I know, I know. I haven't posted in two months. Blah blah blah.
Normally I would post this tomorrow, but I'm going to be in Des Moines all day getting a new battery for my laptop (FINALLY!), so I figured I would post it today.
I'll start by going over my New Year's resolutions I made on January 1st this year, and see how I did.
1) Spend less time on Netflix and the internet, and read more for pleasure. This means that I'd like to read 50 books in 2012, but I'd ideally like to read one book/week, to make it 52 books in the year.
2) Procrastinate less: get my work ethic into better shape.
3) Get in better shape and generally eat more healthily (lose 20 lbs, if possible).
4) Get on a good sleep schedule and STAY ON IT.
5) Make the most out of Amy's last semester of college with her.
6) Travel as much as possible (LeakyCon; visit Amy in Boston next winter break & possibly in NH next summer; visit Dar in Ithaca)
7) Do well enough at MUM so my first term back at Knox is a complete breeze
8) Keep in touch with my friends at Knox
9) Visit Knox at least twice this semester
10) Don't die on December 21, 2012
11) Keep a journal in which I write down one good thing that happens each day
12) Blog every weekend
How I did:
1) I am currently in the midst of my 50th book of the year, so I'm doing well on that one.
2) It's not in FANTASTIC shape, but my work ethic is definitely better.
3) HA. This one didn't happen at all. I think I...gained 7 pounds? I have no idea how much I weighed at the beginning of the year.
4) This one didn't happen either. My sleep schedule was pretty much terrible for most of the year. But I'm currently on a decent enough sleep schedule, so we'll keep it at that.
5) Done.
6) I did travel a lot, but to none of the places I mentioned. I went to NH with Amy for Spring Break, I went to California in June, I visited Amy in July, and I visited Amy in December. I did visit Dar also, as she moved to NH in March-ish, so I got to visit her while I was also visiting Amy.
7) Done. My term GPA is a 3.33, which I am very happy about.
8) I did this. I mainly kept in touch with my roommate, but I am okay with that.
9) I only visited once...oops.
10) Seeing as it's currently December 29, I would say with complete confidence that I did not die.
11) Nope. I did this for like the first two weeks of the year, and then I completely stopped.
12) Ha. Again, nope. Oh well.
Other than that... I don't know what to say. I'm glad to be back at Knox. It's the right place for me. I'm excited to be studying abroad in London next fall. I can't wait for my classes this term. Christmas was wonderful, of course.
I think that's all I have to say. I know I should do a more comprehensive post to encompass 2012, but I'm honestly really tired, so I'm going to go to bed. Yes, I know it's only 10pm, but I am exhausted.
Next post will be from my dorm room. Weird.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
My life is crazy
I should probably post something.
But I'm so busy!
...said every Knox College student during week 9, as it currently is. And yet I have enough time in my day to make room for all the NaNoWriMo I'm doing.
So much has happened over the past two weeks, I don't know where to start.
Halloween weekend, a student was tragically hit by a car on South and West, and died from her resulting injuries. I didn't know her, but from what I've heard in the past week about her makes me wish I had known her. She sounds like she was an amazing person. I'm sending my love and thoughts to everyone who knew her as well as to her family.
I went home this past weekend, and It. Was. Amazing. I want this term to be over so I can sleep in my own bed for six weeks. That just sounds amazing right now. I got to spend so much time with Amy and oh my god I have missed that girl. She's such a happy, supportive presence in my life and I really wish we still lived in the same town so we could see each other every day. That would make me so happy. But she has to live in New Hampshire (so jealous) and I have to live in the freaking Midwest. I'll be moving out there eventually though, so it'll work out.
NaNoWriMo started this past week, and I'm actually keeping up. I think this is the longest I've ever kept up. I wrote hardly anything on day 3, but I got myself caught up since then, so overall, I'm doing well. I wrote a ton yesterday, leaving me within 500 words of today's word goal. I should be able to get that done no problem. I just have to write it....Ha. It will happen eventually.
It's Election Day today, and I'm freaking out. I know Obama's going to win, but I'm still really scared that Romney will win. I sent in my absentee ballot about two weeks ago though, so I have for sure already voted.
Goodbye for now. Classes end a week from tomorrow. It's crazy.
Tata until next week.
But I'm so busy!
...said every Knox College student during week 9, as it currently is. And yet I have enough time in my day to make room for all the NaNoWriMo I'm doing.
So much has happened over the past two weeks, I don't know where to start.
Halloween weekend, a student was tragically hit by a car on South and West, and died from her resulting injuries. I didn't know her, but from what I've heard in the past week about her makes me wish I had known her. She sounds like she was an amazing person. I'm sending my love and thoughts to everyone who knew her as well as to her family.
I went home this past weekend, and It. Was. Amazing. I want this term to be over so I can sleep in my own bed for six weeks. That just sounds amazing right now. I got to spend so much time with Amy and oh my god I have missed that girl. She's such a happy, supportive presence in my life and I really wish we still lived in the same town so we could see each other every day. That would make me so happy. But she has to live in New Hampshire (so jealous) and I have to live in the freaking Midwest. I'll be moving out there eventually though, so it'll work out.
NaNoWriMo started this past week, and I'm actually keeping up. I think this is the longest I've ever kept up. I wrote hardly anything on day 3, but I got myself caught up since then, so overall, I'm doing well. I wrote a ton yesterday, leaving me within 500 words of today's word goal. I should be able to get that done no problem. I just have to write it....Ha. It will happen eventually.
It's Election Day today, and I'm freaking out. I know Obama's going to win, but I'm still really scared that Romney will win. I sent in my absentee ballot about two weeks ago though, so I have for sure already voted.
Goodbye for now. Classes end a week from tomorrow. It's crazy.
Tata until next week.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
fun fun fun
All I can think about is how excited I am to go home in two weeks. Unfortunately, this time in two weeks I'll be back at campus. But two weekends from now, I'll be home and with Amy and all my Fairfield friends and it's going to be so lovely.
This weekend was another weekend where I only had Latin homework. I was intending to get it all done Friday afternoon so I had yesterday and today free, but that didn't end up happening. I ended up spreading it out between yesterday and today, and I finished it earlier this afternoon, which was pretty great. It still led to the uncertainty of what to do with myself all weekend though. It did lead to the opportunities of lying around in bed all day though, which were pretty nice. I was exhausted all weekend - especially today - to the point where I felt like a zombie any time I walked around and I was barely able to focus and everything. It was pretty ridiculous. I need more sleep.
The Andy Grammer concert was last night, and it was awesome. This guy named Chris Wallace opened, and I surprisingly liked him! The beat of one of his songs kind of sounded like California Gurls, leading me to make the comment that he kind of reminds me of Katy Perry, which lead to everyone in my group being very amused.
The highlight of Chris Wallace's set was when he sang "We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift to a girl in the front row. I was dancing along and singing louder than I probably should have, but what can I say? I love me some Taylor Swift. (Her new album comes out tomorrow and I AM SO EXCITED.)
And then Andy Grammer came out and he pretty much brought the house down. I only sat for one of his songs, and that was because I was singing and dancing to the rest of his set, so I was pretty beat. But overall his set was amazing. Bessie and I fell in love with his bassist though. He had dreadlocks and plays a left-handed bass guitar, which just happens to be purple. People kept on throwing glowsticks at him and he tried to catch them in his mouth. He almost caught two in his mouth. And he caught a couple one-handed, which he used as a mustache. It was SO ADORABLE.
Basically, the show was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went. It was really nice to get off campus for a night, especially for a concert. Even if I didn't like the musician or knew them that well, I probably would have still gone, since it's a free concert at Knox, and those never happen, unless it's a student performance or something. Not to say that student performances aren't bad, but there's nothing like a proper famous musician.
Overall, it was a good week.
See ya guys later.
This weekend was another weekend where I only had Latin homework. I was intending to get it all done Friday afternoon so I had yesterday and today free, but that didn't end up happening. I ended up spreading it out between yesterday and today, and I finished it earlier this afternoon, which was pretty great. It still led to the uncertainty of what to do with myself all weekend though. It did lead to the opportunities of lying around in bed all day though, which were pretty nice. I was exhausted all weekend - especially today - to the point where I felt like a zombie any time I walked around and I was barely able to focus and everything. It was pretty ridiculous. I need more sleep.
The Andy Grammer concert was last night, and it was awesome. This guy named Chris Wallace opened, and I surprisingly liked him! The beat of one of his songs kind of sounded like California Gurls, leading me to make the comment that he kind of reminds me of Katy Perry, which lead to everyone in my group being very amused.
The highlight of Chris Wallace's set was when he sang "We Are Never Ever Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift to a girl in the front row. I was dancing along and singing louder than I probably should have, but what can I say? I love me some Taylor Swift. (Her new album comes out tomorrow and I AM SO EXCITED.)
And then Andy Grammer came out and he pretty much brought the house down. I only sat for one of his songs, and that was because I was singing and dancing to the rest of his set, so I was pretty beat. But overall his set was amazing. Bessie and I fell in love with his bassist though. He had dreadlocks and plays a left-handed bass guitar, which just happens to be purple. People kept on throwing glowsticks at him and he tried to catch them in his mouth. He almost caught two in his mouth. And he caught a couple one-handed, which he used as a mustache. It was SO ADORABLE.
Basically, the show was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I went. It was really nice to get off campus for a night, especially for a concert. Even if I didn't like the musician or knew them that well, I probably would have still gone, since it's a free concert at Knox, and those never happen, unless it's a student performance or something. Not to say that student performances aren't bad, but there's nothing like a proper famous musician.
Overall, it was a good week.
See ya guys later.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
I got a new pillow today
It's one of those days where I've been ready to go to bed since about 6:30pm.
I've somehow managed to keep myself awake for the four hours that have occurred since then.
I'm not sure how I managed to do it. I was so tempted to just curl up in bed and sleep forever, but that would mean that I would wake up at an awkward time in the wee hours of the morning and that would just be bad. So I forced myself to stay up until now, where I am finally ready to fall asleep.
But I have to get this blogpost written first. Oi.
Regardless, it's been a weird weekend. I came out of class on Friday not knowing what I had to do for homework this weekend. To my knowledge, I had no Graphic Design homework, History was cancelled so all my homework due Friday was now due Monday, and my Latin professor hadn't told us what we needed to have completed for Monday. To this date (10:24pm on Sunday night), I still don't know what I technically have to get done in Latin. On the schedule, it just says "Chapter 8, details TBA" for this week. So, class will undoubtedly be interesting tomorrow. I ended up winging it.
As far the weekend went, it was very odd. I had almost no homework to do. I didn't know what to do with my time. It felt like I was spending my time doing virtually nothing.
It was still a good weekend. I suppose you could say I've become a coffee drinker -- I went to a coffeeshop near campus with my friend Katie yesterday to catch up and have coffee, and I got a s'more mocha latte, because it sounded freaking amazing, and it was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it. So that was my first cup of coffee. I've made tentative plans with Katie to hang out again soon, which makes me really happy. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with her last year, so it will be nice to see her more frequently this year.
And then my family visited me today and brought me food and granola and my mom fixed my coat and I'm very happy.
I'm also really excited for this term to be over. I'm enjoying my classes, don't get me wrong, but we've reached the point in the year where I'm ready for new classes. I think it's really just that I miss literature classes a lot. I love writing and reading and analyzing. Hell, I even miss writing essays. If it's an essay about some kind of literature, I will probably enjoy writing it.
But we get to select classes in a couple weeks, and I am ridiculously happy. Next term should be enjoyable.
Have a good week, everybody. Midterm grades come out Monday, and I'm not too nervous. I'm feeling pretty good about all my classes.
I've somehow managed to keep myself awake for the four hours that have occurred since then.
I'm not sure how I managed to do it. I was so tempted to just curl up in bed and sleep forever, but that would mean that I would wake up at an awkward time in the wee hours of the morning and that would just be bad. So I forced myself to stay up until now, where I am finally ready to fall asleep.
But I have to get this blogpost written first. Oi.
Regardless, it's been a weird weekend. I came out of class on Friday not knowing what I had to do for homework this weekend. To my knowledge, I had no Graphic Design homework, History was cancelled so all my homework due Friday was now due Monday, and my Latin professor hadn't told us what we needed to have completed for Monday. To this date (10:24pm on Sunday night), I still don't know what I technically have to get done in Latin. On the schedule, it just says "Chapter 8, details TBA" for this week. So, class will undoubtedly be interesting tomorrow. I ended up winging it.
As far the weekend went, it was very odd. I had almost no homework to do. I didn't know what to do with my time. It felt like I was spending my time doing virtually nothing.
It was still a good weekend. I suppose you could say I've become a coffee drinker -- I went to a coffeeshop near campus with my friend Katie yesterday to catch up and have coffee, and I got a s'more mocha latte, because it sounded freaking amazing, and it was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it. So that was my first cup of coffee. I've made tentative plans with Katie to hang out again soon, which makes me really happy. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with her last year, so it will be nice to see her more frequently this year.
And then my family visited me today and brought me food and granola and my mom fixed my coat and I'm very happy.
I'm also really excited for this term to be over. I'm enjoying my classes, don't get me wrong, but we've reached the point in the year where I'm ready for new classes. I think it's really just that I miss literature classes a lot. I love writing and reading and analyzing. Hell, I even miss writing essays. If it's an essay about some kind of literature, I will probably enjoy writing it.
But we get to select classes in a couple weeks, and I am ridiculously happy. Next term should be enjoyable.
Have a good week, everybody. Midterm grades come out Monday, and I'm not too nervous. I'm feeling pretty good about all my classes.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Not My Ideal Saturday...
Hey Guys.
I have a story for you.
So Monday night at the weekly TKS meeting, one of the stories for Mosaic was called "Ninja vs Samurai Swords." I thought it sounded awesome, no one took it, so I happily took it, certain I would have a fun way to spend my Saturday night.
Fast forward to last night. The show was not anything I expected. I expected it to be filled with history, with the samurai people giving a cool demonstration of what a fight between a ninja and a samurai would actually be like. And then the audience would get to participate and swing sticks at each other, learning simple offensive and defensive strokes.
The audience participation was the only part I actually got. Most of the audience left halfway through when it was actually time to use the swords. The first half was a complete mess filled with inappropriate offensive jokes and no history whatsoever. The only history that I learned was that the sword fighting techniques used are based on 16th century sword fighting, and
So after the show, I talked to my friends who are members of the Japanese Club and proud of this seemingly awesome event, and got halfheartedly enthusiastic quotes from them. They were planning this awesome event, and they didn't get it at all. This is extremely disheartening since the last time these folks were here, they put on an awesome show and took Knox seriously. They just didn't take us seriously this time around. I'm not sure why. We can be an enthusiastic bunch when you put us in the close proximity of shiny swords.
And then I found out that they were planning on playing Cards Against Humanity after the show was over. Okay, fine. I could get the interview from them before the game started and get back to my room by 9:30 or so. But no, that didn't happen, even though that's what they told me that we could do. I was forced to play the game and wait for almost three hours (until almost midnight!) to get the interview. And by that time it was about 11:45PM and I was exhausted and I just didn't care about getting the interview anymore. They completely brushed me off even I made it pretty clear that I wanted to get to bed early and not spend 5 hours at this event.
And the poor Japanese club. They thought they would be getting this awesome event with tons of history and swordfighting and general awesomeness, but instead, they got a less than stellar grade C poorly written comedy show.
And now I get to figure out how to write this article without making it be entirely scathing. Fun fun.
At least it's family weekend next weekend, so I get to see my family. That will be nice.
I have a story for you.
So Monday night at the weekly TKS meeting, one of the stories for Mosaic was called "Ninja vs Samurai Swords." I thought it sounded awesome, no one took it, so I happily took it, certain I would have a fun way to spend my Saturday night.
Fast forward to last night. The show was not anything I expected. I expected it to be filled with history, with the samurai people giving a cool demonstration of what a fight between a ninja and a samurai would actually be like. And then the audience would get to participate and swing sticks at each other, learning simple offensive and defensive strokes.
The audience participation was the only part I actually got. Most of the audience left halfway through when it was actually time to use the swords. The first half was a complete mess filled with inappropriate offensive jokes and no history whatsoever. The only history that I learned was that the sword fighting techniques used are based on 16th century sword fighting, and
So after the show, I talked to my friends who are members of the Japanese Club and proud of this seemingly awesome event, and got halfheartedly enthusiastic quotes from them. They were planning this awesome event, and they didn't get it at all. This is extremely disheartening since the last time these folks were here, they put on an awesome show and took Knox seriously. They just didn't take us seriously this time around. I'm not sure why. We can be an enthusiastic bunch when you put us in the close proximity of shiny swords.
And then I found out that they were planning on playing Cards Against Humanity after the show was over. Okay, fine. I could get the interview from them before the game started and get back to my room by 9:30 or so. But no, that didn't happen, even though that's what they told me that we could do. I was forced to play the game and wait for almost three hours (until almost midnight!) to get the interview. And by that time it was about 11:45PM and I was exhausted and I just didn't care about getting the interview anymore. They completely brushed me off even I made it pretty clear that I wanted to get to bed early and not spend 5 hours at this event.
And the poor Japanese club. They thought they would be getting this awesome event with tons of history and swordfighting and general awesomeness, but instead, they got a less than stellar grade C poorly written comedy show.
And now I get to figure out how to write this article without making it be entirely scathing. Fun fun.
At least it's family weekend next weekend, so I get to see my family. That will be nice.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The Weekend of the Knox Plague
Hi, guys.
I've spent this weekend doing two things: studying my butt off, and being sick.
I woke up feeling fine on Friday. By Friday evening, I was starting to feel a little stuffed up and my throat hurt a bit. But I wrote it off as talking too much during the day, took some Clear Throat, and went to bed.
Well, when I woke up on Saturday morning, I was sick. I had the entire package: sore throat, runny nose, headache, the whole shebang. And two tests and a Graphic Design Project to do. I had enough sense to call off work, and I'm really glad I did. I mean, I probably could have pushed through it, but I would have been miserable. I've done work while having to blow my nose every five minutes and let me tell you guys, it is not fun. I used up half a box of tissues yesterday. It was awful.
Anyway, all of yesterday was spent studying for my Latin test on Monday, and I think I'll do alright. I'm going to read over the material again tomorrow morning before class, but I think I'll manage pretty well. I just have to remember the endings and I'll be fine.
And then I spent today "studying" for my history test and working on my first draft of my project for Graphic Design. Fortunately, I felt a lot better when I woke up this morning. My sore throat is completely gone and my nose is now just stuffed up and not constantly leaking. And I don't have to blow it every five minutes - just every hour or so - which makes me really happy.
Sorry if this is gross to anybody. I'm usually very frank and open with my descriptions of sicknesses.
On a happier note, I get to go to Chicago for my History class on Wednesday! We're going to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and eating at a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch, and I am so excited. It's going to be great. I'm going to take a ton of pictures.
I just realized that tomorrow starts week 4 of class, which means that this term is almost halfway over. Wow. I can't believe that I have a midterm due in a week and a half. This is crazy. It feels like class just started. I swear it was just last week that my friends and I were sitting in Jimmy John's saying how it was the last night of summer and how we can't believe that class starts tomorrow, but that was three weeks ago. Wow. Time really flies...
I'm going to bed. I have lots to do tomorrow.
Goodnight!
I've spent this weekend doing two things: studying my butt off, and being sick.
I woke up feeling fine on Friday. By Friday evening, I was starting to feel a little stuffed up and my throat hurt a bit. But I wrote it off as talking too much during the day, took some Clear Throat, and went to bed.
Well, when I woke up on Saturday morning, I was sick. I had the entire package: sore throat, runny nose, headache, the whole shebang. And two tests and a Graphic Design Project to do. I had enough sense to call off work, and I'm really glad I did. I mean, I probably could have pushed through it, but I would have been miserable. I've done work while having to blow my nose every five minutes and let me tell you guys, it is not fun. I used up half a box of tissues yesterday. It was awful.
Anyway, all of yesterday was spent studying for my Latin test on Monday, and I think I'll do alright. I'm going to read over the material again tomorrow morning before class, but I think I'll manage pretty well. I just have to remember the endings and I'll be fine.
And then I spent today "studying" for my history test and working on my first draft of my project for Graphic Design. Fortunately, I felt a lot better when I woke up this morning. My sore throat is completely gone and my nose is now just stuffed up and not constantly leaking. And I don't have to blow it every five minutes - just every hour or so - which makes me really happy.
Sorry if this is gross to anybody. I'm usually very frank and open with my descriptions of sicknesses.
On a happier note, I get to go to Chicago for my History class on Wednesday! We're going to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and eating at a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch, and I am so excited. It's going to be great. I'm going to take a ton of pictures.
I just realized that tomorrow starts week 4 of class, which means that this term is almost halfway over. Wow. I can't believe that I have a midterm due in a week and a half. This is crazy. It feels like class just started. I swear it was just last week that my friends and I were sitting in Jimmy John's saying how it was the last night of summer and how we can't believe that class starts tomorrow, but that was three weeks ago. Wow. Time really flies...
I'm going to bed. I have lots to do tomorrow.
Goodnight!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
My life is hectic, man
I have so much left to do
Well, I just have my Latin test to study for, but that's going to take a while and it's 9:30pm on Sunday.
Oooooops.
My family came to visit me today, though, so that's my excuse for not starting on this until now. It was great seeing them. Mom brought a homemade meal of gypsy soup, bon bon chi (a pasta salad), mangoes and yogurt, and homemade blueberry muffins for dessert. It was amazing. I have missed home cooked food so much. They also brought me a half gallon of 2% Radiance Dairy milk, and Oh. My. God. I didn't realize I could miss milk that much. But the RD Milk is AMAZING. It actually makes me want to drink milk.
And this week went by so much quicker than last week did. It's insane, man. Last week felt like it spanned two or three weeks, but this week just flew by. It felt like two days at most.
I got my first Latin test back on Thursday, and I got an 89 on it! I'm so pleased with myself. I hope I do as well on this week's test as I did on last week's. I feel a lot more confident with Latin this year, which is great.
I also finally officially have finished my training at the Library, and I'm a bona fide librarian now! It's pretty exciting. I had my first shifts on Saturday, and they honestly flew by, even though they spanned a total of 4.25 hours. I checked a lot of people out, checked some books in, got some practice shelving, and I learned how to transfer phone calls! It was so nerve-wracking because I kept on messing up, but I eventually was able to transfer a call and yay!
My next shift is Tuesday morning, and then Tuesday afternoon as well. It should be fun.
I need to go study for my Latin test now....
Have a good night, everybody.
Well, I just have my Latin test to study for, but that's going to take a while and it's 9:30pm on Sunday.
Oooooops.
My family came to visit me today, though, so that's my excuse for not starting on this until now. It was great seeing them. Mom brought a homemade meal of gypsy soup, bon bon chi (a pasta salad), mangoes and yogurt, and homemade blueberry muffins for dessert. It was amazing. I have missed home cooked food so much. They also brought me a half gallon of 2% Radiance Dairy milk, and Oh. My. God. I didn't realize I could miss milk that much. But the RD Milk is AMAZING. It actually makes me want to drink milk.
And this week went by so much quicker than last week did. It's insane, man. Last week felt like it spanned two or three weeks, but this week just flew by. It felt like two days at most.
I got my first Latin test back on Thursday, and I got an 89 on it! I'm so pleased with myself. I hope I do as well on this week's test as I did on last week's. I feel a lot more confident with Latin this year, which is great.
I also finally officially have finished my training at the Library, and I'm a bona fide librarian now! It's pretty exciting. I had my first shifts on Saturday, and they honestly flew by, even though they spanned a total of 4.25 hours. I checked a lot of people out, checked some books in, got some practice shelving, and I learned how to transfer phone calls! It was so nerve-wracking because I kept on messing up, but I eventually was able to transfer a call and yay!
My next shift is Tuesday morning, and then Tuesday afternoon as well. It should be fun.
I need to go study for my Latin test now....
Have a good night, everybody.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
I was a cute baby
I've been back at Knox for a week already.
Wow. I can't believe I've been back for this long. To steal Bethany's words, it feels like I've been back for a month. This week was one of the longest weeks I've ever experienced during a school year. Each day, I was going, "Wow, it's only insert day here? It feels like it's Thursday or Friday."
But, it was the first week of classes, and I survived it. With flying colors, I might add.
I was in bed on time every night this week since I got back. By 11pm, and it was around 10:30 most nights! Despite this, I was still extremely tired all throughout the week, and just functioning in a haze of tired.
I think overall I'm going to enjoy my classes.
Latin is actually really fun. Partially because I know more than I did this time last year, but also partially because I'm a sophomore and I'm more experienced with the whole college shebang, it's a lot more enjoyable. I actually have a good handle on studying and everything, so I'm not super stressed about everything and I can just enjoy learning the language.
I'm also really enjoying Graphic Design I. It's all Photoshop and I'm learning how to use it (obviously). The class time is spent messing around and learning to use effects and it's amazing. Wednesday was spent learning how to do an overlay of an image onto text and it was a lot of fun. My professor is all eccentric and the right kind of art professor and she's awesome. For our first project, we had to do overlay of images that describe our personality. This led to me getting to rediscover what an adorable child/baby I am.
And then my History class (the Ancient Mediterranean World) is going to be okay too. There's a ton of reading which I'm still getting acclimated to, but overall, I enjoy it. It's fascinating learning all this stuff. I've never really studied this period before - right now, we're doing the Bronze Age - so I get to learn new things in class! And we're going on a fieldtrip to the OI (Oriental Institute) in Chicago in the beginning of October, and I am so excited. It's going to be fun.
I am so exhausted right now, so I'm going to go to bed.
Have a good night!
Wow. I can't believe I've been back for this long. To steal Bethany's words, it feels like I've been back for a month. This week was one of the longest weeks I've ever experienced during a school year. Each day, I was going, "Wow, it's only insert day here? It feels like it's Thursday or Friday."
But, it was the first week of classes, and I survived it. With flying colors, I might add.
I was in bed on time every night this week since I got back. By 11pm, and it was around 10:30 most nights! Despite this, I was still extremely tired all throughout the week, and just functioning in a haze of tired.
I think overall I'm going to enjoy my classes.
Latin is actually really fun. Partially because I know more than I did this time last year, but also partially because I'm a sophomore and I'm more experienced with the whole college shebang, it's a lot more enjoyable. I actually have a good handle on studying and everything, so I'm not super stressed about everything and I can just enjoy learning the language.
I'm also really enjoying Graphic Design I. It's all Photoshop and I'm learning how to use it (obviously). The class time is spent messing around and learning to use effects and it's amazing. Wednesday was spent learning how to do an overlay of an image onto text and it was a lot of fun. My professor is all eccentric and the right kind of art professor and she's awesome. For our first project, we had to do overlay of images that describe our personality. This led to me getting to rediscover what an adorable child/baby I am.
And then my History class (the Ancient Mediterranean World) is going to be okay too. There's a ton of reading which I'm still getting acclimated to, but overall, I enjoy it. It's fascinating learning all this stuff. I've never really studied this period before - right now, we're doing the Bronze Age - so I get to learn new things in class! And we're going on a fieldtrip to the OI (Oriental Institute) in Chicago in the beginning of October, and I am so excited. It's going to be fun.
I am so exhausted right now, so I'm going to go to bed.
Have a good night!
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Schooooooooool
I can't think of a title for my blog this week, so for now I'm just going to leave it blank. Yay. I know there have been good quotes from the past day or so I could use, but I can't think of them.
I was originally supposed to move into Knox on Friday, but I got sick Thursday night with the stomach flu. And I mean, it was pretty awful and miserable and I hated it, but having that extra day of rest was really nice. My week had been so ridiculously stressful because of all the construction on our frat, so it was continually noisy and all the pounding and all the dust and gas and just...awful. I was also pretty stressed/stretched thin from trying to pack and stressing over it because of the construction, so it was great to have a day where I was forced to relax.
Fortunately, I recovered from my stomach flu within 24 hours, and as a result, I'm back at Knox. And It. Is. Awesome. I spent all of last night up talking until 4am with one of my suite mates and my roommate. We didn't intend for it to happen, it just did. And it's one of those things where we never ran out of stuff to talk about. I love people where I can have conversations like that.
And our entire suite is like that. I'm in 4name, the "quiet" quad, but it's really a pseudo quad. It's really quiet, and it's not quite Post, but it's not quite the quads. I love it. It's a lot more intimate than Post, and as a result, less clique-y and everything. And the best part is no stairs! My suite is on the ground floor, so I literally step up on a tiny ledge and turn right and I'm in my suite.
It's also my last night of summer. This is so weird. I'm not at all ready for classes to start tomorrow, but I know that once I get them started, I am going to love them. It's just that today is the last day of summer, and I don't get another lengthy break until Thanksgiving. Ugh. But I am really excited for my classes this term, so this is a plus.
But I am not looking forward to walking across campus at 8:45 tomorrow morning to get to my first class. Usually my first class isn't until 9:20, but since there's the shortened classes tomorrow cuz of convocation, class starts at 8:55. Not looking forward to it.
I'll survive though. I'm NERVOUS for Latin, but overall, pretty excited. It should be good. And my Graphic Design I and History classes also sound pretty awesome. I'm not excited about running from one end of campus to the other though to get from class to class...
Sigh.
I'll survive.
Have a good week! Good luck to all my fellow Knox students for our first week of class. We can do it, Prairie Fire!
I don't have anything to count down to anymore. This makes me sad.
I was originally supposed to move into Knox on Friday, but I got sick Thursday night with the stomach flu. And I mean, it was pretty awful and miserable and I hated it, but having that extra day of rest was really nice. My week had been so ridiculously stressful because of all the construction on our frat, so it was continually noisy and all the pounding and all the dust and gas and just...awful. I was also pretty stressed/stretched thin from trying to pack and stressing over it because of the construction, so it was great to have a day where I was forced to relax.
Fortunately, I recovered from my stomach flu within 24 hours, and as a result, I'm back at Knox. And It. Is. Awesome. I spent all of last night up talking until 4am with one of my suite mates and my roommate. We didn't intend for it to happen, it just did. And it's one of those things where we never ran out of stuff to talk about. I love people where I can have conversations like that.
And our entire suite is like that. I'm in 4name, the "quiet" quad, but it's really a pseudo quad. It's really quiet, and it's not quite Post, but it's not quite the quads. I love it. It's a lot more intimate than Post, and as a result, less clique-y and everything. And the best part is no stairs! My suite is on the ground floor, so I literally step up on a tiny ledge and turn right and I'm in my suite.
It's also my last night of summer. This is so weird. I'm not at all ready for classes to start tomorrow, but I know that once I get them started, I am going to love them. It's just that today is the last day of summer, and I don't get another lengthy break until Thanksgiving. Ugh. But I am really excited for my classes this term, so this is a plus.
But I am not looking forward to walking across campus at 8:45 tomorrow morning to get to my first class. Usually my first class isn't until 9:20, but since there's the shortened classes tomorrow cuz of convocation, class starts at 8:55. Not looking forward to it.
I'll survive though. I'm NERVOUS for Latin, but overall, pretty excited. It should be good. And my Graphic Design I and History classes also sound pretty awesome. I'm not excited about running from one end of campus to the other though to get from class to class...
Sigh.
I'll survive.
Have a good week! Good luck to all my fellow Knox students for our first week of class. We can do it, Prairie Fire!
I don't have anything to count down to anymore. This makes me sad.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
On an ocean full of gravel in the middle of the night
Oops. I just realized it's Sunday night. I have two hours to get this post up. I can do it.
...This week was uneventful. I just tried to think of stuff to write about, and the only thing that came to mind was work. So, I guess that's what my post this week will be about, in part, anyway.
The most exciting thing about work is that I am finally done with it. I had my final shift at work this afternoon, and man I am so happy to be done. My favorite thing about being done is that I don't have to deal with any of the creepy old men who like to creep on the female cashiers. I had a terrible one today. There's this one guy who always comes in and always invades my personal space whenever he speaks to me; he literally stands THIS CLOSE to me and it's awful. He bought some aloe kombucha and leaned halfway across my counter to talk to me, so I was already on the guard from him. He then says to me, "You know, [the kombucha] tastes like beer." even though the kombucha was definitely not beer. I replied that I didn't know that, and his response was to open the bottle and offer me some. I say, "No thank you, I'm good" and then he tells me to "just go ahead and smell it" and I'm thinking, "Did you not hear me the first time? I said I'm good." but I replied, "No, I'm really okay." and then he says, "Sorry I didn't realize I crossed a line." How could he not realize? I was leaning as far away from him as possible and my body language was hostile. At least, I thought it was. I was feeling very hostile towards him. Ah well. I'm free of him now.
I can't wait to be back at school. I officially started packing yesterday. My goal is to be entirely packed by tomorrow night, but I really don't see that happening. They're starting construction on our building because they decided the frats actually need to have their foundations waterproofed. ...about time. The buildings have a lot wrong with them, one of which being that our living room ceiling leaks. A LOT. I think I've mentioned this. Anyway, construction entails them digging an 8 foot deep trench around our entire apartment and they're chopping up our basement floor and they're taking out our windows and replacing them and we have to dismantle our garden and they're going to take down our porch and it's going to be a very large todo. And of course this has to happen the week I move back to school. As if I need more stress in my life. I'm going to try to get everything done and moved into our van by Tuesday, but I don't know if this will actually happen. We shall see. It's going to be interesting.
Another note of excitement is I officially got approved to move back on Friday! Well, I got the email on Friday or so saying I could be approved to move back on Friday. So I'm expecting to hear back about that on Tuesday. I can't wait. This way, I'll be able to unpack and settle in Friday, and then be all ready for my first session of library training on Saturday afternoon.
Wow. I just realized that in 15 minutes, I'll be back at Knox in 4 days. FOUR. DAYS. Where did the time go? It feels like I was just getting ready to move in for freshman orientation last year.
Wow.
Can't wait to see all my Knox friends in four days.
Oh yeah. I've been having Adam Dubberly feels all evening.
And Doctor Who started again yesterday. The episode was alright. I'm already seeing trends of me going, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING MOFFAT." Like, fucking with FIFTY YEARS OF CORE WHO HISTORY. You don't mess with the Daleks. You just...don't. It's not something that happens. I may write up a post later in the week of my feelings on the episode, but for now, this post explains why I didn't enjoy the episode that much.
This week's title is from "Fall" by Adam Dubberly.
Countdown to Knox: FIVE (almost 4) days.
Monday, August 27, 2012
If your Cheetos aren't crunchy, it's because you're eating a banana.
I know, I know. It's late. But I still have an hour to get this post up! It is still Sunday!!
I totally have a legitimate excuse for this post getting up later than normal, too. We got home from Chicago around 7 tonight, and then the rest of the evening was a quick frenzy of getting the carpet cleaned up from the massive rainstorm we had earlier today and watching the Braves on Sunday Night Baseball. So I really had no time to write a post up today.
Anywho, let's get down to business. .....to defeat the Huns. I definitely did not just write that in order to make that reference. Nope. Why would I? It seems to be one that I can't stop myself from making whenever I say "let's get down to business".
I'm getting even happier than I thought I would be that next week is my last week at work -- probably forever. I haven't decided yet if I'll return for Christmas break or any upcoming summer breaks, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to not return. I'm just so tired of the job and it's wearing me out. Every day I'm scheduled to work, I have to mentally coax myself to going in. Once I get there, it's fine - with the exception of awful customers but every job has at least a handful of those - but those hours leading up to it. God, it's awful. (Side note: did I spell 'wear out' properly? I'm not sure if I did... I'm an awful English major sometimes.) Thankfully, I only work Tuesday - Thursday this week, and then Sunday afternoon, and then I am done at the market for at least 3 months - until the end of November, right after Thanksgiving. We'll see what I decide though.
This weekend was also a lot of fun. We spent the weekend in Chicago taking my younger sister Avery to a college fair. Well, that was the purpose of the trip. But since the college fair was just earlier this afternoon, we made a weekend of it since we could.
On Saturday, we went to the MythBusters exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. Even if the exhibit wasn't there, I would have still gone to the MoSaI. I love museums of all kinds, and this one is especially fantastic. All the exhibits I've seen are interactive in some way or another, and the MythBusters exhibit was no less than that. Literally every part of the exhibit was interactive. You could turn the blue print pages from the beginning of each myth. Each one even had a funny comment. For example, the one for Primary Perception (torturing plants - the plant polygraph!, etc.) is "Cool; we get to torture yogurt!" I suppose that's not even really that funny, but when Avery and I saw that, we could not stop laughing.
Probably my favorite part of the MythBusters exhibit - aside from the interactive show, which I will get to - was the run/walk test through "rain" to find out which way gets you wetter. The rain was just water from a sprinkler system with some dye in it that shows up under black lights, I believe. The MythBusters got that one correct - you will be less wet if you run through the rain instead of walking through it. That leads to slipping and sliding all over the place though, and sometimes a walk in the rain is really nice. It's all circumstantial, I suppose.
Another favorite was the driving blind test. There was a steering wheel and a set of pedals adjacent to a computer screen. The one 'driving' couldn't see where they were driving - they just had to follow directions from their partner about where/how they should be driving. My dad followed Avery's instructions, and it was hilarious. He spectacularly crashed, after crashing into a car in the next lane over, running over an orange construction drum, driving off the road/out of the parking lot over the median divider before Avery told him to turn around and drive really fast, in order for him to get back on the road. Unfortunately for him, there was a giant building in front of the car once he made it back into the parking lot, so...he crashed, the poor guy. Perhaps we should just keep him to driving with proper and complete vision from now on, to ensure that he doesn't kill himself and all of his passengers while totaling the car in the process.
Another very enjoyable part of the exhibit was the live show, in which two MythBusters (employees of the museum, really) used the audience members to help solve the myth of it is possible to dodge a paintball. The conclusion was 'plausible', if anyone was wondering. We arrived at this conclusion because you can't avoid a paintball 100% of the time - ie. if there was any delay shorter than 1 second - but if there was a delay of 1 second or greater, than you could avoid a paintball. They asked a ton of questions and everyone who answered a question got an "I am a CONFIRMED MythBuster" sticker. I answered the question of why people could respond to sound faster than light in the particular room with "because it's very echo-y, so that will help it get to your ears quicker" and I got a sticker! I'm probably way happier about this than I should be, but I don't care. Hahaha.
Later that night, we went to a White Sox game because we can't resist going to a baseball game whenever we're in a major city. The White Sox were playing the Mariners and it was a very exciting ball game. We had fantastic seats (as seen to the right) and now I will forever be spoiled for baseball seats. It was so amazing being able to read the back of the players' uniforms and see their facial expressions. I've always had seats in the second or third deck before, which aren't nearly as nice.
The White Sox's manager and catcher both got thrown out in the third inning arguing balls and strikes. It was totally worth it as the home plate umpire had a very generous strike zone, which was very unpopular with the White Sox, as you can imagine. The ejections also completely revved the White Sox up to come back (later in that inning I believe), to tie the game up and eventually come through to win it.
The post game fireworks were also AMAZING. This was only my second night game and the first with post-game fireworks, so I had entirely no idea what to expect. The theme for the show's soundtrack was "soundtracks", including the Back to the Future theme, Star Wars, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Jaws theme, and the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, just to name a few. I had certainly never seen a fireworks show like it, and I now want to go to more post-game fireworks shows.
Another hilarious moment of the ball game was when they started playing Call Me Maybe and Avery and I both started lip syncing along and dancing. The song is so terrible but somehow very catchy.
(Ahhh, it's 12:05AM. I didn't make it by midnight. It's close though! The majority of this post was written on Sunday, so I think it still counts.)
Then we took Avery to a college fair today - the Colleges That Changed Lives college fair in Schaumburg. It was surprisingly fun, though it was weirding me out a little bit that the kids there were born in '95 and '96 and they're getting ready to go to college in the next couple of years. People that age have always seemed ridiculously young to me, and now they're going to be leaving high school soon. Regardless, it was very fun getting to say hi to the folks at the Knox booth, though I didn't know any of them. It did make me really excited to be heading back to school though. I know a lot of people don't like the college they chose or it's really stressful or something, but I really love my first choice college and I am so happy that I got accepted and I'm going to it.
I've decided that I'm going to have random stuff for my blog post titles. This one is from a billboard I saw while I was in Chicago.
The Braves won tonight, and as always, I am ecstatic. I really love watching baseball, especially watching my boys play. I get so happy to see them do well. They really do deserve to be back in the playoffs this year because it's Chipper's last year and they have such a good team this year. I really hope they win the Series... we'll just have to see what happens. I now own an mlb.tv subscription for the remainder of the season because it was on sale for $10 today. So I get a solid month of Braves games. Yaaaaay.
Okay.
Countdown to Knox: 13 days! Well, technically 12, since it's Monday now. O.M.G. So excited.
I totally have a legitimate excuse for this post getting up later than normal, too. We got home from Chicago around 7 tonight, and then the rest of the evening was a quick frenzy of getting the carpet cleaned up from the massive rainstorm we had earlier today and watching the Braves on Sunday Night Baseball. So I really had no time to write a post up today.
Anywho, let's get down to business. .....to defeat the Huns. I definitely did not just write that in order to make that reference. Nope. Why would I? It seems to be one that I can't stop myself from making whenever I say "let's get down to business".
I'm getting even happier than I thought I would be that next week is my last week at work -- probably forever. I haven't decided yet if I'll return for Christmas break or any upcoming summer breaks, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to not return. I'm just so tired of the job and it's wearing me out. Every day I'm scheduled to work, I have to mentally coax myself to going in. Once I get there, it's fine - with the exception of awful customers but every job has at least a handful of those - but those hours leading up to it. God, it's awful. (Side note: did I spell 'wear out' properly? I'm not sure if I did... I'm an awful English major sometimes.) Thankfully, I only work Tuesday - Thursday this week, and then Sunday afternoon, and then I am done at the market for at least 3 months - until the end of November, right after Thanksgiving. We'll see what I decide though.
This weekend was also a lot of fun. We spent the weekend in Chicago taking my younger sister Avery to a college fair. Well, that was the purpose of the trip. But since the college fair was just earlier this afternoon, we made a weekend of it since we could.
On Saturday, we went to the MythBusters exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. Even if the exhibit wasn't there, I would have still gone to the MoSaI. I love museums of all kinds, and this one is especially fantastic. All the exhibits I've seen are interactive in some way or another, and the MythBusters exhibit was no less than that. Literally every part of the exhibit was interactive. You could turn the blue print pages from the beginning of each myth. Each one even had a funny comment. For example, the one for Primary Perception (torturing plants - the plant polygraph!, etc.) is "Cool; we get to torture yogurt!" I suppose that's not even really that funny, but when Avery and I saw that, we could not stop laughing.
Probably my favorite part of the MythBusters exhibit - aside from the interactive show, which I will get to - was the run/walk test through "rain" to find out which way gets you wetter. The rain was just water from a sprinkler system with some dye in it that shows up under black lights, I believe. The MythBusters got that one correct - you will be less wet if you run through the rain instead of walking through it. That leads to slipping and sliding all over the place though, and sometimes a walk in the rain is really nice. It's all circumstantial, I suppose.
Another favorite was the driving blind test. There was a steering wheel and a set of pedals adjacent to a computer screen. The one 'driving' couldn't see where they were driving - they just had to follow directions from their partner about where/how they should be driving. My dad followed Avery's instructions, and it was hilarious. He spectacularly crashed, after crashing into a car in the next lane over, running over an orange construction drum, driving off the road/out of the parking lot over the median divider before Avery told him to turn around and drive really fast, in order for him to get back on the road. Unfortunately for him, there was a giant building in front of the car once he made it back into the parking lot, so...he crashed, the poor guy. Perhaps we should just keep him to driving with proper and complete vision from now on, to ensure that he doesn't kill himself and all of his passengers while totaling the car in the process.
Another very enjoyable part of the exhibit was the live show, in which two MythBusters (employees of the museum, really) used the audience members to help solve the myth of it is possible to dodge a paintball. The conclusion was 'plausible', if anyone was wondering. We arrived at this conclusion because you can't avoid a paintball 100% of the time - ie. if there was any delay shorter than 1 second - but if there was a delay of 1 second or greater, than you could avoid a paintball. They asked a ton of questions and everyone who answered a question got an "I am a CONFIRMED MythBuster" sticker. I answered the question of why people could respond to sound faster than light in the particular room with "because it's very echo-y, so that will help it get to your ears quicker" and I got a sticker! I'm probably way happier about this than I should be, but I don't care. Hahaha.
The White Sox's manager and catcher both got thrown out in the third inning arguing balls and strikes. It was totally worth it as the home plate umpire had a very generous strike zone, which was very unpopular with the White Sox, as you can imagine. The ejections also completely revved the White Sox up to come back (later in that inning I believe), to tie the game up and eventually come through to win it.
The post game fireworks were also AMAZING. This was only my second night game and the first with post-game fireworks, so I had entirely no idea what to expect. The theme for the show's soundtrack was "soundtracks", including the Back to the Future theme, Star Wars, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Jaws theme, and the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, just to name a few. I had certainly never seen a fireworks show like it, and I now want to go to more post-game fireworks shows.
Another hilarious moment of the ball game was when they started playing Call Me Maybe and Avery and I both started lip syncing along and dancing. The song is so terrible but somehow very catchy.
(Ahhh, it's 12:05AM. I didn't make it by midnight. It's close though! The majority of this post was written on Sunday, so I think it still counts.)
Then we took Avery to a college fair today - the Colleges That Changed Lives college fair in Schaumburg. It was surprisingly fun, though it was weirding me out a little bit that the kids there were born in '95 and '96 and they're getting ready to go to college in the next couple of years. People that age have always seemed ridiculously young to me, and now they're going to be leaving high school soon. Regardless, it was very fun getting to say hi to the folks at the Knox booth, though I didn't know any of them. It did make me really excited to be heading back to school though. I know a lot of people don't like the college they chose or it's really stressful or something, but I really love my first choice college and I am so happy that I got accepted and I'm going to it.
I've decided that I'm going to have random stuff for my blog post titles. This one is from a billboard I saw while I was in Chicago.
The Braves won tonight, and as always, I am ecstatic. I really love watching baseball, especially watching my boys play. I get so happy to see them do well. They really do deserve to be back in the playoffs this year because it's Chipper's last year and they have such a good team this year. I really hope they win the Series... we'll just have to see what happens. I now own an mlb.tv subscription for the remainder of the season because it was on sale for $10 today. So I get a solid month of Braves games. Yaaaaay.
Okay.
Countdown to Knox: 13 days! Well, technically 12, since it's Monday now. O.M.G. So excited.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
College and exercise and cars.
Hi blogosphere.
I'm still not sure how I'll begin these posts. I'm sure I'll eventually get an introduction thinger figured out, but for now "Hi blogosphere" should work.
I spent at least five minutes settling on music to blog to. iTunes started off with a Jimmy Eat World/Something Corporate mashup, but that just didn't work. Eventually, I settled on Adam Dubberly, and now I'm happily listening to the sweet voice of Alex Carpenter. Ahh, the joys of iTunes Shuffle...
I have no attention span. 10 minutes and 3 songs later, I've stalked old conversations I've had on twitter with people and come to the conclusion that Avery should start using twitter again. Seriously. Her twitter is hilarious. Unfortunately, she is adamant against using it. Silly Swedish and German in her making her be super stubborn. Tsk tsk.
I can't believe I go back to school in three weeks. I'm pretty sure 100% of me is excited to go back. I am ridiculously excited to be back at Knox. I just really love that campus and the English department especially. I'm so sad that I won't be taking an English class until Spring term. I miss my English classes!
I also really can't wait to see my friends and especially to be more adventurous. Last year, I didn't do anything. I never went to a party, I never got ridiculously drunk, I never did anything. I didn't even hang out with anybody really. I was the loser who sat in their dorm room all year on the internet. I didn't even spend that much time on my homework.
This year, I'm going to be the opposite of how I was last year. I'm not saying I'm going to get completely trashed every night - I would never forgive myself, and I would lose my standing as one of Amy's bridesmaids - but I'm going to try stuff. Do new things. Stay up all night just to see a sunrise with a friend. Go on adventures. Maybe even roadtrip to Chicago? Stuff like that.
I also want to spend more time on my schoolwork. Last year, my grades definitely suffered, and I'm a better student than that. I know I can do well in Latin if I put my mind to it. I just have to apply myself and I will be fine. I think having a job and being determined to get in better shape will help with that, because I won't be able to spend all my free time in my dorm room. I'll be in class and in the gym and at work. And then once I finish with work and my homework, then I'll go on the internet. I should be able to be more disciplined this year. I know I can do this. It won't be too hard, I think.
In addition to focusing more on schoolwork and less on procrastination, I actually really want to spend more time at the gym. I'm terribly out of shape and unhealthy, and considering I gain weight really easily at Knox - I gained 10 pounds fall term last year, I believe - I need to be active regularly to keep it off. Especially considering Knox has the really nice gym, I'll have an easier time of getting exercise, in comparison to where at home I pretty much can only go for runs. I'll be able to use the treadmill and the stair climber - god, I love the stair climbers - and just in general work on toning my body. Ideally, I'd like to lose around 15-20 pounds by Thanksgiving. I'm up around 168 right now, and I would love to be down at 150 by the time I come back home for Christmas break. I know I only have three months, but that's about 6 pounds/month, which should be doable, right? It doesn't seem too difficult. We'll see what happens.
In non school related goals, I am so ready to be done with work in a couple weeks. I am just so tired of working at the Market. I used to like it because it was new and I got to work with all my favorite coworkers. But they've all left now, and my interest in working there quickly decreased once they were gone. I'm really tired of all the bullshit moves management pulls, and how they don't consult the employees about anything before they make a change. The customers are also really annoying and it's just the same thing every night, with the same customers, the same conversations, the same work, the same closing...just, the same EVERYTHING. And I'm tired of it. I can't wait to be done September 2nd. I haven't decided yet if I'll return to the market once I get home for Christmas break in November, or if I'll move on to a better and more exciting summer job. We'll just have to see. I'm definitely going to keep my transcribing job I have, though. It's 8.50/hr which makes me happy, and I don't have to be in Fairfield to do it! I'm keeping it on as long as I can. Between that job, saving up my paychecks from the Market and from my work study job, I should hopefully have enough to visit Amy during Christmas break. I know I should probably save the money to help pay for my tuition next term, but I'm selfish and want it to be used for something else.
I've finally gotten my permit, also, at 19 years old. It only took me 5.5 years to get it. I mean, I could have gotten it when I turned 14, but I just didn't feel ready. I kind of started feeling ready around this time last year, but I kept putting it off. I finally got tired of not knowing how to drive, and spent an afternoon studying the driving manual and then took the test Wednesday afternoon. I was very pleased that I passed, though my picture is pretty terrible. In Iowa DMVs, we're not allowed smile with our lips parted, wear glasses, or have our hair covering our eyebrows - that I know of - so in my picture, I'm totally grimacing. And my eyes look as small as a troll's eyes because I was supposed to look at the Garfield cartoon underneath the camera. Next time, I'm just going to look at the camera. I at last want to be looking at the camera for my license picture. My terrible picture just made me even more determined to get my license as quickly as possible. I also went out driving on Wednesday, in the old WalMart's abandoned parking lot. In the WalMart parking lot, I went in figure 8s around the lightposts, and drove in a semi-straight path. I also drove all the way up to 8 mph!! I accidentally put too much pressure on the gas at one point and I went up to 12 mph. It was kind of terrifying. I found it crazy how with me behind the wheel, 12mph feels ridiculously fast and scary, but with my parents or one of my sisters driving, that seems really slow.
I think this is all. The Braves lost today to the Dodgers - a 3 hit shutout - and I'm disappointed with the Braves. We play the Nationals next and I'm worried. I have a gut feeling we're starting another downhill slide, and I don't want this to be true.
I miss California. And a certain musician friend. And that certain musician friend's hugs. Sigh.
Countdown to Knox: 20 days! Less than 3 weeks! Yesss
I'm still not sure how I'll begin these posts. I'm sure I'll eventually get an introduction thinger figured out, but for now "Hi blogosphere" should work.
I spent at least five minutes settling on music to blog to. iTunes started off with a Jimmy Eat World/Something Corporate mashup, but that just didn't work. Eventually, I settled on Adam Dubberly, and now I'm happily listening to the sweet voice of Alex Carpenter. Ahh, the joys of iTunes Shuffle...
I have no attention span. 10 minutes and 3 songs later, I've stalked old conversations I've had on twitter with people and come to the conclusion that Avery should start using twitter again. Seriously. Her twitter is hilarious. Unfortunately, she is adamant against using it. Silly Swedish and German in her making her be super stubborn. Tsk tsk.
I can't believe I go back to school in three weeks. I'm pretty sure 100% of me is excited to go back. I am ridiculously excited to be back at Knox. I just really love that campus and the English department especially. I'm so sad that I won't be taking an English class until Spring term. I miss my English classes!
I also really can't wait to see my friends and especially to be more adventurous. Last year, I didn't do anything. I never went to a party, I never got ridiculously drunk, I never did anything. I didn't even hang out with anybody really. I was the loser who sat in their dorm room all year on the internet. I didn't even spend that much time on my homework.
This year, I'm going to be the opposite of how I was last year. I'm not saying I'm going to get completely trashed every night - I would never forgive myself, and I would lose my standing as one of Amy's bridesmaids - but I'm going to try stuff. Do new things. Stay up all night just to see a sunrise with a friend. Go on adventures. Maybe even roadtrip to Chicago? Stuff like that.
I also want to spend more time on my schoolwork. Last year, my grades definitely suffered, and I'm a better student than that. I know I can do well in Latin if I put my mind to it. I just have to apply myself and I will be fine. I think having a job and being determined to get in better shape will help with that, because I won't be able to spend all my free time in my dorm room. I'll be in class and in the gym and at work. And then once I finish with work and my homework, then I'll go on the internet. I should be able to be more disciplined this year. I know I can do this. It won't be too hard, I think.
In addition to focusing more on schoolwork and less on procrastination, I actually really want to spend more time at the gym. I'm terribly out of shape and unhealthy, and considering I gain weight really easily at Knox - I gained 10 pounds fall term last year, I believe - I need to be active regularly to keep it off. Especially considering Knox has the really nice gym, I'll have an easier time of getting exercise, in comparison to where at home I pretty much can only go for runs. I'll be able to use the treadmill and the stair climber - god, I love the stair climbers - and just in general work on toning my body. Ideally, I'd like to lose around 15-20 pounds by Thanksgiving. I'm up around 168 right now, and I would love to be down at 150 by the time I come back home for Christmas break. I know I only have three months, but that's about 6 pounds/month, which should be doable, right? It doesn't seem too difficult. We'll see what happens.
In non school related goals, I am so ready to be done with work in a couple weeks. I am just so tired of working at the Market. I used to like it because it was new and I got to work with all my favorite coworkers. But they've all left now, and my interest in working there quickly decreased once they were gone. I'm really tired of all the bullshit moves management pulls, and how they don't consult the employees about anything before they make a change. The customers are also really annoying and it's just the same thing every night, with the same customers, the same conversations, the same work, the same closing...just, the same EVERYTHING. And I'm tired of it. I can't wait to be done September 2nd. I haven't decided yet if I'll return to the market once I get home for Christmas break in November, or if I'll move on to a better and more exciting summer job. We'll just have to see. I'm definitely going to keep my transcribing job I have, though. It's 8.50/hr which makes me happy, and I don't have to be in Fairfield to do it! I'm keeping it on as long as I can. Between that job, saving up my paychecks from the Market and from my work study job, I should hopefully have enough to visit Amy during Christmas break. I know I should probably save the money to help pay for my tuition next term, but I'm selfish and want it to be used for something else.
I've finally gotten my permit, also, at 19 years old. It only took me 5.5 years to get it. I mean, I could have gotten it when I turned 14, but I just didn't feel ready. I kind of started feeling ready around this time last year, but I kept putting it off. I finally got tired of not knowing how to drive, and spent an afternoon studying the driving manual and then took the test Wednesday afternoon. I was very pleased that I passed, though my picture is pretty terrible. In Iowa DMVs, we're not allowed smile with our lips parted, wear glasses, or have our hair covering our eyebrows - that I know of - so in my picture, I'm totally grimacing. And my eyes look as small as a troll's eyes because I was supposed to look at the Garfield cartoon underneath the camera. Next time, I'm just going to look at the camera. I at last want to be looking at the camera for my license picture. My terrible picture just made me even more determined to get my license as quickly as possible. I also went out driving on Wednesday, in the old WalMart's abandoned parking lot. In the WalMart parking lot, I went in figure 8s around the lightposts, and drove in a semi-straight path. I also drove all the way up to 8 mph!! I accidentally put too much pressure on the gas at one point and I went up to 12 mph. It was kind of terrifying. I found it crazy how with me behind the wheel, 12mph feels ridiculously fast and scary, but with my parents or one of my sisters driving, that seems really slow.
I think this is all. The Braves lost today to the Dodgers - a 3 hit shutout - and I'm disappointed with the Braves. We play the Nationals next and I'm worried. I have a gut feeling we're starting another downhill slide, and I don't want this to be true.
I miss California. And a certain musician friend. And that certain musician friend's hugs. Sigh.
Countdown to Knox: 20 days! Less than 3 weeks! Yesss
Sunday, August 12, 2012
It's Been A Long Time Coming...
Five months later and an entire semester later, I'm posting another blog.
Wow. I hope this doesn't become a trend for this thing. I'd like to post more regularly. If not every week, twice a month. We'll see what happens. Chronicling the last four weeks until I return to Knox and then chronicling my life at Knox. It will be fun, I think. I just have to find time to write up a blog post! Well, I'm finding the time now. Huzzah.
If I were about $500 richer, I would probably be just getting home from LeakyCon 2012. The conference was this past week (Thursday until today, I believe) held in Chicago at the Hilton - the same hotel that Terminus was held in 2008.
However, I do not have an extra $500 lying around, so I didn't end up going to the conference, and to be quite honest, I'm glad that I didn't go. For one thing, my sister Dariana and her friend Kim were in town this week visiting a friend, so had I gone to LC, I would have not seen Dariana or Kim, which would have made me very sad. Regardless of the fact that I just saw them three weeks ago when I was in New Hampshire visiting my friend Amy and also Dariana, I like to take every opportunity that I have to see them, considering they now live halfway across the country and I only get to see them two or three times each year. (New Hampshire, for the record, was wonderful, as usual. So pretty and I can't wait to move out there once I finish college. I just feel like that's where my body is most in sync. It's great that I've found that place for me.)
For another thing, I've been constantly reminded all summer how much I've moved on from the Potter fandom. I haven't regularly listened to wizard rock in nearly two years, I don't care about "major" events in the Potter fandom, such as the anniversary of the final book and final movies getting released. I don't care about the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts or anything. And I just can't make myself put out any effort to go to fandom-related events. I don't even want to make the effort to go see my favorite wizard rock musician (Alex Carpenter, in case anyone was wondering) when he's in Chicago or St. Louis, both of which are a five hour drive away, when previously I would be jumping up and down asking Mom or Dad if I could go and would they pretty please take me. Though, if Alex were to come play at my college for example - cough Knox College cough - I certainly would not be complaining. Just throwing that out there. And if none of my fandom friends are going to LeakyCon - all the ones who I hung out with at LeakyCon LAST year didn't go, which was a big part of the appeal of going to LC2012 this year - then I certainly have no desire to go to the conference, regardless its close proximity to me.
I've just found that I've moved on from the fandom. I'm far more concerned about growing as a person and doing well academically, etc., than I am about blowing a ton of money for a four-day event. I am very happy for what the fandom did for me when I still wanted it, considering it brought me one of my two best friends in the entire world, but I'm happy to move on. Our friendship isn't built around Potter anymore - it's built around what we've been through together, and whether or not that involves fandom, that's perfectly fine.
Essentially, I've come to realize that though I may miss it at times, my life doesn't rely on the Potter fandom to survive.
So I won't be at either LeakyCon next summer - seriously, that's another rant all together. Why on earth do they need TWO LeakyCons in the same summer??? - and I'm perfectly happy with that decision. I'm hoping to get an internship next summer, and of course I have to save up for my best friend's wedding that is next June.
So, until next Sunday, folks! Have a good week.
Countdown to Knox: (hopefully) 25 days. If not 25, then 27.
Wow. I hope this doesn't become a trend for this thing. I'd like to post more regularly. If not every week, twice a month. We'll see what happens. Chronicling the last four weeks until I return to Knox and then chronicling my life at Knox. It will be fun, I think. I just have to find time to write up a blog post! Well, I'm finding the time now. Huzzah.
If I were about $500 richer, I would probably be just getting home from LeakyCon 2012. The conference was this past week (Thursday until today, I believe) held in Chicago at the Hilton - the same hotel that Terminus was held in 2008.
However, I do not have an extra $500 lying around, so I didn't end up going to the conference, and to be quite honest, I'm glad that I didn't go. For one thing, my sister Dariana and her friend Kim were in town this week visiting a friend, so had I gone to LC, I would have not seen Dariana or Kim, which would have made me very sad. Regardless of the fact that I just saw them three weeks ago when I was in New Hampshire visiting my friend Amy and also Dariana, I like to take every opportunity that I have to see them, considering they now live halfway across the country and I only get to see them two or three times each year. (New Hampshire, for the record, was wonderful, as usual. So pretty and I can't wait to move out there once I finish college. I just feel like that's where my body is most in sync. It's great that I've found that place for me.)
For another thing, I've been constantly reminded all summer how much I've moved on from the Potter fandom. I haven't regularly listened to wizard rock in nearly two years, I don't care about "major" events in the Potter fandom, such as the anniversary of the final book and final movies getting released. I don't care about the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts or anything. And I just can't make myself put out any effort to go to fandom-related events. I don't even want to make the effort to go see my favorite wizard rock musician (Alex Carpenter, in case anyone was wondering) when he's in Chicago or St. Louis, both of which are a five hour drive away, when previously I would be jumping up and down asking Mom or Dad if I could go and would they pretty please take me. Though, if Alex were to come play at my college for example - cough Knox College cough - I certainly would not be complaining. Just throwing that out there. And if none of my fandom friends are going to LeakyCon - all the ones who I hung out with at LeakyCon LAST year didn't go, which was a big part of the appeal of going to LC2012 this year - then I certainly have no desire to go to the conference, regardless its close proximity to me.
I've just found that I've moved on from the fandom. I'm far more concerned about growing as a person and doing well academically, etc., than I am about blowing a ton of money for a four-day event. I am very happy for what the fandom did for me when I still wanted it, considering it brought me one of my two best friends in the entire world, but I'm happy to move on. Our friendship isn't built around Potter anymore - it's built around what we've been through together, and whether or not that involves fandom, that's perfectly fine.
Essentially, I've come to realize that though I may miss it at times, my life doesn't rely on the Potter fandom to survive.
So I won't be at either LeakyCon next summer - seriously, that's another rant all together. Why on earth do they need TWO LeakyCons in the same summer??? - and I'm perfectly happy with that decision. I'm hoping to get an internship next summer, and of course I have to save up for my best friend's wedding that is next June.
So, until next Sunday, folks! Have a good week.
Countdown to Knox: (hopefully) 25 days. If not 25, then 27.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
I'm too tired to think of a creative title
I think that's going to be the general tone of this post. I'm just generally tired.
Mainly tired of waiting, honestly. I just want something to happen already!!! Gah. I'll post about this later, once that something finally does happen. Hopefully it's soon....
Okay, vagueness aside, last week was an entirely new experience for me. It was my first ever residence course, which means a lot of meditating, more sleep than I'm used to, a lot of unstressing and a lot of Maharishi tapes. I was also very antisocial, keeping to myself at meals and only socializing with Amy on the very last day.
--
That was as far as I got on my blogpost for last weekend until I set it aside until now, when I realized that I never finished the post for last week. Oh well. That's as much that's going to be done until further notice, which is this week's post.
I'm finally in normal classes. I'm taking Shakespeare this block, and I really enjoy it.
OKAY SIDE NOTE. MY FRIEND ALEX HERE AND MY FRIEND CELINDA FROM KNOX ARE FROM THE SAME TOWN AND HAVE MUTUAL FRIENDS. AHHHHH THIS IS WEIRD AND AMAZING I LOVE THIS.
Anyway. Back to my post. Class is soooooo much fun. I've read a TON of Shakespeare so far, and I've enjoyed all of it. We started with reading Taming of the Shrew, which I enjoyed. I thought it was very funny and wasn't too depressing, though it's a bit of a funny play. But then we watched the version with Elizabeth Taylor and my GOD it made me hate the play. The ET (lol ET) version was just so depressing and not uplifting at all and it's supposed to be a comedy and there wasn't anything about it that was freaking comedic. Petruchio abused Kate so much and there was nothing romantic about his woo'ing and she was limping and he didn't care that she got injured or hurt or ANYTHING. It made me annoyed. Very annoyed.
But then we read Much Ado About Nothing, which is so much better. Maybe it's because it's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, but I loved reading it. It's so so funny and the characters of Beatrice and Benedick mesh so well together, with their flirtatious banter and teasing. (Sidenote: I will forever spell Benedick as 'Benedict' now, thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch. DAMN HIM. He's so amazing in Sherlock though, so I'm okay with having his name confused with Shakespeare's Benedick.)
We just finished reading Henry IV pt 1, which I'm very thankful for. I have no clue what the hell went on in that play. I just know they drank a lot of wine, I swear to god everybody is gay for each other, some people got killed at the end, and yeah. Other than that, NO CLUE what on earth went on during the play. Everybody was freaking named Harry or Henry or Richard, and it was so hard to keep track of who was whose brother and whose son and who was the the Duke of York, etc. Even after discussing it in class today I still had no clue what went on. However, I apparently understood the first three acts better than I thought I did, because I got EVERY question on the daily quiz right! YAY ME!
And now we're reading Twelfth Night and it's quite lovely. So much fun. It's one of my favorite plays.
Okay, basically that's it. Shakespeare is fun. I get to spend lots of time with Amy, which makes me happy.
And that's it.
Goodbye
Mainly tired of waiting, honestly. I just want something to happen already!!! Gah. I'll post about this later, once that something finally does happen. Hopefully it's soon....
Okay, vagueness aside, last week was an entirely new experience for me. It was my first ever residence course, which means a lot of meditating, more sleep than I'm used to, a lot of unstressing and a lot of Maharishi tapes. I was also very antisocial, keeping to myself at meals and only socializing with Amy on the very last day.
--
That was as far as I got on my blogpost for last weekend until I set it aside until now, when I realized that I never finished the post for last week. Oh well. That's as much that's going to be done until further notice, which is this week's post.
I'm finally in normal classes. I'm taking Shakespeare this block, and I really enjoy it.
OKAY SIDE NOTE. MY FRIEND ALEX HERE AND MY FRIEND CELINDA FROM KNOX ARE FROM THE SAME TOWN AND HAVE MUTUAL FRIENDS. AHHHHH THIS IS WEIRD AND AMAZING I LOVE THIS.
Anyway. Back to my post. Class is soooooo much fun. I've read a TON of Shakespeare so far, and I've enjoyed all of it. We started with reading Taming of the Shrew, which I enjoyed. I thought it was very funny and wasn't too depressing, though it's a bit of a funny play. But then we watched the version with Elizabeth Taylor and my GOD it made me hate the play. The ET (lol ET) version was just so depressing and not uplifting at all and it's supposed to be a comedy and there wasn't anything about it that was freaking comedic. Petruchio abused Kate so much and there was nothing romantic about his woo'ing and she was limping and he didn't care that she got injured or hurt or ANYTHING. It made me annoyed. Very annoyed.
But then we read Much Ado About Nothing, which is so much better. Maybe it's because it's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, but I loved reading it. It's so so funny and the characters of Beatrice and Benedick mesh so well together, with their flirtatious banter and teasing. (Sidenote: I will forever spell Benedick as 'Benedict' now, thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch. DAMN HIM. He's so amazing in Sherlock though, so I'm okay with having his name confused with Shakespeare's Benedick.)
We just finished reading Henry IV pt 1, which I'm very thankful for. I have no clue what the hell went on in that play. I just know they drank a lot of wine, I swear to god everybody is gay for each other, some people got killed at the end, and yeah. Other than that, NO CLUE what on earth went on during the play. Everybody was freaking named Harry or Henry or Richard, and it was so hard to keep track of who was whose brother and whose son and who was the the Duke of York, etc. Even after discussing it in class today I still had no clue what went on. However, I apparently understood the first three acts better than I thought I did, because I got EVERY question on the daily quiz right! YAY ME!
And now we're reading Twelfth Night and it's quite lovely. So much fun. It's one of my favorite plays.
Okay, basically that's it. Shakespeare is fun. I get to spend lots of time with Amy, which makes me happy.
And that's it.
Goodbye
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Can YOU wait to be king?
Well, it's been an interesting week.
I would have blogged on Sunday, but I was too busy working on my homework and actually going to work to blog... and by the time I was done with my homework, it was far too late to blog and all I wanted to do was sleep.
I know. Excuses, excuses.
But anyway.
My first week of class wasn't too bad. The beginning of the week I was very sore... I did calisthenics and weights the first day, and my god, I was sore. I could barely make it back to my dorm after I finished the first day, and I couldn't even sit down without wincing in pain for a couple days afterwards.
Since MUM is on the block system, I have one class at a time for one month. It's wonderful thus far. Today is my last day of HRF (Health-Related Fitness), and then I have a three day residence course and then I get to start Shakespeare. I am so so excited for Shakespeare. I love literature courses, and I've never taken a course devoted entirely to Shakespeare. My best friend is also in the course, so you can understand when I say I'm very excited about it.
Going back to HRF, the "big" class project was to do something we've always wanted to do but never had the chance to. My friend Alexandra and I both wanted to learn sign language. We both already knew how to finger sign the alphabet, but neither of us knew any ASL past that. We decided to learn the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King. You can watch the video here:
OH OH OH! I'm finally going somewhere for Spring Break! I've never gone anywhere for spring break - always staying home instead - but this year, I'm going to New Hampshire with my friend Amy to spend the week with her. I'm so so excited to get to see her beautiful home state. I've heard so much about NH, but I've never had the chance to see it. The only part of the northeast I've been to is New York - state, not the city - and that's it. We'll be in NH over the week of my older sister's birthday, and she'll actually be in New Hampshire too, so I'm very excited. I just saw her at Christmas, but it feels like it's been so much longer since I saw her. Spring break should be excellent.
Hmmm.... Other stuff happened that I'm not at liberty to discuss yet - at least not in a public setting like this - so I think that's it.
Adios, amigos.
I would have blogged on Sunday, but I was too busy working on my homework and actually going to work to blog... and by the time I was done with my homework, it was far too late to blog and all I wanted to do was sleep.
I know. Excuses, excuses.
But anyway.
My first week of class wasn't too bad. The beginning of the week I was very sore... I did calisthenics and weights the first day, and my god, I was sore. I could barely make it back to my dorm after I finished the first day, and I couldn't even sit down without wincing in pain for a couple days afterwards.
Since MUM is on the block system, I have one class at a time for one month. It's wonderful thus far. Today is my last day of HRF (Health-Related Fitness), and then I have a three day residence course and then I get to start Shakespeare. I am so so excited for Shakespeare. I love literature courses, and I've never taken a course devoted entirely to Shakespeare. My best friend is also in the course, so you can understand when I say I'm very excited about it.
Going back to HRF, the "big" class project was to do something we've always wanted to do but never had the chance to. My friend Alexandra and I both wanted to learn sign language. We both already knew how to finger sign the alphabet, but neither of us knew any ASL past that. We decided to learn the song "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King. You can watch the video here:
OH OH OH! I'm finally going somewhere for Spring Break! I've never gone anywhere for spring break - always staying home instead - but this year, I'm going to New Hampshire with my friend Amy to spend the week with her. I'm so so excited to get to see her beautiful home state. I've heard so much about NH, but I've never had the chance to see it. The only part of the northeast I've been to is New York - state, not the city - and that's it. We'll be in NH over the week of my older sister's birthday, and she'll actually be in New Hampshire too, so I'm very excited. I just saw her at Christmas, but it feels like it's been so much longer since I saw her. Spring break should be excellent.
Hmmm.... Other stuff happened that I'm not at liberty to discuss yet - at least not in a public setting like this - so I think that's it.
Adios, amigos.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Well, it's been a fun two weeks in the life of Joella. So fun that I forgot to blog last Sunday.
I am now officially an MUM student. I moved into my dorm on Wednesday, and I love it so far. I have Amy's old room, so it will be really nice to get to spend a lot of time with her in here. The room is very nice thus far - nice and spacious, while at the same time being very cozy. It's definitely going to be one of my favorite places to hang out.
Despite all of its perks though, the room definitely has its downsides. To name a few, the heater is a little broken (the grate is warm when I touch it but it doesn't affect the overall temperature of the room, which isn't as big of a deal now that it's about 40 degrees, but when it was -10 with windchill the first few days I lived here, it was definitely a big deal.), the window isn't airtight, and the door doesn't quite fit its doorframe, which means it's very easy for me to hear everything that's going on out in the hall. So far I've only had to listen to the security ladies talk, which isn't too bad, but it could definitely be worse. And the window is fixable by sticking a rolled up towel at the bottom of the windowframe.
Tomorrow, classes begin, and I'm really excited. I start off by taking health-related fitness, which is a two week course, and then I take Shakespeare in February - Amy's in that class!!! - and then Comp II in March, Geometry for the Artist in April (another course with Amy), and then I finish off the semester with Ancient Tales. It looks like it's going to be a good semester with some good classes, which I'm super excited about.
There's a chocolate social tonight, which I'm definitely going to. And I'm not eating at Purn beforehand. My thinking is this: I'm a college student now; I can eat chocolate for dinner.
Purn's not as bad as I thought it would be, but it's definitely had its days where it's been nothing good, like last night. Last night, there was mushy carrots and peas, some medley of yellow squash and zucchini - no flavoring, and the zucchini was also pretty mushy - and then eggplant sandwiches. There weren't any sandwiches when I got there so I decided to resign myself to eating toast for dinner, which is not a new experience for me. At the market, when we still had bread available for dinner when the food got bad, Amy and I would have toast and dessert (usually a fruit crumble) for dinner. So having the toast for dinner last night was reminiscent of those times. However, when I got up to toast my bread, I discovered that they did in fact have the eggplant sandwiches, so I ended up eating one. They weren't stellar by any means, but they weren't too bad either.
I also picked up Amy at the airport today, and it feels like she hasn't been gone at all. I'm so glad that she's back and that we get to live in the same dorm! We're going to have so many fun times hanging out in both her room and mine. I'm so excited for this semester.
It's chocolate social time, for sure. I'll talk to you guys after my first week of classes!
I am now officially an MUM student. I moved into my dorm on Wednesday, and I love it so far. I have Amy's old room, so it will be really nice to get to spend a lot of time with her in here. The room is very nice thus far - nice and spacious, while at the same time being very cozy. It's definitely going to be one of my favorite places to hang out.
Despite all of its perks though, the room definitely has its downsides. To name a few, the heater is a little broken (the grate is warm when I touch it but it doesn't affect the overall temperature of the room, which isn't as big of a deal now that it's about 40 degrees, but when it was -10 with windchill the first few days I lived here, it was definitely a big deal.), the window isn't airtight, and the door doesn't quite fit its doorframe, which means it's very easy for me to hear everything that's going on out in the hall. So far I've only had to listen to the security ladies talk, which isn't too bad, but it could definitely be worse. And the window is fixable by sticking a rolled up towel at the bottom of the windowframe.
Tomorrow, classes begin, and I'm really excited. I start off by taking health-related fitness, which is a two week course, and then I take Shakespeare in February - Amy's in that class!!! - and then Comp II in March, Geometry for the Artist in April (another course with Amy), and then I finish off the semester with Ancient Tales. It looks like it's going to be a good semester with some good classes, which I'm super excited about.
There's a chocolate social tonight, which I'm definitely going to. And I'm not eating at Purn beforehand. My thinking is this: I'm a college student now; I can eat chocolate for dinner.
Purn's not as bad as I thought it would be, but it's definitely had its days where it's been nothing good, like last night. Last night, there was mushy carrots and peas, some medley of yellow squash and zucchini - no flavoring, and the zucchini was also pretty mushy - and then eggplant sandwiches. There weren't any sandwiches when I got there so I decided to resign myself to eating toast for dinner, which is not a new experience for me. At the market, when we still had bread available for dinner when the food got bad, Amy and I would have toast and dessert (usually a fruit crumble) for dinner. So having the toast for dinner last night was reminiscent of those times. However, when I got up to toast my bread, I discovered that they did in fact have the eggplant sandwiches, so I ended up eating one. They weren't stellar by any means, but they weren't too bad either.
I also picked up Amy at the airport today, and it feels like she hasn't been gone at all. I'm so glad that she's back and that we get to live in the same dorm! We're going to have so many fun times hanging out in both her room and mine. I'm so excited for this semester.
It's chocolate social time, for sure. I'll talk to you guys after my first week of classes!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
It's the beginning of the apocalypse, and I'm ready to take the bull by its horns
2011 has come and gone, and my goodness, what a hectic year it was. It had its ups and downs just as any other year does, but overall, I'm very happy with the way the year turned out.
2011 was the year of travel: in February, I flew to Texas for Kenz's 18th, in May I went to Knoxville, TN for Global Finals, in June I went to Texas for Kenz's high school graduation, and in July I went to Ithaca, NY for a family vacation, as well as to Orlando, FL for LeakyCon.
This year, I'd like to travel a lot as well. I'd really like to make it to Chicago soon - I need to see my Chicago people! - and I also want to make it to Chicago for LeakyCon 2012, I'd like to visit Dariana in Ithaca, I'd like to visit Kenz again. I'd also like to visit Amy - hopefully when I visit Dar this summer, I can make a trip up to NH and visit my dear bug. I also want to visit her during Christmas vacation next year when she lives in Boston. Going Christmas shopping with her would be so much fun!
I wouldn't be me if I didn't make make big life-changing decisions regarding my education. After my sophomore year of high school, I started homeschooling because I wasn't happy at MSAE, and it was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made. I realize again and again how unhappy I was and how superficial and fake the girls in my class were, and still are for that matter, and how good it was for me to take my own path.
With that in mind, around the beginning of December I decided to take a two-term Leave of Absence from Knox and do spring semester at MUM. I never thought I'd be an MUM student, but I'm honestly really excited for this upcoming semester. One of the things I dislike the most about MSAE is what a poor high school English department the school has. I feel extremely under prepared for the level of rigor that Knox's English department requires of me. Since MUM is on the block system, I'll be able to focus on myself more and increasing my level of preparation for Knox's English department. I'll also get to spend Amy's last semester of college with her as well as get to know everyone at MUM more. I would be lying if I said that the possibility of getting to spend five months or so with her that we didn't previously have together wasn't a major factor in my decision to come to MUM.
Knox has been fantastic about it as well. I was very worried that I'd have to reapply as a transfer student and have the risk of losing my scholarships and all the financial aid I'd received for this year. However, I just take a two-term LoA and I will be reinstated as a Knox student Fall 2012. I'm so happy about it. I love Knox, and I can't wait to return.
I don't normally make new years resolutions. If I do they're half-formed in my brain and I forget them a month into the year. However, this year, I decided to make up a list of goals I have for this year and go the extra mile of actually writing them down somewhere. I hope that by writing them down, it will somehow reinforce my desire to successfully complete all of them. I'm posting them here so at the end of 2012 (when we won't be dead), I will be able to go over the list and see how I did.
2011 was the year of travel: in February, I flew to Texas for Kenz's 18th, in May I went to Knoxville, TN for Global Finals, in June I went to Texas for Kenz's high school graduation, and in July I went to Ithaca, NY for a family vacation, as well as to Orlando, FL for LeakyCon.
This year, I'd like to travel a lot as well. I'd really like to make it to Chicago soon - I need to see my Chicago people! - and I also want to make it to Chicago for LeakyCon 2012, I'd like to visit Dariana in Ithaca, I'd like to visit Kenz again. I'd also like to visit Amy - hopefully when I visit Dar this summer, I can make a trip up to NH and visit my dear bug. I also want to visit her during Christmas vacation next year when she lives in Boston. Going Christmas shopping with her would be so much fun!
I wouldn't be me if I didn't make make big life-changing decisions regarding my education. After my sophomore year of high school, I started homeschooling because I wasn't happy at MSAE, and it was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made. I realize again and again how unhappy I was and how superficial and fake the girls in my class were, and still are for that matter, and how good it was for me to take my own path.
With that in mind, around the beginning of December I decided to take a two-term Leave of Absence from Knox and do spring semester at MUM. I never thought I'd be an MUM student, but I'm honestly really excited for this upcoming semester. One of the things I dislike the most about MSAE is what a poor high school English department the school has. I feel extremely under prepared for the level of rigor that Knox's English department requires of me. Since MUM is on the block system, I'll be able to focus on myself more and increasing my level of preparation for Knox's English department. I'll also get to spend Amy's last semester of college with her as well as get to know everyone at MUM more. I would be lying if I said that the possibility of getting to spend five months or so with her that we didn't previously have together wasn't a major factor in my decision to come to MUM.
Knox has been fantastic about it as well. I was very worried that I'd have to reapply as a transfer student and have the risk of losing my scholarships and all the financial aid I'd received for this year. However, I just take a two-term LoA and I will be reinstated as a Knox student Fall 2012. I'm so happy about it. I love Knox, and I can't wait to return.
I don't normally make new years resolutions. If I do they're half-formed in my brain and I forget them a month into the year. However, this year, I decided to make up a list of goals I have for this year and go the extra mile of actually writing them down somewhere. I hope that by writing them down, it will somehow reinforce my desire to successfully complete all of them. I'm posting them here so at the end of 2012 (when we won't be dead), I will be able to go over the list and see how I did.
- Spend less time on Netflix and the internet, and read more books for pleasure. This means that I'd like to read 50 books in 2012, but I'd ideally like to read one book/week, to make 52 books read in the year. I'd be happy if I read 50 books, though.
- Procrastinate less: get my work ethic into better shape.
- Get in better shape and generally eat more healthily (lose 20lbs, if possible).
- Get on a good sleep schedule and STAY ON IT
- Make the most out of Amy's last semester of college with her
- Travel as much as possible (LeakyCon; visit Amy in Boston next winter break & possibly in NH next summer; visit Dar in Ithaca)
- Do well enough at MUM so my first term back at Knox is a complete breeze
- Keep in touch with all my friends at Knox
- Visit Knox at least twice this semester
- Don't die on December 21, 2012 (this one is mostly just for jokes)
- Keep a journal in which I write down one good thing that happens each day
- Blog every weekend
Well, this is #12 completed for the first weekend of 2012. I'm off to finish the first episode of series two of Sherlock.
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