On the road to college...

Financial aid forms...check!

Can't wait to fill out my own tax forms. Looks like an absolute headache.

OH MY GOSH...

My room is clean! It only took 3 some hours to do (I organized a lot of stuff too, ok?). Anyway, someone from one of my mom's quilt groups is coming over tomorrow for a quilt expo and staying a couple nights. To make room, I had to move practically everything out of my room except for the stuff that wouldn't fit in Jennifer's, which is basically everything except all the great posters and random Germany memorabilia that go on my walls.

Mom asked me if it didn't feel great that my room practically sparkles now. Unforturnately for me, that's not the room I'll be living in for the next month or until summer, as we take in a series of guests. Maybe sometime I'll be able to do the same cleaning spree for Jenn's room (Don't mind that I don't put pictures of it on right now).

Here's a more comprehensive photo of the bathroom, too, so you can see better the remodeling work that's been going on.

Long Weekend

Because of today's civic holiday, this weekend was a 3-day weekend. It was 33% longer for me, though, because I was out sick on Friday. Thankfully I feel much better now, well enough to get a hair cut,

(note the newly painted bathroom wall in the background, the product of Mom and Elaine's afternoon work), cook Schupfnudeln (potato noodles with bacon and Sauerkraut) and Bockwurst,

and work endlessly on my civics paper. So far the civics paper is really interesting. I'm writing mine on how the federal government should establish renewable energy portfolio standards, to help wean the country off fossil fuels. I'm having a blast with it.

Oh, and all my college application work is done. (Yay!). I submitted my last application, finally, and had my last college interview on Saturday. The interview went great, considering it was for an Ivy League. We ended up taking an hour and a half instead of one, and I left with a good feeling about it. It's doubtful that there could be any better sign.

Museums

Most museums in San Francisco are free on the first Tuesday of the month, so we took advantage of the opportunity and visited two of them: De Young and the SF Museum of Modern Art. They were both very interesting, with some great exhibits. (I especially liked the wire sculpture exhibits in the De Young Museum.)

The De Young Museum is in Golden Gate Park. The building itself is art. The 9-story tower is a weird, but fascinating shape. There is a great view of the park, parts of San Francisco, and Aunt Kathryn's car (without a ticket, she would like to add!). Some other interesting exhibits from the museum (Guess what they are):
If you guessed a coffin styled like a cocoa pod and a piece of Chihuly, you get 50 points! If you only get the Chihuly, though, you only get 15 (Come on, he's so easy to guess!). :)


I don't have any pictures from the other museum (in the building designated the "Juke Box" because of its interesting roof), because pictures weren't permitted. I have to say that the art there was a little more modern (ie, "bizarre"), if you can get even more bizarre than a cocoa pod-shaped coffin. Here are some photos from some of our other random adventures, though:
Ooh! another guessing game! What animal did Vincent make with my hair?
Vincent's boredom was alleviated by the time we reached this detour: a super steep hill. We went up, discovered a dead end, and had to go back down again. It was an adventure to make your adreneline rise.

I took a walk around the lake, just as it got dark, and discovered a moon that was almost full reflected in the water. It's full tonight, though, so I wish Jon a happy 3 lunar calendar months!

Today, we're going to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and go walk through Fisherman's Wharf and China Town. It's going to be busy. I wish you all in Socal and Wherever-Else a fantastic day.