Stefanie's Shoes

I have been studying a lot every day since Spring Break. This past Thursday I had a Clinical Trials exam, and I had a homework assignment in Stat Theory due last Friday. Then I worked on a take-home project/test yesterday for Stat Theory II. Today I have a project proposal due in Data Mining and I have to get a bunch of reading done for my clinical trials project group meeting on Thursday. I am getting another homework assignment this afternoon in my Data Mining class that's due on my birthday, and then I have a Stat Theory midterm three days after my birthday. Last night, it struck me how much I have yet to do this semester and how the time seems fleeting. Then I started to feel overwhelmed again.

At least the weather's nice. I have started to create a running base for the next Twin Cities marathon, which isn't until October 7th (about 6 months away). Registration for that starts on May 4th, and my marathon training program will start in June. I need to establish a base of 4-5 miles so that I can run that comfortably in the heat. My dogs have been running with me, which they absolutely love. I also have joined a indoor soccer league as a part-time player (i.e., I play every other game). I have a game tomorrow night!

This past weekend was my grandma's 88th birthday party. We headed down to see her on Saturday and celebrate. She read us some of her poetry. It was enjoyable but I had to unfortunately cut it short (we only visited for three hours) so I can start working on my projects. This next weekend I plan to go to the Omni theater with my friend. Otherwise, my near future holds running and working on projects and homework assignments.

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Spring is in the air. The snow is melting. It's 46 degrees outside, with a high today of 52 degrees. Nice! Unlike many of my classmates, I am not going anywhere for spring break. I am stuck here in MN. I have to come to campus this week for two days because my assistantship is for all 52 weeks of the year without vacation, with the exception of university holidays. Friday is a university holiday, but this rest of this week is not.

I have many plans for what's left of this week. Besides working, I have a take-home test/project for my Stat Theory II class, I have to study for a midterm exam next Thursday in Clinical Trials, and start gathering my ideas for my class project in Data Mining/Statistical Learning. Also, I would like to do some spring cleaning. So much to do, so little time.

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This past Saturday was the annual (belated) holiday party for the company where Jeremy works. It was tons of fun! The event was for the plumbers and their spouses. The evening started by being picked up from our home by a stretch limo. We went to Wildfire, which is a restaurant in Eden Prairie. Jeremy's boss reserved a private room for us there. The food was delicious and the service was outstanding. The boss picked up the tab.

Then the limo took us over to the nearby bowling alley for some cosmic bowling. We were formed into three teams randomly. We all bowled a warm-up game. After the next game, the scores of each team were collectively added up and the winning team memebers were each given $75 gift cards to Outback Steak House. The second place team was given $50 gift cards to Red Lobster, and the last place team was given gift cards to Olive Garden. Jeremy was on the first place team, and I was on the second place team. Yay!

Besides the gift cards, any time you bowled a strike you were given a lottery ticket. Jeremy is an excellent bowler so he got many lottery tickets. I acquired only two lottery tickets all night. Also during the last game, any time you bowled a gutter ball you were supposed to put $1 into a collection. Then every time you bowled a strike or spare you were to draw a card from a stack of cards. At the end of the last game, whoever had the best poker hand takes the collection of money. Jeremy and I did not bring any money since we didn't know we were supposed to, so we were not able to put any money into the collection. However, since Jeremy bowled the most strikes and spares, he collected the most cards, and thus had the best poker hand (a flush). So even if he had been putting money into the collection, he would have got it right back. Thus, Jeremy won the collection of money.

At the end of the night, the limo dropped us off at our home. What a fun night! The nice thing about Eden Prairie is that it is in Hennepin County which is all non-smoking. The bowling alley and restaurant were all smoke-free. Jeremy and I both had a really fun weekend. We went to Outback Steak House last night and used our gift card. :-)

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In other news, I played soccer twice this past week! I haven't played soccer since school started. I have played soccer since I was 7 years old. It's a part of me and I missed it so. It felt great to release all that energy. I am trying to join a team but I don't know how much I will be able to play with school, so I might not join a team until the end of the school year. I already have a women's team lined up for this summer, and I might play on a co-ed team for 12 weeks at the end of the semester too. We shall see.

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a picture of the snow coming down in front of my home.

This is a picture of a tree in our yard. I thought this one was pretty.

This is me standing in our driveway as the snow falls.

This is our deck...look how much snow we got in one week. Literally, there was no snow on this deck the five days before I snapped this photo. The snow is up to the seat of the chair!

I added this pic in for fun. My siblings (minus my brother JJ in Alexandria) and I got some coffee the other day. It was the first time we did this as a collective group. From the left to the right, we have Alyssa, Kris (up front), Greg, Courtney, Stacy, and me (up front). You may recognize Alyssa since she is also a U of MN undergrad student!

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yay! School got out early on Thursday (3/1), but the U of MN didn't cancel class until 2:30pm. I took tons of pictures yesterday, so I'll upload these later today. I will take some more pics today to show you how much snow we got...it's crazy!

Yesterday, after my class got out at 11am I was walking back to work on campus. On Washington Ave & Church St. there was a wild turkey or pheasant (not sure which) in the middle of the road. Everyone walking by stopped in their steps and started to point and laugh. Many students took pictures with their camera phones. I felt so disgusted by these students. No one was trying to help it. I stopped to watch it too, but I wanted to run out in the street and help it. I wanted to chase it off the road. There were so many buses and cars driving by it and beeping their horns at it. The poor bird was scared and confused, and apparently couldn't fly!

A few students did try to get it off the road when the traffic cleared, but there were so many other spectators on the sidewalks that it had no where to run off the road. Instead the bird just ran down the road further. It ran about two blocks. Finally, I decided I had to do something. If I don't do something then how can I expect others to do something. When the traffic cleared I chased the bird off the road. Phew!! It ran to a pine tree where it stopped and was clearly breathing heavily. I stopped to watch it for a minute. I didn't want anyone to bother it any further and I didn't want it to be scared anymore. No one bothered with the bird anymore and it appeared fine, at least for the moment.

I couldn't help but think about where the bird was going to go or how it was going to get food with the ground completely covered with snow. I didn't know who to call or what to do anymore. How did the bird even get on campus? By the time I got to my work, I called my mom who is a bird lover and asked her for advine. She suggested calling raptor center or DNR. It was now about 30 minutes later after I chased the bird. I figured the bird was probably not in the same spot, and probably could hide under the pine tree for shelter from the snow. I don't know. I still don't feel good about that decision. I walked by the pine tree about an hour later and the bird was gone. I hope it found a safe place. What do wild animals do for food/shelter in a blizzard?

Anyways, the point of this blog is to say:

Doing nothing, changes nothing! You can't expect things to change unless you do something. You have the power to make change. The question you have to ask yourself is "are you going to sit by and let things happen, or are you going to do something about it?". I hope you know the answer to this question. Don't worry about not conforming. The worse thing one can do is nothing! Do what you know is right!

Posted by Stefanie Schussler at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)