parents are driving my car out here friday night and will be here saturday morning. i'll hang out with them during the day and then i'll take them to the train station that night. and i'll see them again next thursday in philadelphia.

we will practice saturday, monday, and tuesday at the same time as usual. we're heading out for philly wednesday morning at 5 and should get there sometime thursday morning. we'll practice on the course on thursday, with our first races on friday and then again on saturday (knock on wood). we should be leaving to come back to omaha saturday night. and hopefully we'll be back sunday night at a decent hour so i can get some sleep before class again on MONDAY. ugh.

that's the plan. time to start the studying. and i really need to get to work on my english lit project.