NYC...here I come!!

Eeeee, I'm so excited! I'm (still) sitting in the CUB, staring blankly at my laptop (trying to avoid the...special....guy that always stares at me while I'm in here...I'm not trying to be mean - it just really creeps me out!), and this girl just came through and handed out apple-shaped stress balls. I thought, "Oh, cool, I can always use an apple-shaped stress ball", and when I turned it over, I saw a sticker that says: "NYC bus trip, Nov 17. $25 with student ID, $35 for the general public" YAY!!! I called Lani, like, immediately. We're so going. I'm so excited. I've never been to the Big Apple before.... but for only $25, I can't pass that opportunity up!

I need to start saving up my money so I can go nuts the whole day I'm there!!!

*off to count the money in my piggy bank!

Aye, aye, aye!

Oh my. I'm having one of those days today. Not bad, thank goodness - just one of THOSE days.

My College Writing prof. emailed us to say that class is cancelled today - YAY!! That means I have even longer to work on my paper...that's a good thing! But that also means that instead of FIVE hours between classes, I now have SIX AND A HALF hours between classes today! Shi and I had our usual lunch here in the CUB, and she went to work at 2 o'clock. So now its 4 o'clock, and my next class isn't until 6:30!! Ack. I'm not hungry, I already had some Starbucks (no more!), and I finished all of my homework (that's due today, anyway). So I don't have anything to do, at all. *sigh* I have been browsing some online shops, planning my Christmas list, and what I'm going to spend my paycheck on (ha-ha). I talked to Lani for a while, but she's going to another concert tonight (lucky bum is on vacation from work this week, and is going to a concert EVERY SINGLE NIGHT - I'm so jealous). So what now? I'd really like to listen to some music on my computer, but...I forgot my headphones. Grr! I feel so naked without them! I thought about buying some in the bookstore, but I guarantee they'll cost an arm and a leg, so I'm just not going to bother.

YAAAAWWWWWWWWNNN

Wow. I'm tired.

I read my Problems of the Environment textbook for hours yesterday. Not that its not an interesting book; it is. Its just, when you read about nuclear power plants and geothermal energy for 8 hours straight, your brain really just turns into mush. Plus, I find it absolutely impossible to function after 5 o'clock. Like clockwork, 5 o'clock came around yesterday, and I was done. My poor little brain just couldn't handle anymore. So I've been sitting here in the coffeeshop on campus for about 2 hours now, just reading and reading. I think my brain has absorbed as much as its going to for this exam. Once I reach this point, I just can't force any more information into my head. So I'm done. If I don't know the information by now, it wouldn't make any difference if I studied for the next 3 hours. I'm pretty sure I'll do fine on the exam anyway, since I usually set the curve in that class - I ended up getting a 103% on the last exam because I got a couple of questions right that no one else in the entire class got right, so she counted them as extra credit for me. Yay. So hopefully something like that will happen again today, and I will not have suffered in vain. ;)

In other news... I keep forgetting to tell ya'll that I've decided to be a Flexitarian. Yes, that's right. An open-minded vegetarian. :D I'm eating mostly vegetarian, but leaving my options open, one day each week. When I lived on my own (and consequently did my own grocery shopping and cooking), I was much healthier. I only bought healthy foods, ate fresh seafood all of the time (because I lived at the beach), rode my bike a lot.... now that I'm back in PA, and for a lot of reasons, I can't do most of those things. I've gained about 20 lbs. in the past 2 years, I'm ashamed to say. Not that I'm a huge person or anything - I'm still a very small person! But I'm definitely not as healthy as I was before, and I feel different. So I've taken the plunge, and gone flexitarian. I'm actually eating mostly veggies, but I did have some chicken at Amanda and Rynes' wedding last Saturday because it looked delicious, and it was a special occasion. Other than that, I haven't eaten any meat at all in almost 2 weeks now! Its suprisingly easy, too. I went grocery shopping the other day at a new grocery store that I had never been in before, and boy was I impressed. Their health food section was astonishing. I seriously spent an hour in there, perusing the aisles of by-the-pound granola, dried fruits, and meatless chick'n nuggets. I bought some really fabulous meatless sausages - apple spice flavor! I was a bit skeptical at first, but I tried one yesterday, and I am 100% positive that I could cook one for Chris (a notorious meat-lover), and he would NEVER know the difference. It looked, felt, and tasted like a chicken sausage. And it was completely meatless, made of soy. Amazing.

So... now I have about 1/2 hour to kill before I have to run out to my car and switch one huge pile of books for another huge pile, and then go to the computer lab and print out a draft for my writing class today. Yuck. I really wish I could skip that class sometimes, but since there are only 11 people in my class (including myself), its a pretty intensely personal class, and I think maybe the professor would notice I wasn't there. *sigh*

I leave you with my absolute favorite song of the day:

Hyperballad by the Twilight Singers

My favorite Bjork song, covered by The Twilight Singers = L♥ve

A very long, somewhat productive, not so very interesting day

Have you ever just had one of those days? You have every intention of waking up bright and early in the morning....and turn off your alarm when it goes off. Its raining outside..... so you decide not to even bother leaving the house - not even to go to class. Instead, you decide to curl up, nice and cozy, in bed with your kind-of stinky dog. Do you ever have those kind of days? You do? Well! Then you completely understand how I felt today.

I took a "personal day" off from school today, for some much-needed mental relaxation - and cleaning - and studying - and - well, you get the point.

Because my personal time has been greatly reduced since the start of the semester, I sadly have little or no time for Etsy-ing. How very depressing that is. I'm still trying to figure out how to set aside just a little bit of time, maybe even just once a week, but that's definitely going to take some crunching. Hopefully next semester, since I'm making my schedule, I'll be able to give myself a little bit more free time. We'll see.

In the meantime, my highest form of entertainment comes in the form of iTunes. Sad, I know. But at least music is something that I can have going in the background while I'm studying (a plus!), doesn't require a lot of time (definitely a plus!), and I can actually share here on the blog (since I have no artwork, or favorite Etsy items, or purchases, or photos, or....ok, now I'm sad).

So, because I want to share a little bit of my current life with you, here is some music I've been listening to lately:

1. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen - This whole album is like sex. Really. Greg Dulli's voice is so..... sensual. Does that sound really weird? Yeah, ok. But seriously. I am totally in love with this whole album right now, especially "When We Two Parted" and "I Keep Coming Back". I can't get enough. And if you enjoy the Whigs, you'll probably like...
2. The Twilight Singers - Blackberry Belle - Greg Dulli's new(-ish, since the disbanding of the Whigs) band. Love it. Especially "Papillon", "Teenage Wristband", and "Feathers".
3. Silverchair - Young Modern - Ah, Silverchair. How I love thee. Young Modern is definitely different from their past albums, but still great. More grown-up, you might say. "Straight Lines", "Insomnia", and "All Across the World" are some of my favorites.
4. M.I.A. - Kala - Usually I wouldn't go for this type of music, but I am totally in love with M.I.A. She's amazing. Just totally different from anything I've ever heard before. Listen to "Hussel", "20 Dollar", and "Paper Planes" if you want to rock out in a very hip-hop, world-beat kind of way.
5. Feist - The Reminder - do I even need to say anything about this album?
6. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene - *le sigh* B.S.S. always takes me back to North Carolina, driving over the bridge from Roanoke Island to Nags Head, watching the winter sun rise over the Sound. My favorites are "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" and, of course, "7/4 (Shorelines)". Duh.
7. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero - Come on, you know you love them too. Trent Reznor is amazing.

I think I'll stop there. 7 is my lucky number; its almost 8 o'clock, and I have lots more reading to do before my exam tomorrow! (And a paper to write, and a portfolio to put together, and....)

Stressful, stressful week!!

Well, my past week or so has been filled with STRESSSSS!!! Some of it was the good kind, where you feel delightfully hectic and busy, but at least purposeful. The rest of it has been the kind that won't let you fall asleep at night, and wakes you up at 3 o'clock in the morning after you've had a terrible nightmare about a swarm of bees chasing you into a room filled with enormous alligators. Yes. I really dreamt that.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, two of my very good friends, Amanda and Ryne, became Mr. and Mrs. Ryne Hollingsworth. Awwwww. It was such a beautiful, but stressful day! I wasn't even in the wedding party at all, but I sort of served as jill-of-all-trades and honorary bridesmaid. Friday night, 4 of the 5 bridesmaids, and the bride, and myself, all slept over at my friend Lauren's (who, you may remember, became a Mrs. this past May) house. It was so much fun. We just sat up and giggled and kept Amanda from totally freaking out about the logistics of her wedding the next day.

Saturday morning, we all woke up early. Lauren was lovely and made blueberry pancakes, and had lots of fresh fruit for the guests. I made my delicious scrambled eggs (although nobody wanted cheese in theirs, so they didn't get the total package!). We went to The Lodge around 10 o'clock and took care of lots of last-minute kind of stuff: putting favor bags at all of the place settings, putting together the arch for the ceremony, and whatnot.

Lauren, Shianne, and I played Personal Stylists and did everyone's hair and makeup. The room at the lodge that we used as a salon looked like a disaster - makeup, curling irons, and dresses thrown EVERYWHERE. But all in all, everything came together and was beautiful. I think Amanda and Ryne had a great time, which is the most important part of course!

My dumb boyfriend didn't come home for the wedding (as he hates weddings and anything generally relating to the "m-word"), but , I've got luck on my side - Who do you suppose caught the bouquet??

So, even though he insists that he doesn't want to get married for at least another 10 years (in which case, he'd better start looking for a new girlfriend soon!), you may just find out that I'll soon be married! (Ok, a girl can dream, right?)

***

So, that was all the good kind of stress, where you're excited about your friends getting married, and having a slumber party, and running around like a madwoman trying to get the bride's makup just right. What's that alligator dream all about?

It seems that professors have a secret coalition wherein they decide to all assign difficult projects, essays, or exams at the exact same time. I can go for about 2 weeks with little work, carefree and happy. And then the Evil Professors Coalition get together. I just have so much work due in the next 3 days, it felt like the walls were caving in around me.

...until about 10 minutes ago.

I made a last-ditch effort and emailed my history professor to see if maybe, just maybe, he had a heart, and would postpone my group's presentation until next Monday (supposed to be this Wednesday). In my defense, I'm in a group of 5, with only one other intelligent human being. The other three members of the group either don't show up to class AT ALL, or put forth very little effort. I already talked to my prof. about that, and he did say that he wanted to know if any members weren't doing their part, but that still doesn't help me and the other girl with a fully-functioning brain. We were on the phone last night until about 10:00, trying to figure out how to delegate the work, and when we would have enough time to meet and put it in to a powerpoint presentation. So today, I got desperate and emailed the prof. He responded within 5 minutes. We 're presenting on Monday.

HALLELUJAH!

With an extra couple of days for that, I feel totally in-control again. I can breathe! Now I only have like 478346 other projects to do! What a relief! ;)

Next on my agenda: memorizing 4 chapters of my Problems of the Environment textbook for a big exam on Thursday.

It's a Beautiful Day!

Hello, everyone! I do hope you've all forgiven me for being such a terrible blogger lately, and completely neglecting my poor little blog. I've come up with some ways to remedy that, and so far I think its working. I am actually here at school, laptop in hand, on my nice little 5-hour break that I have Tuesdays and Thursdays between classes. Normally, I meet my lovely friend Shianne for lunch around noon, and we chat until she has to go to work (she's interning as an athletic trainer for the school's football team) at 2:00. From 2:00 until 5:00, I take care of all of my school-related business. That mostly entails homework, of course. Well, Shi was feeling sick today so she stayed at home in bed until she had to go to work. I volunteered to help out my Comm. professor with organizing some class data pertaining to movies. Since my silly boyfriend is positively obsessed with movies and IMDB, I figured I could probably help my prof out and get a few extra credit points in the meantime. So I walked with my prof over to her office, and on the way, she said she was glad to be able to talk to me alone because she was hoping to get my permission to give my name to the Honors Program and see if she could get me admitted!!! I was like, YEAH! I had wanted to be in the Honors Program when I got accepted here, but was told that I wasn't likely to get in because I was a transfer student. Well. It just so happens that I have pretty darn close to a 4.0, including my transferred credits. So, yeah. I'm really excited about that.

Other reasons I'm happy?

Tomorrow I'm going to be visiting these little guys again...

I'm going there to pick up a gift for my sweet friend Lani, who's just been having a terrible week.

This little sweetie is going to live in California!

And, today is my honey's 23rd birthday! He didn't even remember that it was his birthday today... I called him this morning, and asked him how his day was going, trying to prompt him to beg me to say happy birthday... he had completely forgotten! How typical of a man. :/

That reminds me, I need to send him an e-card now... I gave him his presents last week when we were actually together. He's not really big on birthdays, or holidays for that matter, but I'm definitely working on fixing that!

Elements make up minerals; minerals make up rocks.

That's my mantra for the day. I have a midterm exam in Physical Geology today. Joy.

Actually, I'm not too worried about it. I really like that class, because I'm a nerd. But still. I've been putting off studying for the past few days. I've done anything and everything I could possibly think of to distract myself from an inevitable study session. I crawled through the attic and dug out my Fall clothes (and put away my summer clothes), cleaned out both of my fishtanks (which, I'm embarassed to admit, were absolutely disgusting), and this morning, as you can see, I'm still finding ways to avoid studying. "Five more minutes" is more likely my mantra today.

In other news, I'm still being a lazy bum. Well.... maybe not so much lazy, but un-motivated. Between work (which until this week consisted of every single day that wasn't completely filled up with school. Starting this week I actually have 2 days mostly free). So with those sort-of-free days, I'm hoping I'll be able to kick my butt into gear and do a bit of painting. I have a few projects shelved that I really should finish up. I just feel like I have so much on my plate right now - a wedding to go to on Saturday (haven't bought a gift yet - yike!!!), my best friend's birthday is on Saturday (need to finish up with her birthday presents and mail them out!), exams, projects, papers.... oy vei. I am just counting down the days until the end of the semester, and Christmas time!!!

And, last, but perhaps the most exciting for me - Chris is getting ready to graduate in December, and is looking to go to grad school. He really wants to go to Penn State, since by December he'll be an alumnus; but Ship. is an option as well. I can't help thinking, how awesome would it be if Chris came to my school? That would just be supreme.

I leave you today with the beginning of a phenomenal documentary, called Oil On Ice. The rest of the movie can be found on You Tube, just search for Oil On Ice.

I'm not dead - really!

Well, once again, I've been a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad blogger. I'm sorry.

What's my excuse this time? The same as usual - school and work. I have NO free time. Really. Its so depressing. Well... sort of. Actually I'm really quite happy to be so busy with school.... its good to be back in school again! But I do miss my little blog, and all of my blog friends!

So, I'm going to try to at least drop in once a day, if for nothing more than to say hello. But hopefully to show you that I'm making some progress in the also-neglected shop.

So, I hope that some people are at least still dropping in and will start reading my little blog again!

Happy Friday!