Chemistry as understood by a writer.

As a college student, I am required to take certain classes. One of those is chemistry. At some point last semester I decided that it would be a good idea to take the summer course, which also happens to be online, leaving me to try to finish a full course in a shortened period of time and without those boring in-class lectures that do help quite a bit. This has left me with the task of trying to understand the straight-to-the-point textbook on my own, basically. As it turns out, my brain likes to work with very strange analogies. (But not the ones in my human biology textbook. My brain hates those.)

Today's analogy is the "Atoms are high schools" metaphor.

Here are the relationships.

Atom nucleus= A boy.

Electrons= Girls.

Chemistry says that the radii of atoms decrease as the number of protons in their nuclei increase because the electrons are more attracted to the greater positive charge.


My brain says that as the boy bulks up into a hot muscular man, the girls flock to him more than when he was a spindly-armed nerd.

This analogy went into much further detail than this, actually. It ended up being a rather convoluted school system with cities, suburbs and rinky-dink little rural towns. There were classes and social groups. Everything combined into a crazy explanation of science that could not possibly make understanding this book any easier to anyone but me. And this is the easier of my two science books to understand. My notes on cells read more like a movie script than a simple re-writing of a textbook.

Pokenails.

Sometimes, I am incredibly nerdy.
Sometimes, I am mostly just girly.

Other times, those two sides of me meet and create something extraordinarily me.

Today was one of those days.

It all started on, of course, Pinterest. I found a link to this: http://www.ohsoprettythediaries.com/2012/04/manic-mani-monday-flame-manicure.html

It was a way to make wonderful designs on my nails, something which I had never been able to do because frankly, I just have a horrible time trying to use my left hand to do anything. But here was a magnificent method to turn my nails into works of art, full of expression and beauty.
And so it began.

I tried this a couple of times before, but neither attempt was picture-worthy. Or really worth having on for any amount of time at all. My third attempt, however, worked quite well, and that is what brings us here.

Here is the finished result:

Pokenails.

This was such a fun project, and one that I know will make a certain Elder Wil Wixom proud, when he finally hears about it sometime in the future. (Japan is SOOOOOOOOOOO far away!)

While there are a few things I would do differently to give them an overall cleaner look, I am quite happy with the finished result, and my inner nerd is squealing, along with my inner girl.

Of course, my best blogging happens when I have a paper due.

Tomorrow morning, I have a five page-paper due. Instead, I'm blogging. Because sometimes you just have to stop writing about Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural speech and instead write about anything else for a little while.

About one week from today will mark two months of my life as a missionary girlfriend, and it never ceases to amaze me how hard things seem like they will be while I'm dreading them for weeks and months leading up to them, but once I actually get there, it's never nearly as bad as I imagine it will be. I think it helps that my mom was inspired to spend my whole life telling me that if the guy is worth marrying, he's worth waiting two years for. Actually, I'm pretty sure she started teaching me this lesson long before either of us ever joined the church, which is a little weird, thinking back now. But anyways, the beginning of the wait is over, and that's supposed to be the hardest part, right? Right?

I read on a blog somewhere else on this giant internet some advice for girls who were preparing to send a missionary off. Something stuck out to me that went somewhere along the lines of "Right now, you may love his voice. Or his smile. Or his eyes. But for two years, you're gonna have to love his handwriting." I have not read a more accurate summary of what it's like to be a missionary girlfriend anywhere else.

But... the upside to all of this is that I can focus on school. Uh... yay? Basically, it's almost finals week, and I am ready for summer. When I'll be doing online courses... My enthusiasm for school is not at the highest it's ever been right now. That's alright though. I am so close to done! And then summer will come along, and it will be absolutely marvelous.

Finally, because I just really need a list to cheer me up from school, here are some things that I am truly excited for:

1. My next letter from my missionary.
2. School to be DONE.
3. The multiple craft projects that I really am going to do this summer.
4. The closing Institute social this weekend. Free food is always a good thing.
5. Moving to New York at some point in my life, even if it's just for a couple of months.
6. Going to bed.

Well, I guess I'll finish this post up so I can finish my homework and get that last item on my list DONE!