Tickling: Like being raped, but you're forced to laugh.

Simple to say, I'm a happy camper.

School in the cancer center is going well enough. I'm a quick learner when it comes to procedural things, so that's a plus. My classmates are entertaining, too. I've made a new friend who has wonderful taste in music and movies and style.

Also, my boyfriend decided to visit me before Christmas rolled around, because really, four months is much too long a time to wait. His visit was incredibly relieving for the both of us, as it was all we were looking forward to for the last two months. He for some reason felt compelled to buy me a dress I showed him on ModCloth--he's such a sweetheart--while I bought some more things for myself.


We both went to see the botanical garden here in town and I got to take some pictures of the scenery and ducks and geese and ourselves. It was really sweet. We also visited the Riverwalk in San Antonio; it is a very neat place to hang out and find a place to eat. There are tons of restaurants that line the man-made river.

My mom and dad are coming by for Thanksgiving, so we'll see how that goes. I'm surprisingly not at all homesick for my hometown/home. I'm just fine here, I only miss people. But anyway, I'm looking forward to Christmas back home so I can visit everyone and get my quota of hugs and glomps in.

When I was browsing through some old software cases for my pen tablet, I found an ad for a code to create one free 8x8 20 page hard cover photobook. I decided to create one of my photographs and drawings as a gift to my mom and dad. Shhh! It's a secret!

First Love

I felt like being a good girl today and write something. [Hence:]

Twenty two and a half years I've been alive on this Earth and only now in this summer do I get to experience both the gifting and receiving of love for one another between myself and a boy. ...Or, man, I should say. I'm still not quite in the mindset of adulthood.


I've never been more comfortable with someone not in my family before as I am with him. We'd already been friends for three years before we started dating four months ago, and the whole thing started when I went over to hang out for the first time to get my lap top fixed. If you asked me last year what I'd think about dating him, I would have scoffed at the idea because I used to think of him as a brother and I'm not necessarily attracted to his appearance. Funny how getting to know someone as a whole can make them either more or less attractive.

But it's kind of tragic, I do still have to move to Texas for a year. We plan to reunite as a serious couple once the year is out, but he has a lot of misgivings as to whether I'll still love him after all that time. I assured him, but only time will tell. As he said, time is a powerful thing.

It won't be a whole year until I'd see him again, though! I'll come back to my hometown for a week during the Christmas holidays, and then he'll come to Texas during my spring break to visit me and his mom who happens to be in Texas for several months as well.

I'm excited about the prospect of a serious relationship; I've never had one before, and I'm happy that it's him.

I'm going to eat your face.

By Izabela Matuszyńska
What, you don't remember me? I used to write in this blog called "Fact Not Fiction" and blew your mind. Remember?

Personally, I didn't remember until literally four minutes prior to typing this sentence, when I thought, "Hey, self. It's been too long, and you should update your blog since so many good things have happened in your life. Maybe you should share with these wonderful internet folks." [The encouragement helped, too.]

How about I start by picking up where I left off in my last post? My job shadowing with a dosimetrist helped me in the phone interview I landed with my top choice dosimetry program that I applied to. The interview went very well, enough for me to be accepted into the program! I didn't find out until later that I was one of six applicants who were accepted into the program out of about thirty or so people.

Since the program is located in Texas, I'll have to be moving out soon. My mom took me there last weekend to scope out neighborhoods around the medical center for a place to stay. I managed to find a room for rent in a house belonging to this really sweet woman. The house is on a two acre lot with a pool, a straight shot on the freeway to the medical center.

Of course, it wasn't all business in Texas. My mom and I visited downtown as well as the local art museum and botanical garden where I took some pictures.


Back in April/May, I went on a week long vacation to Washington D.C. to see the sights as a graduation present. My mom and I visited a lot of different museums, but I think we agree that our favorite is the Smithsonian Museum National Gallery of Art alongside the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. There we saw an IMAX documentary "Born To Be Wild", a very poignant film about two women in different parts of the world raising orphaned baby animals, which I highly recommend viewing at some point!

My mom and I went to an interactive play called "Shear Madness" and the Kennedy Center. Basically it's up to the audience who the murderer was; it was a very clever play. We also visited the aquarium and zoo and botanical garden where I took even more photographs:



That would be the last of my out of city adventures. I'll be moving down to Texas in August and so my mom and I planned a going away party for myself to take place in July so people could have a chance to say goodbye if they wanted to. My boss seemed disappointed that I would still have three weeks left of work after my going away party so there couldn't be a roast about me to say/do to me what they couldn't before now, which left me both relieved and curious.

Also, a romance has blossomed in my life. It's just unfortunate that I won't be able to continue to pursue this relationship because of my departure in August for a full year. Hopefully nothing will change and we can pick up where we left off when I get back. If I get back. If I don't fall in love in Texas. If he doesn't change his mind, too. I wish he would come with me, but we haven't been dating long enough for such a huge step. And now that I think about it, he'd be a terrible distraction from my studies. ...I guess it's for the best.

... in bed.

by Francisco Paramos
I don't have any excuses for not updating--I honestly just didn't feel like it. Blogging doesn't seem as important to me as it used to, and you'll probably come to notice that when you stop doing something you do every day out of a habit. That said, I'm not sure why I'm back here today and typing away. But a lot of things have happened since I've last visited and I might as well share the experiences.

First and foremost...

I GRADUATED.

Yep, as of a really cold and rainy night on December 17, 2010, I have officially graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. The ceremony was relatively short because
a) the majority of students graduate in the spring as opposed to the fall, as is the normal end of the "school year".
b) the department of mathematics and natural sciences is pretty tiny itself, unfortunately. There was only one physics graduate. ONE. Ridiculous.

At least I knew someone there besides the mathematics professor who was there to shake our hands before receiving the diploma from the dean of the department. Except I got a hug from my math professor instead, because he's super duper. Anyway! When my name was called, my family and friends were in the audience with various squeaky toys and horns to cause a ruckus while I was walking back to my seat, the dears.

Christmas was typical, except that we had far fewer presents being passed around than normal because of in house budget cuts (haha), and nothing happened on New Years. I have to admit, if I haven't before, that I'm not much of a celebrator. There's something about holidays that are just so forced. I do not share so much in the festivities... And then for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, when I turned 22, I only just went out to dinner. The food was decent and the dinner was awkward because my mom tried to entice me into a serious conversation about what my goals are for the future. Honestly, I don't actually have any goals, I just have plans that I'm running with because I can't think of anything better to do. If that makes any sense.

I did, however, take some portraits of myself on my 22nd birthday. That seems to be a tradition of mine, like a catalogue of the years. Only I usually fail to label my photos properly and I end up not knowing how old I am in these old photographs. And, new thing for me this year, I'm starting to wear make-up. Not every day or anything, just when I feel like being a little prettier for whatever reason.


There's one thing I won't do, though, and that's wear make-up every day. People will come to expect that face on you and think that it's you so that when you take off the make-up you startle them into thinking you're actually bland. If you don't wear make-up every day, that's how they expect your face, and they'll be pleasantly surprised by a pretty face when you choose it.

But on to more better stuff. I finally got a chance to job shadow with a medical dosimetrist a couple of days ago. I got to witness a CT scan for a prostate cancer: how the patient is lined up with the machine and immobilized, watched the image as they came up on the screen slice by slice that could then create a 3D image of the body. Then those images would be taken to the doctor, who would contour parts of the image where he'd want to dose with radiation. Next they would be handed off to the DOSIMETRISTS who would contour vital parts of the body that would need to be avoided in the beam of radiation, and then come up with the best beam angle to deliver the most radiation dose without damaging too much of the surrounding tissues. I didn't realize how my art skills will actually help me do better in this line of work, but there you have it. All three of my interests combined into one: the human body, math, and art.

Cereally.

Less life changing news: I have two new drawings. I haven't been able to do any floral photography in a while. As it is in fact winter and things appear dead. Meanwhile, dead things aren't as pretty. New drawings in which I probably should have spent more time on the face:


I've also been reading a bunch of bunches of books. I finished Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, as well as the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare: The City of Bones, The City of Ashes, and The City of Glass. Stiefvater's books were pleasant. I liked her version of werewolves, and although there would be a lot of holes, I think she managed to fill them in well enough. They were decent books, and I'm always a sucker for teenage romantic tragedies. Meanwhile, the Mortal Instruments series started off slow and then picked up from book to book, at least for me. Also, while being incredibly predictable, it was still fun to read about Clary, Simon, and Jace, and to successfully predict character revelations hundreds of pages in advance. I'm looking forward to the next additions to both of these series that should be publishing this year, but mainly for some real Clary/Jace action. Yeah, you heard me.

To finish on a most comical note, I was playing the "in bed"/"in my pants" game on instant messenger and ended up with the funniest thing I've ever said ever, in my opinion and Peter's. Who is Peter? The world will never know.

Me: You're lucky you at least have a desk job where you can sneak in a chat window to escape. Me, I make pizzas. What can I do? Look out the window and watch parents holding their kids, pointing at me like I'm some sort of zoo animal in bed.

Peter: Maybe you shouldn't wear a gorilla costume to work anymore? Just a suggestion in bed.

Me: Oh, I've considered wearing a costume to work in my pants.

Peter: What kind of costume in bed?

Me: A chimp costume so that I could scratch my armpits in bed. And the parents will have shocked faces, like, what on earth, you can't scratch your pits, you're making food in my pants! (Haha I think that's the funniest thing I've ever said.)

Peter: lol I agree! And now people are walking past my office thinking I'm crazy for laughing at my monitor in bed.