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!

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.

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!

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.

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.