i am so full of pumpkin breads, pumpkin pies, turkey breats, ham asses, rolls, mashed potatoes, maccaroni with bread crumbs, green beans, green bean caserole, cranberries, and stuffing that i don't think i can move! it was great while it lasted! however, i want to go home now. home being austin. it is weird to me how much austin = home now. so the jealousy part of the "turkey + ham + jealous = jess" equation comes in here at the wanting to go home part. i miss austin! i'm going to miss austin in 2 weeks!

i've done 1/2 of my bio notes transcription...tomorrow = second half + calculus homework.
oh god:
monday - 6:45 bio test calc hw due at 3:00 AM
tuesday - 9:30 spanish test then 7:00 calculus test
friday - final project due in anthropology

omg. why?!
whatever! it was great to see my family. it makes me sad to do HW especially when i know i'll see my dad one more time before i go to portugal! but...it's ok! everyone is promising a visit, which they better do!

ok bed time
love,
jess

PS! if you wanna come to a show in houston! COME SEE EASTERN SEA PLAY AT WALTER'S! starts at 7:30 bands are, The Sweaters, The Mackenzies, Earnie Banks, Piano Vines, The Eastern Sea, and the Riff Tiffs! ONly $7! that's like $1.16 per band!!

jess likes only one routine that consistently gets her into trouble (or at the least a little bit of misfortune). it can be defined in two words:
Stray Cat.

SO, there was this cat around at dinner, and i hadn't seen it before...so i thought it was cute, whatever. THEN, it was in my hallway at around....2 in the morning looking really scared. so i knew it must have been lost. so i took it into my room, played with it...then sat around and didn't know what to do. finally, decided that i'd let it sleep with me. it had a collar on...but it was just a flea collar, so it obviously must have an owner and just got stuck in the coop, or maybe was just lost in general. it was outside for so long on it's own for a few days, so i figured it was just genuinely lost, and i'd shelter it. so it's the cutest cat ever :) i temporarily name it shoe. and i got to sleep eventually...not easily (flea treatment/bite/infestation flashback for a while). then i wake up around....6:20 to mr. shoe meowing like crazy, and i know he's probably hungry. i go downstairs to find some stuff...no tuna. and i have no clue what cats eat other than regular cat food, which we don't have in our general pantry. so i research online....get some deli sliced ham....but not too much...make kitty sick. shoe likes that! and then...no more ham. ok.. milk? not really...and cats apparently are lactose intolerant. yogurt? nope. so then...i research online...EGGS, apparently cats like eggs! so i tell shoe, "if i make you this egg...you have to eat it and stop whining". so i go downstairs (at 6:30 am) and make shoe a scrambled egg (which looked mighty fine to me). come back upstairs to meowface meowing and had shit on my floor. this was NOT unexpected. i knew it would happen some time, and i really didn't care much cuz i don't have a litter box, so i take care of that, and mr. shoe consumes some egg seemingly happily. then i think...ok....now i can go back to sleep. i lay in bed. woops. huge pee spot. i would not have cared if shoe peed floor...but on my bed. so i undress my bed completely because it went all the way through, and search for new sheets, which i don't have. so now i have a half blanket/comfortor/whatever mess to sleep on and shoe is hopefully happily outside. i felt bad putting him/her outside...but, i knew he'll/she'll be ok out there during the day and already has some food in his/her belly :)

either way,
that was awesome! i love cats. stray ones especially :) even though i always end up with no sleep and dirty sheets

love,
jess

tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests tests

tests

i literally laugh out loud every time when he says "what do your friends thing about you collecting bearsah...haha!"

....if the bear fits

I keep thinking about lately, especially in my Primate Conservation class, how the process of Altruism is actually detrimental to the genetics of a population. We like to concern our big fat brains with the concept that altruism is what makes us human, and want to know the difference in where we became this way verses the animals that aren't necessarily that way. There is this polarity between altruism as being a value and altruism being dangerous, genetically speaking. We talk about the need for heterozygosity in my primate conservation class, meaning basically that you have a lot of genetic diversity, which will make you more flexible to environmental changes and things like that--basically makes you more apt to survive. So, the better your heterozygosity, the better you survive, especially in small populations. So, you would think the more people/individuals, the more genetic diversity, and yes...that is true. But in some populations, where altruistic tendencies apply, does protecting an individual that carries disease, or has bad genetics eventually hurt your society? For us...obviously it didn't. But in some primate populations it plays in increasing their extinction rate. If the primates have more altruistic tendencies to selflessly care for other sick or injured individuals, then they get bad genes pooling around. Whatever the difference between "us" and "them" is has to come into effect somewhere in there. We invented ways to care for the sick so that we do not have to suffer the gene pool. But...there sure are a hell of a lot of diseases out there...

So complicated!
SO, I had a calculus test yesterday! Went awesomely
I have a bio test today....neeeeed to study for it soon. It's at 6:45 though, so i have like 3 and a half hours after class to study

I don't know if I could enter the world of academia...there are too many people who consider everyone else to be morons out there. That is just plain rudde. I would feel entitled a little bit though too if i had just completed 12 years of getting a Phd. But also....PHD means nothing when you are an asshole, and you don't really even have to know anything about anything at all to get it done. Academia is highschool with big words.

gifninja.com

holla

Well, as everyone knows, school started about 2 weeks ago. It's going ok so far. I actually really enjoy that I have early morning classes. Mind you, my Friday schedule es una puta. I have 4 classes on that day, and one of them happens twice. So really 5 classes. Chem lecture, Spanish, Bio lab, Math, Bio lecture. My Spanish teacher is the best teacher I have. ALL of the rest are really mediocre, verging on not good. So I have to do a lot of over compensating....POOPY

I've been working out regularly, which is kind of nice! Because my house is so close to school, riding isn't really enough. So I wake up, go to class at 8-9 on Mon and Wed, then I have a threee hour break, so I work out for an hour. Mostly just a little 20-30 minute run/jog/cycle then a 30 minute swim. It's nice...and after school on Tuesday I do a lil' sumsin summsin because I get out at 12! It's pretty nice, I like it. It gives me a lot of energy actually, and then I don't feel like an ass for doing nothing the rest of the day.

Most importantly, Tomas and I celebrated our 2.5 year anniversary Saturday. It was wonderful! We went to Herman Park, paddle boated (which I had never done before!), went to eat dinner at Miyako's for some delicious sushi, and I got a beautiful ring, and I gave tomas a UT baseball hat. Whichhhhh sounds REALLY funny, but he wanted one! And he lookkkks presh. SO, about the paddle boating! We were just walking around, and saw the paddle boat station and thought OMG I've never done this before! Let'ssssss do it! So we run to the little building where you pay to get the ticket, which is $8. We look through tomas' pockets and can only find $7. And the woman in front of us turns around and says, "how much do you need???" and we said...sheepishly obviously because you feel bad about taking someone's money, "$1....but let us keep looking!". And we coulnd't find it, so she gave us her $1. And we get to the station, and they happen to take credit cards, so we told the woman she could have her $1 back, and she said "noooo!!" which was SUPER nice I thought. Although it was funny, it was like she thought it was bad luck to get BACK a gift you gave to someone. It was cute. So we paddled, and there WERE SOO MANY DUCKS! they were SO cute, and SO close to us. I love ducks. It was great, it alll worked out!

Tomas left for Portugal on Sunday morning. We packed allll night after dinner on Saturday. Tomas didn't sleep once, and I slept for 2 hours. Then I drop him to the airport at 9 for his 11 flight. I cried like a rittle baby, and I already miss him like crazy! But he is going to have the best time ever! And it's great how the issue isn't about: "what if you find someone else while you're there?!?!" or "what if you stop loving me???!??!" Because we both know that that will not happen. It's more of an issue of "I'm just going to plain miss you". That fool is my ROCCKKKK!!! I LOVE DA MCSREEPS

Everyone has been really sweet to me about it all too. All of my friends are like, "come hang out if you're lonely". And Tomas' mom told me she loveddd me and that i can call her about anything. She is real sweet (yea reawwww sweet).

I CANNOT WAIT TO GO TO SPAIN. i got accepted into the program last week too! SO THAT IS AWESOME! I can't wait. I SO cannot wait. 3 year anniversary in SPAIN! that makes up for everything!

Well that is pretty much it! Last night I hung out with Tim, Ulsh, Brian, and Allison, and then did calculus with ulsh...which was NEARLY impossible...and still is acutally because it's not done...ehehe..............:/

OK
time to go to class soon!
LURV,
mcgress

ok, so last friday...one week ago, eastern sea show at mohawks = best night of my life! FOR SERIOUS though. i've never been more sweaty, and nasty pasty, but it was incredible.
EVERYONE came...SO many people came...it was ridiculous, either way, it was a ton of fun, and i am really excited because we are going to get to play a lot more shows now that are awesome! all of the coop kids came, which was so nice it made me wanna cry. and then everyone else i knew, and some of tomas friends who have never been to a show. the set list was thus:
1) The Olanos -- Tomas, Diego (tomas' bro) and me doing old interest kills songs which was a lot of fun. we only had like...4 practices before, only for like an hour each, and i didn't know any of the songs, so i was really nervous at first....
2) Cari Music -- Cari from Belaire, but solo. which was very cute and fun.
3) The Eastern Sea
4) Old Coyote -- I hadn't ever heard them before, but Rory recorded their EP that they recently just released, and it was only their second show ever when they played with us....so look at that! there were some awesome old emo parts

Rory was there! which was kind of awkward because i quit the band.....a long time ago. but whatever! it was still a great night!

the whole evening got a review and here's the link: http://www.austinsound.net/2008/08/07/the-eastern-sea-old-coyote-cari-music-olanos-mohawk-aug-1-08/



Tomas leaves for portugal in 29 days...:( i'm gonna miss him
BUT the sooner he goes, the SOONER it's over and the SOONER i go to SPAIN!!!!

goodnight,
love,
jess

today has been full of some exercises!!! i woke up and lounged for a bit, then at around...1:30 i rode my bike from my coop to barton springs with the intermittent goal of figuring out how the fuck to get onto the lamar pedestrian bridge. which i did! i rode my road bike (hehe road my road/rode my rode) on some gravel though! i was so scared i would hear: psssssssssssssssssssssss (the sound of air out of my tires). SO then i got to barton springs, went swimming. i swam to the other side, and walked all the way down, and then swam ALL the way back. went and laid out until i thought i was going to pass out from the heat, and then i got back in the water and did some more laps! it was awesome, then i rode home. it was really nice, i was really tired though. but i am glad, because i haven't ridden by bike since the very beginning of summer. so i think i will put that into my routine more often :)

happy 28 months mcgreeps!

SO! Right now I am in Colorado with my mom, my aunt, and my uncle. It's really nice because their house is literally on the side of a mountain amongst other mountains! It's beautiful. It's been a really long time since I've last updated, and basically things are going pretty well!!

I had been working for like 3 weeks with a Gradstudent at UT with Swordtail fish and aggression differences due to environmental changes. It was really great! I learned a lot, and the guy wants to hire me for like...10-15 days when he comes back from Hawaii to help him work with Damsel flies! It's really cool I think! Right now I am working with this guy and Jewel Scarabs. It is ok so far...I was SUPPOSED to go on a trip with him...but it turned out to only be me and him, so i opted out of that one giantly awkward situation! After being prodded over and over and over and repeating over and over and over that I wasn't going to go on this week long trip with this man and his wife only I was left to make sure that his tank is ready for when he returns with the little beetles! They are actually REALLY pretty beetles! I was really surprised!

Other than that I've been relaxing mostly. Matt W came into town with a BRIT named Will. It was good to see him! Although he's still in town and I am in colorado, and he leaves when I come back I think...so IRONYyes???

OK! So FUNNY thing is:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/in-an-iranian-image-a-missile-too-many/index.html?hp&scp=1&sq=iran&st=blog

"“I know that these missiles are part of a threat to wipe Israel off the map, but now they've proved that they have the Photoshop capabilities to do it.” — sean gallagher" hahahaha

This is BY FAR the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life. WTF...do i laugh? or feel HIGHLY concerned?? I LOVE NYT! The comments are the FUNNIEST things I have ever read. The Highlighted ones on the right are awesome! But seriously...wtf...as if 3 missiles aren't scary enough?!?!

I just finished watching Breakfast at Tiffany's...that movie ALWAYS makes me cry. It's Cat. Cat gets me every time! So good. Although, it's almost too sad for me, I don't think I can watch it more than like once for a long period of time!

I MISSS MY MCGREEPS!!!