My Ever-Growing To-Do List

Eww, its such a dreary grey day outside.... the perfect weather for staying in bed all day!

Unfortunately, someone else will have to enjoy that for me because I have soooo much to do today. And every day. haha!

I slept in until 7:30 this morning - still recovering from the weekend of field work. That cold Atlantic wind sucks the energy right out of ya! Which reminds me...one of my assistants uploaded their pictures last night -

That's me in the green coat on the right...puffed up like a marshmallow :D

I literally had on 6 shirts. That's how cold it was.

So...I've done lots of coastal environment field work over the past few years... in Virginia, Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Florida Keys, and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles. So my usual 'uniform' consists of shorts, a bathing suit, sunscreen, flip flops, snorkel gear...you get the picture.

These are from my various field work locations over the past 3 years. The only

photos I didn't take are the ones with me in them; those were taken by my advisor. ;)

P.S. I highly recommend clicking and enlarging this picture!

Especially on the seahorse and the fish... soooo pretty!

But this research will have us out there on the beach once a month, every month, for the next year (through April 2012). And this was my first time doing any work in the winter. Needless to say, I need to get some more varied field gear! My plan is to go to Dick's Sporting Goods first, then maybe over to the outlets...there's a Columbia store and an L.L. Bean store there... I don't know yet. This stuff can be so expensive! I'm not going to go overboard, but there are definitely a few key items (like GLOVES!) that I'm willing to splurge on if they're going to keep my fingers from being frostbitten!!

The trick is going to be getting myself motivated enough to shower and get dressed to go out in the icky rainy weather. Bleh.

Then, after I shop and run a few errands, I'm heading over to my advisor's house, where we will most likely sit side-by-side, laptops in front of us, kickin' the jams on our 4-page To-Do list. Awesome.

And that's my advisor, Sean, about to take a dip in the cold, cold water. Hehe.



Baaaack!

Well, I'm officially back at home - and having a hard time getting back to my 'normal' life! I'm so excited about everything we accomplished over the weekend, and getting started on my research - its so difficult to come back to reality! Hehe. Of course, I need to hurry up and snap out of it because I have tons of stuff to do in order to prepare for our next trip to Wallops in just 2 weeks! Not to mention all of the homework I have to finish...yikes!

Tom's Cove at Assateague

I decided to give myself today as a 'day off' (HA-HA)...meaning I didn't bother showering, getting dressed, or unpacking any of my bags yet. And its 3:00 p.m. Instead, I got straight to work on tackling my four-page to-do list...yes, four pages... of action items we put together on the 5-hour drive home last night! Sheesh. The only thing I didn't actually get done yet today is start working on my personal equipment list. Its looking like I might be purchasing a wetsuit in the near future..... and I reallllly want these shoes...can you believe they're water shoes???!.... but I'm not sure I can justify spending $100 on shoes. Maybe if we get a little grant money.... hehe.

I need a whole slew of other field clothes and gear...I'll be collecting data basically every month for the next year, and then every other month after that...so I definitely need sun protection, rain gear, super-warm clothes (its sooooo cold and windy right now!), probably a wetsuit (yep, I'll have to get in the water in December), and various other things that I'll just have to figure out after spending a little bit of time in the field.

So I guess some of you might be wondering exactly what the heck it is I'll be doing? Haha! So..in a nutshell: NASA is going to be extending an existing rock sea-wall, as well as doing some beach nourishment (dredging sand from offshore and putting it on the beach). They asked for someone to monitor various aspects of the shoreline and figure out what impact, if any, this shoreline engineering is/will have on the sand budget (how much erodes and how much is deposited), the organisms that live in/on the shore (clams, crabs, sea turtles, endangered Piping Plovers). There are a total of 4 faculty from 4 separate Pennslyvania state system universities (mine included!) working on various projects that answer some aspect of NASA's research question. My part (which is going to be my Master's thesis, by the way) is to create a beach profile using a Total Station (those tripod things that you see road surveyors using), and also a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to examine the fresh groundwater that is under the beach. The idea is that the island's groundwater system (which is kind of important!) may fluctuate drastically in response to the shoreline engineering that NASA will be doing over the next year. The organisms that live on the beach may be impacted if there are changes in the sediment supply and/or in the size of the beach sediments.

So....its kind of complicated, but I think its really interesting! I get to spend all day on the beach. Oh! And I have assistants! Right now I have 3 undergrads from another university...and we're looking for 1 or 2 more from my university. Not sure just who we want yet, but...I'll have reign over a small army of geoscientists soon. ;-)

The only downsides that I see right now are that a) I will have wayyyy less free time (but I like being busy!) and b) I will be in scientist-mode most of the time, which means dressing very differently than I would normally...comfort is key! Haha. However, I am a beach-bum at heart, and the majority of my closet, until only a couple of years ago, was surfshop chic ;-)

I'm really thinking about buying some stuff from the O'Neill 24/7 technical line...

Correction, I JUST BOUGHT some 24/7 stuff. Necessary!!

"Wish you were here!"

Greetings from Wallops Island, VA!

Sorry its been quiet around these parts for the past few days - I'm on Spring "Break" (har-har) here on the Virginia coast, first for a weekend of volunteer work at the MSC, then for a meeting with some folks with NASA earlier today... and then to start data collection for my Master's thesis tomorrow! All-in-all a very successful weekend! :-D

I need to go to sleep here in a few minutes (its 1:00 a.m. on the dot right now!), but I wanted to stop by and say hello - I've missed my blog and you guys!! But I'm definitely having a blast, getting my nerd on and hanging out with fellow academic-types. ;-)  Our collaborative group consists of me and my advisor, plus a prof from another state university and 3 of her undergrads. Adrienne (the prof from our partner university) is wonderful - she's close to my age and super-bubbly and fun, and her undergrads are great - fun, but still very serious about school - my kind of peeps! So far, the 6 of us have had a great time making action plans and talking about ridiculous happenings at our respective schools. I'm sooo excited to be working on this project for at least the next year!

OK, now I have to get some sleep - tomorrow is going to be insane - we're trying to get out to the private NASA shorefront by 8 a.m. to start our day of data collection! Nutso!

We're heading back to PA sometime tomorrow evening, so I should be back in my normal posting routine in a couple of days. See you soon!!

xoxo

52 Weeks - WEEK 5

Week 5 - Birthday cake!!

Weeks 1, 2 , 3, 4

Well, its a few days late, but here is this week's contribution to the 52 Weeks project!

Thursday was my birthday, but I had class until 9:15 p.m. so we didn't celebrate until Friday night. I spent all day doing work on campus Friday, so I didn't get to post then.... Saturday was spent in Harrisburg at a meeting-of-the-minds with some important folks: the executive director of the Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium, our MSC - NASA liaison (NASA was supposed to be there but couldn't make the 5-hour drive because of the icky weather), the manager of the Chincoteague Natl Wildlife Refuge, and faculty from several other PA state schools who are doing research for NASA....and me :)

I just typed up a rambling couple of paragraphs all about the project, but I think I'm going to save it for another post...let's get back to the catching up!!

Anyway. So that's why I'm just now posting week 5! Haha.

What else? Umm... gee, it seemed like there was a bunch of stuff I needed to catch-up on here, and now I can't remember! I even checked my little notebook.... I've got nothing! Hmm. Scatterbrain.

Well, today is going to be spent doing some schoolwork... I feel so much more organized and focused now that I know exactly what I want to be researching, and have a timeline going. That's the way I like it to be! I really felt like I was floundering until yesterday... I'm used to having 6 classes PLUS research. That's pretty much how my undergrad years went! Now as a grad student, I'm down to 3 classes (which are only once a week, so I have wayyyy too much free time) and didn't have a clear picture of where I was going. This is so much better. :)

Along those lines, I know that a few of my readers do work in similar fields...archaeology, environmental science, biology.... I'd love to hear more about what you guys study! Have you done any research? Do you have any specific questions you'd like to research? I'm a huge nerd, so I think it would be fun to share a little bit about what we do!

What do you guys think? If you like the idea and want to nerd-out with me, leave a comment or shoot me an email [crack_the_sky17@yahoo.com] and maybe we can do a blog-party where we all do a post about our research interests or what we study on our blogs to share.....

F-F-F-Friday!!!

♥ this!!!

via These Are Things

Good morning!

First off, thank you for all of the sweet birthday wishes yesterday - I didn't celebrate (we'll do that this evening) or do anything special, but it was a great day all-around. :)

I've got a full plate today! I don't have any classes today, but I'm going to head to campus to work on a GIS lab (I included a link to the wiki about GIS in case anyone is interested in nerd-stuff like that ;-) that I've been putting off for a week now, and then pick up the kiddos at 12:30 because they have early dismissal today. So that's 4 hours of babysitting... I need to come up with something fun for us to do today!

We haven't done any crafty projects in a while... hmmm.....

Also, its Friday, which means its time to share an Instax photo!

I'll have to do that later today because right now, I need to get showered and ready to spend a couple of hours outside, in the cold, collecting data....eep!

So come back by later today and hopefully I will have some fun things to share!

♥



Happy happy happy Friday!!!

via We Heart It

It has been a fabulous day!

1. I discovered that I don't have to keep a certain grade in Chemistry, I just have to pass (which, at this point, is very good news!)

2. My advisor just got back from the annual GSA meeting in Denver (which I was sorely disappointed I didn't get to go to this year), and he brought me back lots of goodies, PLUS he said that someone (he doesn't know who it was) recognized his name as being attached to MY research, and asked about his student who did work about the CVI last year.....that's me! Its really exciting to know that my research is getting attention out in the real world, especially as an undergrad!

3. Dr. C also unveiled a super-exciting bit of news.... in the past few weeks, he has been communicating with some folks at NASA, and he and I, plus a prof from another university, are going to be starting a long-term shoreline monitoring project at the NASA facility at Wallops Island, VA!! That means: (1) monthly trips to Wallops (yay!), plus 'emergency' trips after any 'event' (i.e. storms or shuttle launches!); and (2) NASA-funded research!! That will look goooood on a resume!

Here's me doing some work at Wallops in summer '09

4. It was payday....so I treated myself at Borders, and I got a new coat at Marshalls (pictures later!)

5. Its Friday...that's good on its own!!!

OK, I just realized that probably nobody has a clue what I'm talking about, with all the "GSA, CVI, etc." stuff here.... so, if anyone is actually interested (and it is interesting, I think), I can do a post about my research...its all about coastlines, and what happens with sea level rise, especially during hurricanes. Pretty cool and important, especially if you live near the coast..... and, it means I get to go to the beach pretty often for "research", tee hee.

What's in your bag? ~Back-to-School edition!~

Here's my backpack. Yes, its a guys' bag, but I carry a lot of stuff around, and girls' backpacks are way too small to hold all my stuff! Plus it has an insulated compartment, like a lunchbox. I bought this one last year, and I really like it. So there.

 Paul Frank folder, 5-subject notebook, weekly planner (I would be so lost without one!), super high-tech calculator (haha), safety goggles (!!)

 Reusable sandwich pouch, water bottle, little Poketo pouch for my iPod + headphones, bigger Poketo pouch for my wallet/cell phone/etc.

 Sanrio pouch for: Hello Kitty binder clips (a gift from Sabrina yesterday to congratulate me on my new job!), Burt's Bees lip balm (favorite), 2 flash drives + agate keychain, zebra and lion paper clips, sticky notes of various sizes and colors, awesomely cute Japanese erasers (seal, sunfish, and cookie!).

Just a side note - Five Below has the cutest school supplies right now! TONS of adorable erasers from Japan, little Sanrio pouches, animal-shaped paperclips.... I looooove cute school supplies; they make it so much more bearable! Haha!

What do you have to have at school?

It's cooooold in Colorado!

We had a wonderful time visiting Teddy's mom, aunt, and aunt's family in Colorado over the weekend. It was coooooold! Eight degrees is cold enough, but the day before we arrived, it was -20 degrees!! Can you believe that?!

Teddy's mom scraped the windshield for us...

I think my favorite part of the whole trip was driving into Big Thompson Canyon and seeing all of the awesome geologic forms. We don't have this stuff on the East coast!

We drove into Estes Park and did some Christmas shopping. We ate at the most amazing authentic Nepalese restaurant; it was so good!

On Saturday, Teddy's Aunt Nancy graduated from college. That was the real reason for our little visit. Nancy turned 50 last week (but doesn't look a day over 35), had her 3oth wedding anniversary, and earned her Bachelor's Degree! Yay, Nancy! Anyway, we went to her graduation Saturday afternoon, and then went to a massive party at her house to celebrate.

We flew back home yesterday. Denver Airport is so strange looking....the 'teepees' are actually made of canvas, and I've heard that they actually collapsed a few years ago from snow weight!

The flight home was beautiful.

You can see the rest of the pictures from our trip here.

Now today marks the first day of Finals Week, bleh. I'm supposed to be studying for an Ichthyology final, but I need a little time in the a.m. to get my head together, especially after a long day of travelling yesterday.

I just can't wait to get through the next couple of days. I'm really not stressing at all about finals. I'm done by Wednesday, and all of my exams should be pretty easy, really. I just can't wait for this weekend. Friday, we're going to Teddy's best friend's house for a big get-together. Its pretty much the last time that Teddy and all of his college buddies can get together before Teddy moves to Texas, and some of the other friends are moving away soon too. I'm excited because it will be the first time I've met most of them, so it will be good to finally put faces to all of the names.

Saturday, we're coming home from Justin's and going straight to my parents' house so my dad and Teddy can do some work on Teddy's car, and my mom and I can wrap some Christmas presents. I kind of want to start moving a few things into the room I'll be staying in for the next few months, too. So much to do in so little time! We pick up the U-Haul in exactly 2 weeks from today! Yikes!!

I suppose I should get a move on things and start studying for my 3:30 Ichy final, since I haven't studied AT ALL yet......wish me luck! Best of luck to anyone else who has finals this week or next!!

La di da.

OK, I'm just going to skip the spiel about how "it's been so long", blah, blah blah. Let's just get on with it. ;)

I've been super-busy with school (don't I always say that?). I've actually dropped 2 of my 8 classes this semester. It was just getting to be too much. Having that many classes, I literally didn't have time to study or do my classwork because I was ALWAYS IN CLASS. So I fixed that problem last week. The only problem is, that's 8 credits I'll have to account for before graduation, so that means over the summer. But I think if I can do a 9-credit internship, I should be OK.

These next few weeks are going to be interesting, to say the least. I have a lot of big decisions to make... Teddy should hear back from A&M about grad school in the next couple of days, and then we'll know whether he'll be moving in a few weeks, or if he'll be staying here. He is most likely moving (*sniffle*) but its really for the best. Of course, that means spending about 6 months apart, but it will all come together in the end.

That also means I have to find a place to live for the next couple of months, and part of the summer. I'm considering moving back in with my parents, but its 30 minutes away from school. Not terrible, and I did it for 2 years, but it has been so much easier living down the street from school. But then again, I could save money by living with them..... ugh. We shall see.

In other news, Sabrina is coming home from Australia today! She called me earlier today, from Los Angeles! She sounded pretty tired. I work tonight so I can't go to the airport to pick her up, but I'm going to go over tomorrow to see her before work.

In other, other news: Part of why I've been so absent lately is because of my participation in the Geological Society of America annual meeting last week, in Portland, OR. Teddy and I were working hard on our research projects, making posters, and then last week we flew to Portland for the conference. It was really cool, even though I was sorely disappointed by the city. It was OK, but it just wasn't quite what I expected. I think I'm just realizing, more and more, that I am not, and never will be, a city girl.

We didn't take any pictures except while we were on planes, I guess because we were so busy...

Coastal Environmental Oceanography (CEO) Day 1

OK, so the class we took was called Coastal Environmental Oceanography. A better name probably would have been "A Bio/Geo/Chemical Look at Chincoteague and the FL Keys", but...whatever. The class was taught by Dr. Cornell, the same professor as the Curacao class back in January. I've gotten to know him pretty well over the past year, and he has actually become a pretty good friend (Teddy was already friends with him). He's a great professor, so we knew the class would be amazing.

On our first official day of class, we put in the kayaks at Memorial Park in Chincoteague, VA and paddled across the Bay to Horse Marsh Beach. Look at Teddy paddling like his life depended on it. So cute. :D

A little past Horse Marsh was a little spit of land that was deemed "Eagle Point", for obvious reasons. There were tons of very large, dead horseshoe crabs all over the beach (probably due to a recent storm).
Do you see the eagle??

This is Teddy and a cool guy named Dave seining offshore.

It started raining while we were finishing up at Eagle Point, so we packed everything up and headed back across the channel to Memorial Park, and then back to the Marine Science Consortium. Each evening, we did lab work for a few hours.

Since I was the only one with a waterproof camera, I was kind-of the (un)Official Photographer for the class. I think I have probably close to 1,200 pictures; however, most of them look similar to this:

Since this was a scientific class, most of the pictures I took were for some purpose: measuring and documenting fish species, plant distribution, or the geology of the beaches. For that reason, I have a LOT of fairly uninteresting pictures (at least to the casual viewer. I rather enjoy them, though). And, since I was the (un)Official Photographer, I haven't seen a single picture of myself from that trip, besides the first one that I posted in this entry of me and Teddy in the kayaks (which I took, of course). I know Dr. C has a few of Teddy and I together, so hopefully I can get my hands on those soon.

OK, enough about that for now. In other news, my mom is having surgery on her foot right now to fix the damage that was done when she had Guillain-Barre Syndrome a few years ago. I know she was really nervous this morning, and I didn't get to talk to her (she had to be at the hospital verrry early), but I know she'll do just fine. I was planning on going over to see her Friday evening after work, but now I'm probably babysitting for Dr. Cornell (its he and his wifes' 10th anniversary and he wants to take her out for a surprise dinner, awww), so I probably won't be able to get over there until my day off on Sunday. At least my aunt and my dad are both there to wait on her hand-and-foot. ;D

In other, OTHER news, Teddy and I are making our first 'grownup' purchase coming up here very shortly..... we're getting SCOOTERS!! Here's the one I'm getting (in white), and the one Teddy's getting (in black). We are very, very excited. We have both always wanted scooters, and we're at a place in life where it makes sense to have them. So, hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have them... yay!!

Friday already.

Siiigh. Well, it's Friday already. Everyone else on the planet loves Fridays, but I dread them. Friday means its the weekend, and the weekend means I have to work. I mean, I'm so glad that I even have a job, its just that my job is 40 minutes away from where I live (because I live at the apartment instead of my parents' house), and I have to pack up my stuff and stay at my parents' house for 3 days. Not that I hate going there, its just mentally and physically exhausting to do that every week. If I have homework (which I invariably do), I have to make sure I take my laptop, and all of the right books/binders/notebooks; and of course I usually leave something at their house when it comes time to pack everything up and go back to Shipp. So then, M0nday morning, I'm usually on the phone with my sister asking her to bring my schoolbag, the textbook on the table, a pair of socks, etc. etc. etc. I am so glad that next week is the last week before finals. Now I just need to put in a transfer at work and hopefully go to a store that's closer to here.

Ok, I'm done complaining for now. Sorry.

In better (but no-less boring) news, I worked on my huge research project poster last night. I don't know if I've mentioned this project on here before, but its been hanging over my head for like 3 months now. When we went to Curacao last January for class, we had to create an individual research project that we would present to the campus and community at a colloquium at the end of the year. Well, this Thursday is the colloquium. My poster isn't quite finished yet, but I'm really liking it so far. I forced myself to work on it last night around 7:30 (because I was bored and Teddy's out of town), and I got on-a-roll, so I worked until after 11:00 last night.

I'm actually pretty proud of my project... its about the historical and present socioeconomic differences of the population of Curacao, as evident through the different styles of architecture. On one hand, there's the influence of the African slaves in the rural areas, and on the other hand, you've got the rich Sephardic Jew merchants in the Scharloo district of Willemstad, and the result is a really interesting contrast in the buildings on the island. Many of the buildings have been there since the 1630s, which is amazing.

Top: Kas di Pali Mashi, a traditional kunuku ("rural house)- African-style dwelling with thatched room, wattle-and-daub frame structure, and a cactus fence to keep out feral animals. Bottom: A modern kunuku with corrugated metal roof. Its amazing that this style of house is still being built today, nearly 4 centuries later. These houses are EVERYWHERE on the island, and they're usually yellow and red.

The two pictures above show the historic buildings of Willemstad. They've been restored, but the row of tall houses in the bottom picture have been there for 400 years. They originally housed the wealthy Jewish and Dutch merchants on the island.

So, yeah. I think after the colloquium on Thursday I'll try to put up my research online...

Happy Easter Weekend

Hi everyone, happy belated Easter!

I had an awesome weekend. Friday I went on a field trip with my Oceanography class to the Wallops Island Marine Science Consortium in Chincoteague, VA. It was my first time there, and the weather could have been better, but it was still really cool. The best part of the whole trip was my 'souvenier' -

Its a Monkfish skull, and its awesome. Some girls in my class found it washed up on the beach, and I was the only one crazy enough to want to take it home. Its been soaking in a bleach solution in the bathroom since Saturday night. :D

Sunday, Teddy and I went up to my parents' house for Easter dinner. My sweet Mommy made me an Easter basket filled with goodies like vegan candies and gardening supplies! Hooray, I'm so glad its time for gardening again! I spent my afternoon planting seeds in my new little mini-greenhouse and potting some plants Grandma gave me.

I have some other neat things to share, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I have class at 5:00 tonight, then Teddy and I are meeting with our future landlord to (hopefully) sign some leases and get everything settled. *fingers crossed*

Happy Monday!

Curacao....?!?

*Edited to add that I've decided on FREE SHIPPING within the US in both of my shops, and everything in both shops is BUY-ONE, GET-ONE half off!!!! I also reduced the shipping costs to everywhere else, so you just can't go wrong! If you've had your eye on anything, now is the time to buy!! The sale ends Nov. 1!

http://crackthesky.etsy.com/

http://quietquiet.etsy.com/

Wow...I have an opportunity to travel to Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, for a week in January....and its for credit at school. I want to go soooooo bad! It would be the most amazing opportunity!!! It encompasses pretty much everything in my (very broad) major, Geo-Environmental Studies; and you can choose to specialize for the week in Marine Science. How perfectly awesome is that?! Except.... the cost right now is slated at $2100, if you want to s.c.u.b.a. ($1800 if you just snorkel). Um.... I don't have that much money. Actually, I don't have HALF that much money. Crap.

I need to figure out a way to go on this trip. Maybe I could step up my advertising for the Etsy shops?? I haven't been selling anything lately... I just don't have much time to promote with school and all. Maybe I could do some kind of fundraiser?

Does anyone have any experience with fundraising for a personal project? I feel really weird about flat-out asking for money... and I'm not allowed to do fundraising where I work, so.... does anyone have any ideas for how I can raise about $2000 by November?? (Ok, even if I can raise only about half of that by then, I'll be happy - I'll be saving up my paychecks, too, but I need as much as I can get!!)

*****IF ANYONE CAN OFFER ANY KIND OF WISDOM, IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!******

(I'm working on getting a digital copy of the flyer!!)

Suddenly, Fall.

Wow. I woke up this morning and its Fall. Well, not quite, but almost. It has been downright chilly around here these past few nights/mornings, and it doesn't warm up until late morning. I even saw some leaves starting to lose their color and fall around the college. It just seems so early.... is anyone else noticing the seasons changing earlier and earlier?

Two words: GLOBAL WARMING.

Anyway, I want to enjoy the remaining days of summer the best I can; so I've been going out to my garden every (tiny) chance I get. Also, on a side-note, I've recently observed THREE frogs in our pond now, not just two!

****

So, I promised I'd talk about school some more this evening. Since I posted this morning, I actually had to drop the Art History course that I had just added (in short: because I needed to fill a Lit. requirement, and the German Cinema course I had originally scheduled counted toward that, but the Art History course didn't). So I picked up "English 250: Introduction to Literature". Pretty basic-sounding. Except when I received the syllabus (via email from the prof, since I missed Monday's class), it turns out the course is actually about Race in Literature....race, as in skin color. Hmm. Its interesting, but not at all what I expected when I signed up for 'intro to lit". So, yeah. I like the prof. a lot. He's really....dead-pan. I don't know how else to describe him. But the course seems interesting so far, and he seems to know a lot about it, so it should be OK.

My favorite class so far is definitely Intro to Interdisciplinary Arts. My professor is awesome: he's a photographer for the Smithsonian (yes, the Smithsonian.); his daughter graduated from Harvard and is apparently, like, a genius; and his son lives in a Tibetan Buddhist monastary. Dr. Hirschon just got back from sabbatical in India, where he was making a documentary for the Smithsonian; and he wears Buddhist prayer beads around his neck. And, he looks like Santa Clause, only he's Jewish.....and a New Yorker. Awesome. Today we had a multi-session class (with 3 classes combined) and watched part of an awesome film, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams... so added to my Netflix queue!

I think this semester is going to be pretty good, as long as I can maximize efficiency in my time-managing.....which can be a struggle for me at times. Although, for the record, I've been getting up at 6:30 every morning even though I don't have class sometimes until 2:00. So I'm doing ok so far. My texts seem really dry, though, which may prove to be a hurdle for me. I just can't concentrate if a textbook is just too boring.....much like this blog entry is turning out to be! Sorry!

Schooooool.

Thanks for all the well-wishes, guys! I LOVE all of my classes this semester. My professors are all really cool, and quite funny. For example, my statistics prof. is a young guy (around 30?) who LOOOOVES ABBA (read: he's seen Mama Mia! on Broad FIFTEEN TIMES and the movie TWICE. Wow.), is a rollercoaster enthusiast, and a Parrothead. Oh, did I mention he's probably just a little bit gay? He's awesome. I'm so relieved, because its been 5 years since I had a math class...I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up in the class, but I think he'll make it interesting (to say the least).

I did drop one class, however: German Cinema. I'm so disappointed. I think I would have really liked the course, but the professor was terrible. She's German, which is fine and dandy, but the course is NOT taught in the German language (and has nothing to do with it, except for we'd only study German films. Not really sure why...?)......and she admittedly knows NOTHING about film. The first day of class, she handed out a list of term that we were supposed to 'guess at' what their definitions could be (?!?!). When we were going around and telling what we had come up with, she actually didn't know the correct answers!!!! OMG. So, yeah. I dropped that, and picked up Art History (awesome). But then I realized I needed to have an Arts course that would satisfy a Lit. requirement, so I then dropped Art History and picked up Intro to Lit (literally, like, this morning). So I have that class today at 2:00. So now I'm done messing with my schedule. Phew!

Now, I'm sorry, but I must go and do some reading for my classes today and today morning! I'll be back early this evening, so I'll tell more about school then.

See ya'll later!

First day of school!

Well, its official - today is the first day of school! My little sister is already on campus for her first day of college, how cute. She already called me and asked what she should be doing between classes...haha. I suggested she go to the computer lab, or the library, or Starbucks..... she decided to call a new guy-friend to see if he wanted to go to the mall. Ha!

My first class doesn't start until 3:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays (although Monday nights I will be on campus until 9:15, yuck), so that's cool. I'm completely ready to go already, though! Haha! I'm so excited, just like a little kid!

Here's my outfit:

My favorite top:

With matching red shoes, of course!
I'm so mad about this planner I bought. Its the exact same one that I had last year, except in a different color. So I assumed it would be exactly the same on the inside. NO. This one didn't have a place to write in your class schedule, so I had to draw out my own and tape it to the inside. How ghetto is that?!
And this is completely un-related, but I wanted to share it anyway. My mama found this for me at a yard sale this weekend. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?!

Now I'm pretty much just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs until its time to leave. I need to go a little early today so I can stop at the police building to buy a parking permit and.....go to Starbucks! Hahaha!