Baseball games & wedding dresses--summertime fun :)

I think it's time for another life update. Let's see what I've done this week...

On Monday, after work, I drove to Ripon to visit Lissa. Tuesday morning, we went shopping in Fond du Lac. I bought a shirt I didn't need...for 8 dollars. I've looked at the shirt a few times before, and this time I finally gave in. I think it's ok.

Tuesday night we went to a Brewer's game. It was me, Liss, her boyfriend Luke, his friend Troy, and Luke's mom, Petra. It was a lot of fun, even though the Brewer's lost. I loooove baseball, and wish I could go to more games. But Milwaukee is somewhat far from here, and I don't really have money. Ha. Someday.

On Wednesday, I drove back to La Crosse and met Becca. She is getting married in a year, and wants to get as many details worked out as possible before classes start. As a nursing major, she does get incredibly busy. So we went to cake places on Wednesday and tested cake. We also drove around and looked for possible wedding ceremony sites. She really wants an outdoor wedding in the La Crosse/Westby/Viroqua area, with a creek nearby. She's having quite a bit of trouble finding a place though :/ Oh and then Wednesday evening, we met up with her fiance Tim, and visited a caterer to test meals! What a wonderful day. We tried five meats: broiled cod, tenderloin tips (my fav), pork tenderloin, breaded chicken in white sauce, and chicken cordon bleu. It was all delicious.

Today, I went with Becca and 2 of the other 3 bridesmaids to look at wedding dresses. It was great, but stressful. There are SO many dresses, and Becca is hesitant to make a decision (which make sense...it IS a big decision). She picked out one favorite at Charlotte's Bridal, and two favorites at the Wedding Tree. She's going to go back next week, with her mom, to see if she can make a final decision. It's very exciting :)

In other news, running has been a fail for the past two weeks. I've started to get this pain in my knee, but ONLY when I run. It's on the outside of my left knee...and if I stop running, the pain goes away almost immediately. If I keep running despite the pain (as I did once last week) then I'm in terrible pain all day. I took a week off, and then tried today. It was bad. I'm not sure what to do. I've done a little bit of research, and it sounds like Iliotibial Band Syndrome. But I couldn't say for sure, At any rate, I'm really not sure about treatment. Stretching? It may be because of the hard ground that I am running on. Or maybe I run wrong? But I'm not sure why it would only start hurting after 6 months of regular running. I'm just going to rest until I get back to Ripon, and then try the elliptical machine. It's my favorite, because it feels so easy. And I know it'll be easier on my knee, which will hopefully make things all better :)

I have also had the same stupid headache for the past few days. It goes away briefly here and there, but keeps coming back. It's pretty painful, and I can't figure out what is causing it. I haven't been getting enough sleep, and my eating has been somewhat irregular because I've been busy. So maybe that's it. I'm sleeping in tomorrow, which should help, I hope.

As for now...I'm off to bed. Time to beat this headache.

Computer...fail!

I was ridiculously proud about the fact that I was able to replace a part in my computer. It worked really well...for about a week. Now the new fan doesn't work, and I'm beginning to think that the problem is bigger than just the fan. I've had a few friends and family (all "computer people") suggest that it's quite possibly something to do with the motherboard. I tune them out at the point (wayyy over my head) but listen enough to realize that fixing the computer would now cost more than buying a new computer. That seems completely illogical to me, and really stupid. I guess that's good for the computer industry, but kind of a waste (unless, of course, you have money just laying around, which I unfortunately do not).

So I've resigned myself to the death of my laptop, which makes things substantially harder. I'd really like to start my graduate school applications, but I can't exactly work on my personal statement in the living room. It will not work, that much I can guarantee.

Yesterday I convinced Mom and Dad to go look at new cell phones with me, finally. It looks like we'll be switching to Sprint (for real this time) because it's cheaper than any other provider we can find. I'll be getting my new phone in about a week...the Samsung Intercept. It's a smartphone, with the Android platform, and I'm quite excited. I really like Android phones, and I'm going to enjoy playing with my new phone when I get it.

Also, I had quite a nice surprise yesterday. Mom told me that Dad had to "pick up some stuff" at Best Buy, which turned out to mean that they were buying me a new laptop!!! I did not expect that, at all. Being without a laptop would make me have to work a little bit harder, but it wouldn't be the end of the world (not really, I guess). But this is really nice :) So I've spent last night and today playing with my lovely new laptop. It has an AMD processor which we are a little unsure of, considering we've only ever had Intel processors, but I doubt I'll ever notice a difference. As much as I'd love to be a "computer person," it's still a work in progress. And that's probably ok.

So now I can continue to blog (which I don't like doing in the living room, much like anything else) and on Monday, I will officially begin working on my personal statements. I'm somehow really stressed about it, but trying to remember that my applications are basically all due in DECEMBER. So I have time. But...I'm really concerned about making sure that my applications are high quality. I plan on putting a lot of work in...but I do also want to enjoy senior year. It's hard to find that balance, between making sure I get everything done (and done well) but also having fun. We'll see how it all goes--but I suspect that having a lovely new laptop will help!