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!!!

I have to find a job. I really want to find a job in the wildlife area...so I'm ging to call around tomorrow, hopefully assuming that I don't forget. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. And then I can finally get started on the whole deal. Summer already seems to be slipping through my fingers, and then Tomas goes in the fall :( Anyways, I'm just excited to be going back to Austin soon.

This weekend I was supposed to go to my sister's house to go to have a CRAWFISH BBrRoil, but it got cancelled because my step-mom is recovering from a secondary infection to strep...that sucks? a lot. But I'm still going to go to kingwood on Friday, and then coming back to Houston on Saturday. I'm still getting used to my haircut, It's weird to actually have a style! I'm just used to having one length..or poopy hairs. And, not having a haircut in 2 years, it is weird.

FINALLY, everything I have ever owned is done being washed because of the flea problem. I am so glad. Fuck fleas. I will say it again, fuck fleas. I still have yet to figure out their ecological relevance, other than food for other bugs/animals like spiders/snakes/lizards...etc...but wtf, get OTHER bugs to eat. If anyone is interested in figuring out how fleas are relevant to the ecosystem, please let me know...I'm desperately searching to know why the microscopic vampires exist and seem to bud 100X the speed of life.

I found out the other day that I have a cyst on my left ovary. Which, in reality, isn't that big of a deal, except it hurts which sucks. But I have to go back to the doctor to make sure it goes away/goes down in a month. But, apparently just for kicks, my right ovary is 2cm in diameter (at it's highest diameter) while my left one is around 5cm in diameter, a little bigger than a golf ball?! When she told me that I was like WHOA! Ovaries always seems like they are going to only be millimeters big, but NOPE, they are pretty big! Especially with cysts attached to them. Haha, I've had one before, but it went away, so hopefully this one will go down. But I have to actually be careful because now that it has this extra weight it could possibly turn and kind of...flip over. And if it does, apparently I'll just want to die because of the pain. But, I doubt that will happen :)

I told the lady that gave me my ultrasound "thank you very much" and she looked at me and goes..."I can't imagine why anyone would want to thank me for what goes on here (at the OB/GYN office)." And honestly, I was like ARE YOU SERIOUS?! YOU GUYS SAVE LIVES! If no one payed attention to my minor pelvic pain, I could be in some real shit! I could care less about an annual pelvic exam, as long as they keep me in check I am fine with whatever.

Woooooowiee I'm sleepy!
Goodnight all!
Love,
Jess

FINALLY! I did it. 2 years ago, I had a hair cut. And 2 years from them, today, I got a haircut!





Go to Cut Loose in Houston, and get John Chao. 1) AWESOME conversationalist, 2) severely knows his shit, 3) Best haircut ever had.

SUMMER 08 is awesome. I went tubing yesterday, barton springs the day before, and have been killing fleas! i hate fleas. hate hate hate fleas. our house was infested...now taken care of :)
I lost my phone though...I've been ridiculously busy lately. So many bullshit errands to run, and various insect killing things.

WHUDDEVAA
haircuts = life
love,
jess

it's almost 5 am

im sleepy

I have been come a super space/hubble telescope nerd as of late. So...I was curious, aka procrastinating from studying for my Mythology final, and decided I'd learn some stuff about Black Holes. After a few wtf's and "how is that even possible"s I decided to do a "fall into a black hole module". First, I was a space ship, going towards this actual huge black dot (which is apparently only a miniscule size?) and the light around it gets distorted, then my space ship gets stretched, then all you see is black, then it says:

"CONGRATULATIONS!
You have found a black hole and traveled all the way into its very center. your body was first stretched apart as you came close. Then in the last moments of your journey, your body was compressed into the central singularity of the black hole, a single point of infinite density."

A single point of infinite density? IE: all the matter being squisshedes into one tiny dot on graph? Apparently, Einstein said that at this point there is a "worm hole" or tube into another universe. I mean...it makes sense? Matter can't be created or destroyed in isolated systems...so...or does that mean that if the central singularity of the black hole is infinitely dense that no matter is destroyed? Ugh...I wish I took an astrology class...sucks I have like no more rooms for credits.

I've seen SO many scary movies lately, and it's fucking with me really badly:
1) the mist
2) i am legend
3) cloverfield
4) them
all like within 2 days. them was legitimately suspenseful/my heart was bumping...but the end pissed me off...the other ones weren't really scary, just exciting. but for some reason, i ALWAYS thing zombies will happen. haha

whatever
I should go. I need food and have to study
BYEBYE
Jess

I always do this. I always stay up until around 2, and then I get exhausted but I don't want to go to sleep. I hate falling asleep when I am still sort of...conscious. If I could fall asleep every-night from sheer exhaustion, and not think about going to sleep before actually doing it, I would. I love sleeping, and I love waking up from sleep, and I love being asleep and dreaming, but I tend to hate the moments before falling asleep. The moments before you sort of lose consciousness. I've been thinking a lot about sleep lately, and how other than "rest" it is a really strange thing. For an animal, in the animal kingdom if you will, it seems pretty dangerous and weird, to have to spend a significant amount of time unprotected with your eyes closed, and body in some other place. So...if there is a "god," not in the christian sense of the word...but a what the fuck happens when I die sense, or a place from which we come from, it kind of seems that sleep might be this "place from which we come."

Anyways, back to the physical world I guess. I got exempt from my chemistry exam, so I have an A in that :). I got an 80 on my Archaeology final?! Which doesn't make any god damned sense because 1) it was a take home test, 2) all of my answers on the multiple choice CAME from my god damned notes...so what ARE the right answers? If it's not from lecture, where the fuck did they come from? Oh well, I still got an A in it...barely! :) and then I got a 96 on my Calculus final, so now I have an A in that class. And then I have one more final on Tuesday, which is for Roman and Greek Mythology...which I think if I get a 48 on the final I'll get an 80 in the class...and If i get an 80 on the final, I keep an A in the class or something awesome like that...Hooray for grades??

Next Semester I have this shitty schedule, but it'll be awesome:
Chemistry II - MWF from 8-9 AM...OMG.WTF.
Intro to Biology I - MWF from 2-3:00 and then on Friday again from 10-11
Integral Calculus - MWF from 12-1, and TTh from 11-12
Civilization of Spanish America (Upper Spanish :) ) - TTh from 9:30-11, and then F 11-12
Chemical Practice (Lab) - Th from 1-6 PM! 5 HOURS?! HOURS?!?!?!

I hope that I can hack it....I'll be taking 15 hours, which is of course normal...but it's looking pretty intense....I'm mostly worried about the upper division spanish class (civilization of spanish america), just because my spanish is shakey, and reading will take forever, while all of those other classes are going to be pretty demanding as well!

Oh well! I study better in the Fall anyways...because my brain is normally deprived of knowledge.


BEST QUOTE EVER: "I TOLD YOU I WOULD EAT YOU" - There Will Be Blood

Ok, I need to go now...goodnight everyone!
Love,
Jess

ohhh boy oh boyy!

final in 3 hours...
from 7-10? weird huh? i'm being lazy!

oh goodness. i just watched there will be blood for the first time, and i am utterly blown away. i think i loved it....but all i really know is that at the end i didn't want to do anything but feel miserable. tomas fell asleep towards the end, it was superr long, and when it was over all i wanted to do was wake him up and go WTF?!

if you haven't seen it, see it. watch it. it is incredible.
daniel day-lewis is ridiculous....as is paul dano.

awesome outer space pic of the day:



now go think!
love
jess

I present to you:


The Sun.

Honestly, I can't get over it. LOOK at it. And realize. How and why did it get there? Yeah blahblah the big bang, I get it. But you're going to die, I'm going to die, and the sun is going to die. I don't feel small when I think about the universe, it just blows my mind that all of this:

is going on at the same "time" as my existence. Time being the operative word...I WANNA GO TO ONE OF THOSE?!!?!!!! UGGGGGGGH. Interacting Galaxies?!@?!

minus the fact that space = no oxygen = scary = apollo 13?

I don't know. I LOVE IT!
Everything is SO AWESOME.

ok! time for Chem class!
Love,
Jess

These are some of the most chilling photos I have seen in a long time: http://tetheredtothesun.com/section/6026.html

I don't even know.

I'll have to post more later on other things, but I have to study :(

i have officially stuck my hand into like 30 cookie jars!
this is my new set o' wheels, if you will. i got them today, courtesy of my mother, who surprised me and told me that she would pay for my replacement bike!! it's awesome. so awesome.

i will go so fast!

except, now i have a cold. i felt really poopy today, so riding was not very enjoyable. hopefully i'll feel better by tomorrow. allergies = snots = drainage = cough = :(

LOST is next week, which is astonishing, ravishing, exciting, and exhilarating all at the same time! i cannot wait to see the rest of this season!
UGH!!!

25 months of existence for me and tomas today! the weathers been beautiful, and i can't ask for anything better than a rittle toma and a lot of sunshine!

the eastern sea is going well still! i like it so much.
The Eastern Sea - Your House

Here is us at Beerland about 2 weeks ago.
you can see more, if you wish, at http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.channel&ChannelID=67033452

I love you all.
Goodnight.